Where Condors Dare

Monday, January 22, 1945, 04:45 hours

Concrete Passage Off the Cable Car Berth, Nadabaum Castle, Bavarian Alps

Strike Team Juliet paused to reload their weapons. They lined up behind the door: Tuberski, Johnny, Boom-Boom, Jack, then Ivanova. Tuberski burst through the door, ducking and rolling, pistols in both hands. Behind him Johnny stepped forward and hosed the room with his Johnson light machine gun. The rest of the team stayed behind in the corridor.

The room, some kind of reception area, was empty. Johnny stopped shooting. There was a thick wooden door in front of them and a door off to their right. Johnny looked around for a blood trail. As he looked at the floor, Tuberski looked up.

The Nazi they were chasing swung down from a steam pipe and smacked into Ski's chest with both feet. Ski dropped to the floor. The Nazi swung passed Ski and Johnny, and landed in the passage in front of Boom-Boom.

Ski fired at the German, hitting him in the shoulder blade. Johnny fired at him, but his aim was off and his bullets sailed back down the corridor, missing his companions by mere inches. Jack's bullet narrowly missed the Nazi and narrowly missed striking Johnny. Boom-Boom had his carbine out. He fired at the Nazi, grazing the German's rib cage.

The Nazi SS officer, an Oberführer, punched Boom-Boom in the stomach, knocking the bazooka man backward.

Ski yelled, "Duck!" as he leaped over Johnny and rabbit punched the back of the Nazi's neck. "Schmeling you ain't, you son of a bitch!"

Jack pressed his gun up against the Nazi's abdomen, but just as he pulled the trigger the Nazi dipped out of the way. Ivanova jumped forward under Jack's arm and sliced open the Nazi's tunic. A line of blood soaked through the tunic just below his rib cage. Tuberski shot the German in the shoulder, spinning him 90 degrees to the left.

Jack leaned in. He snatched at the holster and pulled out the Nazi's Walther P-38. He ejected the clip, popped the bullet out of the chamber, and then deftly returned the gun to its holster. The German was now essentially unarmed.

Ski dropped into a boxing stance in front of the German. Jack squeezed past Ivanova and pushed his pistol into the German's ribs again. He fired repeatedly as the Nazi turned. One bullet glanced off a rib, cracking it. Another penetrated the Nazi's abdomen. The others merely creased the man's side. Boom-Boom got around behind the German.

For the first time the Nazi could see, clearly, the uniform of the woman in front of him. His eyes widened as he looked at Ivanova. He yelled, "Würfel, Bolschewikabschaum!" as he threw a punch to her head. Ivanova turned her head slightly and avoided the blow.

All at once, Ivanova plunged her knife into the Nazi's gut, Jack shot the Nazi in the head and Boom-Boom fired his carbine into the Nazi's rectum. The Nazi fell to his knees as a shocked expression spread across his Aryan features. He was dead before the back of his skull bounced off the concrete floor.

"Die Rasputin, die!" yelled Tuberski. He bent over and ripped off the man's oberführer tabs.

Ivanova kicked the corpse in the head. "Nazi pig," she muttered.

Jack was worried that the Karotechia might bring this man back to life with the zombie fluid. He pulled out his combat knife and quickly decapitated the corpse. Ivanova took the head and kicked it across the room. Boom-Boom kicked the corpse between the legs, for good measure. Ivanova retrieved her first dagger out of the corpse's hand. She cleaned it on the Nazi's tunic and then slid it into a belt scabbard. She then cleaned her second knife and slipped it into her boot.

The door in front of them had a sign that read, "Generator-Raum". The other door said, "Galerie". Boom-Boom went over to the first door. He carefully checked for booby traps. When his search failed to uncover any, he put his ear to the door. He could hear large machines humming in the next room. He opened the door. The room was filled with two huge turbine generators and several large fuel tanks. He closed the door.

