The New Adventures of the Eagle

by Pro Se Press

  He stepped back again and charged forward, this time shoulder first. The movement sent the door completely off the frame. He crashed down hard on top of the door and something else…a man that now laid beneath the door and The Eagle’s body.

  The man beneath the door was still very much conscious. He struggled to push the door away and free himself. But even as the door shifted, the Eagle noticed the glint of metal. Jeff saw the gun slowly slip from beneath the door. He instantly recognized the Luger P08, the favored weapon of the Nazis. The gunman turned the barrel towards the Eagle. Jeff leapt off the door just as the deadly projectile flew from the gun’s barrel.

  He hit the ground shoulder first, tucked in and rolled up and on to his feet. His own hand slipped in to his coat and yanked his own M1911 pistol from its holster. The German was already well to his feet as Jeff aimed his own weapon.

  “Drop it or I’ll plug you right here.”

  The German, a fresh faced boy no more than twenty-five, stubbornly raised his own weapon.

  “Die, American dog!”

  The Eagle unleashed three rounds. They ripped through the heart of the German and sent his body in to convulsions. The Nazi dropped to the ground a top the broken door… never to move again.

  Jeff took no chances. He kept his barrel pointed down at the German as he closed in. He bent down over the unmoving Nazi. He placed two fingers on the prone body’s neck. He found no pulse. Stone cold dead. An unfortunate situation, Jeff realized. He could have used the information the dead Nazi might have provided.

  He started to check the pockets of the Nazi’s trousers, but a quiet sob made him realize he wasn’t alone. He turned quickly, his gun still at his side and ready to shoot.

  A local girl sat in a heap on the floor. Her yellow and red sundress was a dirty mess. Her long black hair was a tangled mess around her head. Tears flowed down her face, but did little to mar an almost preternatural beauty.

  “Rosa Cruz?”

  She pushed her body up against the wall of the sparsely furnished room. “Please don’t hurt me. Please, I’ll do whatever you say.”

  “Rosa Cruz, my name is Jeff Shannon. I believe you called for me.”

  “Who? Y-you’re not here to kill me?”

  Jeff looked back at the dead German on the floor. “I believe that was his job. I’m here to find the rest of his pals before they cause any more trouble.”

  “Come on; let’s get you cleaned up quick…all right?”

  She nodded. He grabbed her by the shoulders and helped her to her feet. He guided her in to the sparse kitchen. It was little more than a sink, a stove, and a small open pantry, but it would serve its purpose. She turned on the water and rinsed off her face.

  Jeff moved back in to the living room. A single cot sat against one wall of the room. Otherwise it seemed barren of any furniture. A few English language pulps sat strewn across the floor just next to it. The Eagle knew they were popular among the G.I.s overseas, but he wondered what made a local girl interested in reading them.

  A single window sat on the wall opposite the door. Jeff walked up to it slowly and poked his head around. It opened up on to a field of trees, totally unclaimed land on the edge of the city. He quickly pulled his head back just before the shot shattered the window.

  It seemed the dead Nazi hadn’t come alone.

  Chapter Three

  One on One

  Rosa screamed in the kitchen. The Eagle turned and gave her a hard glare. He needed her quiet. She saw the look on his face and instantly clammed up. He only hoped she wouldn’t go in to shock. He needed her up and moving; he didn’t have any time for swooning.

  “Get down,” he said in a low voice. “Stay close to the ground and you won’t be an easy target. He’s made his presence known, but he will move in to make sure he gets the kill. If this Nazi plan is real, they will have to get rid of us to guarantee their own safety. That gives me the chance to strike. But I need you to be quiet. Can you do that?”

  She nodded.

  “Good. Whatever happens, stay in the kitchen and don’t say a word.”

  Rosa collapsed on the floor in front of the stove. She stared at him as he made his way over to the door. Jeff tried his best to ignore her presence. He needed to be ready to strike.

  He climbed to his feet just to the left of the broken door. He listened carefully to the sounds from outside…waiting for one specific voice.

