Unobtainium 1: Kate on a Hot Tin Roof

by Niall Teasdale

  At the wheel, Charles pulled himself up straighter and lifted his chin, even if he was blushing.

  ~~~

  ‘It’s… enormous,’ Kate said. Around them the vast open water of Lake Victoria seemed to stretch out forever in all directions. They were back up on the observation deck now; Charles had dropped their speed considerably, but the wind of their passage still cut through her light blouse with ease.

  ‘Perhaps two hundred and fifty miles on the long axis,’ Antonia told her. ‘We would now be in German territory had we not taken the land from them a decade ago. From here we turn south and west. In a few hours we will reach another lake which does remain in German hands.’

  ‘Lake Tanganyika, where we will pause for the night. Is there danger of us being seen?’

  ‘Little danger. The lake is not a good place to be at night and we will be moving again by dawn.’

  Kate gave a nod. ‘The vastness of this place still amazes me. I spent so long within the confines of my father’s house. For the most part in but one room. Rhidorroch seemed so open in comparison. I could walk for hours at a time without leaving the bounds of the estate. But here… I could walk for days and never see the end of it.’

  ‘This place, this Dark Continent of Africa, is… primal, so basic and harsh in its environment, so vital and, yes, vast. I believe that is what draws me here. One can become lost in the enormity of it. There is human history beyond the oldest of events in Britain. Mister Darwin believes that men began here in Africa.’

  ‘Truly?’

  ‘There are competing theories. A German biologist believes it was Asia, but the weight of evidence begins to favour Darwin. Of course, the religiously inclined have stated that must mean that Eden is somewhere here, waiting to be found. There are many tales of hidden kingdoms full of treasure or artefacts beyond our wildest dreams. I am content with the wild quality of this land.’

  ‘The freedom?’ Kate grinned at her friend and stepped closer, looping an arm around Antonia’s slim waist.

  ‘The freedom, yes. You are a bad, bad girl, but then… I believe that one of the creatures Cooper utilised in his experiments was a black panther and they hail from the environs of Mount Kenya. We may all have stemmed from here, but there is more of Africa in you than in others.’

  Kate gave a giggle which became a low growl as her canines grazed lightly across the skin of Antonia’s neck. The older woman let out a soft moan which went almost unheard as the wind whipped it away.

  ‘I believe,’ Kate whispered, ‘that there is more than a little wild Africa in you, Antonia Wooster. Tonight, when we have retired to our cabin and the lights are out, I shall come to your bed and we shall see how wild you are.’

  ‘Kate…’ Antonia began to pull away, but Kate tightened her grip and there was no denying her greater strength.

  ‘I have a fear that this place may cost us dearly, Antonia. Before we venture on this last part of our journey I will not deny myself one last pleasure, and I would have you join me. But I would never force this upon you. If you truly do not wish it…’

  Antonia lowered her face. ‘I wish it. I should not, but I do. For I have that same fear. I am not sure that we will all return from this expedition.’

  31st August.

  Lake Mweru was behind them and the rise of the Kundelungu Plateau just ahead. Trees covered the majority of the escarpment, but the topography below them was quite obvious, and there was no sign of any encampment visible.

  ‘Will we see it, even when we are close by?’ Kate asked as she peered across the landscape through binoculars.

  ‘We can but hope that we do,’ Antonia replied. ‘And before we are seen, for preference.’ She stood at the other side of the front window of the gondola, though she watched more ahead than to that side. ‘Take us along the ridge, Charles, as slowly as possible.’

  Charles gave a nod, pulling back on the lever which controlled the engines and turning the ship until it was flying almost due south. ‘I rely on you, ladies, to inform me of dangers. There is something of a crosswind and I am obliged to pay more attention than I would like to maintaining our heading.’

  After an hour, Kate took over at the wheel to allow Charles to rest for a while as the strain of keeping the airship going in the right direction was beginning to take a toll. As midday neared, however, the wind subsided and Charles took a few minutes to eat before assuming control again. With binoculars glued over their eyes, Antonia and Kate ate sandwiches, and the ship sailed on, ever southward.

  ‘Kate?’ Antonia said not long after, her tone curious. ‘Do you see the edge of the plateau ahead?’

  Kate turned her binoculars forward. It was as if someone had taken a huge bite out of the rock. Rather than the relatively straight line the cliff had been following, perhaps a mile ahead of them there was a bowl cut into the side of it.

  ‘Strange,’ Kate said. ‘One might think some monster crunched into the rock. Or perhaps a giant struck it with some vast hammer.’

  ‘I see nothing out of the ordinary nearby. We should observe carefully as we pass by it.’

