Under a Blazing Sky (eBook)

A South African Hero's Struggle in the French Foreign Legion, Book 38

Meiring Fouche, Pieter Haasbroek (Autoren)

Pieter Haasbroek (Herausgeber)

eBook Download: EPUB

2025 | 1. Auflage
114 Seiten
Pieter Haasbroek (Verlag)
978-0-00-077975-5 (ISBN)

Infos

A single shot in the Sahara sparks a firestorm of vengeance.

For executing a traitor, Legionnaire Teuns Stegmann has just made an enemy of the most dangerous woman in North Africa.

Sahara desert, 1940-1960. Returning to the remote outpost of Fort Jacques, Stegmann finds a bloodbath. The garrison has been massacred, and in command is the beautiful but ruthless Zelda Tredoux, the twin sister of the man he executed. Backed by the fanatical Secret Army Organization, she has seized the fort, and her burning gaze promises only one thing for Stegmann. A painful death.

Trapped and hunted within the fortress walls, Stegmann becomes a ghost, a one-man army fighting impossible odds. With his loyal comrades facing a firing squad at dawn, he is forced into a desperate gambit for survival. But when a massive Arab army descends on the fort, he must forge an unthinkable alliance with his sworn enemies, knowing that in the desert, betrayal is as constant as the sun.

Fusing the high-octane suspense of a classic action thriller with the grit of a military adventure, this is a relentless story of loyalty, betrayal, and survival. Perfect for fans of Alistair MacLean and Wilbur Smith.

Step into this unforgettable thirty-eight Sahara adventure now!

Textauszug

38. UNDER A BLAZING SKY

Chapter 1

On the clock face of Fort Jacques in the Sahara, it is precisely a quarter to seven.

The quadrangle of the small French fortress presents a singular scene. An entire garrison of 120 men stands at attention, all save one.

That man is Emil Tredoux. He is a short, dark Frenchman, and his hands are bound behind his back to an upright post against the inner wall of the quadrangle.

Emil Tredoux looks up at the clock face. He looks intently at the time and with a dreadful sense of finality.

For Emil Tredoux has precisely another quarter of an hour to live.

Before the garrison standing stiffly at attention, stands the commander of Fort Jacques, Captain Jaeme Cordier.

“Soldiers of Fort Jacques,” says Captain Cordier, “we have an unpleasant duty this morning. Our duty as soldiers of the French Foreign Legion dictates that we put a comrade to death, Private Emil Tredoux. It is important that I speak to you about it. I want you to know all the circumstances before we proceed with this unpleasant step.

“Private Tredoux has proven to be a member of the Secret Army Organisation. For those of you who do not know who the Secret Army Organisation is, I shall tell you. It is an organisation of hot-headed Frenchmen who refuse to accept the decision of the French government that the entire populace of Algeria shall decide on the future of Algeria. The Secret Army Organisation prefers that Algeria remain exclusively French. It is unnecessary for me to state how much blood has already been shed between the French and the Algerians in Algeria. It is also unnecessary for me to tell you that the French government has decided to grant Algeria independence. You all know this. It is against these decisions of the French government that Private Emil Tredoux has opposed them here in Fort Jacques. Private Tredoux has admitted to me that he attempted to persuade men in this fortress to join the Secret Army Organisation, against the Foreign Legion and against the French army and government. As far as I am concerned, legionnaires, this is treason of the highest order. It is treason against the French state, treason against the French army, treason against the Foreign Legion. I deem it my responsibility in the circumstances to execute Private Tredoux immediately.”

Captain Cordier surveys the men. Slowly and attentively he surveys them, for he has no conception of how far the propaganda of Tredoux has already permeated this garrison. Perhaps the majority of these men are already favourably disposed towards the Secret Army Organisation. Perhaps most of them have already become disloyal to the French Foreign Legion. That is why he takes this drastic step this morning. He must make an example of Tredoux, otherwise, he will later be faced with a garrison three-quarters of which is no longer loyal to the Foreign Legion.

Captain Cordier is a loyal Frenchman and a staunch supporter of the Foreign Legion through and through. Almost his entire life he has served in the Foreign Legion. He is proud of it as a mother is of her child, and he is surely the last man who would allow anyone to raise a hand against the Legion. Let alone a member of the Legion itself.

“I have told you the story of Legionnaire Tredoux,” says Captain Cordier. “This morning he is going to be executed. I ask for six volunteers to step forward as members of the firing squad. Will six volunteers please step forward? Time is short.”

An intense silence descends upon the quadrangle. Not a single man stirs. It seems as though they have not heard Cordier, for at this moment every man in this quadrangle wrestles with his own conscience. It is a bitter thing to kill a colleague and a comrade. Conversely, there is the issue of military discipline. When you are a soldier, you do as you are told.

There is one man in particular here in the line who is currently thinking deeply. He is a tall, blond, athletic fellow with clear eyes and a powerful body. He is not a Frenchman or a Spaniard or a German or an Italian. He is a South African from the old Boland. His name is Teuns Stegmann.

