“Aye, but never deliberately,” Sam answered.
“Good, now you are going to have to — with extreme prejudice!” the big German declared. “No mercy. Or we will never make it out alive.”
“Roger that!” Sam promised as they came face to face with the first four men not more than three feet from the door. The men didn't know that the two figures coming from the other direction were intruders until the first slug split open the first man's skull.
Sam grimaced as he felt the hot splatter of brain matter and blood graze his face, but aimed at the second man in line and he squeezed the trigger without flinching, hitting him dead on. The slain man fell limply at Sam's feet, as he crouched to retrieve his sidearm. He aimed it at the oncoming men who had started firing at them, hitting two more. Detlef took down six men with perfect center-mass shots before following up on Sam's two targets with a slug to the skull each.
“Nicely done, Sam,” the German smiled. “You smoke, right?”
“I do, why?” Sam asked as he wiped the bloody mess from his face and ear. “Give me your lighter,” said his partner from the doorway. He tossed Detlef his Zippo before they entered the generator room and set the fuel tanks on fire. On their way out they disabled the engines with a few well-placed bullets.
Purdue had heard the madness from his small shelter and made for the main entrance, but only because it was the only exit he knew of. Limping heavily with his hand braced against the wall to guide him in the darkness, Purdue slowly climbed the emergency stairs to the foyer of the ground floor.
The doors were wide open, and in the sparse light that fell into the room, he carefully stepped over the bodies until he reached the welcoming breath of the warm, dry air of the desert landscape outside. Weeping with gratefulness and fear, Purdue ran toward the helicopter with his arms waving, hoping to God that it didn't belong to the enemy.
Nina jumped out and came running toward him. “Purdue! Purdue! Are you okay? Come this way!” she cried as she approached him. Purdue looked up at the beautiful historian. She was shouting into her transmitter, telling Sam and Detlef that she had Purdue. When Purdue fell into her arms, he collapsed, dragging her down with him onto the sand.
“I couldn't wait to feel your touch again, Nina,” he panted. “You came through.”
“I always do,” she smiled and held her emaciated friend in her arms until the others arrived. They boarded the helicopter and took off in a westward direction where they had secured accommodation on the edge of the Aral Sea.
Chapter 19
“We have to find the Amber Room, or else the Order will. It is of utmost importance that we find it before they do because this time they will topple the world's governments and instigate violence of genocidal proportions,” Purdue insisted.
They were huddled around a fire in the backyard of a house that Sam had rented in the settlement of Aral. It was semi-furnished three-bedroom shack and did not possess half the amenities the group was used to in First World Countries. But it was inconspicuous and quaint, and they could rest there until Purdue felt better, at least. In the meantime, Sam had to keep a close eye on Detlef to make sure the widower did not lash out and kill the billionaire before sorting out the matter of Gabi's death first.
“We will get on that as soon as you feel better, Purdue,” Sam said. “For now, we just lay low and rest.”
Nina's hair hung in a braid from under her knitted beanie as she lit up another smoke. Purdue's warning, intended to be foreboding, did not strike her as much of a problem with the way she felt about the world lately. It was not so much the verbal exchange with the godlike entity in Sam's psyche that spurred her indifferent thoughts. She was just more aware of the repeating mistakes of mankind and the ever-present failure to maintain balance all over the world.
Aral used to be a fishing port and harbor city before the mighty Aral Sea virtually dried up completely, leaving only a bare desert basin as legacy. It saddened Nina that so many beautiful bodies of water had dried up and vanished because of human infestation. Sometimes, when she felt particularly apathetic, she wondered if the world would not be better off without the human race killing everything in it, not excluding itself.
Humans reminded her of toddlers left in charge of an anthill. They simply did not possess the wisdom or humility to realize that they were part of the world, not in charge of it. In arrogance and irresponsibility they bred like cockroaches without considering that instead of killing the planet to accommodate their numbers and needs, they should have curbed their own population growth. Nina felt vexed that, as a collective, humans refused to see that producing smaller populations with higher intellectual faculty would yield a far more efficient world without destroying all beauty for their greed and reckless existence.
Deep in thought Nina smoked her cigarette next to the fire. Thoughts and ideologies that she was not supposed to be entertaining entered her mind, where it was safe to harbor taboo subjects. She thought about the Nazi objectives and found that some of those superficially atrocious ideas were, in fact, feasible solutions to a lot of problems that had brought the world to its knees in the present age.
Naturally, she abhorred genocide, cruelty, and oppression. But ultimately she agreed that to a degree eradicating weak genetic make-up and implementing birth control by sterilization after two children per family was not altogether monstrous. It would keep human numbers down, therefore preserve forest and agricultural land instead of constant deforestation for the construction of more human habitat.
When she had looked at the land below during their flight to Aral, Nina had lamented all these things in her mind. The glorious landscapes, once full of life had shriveled and withered under the foot of man.
No, she did not condone the acts of the Third Reich, but its proficiency and order were undeniable. ‘If only today there were people with such rigid discipline and singular aspiration wanting to change the world for the better,' she sighed as she finished the last of her butt. ‘Imagine a world in which someone like that didn't oppress people but stopped ruthless corporations. In which, instead of exterminating cultures, they would destroy media brainwashing, and we would all be better off. And there would be fucking lake to feed the people here now.'
She flicked her cigarette butt into the fire. Her eyes caught Purdue's staring at her, but she pretended not to be fazed by his attention. Perhaps it was the dancing shadows of the fire that gave his gaunt face such a menacing look, but she did not like it.
“How will you know where to start looking?” Detlef asked. “I read that the Amber Room was destroyed during the war. Do these people expect you to magically make something re-appear that does not exist anymore?”
Purdue seemed agitated, but the others assumed it was due to his traumatic experience at the hands of Klaus Kemper. “It still exists, they say. And if we don't beat them to it they will undoubtedly get the upper hand for good.”
“Why?” Nina asked. “What's so powerful about the Amber Room — if it even still exists?”
“I don't know, Nina. They did not go into the specifics, but they made it clear that it had undeniable power,” Purdue rambled. “What it has or does, I have no idea. I just know that it is very dangerous — as things of perfect beauty usually are.”
Sam could see that the phrase was directed at Nina, but Purdue's tone was not lovelorn or soppy. If he was not mistaken, it almost sounded antagonistic. Sam was wondering how Purdue really felt about Nina spending so much time with him, and it appeared to be a sore matter for the usually buoyant billionaire.