by Kacey Ezell
“I thought that you might need them,” Wolffs said. “I anticipate that we might be living rough for a short time. My men all have packs, and I’ve a smaller one for you. Camping gear, mostly, and a weapon, if you want it. Though I suspect that you have your own defenses.”
“You suspect?” Lina looked up at him, her expression sharp.
“I know,” he confirmed, with another small smile. “My Oma had your talents. She taught us well. I have great respect for your prowess, as do my men. You need not fear untoward conduct from us, even without your defenses.”
Lina straightened her spine. “Herr Stabsfeldwebel, I would not have thought so ill of soldiers of the Reich in any case.”
“Then you are, perhaps, naive, Fraulein Oberhelfer.” Wolffs smiled sadly. “But it does not matter. The point is that you are safe, and we have a mission. Have you ever seen one of these?” He showed her the object he’d been holding in his hands.
It looked like a pair of pilot’s goggles with the glass fogged over. The head strap had been modified such that two earpieces dangled from the strap. A long cloth was attached to the back of the strap, and as she watched, Wolffs flipped this cloth over the rest. A memory tugged at Lina: during her early days at the Reichsschule, one young woman had learned of the death of her beloved at the front. In her grief, she’d gone mad and had broadcast her pain throughout the immediate area. The other psychics had been slammed by her rage and loss, and blinding headaches, ringing in the ears, and even seizures had resulted. Lina had been lucky. She’d been strong enough to block most of the onslaught, but even so, she’d been sensitive to light for days afterward. The cadre at the Reichsschule had consulted with some of the older psychics and had devised a device similar to what Wolffs now held. It was, in essence, a sensory deprivation hood. By removing external stimuli to the grieving girl’s mind, the other psychics were able to slip inside her defenses and push her into healing sleep. They’d hindered her ability to transmit, providing much needed relief to the rest of the psychic students.
“I have seen such a thing,” Lina said, her voice calm, though the sight of the device stirred a tremor of instinctive fear and loathing deep in her belly. “It can be used to shut down a psychic’s transmission ability, but only if there is another psychic, or more, available to run it.”
Wolffs nodded. “Yes. I believe there is a chance we may capture the American psychic alive. If we do, can you imagine the intelligence opportunities that interrogating her may provide? How many enemy minds has she linked to? How much has she seen through eyes other than her own? We must keep her alive and relatively intact. Your file said you were quite strong. Can you run one of these hoods?”
Lina swallowed hard against the ice in her belly. Using the combined power of several experienced psychics to gently shut down the transmission power of a grief-mad girl was one thing. Holding a forced psychic feedback loop against an enemy combatant was another. Lina didn’t know this American psychic, but from all she’d ever heard about Americans, they were bitter, vicious adversaries who would fight until long past the point where all hope was lost. This girl would fight her; she had no doubt about it.
“Remember Hamburg,” Schmied said softly. He stood with the others, ranged around her as she sat in the open motorcar. Lina looked up to him, and he gave her a gentle smile and a nod. His eyes, though, were hot and hard. They matched the fire of rage that burnt in Lina’s heart. The fire that, even now, melted the icy fear in her belly and straightened her carriage.
“I can, and I will,” she said, her voice quiet, but strong and cold as naked steel.
Schmied smiled, and Wolffs nodded again.
“So you will,” the Stabsfeldwebel said, deep satisfaction in his voice. “So. Let us begin our hunt. You must meet the rest of my men.”
“Kristof you know,” he said, gesturing at Schmied. “May I now introduce Unteroffizier Hans Richter, Unteroffizier Werner Zimmermann, Hauptgefraiter Horst Fischer, and Obergefraiter Willi Mueller. I have briefed all of them on what we know of your capabilities. It seems that now would be a good time for us to build your psychic network.”
Once again, Wolffs startled Lina with the abruptness of his manner. But he seemed almost...enthusiastic under his command demeanor, and she found that oddly disarming. So she nodded and reached out to him.
