by Tom Larcombe
“When we what?”
“Steal a plane. It's either that or keep having to fuel this truck up, which might be hard if they notice that we, and it, are missing. Besides, our end destination is either France or Britain and while the truck could get us to the first, it couldn't get us to the second. A very good final reason is that I need to fly over the research facility to give the signal for it to be destroyed,” Merlin said.
“I can't believe what you just said. You want to go where? Do what?”
“I have sources that can get us protection in Britain. At least they think so.”
“But, destroy the research facility?”
“All part and parcel of destroying the crystal I showed you. Have any bad dreams lately?”
“Yes.”
“Would they have caused you to be nowhere near the research facility tomorrow?”
“Probably.”
“All the other innocents within the facility have experienced the same dreams. Those who aren't bothered by the content of those dreams will stay, and be destroyed with it.”
“Merlin, I'm putting a lot of trust in you here. From what you've revealed so far, I'm not sure how sound your plan is.”
“Gunter, the one thing about a plan is that it needs to be readily changed as you go. There are people out there who won't want our plan to succeed, so we need to adjust for that. My plan, as it were, is simply a guideline. There's much flexibility to it. For now just drive towards the airfield, or more accurately towards the area near it where they're holding Johann.”
“As you say Merlin. I hope you know what you're doing.”
“So do I. Oh, by the way, I have a gift for you.”
Merlin slid Horst's pistol from his satchel and handed it to Gunter.
“I noticed you without a weapon the last few times I saw you and thought you might like one. I have other things I can use to defend myself and no familiarity with these.”
“Thank you. I feel better now that I'm armed. Was there any other ammunition?”
“Sorry, that's all I managed to acquire. I didn't even check how many rounds were in it, just that it was loaded.”
“Thank you anyhow. I feel much more useful now that I'm armed.”
“Would you mind if I napped a bit Gunter? I've not been sleeping much recently and could use it.”
“Go ahead. We'll have plenty of time to talk later.”
The loud engine of the truck wasn't enough to keep Merlin awake. He drifted off to sleep, his dreams fragmented but pleasant.
* * *
Merlin thought it was about an hour later when Gunter woke him.
“Merlin, we're about fifteen minutes away from where they're holding Johann. I don't know anything about the interior of the base or the building. I've never been there before.”
“Can you get us to where we can see the base without being seen? Or at least without drawing suspicion down on us?”
“Probably. Let me see what I can do. I know the area a little and there might be a spot.”
The spot ended up being a slight rise a couple of kilometers away from the base.
“Will this do? There aren't any higher elevations closer to it.”
“I think it will. Would you go and check on the students in back? I'm going to scout out the base a bit.”
“From this distance? How are you going to–” Gunter stopped his question midstream.
“Never mind. You'll use wizardry, won't you?”
Merlin nodded.
Gunter exited the truck and went around back. Merlin fell into a trance and split his awareness. He sent a thin thread of it towards the base visible in the distance.
As Merlin approached the base he noted that it was surrounded by wards. They were powerful, but crude.
Evidently my students are not all the wizards that the German army has available to them, he thought.
Merlin found it easy to slip through the wards. Despite their power they were crude, sloppy, and easy for him to finesse. His probe slid into the base and looked around.
More wards in that direction, a lot of them. Those are all side by side. It looks like they may have their cells protected as well as the outer perimeter, he thought.
Merlin moved towards the wards he guessed were on the cells. He passed into the corridor adjoining them and found that it was a cell block. One entire side of the hallway consisted of cells with individual wards. They were as powerful as those on the outer perimeter but more finely crafted. He could still look through the doors though and he found that three of those cells were occupied, although none of the occupants was Johann.
Merlin moved down the non-warded side and found Johann in the middle cell. The pilot was in poor condition, bruises and contusions marking the skin that Merlin could see. Merlin slid into the cell and spoke into Johann's mind.
{Johann, do you wish to leave this place? Leave this country?}
The surface of Johann's mind carried an entirely different message from the words he spoke aloud.
“I'm a loyal German. I'm an officer and a pilot. I wish to serve my country.”
{If I could get out of this place, I'd be gone in a minute. Now that I know the truth, I want nothing to do with the SS. I'd kill them all if I could.}
{Johann, no need to speak aloud, just think your answer. This is Merlin. I'm leaving the country since I've found out the truth about the SS as well. Do you want to accompany me?}
{Merlin, is it really you?}
{Yes, Gunter is with me as well as several of my students. We'll free you if we can, then we'll steal a plane and you can fly us out.}
{No Merlin, I can't fly.}
Johann held up his hands. His fingers had been broken badly and never set. Merlin could feel the pain radiating from them.
{I can heal those eventually. Do you want us to get you out? We'll find another means of flight.}
Johann's mind burned with his reply.
