Operation Wolfe Cub: A Chilling Historical Thriller (THE TIME TO TELL Book 1) (18 page)

“What? A beacon now you say? Shut up.” Buzz licked his lips and rubbed a little greed between his grungy hands. “Quick…get a rope. See if we can hook it.”

“Why do you want-a-hook it? You thinkin’ ‘bout towin’ it?”

“I ain’t towin’—now go get a rope.”

Jed quickly obliged. After a couple of missed throws, Buzz hooked onto its lid then pulled their boat closer yet. Carefully, he began to draw the pod against their vessel, where it softly touched up against the hull.

Jed kept his back turned the entire time, with plugged ears, so Buzz turned him around to face the pod once more. “See? I said you wouldn’t blow up. Now help me get on it.”

Jed obliged and offered a hand while Buzz hopelessly hopped and grunted without getting too far. He was just too heavy and awkward to get over the side of the boat. But persistence paid off. With a few more hops, he made it.

After catching his breath, he slowly made his way up to the top of the pod where he found a good place to sit down and rest a little. Awkward admirations got the best of him when he just couldn’t take his weird eye off the white flag flying above him on a flexible rod. There wasn’t much to see about it, except for perhaps the golden design of the rolling star it displayed. Still, he wasn’t satisfied to leave it alone, so he broke the rod down with the weight of his leg and then brought the flag close to his face. He looked it over, smelled it, and even stuck his tongue on it for a surprising taste.

Jed licked his lips from the boat as he looked on. “Well, is it good? What is it, I mean?”

“Don’t know….looks like some saw blade picture. Somethin’ like that. Gold color…
ah
, it’s just a flag…that’s all it is—I guess,
hmmph
.”

As quickly as he pulled it down, he discarded it into the water and put his ear down on the pod and knocked on it. He looked up and down then knocked again, like he was onto something. “Hey…it’s hollow.” He knocked again. “Liquid, I think…I bet it’s a….it’s some kinda fuel.” He looked back at Jed. “Hey! I bet this is a diesel can. You know—f’r a ship ‘r somethin’!”

Jed scratched his head. “You mean it’s a diesel can? Why so big—out here? Awful big can, don’t y’think? Can’t pick it up…
hu-hu
.”

Buzz then touched around the seam and smelled his fingers. “No, really. Somethin’s in there, and it ain’t no water—I can tell ya that. I c’n smell it now.”

Jed leaped over and picked up a couple of beaten-up buckets. “Hot dawg, we hit th’ jackpot.
Ho-ho
, let’s, let’s—
steal it!
Here, take these.”

“What? Put them down. I got bigger plannin’ to do.”

“Oh, we can tow it! No, not good big bro. They’ll catch us! No, we gotta pump it out right now. We’re empty too, so it all goes in our tank.”

Buzz immediately surveyed the area with his weird eye. “
Shhhhhh
! Quiet, lizard brain…quick, get the eyeglasses. Look around and see if you c’n see anythin’…where there’s smoke, there’s fire.”

Jed jumped to it and skidded to a stop over to the other side of the boat, nearly slipping off his feet. He rummaged around inside a messy chest, throwing things out until saying, “
Ah haaaa
!” He snatched up the dirty, old binoculars on the bottom, tiptoed back, and glanced in all directions with dirt on the lenses. “Nope, don’t see nobody. Clear as a bell. No ships. Nobody—nowhere.”

Buzz slapped the irritation from his face. “What you whisperin’ f’r? No one’s out here but us, damn it…do big brother a fav’r. Quick, get a hammer. This thing’s gotta lock’r somethin’ on it. We gotta break’r free before we do anythin’.”

Jed ran back over to the same messy chest, got the hammer out, and then looked at it for a moment. Just like before, he tiptoed back and handed it over.

Buzz then straddled the lid and started hammering the echoes out of it.

Wham! Wham! Wham!
“
Whew
, tickles my ass…it’s comin’—I see it.”
Wham! Wham!

As Jed looked closer at the pod down by the water, he stepped back. “Hey, stop it a sec…I think maybe I’m seein’ somethin’.”

Wham!
“What do y’ see?”
Wham! Wham!

“I think, I think it’s sinkin’.”

Wham!
“Don’t be shit f’r brains. Diesel floats.”
Wham! Wham!

“No, I ain’t kiddin’. Stop a sec…y’r lower than you were, I might be sayin’.”

“Shut up and get me the pump ready. It’s comin’…”
Wham!

