A glance through the door window showed a clear path. He exited that carriage and moved to the next, peering inside. Another freight unit. That meant there would likely be another guard posted up in there. Opening the door would alert the guard to his presence.

  Just how do I get through?

  A nudge in his back made him spin around. It was Petr, crouching behind him. Josef clutched his chest, drawing in deep breaths to ease the surge of adrenaline. Petr should have known not to startle him, but his silent approach was admittedly skillful.

  “You move so quietly, Petr. It’s good to see you.” His words struggled to compete with the roaring train on the tracks.

  “I didn’t escape from Terezín being loud.” Petr grinned. “I saw what you did back there. Brutal. Do you think there is a guard in this carriage as well?”

  Josef nodded and scanned again for any sight of the soldier. After moments, he saw a large man mulling about inside, inspecting the cargo. He headed in their direction slowly.

  “I will deal with this.” Petr nodded to him. “Open the door once he gets near.”

  Josef nodded and gripped the doorknob. It took about half a minute for the soldier to be in position. Josef swung the door open. Petr rushed inside and flung an arm around the soldier’s neck from behind. He wrestled him to the ground. Josef, unwilling to be a bystander, rushed in and stole the soldier’s firearm. After a few agonizingly long moments, the soldier slumped to the ground.

  “Where did you learn that maneuver?” Josef asked, shocked at the precision of the older man.

  “You want to sit down and have a chat?” Petr said in an amused huff as he dragged the soldier off.

  Josef shook his head. “Fair. Let’s get moving.”

  A singular carriage separated them from the one holding his people, but this one worried him the most. It was an armory with gun stations mounted on top of it to shoot at anyone who would attack the train from the outside. He didn’t necessarily fear the guns themselves, but rather the half dozen or more soldiers manning the station.

  “Do we try to climb over?” Petr asked worriedly. “There is not much to hold on to. It will be dangerous.”

  “No, I have something for this.” Josef reached into his satchel and pulled out the device resembling a torch. While it seemed only slightly odd to the naked eye, it was perhaps the most effective tool he and his grandfather had ever made together. The Torch of Gideon.

  The biblical name was his grandfather’s idea. He took the tale of Gideon’s assault against the Midianites seriously, and they had planned how to replicate the effects. They’d never fully tested it, but Grandfather said he preferred it that way. After all, he said God was the reason for Gideon’s victory. Toss it and pray, Grandfather had told him. Though Josef had been silently praying his entire time on the train, he would surely kick it up a notch.

  The two crept across the coupler to the armored carriage, Josef in the lead. It was too risky to try and look inside as they had before. But from a quick glance while they crossed, Josef was sure there were at least five men in the lower section, and there could be a few more in the gun station above. He steeled himself, readied the Torch, then grabbed the doorknob. It didn’t budge. Not even slightly.

  Locked.

  He hadn’t even considered this. The device relied on the element of surprise. How could he pull it off now? His mind searched furiously for an answer. Except for the small gap in the gun station where the soldiers inside could maneuver the guns, there were no openings beyond the locked door. There was, however, a possibility that something thrown in that small gap could make it down into the carriage, and the device could do its work. There was no way he could toss it in from a distance, though. He’d have to shove it in up close.

  His chest tightened at the answer to his problem. And the terrifying implication of what he needed to do to use the Torch of Gideon effectively. He examined the walls of the armored carriage and began planning his way up.

  “Are you insane?” Petr asked, having deduced Josef’s intentions. “You’ll slip off before you make it up, and even if you do, a soldier will shoot you long before you could reach the gun station.”

  “We’re two barely armed men taking on a German train alone. We are already insane.”

  Josef hoisted himself up the side of the train carriage. The buffeting of the wind intensified once he moved from between the carriages to the outer-facing side. The metal was smooth, and the footholds were sparse. Every tiny sway or shift of the train felt deadly without a steady platform to stand on.

