by Gary Jonas
Beatrice pulled a phone from her pants pocket. “Credit card,” she said.
Class pulled his billfold from his own pocket, plucked out a black Visa and handed it over to Beatrice.
She ran the transaction, and handed the card back. Then she let the rift close.
“All right. Give me a minute to draw up my power again.”
“We’re on a tight schedule,” Class said. “Timing is everything here.”
“Think on that next time you try to negotiate my rates at the last minute.”
Class shrugged. “I still had a few minutes to spare. Might as well try to get a discount. I’m going to have to talk to my lawyer about how to get reimbursed for these travel expenses. I suspect he’ll think I’m violating campaign finance laws using Super PAC money to interrupt an occult ritual in Wewelsburg.”
Beatrice waved her hands in the air, and a glowing rift appeared. She shifted it around, holding it open to a mere slit as she determined where to take us through.
Wewelsburg Castle was a three-sided construction with massive round towers at each corner of the triangle. I knew there had been concentration camps in the area back in the war, and that Himmler saw it as his Camelot.
“I was warned not to go to Germany,” I said.
“More prophecy nonsense?” Class asked.
“You tell me.”
He grinned and winked. “The prophecy that matters to me is the immortality option.”
“That’s what Himmler was going for with his magical injections,” I said.
“Speaking of which,” Class said. He reached into his jacket pocket and withdrew a leather case. He flipped it open to reveal four syringes filled with glowing yellow liquid.
“Shit,” I said. “Not more Nazi power juice. Does everyone just have that shit lying around?”
Class shook his head. “If you knew what I paid for this…”
“If you knew how much of that shit I’ve destroyed out of spite in the last few days.” I shoved Class against the wall. “And you just proved that all politicians are lying sacks of shit.”
“No,” Class said. “The only reason I’m going up against Himmler is because he must not be allowed to gain immortality. I have to snatch that from his grasp at the right moment. This is a war of light and dark and there can be only one winner.”
“And that should be you?”
“Better me than him. If Himmler gains immortality, he’ll kill millions. But if I’m immortal, think of the good I can do for the world.”
“You’re awfully full of yourself.”
“You’d rather see the world remade by Himmler?”
I shook my head and released him. “I really wouldn’t.” I didn’t like Class, and I hated the situation, but sometimes you have a choice between bad and worse, so you have to take the bad option.
Beatrice kept moving the rift around. “You want me to let you out in the courtyard?” she asked.
Class shrugged out of his jacket. “No,” he said. “We’re too late for that. We need to step out into the Center of the World.”
My heart skipped a beat when he said that. Gustav had mentioned it, too.
“Which one is that?” Beatrice asked.
“The SS General’s Hall. The one with the black sun on the floor. Twelve pillars around it, each with a sacred flame. Himmler will perform the ritual in the center of the black sun. Only one of us can have the true gift of immortality.”
“Whatever,” Beatrice said. “The black sun room is all I really needed to know. And FYI, I’m not setting foot in that damn castle, so for a ride home, you’ll need to meet me in the courtyard.”
She peered through the rift.
“Huh,” she said.
Class rolled up his sleeve and removed a syringe. “What do you see?” he asked, as he pushed the needle into a vein and pressed the plunger. The yellow liquid pushed into his bloodstream and he grimaced.
“Nazis,” she said. “Lots of Nazis.”
“Are they the Men of the Black Stone?” I asked.
“How should I know? Do I look like an expert in Nazi support groups?”
Class looked at me. “I don’t suppose you have weapons in those bags.”
I shook my head. “Himmler’s goons took my gun. I’ll put the replacement on your expense report. All I have is dirty laundry. I don’t even have any more clean underwear.”
Class turned his gaze to Kelly. “You?”
“I have pencils,” she said.
“Do you want an injection, Mr. Shade?” Class asked.
“I’ll pass.”
The rift flashed white and Beatrice staggered back a step. “Wait, what?” she asked, and slammed the rift closed.
“Hey,” Class said. “Hold that open.”
Beatrice spun around. Her eyes were white. A moment later, her eyeballs rolled down and she studied me. “You said Shade.”
“That’s right.”
“This man is Jonathan Shade?”
“In the flesh,” I said. “I know we haven’t met. I’d remember you.”
“Oh no, we haven’t met, but I know all about you.”
“Sure you do. What’s my favorite song?”
“A man perfectly balanced with dark and light magic. A man who lives for centuries.”
“A bit of an exaggeration,” I said. “Layered time is a bitch.”
She shook her head. “You don’t want to go to Germany.”
“You’re not wrong. You’re also not the first to tell me that.”
“I need him,” Class said.
“Why doesn’t he want to go to Germany?” Kelly asked.
“Prophecies,” Beatrice said. “None of them good. I recommend that you stay here and fly home tomorrow. Sit this one out. I’ll help Class get the skull.”
“I don’t just want to get the skull,” Class said. I want to complete the ritual. Himmler’s already started it. The completion is at midnight in his local time.” Class pointed at me. “I need him, and I need her.” He pointed at Kelly.
Beatrice walked over to me. She stared deep into my eyes. “Do you like your life as it is?”
