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“What is it?” Moeller growled. He had given clear and definite instructions not to be disturbed for the hour following his sessions with the English whore.
The man at the door clicked his heels and gave the Nazi
salute. “Mein Fuhrer,”
he said. “Something unusual
has occurred. The
Moeller turned and went to the window. From his room in the castle keep he had a full view of the harbour. Steaming toward the dockside was the supply ship, but as the soldier had said, the ship was a good two days early. My binoculars,” he said and waited until the soldier placed them in his hand. He brought the ship in close and studied the deck and bridge. There was something wrong in that the decks seemed completely empty. He panned the length of the ship and noticed something else. Where were the flags? The ship was flying none of the proper identification flags for entering the harbour.
“Sound the alert,” he ordered. “Send two squads to the docks. Something is wrong.” He turned and buckled on his sidearm. Putting on his hat he paused to study himself in the mirror. Then he headed out the door, picking up his escort on the way out.
“Anything on the radio?” he asked. It was just possible that the Nuremburg had finished loading early and its captain had decided to head out ahead of schedule. But it should have sent a radio message to that effect.
“Nothing, Mein Fuhrer,” the soldier answered.
Moeller quickened his pace, striding through the grand entrance hall toward the outer staircase. On the way he picked up several more guards. He stopped at the top of the stairway. From there he could overlook the interior courtyard and the top of the outer wall. He could also see the dock area and the outer harbour. “Schiese,” he muttered. “It’s not going to stop.” The Nuremburg was headed straight for the wharf, its bow wave indicating that it was moving full speed.
He raised his binoculars again and watched incredulously as the ship plowed
into the dock. It crashed through
the heavy timbers as if they were matchsticks with a crash that could easily
be heard from where he stood. She
ship went on and on, completely shattering the wharf and crumpling the
warehouses, and then something even more bizarre
occurred. Through the binoculars
he saw several figures running across the
deck. That wasn’t all that
surprising considering what had just happened, but in this case it
was. Almost certainly all of
the figures were women.
“
While he watched one of the women ran to the bow of the ship and then, against all common sense jumped into the mass of floating debris where the dock had been. The other two women ran toward the side of the ship and one of the lifeboats. They soon had it over the side and headed toward the water. “Watch where those cunts go,” he ordered. “Take them alive if possible, but if not….”
The officer he spoke to saluted and taking a squad with him headed out of the castle gate. He turned to the man next to him. “Get some men down to the docks. See what you can make out of that mess and see to anyone who is injured.”
Stupid
bitches. What the hell did they
seek to gain by what they were doing?
Damn! Would he never be
free of these cunts? He
was beginning to regret his plan to force
He contemplated going with the squad he had sent out to intercept the women,
but dismissed the idea. A dozen
men should be able to handle them.
He moved down the steps.
Most of the men in the castle had now assembled in the large parade
ground enclosed by the castle walls.
He sensed that there might be more to this ridiculous attack than
just smashing his dock and the warehouses on it, but he wasn’t certain
what. He was concerned, however,
that the Chilean authorities might be
involved. The last thing he needed
was for the Chilean military to get involved with his fledgling
army. He wasn’t quite ready
to go up against so strong a force yet.
However, the time when he would be able to was not far off, provided
he could learn
Perhaps it would be a good idea to deploy all of his
men. The more he thought about
it the more likely it seemed that the ship was purely a
distraction. “Have the men
man the defenses,” he ordered.
“I will conduct a formal
review.”
Might as well get some use
out of this debacle. His men
were well trained, but not tested in battle, and it never hurt to run them
through a drill.
He watched his troops double time through the gate. He moved down the steps, his bodyguard following. He would inspect their positions and make sure that their training was going as well as he expected.
The last men trotted through the gate and he followed, halting just outside the gate as the men hurried to their positions. At that moment there was a sudden flash from the harbour. With an instinct born of his wartime experiences Moeller hurled himself flat, diving behind a concrete abutment. The men with him were not quite so quick; the blast hit them like the hand of a giant, sweeping them off their feet and hurling their bodies against the wall of the castle. Most of them were dead before they slammed into the stone wall of the castle.
Moeller rolled to his feet, his head ringing and bleeding from his nose,
eyes, and ears. He had to lean
against the abutment or he would have
fallen. Before him stretched
a scene of such utter devastation that for an instant he thought he was back
on the Russian Front. From the
harbour to the castle wall everything had been swept away, from the wreckage
of the warehouses and wharf to the wooden
outbuildings. Only the concrete
bunkers and other obstacles had survived.
