Last Flight to Stalingrad by Graham Hurley (novels to read .txt) 📕

the instrument’s bank of stops, urging more and more volume from the foot pedals as the music briefly filled the church. Then came the first of the faster virtuoso passages, and the priest slumped back on the stool, defeated.

For a long moment, absolute silence, then Nehmann heard Schultz enquire whether the priest liked American spam. The priest whispered something Nehmann didn’t catch, then one of the big doors of the church swung open and Nehmann spun round to find three black figures silhouetted against the still-bright afternoon.

They stood motionless for a second or two before the tallest of them strode down the aisle towards Nehmann, his boots echoing on the flagstones. He was wearing a neatly buttoned, full-length greatcoat but he’d removed his cap and his head was bare. Nehmann was staring at his shoulder boards. A captain in the Russian artillery? Kalb, he thought. Redux.Was this levitation? The blackest magic? Had the SS Standartenführer risen from the dead?

The captain was cradling a machine gun, the leather strap looped around his neck. He looked around, taking his time, and gestured up towards the organ loft. Nehmann understood his Russian perfectly.

‘Again,’ he said. ‘Play it again.’

The priest gazed down at him, then shrugged. A nod to Schultz on the bellows, and he squinted at the first sheet of music and bent to the keyboard.

The Soviet Captain listened to the music for several seconds, his boot tapping on the flagstones, and then told the priest to stop.

‘Beethoven.’ The Russian seemed amused. ‘The Pathétique.’

Nehmann nodded, and then slowly raised his arms. He couldn’t take his eyes off the machine gun.

‘я подчиняюсь,’ he said. I surrender.

About the Author

Graham Hurley is the author of the acclaimed Faraday and Winter crime novels and an award-winning TV documentary maker. Two of the critically lauded series have been shortlisted for the Theakston’s Old Peculier Award for Best Crime Novel. His French TV series, based on the Faraday and Winter novels, has won huge audiences. The first Spoils of War novel,

Finisterre

, was shortlisted for the Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize. Graham now writes full-time and lives with his wife, Lin, in Exmouth.

www.grahamhurley.co.uk

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