9th of January 1999 evening shift weather cloudy
“So there is no chance that the order to leave can be revoked!?” asked Louise visibly upset by the fact that the departure of the 8th Alpini had become a sudden reality.
“I am afraid it is so Louise” Holtz was savoring the fried chicken that Jonna had prepared personally this time, without the help of Sven. There was also a nice side dish of roasted potatoes that one of the farmers had managed to save from the military requisitions of the previous month. Mrs.Berglund had also opened one her last good red wine bottles (an Italian Grignolino) that she had stored for the super special occasions. She was also noticeably upset, even angry about the news.
“I’m sure” she said “that if Major Siviglia didn’t have his little rift with General Falk, he wouldn’t have decided to leave so hastily.” She was angry at both officers. Moreover the first impression of the Swedish commander hadn’t been particularly positive for her either.
“Stop it mom” Louise reproached her mother. “You are always inclined to assume the worse motives in everybody.”
“It’s because I know what I am talking about, after all those years of dealing with people’s ego and stupidity, I know how it works.”
Louise didn’t answer to her mother’s last remark and instead asked Kurt if he wanted some more potatoes.
“Only if you share with me.” answered Liutenant Holtz smiling fondly at her .
While she was putting some more potatoes on in Kurt’s dish, Louise realized all of a sudden that it was in all probability the last time she would do anything like that for him and unexpectedly she didn’t manage to hold the tears starting to come down her cheeks. She had swore that wouldn’t have happened, and when it did she was even angrier at herself. Louise didn’t find anything better to do than excuse herself and walking away. She didn’t want Holtz to see her crying.
Jonna gave the stare to the Lieutenant, but there was not much she could say or do. Holtz had to roll on his CUF to avoid to get a point of stress (buddy suffering damage) and succeeded. With that, he managed to remain seated and calm, even though visibly embarrassed.
Mrs. Berglund seeing the situation relaxed a bit. “I was wandering if there is any way to procrastinate a little bit this departure...may be with a formal request from the citizenry that the regiment remained in town.” she said trying to find a someway to serve the interest of the town, of his daughter and also of Lieutenant Holtz.
“I’ll tell you that in Italy we have a proverb which says that trying never hurts anybody.” answered Holtz skeptical that such a request could sway Siviglia to revise his intentions.
“Do you think that you would have difficulties convincing the people to go for a formal request?” asked the Lieutenant
“I think I would have none” replied confidently the Mayor. I can tell you that there is a big portion of the citizenry that isn’t happy at all with you guys leaving town. That I can tell you for sure”.
Holtz left the table and went to the bathroom. He knocked at the door and asked if he could go in.
“Come in” said Louise who was washing her face with some clean water contained in a recently refreshed bowl. It could be the high point of World War III, but the bathroom of two women, was still the bathroom of two women.
Holtz approached Louise and hugged her from behind looking at their images in the mirror. Holtz closed his eyes and let himself savor the smell of her skin which had become in that week a real refuge in paradise for him. She pushed one arm back and held his head which was laying on her shoulder.
“You know” said Hotlz “If I ask Major Siviglia to remain here when the regiment leaves, that would be desertion, which according to our military code in time of war, is punishable with death. On the other hand The Major said that he would have nothing against you coming with me.” And there the persuasion dice flew together with the Mythic ones. 2 successes against one in favor of Kurt.
Louise turned in his arms to face him, bright eyed. “Oh Kurt...that would be...it would be...dangerous!” she contained herself” “I am the only thing my mother has left!”
“I just wanted you to know that there is that possibility. The Major has granted it to me. I also want you to know that I am going to ask the Major if he would let me stay. But I am afraid he will never agree to that...I mean...even if he wanted to let me to that, he could not...I am the XO of the regiment...it would set a very bad example, and would compromise the integrity of the unit.”
“I understand that” answered Louise looking up at him with her devastating blue eyes so dear to Italian men.
He held her against him even tighter.
“Do you want me to talk to your mother? Should we go back in the kitchen and tell her that you could come with me if you girls agree?”
“No...just let me think about it...let me think if I can ever ask her something like that.
“OK...You know...I believe we won’t leave before after tomorrow anyway. We are still a little behind with the preparation...and Louise…”
“Yes”
“Jag älskar dig” Holtz, who held a fourth of the above conversation is a tentative Swedish, closed it in good Swedish.”