  His foot slipped. He gripped the shallow handholds. Only by a miracle did he manage to stay on the side of the train. He would require plenty more to make it to the roof.

  He focused only on each step. Not worrying about what would happen once he saw the gun station. He came into what he knew would be full view as he pulled himself onto the roof. From here, he could see that the opening for the gun station was only slightly larger than a head. It would be too narrow for a grown man to crawl through but plenty large enough to drop the Torch inside. From his current viewpoint, he didn’t see anyone actively manning the gun.

  Josef fought against the air current as he crawled across the smooth metal roof toward the gun station. There seemed to be a sealed hatch separating the gun station from the train carriage below.

  No! He cursed under his breath. He had no way of opening the hatch from the outside.

  Just as he thought to turn back and try to climb back down, the hatch door creaked open. Before he had time to think, Josef surged forward. His arm arced as he tossed the Torch of Gideon straight at the soldier emerging from the carriage, whacking the soldier cleanly on his head. He ducked back down, and the Torch tumbled after him into the carriage below.

  A terribly haunting sound echoed from the interior, incredibly loud despite the already deafening sounds of the roaring train. It reminded Josef of a chorus of shouting men with different pitches and tones. The sound alone filled him with dread even as he knew that it emanated from a device. In addition, flashing lights shone up from the open hatch in sporadic intervals. The combination of the two was incredibly disorienting, and he shielded his eyes and moved away from the open hatch. A mistake, as he slipped backward and fell.

  The world spun around. He couldn’t tell which way was up. He expected to feel his body crash onto the stony ground, tumbling like a rag doll as his life was cut short. Instead, a harsh jerk slammed his back against a metal floor. He gasped, eyes wide to see Petr crouched over him.

  He was back on small platform above the carriage’s coupler.

  Petr’s mouth moved, but Josef couldn’t hear his words over the ruckus inside the train carriage. Then he realized it wasn’t only the haunting calls from the Torch anymore. The German soldiers were shouting and panicking, and gunfire came from inside. The noise doubled as the metal door swung open. A soldier rushed out wildly, only to trip over Josef and tumble straight off the train with a cry of terror.

  “Watch out!” Petr said as he pulled Josef to the side, bullets pummeling the grated platform where he was lying a moment before. “It’s chaos in there! They’re . . . they’re killing each other!”

  Josef painfully pulled himself to his feet. Though the Torch was waning in volume and brightness, the soldiers still fought amongst themselves. Those who remained, at least. He saw three bodies, and with the soldier who fell off the train, that meant four had been killed. The remaining three struggled against each other. One seemed to be coming out of the panic and realizing what had happened.

  Josef turned to Petr and shot him a severe expression. They each pulled out their concealed pistols and rushed into the train carriage. A shot rang out. A bullet tore through the collar of Josef’s coat. He aimed his pistol at the culprit and fired. The recoil shocked his arm, but his years of hard metalwork made him sturdy, so he kept his form true.

  His first shot struck the soldier in the shoulder, causing a flinch from the impact. A small spray of blood and torn fabric marked the point of entry, just below the soldier’s collarbone. Despite his initial aim for the man’s chest, the bullet had veered off course, finding an unintended target. As a result, he quickly fired a second shot.

  This time the soldier gripped his chest and fell backward. Dead.

  Two soldiers remained. They, too, had recovered from the effects of the Torch of Gideon and now turned their aggression toward Josef and Petr. Petr was already firing madly, piercing a German multiple times without mercy. His death was not left unavenged, as the last remaining soldier shot a few rounds back, catching Petr several times. Josef pushed in front of his friend and returned fire. He hit the soldier, but it was not a fatal wound. He ducked behind a nearby chair.

  With the number of shots fired, he’ll have to reload or find another weapon. Josef gritted his teeth and charged around the wall, knowing he had at least one or two bullets left. The soldier had finished reloading his weapon and raised it straight at Josef. Josef didn’t give him a chance and shot the German point-blank twice. The soldier crumpled.

