The Division of the Damned (35 page)

Two pairs of startled eyes looked up from the table. Had she just scolded them? Reuben turned in his seat. "Mordi, I think we’ve been given an ultimatum.” His face cracked and he banged the table as he laughed. Mordechai smiled, rubbed his eyes and joined in.

It was sometime before Reuben realised they had laughed as hard and as loud as was humanly possible and not once had they tried to stifle their hilarity with bunched fists. Perhaps they were really free of the Third Reich.

Chapter 44

Wewelsburg Castle

Michael was a hard and exacting tutor. He accepted only one hundred percent effort; anything less meant extra hours after the normal lesson. Every night he lectured them on technique, theory and folklore. Every gruelling day he trained them in the use of the sword, perfected their riding skills and took them out on long runs.

He drilled them at sword practice with weighted wooden swords until they could no longer keep their arms aloft and then he mercilessly picked out the weak points in their guard.

Michael’s own sword was specially designed to fold in the middle and could be easily hidden in the creases of his clothing. At the flick of a catch he could produce its full length in a heartbeat. The workmanship was so fine the break in the blade was invisible to the eye and indiscernible to the user. It was extremely light but equally very robust, and his turn of speed on the parry was a source of constant after-practise bickering.

Though they had been given the silver swords that had once belonged to Himmler’s elite, they felt hard done by that only Michael owned a folding blade.

Their sword arms, he knew, would strengthen with practice and their riding skills were already at a good level. However, the months of bad food and inaction at the quarry had taken its toll on their endurance and Michael knew o
f only one way to remedy that
—
forced marches and runs. He ran them until they dropped and then he ran them some more.

"Stamina is one of the requisites for success in close combat," he had preache
d to them after their first run. "A
nd, gentlemen, trust me when I say that stamina will be called for.”

Nobody was left in any doubt as to their obligation to their own physical fitness.

He had chosen Wewelsburg Castle to prepare as a sop to Himmler as it was the spiritual home for his vision of the Teutonic Knights.

Situated just outside of Paderborn and triangular in construction, the three high walls shot out of the surrounding woodland and could be seen for miles around. Its domination of the area was as imposing as its reason for being was ridiculous.

Himmler had bought the castle in 1934 as a ruin and thirteen million Reich marks later it stood as the main temple to his SS cult. The set up at Wewelsburg owed much to the legends surrounding King Arthur and the Round Table. In the main banqueting hall was an oak table which had places to sit Himmler and his twelve knights. Each of Himmler's chosen men had their coat of arms adorning the walls and when a
knight died his crest would be burnt in the Realm of the Dead, a circular well under the main hall. It was rumoured that Himmler had attempted to use the severed heads of SS officers to communicate with the dead knights.

He had once shown Michael around the castle while it was being built in an effort to drum up support for his entrance into the Order of Dobrzyn. The ludicrously theatrical style of the castle convinced Michael that Himmler would only gain entrance into the Order over his dead body. He had stuck to his guns as the elders had begged him to rethink, but Himmler had been vetoed by two of the inner council, himself and the librarian Czerolka.

Michael explained all this as he took them on a tour of the castle on their first day. "He even presented me with this sword as a gift to try and buy his way into the Order.”

"Isn’t that called a bribe, Wolfgang?" Rohleder asked politely.

"Not if you’re the Reichsführer, Rottenführer.”

"Thirteen million marks
.
” Nau whistled
.
"
that’s
a lot of money. Think of how many whores you can have for that, Thorsten?”

"Not to mention tanks, artillery and planes,” Henning added.

"Who are these knights? What do they do?" Von Struck asked in the main banqueting hall.

"They are as misguided and as farcical as their leader. Do not read anything into our choice of location. I picked this place because I knew Himmler would think that I’m finally taking him seriously and would leave us alone.”

"Yes, but you say Himmler presented you with one of the twelve swords, so I take it that you are one of the twelve knights,” Rohleder clarified for all.

He looked at them as they waited for an answer and understood their disapproval. "I took the sword but I didn’t take the position. It was offered to me when Germany and the Reich looked to have the world in their grasp but I refused. Instead, I offered to bear the sword only if and when harm fell upon Germanic-Europa and that promise I have kept by riding to fight the Dracyl."

Nobody spoke but Michael knew he had explained himself satisfactorily so he decided to move on. "This medieval fantasy is a mockery, a joke. Himmler is a sick man who’s dab
bling in the spiritual world. It’s
as dangerous as it’s stupid." He looked at them all. "We have all seen the enemy that we are to face. They are real and deadly, so ignore the settings and concentrate on the preparation.”

Von Struck’s squad almost from the beginning accepted Inselman and Smith. They imitated Smith’s English accent and they called Inselman 'Boy', but it was all in good spirit. They knew they were there to help fight against the Dracyl so their induction into the ranks was
swift and painless.

Smith himself had been among the Germans for so long that it didn’t seem strange to be training with them at all. In Dachau he’d clung onto his English identity as a subconscious means of denying his ties to the Dracyl. Now however, as he exercised to destroy his brother, he felt he had proven to himself that he was not of the same cast. They were ten against an army, but what they lacked in numbers they more than gained in motivation. Michael had welded them closer than brothers, each willing to give his life for the other. The schooling, devoid of the usual brutality they had endured during their training for the SS, focused on the job at hand and within weeks they were fit, proficient with a sword, and keen. They knew the entire legend of the Dracyl and were now convinced of the need to succeed.

