The Chair (18 page)

“I had a feeling you would be up here Ara, looking for help from good old William Dunford. It looks as if we just can’t seem to keep you for very long can we? Now come down from there, all of you.”

Paxton laughed nervously pulling the bolt on her rifle, while Anders continued with his cynical dialogue. “That machine is truly remarkable to say the least! All the same, I’m afraid I can’t allow you to continue to use it any longer; not to worry though; it will get plenty of use― from
us
.

“It seems you’ve fouled up the original plan for our island defenses! However, knowing what this machine of yours will accomplish makes our original plans most obsolete now doesn’t it! Come down
now
please; we don’t want to have to come up there and get you.”

As we all began reluctantly climbing down the wooden steps, Paxton began poking around wandering over to the east edge of the cliff. She was looking over the edge at the great distance straight down a rock face cliff while Anders was standing at the base of the tower with his Mauser pistol.

When we reached the bottom of the stairs, much to our astonishment, Dorn suddenly lunged at Anders throwing him completely off guard. He fired off two stray rounds that buried themselves into one of the tower legs. Paxton quickly began fumbling for her rifle taking several missteps much too close to the edge of the precipice and loosing her footing sent her headlong down the steep cliff. We could hear her cry of horror diminishing and then abruptly ending.

Anders had recovered himself and yelled out to Dorn. “You fool! Now say goodbye to your precious Ara!”

He aimed his powerful semi automatic pistol at her and just as he began to fire, Dorn leaped in front of Ara blocking the shots. Anders fired off several rounds, one hitting Dorn in the side with a dreadful thump. He cried out as another struck his thigh sending him to the ground in pain. Ara quickly went to her knees beside him trying to help.

“Say good bye to him Ara your next!”

He pulled the trigger once again but this time it only made a strange clicking sound. Again, he pulled the trigger but still with no result. When I could see that his Mauser was jammed, I tackled him and began wrestling him to the ground.

Then, Dunford picked up the rifle that Paxton had dropped, casually walked over to us and said calmly. “That will be quite enough! Get to your feet Anders.”

He reluctantly obeyed. “Don’t think this is over yet. We’re getting ready to transmit our location to the Führer and as soon as he receives it he will be sending reinforcements.”

I ran over to Ara and she was sitting there with Dorn’s head cradled in her lap crying and running her fingers through his hair. I ripped his shirt open and could see where the bullet had entered while leaving a clean exit wound, but the bleeding had to be stopped soon.  His leg appeared the same; it looked as if the bullet had passed through the meaty part of his thigh missing the bone. She kept looking at him with tears in her eyes smiling and I could then tell Dorn somehow had most certainly won her over.

Call it an obsession, or infatuation. There was a moment there when I thought I might have remained there with her but I could now see clearly I didn’t really belong there. This was their island, their baby. I was merely an interruption, a passing fancy.

William rushed into the cabin carrying out bandages and water and began helping Ara stop the bleeding. He showed me where to find some heavy twine and I tied Anders up snuggly. When I was sure Ara and William had the situation under control, I told them I would be back. Something had just occurred to me in working out the return of her father. I grabbed the Mauser and walked over to the tracker, looked around and sat down. Everything began fading to black and the next thing I knew I was in the conduit once more.

When I materialized, loud static was emanating from across the room and I could see a short wave radio set on a table with an empty chair in front of it. Just as I had hoped; it looked as if they hadn’t yet been in contact with Germany.

I quickly went over to the control desk for the chair and steadily moved the recticle, again over Munich Germany and more directly over Thierschstrasse 41. It was set and now there was  only one other thing that must be done.This was my chance; it was now or bloody never! Voices and footsteps were on there way down the tunnel and I grabbed the nearest heavy object, a tall lamp with a heavy base. I swung down hard with it on their transmitter smashing the top of it. Sparks shot out and smoke began to puff. I hit it again and again as I heard their guards shouting now and running toward the conduit. They were almost on me but one more swing came down hard on their receiver completely demolishing it knocking pieces of glass and plastic all over. Finally one of them came running through the doorway and I shot at him blasting some rock away from the opening and into his face. He backed away in pain shouting at the others. “He’s got a rifle back off!”

He leaned back in through the opening, firing at me several times but missing. Then there was a short pause which I quickly took advantage of sitting back down in the tracker. He looked back in again, saw me beginning to fade away and shot again barely grazing my arm and then I was gone.

The next thing I knew I was back on the plateau close to the chair with a bleeding arm. I went back in the cabin and Ara gave me first aid.

“Are you alright Richard?” She looked at me concerned. At least I hadn’t lost her concern for me.

“Yes, I’ll live. Come on, its time to get your father back!”

I grabbed Anders and we all walked out to the chair sitting at the base of the tower and the tracker next to it.

“How are you going to bring father back Richard?”

“Trust me, get back to the conduit as soon as you can and I’ll be there soon with your father.”

