V4CH30: Interrogation

Wehrle removed his monocle as he turned his face to Mueller, who was sitting beside him, smiled, and then nodded.

　　" Guards! Take this man down."

　　Müeller gave the order loudly to the guards. Under the pitying and contemptuous gaze of the three German generals, the partisan officer, huddled in a folding chair and shaking, was dragged out of the tent by two Stormtroopers.

　　"What do you think, Excellency Chief of Staff," Hans said to Wehrle as he looked through the interrogation records.

　　"What do you think, General Hans." Wehrle pulled out a fine silver cigarette case from his pocket and took out a rolled cigarette and put it on his ivory pipe.

　　"Oh, I think this prisoner is telling the truth, I've never seen a prisoner as cooperative as the one before. I don't know whether to praise him or spit on him when I meet such a cowardly enemy."

　　"Hahahaha, my Hans, you are right, but you should think of it this way, how good it would be if all our enemies were made up of such cowards, that would save us much trouble. Unfortunately, it is only a dream, there are not many spineless people like the ones in front of us among our enemies, more die-hard people who would rather die than give in." Mueller smiled at the side and then took a cigarette out of the box Wehrle handed over.

　　"Mueller makes a good point." Wehrle took out a lighter and lit the cigarette and then slowly took a puff, then looked at Hans and continued: "What we need now is this kind, not firm enemy, no one likes their enemies strong and unyielding. The man in front of us is the best example, what he explained is very important to us, if he is a strong-willed person although he may respect our cause, he will also be more serious in harming us. I think you should understand what I mean."

　　"Yes, Sir Chief of Staff," Hans replied with a nod of his head.

　　"Now it's time for us to take a look at the little Polish girl, and hopefully she'll give me a satisfactory answer as well." Wehrle took a deep drag on his cigarette and then said to the guards, "Now you go and bring the Polish girl prisoner here. And don't leave the prisoners idle, tell them to dig a hole and bury the bodies. The smell is really unpleasant."

　　"As ordered, Your Excellency General."

　　The two commandos saluted and ran out quickly. After a while, there was fierce yelling coming from the German soldiers outside the tent.

　　"General, the prisoner is here."

　　The guard at the door lifted the curtain, and then two commandos entered the tent with Sharon on their shoulders.

　　"Make her sit down."

　　Wehrle ordered coldly, while both Mueller and Hans also sank their faces and looked at the Polish girl in front of them with cold eyes.

　　"Sit down!" The two commandos roughly pressed Sharon into the folding chair, then stepped aside as they pointed their submachine guns at the somewhat stubborn captive.

　　If someone familiar with Sharon were present now, they would not believe that it was the girl they knew who was now sitting in that folding chair in the middle of the tent. Now Sharon's appearance is simply wretched to the extreme, covered in smoke and dust, not to mention the bloody forehead and swollen cheek as the girl had been hurt in front of the three German generals, of course, one of them is responsible for the swollen cheek, although it was self-defense, to see a young girl in such a state, the man is now a little regretful that he her hit too hard.

　　"Your name is...." Wehrle took the record in Hans's hand and looked at it.

　　"Sharon Gusta, right." Wehrle put down the record and looked up with both eyes fixed on Sharon and asked. Sharon stared back at Wehrle undaunted, seemingly completely calm by now. The Polish girl looked proudly at the three German generals in imposing uniforms in front of her without saying a word, her eyes full of hatred.

　　"Is your name Sharon Gusta?" Wehrle was oblivious to the kind of ruthlessness in the girl's eyes, and he continued to ask with a full voice. Sharon still remained silent, and Wehrle was not surprised by the girl's reaction, he had expected this outcome.

　　"Very well, it seems that this is indeed your name." Wehrle smiled and nodded, then picked up the confession of the partisans who were in front of him.

　　"You are Shulenitsev. Partisans organized by Laquent, 124 in all, and your nest is near the village of Tisbol, thirty kilometers west of here. This time you received false information that a large transport convoy was going to pass through here to deliver supplies to the Sulenstkhal barracks, so you poured out your nest to try to ambush this supply convoy to seize the supplies you are now in short supply of. Now your entire team is here except for the twenty or so men who remained in the village, the vast majority of whom are now, unfortunately, cold corpses. You were the best sniper in your guerrilla group and were close to your leader, Laquent, you participated in the planning and execution of all the attacks and were a member of the de facto command structure of your guerrilla group. Do you have anything to add to what I've said?"

