“But sir,” questioned the group leader, “they are guarding the elevator.
What if the intruders get in?”
Maas gave the group leader a stern look and pulled his pistol.
“They will have to deal with me,” Maas replied matter-of-factly.
“I will send the elevator back up.
Put these men back in then.”
With that, Maas closed the elevator doors and reached into his pocket for the elevator override key.
He placed the key in the keyhole and turned it to the right.
The elevator began to go down, down to Maas’ secret sub-basement.
When the door opened three of his select guards were aiming their weapons at the interior of the elevator.
They quickly raised them when they saw it was Maas.
One of the guards gave a quick report.
“No incursions at this level, sir,” he said quickly.
“I don’t think they know we are down here.”
Maas glared at the guards and walked past them down the short hall to the main chamber.
A small smile came across his face as he saw Grübner still hanging, moaning quietly.
“Get the Americans, now!” he bellowed at the top of his lungs.
Two guards at one end of the room ran off down the hall to get the two prisoners.
Maas turned and looked at Grübner sternly.
He grabbed his chin and pulled it up so Maas could see what was left of his eyes.
“How are you, Oberleutnant?” he asked.
Grübner, although now nearly blind, cracked open his eyes through the dried blood and sweat that glued them together.
Weakly he tried to speak.
Maas simply stepped back and hit him with his fist across the face.
Grübner’s head snapped back and he let out a long, low moan.
Maas grinned.
Behind him he heard a scuffle.
The two guards brought Dana and Randall into the room.
Their eyes fixated straight on Grübner hanging naked before them.
“Oh, my God!” gasped Dana.
She closed her eyes, looked away and started to sob.
She had never seen anything like this.
She heard Grübner moaning.
She opened her eyes now realizing it was worse than she thought.
The man was alive!
Randall grimaced as he took Grübner’s situation in.
This was what Maas was capable of?
My God, we are going to die.
“Bring the girl and hang her here,” Maas ordered with a slight smile.
Randall jumped forward only to be slammed down on the floor by the guard holding him.
His head bounced off of the concrete floor.
It made a hideous sound.
Randall was out like a light.
“If he tries that again, kill him,” hissed Maas.
“I am finished being nice.”
The two guards stood over Randall waiting for him to move again.
“Randall!” screamed Dana, not knowing how badly he was hurt.
“Randall, no!” she screamed, trying to fight off her guard but keeping one eye on Randall lying on the floor.
The burly guard manhandled Dana over near Grübner while another pair of guards pulled an overhead trolley with chains hanging down over to Dana.
She sat down hard trying to delay the inevitable as long as she could.
The trolley was attached to a set of rails that ran the length of the room.
There were two more trolleys still waiting against the wall.
Evidently four victims could be hung from the ceiling at one time.
It seemed Maas’ playground was well equipped for his kind of play.
Dana struggled to free herself from the guards with no success.
Her screams clearly hurt the guards’ ears.
Regardless, the men simply grabbed her hands as she sat there squirming and thrust each of them into steel shackles being locked tightly around her wrists.
She tried to lie on the floor and kick the guards.
“Randall!” she screamed as the shackles were locked.
“No!”
Randall was still lying on the floor.
He was not moving.
“Oh, God, Randall!”
Dana was squirming, trying to release her hands.
Her slippers flew into the air as she tried repeatedly to kick at the guards.
The two guards stepped back as another pressed a button on the control box in his hand.
There was a heavy whirring sound as the chain’s slack was removed, pulling Dana up into a standing position.
The whirring stopped for a few seconds, then returned.
Dana felt enormous pressure on her wrists and then felt the steel cuffs cutting into her wrists.
“Stop!” she screamed.
“It hurts!”
She struggled even more as she went up on her tiptoes.
She continued to rise as the whirring continued.
Then her bare feet left the floor.
She hung freely but continued trying to kick the guards.
The pain in her wrists was excruciating.
The tight steel cuffs began to cut into her wrists.
As she squirmed to try to get out of the cuffs, they cut further into her skin, with small streams of blood immediately becoming visible from underneath the cuffs.
Her screams of pain awoke Randall.
He was dazed.
He thought he heard screaming but he couldn’t think straight through the haze in his mind.
Where was he?
He tried to look about the room but could not remain focused.
His head was ringing.
He felt a warm liquid running down the side of his face.
It was blood.
He tried to shake his head to clear it but was met with a searing pain in his head.
He tried to look up again, his eyes squinting, determined to see clearly what was going on.
He could see other people in the room and saw someone hanging from the ceiling but he could not see who it was.
Randall tried to raise a hand to his head but one of the guards stomped heavily on his hand with his heavy boot.
