“I have red lights on the igniter panel of number four. Now another on servo control,” said the technician nervously. The technician for missile number three was seeing the same thing. Then the technician for number two began reporting red lights. The sound of the warning klaxon broke them all out of their concerns. Looking out the windows, they saw Betz and his men making their way across the floor.
“We have intruders!” screamed Kammler. He reached for the general announcing system. “There are intruders coming from the garage tunnel. Gather and repel them,” he ordered. From several doors in the complex, men in lab coats began running toward another corridor near the control room.
Dresner had waited for this moment. A large group of men descended on the corridor and rushed to the armory to draw their weapons. When they arrived, they found the door locked. When everyone seemed to have gathered by the armory entrance Dresner’s men sprang from doorways on either side of the armory and trapped the men between them. Only one man resisted. Brandishing a pistol, Captain Strasser took aim at Dresner, only to drop it when there was a bang and a hole appeared in the back of Strasser’s head. The rest of the men suddenly realized that it was no game and threw their hands up. Dresner looked around to see Otto with a smoking pistol. The boy looked like he could not believe what he had done. He looked at Dresner and smiled. Dresner winked at the boy.
“Kuntz! You, Lentz and Frobisher take these men and hold them somewhere until we get back. The rest of you, follow me,” Dresner ordered. The men began quickly running toward the main chamber.
“The only missile still working is number one. It is three quarters full of fuel,” said Dr. Ingles.
Kammler was furious. They had waited and planned seventeen years for this moment. It could not end now. “One will be enough. Is there any way to speed up the fueling?”
“It is going as fast as the pumps will allow, Herr General,” said the seated technician.
Kammler turned to look out the windows. No one seemed to be coming to repel these men except for three men he recognized as his own. He looked at the men moving through the complex. They were the same age as his men, but were wearing old garrison caps. Who could they be, he wondered. In a hail of gunfire he saw one of his men break from his hiding place and move toward the control room in an effort to outflank the others and get a better shot. He was passing the main cable junction when six of the others with sub-machineguns opened up, flaying the man. Their bullets also peppered the main junction of cables.
Suddenly the consoles in the control room went dead and the lights began to flicker.
“They have cut the control cables!” shouted Ingles.
Kammler watched the last of his men being hunted down. He turned to Ingles. “Do the missiles still have power?”
“As far as I know. But we can’t launch them from here.”
Kammler grabbed him by the arm. “We can still launch from the cockpit! Come!” he said as he dragged Ingles out the side door and into a short corridor. He turned to the others in the room. “All of you go out through the other door and raise your hands to surrender,” he ordered before dashing with Ingles down the hall.
The men needed no coaxing. They rushed to the door and stepped into the light with their hands raised.
All of Dresner’s men had now joined up and saw the men coming out. Distracted, they didn’t see two men skirt out a far door and across the floor now with nearly an inch of water on it. Another, in a black uniform dashed across the floor and into the corridor to the house. It was the sound of a door being opened that got Betz’s attention and he saw the first two quickly move inside. He couldn’t get off a shot.
Rushing across the room, the men tried the door, but it would not budge. They even tried firing into the metal door, but it was too thick to be damaged. Turning to the technicians, Dresner asked, “What is he trying to do?”
The men looked at each other a moment before Dresner, in a rage, placed his pistol against one of the men’s head. “I am in no mood to wait!”
“He can launch the missile from the cockpit,” the technician said.
Dresner stared up at the last set of doors. There was no water running from them. “Is there another way up there?”
The technician shook his head. “The main doors were locked in the sequence. This is the emergency access,” he said nervously.
There was a loud groan which came from the set of doors nearest them. A gap appeared from the bottom of the doors and water began gushing out of them and into the chamber.
“Get everyone out of here. Betz, take your group back out the one tunnel and we will go out the other. Did you see any way to contain this water?” he asked Betz.
“Ja, Herr Major. There is what looks like a large set of blast doors at the end of the tunnel.”
“Then close them. There is a similar door in the corridor to the house. We will let the entire place fill with water.” He looked back at the still dry missile doors. “Let’s hope Wagner can get a shot at the missile when it leaves the silo,” he said.
Wagner was having a hard time. The last silo was curved away from the gazebo and there was no way to get a shot at it. The three watched as the last door opened to its fullest. The light from inside shined against it. “Now what do we do?” he asked.
Eric stood and looked around the area. It only took a second. “Bring the gear,” he said as he grabbed a box of ammunition and darted back along the short causeway to the shore. The other two men shrugged their shoulders and followed. Within a minute they were standing beside a paddle boat.
“Dad got this thing to move around the lake. Can we all three get on?” he asked.
Wagner jumped in the right front seat with the Panzerschreck over his shoulder. Stephen jumped on the back and held on between the two molded seats. At first Wagner tried to pedal as fast as he could, but Eric slowed him down. “It actually goes quicker when you paddle slower,” he said.
By now the men were hearing the klaxon and gunfire from the silos. It was agonizingly slow moving from the muddy shore around next to the gazebo and out around the lake. They didn’t dare go closer to the silos they had already hit. Water was pouring through the holes and threatened to pull anyone else in as well. In five minutes, they were in a position to get at least a partial shot at the last silo. Stephen loaded a round into the rear of the tube.
Dresner reached the second level and saw one of the men he left behind. “Where are the others?” he asked.
“In here, Herr Major. We thought they should spend time with their mentor,” he said with a grin.
Dresner grinned. “Get them out and get them up to the house. Quickly!” he ordered.
The soldiers opened the door to Hitler’s mausoleum one last time. There was a shout behind them in the tunnel and they heard someone being tackled in the outer corridor. Dresner turned to see Corporal Goetz holding tightly to a man in a black SS uniform. The man broke one of his arms free from Goetz and was desperately trying to put something in his mouth. Dresner raced to he man and kicked the hand away. A small vial rolled across the floor.
“You won’t be taking that way out,” said Dresner.
They turned the man over. It was Colonel Müller. Dresner smiled. “Colonel, I have wanted to get you in this position for a long time.” He turned to the others. “Secure Gestapo Müller and make sure he has no opportunity to escape the punishments he so justly deserves,” he ordered. The men quickly tied the man’s arms behind his back and placed a gag in his mouth.