Alpha Threat (24 page)

Randall sat up hearing a noise outside of his cell.
 
He heard another door slam and voices.
 

“Hey, let me out!” he screamed at the top of his lungs.
 
“Get me the hell out of here!”

There was no reply, just silence.
 
After about thirty seconds, the door lock clicked and it flew open.
 
A large guard burst in.
 
Randall tried to stand but the guard slammed him against the back wall of the cell.
 
Randall saw stars; his head had smacked the stone hard.
 
As he tried to regain his wits and stand again, a large fist slammed into his face, then another.
 
He fell back on the floor.
 
A second guard lifted him up while the other guard grabbed Randall’s arms and pulled them back.
 
Randall looked up as a large hard rubber bludgeon smashed into his face.
 
Blood spattered the near wall.
 

Before he could recover another blow came and then another.
 
He was thrown to the floor again.
 
He never saw the boot that kicked him hard in the side, breaking two of his ribs. Nor did he see the boot that slammed him between the legs, right in the balls.
 
Randall’s world exploded in excruciating pain as his vision flashed to a blinding white and then faded to black.
 
He was out cold.
 
But that did not stop the guards. For five more minutes they beat Randall’s face and body.
 
Punch after punch after punch until his face was a bloody mess.
 
But thank God, he did not feel it.
  
The two guards threw him in the corner and left him.
 
They never said a word.
 
Maas watched from the cell entrance.
 

“Very good,” he said to the guards, smiling as he handed them a towel to clean Randall’s blood from their hands and face.
 
“That should keep him quiet for a while.”

Within minutes there was a visit to Manolo’s cell.
 
The same two guards walked into the cell and pulled him up to a standing position.
 
Manolo stood there scared to death.
   

Before he could say anything one of the guards swung a two-foot long iron bar, smashing it into Manolo’s left knee.
 
The force of the blow crushed Manolo’s knee and he screamed in pain as he hit the floor.
 

Manolo’s pain was excruciating.
 
The guard stepped closer and swung the iron bar again.
 
This time it caught Manolo on his left arm, halfway between the elbow and shoulder.
 
The crack was sickening as the bar broke his arm nearly in two.
 
His lower arm was now completely limp, a jagged portion of bone sticking out of a four-inch gash in his arm.
 
Manolo passed out, the pain too severe to endure.
 
As with Randall, the guards did not stop.
 
As one guard held Manolo up the other guard began beating him mercilessly.
 
There were numerous blows to the stomach and ribs and many blows to the face.
 
An unconscious Manolo did not feel the punishment but would definitely feel it later.
 
The two guards threw Manolo into the corner of the room against the stone wall and walked out of the cell leaving him broken on the floor.
 
Again Maas stood at the door smiling.
 

Both men had been brutally beaten.
 
Both were left to endure their pain alone.
 
Now it was Dana’s turn.
 
There was to be no letup for a woman.
 
  

Maas and his two henchmen walked down the corridor and turned the corner.
 
They went down one level and through a heavy steel door.
 
They arrived outside of Dana’s cell.
 
Maas was very, very good at what he did.
 
He enjoyed inflicting pain.
 
He especially enjoyed inflicting pain on women.
 
A complete sadist and sexual deviate, Maas was well suited for the position of captain of the guards.
 
The job required blind adherence to orders no matter what the consequence.
 
That was easy for him; the worse the order, the better.
 
His orders from Kaete Grimme were to inflict pain.
 
He relished such an order.
 

The guards opened Dana’s cell.
 
She stood up and stepped forward.
 

“Who are you and why are you holding us here?” asked Dana, stepping forward, expecting some semblance of decorum from her captors.
 
She hoped and prayed Randall and Manolo were not dead already.
 
There was no response.
 
One guard stepped into the cell and grabbed Dana by the shoulders and turned her so she faced the far wall.
 
She tried to struggle but the guard was too big, too strong.
 

“Leave me alone!” she screamed.
 
“Let me go!”
 

The second guard stepped around and slapped Dana hard across the face.
 
She gasped at the strike and stars filled her eyes.
 
The strike from his huge hand left a bright red handprint across her face.
 
Before she could recover, the next blow landed; a massive punch to her stomach.
 
The punch knocked the breath out of her and her knees buckled.
 
Her eyes bulged.
 
Tears leapt from her eyes.
 
She could not breathe.
 
The first guard grabbed her by the back of her shirt collar with one hand and by her short hair with the other, holding her face out for punishment.
  
Her arms hung limply at her side as she tried desperately to catch her breath.
 

What followed was pathetic even for these men.
 
Held by the guard’s iron grip, the second guard began beating Dana with his fists.
 
Each blow smashed into her face, breaking her nose, bloodying her face and swelling her eyes.
 
Somewhere during the continuing beating, she too passed out.
 
