On the way to the tavern, however, he was suddenly struck by a thought. Brought on, as it happened, by the sight of the building they were passing by.
“Hold on a minute. Let me see if the admiral’s still in. He might care to join us.”
Gerd, full of the simple and straightforward attitude of the Army toward the Navy in general, and its pissant admiral in particular, glowered fiercely. Harry, on the other hand, curled his lip at the sergeant and nodded.
“Crude bastard,” he commented. “Can’t be helped, Mike, he’s a Kraut. Uneducated. Me, on the other hand—” He patted his chest proudly. “I’ve read some books. So I know my history!”
Mike’s expression must have been skeptical. Harry pouted.
“Hey, s’true! Well . . . okay, not much. But I know all the good quotes.”
“Like what?”
“Franklin Roosevelt’s famous speech after Pearl Harbor, how’s that? ‘We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.’ ”
Mike winced. “Harry, I’m pretty sure that was said by Ben Franklin during the American Revolution.”
“Really? Hm.” Harry shrugged. “What the hell. Close enough. I got the continent right.”
Simpson hesitated also. But, like Mike, only for a moment.
“Sure, why not? I’m not really doing anything here anyway, not any longer, except spinning my wheels and waiting to hear the news tomorrow. A drink might do me good.”
When they arrived at the tavern and commandeered a table, Harry ordered beer for himself and Gerd. So did Mike. But the barmaid didn’t have time to even turn away before the admiral countermanded the order.
“Not tonight, Gisela,” he said firmly, pointing to Harry and Gerd. “Not for these two gentlemen. Please bring some of my special stock, if you’d be so kind. For me as well.”
She scurried off instantly. Clearly, Simpson came here often enough to have established his authority. Of course, given John Chandler Simpson, “often enough” might only have required two visits.
Harry and Gerd were trying—not very hard—to hide their glares at Simpson. The admiral glanced at them and snorted.
“Please! You are about to embark on a desperate and daring mission into enemy territory. A beer just won’t do.”
The barmaid was back quickly, bearing a large mug of beer for Mike, three smaller mugs, and an unlabeled bottle of some truly suspicious-looking beverage.
And, indeed, Harry and Gerd both looked at the thing with dark suspicion.
“Don’t ask,” commanded the admiral. “You probably don’t want to know. I’m afraid it was the best I could have them do, given the circumstances. But I think you’ll find it tasteful. It’s a bit strong, of course.”
Whether by design or not, the last comment was enough to make sure that Harry and Gerd would accept the challenge. As soon as Simpson filled the mugs, they reached out for them. The admiral’s scowl stopped them short.
“Please, gentlemen! These things must be done properly.” Simpson took their mugs and handed them over, giving them a little jiggle as he did so.
“Shaken, not stirred. I insist.”
Chapter 44
“All right, I’ve got them.”
Sergeant Elizabeth Buchholz, A Company, Thuringian Rifles, leaned on her elbows and peered at the estuary of the Trave River through the night-vision glasses. She and her small party were safely invisible in the misty darkness, but she could easily make out the riding lights of the Danish vessels anchored in the river. They were far enough downstream to be safe from any of Luebeck’s guns, and Gustav Adolf had been careful not to station any of his own troops in the area. After all, he’d wanted the Danes to feel completely comfortable.
From here, it looked as if they did . . . and as if they’d done about what Gustavus had predicted they would. They’d placed a handful of warships upstream of their main body, to protect the merchantmen and transports from anything Lubeck’s defenders might try to sneak downstream, but the bulk of their men-of-war were anchored further out. Obviously, they weren’t as confident as they would have liked about the location of the Swedish Navy, and most of their warships were positioned to defend the transports tucked safely away in the sheltering estuary against any sudden pounce from the open Baltic.