{Yes, get me out of here but not at the cost of anyone's life please. If you can get me out without endangering yourselves I'll be eternally grateful.}
{Be ready.}
Merlin terminated the conversation more abruptly than he intended. There was another wizard, also out of his body, in the area. He worked to keep the fragment of his awareness hidden while he observed the other wizard.
At first he thought there was someone physically present in the hall. Then he realized that what he thought was a person's body was actually a projection from the other wizard. As opposed to sending a fragment of his awareness out, the other wizard had placed all of his awareness into a semblance of his physical body and sent that out.
What a clumsy method of projection. Well, that's probably how he was taught, but it's still very limiting. Puts the physical body in danger as well if the projection is destroyed. Works to my benefit though. He'll be much slower that way if he notices me.
Merlin watched as the other wizard peered into the warded cells then turned around.
Is he actually sending his projection up the stairs as opposed to willing it to where he wants it to be? That fits with the crudity of the outer wards at least, Merlin thought.
Merlin followed the other wizard's projection as it plodded towards the perimeter wards. The projection went right to the place where Merlin came through the wards but after examining it, the projection shook its head as though it were a physical body. After a few more moments, it vanished.
Merlin moved about the base, memorizing its basic layout well enough to sketch it out when he returned to his body. He found two more warded rooms. One ward resembled that on the outside perimeter and the second resembled the more finely crafted wards on the prison cells. He spent a bit more time in the cell block and the area providing access to it so he could make a better map of those sections. Then he returned to the truck.
“Well, we'll need to figure something out,” he said.
Gunter and his students were right outside the cab of the truck.
“A problem?” Gun
ter asked.
“Johann would like us to get him out but they've damaged his hands and he doesn't think he can fly.”
“Damaged his hands how?”
“It looks like they broke his fingers and never set them. They're healing crookedly and causing him pain. So he fears he cannot fly.”
“How will we escape Germany then?”
“We can drive the truck, as you suggested before.”
“But the reasons you gave not to do so are still true. Plus you said you needed to fly over the facility to destroy it.”
“It isn't optimal but if Anselm's owl were willing I could set a spell on the crystal that will power it and have the owl drop it on the building.”
“Wait Merlin, I have an idea,” Dieter said.
“Go ahead.”
“Well, you pushed the memories given you by the crystal from your mind to ours. Could you push Johann's memories of flying, or of being taught to fly, to someone? Transfer the skill somehow? Then they could pilot the airplane.”
“That might work Dieter. Let me give it some thought. Meanwhile, here's what the interior of the base looks like.”
Merlin sketched out the base from memory.
“There is one other issue as well. They have a wizard, or possibly two wizards, on the base.”
Merlin detailed his encounter with the one wizard and told them that there was another warded room that might house a second one.
Gunter and Merlin did the majority of the planning. Gunter was so impressed by the illusion Merlin used to get them out of the compound that he thought they could get into the base with it.
“If the guards are anything like the other SS members I've known. They will immediately allow you entry. It's like they worship any SS officer and believe that no-one would have the audacity to impersonate one. For that matter, most Germans wouldn't do so for fear of reprisal.”
“My only fear is the ward on the perimeter. It might be triggered by magic passing through.”
“You already passed through it once.”
“But the wizard noticed.”
“And seemed to dismiss it. I think it will work and it's quick. We don't have a lot of time if we're going to stay on the schedule you gave me.”
They argued the details but both agreed that a non-violent assault was the best option. If it came to a fight they were heavily outnumbered. Even if they managed to win a fight, they'd be slowed down drastically. The end decision was to go in with Merlin impersonating an SS officer. They'd demand Johann, claiming that they had surefire methods to make him talk elsewhere. Then they'd leave and go to the airfield.
Gunter drove the truck towards the gate, once again glancing at Merlin and seeing an SS officer in his place.
“That's truly unsettling. I'm almost sorry for suggesting you use it again,” Gunter said.
“Just drive Gunter.”
The truck stopped at the gate to the base. A guard walked forward slowly, one hand on his sidearm. He approached the driver side window.
“Why are you here?” the guard asked.
Gunter gestured to the passenger seat.
“His orders.”
The guard looked over and his demeanor instantly changed.
“Sorry sir, I wasn't notified that anyone would be in tonight.”
“We're here to pick up a prisoner. The one that's made a laughingstock of you? We can't tolerate that occurring. We'll take him somewhere we can break him quickly,” Merlin said.
Merlin glanced down at the folder he'd included in his illusion this time.
“The prisoner's name is Johann Adler. Where can we find him?”
“I'll need to see your authorization sir,” the guard said.
He walked around to the passenger side of the truck providing Merlin the time to scan his mind and see what the authorization should look like. Then, when the guard leaned in the window, Merlin showed him what he expected to see.
“All seems in order. Go to the main building, the cell block is all the way in back. I don't know what cell he's in but you can ask the guard on duty there.”
