Wolfgang and Leah moved into position in the cover of night, his gun newly cleaned and oiled, every surface darkened to prevent reflections that would give them away.
They had half full canteens, the others having split their remaining water, several protein bars, and a twelve hour shift ahead of them.
Goetze had chosen the spot well. Cover from trees above and bushes around them. A flat rock to steady the sniper rifle on and soft ground to lay on. And a good view of the target.
Their job today was to report anything that looked worthy of being shot, but not to give themselves away. Wolfgang would only use his rifle for the long distance scope.
Leah gently punched him in the side as the sun brightened the sky behind the clouds and they had their first glimpse of the target that was so important.
“You didn’t tell me we were coming to the fairy castle,” she accused.
“Neuschwanstein. I don’t know what the aliens want with this place but they’re buzzing all over it.”
“You knew the whole time?”
“I saw the map.”
“Why here?”
“I don’t know.” Wolfgang whispered. An alien drone flew over their position.
“We’re on ready standby today,” former Fifth Under Captain Third Assault instructed his squad in Malakshian. Jayla understood enough to follow along. “No one may be further than thirty seconds away from the combat craft.”
Thirty seconds? It took longer than that to go the bathroom, she thought, but she kept her complaints to herself. Her captain remained grouchy in the mornings.
She worried he was moving into a deep depression over his demotion and she didn’t know how to help him. Her Daddy would tell her that a strong man is also strong in the face of adversity. Just like Jayla had been when she rescued her sister.
But the alien, her captain, had rescued her when she couldn’t help herself or her sister. Now she felt like she needed to rescue him.
She just didn’t know what to do.
The day wore on. Wolfgang and Leah whispered about where they wanted to build a house after the war and whether they would live in Germany or Switzerland. At times they simply lay next to each other, on watch for anything remarkable, but nothing seemed to happen other than the little gray drones flying far overhead.
It rained some during the early afternoon and they set out their canteens to catch some of the water. Wolfgang tried to kiss Leah when he got bored but she rebuffed him, saying they had to stay focused. And his face was covered in camouflaging mud.
“I know,” he grumbled and she leaned over and ran her finger along his neck.
“Later,” she whispered in his ear and gave him goosebumps.
Jayla sat in the hatch of their combat craft most of the day, listening to the conversations of the soldiers inside and watching the activities of those outside. Several craft appeared over the castle and settled down in the courtyard, only to offload cargo and then vanish. Other soldiers carried the cargo into the main building of the castle.
Her captain remained away. She didn’t know where he’d gone or what he was doing or how he’d get back to them within thirty seconds, but she obeyed his orders, running to the outhouse when she needed to use it, then running back. A soldier brought her a cup of soup at lunchtime, but it wasn’t enough and she felt hungry all afternoon.
Guard duty was the most boring thing in the world and yet, somehow, being on ready standby topped it for boringness. She wished she could figure out the rules of the Malakshian card game the soldiers played inside the combat craft. They seemed to be having a little fun.
Just before dinnertime, a combat craft appeared and when it settled down, her captain exited the hatch and headed toward them.
“Everybody on the alert. It’s time.”
“Don’t you think a lot of vehicles have been coming and going today?” Leah asked in a whisper.
Wolfgang contemplated her question and answered, “I think you’re right. We should tell Goetze.”
“You stay here and watch. I’ll tell him.” She slithered away from their position and took off. Wolfgang watched everything that happened on the courtyard through his scope.
“It’s time, my dear.”
Eva awoke to an overly cheery Lord Admiral barging into her room with two packages.
“I wish you were in the same building as me, like before.”
“I apologize,” she replied, mimicking the Hrwang. “I like the view from here and the room isn’t as gaudy.”
She used a new word and the Lord Admiral whipped out his tablet.
“I like gaudy,” he said defensively when he read the definition in his own language.
No duh, she thought.
“Wear this. It’s not gaudy,” he promised, handing her a package. “It’s elegant.”
She opened it up to find a beautiful, red dress and silver, strappy heels.
“Oh my goodness. It’s gorgeous. It looks like a prom dress.”
“What’s a prom?” he asked, not looking away from her to search for the word on his tablet.
“It’s a formal dinner and dance,” she started to explain when he cut her off.
“Then we are going to a prom,” he said.
She had never seen him this happy, almost childlike. If the Lord Admiral was always this way, not so smirky and arrogant, she could actually grow to like him.
“Where are we going?” she asked.
“To a prom,” he smiled.
She shook her head, knowing she wasn’t going to be able to get anything more out of him about the location.
“You should be wearing a tux,” she said.
He opened the second package and showed her.
“Like this one?” He grinned a mile wide.
“Yes, like that one. How long do I have to get ready?”
“Ten minutes.”
“Ten minutes!”
