Chapter 23
Holdstein’s car stopped in front of a building at the edge of Paris.
“We’re here, sir.” The driver announced in respect.
Holdstein trailed his eyes towards the building then said firmly: “Watch the place and guard it well. No one enters the building, no matter what. Do you understand?”
“Understood, sir.” The driver murmured shakily.
Holdstein got out of the car, his eyes landing on his men. “Wait for me.” he ordered them, then he walked towards the building while pulling out a small key from his pocket. “And I was wondering, for the past month, what was that key for.” He murmured to himself as he stared at the key in his palm.
Calmly, he inserted the key into the keyhole and opened the door. He entered the building then closed the door behind him.
For a few seconds he just stood there staring at the darkness surrounding him before he reached for a part in the door frame, pushed it and it turned on itself to reveal a hole where a special kind of glasses was hidden. He took the glasses and put them on his eyes.
The moment the glasses were placed on his eyes, everything was painted pale green and hundreds of laser beams appeared around the room.
“Perfect. The security system is still functioning.” He murmured with a smile.
He carefully crossed through the laser beams without touching any of them until he reached another door. He pressed his palm against it and said in a strong steady voice: “Dr. Arthur Williams.”
When his AI confirmed his identity, the door opened with a voice saying: “Identity confirmed. Entrance allowed.”
The door opened, revealing a huge room filled with all kinds of devices that would never exist until another hundred years at least.
When he removed the glasses from his eyes, the room was lit up while his AI started to speak: “Hello, Dr. Williams. What would you like to search for today?”
“History of world war two.” He answered while making his way towards a huge computer screen.
The computer started working even before he reached it and a sentence appeared on the screen. “History of WWII. (1939-1945). What do you want to search for?”
“The archives.” He took a seat in front of the computer. “Paris. The subway’s tunnels.”
A map appeared on the screen, showing every detail of the subway’s tunnels. He looked at it for a few seconds.
“Connect the map with The French Resistance during the war.”
A few seconds passed, then a map of the French resistance’s hideouts in the tunnels was printed neatly. He checked it out then his eyes lit up in delight.
“Perfect. I have put my hand on the first step.” A vicious smile appeared on his face. “The first step of changing history.”
***
“I think I got what you need.”
Charlie announced while rubbing her eyes tiredly. Fury jumped up and rushed towards her.
“You did?” he asked hopefully.
“Here is all the descriptions.” She gestured tiredly at the screen. “He/she are well built, broad shouldered, very tall probably 6’8, weight approximately 260 pounds or so. All that depends on the activity they were doing inside the ship.”
“Perfect! So now we have their physical and psychological descriptions. If we compared them with everyone working in important positions, it will narrow it down to-“
“37,610.” Charlie murmured while resting back on her chair tiredly.
“What?”
“This is the number of the people who match these descriptions in all the places you mentioned.”
“Motherfucker!” he exclaimed, only to get angry glares from both Charlie and Natasha who were the only two awake in the room besides Castiel. Sam was still sleeping deeply, while Steve fell asleep when Castiel made him sleep with his grace on the couch, his legs thrown over Castiel’s lap who just put Sydney’s files on the feet in front of him and continued to study them.
“This might take days of continues work to check them all.” Natasha muttered while her eyes dropping in need for sleep.
“That if we managed to find them in the end if they were as good as Hunter was when they made their file.”
“Probably. But their situation is different now.” Castiel commented from the couch.
Natasha gave him a tired look before resting her head on the back of her chair and closed her eyes.
“How’s that?” Fury asked the angel in interest.
“Since they are Sydney’s partner then they will know that the ship left without them and now they are a prisoner in this time forever. That will push them to being frustrated, which will lead to errors in their work or in attempt to avoid any errors, will take a time off or something. Look into that and the number will lessen a little.”
“That’s genius! But it will-“
He was cut off when Castiel suddenly flinched violently and let out a sharp, loud gasp while holding his head in his hands.
Everyone, even Sam and Steve, shot up at the sound of his gasp and were immediately by his side.
“Cas! Cas, what’s wrong?” Sam exclaimed while grapping the angel’s shoulders in worry.
Castiel flinched again violently, making Steve grab into him so he won’t fall to the ground.
“Cas, what’s happening?” Steve asked trying not to panic.
Castiel took a few deep breaths as he tried to come back to them.
“History.” He murmured while looking up at them with wide eyes. “It is changing.”
***
Dean bit his lower lip hard until he felt blood in his mouth to keep the pained scream in his throat at bay, while Carl’s men were removing another fingernail from his left hand.
The pain was unbearable. But he resisted it with all his power.
He will not give Carl the pleasure of hearing his screams. Carl, who was doing all of this to get a pained scream or a begging yell. Besides, this wasn’t the worst torture he ever endured.
What he was doing was working since Carl was filled with frustration and anger at Dean’s silence while he was pacing the room.
“Is that enough for you or do you want more?!” he shouted in anger at Dean, who was tied down to a chair in front of him.
Dean’s face was flushed from pain and wariness, but he managed to let out a mocking smirk.
“What? Are you getting bored already?” He smirked cheekily at the fuming man.
“Oh, so you are trying to prove how strong you are?” Carl spat in anger. “Do you think that will help you here? Wrong, Smartass. What you suffered through so far is only the beginning!”
“Believe me, I have had worse.” Dean’s smirk was still firmly on place even when he was fighting to stay conscious. “Whatever your men will do, is just a child play for me.”
“Is that so?!”
“Yup, Goldilocks.”
“Give me a cigarette and light it up for me!” he shouted at one of his men who scrambled to do his order.