Johnny pulled bullets out of his bad magazine and refilled his current magazine. Ivanova picked up the oberführer's head. She had an idea. She walked over to the door marked "Galerie". After Boom-Boom emerged from the generator room, she pulled out her pistol and said, "I have the Nazi's head in one hand, and my gun in the other. We are headed in."

Tuberski thought they should first plant timed charges in the generator room. He gave Boom-Boom the order and told Jack to help him.

"Whatever you say, Ski," said Jack. "I'm your man!"

Boom-Boom and Jack quickly placed some explosive charges on the fuel tanks and on the generator's supports. They turned the timers on the explosives to the 30 minute mark and pulled the pins. As they left the room, Boom-Boom set one final charge against the closest fuel tank. He attached a trip wire to the pin and tied it off so that it stretched across the doorway. He set the timer to 0 minutes. After he closed the door he told the others about the trip wire.

An impatient Ivanova stood in front of the "Galerie" door, which opened inward. Behind her was Ski. Jack was behind Ski. Johnny was behind the door, ready to open it. Boom-Boom was on the other side of the doorway. Johnny opened the door.

The room was dark. As their eyes adjusted to the gloom, they saw that it contained a couple of dozen chairs facing a window the entire length of a wall. A bank of six motion picture cameras were aimed out the window. All of the cameras were rolling. The window overlooked the concrete platform. They saw twelve people standing in a circle, with two people — one of them Krylov — standing in the center of the circle on a short metal dais. From the distance they thought the people in the circle were wearing greatcoats, but now they could tell that they were wearing ceremonial robes. The man beside Krylov held a thick book and a sinusoidal knife. Krylov looked very scared. A couple of Waffen SS soldiers had rifles trained on Krylov.

All of the strike team except for Tuberski noticed something in the sky. They looked up. At first the object looked like a big ball of flame, but then they realized it was some sort of roiling mass of chaos. They couldn't tell if it was made of flame, plasma, or living tissue.

Tuberski, who had been checking out the room and had not looked out the window nor noticed the light, turned to his team. As he was about to say something when he realized that all of them were standing there, slack-jawed, staring out the window. They saw something he knew he didn't want to see. "Oh, Mother Mary..." he said as he closed his eyes and pulled out his pistols.

Ski faced the window with his eyes closed and blazed away at a single pane of glass. The first few bullets cracked the glass but did not penetrate. It took two magazines worth of bullets to shatter the glass. A blast of cold air hit him, but the air was getting gradually warmer. Over the howl of the wind was the sound of a dozen voices chanting in unison. He couldn't help himself. He looked up at the roiling mass, and he, too, stood there slack-jawed.

Boom-Boom was the first of the team to recover. He realized that the ball of light was a living entity, and that it was descending, or getting bigger, or both. Boom-Boom loaded the bazooka and moved to the broken window. An SS soldier below him fired a rifle at him, but none of the bullets came anywhere close to hitting Boom-Boom. He loaded the bazooka by himself and aimed the bazooka at the dais. He fired.

The man with the sinusoidal knife spun around to face the window and made a strange gesture with both hands. The bazooka's shell deflected from its ballistic path in mid air and sailed over the platform's edge. All the while the chanting continued without pause.

More Nazis fired at Boom-Boom. Bullets slammed into him. He fell backwards, dropped his bazooka and collapsed, wheezing.

At that moment, Ivanova snapped out of her stupor. She was well versed in the occult. They were summoning Azathoth, an Outer God the size of a small star. Perhaps they hoped to tap into his power to win the war. Or, perhaps they wanted to destroy the world as the Third Reich fell. Either way, this was a very, very bad thing they were doing.

Bullets zipped into the gallery. Ivanova still clutched the head of the oberführer. She threw it out the broken window. The shooting continued for a few seconds, and then it slackened. Almost simultaneous choruses of "Gott im Himmel!" and "Mein Gott!" followed a second later. Some of the soldiers resumed firing. Others simply ran away, the thing in the sky and the death of the oberführer being too much for them.

