Free The Last Survivor (A Wilde/Chase Short Story) by Andy McDermott Page B

to brace himself, but the Nazi had sheer size on his side, slamming him back towards the starboard door. It had been forced shut by the slipstream but hadn’t latched, banging against the rear frame.
    The Yorkshireman changed tack, balling a fist and driving it with punishing force into the blond man’s stomach. Kroll grimaced, breath hissing between his teeth as Eddie pounded his other fist home, but the attacks didn’t stop him. The Nazi grabbed his opponent’s throat with one hand – and swept the empty gun at his face with the other.
    Eddie managed to bring up one arm to deflect the blow, but the weapon still caught him a painful crack to the forehead. ‘That
hurt
, you Nazi shithead!’ he growled, striking back with a vicious uppercut to Kroll’s jaw. Enamel splintered, tearing into flesh. The younger man spat blood from his lacerated gums.
    But he maintained his hold on Eddie’s neck. The gun lashed down again—
    Eddie caught his wrist, arresting the blow inches from his head. He sent another punch at Kroll’s chin. This time his adversary saw it coming and jerked away quickly enough to receive only a glancing blow. The Englishman tried to jab at his face, but the Nazi had a longer reach, straightening his arm and pushing down harder on his opponent’s windpipe. Eddie tried to draw in a breath, but managed only a choked rasp.
    Kroll squeezed harder, grinning psychotically as the other man delivered ineffectual blows to his shoulders and upper chest. ‘You thought you had killed us all,
Engländer
? You thought you had destroyed the New Reich?’ The grin twisted into a leer. ‘As long as one of us remains alive, the legacy of Adolf Hitler will never die!’
    Choking, Eddie twisted beneath him – and through the window saw something that made his eyes widen in shock.
    Kroll caught his change of expression and realised it was not his doing. He looked around – and his own eyes bugged. ‘
Scheiße!
’
    The LongRanger was on a collision course with the Statue of Liberty.
    The Nazi leapt upright, leaving Eddie gasping, and thrust an arm through the gap by the front seat’s headrest. His fingers grasped at the cyclic joystick between the unconscious pilot’s knees, but it was just beyond his reach. The statue loomed ever closer—
    Kroll grabbed instead at the collective lever between the front seats, managing to clamp his fingers around its base. He hauled it upwards, using sheer brute force to overcome the friction lock that kept it from moving of its own accord. The pitch of the rotor blades changed to provide more lift … and the helicopter started to climb.
    Not quickly enough. The plinth dropped out of sight beneath the instrument panel, followed by the tablet in the statue’s left arm, but her head grew still larger in the windscreen—
    Kroll drove himself deeper into the narrow gap – and yanked the collective up with all his strength.
    The LongRanger lurched as the rotor blades slammed to their maximum pitch. The statue’s head plunged away beneath the cockpit, the centremost spike of its crown whooshing between the skids as the aircraft ascended.
    The pilot slumped back against the headrest, then flopped to one side with a faint moan, knocking off his headphones. One of his feet pushed down on an anti-torque pedal. The helicopter turned sharply to starboard as more power went to the tail rotor, rising into a spiral above the statue.
    Kroll let out a gasp of relief. He released the collective and leaned back—
    Someone whistled behind him.
    He turned – to take a cartilage-crushing punch to his face.
    ‘Ay up!’ Eddie snarled, shaking the Nazi’s blood off his knuckles before delivering another brutal blow to his crushed nose. ‘You want Hitler – I’ll just
hit yer
! Okay, that was bad,’ he added as he kneed the other man in the groin. ‘But if you love that one-bollocked fuckwit so much,’ he grabbed the reeling Kroll, ‘you should go and meet him in person!’
    He shoved him