The Cleansing

by Shane Crosby

  “Mase, I got him. Hold on until I can get him to the bird. I’ll be back.”

  There was so much going on around us I didn’t realize there was someone there to help us. As I drug Dub across the tarmac I saw two men running towards me. I carried Dub into a building and told him to hang in until I got back. I went back around the building readied my weapon in preparation for a fight, but I could see them waving. The blast prevents me from hearing. As they get closer, I see the uniforms, the dog tags whipping in the wind as they run towards us. At that time, I knew we were going home and not in a body bag. We may not be in the same condition as we were when we got here, but we’re alive and we’re walking out of here.

  One of the pilots ran over to me. He helped me carry Dub over to the bird and get him loaded. When I turned, I could see the second pilot holding Mase up helping him get to safety. Mase was holding his side limping as fast as he could. He wasn’t in perfect condition, but he was alive and that’s all that matters. I jumped down ran to my brother’s aid and helped Dub onto the bird. When we got everyone loaded the pilot told us to hold on. It was the best feeling in the world feeling that helicopter lift off the ground and fly away. Next best thing to a birthday and Christmas.

  “We need to get him to a hospital.”

  “Dub. Can you hear me?”

  “I don’t know if we take a chance on a hospital. They’re going to be looking for us.”

  “I think we have to take the chance.”

  “Okay.” Dub grabbed Scott.

  “No hospitals.”

  “Dub, you’re hurt bad. It’s a long ride back to Germany.”

  “No. No hospitals.”

  While Mase and I tried to decide what to do, the pilot took us onto the next pickup spot to get Trevor and Don.

  CHAPTER THIRTY – SEVEN

  Not unscathed

  BUNKER

  BERLIN

  Trevor

  When we were finally up in the air on our way back to Berlin, we all kind of relaxed. We arrived back to the safety of the bunker, but not in perfect condition. Our bodies were banged up, battered, but they hadn’t broken our desire and determination to find them.

  We escaped once again, but we barely scraped by. We took a few causalities this go ‘round but nothing permanent; everyone will heal and live to fight another day.

  Dub was injured the worst. Mase was grazed by a bullet. It didn’t penetrate his body but it left a gash in his side large enough for a human hand to slide the pinkie and the ring finger inside. The bullet burned him badly around that area as well. It took several hours to stop the bleeding, but he’ll make it. In the melee, Scott walked away with a couple of broken fingers.

  I’m sure we’d agree we didn’t actually have any peace until we walked back into the security of this place. I for one, am wondering if we’ll ever be able to find any place where we feel as comfortable and where safety isn’t an issue, as we do here. I know this sounds cliché but only time will tell.

  We took Dub to the hospital bed the doctor was pointing to and laid him down. He needed stitches and his ribs were wrapped just to help him move and breath. You can’t do anything to help broken ribs but give them the time they need to heal.

  After Dub was all taken care of, he started putting Scott and Mase back together.

  It was a full night of surgery, staples, blood and gore for the doc. He didn’t stop closing holes and repairing broken bones and limbs until the wee hours of the morning.

  Tired and fighting off exhaustion, we stayed up until the last brother was properly reassembled. When the last one was given the fully recovered label, we all found a place to rest. Whatever we found on our trip will be sorted out tomorrow.

  “Hey Doc, we’re back!”

  “I see. How did it go?”

  The Doctor puts his hands over his face at the sight of us bringing Dub back on a stretcher.

  “Oh my gosh, what happened?”

  “We were in another battle with our friends. This time, we took on some casualties; Dub being the worst.”

  “Here bring him here.”

  We took him in and laid him down on the table so the doc could patch him up. By the time he was finished, Dub was a bad version of Humpty Dumpty after he fell off the wall. We just all hoped he’d make it through this. In all of our years of being brothers, we’d never seen the big man look so frail. And, for Dub to look weak and non-threatening was worrisome.

  THE NEXT DAY

  BUNKER

  Trevor

  Jared is the baby bird of the bunch. He didn’t exactly go into the military, but he is in a branch of the government that holds the most secrets. He works for the CIA. He’s always the one who’s out of pocket the most. We need him to be the eyes and ears for us. Therefore, he’s never near any type of activity that could potentially get him killed or injured. He’s never liked this position, but since he’s the runt of the litter, he doesn’t have too much of a choice.

  Jared Morgan calling...

  “Alvarez.”

  “Hey bro, back safe and sound I see. How’s everyone else?”

  “Dub hasn’t revived himself yet, he looks pretty bad, but the doc says he’ll recover. Scott survived the battle with just a broken finger. Mase’s guts are being held in by some creative stitching done by the Doc. Other than that, we’re all good.”

  “Damn! That doesn’t sound good at all. Why didn’t someone call me?”

  “Didn’t want you to worry, Lil bro. No one was deceased.”

  “So, what? You still should have called.”

  “What happened to Dub?”

  “Blown up.”

  “And no one thought to call?”

  “Yea, we thought about it.”

  “Next time don’t just think about it! Please call me.”