Ivanova rushed over to Boom-Boom. She bandaged the demolitions expert.

Johnny snapped out of it. He saw Ivanova treating Boom-Boom, and he heard the intermittent gunfire. He looked out the window at the summoning circle. Johnny pulled out two grenades, pulled the pins, and threw the grenades at the summoning circle. One grenade overshot the platform and fell harmlessly over the edge. The other hit the platform and bounced over the edge.

The sound of the distant grenade explosions woke up Jack. He surveyed the scene. He dropped to a knee and pulled a folding grappling hook from his backpack. The hook was attached to a length of rope. Jack stuck the hook into the window frame. He grabbed the rope and jumped out the window, screaming, "Die, Karotechia, diiiiiiiie!"

Jack landed on the platform. Eight uniformed Nazis cowered underneath the gallery. The chanting of the men on the platform was rising to a crescendo and the ball in the sky was getting bigger. The Nazi soldiers fired at Jack in a panic, missing him.

Boom-Boom noticed that the man in the center of the circle with the knife was gesticulating wildly. Boom-Boom pulled out two grenades and threw them into the center of the circle. All of the men in robes, including Krylov, ran away before the grenades could explode. The grenades exploded without hurting anyone. Boom-Boom dearly hoped he had at least disrupted the spell.

The flaming ball stopped growing. It began a slow descent toward the platform.

Ivanova slid down the rope. She fired at three Nazi soldiers with her carbine as she cleared the gallery, but she didn't hit any of them. Up in the gallery Johnny fired on the Karotechia cultists with his Johnny gun. Though he didn't hit any of them, his bullets forced the cultists to lie prone.

A Nazi bullet struck Ivanova in the arm. Another hit Jack's gun, wrecking it. Ivanova dropped to one knee and turned to face her assailant.

Johnny fired at two cultists, killing both of them. Boom-Boom fired at a cultist with his carbine, but missed. Johnny shot at another two cultists, taking down both of them in a stream of Johnny gun bullets.

Jack's eyes narrowed as he stared at the Nazi cultists on the platform. The Karotechia officer in the middle of the circle was still chanting. Krylov was on his hands and knees, crawling away. Resolve swept over Jack. He started to run for the Karotechia leader.

Tuberski shook his head as he recovered from the shock of seeing an Outer God. Johnny and Boom-Boom stood in the gallery firing down at the Nazis. Jack and Ivanova were down on the platform. Ski slapped his pistols into their holsters. He swung his Tommy gun into his right hand, ran past Johnny and threw himself out the window, groping for the rope with his left hand. "Oh, Hell no!" he yelled, as he fired half a clip — one handed — into the tome held by the Nazi in the center of the circle. The bullets shredded the old book, ripping it into useless pieces. His shot was perfect, but his left hand never managed to get a purchase on the rope. Ski landed roughly. The impact wrenched his leg and knocked the wind out of him.

Johnny fired at four more Nazis, but missed all of them.

The pulsing ball of heat and chaos continued to descend. The Karotechia cultist threw away the remnants of the tome. He stood up and stretched his arms skyward. He started chanting. The ball in the sky stopped descending. It started to spin counter-clockwise as it pulsed.

Ivanova and Tuberski had the greatest expertise in the occult. They both realized, at the same time, that the summoning phase of the ritual was over. Only a portion of the Outer God had appeared, but it was enough to be the most powerful weapon in the world. They also realized that the Nazi cultist — probably a top Karotechia officer — now had complete control over this weapon.

Jack pounded toward the center of the circle. Three German soldiers opened fire on him. One Nazi bullet slammed into Jack's shoulder, sending out a spurt of blood. Jack grimaced but kept on running.

