The two had gone back to her motel room and Alf was trying to calm Frank, who was raging like a mad bull.
“I`m going to beat the shit out of this guy!”, clamored the young man.
“Start thinking, Frank! We need another strategy!”, said Bäumer.
”That bastard is a traitor! He is working for the GSA. I gonna kill him!”
“Now stop this shit! Get a grip! We must keep a cool head!”, meant Alf, touching Frank`s shoulder.
Kohlhaas growled quietly and muttered some curses. Alf suddenly came to him and said: “We lie in wait and shadow Viktor. Perhaps we will find out something.”
“Shadow him? I gonna cut his treacherous throat!”, hissed Frank.
”Yes, run around, scream and shoot – idiot!”, replied Alf.
They finally left the motel and positioned themselves in a doorway near Viktor`s apartment block. Several times, Bäumer had to stop his hot-blooded friend who wanted to kick in the entrance door and attack the Russian. Both men waited until the evening and were freezing. But Viktor did not show up.
On the next day, they had more luck. The Russian came out of his house around noon and the two men followed him quietly through some streets. Eventually, Viktor stopped and went into another apartment block. Frank and Alfred scurried after him and tried to keep him in sight.
An elderly woman, walking with crutches, let him into her apartment. The young man welcomed her warmly and finally went inside. Frank and Alf stalked after him and listened at the door.
“It`s his mother. He has used the word “Matj”, hasn`t he?”, whispered Kohlhaas.
They hid in a dark corner in the hallway. After about an hour, Viktor left the apartment again. The old woman hobbled after him, still chatting loudly in Russian. Then Viktor walked down to the entrance of the house. Bäumer had to retain his friend once more.
When they were back in the motel, Frank walked nervously through the room and Alf looked at him, shaking his head. “And now?”
“Great! Now we know, where Viktor`s mother lives!”, growled Kohlhaas. “We should grab that guy and have another smalltalk. I swear, I will make him talk!”
“Use your brain, Frank!”, moaned Bäumer and sat down on his bed.
“What next?”, grumbled Frank.
“I have a better idea. Mrs. Wilden has given you Viktor`s phone number, right?”
“Yes, she has! So what?”
“We`ll do another thing! It is mean, but we are dealing here with the GSA and therefore we also have to be nasty!”
Frank frowned. “What do you mean?”
“I`ll explain it to you...”, said Alf.
Meanwhile, they were already sitting and waiting in the basement of the apartment building since hours. It was getting dark outside.
“What time is it?”, whispered Frank.
“It`s 21.34 o`clock...”, answered Bäumer.
“Okay, let`s go!”
They hurried upstairs and looked around nervously, then they crept over the hallway of the third floor. Frank listened at the door of Viktor`s mother. Inside, they heard the noise of a TV. Kohlhaas knocked on the door and looked at Alf, while a quiet rumbling came out of the apartment.
“Kto sdjes?”, asked the old woman.
Frank cleared his throat and tried to sound friendly. He explained in a few words, that he was a friend of Viktor and was searching for him. For half a minute the two men heard no sound, then the door was opened and a kind, old lady looked out. “Viktor nje domoi!”
She was interrupted in the next second. Alf came from the side, pushed her back into the apartment at full tilt, and pressed his hand on her mouth. Frank closed the door and held his gun under the nose of the terrified woman. She started to moan anxiously, while Alf dragged her into the living room and told her to be quiet. Shortly afterwards, Frank dialed Viktor`s phone number and waited.
„Da! Sdjes Viktor!“
„Hello! It´s me! Frank Kohlhaas from Ivas!“
„Hey, Frank! What`s up?“
„Tell me where Julia is, Viktor! Where did the GSA men bring her?”, growled Frank into the phone.
“What GSA men?”, asked Viktor with surprise.
„Don`t tell me shit, Viktor! I know, that Julia has visited you!”
“What? She has never been here!”, answered the young man at the other end of the line.
„Viktor, we know she has visited you. Tell me now, where she is!”, barked Frank into the receiver.
“I don`t know, what you want, idiot! Fuck you!”, nagged Viktor and replaced.
