“Gestern! Haupt!” Purdue heard a woman’s voice call to the two officers on the other side of the curtain that was drawn around his bed in the infirmary. They jumped up, erect and serious. It was obvious that the woman merited their utmost respect. A brief conversation ensued between the three of them before the curtain was drawn away and there stood the most beautiful woman Dave Purdue had ever beheld.
“Hello,” she said, surveying Purdue’s wounds without touching him. In silence she shook her head. Then she requested the two officers leave the infirmary, but they reminded her that they were responsible for the prisoner until he was interrogated and Himmler decided what to do with him. The mere fact that he entered a virtually impenetrable bunker without detection made him a special point of interest to the SS.
Maria allowed them to remain, on the condition that they keep quiet until she had dressed the prisoner’s wounds and cleaned him up. “They are waiting outside. Your name is?” she asked as she ran water into a large bowl to wash Purdue’s wounds.
“David Purdue,” he groaned, overwhelmed by the shooting pain of damaged nerve endings. In his mouth his tongue probed at something unnatural. The roof of his mouth had a plate fixed perfectly to it, molded to its unique curvature.
“I am Maria,” she smiled. He could not stop staring at the beautiful blond woman. Her hair was extremely long, tied into a horse tail that swayed on her buttocks as she moved. Full lips and large light blue eyes adorned her perfect facial features like well set gems, although he could see she was no child anymore. Purdue guessed the stunning creature in her forties, perhaps, but with the ethereal perfection of her appearance her age did not even factor.
“How did you get into the Reichkanzlei, David?” she asked, gently removing what was left of his shirt until Purdue was naked from the waist up. “It is an impossible thing to accomplish.”
“Nothing is impossible, dear Maria,” he answered, trying to utilize what charm he could to impress at least one of them here behind enemy lines. But he also needed to maintain a charade of power, so he elected to fib about his vulnerability. He knew the two officers were listening and that his subterfuge could prove helpful in distracting them while he found a way out. “I am not the only one who managed to infiltrate the bunker. Most of my unit came with me.”
She tilted her head, ceasing her gentle sponging of his chest. Her striking eyes drilled into his, evoking more than lust in him. Gradually the impending feeling of psychic violation overcame him until he closed his eyes and kept them shut. ‘Did she really just read my mind?’ Gestern and Haupt reacted to his revelation, rapidly discussing what to do about the others they had to locate, but Maria did not seem to find the information threatening.
Continuing her cleansing routine she told Purdue, “I am going to fetch you some clean pants and socks. It seems only certain parts of you burned when you…” she studied his eyes again, frowning, “…came here. Just a moment. I’ll be back soon.” Then she whispered, “I know you are here alone.”
Sturmbannführer Haupt rushed to Purdue’s side, “How many? How many in you unit?”
Purdue had to think fast. “Only five.”
“Fünf andere!” the officer shouted to his colleague, who promptly started barking orders to an unseen company in the next room. The sound of stomping boots passed the infirmary in both directions, accompanied by several order issues.
With Maria out of the room and the officers off on a wild goose chase pursuing what they would never find, Purdue tried to move. His wrists were secured to the steel rods that lined the length of the bed by cuffs, but the rest of his scalded body was free to move. There was very little room to move effectively and the sensation of his raw burned back and arms pulling free of the linen was too much to bear. Purdue felt faint from the intensity of the agony and his head fell back on the pillow. He gasped, trying to control his breathing.
Maria came back, talking to another woman in hushed tones.
“David, this is my friend, Sigrun,” Maria announced. Purdue looked up at the equally breathtaking woman to her side and his heart jolted. Shocked and ignorant of the pain Purdue sat upright and in disbelief he started at the dark haired woman.
“Nina?”
Chapter 16
Sam’s eyes flashed between all the passengers stepping off the train, trying to find Nina among them. It had been two days since she agreed to come to Lyon to help him and Lydia look for Purdue, yet she had no idea of the true absurdity that awaited her. All he wanted was to get her here first, otherwise she would never have agreed to indulge the insane actions Purdue and Sam had perpetrated.
“Are you sure she would be able to help, Mr. Cleave?” Healy asked. He was tasked to accompany the lone journalist whose footage and gear was confiscated by order of Professor Jenner. Lydia was worried that Sam would use the obscure proof of her experimental success to make himself rich and famous, among other threats she assumed would come from the award-winning journalist’s recording of her quantum mechanical voyage.
Healy had to come with Sam to prevent him from leaving the country, yet Lydia insisted that Sam Cleave was not a hostage by any means.
“If anyone can help us pinpoint where Purdue is in history, Healy, it is Dr. Nina Gould. She is an expert on German modern history, especially the Second World War,” Sam promised. They both waited at International Arrivals, scanning the crowd that had just come in from Heathrow via Quantas.
“What does she look like, sir?” Healy asked.
Sam smiled. “She is small, but passionate. Nina towers at about 5’3” with a seven foot attitude, dark shoulder length hair with big black eyes like hellfire.”
“Sounds like a handful,” Healy remarked, provoking Sam to have a laugh at the accuracy of the butler’s guess.
“You have no idea. If you think Professor Jenner is rambunctious you have not seen Nina at the height of an idea she is pursuing. Good God, there is no stopping that woman. She is stubborn, smart and articulate.”
Healy smiled in the only wry way he knew how. With a nod he added, “How long have you been in love with her, sir?” Sam glared at Healy. He kept silent, studying any sign of the butler’s jest, but the tall man was quite sincere.
“Since the moment I met her, Healy. And you will too.”
“I will not stand for this, Mr. Lamont! I don’t care if you cough up a ball of fur, you will stay here until your staff have located and brought my missing laptop. It is in a black EVA brand laptop case with strap and the zipper is fitted with a tiny, teensy combination lock about the size of your brain!”
“I hear Nina,” Sam frowned, rotating to see where her voice came from.
“Could that be the doctor over there, threatening that man?” Healy asked innocently, pointing to an information desk where three agitated employees of the airline bustled to locate a missing bag. By the desk stood the stunning, small historian. Her hair was tied back in a high ponytail and she was dressed smart casually, her shades roughly fixed on her head. Her leather jacket hugged her shapely form and her black jeans fitted her snugly right down to the slightly heeled brown boots she wore, the same color as her luggage bag.
“That’s her,” Sam grinned. “Are you in love yet?”
He headed to Nina and Healy followed in his trail, answering him, “Yes, sir, but with some form of caution.”
Sam laughed. When Nina saw him she blessed him with a lovely smile and opened her arms to receive him in a warm reunion.
“What’s this? Old age?” she joked, grabbing Sam by his newly grown groomed beard and moustache which only gave him a more rugged handsomeness.
“Aye, the years are piling on, but I’m going down swingin’, lassie,” he winked as he gently tugged at the salt and pepper facial hair of the eternally youthful journalist. They embraced tightly, remaining so for almost a minute. Healy could see that Cleave and Dr. Gould had a history, and by the looks of it, a very close one.