The Gemini Divergence by Eric Birk Page B

prisoner to the
edge of the balcony.”
    Stark, thinking that they were about to
execute Toelke, walked him to the edge of the balcony.
    Once there, the sergeant could view over the
edge and see that the hillside was already littered with corpses.
He thought to himself that this must be a common execution
location.
    Sgt. Stark barked, “Herr Toelke, please turn
and face the edge of the balcony.”
    As Toelke turned, Sgt. Stark raised his
Mauser and aimed it at the back of Toelke’s Neck as he could see
Major Schwerig start to come around him in his peripheral
vision.
    Suddenly there rang out a shot.
    Toelke turned suddenly to see Sgt. Stark
standing there still pointing the gun at him in silence, but after
a few intensely suspenseful moments Sgt. Stark dropped his gun and
fell over, dead.
    Toelke looked at Schwerig and asked, “Why
Stark?”
    Schwerig answered, “Do you remember when we
left the meeting and the General reminded us that we were to still
follow our orders to the letter.”
    Toelke responded, “Yes, I remember. But why
did Von Sterbenbach want you to kill your Feldwebel?”
    Schwerig responded, “The General would have
permitted me to take him along, even though I had no idea where we
were going, provided that he would leave his family behind. He
would not. So I was not permitted to leave him behind to be
captured and interrogated by the Allies. What a pity, he was a fine
Feldwebel.”
    Schwerig started to pick up Sgt. Stark’s body
and drag it to the edge of the balcony. Once at the edge he rolled
the body over and watched it roll down the hill.
    Unbeknownst to Schwerig and Toelke, once Sgt.
Stark rolled to the bottom of the hillside, his body lay with that
of the Axis clerk and of the young Lt. from the train.
    As Schwerig was standing in a moment of
silent reverence for Sgt. Stark, he did not notice Toelke picking
up Sgt. Stark’s Mauser.
    As he turned, “You know…” He froze and fell
silent as he had turned far enough to see that Toelke was aiming
the rifle right at his head.
    “What on Earth are you doing,” demanded
Schwerig?
    “I too, must carry out my orders to the
letter Major,” replied Toelke.
    Schwerig closed his eyes and braced for his
doom, when suddenly there was the sound of what seemed like hail
falling on the roof followed by a sound similar to somebody
dropping a large melon on the ground.
    Once he opened his eyes, he could finally
hear the gunfire of a Russian Sturmovik strafing the compound. He
could also see Toelke lying dead on the ground. The dropped melon
sound must have been the rounds penetrating his body before the
actual report of the gunfire reached them.
    The aircraft had already passed over his head
when Schwerig heard gunfire again, but this time it was from a
German Bf-109 chasing down the Sturmovik. He watched as the
Luftwaffe aviator shot holes in the Sturmovik until it started
smoking.
    Just before they went over the horizon he saw
the 109 spin off and rise to the right turning to come back, as the
Sturmovik fell behind the hill and exploded.
    As the Luftwaffe fighter passed back by to
his right he could see the pilot waggling his wings in victory for
the soldiers on the installation to see.
    Even though Schwerig could not see the
soldiers directly, he could hear many of their cheers and whistles
as the 109 whistled by again.
    Schwerig stood silently for a moment,
thanking God for his life. Then he wondered what he should do
next.
    He didn’t know where to go, and he had to be
careful now because Von Sterbenbach had ordered him dead. He
couldn’t just show up somewhere now, especially without Toelke.
    He went through Toelke’s pockets but found
nothing useful. Then he remembered Toelke looking at the locked
closet door, and him saying something about a package waiting for
him here.
    Schwerig picked up Sgt. Stark’s Mauser and
used it as a hammer to beat the padlock from the closet door.
    Once he had opened the closet, he found a
sealed parcel. It was dated