"What's that?" Totschläger yelled into her radio, "You've taken...you have? Good work. Try to push through to meet us here."
She turned abruptly and drove her bike into the few feet of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. Claw troops were splashing through it firing weapons at her. She dropped them hastily.
Things were going well.
***
Krauss rose from the marshal's prostrate body, which was already beginning to go into rigor mortis. He heard the beating of war drums in his head, and suddenly it all clicked. Everything Metzger had ever said, everything he had ever done, it all made sense now. Krauss finally understood what the Master of The Claw had been trying to pound into him all these years.
With a quick swish of the wrist he felt the swagger stick snap into it's perfect position. He checked his cap to see that it was at the perfect angle to his head. He about faced and looked at The Claw troops standing there.
"Inform the Germans we're surrendering," he said coolly.
The Claw men seemed taken aback.
"General Krauss, we can't surrender now..." began Basilisk.
"Dammit, I didn't ask your opinion," screamed Krauss, bringing the baton down on the desk with a loud crack, "I am giving you an order. I am the Master of The Claw now."
The Claw men looked sheepishly about and at their feet.
"Now inform the Germans we're surrendering,” Krauss said more calmly, “I want all hostilities to cease immediately. Now go! And send two men back up here with a stretcher!"
The Claw men scrambled out of the room. Krauss looked at the body of his former mentor with a sigh.
***
"Surrendering?"
Looking away from her radio, the German captain looked around her. The Claw troops were laying down their weapons in the streets. They'd won.
"Mein lieber Gott in Himmel," she whispered, "We've won!"
She turned back to her radio and pressed the transmit.
"Back out of the city for the formal surrender? Well it doesn't seem wise, but if those are the terms, we'll follow them."
A moment later she gave the order to all her troops to leave the city, change into dress uniforms, and fall into parade formation for a formal surrender ceremony.
No comments:
Post a Comment