The Darkest Hour(66)

“What other choice did we have?” she retorts. “She was going to fight us tooth and nail to the stairwell.” While Tilly shivers and tucks into a ball to keep warm, Sabine heaves her back onto her feet. “Merde. Matilda, move your feet!”

“Don’t talk to her like that!” I say.

“We’re wasting time. Let’s go,” Sabine replies.

Like a lumbering ox, Tilly sways and staggers but stays upright with our help. Sabine hands me one of her hard-won pistols, but I know we’ll be facing Goliath once we leave this room. A well-armed and well-trained Goliath.

“The soldiers will shoot to maim,” Sabine murmurs. “For you and Tilly, at least. You’re too prized to kill.”

“What about you?”

“That’s my concern, not yours.” She checks her ammunition and tilts her head at the door. “The stairwell is tucked away around the corner. Make sure that Matilda keeps up with us.”

That’s the extent of our planning. We sneak into the hallway, and Sabine grasps onto the chain that sets off the sprinkler system, giving it a hard yank. Water drenches our clothes, but I don’t ask what she has in mind. This must be one of her ideas that she mentioned before.

As the water puddles at our feet, Sabine waves to us to follow her. We soon find the laboratory in chaos. Nurses scramble to protect paperwork while the few patrols on duty bark orders that get swallowed in the downpour. No wonder Sabine decided to pull that chain. I hurry after her with Tilly in tow and my pistol at the ready, but I don’t get to fire off a single shot. Sabine takes care of the three soldiers who shout at us to halt, taking them down with a neat bullet to each of their foreheads. I’m about to tell her good shot, but the words die on my tongue. She used that same aim to kill Major Harken. I remember his warm blood on my hands, but I have no choice except to continue my alliance with Sabine until we reach safe ground again. She’ll need to pay for what she did. Harken deserves that much, and I have to make sure of it.

We’re breathing hard and sopping wet by the time we reach the steps. Thankfully there are no sprinklers in the stairwell, which gives me a few seconds to sweep the hair from my eyes. I direct Tilly up the first flight of stairs and look up to find ten more stories to climb. We need to hurry, and I turn around to say that to Sabine; but I notice then that she hasn’t followed us.

“What are you waiting for?” I say to her.

In answer, she lifts up her shirt to reveal four slim packs of white powder that she has tucked into her waistband. She places each one gently on the floor, and I stare at the powder, agape. It’s Aunt Jemima. Explosives. I don’t know where or how she got it, but she has enough to blow a significant hole in the laboratory.

“Take Tilly and go. I need to destroy the facility,” she says.

“Are you mad?” I tell Tilly to wait while I track back to Sabine. I’ve already gathered what she has planned. “You set off that much powder and you’ll go down with it!”

“Not necessarily. I’ve learned from the best.” She nods at Tilly, and her lip twitches into a half smile. “And not if I’m fast enough.”

She’s lying and we both know it. “No one’s that fast.”

“We’ll see.”

“Sabine—”

“The Germans won’t be long now. Go!”

She’s right, and yet I hesitate. Despite what she has done, despite her betrayal, I don’t want to leave her behind.

“Go or stay, it’s up to you,” Sabine says stubbornly, “but I’ve made my choice.” She rips open a powder pack and reaches into her pocket for a blasting cap. She’s going to blow this entire building to high heaven—and us with it if we linger any longer.

The Nazis draw closer. I can hear their shouts. I urge Tilly to start climbing again, but my own feet remain rooted on the steps. I want Sabine to pay for her crimes, but not like this. Let her spend the next decade in a jail cell, not buried with the Germans here.

Sabine pours out the Aunt Jemima onto a dry patch of the concrete floor. “I’ll give you one minute to get up those steps and not a second more.”

“There must be another way!”

“Sixty seconds. Fifty-nine.”

“Stop—”

“Fifty-eight.” She peers behind her, and our gazes clash. Hers dares me to remain where I’m standing, even though she knows that she’ll win. She nods upward to Tilly. “Take care of each other.”

“You still have time to come with us!”

“A word of advice? Run. Fifty-seven, fifty-six.” She keeps counting, and I know it’s useless for me to wait a second longer. I feel mashed up and pulled apart, but I urge my shaky legs up the stairs until I no longer feel them. All the while, I glance back, hoping to find Sabine has changed her mind, but no one’s there. So I take her advice. I run.

By the time I’ve reached the top step I hear the pop pop pop of gunfire, followed by the sound of Sabine’s voice. The sound travels up the stairwell and lodges into my ears, where it travels into my heart and breaks it to pieces.

“Au nom de mon frère!” she cries. “Pour Jean-Luc!”

I shove Tilly through the door and into the open air just as the ground beneath us begins to quake. Outside, two soldiers spot us and reach for the rifles, but the explosion overtakes all of us. A plume of fire bursts through the door, and we’re launched into the air and tossed to the ground again. The blast shakes me to my bones, but I pick myself up and lug Tilly toward the fence that surrounds the compound.