Jed shrugged his shoulders. “Okay…hey, watch it! I saw sparks comin’ from y’r hammer. You’ll make’r blow, you will.”

“We’re not gonna blow up…I’ll torch it off if I have to.”
Wham!
This stubborn piece a—”
Wham!

Jed then started flagging his hands. “Stop right there… I—I don’t know.”

“What?”

“None this looks right, Buzz.”

“The hell you say. It’s comin’. I can tell.”
Wham! Wham!

“Yeah, the hell I say…I mean all this’s too funny…we ain’t smart ’nough to do this, Buzz—”

As they kept fussing and working, neither one of them saw the not-so-clean, battle-scarred war machine ascending out of the water at a distance. Ever so quietly, the US
Wehrwolf
slowly broke surface, with US-2 looking quite angry at what he saw. Before his vessel could rise up completely out of the water, he quickly opened his hatch and rolled out onto the main deck, aiming his pistol right at the two unsuspecting pod wreckers pounding away like there was no tomorrow.

A hair must have held his trigger finger back the way he was gritting his teeth, but just then, he loosened up and pulled his pistol back. Sorry disgust quickly laced his face, as
if he was ashamed of himself for even thinking about what was on his mind. Gradually, he stood up and lowered his gun all the way down talking to himself, “
Pshhhhhh…
civilian bums.”

He was faced with a predicament. Time wasn’t exactly on his side, so he waved his pistol and spoke out to them in German, “
Shoo
…go on!”

Buzz and Jed still didn’t have a clue he was there, so he yelled a little louder. “Hey, you rats! Go on! Now!”

Jed seemed deaf, and Buzz looked as if he was blind in his weird eye. At least Buzz thought he’d heard something the second time US-2 yelled, causing him to look up and survey the area. He didn’t bother to turn around and look behind him where US-2 was, however. Nothing was there within the confines of his neck twisting, so he carried on with his business of blunders rather confidently.

US-2 put his hands on his hips, as if he were amazed at how deaf and stiff-necked they were. Catching someone red-handed, stealing or vandalizing his pod way out in the Atlantic was amazing. The odds of bumping into a couple of dumb, deaf, and blind characters in the process seemed remote too.

Thoughts came to his mind immediately as he watched them carry on. He grabbed a cigarette from behind his ear, lit up with a frown, and then took in his first puff of smoke. Patience didn’t play out for the short part of his predicament, so he figured on solving it right away by other means.

As a warning, he raised his pistol up into the air.

Bang!

Buzz leaped back over to his vessel like a big toad on a pole vault. “What the shit?!”

Jed ditched for cover. “
Awww
, look out! Behind us, damn it…it’s over there somewhere!”

“Where? The flea-bitten bastards are shootin’ at us… can’t see ’em where I’m at. Can you?”

“What? You want
me
to look?”

“Y’r the youngest. Poke y’r head up and look.”

“Okay, then…
ahhh
, I see it. Shit fire, Buzz! It’s some spacey lookin’ thing right out ‘n the open, ‘bout a block away.”

As Buzz lay against the wall of his cabin, he stroked his beard thinking. “A block? Must not be here yet, I guess… hold it. I told you to look around f’r ships, didn’t I?”

“I did, damn it! It wasn’t there a second ago.”

“Not true…there ya go figuring wrong again…look again.”

“No! I’m tellin’ the truth. The-they must a…must of flown down straight from the sky. Can’t believe my eyes. It’s got wings for it.”

Buzz opened his weird eye, looking surprised. “The hell you say. Boats don’t have wings.”

“No? It’s a
space ship
then, I’m right.”

Buzz steadied himself off the deck then poked his head up. “Let me take a look. You’re startin’ to sound like my ass.”

“There, you satisfyin’? What y’ think?”

“
Hmmm
, don’t look like no boat.
Arrrr
—looks like
uh
. That’s a damn—son of a rat’s ass, you might be right.”

US-2 thought he saw movement aboard their vessel, but didn’t quite know for sure. Becoming more frustrated than ever, he yelled again, except with a little German slang: “Asshole thief…away with you! Swine! Be gone!”

Buzz ducked back down panic-stricken. “I can’t figure what he’s sayin’. Can—can you?”

“Helllll no, bro
duh
.”

“They’re speakin’ some kind a—
alien tongue
I think.”

Jed backed up closer against the cabin wall. “Alien tongue? It really is a spaceship then. What they look like?”

“What do y’ mean what they look like? You saw’em, didn’t ya?”