  Kate nodded and was about to return her gaze to the plateau when something caught her eye. She frowned, not sure what had attracted her attention, and then she saw it, something moving, she thought, though straight at them and therefore difficult to see. ‘What is that?’ she asked, pointing towards the object.

  There was a second of delay while Antonia located what Kate had seen and attempted to identify it. ‘I am not… Charles! Hard to port! It’s some form of projectile!’

  Charles yanked the wheel to the left and the airship began to turn, but by then it was too late. The object, streaming a tail of white smoke, punched through the envelope and then the entire front of the airship was dissolving into flame.

  ‘The bulkhead should keep it from the other lifting bags,’ Charles shouted, ‘but we are losing altitude and if they fire another of those rockets we will be done for.’

  ‘Steer us away from the depression,’ Antonia ordered. ‘Kate, you’ll come with me and gather as much of our essentials as possible. We will be required to strike out on foot from here and I believe that we will be needing our weapons.’

  ‘Go quickly. I cannot keep us airborne for more than a few minutes.’

  It did not take long to grab what they needed. Kate took the weapons: Antonia’s rifle and pistol, and her own rifle and sword. Antonia went for a few provisions and other supplies. Both of them had dressed in the expectation of action that morning, and it appeared that they were not to be disappointed. They were about to return to the cockpit when Charles came running into the mid-section compartments.

  ‘Grab onto something!’ he yelled, and then they were lurching forward and right as the gondola impacted with the trees.

  The Man Who Would Be Kaiser

  Luizi Compound, Kundelungu Plateau, Africa, 1st September 1920.

  There were voices. Kate could not understand what they were saying, but she had learned the sound of German and that was what she was hearing. There were people near to her, on her right, speaking quietly in German. That did not seem like a good thing, but there were other problems which seemed worse.

  From the feel of cotton against her skin, she was naked beneath a sheet. There was, however, a tightly fitted belt around her waist, and her wrists were secured in some form of padded cuff at roughly waist height. Her legs were separated; her ankles were perhaps a foot apart and also held firmly in place. Movement was a very limited option so she remained still, her eyes closed, and waited.

  The voices moved away and she opened her eyes. She was in a room, the ceiling whitewashed and the walls of bare wood. Despite the basic construction, it still seemed to have the general feel of an infirmary, and the fact that Charles and Antonia occupied beds on either side of her tended to confirm the impression. Neither of them moved and they seemed to be unconscious. On the other hand, they were lying in hospital beds, which presumably meant they were alive. Kate remembe
red the crash, being thrown against a wall, and then nothing until waking up. She assumed her friends had been thrown around as she was, possibly worse. They could all have been badly hurt.

  She was about to attempt to call out, as quietly as might be sufficient to rouse one of her sleeping compatriots, when she heard a movement and lifted her head. There was a guard stationed at the door and he had noticed her looking around. Now he stepped to the door, opened it and called out. ‘Herr Doktor, das Mädchen wach.’

  A man appeared a second or two later, moderately tall and perhaps forty. There was no grey in his short, black hair, but his eyes looked weary, as though he had seen too much. He wore a white coat which implied that he was a doctor if the title had not.

  ‘You are with us once more,’ he said, managing a smile. ‘I am Doctor König. You suffered a mild concussion in the crash. Your companions have yet to awaken, but both are healthy. The Count was quite concerned that all three of you recover.’

  ‘Perhaps he should not have shot us down,’ Kate suggested.

  ‘There was no way of knowing who was aboard the airship until you were found in the wreckage. He was… disconcerted by the discovery and made it extremely clear that you were not to die of your injuries.’

  Well, they had gone to some trouble to get their hands on her in London. Now that they had her, it would undoubtedly have been an annoyance to have her die on them, but Charles and Antonia…? ‘What does he want with us?’

  ‘I will take it from here, König.’ The voice came from behind him and a second later the trim shape of Nachtigall appeared along with four armed soldiers. ‘The Colonel will see her before she is taken to her cell.’

  ‘As you wish, Leutnant Edel,’ König replied, turning and walking away. His voice and posture suggested he disliked the woman. The wrinkling of his nose suggested he particularly disliked her smoking habit, but he made no attempt to stop her, and that was from fear.

  ‘I’ll need my clothes,’ Kate said as one of the soldiers reached for the sheet covering her.

  ‘We have made suitable arrangements,’ Nachtigall told her, grinning maliciously.

