Angel From Hell, page 6
part #1 of Anna Fehrbach Series Series
From the heavy sighs that penetrated even the pillow, she gathered Karen had achieved at least temporary relief. For the first time in her life she wished she could be like Karen, to have not a care in the world save sensual gratification. But no doubt she was going to wind up just like her. And that was the most terrifying thought of all.
*
‘Now, ladies,’ Dr Cleiner said jovially, ‘you have enjoyed the past three days, eh?’ He looked from face to face, and made his own interpretation of what he saw there, while Anna kept her expression stiff with an effort. To have to fondle a man, to be forced to take his member into her mouth had been bad enough, but to permit a man to fondle her to his heart’s content, and in front of this man and Blassermann . . . She still felt that she had been turned inside out.
‘That is good. But sadly, life is not all pleasure, eh? Now, I have watched you in the gymnasium every morning, and it is obvious that you are very fit. This is good. But fitness is not merely for beauty, eh? It is for use. Now we must see what use yours will give us. I understand that you were given some training in unarmed combat at your school. I also understand that one of you used this training to badly hurt one of your fellow students.’ He knew who it was, of course, and looked directly at Anna.
She drew a deep breath. ‘It was me, Herr Doctor.’
‘Tell me why you did this.’
‘We . . . we quarrelled.’
‘And you attacked her and used your new skill to break her arm in two places, and dislocate her shoulder?’
Anna opened her mouth. She was back at her precipice, but this time the ground beneath her was hard, not soft.
Karen came to her rescue. ‘That is not so, Herr Doctor. Gerda attacked Anna, and Anna defended herself, very skilfully.’
‘I did not mean to hurt her like that,’ Anna said. ‘It was an accident. I threw her and she broke her arm.’
‘Well, anyone can see that,’ Cleiner agreed. ‘One does not break someone’s arm and dislocate their shoulder intentionally, without a great deal of strength and effort. Still, it indicates that you can react violently when you have to. This is good. But what you have so far learned, while it is useful for self defence in an ordinary way, will be of no use to you if you ever really have to hurt a man.’
Both girls stiffened. ‘Are we going to have to do that, Herr Doctor?’ Karen asked.
‘You never know, and you must be prepared for any eventuality. Now, change your clothes.’
They obeyed without hesitation; after the past three days, appearing naked before this man had become commonplace. He watched them put on their singlets and shorts and then pressed the bell on his desk. Immediately the door opened and two soldiers came in, pushing between them a third man, who was in shirt and pants instead of uniform, and was handcuffed behind his back. He was quite a big man, not very tall but solidly built, and was not very prepossessing, having an unshaven chin and a general air of scruffiness. But his eyes gleamed as he saw the two scantily clad young women.
‘He likes you,’ Cleiner remarked. ‘Well, who would not?’ He gave a brief nod, and the two soldiers stepped away. They did not leave the room, however, but stood against the far wall. Anna deduced that they also were enjoying the view.
‘Now,’ Cleiner said. ‘We are assuming that you are not armed. If you were armed, you would use your weapon. We will discuss that tomorrow, as we will discuss your actions if he were to be armed. But today, unarmed. We are assuming also that he is attacking you. Of course for the purposes of this demonstration he cannot as his hands are secured, but we do not want him to take advantage of any mistakes you may make and hurt you. Heaven forbid. Besides, it is possible that you may wish to assault him before he realizes your intention. Now, you may suppose that the quickest way to incapacitate a male opponent is to go for the genitals. This is a sound idea, but not a decisive one, for two reasons. If the man is fully dressed, as here, it may be difficult to locate exactly what you want. And then, while you may hurt him, you will not lay him out or prevent his getting hold of you, and that could be fatal – a man who has been hurt in the balls is liable to become very violent. What you must seek are pressure points. They are scattered all over the body – here, for instance, and here, and here.’ He walked round the man, who did not seem to understand what was going on, touching him as he spoke. ‘A blow delivered in any of these places will render him incapable of responding, at least for a brief while, sometimes longer.’ Another smile. ‘Then you may turn your attention to his prick, eh? But there is one thing you must bear in mind. Such a blow, in such a place as I will recommend, must be delivered with all the strength you possess, and it must be delivered accurately. When you are defending your life, there can be no room for compromise. Now, Karen, you go first. Hit him here.’ He touched the man’s back. ‘Underneath here is a kidney. A blow here will paralyse him for several seconds. Take a long swing, and use the edge of your hand. You will receive a severe jar, but it will be nothing to what he will receive. Of course, when it comes to the real thing, you may not have the time or the space for a swing; it will be our business to teach you how to inflict a blow of equal power with a short, concentrated delivery. Come along now, Karen.’
Reluctantly, Karen moved behind the man. ‘Won’t it hurt him, Herr Doctor?’
‘Well, of course it will hurt him, you silly girl. It is intended to hurt him.’
‘But won’t he object?’
‘It does not matter whether he objects or not. He is a condemned criminal. I have given you an order, Karen.’