  “Hey, papi. You looking for a good time.”

  The courtesan outside the building ran her hand down the chest of a businessman. From behind, Jeff couldn’t make out the features of the man. He wore only a natty blue suit and matching fedora. But from the bulge under his shoulder, it seemed clear he was packing.

  The Eagle squeezed the stock of his M1911. He needed to time the shot precisely. He couldn’t risk hitting the woman, no matter how seedy her profession. He needed to keep this one clean. Killing an innocent wasn’t in the game plan.

  “Get off me, dirne!” His words rang out with a thick, familiar accent, and his final German word made it clear from exactly where on the continent he originated.

  The German shoved the courtesan away. She fell back with a shout and crashed hard to the ground. She rolled away, tangled in her own outfit. Jeff saw his chance.

  The Eagle stood up, aimed his weapon and fired. The Nazi’s right knee exploded from behind. He immediately crumpled to the ground.

  The Nazi struggled to roll over and see his prey, but Jeff gave him no time. He hurled his body off the balcony and straight for the ground. He hit the dirt and went in to a roll. He came up to his feet just in time to drive his shoe heel down hard on the Nazi’s gun hand. The snap of bone made it clear the gunman wouldn’t use it again.

  The Eagle reached down and grabbed the Nazi by the lapel. He yanked the man face to face. Behind a pencil thin moustache, the German gritted his teeth. His knee was in bad shape and the damage would just be aggravated by being on his feet.

  “Who are you working for? Who’s the mastermind behind all of this?”

  The German opened his mouth wide, a motion Jeff recognized instantly. He shoved the barrel of his pistol in to the spy’s mouth. He wouldn’t be biting down on any cyanide capsule today. Jeff reached in to the German’s mouth and found the false molar on the bottom right. Jeff yanked it free and threw it to the ground.

  Jeff pulled his gun away and lowered it to his side. “Now that that’s out of the way, you’re going to tell me who you work for, right?”

  “Die, American pig!” The Nazi said as he spit in Jeff’s face.

  “That’s not very friendly,” Jeff said as he wiped his face on his sleeve. He brought his leg up and drove it in to the side of the Nazi’s right shin. The Nazi cried out in pain as the damage reverberated through his broken knee cap. The Eagle held tightly to the German’s lapel. He wasn’t going to fall yet.

  “Give me a name, and you can be the first of your friends to visit the stockade. Or I can keep finding new and interesting positions for your knee.”

  “Hans. Hans Reinhardt. I don’t know anything more than that. We never met in person. But he knows the American operations. He knows that a division of the fleet is coming in tomorrow. He knows where the base’s explosive cache is. We were supposed to steal it tonight and use it to take out the fleet when it’s docked.”

  “And cripple a chunk of the Navy in one fell swoop. Probably blow up the Marines at the same time. All he would have to do is mop up the stragglers and the local army wouldn’t stand a chance. He could take the island and open up the Pacific to his friends in Tokyo.”

  “Ja.”

  “He’s clearly got a man on the inside. I need a name.”

  “Nein. I do not know this. I was only supposed to kill the girl. He only ever gave us one mission at a time. It was all to work towards the plan tomorrow. She needed to die to keep the Americans from learning anymore.”

  “Well, you messed that one up, Fritz.”

  “Not yet, American
fool.”

  A knife appeared in the Nazi’s hand so fast Jeff couldn’t even guess its origin. He only had time to shove the Nazi away before it found his gut. The blade swiped across his stomach and sliced through his shirt. He felt the blood well up from the slice across his chest. A second later, and the move would have left him disemboweled.

  He leapt in to action as the Nazi struck again, seemingly oblivious of the damage done to his leg. The Nazi swiped again and again. He kept the battle in close, too close for Jeff to fire his handgun without taking a knife at the same time.

  The Eagle brought up the M1911 to parry a blow from the knife. The Nazi pulled down and away and sliced through the cuff of his shirt. Jeff pushed the pain away as he dropped down near the ground. He drove his leg up and in to the side of the Nazi’s injured knee. Without the bone and tendon to hold it together, the leg twisted inward. The bone ripped through the skin with a font of blood.