“Is that a trick question?”
“You’re young, you’re healthy, you’re mortal.”
“Okay.”
“You wish to stay that way.”
“All of us die sometime,” I said.
“If you step through the rift, your choices will be history. If you step through the rift, life as you know it is over.”
“How so?”
She opened her mouth to speak, but shook her head. She turned to Kelly. “Talk to him, Ms. Chan. Tell him not to go through. There is no good option for him if he goes to Germany.”
“I paid you to open the damn rift,” Class said.
“You didn’t tell me you had Jonathan Shade with you.”
“What difference does that make?”
“For me, it doesn’t make a difference, as I won’t be in the room. For you, and everyone else in there, it makes a huge difference.”
“You pay too much attention to prophecies. It’s about Himmler and me. Not Shade. Light and dark, evenly matched. I’m light, Himmler is dark. Shade and Kelly are my advantage. Maria will choose me, too. The twelve Nazis at the pillars won’t move from their posts. They’re not a danger.”
“They’ll be burned up and turned to dust,” Beatrice said.
“Exactly,” Class said. “We’re running out of time. I have to prepare on the other side. I need to tune in on the skull.”
“The Nazis aren’t a danger?” I asked.
“They’re immobile, locked in place as the twelve pillars aligned with the spokes of the black sun. Their life energy is fueling the ritual.”
“What does the prophecy say?” I asked.
Class went into a sing-song recitation. “Light magic, dark magic, Shade in balance. The strongest will live forever, the weaker will perish, and the balance will be shattered for eternity.”
“That’s the English
version,” Beatrice said. She took out her phone, punched something into it, and read, “In German, it’s more like Leichte Magie, dunkle Magie, Shade im Gleichgewicht. Der Stärkste wird ewig leben, der Schwächere wird zugrunde gehen, und das Gleichgewicht wird für die Ewigkeit erschüttert werden. Please note that Shade is still Shade instead of Schatten. That’s how we know it’s a name.”
“That’s not the same the same prophecy I heard a few days ago from a man named Gustav.”
“There are twelve prophecies, Mr. Shade. The correct one depends on when and where you arrive in relation to the spokes of the black sun. I’ve aligned you with the best one, which means only fourteen certain deaths.”
“You’re putting an awful lot of stock in a silly prophecy,” I said.
“The prophecies weren’t made by an oracle. They were written by a medium who claimed to be speaking to the spirit of Adolf Hitler,” Beatrice said. “Perhaps you know her. Maria Orsic.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
“You could have led with that,” I said.
Beatrice shrugged. “I didn’t want to say anything, but if I can keep you from going to Wewelsburg Castle, I see it as an obligation.”
“It’s nonsense,” Class said. “Jonathan, I need you to go there with me. The ritual has started. I can’t do this without you. We’re running out of time.”
“Pros and cons?” Kelly asked.
“If he doesn’t go, Himmler will use the skull to become immortal.”
“That’s a pretty big con,” I said. “But he already has the Nazi serum.”
“And has to take it three times a day just to stay alive. And there’s serious pain involved if you live too long.”
“You sound like you speak from experience. Something you want to tell me?”
He hesitated.
“Clock’s ticking,” I said.
He sighed. “Fine. I wasn’t born in 1945. I was born in 1898. The injections are losing their effectiveness. I’m aging, and it hurts, and I know Himmler’s feeling it too. He’s almost as old as I am. If he completes that ritual, he won’t need the serum. He will stay young forever. His plans to raise the Fourth Reich will come to fruition. You have to help me stop him.”
“Don’t do it,” Esther said. “I don’t want you to get bumped off.”
“I can’t let an evil Nazi gain immortality,” I said. “Even if it costs me my life, it’s worth it to stop him.”
“There you go,” Class said.
Beatrice sighed. “If you’re all willing to die, I’ll reopen the rift now.”
“I hate this,” I said. “Rift is open.”
“Don’t go, Jonathan,” Esther said.
“No choice, Esther. I can’t let Himmler get that much power.” I picked up my carry-on bag because I didn’t want to leave it in Surabaya.
Kelly grabbed her bag, too.
Beatrice widened the rift, and I drew one last deep breath of Indonesian air, then stepped through to Germany. Kelly, Class, and Esther followed me through.
The SS Generals’ Hall, also known as the Center of the World, was filled with glowing blue light, and an electrical hum. The twelve pillars encircled the room, and between each pillar was an immobile Nazi with arms outstretched. Blue light buzzed around them.
I felt a pull toward the center of the room where a massive black sun with twelve spokes adorned the floor, and Heinrich Himmler himself stood holding a skull over his head. Lightning bolts shot into the skull and danced around the ugly Nazi bastard.
Maria Orsic was not in sight.
I wondered where she was, and whether or not she was still alive. Himmler might have killed her. It seemed unlikely, but when it comes to Nazis, killing people is kinda their thing.
Kelly stumbled against me.
“Shit,” she said, dropping her bag. “This place feels weird. Should I start killing Nazis?”
I set my bag down and looked at the Nazis. They didn’t even know we were there.
“No killing yet,” Class said.
“Where’s Esther?” I asked. “She came through with us.”
