Chapter 16
The sun was starting to set behind the trees and fields at the edge of Paris. The Nazi flag flattered over the base, when a military black car, with the emblem of the Gestapo on it, stopped in front of the main building.
A man got out of the car when it stopped, he was blond, with blue, cold eyes. Colonel Eberhard looked at him from behind the glass of his window from his office.
“This is what I was afraid of.” He muttered nervously to his assistant. “We reported to the Gestapo what happened, and they sent us one of their worst demons.”
His assistant gazed at the man in question as he made his way towards the building with wide, strong steps.
“Do you know him personally, sir?” he asked the colonel nervously.
“Who doesn’t?” Eberhard sighed. “He is Carl Mannheim, Also known as, the Butcher. One of the most dangerous and vicious officers in the Gestapo. He just came back from the Soviet front, which he had been transported to for a whole month, because of a small mistake he made while chasing down some men from the French Resistance. And the days he spent there must have doubled his viciousness and hatred that the devil himself would be jealous.”
“Oh, God.” His assistant muttered in terror.
The colonel straightened up and fixed his cap and military clothes and made his way towards the door.
“Don’t lose your nerves while the Butcher is here. You will need them.”
The door opened before he could reach it, revealing Carl Mannheim, his ice cold eyes trained on the colonel.
“I thought I will find you waiting for me, Colonel.” He said coldly.
The colonel raised his arm immediately and called loudly “Hail Hitler!”
Carl copied him and repeated the greeting, then lowered his arm and looked at him with the same coldness.
“I still insist on the fact that I should have found you waiting for me downstairs.”
“I was about to get down to receive you and-“
“Whatever.” Carl interrupted him firmly. “Tell me what happened here because the story I was told was hard to believe.”
“Mine won’t be much different, sir.” Then he explained everything that had happened.
The strange aircraft that appeared suddenly out of nowhere.
The three spies that appeared in the area after the disappearance of the aircraft.
The strange weapons the spies used.
Their escape with the tank.
And finally, the explosion of the said tank.
“But we didn’t find any bodies inside the destroyed tank.” He finished his story with this.
“What do you mean you didn’t find any bodies?” Carl glared at him angrily. “Did they burned out completely, not even leaving a bone?”
“You know this is impossible, sir. Even huge explosions can’t destroy the human body completely. Remains must always be found. But in our case, we found nothing.”
“Where are the spies then?!”
“We don’t know. We thought after the destruction of the tank that they were dead, which made us stop all the search party. But when we were able to get close enough to the tank, after its remains burned out, that we were shocked to find it completely empty. Not even-“
“Because they had jumped from it before the planes reached them and they left your stupid pilots to chase down an empty tank and shower it with bullets that are more expensive than their brains!”
“Sir, our pilots are-“
“Shut up.” The rank difference between them shouldn’t have allowed Carl to talk to him like that, but with the benefits of the Gestapo, he was forced to snap his mouth shut in silent anger. “You shouldn’t have stopped the search parties.”
“This is what normally happens when-“
“I said shut up! Let me think.” His brow furrowed as he paced inside the room angrily. “When did you stop the search?”
“Three hours ago.”
“Three hours?! How stupid!” then he thought for a few seconds then looked up at him. “Where is the map of this area?”
Eberhard turned towards his assistant. “Bring map of Paris and-“
“I know the map of Paris like I know the back of my hand. I said a map for this area.”
The colonel swallowed his anger. “Alright. You heard what he said.”
A minute later, Carl was unfolding the map in front of him and checking it with deep concentration.
“Exactly like I expected. There is no other place they could go.” Then he folded the map again. “All the routes passes on patrols or bases. The only route they could have gone through is the one to Paris.”
“You think they had gone there?”
“This is the only place they could have reached in three hours.”
The colonel hesitated before asking. “Do you think they are from the allies, sir?”
Carl was silent as he processed this.
“It would be a disaster if they are.” He answered in frustration. “But what is happening right now reminds me of something similar happened in Paris a month ago. If there is a connection between this and that, then there is someone we must tell about what is happening.”
“Who?”
“The director of the German Intelligence.” Then he straightened up firmly. “General Friedrich Holdstein.”
***
“Tony, do you know where are we going exactly?”
Dean asked in frustration as he walked with Tony and Sydney through the streets of Paris which filled with the Nazis flags over all its buildings and German soldiers were filling the streets everywhere.
Tony just turned towards him and gripped his and Sydney’s arms and fastened his steps.
“To the only safe place we can go to right now.” he answered as he looked around in concentration.
“From what I can see, there is no safe place for us.” Sydney murmured while glancing around in worry.
“There is.” Tony insisted sternly. “But it is not on Earth’s surface.”
“What do you mean?” Dean asked in confusion while still being dragged by Tony.
Then a voice called from behind them, speaking in German: “You there!”
A cold shiver ran through Dean’s body: “They found us!”
“Ignore him.” Tony said firmly while speeding up his walking. “Pretend we don’t speak German. Keep walking until we reach the subway’s entrance. We need to go there.”
“Are we going to take the subway to escape?” Dean asked in frustration.
Before Tony could answer, the voice called again, in French this time: “You there. Stop.”
