Chapter Seven:
“Come on Sarge I’m
officially assigned to them so I should be everywhere they are!” Corporal Green
pleaded safely from his side of the barricade.
“Green, did anyone ever tell
you, you ask too many questions and sometimes you may not like the answers!”
the sergeant replied as he jerked his automatic weapon slightly so Corporal
Green got his meaning clearly.
“Ok I get your meaning so
how about instead of me wasting your time with all my questions we just save
time and you tell me the answers?” Green asked as the sergeant’s face turned
even redder the joke lost of him. “I don’t get it, if this is such
a big military intelligence secret why’d they put a flat headed, flat footed
unintelligent person like you in command! Anybody could figure a way
around you and into that space!” Green taunted.
“Private!”
the sergeant barked. “Hold this weapon! I’m going to beat some of
the smarts out of this insubordinate corporal!” he smiled passing his gun the
soldier who came running at the sound of his sergeant.
Before Green had a chance to
either object or run the two were locked together! Green doing his
desperate best to tie up the arms of the raging sergeant whom was doing his
best to get them free. They scuffled back and forth before finally
falling to the pavement in a tangled heap arms flailing at each other, neither
of them hearing the shouts of the General over the grunts of each other and the
cheers of the onlookers!
Finally a third body
intervened and struggled to pull them apart! “Knock it off! Knock it
off!” Claire yelled as she wedged in between them and finally managed to split
them up. “On your feet and come to attention!” she screamed.
They reacted to the uniform
they saw and did what they were ordered. “What the fuck is wrong with you
two! You!” she looked at the sergeant. “You’re supposed to be
guarding the perimeter and in command here! Half this base and I could
have walked right past you and your men. You want to screw up go ahead
and do it by yourself that’s one thing. But never screw up while you’re
in command of other men! Their counting on you for leadership and if
you’re not capable of providing it then fucking well don’t play like you
can! Is that clear!” Claire screamed at him her face in his.
“Yes Ma’am!”
“And what the fuck is your
problem Corporal Green? All you had to do was stay in the jeep and wait
for us. Instead you’re busy pissing the hell out of the man whose job it
is to keep assholes like you out. Fuck, you want to track planes; you
can’t even keep yourself in line! Now get back to the jeep, turn it on
and get ready to take us back to the barracks!” Claire yelled as Green beat a
quick retreat as she turned to Clark. “Do you need a special invitation
too Mr. Eddings?” she said snidely, wiping the smile of his face from his
enjoyment of watching her.
“What the hell did I do?” he
said under his breath to General Ainsworth.
“I knew there was a reason I
liked her better than you Eddings! She’s tougher and takes charge, she’s
a soldier and you’re a civil servant! You’d better get going before she
comes over here and drags you away by what’s left of your manhood!” the general
answered with a down putting laugh.
“Yes, I’m beginning to like
Miss Yates more and more!” the general said as he watched Clark Eddings dash
for the jeep.
* * * * * * * * * * *
Claire lay on her bunk starring at
the ceiling and thinking. She and Clark hadn’t spoken all the way back to
the barracks, they’d avoided each other the rest of the day and at meals and
here it was near 9 p.m. and they still hadn’t spoken even though their rooms
were right across the hall from each other and both knew the other was
there. She continued starring upward; thinking about nothing for the
first time in a long time and enjoying it when footsteps in the hall and a
sharp knock on her door snapped her back to the here and now. She got off
the bunk and opened the door.
“General Ainsworth needs to
see you right away in Ready Room Three Ma’am,” the sergeant from that afternoon
said in a voice barely above a whisper.
“Why?”
Claire asked glancing at her watch. “And why are you whispering
sergeant?”
“Can’t tell you why Ma’am only
that it’s urgent and that you come along, no one else!” he said his head
glancing towards the door clearing meaning Clark wasn’t invited.
“All right!” Claire
acknowledged as she grabbed her jacket and followed the sergeant’s lead
silently back up the hallway.
They drove in silence; the
lights on the jeep turned off, just like under blackout conditions until they
arrived at the side of the hanger. The sergeant escorted her to a side door,
down a hall in total blackness towards a door that mercifully had light
emanating out from under it.
