Henri and Emil clutched one another’s coat sleeves, clawing at the floor with their free hands. Henri’s palm was cut and bleeding, leaving a crimson trail behind as they continued deeper into the widening crater. Henri knew the floor would eventually give out completely, and they’d fall into the void beneath the Reliquary.
How far would we fall?
Emil unsheathed his knife and jammed its tip into the rock but was unsuccessful at stopping them. The blade was torn free from his grip and slid away. Henri attempted the same maneuver.
His blade tip caught.
Emil quickly latched onto Henri’s available hand and held on.
“Where’s the journal?” Henri asked.
Emil leaned around him and pointed. “There!”
Henri gritted his teeth and looked over his shoulder. Luka’s lifeless body was quickly catching up to them. Another loud crack exposed them to the frozen world below… and to a strange pulsating purple light. A less disorienting bwomp greeted them as well, though this time, it didn’t stop.
Emil’s hand slipped.
“Use your other hand, Lieutenant. Climb up me.”
Emil’s eyes flashed back to Luka’s advancing corpse. It was picking up steam now.
“The journal!”
Henri shook his head. “I will not lose another man over it. Climb, Lieutenant.” His loyal number two opened his mouth to say something, but Henri cut him off. “Climb, Emil.”
Lieutenant Emil Becker met eyes with Henri, then looked past him as something approached just outside of Henri’s periphery.
Emil locked eyes with him. “Remake the world, Henri. Do it for all of us.”
The lieutenant reached out and grabbed Luka as he slid past them. The added weight jerked Emil free of Henri’s grip. Emil valiantly plucked the journal free of the master chief’s hand and tossed it back up toward Henri.
He fumbled with the journal at first but finally had it. He went to check on Emil, but he and Luka were already gone.
He sighed. “For you, Emil.”
Henri slipped the journal into the admin pouch on his chest rig and was surprised when his knife broke free. But what surprised him more was that he didn’t fall. Something had grabbed the back of his vest. He craned his head up and around to find Zahra. She hung from her grappling hook and was risking her own life to save his.
She flicked both her eyebrows. “Told you it was useful in a pinch. Now climb, you kraut!”
Ignoring what she had just called him, Henri worked himself around until he could grab hold of the cord. Once he was secure, he had to know. “Why?”
“Call it ‘professional courtesy.’ I owed you one for saving me and my friends.”
“I did it for myself.”
“I know, but you still kept us from being executed like common street dogs. Oh, by the way…”
Henri looked up at her.
Zahra jabbed him in the face with her fist, bloodying his nose. “Now we’re even.”
Henri flared his nostrils and blinked his tearing eyes. “Fair enough.”
“Let’s go.” Zahra began her ascent. “You get the journal?”
Henri visualized the prized possession in his admin pouch. “N-no,” he lied. “It fell with the others.”
“Great news!”
Henri looked up at her, frowning.
“You’re terrible people. I’m glad it’s gone.”
Chapter 64
Zahra
Zahra and Henri were nearly at the top of the quickly widening hole in the hangar floor. She had decided to save Henri’s life on a whim. Maybe it was recency bias that had motivated her? Men like him deserved to die, but she had saved him — for what?
Yet, here I am.
“So, you’re a Nazi, huh?” Zahra asked. She needed to know.
“I am a soldier. My motives are not driven by race or religion.”
Well, that’s good to know.
“But your organization was founded by the worst Nazi of them all.”
“Himmler was a remarkable man.”
Zahra looked down at Henri. “See, told ya. Nazi.”
She made it to the crater’s edge and pulled herself up. Zahra didn’t bother helping Henri with the rest of his climb. She’d already helped him more than he deserved.
They sat on their knees and caught their breath as two sets of footfalls came charging toward them. She looked up from the cracked floor and saw Yana and Hammet sprinting her way, but their focus wasn’t on her.
It was on Kyle Ford, a.k.a. Henri Vogel.
Zahra held out a shaky hand. “Stop!”
The surprised pair did. They pulled up just as they were about to send Henri back into the growing void.
“But he’s one of them?” Hammet said, confused by why she would protect him.
“And he saved our lives.”
Yana stepped closer to Henri with gritted teeth. “There is no room for honor with animals like him.” She jabbed a finger in his face. “You deserve only death.”
“Yana,” Zahra said, but her friend didn’t look at her.
“Yana?”
The Russian’s eyes flashed to Zahra.
“We aren’t like them.”
Hammet removed his stare from Henri and met Zahra’s eyes. He put a hand on the irate Russian’s shoulder. “She’s right. Let him go.”
“Let him go?” Yana shouted. “You, of all people, should want to watch him suffer. He’s a Nazi!”
“Yes, I know. But Zahra is right. He saved our lives,” he looked at Henri, “even if it really was to only save his own.”
Yana burned with rage. She shook to the point of exploding. She turned red and turned away. Henri took that as his cue to leave. He got to his feet and stepped around Yana and Hammet, giving them a wide berth as he did.
Suddenly, the floor beneath Zahra gave way, and she fell. Yana and Hammet were forced to flee and run toward the center of the hangar to avoid joining her. Zahra free-fell until she snagged the end of her grappling hook’s stout cord. She came to an abrupt stop, unsure of what the claws had caught. The floor beneath her crumbled to reveal a light show of intergalactic proportions.
George Lucas, eat your heart out.
There, she hung alone, and witnessed the alien spacecraft fully emerge from the continent’s embrace. The ice shook free like a dog shaking off fleas. How the ship got all the way down here was still beyond Zahra’s understanding. Sanitation? Heat?
The spacecraft was the size of a cruise liner, but that’s where the similarities ended. It was solid black and covered with the same panels as the Geisterbombers. These panels were significantly larger, though.
The pulsating purple light wasn’t coming from any kind of engine Zahra could see. She couldn’t see any external thrusters from her overhead view. The beautiful aura was coming from the ship itself. It was an energy field of some kind.
Then, the ship fell.
As it fell, she saw that the chasm was much larger than Zahra had originally thought. It would engulf the ship with ease.
The light increased in strength, and so did the unearthly sound.
Zahra watched in awe as the panels blurred. They started at what she guessed was its bow. Row by row, the ship vanished from sight — only the very tip of the stern was left. Then, when it too was gone, the ship let out one final, earth-shattering bwomp and the purple light shrank inward, then exploded outward. She covered her eyes involuntarily, but the effect was visual only. And it was quick.