Unfortunately it appeared that most of his small army had not made
it to such places of protection.
Their bloody corpses littered the open ground, intermingled with those
of the wounded.
Everything’s gone to hell. Those damned women. I’ll kill that blind bitch. He staggered back through the gate. Inside the walls he found that even the massive structure of the castle had been damaged by the explosion. Men had been hurled from their positions on the walls, their shattered bodies decorating the interior courtyard. In the castle itself every window had been blown out and a number of stones had been blasted loose from the outer walls. There were still a few men milling about in the inner courtyard who had escaped the blast, but they seemed completely shattered, wandering dazedly about.
Deafened, he couldn’t hear the sound of his own voice as he barked orders
at his men. No doubt many of
them were as deaf as he was, but enough of them understood him to form up
on him. Several others saw what
was going on and followed them until he had a band of about fifty
men. It was a much reduced force
compared to what he had once commanded, but he would need only a few of them
to carry out
He ordered one of the non-commissioned officers to take most of the men beyond
the walls. It felt odd issuing
the commands when he couldn’t hear anything he was saying, but the sergeant
saluted and moved off.
Now
to get the British cunt.
He had some very definite ideas about her involving piano
wire, but not before he had slowly killed her
companions. Even if she
couldn’t see she would be able to hear their screams.
“Shit,” Melissa muttered as she looked toward the
harbour. An enormous mushroom
shaped cloud hung over the water, slowly rising higher as she
watched. It was very like the
pictures she had seen of the atomic bombs dropped on
Hundreds of bodies littered the ground, most of the Nazis having been caught out in the open. Most were dead, but many were wounded and their moans and screams were gut-wrenching. But Melissa steeled herself. These were the men who had kidnapped Larra and Ayashe and probably held Lisha and Katie as well. They deserved little mercy, and she would give them none.
She looked at the faces of Amy and Jia Li. Although the South African girl had been trained as a nurse she had experienced enough rough treatment at the hands of Nazis to develop an undying hatred of them. As for Jia Li, she had seen her parents killed by the Japanese and had fought against them before she had met Larra. In her mind Japanese fascists and Nazis were one and the same. She didn’t even have to look at Ayashe. After what she had just been through even the soft-hearted Métis girl was unlikely to have any compassion for her Nazi tormentors.
They gathered up the weapons of the dead soldiers and grabbed as much ammunition
as they could carry. Then they
set off for the castle. They
went slowly, as much from fatigue as
caution. The miraculous water
healed, but it exacted a price, leaving all of the women feeling as if they
had just run a
They threaded their way through the shattered trees and bodies, pausing every now and then to dispatch a wounded soldier. Jia Li was especially ardent in this duty, executing each soldier with a quick thrust of a bayonet. Her perfect features showed not the slightest emotion as she carried out the grisly duty.
They did not bother with all of the bodies. If they weren’t moving or moaning they simply left them and headed determinedly toward the castle. They were halfway there when Jia Li hissed a warning and dropped to the ground. Amy, Ayashe, and Melissa immediately followed. From out of the castle gate several dozen men issued.
Melissa had rolled behind a fallen tree and lay clutching her assault rifle. Shit. Why aren’t they all dead? She looked across at Jia Li and the Manchu girl motioned with her hands, pointing to herself and then making a circular motion. Melissa nodded noting that Ayashe and Amy had also caught the signal. Once again the leadership changes depending on the situation. In battle they deferred to Jia Li, the one who had the most leadership and battle experience.
Jia Li crept away from the place where she had hidden, slithering on her belly until she reached a small screen of trees. Like most of the vegetation the blast had devastated the small copse, but there was enough of a screen left to prevent her from being seen. Crouching low she scooted along behind the trees until she reached a point where she was just behind the group of soldiers; then she stopped, partially hidden by a large tree.
As she peered out Jia Li saw that the soldiers appeared to be on a rescue mission, more interested in looking after their fallen comrades than watching for any interlopers. Most of them appeared quite dazed and confused, a not surprising state of mind under the circumstances. Most of them are inexperienced and have never seen real war. The thought was almost enough for her to take pity on them; almost. She pushed any thoughts of compassion out of her mind, raised her assault rifle, and pulled the trigger.
Her first burst of fire killed or wounded a half dozen young men and created instant confusion. Some of the soldiers threw themselves to the ground; others ran for the shelter of trees and boulders; while still others whirled in her direction and returned fire. In their disorder very few bullets came her way, and she returned fire, emptying her magazine and then ducking down to reload.