  Josef frantically looked around at all the fallen soldiers, waiting to see if any of them were still alive and trying to fight back. It was a long, tense wait, but soon he realized none of them were getting back up. In fact, he was the only one still standing.

  Petr!

  He rushed to his friend’s side. There were multiple bullet wounds across his chest. Josef tore off his shirt to create bandages, but Petr stopped him. “There is no time. Please, get everyone off this train.”

  “You want me to leave you to die?” Josef asked.

  “I died in Terezín. All I want is for no one else to experience that horrible place.”

  At the mention of Terezín, an image of his father’s face filled Josef’s mind. Another person he cared for that he could not save. Could not reach. He had failed again and again to protect those close to him.

  “Go,” Petr coughed. “I will guard your back for as long as I can.”

  Josef gritted his teeth. For the second time, he was asked to leave behind a fallen man and live. But he knew he had to do it. If he were the one who’d gotten shot, he would be telling Petr the same thing. There were too many lives at stake. Innocents who weren’t even given the option to make their choices. With a heavy heart, Josef took a gun from a nearby fallen German soldier and placed it in Petr’s lap, then made his way to the far side of the carriage.

  The next carriage did not have any doors for him to get into. From what he could deduce, the only way to open it was from the broad side. He leaned out to confirm his deduction, noting that it was closed with a heavy lock. This has to be it, he thought. If there was any place where hidden prisoners would be stored, it would be in a carriage like this.

  Kateřina tried to quell her shaking as she followed Nikolai through the streets of Prague. She had never felt this way before. Like she was being hunted. In truth, there wasn’t much difference between now and any other time she had walked the streets since the Germans occupied the city. The soldiers would have no reason to suspect an upstanding citizen like herself. Only a few specific soldiers had actually gotten a good look at her when the golem protected her. And when questioned, her reporter credentials could quickly get her out of most situations.

  But it wasn’t the Germans who had turned against her. It was she who turned against them. Even if they didn’t know it, she was now directly aiding an effort against them. The thought terrified her. She imagined what it would be like to be taken to a place like Terezín.

  “Are you alright?” Nikolai asked. “Your face is pale.”

  Her eyes darted around frantically to see if there were any soldiers in sight. They were alone in an alley. She hadn’t even noticed that they had left the streets. “I have never done something like this before. I . . .” She struggled to say the words. “I am terrified.”

  “We all are.” Nikolai shook his head. “Do you want to know what I did before this? I was an optometrist. I never asked to be targeted by the Germans. I made glasses for anyone who came through my doors. Why my birth was such an inexcusable offense, I will never know. I’m not doing this because I want to or because I’m the man best suited for the job. I am doing this because I am needed.”

  Someone needs to be the one to do it. Her mind went to her stories. She always wanted to write the ones no one else would.

  “Kateřina,” Nikolai prodded. “To keep the terror at bay, you must focus on what is important. Why are you doing this? Why help our resistance?”

  She didn’t want to admit the truth to him. That she was just a reporter who had been following a story, going places she didn’t belong. Or at least that’s how she started. “I saw Samuel die, though I didn’t even know his name at the time. Seeing Samuel die . . . made it all real. I don’t want anyone else to be hurt. Not if I can do something to help them.”

  “Think about that. Nothing else. Think about how your actions today can save lives.”

  She closed her eyes and took deep breaths. She couldn’t shake the fear. Couldn’t stop the dark thoughts of her likely fate from rolling in. But the more she thought about people who might or were already suffering those fates, she knew she had to do something to help them. That focus caused the trembling to lessen. Her heart rate slowed. She opened her eyes to Nikolai, who nodded his approval before leading her on.

  They made their way toward the outskirts of the city. It was a slow process, a fact that clearly frustrated Nikolai as they had to wait for extended periods at necessary checkpoints. But they eventually reached the location and saw the promised auto waiting for them. Two other men already waited inside, both of whom were extraordinarily relieved to see Nikolai and her arrive safely.

