Chapter 11 - The Man Who Sold the Patrol
Private Owen Burke returned three days later.
He walked into an American checkpoint barefoot, without a rifle, uniform torn, face bruised.
He claimed he had been captured.
Jack almost killed him before intelligence officers could ask a question.
“You son of a bitch!”
Two MPs grabbed Jack.
Burke stared at him.
“What?”
“Collins is dead!”
Burke’s face changed.
“I didn’t know.”
Eli heard the words.
Not “What happened?”
Not “Why?”
I didn’t know.
Captain Warren heard it too.
Burke was taken into a farmhouse being used as headquarters.
Eli, Jack, Frank, and Tommy waited outside.
Hours passed.
Finally Warren emerged.
“Burke says a German patrol captured him while he was carrying dispatches.”
Jack spat into the mud.
“Convenient.”
“He says they beat the route out of him.”
Eli looked at the bruises on Burke’s face.
Fresh.
But something was wrong.
“Can I see him?”
Warren frowned.
“No.”
“Ask him what road they captured him on.”
“We did.”
“And?”
“Near La Perrière.”
Eli pictured the map.
“That’s south.”
“Yes.”
“Our route change went north.”
Warren studied him.
“Burke says he saw the revised route before leaving.”
“When?”
“On Mercer’s desk.”
Jack swore.
The implication hung between them.
Lieutenant Mercer.
Warren lowered his voice.
“Do not repeat that.”
Eli nodded.
That night someone attacked Burke inside the holding shed.
Not Jack.
Jack was with Eli.
They heard the alarm and ran.
Burke lay unconscious, blood on the floor.
The guard was missing.
On the wall someone had written one word in charcoal.
TRAITOR.
Burke survived.
When he woke, he asked for Eli.
Eli entered alone.
Burke’s left eye had swollen shut.
“I didn’t sell you out,” he whispered.
“You hated me.”
“I hated you because Jack hated you.”
“That supposed to help?”
“No.”
Burke coughed.
“I was stupid.”
Eli waited.
Burke looked toward the door.
“They caught me.”
“Who?”
“Germans.”
“Where?”
“Not La Perrière.”
“So you lied.”
“They told me to.”
“Who?”
Burke began trembling.
“There was an American with them.”
Eli’s stomach tightened.
“Name.”
“I don’t know.”
“Officer?”
Burke nodded.
“Did you see his face?”
“No. He stayed behind me.”
“Voice?”
“American.”
Eli leaned closer.
“What did he ask?”
Burke swallowed.
“He already knew the route. He asked whether Hale had changed formation.”
Eli felt cold.
That meant the betrayal happened before Burke was captured.
Burke had not revealed the patrol.
He had been used to support a lie.
“Why did you say Mercer’s desk?”
“They said if I didn’t, they’d kill me.”
Eli stared.
“You’re already in an American camp.”
Burke’s face twisted.
“You think that matters?”
Then Eli understood.
The attack inside the shed.
The missing guard.
Someone inside American lines was trying to silence Burke.
“Who attacked you?”
“Couldn’t see.”
“Anything?”
Burke closed his eyes.
“A ring.”
“What?”
“He grabbed my shirt. Big silver ring. Eagle on it.”
Eli remembered someone.
At Blackridge.
A battalion intelligence officer who wore a large academy ring.
Major Victor Rusk.
Eli had seen it when the route briefing was delivered.
But suspicion was not proof.
Burke grabbed his wrist.
“Carter.”
“What?”
“I’m sorry.”
Eli stared at him.
“For the latrine.”
The apology sounded pathetic beside everything happening.
Burke continued.
“I held your arms while Jack hit you. I laughed.”
“Yes.”
“I thought being on the strong side meant nobody could hurt me.”
Eli looked at his bruised face.
“How’d that work?”
Burke laughed weakly, then winced.
“Not great.”
Eli pulled his hand free.
“I don’t forgive you.”
“I know.”
“But I believe you about the patrol.”
Burke started crying.
Not loudly.
Almost with relief.
Eli left.
Jack was waiting outside.
“Well?”
Eli told him.
Jack’s face changed when he heard the ring.
“Rusk.”
“Maybe.”
“That bastard gave Mercer the maps.”
“Maybe.”
Jack slammed a fist into the wall.
Eli caught his arm before he hit again.
“Stop.”
“He got Collins killed.”
“We need proof.”
“You sound like an officer.”
“No. I sound like somebody who doesn’t want the wrong man hanged.”
Jack turned away.
Frank and Tommy joined them.
Eli explained.
Tommy whispered, “Why would an American officer help Germans?”
Frank answered, “Money?”
Eli shook his head.
“Maybe.”
Jack said, “Fear.”
They looked at him.
Jack stared into the darkness.
“People do ugly things when they’re scared.”
Eli knew he was not only talking about Rusk.
Two hours later, Burke disappeared.
His bed was empty.
The rear wall of the holding shed had been cut open.
There was blood on the canvas.
And outside, leading toward the woods, were two sets of footprints.
One barefoot.
One wearing American officer’s boots.
The disappearance triggered a camp-wide search.
Dogs followed the trail to a stream and lost it.
A sentry claimed he had seen an ambulance on the eastern road at midnight.
No ambulance was scheduled.
Captain Warren spent the morning questioning drivers.
Eli watched from outside headquarters.
Jack joined him.
“You believe Burke now?”
“I believe somebody wants him dead.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
Eli looked at him.
“Yes.”
Jack rubbed both hands over his face.
“I hated him yesterday.”
“You still can.”
“That’s not helpful.”
“It’s true.”
Jack stared at the road.
“I keep thinking about that night in the latrine.”
Eli’s body stiffened.
Jack noticed.
“I’m not asking you to talk about it.”
“Good.”
“I’m saying Burke followed me.”
“Yes.”
“So if he dies because he was too afraid to stop me—”
“That part belongs to Burke.”
Jack looked confused.
Eli continued.
“Your part belongs to you. His part belongs to him. Don’t steal somebody else’s guilt just because you enjoy carrying punishment.”
Jack gave a humorless smile.
“You sound like a preacher.”
“I’d make a terrible preacher.”
“Too mean.”
“Exactly.”
An MP emerged from headquarters carrying a bloody strip of canvas found near the stream.
Jack’s humor disappeared.
Eli stared at it.
Burke might have been a bully.
A coward.
A man who had helped beat him.
None of that made him disposable.
May you like
That realization mattered.
If Eli only believed in human dignity for people he liked, then Rusk had already taught him the wrong lesson.
