Beneath a Scarlet Sky

The temperature drops in northern Italy through November 1944. Leyers begins a series of tours along the Gothic Line to see what supplies the German troops need: “More blankets, OT officers told Leyers. More food. More heavy wool jackets and socks, too” (305).

Uncle Albert asks Pino to sneak a shortwave radio into his parents’ apartment and use the antenna from the apartment below to piggyback on their signal. Baka has almost been caught twice by Nazi radio hunters, and they need a new plan to get information to London. Uncle Albert also wants Pino to tell Michele what Pino is doing as a spy for the resistance before asking to sneak the shortwave radio into the apartment.

When Pino tells Michele that he’s been a spy for the resistance, his father hugs him and calls him a brave man. He tells Pino, “Braver than I could ever be, and capable in ways I never would have guessed” (308). Pino tells his father to keep this a secret from Mimo, who is going south to Piedmont for training.

On Christmas Eve, Pino and Anna arrive at Uncle Albert’s leather shop through the back door. He asks Uncle Albert for three bottles of wine, “one opened and recorked, please” (311).