Black Ops

by Alan Baxter

  "What are you doing here?" a voice shouted.

  I lifted my goggles to see a plain-clothed man racing from the barrack house.

  He waved his hands above his head. "Go! Get out of here!"

  He was almost upon us when Peter raised his StG 44 and leveled it on him.

  "What are you doing, idiot?" the stranger shouted. "We need to…" His voice trailed off as he looked at me, seeming to really notice me for the first time. A woman in uniform was rare, but one driving a motorcycle was unheard of. "Who are you?"

  "Keep your hands where I can see them," I ordered. "What are you doing here?"

  "I… The castle," he stammered. "I'd heard it was abandoned."

  I narrowed my eyes. The man could have been a villager. The Nazis had been known to tell the locals to loot as they retreated. It destroyed evidence before the Allies might seize it. But his mannerisms, shoulders back, and straight posture said soldier. "When did they leave?"

  "A few hours ago."

  The car's tires ground over the pavement and Dennis slowed to a stop behind us. I didn't move my eyes from the stranger.

  "What's he saying," Peter hissed. He was the only member of our team that couldn't speak German. But his other skills, most especially Glisuan, had warranted his inclusion.

  "He said we missed them by hours."

  "We know that's bullshit."

  "Don't shoot," I warned, sensing his intentions.

  The man shifted nervously. Barely turning his head, he glanced behind him.

  "Is there anyone else?" I demanded.

  "No," the man said. "It's just me."

  "Right hand," Peter said. "Ring."

  The man must have understood some English because his straight fingers relaxed, curling and concealing the glint of silver on his right hand.

  They're dressed as civilians. Those cars we passed might have been theirs. Damn it! "When did they leave?" I demanded. "Where's Macher?"

  "They—"

  The barracks behind him exploded with a terrible roar. Glass, splintered shutters, and flaming debris blasted from the windows. Without the sidecar, the concussion might have toppled my bike. Stunned, my ears wailing in a high-pitched buzz, I looked around. Fire consumed the building, illuminating the lot and the castle beside us. Oily smoke plumed into the sky.

  The blast had knocked the Nazi to the ground. He scrambled up and started away toward his now fallen motorcycle, but Peter's gun barked two loud pops and the man staggered and fell. He rolled on the ground, clutching his hip.

  The American turned to me, his goggled eyes wide. "Are you okay?" I could barely hear him.

  "Yes," I forced myself to say. I gave a quick inspection that nothing was hurt or on fire. "I'm all right. You?"

  "Good." He crawled out from the sidecar and started toward the injured man, his rifle trained.

  A second explosion erupted to our left. Flames burst from one of the smaller castle towers. Bits of rock and wood rained down like hail stones. A section of wall lurched and fell away. Fiery smoke poured from the opening.

  Choking on dust, I turned around, twisting in my saddle. They'd wired the building to blow. We needed to get out of here. The car's windscreen had shattered. "Is everyone all right?" I coughed.

  Shielding his eyes from the flickering light, Richard pointed behind me. "Look!"

  Whirling, I searched the smoke and shadows and gasped. Enormous, hunched figures poured out from the castle like rats fleeing a sinking ship. They ran from the smoking hole and clambered out the windows, scuttling up the walls.

  A pair of beasts burst through the castle's double doors. They charged across the short, stone bridge toward us, running on all fours like albino, hairless gorillas. Snarling, the lead monster pounded toward the injured Nazi.

  "I'm one of you!" the man shouted, holding up his bloodied hands.

  The creatures slowed, their eyes locked on the silver ring.

  "They are enemies of the Reich!" The man gestured our direction. "Kill them!"

  To my amazement, the monsters followed his orders, aiming their charge toward us. Any assumptions I'd had that these were mere demons were instantly dashed. I ripped Feuertod from his sheath, ready to take them on.

  Shots erupted to my right. Rifle at his shoulder, Peter fired at the creatures with rapid bursts. The lead one stumbled and the second one trampled over it. Bloody plumes exploded across its chest. The silver bullets definitely hurt them, but not enough to ensure a quick kill.

