The Last Eagle (2011) (33 page)

 According to Talli, they would soon pass beyond the last buoy. After that, they would be blind, navigating by the seat of their pants. Stefan knew the Baltic waters off the Estonian coastline were dotted with small islands and unseen rocky shoals lurking just a few meters below the water’s surface. One wrong move, and their jagged teeth could easily tear through the
Eagle’s
steel skin. Escape had been the easy part. Now that they had accomplished the unthinkable, where would they go? Stefan had always wanted command. But right at the moment, he would have gladly turned it over to someone else, even Sieinski. What was the saying? Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it. He had it in spades. But like it or not, he was in charge now, responsible for everyone on board. It was up to him. Or no one.

“Commander?” Talli cleared his throat.

Stefan breathed deeply through his nose, looked up at the sky. Unseen clouds shrouded the stars. The wind had shifted to the east a half an hour earlier; it was now blowing in increasing puffs. Maybe a storm by morning, Stefan thought. He could smell it on the breeze. Not a bad thing. They would be harder to find in nasty weather. The deck of the
Eagle
was already moving rhythmically, like a galloping horse, through the slight swells. She seemed as glad as her crew to be free. “What direction will they expect us to go?” Stefan asked, wondering if he decided to start wearing a magician’s cape, or began wielding a magic wand, it would make the future easier to see.

“Home.” Kate answered, turning away from the conning tower’s edge, pulling at the cigarette that dangled from the corner of her mouth.

After the escape from the harbor, Kate had stayed on the bridge. Stefan knew it was probably against a Polish Navy regulation to have any civilian, let alone, a civilian female, on the bridge when the threat of attack was imminent. But there was probably little left of the Polish Navy. And no one aboard would care if Stefan made up a few of his own rules. And so, Stefan had decided on the spot that rule number one would be this: let any gorgeous female stay on the bridge as long as she wanted— but only if she wasn’t a pain in the ass. He wondered how the rule would look, typed up on official paper and posted in the galley. It would give the men a good laugh, of that he was sure. Of course, the rule was tailored specifically to fit Kate. She was gorgeous, in a rough sort of way. And she wasn’t a pain in the ass. At least, not since leaving Tallin behind. In fact, she hadn’t said a word until now.

 “Yes, I think you are right,” Talli said. He glanced at Stefan and when he made no move turned to Kate. “I’m sorry. We haven’t been formerly introduced. Commander Jaak Talli. Estonian Navy.” He bowed stiffly in Kate’s direction.

Kate flicked her cigarette into the wind, brushed back her hair with her open hand. “What is it with you guys? All the bowing and heel clicking.” She held out her hand. “Kate McLendon. I’m a reporter with NANS.”

Talli grabbed it and they shook. “American?”

“That, too.”

“My pleasure,” Talli said. “You can imagine my curiosity. You speak Polish very well. And I hope to hear how you ended up involved in all of this before I must leave.”

“You got a date, Jaak, for later on,” Kate said. “Might be helpful telling it to somebody. I’m not sure I’m going to believe it myself.”

“And so …” Talli began and then paused.

Stefan filled in the missing beat: “Please call me Stefan …” he said.

“As you like, Stefan. What is your home port?”

“Gdynia,” Stefan said.

Talli shook his head. “Ah, I think no longer. The Germans will have taken it by now.”

Stefan noticed a hint of change along the eastern horizon. Daylight soon, and then the hunt would begin in earnest. Most German ships would be far to the southwest. Not so the planes of the
Luftwaffe
. They would be combing the skies above them at first light. Eventually, if they were to escape the Baltic, they would have to make their way southwest. But not yet. That is what they would expect. “Can you take us northwest?”

Talli nodded, smiling. “Yes, I know those waters very well,” he said. “Almost all the way to Sweden. I began fishing it as a boy.”

“Another goddamn fisherman,” Stefan laughed. “I knew there had to be another reason why I liked you. Northwest it is then. And how do you like Swedish cooking, commander?”

“My favorite,” Talli replied.

