“Uh, you need to see this,” Tom said.
Chapter 20
Dr. Volker led the way, marching proudly through the laboratory wing of the base. Brygida was behind him, hands cuffed behind her back. Freyja walked just behind and to the left of Brygida, keeping a hand on Brygida’s arm to ensure she could make no rash moves. Two SS soldiers armed with pistols escorted them, and walked directly behind Freyja.
“Where do you get your recruits?” Brygida asked, referring to the soldiers.
“They came with us when we arrived,” Volker said as he turned to her with a smile.
“They seem young,” Brygida said realizing twenty years had passed.
Volker nodded. “Many were Hitler Youth at the time. You see that is what we were down to. Hitler turned on Russia too soon. We should have secured the West first. But that was not my place to decide. I was not in command of the Reich.”
“So, who is in command here?” Brygida asked.
Volker stopped and slowly turned to her. “I am,” he said.
“No, military general?” she asked in surprise.
Volker turned back and began walking again. “It was supposed to be Kammler or Arnulf but neither showed up, so a young colonel attempted to take control. But I had spent too much time building this place up to just let it go to some idiot boy, promoted to colonel only because his betters had died fighting the Communists.”
“So what happened to him?” Brygida asked.
“Well at first we went along with it, allowing him to exert control over the day to day affairs of the soldiers on the base. But then one day he tried to assert authority over me and my work. He was a hot head and I could not have that, so my darling Freyja held him down while I injected him with an experimental serum.”
Volker stopped again and turned to look at Brygida. “It did not go well for him. After that everyone was happy to take orders from me.” He smiled broadly. “And Freyja, of course.” That’s when Brygida realized the true reason Volker sent Freyja to assassinate Kammler. He was afraid Kammler might come and steal his Antarctic throne.
“What was the experimental serum?” Brygida asked.
Volker laughed. “You do ask a lot of questions don’t you, my dear?” He stopped at a door that had an armed guard. The guard snapped to attention before turning and opening the door for Volker.
“It was a serum that could splice genes within a living host. Normally hybrids are created in the womb, but I wanted to see what this serum would do to an adult.” Volker opened another door which was dark. He paused before turning on the lights. “His body began to mutate and within a week he was no longer just a man. He was a pigman.” Volker chuckled and then stepped through the door. “It was quite disgusting, but it proved that it could be done. And that led to the current experiments.”
Freyja shoved Brygida from behind forcing her through the door and she heard the cavernous echo as her boots hit a metal catwalk. Then the howling began.
“I give you our new army,” Volker said and flipped a switch. Giant lights hanging from the ceiling began to illuminate one after the other, revealing what appeared to be a giant prison, five stories high. Brygida gasped when she realized what was in the cells.
***
Axel and Dawn stepped up on either side of Tom. He had opened the refrigerator-sized crate, wanting to have a look at this zero-point energy bomb. What he found shocked him. Inside the crate was the bomb, but instead of being a giant thing as expected, it was roughly the size of a shoe box. The remainder of the crate was filled with foam rubber.
“That’s the bomb?” Dawn asked sounding less than impressed.
“I guess so,” Tom replied.
Axel reached forward to touch it but then quickly jerked his hand back and the expression on is face was one that would be expected if he had just been doused with a bucket of ice water.
“What’s wrong?” Dawn asked.
Axel swallowed hard. “It’s full of energy. Energy like I have never felt before…like…” he just trailed off. “I don’t even know how to describe it.”
“Be careful, old boy,” Tom said as he reached forward, closed the crate and snapped it shut. “Well, we should get going.” Tom turned and motioned for Alexi and Rolf and they stepped forward, each taking a side of the crate and lifting it, though it was clearly not as heavy as they had originally thought it would be. Either of them could easily carry it alone. They followed Tom, Dawn and Axel out of the vault, and back into the munitions armory.
As they strolled past the munitions toward the elevator Tom suddenly stopped. He spun around to face the others and his eyes leapt form Axel to Dawn and back. “Let’s blow this room,” Tom said with an excited grin.
“What?” Dawn asked.
“If we blow up all of these munitions, it’ll take out the whole base,” Tom explained.
