Purple Hearts (Front Lines 3)

The rocket hits the bogie wheels on the tank’s right side, and the tread spools off.

“Skedaddle!” Rio yells.

Jack grabs the ammo, Mazur grabs the bazooka, and they run back toward the bridge. No longer worried about stealth, they run, leap the German whose throat Rio cut, splash through the water, and stop suddenly, almost face-to-face with two German soldiers.

Brrrt! Brrrt! Brrrt!

Rio’s Thompson blazes, and the Germans fall. But now every German infantry soldier within hearing knows where they are. They dive into the woods as a file of German Panzergrenadiers splashes across the stream, racing to cut them off.

From the woods comes the chatter of small arms, and for a moment Rio thinks they’ve been flanked. But no, it’s Jenou and the others firing to discourage the Germans.

The Germans are discouraged just long enough for Rio to gather her lost sheep and go hell-for-leather back up the hill. They are walking back toward American lines and the possibility that they’ll be shot as Germans, so Rio yells the password again and again and they pass through the lines and collapse on the ground.

Rio is laughing aloud.

Jenou looks to Jack. “What the hell?”

Jack laughs. “I think our sergeant just discovered a new hobby: killing tanks.”

27

FRANGIE MARR AND RAINY SCHULTERMAN—BASTOGNE, BELGIUM

TRANSCRIPT

Debriefing of MARR, FRANCINE

Interrogator: SCHULTERMAN, E. (LT. G2)

SCHULTERMAN: Frangie, I’m happy to see you well.

MARR: I don’t know how well I am, but I’m happy to see you! And a first lieutenant besides! Watch out or they’ll make you a general.

SCHULTERMAN: Fat chance. Okay, for the record this conversation is being recorded. I am Lieutenant Elisheva Schulterman, speaking with Sergeant Frangie—what’s your legal name?

MARR: Francine.

SCHULTERMAN: Francine. Francine Marr, sergeant, medical corps. So, Frangie, for the record, tell me what happened at Malmédy.

MARR: They massacred us. That’s what happened. We were ambushed and surrounded

and we were taken prisoner. The SS—

SCHULTERMAN: Do you happen to know what unit?

MARR: No. But I heard someone talking about an SS officer named Peiper. I think the Peiper person was in charge.

SCHULTERMAN: Yes. General Joachim Peiper. He’s notorious for what he—and others like him—did in Poland and Russia. Please continue.

MARR: There’s not much to say. They marched us into a field. They drove a truck in, opened the flap, and started machine gunning.

SCHULTERMAN: No warning or explanation?

MARR: What explanation could they have for murdering POWs in cold blood?

The interview lasts half an hour, during which Frangie goes from rage to sorrow to depression. Rainy switches off the recorder. They are across from each other in a small room that smells of plaster dust and mildew. There is a wooden table between them, a nice table, not military issue.

Rainy excuses herself for a moment. She goes directly to Herkemeier who is waiting for her.