“Ten Hrwang minutes. I believe that is seven of your minutes.”
“Lord Admiral! I can’t get ready that quickly.”
He started undressing, watching her as he did. She shook her head at him again, this time in disbelief. Seven minutes? The man was crazy.
She pulled out the dress and examined it. Strapless with a long, leggy slit up one side. She had no bras she could wear with it but she guessed the Lord Admiral wouldn’t care. He still watched her as he changed.
Fine.
She undressed and picked the dress up off the bed, unzipping it down the back.
“Can we talk?” Jayla asked her captain.
He stared at her solemnly. She knew he wasn’t going to say anything. She would just have to start in on it.
“I’m sorry you got in trouble but I don’t think it was my fault.”
“I wouldn’t have helped the border guards if you hadn’t been with me.”
“Why not?” she asked. “You helped me. Those guards would have been just as dead and the women just as violated if we hadn’t saved them.”
“Our orders changed. We are now to permit all of your people who want to kill each other to do so.”
“What?” Jayla stood up and moved to stand right in front of the large man. She looked up at him but was no longer intimidated by him. She would have gotten right in his face if she’d been tall enough.
“I can’t believe that,” she continued. “How could your people be so cold?”
“Why do your people keep fighting constantly? In most places on this planet we cannot land unless we attack first with dozens of combat craft. We cannot trade for food, so we must take it, and women strap bombs to themselves and blow us up. We’ve lost three squads to such attacks. Why?”
He spat the word and Jayla thought spittle may have landed on her face. She put it out of her mind.
“You bombed us. You’ve seen the video. You know what happ
ened!”
The video had changed everything, Jayla realized. Knowing what happened changed the tactics the Hrwang were using. It may have even changed their goals.
Suddenly Jayla knew she knew nothing. She didn’t know the man standing in front of her. She didn’t know who the Hrwang were or what they stood for. They had accepted her until she and the the captain, now lieutenant, began sleeping together. A beautiful moment for her ruined by the envy of the rest of the squad. Some of them hadn’t spoken to her since.
She turned to walk away. She was done. She was done with this war. She was done with the Hrwang. And she was done with her captain demoted to lieutenant. She was done with them all.
“Wait,” he cried. “Wait.”
She stopped but didn’t turn to face him.
“I love you,” he said.
“Then tell me your name.” She still faced away from him.
“Gerrel Otdessig,” he replied without hesitation. “My name is Gerrel Otdessig.”
She turned to face him and he was down on his knees, looking up at her. Soldiers poked their heads out of the hatch.
“Yes. I do,” she replied. She turned to him and fell on her knees and hugged him. “I want to marry you.” Her emotions boiled over and she cried on his chest.
“You tell me your name now,” he whispered.
“Jayla. Anderson.”
“I love you, Jayla.”
“I love you, Gerrel.”
They held each other and someone from their squad clapped. Others joined him. Jayla couldn’t believe it. She was engaged.
“Anything happen while I was away?” Leah asked softly. A mud covered Sergeant Goetze accompanied her.
“What’s going on?” the sergeant asked.
“Women,” Wolfgang replied.
“What?” Leah asked.
“Not you. Aliens. The aliens brought women with them. A black woman and a black man knelt on the courtyard and hugged each other after arguing. If they were human, I’d say the man proposed to her.”
“What?” both Leah and Goetze cried, then looked around them. They’d spoken too loud. They didn’t know how sensitive the Hrwang sound sensors were.
“And another vehicle appeared in the air over the courtyard and a woman in a red dress got out accompanied by a man in a tuxedo followed by a second man, also in a tuxedo. Soldiers in black uniforms got out after them.”
Wolfgang didn’t add that the uniforms reminded uncomfortably him of uniforms from his country from a different era. He suppressed that thought.
“Where did they go?” Goetze demanded to know, not seeing anything through the scope of his rifle.
“The black couple went into the northeast corner of the courtyard. A vehicle landed there, just out of sight. The two tuxedos and the red dress went into the main building.”
“A formal red dress?”
“Yes.”
“They’re our target. They have to be important. No one has seen alien women before. Only a commander would bring his woman and dress her that way. Those targets are critical, do you understand?”
“What about pinning troops down and waiting for the attacking infantry?” Leah asked, not in defiance but trying to understand. Goetze put his hand on her shoulder.
“There are no troops coming. There is no way to get them here. I was given orders to take out any high priority targets. We didn’t know why the aliens wanted Neuschwanstein, but it’s possible they are setting up a headquarters or something here. We are to act independently.”
“But you told us there were troops coming,” Leah protested.
“That’s suicide,” Wolfgang said in German.
Goetze bristled.
“We shoot, we run. Like snipers throughout history.”
“Why tell us there are troops coming?”
“Keep your voice down,” Goetze hissed.