“I don’t know, Tom, it’s buried pretty deep,” Axel said.
“Oh you’re right, the explosion would not reach the surface. But it will collapse the base,” Tom said.
“Then the whole place will fall off into the ocean,” Dawn said joining in Tom’s excitement.
“Precisely,” Tom replied as he reached into his satchel and removed the explosives that Alena had secured for them. While Tom and Axel rigged the munitions to explode, Dawn supervised Rolf and Alexi carrying the z-bomb crate to the elevator—very carefully.
Tom turned to Axel. “Set the charges for two hours,” he said.
“Alright,” Axel replied.
“Synchronize with your watch…3, 2, 1, go,” he said and Axel synced his watch with the timers. They then synced Tom’s watch with Axel’s.
“Let’s make sure we get out of here before these go off,” Axel said.
The two men jogged back to the elevator to find Dawn, Rolf, and Alexi waiting for them and ready to go. Tom stared at the two large men. “Well gentlemen, are you strong enough to pull us up?”
Rolf and Alexi looked at each other then back at Tom with enormous grins.
***
The U-boat had sunk beneath the icy water. Alena watched from the shadows a few floors up as Nazis scrambled about the docks. She sighed. Did they really create a distraction or simply alert the base to their presence? She hoped Axel and the others had found the bomb. Alena did not like being cut off from everyone, but right now she knew she needed to do two things. First, make sure the fifth floor remained clear so that the others could escape with the bomb. Second, locate Brygida, if she was still alive. As fast as Alena was, doing both at the same time was still pretty tricky. Alena knew in her head that keeping the fifth floor free of soldiers was most important to the mission, but in her heart, she could not stand the thought of Brygida being captured.
Brygida was the closest thing Alena and Alexi had ever had to a mother. She had swooped down like an angel when the twin siblings were in their greatest moment of need, rescued them and continued to protect them even after turning them over to the Soviet army. Alena’s mind flashed back to the day she met Brygida.
She remembered standing between Axel and Alexi—who was then known by the German name Gerd—squeezing their respective hands tight as they watched two older children fight and defeat four burly German men in hand-to-hand combat. The children were introduced as Freyr and Freyja, both born from pure Aryan blood. “The pride of the Führer,” Dr. Volker had called them.
Even though Freyr and Freyja were only five years older than Alena and the others they seemed much more physically mature with rippling muscles evident in their matching uniforms, a combination of gymnastics leotards and military fatigues. Freyr and Freyja both had hair so blond it almost shone and eyes that sparkled blue—virtual poster children for the master race. When the Aryan twins finished defeating the burly men, they stood facing the gathered scientists and military officers, their faces stoic and their hands clasped firmly behind their backs. The dignitaries erupted into loud applause at the twin’s impressive demonstration.
After t
hat it was time for Alena, Alexi, Axel, and Rolf to demonstrate their abilities. Unfortunately, things did not go as well for them as it had for the Aryan twins. Colonel Arnulf was not impressed by the fact that Axel could make light bulbs glow with his hands and mouth. He wanted to see the military applications Axel’s electric abilities might have.
Dr. Volker had informed Arnulf that they believed Axel’s powers were increased in times of great stress, which gave Arnulf an idea. He handed Alena a knife and ordered her to cut Axel. When she resisted Arnulf drew his pistol. “When I count to three I am going to pull the trigger,” Arnulf had told her. “This time someone will die. It may be you, it may be Axel, or Gerd or Rolf. The only way to stop me is if Axel is bleeding.” Alena was breathing heavily, as if about to have a panic attack. “One,” Arnulf had begun to count. “Two.” Alena turned toward Axel. “I’m sorry,” she sobbed through her tears and flashed toward him, the knife raised above her head. Just as she reached Axel a bubble of blue energy surrounded him, protecting him and charging through Alena’s body with a jolt that sent her flying backward to land several feet away in a clump on the floor. Arnulf was impressed.