She grabbed me and kissed my cheek. “Please be safe and take care of father.”

With that, I brought Anders, all tied up, over to the chair sitting him down. He sat there helpless looking up at me as he quickly began fading until he finally disappeared. I waited a minute or so; then sitting down in the tracker, I said something to the rest of them that vaguely sounded somewhat familiar. “I’ll be back!”

As the plateau began fading away I knew I was headed for Munich and the Thierschstrasse 41 apartments once more. I was trusting that no one would discover Anders arrival before I got there.

A room began materializing before me and before long I realized my trip was successful; I was in a basement room once again at the headquarters building of Hitler himself and there was Anders across the room still tied up all alone.

It looked to be the same room he had been interrogated in when first arriving here. He started to yell for help and I backhanded him across the face and began looking for something to stuff in his mouth. There was an old cleaning cloth on the window sill which proved to work quite well.

I quickly opened the door to the hallway and looked around. No one was there at the moment and I  quickly went over to the storage room, held my breath and opened it. The professor was gone. I could only hope that he would  either be somewhere close by or somehow on his way to London. I searched two other rooms with no luck and then finding the laundry room went in. I couldn’t believe my eyes, he was there, by the sink!

“Thank god your safe professor!”

“Richard you came back! I was getting ready to leave this building, but I see you made it happen and came back for me! Two of the soldiers almost discovered me in the storage room but I hid myself amongst the odds and ends and they passed by. I had to take a chance and retreat to this laundry room yesterday for water.”

“The important thing is that you are alive and now we’re going to get you out of here, follow me.”

I took him to the end of the hallway and the room where I left Anders still gagged.

“You managed to catch Anders my boy; and where is the other renegade, Paxton?

“She met with an unfortunate accident professor. This will be Anders last stop; you two are going to trade places.”

When overhearing that, Anders began to get a look of desperation on his face and began yelling something through the cloth in his mouth. I’ll be dammed if I could tell what he was saying though. Maybe it was something on the order of not wanting to stay here in Germany. I lifted him out of the chair and let him fall to the floor.

“
This
is where you belong; your new home now with your bloody Führer and somehow I don’t think he will take kindly to your failure on the island.”

I sat the professor down in the chair and watched him till he had vanished. Then I began hearing voices, German voices coming from down the hallway, but it mattered little now. Looking around one more time, I sat down in the tracker which would follow the professor back to the conduit.

Returning to consciousness I blinked a few times and looked around the conduit. The professor was walking about the room glaring at the smashed radio. “My boy, I won’t even ask.”

Then I heard the elevator doors opening in the tunnel and heard voices, familiar voices; it was
Dorn and Ara with what was left of her loyal security team walking in, fully armed and conversing with each other.

The second Ara saw her father, she dropped her weapon on the table and ran over hugging him with tears of joy and a gasp of relief.

“I can’t believe you are finally back father! Richard, you did it!” She grabbed onto both of us with hugs and kisses.

“It’s not over, we need to round up the rest of the Nazi renegades!”

“Richard if you go up to the tank you will find most of them. There may still be a couple of them loose on the island but some of my team are seeking them out and will round them up; they won’t get away.

I took a deep breath and shrugged my shoulders. “Well, it looks as if this little adventure is just about over then.”

“Yes, Richard! I can’t thank you enough for your help and support of our island but I do need to talk to you about something ―”

“No need Ara, I saw this coming awhile back and I hope you and Eric are very happy! It’s time for me to get back to my life in London. There is a girl there I need to find a ring for.”

Ara looked at me and smiled. “Catherine! She has probably been worried sick over you Richard.”

I snapped back. “She’s probably given up on me by now is what she’s done!”

“Oh, I wouldn’t say so; when you return you might just be pleasantly surprised.”

“Well, we’ll see.”

 The professor walked over to the control desk bringing the recticle over London England and the address of my flat. “We won’t forget you Richard and what you’ve done for us. Ara can see you back home using the chair if you follow with a tracker.

 “When you get back you will need to keep it with you in a safe and secret place. It should remain with you until someday maybe you decide to visit.”

We all talked over the events that took place over the last few days with some laughter and some tears and then it was time to say our goodbyes.

Ara went first in the chair and I followed in the tracker. We vanished into thin air and in darkness once more traveled back to where it had all started for me.

I walked around my flat looking around as if I was being reacquainted with an old friend. Ara stepped up and kissed me. “I do love you Richard, but I can see clearly now it is best for both of us if I take my place back on the island with Eric; I really owe him my life and he needs me.”

“Ara I know, I saw it on your face when you were caring for him; you don’t have to explain yourself, he’s a good man.”

“Catherine, I’m sure, needs you too now more than ever; you’ll see I’m right about that. I better go now Richard, take care of yourself.”                                                                She sat down in the chair looking at me straight in the eyes with a reassuring smile on her face, raised her hand goodbye and began fading out of sight.