Krugger heard the shouts of people gathering outside the church and smiled wickedly. Then he loudly proclaimed to the soldiers:
"Tie up the priest and the abbess, along with the acolytes. Tell the men they may enter now. Start barricading the church. Tonight we announce that Carlos has arrived in Rionegro — and he plans to stay."
The translator, upon hearing those words, looked shaken. It was one thing to seize a church, another entirely to bind priests and a nun. Since Krugger had arrived, he had taken the gold, confiscated valuables, mocked the clergy — and now he was tying them up while preparing weapons to kill townspeople if necessary.
It was beginning to look less like strategy… and more like banditry.
The abbess and the priest did not understand a word of German, but they clearly understood that something terrible was unfolding. When one of Krugger's soldiers opened the rear doors and at least twenty armed men poured inside, María Gertrudis suddenly understood.