He heard the sickening crunch of the bones in his hand but did not feel the pain.
As the boot left his hand, he looked blurrily at his crushed appendage and tried to raise it again.
This time he felt the pain.
A searing pain almost overwhelmed him as he saw his crushed hand hanging limply from his wrist.
He looked up at the guard, who was grinning.
Blood was oozing from his broken hand.
“Hurts, doesn’t it,” the guard grinned.
“Move again and I will crush your other hand.”
Dana’s screaming now filled Randall’s ears.
She sounded like a banshee.
He looked over at where the cries were coming from and saw Dana hanging from the ceiling by her wrists, kicking and squirming.
Her legs were flying in all directions.
But Randall couldn’t do anything.
He simply stared at her in a stupor caused by the blow to his head.
He still could not fathom what was happening.
His mind was moving in slow motion.
Sounds from around him were getting to his head but at a delay.
It was surreal, like he was in a fog.
“Tie the bitch’s legs,” Maas ordered.
“Stop her flailing.”
One of the guards reached down and grabbed Dana’s legs just above the ankle.
She fought with his grip, kicking him as best she could.
Her bare feet slapped against his huge hands.
She continued to fight the guard when another guard stepped over and, with a vise-like grip, grabbed her ankles.
The first guard pulled away his hands and reached for a section of rope from his pocket.
Maas stepped in closer.
“Tie her legs tight at the ankles.
I do not want her moving.”
The sight of her hanging helplessly excited Maas.
“Damn you, you son-of–a-bitch!” Dana screamed.
“You bastard!”
Dana
hurled every expletive she could think of at Maas.
Maas merely smiled and reached into his pocket and brought out a handkerchief.
He grabbed Dana’s face with one hand and pried open her mouth with his fingers.
She felt the pain of him forcing her jaw open.
He roughly jammed the handkerchief in her mouth and stepped back.
Dana’s eyes were as wide as saucers and full of tears.
She saw this on TV and movies but had no idea how much it hurt to have something jammed into her mouth.
She tried to scream again but just a muffled sharp grunt came out.
Maas smiled again.
“See,” he said quietly, “We have ways to quiet you down.” He reached up and ran his hand down the side her face and down across her left breast.
Dana’s eyes widened and he squeezed her lightly.
“Very, very nice,” said Maas almost nicely.
“I’ll get to you in a minute.”
The two guards finished lashing her ankles together.
Now she could only whimper, hanging there helpless.
Randall was still woozy lying on the floor a few feet away.
Maas motioned for the guards to step back.
He stepped up to Dana and stood in front of her gazing into her eyes.
She was petrified with fear.
She had seen what this monster could do to a man.
She was afraid she was next.
She was right.
He looked at her menacingly and reached up and wiped some of her blood trickling down her arm from her wrist with his finger.
He put his bloody finger in his mouth.
“Mmmm, you taste good,” he said.
“Don’t worry, my dear.
Your time will come very soon.”
Dana thought, my time?
Oh, God, what was this madman going to do to her?
She was more terrified than ever.
Maas turned to Randall, still sprawled on the floor.
“Pick him up,” he ordered.
“I seem to have several unwelcome visitors here in my complex.
I believe they are coming after you.
They have already killed several of my men.
So I will ask you this only once, Mr. American.
Then I will start to enjoy your lady here.”
Randall’s head had cleared a bit but was not totally coherent.
Maas knew this.
Randall’s inability to answer would be his key to justify doing the woman harm.
Maas was ready for her.
Randall raised his head and concentrated.
He knew Maas wanted Dana in the worst way.
He knew he must answer.
He also knew whatever plausible answer he gave would hopefully delay Dana’s fate.
“They are here to free us,” Randall began, concentrating on his words.
Even then they were a bit slurred.
“They are U.S. soldiers coming to rescue us.
The university sent them when we went missing.”
Maas stood there motionless.
He believed Randall.
These intruders were well trained, he thought.
Look what they had done to some of his crack troops.
Maas rubbed his head with his hand.
“How did they find us?” demanded Maas.
“The radio... We used the radio.
We called for help,” answered Randall, deliberately misleading the German.
“When your men jumped us and killed some of our group, we called in for help and gave them our location.
They simply brought in troops and are now coming to get us.
We told them where your complex was and how to get here.
It sounds like they have come as we asked.”
Maas’ face was becoming red.
If this was true, the battle was just beginning.
He had to move and move fast right now.
But he glanced over to his prize, the American female.
She was young and beautiful. He wanted to ravage her more than anything else.
But he must be alive to do that and the intruders outside were definitely closing in.
He had to make a decision and make it fast.