The Mistery of Belicena Villca
I was beginning to understand . – The plan is elementary ; only the kamikaze is needed to carry it out --he said smiling . I nodded , implying that I would play the role of suicide pilot . – Then there is nothing more to talk about . You take an escort motorcycle , which are now completely useless , and you rush down the great avenue , cross the Brandenburg Gate , and enter the Thiergarten ; with luck , in ten minutes you ' ll be on Gregorstrasse . Of course , you must take the Thiergarten at great speed , more than a hundred km . per hour , so the Russians can ' t fine tune the aim . Meanwhile , we will entertain them with fire at will . Do you agree ?
– Absolutely agree . The plan is truly suicidal , but the only one that gives me some chance , --I accepted .
– You have done well to keep that Russian suit : it ' s an officer ' s . It can be useful to you later on , since where you are going there are not Germans but Russians . And you speak the language of the subhumans , right ?
I nodded . I no longer felt like talking or joking ; I only longed to go on the suicidal adventure . I understood that I was putting all at stake and just wanted to leave . Otto Meyer understood it that way but he did not stop making jokes until the end . – Goodbye Comrade --he said smiling-- , the next time we meet you will take me for a ride in a sidecar . Ha , ha , ha . – And you in a carousel panzer . Ha , ha , ha .
In the end we both laughed , and said goodbye forever too .
Chapter XLII
I crossed the main avenue of the Thiergarten reclined on a bolide that was running at over a hundred kilometers per hour , dodging with instant reflexes thousands of potholes of what looked like a lunar landscape . The German batteries , alerted by Otto Meyer , opened fire pretending to try to hit me , which puzzled the Russians and led them to concentrate fire on them , allowing me to get away .
Ten minutes later I entered the Gipfelstadt and circulated at regular speed down Gregorstrasse . I stopped in front of 239 , lifted up my goggles , and looked on both sides of the street : not a soul . But the most curious was that , contrary to the other blocks , which had suffered the devastating bombing attack , the one that contained Konrad Tarstein ' s house was intact , as if the war hadn ' t happened there . Again , like a Rite a thousand times repeated , I struck , the moldy ring spinning in the bronze fist . – Yes ? Tarstein ' s shrill voice was heard through a crack in the old door . – I am Kurt von Sübermann ; I mean , Lupus , I ' m Lupus , Comrade Unicornis . The door opened and Tarstein , at the height of serenity , repeated once more . – Come in , I was expecting you . It ' s 4:00 p . m . You arrive just right for a cup of tea , if it does not affect you to advance an hour the English time ? --he asked ironically .
– No , no . A tea will be fine . You don ' t know what I ' ve had to go through to get here : I literally went through a gorge of heavy ammunition . In those instants I didn ' t know if I was going to get here ; and I didn ' t know what I was going to find either here . You can imagine my surprise to see that you have not departed from your usual habits .
– My dear Lupus , it is not good for health that an old man like Me is changing his way of life at this point --he explained with renewed irony-- . Come on , let ' s go to the kitchen and have that tea , and forget about what ' s going on outside for a long while . I left everything on that sofa , except the saddlebag containing the Stone of Genghis Khan . Because that ' s what you have come for , right ? You have risked life one and a thousand times to comply with the Black Order : you are admirable Kurt von Sübermann , a Knight worthy of the Führer , an Initiate worthy of the Gods .
As so many times before , I walked into the modern kitchen and sat before a small table covered with a fine white linen tablecloth . Tarstein prepared the infusion in a Shanghai porcelain teapot and filled the cups with tea from the same origin . While I savored it , calmer now , I watched Tarstein examine the Stone of Genghis Khan . He seemed moved , which was unusual for him . Finally he asked :
– Do you know what this is ? The proof that Humanity has an opportunity , the concrete testimony that the Gods of the Spirit agreed to deal with the Great Initiates who were trying to make the Universal Empire a reality . If they had triumphed in the thirteenth century , the History of Humanity would be very different and the Enemy would not have had the possibility of constituting the Universal Synarchy in the fourteenth century : for example , it would not have been necessary for Philip the Fair
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