Then however, he had turned his attention to the larger boys. Their decreased mental abilities garnered no sympathy from Arnulf. He wanted to see them fight. Gerd slowly walked up to Rolf and hit him in the shoulder. It was not very hard, but the way Rolf reacted one would have thought his arm had been torn off. Rolf screamed an agonizing shriek as his opposite hand flew to his shoulder. Arnulf laughed. This caused Gerd to laugh. “Good boy, Gerd,” Arnulf said. “Now hit him in the face.” Gerd laughed as he punched Rolf in the face. This time the punch was hard and sent blood flying from the other boy’s mouth. Arnulf laughed again causing Gerd to laugh more, thinking it was a fun game. “Hit him harder, Gerd,” Arnulf smiled. Gerd reared back and slammed his fist into Rolf knocking the other boy down to the ground. Rolf pulled himself into a ball and began to scream and cry.
Arnulf had patted Gerd on the back like a proud father. “Good job Gerd,” he said. Arnulf turned to one of the other officers and motioned for something. The officer stepped forward, holding a sledge hammer and handed it to Arnulf. Arnulf turned and handed the hammer to Gerd. “Take this Gerd. Hit him with it. Smash his head.” Gerd refused to kill his friend which infuriated Arnulf who marched angrily over to Alena, snatched her by the hair and dragged her over to stand beside Gerd. Arnulf placed the barrel of his pistol against Kristel’s temple. “Kill him, Gerd, or I kill your sister.” Gerd sobbed harder. “I’ll give you to the count of three. One. Two,” he said and pulled the hammer back on the pistol. Gerd raised the hammer. He looked at Alena and then back at Rolf. “Three.” Arnulf said.
That was when Arnulf really saw Axel’s military capabilities first hand. Before Arnulf could pull the trigger, Axel shot a blue bolt of energy from his fingers which slammed into Arnulf, blowing the Colonel back. The entire demonstration degraded into chaos. Gerd fled and Alena ran after him.
She found him hiding not far away, sobbing in a small alcove. She approached her brother and held out her hand to him. “It’s alright Gerd,” she had said. “Come on, let’s go.”
Suddenly, she felt her hair pulled back and she was thrown to the ground. As she laid on her back she looked up to see Freyja staring down at her. The Aryan super human child began to kick Alena in the side.
Then Alena heard a cry of rage and watched as her brother slammed into Freyja, knocking her down. Freyja looked up at him and Alena saw the rage in her eyes. She quickly pushed herself to her feet as Alexi stood, not knowing what to do next. Freyja punched him and kicked him, knocking him down. She then began to stomp on his face.
Alena began to get up, to help her brother, but a swift kick from Freyja sent her back down on the ground. Freyja then grabbed both of them by the hair and began to drag them back to the demonstration room. “Let’s go find your friends,” she had hissed angrily.
When they returned Alena scanned the room for Axel, Rolf, and Dr. Holger, hoping for a friendly face. Hoping someone would save her. They were gone. But she did see Freyr. He was stunned having received one of Axel’s energy bolts. He was also angry. Very angry. And he decided to take his anger out on Alena’s poor brother.
Hours of torment passed. There was panic throughout the facility and Alena heard fears about armies of red men coming to kill them. Dr. Volker was going to take all four of the super humans he still had and evacuate to a secret base. They were already loading the trucks when Brygida arrived and rescued them.
Alena did not know who she was or where she came from, but she had never been so happy to see anyone in her life. As they escaped, Brygida had explained that she was a friend of Alena’s and Alexi’s mother, a young woman named Chessa.
Alena had asked where her mother was now and Brygida had told her that Arnulf had murdered her. Alena had begun to weep, but Brygida had comforted her. “Don’t worry, my darling, I will take care of you,” she had said. She did too. She took them with her, back to the Soviets, where they were evacuated back to Russia. When the war was over, Brygida found them. She became a motherly figure to them. Brygida was the closest thing Alena and Alexi had ever had to a loving parent.
Now Brygida was in trouble, Alena just knew it. She would not leave her in the hands of the same Nazis Brygida had rescued her from. She would save her or she would die trying.
Chapter 21
The elevator rose very slowly as Rolf and Alexi worked together pulling the cable to haul it up the long, empty shaft from the munitions cache. Since Rolf and Alexi were pulling them up they decided to stop the elevator on the ground floor instead of going all of the way to the fifth. That meant they would have to take the stairs up from there.