  “You think it will be able to keep up with the auto?” Nikolai asked her.

  She paused and listened. Now without moving, she could hear the faint tick tick of the golem. Good, he made it, too. He had followed her here without fail. “He has to.”

  To be sure, she turned to face what her eyes deceived her into believing was empty air in front of her. “Golem, follow behind this auto. You will need to move quickly.”

  She couldn’t see whether he even understood what she had asked him to do, let alone whether he would follow her instruction. She had to believe he would. She nodded to Nikolai and followed him to the backseat of the auto in front of them.

  The calm winds of the evening seemed to wash through her coat with ease as they drove down the countryside. It sent chills through her as she watched the empty train tracks on the quiet fields to their side. The buildings became sparse as they drove until there were not any buildings in sight at all. Despite them being so exposed and out in the open, she felt much calmer out here than in the city.

  She let her mind relax, even for a few precious seconds. It didn’t last. Far too soon, the auto stopped, and she would need to get out and walk to their final destination.

  How had she managed to get mixed up in something so serious? Each step seemed correct, yet now she ended up on both sides of this conflict. What would her father think if they were to find her body at the scene of a rebel attack? What would the other Czech people believe? For many, it would be seen as aiding their enemy. Traitorous.

  But I’m not here to attack the train, she thought solemnly. She didn’t care about hurting the Germans. But she could think only of the people they had captured and were taking to terrible places. She thought of Hermina and her children. Could helping innocent people escape really be bad, even if it wasn’t what her people wanted to happen? She pulled her coat tighter and stretched out to her side. She brushed something—something she couldn’t see. Kateřina closed her eyes. Golem waited patiently at her side. Despite the metal feeling even cooler than the air around her, its presence was comforting.

  “Is it still there?” Nikolai asked with a touch of worry in his voice. The middle-aged man was poised to pull his gun. Not a threat, but an unintentional reaction, she guessed. He eyed how she was pushing against the golem—invisible to them both.

  Kateřina nodded. She could faintly hear tapping metal, but it was muffled somehow. She smacked it even harder but didn’t hear a significant increase in noise.

  How odd.

  Nikolai’s fingers tightened around his gun’s grip.

  She offered him an apologetic smile. “He is tame. He won’t hurt us.”

  “How can you be so sure?”

  She turned in the direction of the invisible machine, pondering the question. “I can’t explain it, but I feel it. He’s here to protect. Not harm.”

  It wasn’t a lie. She truly felt that way. It had destroyed that spider tank, but only after Josef commanded it using that device. She reached into her pocket and retrieved the strange transmitter. A twinge of disgust poked her as she examined it. Golem was so gentle. It protected her without being asked. If it did that, why was a device like this even made? Josef had given it to her in case the golem didn’t listen, but his true meaning was clear. If it came to it, she was supposed to command the golem to attack the train or kill German soldiers. Commands it might not do of its own accord.

  Own accord. Was she now considering a machine sentient? A foolish thought that would probably invite mockery. Machines, even complex ones, followed the commands they were given. The way they were designed. Once she spent more time seeing the golem operate, she would understand exactly what it meant to do. Until then, she would be careful not to rely on the assumption of any function or action it had not explicitly done before.

  “The train should be here soon,” Nikolai warned. “Stay low, and stay as far back as you can. If the Germans believe you are part of the attack, they will not hesitate to harm you.”

  “I never expected them to hold back,” she said plainly. “They are taking women and children to horrible camps. I know they won’t show me mercy. That’s why I am here.”

  A loud, ominous noise, barely resembling a train whistle, sounded in the distance. The terrible noise spawned goosebumps across her neck and arms. That feeling intensified when the massive train rounded the corner and came barreling down the tracks. It was not moving as fast as she had expected, but it was far larger than she had imagined.