Blitzkrieg: Origins of the Prime: A Superhero Spy Thriller (22 page)

“How in the world is this thing just floating here?” he asked himself. Then he had an idea. What if it was like the tubes. What if he could step off the floating platform and some zero gravity field would allow him to just float to the ground.

Axel unclipped the radio from his belt and tossed it over the edge of the disk. He watched, disheartened as it fell at free fall speed, shattering upon the ground below. “Well, there goes that idea,” he told himself and then sat back down upon the floating platform, cross-legged.

Axel heard the disturbing laugh of Arnulf echo through the cavern. He quickly leapt to his feet. “Come out and face me you bastard!” he shouted.

“Face you?” Arnulf asked. “I am facing you. No matter what direction you turn, I am facing you. I am everything you see. I am everything you hear, feel, or smell.”

“Where is Alena?” Axel asked.

Arnulf chuckled. “Running around, aimlessly searching for you. None of you will serve me willingly. Not yet anyway, but as I said, I will break you. Even if it takes months.”

Axel laughed. “And you think leaving me suspended in a giant cavern is what will break me?”

“Oh, this isn’t for you,” Arnulf said. “I have something else in store for you. No, this is just to keep you out of the way for the moment.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Well, Kristel is terrified of being left again. Abandoned by you. Just as you abandoned her back in Berlin.”

“I didn’t abandon her!” Axel shouted angrily, his voice echoing through the cavern.

Arnulf laughed again. “You heard her. She believes you did and that’s what matters. The last time Kristel was abandoned by you, she was ‘rescued’ by the Red Army. The Russians aren’t coming this time. Valkyrie is not coming!
I
will rescue her.
I
will save her.”

“You bastard!” Axel shouted into the nothing. Arnulf cackled and Axel listened as the laughter faded away. “Arnulf!” he shouted. “Arnulf!” He was answered by nothing but silence.

***

Alena ran. She didn’t know what happened to Axel, but she could not spend any more time searching for him. He was a big boy and could take care of himself. She needed to get to her brother. God only knew what he was going through right now.

She reached the wall that she and Axel had stepped through initially and placed her hand on it. How did these things open? The others had opened more or less by luck. Of course she didn’t tell Axel that, but she really had no idea how to operate anything in the base. She began to feel around the wall searching for something, anything that might open it. She really needed to get to the other side. “Open dammit!” she shouted and to her surprise the hatch slid open, like magic.

Alena peeked through the hatch, but did not see any of the Nazibots that had chased her and Axel before. She stepped through cautiously and then once she was confident none were around, she began to run toward the “elevators.” She reached the room containing the large tubes in which she and Axel had descended to her current level. How was she going to get back up to where Alexi was? She didn’t even know how she got down there to begin with.

“Halt!” a voice said in German and she spun to see two Nazibots aiming pistols at her. She slowly raised her arms as if to surrender.

“You got me,” she said. The words had barely left her lips when she flew forward in a blur of red, snatched the pistol from each of their hands and popped out behind them. They turned to face her and saw a smile on her face. “Bye bye,” she said and shot them both in the chest with some sort of electrical stun blast, not unlike what Axel shot from his hands. The Nazibots fell back onto the floor, motionless. “Wow, these really work,” she said as she glanced at the pistols a smile on her face. The smile quickly faded as she noticed arms and legs emerging from the walls. More Nazibots were coming.

Alena spun and bolted from the “elevator” room in a flash. She turned to her left, away from the control center that housed Arnulf, and ran as fast as she could. She knew she would most likely have to go back to the “elevators” eventually, but right now she just needed to get away from the Nazibots. She wanted some peace for a moment to think. How the hell did the elevators work?

Alena ran along the corridor. She ran past more and more Nazibots emerging from the walls. How in the world was Arnulf doing that? Suddenly, she slid to a stop as a horde of Nazibots stood blocking her way, pistols raised. “Halt!” came the German voices.

Alena raised her pistols and fired burst after burst shocking the Nazibots and causing them to fall hard against the floor, at least temporarily out of commission. She fired until the energy levels of the pistols had been exhausted and no more bolts leapt forth when she pulled the trigger. She dashed toward the remaining Nazibots, her hands falling to her sides and dropping the pistols before drawing her swords.

