The two SS each grasped one of Cockran’s arms and marched him down the corridor toward the elevator banks. He and his captors had not advanced more than ten feet when two loud bursts of submachine gun fire from around the corner caught all three men by surprise.
As the SS released his arms to bring their Schmeissers to bear, Cockran reached for his commando knife.
85.
We Will Build a New Clinic
I.C.E. Building
Regensburg, Germany
Friday, 3 June 1932
VERSCHUER exhaled. He had not been conscious of holding his breath while the Americans were there. But now that they were gone, he felt a sense of relief. He pulled a white linen handkerchief from the breast pocket of his suit and patted down his perspiring forehead. To hell with Josef and sperm migration. These women weren’t twins. They were of no use to their studies. He would present Mengele with a fait accompli. By the time he arrived, the women would be dead. Hudson and Waterman were too important to ignore.
Verschuer opened the drawer to his desk and pulled out a Luger. He reached inside the drawer again for a sound suppressor which he proceeded to screw into the barrel of the weapon. He chambered a round, rose from the desk, and jammed the Luger into his waistband. To hell with Waterman and syringes also. With their bodies burned, no one would know how the women had died. He was halfway across the room when the telephone rang. He went to the desk to answer.
It was Mengele! “Josef? Where are you? How soon will you arrive?” Verschuer chilled at what he heard next and gripped the edge of the desk to steady himself. “The clinic destroyed? All our specimens gone? But what of the SS ambush in the forest? Dead? All of them dead?”
Verschuer was no longer able to stand and sat back down at the desk. “Calm yourself, Josef. Calm yourself.”
Holding the telephone receiver in his left hand, Verschuer pulled open the bottom right-hand drawer of the desk and pulled out a half-empty bottle of schnapps. Gripping the cork in his teeth, he extracted it and brought the bottle to his lips and took a healthy swallow of the fiery liquid. “No, Josef. Don’t come here. I will meet you in Munich. Those men who burned the clinic may be coming here. Yes, I realize Kramer didn’t know where we had taken the remaining twins but several of the SS did. I’ll have to place this facility on high alert at once.”
Verschuer picked up the schnapps bottle and once more raised it to his lips, taking an even longer pull on it than before. “I have a minor task given me by Herr Waterman and Major Hudson. After that, I’ll join you in Munich and we’ll go to Berlin. We’ll lay low there until the dust settles. Don’t worry, Josef. We will build a new clinic. A bigger one. We can always find more specimens but we must keep ourselves safe, my young friend. The science of hereditary biology and race hygiene, indeed the future of eugenics itself, depends on our research.”
Verschuer pushed himself up from the desk with unsteady hands but he froze in panic when he heard the unmistakable sound of two short bursts of automatic weapons fire. He had to get out of here! Too late to kill either woman. Let Waterman and Hudson do their own dirty work. But, he thought, the women might come in handy as hostages. Gun in one hand, he picked up the bottle of schnapps with the other, drained it, and headed straight for Room B.
Inside Observation Room B, he saw the SS had wasted no time. Before him was a familiar sight—the bodies of two women bent face down over two metal tables, feet on the floor, wrists firmly bound in leather restraints. He smiled as his gaze lingered on Waterman’s faithless wife and that verdammt journalist. The fate of the women who ruined his research was set to be sealed as the SS had begun to tug at the women’s trousers. Alas, however, he needed hostages and saving his own skin was more important. Still, he was disappointed. He would have enjoyed placing a wager and watching the rugged knights of the SS do their duty. His money would have been on Max. “Release the women,” he said.
86.
Bourke Cockran!
I.C.E. Building
Regensburg, Germany
Friday, 3 June 1932
BOTH SS guards released their grasp on Cockran’s arms at the same time, bringing their Schmeissers up, focused only on the gunfire ahead. Cockran reacted instantly, muscle memory taking over as he reached for the knife on his left leg. He plunged the blade up to its hilt into the side of the dark-haired man on his left, the blade entering just below his rib cage. Not a killing strike, but Cockran didn’t need that. Not yet.