“You’re to enter alone Ma’am
I’m ordered to stand guard outside,” he said as he walked back down the
hallway.
Claire
turned the knob, entered and found the general with, not surprisingly Corporal
Green, who was handcuffed to the chair he was sitting in. Claire tried
not to look alarmed as she causally closed the door and walked over to General
Ainsworth. “You don’t seem too surprised by this Miss Yates?” he asked quizzically.
“Remember General I do work
as a field agent so surprises tend to be rare. I knew he’d try I just
didn’t think he’d be so stupid as to try so soon. But then again, his
kind is usually the sneaky types aren’t they General Ainsworth?
“That’s
been my experience as well,” he confirmed. “Tell me what you’ve found out so far?” Claire asked.
“Nothing from him, but I can
tell you our two spacemen are gone!”
“What!
When?” Claire asked in astonishment.
“The sergeant went to check
in on them just before 6 p.m. and found the cell empty. He initiated a
perimeter search and turned up Green here hiding inside the hanger. I’ve
had him locked in her since then questioning him but so far he’s said nothing!”
“No offence General but
maybe you’re not the best person to be conducting this interrogation!” Claire
asked in a cautious voice.
“That’s why you’re here Miss
Yates. I want to keep this operation in as few hands as possible. You
know loose lips and all that,” he said before continuing. “I think you
and I think along much the same lines than Mr. Eddings does! He’s much
too democratic for my liking and unless I Miss my guess yours too?”
Claire studied him for a
moment before allowing herself a smile. “You read me very well General
for somebody who’s just met me. My compliments on your psychic
abilities,” Claire said. “I agree, we need to keep Clark out of the
picture. You and I can share the glory; he’s reached the zenith of his
career, but not us! Now to the question, or rather as yet unanswered
questions at hand!” she said turning to face Corporal Green. “Shall I
have a go at him General?”
“I was hoping you would,” he
answered as he leaned against the wall.
The room was very small,
maybe seven by seven feet, painted all white with a black tile floor with the
prerequisite bare hanging light bulb swing just above her head. A small
desk occupied the middle of the room with one chair on each side.
Corporal Green was handcuffed to the slats on the chairs back and looked up at
Claire as she placed her hands on the table on leaned over into his face.
Her eyes bore into his as she starred down from her commanding position!
He visibly seemed to shrink back in the chair as she held him like some modern
day medusa in her gaze
“I had you marked down as a
clever little Jewish Boy Corporal Green. I didn’t think you’d let your
curiosity jeopardise your mission!” Claire said sugary sweet.
“What
mission? I told the general I was just on my way to the radar truck after
chow. I was taking a short cut across the hangers and the next thing I
know I’m waking up inside the hanger. When I try to leave that sergeant
with no sense of humour and two others jump me and drag me in here!” he pleaded
almost in tears. “I tried to explain but no one would listen to me!”
“That’s because you’re
lying!” Claire said as she slapped him hard across the face with the back of
her hand! “You’re a Russian Spy infiltrated into the Air Force. You
transferred here to learn and report about radar, but then along comes this
opportunity! A chance for glory, maybe a medal, but more importantly a
chance to give your side an advantage, an advantage from which we may never be
able to recover! If you’re going to lie and you people are so good at
lying at least make it one that holds some water” Claire said as she ripped
open his shirt and pulled it back over his arms.
“I thought so!” she
yelled. “You sneaky little fuck how do you explain these!” the spy said
as she pulled two document cards from the lining of his jacket. “You see
how clever these people are General, this afternoon he staged that entire
fight, hoping, either Clark or I would rush to break it up just so he, in the
heat of the scuffle could steal the sergeant’s and mines security passes for
later use or copying!”
“That’s enough for me I’ll
get the sergeant from outside and we’ll toss this Jewish Commie into solitary
while I convene a military court martial!” he said making for the door.
“Just a second if you please
general we still don’t know his full objective or who’s helping him, better we
find it all out now, better for you and I anyway!” Claire smiled.
“I see your point,”
Ainsworth said smoothly. “Please continue”
Claire turned back to
Green. “I know from experience that you never work alone which means that
there are probably many others on and off this base who are in league with
you. Tell you what Green, you spill the beans on them and things could go
very well for you!” Claire smiled.
