"James Rollins - Black Order" - читать интересную книгу автора (Romeyn Henry)

child was the only reason the woman was cooperating at all. It had been a threat on the boy's life that had
finally made Tola acquiesce to Jakob's demands.A mortar blast exploded overhead, dropping all to their
knees and deafening the world to a sonorous ring. Cement cracked, and dust trickled into the foul water.
Jakob gained his feet, swearing under his breath.
His second in command, Oskar Henricks, drew abreast of him and pointed forward to a side branch of
the sewer.
"We take that tunnel, Obergruppenfuhrer. An old storm drain. According to the municipal map, the main
trunk empties into the river, not far from Cathedral Island."
Jakob nodded. Hidden near the island, a pair of camouflaged gunboats should be waiting, manned by
another Kommando unit. It was not much farther.
He led the way at a more hurried pace as the Russian bombardment intensified overhead. The renewed
assault plainly heralded their final push into the city. The surrender of its citizenry was inevitable.
As Jakob reached the side tunnel, he climbed out of the sluicing filth andonto the cement apron of the
branching passageway. His boots squelched with each step. The gangrenous reek of bowel and slime
swelled momentarily worse, as if the sewer sought to chase him from its depths.
The rest of his unit followed.
Jakob shone his hand-torch down the cement drain. Did the air smell a touch fresher? He followed the
beam with renewed vigor. With escape so near, the mission was almost over. His unit would be halfway
across Silesia before the Russians ever reached the subterranean warren of rat runs that constituted
Wenceslas Mine. As a warm welcome, Jakob had planted booby traps throughout the laboratory
passages. The Russians and their allies would find nothing but death among the highlands.
With this satisfying thought, Jakob fled toward the promise of fresh air. The cement tunnel descended in a
gradual slope. The team's pace increased, hastened by the sudden silence between artillery bursts. The
Russians were coming in full force.
It would be close. The river would only remain open for so long.As if sensing the urgency, the infant
began a soft cry, a thready whine as the sedative wore off. Jakob had warned the team's medic to keep
the drugs light. They dared not risk the child's life. Perhaps that had been a mistake...
The timbre of the cries grew more strident.
A single mortar shell blasted somewhere to the north.
Cries became wails. The noise echoed down the tunnel's stone throat.
"Quiet the child!" he ordered the soldier who bore the baby.
The man, reed thin and ashen, bobbled the pack from his shoulder, losing his black cap in the process.
He struggled to free the boy but only earned more distressed screeches.
"L-let me," Tola pleaded. She fought the man holding her elbow. "He needs me."
The child bearer glanced to Jakob. Silence had fallen over the world above. The screaming continued
below. Grimacing, Jakob nodded his head.
Tola's bonds were cut from her wrists. Rubbing circulation into her fingers, she reached for the child. The
soldier gladly relinquished his burden. She cradled the baby in the crook of her arm, supporting his head
and rocking him gently. She leaned over him, drawing him close. Soothing sounds, wordless and full of
comfort, whispered through his wails. Her whole being melted around the child.
Slowly the screeching ebbed to quieter cries.
Satisfied, Jakob nodded to her guard. The man raised his Luger and kept it pressed to Tola's back. In
silence now, they continued their trek through the subterranean warren beneath Breslau.
In short order, the smell of smoke overtook the reek of the sewers. His hand-torch illuminated a smoky
pall that marked the exit of the storm drain. The artillery guns remained quiet, but an almost continuous
pop and rattle of gunfire continued—mostly to the east. Closer at hand, the distinct lap of water could be
heard.Jakob gestured to his men to hold their position back in the tunnel and waved his radioman to the
exit. "Signal the boats."
The soldier nodded crisply and hurried forward, disappearing into the smoky gloom. In moments, a few
flashes of light passed a coded message to the neighboring island. It would only take a minute for the