was clear.
Latham and Witkowski rushed across the croquet field and down the flagstone path, the colonel's flashlight illuminating the way.
They reached the abrupt left turn and raced to the end of the path above the old boathouse. Far on the left, the commandos were having trouble subduing two guards who had run out of the house.
"Go help them," ordered Drew, looking at the side porch with the red light as described by the officer of German Intelligence.
"This is my trick."
"Chlopak .. . !"
"Get the hell out of here, Stosh, they need help. This is mine!"
Latham walked down the sloping hill of grass, an automatic in his hand. He walked up on the short porch, beneath the dim red light, and over the pounding rain on the roof, he heard the screams inside. Karin's screams! His personal galaxy blew apart into a thousand infinities. He hurled his body against the door, shattering it, hinges flying, sending the entire panel across the obscenely spotlighted glare of the altar with its glistening gold crucifix. On the floor, stripped to his shorts, was the blond hihrer, his body on top of a screaming, kicking, struggling Karin, who thrashed her legs in fury and tried to free her hands from his grip. Drew fired his automatic, blowing a hole in the roof. jAger, in shock, spun off his abused wife, his face and body spastic; he was stunned into silence.
"Get up, you Nazi slug," said Latham, his voice icelike, deadly with pure hatred.
"You're not Harry!" said [email protected] suddenly, rising slowly, hypnotically to his feet.
"You look something like him .. but you are not he."
"I'm surprised you can tell in this light." Drew moved out of the glare.
"Are you all right?" he asked Karin.
"Give or take a few bruises."
"I want to kill him." Latham spoke calmly, coldly.
"In light of everything, I have to kill him." He raised his automatic, leveling it at j5ger's head.
"No!" cried Karin.
"I feel the same way, but you can't, we can't! . Water Lightning, Drew. He claims we cannot stop it, that he doesn't know the details, but he's lied all his life."
"Drew .. . ?" interrupted Gunter j5ger, a malevolent grin of relief spreading across his face.
"Drew Latham, Harry's brutish younger brother. What did he used to call him?
"My kid brother, the jock," that was it. I had to ask him what it meant. So Hans Traupman was wrong, the Blitzkrieger did kill Harry, only his brother took his place.
Mein Gott, we've been hunting the wrong man! Harry Latham is dead after all, and no one was the wiser for it."
"What do you mean, the wiser for it?" asked Drew.
"Remember, the gun's in my hand, and considering my unstable state, I could easily blow your head off. I repeat, what did you mean?"
"Ask Dr. Traupman. Oh, I forgot, he's no longer with us! And even the Polizei, including the ones who are on our side, can't cover every frequency from the marina' or know our emergency codes. As the British say, "Sorry, chap, can't help you."
"He said Harry was part of an experiment," Karin broke in quickly as Latham again raised his weapon, "a medical experiment."
"Sorenson and I came pretty much to that conclusion. We can find out; Harry's body is still in a morgue.. .. Okay, glamour boy, start walking out the door."
"My clothes," protested jdger, "surely you'll permit me to put on my clothes? It's pouring rain."
"Would you believe it if I told you I really don't care if you get wet? Also, I don't know what you've got in your clothes, say, in the collars. My friend here will carry them out with us."
"Friend? Don't you mean your whore-lover?" screamed the new F4ihrer.
"You son of a bitch!" Latham swung the barrel of the automatic into jdger's head, when suddenly the Nazi thrust his left arm up, blocking the pistol-whip, his right fist crashing into Drew's chest with such force that Latham was propelled backward off his feet.
jdger then pounced on the automatic, wrenching it out of Drew's grip, and stood up, firing twice as Latham rolled first to his right, then to his left, both feet on the sides of the German's legs, where he locked jdger's right ankle, smashing his foot in the Nazi's knee with all the desperate strength he could summon. jdger screamed in pain as he arched back, firing twice more, the bullets piercing the walls. Karin lunged across the floor, grabbing Drew's automatic;
which her husband had forced her to drop. She rose and