A Nazi shot at Ski. The bullet creased his left arm. Meanwhile, Ivanova dove to the side, rolled and threw a couple of grenades at a group of Nazi Waffen SS soldiers. The grenades exploded, killing four of the Nazis. Four Waffen SS soldiers remained. Johnny fired at them, but missed. Boom-Boom loaded his bazooka.

Jack ignored the pain in his shoulder as he ran into the center of the circle. The chaotic mass above the platform rotated faster than before, but it had stopped pulsing. There was no time left. They had to end the summoning, now! Jack jumped for the Karotechia officer, but he missed, landing at the man's feet. The Nazi looked down at him and laughed.

Jack pulled out a pistol. He pushed the barrel into the backpack containing the bazooka rounds. "Ski!" he cried. "Tell my mother I love her!"

The Nazi's eyes widened. He turned and ran.

Jack squeezed the trigger.

Tuberski, Johnny, and Boom-Boom yelled, "No!!!" in unison.

Jack's bazooka round and grenades exploded. A massive ball of fire and shrapnel consumed the lieutenant. All but one of the Karotechia cultists were torn to shreds by the blast. Blood and gore spread out in an expanding cloud of mist, spattering Ivanova, Tuberski, and Johnny. Krylov was thrown underneath the gallery by the explosion. He was hurt, but still alive. The Karotechia leader was also caught in the blast. The Nazi flew threw the air, landing gasping and twitching twenty yards away from where he was standing.

Bleeding, wheezing, and trailing a nearly severed leg, the Karotechia officer looked around, his face a mask of desperation. He saw a tattered fragment of the awful tome. He crawled to the remnant, dragging his dangling limb behind him.

Ivanova ran over to Krylov. Krylov sat up. He was stunned and there was a deep gash on his forehead, but he seemed mostly unhurt. The Russian medic bandaged the doctor's head wound.

Johnny saw the last of the Waffen SS soldiers disappearing into the mountain. He grabbed hold of the rope and slid down to the platform. As he rappelled down, he fired at the retreating Nazis. A long burst from his Johnny gun mowed down the retreating Nazi's.

Tuberski casually walked up to the Karotechia officer, who was stretching out to grab the piece of paper. Ski kicked the Nazi onto his back. He kneeled down and stared into the German's eyes. "That boy was like a son to me." He drove his fist into the Nazi's face.

Ski stood up, his fist covered in blood. He flicked the blood onto the Nazi's corpse. He looked up. The big ball of flame had stopped spinning. It was now, slowly, descending. Ski backed up, turned, walked a couple of steps, then broke into a jog. It was time to get out of there.

The Russian medic finished bandaging the doctor's head. The back of her neck was getting warmer. She looked up. At the rate it was falling, the fragment of Azathoth would be on top of the platform in a few minutes. She helped the doctor to his feet. Something caught her attention. She looked down and saw an almost intact page from the Karotechia's tome. Ivanova recognized it: the book was the Gothic edition of the dreaded Necronomicon. She could read Gothic. If the book had been intact she could have dispelled the Azathoth fragment. That was no longer an option. The doctor shuffled along in a daze. Ivanova grabbed him and threw him over her back in a fireman's carry. She headed back to the rope.

Ski stopped at the rope hanging from the gallery and waited for Ivanova to catch up. His boot kicked something metallic. He looked down. It was single American dog tag, twisted, blackened and bloody, but in one piece. He picked it up. It was Jack's. He slipped it into his breast pocket.

The strike team leader scanned the area underneath the gallery. The Nazis had been running for some sort of lift mechanism. Ski yelled up at Boom-Boom. "It's over! Get your ass down here!"

Boom-Boom saluted and stepped over to the rope. He paused. He shrugged off his pack and opened it. He grabbed one of the cameras, turned it off, broke off the tripod, and stuffed the camera into his backpack. He sealed the backpack and climbed down the rope. He landed heavily, hurting his leg.

The strike team were sweating in the heat of the Azathoth fragment. "Set off the charges!" ordered Tuberski.