The guard cried out and his blond comrade looked over, momentarily frozen between the gunfire in front of him and the new threat to his left. The moment’s hesitation was all Cockran needed to grab the wounded guard’s Schmeisser. He fired and a vertical line of bullets went up the blond guard’s torso from below the belt to his chest and head, his lower face torn away.
Cockran released the Schmeisser, picked up his discarded knife and drove its point up into the underside of the wounded guard’s jaw, piercing his brain. Returning his blade to its sheath after wiping it on the dead man’s uniform, he retrieved the Webley and Schmeisser and started down the corridor towards the elevators. Two down and, if Mattie were hurt, it was only the beginning. He’d kill them all.
Cockran stopped short when he turned the corner and reached the bank of chrome and wood elevators. Six bloody SS bodies were sprawled there, all of them dead. The walnut paneling halfway up the marble-clad walls was pockmarked with fresh bullet holes. An eerie silence prevailed. There was no one in sight. “Sturm? Bobby?”
Cockran waited. No response. Wait. He could hear voices from the corridor opposite. Low voices, one of them a woman. Mattie? He drew his Webley and cautiously moved ahead.
MATTIE and Ingrid had resisted, clawing and kicking, as they were forced face down onto the metal tables and their wrists firmly strapped but all four SS were too strong. Now, they could do nothing. Their proud struggles had come to nothing. Mattie shook her head. She couldn’t believe this was about to happen. Not in a dark back alley in Cleveland or on a battlefield but in a modern German city inside the marble floored Bavarian headquarters of a major American corporation.
Mattie twisted her head and looked around the room, but could see nothing except the two SS who had pulled off their knee-high black leather boots and silver trimmed trousers. Though the padded door of the well-insulated room, Mattie thought her practiced ear heard automatic weapons fire but no one else in the room seemed to notice, intent as they were on unbuckling the belts on the women’s own trousers. Her spirits soared nonetheless. Cockran? Sturm?
The door suddenly opened and Mattie turned her head and saw the ugly black snout of a sound suppressor attached to a Luger held by Otmar von Verschuer. The bastard just stood there, seemingly mesmerized as she felt her trousers tugged down. Finally, he spoke. “Release the women. They are needed for more interrogation in Herr Waterman’s office.”
The two fully dressed SS men started removing Mattie’s restraints while the third began to pull on his pants. Max did not. He just stood there, glaring at Verschuer. Once Mattie was free, she pulled her trousers up and rebuckled her belt as the two men moved on to release Ingrid.
Max held up his hand to both and then turned to face Verschuer. He placed his hands on his hips. “Leave the other woman with me. I will deliver her later. When I’m finished.”
Verschuer started to object and then appeared to think better of it once he saw the determined look on Max’s face. “Fine. You men stay with Max and draw lots to see who goes first. Each of you can take a turn with her for all I care.”
“You will come with me, Fraulein McGary,” Verschuer said, pointing his gun.
As she left, Mattie saw Ingrid’s khaki pants pooled around her ankles and heard the beginning of a heated argument between the four SS men. Max loudly proclaimed that the rest of them could draw lots but that he was going to be the first. The others were voicing their disagreement as the door closed.
Once outside the room, she felt Verschuer’s hot breath on her face as
he spoke into her ear. “I have need of a hostage, Miss McGary. Cooperate and I’ll let you live.”
Mattie’s spirits rose when she heard another machine gun burst. It hadn’t been her imagination! Please let it be Bourke or Kurt, she prayed as Verschuer placed his left arm around her neck and pressed the silenced Luger squarely into the middle of her back. He moved down the hallway, using Mattie as a shield, pushing her forward.
“Over here,” Verschuer said and roughly shoved her in the back. “We have a private elevator which will take us directly to my motorcar. You and I will be traveling together, Fraulein.” He pushed again.
“Hold it right there, Verschuer!” an unmistakable voice boomed, one which Mattie had never been happier to hear. Bourke Cockran!
COCKRAN watched as Verschuer spun to his right, keeping Mattie in front of him. Cockran had the Webley pointed directly at Verschuer, still steadying it with his left hand under the butt of the gun, just as he had done that night in Long Island. But this was a stand off. Not like Cold Spring Harbor. Having found Mattie alive, he was not going to shoot. But he also was not going to put his weapon down. Not now. Not ever.