  “I’ll let the fellas know.”

  “How did things go there last night; uneventful I assume?”

  “You know it. Got a great night’s rest. I’m ready to roll. Nah, let me stop playing. I’m getting old, little brother. I can’t recover as fast as I used to. When I was twenty I could stay up for a week maybe take an hour nap and be raring to go! Now, if I tried that, I would lapse into an acute coma.”

  I could hear my little brother’s laughter seep out of the phone. The Bunker’s walls provided the surround sound needed for all of the brothers to hear. It peaked their interest and they came over to see what the fun was about.

  “What’s going on?”

  “I was telling J that when I used to stay up for days at a time without getting any rest. But now, I must admit I’m getting old.”

  “Shoot! Who you telling? I’m right there with you.”

  “Considering we’re all just a year apart, we can understand what each other is going through on that front.”

  “I hear ya. I’m the youngest but I’m certainly not in my twenties anymore.”

  “Hey fellas, the reason I called is about the guy Gerhardt. I found the name he was going under, Hoffman, like the old man said.”

  We scrambled to locate a pen and paper. “Say that again, J.”

  “Hoffman. There’s a more recent picture here, too. He still looks familiar. I can’t put my finger on it but he looks like someone I know.”

  “Yeah, right. Like how in the heck would you know a Natzi? Or anyone who looks like him?”

  “I get around.”

  “Um hmm, what else you got?”

  “It looks like he has family here in the states and it has an address listed.”

  “Did you wipe your tracks after you accessed what I know is classified documentation?”

  “Yes sir. I used a public computer and a fake account I got someone to create.”

  “Smart.”

  “Does he have the address?”

  “J, the address?”

  “Oh yeah, 1489 West 27th Street. In Florida. Do you know how old this data is? There’s no telling where his family is now.”

  “But it’s a start. What else
does it say?”

  “They used him for Intel for about a decade then it stops. I think that was about the time America started finding out the CIA was sneaky as heck and had been in bed with these Nazis for years. I still say this dude looks familiar. I just can’t place it.”

  “What about Jaheeb Mohammod?”

  “I’m looking into that. I haven’t gotten anything back yet. When I do, I’ll call you first thing.”

  “You’re not calling from work, are you?”

  “No! Why do you think I’m stupid?”

  “I don’t think that. I’m your brother. Your older brother at that, I’m just looking out for you.”

  “I can take care of myself.”

  “I can remember sometimes when you couldn’t.”

  “Man, how long has that been?”

  “Doesn’t matter how long. I remember when you couldn’t don’t get all emotional like a woman because I will always be your older brother. Who took care of you when you couldn’t take care of yourself?”

  “Man, come on! I’m not getting emotional.”

  “Doesn’t sound that way to me.”

  “I’ll follow up with you when I get something on Mr. Mohammod. Hey, another thing. I couldn’t find anything on Gerhardt in our traditional files. Someone had deleted them. Here’s the thing, I got an email from what we call a ghost account. We developed that system so our operatives could communicate with us without anyone knowing who or where they were. When I opened the email, it had a link I clicked it and it opened the location to the information I’ve provided. Weird, even for CIA standards.”

  “Would that be easy to do? Create something like that?”

  “It would be for our techs, but a lay person, no.”

  “Someone went through the trouble to get you that information.”

  “Yeah, it’s weird like I said. I tried to access the Hoffman file. It was classified, then it did some crazy thing where it went to a different screen. It had my name already filled out and asked me questions that only you or our parents would know. It unlocked that file and the rest you have.”

  “The Attorney General you think?”

  “I don’t know, but who else would do that? I don’t know how he knew about me though. How he knew we were all brothers.”

  “Some kind of a way he knew. It had to have been him.”

  “I’m not arguing with you. I just wish he’d given us more.”

  “I think he felt like he did.”

  “You could be right.”

  “Thanks, little brother.”

  “Any time.”

  “Love you, bro.”

  (click)

  “Hey, you guys, looks like we’re going to Florida.”

  “For what?”

  “J found the name our Natzi was going under.”

  “Hoffman?”

  “That’s right. He’s working on the other guy, Jaheeb.”

  “Anything else?”

  “No, but it looks like the Attorney General knew about us. He setup a trigger for J when he tried to access the Gerhardt file.”

  “How you know?”

  “We don’t know for sure, but who else would?”

  “How did he make the connection?”

  “That’s what we were trying to figure out.”

  “Let’s just go with what we got now. We have to go back to the states. We have injured and wounded. We have to make our plans around that.”

  “Gotcha. When we going?”

  “Good question.”

  “When everyone heals.”

  “Sounds like the best plan of action.”

  Don walks into the room.

  “I was thinking.”

  “You can think?”

  “No time to joke, bro. Listen, I don’t think we should go to Florida, just yet. I think we should concentrate on what we have. We have a lot of information we haven’t been able to go over in detail.”

  “True. We do need to talk about this stuff.”

  The Doctor enters the room just as the conversation is going.

