“Yes. And bridge players are not so easy to come by here in Rjukan.”
They wrapped the explosives in a burlap blanket and stuffed the detonators and clock in a small bag. They took a Sten, two Colt pistols, and a couple of grenades. The sight of the weapons made Larsen look almost sickly, as if the life-and-death stakes of what they were doing finally kicked in. They went outside to the car. It was a ten-year-old Volvo and the engine coughed and coughed before it finally started up, making them concerned for a moment they wouldn’t be going anywhere.
“God, I’d forgotten just how cold it was up here,” Gutterson said in the backseat. The temperature read minus thirty centigrade.
“Happy to make you feel right at home.” Nordstrum looked at Ox, Gutterson, and Larsen. “Ready?”
“As we’ll ever be,” Ox grunted.
“Like old times, huh, Yank?” Nordstrum elbowed his friend.
“Aye.” Gutterson shoved his Sten beneath his parka. “Old times.”
Before he climbed in, Nordstrum excused himself and went up to the toilet above Diseth’s shop. With the door shut he dug through his ID case and took out Natalie’s card. N. Ritter. Konigstrasse 17. It still carried her scent on it. If we were lucky to meet in Vienna … Even if she survived tomorrow, she would always know it was he who brought down the ship. Who had kept this from her and almost sent her to her death. Or her grandfather. Would he even survive?
Promise me you’ll sit in the stern.…
She would never understand.
Sadness stabbing at him, he tried to harden himself. He tore the card into several pieces and dropped them from his fingers into the basin, like dried petals falling out of a book. Then he flushed the drain.
In another time …
And as Einar had said, he quickly reminded himself, it was unlikely he would even survive the night.
72
They left just before midnight, and were able to drive past the train station in the center of Mael, where twenty or thirty soldiers milled about, to a spot on the road above the wharf, within three quarters of a mile of the ferry station. The streets were completely empty this time of night; there were no lights, except theirs, but amazingly, they were not stopped. They left the car on a small rise above the dock, behind a snowdrift to hide it from view.
They told Larsen to wait for them there.
“Two hours,” Nordstrum instructed him. “If we’re not back by then, leave. Drive the car to Kongsberg and take the early train to Oslo. Put this in your pocket. It’s the name of a contact there. If you hear gunfire, the same arrangements apply. Don’t wait for us in either circumstance, do you understand?”
Larsen nervously wiped the film off his glasses and nodded. “Yes, two hours.”
“Here.” Nordstrum took out a gun and handed it to him.
The engineer took it like it was something he had never seen before. “What do I do with that?”
“Point it at someone in a gray uniform if they give you any trouble and squeeze the trigger,” Nordstrum said.
Larsen held it in his palm like a glove two sizes too large for him. “I don’t know if I can.”
“For your own sake, you’d better. Now, are we all set?” Nordstrum turned to Gutterson and Ox.
The American had the satchel of weapons and the detonators. Nordstrum took the plastic explosives wrapped in burlap and tucked the package underneath his parka.
“All set.”
Nordstrum said to Ox, “If there are any guards on the dock, make your way down the road a bit and let off a blast from your tommy. That will draw them. Then get the hell out of there. We’ll go it alone.”
“Okay, but I would hate to leave you.” The big man nodded dutifully.
“That’s the best job you can do for us. Remember,” Nordstrum turned to Larsen again, “two hours, Alf. Not a minute more. If we’re not back, go.”
“Just get back.” Larsen exhaled. He checked his wristwatch with a nod.
It was now a quarter to one.
*
They made their way to the end of the road, a fifteen-minute walk in the moonless night, then wound through the snow and brush down a small embankment to within sight of the ferry.
Nordstrum’s heart picked up.
The Hydro rested calmly at the end of the long dock, a few dim lights coming from inside. There was an armored car and a wooden restraining barrier set up at the foot of the long dock about a hundred meters away. Five or six guards were posted, who didn’t seem overly concerned. Another two, in long wool coats, rifles on their shoulders, could be seen patrolling up and back along the dock.
It was bitterly cold as Nordstrum, Ox, and Gutterson crept down from the embankment, the ice cracking and popping like champagne corks under their feet, so loudly it sounded like an entire company of men were approaching. Nordstrum held his breath. There was a wire fence separating them from the dock. They took cover behind a large bush.
There was no one to be seen on the ferry, no guard or watchman. Just lights coming from below.
“I’ll go first,” Nordstrum said, stuffing his Colt in his belt. “If it’s clear, I’ll wave you both across. Watch for my signal. If they spot me, wait until they come up to get me and then come take care of them,” he said to Gutterson, who nodded back. “Quietly, if possible, Yank.” Nordstrum winked.
The American patted the knife in his belt. “I’ll be there.”
Yards away, they could hear the boot steps of the closest guard patrolling the wooden deck. A minute later he turned and went back the other way.
Nordstrum said to Ox, “If they don’t give us some distance, go back up the hill like I said and let out a short burst with your tommy. That should distract them. Then get the hell out of there.”
“What about you?”
“Don’t worry. The Yank and I will go on alone.”
“If I have to,” Ox said. “But you’re robbing me of all the fun.”
The three of them crouched there until the guard was all the way back at the foot of the wharf and stopped to chat with his comrades near the barrier. He remained there long enough that the second guard turned and started his way back, facing away from Nordstrum and his crew. They waited until the guard was about forty meters away.
“See you on board,” Nordstrum said, with a thumbs-up to Gutterson and Ox. With the tube of plastic explosives under the burlap wrapped around his neck, Nordstrum came out of the bushes and made his way over the fence. Taking a quick look down the dock, he sprinted in a crouch across the dock to the gangway.
He slipped quietly onto the ferry without being seen.
He didn’t see any sign of a guard or a watchman on board, but there were loud voices coming from the forward compartments.