She now had their full attention so it came as a complete shock to the untested troops when Melissa, Amy, and Ayashe opened up on them from their flank. The Nazis were completely exposed as the three women emptied their weapons and then reloaded to fire again.
The Nazis broke. Even experienced soldiers would have been hard put to withstand such an assault and the few veterans among Moeller’s army were not enough to prevent them from breaking. They fled while the four women continued to pour fire into them, continuing to shoot until they ran out of targets.
A few managed to escape, but Jia Li shook her head when Melissa asked about them. “No, they not going toward castle. We go find Larra and others.”
Moeller and his small escort moved through the darkened
corridors. They had picked up
flashlights before proceeding, but even so they had to be careful as they
threaded they way through the debris.
His rage mounted as he progressed through the ruin of his
headquarters. Somehow the British
bitch was to blame, he was sure of it.
He wasn’t quite sure how she had arranged this, but he was certainly
going to make her pay.
Two
years of work destroyed. Millions
of dollars wasted. Most of the
stolen gold spent. I’ll
make her pay for that.
He continued through the shattered interior of the castle, finally reaching the top of the stairs to the cellblock. He paused, wondering if he should send the guards first. No. They couldn’t possibly have escaped. But perhaps just in case…
He stepped back. “Bring the three prisoners. I’ll wait here.”
“Yes, Fuhrer,” one of the men said. The light of their flashlights playing before them they stepped down the stairs and disappeared into the darkness. Moeller watched them go until the light disappeared as the men entered the cellblock. He shuddered, suddenly uneasy.
“Feeling lonely, mein Fuhrer?”
Moeller whirled, his hand going to his sidearm, but he froze as the speaker
came into view. He had recognized
the voice, but it was still a shock to see the blonde American standing between
her two companions. It was even
more of a shock to note that
“Yes,” Larra said, “I can see, Herr Moeller. I now know what the piece of excrement who considers himself the new Fuhrer looks like.” Her eyes dropped to where his hand hovered near the butt of his pistol. “Go ahead. I can question you just as easily with a couple of bullets in you as I can without.”
Moeller remembered that the British adventurer was a renowned shot and he immediately dropped his hand. “Disarm him, Lisha,” Larra ordered. She watched warily as the giant African moved forward and removed his belt and sidearm. “Now,” she continued as Lisha stepped away from him. “Strip.”
“What are you going to do?” Moeller asked, his heartbeat accelerating.
“I could let Lisha cut off your balls and prick,” Larra answered. “But that might be a bit bloody. Somehow though, I don’t think she’d mind.” The huge black warrior edged closer ever as Larra spoke. She carried no firearm, but the heavy metal bar she carried made her look even more menacing. Unlike the other two women who were wearing shirts, trousers, and boots, she was also only partly clothed, being nude to the waist and wearing only a salvaged pair of pants. Even her feet were bare. Somehow the erotic baring of her breasts simply made her look more menacing. Without further argument Moeller began to remove his clothing.
“How does it feel, Fuhrer?” Katie asked contemptuously. “It would be even more fitting if there were several dozen men available to shove their cocks up your ass. It is your good fortune that none of us would allow that even if it were possible.” She turned to Lisha. “Tie his hands. Let him feel exactly what it is like to be a helpless prisoner.”
The tall warrior complied, lashing Moeller’s wrists with his own belt. “Now that you are suitably attired,” Larra interjected, “perhaps you could show us the arsenal.” She motioned with her pistol and Moeller knew full well that that request left him no choice.
He led them through the darkened corridors of the castle, fully aware of the menacing presence of Lisha. It was clear that without the restraining influence of the other two women she would have made short work of him.
He staggered and almost fell several times as he stumbled over bits of broken masonry. Keeping his balance with his elbows strapped tightly together was quite difficult, and his bare feet were soon cut and bruised by stones and bits of concrete. He thought briefly about taking the three women on a wild goose chase, but didn’t give himself much of a chance of surviving if his captors suspected treachery.
He led them toward what should have been the most secure part of the castle,
hoping that he might encounter a few of his men along the
way. There were still the members
of his escort that he had sent into the cell
block. Sooner or later they would
return and perhaps free him, but he wasn’t at all sure of
that. Somehow
“I’m not going to do anything to you,” Larra’s voice. “I’m going to leave you here to contemplate your sins for the rest of your life.”