Frank called him again and this time the Russian was really angry.
„What the fuck do you want from me, Frank?”
Kohlhaas was fuming with rage. „Do you hear that?“
“Pomogai me, Viktor! Paschalusta!”, wailed the old woman, when Alf held the phone in front of her mouth.
„What the hell...?“, stammered Viktor.
„We got your mother! Tell me where Julia is, or we will kill her! This is no fucking joke!”, threatened Frank.
Viktor seemed to be shocked and whispered something in Russian. Then he was silent.
„If you hurt her, I will kill you, Frank!“, he yelled then.
Frank stayed calm and answered: „Okay, we make a deal. We know, that you are a traitor. But I give a shit on that. Just tell me, where the GSA has brought Julia. Then we let your mother go!”
Alf finally took the phone and gave it to the old woman who begged her son for help, moaning and crying all the time. Then Frank continued to talk with Viktor again und stressed, that he and Alf would immediately kill his mother, if he did not cooperate.
Suddenly the Russian started to wail too and told him, that the GSA had forced him to become an informer.
„They have forced you to do it?“, said Frank. “I don`t believe a word. But I don`t care about that. You must live with it, not me. Now tell me where Julia is!”
Viktor explained him that the GSA men had brought Wilden`s daugther to a hotel in the south of the city. A few minutes later, Kohlhaas had all the necessary informations to strike off.
„If you lie to me, call the police or tell someone anything, Alf will kill your mother!“, hissed Frank into the receiver, put back and left the apartment
While Bäumer was taking care of Viktor`s mother and tried to calm the crying old woman somehow, Frank was on his way to the southern part of Grodno. A taxi brought him to the hotel and he got out of the car in a narrow side street. Then he ran through some alleys and finally came to a large, dark building.
”Room 32, Floor 5...”, he whispered under his breath and reached for the weapon under his jacket. Frank put on a black baseball cap, trying to hide his face as best he could, and went inside.
A young woman at the reception briefly smiled at him and asked something in Russian, but Kohlhaas just nodded and tried to smile too. Finally, he ran up the staircase. Meanwhile, it was 23.15 o`clock. An old man, dragging some cases down, met him on the stairs. Frank murmured a silent greeting and peered down the dimly lit corridor of the 5th floor.
Nobody seemed to be here. Somewhere behind the door next to him he heard a television. Kohlhaas remained pensive for a few minutes, standing in a dark corner.
“It must go quickly now!”, he said to himself and screwed a silencer on his gun. A minute later, he crept to the door of room 32 and took a deep breath. The adrenaline shot into his head and his heart started to pound wildly. The young man closed his eyes, looked around for a last time and took aim at the door lock.
“Pffft! Pffft!”
Little splinters of wood flew around and he gained access to the unlit room with a powerful kick.
“Kto sdjes?”, he heard out of a corner and a confused man in a brown leather jacket leapt out of the darkness. Frank shot him directly in the head and jumped forward. In the corner of his eye, he could see Julia who had been bound to a chair, staring at him with wide open eyes.
“Frank!”, she yelled.
“Wait!”
<
br /> ”Frank! Behind you!”
Kohlhaas turned around in a flash and recognized another man, coming out of the small shower room next to him. The GSA agent pulled a gun and tried to take aim at him with a terrified look. Frank stepped to the side and fired wildly around. A bullet hit his opponent in the shoulder and the man staggered backwards, screaming in pain. Frank continued to shoot at him until the GSA man slid down the bloodstained wall.
“There`s another one! He is out to fetch cigarettes and will come back in the next minutes. I can`t believe that you...”, stammered Julia excitedly.
“We must take to our heels!”, gasped Kohlhaas, cutting the fetters with his knife and dragging her out of the hotel room.
They hurried down the stairs and ran past some startled hotel guests. Then they disappeared in the dark streets of Grodno, while Frank called Bäumer immediately.
Alf apologized to Viktor`s mother for the inconveniences and finally left her alone. During the night, Frank and Julia hid in a vacant building and met him in the early morning hours.
They stole a car and drove back to Kaunas in Lithuania. Here, Steffen de Vries picked them up with his plane and brought them safely back to their snowbound home village.