The guard walked back and opened the gate for them to enter.
Gunter drove to the parking lot in front of the main building. When Merlin got out he spoke softly through the fabric on the back of the truck.
“Stay on guard but keep quiet. Hopefully we'll be out with Johann in just a few minutes.”
Gunter strode to the building with Merlin following. He opened the door and allowed Merlin to enter first, then followed as they went to the cell block.
“Gunter, would a senior SS man be escorted by regular army?”
“No.”
“Than I apologize but your insignia are going to appear different for a bit.”
Gunter grimaced but stayed quiet.
When they entered the cell block, Merlin's body language changed. Now he possessed the arrogant stride of the self-assured SS officer he was impersonating.
“Get our prisoner,” he ordered Gunter.
Gunter approached the guard at the desk.
“We are taking the prisoner Johann Adler. Please show us to him.”
The guard was lower rank than either Gunter or Merlin appeared to be and looked desperately unhappy by the demand.
“Sorry, but I'll need to see orders for that first,” he said.
Merlin strode over to the desk and held his illusionary folder in front of them. It showed the guard the same thing the soldier at the gate expected to see.
“Do you have my copy there?” the guard asked.
Merlin sighed inwardly.
There goes a touch more power, he thought.
He created a sheet of paper that looked identical to the illusion he showed the man. Then he slid it out from under the illusionary copy and dropped it on the desk. Throughout it all he glared at the guard. When the paper came to a stop on the desk he spoke.
“Our prisoner?”
“Yes, sir. One moment sir.”
The guard grabbed a ring of keys and escorted Merlin and Gunter into the cell block corridor. When they were part way down the corridor, a voice from inside one of the warded cells called out.
“I can feel you out there wizard, you come to torture me again?”
Merlin turned towards the door the voice came from. Gunter turned towards the guard who was escorting them. When the guard's eyes widened and he began to turn, Gunter jumped him.
“Merlin, the guard,” he said.
Merlin turned to see Gunter and the guard fighting. The guard tried to break away and flee up the corridor but Gunter held him tight.
“Demon spawned night! Why must everything be harder and costlier than it should be?” Merlin said.
He reached out and touched a particular portion of the guard's mind with his magic. The guard went limp in Gunter's hands.
“He'll sleep for several hours now Gunter. You can let him go.”
Merlin took the keys from the guard's belt then turned back to the cell.
“You in there, how could you tell I was a wizard?”
“You trying to torture my mind again? That's why you people have me imprisoned. Cause I can tell you from everyone else.”
Merlin peered in. A middle aged man, gaunt and filthy, was chained to the wall.
“Who are you? You're new here. I haven't seen you before and you don't look like the ones that've been tormenting me,” the prisoner said.
“I'm here to rescue a friend. You nearly ruined my plans when you called out.”
“Get me out of here.”
“I'll try to release you on my way out. I'm sure that when I open this door, the wizard who put protections on your cell will know. So let me get my friend on his way out of here and then I'll see what I can do. Who are the others in the warded cells?”
“Two wizards. They were brought in about the same time as me.”
Merlin turned to the other side of the hall. A quick search of the keyring turned up the key to unlock Johann's cell. When the lock
clicked open and he entered, Johann turned.
“Merlin, it was you. I was afraid they were trying some other form of torture on me.”
“No, it was me. Follow Gunter and he'll get you out to the truck. I'll be along in a moment.”
“What are you doing Merlin?” Gunter asked.
“Freeing the others from the warded cells.”
“Won't that alert their wizards?”
“Probably.”
“Then why endanger our escape, we've got to get out of here quickly.”
“Because it's what I need to do, it's the right thing to do. You can justify it if you want, there will no longer be two wizards here to follow us magically when I'm done.”
“Merlin...” Gunter's voice trailed off.
Gunter turned to Johann and muttered something about fool wizards as he helped him up the corridor.
Merlin turned back to the man he was speaking with before.
“So, I need to give my friend a minute or two to get out of here then I'll release you. I expect we'll have company shortly after that. What do you know of the other two here?”
“Just that they were both captured as I was. They're called Djordji and Pitti. I think they're father and son.”
“How were you captured?”
“Someone invaded my mind. They managed to subdue me and take my body over. When I was in control again I found my body in the cell here. The wizards on either side told me that their protections were drained and they were taken in their sleep in a like fashion.”
Horst, Merlin thought, that's what he was doing and why he had that knife.
“So, shall we wake your friends? I'll let all three of you out. There are one or two wizards on the base here and I expect they'll show up once I breach the wards on your cells.”
A different voice answered.
“No need, we're awake and listening.”
“Well then, are either of you chained?”
“No, Verruckt is chained because if he touches a wizard, he drains their power.”
“Only when I want to,” Verruckt replied.
“Good, then should the wizards show up, get your hands on them. I'm going to open all three doors as quickly as I can and get your chains off of you.”