“Good,” Stefan said. “That’s where we’ll drop you and your buddy off then. No sense you getting killed along with the rest of us. In the meantime, I rely on you, commander, to get us there. We are in your hands. And, of course, if you happen to make a mistake and lead us aground, I promise you that I will throw you overboard and make you pull us free with your teeth.” Stefan was smiling as he said the words, but their was no humor to them. 

“He said that to me, too,” Kate interjected with a soft laugh. “First time we met. I’m not sure I’d believe any of that throw-you-overboard business.”

But Talli understood very well what Stefan was saying. Even so, he didn’t hesitate. He picked up the speaker tube. He motioned to his right. “Last buoy. Do you mind?”

“Go right ahead,” Stefan said.

“Helm. Set new course at one-eight-three. Both engines ahead full.”

Who the hell is that?” came the sharp response.

“Our temporary pilot,” Stefan said, squatting over the hatch opening and yelling down at the men in the control room. “Do as he says until I say otherwise.”

“Aye, aye, sir.”

“Say, commander, think you can handle it solo for a few minutes?”

In fact, Talli could barely contain his excitement. Piloting a submarine. Who could have imagined the inexplicable turn of events that had brought it about? He didn’t dare speak, so he nodded, smiling gratefully.

Stefan slapped him on the shoulder. “Very well. You have command. I’ll be meeting with my officers below. Back in ten minutes. No longer. Sing out if you get in over your head.”

“Aye, aye.” Talli snapped to attention and saluted.

Stefan chuckled. “No, I think I need to thank you. Get us through the obstacle course facing us, and maybe I buy you a beer after the war, eh?”

Talli doubted it was a promise that would ever be kept, but he nodded at the gesture. “Yes, I would like that very much indeed.”

Stefan started down the hatch opening, and then hesitated. “Are you coming, Miss MClendon? You may want to hear this. You know, for your story.”

They met a few minutes later, the
Eagle’s
officers, and Kate and Reggie, were crowded into the galley and spilling out into the passageway. Stefan stood, one foot up on a chair. Despite their recent success, there was no celebrations. The group was quiet, fully aware of the risks before them. They waited for Stefan to begin. He didn’t need to hear the question that he knew was on everyone’s mind. It was written plainly on their faces: “What now?”

Stefan cleared his throat. Never one for eloquent speeches, he kept it simple and blunt. “And now our escape truly begins. We must decide. I have attempted to contact headquarters and heard nothing. I think we are alone in this. We have three choices, it seems to me. One, we surrender to the Germans.” The sudden angry headshakes, a couple of sharp nos elicited a grin from Stefan. “I didn’t think you’d go for that. OK then, here is the other two. We find another neutral port. We would be safe in Sweden, but the war would be over for us, I think. They will not want to anger the Germans by allowing us to escape. Or we try for France or England, and do what we can to continue the fight.”

Squeaky raised a finger in the air. “This may be obvious but I’ll throw it out anyway. How do we get anywhere without charts?”

Of course, that was a key problem. There was also the matter of only two torpedoes, and Stefan had also learned that while they had been held, the Estonians had offloaded most of their food and water. Even with short rations, they could go a couple of weeks at the most. No more than that.

The immediate concern, however, was navigation charts. While on the bridge, he had come up a solution, of sorts. It was crazy, though probably no crazier than what they had just successfully carried out, and it was the best he could come up with. Stefan pushed his cap back on his head. “No charts,” he said, “really!” He began tapping his forehead, his mouth dropping into a grin as he looked around the group.

The response was puzzled looks. Had their new captain gone daft? Kate, however, began to smile and nod. “Get out your crayons, boys,” she laughed.

“This is no time for uh, nonsense,” Squeaky said sternly, even though he wasn’t sure what a crayon was. He shifted in his seat, uncomfortably aware of Kate’s warm thigh pressing hard against his leg. There was a sheen of sweat on his upper lip. “This is serious …” he added, voice wobbling like a choir boy’s.