"We can't," replied Johnny. "They're on a timer!"

"Damn!" Ski gestured for the team to follow him to the lift. He opened up the wire door to an elevator car, and stepped aside as the others got in. He jumped in and closed the gate. There were four buttons, two of which were red. He pushed a black button he hoped was "Up". The elevator car rose. A few seconds later it stopped.

Tuberski opened the gate. They were in a small panelled room with a single wooden door. Tuberski opened the door and the team members — including Ivanova, who was still carrying Dr. Krylov — filed into a large room. The room had a couple of rows of seats facing a long, wide window. One of the windows was blown out. A bank of cameras were pointed out the window. They were back in the gallery. "Back the way we came," shouted Tuberski. They ran out of the gallery, into the reception room, and back down the long concrete corridor.

A penetrating klaxon sounded. The cable car sat in the berth, just as they left it. They piled in to the cable car. An exhausted Ivanova put Dr. Krylov down on the floor. Ski assumed the controls. The car lurched forward and then climbed toward the first tower. While Tuberski stared out the front of the car, the rest of the team looked out the back. Their view of the platform was obscured from the car. All they could see was a faint glow from the other side of the mountain reflected in the clouds.

By the time the car had crossed the gorge, Dr. Krylov was well enough to move under his own power. The car settled into its berth. The team jumped out of the car ready to engage enemy soldiers. There were none. They rushed for the concrete corridor. No one was there.

They rushed down the corridor. Ski and Johnny took point. When they came to the double doors at the end of the corridor — which were still open — they carefully checked the adjoining passageway. The klaxon drowned out any possibility of hearing someone approach, so they rushed through the doorway, their guns held at their hips. The stone corridor was deserted. They motioned for the others to follow.

They ran down the corridor and up the flight of stairs. The team jumped over the sand bag emplacements and the German corpses, and entered the zombie chamber.

They picked their way through the chamber with great care, ready to shoot any corpse that might reanimate in front of them. Once clear of the chamber, they quickly ran up the stairs and into Castle Nadabaum's great hall.

Johnny and Ski run out the main door into the courtyard. The main gate of the castle was open and a squad of German soldiers were rushing in, responding to the alarm. Behind the Germans were a half a dozen trucks disgorging more troops. The lead squad were standard Wehrmacht, but at least one of the trucks was full of Waffen SS troops.

Parked beside the door was a Kubelwagen. The Kubelwagen's ragtop was down. This was to give the MG-42 machine gun — mounted on a pintle in the center of the vehicle — a clear line of fire. The team hurried to the Kubelwagen as the Wehrmacht soldiers opened up with their rifles. Johnny took the driver's seat, and Boom-Boom rode shotgun. Ivanova and Dr. Krylov jumped into the back seat. Tuberski manned the machine gun.

Boom-Boom pulled out a white phosphorus grenade. He threw it at a barrel near the castle gate. The grenade exploded, showering Wehrmacht soldiers with what appeared to be diesel fuel. The white phosphorus ignited the fuel. The soldiers screamed as they tried to roll on the ground to put out the fire. Meanwhile the phosphorus started to form a smoke screen. Tuberski fired through the gathering smoke, all the while singing "God Bless America". He mowed down several Germans with a single, long burst.

Boom-Boom stood up and threw a fragmentation grenade. The grenade flew too far down range and exploded harmlessly against the castle wall. A German sergeant fired back with an MP-40 submachine gun. Three bullet struck Boom-Boom, knocking him back in his seat.

"Well, you Kraut bastards!" yelled Ski. "I'm not going to lose another one, you damn Krauts!". He fired another burst into the Nazi soldiers storming the castle. He cut down the sergeant and another three soldiers. "Can you find the gas pedal on this thing?" cried Ski to Johnny.

Ivanova leaned over the front seat and bandaged Boom-Boom's wounds. He would need medical attention soon as possible as one of the bullets went deep. The rest were just grazes.

