Where Condors Dare

Monday, January 22, 1945, 03:50 hours

Zombie Chamber, Nadabaum Castle, Bavarian Alps

Captain Ivanova Kovalenko stood up and tugged her tunic over the bandages covering her wounds. The Americans quickly reloaded their weapons, then inspected the crates that held the undead Nazis. The crates were empty except for clumps of dirt and parts of dismembered zombies. Some of the flesh quivered. Johnny noticed the bottom of the crates had a greenish tinge. Some sort of green liquid had leaked out of the supernaturally preserved bodies.

Ski motioned for the team to continue their advance through the castle. He rushed up to the set of double doors at the end of the zombie chamber and pressed his ear to one of them. He heard something moving on the other side. He was quickly joined by Lt. Jack Pepper the sniper, Ivanova, Thomas the bazooka man, and Johnny the Johnny gunner. Ski halted them with a hand gesture. They fell quiet. Thomas could hear something moving behind the door, too. His intuition told him that he wasn't going to like whatever was behind that door.

Ski brought Johnny up to the front of the column. The light machine gunner moved to the door on the right while Ski stood before the door on the left. Johnny slowly and gently pulled on the large iron ring attached to his door. The door moved slightly then stopped. Something was barring the door on the other side, preventing them from opening it.

Thomas put down his bazooka and pulled his bayonet from the scabbard buckled to his leg. He slipped the bayonet between the cracks in the door about a foot below the iron rings, and heaved it upward. Something heavy clattered to the floor on the other side of the door.

Thomas grabbed his bazooka and took up a position behind Ski and Ivanova. Jack slipped behind Johnny as Johnny flung open his door, making sure the heavy oak door was between them and whatever lay beyond. Ivanova peaked around her door.

Beyond was a room half as deep as the zombie chamber. Facing the door were two sandbag emplacements. In each sandbag emplacement was an MG-42 machine gun with a crew of two men apiece. As the bar clattered to the floor and door opened, the startled crews assumed their positions.

Jack fired first. The heavy bullet from his sniper rifle struck the left-hand machine gun. The bullet jammed the gun and sent it pivoting harmlessly away.

Ivanova followed up with a carbine shot at the machine gun crew on the right. Her shot went wide, cracking past the ear of one of the machine gunners. Ski could only wonder at the low marksman proficiency levels of the Soviet Army. "Give her a knife, damn it!" cried Ski.

Jack fired again, this time at the crew on the right. The bullet banged off the machine gun's barrel. The gunner and his assistant ducked by reflex.

Thomas — now known as "Boom-Boom" — threw a grenade behind the right-hand sandbag position. The two men jumped out of the way as the grenade exploded harmlessly. Nevertheless, he forced the frightened crew away from their gun. That left only one machine gun as an immediate threat.

Jack took aim a third time. He pointed his weapon at the assistant machine gunner behind the left hand position. He squeezed the trigger. His gun clicked. Jammed! Jack did a backflip behind the door.

Johnny slipped around the edge of the door as the assistant for the right hand gun crew ran back to his weapon. Johnny hosed the room back and forth with a storm of bullets, aiming just above the sandbags. The Nazis ducked, unwilling to risk their lives against the hail of lead.

Ski and "Boom-Boom" Thomas ran into the room just underneath Johnny's volley. They jumped over the sandbag position on the right. Squatting beside Ski was the machine gunner. "Get out of my sand box!" snarled Ski as he brought his Thompson submachine gun to bear.

Ivanova fired at the German squatting beside Ski. The bullet struck the Nazi just below the rim of his helmet. Blood trickled from the wound in the half second it took the man's body to go limp.

"Told ya!" said Ski. He looked back at Ivanova and yelled, "I'm gonna keep you around!"

"You're not going to kiss me, are you?" replied Ivanova in heavily accented English.

The assistant machine gunner near "Boom-Boom" jumped for his submachine gun. "Boom-Boom" shot the man in the chest. The German was dead before he hit the ground.

"Do we want to question them?" yelled Jack.

"Ah, hell n... uh, yeah!" yelled Tuberski in response.

