“I see I have no choice at the moment. What do you want from me?”
“What is your rank?”
“Hauptmann.”
“Alright Captain. Who is the ranking leader?”
“Oberst Schäfer.”
“And where is Colonel Schäfer?”
“On the top floor of wing B.”
“The middle wing?”
“Ja, B.”
“Slowly get up and get dressed Captain. Do not do anything foolish, please.”
Miller removed the barrel from the Captain's face and he slowly rolled over and swung his legs out and put his feet on the floor. He stood, put on his pants, shirt and jacket.
“May I brush my teeth?” he asked.
“Later. For now you will go with this man,” Miller said, indicating one of his men.
“Where are you taking me?”
“Just go with him. He will take you to where our other troops have a safe area for you.”
“I would rather not.”
“Sorry Captain, it is not a request. Take him Corporal,” Miller said.
Corporal Molson placed his hand on the Captain’s arm and led him down the hall and out to the internment area they had set up earlier.
“Let’s by-pass the other floors and go straight to the top floor and find this Oberst Schäfer. Once we get him he can order the rest to lay down their arms,” Miller said to Sergeant Wilson.
They slowly crept up the four flights of stairs until they came to the top floor. Wilson quickly looked around the corner. He put two split fingers at his eyes and pointed towards the hall. He held up two fingers indicating that he had seen two guards. Miller nodded in acknowledgement.
There was no way to subdue them by rushing them. They would be able to sound an alarm as soon as they started down the hall. He did not want to kill the two men but had few choices. The hall was dark with only the moon shedding any light on the hall.
He decided he would take a chance. He slid the sling with the H&K behind him, took a deep breath and stepped out into the hall and hurriedly walked down the hall keeping to the shadows. He was half way to the guards before they even looked up.
“Who is there?” the guard challenged.
“Hurry, we must get Colonel Schäfer immediately. Russians and Americans have invaded. Hurry,” Miller said walking briskly towards them.
The guards looked at each other, trying to decided what to do next but by the time they realized the man was not in a German uniform it was too late.
“Don’t. Drop your weapons and no one will get shot.”
The guard closest to him lay down his weapon but the other guard pulled his up. Miller shot him before he could get to the trigger. The man was thrown back against the wall and slowly slid down to the floor leaving a streak of blood on the wall.
Miller listened but no alarm came. The silencer had only made a slight burping noise.
The rest of the men came quietly up the hall and stood looking down at the dead guard.
“No choice,” was all Miller said.
“Colonel Schäfer is in this room?” he asked the guard.
“Ja.”
“Take him down with the others. Two of you go just in case you run into any trouble.”
The guard was swiftly ushered down the hall and around the corner.
“Same plan as we used last time. I’ll go in first. Sergeant Wilson is second,” Miller told the men.
“Sir, I would like to go in first this time. It is making me look bad.”
“Oh bull. Who cares who goes in first?”
“I do. Please sir.”
Miller rubbed his eyes. This was a stupid time to be letting egos get in the way of what needed to be done.
Finally he said, “You go first but keep low and move fast.”
“Thank you Colonel,” the Sargent said.
Wilson stooped over and placed his hand on the door knob. Slowly he turned it and pushed the door open. He moved into the room quickly but a shot rang out and Miller heard the bullet's impact.
Wilson let out a grunt and dropped to his knees. A second bullet whizzed by Miller's head. He realized they were silhouetted by the open door. He dropped to the floor and his hand slid in a sticky liquid. It was Wilson’s blood on his fingers.
“Colonel Schäfer. This is Colonel Miller with the combined forces of America, Russia, Spain, and Italy. We have the entire building surrounded and I do not want to kill you. We were sent here by the new Chancellor Herr Ramsden. General Scheck has been arrested and is being tried for treason. If you lay down your weapon now, no harm will come to you. If you don’t then we will take you dead or alive. The choice is up to you.”
Three shots quickly rang out, shattering a mirror above Miller's head. Shards rained down on him as he was crouched behind a desk.
“Don’t be stupid. There is no need for anyone else to die today. Drop your weapon.”
Another shot careened off the floor.
“Have it your way Colonel,” Miller said and turned to the others just outside the door, “Careful coming in. You will be silhouetted if you don’t stay low. We are going to have to eliminate him I am afraid.”
“Roger. Now,” the man shouted back and burst into the room with the MP5 of full automatic.
The other man with him did the same. Miller let loose with his MP5 as well, emptying the clip. The flashes from the gun were like a strobe light and gave the room a surrealistic look.
“Hold your fire,” Miller said and everything got dark again.
“Colonel we can do this all night. We have plenty of ammunition and you do not. The guns cannot be heard by your men as you are undoubtedly aware. Come out without your weapon.”
Miller listened but only heard a slight moaning sound. It couldn’t tell if it was Wilson or the German.
“Wilson?”
“I’m fine. Took one in the arm but it’s not bad. Lost my weapon in the dark. Thought it best to just lay here and keep quiet.”