Thorsten Wilden and his wife could not believe it. They were besides themselves with joy and totally upset, when they held their only child in their arms again. Frank had never seen Wilden that happy and joyful before. He was crying like a little child and could hardly put his gratitude into words.
Kohlhaas was once again the great hero for all, and the whole village paid homage to him - so much, that Frank was almost embarrassed at times. Julia seemed to idolize him now and he could rightly claim, that he had finally won her heart with this rescue mission. It was a strange feeling. Now he had conquered the pretty woman, but he still remained restrained and uncertain. The praise, coming from all sides, and Julia`s adoring glances, made him feel more confused than inspired. So he avoided to meet Wilden`s daughter in the following days, and did not really know why.
“Maybe I`m only suitable for combat. Peace and love are still foreign to me”, he said to himself.
The month had come to an end. Cold and hunger were tormenting the people of Belarus like never before, while chaos and anarchy were spreading at breakneck speed in the big cities. Food stores were stormed by hungry crowds and sometimes the looters slayed each other for the last piece of bread. Artur Tschistokjow finally decided, that the time was ripe to risk everything.
On 01.02.2036, he gave the order to attack the government of the sub-sector “Belarus-Baltic”, what should end with the overthrow in Minsk. On the following morning, his armed units began to form big combat groups and officially took over the most small towns of the country. The majority of police stations was occupied without bloodshed and the officers were disarmed. Often the Belarusian policemen even went over to the Rus.
Meanwhile, the leaders of the freedom movement mustered their supporters and organized protest marches and rallies, which propagated Artur Tschistokjow`s takeover. Administration buildings, press agencies, radio and broadcasting stations were captured at first in the smaller towns and cities.
Where the servants of the World Government tried to oppose, the rebels put them down with brute resoluteness, and showed that they were ready for anything now. In some small towns, even the local police helped the Rus to oust the political opponents. At the same time, the big cities of Belarus were shaken by riots and strikes. Moreover, hundreds of thousands of workers had laid down their work and banded together, either spontaneously or under the direct guidance of members of the freedom movement.
However, Artur Tschistokjow put his focus on Minsk. If it would fail to conquer the capital and to force Medschenko to resign, then the successes in the smaller cities would be effectless in the long term.
Tschistokjow finally sent his guardsmen units to Minsk and his men gathered in the vicinity of the capital. Countless Belarusians joined the great march, in spite of the freezing cold, and were now waiting for the signal to advance.
Frank commanded a combat group of over 3000 men, who had gathered in Zdanovicy. Alf remained steadfastly at his side - as always.
After an uncomfortable night of hungering and freezing, the guardsmen units started to move towards Minsk, in the gray of dawn of 04.02.2036. Meanwhile, Medschenko`s last loyal helpers, the GCF occupation troops and some police squads, had sealed off the capital and especially the government district. All in all, it were almost 15000 soldiers, and the policemen, who had not changed sides yet.
Thousands of rebels were marching across closed highways and access roads. They came by car, by foot, with trucks or even occupied trains. Many of them were equipped with modern firearms, others had just axes, iron bars or clubs.
On Wilden`s advice, Artur Tschistokjow had commanded his men to occupy some strategically important places, which were responsible for the water and electricity supply of the capital. Here, it came to the first firefights of the day, against GCF soldiers and policemen. Slowly the sun rose on the horizon, but just a few of his rays came through the thick, gray cloud cover. It was incredibly cold and lightly snowing. The merciless frost had tormented the men during the whole night. The most of them had not eaten something, because the rations were largely depleted. But Kohlhaas ignored his stomach growling as best he could.
The Belarusian troopers started to sing a song and some of them held Russia or dragon head flags in their frozen hands. Frank marched at the head of the column. Alf walked next to him and gave him a tired smile.
“I suggest to make the next revolution in the summer months!”, joked the loyal companion. Frank just nodded and rolled his eyes.
From afar, he could see the outlines of Minsk in the twilight of the morning. The capital was still a fair way off. The marching column moved forward on a broad asphalt street. Several cars had been parked on the roadside and occasionally some people waved at them. Others joined the gray uniformed crowd and started to sing too.