Jack fired at the assistant near the remaining MG-42 as the man fumbled with his submachine gun. The bullet hit the submachine gun's strap, sending it clattering to the floor. Jack yelled, "Down on the ground!" forgetting momentarily that the German probably didn't speak English.

Tuberski jumped behind the MG-42. "Dance, Kraut, dance!" he cried as he swung the machine gun at the German standing behind the other MG-42. He let loose stream of bullets, firing through an entire belt of 150 shells. Most of the bullets slammed into that one German, turning him into a human colander. The German's body was a tenderized lump by the time it slumped to the ground.

The only Nazi left standing was the lone assistant machine gunner, who was now unarmed thanks to Jack. Ivanova yelled at him — in heavily accented German — to surrender. She ordered him to tell them where they were holding Doctor Krylov, or he would die. She put away her carbine, pulled out a knife, and proceeded into the room. She yelled at the man to surrender. The man did not seem intimidated. Perhaps she wasn't saying what she thought she was saying. He reached for his submachine gun.

Jack fired his rifle at the man's helmet, trying to knock it off and reinforce the idea that he was better off surrendering. The bullet missed. "Boom-Boom" jumped up on top of the sandbags and fired a stream of bullets at the submachine gun. The gun skittered across the floor out of the Nazi's reach. The Nazi scrambled after the gun. Jack aimed and fired, intent on shooting off the Nazi's nose. He missed as the German jumped out of the way. Jack fired again, but missed again.

Ski jumped in front of the man and landed a flying punch into the German's chin. The German fell to the ground near the submachine gun. He grabbed the submachine gun and levelled it at Ski's chest. A grin spread across the Nazi's face as he pulled the trigger.

The submachine gun clunked loud enough for everyone to hear. The Nazi looked down at the weapon with a mixture of fear and astonishment.

"Boo!" said Ski.

Ivanova rushed over to the German and stomped on his knee. His kneecap gave way with a sickening crunch. The German let out a cry of excruciating pain. Ivanova put a boot to the Nazi's chest, flattening him against the floor. "Wo ist Doktor Krylov?," she asked. The man put up his hands as pain and fear swept over his face.

Johnny reloaded his Johnny gun as Ivanova interrogated the German. "Boom-Boom" walked over to help with the interrogation. He touched the hot barrel of his carbine to the Nazi's genitals. Tuberski noticed what "Boom-Boom" was doing. "A gun for a gun?" he asked.

"Tell me if you don't like his answers," said "Boom-Boom" to Ivanova.

Johnny had loaded his gun by now and aimed it at the German, adding to the Nazi's discomfort.

Jack barred the door so they wouldn't receive any unfortunate surprises from behind. He then set up a booby trap with a couple of grenades. If anyone was following them, the followers were the ones who were in for an unfortunate surprise.

"Wo ist Doktor Krylov?" repeated Ivanova.

"Don't shoot!" cried the German, in accented English. "Don't shoot!"

Ivanova repeated the demand, slowly and loudly. "Wo... ist... Doktor... Krylov?" "Boom-Boom" nudged the Nazi soldier with the hot barrel of his gun.

"Ah! Ah!" cried the German. "Unten! Unten!"

Tuberski pulled out his knife and aimed it where "Boom-Boom's" gun was pointed. "Eh, boy." He turned to Ivanova. "Tell him we ain't gonna shoot him."

"Nien! Nien! Unten! Unten!" repeated the German.

Ivanova treated the Nazi's knee so that he could walk. They tied his hands behind his back. Tuberski put an arm around the German's throat and pushed one of his pistols into the German's rib cage. Ivanova asked the German where they were going, and he said they should go forward, through the door at the back of this room, and down the stairs. Tuberski asked what they could expect as resistance, Ivanova translated, and the German said that there may be guards down there, but only one or two. She asked if there were any more machine gun emplacements, but he declared — vehemently — that there were none.

They opened the door. Tuberski pushed the German ahead of him as a human shield. The rest of the team followed. They quietly slipped downstairs. The passage at the bottom of the stairs headed back in the direction they had come, but it was one level further down in the complex. Each side of the passage had about a dozen heavy oak doors. "Am Ende des Flures," said the German. Ivanova translated this as "at the end of the corridor".