“We’re almost there,” Tom said as he watched the two large men straining and clearly beginning to tire. “Just a bit more.” Soon light from the floor above peeked in the top of the elevator and after a few more pulls of the cable they were level with it.
Tom opened the gate of the elevator. “Ladies first,” he said and Dawn stepped off. Tom and Axel then bent over, picked up the z-bomb crate and walked it off of the elevator as well. They then turned back to Rolf and Alexi who still held the cable, preventing the elevator from crashing back to the ground far below.
“Alright, Krieg, pull the cable out while Hammer keeps the elevator suspended,” Tom instructed and Rolf nodded as he began to pull the cable up the shaft and out of the elevator, stepping out himself. “Hold it tight, Rolf.”
“I’ve got it, Canary,” Rolf assured him.
“Alright, Hammer, ease up and let Rolf hold it,” Tom instructed.
Alexi slowly released his grip on the cable as he slid his hands down it while backing off the elevator.
“Alright, let it go boys,” Tom said. The two released the cable and it did not take long before they heard the elevator crash at the bottom of the shaft below.
“Someone is coming,” Dawn warned and a few seconds later two Nazi soldiers rounded the corner.
“Halt!” the soldiers cried as they raised their weapons. Two bolts of blue energy leapt from Axel’s finger tips and electrocuted the Nazis before they had a chance to fire.
“More are coming from the other direction!” Dawn exclaimed.
“Up the stairs, quickly!” Tom commanded and led the way, dashing into the stairwell directly across the hall from them as he raised his rifle to his shoulder. Dawn followed with Hammer behind her, carrying the z-bomb crate thrown over his shoulder.
“Go!” Axel said to his brother and Rolf obeyed, dashing into the stairwell.
“Achtung! Achtung! Halt!” Axel heard to his left and turned to see a squad of SS troops charging toward him. Axel raised his hands firing bolts of electricity at the troops causing them to scatter in a panic. Axel leapt into the stairwell and bounded up the stairs after his friends. He sprinted up floor after floor until he finally reached the fifth. There he found Dawn, Alexi, and Rolf crouched down behind
the door as Tom leaned out into the hallway firing his rifle.
“They’ve got us pinned down,” Dawn informed Axel.
“Well, we can’t stay here,” Axel replied. “More will be coming up the steps soon.” Axel moved past the others and peered out of the door. There were squads of Nazis down either side of the hall.
“Rolf, grab your shield and roll out right to block the gunfire from that direction,” Axel said. “Lexi, leave the bomb and go hammer the Nazis on the left.”
“Okay Axel,” Alexi said.
“Go!” Axel commanded and Rolf moved first, his giant shield in his hands. Axel could hear the bullets ricocheting off of the shield as he saw Alexi step out of the stairwell. A low battle cry escaped the giant’s lips as he brought his massive war hammer up over his head.
The Nazi soldiers trained their sights on the behemoth charging toward them, but their bullets bounced harmlessly off of his thick, red armor. There was a series of terrifying screams from the Nazi soldiers as Alexi began to pound them with his hammer.
Tom smiled at Axel’s strategy as the two of them lifted the z-bomb crate and followed Dawn out of the door as the last Nazi was pummeled into the concrete by Alexi. Dawn led the way, trying to avoid looking as she stepped over the red mess splattered across the floor, that used to be men.
They ran as quickly as they could with Rolf bringing up the rear, still deflecting the shots from behind with his shield and armor. They had to hurry as they knew that by now most of the base must have been alerted to them and more Nazis would soon be coming to kill them.
“Alexi, take the crate!” Tom shouted and Alexi turned, accepting the crate from Tom and Axel. “Follow Psion!” Tom commanded and Alexi nodded as he turned and lumbered after Dawn.
Tom then glanced at Axel. “Let’s get these Nazi’s off of our tail,” he said. Tom and Axel spun around and huddled behind Rolf’s shield as they fired bullets and lightning bolts at the Nazis pursuing them. The Nazis returned fire and a bullet slipped beneath Rolf’s shield and clipped Tom in the calf muscle. He cried out in pain as he fell to the ground gripping his leg.
Flight of the Valkyrie Page 15