Wolfgang turned away from the sergeant and retook his firing position. He wanted the sergeant to explain himself, but he also knew no explanation the man would give would be sufficient. They had been duped into coming.
“Will you fulfill your mission?” Goetze demanded in a harsh whisper.
“We will,” Leah replied, her voice subdued.
“I want to hear him say it.”
Wolfgang stubbornly refused to reply.
“Will you fulfill the oath you made?”
I made no oath, Wolfgang thought. But he said, “Okay.”
Sergeant Goetze seemed satisfied.
“When they come back out, Wolfgang, you take the woman in the red dress. I’ll take the man in the tuxedo from the other location.”
“Okay,” Wolfgang whispered again.
“You are a good sniper. If I am correct and these people are truly important, then we could decapitate the enemy this day. Be strong.”
“Okay,” Wolfgang said a third time.
Goetze looked at Leah. “Be strong,” he commanded.
He left.
Only part of Neuschwanstein was completed, a fact that disappointed the Lord Admiral. Eva read a brochure she found in the museum store and dumbed down the English for him, speaking a mix of English and Est as she read the history of the castle.
He laughed that the mad king’s men drowned poor king Ludwig because they worried he spent too much money.
“If only all advisers were so bold,” he chuckled.
The parts of the palace that were completed were as ornate as Hearst Castle and Eva saw why the Lord Admiral enjoyed it. He spoke of having two capitals and perhaps this castle could serve as his second capital on the opposite side of the world from his first. Much had to be accomplished though before that could be a reality.
He seated them with glee in a dining room filled with chairs forming a rectangle, but no table. He sat at the head of the rectangle and instructed Eva to sit to his right with the Lieutenant Grenadier on her right. Other officers filled the rest of the seats and an unrecognized face sat on the Lord Admiral’s left. The face looked vaguely familiar, but Eva was certain she hadn’t met the man before.
When everyone sat, most in confusion, the Lord Admiral said words that sounded German to Eva.
The floor moved and a table slowly rose into the space between the chairs. All sorts of food adorned the table and all of it reeked of Hrwang spices. Impressed with the display, some of the Lord Admiral’s men clapped and Eva joined them, also acting impressed.
“What were those words you spoke, Lord Admiral?” the Lieutenant Grenadier asked, leaning forward and putting his left hand down by his side. His finger brushed Eva’s leg and her heart flipped a little. Did she really have feelings for this man? Or was she just worried he was going to blow her cover and get them both killed?
“They are the language of the mad king. They mean ‘little table, cover yourself’. You say those words and the table comes up out of the basement filled with food. Isn’t it wonderful?”
“It is, sir.”
“Lieutenant, you look positively dashing tonight. Doesn’t he look positively dashing, my dear?”
Eva hated it when the Hrwang tablets taught them cliches. One of the hazards of learning a language from television and radio broadcasts.
“He does, Lord Admiral,” she replied, giving him, Tomes, a look over. Remembering her part, she turned to the Lord Admiral. “As do you, my dear.”
“Oh, don’t call me that,” he said, a little of his grin gone. “That designation is reserved for you.”
“I apologize, Lord Admiral.”
“Not necessary, my dear. You are still learning of our ways.” He reached and grabbed her hand in his. “Now, enjoy your meal. My generals are hungry but won’t eat until we begin.”
He was right. The generals didn’t. As soon as the Lord Admiral filled his plate, they followed suit, but no one put
a fork to mouth until the Lord Admiral did.
Once everyone was eating and the Lord Admiral was engaged in conversation with the vaguely familiar man on his left, she turned to Tomes.
“When you grew up, did everyone wait for the father to start eating before they did?”
“Of course,” he replied. “Didn’t you?”
She laughed. “No. When it was just my father and me, mealtimes were a little informal.”
“Proper respect must be given at all time.”
“And if a Hrwang were to marry one of my people, which customs would they follow?”
She knew she tread on dangerous ground, but she also knew Tomes understood the consequence of giving anything away. She felt like she was reeling him into her web. He laughed nervously at her question.
“Such a couple would have to decide. It would not be simple. We have many cultures on our world and when people from different cultures marry, it always brings added challenges.”
“It was actually illegal for many years in parts of our world to marry someone from a different culture.”
“Illegal?”
“You couldn’t get a marriage license or live in certain places.”
Eva could tell Tomes wanted to comment on her world, her people, but he held his tongue. He took a bite of food.
“You should try this meat. It’s so good.”
“It’s turkey. Yes. It’s very good.” Even with all the Hrwang spices, the turkey still tasted delicious. And Eva noted how deftly Tomes changed the topic, avoiding controversy with her. This man had a genuinely tough exterior, but he was soft on the inside, especially when it came to her.
