The Eyrie, Tenth Level
Hoffman was trying his best to slip his hand out of the handcuffs, but they were too tight. Hoffman started looking around for a way out.
“I see the Captain decided to save you instead of kill you, Colonel,”
said Will, who had teleported inside of the holding cell in front of Hoffman, startling him in the process.
“What the hell are you, you bastard?” Hoffman yelled, both defiant and scared at the same time.
“Someone who doesn’t like you very much, you sick son of a bitch.”
A sneer came over Hoffman’s face with as much bravado as he could muster.
“Yes, well, whatever you feel towards me is irrelevant. The fact is I’m an important man and I have lots of information that I will share with the Allies - for a price.”
“And what price is that, Hoffman?” said Will with disdain spilling from his voice.
“I want immunity from prosecution for war crimes committed by me and by those under my command. I want to be relocated to America where I can live out my days enjoying the sun with Uncle Sam paying me a nice pension. Maybe I’ll even find a nice American wife,” he said with a mocking laugh.
An expression of utter disgust came over Will’s face. Hoffman continued.
“It appears that you aren’t too happy with the turn of events, ‘General,’” Hoffman said, laughing even louder. “And you know what? Instead of being shot by a firing squad for murdering all of those filthy Jews, I’ll be living the good life on the beach somewhere in California or Florida perhaps? And if you don’t make all of that happen, I’m sure the world would love to know about you.”
Will’s face turned rigid, and his eyes shone brightly with hatred. When Will turned to face Hoffman, the look on Will’s face frightened him.
Grasping Hoffman by the arm, Will said, “I have a better idea.”
Will then disappeared off of the Krelian ship with a shocked Hoffman in tow.
The Eyrie, Tenth Level
As soon as they appeared on the tenth level of the Eyrie, Hoffman started protesting loudly.
“You can’t kill me! It’s against the Geneva Convention!”
“I don’t plan on killing you,” Will said as he handcuffed Hoffman to a steel support column. “But you are going to pay for your crimes,” Will said coolly. “Oh, and by the way - fuck the Geneva Convention.”
“I was only following orders!” said Hoffman, not really believing his own lie.
“Perhaps, but I have no doubt you took a few liberties of your own, you sick bastard.”
Hoffman looked defeated, frightened, and resigned to whatever his fate was to be. “What is going to happen to me now?”
“The ‘explosives’ I had my men set aren’t exactly explosives. When they go off, they will not only obliterate every trace of this place, but will replace the rock and dirt that was dug out of here when it was built. It will be as if it never existed. All of the people inside and outside of it, including you, will literally become part of the mountain.”
Hoffman’s eyes became filled with fear.
“NO! You can’t do that! Please, I beg of you! NO!” he screamed.
“I’m sure the fathers of all of the children you raped and killed in front of them over the years probably said the same words to you. I’ll show you the same consideration and mercy you showed them.”
Hoffman was stunned into silence for the moment.
“Auf Wiedersehen,” Will said as he teleported to the ninth level to the vault where the Krelian weapons and materials related to the Krelians were being housed. Will forced open the vault by ripping its doors off the huge steel hinges, recovered the weapons, and then destroyed all evidence of the alien’s presence at the facility with a blast of his laser vision.
Will then teleported out of the Eyrie and returned briefly to the Krelian ship. A second after he teleported, the ‘explosive’ devices, which actually contained an army of nanobots that were not only programmed to reduce the metal structures of the facility to their base materials but would also replicate the rocks and dirt and restore them to their original state of matter. After they concluded their work, the nanobots would then self-destruct so no trace of them would ever be found.
As the nanobots swarmed him, Hoffman started screaming, until the nanobots reduced him to a mix of base carbon material as well. This happened to all of the other soldiers, both alive and dead, throughout the Eyrie.
Outside of the facility, the bodies and weapons left by Brunner and his men, were also assimilated and made part of the mountain. The resulting action of millions of tons of dirt being reconstituted and reshaped caused the mountain to rumble for several minutes, much to the shock of the people in towns up to fifty miles away. Everyone assumed that a minor earthquake had hit the region. No damage was done anywhere else except for a few dishes and glasses that crashed to the floor of several houses in nearby towns and villages.
Chapter 85
Krelian Research Vessel
Will returned with the Krelian weapons from the vault, sans the three that were being used against the Allies by the Nazis. He presented them to Kaltor and Dal’tun who returned them to their weapons vault.
“Can you track where the other weapons are now?” Will asked Tal‘pun.
“Yes.” Tal’pun then gave the order to Jae’nol to locate the weapons using the tracking locators built inside each one. Once their locations were known, Will then teleported to each location to retrieve the weapons.
North Sea
At the first location, Will materialized just as the same Nazi from the German U-boat who had sunk the earlier convoy fired the same three-barreled weapon towards another convoy of Allied freighters, destroyers, and an aircraft carrier. Will intercepted the beams from the weapon just a millisecond before it struck the aircraft carrier by flying in front of it. Will, moving too fast to be seen, then plucked the weapon from the hand of the surprised Nazi and disappeared.