“Jag med älskling” answered Louise and kissed him. Then they went back in the dining room, where Mrs. Berglund was clearing the table, and Holtz radio had just started crackling. Kurt grabbed the Headset at once and brought it to his ear.
“Go for PANTERA” said in Italian into the mike.
“PANTERA this is MANGUSTA...return immediately to TOC, over”
“Roger PANTERA...I am on my way.”
Holtz excused himself from the Ladies who were looking at him interrogatively and explained that he just had an urgent call from Siviglia. That said the Lieutenant hurried out of the Berglund Girls’ house to cover the distance to the bus deposit in the cold evening. He saluted Alpino Rossi, who was guarding the house and took off. While he walked at double time, he realized that part of the snow was melting on the roads and part of it was freezing; result of the lack of precipitation in the last week.
When Holtz arrived at the bus station, General Falk, and Major Siviglia were standing outside in front of a huge campfire that the 17th company had started in the station courtyard. With the officers stood a group of civilians, who were conferring with both men. Holtz stepped up the pace.
He didn’t know and the officers didn’t know either, but at the beginning of the scene, when Holtz was still eating his chicken, Mythic threw in a random event as often Mythic does, pitching a curve balls to the story: the focus of the event was NPC action, the resulting NPC was the Town of Skara and the action was “Return Suffering” which I interpreted in the following way:
“Lieutenant...” Major Siviglia addressed Holtz as soon as he realized that the Lieutenant had joined the group. He spoke to his XO in English:
“...These people came all the way from Skara, taking incredible risks on themselves to get here. They reported to General Falk that the Americans have lost control of the urban area of Skara, and that the local insurgency has gained the upper hand. It seems that the Americans are out of control and they started to indiscriminately execute civilians, probably in order to try and contain the uprising”.
Major Siviglia made a calculated pause to look at his Swedish colleague.
“General Falk would like to send a force in Skara to investigate and recover the situation, but he is extremely worried to about sending an armored unit in an urban area without any infantry support...so he strongly requested our cooperation on this issue…” another pause to find the right words to say the rest:
“I decided to accept General Falk’s request, in consideration of the fact that in Skara civilian lives are at immediate and grave risk” Major Siviglia continued his diplomatic pitch.
“Therefore Lieutenant, you will prepare and assume command of a contingent tasked with investigating what is going on in Skara and with reestablishing a safe situation for the local population. I will leave to you the planning and the execution of this operation. You will keep me posted on how the situation evolves on a regular basis.”
Siviglia gave another look at his Swedish counterpart, before concluding.
“General Falk will put a platoon of his Tanks under your tactical control, with reserve for the Swedish commander on the ground to ask for the general’s intervention should your orders ever appear to put the Swedish national assets assigned to your command at unnecessary risk”
“is it all that clear Lieutenant?” asked Siviglia in the most formal tone.
“I have only one question Sir!”
“Let’s hear it”
“The fuel Sir. After this mission we will very well risk not to have enough fuel for our trip to the West Coast”
“One problem at a time Lieutenant. We’ll cross that bridge when we get there. For now the population of Skara has the precedence.”
“Undesrtood Sir” smiled Holtz, happy that his commander had his priorities straighten up.
“If you don’t mind I will start with the planning right away and recover my sleeping shift tomorrow morning during the transfer to Skara”
“Very well Lieutenant, General Falk will dispatch to you the commander of the attached tank platoon right away.”
“Yes Sir”… and thank you Sir” added Holtz turning to General Falk. The Swedish officer nodded graciously.
Holtz turned to the group of Skara civilians. “Who is the leader among you guys?” One man stepped forward. “My name is Adolf. I am the owner of the main inn in town. The situation is really bad Sir”.
“Very well” answered Holtz. “You come with me and my staff to assist with the planning of the mission. You will sleep tomorrow morning in my vehicle.”
Holtz ordered Corporal Bartoli to find Ottonese and to send him there, then turned around to enter the building. He grinned inwardly while walking inside. In the morning he would inform Louise that the departure of the regiment was postponed after all, provided that she wasn’t informed earlier by her mother alerted by Siviglia right away.