Friday 26 August 2011

Chapter 8: Liberations and Libations.


    I should have seen it coming. Petersen played us well. Played me well. We have the plant, this is bad. Gun still to my head.
     “Surrender, sergeant.” Petersen says. God damn traitor. I’ll get you for this. No matter what, somewhere, some day, I’ll get you for this. Knife to the throat. Cut him good. Make him feel it first though. Thinking… knife through his wrists. Split them down the middle. Let him bleed out from the wound. It’s what he deserves. The ninth level of hell is too good for him.
     I grind my teeth. “Petersen, what'd it take to grease your palms? Or were you just born a Nazi?”
     “A bit of both, if you must know.”
     Can’t get out of this mess. Not right now. Too many of them. Don’t have my guns. Have my knife. Never leave a knife behind. And not where he thinks it is, either.
     “…alright. Men, surrender.” I hand Petersen my P-38.
     The German troops surround us. This mission just got a whole lot more complicated. They march us into their trucks. Bind us in manacles. Behind our backs.
     They aren’t stupid.
     But we’re smarter.
     The German captain, Friedrich Johannes, is in charge of our interrogation. We have a bit of time before he starts though. I overhear a couple of guards saying something about a dinner party with Rommel. Probably means it’ll be easier to get out of here. Senior officers make troops stand at attention, if only a little.
The complex is made out of a variety of materials. Some of it’s sandstone, some of it’s concrete. It was probably some old fort, fought over hundreds of times. These Germans are the newest owners. The Germans strip searched us. They took my sock knife. A Skean Dhu. Not very comfortable. But it was my great grandfather’s. Would have been damned useful. “Ye shan’t separate a Scot from his sword” my grandpa used to say. Pyre and I have a cell to ourselves, Navittas and Jennings somewhere else. Klaus was brought directly to the interrogator, or so I surmise.
     “Sir, they made a mistake” Pyre whispers. “They must not have known that I’m a flame knight.”
     Even I had forgotten about that.
      “Okay Pyre, you know your abilities better than I, what’s the plan?”
     “Simplest ideas are often the best ones. Just wait for my signal -- you‘ll know it when you see it… have to escape now sir. We either escape today or we‘re held for a long, long time.”
     A few hours passed. Klaus was being interrogated. Can still hear his screams. He’s close. He’s not talking. He’s screaming. Only screaming. Guess that’s what traitors get. Amate proditionis sed proditorem odite. This is a bitter pill to swallow. Still… he might be our best chance.
     Some jackboots clonk down the cell block’s hall. They must be bringing Klaus back. Pyre, whatever you’re planning, you have to do it fast.
     They went to the room next to ours. I hear Klaus’s voice in the scuffle. Gotta do something. He knows too much. Can’t do anything. Not yet.
     “Follow my lead.” Pyre whispers to me.
     Pyre starts a fire. Beds. We yell for the guards’ help.
     “Hands against vall.” pidgin English. Great.
     It’s too easy. They come right in. We’re no use to them dead, I suppose. I get on the wall. There are two of them. They have manacles. When One takes Pyre’s hand, I see a small flash of light. The other one’s distracted by the scream. I kick his knee. Break it. Trip him. Pyre’s burned this other guy’s hands good. He’ll never pull another trigger. He’s still screaming. Pyre breaks his nose while he’s on the ground, screaming stops. I could swear I saw him smiling while he did it. Just who is this lad? I wonder what the Magitech academy taught him…
     We take their keys. The other guards no doubt heard the screams. Take their guns. Magazines too. Lugers. Fantastic.
     We Get Klaus and the rest of the squad out of their cells. Tell them not to look at what we did. Bad way to go. Have to act fast. Alarm’s on.
     We’re running. Lots of empty cells. Good cover. We find a few compatriots. No idea who these guys are. But better to let them escape too. A few of them die. But none of us do. We’re lucky.
    Armoury’s heavily defended. Worse, they have grenades. Potato mashers. One of them nearly gets us. Kick it back in. good thing it’s a T-junction. Small crater formed. Love the sandstone.
     Give Navittas my gun. Give him a wink. Armoury grate’s making it awkward to throw those things. There are about five of them in there. One of them’s arming a machinegun. I see Navittas using his magic. One of them is about to throw a masher when he fires. Man looks like he’s in an electric chair, only standing. Explosion is perfect. Kills them all.
     Get their Schmeissers. The other boy’s we’ve liberated are itching for pay-back. Give ‘em all we can. Tell them to Make lots of noise. We have a whale to hunt. I keep Klaus close to me. This armoury has most of our stuff, too. Even the Frogsuits.
     The fighting’s brutal. Use grenades to tunnel through the sandstone. We’re losing men. We just need to get out though. We find some stairs. Perfect. We toss a satchel charge down. Explosion shakes the foundation. A bit insane. But it works. We’re on the ground floor. Motorcade’s not too far off. Let the boys make that distraction. Too obvious for us. We get ourselves a few more uniforms first. Raid a barracks. No navy uniforms, but this deception is good enough. We’re out. Gene Kruppa eases on the drums.