“Looks like we have no other choice.” Sydney sighed.
There were two German soldiers darting towards them with their machine guns, so they had to stop and face the man in the civilian clothes that called out to them.
“Why did you refuse to stop?” he asked in anger.
“We didn’t refuse.” Tony rushed to say. “But we don’t understand German.”
He scanned their faces in suspicion. “Do you have your identification papers?” They exchanged nervous looks that made the officer pierce his lips. “Ah, I get it. You don’t have identification papers or walking permits.”
“But we have a very logical explanation for this.” Sydney said with a sweet smile.
“Then say it.”
Suddenly, Dean moved to kick one of the two soldiers in his gut.
“This!” Dean exclaimed then punched the soldier’s face so hard he was thrown three meters away.
Then, Sydney jumped in the air and kicked the second Soldier in the jaw, two times in the row, that it threw him to the ground unconscious.
The officer pulled out a gun and pointed it at Tony’s face angrily. “Dammit! You are-“
Before he could finish, Tony darted forward and grabbed his wrist to move the gun away then punched him in the face so hard he threw him to the ground.
Obviously, that caught all the other soldiers’ attention, which caused chaos around them.
“To the subway!” Tony exclaimed to them.
“I don’t know why you want us to go there but I will follow you.” Dean stated while snatching one of the machine guns.
The three of them ran towards the subway’s entrance, the German soldiers hot on their heels, their bullets sounding in the middle of the screams of the passersby, who were running around to save themselves and Dean felt the bullets hit the ground around him.
“God, guys, we just opened the gates of hell on us.” He exclaimed anxiously.
“If we reached the subway all of this will end!” Tony called back.
“I hope so.” Sydney muttered.
Just when she said this, a bullet pierced her thigh, she screamed in pain as she lost her balance and fell to the ground.
“Syd! No!” Dean shouted in panic, then he turned around and fired his machine gun at the Germans. “You Bastards!”
His bullets hit someone, but that didn’t stop the others from firing at them viciously.
“Fall back, Dean! Hurry!” Tony yelled while leaning down to help Sydney up. “Go towards the subway!”
“Leave me, Tony! Just please, leave me!” Sydney begged him desperately.
“Shut up and move!” Tony yelled at her firmly.
Dean was retreating slowly while still firing back at the Germans. A bullet pierced his left arm and blood started to fall.
“Fuck! Fuck!” he muttered in pain but never stopped firing.
Tony reached the subway entrance with Sydney and turned towards Dean. “Come on, Dean! Hurry!”
“What do you think I am trying to do?!” Dean yelled while firing. After his bullets took down another two soldiers, he turned around and ran as fast as he could towards the entrance.
“Come on, Dean! You can do it, come on!” Tony called anxiously to him.
Dean ran with every strength in his body, while from behind, the German’s bullets were raining on him.
Then a bullet pierced Dean’s back that pushed him forward with a sharp, pained gasp before he fell to the ground.
“Dean! No! No!” Tony screamed in panicked terror while Sydney’s eyes widened in horror.
Dean tried to get up again while leaning on his gun.
“They got me.” He breathed out in pain, then raised his eyes towards Tony and shouted: “Run Tony! Just run! Take her and go!” two soldiers reached him then. “I am sorry, Cas.” he muttered bitterly before turning around to face them but one of them hit him hard in the head with the heel of his gun.
Dean fell to the ground, unconscious, blood falling heavily from his head.
***
“Dean! God, no, no Dean.” Tony exclaimed with all the panic, anguish and pain that he felt running through him. Then he made himself move inside the tunnel of the subway while dragging Sydney even though every fiber in his being was telling him to rush outside to Dean.
“No! No, we can’t leave him behind! We can’t!” Sydney struggled in his grip as she screamed in panic, but Tony kept dragging her.
“We-we can’t save him.” he felt tears falling heavily from his eyes as he felt physical pain spreading through him and his heart being ripped out of his chest.
“You don’t understand! We can’t! Tony, we can’t!” Sydney was getting more distressed every passing second but Tony tried to push his grief and pain to the back of his head so they can escape.
They heard the footsteps of the Germans behind them.
“There is no way to go.” Sydney said bitterly.
Tony didn’t answer and just dragged her towards the lane of the subway itself, and jumped down then helped her down.
“Do you know where are we going?”
“Yes.”
They walked through the subway’s lane which they heard it coming through the tunnel.
“If we didn’t reach where we are going in one minute, the subway will crush us.” She said looking strangely okay with that prospect. Like she didn’t care if she lived anymore.
“We will reach it.” He said, trying to keep his emotions at bay and tried to remember all the history books he read.
The subway was getting closer and closer as they walked by the wall as fast as they could.
Until they finally found a metal door, sunken through the wall.
“Here it is.” Tony muttered in relief.
The subway appeared in the horizon.
“It is getting closer, Tony. Hurry.”
He pushed the door with all his strength.
But it didn’t open.
It was locked from the inside.
“Shit, it is locked!” Tony’s face paled in horror.
The subway now was only a few meters away from them.
“Well,” Sydney murmured sadly. “I guess we are following Dean sooner than I thought.”