Not to worry, guys. There’s nobody in that house to surrender, much less shoot back at you.
The sergeant
now trotted up to Colonel Perón and the two officers, came to attention, and saluted.
They had a brief conversation, duly recorded on film, and then saluted one another. One of them gave a crisp straight-armed Nazi salute.
Click.
Got you, you Nazi sonofabitch!
The Nazi sonofabitch now trotted through the gate, past the machine guns, and started up the hill.
Click.
Colonel Perón went to his staff car and leaned on the fender. The other officer and the sergeant went to the Chevrolet and leaned against its side.
Click.
The Nazi sonofabitch was no longer in sight as he made his way up the hill.
Shouldn’t you be holding up a white flag of truce?
For three minutes, which seemed much longer, Stein tried in vain to see the man moving up the hill.
There came the sound of a shot.
Oh, shit! Rodríguez couldn’t resist the temptation!
I should have thought about that, and tried to talk him out of it. Not that it would have done any good.
But that wasn’t loud enough for a shotgun; it was a different sound, like a pistol.
What the hell? And what happens now?
The answer to that came immediately, as Stein looked at Colonel Perón to see what, if anything, he was going to do.
First one of the Maxims and then the other began to fire.
Colonel Perón screamed something but was drowned out by the sound of the firing weapons. He ran to the officer leaning on the Chevrolet. Almost immediately, the sergeant ran—not trotted—toward the firing machine guns.
Perón walked very quickly—almost ran—back to his Mercedes.
Click.
Perón got in and the car, wheels screeching, started heading east.
Click.
Stein saw—click, click, click—the walls and windows of Casa Chica literally disintegrate as the machine-gun fire struck.
The sergeant was now at the closest Maxim. He was excitedly waving his arms, obviously trying to make them stop firing. They didn’t.
Click.
And then, as suddenly as it had started, the firing stopped.
The crews of both machine guns stood up and pulled something from their ears. Then the crew of one shook hands.