Shadows Will Fall by Trey Garrison Read Free Book Online Page A

can’t have agents from the Third Reich seeing me travel about. Takes the whole ‘covert’ out of ‘covert operation.’ ”
    â€œSo you’re the cargo I’m taking back to Wallachia? Or wherever? Because I haven’t heard from the team in two days now.”
    â€œOh heavens no. Er, yes. But, no. There’s this,” Lysander said, yanking the tarp away.
    Chuy whistled.
    â€œWe’ll be taking that, too. To a place north of Tigovista. Poenari Citadel.”
    â€œWhat is that thing?” Chuy asked. He was already revving up the Raposa ’s engines.
    â€œIt’s . . . it’s, er . . . it’s Tesla’s latest. It’s . . . untested. But it may be the only thing that stands between us and the apocalypse.”
    Poenari Citadel
    Wallachia Region
    A truck stood between where Skorzeny was reclining and the tower with the torture chamber. Workers were offloading boxes of additional components for Dr. Übel’s spear device. Skorzeny didn’t like the idea of Project Gefallener, but he could see its value strategically, and he would, of course, do his duty.
    Stubbing out his cigarette, he saw Untersturmführer Bonhoeffer and a storm trooper walking across the courtyard toward the dungeon. Odd, Skorzeny thought. The requirements for acceptance in the Waffen-SS were strict and extensive, as was training. One of the requirements was that a storm trooper had to be at least five-foot-eleven, but the SS man walking alongside Bonhoeffer looked a little short.
    The truck fired up and rolled out, blocking his view of the two in the courtyard. When it passed, they were nowhere to be seen.
    Skorzeny reached toward his pistol belt and grabbed the bottle of schnapps. Another drink.
    R ucker needed something to drink. Badly. The Senf mask he wore—a black rubber gas mask with goggle eyes and breathing filters, filtered out natural moisture in the air and left him parched. He was already dehydrated from the torture, and the respirator made it worse. It also made him feel all closed in.
    Bonhoeffer—Robin—gave orders to the guards to open the main door to the dungeon. At the loud clacking of the latch, Terah, Deitel, Filotoma, and Amria hid their tools and pretended to be asleep, praying or sitting listlessly. Out of the corner of her eye Terah saw a young SS officer and a storm trooper close the main door behind them.
    â€œI hope you folks are busier than this when the boss isn’t looking,” the storm trooper said, his voice deepened by the mask. And yet it sounded . . .
    â€œBecause the boss man is here,” came Rucker’s voice as he pulled off the Senf mask.
    â€œFox!” Terah said.
    â€œYou’re alive!” Deitel said.
    â€œApparently,” Rucker said smiling.
    â€œWho’s the boche ?” Filotoma asked.
    â€œLadies and gentlemen, meet Lysander’s man in Wewelsburg,” Rucker said.
    â€œYou have a plan?” Terah said.
    â€œI . . . uh . . . No. You have any ideas?” Rucker said.
    Terah just stared at him. It turned into a glare.
    â€œEasy,” Rucker said. “We can’t just walk you out of here. In fact, Robin here needs to get back to his post. Look, I do have a plan, but you’re not going to like it.”
    â€œWhy not?” Deitel asked.
    â€œIt involves me getting out of here and you four having to stay,” Rucker said. “I have to get to Nick’s portable shortwave and get outside the citadel.”
    Bonhoeffer said to the others, “All of your personal effects and equipment the guards took is stored in the alcove outside the main door.”
    â€œWhat do we do in the meanwhile?” Terah asked. “Wait for them to take us out and shoot us?”
    â€œNo,” Rucker said. “From what I heard, they want to make you the first victims of Project Gefallener. So you’ll all be safe until at least tomorrow