  ~~~

  ‘Do you like your new clothes, Fräulein?’ Von Auttenberg was not looking at her. His back was turned though she was unsure whether this was an act of defiance or contempt. ‘I had a winter coat in my wardrobe which is, obviously, redundant here. Russian sable. When I learned that you were to be joining us after all, I decided to sacrifice it to clothe you in a suitable manner.’

  His idea of ‘suitable’ was apparently a black, fur loincloth, and nothing else. She imagined that he thought of her as a primitive, an animal, and this was the kind of thing primitive peoples wore. He turned now, smiling at her, but the smile faltered as he saw her standing there, back straight, with a blank look on her face more akin to curiosity than anything else. ‘It is comfortable,’ Kate said. She allowed herself a measure of contentment; he had expected embarrassment, or outrage, but she had spent her first five years without a stitch of clothing and felt neither. She would have liked to have torn his throat out there and then, purely for being the vindictive bully he was, but there were four soldiers and Nachtigall there, and they had bound her hands behind her back.

  ‘I am pleased that you are comfortable now. You will undoubtedly be less so in the near future. I have one man who is most anxious to make your acquaintance and another who wishes to be reunited with you. I am sure that both of them will be relishing the thought of applying knives and needles to your flesh.’

  Out of the corner of her eye, Kate saw Nachtigall lick her lips. She was, it seemed, more of an overt sadist than her commanding officer. ‘What will become of my friends?’

  ‘You think of them as friends? I should imagine they view you as one would a particularly intelligent pet, but no matter. They will come to no harm if the good Doctor cooperates. I have need of him, and my scientists have need of you. The woman, however, has but a single purpose here and that is to die should either of you disappoint me. I believe you are aware of what I do with the dead? They make such excellent workers, even the women.’ Kate gave a nod; words seemed unnecessary. ‘Good. Take her to her cell. Let Drafenberg know that she is available.’

  Nachtigall snapped off a salute and then pushed Kate towards the door. She seemed a little annoyed that her victim did not stumble. The soldiers were more concerned with the way Kate’s breasts bounced as she stabilised her footing and started in the direction she had been pushed. Aside from the bullying Nachtigall, how many women had these men seen in the last several months? It was both danger and opportunity, depending on how things continued. Von Auttenberg wished her alive, but unharmed? Did he have sufficient control over his troops? She suspected he did, and Kate was more worried about Antonia than herself anyway.

  The compound they had been brought to was composed of a number of buildings, all of them surrounded by a fence and concealed beneath trees and camouflaged netting which had been strung between the branches. The structure where von Auttenberg had his office was the best constructed of them, and even that had the appearance of something which had been put up quickly and then improved with stucco and iron cladding for the roof. There was the infirmary block, several barracks buildings, another relatively well-built structure the purpose of which she could not discover, what looked like a mine entrance of some sort, and a small, squat, ugly building of corrugated iron to which she was directed.

  The outer door opened into something which appeared more or less like an office, with a desk and chair, except that the rear half of it was a cell containing a rough bunk and isolated from the rest of the room by thick, iron bars. Kate expected to be put into that, but instead she was taken through a second door and into another room.