  
After receiving more than a dozen blows, the guards threw her limp body down to the floor and stomped and kicked her torso.
 
Then they simply walked out of the cell.
 
She was left alone again.
 
Maas closed the cell door laughing quietly.
 
The bitch had better be glad I didn’t use a fan belt on her!

Maas ordered his henchmen to monitor the three but not contact any of them.
 
He left his lair deep within the fortress and returned to Grimme’s office.
 

“All three captives have been severely beaten.
 
Pain is their companion now,” he said with a sick grin.
 

“Very good,” she hissed as she smiled broadly.
 
A sadist in her own right, everything was going according to her plan.
 
She would leave them alone for a few more days to let their pain and suffering weaken their resistance.
 
Then she would find out what she wanted to know.
 
Above all their secret location and plans must be guarded at all cost.
   

“I trust you beat them severely as I ordered?” She asked.
 

“Yes.
 
My guards have bloodied them but they are in no real danger.
 
All of them were beaten as you ordered,” Maas said proudly.
 
“They will be ready for questioning in a few days.”

 
“Very well.
 
Watch them closely,” she ordered as she slowly walked around from behind her desk.
 
“I want them to suffer but not die.
 
My father always used this most effective way of questioning people.
 
His first step was to beat them into submission without saying a word.
 
The beating shows that they are not safe nor are they in control of their own fate.
 
That sets the stage for the second step.
 
We will use one of the captives as an example while the remaining captives are forced to watch, but again no questions yet.
 
Finally, the questioning begins and everyone talks or they die one at a time in front of each other.
 
The killing is gruesome and brutal.
 
Before it is all over, everyone talks... or dies.”

“I understand,
Mein Führer
,” said Maas smiling.
 
“I look forward to serving you.
 
As you know, inflicting pain is my passion.”

Grimme smiled and let out a laugh.
 
“Ah, yes.
 
I knew I selected the man I needed for my work,” smirked Grimme, relishing the thought of what was to come.
 

“Tomorrow night at midnight,” she said.
 
“That’s when we will begin step two.
 
Make certain everything is ready.
 
I will accompany you for the next session,” she said, changing her thoughts to her more pressing duties.
 
“I have much work to do before then.”

“Yes,
Mein Führer
,
” snapped Maas as he nodded his head in agreement and turned and walked out of her office.
 
He was pleased.
 

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Inside Fortress Alpha Deep in the Amazon;
 
10:00 a.m.

Kaete Grimme looked around her office.
 
Even though it was eight levels below the Amazon jungle, no one would have known.
 
The room was beautifully appointed.
 
The fine Brazilian wood paneling gave the room warmth of home.
 
A working fireplace adorned the far wall. The furniture was French and richly adorned with beautifully elegant fabrics.
 
She was literally standing within a French chateau.
  

Her library adjoined the office.
 
It too was as exquisite as those in the finest castles of Europe.
 
At full two stories, the library held thousands of books, art and rare papers brought from Europe after the Second World War.
  
Most were gleaned from the European museums, castles and homes by the Germans as they marched across Poland, Italy, France, Belgium and the Netherlands.
 

Many priceless art treasures were lost to the Allies before they could be brought for safekeeping in Brazil.
 
Even so, many of the volumes in the library were priceless first editions.
 
The artwork included many works by the masters long thought to be lost during the war.
 
They were not lost.
 
They were very well kept in Brazil; stolen from museums and various private collections in countries that fell to the German onslaught.
 
The collection of art alone made this complex one of the finest unknown museums of art in the world.
 

The plan was for Hitler himself to be whisked away from Berlin and brought to Fortress Alpha but his stubbornness in leaving Berlin before the Russian army cut off his exit sealed his fate.
 

This fortress and industrial complex was to be Hitler’s new beginning.
 
Building had begun in 1942 as a future stronghold for the new German front in South America.
 
The German High Command wanted to create a utopia in Brazil.
 
It would be used as a jumping-off point to take over South America and then march across Central America into Mexico and on to the United States.
  
Built in a remote area for secrecy, the facility quickly became Germany’s safe outpost for the many spoils of war.
 

Kaete recalled pictures of the Biltmore House in Asheville, North Carolina back in the United States.
 
As a young woman her father had brought in many books for her to study when she was being personally tutored by him or one of his scientists.
 
She loved the French chateau built in the North Carolina Mountains by George Vanderbilt.
 
Although she never visited the exquisite home, she visited through her studies.
 
She could recite its history and walk through the house and its gardens in her mind.
 
Privately she yearned for such a palace but knew it was not possible.
 
But her position here was extremely important.
 
It was the linchpin for the future of the dreams of her grandfather and father as well as all good Germans throughout the world.
  
If she wanted to maintain her father and grandfather’s quarters, so be it.