The cellar was rather huge, and we followed the cook through the labyrinth of wine drums. The stairs out were soon in sight, but she stopped, motioning for us to do the same. She crouched in hiding and we followed suite. Three guards walked by, searching around, but to high to spot us. They passed and we waited until their footsteps were distant clatter. We tiptoed after the girl toward the short flight of stairs to the door. She opened it and there on the other side stood a surprised guard. The girl let out a high pitched squeak while the Huntsman aimed and fired in quick reflex. The guard paused when the dart hit his neck and slowly crumpled to the ground. "D-did you kill him?" I asked.
"I use tranquilizers, I do not kill, Squid," said he putting in another dart.
"You kill animals," David pointed out.
"Humans are different, my friend," said the Huntsman. The girl had recovered herself and we continued through the dark hallway. There was light ahead, and a man singing in German. The sound of metal on wood every few seconds. The smell of cooking bread and wine filled the corridor as we neared the open doorway. At the edge of the doorway, the girl motioned to be silent and whispered into David's ear. He nodded and she went into the kitchen. The man inside said something, and David looked in. He walked slowly past the doorway, and the Huntsman and I followed. We came to a door at the end of the corridor, the sound of talking and the clink of glasses wafted through the open cracks of the door. "Alright, Squid, he'll turn on the lights any minute now." The lights around the door went out almost instantly, and I slipped on my goggles. Switching on Night Vision, I entered the Party Hall.
2129 hours
The party goers seemed to freeze in their steps, the women a little squeamish as the men walked about like blind men to find a way out. The guards had supplied flashlights, and I walked well enough to avoid it. It wasn't difficult to move my way through the crowd, I didn't have to worry about bumping into people since everyone was bumping into each other anyway. The Party Hall was massive, On the South End was tables of food and drink. Several servants who were in the process of carrying trays of food and alcohol had tripped or dropped their trays. There was a lot of clattering and shouting that made my movement much easier.
I found the stairs up to the balcony that overlaid the hall pretty easily. I started up and barely had time to move out of the way of a guard that was passing through. I was soon on the balcony and that's when the lights went back on. I dove for the cover of a pillar and turned off the Night Vision. I cursed as two guards were running toward the stairs, they were going to see me. I waited for them to pass, a plan already formulating in my mind.
Before they stepped in view of me, I laid out my foot and tripped the one closest toward me. He fell flat on his face as the second stopped in surprise. That was my chance. I lept out, catching the other in a tackle into the wall on the other side of the balcony. He crumpled in shock and game me time to collect myself and send my knee into his stomach. He doubled over, his wind knocked out. The tripped one had begun to stand and kicked his side. They hopefully wouldn't be speaking for a few seconds. And that was all that I was going to get. Or so I thought.
A couple, a Nazi officer and his wife stood there and saw the whole thing. The wife had fainted and the officer barked for the guards to fire. I ran the opposite way, rolling in the protection of the balcony fence as the guards ripped gunfire toward me. The closest door was a few yards away, and I was pinned by gunfire.
I crawled for the door as bullets slapped into the wall above my head. Plaster dust and sparks fell around me, making me sweat under the mask and irritating my eyes. I ripped the mask off, stuffing it into my tuxedo pocket and crawled quicker. I made it to the door and it opened by itself as a soldier walked out. He jerked back as the gunfire cut him down. I pushed into the room and swung the door closed.
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