“This is a nightmare! I’ve
been framed, set up, something!” Corporal Green pleaded. “I just
transferred her several weeks ago! I don’t even have any friends here yet!”
“Yes
you did. You were very insistent on telling us that, covering your tracks
and appearing innocent, just an eager young corporal, thankful to be
here. Only you made one slip up during your story! You knew that
exact time frame when transfers to this base started to heat up! Tell me
Green, how did you know that time frame when you just told me you didn’t even
have any friends on the base yet?”
‘I don’t know I guess I
heard it around,” Green said sweat beading his brow and his voice cracking
under the strain of his poor answer until he was reduced to sobs and nothing
else.
“General
we need the names of all the men who’ve transferred in here over the last six
months! Those are his conspirators!” Claire triumphed. “Is the
sergeant aware of all that’s transpired regarding the aliens and their ship?”
Claire asked. “Completely, in fact he led the patrol that captured them and their ship.”
“Excellent, then he can be
trusted. Do you think he could retrieve that file from your office and
return here with it?”
General
Ainsworth paused and pondered for several seconds. “I’m not sure we need
that Miss Yates we have Green and the rest we can pick up tomorrow, there as
far as we know completely unaware of what we’ve discovered so far.
Gathering them up in the middle of the night may arouse some suspicion amongst
the other men?”
“General, don’t those forms
list next of kin or people to contact in case of emergency. How many of
those people do you think may also be involved, in fact I’ll bet some of them
live in town. If we gather all of the men up tonight it just prevents
that chance that some slip away or worse yet make phone calls to alert
others. If that happens you may miss on even more enemy kills!”
The General a tall thin man
twitched in place for several seconds before moving to the door and
exiting. Claire listened to his even measured steps down the hallway and
then after a short pause back up again.
“The
sergeant will be back in about fifteen minutes. If you want to continue
questioning Corporal Green please be my guest. This room is very sound
proof!” Ainsworth smirked.
“Excellent!” Claire
answered. “After we’re done here General do you think I could see the
alien spacecraft?”
“Not
tonight I’m afraid. Given this incident, which I duly reported to my superiors,
I’ve just received orders that the craft be moved to another base!” he said
handing Claire apiece of paper. “The sergeant handed it do me as he had
just received it from a runner.”
“This doesn’t say where it’s
going to?” Claire answered.
“No
it doesn’t. It looks as if this whole thing will be out of both of our
hands within several hours! And I think that’s for the best!” he
concluded. Claire pondered all the angles this puzzle was giving her. Just when she thought she had all the pieces another came along forcing her to undo her work and start once more.
“I think you’re right General, moving the craft is for the best. We have all the glory we’re going to get here I think both our futures are assured from this point forward! Don’t you?” Claire asked.
“Absolutely!” he
commanded. “What about Green here? Anymore questions for him?”
“I
have a few more but first I’d love a cigarette, Claire asked seeing the
distinctive pocket bulge in this jacket.
Claire took one from the
pack and took a deep drag after he lit it and then followed suit with one of
his own. She leaned back against the wall next to him and took another
long drag tilting her head up blowing the smoke into the air. She noticed
that the General smoked his just as fiercely as she did hers! Claire
looked over at him and smiled.
“ Das
ich goud yah?” she asked
“Der G..” he started to
answer then stopped.
Claire’s right leg crossed
up and over her body slamming into his face snapping his head back against the
wall. He rebounded forward as Claire shot a knee into his stomach and
then repeated the action to his face before sweeping his legs out from under
him! She kicked his prone body hard to the ribs several times before
removing his sidearm, straddling his body falling on top of him with her knee’s
pinning his shoulders to the floor. Claire cocked the breach of the gun,
securing a bullet in the chamber as his eyes widened to that sound and the gun
levelling right between his eyes.
“Where is Dr. Black you Nazi
son of bitch!” Claire screamed the gun shaking violently in her hand.
“What the hell are you doing
Miss Yates?” was all General Ainsworth could manage as he swallowed his own
blood from the broken nose Claire’s knee had given him.
“Where is he! Talk you bastard
or I swear I’ll blow your fucking head off right now shwinehound!”
