The three Unit Eleven scientists briskly led them to the far end of the gallery. Obviously frightened, they crept against the wall until they rounded a diorama display case. Dr. Vargas took Polly's wrist to get her attention and pointed to the entrance of a primary laboratory. Huge iron doors sported the winged-skull emblem of their nemesis.
Two menacing robots twice the height of a man guarded the forbidding doorway. Next to the machine sentinels, conical and exotic transformers rose like sculptures, resembling giant Tesla coils on either side of the doorway.
"Through there," Dex said. "Totenkopf's inside, hiding and protected. That's the only way in."
"No matter how hard we might try, there is no way past them," Dr. Vargas said.
Throughout the cavernous industrial facility, loudspeakers continued to boom out the countdown in German. Polly turned to Sky Captain, anxious. "Only five minutes left, Joe."
Sky Captain surveyed the area briefly, then turned to the group beside him. "Wait here." He cracked his knuckles, then rounded the corner of the display case. "Sometimes you have to meet a problem head-on."
"I don't think his head's got anything to do with this," Polly muttered.
Dr. Vargas called after him. "What are you doing, man? You'll be killed!"
Sky Captain strode boldly ahead, and the long-dormant sentinel machines suddenly came to life. Heavy gears clicked and whirred as they straightened, swiveled, and turned their blazing optical sensors toward the intruder. In unison, the sentinel robots took two plodding steps to block his way.
Facing them like a gunfighter in the Old West, Sky Captain reached inside his flight jacket and produced Dex's new Buck Rogers ray gun. He pointed the nozzle, sighted along the guide fin, and pushed the red firing button. Shimmering rays blasted the first machine's body core, melting a hole through the armored torso. The robot slumped in half, its jointed legs folding outward like a chicken's; then it slumped to the floor.
Undaunted, the second sentinel robot lurched toward Sky Captain, who swiveled his body and pointed the nozzle, but the futuristic gun failed to work. The metal sentinel plodded closer, stretching out powerful arms that ended in clamping claws.
"Dex? I'd appreciate any advice you might have." Sky Captain sounded cool, but his voice cracked a little.
Dex peeked out from behind the display. "Try shaking it. Sometimes that works."
Sky Captain scuttled backward to stay away from the looming sentinel robot. He rattled the gun in his hand, raised it, and pushed the red button repeatedly, but only a small burst sputtered out. The beam did melt a hole in part of the robot's spindly leg shaft, and it wobbled slightly. Seeing the machine's momentary unbalance, Sky Captain lunged for it, throwing all his weight until he succeeded in pushing the sentinel over. Like a turtle on its back, the heavy overturned robot writhed and kicked.
The loudspeaker overhead continued the droning countdown. Another minute had elapsed.
Now that the guardians had been removed from the sealed door to Totenkopf's inner sanctum, Dr. Kessler jumped to his feet. "Quickly! We must hurry. Listen to the time!" Spry for an old man, he bounded between the massive transformers that stood on either side of the sealed door.
Sky Captain sensed something at the last moment and shouted, "Doctor, stop!"
Kessler stepped on a metal floor plate between the transformers, and the rings and wires instantly crackled to life. Giant forks of electricity lashed out, pinning the old scientist like an insect in amber. Static and sparks tore through his body. For a mercifully brief instant, he screamed as he was consumed in flames. Through sheer momentum, his blackened skeleton staggered one step farther before it fell to the ground in pieces.
Lightning continued to arc back and forth between the paired transformers, weaving a web of electricity that seemed alive with dazzling bluish currents. Shadows and a more solid shape began to congeal inside the dense electrical field: a giant holographic image of a man's sunken, gaunt, and impassioned face. The projection sharpened to crystal clarity, a visage sure to cause nightmares.
Trembling, Vargas looked up at the giant display. "That's him. Dr. Totenkopf."
33
The Face of Totenkopf. An Inner Sanctum. The Ghost of a Genius
The shimmering hologram looked down on them, its shadowy eyes cavernous. The mouth opened and closed, uttering German words in a thunderous, menacing voice: "Was begonnen wurde kahn nicht gehaltet werden. Verlasse den Platz oder sterbe. Sie sind gewarnen."
Polly turned to Dr. Vargas. "I can't understand it all. What exactly is he — "
The old scientist translated. "He says, 'What has begun cannot be stopped. Leave this place or die. You are warned.' Totenkopf always talked like that, even when it wasn't about anything important."
"Yeah, the usual warnings." Sky Captain looked at the shimmering, ominous projection and frowned. He turned to Polly. "Did you see that new movie The Wizard of Oz?"
"Not all of it."
The booming ultimatum began to repeat, when the hologram suddenly fizzled away. The twinned transformers sparked, hummed, and died.
Dex stood by the insulated base of the nearest transformer, holding a tangle of wires he had yanked from the control panel like a gardener uprooting particularly noxious weeds. "I think we've heard enough of his babbling. That disables the whole defensive system."
Knowing how little time remained, a determined Sky Captain marched toward the transformers. He took one step, hesitating at the point where Dr. Kessler had been incinerated. "You sure it doesn't have any juice left, Dex?"
The young man shrugged. "There's only one way to find out. You want me to — "
"No, Dex. It'll be us." With a grim but confident expression, Polly reached out and seized Sky Captain's hand. She pulled him with her, and the two of them stepped over the threshold between the transformers. Both of them showed relief on their faces as they emerged safely on the other side.
They turned back to Dex, who looked at them flabbergasted. "Shazam! I meant test it by throwing something."
Sky Captain shrugged sheepishly. "Well, our way worked. Come on, we've got a mad genius to visit."
The two Unit Eleven scientists moved past Dex as he left the tangle of wires on the disabled transformer. All five of them passed through the ominous iron doors and into Totenkopf's study.
The inner sanctum of the mad scientist was not quite what they were expecting. The study was a quaint reading room, cozy and well-appointed, with leather-bound books neatly arranged on shelves. Everything had been put into perfect order, but the air had a sour staleness, as if they were the first people to move there in decades. On a corner table, cut-crystal glasses sat next to an empty sherry decanter.
A mahogany desk was piled with yellowed papers and age-cracked lab notebooks. Dex and the two old scientists huddled around Totenkopf's desk, sorting through documents covered with dust.
But they saw no sign of the mastermind. "He's not here," Polly said. "We're too late."
Dr. Vargas blew dust off a ledger sheet. "These are his personal papers. Totenkopf would never leave without them." He tapped the crumbling book. "He must still be here."
Dr. Lang sneezed from the dust, then blinked red-eyed at all the notes and journals. "Only that man can stop this terrible tragedy from occurring. We must find him."
While the others concentrated on the desk, Sky Captain ventured deeper into the room and found an alcove filled with elaborate control panels, a communication screen, and a transmitter.