“Good plan. I think the Colonel is down,” Miller said, “See if someone can find the lights.”
“Got it over here. Watch your eyes.”
It took a second to adjust then Miller looked over the desk. He could see the German Colonel lying in a pool of blood. He went over and kneeled down beside him. He could see five entry wounds. No way was he going to make it.
“Why didn’t you just give up? This was senseless.”
“Honor,” the Colonel croaked out.
Miller just looked at him, “No. There is no honor in dying for a worthless cause. What you have done here in Austria is dishonorable. You can’t make up for that by claiming you died for honor,” Miller said standing and walking out of the room.
“Let’s go, we need to get this finished,” he said and the others followed him down the stairs leaving the German to bleed out.
They met up with Nitikin and his troops. The rest of the German officers were sitting on the ground with their legs crossed.
“I think we are home free. We have them all except for three or four that chose to resist. I understand the Colonel gave you no choice either.”
“Dumb. He died for what? He said honor but it wasn’t an honorable way to die. It was senseless.”
“You cannot choose a man’s fate when they back you into a corner. You did what had to be done.”
“I suppose, but it seems such a waste. Here he survived the initial onslaught of death only to die for an immoral cause. What a waste.”
“Hopefully this will be the end of the bloodshed. I am having the officers’ line up and we are going to march them out to within thirty meters of the Flakturm and order them to have the men come out and lay down their arms. Of course we will be at their backs just in case they do something as stupid as the Colonel. Germans are strange people and the Army the strangest of all so I don’t really know what will happen.”
“You will shoot the officers if the enlisted men don’t surrender?”
“I am certainly no
t going to have any more of my men killed or wounded. My obligation is to them. Do you disagree?”
“I don’t like it much but I understand your position. I am under your command and I will support your decision if it comes to that,” Miller replied.
“Good. You are an excellent officer. It is an honor to serve with you. Now shall we end this business?”
“Oh yes, I am more than ready to get it over with.”
* * * *
The German officers stood in a line in front of the tower. A guard had seen them marching out and then stop. He alerted the Stabsgefreiter who watched from the seventh level portal.
“Senior Corporal Gottlib. This is Major Klub. We have been ordered to lay down our arms. We are to return to Germany immediately.”
“Major Klub,” the Senior Corporal yelled down, “I need to have my orders from Colonel Schäfer, sir.”
“Colonel Schäfer is no longer in command. He has been incapacitated. I am now the senior officer and I am ordering you leave your weapons and come out of the tower.”
“Sir. I don’t understand. Why are we being sent back in such a manner?”
“Corporal, I do not have to explain myself to you. You will have your men come out immediately or I will have you relieved of duty and tried for disobeying a direct order from a superior officer. Now have your men come out this minute or suffer the consequences.”
The corporal didn’t answer for a few seconds.
Finally he yelled down, “Sir, I will do as you order. The men will leave their weapons and assemble outside.”
“Very well corporal, make it quick, you have already wasted enough time,” the major shouted up at him.
Within a few minutes all the men surrendered. No shots were fired and no one seriously resisted. The officers were separated from the enlisted men. The men were loaded on trucks and by noon they were on their way back to Germany with the American, Italian, Spanish, and Russians insuring they would do as ordered. They would be turned over to Herr Ramsden and he would decide what action to take.
The two Austrians, Hans Stigler and Ebert Hertz were placed in command of the Austrian Government.
* * * *
The Russians delivered the Americans back to Amsterdam where the USS Salem was waiting to take them back to America. Of the Six hundred and forty-three men and women that came across, six hundred and forty would be returning. During the entire campaign only three were KIA and another nineteen were wounded in action.
“It has been an honor to fight alongside you Major Miller,” Nitikin said as the men were being loaded on the ship.
“You are a very effective leader. I can’t begin to tell you how privileged I feel to have been with you on this mission. You are an accomplished tactician and your planning is superb,” Miller replied.
“I hope we meet again but without the need for weapons. Good luck on your voyage home,” Nitikin said shaking his hand.
“I look forward to seeing you again as well. I think Russia and America have made great progress in resolving any past differences,” Miller said.
“Yes, as long as we keep the politicians out of it,” Yegor said and laughed.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
- COLORADO SPRINGS –
“Randy isn’t coming to the meeting today. He is taking a break, which is good news. On top of that I have some exciting news,” Dan Pierson said as the Guidance League meeting started.
“Don’t keep us in suspense, spill it,” Margaret said.
“We have located a large group of survivors in New York.”
“What?”
“How could that be?”
“No way.”
“It’s true. One of our planes on the way to Quince had an emergency landing. While they were there a group approached them. Like us, they are a mix bag of people. A lot from the subways, DUMB facilities, and various deep vaults.”
“What’s a DUMB facility?” Margaret asked.
“Acronym for Deep Underground Military Base,” Kevin answered.
“Deep vaults?”
