Read Online A Dark Song of Blood by Ben Pastor - Free Book Online

propaganda leaflets and talking things over with the population. Indiscriminate hangings only make more trouble unless you’re ready to keep the pressure on. As you are aware, Colonel, ruling by terror in occupied territory has its drawbacks.”
    â€œWe’re not dealing with illiterate bunglers in Rome.”
    â€œExcept that one can be literate and a bungler. Our trouble in Italy will be north of here, as in the recent past. We might even see the formation of ‘partisan republics’ on the Soviet model. As for Rome, I would watch the Fascist calendar of saints – irregulars tend to launch attacks on significant dates, which is ideologically correct but predictable.”
    Kappler had a strange expression, half-admiring and half-malicious. “In any case, we should make sure trouble doesn’t happen. I am talking, I believe, to one who understands what personal toll there’s to pay for courage. That is, you must harbor some bitterness.” Bora’s silence encouraged Kappler. “Let me show you how we are doing our part, Major.”
    What followed was a guided tour of the other floors of the large building, where apartments had been turned into cellblocks. Bora noticed partitioning, bricked windows, and how the stuffiness bore the peculiar mawkish odor of interrogation rooms, male sweat and blood washed over with suds. None of this outwardly unnerved him, as Kappler could tell.
    Leading him back to his office, Kappler was in fact engaging. “We have another location near the train station – the Italian branch. It’s not as efficient, but it works. These – what happens in this building – are the facts of life, every bit as much as what happens on the battlefield. We all stand to know them and be a part to them.”
    â€œWell.” Bora thought it was as good a time as any to draw the line. He said, “I may stand to know them, Colonel, but I’m not a part to them.”
    â€œLucky for you that you don’t have to deal with the reality my seventy-three men and I face every day. But I’m sure you don’t mean what you say. Why else would Kesselring have brought you to Rome?” Kappler grinned. “You’re as seduced by discipline as I am. It makes it hard for us to differentiate between personal anger and duty. Didn’t you lose a brother in Russia?”
    â€œHe was shot down south of Kursk, yes.”
    â€œMissing or dead?”
    Bora kept steady, by long habit of self-control. “I retrieved his body myself.”
    â€œWhat a blow for your parents. I hope you have other siblings. No? And you’d been in Stalingrad to the bitter end, yourself. I am in awe of your even-mindedness. And I grieve for your brother, as we are all army brothers.”
    Bora was so shamelessly grateful for the words, he felt his critical sense slipping from him. Whatever he answered, it took him until the end of the meeting to realize that he was lost, polluted by Kappler’s talk whether or not he’d betrayed himself by agreeing to any of it.
    The last thing Kappler told him was, “By the way, we just arrested the half-Jew Foa. Assure General Westphal he won’t have to worry about the old man’s ranting any more.”
    After Bora left, Captain Sutor poured out his discontent about the visit.
    â€œI’m not being unjust, Colonel. I know the army. He’s army, there’s nothing to be gained from relating to him, and I don’t trust him after what Lasser said.”
    Kappler waved indulgently. “Lasser has a tendency to go hysterical. It isn’t the first time he’s tried to burn somebody on flimsy charges. He and Bora had a personality conflict, and Lasser is very loud.”
    Sutor puckered his face, swallowing spite. “I think you’re making a mistake by being friendly to this Bora, Colonel. I’d have shown him nothing of our facilities. It’s going right back to Westphal and