Jed tried remembering. “No, I was lookin’ at a spaceship with wings, that’s all.”

“You ain’t missin’ anything then…I can’t see that far. Don’t look like no alien to me, though. It’s got two legs.”

Jed squirmed around to face his brother. “Two legs? How do you know how many legs aliens got?”

“Shut up…quick, get me my deer rifle. Be quick—and keep outta sight, y’ hear?”

“Gotcha.” Jed scrambled over to the corner of the cabin, pulled out a weathered lever-action Winchester from underneath a bunch of rubble and slid the rusty rifle across the deck to where his brother sat.

Almost as quick, Buzz jacked a live cartridge into the chamber. “Keep outta sight, little Jed. I’ll take care-a-this.”

He then peeked his weird eye over the edge of his boat to see US-2, dressed in black and looking mighty fuzzy.

US-2 stood out on the top of his deck like nobody’s business. He was in the middle of scanning the decrepit vessel and the missing people with his binoculars from top to bottom when he muttered, “Wow, look at that mess…son of a bitch. It can’t be. Oh shit!”

US-2 dived into his cockpit for cover just as Buzz pulled the trigger.

Bang! Crash!

It was a direct hit. Cockpit glass on the open hatch of the US
Wehrwolf
shattered in all directions. US-2 couldn’t believe it until he threw down his cigarette. “
Awwwh! Arscholoch shysters!
Swines!”

Instantly, he jumped into the center captain’s chair and readied his aim with the spin of his brass cranks. He flipped down his optical and jockeyed his crosshairs muttering, “There we are.” He muttered again, “Have it your way… Zwilling Twins will to do.” With just the click of his switch, a pair of barrels came out from the starboard side, looking like double the trouble. Back and forth they swayed, until
US-2 found what he wanted to shoot, which was their entire boat.

Before he could pull his trigger, Buzz fired again.

Peeoooww!

US-2 flinched, “Son-of-a…give me a second will you? Okay, bastards, dance.
YAUGHH!
”

Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat…rat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat!

The blaze of his twin barrels lit up like roman candles, sending a stream of red-hot metal hornets to the
Blessit
. Every round made contact with remarkable destruction. Huge splinters of board and parts of planks shot into the air.

A bit of pity or curiosity caused US-2 to lift his finger off the trigger. Curiosity must have ruled, for he smirked about the smoke he saw rising up from his two barrels and mumbled, “Wow, I get with it.” In his recess, he surveyed through his optical, looking at the mess he’d made. As the smoke rose and dust blew away from the
Blessit
’s old hull, she looked even more dilapidated, which was hard to imagine.

US-2 lit another cigarette while he kept his eye in the crosshairs. “
Boo
…did I scare anyone? Come out and play with
der Wolfman
,
hu hu
…
der Wehrwolf
is coming to get you,
owwwwl
…
hu hu huuu
…
hmmm
. Where’s the fat one? Don’t say to me you are dead already.”

Fortunately, both brothers were spread flat out on the deck, wide-eyed, alive, and shaking like leaves. Jed sputtered as he shuddered, “You…you-you had to go shoot’em, didn’t cha? What we goin’ to do now,
huh
?”

Buzz swallowed carefully as he hugged his rifle up close. “I ain’t seen fire power like that…gotta get us outta here, that’s what.” Just then, he made a wild dash for the cabin, bumping into things along his way.

US-2 was already waiting for him with his finger on the trigger. Instantly, Buzz was cut into bits, along with parts of the cabin, too. What was left of him got pushed overboard several bullets at a time.

Jed was petrified from the sight of his own flesh and blood disintegrating before his very eyes. He was literally stuck to the deck, with his sweaty cheek against the crusty, blood-spattered wood, looking as if he were staring square into the barrels of US-2’s guns already. Slowly, he focused on his fingers gripping the deck beside his face. Moving them seemed like a huge problem just then. He seemed insanely happy once he was able to move. Slowly, he turned to his brother’s Winchester lying next to him, but looked away like he wanted no part of the trouble it had caused.

He trembled in despair, listening to what used to sound so sweet and normal…the radio. Miraculously, it was still playing in the decimated cabin. The song called “King Porter Stomp,” by Benny Goodman, kept playing like nothing at all had happened. Suddenly, he realized what was sitting next to the radio, which sparked a little life back into his watersoaked eyes. It was his shortwave radio. He muttered about, ever so quietly, “Cu-call…emergency…I—I gotta call.”