General Ainsworth smiled at
her and then started to laugh. “You’re a cleaver young lady! How
did you know?”
“Because dickhead, you
couldn’t have flown the Mark III Spitfire by the time it came out you would
have been transferred from the RAF Eagle Squadron to the American Air Corp and
they only flew American made planes and two the Mark V P-51 went into service 3
weeks after you or should I say the real General Ainsworth was shot down, I
assume he’s dead?”
“You really are very cleaver
Miss Yates,” he answered with an evil laugh. “Yah, we tortured him for a
long time to gain all the information we could. I see however that he
managed to slip in a lie or two along the way! How unfortunate!” he said
laughing again.
“Shut
the hell up!” Claire yelled as she slammed the butt of the Colt into his face
crashing out some of his teeth and sending them dancing across the floor.
Claire took the keys for the
handcuffs and walked over to Corporal Green leaving the dazed man.
“I’m so sorry I had to hit
you David,” she said. “I hope I didn’t hurt too much? And I’m
ashamed of what said I hope you know I didn’t mean it!” Claire said rubbing his
wrists for him.
“It’s ok Miss Yates I know
it was all part of the act. Besides it takes more than a few names to get
me going. I knew when you explained this to me that it could be rough
going in and I accepted that only I didn’t count on you hitting so hard!
You really can punch!” David said with a grin before his eyes fixed on the
General and his eyes began to blaze with hate. “Give me the gun and I can
make that Nazi scum talk all you want!”
The general had managed to
pull himself up to a sitting position, his back resting against the wall.
He wiped away some of the blood from his face and began to smile and rumble a
low maniacal laugh as he looked at them.
“It will take more than a
woman and a sub-human to make me say anything!” he taunted. At that David
made to move to him, but Claire put an arm out and restrained him with it and a
deep caring empathetic look. He relaxed. “You see I was on the
Russian Front, you my dear are a weak amateur at interrogation. Buy now I
would have had the person screaming for mercy and we’d be just getting
started! Oh the good old days!” he grinned at them. “You know six
more months of war and there wouldn’t have been any of you left at all.
We would have succeeded in erasing that stain from our precious soil forever!”
he said looking at David with an evil grin. “But I’m sure I can console
myself in that fact that we most assuredly processed some of your relatives.”
David pushed forward in
fury! Claire pushed back and the two stalemated as they strained for the
advantage.
“David! David!” Claire yelled
over and over again until he calmed down. “Evil seeks to draw us from the
light. You can’t change what happened, but you can help me to prevent it
happening again! Please I need you to stay in the light!” Claire begged
until he stopped pushing, let go and squeezed his body into the opposite
corner.
Suddenly
the corridor echoed with footsteps coming closer!
“Sergeant Muller!” the
general screamed. “We’ve been detected, they know the plan! Kill
the Jew and woman!”
Claire let him yell.
The footfalls stopped the door swung open slowly to nothing before a voice
said. “Claire, David, don’t shoot its me Clark!”
“Come
on in Clark,” Claire said in a flat voice as she smiled at the general’s
crestfallen face. “You see we’re way ahead of you as we have been all
along. “You’d you make out Clark?” Claire asked.
“We’ve got all but five of
them and your Dr. Black. I have a squad of soldiers outside Hanger Three
at the doors, they’re holed up inside. We better move before they figure
out how to get inside the alien craft and move it!” he said with urgency
tossing a rifle in Corporal Green’s direction.
“They’ll never be able to
find the entrance let alone open it,” Claire said with a smile. “They
don’t have the proper key!”
“How
do you know that?” Clark said. “I confess I lied when I said the two aliens told me nothing. They told me everything! I just lied to protect you and the gain Herr General here’s confidence. Sorry, but under the circumstances I thought it best to pursue the divide and conquer scenario since you and he were on the outs anyway,” she said.
Clark pondered her statement then accepted it. “Has he shed any light on what the hell is going on?” Clark asked referring the fake General Ainsworth.
“Only a little bit by way of
direct omission but I can fill that rest of in,” she said then began.
“The real General Ainsworth was captured and tortured for information then
probably through plastic surgery this man was made to look like him, assumed
his identity in the prison camp and once the war was over came home and got
this posting.”