The U-boat was then struck by several cannon rounds from two of the destroyers in the convoy, sinking it to the bottom of the North Sea.
Woods Near Heidelberg, Germany
At the second location, Will arrived in time to see a Nazi sniper, armed with one of the alien weapons, preparing to fire on a tank unit that was moving through the woods en route to an engagement with a Panzer Division five miles east of the town.
The Nazis had obviously set this as a trap, and just as the trap was about to be sprung, Will appeared behind the sniper who was preparing to take out the lead tank.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” he said in German, much to the astonishment of the battle hardened sniper. The sniper pulled the trigger just as Will said this, but his timely appearance caused the weapon to miss its mark, hitting and obliterating a large pine tree to the left of the tank instead.
Will, who was wearing his Guardian uniform, took the weapon from the sniper, thanked him, and disappeared, just as the tank he had missed shot a round from its 88 millimeter cannon, hit the sniper’s blind and killed him instantly.
15,000 Feet Above Cologne, Germany
The Allied bombers were preparing to shell Cologne again, which by the war’s end would be bombed 262 separate times. As they opened the bomber’s bay doors to unleash their payload, a Nazi on the roof of a tall apartment building was preparing to fire the Krelian weapon at the bombers.
Will appeared just as the Nazi sniper pressed the trigger. Will flew in front of the blue laser light beam and intercepted it with his chest no more than a few feet from the bomber. Faster than the eye could follow, and before the Nazi could get off another shot, he snatched the weapon from the Nazi and disappeared.
The pilot and co-pilot saw the blue light when it was fired towards their plane. They could not understand how the Nazi sniper had missed them, but there was no time to worry about it. They unleashed their bombs, one of which struck the rooftop where the sniper had been hiding, and made his birth certificate a useless docu
ment.
Chapter 86
Krelian Research Vessel
Will returned with the remaining Krelian weapons and finished conducting the repairs on the exterior of the ship so it would be able to withstand the rigors of interstellar and light-speed travel as it transported the Krelians back to their home planet, while the Krelian engineers and Will’s nanobots completed the internal repairs.
After all of the repairs were completed, Will took the Nazi scientists to his ship, which he had enlarged to accommodate them, and placed them temporarily in a form of suspended animation. When Will returned to the Krelian ship, he used some Altrusian technology to heal Hammond, much to the surprise and delight of Hauser and the rest of the team.
Tal‘pun then approached Will a few minutes later. “In your absence I contacted the High Council to inform them of our status. Needless to say they were pleased that we were alive and wanted me to extend their gratitude for what you and your men have done.”
“No thanks are necessary,” Will replied. “Also, did you determine how the Nazis were able to fire your photon torpedoes?”
Tal’pun, with a look of disgust on his face, said, “Yes, that traitorous dog, Valtor, showed them how to bring them online and how to set the targeting coordinates. His fate will be left in the Council’s hands.”
“Although it may not make much of a difference, I don’t believe Valtor told them everything. The torpedoes that were supposed to strike one of our largest cities landed in the waters east of it all at one time. I believe that Valtor did not fully inform the Nazis how to compensate for the drag and friction the torpedoes would have to overcome in Earth’s atmosphere when they are normally fired in the zero gravity of outer space.”
“Thank you, Guardian. I will inform the Council of this and perhaps that will mitigate his punishment somewhat,” said Tal’pun.
Will nodded and then walked away where he was stopped by Hauser and the rest of his men.
“Colonel, earlier you promised us an explanation. We’d still like one, sir. That is if you’re willing to give it to us.”
“I guess you deserve that much, Captain.”
Will then spent the next few minutes giving them a condensed version of his life story. He told them he was born on Earth, and how he came to the attention of the Altrusians and was recruited as a Guardian, as well as the procedure that greatly enhanced his natural abilities, which gave him the super powers they had witnessed the last few days.
He finished his story with his current assignment to monitor Earth to make sure aliens didn’t contact humans before their time. He did not mention that he was immortal or had been born in the fifteenth century in England.
“What now, sir?” asked Hess. “I mean, what happens to us?”
“I will return you to Earth, and you will carry on with your lives as before.”
“That’ll be kind of hard, sir,” said Becker. “Knowing what we know now.”
“I’m afraid that I must erase the knowledge you have of the Krelians and me. My role can never be known. The human race is not ready to know that intelligent alien life forms exist, or that I exist.”
“Sir,” said Hauser, “I personally don’t want to have these memories taken away.”
The other team members chimed in as well with the same sentiments.
Will then thought for a few seconds before speaking.
“Captain, all of your men have performed above and beyond the call of duty. I will give you and your men a choice. If you choose to keep these memories, I will allow it. If anyone chooses to have them erased, then I will do that as well.”
None of the men wanted to have them erased.
“Very well. However, one thing I must do is prevent you from ever discussing these events with anyone - with the exception of the men on your team - for the rest of your lives. You will physically and mentally be incapable of discussing what happened on this mission with anyone else. You will only be able to discuss it with members of this group, but only if there is no one else around you. If you try to discuss them with anyone other than this group, the details will temporarily be erased from your memory. Can all of you accept these conditions?”