Karen gave Anna a quick look, drew a deep breath, and swung her arm, crashing the edge of her hand into the man’s back. He gave a scream of agony and fell to his knees, while Karen leapt back, clutching her arm with her other hand.
‘There,’ Cleiner said. ‘You see what you can do? But watch.’
Anna stared at the man, who was bent double, straining against the handcuffs to be able to reach the injury, and unable to do so. Saliva dribbled from his mouth, while he continued to moan and gasp. But in a few minutes the moaning stopped, and he seemed to pull himself together.
Cleiner had been looking at his watch. ‘You see? Four minutes. Of course in that time you would be able to do him a great deal more damage. But still, if you do not finish the job he will recover from such a blow. Now we shall look at something more permanent.’
Oh, my God! Anna thought. She was next.
‘Up,’ Cleiner commanded, and kicked the prisoner in the thigh. The man grunted, but did not move. Cleiner snapped his fingers, and the two soldiers came forward, held the prisoner’s arms, and lifted him to his feet. ‘Stay on your feet,’ Cleiner warned him, ‘or I will have this lovely child cut off your balls.’
The man raised his head, and Anna swallowed as their eyes met.
‘Now, as I have told you,’ Cleiner said, ‘the blow to the kidney is a temporary measure. The blow to the shoulder is decisive. It must be accurate.’ He touched the man’s shoulder where it joined the neck. ‘Right there. Delivered with sufficient power it will cut off the flow of blood to the brain. This will render him unconscious. For how long depends on the force of the blow – that is, for how long it takes for the blood to start flowing again. A sufficiently powerful blow will kill. I am not sure that you have sufficient strength at this time to deliver such a blow, Anna; we will work on this. But I am sure you can lay him out. Let me see you do that.’
Anna licked her lips and then moved behind the prisoner; he was at least an inch the shorter. She glanced at Karen, who was still massaging her arm, but was staring at her.
Cleiner touched the prisoner’s neck again. ‘Remember, it must be right there.’
Anna drew a deep breath and swung her arm. This time the man went down without a sound, hitting the floor with his knees before falling full length; his head struck with a terrible crack and blood dribbled from his mouth.
‘He’s dead!’ Anna screamed, tears welling from her eyes, as she quite forgot the pain in her own arm and shoulder.
Cleiner took his pulse. ‘No, no. But he will not be active for a while. That was an excellent blow, Anna. I congratulate you. How is your arm?’
‘It hurts,’ Anna muttered, staring at the unconscious man. Did I really do that? She wondered.
Cleiner nodded. ‘We are going to have to toughen you up. Do you know that is one of the most difficult tasks we have, making a girl like you powerful enough to take on anyone, and yet not develop any unsightly muscles in your arms. But we will do it. Thank you, ladies. That will be all for today. Tomorrow we will start on weapons.’
*
Karen lay on her bed with her hands beneath her head. ‘How do you feel?’ she asked.
Anna sat with her elbows on her knees. ‘Odd. I still can’t believe I did that.’
‘But how did it feel?’
‘It hurt.’
‘I mean, in your head. In your heart.’
Anna glanced at her. ‘I don’t want to think about it.’
‘It made me feel sick,’ Karen confessed. ‘Didn’t you feel sick?’
Anna stared at her. No, she thought; I didn’t feel sick. I was concentrating too hard on delivering the blow with all my strength and in the right place. With pleasing Cleiner. But I still should have felt sick, at hitting a defenceless man hard enough to lay him out.
Karen was frowning at her. ‘Then what did you feel?’
Anna licked her lips. ‘It was something I had to do.’
‘Because Cleiner told you to?’
‘Yes. We have to obey him, don’t you see? We’re entirely in his power.’
‘And suppose he’d told you, while that man was lying unconscious on the floor, to . . . to gouge out his eyes. Would you have done that?’
‘Oh, for heaven’s sake,’ Anna snapped. ‘Why must you always think of such horrible things? Cleiner is teaching us to be young ladies who can defend ourselves if any of the men we’re going to date try to come on too heavy. That’s all. Gouging out eyes! Yuk.’
*
‘This,’ Dr Cleiner said, ‘is a Walther personal pistol. You’ll see . . .’ He held up the little automatic. ‘It is very small. It fits into the palm of my hand, just about. It is sometimes called the ladies’ pistol, because it is so light and small, and thus can be carried in a Frau’s ordinary evening handbag and because it is so easy to fire. The trigger pressure is very light and there is virtually no recoil; also it makes very little noise.’ He removed the magazine and gave the pistol to Karen. ‘Doesn’t that feel good?’
Karen took the gun, slid her hands round it, grasped the butt, curled her finger round the trigger, and pointed it at Blassermann, who was, as usual, sitting to one side of the room. ‘Bang!’ she said, as the trigger clicked.
‘I can see you are a natural,’ Cleiner remarked. ‘Anna.’
Karen held out the gun, reluctantly, and Anna took it, cautiously. She had never held a gun before in her life. To her surprise, she did find it both comfortable and exciting.