They walked down the corridor. They saw that there were several intersecting corridors, each with at least a half a dozen doors per side. The corridor was very quiet. Too quiet. "Tell him to run," said Ski to Ivanova.

"Durchlauf!" she said.

"Durchlauf?" The German hesitated for a second. When he saw that they were serious, he turned and ran down the corridor. Ski raised his pistols. He aimed for a point between the German's shoulder blades.

The Nazi soldier stumbled, as though he had almost tripped on something. As he recovered his footing, Tuberski squeezed off a burst. The bullets struck the Nazi and sent him sprawling. Four doors opened and four Germans, each armed with an MP-40 submachine gun, fired at the Nazi riddling him with bullets.

They realized their mistake a split second too late and turned to look down the corridor. Strike Team Juliet was already in motion.

Johnny opened up with his Johnny gun. The Nazis dove for their respective doors as bullets danced around them. They weren't quick enough; Tuberski blazed away with both of his .45s. He hit all four Germans. They fell to the stone. Blood pooled out of their bullet-riddled bodies.

Johnny grabbed Ski behind both ears and kissed him on the forehead. "That's why we keep you around!" he said. Realizing what he just did, he lightly punched Ski in the gut. The two pulled apart, looking all manly.

They carefully picked their way down the corridor, looking for trip wires and listening for enemy soldiers as they went. Johnny slipped on some blood and clattered to the floor. His gun broke loose from his grip and the clip was ejected as the gun hit the floor. Johnny quickly got to his feet, and picked up the weapon and the magazine. Right off he found that a flange on the magazine was bent. If he had just slapped the clip into place, the weapon would have jammed when he next tried to fire it. Johnny swapped clips. He then began field stripping the gun to see if it was damaged in any other way.

Ivanova got to the room at the end of the hall first. She checked for booby traps. Finding none, she pressed her ear to the door. Boom-boom stood beside the door on its hinge side. Jack stood on the other side of the door. Ski pulled the picture of Dr. Krylov from his haversack. He quickly passed it around so that everyone knew what the Russian doctor looked like. Ivanova moved to grasp the door knob. Jack said, "Captain, let me open the door for you." Ivanova looked at him, shrugged, and backed up with her gun pointed at the door.

Jack Pepper grasped the door knob, twisted it, and threw it open. Ivanova rushed through the doorway. The room was empty. "That lying little Nazi bastard," muttered Ivanova.

"I'm glad we shot him like we planned to!" replied Ski as he, Jack, and Boom-Boom entered the room.

The room looked like a jail cell. It had a bed, a commode, a stout oak table and a heavy wooden chair. A tall, narrow window offered the only view. The room was recently occupied, evidenced by the fact that the bed was unmade, and there were papers and a pen on the desk. Ivanova walked over to the desk and read through the papers lying there. The loose papers were Dr. Krylov's journal, written in Russian. They described his time in the castle, how he had been tortured for information and how they gave him only meager rations. The most recent entries talked of something "special" brewing, and that something was planned for that morning or the previous evening (he apparently didn't know precisely when this "special thing" was to happen).

Johnny slipped into the room, having finally reassembled his Johnson light machine gun. He noticed a faint glow of artificial light seeping in from the window; he was the only one to notice this light. He walked over to the window and looked outside.

The window looked out along the side of the mountain. There was no sign of the village, so Johnny figured the village must be in the opposite direction. Jutting out of the mountain several hundred yards away was a semi-circular concrete platform. The platform extended out over the valley from a large opening in the mountain side. A dozen people in greatcoats stood in a circle about two thirds of the way along the platform, with two people in the middle of the circle. One of those in the center was holding a torch mounted on a long pole.

Johnny told the others what he saw, and they each took turns looking out the window. They were too far away for Jack to get off an effective shot even if he had been firing in daylight and without a wind to contend with. Jack was the only one that had even a chance of hitting something out on the platform. If they wanted to see what was happening — and stop it — they would have to get closer to the platform.