The Nazibots blocked her path through the corridor, stretching from wall to wall, so she ran to her right and with blinding speed was able to run up and along the wall. She removed more than one Nazibot’s head as she passed by. She leapt from the wall into the mass of bots and with a sword in each hand Alena slashed and sliced. She moved much too quickly for them, stabbing one, slicing the pistol hand off of another. Soon, she had dismembered the entire horde and those still functioning did so without arms.

“Halt!” an armless Nazibot ordered. Alena chuckled before rushing toward it and slicing its head from its shoulders. Then she was gone in a blur of speed, once again running down the long corridor. She needed to find a way to get to her brother.

***

Tom walked along the corridor and Alexi followed behind. The big guy was a bit closer than Tom would have liked, but Tom realized that he was probably scared. Tom was scared, so it certainly wouldn’t be a surprise for Alexi to be also. Tom heard voices up ahead and stopped in his tracks. Alexi did not stop as quickly and bumped into Tom, nearly knocking him down.

“I’m sorry, Tom,” Alexi said, the sincerity evident in his voice.

“Shhh,” Tom said quietly as he placed a finger over his lips. Alexi nodded and Tom patted him on the shoulder to let the bigger guy know there were no hard feelings. Then Tom pointed to his ear and turned and pointed down the hall. Alexi nodded his understanding.

They heard footsteps fast approaching as the voices continued. Soon they were close enough that both Tom and Alexi could make the voices out. To their great surprise, the voices were German. The two men glanced at one another, and Tom saw the panic he felt reflected back in Alexi’s eyes. Multiple German voices couldn’t be good.

Tom was stunned for but a moment when he saw a squad of Nazi SS soldiers turn the corner in front of them. The Nazis stopped and stared for a moment before shouting “Halt!” in unison. Instead of halting, Tom raised his rifle and squeezed the trigger. The Nazis drew their pistols and returned fire. Instead of bullets though, blue energy beams leapt out of the barrels. One hit Tom, knocking him to the ground.

Alexi saw Tom fall and that snapped him out of his shock of seeing the German soldiers. Then a blue energy beam hit him. It stung. It stung bad, and made Alexi angry. He snatched the large war hammer from the sling on his back and charged the Nazis, a deafening war cry leaping from his lips and echoing through the hall.

The Nazi soldiers were expressionless as Alexi burst into their ranks, his mighty hammer slamming into the chest of the closest, sending the soldier flying backward and landing several feet away. Alexi swung downward at another, smashing the soldier into the floor. The soldiers did not flee or retreat, but rather continued to fire at him, making him angrier and angrier with each stinging blast. He swung his hammer across his body smashing into three soldiers, then swung back again hitting two more. Alexi smashed and swung until no German soldier remained upright.

He surveyed the area and seeing no more soldiers turned back toward Tom. He was relieved to see the American regaining his feet, having only been stunned by the energy blast. He rushed over to help him. “Are you okay, Tom?” Alexi asked.

Tom nodded. “Yes, thank you. The insulation in my suit must have absorbed some of the blast.”

Both men heard a slow clapping and turned to see a young Colonel Arnulf standing tall in his German SS uniform. “Well done, Gerd,” Arnulf said.

“What the hell?” Tom whispered to himself.

“You do have that killer instinct,” young Arnulf smiled. “I always knew that you did. You just needed the proper motivation.” Alexi took a step toward Arnulf. “And that is why Tom, Axel, and Rolf helped me lure you here.”

“What?” Tom asked.

“And we are going to kill you and your sister if you do not join us!” Arnulf hissed.

Alexi’s face turned red with rage. He leapt forward, his war hammer raised high over his head, and slammed it down onto Arnulf, smashing the Nazi into the floor. He pounded the body over and over and over until there was nothing recognizable left. He then spun to face Tom, a wrathful scowl upon his face.

Tom’s eyes went wide as he realized that Alexi believed that he was in league with Arnulf and the giant of a man was about to crush him. “Wait,” Tom said as he held his hand up.

Alexi ignored him and charged, his hammer at the ready. Tom raised his rifle to his shoulder and fired three rounds before Alexi’s hammer swung, knocking the rifle from his hands. Alexi then backhanded Tom, knocking the American backward and sliding several feet. Alexi stepped over him and raised his hammer over his head.

