HUGHES MANSION

HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA

The chances that they had missed a guard, or maybe even two, became a certainty as soon as Skorzeny saw two of his men lying on the floor, apparently unconscious, and their wrists and ankles bound with some plastic strips. Ross knelt down and confirmed that they were still alive before pointing towards the door they were looking for. Skorzeny nodded back and then both men moved without any further need for communication. Ross went through the door and rolled out on the other side while Skorzeny hit the corner and covered him. There proved to be nothing much to fear in the room.

With a nod from Skorzeny, Ross checked out the only person in the room. Unlike the men they had found, who were going to be out for a while, the deaf girl was stirring. Ross knelt over her and slapped her cheek. When her eyes opened she was dazed but Ross held her face firm and forced her to look at his mouth as he said, “who did this? How many did you miss?”

The girl suddenly snapped too and she shook free of his grip. She was also quite angry and accusing when she lashed out in her native German tongue, “you idiots! It was Elliot Ness! You missed him!”

Skorzeny finished checking the rest of the room and then he looked over at the girl, slightly confused, and said, “I thought she was deaf?”

Annie had obviously seen him say it, “I read lips, you fool, and deaf does not mean mute.” Ross went for his knife to cut her free of the straps but, she saw him and said, “no leave me like this. You have to leave my cover in tact. I have worked for the Bureau for three years now. I can’t just stop.”

“Cut her loose,” Skorzeny said in a matter of fact way as he slid between windows and checked the yard around them. When he noticed the hesitation in Ross he told him, “her cover is already blown. She let the target get away.”

When her wrists went free she clamored with her hands, “I let him get away? You were supposed to replace Ness. He made your man.”

Skorzeny stopped watching and looked at the girl with a very serious scowl that was only accented by the scar across his cheek, “I seriously doubt that. Was there anyone else with him?”

“Yes,” Annie replied as she stood up and brushed herself off. “Some man with,” Annie had no idea what to call it, “an electrical device. I think I was lucky. I got most of the charge through the door and, I can tell you this, even that much hurt like hell.”

Ross looked to Skorzeny and said, “a guard we missed?”

Skorzeny went to looking back out the window, “I don’t think so. Our packet warned we might have a party crasher. Perhaps it is him?”

“I’m breaking radio silence,” Ross stated. It was not a question but, at the same time, he was glad that Skorzeny did not object. He pulled the radio off of his belt and called out in German to the man they had on the roof, “how is your field your vision?”

The reply was quick enough, “I can see the tops of the perimeter wall but, this place is a jungle. If anyone else is down there it could take years to flush them out.”

Ross looked back to Skorzeny to ask the man if he heard that. It concerned Ross to no end because they had limited time here. Then someone keyed their radio, somewhere, and caused a crackle of static. Ross thought he made out some words behind that static too. It sounded like too people arguing. Ross keyed the radio and said, “radio silence!”

There was a more intelligible reply but it came in English, “sorry about that Hans. I don’t speak Spanish. Did you say something like, I want my MTV?”

Without worrying about what all of that meant, Ross switched over to his English with the slight southern drawl, “who is this?”

There was a howl followed by, “you’re jacking with Wolfman Cam. How bout you good buddy, come back.”

Skorzeny forgot about the window and walked over to Ross. He told the man, “instruct Werner on the roof to keep anyone from going over those walls. You start moving back with the assault force and prepare to evacuate to the safe house. As you do, you keep him talking. I’m taking Karl and Claus with me.”

Ross blurted out in English and then he had to retranslate everything in his head again before asking in German, “what are we doing?”

Skorzeny might not have spoke English but, he knew what the question was before the translation, “if we aren’t back in an hour then use our secondary extraction plan.” When Ross seemed ever more confused, Skorzeny spelled it out for him, “if he’s talking to us then he is trying to buy time. If he is doing that then there can’t be any more than three of them. The two that the maid saw and the target. Any more than that and they would be attacking us. Keep them talking and they will be making noise. I can find them.”

“Uh,” Ross thought about it and it made sense. He did not like it and for a lot of reasons but, it was better than coming up empty handed. There would be a price to pay for that, “I guess HE wouldn’t like it if we missed our mark.”

Skorzeny was leaving by the door he came. He knew that his target had to run for the back side of the property. They could not have possibly gotten back to the front gate without being seen. He also knew there was no way out of the back. They would have to crawl over the wall and that would mark them for his sniper. Skorzeny also knew something else and he stopped and told Ross, “I couldn’t give a shit what that SS prick thinks. I have my orders concerning him as well.”

What orders? Ross was completely confused and that made him sense more danger from behind than forward. Skorzeny was an SS man but, he was also right out of the Fuhrer’s personal guards. His tight lipped nature made knowing anything else about the man more than impossible. He realized the safest thing to do was simply not to ask. He grabbed the girl by the arm and pulled her along behind him.

They both heard the shot from the roof and stopped. They could hear Skorzeny yelling from somewhere else in the house, “we have them, move!”

Ross handed his knife to the girl when they reached their fallen comrades. He told her to cut them free as he called in his security team to help pull them back out to the cars. He then tried to talk to the American, “you have nowhere to go, you know that, right?” The American, whoever this guy was, did not bother to answer. Ross switched back to German and said, “he’s gone silent.”

The sniper replied, “doesn’t matter. We know right about where they are.”