  The Nazi fell forward. Jeff rolled away as the German wildly swung the blade towards him. He came back up to a knee a yard away from the Nazi. Already the German spy was struggling towards him.

  Jeff brought up his pistol and emptied the chamber in to the Nazi’s skull. He holstered the gun and checked the wounds across his stomach and arm. They bled and stung, but they were superficial. He would live to fight another day.

  He turned back to apartment eight and the balcony above. Things were getting complicated. Perhaps Rosa Cruz could help sort them out.

  Chapter Four

  Answers and More Questions

  He found her still huddled on the floor, exactly where he told her to stay. She didn’t even look at him as he entered her apartment. She pushed harder against the cabinet as he walked in to the kitchen. He grabbed her by the arm and she let out a sharp cry.

  “Calm down. You’re all right for now. But you and I need to have words. Why are these men after you? How did you find out about the Nazis in Manila?”

  “It wasn’t on purpose,” she said. Her accent was almost perfectly neutral with none of the local accent. “I just listen to the airwaves and type out communications that come in on the Morse channels. It’s what I’m paid to do.”

  “And you received a transmission from the Nazis on the island?”

  “I didn’t know what it was at first. I thought it was just a bunch of random letters. It certainly didn’t come in as English, nor did it fit any of the basic or advanced ciphers. Or I didn’t think so at first. Anything that came out… wasn’t English, but after multiple attempts I realized that one translation came out in German. We have several international dictionaries on site, so I used it to translate out the words.”

  “What did the message say?”

  “All goes well with the plan... Base destruction imminent… Heil Hitler.”

  “And you say this came across with one of the base’s own codes? That shouldn’t be possible. Why would the Nazis use our own codes?”

  She pointed at the dead Nazi on the floor. “That man over there. I’ve met him once before.”

  “The Nazi? How?”

  “I didn’t know he was a Nazi at the time. He came in off a United States transport ship about eight weeks ago. Said his name was Sergeant Bradley. He was one of a squad of twelve men. I never really saw much of the rest of them, but Bradley would sometimes guard the wire station. We made small talk every once in a while. I thought he was getting ready to ask me out, but I think he was just trying to distract me.”

  The Eagle’s eyes turned cold as the realization of her words started to form. He needed to hear her suspicions in her own words. “Distract you from what?”

  “From their plans... The Nazis aren’t just operating in the city. They’re operating within the military itself. I don’t know how they got aboard, but they must have come in together with plans to destroy the base from within.

  “They were using the wire station to send out coded transmissions to… someone. I don’t know, maybe one of those German underwater vehicles?”

  “A U-boat? It’s possible, but I think that more is going on here than we know. It seems clear that you’re not safe here, Rosa. You will have to come with me until I can find you a secure location.”

  She nodded. “I don’t want to die, Mister Shannon. I did what I was supposed to do when I received suspicious messages on base. I don’t—”

  “Rosa, I can’t promise you won’t be in danger. But I will guarantee you that the safest place you can be is at my side.”

  She forced a smile. “I know you believe that, Mister Shannon. I only hope that it is true.”

  He rested a hand on her shoulder and met her eyes. “As long as I’m around, I’ll die before I let anyone hurt you. And please, call me Jeff.”

  “Jeff then... I trust you with my life. I-I don’t really have any other choice, do I?”

  The Eagle shook his head.

  “All right. Where will we go?”

  “I need to find these men on the base. Then I need to find out how they got here and who they were trying to call. We need to go back to the base.”

  “The base, but the rest will be waiting—”

  “They may be waiting, but they are in for a surprise like they’ve never seen before.”

  Chapter Five

  On the Base

  A quick phone call before their departure guaranteed that Colonel Lawler met them at the gate of the Marine base. He sat in the passenger seat of a beaten down open-roofed Studebaker. His aide, Corporal Strickland, sat at the wheel. Neither looked happy about their current surroundings.

