The legacy of the dark blood

Chapter 74

Meeting the commander

With the last words of Anika's mother, an absolute silence lasted for almost a minute in which the song of birds was barely distinguishable. Liz was already aware of the event that was labeled as the Henoth massacre, but she did not know, however, that more than the Holzmanns' anger, the monstrous event responded to an unbridled desire to find the one they were looking for. The little girl's personality was surely related to everything she had to live through; from the moment she met her, Liz could tell that she took the death of others in a natural way, without being disturbed by it.

"Poor child," said Steffi in a soothing voice, Liz could not find the words to express what she felt.

"That's right," Judith reaffirmed with a sigh, "Anneliese's relics give the Holzmanns enough power to perform a ritual as such, Anika is the last key piece for them. For now, she is safe with us, however, as long as Herr Holzmann and his family are still here, peace will never reign again in this place. We have already given you many tools, we must put an end to this nightmare," Judith's eyes were lost in the background of the place, "I see that your partner is coming back," indeed, behind them they found Andreas, something in his face made it clear that what he had to communicate would not be to the liking of the agents.

"Come with me," he asked with a serious voice to his colleagues of the institution and passed to Liz and Jake, "you too, this is important," to finish, he turned to Judith, "Haben Sie vielen Dank, Frau Melzer (Thank you very much, Miss Melzer)".

"Bitteschön (You're welcome)," she replied.

The group followed Andreas to a camp that the German officers had set up inside the perimeter dividing the asylum from the bowels of the forest of damnation. There were few officers left after Herr Holzmann's wrath had been unleashed on them. Waiting for them near a table was one of them, older, gray-haired, somewhat square-faced and bespectacled. Liz and Jake did not recognize him, although the other officers did not hesitate to line up once they saw him approaching.

"Willkommen meine Damen und Herren," said the man with a serious voice and reviewing a form, with this, he spoke aloud the last names of the officers with an authoritative tone, they responded with a "Bin Dabei", Liz could only get the names of those who knew her: Berger, Deisler, Fritz, Lenz. When he finished with the list, he looked at the American agents, they did not know how to react.

„Sind das die Amerikaner, von denen Sie mir erzählt haben Leutnant Berger (Are those the Americans you told me about, Lieutenant Berger?" the man asked Andreas.

"Ja, Herr Oberst (Yes, commander)," he replied.

The commander watched the American agents for a few seconds; without uttering a word, he asked them to follow him into the tent, but not before addressing Nick as well.

„Deisler, du kommst auch mit, alle anderen, weiter mit ihrer Arbeit! (Deisler, you're coming too, everyone else, get on with your work!)".

Nick looked with some confusion and a frown at his companions, who ignored what was going on and scattered.

The American agents met with the commander, behind them came Nick and Andreas.

"Very well gentlemen," said the high commander finally speaking in English, "first of all I introduce myself, although I think you have already heard about me, I am Commander Jakob Eberhard and since the misfortune of Captain Bunde I assumed full command of this mission, let's go by steps, identifications," Liz and Jake answered showing their credentials, "Very well, Miss Sharrow, Mr. Abu-Jamal. As you know we never received any notification of your presence in this area and as far as I can see Captain Bunde added you to our team by skipping all the relevant formalities and sharing our information with you".

"Yes, commander," Andreas interrupted looking perplexed, "as I told you, we have lost a lot of people, we were thinking only of our own good when we incorporated them".

"I can certainly understand that, Berger!" he repeated raising his voice "but I can't accept that you operate or make decisions without consulting me first" the tone that commander Eberhard used when addressing the agents was the demonstration that everything Liz had heard about him was true "even so" he said turning to Liz and Jake "I have to acknowledge that your collaboration to get rid of the monster that killed captain Bunde and many of my agents, and for the liberation of the hostages in the concentration camp was crucial" Jake asked for the floor raising his hand, the officer granted him the request

"That's right, Mr. Commander Eberhard. Likewise, I am now in charge of this operation in our institution and we can collaborate with many of our best agents, if you allow us to do so".

"I could consider your offer, Mr. Abu-Jamal," Eberhard repeated, "but there are also some things that make me worry. For starters," he pointed his finger at Liz, "we know about Agent Sharrow's condition, we can't let what happened with Chris happen again".

"I'm getting over this, sir," Liz defended herself.

"Yes, I know," the commander bellowed, "but that's no longer the most important issue. We questioned Mark Warren when we brought him here, the man will answer for his crimes before the European Commission and surely also before the justice of his country. But from what he revealed to us, we know that he has infiltrators in his group of agents" Liz could not answer anything about it, she knew he was talking about their leader Max. The commander's attention shifted to Nick, who kept his composure every second as he listened to his commander.

"Officer Deisler! According to your fellow officers, you have fully performed your duties for our institution. I was informed that you have been accompanying Agent Sharrow all this time," Nick swallowed, keeping a serious expression.

"Positive, Commander," Nick replied "I was not willing to do so, but circumstances demanded it. I had the same doubts as you, but after working with her I can tell you that none of them have any link to Warren or Rowland".

Liz couldn't believe her ears, even though Nick's attitude was the same as always, for the first time he was standing up for her in front of the top brass of his institution. Commander Eberhard leaned towards the table, he was meditating with his eyes closed on everything that was happening; Liz waited for his verdict, even though Jake was by her side she knew that the help of the German officers had been fundamental for her as well.

"It seems that we have no alternative" affirmed Commander Eberhard raising his head, still with his hands on the table- besides, after all we have achieved if we separate we will only weaken each other and each institution will end up interfering in some way in the work of the other one. Let's go on "Liz was about to celebrate with Jake, until the commander stopped them and turned to Andreas" but from this moment on, I don't want you to take a single step forward without consulting me, understood, Lieutenant Berger, call Fritz to tell us the information that Mrs. Melzer shared with you, all the rest of you are dismissed.

With Commander Eberhard's positive response, something was clear to Liz and Jake. Just as Amelie's order did with Anneliese, they were to end the evil reign of Friedrich Holzmann and his family.