  Staggering, the creature bellowed, spraying bloody froth. It swiped its claws at me, but I sidestepped the clumsy attack and slashed my rapier across its side. Split ribs peeled apart and the monster screamed. I moved to finish it off, but was forced back as a third beast leaped toward me. It swung its enormous arm, claws splayed. I raised Feuertod into the attack, bracing the sword with both hands. The blessed blade met the beast's forearm, slicing through the muscle and bone. Blood sprayed and the severed claw flew past my shoulder.

  The monster fell without a sound and began shriveling back to its once human form. The ring, I thought. Remove the rings and they die.

  More machinegun fire thundered. Someone screamed.

  Creatures continued fleeing the castle, most heading our way. The other knights were out of the car. Richard twirled Saighnean in tight, elaborate circles around himself, the blade accelerating to a metallic blur. Dennis stood behind him, his arm cocked and mace ready. Peter fired the last of his magazine at a charging beast and dropped his rifle. I didn't see Audrey at all.

  "What's the order?" Peter asked, drawing Glisuan from his belt as he hurried toward us.

  Dennis' response echoed my sentiments. "Kill the fuckin' bastards."

  "Do it," I ordered.

  Setting his jaw, Peter faced the oncoming hoard and swung the Norse axe as if throwing it. A brilliant purple-white lightning bolt shot from the head with a deafening crackle. It arced and jumped between two of the monsters. Electricity skittered between the fangs on their open mouths and danced across their bodies. Fire spewed from their blackening skin and exploded from their eyes. The monsters fell, smoldering.

  More of them poured down the castle's walls and clambered up the low trench, separating it from the car park. A wave of snarling beasts charged toward us.

  "Circle up!" I ordered.

  Another brilliant stroke of lightning lanced up the castle, knocking one from the roof and setting it ablaze. The bolt's jagged image lingered in my vision even after I blinked. Dennis fired a luger in his off-hand, wounding two with silver slugs before the gun clicked empty. We formed a rough circle with Richard to my left, facing the oncoming hoard.

  A closing beast leaped and came down at Richard, claws out. They met the whirring haze of his moving sword and were unmade as the blade shredded them. Blood and bits of fingers and bone sprayed everywhere –a truly spectacular sight had I not been in the red mist's range. The offending ring, destroyed or severed from the host, and the monster crumpled without a sound.

  "Helen, I'm opposite you," Audrey's voice called from the shadows. "Don't fire."

  Bypassing Richard's field of death, one of the monsters moved toward me. Gripping my rapier tight, I crouched, readying for the attack. The giant beast approached cautiously, black eyes locked on my blade. These things were tough. I needed to kill it or remove the ringed finger in one strike or else it would tear me apart. Moving the blade to the side, I began a feint when Audrey melted out from the space behind it, the shadows peeling from her like smoke.

  She slashed Rowlind along the backs of its legs, hamstringing it. Bellowing, the maimed creature lurched backwards. It stepped to catch itself, but its injured leg folded beneath it.

  Audrey had already melted back into the shadows before the beast hit the ground. She reappeared two yards away, crippling another as she ran.

  I sprang at t
he fallen monster, and drove Feuertod up under its ribs. Pulling the sword to the side, it sliced a devastating wound.

  Glisuan's lightning crackled again. The sharp stink of ozone tinged the smoky air.

  Another beast stepped over its fallen brethren and lunged toward me. Stepping into the attack, I ducked the blurred arc of its claws and slashed my sword deep across its belly before moving to the side. Blood and entrails spilled from the wound but the creature refused to fall. Screaming, it took a lumbering step and raised its claw. I rammed Feuertod through its open mouth, sending six inches of steel out the back of its skull. The monster fell so suddenly that it almost wrenched the impaling sword from my grip.

  A roar bellowed beside me as a creature fell to its knees, another victim of Audrey's blade. Dennis slammed his mace into its side, launching the corpse ten feet where it crashed into another.

  The flames had spread through the castle and completely consumed the barrack house. Audrey's translucent form solidified as the welling orange light flickered across the lot.