“It’s easier if there’s contact, the first time,” she said. He smiled as if to say he’d known that and took her hands in his own. Lina closed her eyes and stretched her awareness out to him.
It was so different from an interrogation. Instead of a criminal mind desperate to hide its secrets, Josef’s mind opened wide and welcoming. Lina shivered in pleasure as her consciousness slid over the landscape of his mind. He was all delicious male power. Strength, courage, determination...
You feel so good, he sent to her, his mind-touch almost tentative, then growing in confidence as he became more accustomed to her mind enveloping his.
As do you, she replied, almost shyly. It almost felt sinful.
How can this be sin? he responded. You are as strong and powerful in your way. It is natural that we should...I had not thought to tell you this right away, he admitted, a bit of rueful mortification coloring his consciousness for just a moment. But I find I cannot hide from you, Lina. The blood of psychics runs in my veins. My grandmother was powerful and fierce, just like you. Imagine what we could create together, the two of us. I had thought to woo and wed you, so that we might together give rise to a line of powerful, talented children who would serve our thousand-year Reich.
Surprise rocketed through Lina. Not at the concept. At school, they’d been very clear on this point: SS-Helferinnen were expected to pair off with brave soldiers of the Reich and be model couples, raising large broods of healthy, happy children. No one knew what caused psychic talent, but sometimes it did run in families, passing from mother to daughter, or grandmother to granddaughter. The Fuhrer himself had recognized that psychic talent was one that should be preserved and, if possible, cultivated. So it stood to reason that she would be expected to find a suitable mate and be about the process.
She just hadn’t expected it to happen so suddenly.
I apologize, Lina, Josef thought, sounding flustered and frustrated for the first time since she’d met him. I’ve handled this so badly. Please, do not think...I am not so cold and calculating as all that. Look...feel what I’m feeling! You must know how attractive I find you, how deeply I admire...well...everything about you.
And she did know. Suddenly, she saw herself through his eyes, and what she saw was breathtaking: fragile beauty underlaid with solid, steely determination and bright confidence in her own strength. Lina had never considered herself to be particularly fragile, but she supposed that compared to your average Fallschirmjager, she qualified as downright dainty.
...and that thought was clearly an attempt to self-distract. Lina squared her shoulders and opened her channels wider so as to let Josef see further into her mind as well. Further than she’d allowed anyone to see before.
I thank you, she said. She instinctively couched her articulated reply into formal tones, but the formality stood at stark odds with the intimacy of the connection Lina allowed. She could feel his presence, almost like a physical being, sliding over the contours of her consciousness. Like silky mink fur against the underside of her skin. Her entire being hummed with the connection, and the way in which he seemed to so perfectly weave himself into the fabric of her.
Someone coughed, a booted foot shuffled on the rocky ground. Lina blinked, recalled to the present after who knew how long. Josef still held onto her hand, her fingertips resting lightly against his palm. She looked down at the place where her skin touched his, then back up into his eyes.
We must include the others, she sent softly, regretfully. We have a mission.
Yes, he replied, but made no move to release her hand. Confusion and desire warred with duty inside him. She felt it, reveled in it. I want...I...
I know, she sent, soothing his need with her own. We will return to this...what we have found. But for now, the job.
Yes, he sent again, and dropped her hand with a wrench. A brief flare of something very like pain flashed in his blue eyes and then disappeared.
Lina inhaled a shaky breath and lowered her hand to her lap. Her fingers trembled, just a bit, and she hoped that none of the other men noticed. Or, if they did, that they’d chalk it up to the chill in the air.
Focus, she reminded herself. You must be calm for them, else they will not learn well how to be in a net.
You will teach them well, Josef supplied. I had faith in you before, but now that I have tasted the strength of your mind, I have no doubt. They could not be in better hands. Nor could I. His confidence sang down the link of their connection and bolstered her own. She felt her spine straighten, her chin lift. Time to do the job.
