Soul Census - War of Shadows - Book 1

Chapter 6.5 - The Lady Dane

Earth Date: 16th of August 1939 CE
Location: The Lady Dane, en route to Bicester Aerodrome, Earth

Maddock awoke staring at the bottom of the upper bunk. It was quiet, with only the train’s ambient sounds reaching his ears. He rolled over and sat up, looking for a window to tell him whether it was day or night, only to remember that there were no windows on this train. The only illumination afforded to his senses was a sliver of light that peeked in from under his room’s door.

He stood up and checked his watch: 8:30 a.m. local time. They should be arriving in Bicester soon; he needed to get going. After freshening up, Maddock changed and left the room. In the narrow hallway, he could hear a murmur of voices, which he followed to the dining car. Upon entering, he saw the whole contingent of Census agents and wizards seated in dining booths that lined both sides of the walls. Most of the bunch were nursing coffee mugs and balancing plates with breakfast scraps on them.

As he walked through in search of an empty seat, he saw drawn and tired eyes that barely registered a glance. They should have made the Lady Dane a dry train. Ever since Prohibition ended, it seemed that the hangovers belonged to those who’d never gotten a drop before.

The only empty seat was near the end of the compartment, a booth where that wizard Ralph sat, and now he beckoned Maddock over to the table. As Maddock approached, he saw a thin, lanky man in green fatigues and a pretty broad with dark hair and green eyes also sitting with Ralph.

“Agent Maddock,” Ralph said. “Good to see you. Come join us.”

“Thanks,” Maddock said, planting himself across from the dame.

“Hello there,” the other man said. “Pleased to meet you, Mr. Maddock. I am Sir Gareth Wright—Section D of the British SIS.”

Maddock shook his hand, but kept his gaze on the hot dish.

“And this lovely lady,” Ralph said, “is Arielle Dubois of the French Doo-exi …?” He struggled to pronounce the last.

“Deuxième Bureau,” she said, offering both her hand and a smile.

Maddock kissed her hand and returned the smile. “My pleasure, Miss Dubois.”

“The pleasure is mine.” Her voice had a sexy French accent to it. “It is good to be in the company of such men as yourself.”

“Ah, try not to be too disappointed, mademoiselle,” Maddock said, releasing her hand. “Once you realize that there are no other men like me on this train.”
Dubois batted her eyelashes at him.

“Soooo, Willem—may I call you that?” Ralph said, interrupting the flirtatious moment.

“No,” Maddock said.

“Oh… okay. Maddock it is, then,” Ralph said. “Director Black asked me to, uh, partner up with you and fill you in on any information you might need along the way.”

Ralph waved a hand to the other two. “Our friends here have obtained some interesting intelligence about the human element of the contingent we are facing. You may want to try to pay attention to—”

“Wait a second, mac,” Maddock interrupted. “No more gum-bumping until I have a cup of joe.”

“Quite right. The man obviously just woke up,” Wright said, then gestured to a nearby attendant.

“So as I was—” Ralph started to say.

Maddock held a hand up, then slowly pointed down at the table. They all patiently waited in silence for the attendant to bring him some coffee before continuing.

“Tastes like it was filtered through someone’s ass,” Maddock said before catching himself.

Dubois giggled.

Maddock cleared his throat. “It’ll do. Now go on.”

“Sir Gareth,” Ralph said, motioning to the Brit. “Please tell us what you know.”

“Just call me Gareth,” Wright said. “First, our destination is Castle Wewelsburg, located in the village of Wewelsburg in Germany, if you didn’t already guess. For many months, it has been a location of much interest to us. And it also appears to be of interest to high-ranking members of the German government.”

“German government?” Maddock said. “What’s their involvement?”

Wright suddenly stood up and made a motion to one of the other tables. Wordlessly, all the other passengers simply got up from their booths and vacated the dining car. Within seconds, the four of them, along with the car attendant, were left alone to continue their conversation. Whoever this Brit was, he apparently commanded a lot of respect here.

“Apologies,” he said. “Needed to ensure some privacy for the rest of this conversation.” Wright sat back down and went on, “As you probably heard, many things happened in the past five years topside. The old kaiser is dead, and the German government is pretty much a dictatorship ruled by Adolf Hitler and his Nazi fanatics. Hitler has his mind on expansionism, and we know he is secretly rearming and rebuilding their military for war. The Treaty of Versailles is nothing but bollocks, really.”

Another war with Germany… in the aftermath of the Great War? What are the Germans thinking?

“What’s in Wewelsburg?” Maddock said. “What’s Hitler’s interest in it?”

Wright and Dubois turned to Ralph, so Maddock looked at him as well.

“Well, it’s a little complicated,” Ralph said. “We don’t think Hitler is necessarily directly involved in this. However, we know someone high in the German government is: SS Commander Heinrich Himmler—one of Hitler’s closest lieutenants. Not only does he command the SS, but he runs an occult organization of Nazis called the Black Sun.”

“This group propagates mythical beliefs that promote racism,” Wright said, “believing themselves—the Germans—to be superior to all other races. But that is just a smokescreen, one created by an effective misinformation campaign fueled by Nazi double agents.”

“Okay, so what’s this Black Sun doing?” Maddock said.

The two of them gave Ralph a look—seemed like they were waiting on him to decide what they were willing to share. Maddock felt himself flush. He did not like being spoon-fed the truth.

“I was instructed to have complete disclosure,” Ralph said, apparently sensing Maddock’s frustration. “The Black Sun’s true goal is the research and military application of otherworldly technologies in order to advance the Nazi agenda of a new world order.”