  A ring of mutilated and burning bodies surrounded us, most dead but a few still messily expiring. The near-forgotten Nazi was crawling to the edge of the car park, trailing blood. Peter launched another stroke of lightning, picking off one of the stragglers loping our direction.

  The brief flash illuminated a half dozen more of the monsters racing away down the bare hill below the castle. Damn.

  "They're going for the village!" I shouted. "Dennis, get in the sidecar. The rest of you finish these off." I stabbed my sword in the crawling man's direction. "And someone stop him!"

  Hurrying between fallen corpses, I climbed onto the motorcycle.

  Dennis awkwardly folded his enormous frame into the tiny cab.

  "Hold on," I said and gunned the engine.

  Tires squealed as we took off, the jolt knocking him the rest of the way into the seat. I steered the bike around and started down the walled road. Lightning flashed behind us. The slitted beam from the head lamp cut through the smoky haze. We rounded a turn, a maneuver made slow from the heavy sidecar, and we were now facing the sloping hill.

  The great fires above lit the scene before us. Dark silhouettes moved in the distance on all fours headed toward the village. Light peeked through open windows as citizens watched the fortress burn.

  We had to stop them. None of the villagers or approaching American army had any defense against the Nazis' abominations.

  "There!" Dennis shouted, his words drowned under the engine's roar. Leaning into the mounted gun, he squeezed the trigger, unleashing a gout of stuttering fire. Tiny pink comets of tracer rounds, mixed with the silver ammunition, flew across the open spans. A second barrage peppered one of the beasts and it fell, tumbling down the slope.

  The other monsters charged toward us, keeping low as more bullets sailed wildly above them.

  A beast leaped as it reached the stone embankment, claws splayed as it flew toward us. Dennis swiveled the gun and unleashed a stream of fire, nearly sawing it in half. The corpse landed in the road just before us. I jerked the motorbike to the side, almost tipping it. The wheels struck the beasts leg, launching us momentarily airborne before the bike thudded down. Amazingly, we didn't crash. Aside from weapons, I must confess that Germans do make a fine vehicle.

  We hit a straightaway and I gunned the engine. Wind whipped my face as we shot down the hill. Reaching the curve at the bottom, I slowed and turned, giving Dennis' gun full view of the hill.

  The MG34 roared. Pink comets shot up the slope, their ricochets bouncing off rocks like errant fireworks. Two more of the creatures fell. Another stumbled as bullets struck its thick thigh, but the gun fell silent before finishing it off.

  "Out!" Dennis shouted.

  Dismounting the vehicle, we marched up the slope. I dispatched the final monster with a quick thrust of my sword.

  I surveyed my surroundings but couldn't find any more of the creatures. A few silhouettes still watched us from the village's windows. Tomorrow they'd share stories about how the Nazis had burned the castle and in dawn's light see the executed prisoners that had tried to flee. I amputated the corpse's ringed finger and wrenched the silver band free. "Collect the rings. Then let's get back and see what our prisoner can tell us about where the weapons are."

  2 May, 1945

  "They're loading the boats," I said, peering through the field glasses. I lay in the hollow of a bomb crater, with a commanding view of the small encampment. SS soldiers, many of them so young I doubted they could even remember a time before Hitler's reign, patrolled the convoy of trucks parked alongside a lake. Pale moonlight reflected across the still, black waters.

  For a full month we'd pursued our quarry. By the time we'd made it to Augsburg, Macher had already delivered the stolen artifacts. A special SS division called the Nibelungen had taken the treasures east, destined for Czechoslovakia.

  With the countryside swarming with Nazis either preparing for a glorious last stand or deserters desperate to flee their inevitable destruction by the Allies, we had to move slow. Spending our days hiding in barns and bombed ruins, we followed them past Munich, were nearly struck by an air raid outside of Freising, and had nearly caught up at Landshut. However with the bridges out and the Allies drawing near, the Nibelungen turned south. Now, on the shore of Chiemsee, a Bavarian lake, they'd halted again. This time we'd caught them.