Conversations ranged around the table, but no one other than the Lord Admiral or Tomes engaged her, and when those two spoke to their neighbors on their other side, she simply sat and ate, picking at her food and trying to scrape off some of the sauces and toppings. She hated Hrwang cooking. Instead of growing on her, it repulsed her more every day. She’d need to spend some time with Noah in his kitchen when they returned, if she wasn’t going to die of malnourishment.
She couldn’t eat anything else on her plate, so she asked Tomes, calling him ‘Lieutenant’, to pass her more turkey. She put her hand on his arm when she did so and felt the same flutter she had earlier. Part of her just wanted to run away with him. Maybe they could flee into the Alps and get lost forever and the Hrwang would never find them.
Part of her remembered who he really was and who she was.
Eating turkey reminded her of Thanksgiving feasts, fun ones when she was young, pathetic ones with frozen meals when she was older, but she focused on the good memories and they kept her spirits light. She smiled and laughed at a joke the Lord Admiral told in Est, even though she hadn’t understood half of it and didn’t get the punchline. She responded with a glance of love when he smiled patronizingly at her.
You just can’t get over yourself, can you? she thought about him behind her loving face.
“Come with me, my dear,” the Lord Admiral said, standing when he was done with his after dinner conversation. He reached his arm out to her.
She took it graciously, not looking back at Tomes but imagining the Lieutenant Grenadier’s envious thoughts.
“Accompany us, please,” the Lord Admiral added in Est to his chief of security. Now Eva had a chance to look at him, but Tomes didn’t return the look, just stood professionally in acknowledgement that he was at his commander’s beck and call. Eva knew she never could have held a role like that in the military or even in the Agency. There’s duty to God and Country, but duty to an individual like that was beyond her.
She almost laughed at her own hubris. Was the way she acted around the Lord Admiral any different? She was no less at his beck and call than Tomes was, and although she told herself her actions were merely an act to further her mission, Tomes was no different. He had originally accepted the coveted role as a chief of security to further his career.
“Enjoying your evening?” the Lord Admiral inquired as he led her out of the dining room and into the king’s bedroom. “Incredible, isn’t it?”
Eva answered yes to both questions, but as she looked around the mad king’s apartment she thought Ludwig and Hearst must have been brothers in a previous life. No wonder the Lord Admiral was so excited to visit the place.
She pretended to be impressed by the ornateness of the king’s wash stand, but instead watched Tomes standing guard at the door, his eyes straight ahead. While the Lord Admiral fawned over a mural of some doomed medieval couple, Eva caught Tomes’ attention and winked at him.
He blushed and returned to staring straight ahead.
Eva returned to the Lord Admiral’s side. He took her arm and then turned to Tomes.
“Lieutenant, can you wait in this room? I have some things I need to discuss with the Lady.”
“Yes, sir.”
They moved into a small chapel adjacent to the bedroom, and the Lord Admiral paused to look around.
“Why is that here?” he asked, pointing to a crucifix surrounded by candles on a small altar.
“It represents the crucifixion of Jesus.”
“It’s sacrilege.”
“No, it’s not. It’s considered very religious by some.”
“By you?” he asked.
Eva didn’t know what lie would work best, so she ended up telling the truth.
“The faith I grew up in didn’t believe in displaying crucifixes.”
“Good,” he said and led them out of the room and into the next, a slightly less ostentatious one. “That room will have to be remodeled.”
“You don’t like chapels?” she asked, a little surprised at his reaction.
“Not that one.” His tone of voice sounded final, and Eva stopped pressing.
“I like that swan,” she said, pointing to a statue, trying to sound friendly while she changed the subject.
“Do you know this castle was supposed to have over two hundred rooms, but King Ludwig only finished fifteen before his people assassinated him?”
“I didn’t know that,” Eva replied, not remembering if that were in the brochure she translated for the Lord Admiral.
“I’m going to finish it for him. I’m going to finish this castle and make it one of my capitals. I think that a world such as this will need more than one point of governance. Hearst Castle is impressive but not nearly large enough. Splitting the governance between multiple locations will allow them to remain impressive, yet functional.”
Eva listened intently, hoping her expression continued to encourage him to reveal more details of his plans.
“We can’t spend the night here, unfortunately, until significant work is done. There is only one bedroom and while that’s enough for us,” he leered at her, “my men would have to sleep on the floor. And there are no warm showers at the moment.” He laughed at his own comment and Eva laughed with him, putting her hand on his arm. “But the next time you see this palace, it will be finished, my dear.”
“When will that be?”
He looked at her seriously.
“It will take years. But they will feel just like a snap of the finger.” He demonstrated.
Legitimately confused now, and feeling a sense of concern, Eva said, “I don’t understand.”
He turned to face her completely, putting both of his hands on her arms and looking in her eyes.
“My dear, I want you to come to Hrwang with me.”
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