Jack mentioned the intersecting corridors they had passed on the way to this room. A couple of those corridors headed in the direction of the platform. One of them must take them to the platform.

Boom-Boom booby trapped the bed so that it would blow up the next time someone touched it. The others checked the nearby rooms. They were barracks rooms, but no one was in them and there were no extra weapons lying about. They were ready to move out.

It occurred to Tuberski that the people in the circle were conducting some sort of ritual. He suggested that Jack try to shoot the men in the center of the circle, anyway. Even if he missed he could still disrupt the ritual. The others suggested that Jack shoot the guy with the torch.

Jack broke the window. Cold air blasted into the room. The sniper took careful aim at the man with the torch. Tuberski came up behind Jack and massaged his shoulders. "Remember, boy," he said, "You are God." He looked around and saw the others staring at him. "I'll shoot the next sombitch who says somethin'" he growled. He let go of Jack's shoulders and pulled out a pair of binoculars.

The sniper took in a deep breath and squeezed the trigger. His gun barked. The bullet flew wide.

Tuberski watched Jack fire through the binoculars. When the bullet missed, the man with the torch turned around to see where the shot came from. He couldn't be sure, but Tuberski thought that maybe the guy with the torch was Krylov. "I think Krylov's on to us," said Tuberski.

Jack aimed for a second shot, this time at the figure beside the man with the torch. The torch missed this target, too. Ski saw the person flinch and look around. He turned to his right and cupped his hand to his mouth. There was movement at the edge of the circle. Someone ran from the circle to the big opening in the mountain.

The strike team ran out of the room, down the corridor and turned right at the first passage. Ski was first, followed — in order — by Johnny, Jack, Ivanova, and Boom-Boom. The passage ended in a set of double doors. They threw open the doors, their guns at the ready.

Before them was a very long concrete corridor. There were no passages or doors on either side. It was just a long square tunnel heading in the direction of the platform. This was not part of the castle, this was something else, something relatively new. They hurried down the tunnel as fast as they could while looking for trip wires.

The passage ended in another set of double doors. Ski and Boom-Boom heard wind howling beyond the doors, but Ski also heard machinery. Johnny stood in front of the doors. Boom-Boom loaded a shell into the bazooka and stood behind Johnny. The others grabbed the door handles and opened the doors.

A cold, howling wind struck them. Immediately in front of them was a stone walkway with a metal handrail. The walkway connected two cable car berths. Beyond the berths was a deep, narrow gorge. They realized that the platform was not actually on the same mountain as the castle but on an adjacent mountain.

Two thick cables looped out over the gorge, across a half a dozen support towers, and back again. One cable car sat in its berth. The machinery for that car was humming but the car stood still.

Johnny checked out the car, looking for booby traps. When he didn't find any, the strike team piled into the cable car. At the front of the car was a big button and a lever with a handle. "Does anyone know how to work this damned thing?" asked Tuberski. When no one came forward, he tried it himself. He pushed the button. The machinery grew louder and the car shifted in its berth. He turned the handle, and the car started to move. The further to the right he turned the lever, the faster the car moved. Ski began to pray, hoping that no one would try to cut the cable while they were in the car.

The car glided out of the berth and along the cable. It rose gently to the first tower. Once it was clear of the tower, the car slid downward, then began to climb for the next tower.

Johnny looked out the front of the car. He noticed that the other set of cables was moving, too. The other car was approaching.

Boom-Boom Thomas volunteered to climb onto the roof with his bazooka, but he needed someone else to load the weapon. Jack Pepper was his loader.

Tuberski looked at Jack. "Over you go, boy!"

Jack looked out the window and then down at the gorge. He threw his arms wide. "Hold me tight, Ski!" he cried and hugged his commanding officer. "Hold me tight!" Tuberski started to wonder just why Lt. Pepper had turned down three promotions to serve under his command...

Jack let go of Ski and tied a rope around himself. He tied the other end of the rope to Thomas. Thomas tied a second piece of rope around Jack's waist and then looked for someone to give it to. Ivanova stepped forward. "I'll take the rope," she said in her thick Russian accent. As Thomas threw open the door, Ivanova tied the rope to a thick pole in the center of the car.