All of the men nodded and verbalized their acceptance of Will’s conditions. Will then used his hypnosis device on them to accomplish this.
Hauser then asked, “Oh, don’t forget about Hoffman. He’s still locked in one of the holding cells.”
“I’ve already spoken to Hoffman. Let’s just say that there was a change of plans where he was concerned.”
Hauser raised an eyebrow. “Where is he now? Did you kill him?”
Will then explained what the explosive charges that Hess and Hammond had set on the tenth level really were and how the mountain where the Eyrie had been located was a mountain once again with no trace of the facility whatsoever.
“Jesus! What a horrible way to die,” said Hauser. “Couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy.”
Will simply nodded and said, “My sentiments exactly.”
Tal’pun then approached Will and his men to express his thanks to them as well. Will translated his expression of gratitude.
“There is one more thing, Guardian,” said Tal’pun, “when I spoke with the High Council they wanted me to extend an offer to you. Your men have proven that at least some humans are ready to posses the knowledge that other sentient beings exist in the universe, and they would like to offer an opportunity for one of your men to travel to our planet and live among our people. He would be an ambassador of your world. We could learn much from him, and he could learn much from us as well.”
Will translated this to Hauser and his men.
“Sir,” said Hauser, “I can’t speak for all of the men, but I doubt that any of us would be too keen on leaving Earth to live on some other planet. But please thank him for the offer.”
Before Will could relay this to Tal’pun, Serrano spoke up. “Sir, I would like to volunteer for that opportunity if they will have me.”
“Why is that, Sergeant?” asked Will.
“Well, sir. I don’t have any family back home. My parents and grandparents are dead. I don’t have any brothers or sisters, and I’m not married. I think this would be an incredible opportunity for mankind to experience. It would be foolish to pass it up.”
Will then explained this to Tal’pun who smiled broadly. Tah’soon then advised Tal’pun that since Serrano had saved her life back in the Nazi facility, she would be happy to volunteer as his guide on their world. After saying this, she blushed slightly. Will noticed that Serrano couldn’t take his eyes off of Tah’soon either. Will smiled, but pretended not to notice their attraction.
“Sergeant, they would be honored to have you. Tah’soon has volunteered to be your guide on their planet.”
Serrano smiled broadly. This time it was his turn to blush.
“What are we going to say happened to Serrano, sir?” asked Hauser.
“Your story will simply be that he was killed in action by a hand grenade by one of Hoffman‘s men. Leave the rest to me, Captain. Gentlemen, I’m afraid that it’s time to go,” said Will.
Before they left, Serrano stepped up and shook all of their hands and bade them goodbye.
“Take care of yourself, Sergeant. Good luck,” Hauser said to Serrano as he clasped his hand tightly.
“Thank you, Captain.” Serrano started to turn away, and then stopped in mid-turn. “There is one more thing.” Serrano then took his dog tags off and handed them to Hauser. “Take care of them for me, Captain.”
Hauser nodded, and then saluted Serrano. Serrano returned the salute solemnly.
Afterwards, the Krelians and the humans said their goodbyes with Will acting as translator. Will then teleported his men and Erika to his ship where they made an uneventful trip to Earth.
As soon as they returned to Earth, Will remembered that he had a very large ice cube to dispose of that was sitting in the middle of New York harbor before it was discovered. Will li
fted the gigantic frozen wave, flew it to the middle of the Atlantic, gently lowered it into the ocean, and melted it with a few blasts of his laser vision.
Chapter 87
The White House
Oval Office
Hauser and his men initially returned to their respective units. Will saw to it that each of them received his choice of assignment and an increase in rank, courtesy of the president. He advised the president that each of his men should receive the Congressional Medal of Honor as well as the Bronze Star. The president agreed.
Will informed the president that Staff Sergeant Jaime Serrano had been killed in action when he was blown up by a hand grenade thrown by one of Hoffman’s men. Will also reported that the Nazis had killed the aliens before Will’s team had arrived because they had tried to escape, and their ship was destroyed, along with their weapons, by the atomic bomb that had exploded. The residual radiation left by the bomb had a half-life of about 300 years. “Maybe they could dig the aliens and their ship out then,” Will said sarcastically. Fortunately, the rest of Will’s team had made it out of the mountain facility before the bomb exploded.
When the president questioned Will as to why the pilots had not reported seeing the bomb explode, Will told him that it would be best if he forgot about the whole incident. Will further expressed his extreme displeasure at the president going behind his back and ordering the dropping of the bomb in the first place.
The president wisely took Will’s advice and shut the fuck up.
***
Will arranged for the Nazi scientists to be turned over to Colonel Donovan and his agents, after erasing all knowledge they had of the Krelians and him from their memories. Donovan was flabbergasted as to how these scientists got to U.S. soil. The president told him not to look a gift horse in the mouth, just accept the fact that they had all defected at once, and had made their way to the U.S. as a group. Eventually, several of them would become involved in working on the Manhattan Project.
Shadow Warrior: Destiny of a Mutant Page 34