“Let her go, Verschuer. I don’t care about you. You can leave. All I want is the woman.”
Verschuer didn’t answer. Instead, he just stared at Cockran, like a rat trapped in a corner. Sweat was beading on his face. There was unmistakable hatred in his eyes. Verschuer began walking backwards, pulling Mattie with him. He fumbled behind him until his elbow hit a black call button beside a door in the wall. Through the glass at the top half of the door, Cockran saw a light go on and the familiar scissored gate behind the door of a small, personal elevator. The door slid open once the light went on and Verschuer reached behind him with his foot to lever open the scissored gate, keeping his eyes on Cockran as he did so.
“Leave the woman, Verschuer!” Cockran said, raising the Webley level with his eye, sighting along its barrel. But he knew he would not pull the trigger. Not yet.
Verschuer pulled Mattie back until she was standing in the open door, his weapon still pressed into her back. Then, in one motion, Verschuer kept Mattie in Cockran’s line of fire while he pulled the door closed with Mattie inside as the elevator began its descent.
Cockran ran toward the elevator. Damn! Okay, he wasn’t a Ted Hudson with a sidearm. But he sure as hell was good at bloody mayhem and there was no way he was allowing that fucking Nazi doctor to keep Mattie as a hostage. Cockran tugged at the elevator door. Locked! Screw that, he thought as he stepped back and fired two shots from the Webley at the door’s lock. He tugged again at the door and it slid open to reveal the narrow chasm beyond. He was surprised to see how little the elevator carriage had descended in the few seconds which had elapsed. It was barely three feet away and dropping ever so slowly.
Cockran didn’t hesitate. He holstered the Webley and leaped into the narrow elevator shaft; flexed his knees for the impact; and wrapped his arms around the car’s cables as he did so. He flinched as he landed when a wild shot from the elevator car came through its roof. Gripping the panel on the ceiling of the elevator’s carriage, he ripped it off with his left hand and thrust the Webley through.
“Drop it or die Verschuer!” Cockran shouted.
Verschuer tried in vain to reassert his control over Mattie but she instinctively had fallen to the floor and curled into a ball to minimize exposure to Cockran’s line of fire. He fired once and missed. Damn! But it was close enough for the German to drop his gun and raise his hands.
“Grab his gun, Mattie.”
As Mattie did so and aimed it at Verschuer, Cockran dropped into the elevator car and decked Verschuer with a right cross to his jaw. Verschuer crumpled to the floor and Cockran kicked him in the gut several times before turning to embrace Mattie.
“We’ve got to get back to the fifth floor and rescue Ingrid!” Mattie said, pulling back. “The SS have her and they’re going to do to her what they’ve already done to the twins!” Mattie leaned around him to press the “5” button. “Let’s go. Observation Room B. Hurry!”
The elevator reached the fifth floor and Cockran opened the elevator door to a silent hallway. Then he heard a bell ring up the hall signaling the arrival of the passenger elevator car.
“Wait here,” he said to Mattie, “The SS may be sending reinforcements. Keep your gun on Verschuer and don’t let him move.”
87.
No One’s Going to Extradite Me
I.C.E. Building
Regensburg, Germany
Friday, 3 June 1932
COCKRAN moved quickly down the hall until he reached the corner around which the elevator bank was located. He peered cautiously around the corner and breathed a sigh of relief. Kurt von Sturm was there and behind him, leaning on his sword cane, was Bobby Sullivan.
“Where the hell have you been? Are you responsible for this mess?” Cockran asked, pointing to the SS bodies.
“Not entirely. I had a wee bit of help from Kurt and the lads,” Sullivan replied. “We got all six of them as soon as the elevator doors opened but one of them was able to get off a shot which hit Sean,” he said, referring to Sean O’Driscoll who was standing beside Barry Ryan, the other Apostle. “T’was just a scratch but it knocked him into the elevator controls, sending us back down. By the time I was able to reverse that, we were on the ground floor. Kurt assured the receptionist that it was official SS business and we came right back up.”
Mattie came round the corner holding Verschuer at gunpoint.
Sturm saw her. “Where’s Ingrid?” he asked immediately.
