Max Delper strode into the office from his desk outside the door. “Yes, sir?” he answered.
Maas took several heavy files from the cabinet and handed them to Delper. He turned, closed and locked the filing cabinet door. “Let’s go to my private conference room. We need to find a replacement for Heinrich Grübner.”
Delper knew better than to ask any questions. He complied quickly and with the absolute best of his ability. Something happened and he did not know what it was. But he did know this… Grübner was a dead man if he was not already dead.
The two entered the conference room and Delper placed the files down on the table.
“I want the best replacement for him,” hissed Maas, “and I want a name now.”
“Yes, sir,” answered Delper. “I have two candidates in mind, Leutnant Foerster and Leutnant Boehm. Both are fine officers with spotless records. Either one would make a fine replacement. Delper pushed the two files over to Maas, who began reading them.
“Ah, I know Foerster. I know his parents,” Maas said while intently looking through his file.
Delper interjected, “Sir, Boehm is senior and has an impeccable background. Her grandfather was General Paul Boehm, one of Hitler’s closest aides. The General insisted on suicide when he learned that the Führer died. He felt there was nothing to live for without Germany being in control.” Maas pulled Boehm’s file on top of Foerster’s.
“Yes, I do like her,” said Maas in a strangely menacing tone. “She would do very well. I can control her much more easily.” Maas ran his finger over the photo of Leutnant Boehm in her file. She was a striking blonde about thirty years old and a fine body. What he could do with that, he thought.
Maas smiled and closed the two files and handed them to Delper. “I want you to check on Grübner. He is presently working on a priority one project for me. He committed to have it completed by morning. When he is finished, arrest him and take him to my private retention cells. I will make his death an extremely painful one. Promote Leutnant Boehm to captain and put her in charge of security. Do you understand?”
“Yes, sir, I understand completely. I will inform you tomorrow morning when Grübner has been incarcerated and Captain Boehm is in charge. Consider it done, sir,” snapped Delper.
“Very good, Delper, very good. It is good to have such a loyal and committed assistant.”
“Thank you, sir,” said Delper, clicking his heels with a slight bow to Maas. “Now, if you will excuse me, I will check on Grübner and his project.” Delper turned and left the room with the files.
Maas sat there thinking. That bastard Grübner may have screwed this up beyond control but Boehm will straighten it out… or she would feel his wrath as well. She was pretty and torturing her would be a pleasure. Maas rose and returned to his desk, feeling in total control and confident that all was well.
CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO
It was several days since their original break-in at the Fortress. Now Dane and Hugo were back. They were dead tired, but with the information Ben found in the patrol bunkers, they were able to skirt the bunkers in their area and arrived north of the Fortress’ helicopter landing area. Dane slid under the brush and up to Hugo’s side.
“Welcome to my nightmare,” joked Hugo. It was his way of coping with the stress. “It looks like we found our way in.”
“What do you have?” asked Dane.
Hugo slightly raised a frond from one of the bushes in front of them. They were about twenty-five yards from a slight clearing, something odd in this thick jungle. But upon closer scrutiny, one could see the jungle floor in the clearing was not as it looked. There was a low growth of plant life but almost too flat for a natural area. Under the trees and underbrush around the clearing were several low huts. These reminded Hugo of his old duck blinds back home in Texas. The huts were small and heavily camouflaged. To the unknowing, it looked like more jungle. However, as they sat there in the darkness, they donned their night vision goggles and bingo! There was plenty of activity all around the clearing. Each hut looked to be made of concrete block with a small door and numerous firing ports. Through the goggles Dane and Hugo saw about a dozen men working and patrolling the area in the dark.
“Damn, this looks bad,” huffed Hugo. “There are people everywhere.” He kept his eyes on the closest hut, just ten yards away.
Dane was also looking. “We have to be very careful,” he said whispering. “We must assume they have night vision goggles too. That could cause us a problem.”
“It certainly could,” sighed Hugo, trailing off to a yawn. “Getting a bit tired, Boss. We should get some shut-eye before we go in tomorrow.”
“Agreed,” said Dane. “I want to go in at daybreak.” Dane motioned to Hugo and the two slithered back into the jungle away from the security guards. They found a small hole about a half klick back in a small grove of trees.
“Looks like a feather bed to me,” smiled Hugo.
“Yeah, this is perfect. Even if someone comes along, our heat profile will be below ground to the extent that they shouldn’t be able to “see” us with night vision unless they are right on top of us.”
“If they are on top of us, they won’t be able to see… they’ll be dead,” said Hugo quietly. “Should we check in with Ben before we crash?”
“Not a bad idea,” answered Dane. “We need to coordinate our attacks.”
Dane got Ben on the comm and noted their location and plans to go in at 5:30 a.m. They discussed a few other logistics quickly and stopped their transmissions.
“I hope the bad guys didn’t pick any of that up. Could cause us all kinds of trouble,” said Hugo quietly.
“Yeah, I know but we had to check in. I guess we have to trust they didn’t but act as though they did hear us.”
Hugo smiled, “Sounds like a plan, Boss.”
With that the two men hunkered down in the hole and covered themselves with as much brush as they could pull on top of them. Then they went to sleep.
Meanwhile Ben, Tim, and Tecal and his men were doing the same. However, Tecal set his two men up as lookouts for the night. Their position was more at risk as they were jammed up under some tree roots behind several large ferns. Ben thought it prudent to have a guard in case someone happened to come up on them.
Tim was cleaning his rifle and preparing his ammo for tomorrow’s action. He was scared. He admitted it. But he also felt Ben, Tecal and the others were excellent partners to be involved in such a mission. He kept a watchful eye and listened intently as he readied his weapon.
“Getting nervous?” asked Ben quietly as he opened his eyes.
Tim grinned. “Yeah, a bit, I guess. It’s been a while since I was involved in anything like this. I guess I’m a bit rusty.”
Ben smiled. “You and I both, buddy. It’s been a long time for me too, but it’s like riding a bicycle; you start up again and everything falls into place. You need to get some rest before morning. Looks like you’ve got everything ready.”
“Yeah, pretty much. I do need the rest. Something tells me tomorrow is going to be one interesting day… one way or another.” With that, Tim put his weapon aside and leaned back against the tree trunk. He had one last question. “Ben, are you scared of dying?”
Ben looked out into the jungle. “Sure. I guess everybody is, but my mother once told me that death was like going to sleep. Once you are dead, you don’t know it. So I figure once I’m gone I won’t know it.”
Tim cracked a weak smile. “You can’t beat a mother’s wisdom, Ben. They always have a way of being right.” Tim closed his eyes and thought of his mother.