  "What's the plan?" Richard asked.

  I offered him the binoculars. "Appears to be just troops and weapons right now. They probably want to set up on the far side before transporting the artifacts."

  "Less for us to deal with," Peter whispered.

  I nodded. "Agreed. The weapons and the cauldron are most likely in the truck parked closest to the centre."

  "Look to have a nest setup in that old house to the west," Richard said. "Someone there just lit a match."

  "We should expect another one on the eastern side as well," I said. "I'll have Audrey take a look."

  "I'll see what they have," came a voice to my left.

  I spun, my hand instinctively moving to my pistol before I recognized Audrey's voice. Heart thumping, I released a breath. The shadows beside me appeared to pool somewhat, as if cast by some non-existent tree. Squinting, I could just make out the knight's translucent, crouched form.

  "Jesus Christ," Peter growled. "You scared the hell out of me."

  "You should be used to it by now," she said unsympathetically. "I found a soldier patrolling our way. With luck, they won't realize he's gone until it's too late."

  "Good work," I said. Previous attempts at interrogation had proven useless. Himmler had fashioned the SS into a zealot cult – a perverse Teutonic Order. As the mythological beings they'd been named after, the Nibelungen protected a great treasure. They'd happily die before betraying the cause.

  "I'll scout around and find the best point of attack," Audrey said. "How long do I have?"

  "Make it fast."

  She was gone without a word. The faint crunching of boots on grass was the only sign of her passing.

  "I can't believe we've almost got them," Richard said.

  Peter grunted. "Don't count your chickens. Any sign of those kesselgeburten bastards?"

  I shook my head. "Two of the trucks are reinforced. Possibly those. I doubt the Nazis trust them enough to simply let them wander around."

  Countless hours hiding and waiting for nightfall had afforded us ample time to read the captured documents. The cauldron was the first half of the Nazis' hideous plan to create an immortal army. Crafted from ten kilos of solid gold, and inscribed with Celtic spells, it served as some blasphemous Holy Grail. The silver skull rings of the Reich's chosen warriors served as the second half. Upon the wearer's death, they trapped the life essence. The ceremony for the resurrection had been incinerated when we'd burned the truck, and I didn't mourn its loss. The Na
zis had used the rings to resurrect their fallen by drowning prisoners in the cauldron filled with human blood. Evidently they hadn't expected them to transform into monsters.

  Savage and incapable of speech, the creatures served the Nazis, as they were the only ones who could make more of them. Even then, the beasts were prone to violent outbursts and had killed several of their makers. Afraid of their new super-army, the Nazis armed themselves with silver weapons. Silver being the element of their binding, it could also bring their death. Upon learning the true nature of the nine thousand Totenfomphrings, we'd promptly cut each of them in half, rendering them useless.

  Our mission objectives had changed. In addition to retrieving the plundered holy weapons, we had to either capture or destroy that golden abomination.

  * * *

  "Everyone, take one of these." Dennis held out a pair of potato masher grenades, their heads wrapped in gauze.

  "What is this?" I squeezed the end, feeling metal shifting beneath the tight binding.

  "Little somethin' I made up while waitin' for you to get back from scoutin'. Took some of those cut rings and wrapped 'em up. Recon if more of those big bastards come out, silver shrapnel might ruin their evenin'."

  My brow rose. "Very clever."

  He timidly shrugged his massive shoulders. "Well, let's hope they work."

  "Let's hope we won't need them," Audrey said, tucking one into her belt. She wore two more grenades of the regular variety.

  "Are we clear on the plan?" I asked.

  "I still say I should take the nest," Peter grumbled.

  "Non-negotiable," I said, keeping my voice even.

  Richard's eyes dropped away. At least he knew better than to argue.

  Peter gave a curt nod. "Understood."

  "Good," I said. "Let's have at it. We haven't much time."

  Audrey turned and hurried away. She drew Rowlind and ribbons of night wrapped around her. Staying low, the rest of us circled around, exiting the grove of trees and making our way through the cratered field.