There was a low chuckle from the blonde. It certainly did not sound reassuring, but he was afraid to ask for details. He led them deeper into the castle and down several flights of stairs. Although the damage in this part of the castle seemed slight there was still no light and they moved slowly through the gloomy corridors. They were almost to the arsenal and sweat trickled down his brow, in spite of the fact that a few seconds ago he had been shivering from the cold of the lower reaches of the castle.
Moeller had never felt so helpless. Stripped naked and bound with his own belt, his frustration was intense as he tried to figure a way out of the hopeless mess he found himself in. But there seemed no way out as they finally stopped in front of the door to the arsenal. It should have been secure, but to his frustration the English bitch produced a set of keys and unlocked the door. “Inside,” she ordered, and Moeller complied.
“This is quite the assortment,” Katie mused as she studied the row upon row of munitions. “How many countries were you planning to conquer?”
“It is as I expected,” Larra said. “But I wonder how much stolen gold it took to buy all this.” She stared at Moeller, her violet eyes reflecting a look of hatred so intense that Moeller stepped back. “Oh yes, Herr Moeller. I will not do anything to you. I shall let your own creation destroy you.”
“What do you mean?” Moeller asked.
Larra ignored him, instead she spoke to Lisha. “Put him over there. Make sure that he cannot move.”
Lisha pushed Moeller toward the spot Larra had indicated. There were several cases of rifles piled one on top of the other each one tied with heavy cord. She quickly secured him between two piles of the heavy cases, tying him so that he was held by ropes on either side. What is the bitch up to? Surely she doesn’t intend to leave me here. His hopes rose slightly. He had been sure the English cunt would kill him. He had certainly given all three women more than enough reason to wish him a long, slow, and very painful death. But if they simply left him tied up eventually someone would come to find him.
He experienced a moment of doubt. There was just the chance that no one would think to look for him here. It was in the deepest part of the castle. He quickly dismissed that thought. He could not possibly die such an ignominious death.
He noticed that while the big nigger tied him up, the blonde had wandered off into another part of the arsenal. Now she had returned carrying a wooden box. He strained his neck to see what was in it.
Katie set down the box. “I think these will do.” She reached down and held up what Moeller recognized as an explosives timer. Suddenly he was sweating again as a slow realization crept over him. “What are you going to do with that?” he asked, keeping his voice steady.
The women ignored him, but there was little doubt as to what the blonde was doing as she skillfully wired the demolition charges together and then hooked them up to the timer.
“You’re going to leave me in here with that thing,” he cried, his voice raw with fear.
The fact that the women did not answer him merely confirmed his accusation. “I still have some gold,” he said. “I can tell you where it is.” He looked at Lisha, remembering that she had worn gold jewellery before he had stripped her.
The warrior looked back at him, her face expressionless. Neither of the other women paid the slightest bit of attention to him in spite of his pleas and promises. At the end he was almost screaming in frustration and fear.
Larra finally looked up. “Gag him, Lisha. All this noise is making it hard to concentrate.”
Moeller shouted in protest, but there was nothing he could do to stop the African from stuffing a length of rope into his mouth and tying it there. He could now only watch as the two patiently pieced together an explosive device.
Katie twisted the timer. It was a delayed action demolition fuse and perfectly suited for the purpose she and Larra had in mind. “An hour. Will that be long enough?”
“It will have to be,” Larra answered. “And it will be more than long enough for Herr Moeller to reflect on his sins.”
Moeller’s eyes bugged out of his head as he tried to scream in protest,
but all that came out was a muffled
grunt.
You
can’t leave me here. This
is not the way things were meant to be.
“Goodbye, Herr Moeller,” Larra said in perfect German. “I don’t expect we will meet again.”
Katie gave him a smile, but Lisha’s face remained disdainfully unemotional. Together the three women walked away, leaving a single flashlight to illuminate the ticking bomb.
Moeller strained at the ropes that bound him, sweat streaming down his naked body. The single flashlight shone on the bomb; its ticking pounded at his senses like a hammer. He screamed again, willing the three women to come back, but the only sound was the slamming of the door and then the turning of a key in the lock.
Larra and her companions hurried through the darkened hallways. They should have plenty of time to get clear of the castle, but they did not know how many of Moeller’s men remained outside and there was always the chance that they might run into a few soldiers wandering the castle. They had eliminated Moeller’s escort by the simple expedient of locking them in the cellblock. But they moved with some caution, using only one flashlight and stopping every now and then to listen.
About halfway to the entrance they stopped cold. “Shots,” Katie whispered. “But they seem to be coming from the outside.”
