Team Seven of Heroes Chapter 19

19.

Hauptmeister Bormann stood up after examining the dead killers. He had then called in reinforcement and the killers were all lined up in a row at the courtyard outside the building.

“Strange but these are not criminal killers. They were trained soldiers. There were rumours of Death Squad and these were them.” Hauptmeister  Bormann indicated to the double lightning tattoo on the left wrist. “I think we may be in deeper than we thought.”

Hauptmeister Bormann then saw the arrival of more wagons and carriages. He smiled and told the assembled that they were to join in the raid of a research facility. He was approached by the officer who had arrived with the new convoy. There were also more armed guards that soon filled up the courtyard. An officer with the same rank as Bormann handed him a stack of papers to read.

“Mein Gott! How can this be?’ Hauptmeister Bormann glared at the other officer with the same rank. “These are my ….witnesses.”

“Hauptmeister Bormann, my orders are explicit and I am to advise you that you are now removed as an officer of the Polizei.” With that two guards approached Bormann to remove his guns. “As for your witnesses, they are now under arrest by the Ministry of Local Laws.”

The newly arrived Hauptmeister approached Sherlock and the others.

“My name is Hauptmeister Goering and of this moment, you are not under arrest. As of this morning, we have a distressing event when our Chancellor of State was challenged in his office with the threat of forceful removal or resign immediately. The Chancellor being of a tougher nature had declined and he had sought the advice of the Ministry to quell the event. We had mobilized our Polizei forces and in the result of we have been besieged in our cities.”

“And if I was to imply from my deduction, your enemy is not the Imperial Army but its officers with the influence. I am surprised that the soldiers have not revolt.” Sherlock was amused. “My salute to the recruits who are well trained to adhered orders.”

“There were some who had questioned from my intel but those divisions were moved to the borders.” Hauptmeister Goering reported in. “My officers were also threatened and those vulnerable were ….transferred by the Chancellor.”

“I am impressed. So my own deductions of the Monsignor were not in seclusion but working on the military. It was a caution which I told the Chancellor in one of my letters. We were introduced during the Bohemian case and since then we have been friends. So tell me more.”

“As we speak now the borders in our country are filled with troops and armoured vehicles to close it. A few divisions are moving towards our cities but the real powers in the city are the criminal lords now united under one leader; Monsignor Dupont or better known as the Circle with an M on it.” Hauptmeister Goering looked at the other arrested officer. “Hauptmeister Bormann and Sebastian Moran are Monsignor’s recruits. They are to be ….shot death on sight.”

“No!” Sherlock snapped at the officer. “They die and I will cease all assistance to the Chancellor. Call her now. You have the contraption to do that.”

Nikola Tesla was experimenting on the findings of Heinrich Rudolf Hertz on the concept of transmitting without wires. It was expounded by a Brazilian priest named Roberto Landell de Moura who transmitted the human voice wireless to a distance of five miles. A few more enhanced the works and even Marconi operated the first radio factory. Those were the known trails but the one hidden from the public were the military research projects which had taken it further.

“Chancellor, we have a situation.” Hauptmeister Goering talked to a metal box with a long antenna.  He explained the situation and then looked Sherlock. “You will get your reply in a short time.”

Soon after two hours of hard driving, the sight that greeted them was hidden valley behind a ring of trees and thick bushes to reveal to them a fortress that resembled more of a prison structure with the high walls and barbed wires on the top. There was the outer fence with the sentry high towers and the armed guards. There was one wide and tall gate that opened through the fence and there was the main walled gate that was iron grilled. What lay beyond there appeared to be a Y shaped building structure of three levels.

“I would say that is a fortified research facility with about five hundred feet wide and a thousand over in length. Gates on each side with the main one facing us the widest.” Sherlock shared his assessment of the fortress. They had all gathered at the edge of the valley. All of them were armed with their weapons including Lord Greystoke with his long staffs and Lady Jane with her Mosin rifle and bandolier of bullets. On her hips was the double guns of her preference. Watson had donned on his scalpels and held a Luger gun he had borrowed from Hauptmeister Bormann. “The wall should be about twenty five feet high looking at the shadows. The walls should….”

“Thick enough to hold an army.” Mycroft interrupted the other. He then looked at Hauptmeister Goering. “Did you say the Chancellor cleared us to go in there? I am assessing our own strength of twenty five men brought yourself, and given the seven of us with one other Hauptmeister Bormann we are down to two to one perhaps.”

“I will say so, and with the possibility of non-combatant staff we are about three to one.” Watson added in. “But changed that now to five to one perhaps.”

A military convoy was approaching then with about a hundred over soldiers. The convoy stopped at the main gate by the fence and then was waved through to inside the fortress.

“By George, does that man not stop his doing then?” It was Mycroft then who saw Lord Greystoke digging with his hands into the ground. He was pulling out the roots and soil there. It was Lady Greystoke who came to his rescue.

“Lord Greystoke may be looking for something, I think.” It was true to her words that he dug up a skull. It held small holes on the surface. He passed it to her. “It’s a primate. To be exact ‘Pan bonobo’ from the south of the Congo River. You call them chimpanzee.”

“The Pan primate have been likened to that of Man and many other similarity had spurred them as test subjects. I was fighting them for some years and even lobbied at the Parliament.” Lady Greystoke cried out.

“You may be wrong, my Lady. The ‘Gorilla graueri’ or the lowland species are more like us.” Sherlock displayed his intellectual skills. “But they are twice our size and strength hence we are at a disadvantage. However we are not the world’s most dangerous predator for namesake. We just have to figure our killing method here.”

Sherlock then pointed to the far end of the fence. There was a waste lock there with the main pipes seen laid to go underground.

“We need to find that outlet. It’s our way in.”