  “I agree with you both. Too much has happened. We need to regroup. There’s plenty to investigate right here. The crematories need to be looked into.”

  “Welcome to the party, Doc. I thought you’d checked out long ago.”

  “Ha, no I’m still around.”

  “Good deal. I’m with you on that one. Dub’s on the struggle to regain full health who knows how he’s going to be after all of this. Mase was burned badly as well as needing stitches. Scott has broken fingers.”

  “Right, so we’re in agreement?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Let’s put all of this stuff on the table and get to work.”

  “The trip to Florida is postponed until we’re all one hundred percent healthy.”

  “What’s the plan in its entirety?”

  “Since the doc has already looked up the crematories and the Attorney General listed the addresses. We’ll investigate those near to us.”

  “Investigate how?”

  “We’re going in take a look around.”

  “We’ll need more than equipment for that.”

  “We’ll need baby brother.”

  “Right. He’ll control the alarms and anything else they may have hooked up for surveillance.”

  “I’ll bet it’s a lot. Cameras, motion detectors the full works. We need to start planning now.”

  “We don’t have any room for mistakes.”

  “We’ll get the addresses together. We can take a drive to each location just to look around outside. We won’t get out. We’ll just look at the layout on the outside.”

  “We can only do this once. I’m certain they have cameras on those buildings.”

  “Maybe it’s better if we just hit them without doing all of that.”

  “Go in blind. I don’t like that idea.”

  “Doing a bit of recon might tip them off.”

  “Going in blind could lead to disaster. And, they don’t know we’re coming.”

  “We can go in those buildings without Dub and Mase.”

  “Okay, I’m in.”

  “We’re agreed?”

  “I think we’re all in.”

  ONE WEEK LATER

  PREPARATION

  BERLIN

  Don

  For the past week we’ve been prepping for entry into the crematories. At first, we were just going in, in hopes of finding something. After further discussion, I guess it dawned on someone in the group that a crematory was for burning dead bodies. Since we knew of at least three two continents that have been littered with dead and burned bodies, it might be helpful if we looked for body parts. I, for one, didn’t want to do that. Trevor, being a homicide detective was okay with the idea. For the rest of us, it made us nauseous, but for our brother, we’d do anything and this falls within that category.

  The plan is, we’re going inside of all three of the crematories. We’ll look for parts and bring them back to the doc for DNA extraction. Our first idea was to submit them to the local police departments. Give them a tip and let them do the remained of the work. After more thorough review of that decision we decided against it. The local cops might start holding press conferences touting their investigative abilities. The bad guys would get wind of it and shift gears. We all agreed we’ve been through too much to start all over. I know I couldn’t face that option well. We went back to our original plan; enter, extract and turn it over to the doc.

  Prior to entry, we drove to each location. And, just like we all thought, they had cameras on the buildings. So, we wouldn’t be recorded on camera, we parked a block away and use a video recorder to get a glimpse of the outside. The high tech record was compliments of baby brother Jared. The only thing we couldn’t see was what they had inside. With the fortifications they had outside, we knew they wouldn’t spare any expense to secure the inside.

  The next step was to contact baby brother, let him know when we would be going in. We gave him
the addresses of each location so he could tap into any security systems they had on site. With all of this in order, getting inside and getting out without losing any more limbs or gaining additional holes in our bodies should be a breeze, right?

  CHAPTER THIRTY – EIGHT

  ON THE SIDELINES

  MISSION NIGHT

  Scott, Mase, Trevor, Don, Doc

  Dub

  After preparation, comes the time for action. For us, tonight is the night for the latter. For the past week, we’ve gone over those plans day and night until we had them memorized. I say we because me and Mase memorized them along with the other guys. We knew we couldn’t be of any use to them in the field, but we’ll be in contact via Bluetooth. If they run into any issues inside and needed some direction we could help. It’s not as satisfying as being there in the action, but for now this will have to suffice. When you’re used to being the one calling the plays, it’s difficult to be the cheerleader all of a sudden.

  Mase and I helped the rest of the guys get ready for the next step on this ladder. All of the information we’ve gathered up to this point was starting to resemble a ladder the fire department uses to rescue people from high rise buildings. Hopefully what they find tonight, if anything will provide us with more answers than questions and we can start knocking some inches off this king sized pile we’re building.

  The plan was to get into each building in Germany tonight. J has already tapped into the cameras and security features. Unbeknownst to them, any alarms they have, have been deactivated. The motion detectors they have installed have been compromised. They’ll look like their functioning properly, but they aren’t.

  The guys would get in, go to the ovens check to see if there are any body parts that can be tested for DNA. If the body parts have been burned too badly they aren’t any good for DNA testing. The fire gets so hot in those ovens they quickly turn a human body to dust. Collecting the body parts isn’t the issue. The issue is, none of us know anything about what’s acceptable and what isn’t. The only person who has that knowledge is the Doc. The second problem, taking a civilian into the field is a huge liability. The reasons why are too many to list. So, a few hours before departure, there was still one thing that hadn’t been settled.