“Sure, the Federal Reserve keeps a lot of Gold in deep vaults along with some of our national archived documents.”
“So how many people are we talking about?” Angie asked.
“Almost fourteen thousand.”
“Get out,” Angie said.
“No way,” Kevin said.
“Way,” Dan replied.
“Are they coming here?”
“They don’t seem interested in joining us and that’s okay too. It will be good to have another large group of survivors. Like us, they are still taking in stragglers in small groups, mostly from caves. Nine came from a large underground storage facility used by a moving and storage company.”
“Wow, that’s incredible. Did you know we had a small group, four or five show up from Sand Hills Park in Hutchinson, Kansas the other day? They were in the film storage vault. Evidently Hollywood stores old films there.”
“In Kansas?” Kevin asked.
“Seems they are using a six-hundred foot deep old salt mine, and that isn’t the weirdest one. Several of the New Yorkers claim they were from Montauk.”
“Okay, I’ll bite. What is Montauk?” Kevin asked.
“Look, I don’t know if it’s true but I guess it could be. Montauk is a secret government facility located under Hero Park in Long Island. It is said that it is a base for government experiments that no one is to know about. Time-space manipulation was one of the things they were working on, at least the story goes. Who knows what our government does out of the public eye. They could have caused all of this,” Dan said.
“Don’t get paranoid,” Angie said.
“Hey, I’m just telling you what I have heard,” Dan said defensively.
“Hell of a story,” Kevin added.
“Amazing,” Margaret said.
“Any Canadians?”
“Fifty or so have come across from Canada so far,” Dan reported.
“I sure hope more than that have survived,” Margaret added.
“I’ll second that,” Angie said.
“Okay, getting down to business. The census is moving along faster than we ever thought possible. We’re about eighty percent done and should be done by the end of the month. The projected estimate of inhabitants has grown to close to seventy-nine thousand,” Dan reported.
“Any ethnic breakdown so far?”
“Well, as of the last report it was fifty-one thousand three hundred Caucasian or roughly sixty-five percent. Blacks are at nineteen percent which is around fifteen-thousand. Asians are another seven percent and the rest are various other groups.”
“What’s the male/female correlation?” Angie asked.
“Looks like close to sixty percent male, forty percent female, mostly due to the high number of military survivors,” Dan replied.
“Religion?”
“Right now as far as we know there are eleven churches. Catholic and Baptist are the largest. Methodists and the rest are some place down the line.”
“This of course doesn’t include Utah or now New York.”
“That’s correct,” Dan replied.
“Are we going to do anything about the New York group?”
“We are talking to them. More of an exchange of information at this point. We have extended the offer to come here but right now they seem to like it where they are. We are going to exchange a few of our technical people with them so they can pick each other’s brain.”
“Can’t say I blame them for wanting to stay there. I wouldn’t particularly want to move again,” Kevin said.
“Me either,” Margaret echoed.
“Now the other good news. Austria is an independent nation once again and our people are on the way home. They should be back in Colorado Springs in the next ten to twelve days if all goes well.”
“Just out of curiosity, did France ever send anyone?”
“Yeah. The last day after the fighting was over and Austria’s government
restored. They sent around a hundred men, mostly officers that pranced around wanting to give orders. Major Miller said it would have been funny if it wasn’t for the fact that they actually thought they should be in charge.”
“Obviously their world hasn’t changed much,” Kevin said, getting a chuckle out of the others.
“Next,” Dan said, getting back to business, “The Utah Freemen. Angie what can you tell us?’
“As you know, I have been working on ‘letting’ Laura cultivate me as a source of information. She has been careful but has grown more bold this past few days. I’ve been feeding her information about our military strength. I’ve told her that the only ones left were those unfit for combat. That’s why they are still here.
She has been pressing me to go on another inventory trip to Denver. So far I have told her that we won’t need anyone to do that for at least another week. We do have one coming up in Fort Collins. They have been working on clearing the roads and of course rotting vegetation. Right now they are pretty close to the Loveland turn off. It won’t be much longer. They have gotten the removal down to a science. Once the road is open we will start the inventory process.
If everything goes well, I will send Laura on that team. She will have plenty of time to slip off to Utah and report. Of course what she doesn’t know is we will not be in the places I told her about and of course our troops should be back in plenty of time to set up the ambush,” Angie told them.
“And she suspects nothing?” Kevin asked.
“I don’t think so or else she is an academy award winning actress. Remember, I’m not offering her anything; she is pulling it out of me, reluctantly. I only give her bits and pieces that way if she checks out what I tell her it will look authentic.”
“We need to get Randy involved in this. I know he is sort of out of it but this demands his attention.”
“Have you talked to him yet Angie?”
“Not yet. I just haven’t had the chance. I’ll find time today. I know this is pressing,” she replied.
“That would be great. We really need him onboard for this,” Dan said.
THE REVELATION - Book 3 (THE EVENT) Page 14