  Here there was only a chair in front of the bars, and behind the bars was another chair, though one of peculiar design. The function of it was quite clear and Kate wondered whether it had been manufactured specifically for her or whether they had other difficult to contain subjects in mind. Built of very solid-looking wood, the odd piece of furniture had leather cuffs attached to the bottom of its front legs. There was a beam mounted at the top of the chair’s back and cuffs had been nailed to the ends of that such that the occupant’s arms would be stretched out in a crucifixion posture. At least she would be sitting down.

  Kate did nothing to resist as her hands were untied and she was strapped into the seat. Now was not the time for resistance. There would be such a time, she was sure of it, but this was not it. She watched, unconcerned, as one of the soldiers sat down in the watchman’s chair while Nachtigall and the others left. The man, middle-aged and showing signs of a balding pate beneath his cap, glared at her and she stared back, golden eyes unblinking, until he looked away.

  ~~~

  Von Auttenberg leaned back in his chair and put his feet on his desk. Charles was glaring at him, which was exactly what he wanted. Antonia was another matter. They had dressed her in uniform taken from a couple of men; the slacks were too large and had to be held up by a belt, while the blouse was too tight resulting in her not being able to button it properly. It gave her an impressive and highly inappropriate cleavage which she was resolutely failing to appear embarrassed about. Where did these women come from? English women were supposed to have the basic moral nature of nuns!

  ‘What have you done with Miss Felix?’ Charles snapped.

  ‘She is secure,’ the Count replied. ‘And healthy up to this point. She is required for analysis by my scientific personnel and will not be harmed. You are also required. I will be expecting you to assist my scientists–’

  ‘Over my dead body!’

  ‘No, Doctor Barstow-Hall. Not over your dead body. Mrs Wooster is not required for any purpose other than to ensure your compliance.’

  ‘If you hurt her–’

  ‘I will kill her, Doctor. I will do it without a second thought. Obviously I would then have no bargaining chip, though I should point out that those who die h
ere suffer a continued existence which you would find most horrific and I could use that threat to maintain control. However, it is the manner of one’s death which really matters, is it not? I assure you that Mrs Wooster will be subjected to every manner of degradation, both painful and humiliating, which I and my subordinates can contrive prior to her demise. You will have several days to relent and save her from further harm, and I am quite sure you will do so. You are a gentleman, which makes you soft, useless, unwilling to take the actions necessary to achieve true greatness.’

  Charles looked at the mad man behind the desk, not entirely believing what he was hearing but also quite sure that there would be no hesitation in torturing Antonia to death. He glanced at his companion. She appeared quite sanguine, but he had known her for some years now, had come to recognise expressions on her face which perhaps only her husband knew. Antonia Wooster was seething, but biding her time. She knew what Charles knew: if they were to escape and defeat von Auttenberg, they needed to know more and be in a better position to act. They needed to know where Kate was. They needed to know exactly what their captor had planned.

  ‘Very well. I’ll do as you say.’

  ‘Excellent!’ Von Auttenberg looked across the room to where Nachtigall was waiting, an ever-present cigarette burning away between her lips. ‘Take the woman to her cell and have the Doctor escorted to the laboratories. He is to speak to Gantheim.’

  Charles frowned. ‘Andreas Gantheim? He went missing–’

  ‘Indeed, Doctor. I went to some effort to procure him. His work has borne considerable fruit, but you will help him perfect it. Take them away.’

  They were separated almost as soon as they were out of the building. Antonia was pushed away by two guards and taken towards a corrugated iron structure on one side of the compound while Nachtigall and one guard escorted Charles to a large, fairly permanent-looking building which presumably housed the laboratories.

  Within that there was a corridor with several interior doors off it. There were no internal windows so determining what went on behind the doors was impossible, save for the one Charles was shown to and pushed through. Within that room was a relatively well-appointed physical sciences laboratory and workshop. There were benches with chemistry apparatus atop them, several mechanical devices on benches or the floor, one of which looked somewhat like an Unobtainium reactor, though not a functioning one, several blackboards, and there was a man.