The women were outside the main entrance, which was being secured by Metzger, closing a padlock on a length of chain. One of the younger women desperately tried to push her away, but was thrown to the ground. Another rushed at her — only to stumble back as Metzger drew a Luger and shouted at her, daring the others to advance.
A scream from inside, the cry of a frightened child. More rose behind it. ‘God, they’re dying in there!’ said Nina. ‘We’ve got to do something!’
Zane snapped up his MP5 and fired. Metzger fell backwards as a bullet hole burst open in her chest. ‘Done.’
‘Okay, straight to the point,’ said Eddie as he and Roland ran to the building.
The remaining women regarded the pair with shock and fear. Roland spoke urgently to them in German. ‘There are twelve children and three of the Zucht-Fr— the other three women trapped inside,’ he told Eddie as Zane and Nina caught up.
‘Get ’em back,’ the Yorkshireman replied, raising his pistol. A single shot, and the chain snapped. He kicked the doors open. Smoke gushed out — followed by several panicked children, ranging in age from around five to eleven. He did a rapid headcount. ‘Okay, that’s eight! Where are the rest?’
‘They are too young to get out on their own!’ shouted Roland. He ran inside.
Eddie raced after him, holding a hand to his mouth and nose. The smoke was getting thicker, weaving lines of flame on the floor where fuel had been poured. ‘What about the other women?’
‘Down there!’ A side passage led off the main corridor. Roland went to a door opposite. ‘The children are in here!’
‘You get them, I’ll get the women.’ Eddie hopped over a track of fire and went down the passage. There was a door at the end with a small barred window. He looked through to see a dimly lit cross between hospital ward and prison cell. Three beds occupied it. Each held a woman, wrists and ankles buckled to the metal frame. Two were visibly pregnant. The one nearest the door turned her head to regard him blankly, the others not responding to his appearance or the chaos outside. Drugged.
He unbolted the door. ‘Jared! I need some help here!’
The Israeli ran in as he started to unfasten the first woman. ‘The fire’s getting worse,’ Zane warned. ‘If we stay in here much longer, we won’t get out.’
‘Then bloody hurry up and help me!’ The buckles came free. Eddie pulled the woman upright, getting only a vacant stare in response. ‘Shit, she can’t even walk. We’ll have to carry ’em.’
‘There are three of them and only two of us,’ Zane pointed out as he released the second prisoner.
‘Yeah, I can count!’ He lifted the limp woman over his shoulder and headed out as quickly as he could.
Roland emerged from the nursery ahead of him, a crying baby in each arm. A blonde girl of about three followed, only to cower fearfully back from the flames. ‘Get them outside!’ Eddie ordered as the young man hesitated, about to return for her. The Englishman altered course, hopping over the fire to scoop the child up with his free arm. Holding his breath as more smoke swirled around him, he jumped back, now passing through rather than over the growing blaze. ‘You said there were four kids! Where’s the other one?’
Roland coughed violently before replying. ‘Still inside — I could not carry them all!’
Nina ran down the corridor. ‘I’ll get it!’ she cried.
‘No, it’s too dangerous!’ Eddie shouted, but she was already past him. ‘For fuck’s — I mean, flip’s sake,’ he said as the little girl gawped at him. Roland reached the doors; Eddie hurried after him, emerging to find the five Kindermädchen waiting. They took the babies with tears of joy and relief. He deposited the girl on the ground, then put the pregnant woman down.
Roland was still coughing, bent almost double. Whatever he had inhaled, Nina had just run straight into it. Eddie took several deep lungfuls of clean air before charging back inside.
The flames were spreading across the passage. Zane came around the corner, carrying the second captive woman. ‘I freed the last one for you!’ the Israeli said as they passed.
Eddie didn’t reply, pausing to squint through the darkening cloud at the nursery door. He heard a baby screaming, but the smoke blocked his view of everything inside — except the shimmering glow of flames. ‘Nina! Get out of there!’
Nina wanted to do exactly that. The nursery was full of acrid black smoke; something made of plastic had caught light. But the baby’s terrified cries forced her deeper into the miasma. Almost blinded, she held her breath and felt her way towards the source of the noise, bumping against cribs before reaching the last occupied one.
The baby squirmed as she picked it up. It weighed at least twelve pounds, probably close to a year old. ‘Okay, I got you,’ she cooed, trying to calm the child as she turned—
A loud crunch of breaking wood — and she jumped back as a flame-wreathed ceiling beam smashed down in front of her. ‘Jesus!’
One end of it had landed on a piece of furniture. The burning beam lay at an angle, too high to climb over and too low to crawl under.
She was trapped—
A shape appeared through the haze behind the barrier — Eddie, carrying another pregnant woman. ‘Nina, get back!’
She jumped away as he kicked the bed supporting the blazing joist. Already damaged by the falling timber, its legs collapsed under the blow. The beam pounded to the floor, spraying out cinders.
But the way out was now clear, if only for a moment as the flames thrashed and wafted in the displaced air. She summoned up her courage, then made a running jump over the obstacle. The fire lashed back up behind her as if realising it was about to lose its prey, scorching her legs, but too late.
‘Come on!’ Eddie gasped. He waited for Nina to pass, then followed her out.
The fire in the corridor had risen higher. Nina shrieked as she jumped through it, flames licking at her bare arms. The rectangle of daylight ahead was almost totally obscured by smoke. She bent down, trying to hold her breath as she raced for the exit. Floorboards cracked underfoot as the blaze ate through them. She almost stumbled, barely staying upright as she sprinted the last few yards—
She burst into the open, choking smoke suddenly replaced by clear air. Eddie was right with her. A moment later, ash and sparks erupted behind them as the ceiling crashed down.
Zane and Roland were waiting with the women at a safe distance. ‘Eddie!’ shouted the Israeli. ‘Are you okay?’
‘Fine — if I was a charcoal briquette,’ Eddie replied, coughing. ‘Did we get ’em all out?’
‘We did,’ said Roland with relief.
The Englishman looked at his wife, and the baby she was holding. ‘You know, that suits you.’ Nina gave him a soot-smudged smile.
One of the women ran to her. She took the baby and clutched it tightly. ‘Danke,’ she cried, in tears. ‘Thank you!’
‘I’d say “my pleasure”, but, well,’ Nina replied breathlessly, before going to her husband. He put down the last rescuee, the others hurrying to check that she was all right. ‘Eddie! Thank God.’
‘You okay?’ he asked.
‘I’m gonna need a couple of gallons of witch hazel,’ she said, her arms reddened and sore. ‘And now I know what it’s like to be a sixty-a-day smoker. But yeah, it won’t be smoke inhalation that kills me.’ She touched her side, feeling the eitr infection through her grubby clothing.
‘We can’t waste any more time,’ said Zane. ‘We’ve got to stop the Nazis.’
‘How are we gonna catch them?’ Nina asked wearily. ‘Eddie blew up all their trucks.’
‘I’ve got an idea,’ Eddie said. ‘Roland, will this lot be okay?’