The Undertaking by Audrey Magee Read Free Book Online Page A

good man. Committed.’
    ‘To what?’
    ‘The cause. The party. I had a couple of drinks with him, and some friends of his. They have some good ideas, especially this doctor I met.’
    ‘About what?’ said Fuchs.
    ‘Germany’s place in the world. Our future. The doctor pieced it all together very eloquently.’
    ‘And you were impressed?’
    ‘Very.’
    Fuchs lit a cigarette, inhaled and coughed.
    ‘You shouldn’t be smoking, Fuchs.’
    ‘I know that. What do your parents think?’
    ‘Of what?’
    ‘Your marriage, your wife’s new family. They must be very different from yours.’
    Faber spat at the earth.
    ‘They’ve met her.’
    ‘And what do they think?’
    ‘They like her.’
    ‘Have they met her parents?’
    ‘No.’
    ‘Any plans for them all to meet?’
    ‘No. God, Fuchs, you’re like an old woman with your cough and your questions. It’s done now, anyway.’
    They reached the open plains, where Reinisch, their lieutenant, picked up the pace, forcing a march across ruts left by the tanks. Faber adjusted his pack and gun, and lengthened his stride, his legs settling back into their soldier rhythm. War had made him fit. Katharina had healed his feet. The sun rose, his shadow stretched behind him, and they began to sing.
    They set up camp before darkness, Faber sharing with Weiss as usual. At midnight, Kraus shook their tent.
    ‘You’re on, lads. Faustmann and Kraft take over at two. Berlin time. No messing. No smoking.’
    He pulled on his boots and crawled out after Weiss. The air was cold. He slapped his hands together and stamped his feet.
    ‘You’re supposed to be quiet, Faber.’
    ‘I forgot.’
    Faber walked north, to a corner of the camp shrouded in darkness and silence. He took out a cigarette, cupped it in his hands to light it and inhaled its warmth. He checked his watch. Ten minutes after midnight. He wriggled his fingers, slapped his hands, walked a few paces and hunkered down. One hour and fifty minutes. One hour and forty-nine. He stared at the steppe, willing something to happen. Anything at all. Anything that might distract from the darkness around him. He hated the dark. A twig snapped. Then nothing. More silence. More darkness. He lit another cigarette and reached for Katharina, his mind resting in her body until his shift was over, until he could climb back into his tent and sleep.
    In the morning the rains came, thick, heavy sheets that turned the road to liquid mud. Word came down the line that tanks, trucks and half-tracks were stuck ahead. Weiss laughed.
    ‘The great blitzkrieg,’ he said. ‘Thwarted by a drop of Russian rain.’
    ‘That would cheer up your lot, Faustmann,’ said Faber.
    ‘What do you mean?’
    ‘Your Russian friends.’
    ‘What?’
    ‘You speak the language so you must be pretty pleased to see us in this mess.’
    ‘Jesus, Faber,’ said Fuchs.
    ‘My lot, as you call it, is with Germany,’ said Faustmann. ‘Have you failed to notice which uniform I’m wearing?’
    ‘It’s hard to tell through the mud,’ said Weiss.
    ‘It looks Russian to me,’ said Faber.
    ‘Come on, Faber,’ said Fuchs. ‘You’re walking with me.’
    Faber hurried to keep pace with Fuchs’ fury.
    ‘Don’t bring that here, Faber,’ he said.
    ‘What?’
    ‘Her father’s politics. Keep it for Berlin.’
    ‘I wasn’t doing anything.’
    ‘Have the courage to bloody admit it.’
    ‘Admit what?’
    ‘When did you become such an idiot, Faber?’
    Reinisch ordered them to dig vehicles out of the mud some ten miles south of the main road.
    ‘What size?’ said Weiss.
    ‘Just jeeps and trucks,’ said Kraus. ‘No heavy weaponry. Only task force.’
    ‘Thank God for that,’ said Faber.
    Stockhoff distributed rations.
    ‘I’ll make you beef stew when you catch up with us,’ he said.
    They found forty men in six vehicles, three jeeps and three trucks, the wheels so deeply embedded that only the tops of tyres were visible. Faber sat on the nearest