Carl took a few deep breaths from the cigarette and let out the smoke at Dean’s face.
“You know, I quitted smoking a year ago.” Carl started while getting close to Dean. “The Führer doesn’t like smokers, especially if they were from the Gestapo’s men. He says it is necessary for them to be stronger than such ugly habit.” Then he leaned directly towards Dean’s face. “I am sure you are wondering why I am smoking again.”
“Maybe to make people happy with your death later?” Dean murmured snarkily.
“Actually it is for a much simpler reason, Smartass.” Carl narrowed his eyes at Dean. “I lighted it up so I could-“ he darted forward suddenly to plant the cigarette into Dean’s shoulder. “-put it out here!”
The movement was so sudden it took Dean off guard and couldn’t contain the scream that ripped out from his throat.
“That’s what I was waiting to hear!” Carl let out a loud maniac laugh.
“You fucking son of a bitch!” Dean screamed in pure anger.
“Shut up!” one of the three soldiers in the room yelled while hitting Dean’s head with the heel of his gun.
The hit was so hard, that it made Dean’s chair fall backwards causing Dean’s head to hit a medical table and fall with it to the floor, at the same time, blood spurted out from the hit.
From the sound of the violent fall, one of the doctors rushed into the room yelling: “Enough! This is a hospital! Not a torturing dungeon!”
“This is not your business!” Carl shouted at him angrily.
“I am a doctor in this hospital!” the doctor countered sharply.
“Do you think that gives you the right to interject in our work?”
“This is not work! This is savage!”
“Oh, so you are one of the freedom callers?” Carl gestured towards his men, the three of them attacked the doctor suddenly, showering him with punches, kicks and hits from the heel of their guns while the poor man kept screaming.
Dean took advantage of their distraction, and let his hands search, from behind his back, for one of the tools that landed on the floor from the table he hit, to help him cut the ropes.
His hand caught a broken, glass piece and he hid it between his fingers when the soldiers came back for him after the poor doctor fell unconscious outside the room.
“Next time if someone entered the room shoot them!” Carl yelled, pointedly raising his voice so everyone outside would hear him. Then he kicked the door closed at the face of the doctors who rushed to help their fallen friend, and turned back to Dean, who the men pulled his chair upright again. “This goes for you too, pretty face! If we got bored with you, we will shot your face!”
“Without your devilish general’s orders?” Dean smirked at him while his hand worked with the broken glass to cut off the rope. “He really wants the information I have. He will not forgive you for killing me no matter what excuse you will give him.”
Carl glared at him with pure rage before leaning towards him again: “It seems like you are still ignorant to our ways, pretty face. We will keep your life, of course, if we thought it could hold any importance to us. But that will not stop us from removing your fingernails, or put your feet in boiling water, or even cut off your hands and feet, then, and that’s what always happen, you will tell us everything we need unless you proved you are a rare kind of men who can withstand any type of torture or sacrifice his life itself, so he won’t tell on his friends or tell his secrets, then we will grow bored of you and will kill you mercilessly.” His glare hardened as he stared directly at Dean’s eyes. “And you specifically, I promise you to set fire to you so you can burn alive while I enjoy your screams and pleads for mercy.”
Dean just blinked back at Carl coldly, which unsettled the man, and looked down for a few seconds like he was in deep thought and when he raised them again he whispered: “I have a surprise for you.”
Carl didn’t hear him well, so he leaned towards him more. “You have what?”
Dean’s fist shot out from behind his back suddenly to punch Carl. “Surprise, Bitch!”
The punch was so hard, it threw Carl back violently to hit two of his men and send the three of them tumbling to the floor.
Before the third soldier could come out of his shock, Dean darted towards him to punch him in the middle hard, then on the back of his neck to send him tumbling to the floor motionless.
Carl got on his feet fast while shouting: “I don’t know how you got out of your restraints but-“
“Oh, just shut up already.” Dean kicked him hard in the chest to send him falling on the two men again.
The two soldiers pointed their guns at him while Carl got up again. “Kill him if you had to!” Carl shouted while jumping at Dean.
Even though, Carl was a high trained Gestapo officer, but even fighting techniques advance through time.
So, when Carl darted towards Dean violently, Dean leaned back lightly, even with all his injuries, and punched Carl in the stomach with all his strength, then gripped Carl’s shoulders and twisted them and sent him flying towards the nearest wall.
This time, Dean rushed towards the door, blood covering his shirt’s back and from where his nails used to be.
Suddenly, the door opened before Dean could reach it by one second.
Dean froze in place as he stared at the newcomer’s face.
General Holdstein himself.
Before Dean knew what’s happening, the general punched him in the face.
The punch was abnormally strong, Dean felt like a truck hit him in the face and sent him flying across the room to hit the wall so hard, what was left of his stitches torn open and blood started to pour out, as he hit the floor and passed out immediately.
Holdstein entered the room while giving Carl a glare that the man felt himself shaking from its intensity and the anger in them.
“Sir, I-“ he started in a choked out voice.
“Shut up.” The general cut him off firmly, then his eyes landed on Dean. “Looks like I have to do everything myself.” When Carl was about to defend himself again, the General stopped him. “I said: shut up! You are not allowed to speak right now!” his eyes trailed towards Dean again. “I bet you couldn’t get anything out of him, besides his fingernails.”
“The man is way too strong willed, sir. And-“
“Call Von Darke and tell him to meet me.”
“In your office?”
“No, Carl. Tell him to meet me here.”
He said it while his eyes lit up as a plan formed in his head.