Tom flipped over onto his back and saw Alexi about to crush him. “He was lying,” Tom managed to say before the hammer fell, but he could tell it made no difference. Alexi was too angry to pay any attention. Tom squeezed his eyes tight as he saw the hammer begin to drop.

Chapter 23

Axel sat cross-legged atop the floating disk, high above the floor of the synthetic cavern. His intent was to think of a way out—to clear his head and figure out how to get out of there. How to open the hatch above his head, or float down to the floor below. There had to be a way to do it. Unfortunately, all he could think of were his friends being in the clutches of that bastard Arnulf. God only knew what that maniac was doing to them. All of them. Rolf, Tom, Dawn, Alena, and Alexi. All of them were his friends and family. His helplessness—imprisoned on a floating disk—frustrated him to the point of anger.

Axel slammed his fist down onto the top of the disk and then leapt to his feet. “Let me out of here!” he shouted angrily at the emptiness of the cavern. Then he stood still listening to his voice echo until it dissipated into nothingness. His head dropped in frustration and he fought back tears. Not tears of sadness or fear, but of exasperation. He just wanted the hatch to open. Just open.

Axel heard a whoosh above his head and saw the hatch had indeed opened. He could hardly believe his eyes. He leapt up and tried to grasp the edge of the opening, but he couldn’t reach it. He tried several times but failed each time. He stopped and stared at the opening wondering how it had opened and how he was going to get up there. Then he had an idea. He concentrated on his desire for the disk to float up to the opening of the hatch. Suddenly it did so, and Axel was back inside of the corridor where he had last seen Alena. He leapt off the disk and ran along the corridor.

***

Rolf walked swiftly down the long corridor holding an unconscious Dawn gently in his outstretched arms. He was scared. Not so much for himself, though that certainly was part of it, but primarily for Dawn. She had fainted after levitating into the air and Rolf did not know what to do, nor how to help her. He needed to find Tom or Axel. Surely they could help her.

“Hold on Dawn,” he whispered to her. “We’ll find them soon.”

Rolf continued to move as quickly as he felt comfortable moving in an unfamiliar area. He was aware that he could become even more lost if he wasn’t careful, so he didn’t want to make a lot of turns that could get him confused. After all, most of the base looked very similar and getting oneself turned around and confused would not be difficult.

As Rolf ran, he saw a hatch open up ahead. He stopped when he reached it and what he saw shocked him. Tom was firing his rifle at someone, and then suddenly Rolf realized that it was Alexi. Alexi leapt at Tom, smashing Tom’s M-16 with his war hammer and then backhanding Tom. Tom slid to a stop several feet away and Alexi ran after him. He stood over Tom and was about to crush Tom with his heavy war hammer when Rolf jumped from the hatch and slammed his massive shoulder into Alexi’s back, causing the Soviet agent to stumble forward and land on his stomach.

“Rolf!” Tom shouted excitedly.

“Here, watch Psion,” Rolf said as he gently laid Dawn down beside Tom, propping her head on his leg. Tom nodded and then Rolf reached over his shoulder pulling the giant shield from the straps on his back.

Meanwhile Alexi had pushed himself up to his feet, gripping his war hammer menacingly. He sneered at Rolf. “Where is Alena?” he demanded through clenched teeth.

“Who?” Rolf asked momentarily forgetting that Kristel had changed her name.

“My sister!” Alexi roared.

“I don’t know,” Rolf said.

“Liar!” Alexi countered and then leapt toward Rolf raising his mighty hammer. Rolf lifted his shield just in time to block the blow that Alexi had intended to crush his head. Alexi raised the hammer and brought it down again and again. The fourth time he lifted his hammer Rolf pushed forward, slamming his great shield into Alexi’s upper body, so that the other giant stumbled backward.

Alexi recovered quickly, but was even angrier than before. He stepped toward Rolf and swung his hammer across his body from the right. Rolf swung his shield outward deflecting the blow and then used his momentum to follow through with a right cross, punching Alexi in the left side of his face with his massive fist, knocking his helmet from his head. Rolf then brought his shield up, slamming the edge of it into Alexi’s nose, splattering blood all over the Russian’s face. Then Rolf thrust forward with all of his might, slamming his full weight into Alexi and knocking him to the ground where he landed flat on his back.