Why was it that this did not make Ross feel any better about anything? Then he heard the explosion up on the roof. He smelled smoke but, past that, saw no obvious damage to the house. He called for his sniper and got no reply. He tried it several times and then grunted before asking the little maid. He had to nudge her shoulder to get her attention before saying, “how long have you been in America?”

She found the question somewhat confusing but answered anyway, “four or five years, why?”

Ross just shrugged, grabbed her by the arm once more, and led her back towards the front gate. Along the way he asked, “you like it here?” As she answered, still confused, Ross looked back towards the roof. There was smoke coming from up there and he could guess what that meant. He heard nothing else on the radio from anyone but, that meant less than the smoke. The American was obviously not talking and, Skorzeny would not break radio silence.

On the other side of the property there were others who were also watching the smoke. Cam Mitchell raised up slightly and took a good scan of the roof. He quickly dropped back down behind the hedge and told his two companions, “I think that’s all of them up there.” He then looked to the sloppy fat kid, “Ely right? You sure you heard that right? So far your German has not inspired me with great confidence.”

Ely pushed the button on the Zat and it folded back into it’s carry mode. He handed it back to Mitchell and told the guy with a bit of scorn, “hey was I right about the Zat, or what?”

Cam had to give that kid that much. They had been pinned down by that sniper who proved as much when he shot away a piece of brick the first time they tried to get over the wall. Cam suspected the guy had missed on purpose. In effect, that was their warning shot.

It had also made Ness a little bit happy. It was easy for him to be that way since he wasn’t the one next to the brick that exploded! He had been safe on the ground, behind cover, and was as giddy as a school girl, saying, “somebody had to hear that! Help’s coming now.”

Cam had to figure that, with all the extra loot that Ness had scooped up from the Germans (that Cam had knocked out), Ness had plenty of reason to live now. The only problem was that he had no idea how to live for much longer than a few minutes. It had been Ely that got them out of the jam. The sniper was out of range of both their machineguns and Zat or, at least, so Cam had thought.

Ely took the Zat and crawled down along side the wall for a few feet. Then came the part of the plan that Cam had not loved. He had to get up and make some noise, then expose himself for a few seconds, in order to get the Sniper to shift positions. Luckily, the bad guy played along. He unexpectedly helped by stopping right next to the transformer that was bolted to the roof. That was when Ely zatted the power line he was next too and the charge carried up the wire and blew out the transformer. Cam had not really put too much faith in the plan but, it was all they could come up with. It also had the virtue of working. The explosion took out the sniper.

“Over the wall,” Cam commanded. He noticed that Ness had no reservations at all about trying to climb up there now. He even had less of a problem, physically getting over, than Cam would have figured. He was gone in a flash. Ely went up next and reached down to pull up Cam. As Ely did that he saw the Germans moving in their direction. He also realized that the Germans saw them in return. When one of the Germans raised up and leveled his weapon in their direction, Ely jerked Cam even harder and they both went tumbling over the wall.

They found themselves in a thicket of bushes and surrounded by trees. Ely was the first too get up and start brushing himself off. He also made the suggestion, “we should stay and take these guys.”

Cam looked at the kid like he was crazy. He had to admire the boys guts but, that was suicidal, “they’re trained commando’s kid. I’m the only one here that counts for that. You’re a fat kid and Ness over there is next weeks celebrity guest for Fantasy Island. I wouldn’t take them on with John Wayne and two companies of Marines.”

Only after he finished, and Ness cleared his throat, did Cam realize that Ness was standing clear of the trees with his hands up in the air. Cam slapped his forehead, “oh god what now.”

Cam stepped out of the trees, with Ely right behind him, and the man who had Ness covered said, “put your hands up!”

Ely’s jaw dropped open. He almost did not recognize the man who was covering Ness, not with the guy dressed in white shorts and some kind of Hawaiian looking flowery shirt but, the voice was unmistakable. Ely pointed at the man and said, “you’re… you…”

Cam reached out and slapped the kids hand down and told the new arrival, “that’s mighty bold talk for a one eyed old fat man.”

John Wayne was not as amused and he showed it, “come again, stranger?”

Ely snorted, “of course he’s bold. That’s John Wayne!”

“Look you three,” Wayne told them, “this might just be an investment property but it’s my investment property and I don’t take too kindly to trespassing.”

Now Cam had to reach over and force Elliot Ness to lower his hands. He then looked to Wayne, “three guys with guns come over your wall and you think confronting them, unarmed, is a good idea?”

“Mister,” Wayne replied forcefully, “I know who owns that property and, let me tell you, anything coming out of Howard Hughes’ house wouldn’t surprise me one little bit. Why do you think I can’t sell this place? You know I might have to make a picture or two for that guy but, it doesn‘t mean I have to like him.”

Ness meekly raised a finger, “um, excuse me Mister Wayne. This investment property wouldn’t happen to have a phone, would it?”

Wayne was about to answer and then he stopped. He rubbed his eyes and then looked real hard at Elliot, “you’re that Ness character from the papers. The mobster guy, right?”

“Um,” Ness grunted in frustration and pulled out his badge as he replied, “no I catch…”

Cam injected, “you mean you used too catch.”

Ness ignored him and went on, “I catch mobsters. I’m a Treasury Agent. Look, I really need to call the Federal Building. We have an emergency situation and…”

Wayne shrugged it off and motioned for them to follow him as he said, “well I’m all about law and order, follow me gentlemen.”

Cam just shrugged to Ely who, in return, asked once again, “can we fight them off now?”