Teuns Stegmann has special reason to think deeply. This business with Emil Tredoux did not start today or yesterday. It began several months ago already. One day in the washroom of the fortress.

Coincidentally, Teuns and Tredoux were alone that afternoon in the washroom. It was then that Tredoux approached him. “Legionnaire,” Tredoux had said then, “I wish to speak with you. I wish to ask for your support for the French Secret Army Organisation.”

Teuns had become very quiet and stared at the man aghast.

“What are you talking about now, Tredoux?” the South African had asked. “This is the French Foreign Legion. The French Foreign Legion is, as far as I know, loyal to the French government. The Secret Army Organisation opposes the French government. Are you asking me to commit treason?”

“I am asking you to keep Algeria for France,” Tredoux had answered. “I ask for your support so that France will always govern Algeria.”

“Look here, mate,” was Teuns’s reply. “I am a soldier, a soldier of the Foreign Legion. I have nothing to do with politics. If the French government wants to give all the Mohammedan inhabitants of Algeria also the right to govern their country along with the French, then that is their affair. I have no issue with that.”

Emil Tredoux is a short-tempered man. From childhood, he has been accustomed to getting his own way, which is why he became angry with Teuns Stegmann that day.

“So,” he had said, “then you are also one of the yes-men who just always do as they are told. You have no ambition to possess freedom. You have no feeling for the French people in Algeria.”

One word led to another and eventually Teuns Stegmann was furious. It was then that he uttered the warning towards Emil Tredoux which he still remembers so clearly.

“I warn you, Tredoux. If you do not cease this subversive activity of yours, I will be obliged to report it to the commanding officer of this fortress.”

This made Private Tredoux so furious that he almost came to blows with Teuns. If it were not that the South African was so much more powerful than he, Tredoux would certainly have attacked him, for Emil Tredoux is an embittered man. He is actually more politician than soldier. Before he came to this fortress, while he was still in the barracks in Algiers, he often slipped away to the mass rallies of the Secret Army Organisation. There he listened to the inciting speeches and to the wild intentions of the organisation.

He uttered a dreadful warning to Teuns Stegmann. “Go report me if you wish, Legionnaire,” Emil Tredoux had said back then, “but then just be prepared to bear the consequences. I can assure you that your fate will be a bitter one once the Secret Army Organisation gets hold of you.”

It was then that Teuns Stegmann told Emil Tredoux the truth straight out. “Legionnaire,” were his words, “I don’t think I am going to delay. I am going to the commander immediately, today. It is my duty to tell him what is going on here. It is my duty to warn him when I see a sign of treason within a fortress of the French Foreign Legion.”

Thus Teuns Stegmann and Emil Tredoux parted ways that day. Teuns went to Captain Cordier that same afternoon. Cordier was shocked to his core by what Teuns told him. He wandered around his quarters without knowing what to do. So upset was he that he completely forgot about Teuns who was there with him. After standing before the window for a good ten minutes, he finally turned around and saw Teuns standing there.

“Thank you, Legionnaire, for coming to tell me,” were Cordier’s words. “I will attend to it.”

But Captain Cordier did not quickly attend to what Teuns Stegmann had come to tell him. For him, a time of deep anguish ensued. Days and nights Cordier pondered what to do. He had just received specific instructions from high command that all fortress commanders must keep their eyes open for the subversive influences of the Secret Army Organisation.

It was pointed out that the secret organisation had a considerable number of supporters in the regular French army and even in the Foreign Legion. This brought Cordier sharply to the realisation of his duty, but on the other hand, he wrestled with the terrible decision whether he should do something against this legionnaire.

Captain Cordier began to investigate covertly. He did it very carefully and very thoroughly. The result thereof was that he stumbled upon a dark conspiracy. A conspiracy within the small fortress about which he could discover nothing, yes, literally nothing further, except that Tredoux was a supporter of the Secret Army Organisation. Cordier determined that something was brewing in Fort Jacques, and this brought him to the bitter decision. It made him decide to do something almost unheard of. It brought him to take the law into his own hands and mete out the punishment himself, and moreover, to administer the ultimate penalty.

One afternoon, Cordier summoned Tredoux to his quarters. He asked him straight out if he was a member of the Secret Army Organisation, and without batting an eyelid, Tredoux confessed that he was not only a member of the organisation but an enthusiastic organiser for it. The man’s passionate indifference and his incredible zeal utterly dumbfounded Cordier. It also frightened him. It prompted him to ask Tredoux a direct question. “How many supporters does the organisation have in Fort Jacques?”

But there Cordier miscalculated with Tredoux. Tredoux bluntly refused to give even an indication of how many men in Fort...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 25.8.2025
• Übersetzer: Pieter Haasbroek, Ai
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Romane / Erzählungen
• ISBN-10: 0-00-077975-X / 000077975X
• ISBN-13: 978-0-00-077975-5 / 9780000779755