“I ordered a warning to be flashed to the provisional government,” Ambassador Turtledove said, quietly. “I just hope they take it seriously.”
“So do I, Mr. Ambassador,” Andrew said. “So do I.”
Gudrun had never quite got used to sharing a bed, even though she’d known she would be expected to do just that after she finally tied the knot with someone. Having sex with Horst was one thing – and she’d grown used to that once she’d pulled him into her bed – but sleeping next to him was quite another. It left her torn between holding him at night and feeling as though she wasn’t able to relax and sleep properly as long as he was there. She had never shared her bed before, not even with her siblings.
The alarms went off. Gudrun started, jerking upwards as Horst practically threw himself out of bed, one hand scooping up his pistol and swinging it round to cover the door. She could hear shouting outside; she hastily covered her breasts as she rolled off the other side of the bed, keeping low as Horst had told her. Someone might come crashing into the room at any moment…
“That’s the air raid alarm,” Horst snapped. He grabbed her dressing gown and threw it at her, then pulled his own on with terrifying speed. “We have to get down to the shelter.”
Gudrun stared at him, her head spinning. “An air raid?”
“Yes,” Horst shouted. He caught hold of her arm and pulled her to her feet, then yanked her towards the door. “Put your gown on and hurry!”
The alarms were getting louder. Gudrun had to fight to pull the gown on, uneasily convinced that Horst would pull her out of the room in a moment or two no matter how little she was wearing. She was a properly brought up young lady; she’d been taught never to be naked in front of a man unless he was her husband. There was no way she could run outside in the nude… Horst pulled her towards the door as soon as she was covered, holding his pistol in one hand as he opened the door. Dozens of men and women were running down the stairs, heading into the bunker as though the hounds of hell were in hot pursuit. Gudrun found herself pulled forward and into the crowd, leaving the door ajar behind them.
Someone could sneak into the room while everyone is panicking, she thought, as they ran down seven flights of stairs. Someone tripped, further down, only to be trodden on by a dozen others before she could crawl out of the way. And someone might notice that we left the same room…
She pushed the thought aside as they reached the bottom, Horst yanking her down the right-hand corridor as everyone else hurried down the left. She was too stunned to argue as they passed a pair of armed guards, then raced down a second stairwell she hadn’t known existed. The bunker at the bottom was surprisingly luxurious, reminding her of Hilde’s mansion in the heart of Berlin. It was where the Reich Council had intended to wait out the apocalypse, if nuclear war had broken out. She wouldn’t be surprised to discover that it had cost more than an entire Panzer Division.
The door banged closed behind them, making her jump. Horst held her hand gently as she calmed herself, his blue eyes concerned. Gudrun couldn’t help feeling touched, even though they might be in serious danger. He did have feelings for her! She told herself, a moment later, that she was being silly. This was no time to worry about their relationship.
“We’re probably meant to be in the next room,” Horst said, quietly. “Are you ready?”
Gudrun took a breath, then looked at herself in the mirror. Her hair was a mess, her dressing gown was barely decent and she’d left her slippers in the bedroom. She knew precisely what her mother or father would have said, once upon a time, if she’d walked around in such a state. She’d have been ordered to go back to her bedroom and changed before she was allowed out of the house, if she wasn’t grounded for life…
The thought almost made her giggle helplessly. She would have giggled, too, if she hadn’t been so tired.
“I think so,” she said. “Let’s go.”
She followed him through a metal door – it reminded her of the aircraft carrier she’d toured, shortly after the uprising – and into a command and control chamber. Volker Schulze was sitting in a comfortable chair, watching a team of operators as they constantly updated a large wall-mounted display. Red icons moved around the display, blinking in and out of existence as new information flowed into the chamber. She was no expert, but she couldn’t help noticing that there was a massive concentration of red marks along the border. Some of them were even heading to Berlin.
“It’s like a giant television,” Horst breathed. “I had no idea it was so advanced.”
Gudrun nodded. Televisions were rare in the Reich, even though radios were so common that even the poorer households had two or three. She made a mental note to look up why that was actually so, then pushed the thought aside. No doubt someone had decided that kids should be doing something more useful – like joining the Hitler Youth – than watching television. Or perhaps the Reich simply couldn’t afford to produce them. Who knew?
“Impact in thirty seconds,” a voice said. One of the operators looked at Schulze, his face pale. “Trajectory places the impact point roughly in the centre of Berlin.”
Gudrun squeezed Horst’s hand as the countdown began. The bunker was supposed to be a secret, but the SS would probably know precisely where it was. Hell, it wasn’t too hard to guess that there would be a bunker below the Reichstag. Nuclear war could begin at any minute, if propaganda was to be believed. A missile launched from Britain could reach its target within bare minutes, far too quickly for the council to move to a safer location.
“It should be fine,” Horst muttered. She had to resist the urge to take him in her arms and hold him tightly. “I don’t think they’ll target this building.”
“Zero,” the operator said.
Gudrun braced herself, closing her eyes… but felt nothing. She’d expected everything from a dull rumble to the roof caving in on their heads, yet… there had been nothing. More red icons flared up over Berlin, warning her that several missiles had landed within the city limits, but she felt nothing. It was almost as if the missiles hadn’t exploded at all.
“Target report,” Schulze ordered.
“Two missiles came down on the Ministry of Economics, Herr Chancellor,” the operator reported. “An additional missile struck the Schindler Barracks. Five more came down, seemingly at random; the remainder crashed outside the city. Their targeting was not particularly accurate.”
“So it would seem,” Schulze mused. “Damage reports?”
“None as yet,” the operator said. “I have a report from one of the rooftop observers, who states that there are now several fires burning across the city, but nothing else.”
“Make sure emergency teams are prepped for chemical weapons,” Schulze ordered. “Do you have a direct link to the front?”
Gudrun looked at Horst. “I felt nothing.”
“This is the safest place in the Reich,” Horst muttered back. “I read through the specifications while you were taking your place on the council. A nuke couldn’t scratch the protective layers over our head, let alone harm us. And they’re unlikely to strike at the Reichstag in any case.”