professionals. I wasn't going to be muscling my way out anytime soon.
Fortunately, I didn't have to worry about muscling out of anything. The door to my room flew open and two large Nazi soldiers came in while a third trained a gun on me. They untied me from the radiator and then rebound my wrists before dragging me out of the room and down the hall.
We didn't go far before they pushed open another hotel room door and dragged me in there. There were three chairs set next to each other and facing the window. Two of them were occupied. The soldiers pushed me hard into the chair furthest to the right and tied my wrists to it. To my left sat Felix and then Olivia. Standing in front of us was the German I had seen barking orders out in front of the hotel earlier that day.
I looked across Felix to Olivia and smiled. "Did you guys bring any snacks? I like to munch during the show."
Before I could witness the scowl that I am certain I had earned from Olivia, the German's fist flew out and broke my nose.
"That will be quite enough of your mouth. Dr. Doran." His clipped German accent was destroying the beautiful French language. "Now, I know why you're here. Looking for your book, I assume, but who are your friends?"
I shook the stars from my vision and ignored the blood cascading over my mouth. "Well, the lovely lady is my sister, Janet, and the gentleman is her soon-to-be husband. I'm taking them on a tour of Andorra for a wedding present!"
I took another punch to the face and this time it was in the eye. Hans Punchy knelt in front of me then, "Are they part of the Resistance?" Do they know about the book? Are you an American spy or are you just stupid?"
I lost most of my sharp tongue at that point and settled for the witty retort of a blood filled spit into his face.
Wiping the spit, he drew his pistol and aimed it at Felix's head. "What is your name?"
Felix said nothing and only stared at the German.
The Nazi dropped the aim of gun to Felix's leg and pulled the trigger. The resulting noise of the gun left my ears ringing, but as the ringing died down I could hear Felix howling in pain.
"It is a simple question," the bastard German said. He pointed at himself. "Watch how I do it. I am Lukas Herrmann," he pointed back at Felix. "And who are you?"
Felix swore loudly in French before shouting, "To Hell with you!"
Herrmann stared at Felix for what seemed like forever. Finally, he turned to the far wall and shouted, "Edward! Bring it in!"
The door creaked open and the Indian with the mittens came in pushing a cart with a large cloth covering something underneath it.
Edward, the Indian with the oddly un-Indian name, brought the cart to a rest directly before us and then tore the sheet off of the top.
It took me a minute to comprehend what I was looking at, but once I understood what was before us, I knew, without a doubt, the depth of the evil forces that had coalesced in Andorra la Vella.
The cart was covered in a menagerie of machinery, most of which was too alien for me to recognize. The two simplest pieces were a large piece of glass with cables running from it and a jar that housed a human brain floating in some liquid. I held no reservations that this was definitely a human brain. It was the Nazis: of course it was a human brain.
Edward straightened and slowly pulled off one of his mittens. As he did, all of my theories were confirmed. Underneath his beautifully knit mittens were pincers. They were a luminescent shade of blue. He was insectoid in origin, and I'm certain that if he were to take off the rest of his disguise, we would all see him
for the large Mi-Go that he was.
Mi-Go's were an exploratory species of alien from the far reaches of the galaxy. Some suspected that they weren't even from our time, having instead traveled across space and time to avoid their own extinction. When they were on Earth, they loved to plague rural communities, and their ghastly frames had turned them into creatures of myth and scary stories. They had many advanced technologies and prided themselves on gathering knowledge from the species they encountered. One such piece of technology was sitting before us then.
Using his pincer hand, Edward the Mi-Go reached down to the series of dials on the base of the jar and turned one of them.
The result was a flicker in the upright piece of glass. The flicker began to coalesce and focus and it wasn't long before an image began to form on it. It was as if a signal were coming from far away and only time would bring it into focus.
The image began to take on a very specific shape and, to our horror, we recognized it.
It was the unconscious face of Robert. Reaching down to the dials again, Edward hit a small switch and we watched in terror as Robert's eyes flickered to life, and our friend awoke.