　　Wehrle read that confession in that bland tone of his, but it sent a huge wave through Sharon's heart. Wehrle's words took Sharon deeply by surprise, she did not expect that the German general in front of her had such a detailed grasp of her and this partisan group. Since she had been held alone in a covered truck, she did not know that the other partisan officers had already explained everything during the interrogation, and Wehrle's words gave her a very great shock in her heart. Facing this German general who seemed to know everything, Sharon subconsciously felt a fear that she had never felt before.

　　Looking at Sharon's eyes, which were wide with surprise after hearing her words, Wehrle smiled and continued, "Miss Gusta, or can I call you Sharon? You can not answer my questions, in fact, I do not expect to get any information from your mouth. According to the information I now have you are a very stubborn girl. It reminds me of my daughter, although she is only eleven years old, her temper is as rigid as yours. As soon as I see you, it's like I see her when she grows up."

　　Wehrle pulled another cigarette out of the box, then smiled at Sharon and asked, "May I?" But before Sharon answered Wehrle had lit his own cigarette, after a long exhale of smoke, Wehrle continued with his kind of carefree tone: "Sharon, now we do not want to know anything from you, because what you know, we know, what you do not know, we also know. There is no information in your head that we need."

　　Sharon was confused by this statement from Wehrle, if the Germans already knew everything then why did they bring themselves here for interrogation, but still, she did not show what was in her head, she still looked at the German general coldly without saying a word.

　　"Now you must be wondering why we are interrogating you. In fact, I just wanted to see what the girl who almost destroyed Poland really looked like. I didn't mean anything else, and I'm satisfied with your performance. Well, the guards can take the young lady out and have her dig a hole with the other prisoners to bury their comrades, something she should be very skilled at, she almost dug the graves for all the Poles."

　　Wehrle turned his face away and looked at Sharon with an icy stare, a scornful sneer at the corners of his mouth. Two commandos rushed forward and lifted Sharon from the chair then dragged the girl with a bewildered expression toward the outside of the tent.

　　"Wait a minute." In the two commandos' strong arms under the narrow hold of Sharon suddenly struggled, she finally broke the silence and called to Wehrle.

　　"Wait, bring her back." Wehrle coldly gave the order to the guards.

　　When Sharon sat down again on the folding chair, Wehrle asked indifferently, "Miss, do you have anything else to say to us?"

　　Sharon replied loudly, "I have nothing to say to you, I just want to ask you a question, what do you mean when you say that I almost destroyed Poland. Does Poland still exist in your eyes?"

　　"Oh, that's what you asked, but Miss, you speak German very well, where did you learn it, are you a German?" Wehrle asked without delay, but in his heart, he was already satisfied with the situation, he was able to communicate with this seemingly resistant prisoner without torture, which was a great victory for him, and now the shrewd chief of staff wanted to continue to expand his victory.

　　"I studied German literature at the University of Warsaw, and I'm Polish, not Germanic." Sharon felt her momentum suddenly deadened by the German general, she knew she shouldn't talk to those Germans, but she was now really curious why the Germans said she had almost destroyed Poland.

　　"Oh, I'll answer your question seeing as you were so cooperative. That shot you fired almost made the whole of Poland bleed more seriously, Poland could have been razed to the ground." Wehrle then flicked the cigarette ash in his hand and took a drag before continuing, "You almost killed the only great leader who can save the world now. He is the idol of all the armed forces of Germany. To avenge him, the German army would have thrown the entire Polish nation into hell, and Poland would have completely disappeared from the face of the earth for that one bullet of yours. I'm not kidding you, this could definitely happen. So you can rejoice that you are not the culprit of the destruction of Poland. Your crime was enough to get you executed after all the torture in the world. You are alive now also because of him, and no one but he has the right to dispose of the people who hurt him."

　　Sharon was flabbergasted by Wehrle's words, she felt that the words of this German general, who just looked so old and cunning, were unreliable, but then she thought that maybe it might be true, because she herself had seen a senior German general being carried out of that command car, and maybe she had really hit some terrible big man, but the fact that the Germans would destroy Poland for a general was a bit sensationalistic to her.

　　"You must be thinking I'm scaring the hell out of you, I'm not in that mood to joke with you. I can't tell you what man you shot, but I'm sure every German here would be willing to die for him." Wehrle said coldly with an extremely evil tone "You will pay for your crime, not only you, although the man is now nothing, wounding him is already a felony, all the villages within a hundred kilometers and their inhabitants will be destroyed because of your actions as punishment. You will take full responsibility for their deaths."

　　"No, you murderers! You can't do that!" Sharon was stunned by Wehrle's words, a hundred kilometers around, at least hundreds of villages with tens of thousands of villagers, this German general even lightly said that he would kill them all, were the Germans really inhumane?