Three big trucks drove past them. It were a few dozen Rus, who cheered loudly, holding their flags out the windows. On one of the cars was a stationary machine gun and a group of freezing men had crouched around it.
After an hour, they had reached the outskirts of Minsk. It was snowing heavily now, and some of the Russians started to curse. As they moved through a prefab neighborhood, hundreds of citizens joined the marching column and within a short time about 2000 people followed the guardsmen.
“If it goes belly-up today...”, worried Frank.
“We must conquer this city. There is no more turning back now!”, said Alf with stoic composure.
Shortly afterwards, Frank stopped the column and called Artur. Meanwhile, more and more people were joining the growing crowd, cheering and screaming loudly.
“Where are you now?”, asked Frank.
“I`m in the south of Minsk. We are still waiting for some other groups”, answered Tschistokjow.
“How many are you?”
“Maybe about 30000 people!”
“That many? Sounds good!”
“It`s still morning, Frank. Many thousands of people will still come. Everywhere are followers of me!”
After the phone call Frank felt a bit more confident. He yelled some instructions and the column continued to move forward.
”Today Tschistokjow will liberate our country!”, chanted the crowd and still more people came out of their houses.
“The meeting point is in front of the security zone, near the presidential palace in the inner city. Artur says, that a great number of our men is still on its way”, said Kohlhaas.
Now the citizens brought the rebels some food. Frank ordered a short rest, then they marched on. The guardsmen had still some kilometers to walk and it was exhausting and arduous, apart from the growing tension that slowly took over the minds of the men.
The column marched up a shopping street, crossed another prefab neighborhood and stopped at a large square, wher
e it was awaited by thousands of screaming people. It took about two hours until they had finally reached the inner city. Meanwhile, Minsk was slowly awaking, while men and women were pouring to the streets, yelling, singing - and willing to end Medschenko`s reign today.
When Frank and his men arrived at the presidental palace, they came upon a giant crowd. Frank had never seen that many people in his whole life. It were tens of thousands.
“It`s 11.00 o`clock now. This looks encouraging!”, said Frank fascinated.
“Somewhere in this mass must be Wilden and the others”, returned Alf.
“Artur has told me, that the rally will start at 13.00 clock. We still have two hours.”
Countless men and women were clogging the streets of the inner city of Minsk to the last corner. In the meantime, the GCF soldiers had planted themselves around the presidential palace and in some outlying districts. They were now facing not only the ordinary Belarusians, but also the renegade policemen, who had come in their uniforms to support Tschistokjow`s rebellion.
When the Russian rebel leader finally started his speech at 13.00 o`clock, he stood in front of more than 400000 people.
”How may he feel now?”, thought Kohlhaas and held his breath.
The GCF soldiers behaved quietly at first, and tried to encircle the huge mass as good as possible. Thunderous applause and chants let the asphalt shake, countless flags were waved, while Tschistokjow stared at the boiling mass in front of him. Then it began.
„Belarusians, compatriots!
Today, I have come to Minsk to disempower the traitor Medschenko and his servants. And you will help me to end his tyranny!”
The crowd screamed and bawled. Artur Tschistokjow went on with his ardent speech and accused the government with cutting words. He demanded, that the GCF soldiers should lay down their weapons immediately, to give him access to the presidental palace.
“At the end of this day, our country will finally be free!”, he shouted into the microphone.
The protesters screamed even louder, while more and more people came from everywhere to see Tschistokjow. Then the fanatic revolutionary gave the sub-governor an ultimatum to resign, till 15.00 o`clock.
“Give me the power now, Mr. Medschenko! Otherwise, the enslaved people of Belarus will storm your residence to get their freedom! Don`t challenge us anymore. Your time is over, Mr. Medschenko!“, called Tschistokjow at the top of his lungs.
„Tanks!”, Alf pointed at some of the scary vehicles which were coming toward the crowd from afar.
“At 14.30 o`clock, our unit will attack the GCF soldiers in the restricted area at the east side of the palace, got it?”, said Frank.
Kohlhaas called the leaders of the guardsmen squads together. They should wait for his sign, apart from the crowd.
