Captain Paterson
The stairs were less fun than I imagined. We got it going up it didn't want to stop once we ran out of stairs. I tried to keep myself from believing that Leo had to pull it down to get it to level out. Not right.
"Let's rotate it through the center point. Leo, you're first through the door." That, at least, went easily.
Leo was first through and down the front steps. He stumbled and lost his grip. I could feel, and worse see, the box floating there in defiance of god and gravity for three long heartbeats before starting to tilt downwards. Leo stepped back up and caught it with a grunt. He grunted again with effort as it kept trying to go down. Donald stepped in from the left and Eddie slipped around to the right. Between us we steadied the thng.
I let out a long breath. "Ok folks, to the back of the OT. We'll get it roped down inside."
The entire crew stared as we finished the job. I imagine it looked like we were fucking around with an empty box, making exaggerated motions and comical grunts. The strained expressions on their faces kept me from chewing them out for not keeping a good lookout. They knew we weren't playing.
"Finish up. We're burning daylight. I want to be back in Krakow by dark."
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I stuck Alphabet, Randy and Moon-Pie with the BMP. Donald had track experience from his construction days. Randy got to ride in the gunner's seat with his head out the hatch doing recon. Moon kept an eye on Randy. I kept remembering what Henryk had told me back in Krakow, "Cutler has more tales than old fox." He's still on double super-secret probation.
That left the four of us in the OT. Ed drove. He has a sixth sense behind the wheel and I don't want him anywhere else. Leo took the gun. Doc and I shared the infantry compartment with six big bags of food, a dozen guns, a pack full of papers and the box. Every turn we made the box strained against the webbing and ropes. I've no doubt it would have taken off in a straight line at the first curve if we hadn't.
"Some of these papers are in English." I told Doc as I handed them over. "Give them a once over. See if you can find anything about. About that."
I started to leaf through my own share. Made for interesting reading.
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Seems our lost countrymen had landed on the coast with 2nd Marine. After the guys smashed up the locals they'd traveled south, more or less, down the Vistula River to the new Polish capitol at Lublin. There they'd conducted a little smash and grab.
"Doc, you got anything in Polish? I'm looking for a journal or graph book. The type you did labs in at college."
"Not yet. I'll let you know."
They'd gotten part of what they'd wanted; a book and the prototype. The researcher whose work it had been died during the extraction. The log opines that he'd been deliberately targeted rather than let him fall into enemy hands. The names for four other soldiers was listed. I found the tags tucked into a folded paper bag at the back of the notebook. They'd proceeded east, dodging Pact forces, and planned to link up with 5th ID around Lodz. Maybe, they planned to be flexible. When the enemy kept getting thicker and the sound so disaster went out on the airwaves they turned towards Krakow.
"That's it Doc. The next pages are missing."
She looks over her papers at me. "We know what happened next. Those fuckers hit them and left them to rot."
She handed her papers back to me a bit at a time. "Can't add much here. We've got another copy of a Polish road map. A tourist's map to Lublin with a couple circled blocks. Some way out of date unit dispositions. Fuel and food consumption. They started out fully loaded and were running low by the time they turned to Krakow. This is interesting. They picked up an extra mouth the day your log ends."
"Say what."
"Yeah, issued an extra food ration for the next few days. Just before the records end. Some poor bastard guide or straggler."
"I don't think so."
"Doc, there were only Americans at the ambush site. Everybody had tags. No mystery bodies. By your count, we're short a body."
She mouthed a few choice obscenities.
"Agreed. With any luck I got the SOB at the station."
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