“Gentlemen,” she said. “I have created a psychic link with your Stabsfeldwebel. As you can see, he is taking no harm from the connection. In fact...well.” She broke off, not wanting to allude to what she and Josef had shared. Not yet. With a pulse of regret, she pulled back from him just a bit and allowed her mental barriers back into place. She didn’t need the intimacy of a full connection to build the net, and she wasn’t about to share that much of herself with all of the men. She was a bit startled that she’d even shared it with Josef, but she hadn’t seemed to be able to do anything else.
“I’ll go next, then, with your permission?” Schmied said, stepping forward with his sunny, charming smile. He held out his hand in invitation, and Lina gave him a tiny smile as she reached out to put her fingertips on his.
Once again, she reached out and gently slipped inside the barriers that guarded the sandy-haired Unterfeldwebel’s mind. Behind the easy charm, his mind was a roil of violence and anger. Kristof, it appeared, deeply felt the wounds inflicted upon his nation and countrymen.
I lost my family, as you lost yours, he thought, his words tentative at first, but growing in strength. First they ground us into humiliation after my father’s war, and when we have the temerity to try and rebuild our nation, they bomb us with fire and metal. I hate them for hating us so much.
Lina didn’t reply with words, merely wrapped her presence around him so that he could feel her there, know that she felt his pain and sympathized. So that he knew that he wasn’t alone.
None of us are alone, Josef thought, pushing the silent words down the lines of Lina’s net so that Kristof could hear them. We are brothers in this, family forged by blood and fire.
Kristof blinked as his vision tripled, then resolved into a single image as Lina sorted the optical inputs. Then he reached out his hand and clasped Josef’s forearm, just as Josef clasped his.
Brothers, Kristof repeated. Forever.
Lina felt a great swell of pride building deep within her chest. What magnificent countrymen she had! Whether it was the influence of the two men’s minds on hers or her own sentiment, she didn’t know, nor did she care. For the first time, this mission felt like less of a duty and more of a passion.
One by one, she added the other four men to the net, learning something about each of them in the process. Werner, it turned out, had a wife and baby daughter back in Salzburg. Horst stuttered and, therefore, rarely spoke. But his thoughts were lightning quick, the quickest Lina had ever felt. Hans exuded a focused loyalty: he’d follow Josef to the ends of the Earth. Like Kristof, young Willi had grown up on stories of the Great War and felt a deep pride at being among such elite company at the age of nineteen. She wove each of them into the connection, teaching them how to communicate down the lines of her psychic connections, how to channel their thoughts and shield their innermost mind...and how to share what they sensed.
When she was done, the Fallschirmjager could look through one another’s eyes, hear through one another’s ears, and know instantly the thoughts of every man in the group...as well as her own. Josef’s pleased response ran through her in a warm wave of affirmation.
This is how we will proceed, he said. From here we will hike to the wreckage, which was spotted approximately eight kilometers to the northwest of here. We will see what we can learn from the site, and from there, we will begin our search. Lina, you can hike while maintaining the net, yes?
Yes, Lina said, although doubt colored her mind. Maintaining a psychic net required a fair amount of concentration, and she would not be able to keep her full attention on their activity. She had a quick mental image of herself stumbling through the forest around them, tripping and falling behind.
A pulse of humor came down the net from Kristof’s general direction. We will not let you fall, Lina, he sent gently.
No, for I will punish any man who does not treat you like the treasure you are, Josef said.
If we do not get to him first, Willi said, with all of the hotheaded pride of youth. Lina turned a bit of her attention his way and realized the boy looked at her with eyes full of worship. He found her beautiful and powerful and was well on his way to a full-blown infatuation.
Do not be concerned for Willi, Josef said to her on the private channel she’d instinctively held open with him. He knows you are not for him. His affection will be from afar only and may, in fact, help to keep you safe.
Lina responded without words, just by sending a pulse of awareness, of the sense of deep connection that had suddenly tied Josef into her being in an utterly unexpected (and still somewhat undiscovered) manner.