Kate elbowed him sharply in the side. “You think I’ve never sailed before, buddy boy? Well, think again. I know a thing or two about it. Don’t you see what he’s getting at?”

Silence. Stefan smiling, enjoying the befuddled looks on his men’s faces. Finally Eryk ventured into the hazardous waters. “You want us to draw our own charts?” he said, his voice tinged with disbelief.

“Exactly,” Kate and Stefan shouted in unison.

“Move that boy to the head of the class,” Kate added, giving Eryk a smile that turned him red with embarrassment.

“We are sailors, are we not?” Stefan said. “Some of us have sailed the Baltic for most of our lives. Now is the time to prove how good we are. Between us all,” Stefan interjected, “think of the thousands of hours we’ve spent on the Baltic, looking at navigation charts? We won’t get perfection, I know, but even something that is pretty good would help. What do you think, Eryk?” Stefan eyed his navigator. He needed his whole-hearted agreement. If he didn’t think it was possible, then there was only one choice: Sweden.

Eryk scratched the top of his head, squinting as he stared off into nothing. And then he shrugged. “Of course it can be done,” he said simply. “If that is what you decide, then I will do my best.”

It was a cautious response, but it was good enough for Stefan. “Then we have two options. Sweden or? …”

“Where do you say we go, Stef?” Squeaky interrupted.

Stefan stared intently above their heads, his eyes boring holes in the bulkhead. “Of course, if we all want to eat well, we go for France. But since I don’t care about pleasing my belly, and because I want to fight with the best Navy in the world, that means England. So I say this. We try to hook up with the British Fleet. And that means getting the
Eagle
out of the Baltic and into the North Sea. …”

He let it hang there in the air between them, shimmering brightly in their imaginations like a Christmas ornament.

“Jesus,” Reggie whispered.

Kate glanced around the group. No one seemed willing to say out loud what the rest of them were thinking. She pushed back her hair, “Giddyup, cowboy,” she said.

“What?” Stefan said. He had seen enough movies to recognize the word cowboy but had no idea what the American idiom giddyup meant.

Reggie sighed. “She means, we follow you. To England or hell. Am I right?” There were nods from all of
Eagle’s
officers. “Looks to me like it’s settled then. Here we come, England. ...”

As the meeting broke up, and everyone returned to his duty, Kate stopped Stefan with a hand on his arm. “One moment, if you’ve got it.”

“Sure.”

“I think I’ve figured out how I want to do this piece.”

“Piece?”

“My story, I mean.”

“I see. Yes, go ahead.”

“Mind if I sit?”

Stefan shook his head, so he and Kate traded places. He thought she looked tired. Her hair was pulled back and gathered behind her neck. Her make up had worn off hours earlier. She still wore men’s pants beneath her skirt.

“I want your permission to interview everyone on board. From you, all the way down to the youngest sailor. I want to get everyone’s story. And Reggie, he’ll take everyone’s picture to go along with it.”

“Like an obituary,” Stefan said, flashing a crooked smile beneath his beard.

She didn’t think it was funny. “No, no, don’t even think that,” she protested wearily. “It’s just, I’ve decided I don’t want to tell what happens. I want you and the rest of your boys to tell the story, and that means talking to each and everyone of you. You don’t know how extraordinary this is. I bet you’re the last Polish naval vessel still fighting. The last
Eagle
. Do you realize that? And getting out of Estonia, not to mention Gdynia, why, that was next to incredible. If I didn’t see it happen, I wouldn’t have believed it. And now you want to head off to England with the entire German Navy on your tail. It is just so … so ...” Words failed her. She took a deep breath, and then said, “I ... I want to do it right ... that’s all.” He voice faltered.

Stefan considered her proposal. Of course, he couldn’t care less about their story. Maybe later, if they survived, would the different perspective give him another opinion. But Kate and Reggie were the two people on board without duties. And writing the story, interviewing the crew, did give them something to do.

“All right,” he said. “Not an obituary, then. A history of the first crew of the
Eagle
and her exploits in the Baltic. How is that?”