As Rue reached the top of the chute, her weight toppled the wooden scaffold, sending her sprawling on the ground.
The sound caught Uta’s attention and she looked over. As she did, Velda grabbed her from behind, wrapping one arm tightly around her throat and pressing fiercely against the back of her head with the heel of her other hand. The queen’s face began to go purple. She was struggling for breath.
“Velda, no!” Gabriel shouted. He raced to undo the ropes around his ankles. “You’ll kill her!”
Velda looked over at him. When she spoke, it was with utter disgust in her voice. “So?” she said, and shoved hard with the hand at the back of Uta’s skull. They all heard the queen’s neck break.
The struggling body went limp in Velda’s arms.
She carried it to the doorway and shoved it through. Moments later, armed guards began pouring in, spears held high. A robed, older woman came in behind them, Uta’s corpse held in her arms, its head lolling horribly. “Who,” she said, her voice halting, her accent heavy, “who…does this?”
For a tense moment, no one moved or spoke. Then Velda stepped forward, eyes blazing. “I did it.”
The woman holding Uta’s body lowered it to the ground and went down on one knee. One by one, each of the other women did the same. A low, rhythmic chant swept through the crowd.
The older woman spoke again. Gabriel couldn’t understand the words, but their meaning became apparent when the woman took the oval feather headdress from where it lay on the ground and went over to place it on Velda’s head.
Chapter 22
“I am Anika,” the woman said to Velda. “Sister of…greatmother…of Uta. I have only small English, but I…serve you now, my queen.”
“Your queen,” Velda said.
“Yes,” Anika said.
Velda shook her head, almost as though trying to clear her ears. “Leave me. Now.”
“My queen?”
“Now,”Velda said. “Get out.” She pointed to Gabriel. “I wish to be alone with the man. To complete the ritual that Uta began. Leave us.”
Anika nodded and translated to the others. The villagers did as their new queen ordered and as soon as they were gone, Velda grabbed the stone knife and handed it to Gabriel. He made short work of the ropes around his ankles and then limped over to where Rue still lay, bound and gagged.
When she was free, Rue reached up and took the Nazi cap off his head. He hadn’t remembered he still had it on. She scaled it into a corner of the room. “You look better without that particular piece of clothing. Though we’ll need to get you some somewhere.”
“You, too,” Gabriel said. “Both of you.” There was an uncomfortable moment as they all looked at each other, naked as the day they were born, the old lover and the new, and the man they’d both shared.
And the newest lover, lying dead at their feet.
Velda went to where Gabriel’s kilt lay and picked it up. She handed it to him, unlatching her father’s pocket watch from it first. As Gabriel tied the kilt around his waist, Velda looped the watch chain around her bloody throat, wearing it like a necklace. She opened the watch and stared at the photo inside until tears began to run down her smeared cheeks.
Gabriel went over to her, tried to put his arms around her, but she pushed him away.
“They killed him,” she spat. “They finally killed him.”
“She said he killed himself,” Gabriel said. “Maybe he saw no way out. Under the circumstances…”
“They killed him!” Velda shouted. “They murdered him, just like they always wanted to. And they’ll pay for it.”
“I don’t think they wanted him dead,” Gabriel said. “And Uta at least has already paid as much as she’s ever going to.” He nodded toward the body.
“Uta?” Velda said. “You think I’m talking about Uta?” She pushed the body over with her foot so it was face down in the dirt. “She was nothing. A tool, manipulated by the men who built this machine.” Velda walked over to the steel device on its metal frame, looked with unfettered loathing on the eagle and the hateful symbol in its claws. She spat on it, and her saliva ran down the center of the swastika.
“They were the ones who tried to kill him. Sixty years ago they tried. But he beat them. He survived. They killed his entire family—every relative he had, every single one. His own brother, younger than him, a little child, they killed. Shot in the head. But they didn’t manage to kill my father. Oh, no. He was strong; he lived. And every day he lived was a repudiation of them and everything they tried to do, it was a…” She slapped the side of the machine. It rang like a bell, a low tolling sound. “It was a goddamn miracle. A victory over those bastards, every single goddamn day. But now…They finally got him. They got him, and they killed him. And they’re going to pay for it.”
“You can’t make someone pay,” Gabriel said quietly, “who’s been dead more than half a century.”
“Of course you can,” Velda said, her voice burning like acid. “Of course you can. You can make them pay by destroying what they cared about, what they loved. Their precious Fatherland, their blessed Aryan people. Two world wars because of those sons of bitches, millions of people killed, and now my father, tied down and raped by this Nazi whore—” Velda’s chest was heaving. She crouched beside the machine, looking at the dial Uta had turned. She spun it, and the coordinates went clattering to new settings.
“What are you doing?” Gabriel said.
“What do you think,” Velda said.
“You can’t set off that machine,” Gabriel said.
“I can’t? I can’t? Who do you think you’re talking to, Hunt?” She stood. “It’s my machine now, isn’t that what they said? I’m their queen and it’s my machine to use any way I want!”
“Velda, come on,” Gabriel said, “I know you’re angry, but—”
“Angry? Angry?” She realized she was shouting and lowered her voice. It was, Gabriel thought with horror, even more frightening when she spoke quietly. “I am not angry, Gabriel. I am merely…vengeful. I’m sure the coordinates for Berlin can be programmed in there somehow. Wonderfully appropriate, don’t you think? That the descendants of the men responsible for my father’s death will…” Her voice caught, and then she smiled, terribly. “Will feel…Unterg’s wrath.”
Gabriel stepped forward, but Velda shouted, “Anika! Guards! Come quick!” A half dozen women charged into the room, spears at the ready.
“Take them,” Velda said, and the women did, one pair grabbing Gabriel’s arms, another Rue’s.
“What do you…wish to do…at these?” Anika said, haltingly.
Velda thought for a moment. “Put the man back in that pit where he was before,” she said. “I’m sorry, Gabriel. But I have to. I can’t let you interfere.”
“Woman too?” Anika said.
“No,”Velda said. “No, not the woman. Rue, you are going to get that plane running again. So we can get out of this godforsaken hellhole.”
“You really think I’d help you?” Rue said.
“If you don’t want your boyfriend there to stay in that pit till he dies of starvation,”Velda said, “I do think so, yes. And you don’t really want to stay here any more than I do, do you?”
“You’re crazy, lady. Completely batshit insane.”
“Rue, Rue, your language,” Velda said. “There are young women present.”Then to Anika: “Take her away. To the plane in the jungle.”