  Outside the gate, Jeff’s shirt clung to his chest, but he kept his suit coat in place. Rosa stood beside him. She changed before they left, but she still wore a sundress. The simple yellow number matched the golden handbag she clutched in front of her. She wore a simple, wide-brimmed straw hat on her head.

  The gate sat about a hundred yards from the first of six barracks on the base. They formed a loose circle around the armory and command center for the facility. In all about six hundred soldiers were stationed at the base. It was by no means the largest base on the island; the Subic Bay facility was far more expansive. But it did serve as a command station for the training of the Filipino Army as well as the main American protectors of the island’s capitol. Without it, Manila would fall easily and the mainly naval force on the other parts of the island would be hard pressed to recapture it.

  Jeff and Rosa strolled through the gate. The Eagle ignored the Colonel’s disapproving scowl as he helped Rosa in to the rear seats of the car.

  The scowl remained on the colonel’s face as he turned and spoke. “This better be good, Mister Shannon. I don’t like this heat and I’ve seen no sign of disturbance anywhere on my base. I don’t appreciate being yanked around by some G-man spook. I have an army to train and a base to run.”

  “I understand your concern,” Jeff said as he climbed in to the back of the Studebaker himself. “Tell me, do you know a Sergeant Bradley?”

  “Willard Bradley? He came in with the last set of troops about two months back.”

  “Well, now he’s dead.”

  “What are you talking about, man? Some kind of killer is on the loose on this base?”

  “No, I shot him, Colonel. Before he and his accomplice could murder Ms. Cruz and me in cold blood.” The Colonel’s scowl turned to an expression of shock as the Eagle filled him in on both Rosa’s experience… and his own battle with the two false G.I.s. The Colonel took it all in patiently.

  When the Eagle finished, the colonel shook his head. “No, it can’t be right. I would know if they’re here.”

  “Not if your own intelligence techniques are being obfuscated. These men were trained for infiltration. If they’re here, they may already be in place within your intelligence team.”

  “You’re just a ray of sunshine, aren’t you? What do you want me to do, Mister Shannon?”

  “Get the Military Police to secure the rest of Bradley’s unit,” the Eagle said. “We nee
d to do full background checks on all of them. With all likelihood, the cell came in as one unit. A few hours in interrogation and they will tell me every one of their allies here on the island.”

  “I hope you’re right, Mister Shannon.”

  “It’s what they pay me for.”

  The Studebaker pulled up to the outside of the command center. Strickland put it in to park just inches from the front door, a simple locked wooden door. The Eagle frowned when he saw it. Not even a deadbolt. A resourceful man could open the door within seconds.

  Colonel Lawler simply took a key out of his pocket and unlocked the door. Strickland followed him in. Rosa started to rise from her seat, but Jeff put a hand on her shoulder.

  “Stay here.”

  “What?”

  “Stay here. This could be dangerous. You’ll be safer out here. I already saved you once. I’m not going to risk your life again.”

  “Dangerous, what are you talking—?”

  The Eagle heard a familiar click, the sound of a Thompson submachine gun. He grabbed Rosa and immediately yanked her to the ground.

  The bullets roared through the air as they struck the hard packed dirt. Bullets pinged and the Studebaker shook. Dozens of rounds ripped apart the upholstery of the car, but the solid steel frame would give them decent protection as long as they stayed low. Jeff knew it was only a temporary solution at best. They would come down to check their handiwork, and he needed to be ready for them.

  He yanked the M1911 from his shoulder holster. He reached down to his ankle and pushed up his pant leg. He pulled the second M1911 from his backup holster. The Eagle had the feeling he would need both.

  “I thought you said it would be safe out here!” Rosa’s words were barely audible over the pings of bullet all around them.

  The Eagle glared at Rosa. “I’m good, but I’m not perfect, dame! You ever shoot?”

  She nodded. “We needed to learn in order to work on the base… even the ‘Dames’.”