Maddock took a sip of his coffee while he digested what he heard. A crazy dictatorship armed with weapons using Census-like technology, hell-bent on expanding its rule into other countries. With the Brits and French so close to Germany, he could now see why they were so interested.

“There is a lot of activity in this castle,” Wright said. “We have seen Himmler go in and out of this place almost weekly. We also know that Himmler, even more so than Hitler, has great interest in the supernatural.”

“So what do the Nazis have?” Maddock said. “Supernatural weapons or something?”

“They have something, yes,” Dubois said. “But it is not as tangible a thing as a weapon.”

Maddock raised his eyebrows at Ralph, hoping he could elaborate.

“Well, it’s not all that hard to imagine,” Ralph said. “Just imagine an entire army of German soldiers as strong as the Rattlers you fought, but under Hitler’s command. Integrated into an army and backed by German military weaponry.”

“That, mates,” Wright said, “is the nightmare we think he’s conjuring up that keeps us awake at night.”

Nazi Rattlers—possessed soldiers with superhuman strength and harder to kill than a New York cockroach… it was a scary image indeed.

“How would they be able to do that?” Maddock asked. “Does it have something to do with the former Census agent who switched sides?”

“Yes, we do think so,” Ralph said. “We think this traitor has helped them obtain valuable technology from the Spirit Realm.”

So that was it.

“So they’re in contact with the Spirit Realm,” Maddock said. “Why would anyone from the other side help Hitler—being they’re all high and divine and all that? They have to know they’re the bad guys.”

“Well, mate, first, we don’t know if Hitler is directly involved,” Wright said. “At this point, what we know is that Himmler is running this secret agency autonomously, possibly without Hitler’s knowledge—perhaps waiting until he has something more tangible and ready to show his führer. As for why any of these spirits would help the Nazis …” Wright motioned to Ralph.

“The traitor has in-depth knowledge of the Spirit Realm,” Ralph said. “We think she is tricking the other side into helping.”

“She?” Maddock said. “Who is she?”

“I’m afraid even I don’t know her name,” Ralph said. “All I know is she was a close confidant of the Director’s, and when she switched sides, she took a lot of knowledge with her. She is their connection to the Spirit Realm.”

“Or it could be,” Dubois said, “that this agency of Himmler’s is the antithesis of your Census Agency, run by demons from the other side.”

“I don’t know,” Ralph said. “Although there have been a lot of coincidences lately that could tie into that.”

“I don’t believe in coincidences, Mr. Weiss,” Dubois said. “Patterns observed are plans revealed.”

A buzzer sounded on the intercom, and a familiar voice came on: “Passengers of the Lady Dane.” It was Director Black’s voice. “This is your conductor speaking.”

A sudden screech coupled by a violent motion within the train interrupted her. Maddock felt himself thrown out of his seat. Somehow his hand reached out just in time to grab something, breaking his midair tumble. All the lights went out, and he heard the screams from other passengers mixed with a cacophony of destructive sounds.

There was more buckling and crashing in the dark. Maddock felt both debris and people brush past him as gravity seemed to change direction. He managed to pull himself closer to the rail he held, gripping with both hands.

Maddock held his breath in anticipation. This might be the end. After all he had endured, claimed by a freak train accident… No way this is an accident… No way.… More screeching and the sound of yelling, plates crashing, and a horrible crunching sound of metal upon metal.

Maddock felt the train slow then come to a violent stop. The train cars seemed to buckle against each other. More debris brushed past him. He felt something cut his face and neck. It should have hurt, but everything felt numb and surreal.

A cone of light illuminated the dark, revealing a clouded view of what lay outside the train car: a rocky cliff that opened up into a dense forest of trees… hundreds of meters down. The train car appeared to be off its rail and hanging partly to the side, with a wide gaping hole where the door had been—a hole that led to certain death.

Maddock had to watch helplessly as dozens of passengers fell through it, joining the debris that poured out of the train car. He looked up and around to see who was left. He saw no sign of Ralph, Dubois, or Wright. A handful of agents clung to seats or whatever they could grab onto.

The train car buckled again and began to slide farther off its rail and to the cliff below. More debris and passengers fell to their death, but Maddock held onto the handrail that saved him, even as the car slipped farther and farther.

Maddock saw drips of blood pierce through the haze of dust, painting it and streaming through the opening to the depths below. It was then he realized that it was his own blood… a lot of it. He coughed, tasting and choking on it in his mouth. Whatever had cut him, got him good.

The train car buckled again. More bodies fell through the opening. More yells faded into death below. Everything started to go dark. The blood loss. The choking of blood. His grip weakened.

“Hang on, Maddock!” he heard a voice say. It sounded like Black’s.

But what could she do? He was done for.

Another buckling, and this time his grip was not strong enough. He let go. Maddock fell through the opening, following the other bodies and debris to the cliffs below. His body tumbled in the air. A cold wind. Blue. White. Green. The sky, the ground. He caught a brief glimpse of the Lady Dane from a distance—the majority of the train seemed intact. Maybe there would be some survivors.

Just not me. Not this time …

Moments later, Maddock thought, Well, maybe I’ll get to see what this spirit stuff is really all about. He saw the forest coming up on him. The journey was about to end. Hope this doesn’t hurt too much.

His body crashed into the trees, and the darkness of death consumed his consciousness, his broken body impaling itself onto a tree trunk. Agent Willem Maddock, former war hero, former flying ace, former Census agent… was no more.