“But
how did the Nazi’s know it would work out so well?” Corporal Green asked before
Clark could.
“Simple, Dr. Trumaine
Black! I landed in 1947 he went on until the end of his pre-programmed
time trip and turned up in Germany before the war, my guess is the middle
thirties. Unfortunately, by that time Hitler had too much power in his
control and paranoia in his mind to listen to any crazy ideas about more modern
weapons or other fantastic things. He was too busy building his terror
machine. So if you can’t convince the leader you turn to the leaders more
receptive followers who though they may share the sick beliefs of their leader
don’t necessarily believe in him! It’s a well known fact that most of the
Hitler’s General Staff hated the man, but did nothing to get rid of thin
because he controlled the secret police who were totally loyal to him and whom
they feared. How am I doing so far Herr General?” she asked.
“That stupid little house
painter wouldn’t listen to upgrades for the V-1 and V-2 rockets, or for the
manufacture of the Atomic Bomb! It was all so simple all it required was
the will, men and money, but that stupid little man wouldn’t lets us speak of
it under penalty of execution!” he said reflectively. “We could have had
V-2 rockets raining down on New York, Boston, and even Washington all carrying
Atomic Bombs in 1943 had that idiot just said yes!”
A dark chill passed through
Clark and David as they listened to this calm recitation for world
dominance. Claire watched them before continuing.
“My guess is that Dr. Black
was the forced to come up with an alternative plan. Once I’m sure his
loyal band of supporters found hard to believe but given the weight of evidence
he could produce given his knowledge of historical events, they eventually
believed.
“What
plan?” Green asked again. “Again most German General’s knew a two front war, which Hitler had always proposed would fail and here, once they were convinced of his legitimacy, was the proof in Dr. Black and also the means to change it! My theory is that by U-boat he and the soldiers Clark rounded up tonight were brought to the shores of this country, most likely coming down the St. Lawrence River then coming ashore on a remote section of land. From there, complete with false identities and histories then became sleeper agents enlisting in the Air Force just past the point of knowing they would be shipped over seas.”
“When the war ended the fake
General Ainsworth came home to a hero’s welcome and his pick of
assignments. He chooses here and then was followed by all the
others. Once in place all he had to do was wait for events to unfold.”
“But what about Dr. Black?
How did he go undetected as to his true intentions?” Green continued.
“Simply
by using his nature. He’s always been a secretive loner paranoid
individual. He could go months not appearing outside of his house.
So after a while human nature is to think he’s still in there when in reality
he’s someplace else, say deep inside Berlin! Once the plans were set he
makes his way back to England, then to America, helps out the war effort, looks
like a loyal American and again draws away any suspicion from himself.” Claire
answered.
“And the money? Where did it
come from?” Clark finally beat David to the question.
“Transferred
and laundered by Swiss banks, mostly the original source was gold taken from
banks, central exchanges of the invaded countries they conquered and the rest
came from,” Claire stopped looked up then down wiped her eyes and said.
“Six million to eight million murdered souls!”
Claire composed herself then
focused on the here and now. “You say they’re trapped inside the hanger
and we’re in position to take them out. Then let’s get to it and end this
nightmare before we have to live it for real.”
“What
about him?” Clark said referring to the General.
Claire walked calmly over to him
and blew the top of his off spattering blood up the wall in kaleidoscope of red
hues and patterns before turning for the door. “That’s better than he
deserved!” she said as the three marched down the hallway.
She turned to David and added. “I stepped out of the light a long time
ago.”
* * * * * * * * * * *
Bullets pinged off the tin walls
and steel girders as Clark, Claire, David and the squad of soldiers advanced in
the hanger within the wall of mist their smoke grenades had provided.
Claire slipped away from them almost immediately and negotiated her way to the
now exposed craft, a sleek black onyx coloured smooth skinned ship shaped and
sized somewhat like the modern F-17A Stealth Fighter. Claire moved
carefully into the shadows and along the perimeter ducking behind some crates
and barrels as she moved to the back of craft and then stepped out of the
blackness.
“Time has finally run out on you
Dr. Black!” she said stepping beneath a shaft of light from an overhead light
to reveal herself.
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