"Johnny, are you going to find the gas pedal on this sonofabitch?" repeated Tuberski.

"It is German, sir! Give me a moment." As he said it, the vehicle's engine turned over.

The Kubelwagen bounced forward as Johnny threw it into gear and stomped on the gas pedal. He aimed the vehicle at the hole in the wall that Boom-Boom had made earlier in the evening. The vehicle climbed a mound of debris, shot through the hole, and fell five feet onto a grassy incline. Johnny turned the wheel hard to the right. The car bounced onto the road. It's tires gripped the asphalt and it accelerated. The road led past the front of the castle. As they shot toward the front of the castle a couple of random shots rang out at them. "Ivanova," yelled Tuberski, "Load me up!"

Ivanova fed another belt into the MG-42, and Tuberski fired the machine gun as they passed a line of trucks loaded with troops waiting to get into the castle. The first truck exploded as tracer rounds struck its gas tank. More rounds from the machine gun raked the backs of the trucks. A second truck exploded. A Kubelwagen loaded with soldiers reversed toward the road intent on pursuing the strike team. A troop truck had the same idea. The truck got in the way of the Kubelwagen full of Germans. They collided, spilling German soldiers and blocking the way for any other potential pursuers.

Ivanova and Tuberski looked back and saw a handful of Germans firing at them. The Germans' shots missed the Kubelwagen, and a couple of seconds later the strike team's vehicle was out of range.

Ski and Ivanova saw an orange glow behind them on the horizon. Suddenly the sky lit up with flashes of white light. This was followed a moment later by a deep rumbling. Boom-Boom turned around to look. He checked his watch. The explosives had detonated a few minutes early. Something else must have triggered the explosion. Boom-Boom smiled. Small bits of rock and debris fell near them as they careered toward the town.

The first building they passed was the convent beneath the castle. The second building was the orphanage attached to the convent. The third building was the chocolate factory beside the orphanage. The team looked on with pride. Their mission prevented the town from being bombed. "You don't blow up a chocolate factory," said Johnny under his breath.

Johnny zipped along the narrow roads until he came to the road running beside the river. They pulled up beside a warehouse. Adjacent to the warehouse was a series of piers extending into the river. Tuberski scanned the area for their boat. There were several that matched the description. "Rouge!" he called in a stage whisper.

John "Redshirt" Rouge (named because he always wore a red shirt under his uniform) emerged from under a tarpaulin. He peeled the tarp off their boat. Johnny drove the Kubelwagen onto the pier. Strike Team Juliet got out of the Kubelwagen and everyone but Johnny climbed into the boat. Johnny left the the engine running. He grabbed a nearby piece of wood and wedged it onto the gas pedal. The engine raced as Johnny pushed in the clutch with another piece of wood and put the car in gear. He let go of the piece of wood, popping the clutch. The car went flying off the pier and into the water.

As the team threw the tarp onto the pier and climbed into the boat, Rouge explained what happened to him. While they infiltrated the castle, he hobbled down the mountain to the town with the radio strapped to his back. He made contact with the Italian partisans, and they helped him get to the boat. He hid in the boat and waited for the team to arrive. He was prepared to kill anyone who inspected the boat, but that turned out not to be necessary.

Rouge started up the boat. He pulled loose the line holding the boat to the pier and then piloted the boat out into the middle of the river. He gunned the engine and pointed the boat against the current. They were on their way to the lake and their flight home.

The commandos heard something. Every one of them except for Rouge looked behind them. They could hear an approaching boat. A German E-boat appeared around the bend in the river. "Why would they patrol a lake in occupied territory with a torpedo boat?" asked Johnny in despair. "Rouge, punch it!"

Rouge pushed their own boat's engines to the limits as he tried as best as he could to outrun the enemy craft. Boom-Boom got on the radio and requested their pick-up. The others could only watch as their boat maintained its distance from the torpedo boat.

