Beneath a Scarlet Sky

Pino and Carletto make their way to Hotel Diana on the first of May after a night of drinking. Hitler had committed suicide in his bunker in Berlin along with his mistress the day after Mussolini and his mistress hung in Piazzale Loreto. Major Knebel greets Pino and Carletto inside the Hotel Diana and gives them two brand-new Thompson submachine guns. He tasks Pino and Carletto with “taking a friend of America to the top of the Brenner Pass” (465). Brenner is still at war; Carletto calls it a suicide mission, but Knebel calls it a challenge. When Pino asks who they’re taking to the Brenner, Knebel reveals that it’s Leyers.

Pino is shocked to see Leyers. Knebel tells Pino that “General Leyers is a hero” (466). When Pino tells Knebel that he witnessed the horrible things Leyers had done, Knebel responds that he can’t know if that’s true; he’s only been told that Leyers is a hero who deserves protection.

Pino agrees to drive Leyers, but only after he formulates his own plan for Leyers.

Pino and Carletto begin driving Leyers through American held checkpoints. They speculate about what Leyers is carrying in his valise, which is now handcuffed to his wrist. Ultimately, though, Pino doesn’t care what’s in Leyers’ valise; Pino wants Leyers dead. At one point, Pino and Carletto are forced to open fire at a ragtag group of armed men blocking the road. Carletto accidentally drops his Thompson while shooting. After the incident, Leyers reveals that he was the one who requested Pino to drive him to the Brenner because he had been impressed by his driving.

As the three drive north toward Bolzano, they encounter an American tank that fires on them, barely missing behind the car. The tank’s shell hits a building across the street followed by machine gun fire. Pino escapes the gunfire by taking evasive action and driving into an alley. Leyers pounds Pino on the shoulders and calls him “a genius behind the wheel” (475).

Leyers tells Pino to pull over so he can relieve himself. While Leyers’ back is turned, Pino comes up behind him with the Thompson. Pino demands that Leyers tell him what he did for the Americans so that they thought he was a hero. Leyers is not at liberty to say. Pino then blames Leyers for Anna and Dolly’s death. Leyers appears to be shocked by the news that Dolly is dead. He believed Dolly was in Innsbruck. Pino informs him that a firing squad executed both Anna and Dolly three days ago. Leyers reminds Pino that the night Pino arrested him, Leyers had wanted to go back to Dolly’s apartment; Leyers blames Pino for Dolly and Anna’s death.