“Let us go,” Josef said out loud, and the men dispersed from the rough semi-circle they’d made around Lina as she created the net. They spent the next few minutes hefting packs, settling gear, and just basically getting ready to start their hike through the woods. Lina ensured her new boots were tightly tied and the psychic damping hood was accessible in her small pack.
The Fallschirmjager were predictably efficient about their business, and within a few minutes, they were ready to go. Josef ordered that Lina would march in the center of the group, immediately preceded by Willi and followed by Kristof. The two of them would be primarily responsible for her safety as they marched. Werner would take point, followed by Horst. Hans and Josef himself would bring up the rear so that he might watch and ensure they were all moving well.
They started out slowly, taking an easy pace through the heavy forest. Thick pine and deciduous trees tangled one with another, hiding the fact that the terrain consisted of rolling hills and ridges. The few paths seemed to meander, more like game trails than actual human roads. At first, Lina felt a stab of guilt. She was certain they were going so slow in order to be solicitous.
Not at all. The reassurance came from an unexpected source. Their point man, Werner, sent back the mental equivalent of a smile. It is good to start out slow, especially in heavy forest like this. We make less noise this way and prevent stupid injury while we get used to the terrain. Do not fear, we are not going to baby you, Lina. We will protect you, but we can all feel how strong you are. Weaker in body, perhaps, than us, you are clearly still every bit a soldier of the Reich.
Thank you, Lina sent to the man.
Of course, Werner replied. I imagine you and my wife would get along. You two should meet when the war is over. She is strong like you, though not psychic. But she does her duty in other ways, he said with quiet pride in his woman.
I would be honored to meet her, Lina said as she stepped over a fallen log. They appeared to be following one of the game paths that led along the side of the current ridge and over the far hill to the supposed crash site. As they hiked deeper into the forest, the broad leaves filtered the day’s sunlight and turned it a lovely shade of green. Though the woods weren’t silent, Lina felt a particular kind of hush settle over her as they hiked. The chittering of the birds and various small rodents that protested their intrusion just added to her sense of reverence. It felt like being in an emerald cathedral with choirs of small animals heralding their measured steps through the undergrowth.
Lina didn’t believe in a god, per se, but she couldn’t help but feel that the universe smiled on her and her team. Right was on her side, and for the first time since her family had died in fire and pain, Lina felt the dragging loneliness lift. She was no longer alone. Against all the odds, she’d found another family, here, with these Fallschirmjager.
* * *
Before long, night rose around them. When Josef finally called the halt, Lina stumbled to a stop, her whole body leaden with exhaustion. Still, a curious thread of exultation wound through the numbing fatigue. Whether it was the excitement of being on the hunt or the seductive kinship of the net itself, Lina didn’t know.
“We make camp here,” Josef ordered. Lina passed the message to Werner, their point man. He acknowledged and started back, passing along the thought he’d seen that clearing earlier and thought it would be a good campsite as well.
The Fallschirmjager obviously knew their various camp tasks well, for they went about them with a minimum of talking. Lina looked around, at a loss for what to do, and finally settled on shrugging out of her pack and setting it against a nearby tree.
“Oberhelfer,” Josef said. He’d walked up behind her, though she’d known he was there. Of course. She had the feeling that she’d have known it was him, even if they hadn’t been linked in a net. She straightened and turned to him, struggling to keep her face from showing the sudden joy she felt in his nearness.
“Yes?” she asked.
“You are still holding your net, yes? Perhaps you should let it down, in order to conserve your strength.” But stay with me, he didn’t say. She heard him anyway, on that incredibly private channel.
“Yes,” she said, hearing the mind-dragging fatigue in her own voice. “All right.”
I must rest now, she sent out to the men.
Of course you must! That was Kristof, over by the fire. He looked up at her with a smile, his sandy hair in disarray from his work splitting wood for their fire. She smiled back at him.