The E-boat launched a torpedo. The others yelled a warning to Rouge. Rouge turned around and watched the torpedo's track. He saw it was veering to port, so he turned slightly to starboard. The torpedo slammed into the river bank and exploded.

Boom-Boom called up the Catalina flying boat. It had been flying on station over the Bavarian Alps. It was now inbound, heading for the lake. Boom-Boom pushed aside the radio and stared at the pursuing boat. He grabbed a satchel charge and called for Ivanova. When she appeared beside him, he showed her how to detonate the charge.

Through some fancy piloting, Rouge managed to extend the range between them and the E-boat. After one of Rouge's violent maneuvers, Tuberski threw a grenade into the water. The grenade exploded just off the boat's port bow, forcing it to veer to starboard.

The E-boat tried to close the gap, but Rouge's piloting was too good for them. The crew of the E-boat let loose with a burst from their bow-mounted 40mm gun. The shots made huge splashes as they hit the water a dozen yards from the starboard side of the strike team's boat.

The E-boat launched a second torpedo.

Rouge wheeled the boat around to port and drove it near the shore. The water was shallow here, and he risked fouling the boat's propellers and running the boat aground. The torpedo passed them on the starboard side. Rouge threw the boat to starboard as the torpedo passed. The torpedo exploded on the bank as more 40mm shells landed only a couple of feet away. It was only a matter of time before the Germans chewed their boat to pieces with that gun.

The lake appeared before them. They could hear an aircraft somewhere overhead. The deeper water of the lake and the lack of impediments would allow the E-boat to catch up, assuming the E-boat's gunner didn't finish them off before then. On queue the gunner fired another burst from the 40mm Bofors gun.

The power boat shot into the lake. Ivanova stood up. She gauged the distance to the E-boat. She pulled the pin on the satchel charge, and threw it into the air.

Forty millimeter shells landed five yards behind the boat's stern. The gunner walked the shells toward the boat.

The charge landed in the water right in the path of the E-boat. The E-boat ran over it.

The satchel charge exploded, lifting the E-boat's bow into the air. Fuel and ammunition ignited, then the two remaining torpedos exploded. The flames were brighter than the sun that was just starting to appear on the eastern horizon. Debris fell on the river bank and onto the surface of the lake.

Tuberski grabbed Ivanova. "And that's why I keep you around!" He planted a big wet kiss on her lips. Ivanova looked away, blushing and grinning.

Looking back at the fuel burning on the water, Boom-Boom said, "Is anyone else horny?"

A PBY Catalina flying boat flew over the strike team and landed ahead of them. Rouge drove the boat up to the bubble canopy on the plane's starboard side. They could hear other boats somewhere in the distance. The team helped Dr. Krylov onto the plane before they climbed into the flying boat themselves. Tuberski was the last one to climb in. "Hit it, birdman!" he yelled as he closed the canopy.

The aircraft turned around for its take-off run. The pilot gunned the engines. The aircraft gathered speed then lifted from the lake and over the river. Two speed boats filled with German soldiers sped past them without firing a shot.

The pilot gained altitude. He banked to starboard as he made for Army Air Force Base Cerignola in Italy. He straightened out of the bank and gained altitude to clear the Alps.

Strike Team Juliet pressed their faces to the port windows. They watched Nadabaum Castle, which was still teaming with activity. There was no sign of the Azathoth fragment. There was no sign of the Karotechia stronghold on the neighboring mountain, either. A huge rounded chunk of the mountain was gone, as though some Titan had removed stone and concrete with a huge ice cream scoop. The platform, the gallery, and the cable car berth were all gone. They could make out passageways deeper into the mountain, only because those were aflame.

Boom-Boom looked down at the mountain. "Are you sure no one else is horny?"

As Ski, Johnny, and Rouge pointed their weapons at Boom-Boom, the Catalina flying boat flew into the lightening sky and over the Bavarian Alps.