”We have some bazookas, if tanks or Skydragons appear”, he explained.
“What`s about Peter Ulljewski?”
“He leads the other assault force that will attack the palace from the west. The rest comes from the front. If Medschenko doesn`t give up, we will have no other choice than attacking the GCF troops.”
After Frank had uttered these words, he felt the anxiety growing inside him. The young man became aware of the fact that everything had to go smoothly today, otherwise the revolt would fail in the long term.
”We`ll put down these rats – they or us!”, hissed Alf and clenched his fist. Then he went to the troopers, in order to give them further instructions.
While Artur brought the mass into a revolutionary frenzy and preached about the coming age of freedom and justice, the minutes passed without mercy. Nobody could tell anymore, how many people had meanwhile gathered around the security zone. During the last hour more and more had come, and many of them had armed themselves with everything they could grab. A bloodless victory in today`s fight seemed to become increasingly unlikely.
As the clock showed 14.30, Frank, Alfred and 3000 armed guardsmen moved in a wide arc towards the eastern area of the presidental palace.
From a distance, they could hear Artur Tschistokjow`s angry voice, heating up the crowd which responded with loud cheers and screams. When Frank and his troopers moved through a side street, they came upon about 200 police officers, who raised their hands up and lay down their weapons. Frank ordered 50 of his men to guard them, while the rest of the unit marched forward. Now, his watch showed him that the ultimatum had expired.
”Mr. Medschenko! We all hope, that you are sensible enough to come out of the presidential palace now, to give me the rule over Belarus. I`ll give you another quarter of an hour. Resign now and this day will end without bloodshed. I also promise to spare you, though you do not deserve it!”, shouted Tschistokjow defiantly.
But even these minutes passed without any reaction of Medschenko. The sub-governor had already escaped from Minsk two days ago, and had left it to the GCF and the police to protect the presidential palace. Meanwhile, he was in Moscow to seek asylum at his fellows.
”The time is up! Now, the people of Belarus will take their freedom by force!”, heard Frank the leader of the Rus call in the background. The crowd roared and shots were fired. It became bloody.
“Follow me!”, shouted Frank and waved his men nearer. They ran forward and started to fire immediately, while the first GCF soldiers became visible behind a barricade.
The rebels attacked them with a loud scream and some hand grenades detonated. Frank and Alf jumped behind a car. The numerically superior Russians swarmed out and charged the GCF soldiers behind the barricades from two sides. Frank crawled to a battered car, while he heard bullets hitting the sheet of the vehicle.
Bäumer hurled a hand grenade and ripped a hole into the barricade in front of him. Some GCF soldiers ran screaming out of a cloud of smoke.
With a loud warcry the troopers in the gray shirts rushed forward, fired at their enemies and slaughtered them in a brutal shooting and stabbing. One of the rebels even had a flamethrower on his back and unleashed a fiery jet on the soldiers behind the cover.
“They`re trying to backtrack towards the palace!”, shouted Frank and shot a GCF soldier in the back.
Kohlhaas looked around. A few dozen rebels were dead or wounded. The rest rushed forward, screaming loudly. Suddenly a heavy machine gun salvo pounded through the mass of the charging guardsmen.
“Damn! Four of these tanks!”, shouted Alf and hit the dirt.
The rolling monsters came from behind the presidential palace and shot at everyone in their way, while Frank jumped like a cat behind a barricade. One of the tanks was destroyed by a bazooka, but the other vehicles unwaveringly rolled forward, mowing down a group of guardsmen.
“Who has anti-tank mines?”, yelled Frank at some Russians.
The young men anxiously shrugged their shoulders. Kohlhaas dragged one of them behind the barrier and rummaged his backpack.
“Look! This is an anti-tank mine!”, he hissed and held a limpet mine under the nose of the Russian.
Another armored vehicle detonated a few meters away from him, after another bazooka hit. Nevertheless, more and more guardsmen tried to escape from the dreaded vehicles. Frank jumped behind one of the armored beasts and heard a machine gun salvo sweeping over his head. He fixed the mine at the rear part of the tank, which exploded shortly thereafter with a loud bang.