“That might explain what happened to the castle,” Larra replied. “Let’s go as quickly as we dare and find out what is going on.” The three women moved ahead. They were better armed now, Katie and Larra having picked up assault rifles and ammunition in the arsenal. Lisha still retained the steel bar, not having been able to find her spear in the rubble of the interrogation room, but she had acquired a brace of knives that she wore tucked into her belt, completing the picture of barbaric splendour.
They crossed the great hall and moved to the front door. The shooting seemed to have stopped and they moved cautiously to the front entrance of the keep and its impressive view of the courtyard and the land beyond the walls. They were just in time to see a familiar form step through the gate. Jia Li spotted them at once and turned and shouted to someone behind her. Immediately she was joined by three other women, one of them Ayashe.
A flood of relief swept over Larra, Lisha, and Katie as the missing fourth member turned up. Against all odds she had somehow found her other three companions; once again bring their full number to seven.
Larra hurried down the steps and ran across the courtyard accompanied by Lisha and Katie. “Quickly,” she said, we must get out of here. Do you have some way off the island?”
“We have a boat,” Melissa answered. “It’s not far from here. What did you do?”
“The same thing you did from the looks of things,” Larra answered. “You must have set off one hell of a bomb.”
“Actually we blew up a munitions ship,” Amy said. “Are you saying the castle is going to blow?”
“In about forty-five minutes,” Katie answered. “If you have a boat I think we should get as far away from here as we can.”
“Well,” Melissa said, looking at Larra and the other two women who were with her, “we’ve got what we came for. If there is no unfinished business I think we should leave.”
The seven women moved away from the castle at a quick walk, returning to the small sheltered cove they clambered into the lifeboat and pulled away from the island. They rowed hard for the first half hour and then rested looking toward the island.
Sweat dripping into his eyes, Moeller stared toward the ticking
bomb. He had tried counting the
ticks, but had lost track somewhere around seven hundred and now had no idea
how much time had passed. It
seemed to him that the one hour the blonde bitch had set into the timer had
long since passed.
Should
have killed them all. Those fucking
women ruined everything.
The ticking suddenly
stopped. Nothing seemed to
happen.
The stupid bitch screwed it
up. It
didn’t….
None of the women in the small boat spoke as the castle suddenly seemed to rise into the air. There seemed very little to say considering what all of them had been through. Moeller was gone and along with him his short-lived Nazi empire. As the sound of the explosion rolled across the water Larra once again took up the oars. She suddenly felt very tired. More than anything she wanted to be back with her family. “Let’s go home,” she muttered. As Katie and Lisha joined her, she bent her back and pulled on the oars.
Epilogue
It had taken two days of rowing to reach the Chilean coast and another
two days to convince the suspicious and confused Chilean authorities to release
them from custody. Fortunately
a phone call to her influential host and the intervention of the British
government had gotten them released fairly quickly in spite of the fact that
the crew of the patrol boat that had picked them up had been quite alarmed
at the large number of firearms the seven women had with
them.
Today she and her companions had just finished an intensive interview
with a high ranking government official who had made it quite clear that
the Chilean government would be quite happy that knowledge of their kidnapping
and torture and the existence of a nest of neo-Nazis remain a
secret. To his surprise and relief
the seven women had readily agreed.
The brutal episode was something that they would much rather forget,
in spite of their eventual triumph.
And there was also the matter of the two letters she had
received. One, from the very
determined Karen Valor, and the other from one of her many agents around
the world. The first letter she
had received before. Karen Valor,
the editor of the world’s best selling adventure magazine was well known
to Larra. She had been interviewed
by the magazine’s reporters on several occasions when her father, Lord
Kensington had run the magazine.
She wasn’t sure that she really wanted another interview right
now, especially not with Karen Valor.
The woman had taken the magazine
in a different direction from her father since taking over the
helm. She was known for putting
a sensational slant on most things she touched and although she had taken
the magazine from the brink of ruin to a resounding success she had, in
Larra’s opinion, cheapened the magazine’s
image. However, it was the second
letter that really caught her attention.
“Well?” Melissa asked.
The tall Canadian had been watching her study the two documents for
the last few minutes. Larra had
shared the contents of both letters with her companions shortly after reading
them.
Larra stuck her tongue into her cheek, still mulling the decision
over. Finally she replied, not
just to Melissa, but to the other five women had gathered in the drawing
room as well. “What do you
think?”
“I don’t think I have anything better to do,” Melissa
answered.
Katie nodded. “I agree,” I’m with
you.”
One after the other each of the remaining women gave her
assent. Lisha merely commenting,
“I go where you go.”
Alright, Larra smiled.
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