"Where..." His voice began from a speaker, but it was distant, and his mind must have had to reach across the same distance that his face had, because his words were slow to come. "Where...where...am I?"
Felix was the first of us to say anything. "Robert! Robert! What have they done to you?"
Robert turned his eyes toward Felix and smiled. "My friend." He said in his deep French accent. "I worried that I would never see you again." He frowned and his brow furrowed. "I was being tortured. I saw things...the Indian, he isn't what he seems." Felix was speechless again, but he nodded. "They did horrible things to me, Felix. I was certain that I was dead."
I hadn't ever seen this horror perpetrated by the Mi-Go before, but I had read a paper describing it in detail. Knowledge truly is power, and my knowledge of this contraption helped me to dispel the shock at what I was seeing much faster than either Olivia or Felix. Broken nose or not, my wits were finally coming back to me.
"You are dead, Robert." The Mi-Go looked at me then. "This monster cut out your brain and dropped it into a jar. From there they can force you to tell them anything they want to know." I turned my eyes to Herrmann. "Which leads me to wonder why we're being asked any damned questions at all."
Herrmann shrugged, "He only knows so much." He knelt before me again. "I am going to systematically destroy your companions and I am going to make you watch. I want you to be mine, Dr. Doran. The Traum Kult has spoken highly of your interests, and I believe that they would reward me well if I could give them the tamed and broken Dr. Andrew Doran." He smiled then and it was a wholly evil thing.
"Your allies' lives mean nothing to me, but something to you. Even though you just met them, I can tell that you're a man who values life. I can see it in your eyes as look at what has befallen your companion." His hand brushed the jar. "So, to begin breaking you, I'm going to make you watch as my friend slowly gathers the minds of your friends for his collection."
Edward reached forward then and turned another dial on the base of the jar. The static energy in the room increased suddenly and we were all subject to Robert's screams as intense pain was sent directly into his brain. Felix began to shout and beg for them to stop hurting his friend.
From the table, Edward grabbed a tool with his unmittened pincer. It was an instrument with an oddly shaped blade, similar to a scalpel, but I had never seen its like before. He stepped up to Felix and pulled his head closer to with his hand that still wore the mitten. Olivia remained quiet, but her eyes filled with tears then.
The first thing that Edward did was stab the blade of the odd tool into Felix's throat. The poor driver choked slowly on his own blood. I struggled against my bonds and watched as the Mi-Go began cutting into Felix's scalp before he had completely expired.
Herrmann must have had some sort of warning from the Traum Kult about my history, because my struggling against my ties caused him to punch me, yet again, in the face. I spit blood onto the floor and then gathered my will. Felix was the last, I would not let another die.
I shouted the spell that I had been so hesitant to shout earlier and tried not to think on the repercussions of not seeing my target. I had committed to saving at least Olivia's life.
"Fthalan!" I screamed and released a flood of will out through my hands.
Excruciating pain flared in my hands and seared through my flesh. As I howled in pain, my wrists came free. My hands were still on fire and I thrust my right forward in a fist, hitting the Mi-Go square in the false face. He fell, and I watched as his fleshy mask slid sideways on his face. As he fell away from Felix's corpse, I threw my other flaming hand out and grabbed at the oddly shaped tool.
That was my big power play and I was one holler away from being shot by the guards just outside the room.
I kicked hard at Herrmann, thrusting my boot deep into his abdomen as he moved to bring his pistol back up.
The flame on my hands was starting to die down when a new idea suddenly came to me. Shouting "Fthalan," again, I took aim this time and turned the door into a wall of wood and fire.It would not halt the guards, but hopefully it would slow them down.
The Mi-Go was recovering and leapt at me with his human mask still sliding from its proper placement. His crooked face was where I aimed when I sidestepped his leap and punched out. He fell down onto Herrmann, stopping him again from bringing his gun forward.