But proficiency brings confidence and confidence incites questions
.

"Why do we have to use swords to kill the vampires?" Rohleder asked after a few weeks. They were eating, having just completed the twenty
-
mile course in record time, and the mood around the table was good.

Michael paused for a moment to put together his answer. "Simply put, there are twelve silver swords here at Wewelsburg, one sword for each of Himmler’s knights. They’re strong, specially made to be used in battle if need be, and they’re silver, reinforced with some composite metal that is beyond my knowledge. I planned to steal them and take them with us to Transylvania. Silver is the only metal that will kill the vampires, hence the sword training.”

"Why don’t we just melt them down and make bullets out of them?" Rohleder openly puzzled to himself.

Michael put down his fork and looked around the table at the expectant expressions. "Ok," he started
. "T
here are a number of good reasons, so I’ll go through them so there is no doubt." He stood up. "Firstly, who will make them for us? Every
arms
manufacturing plant in the Reich is run and owned by men who are true to the Party. If I send off for a couple of thousand silver bullets, somewhere along the line it will definitely reach Himmler’s ears, and that’s not good for our plans to kill his pet project. Secondly, the vampires themselves are not good swordsmen. They can chop and swing but their skill with a sword is miserable. The tree will negate any physical advantage they have over us and I hope our ability with the blade will carry the day. Thirdly, it’s a question of logistics. How do we carry so many rounds of ammunition? We have our horses but I want us to travel light and fast. Pack horses could slow us down, add to our rationing and we don’t know how they will react when they smell a vampire.”

The answer was long and comprehensive and Michael was satisfied that he’d put his point across until Rohleder put his hand up.

"N
eed the toilet, Rottenführer?" H
e smiled.

"Not yet, Herr Oberstgruppenführer,” he deadpanned
. "B
ut I do have something I need to get out.” He waited until they stopped laughing to ask his question. "Why don’t we melt down the two swords left over to make into rounds?”

Michael shook his head. "Because who will make them for us without telling tales on us?”

"Well, I have a friend in Prague. He owes me a lot of favours and he also owns an arms factory. I don’t know if he’s still there, we’ve been out of contact, but if he is, and Ivan hasn’t taken Prague yet, we’ll be in business.”

"And how many rounds do you think you’ll get out of two swords?”

Henning lean
ed forward and held up his fork.
"Well, if we’re going to steal the swords, why not steal the rest of the family silverware?”

"I’m not sure the silver will withstand the heat involved. I think swords are our best bet.”

"Fine, we’ll keep with the swords. I just think it would be worth trying to find out what the form is. We can ask him if it is possible. Extra firepower is always a positive thing in war. I’ll feel naked without my Helga."

Michael weighed up the situation in his head. If they could make a round with a silver bullet, it could tip the scales to their advantage. However, it would require that they send Rohleder down to Prague and that along with the production of the cartridge could take weeks. He looked around at the expectant faces at the table. He saw they all wanted it so he nodded to Rohleder. "Right, get on it straightaway. There is a phone here but let me talk with the operator first because it will be tapped. However, I suspect the use of Heinrich’s name will soon sort that out.”

"He’s more of a business associate,” Rohleder explained to Michael as they waited for a clear line. "He likes cards and betting large sums. I like winning, so I let him bet his factory. And I cheated. Now he owes me.”

"You cheated?” Michael asked quizzically. "And what would have happened if he’d caught you?”

"The stakes were big but my balls are bigger. It was after the flame thrower attack; my wife had left me and I felt like I had nothing left to live for. The military wouldn’t take me back and I went on a self-destructive spree, whoring, gambling and drinking. I got caught up in all kinds of crazy stuff, stuff you would never believe. I sorted out women and booze for Party members, boys too
,
sometimes. It was at that time that I saw the true face of the Party. Then it hit me: all those young men dead, civilians murdered, women widowed and children orphaned for these sick degenerates, not to mention the Jews and what we did to
them. We must have been really desperate to have believed them in the thirties. Anyway, he bet the factory, lost it and I gave it him back. He won’t say a word to anybody because I’ve got the deeds to the works and if the Party gets a whiff that he used the Reich’s factory to gamble with, he’ll be in deep shit.”

T
he call went as expected. Rohleder and Inselman left the next day for Prague. Inselman’s advanced ability with the sword made him the ideal and only candidate to partner Rohleder for the journey down. They set off armed with enough petrol to make it to Prague and back, as much silver as they could find and a forged letter from Himmler.

Chapter 45

Transylvania

Reuben checked through his things again. He knew everything was there but he couldn’t just sit around and wait, so he checked it all to kill time. They had decided to go east and try to meet the Red Army as it advanced.

The plan was to leave just before dawn which gave them a whole day to get away before the night came with its marauding vampires. They would steal the horses, provisions and tools that they might need along the way. Mordechai wasn’t happy about the stealing part but they had searched the entire a
rea for money and valuables and
had found nothing.

"Well, at least we can’t be robbed of anything importan
t. That would just be our mazel.
” Reuben had laughed.

"They could rob us of our food and then we’d be in trouble
,
" Mordechai answered gravely.

"Nobody is going to rob anybody, Mordi
.
”
H
e smiled. "The vampires have sucked dry everybody that lives for miles around. We’re probably the only humans here for the next fifty miles.”

"
Us and the whole Russian army
,
" he answered and Reuben laughed. It had been Mordechai who had pushed for the move towards the Russians and now he was the nervous one.