Free Shadows Will Fall by Trey Garrison

gateway to the inner courtyard. Cables ran from the outer towers to the main gate tower, from which lights were strung.
    In the middle of the walkway, resting on the ground and attached to the machinery by dozens of thick cables and wires, was a glowing orb at least six feet in diameter. A ladder led to a small dais atop the orb. It was where Übel would prime the device with the Spear of Destiny by inserting it into the cradle adjacent to the orb.
    At the designated moment, the maroon-clad Death’s Head Legion—994 strong—marched into the courtyard in a formation of ten squads. When the column leaders were within the ring formed by the torch-bearing storm troopers, they split, five squads to the left and five to the right, encircling the huge orb. They came to a halt when they met up on the far side. On the command “Paradeaufstellung!” they did a right or left face, so that they all faced the orb in a circular formation, five men deep.
    The Death’s Head Legion was ready. They were to be born again as the Draugrkommando Legion.
    Dr. Übel’s lab technicians had administered all the proper injections prior to the ceremony. The torch-bearing SS men marched in formation away from the orb, taking up positions along the eastern and western walls of the outer courtyard. It would all be highly dramatic on film, Hoffstetter thought. He’d been given careful instruction from Josef Goebbels and Leni Reifenstahl on how to provide the proper look for posterity.
    Hoffstetter stepped to the front of the stage to address those assembled. Deitel provided translation for the other prisoners.
    â€œMen of the Death’s Head Legion! Because of your bravery and service, you have been chosen for the honor of becoming the vanguard of the Reich. You are being made into the most perfect soldiers who ever existed, finally worthy of our great Führer and the ideals of national socialism. What you do today will ensure the future for all Germans, so that our children and our grandchildren can grow up in a world without lawlessness, chaos, and abusive liberties that corrode the collective spirit of mankind’s greatest people. Your names will be remembered for all times as the pioneers, heroes who will liberate the world from the tyranny and the false promise of freedom, where men are allowed to suffer and fail. We of the SS and the Reich salute you! For Germany! For the Führer!”
    He threw out his arm in a salute. Every man of the Death’s Head Legion saluted back.
    â€œAdolf Hitler! Sieg heil! Sieg heil! Sieg heil!”
    A s the crow would fly, Rucker was only five miles from Poenari Citadel. But given the mountain passes and valleys, he’d actually traveled closer to twenty miles without rest.
    And he was lugging a twenty-pound suitcase.
    Granted, he had fashioned the suitcase wireless radio into a backpack of sorts. But still, it was a hard march. Too hard.
    He regretted what he had to do the day before. Knowing the nachtmenn would stay on his trail until they were called off, and knowing he’d never get the Storch aloft before the storm troopers shot it down with small-arms fire, he’d rigged the plane for an automatic take-off. He figured it would crash either in the valley below or the lake if it wasn’t shot down. Either way, the krauts would assume he was dead and call off their search.
    But that meant he had to cover the distance away from the castle on foot before he could send his wireless message to Mama Bear, their code name for Chuy. It had taken him the better part of a day.
    The response from Mama Bear was more than he could have hoped for, and more than he would have ever expected. Mama Bear was bringing the Big Bad Wolf to the party. Now he had to get back to the castle to send up the signal to Chuy on where to drop the package, and time was ticking. He had to be back in just three hours, which was near impossible, given the steep, winding, mountainous