Then the bazookas destroyed also the last enemy vehicle. They had finally taken the eastern part of the security zone.
Shortly afterwards, the rebels occupied the barricades, the GCF soldiers had built before. Now they had even conquered some heavy machine guns. During the next hour, they stopped a counterattack of the GCF and finally drove the enemy back towards the palace.
While Frank and his comrades struggled through the curtian fire of the defenders, Peter Ulljewski`s men, at the opposite side, were in a bloody firefight too. In the meantime, the large crowd tried to storm the presidential palace from the front. Tens of thousands of roaring, frenzied Belarusians clashed against
the GCF soldiers in front of the huge building, while hundreds of men and women died in a murderous hail of bullets.
It was a slaughter. Within minutes, the first attackers fell down, screaming, bleeding and dying, while the onrushing crowd behind them was in such a frenzy, that they could not be stopped anymore.
The greatest part of the Belarusian policemen, who had followed the commands of the sub-governor so far, was seized by panic in the face of this carnage and fled or surrendered. Many of them were lynched by the raging citizens or shot down by Tschistokjow`s guardsmen. Finally, the remaining GCF soldiers ran back into the palace or fled too.
Frank gave his men the order to get through the side entrance of the huge building and the rebels stormed forward with a loud war cry. Some GCF soldiers fired out the windows in panic, and killed a lot of charging troopers.
”Give it to me!”, yelled Alf, pulled a bazooka out of a guardsman`s hand and fired a thunderous shot at the front window. A deafening bang followed and concrete parts rained down on the heads of the men, while other guardsmen attacked the GCF soldiers in the building with grenade launchers.
Finally the Rus stormed the eastern part of the palace and mowed down everyone in their way with furious bursts. Frank jumped over the dead body of a comrade, who was riddled with bullets, and threw a hand grenade into a side room. After a deafening detonation, three heavily wounded GCF soldiers staggered out of a cloud of smoke, tumbling directly in front of the muzzle of Kohlhaas` weapon.
He shot them down and looked grimly around to seek further enemies. Now he heard shots and screams, coming from the entrance of the presidental palace, while his guardsmen struggled through the chaos, trying to reach the next corridor.
Meanwhile, the angry crowd streamed through the magnificent entrance hall of the building and overpowered a group of enemy soldiers. Then they smashed everything around them to pieces in their unbridled fury.
Artur Tschistkjow stared at scenario in front of him. Dozens of dead and wounded men were lying everywhere in the hall. Suddenly, a soldier at the end of the ornate staircase, which led to the upper floor, was waving a white flag.
”Okay! We give up!”, he shouted.
Some armed troopers pointed their guns at him, but Artur held them back.
”Everyone of you, who stops fighting now, will not be killed!”, replied Tschistokjow.
The GCF soldier and a great number of his comrades finally came down the stairs and took the opportunity to surrender. Many raging citizens spat at them or tried to beat the soldiers, and the guardsmen had a lot of problems to stop the angry crowd from lynching the hated occupiers.
Frank and the survivors of his unit rushed into the hall and finally found Tschistokjow. The blond man smiled and embraced Kohlhaas with tears in his eyes.
“We have done it!”, he gasped wearily.
”Yes, the presidential palace is taken!”, yelled Frank and raised his fists. The people around him cheered in a flush of victory.
Artur Tschistokjow let the surviving GCF soldiers herd together and guard by his troopers. Then he walked up the stairs and walked down a long corridor, adorned with wall hangings and old paintings, right to the office of the sub-governor. His men followed him and started to sing the hymn of the freedom movement. Now Tschistokjow took a dragon head flag from one of his guardsmen, opened the window and waved it in front of the huge screaming crowd below him. He enjoyed this moving moment and closed his eyes. Tens of thousands of men and women were shouting his name – again and again.
Frank and Alf stood beside him and looked at the endless sea of people, covering the whole inner city of Minsk. Shortly thereafter, Wilden, who had a laceration on his forehead, entered the room too. The gray haired village boss was weeping for joy, and for a short moment he looked like a happy, young man again.
Dawn of Hope