No sooner had they collided and I dove on top of them, stabbing at the Mi-Go with his own instrument. As I stabbed down with one hand, my other hand grappled to take away Herrmann's pistol. I barely succeeded and jumped up and off of them.
As they lay there, the fight suddenly gone from both of them, I looked over at what remained of Robert. I kept the gun on the two on the floor as I stepped closer to Robert and flipped the same switch that had caused him to scream.
As the pain went away, Robert looked up at me. "I'm sorry, Robert." I said. "Please, forgive me." I then pulled the gun away from the two and put a bullet into the brain that was Robert. His image froze on the screen, but there was nothing left in behind his eyes. Robert was gone.
The guards increased their efforts with the door, and the wall of flame didn't stop them from kicking it. It wouldn't be long before they were in, and I was going to need help.
I went to the back of Olivia's chair and carefully cut her binds with the Mi-Go's blade while keeping the gun trained on Herrmann and his monster.
"Do you know where my weapons are?" I asked her.
She nodded. "They were in the room I was being held in. Two doors," she pointed at the wall, "that way." She stared and my still smoking hands. "Can you do...that thing again? But to the walls?"
I shook my head. "My magical talent is severely limited. I run out of juice very quickly." It was the truth, I was already feeling very tired from the two bursts of fire I had created. My real power came in hand to hand combat, not magic.
"Well, American. We are surrounded by Nazis and only have one pistol. Would you care to show me an American solution?"
"With pleasure," I answered, but I had no immediate idea what I was going to do.
Then, my eyes falling on Herrmann, I had the beginnings of an idea.
Stepping up to Edward the Mi-Go, I placed two bullets into his head. "That is for Felix and Robert." I put a third bullet into his abdomen. "That's for the rest of humanity." Then I grabbed Herrmann by the collar and
pushed him in front of me, turning him so that he faced the door.
It was only barely in time that I did this. The flaming door burst open at that moment and, as the guards filed in, Olivia jumped behind me and my German shield.
In French I shouted, "Back! Get back or Herrmann joins the Mi-Go!" The Nazis must not have been well treated by their German superior. They hesitated to move for a split second more than I expected. Finally, guns still raised, they slid to the left side of the door. Olivia, Herrmann, and I moved slowly, but already I could hear the soldiers throughout the rest of the makeshift garrison stomping their way down the hall.
I leaned out into the hall with my reluctant companion and Olivia. One end of the hall had marching soldiers with weapons raised. They came to a halt as they saw us. The other end of the hall was empty as far as I could see.
Without looking at Olivia, I asked, "Which way to the room that you were in?"
She pointed. "Two doors." To my relief she pointed in the direction away from the enemy. We slowly started backing into the direction that she indicated.
"Watch our backs," I told her. It would do me no good to keep the Nazi's at to our front if another group of them were to arrive behind us.
To our fortune, none did. In what seemed like an eternity, we were finally at the door.
"Open it!" I demanded of Olivia. She quickly did and we slid inside. The Nazi army were slowly creeping toward us and we moved further into the room.
"If anyone comes into this room," I shouted, "we will kill the German!"
I slammed the door shut and threw Lukas Herrmann to the floor.
Before he had even hit, I tossed his gun to Olivia. "Keep an eye on him. If he moves, shoot him." I then ran across the room, scanning for my bag. I found it finally in the bathtub in the bathroom.
It was too much. The bag had clothing, my guns, my diary, and my transit papers. They were too much to attempt to get out of the hotel with and would only slow us down.
My plan was to get out of the hotel. Easy to say, but difficult to execute. We were in neutral Andorra, but the hotel might as well have been Berlin. Once we were out of the hotel the heat would die down considerably. It was just a matter of orchestrating how we would get out.
I dumped my bag and began rummaging through it. I slid my diary into my belt at the base of my back and then tucked my shirt in around it. Then I kicked the clothing aside and pocketed the pistol ammo as best I could. I then belted on the holster and attached the scabbard to my belt. The transit paperwork would be useless from here on out. My gun would be my passport
Finally ready to take on whatever the Nazis would throw at me, I turned toward Olivia. She was sniffing the air. Out of curiosity I did the same.