Mattie looked at Cockran. “She’s why I couldn’t wait at the elevator, Bourke. We’ve got to find her. When I heard no shots, I thought it was safe.” She turned to Sturm. “She’s in Observation Room B with four SS goons. Bobby, here’s Verschuer’s Luger. Watch him. Come on,” she said to Sturm as she began to run. He followed immediately as did Cockran. They reached the door to Observation Room B but it was locked.
“The room is sound proof. I barely heard gunfire. I don’t think they did.” Mattie said.
Sturm hurried to the door and took out the keys. He found the right one and quietly opened the door to angry voices and four SS men, two of them clad only in their black, silver-accented SS tunics. One of them was sprawled on the floor, blood streaming from his nose. The other was a bald headed giant who had turned away from his fallen SS comrade and moved behind Ingrid who was bent over a metal table. Her khaki pants were around her ankles as the giant yanked her silk briefs down.
Two shots rang out as Cockran and Sturm simultaneously fired. Cockran’s shot ripped through the man’s throat while Sturm’s blew out the back of his head. The giant staggered back from Ingrid and, like a large tree felled in the forest, flopped down onto the floor, his head bouncing once before coming to rest, his eyes wide, blood pooling beneath his shattered skull.
The two fully clothed SS men reached in vain to unholster their Lugers but Cockran put two bullets in the middle of first man’s forehead while Sturm did the same with the second.
The last SS man, now struggling to pull his trousers on, raised his hands in surrender. Sturm shot him twice in the groin. The man shrieked in agony, falling to his knees, his hands reaching for his ruined private parts. Sturm slowly walked over, placed the snout of the silenced Luger between his eyes and fired. He fell forward, sprawling across the bodies of the other two.
Meanwhile, Cockran had raced to Ingrid whose white blouse was splattered with the SS guard’s blood and brains. He removed her restraints and she stood, pulling up her briefs and then her pants.
Sturm rushed to Ingrid and embraced her. The German held her close, stroking her back and holding her head to comfort her. “Thank God, you’re all right,” Ingrid said.
“Me? It’s you I’ve been worried about. Your safety is very precious to me. No one will ever hurt you again. You have my word.” Sturm replied, as he began to softly stroke her hair and gently kiss her forehead.
“We’ve got to go.” Cockran said as he approached them. “Before the police arrive. Mattie, gather all the twins. Get them dressed for travel. Meanwhile, I’ll take Verschuer into the office with Waterman’s name on it. Meet me there.”
Cockran found Verschuer and Bobby where he had left them. “I’ll take him now.”
“Here,” Sullivan said, handing Verschuer’s Luger to Cockran.
COCKRAN pushed open the frosted glass door on which were stenciled in big letters, “Wesley Waterman, Chairman and President.” Once inside the office, Cockran shoved Verschuer into the chair behind the desk. He ripped the telephone cord out of its socket and used it to tie Verschuer’s hands tightly behind him. Cockran sat on the edge of the desk, facing Verschur. He placed the Luger on the pristine desk.
“Kidnapping and murder are serious crimes in America, Verschuer,” Cockran said, “and Germany has extradition treaties with the U.S. With twelve of the twenty two twins you kidnapped from America now dead, the odds are you’re going to be facing the electric chair.”
Verschuer’s violet eyes blazed and he showed no signs of fear. “Murder? Kidnapping? Where’s your proof? I have signed consent forms from all twins at the Clinic. And murder? Where are your bodies? I talked to Dr. Mengele and he told me the Clinic burned to the ground last night. If there were bodies inside, you can’t prove who they were. As for that journalist and Waterman’s wife, my guards detained them because they were trespassing on Clinic grounds.”
Cockran could see Verschuer straining at his bonds, testing their strength. “So, Herr Cockran, you’re the one in trouble, not me. You and your gangster friends have murdered a large number of our best young men in cold blood. We Germans don’t take kindly to that.
“If you know what’s good for you, Herr Cockran, you will leave my patients with me. If you don’t, I will have the authorities track you down and arrest you for kidnapping and murder. The police in Regensburg and, for that matter, the police all over Bavaria, are controlled by us, by the National Socialists. Soon, all of Germany will be under our control and we will build more clinics like the one you destroyed last night.”
The Gemini Agenda Page 42