Class pointed beyond the Nazis. “She flew that way. She was expelled by the magic.”
Himmler didn’t seem to notice us. He chanted in German and kept that skull aloft.
“Esther!” I yelled.
“Over here,” Esther called back. “I found Maria. She’s alive. But I can’t enter the room. There’s some kind of magical barrier keeping us out here.”
“It’s all right, Esther. I’ll kill Himmler and we’ll call it a day.”
“We’d better hurry,” Kelly said. “It’s almost midnight.”
Kelly opened her bag, took out her pack of pencils, and removed two of them. They were nice and sharp. “I don’t like prophecies,” she said, and rushed toward the black sun.
She hit an invisible barrier and bounced back.
“What the hell?”
The lightning came faster, slamming into the skull, dancing outward to the edge of the circle of the black sun spokes. The light spun around and around, humming louder.
“He’s almost done,” Class said.
Class bowed his head and chanted something, but I couldn’t make out the words. His eyes glowed yellow and magic leaked out of his pupils, reaching toward the circle.
He walked to the edge of the circle, staring through the swirling lightning. He smiled as the magic kept leaking from his eyes.
“Immortality without pain,” he said. “I can taste it!”
Kelly pushed against the edge of the barrier, but couldn’t get through. She moved around to the far side, testing for a weak spot.
As magic didn’t affect me, I walked up to the barrier, reached forward and pushed my hand through the lightning.
It felt cold inside the circle.
I pulled my hand back and closed my fist. My palm was slick with ice crystals. I rubbed my hands together, shook my head, and said, “I should have brought a heavy coat.”
With that, I stepped onto the black sun insignia.
As I stepped on the seal, I felt a hand on my back, and Richard Class followed me into the storm. A thought bounced around in my head. Himmler was dark magic, already on the black sun. Class was light magic, and therefore able to step onto the black sun. And I was balanced, so nothing could prevent me from moving forward. That didn’t mean the elements wouldn’t try.
Wind whipped, sleet pounded against me, lightning struck. The temperature inside the circle was a good sixty degrees colder than the rest of the room.
The wind tried to push me back. I squinted, wiped sleet from my eyes, and leaned forward, working my way along one of the spokes toward the center of the black sun where Himmler still chanted.
“He’s nearly there!” Class yelled.
I barely heard him over the wind.
My hair stood on end in spite of the water and ice slamming into me. The air felt electrified. I wiped my eyes again, and strained to move against the wind.
Each step was agonizingly slow.
The closer I moved, the stronger the wind. It felt colder, but that might have just been the length of my exposure to the elements.
My eyes burned. Yellow light flared in front of me like gazing through a curtain of electricity.
Himmler stood before me now. Arms up. Skull in his hands. Lightning striking. The wind came from the skull. Or from something inside the skull.
My legs no longer felt the wind.
My fingers felt like ice.
When I drew a breath, my lungs burned.
I wanted to reach for Himmler, but my hands instead went upward toward the skull.
Richard Class pushed me aside before I could touch the bone. “Me first!” he yelled. “Our timing must be precise. It’s why we waited.”
Class hesitated a moment longer then grabbed the skull. Light flashed outward in concentric circles. He screamed.
Himmler screamed and snapped out of his trance.
Without thinking about it, I pushed betw
een the two men and grabbed the skull, too.
Himmler pulled one hand from Hitler’s skull and wrapped his fingers around my throat.
Class pulled one hand free and placed his fingers over Himmler’s. They both squeezed.
I tensed my neck muscles.
I wanted to speak, but it was impossible. No sound escaped.
They tightened their grip and dug into my flesh. I pulled one hand from the skull and clawed at their hands around my throat.
I couldn’t budge them. My fingers felt so stiff with cold, I could barely curl them around their hands.
Himmler said something in German. “Unsterblichkeit gehört mir!”
Class said, “No! Immortality is mine!”
I couldn’t speak. I released the skull, and reached outward. I grabbed Himmler by the back of the head, and Class by the back of the head. I yanked them both as hard as I could, slamming their skulls together.
Light flashed.
Their grip on me loosened for a moment and they dropped the skull.
I caught Hitler’s skull.
Himmler grabbed my neck again. So did Class. They pulled in opposite directions.
My neck shattered in their grasp.
“Jonathan!” Kelly yelled.
My eyesight went dark for a moment then my corpse dropped to the floor.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
This is the part where you’re thinking, what the hell, dude? You can’t die; you’re telling the fucking story! The crime writer Jim Thompson can get away with telling a first person story where the narrator dies, but I’m not Jim Thompson. I’m Jonathan Shade.
I’ve died before and lived to tell the tale.
Or come back to tell the tale.
Whatever.
Either way, I died in the center of the black sun.
Heinrich Himmler and Richard Class teamed up to break my neck.
And I died.
That said, I still stood in the center of the circle, with my hands holding Hitler’s skull. I was like Wile E. Coyote when the edge of the cliff breaks. If I didn’t look down, I was okay. If I did look down, it was all over.
The skull dropped through my hands.
But I still had my hands in front of me, and I still stood, with my body beneath me, and Himmler and Class on either side of me.