Smoke.
I was confused at first and then it hit me and I smiled.
"It would seem that our Nazi friends are losing the battle with the fire I set." I took a deep breath, "Maybe I have one more in me." I began to gather my already too taxed will in preparation of another fire. A touch from Olivia stopped me.
Keeping her gun on Herrmann, she walked over to where I had kicked my clothes, and kicked them over. Underneath them was a book of matches that must have fallen from my bag. For once, luck was with us.
"Save your strength," she said, and quickly set to lighting the curtains on fire while I kept my gun trained on Herrmann.
When the curtains caught fire I moved to the door and peeked into the hall. It was filling thickly with black smoke and I could only barely make out the Nazis.
Scooping up Herrmann by the collar, I stomped out into the hall with no warning to Olivia. She caught on
and I could hear her step behind me quickly.
We ran toward the soldiers, I thrust Hermann forward and placed my foot in the center of his back. My following kick sent him sprawling into the soldiers and I began firing with my pistol. It was only a six shot .38, but my aim was true. I missed only once and five of the soldiers went down in the tight space of the hall.
Battle was nothing new to Olivia and the French goddess stepped forward as I reloaded. I watched as she fired and she placed many well aimed shots into the mass of Nazi's.
This was a scare tactic, and we were not going to be cutting our way through this battalion before us. The narrow hall gave us a slight advantage, but we had no cover and would soon be overwhelmed.
Olivia kept firing until I shouted, "Down!" I took over firing as she ducked and slid in behind me. Backward was our goal, to the empty end of the hall.
At some point previously, Olivia must have taken ammo from Lukas. She knelt behind me reloading while I fired at any head that threatened to poke out of the Nazi crowd. She reloaded twice during our move back towards the bend in the hall. Using their own men as cover, it was as we approached that bend that the soldiers had finally found their footing and began returning heavy fire. Over the smoke
and gunfire, I could hear Herrmann shouting in both German and French, demanding that they kill us.
We finally rounded the corner in the hall, and an idea came to me. I pointed at a painting on the wall, and shouted to Olivia, "I'll cover you!" She understood my meaning and began setting the painting on fire. I fired into the plumes of smoke billowing into the hall. As the painting went up in bright orange curls of flame, Olivia took it down and slid it across the floor and against a far wall. The flames leapt upwards and caught the dry wallpaper very quickly.
We sprinted down the hall away from the Nazis and fire. The stairs came at us quickly and we took them two and three at a time. We were on the third floor and terrified that we were about to run into more soldiers, but they must have all been upstairs.
We came to the first floor and we had not seen a single Nazi, yet. It was in the hotel lobby that we found that some soldiers had been left to guard the front.
Our emergence from the stairs took them by surprise and, placing several bullets into one soldier, I took the time to draw my magical sword. I dropped it onto the arm of the nearest Nazi as he drew his pistol and I wasn't surprised that it did nothing except remove his hand at the wrist. Its magical properties, as I had assumed, were only effective against beings of the void, but its sharp blade was effective against whatever I introduced it to.
Olivia made short work of two more of the soldiers as I shot one and stabbed at another. As he rested on my blade, abdomen pierced by black metal, he still raised his weapon, intent on taking me with him. I swung my pistol around and shot at his head. To my dismay, my gun only clicked on an empty chamber.
I had no time to think as terror filled my mind. His gun took aim and he pulled on the trigger, but I was fortunate to not be traveling alone. Olivia's gun fired a second before his could and his head blossomed in an explosion of gore.
I pulled my sword free and we exited the now empty lobby into the street.
Running across the street and away from the flaming hotel, gunfire echoed behind us. The pavement at our feet shot upward in chunks as Nazis came from the blazing hotel, hell-bent on finishing us. Already Andorran Police were driving up and jumping from their cars.
The Adventures of Andrew Doran: Box Set Page 9