Boom-Boom threw the bazooka strap over his shoulder while Jack did the same with a container of bazooka rounds. Boom-Boom grasped the edge of the roof and pulled himself up to his chin. He threw a leg onto the roof, but his hand slipped. He clung precariously to the edge of the cable car. Jack grabbed onto the roof beside Boom-Boom. He flung himself onto the roof with ease. He grabbed Boom-Boom by the scruff of the neck and hauled him onto the cable car roof.

Boom-Boom pulled the bazooka off his back as Jack unpacked a shell. Boom-Boom sighted the weapon along the cable. Visibility was bad due to blowing snow and low lying clouds. The other cable car appeared and disappeared in the gloom. Jack slid a round into the bazooka's tube, wired it, and then slapped Boom-Boom on the head.

Soldiers in the other cable car opened fire. Bullets slashed through the main compartment of the strike team's car, showering the team with broken pieces of glass as they ducked out of the way. Bullets whined around them and banged into the metal sides of the car. Johnny dropped out of the way a split second before a bullet punched through the air where his head was. Every now and again a high pitched clang registered as a bullet hit one of the car's metal poles.

"Are you boys gonna do anything up there?" yelled Ski to Jack and Boom-Boom.

Just as he said that, Boom-Boom fired the bazooka. The shell rocketed down the tube and out toward the other cable car. The shell fell low just as the cable car started to rise for the next tower, exploding somewhere down in the gorge. Before the shell had exploded, though, Boom-Boom yelled, "Load me!" and Jack slid another round into the bazooka.

Ski stuck his head up. With his arm resting on the car's control panel, he aimed his pistol at the other car's cable. He fired. The bullet slapped the cable just in front of the car's support post. There was a loud twang as a portion of the cable unravelled. The Nazis started to fire again when their car came to the next tower. The portion of cable that had unravelled got caught in a pulley. There was a horrendous metallic rending sound as the car wrenched backward and then swung violently. Safety systems cut in and the cable stopped moving. The Nazis' car was stuck at the support tower. The strike team's car still continued on its journey, closing the distance between them.

The Germans regained their composure and fired at the strike team. Once again bullets flew through the car. Two Nazis aimed at the men on top of the car. A rifle bullet grazed Jack's arm. Submachine gun bullets pinged off the cable car's support column, but missed Boom-Boom completely.

Ivanova fired her pistol, but missed the Germans. Her action did suppress a couple of Nazis, allowing Johnny to pop up from cover. He let loose a storm of bullets from his Johnny gun, shattering every pane of glass in the other car and suppressing all but one of the Nazis.

Jack wired the bazooka shell. He patted Boom-Boom on the head. "Aim this time!" he yelled as he grabbed his rifle and brought it up to his shoulder.

Tuberski fired at the cable again. Another strand of cable broke loose with a twang. The cable gave way a little bit, causing the car to sway. Between the swaying and the storm of bullets from the Johnny gun, none of the Germans were in any position to fire back.

Jack drew a bead on the broken cable. He took in a breath and fired. The bullet hit the cable, snapping it. The cable fell free and the Nazis' car began to plummet. At the same time, Boom-Boom fired the bazooka. The shell hit the plummeting car. The car exploded in a ball of fire as it fell to the rock and snow of the gorge. The flaming wreckage bounced off a large boulder and crashed to the icy river below.

Ski stood up. He patted Johnny on the head. "You can stop firing now."

Pepper yelled down to the rest of the strike team. "Y'all finished playing now?"

The men on top of the car stayed where they were as the car traversed the remaining towers, and then slid toward its berth. Just as the car was making contact with the concrete platform, a lone submachine gun let loose. Bullets flew all around the strike team members in the car, forcing them to drop out of the line of fire. A bullet just narrowly missed striking Tuberski in the head. As bullets played over the roof of the car, Tuberski took a quick peak. He could just barely see the man firing at them. The gunman was a poster boy for Aryan supremacy: he was tall, blonde and handsome. He was very well built, his arm muscles just barely contained within his uniform sleeves. He wore a black SS uniform. His collar tabs and rank insignia indicated he was an oberführer with the Karotechia.

