BRANDT HADN’T run like this since before his injury, and it was hard. He was holding the boys back. They ducked as planes flew overhead, but the Soviets were intent on whatever was happening further down the valley and didn’t bother them.
Brandt looked ahead to the dam. It was only a few hundred metres away – people, like them, were running towards it, except for one soldier who was walking backwards towards the far side, carrying a drum of wire which he played out. The detonation cable. It wouldn’t be long now.
‘Brandt. Stop.’
He turned to see the mayor running after them, a pistol in his hand – wearing that ridiculous uniform. It turned out Weber was a faster runner than he was. The mayor would catch him. Brandt stopped and the boys slid to a halt around him. Confused. In the moment of silence, he heard them. He couldn’t see the T34s, but he knew they were there. The memory of that noise, their crunching, clattering tracks and the deep roar of their diesel engines, had woken him up more than once in the middle of the night, his sheets twisted and damp with sweat, his heart racing.
‘Tanks. Run to the dam, all of you. As quick as you can.’
The boys hesitated for an instant.
‘If you’re still here in two seconds, I’ll shoot you myself.’
They ran. A tumble of grey helmets and greatcoats sprinting towards safety.
‘Tell them the Russians are right behind you,’ he called after them, then turned to face the mayor.
Weber slowed, lifting his pistol to aim at him. His chest was heaving – his grey eyes bleary with dull anger.
‘Brandt,’ he said, and paused to take another breath. Behind the mayor, Brandt saw the familiar shape of a T34 come down out of the forest, turning towards them – accelerating. Soldiers clinging to its side, seeing the two Germans on the road ahead and pointing their weapons. Brandt dived into the trees at the side of the road as bullets cracked above his head. He lay perfectly still where he fell, his face in the snow.
Cannon fire now. From the German side. Explosions all around him. The tank had been hit, the only soldiers that clung to its side now were dead. He pushed himself to his feet, saw the mayor lying motionless in the road and ran for his life towards the dam.