Beneath a Scarlet Sky: A Novel by Mark Sullivan

Author:Mark Sullivan [Sullivan, Mark]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, pdf
ISBN: 1503943372
Amazon: 1503943372
Publisher: Lake Union Publishing
Published: 2017-05-02T07:00:00+00:00

It was past dark when Pino came through the door to Uncle Albert’s sewing room.

“I saw bad things today,” Pino said, emotional again. “I heard them, too.”

“Tell me,” Uncle Albert said.

Pino did the best he could, describing the scene with Leyers and the way the SS soldier had killed Antonio for taking a break.

“They’re all butchers, the SS,” Uncle Albert said, looking up from his notes. “Because of the reprisal edict, there are stories of atrocities every day now. At Sant’Anna di Stazzema, SS troops machine-gunned, tortured, and burned five hundred and sixty innocents. At Casaglia, they shot down a priest on his altar and three old people during Mass. They took the other hundred and forty-seven parishioners into the church graveyard and opened fire with machine guns.”

“What?” Pino said, stunned.

Aunt Greta said, “It goes on. Just the other day, in Bardine di San Terenzo, more than fifty young Italian men, like you, Pino, were strangled with barbed wire and hung from trees.”

Pino loathed them all, every single Nazi. “They have to be stopped.”

“There are more joining the fight against them every day,” Uncle Albert said. “Which is why your information is so important. Could you show me on a map where you were?”

“I’ve already done it,” Pino said, pulling out the general’s map from the glove compartment.

Unfolding it on one of the cutting tables, he showed his uncle the light pencil marks he’d made to indicate the rough placement of the artillery, machine gun nests, armories, and ammo dumps he’d seen during the day. He pointed out where Leyers had piled the debris so the Allies would alter course into machine gun fire.

“In this whole area, Leyers said the concrete is inferior, weak,” Pino said, gesturing to the map. “Leyers was very concerned about it. The Allies should bomb here first, take it out before they ever attack on the ground.”

“Smart,” Uncle Albert said, taking notes on the longitude and latitude of the area. “I’ll pass it along. By the way, that tunnel you visited with Leyers, when you first saw the slaves? It was destroyed yesterday. Partisans waited until there were just Germans inside and then dynamited both ends.”

That made Pino feel better. He actually was making a difference.

“It would sure help if I could get into that valise,” Pino said.

His uncle said, “You’re right. In the meantime, we’ll see about getting you a small camera.”

Pino liked that idea. “Who knows I’m a spy?”

“You, me, and your aunt.”

And Anna, he thought, but said, “Not the Allies? The partisans?”

“They only know you by the code name I gave you.”

Pino liked that idea even more. “Really? What’s my code name?”

“Observer,” Uncle Albert replied. “As in ‘Observer notes machine gun nests at such and such position.’ And ‘Observer notes troop supplies heading south.’ It’s deliberately bland. That way, if the Germans ever intercepted the reports, they’d have no clue to your identity.”

“Observer,” Pino said. “Plain and to the point.”

“Exactly my thought,” Uncle Albert said, standing up from the map. “You can fold the map up now, but I’d erase those pencil marks first.

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