Boom-Boom fired at the Nazi but missed. The Nazi fired back, just barely missing Boom-Boom. Jack fired at the Nazi. The Nazi jumped out of the way.

Johnny stood up and let loose a burst from his Johnson gun. The Nazi dropped and rolled behind a barrel. Boom-Boom pulled the pin out of a grenade with his teeth and threw the grenade at the Nazi. The Nazi didn't have a chance to scoop up the grenade and throw it back, so he threw himself flat. The grenade peppered the man's black uniform with shrapnel, but the Nazi was up and moving a split-second later.

"Son of a biscuit eater!" yelled Jack. He fired with his rifle, but missed.

Tuberski fired a single shot at the German, grazing the man's shoulder.

The Nazi raised his MP-40 and aimed at Tuberski's chest.

Ivanova pulled out her commando dagger and threw it at the Nazi. It impaled the Nazi's right wrist. He yelled out in pain as his hand spasmed. He dropped the submachine gun.

In one quick motion, the Karotechia agent vaulted over the railing behind him, landing on a walkway. He ran for a set of double doors as Johnny fired at him. Bullets kicked up at his feet. Boom-Boom threw a grenade, but it fell short. Jack and Tuberski both fired at him, but their bullets hit the wall less than an inch short of their target. He bolted past the doors and into a concrete passage.

"Come back with my knife!" yelled Ivanova.

Jack jumped off the roof of the cable car onto the parapet and charged down the corridor after the Nazi. Tuberski climbed out of the cable car and clambered after Jack.

Jack dropped to one knee and aimed at the Oberführer just as the Nazi swiped at something on the wall. The shot missed, but it forced the Nazi to reel back. The Nazi ran down the passage. Tuberski had caught up by this point and fired down the corridor. His shot missed and hit a steam pipe. The corridor filled with steam, obscuring the Nazi in the thick mist.

Boom-Boom joined Ski and Jack. He threw a white phosphorus grenade down the passage way. It landed just beyond the steam. It erupted, filling the already steam-filled passage with white smoke. Boom-Boom pulled out a regular fragmentation grenade and chucked that down the corridor. It exploded somewhere further down the passage.

"Close your eyes the next time you throw a grenade," suggested Johnny as he joined the others.

Tuberski threw a grenade, but they could tell by the sound that it hadn't landed far enough down the corridor to do any damage. Boom-Boom Thomas threw another grenade. This one landed much further away than Tuberski's grenade. It exploded with a satisfying bang.

Ivanova noticed a big wheel on the wall as she caught up with the others. She turned it. The hissing of escaping steam slowed. She turned the wheel until it wouldn't turn any more, and the hissing stopped altogether. Now the passageway was filled only with the smoke from the white phosphorus grenade.

Jack ran down the corridor through the smoke. He couldn't see anything until he emerged from the smoke cloud. This passage was a twin of the one on the other mountain. It was made entirely of concrete. Ahead of him was a set of closed double doors. A few feet in front of the door was a pool of blood. Something — probably one of Boom-Boom's grenades — injured the Oberführer.

Unfortunately what Jack didn't see was the S-mine the Nazi had planted in the corridor. Jack stepped on it. The mine — also known as a "bouncing betty" — hissed under his foot. Jack's eyes widened as he realized what had happened. He crouched and then threw himself into a backward triple somersault. As his foot came off the mine, it popped and bounced up to chest height. Jack was into his second somersault when the mine exploded.

The strike team saw Jack somersaulting backwards out of the mist with a cloud of shrapnel buzzing above and around him. He landed on his feet in a crouch. Miraculously, none of the mine's shards had struck him.

Tuberski walked up to Jack as the sniper stood up. "Screwed up, didncha?" said the Major.

"It's only 'screwin' up' if you get hurt," replied Jack.

Jack told Ski what he saw on the other side of the smoke. The team carefully crept through the smoke. They stopped at the double doors at the end of the passage.