　　"No! We can do that, and we have enough rights and enough strength to do so. They were killed by you, in retaliation for your stupid ambush, and those villages will be razed, everyone will be sent to concentration camps and those of them who have helped you will be executed on the spot. All this is because of you." Wehrle sneered, "From the point of view of Poland as a nation, you are worthy patriots, but from the point of view of us, the cruel and cold occupiers, you are nothing but hateful saboteurs, and what you are doing now will not help your country, but will make your homeland suffer even more for it."

　　"No, it's not like that. I am fighting for the freedom of Poland, I am fighting for the innocent civilians you killed and the brave soldiers who died in the war." Sharon shouted angrily.

　　"Calm down, Miss Sharon. Other people say such things I can believe, but you are really not qualified to say these words, you are just looting bandits. I am fully aware of all your attacks, you have never attacked German military and industrial facilities, and you have not attacked German armed forces passing through your villages. You attacked ordinary convoys carrying supplies to those towns and barracks. You then transported the looted goods back to your villages and, as far as I know, you had close contacts with some underground black market dealers, and a large part of the goods you looted was hidden by your captains and then sold at high prices to big cities like Warsaw for a huge profit."

　　"You are making false accusations, Laquent is not such a person, we are righteous fighters for freedom." Sharon now did not believe the German general's words, she was so angry at the German general for so slandering Laquent who cared and looked after her like a brother, if not for the two commandos who were quick to hold her down, she might have lunged at Wehrle by now.

　　"I told you to calm down. Miss, I don't want my soldiers to tie you up, so you'd better sit there honestly." Wehrle coldly stared at Sharon and said.

　　"What I am saying now is the truth. This is the confession of your deputy guerrilla leader, Hantsov, who gave us a clear account of the true nature of this guerrilla group of yours. You are poor fellows who have been deluded by Laquent with lies, and in fact, you are just a gang of looters under the banner of fighting for the fatherland. I am surprised that you would be ignorant of all this, and I feel sorry for your innocence. But he also explained something else about you, which also has to do with that Captain Laquent of yours, and I thought you would be interested in it."

　　Wehrle's words struck Sharon as unbelievable, but that confession of Hantsov had to convince her of it again. Most of the matters in the guerrilla unit were in the hands of that deputy captain, and only he and the captain knew about those confidential matters, plus there was always a big discrepancy in the quantity of those supplies after each raid back, and at that time she didn't think much about it, but now it seemed that there was really a possibility of being hidden and foraged by those members who knew about it. Sharon's mind was in turmoil as she slowly stopped struggling and gasped as she looked at the German general, wanting to know what else was about her that she didn't know.

　　"Let her go." Wehrle ordered the two commandos, then said faintly to Sharon, who was sitting there staring blankly at herself, "You have a brother named Thorsvall Gusta, right."

　　Sharon nodded blankly.

　　"He was an anti-tank gunner in the Polish Army who died on the battlefield in the battle against our invasion, correct?"

　　Sharon nodded again.

　　"Laquent brought your brother's weapon to you and said your brother entrusted you to him, correct?"

　　"Yes, and? So what?" Sharon asked, looking at Wehrle in confusion.

　　"He's lying to you. Your brother didn't die in battle."

"What!" This sentence made Sharon feel as if she had been struck by lightning, she could not believe her ears.

　　"That's impossible, you are lying!"

　　"Why would I lie to you. I can tell you that your brother was not fighting with us near Warsaw, he was resisting the Russians in Kolakovin, when this same Laquent betrayed the company your brother was in, and as a result, your brother was captured by the Russians. And this Laquent became a spy for the Russians, and he was sent back to the German-occupied areas of Poland to gather information to organize partisans to disrupt the German-occupied areas. You were used by him to hide his identity, and the deputy captain, Khantesov, was a complete Russian. Now you understand the true picture of the facts. Your brother should now be in a Russian gulag; there is no way he will be released by the Russians, and now I am worried whether he will be able to withstand such a long ordeal."

　　"Is it true what you say? My brother is not dead." Sharon now felt overwhelmed, hearing the news that her only relative might still be alive on earth simply made her feel like she was dreaming now, but once she thought that she was now in danger of losing her own life, what was the use of knowing this good news Sharon's heart went cold all of a sudden. She asked Wehrle, "Excuse me, why are you telling me this news. I am about to be executed by you, and it is no longer meaningful for me to know about him."

　　"No, Miss Sharon, don't you want to go on living to meet with your brother?"

　　Wehrle smiled with a satisfied look on his face and said, "Now I can give you a chance, I want you to cooperate with us."