Lightning broke across the Brocken mountains, rattling the candelabras that lined the walls of Castle Derschau.
If the men that manned their post inside heard it, they gave no sign. Not while the Baroness watched.
As the thunder died, the screams returned. Doctor Heinrich touched the dial before him and turned it once more. A sharp bolt of electricity sounded, audible through the double wall of stone. The girl on the monitor writhed against the metal table, her lithe muscles tensed, bulging against the skin. Her nipples were stiffened between their iron clasps. Her eyes rolled as another scream echoed through the wall. The terror in it had long since turned to something else. Ecstasy or madness. Or both.
"Again," the Baroness commanded. Heinrich obeyed.
Otto had refused her, on the first night she had arrived. When Otto saw the poor peasant strapped to the table, he had called the woman insane. He said she had no right to give orders. She was just the Kommandant's pet whore.
Heinrich had strapped Otto to the table the next morning.
That had not been science. There was nothing to be learned from the doctor's death. Only obedience.
Baroness Ursula Von Wildenrath stood six feet tall on the ground. In her leather silhouetted boots, she towered over every last soul inside of the castle. Lurid crimson hair ran from beneath her cap and down her shoulders, resting beside pale, heavy breasts that heaved and stretched her black leather jacket to its limit. A black skirt ran just to the very tops of her legs.
But no eyes strayed upon the Baroness. The riding crop on her right hip had taken one lingering eye already.
The Luger on her left had taken another.
"Again," she commanded. Heinrich obeyed.
The meters before him continued to flash red. He could hear the phantom warning sirens coming from its gutted speaker box box. The Baroness had quickly tired of its warnings. Electric cackled between the dials now, and the rank odor of melted plastic followed.
All of the castle's power was directed to their instruments. It wasn't just a possibility that the entire system could fulminate, it was a certainty. How close they were to that point remained to be seen. And the Baroness seemed determined to find it.
"Again."
The dial ticked higher beneath Heinrich's hand. Better to die in an instant than on that witch's table. He had watched Otto until the doctor's last heaving breath. That was no way for a man to die.
The room saw the change at once. Every breath was held as they watched the girl on the monitor. It worked.
The clack of heels issued against the stone floor as the Baroness approached the screen.
"Yes," she whispered. "Yes!"
Her glossy eyes glowed with madness against the green light. She gripped the screen with both hands, clicking her long nails against the plastic. Laughter poured out of her in great, heavy gasps.
The heavy wooden door burst open suddenly behind them. The soldiers inside the room raised their weapons in a heartbeat. The man silhouetted against the hallway paled as quickly, but not from them. Ursula's face had fallen to a snarl, baring her teeth against the interruption.
"Intruder, Baroness," he said, bowing low. "Ernst was found dead."
"How?" It was a growl from the depths of her.
"A knife, madam."
Her eyes were lit once more, but her face returned to its cold mask of composure. "The American," she hissed. "I was told he was no more."
The man in the hallway held silently still.
"Seal the castle," she snapped, nodding to the soldiers that lined the wall. "Lock every entrance. He will not leave until he has what he has come for."
The lieutenant in charge stepped forward toward her, but only by a step. "Patrols, madam?"
The Baroness grinned and turned her eyes slowly back down to the monitor. Madness glowed in her once more.
"No, Lieutenant Braun! That will not be necessary." She turned and flickered her fingers toward the next closest soldier. "You, seal this room. Open it on my command only."
The soldier stared back at her, unblinking, seeming unable to respond. But her eyes had already returned to the man in front of her.
"You will be escorting me to my chambers, Lieutenant Braun."
The man's jaw set firmly. He paled as he looked up into her eyes. Her blank mask of a smile gave nothing away.
"And, Doctor Heinrich," she added, turning toward the man's station. "Release the experiment."
---
Gustav Braun raised his service pistol as he rounded the corner. Torches flickered in their brackets, leaving endless shadowed alcoves down the length of the corridor ahead of them.
"We should hurry, Lieutenant," the Baroness said. "You wouldn't wish to linger, once the cage has been opened."
Braun nodded. It was not the girl in the cage that concerned him. Or the American.
"Yes, madam," he said. He strode on, never lowering his weapon.
Her chambers were at the far end of the castle, in a rear tower of the main keep. He had never been through the door of it, even before she had arrived, but he knew it overlooked the village below.
Until she had appeared, the villagers were on good terms with Castle Derschau, and the soldiers that protected these lands. Now they trembled beneath the tower's shadow.
Ursula strode past him as they reached the final stretch. An iron key that dangled from her wrist entered the lock of the door. With a heavy creak, the door eased inward. The Baroness stepped back, ushering the soldier inside before her. He ducked his head and entered beneath her watchful gaze.
The room felt different than the rest of the castle. There were no windows to let in the cold mountain air, or the gloom. Twin fires blazed from the far end, setting a warm yellow glow upon the walls. There were shelves of books, maps, inks, and parchments. His eyes roamed the place. It did not match the stories that Braun and the others had passed around like kitchen gossip.
"The door, Lieutenant."
Braun raised his eyes to her and looked to the door. He had left it ajar with the American still on the loose. Cursing himself, he leaped toward it, pistol raised, and trigger finger tensed. He kicked the door closed with an iron-tipped boot, keeping his weapon raised until he could fasten the bolts that lined the wall.
"Forgive me, madam," he choked out.
The older woman watched him carefully. "Have I done something to harm you, Lieutenant?"
Braun swallowed with great difficulty. "No, madam."
"Then put down your weapon and stop jumping at shadows," the Baroness said lightly. She swept toward the heavy desk that had once belonged to Kommandant Lehmann. Bending at the hip, she opened a drawer and pulled an amber bottle free from inside.
"Pour one for me," she said, setting it on the table closest to the door, "and two for yourself, I think. That is an order," she added.