Cleiner was as always watching her closely. ‘You must get to like it, Anna. Not only will it be a part of your equipment, as it were, but it may one day save your life far more efficiently than any unarmed skill can do. Now . . .’ He held up the magazine and extracted a little cartridge from it. ‘It is a small gun, so it fires small bullets. This is a six millimetre. Don’t get any wrong ideas; this will kill, if you hit your target in the right place. But as I say, this is a small weapon, and does not have the velocity of a rifle or even a high-calibre pistol. Even if you are an expert shot, you won’t do much damage at anything above fifty metres. Twenty-five metres, now, that is a different matter. And twenty-five metres is about three times the width of this room, so there is no need to get right up against your adversary. So let’s see what you can do.’
He led the way outside, followed as usual by Blassermann, past several interested squads of soldiers, and to one of the ranges that dotted the camp. This was small, no more than fifty metres long, and was entirely surrounded by head-high sandbags, which effectively shut it off from the rest of the camp, although it had four entrances, one at each corner. A target had already been set up, and beside it waited a soldier. Another waited at the top right-hand corner, behind the target.
‘Now,’ Cleiner said. ‘We will start with single shots. Karen, put the bullet through that bull’s eye. Remember, line up the sights, and then squeeze the trigger. Do not pull it, or the gun will move and you will miss. You must close the whole hand in one movement. I would stand aside, soldier.’
The soldier hastily moved well away from the target. Karen took the gun and levelled it, her tongue escaping between her teeth. The noise really was quite muted, and the soldier moved forward to examine the cardboard, and indicate where the bullet had struck. It had actually just nicked the cardboard, perhaps ten centimetres from the bull’s eye.
‘Excellent,’ Cleiner said. ‘You have a good eye. Now, Anna.’
Anna took the gun, lined it up, took several deep breaths, and squeezed the trigger. Again the soldier stepped forward to indicate the result.
‘But that is brilliant,’ Cleiner said. ‘You have just nicked the black. Do you not think that is brilliant, Captain?’
‘Indeed, Herr Doctor,’ Blassermann said. ‘I think we may proceed without any further delay. I would like Anna, at any rate, back in Berlin tomorrow.’
‘Very good. Well then, ladies, you heard the captain. This is to be a concentrated course. Now, you have both revealed that you have a steady hand and a good eye. But you have been firing at a stationary target. This is very unlikely to be the situation if you ever have to shoot in earnest. In reality, a single shot will very seldom hit, or in any event, hit in any vital or even crippling place, and you need to remember that your target will very likely be shooting back at you. Thus there are two rules you must always follow. When you shoot at a man, or a woman for that matter, you shoot to kill. No foolishness about trying to scare them by just missing, or about trying to bring them down by aiming at their legs. My business is to teach you how to survive, not how to get yourself killed. So you aim at the head or the torso. And you keep on shooting until he – or she – is dead, even if that means emptying your entire magazine. More agents get themselves killed by bringing down an enemy with a single shot and then advancing to inspect their handiwork, than in any other way. If you wish to stay alive, you keep firing until there is no possibility of him, or her, still being alive.’
He paused for breath, and the two girls looked at each other. Then Karen asked, ‘You used the word “agents”, Herr Doctor. Are we to be agents?’
For the first time Cleiner looked embarrassed, and glanced at Blassermann for assistance. ‘Certainly, you are agents,’ the captain said, smoothly. ‘Anyone who works for the Reich, in whatever capacity, is an agent of the Reich. You may proceed, Herr Doctor.’
‘Now we wish to see how you will handle the more realistic situation.’ Cleiner pointed at the top right-hand break in the sandbags. ‘Come.’ He led them forward to stand beside the original target. ‘You are now twenty-five metres from those sandbags. Your target is going to emerge through that top right-hand opening, and run as quickly as he can across to the left-hand exit. The distance is about forty metres. As he is not an athlete, this should take him between six and ten seconds. That is ample time for you to fire all five shots in your magazine. Of course, if you manage to hit him with your first shot, that will slow him up and you should find it easy to finish the job, but I would like to think that at least one of your shots will strike home. Karen?’ He fitted a fresh magazine into the Walther.
Karen was staring at him as if she were a rabbit and he a king cobra, a fairly apt simile, Anna thought. Now she said, her voice trembling, ‘Excuse me, Herr Doctor, did you say “he”?’
‘It is a man, yes. As I have said, your targets are most likely to be men.’
Karen licked her lips. ‘You wish me to shoot at a man? A living man?’
‘My dear girl, there would be little point in requiring you to shoot at a dead man. For one thing, he would be unable to move, eh? Much less run. Ha, ha. Now then.’
He held out the gun and Karen slowly took it. ‘This man . . .?’
‘Do not worry about him. He is another condemned criminal. He is due to be hanged. To be killed by a bullet is an infinitely preferable fate. But we have promised him that if he can survive, his sentence will be commuted to life imprisonment. So he will be trying his hardest. Now, are you ready?’
Karen stared at him, then looked at Anna, and then hastily looked away again.
‘Very good,’ Cleiner said. ‘Stand by,’ he called to the waiting soldier, who was obviously only one of several just beyond the opening. ‘Go!’
The soldier stepped aside, and a man was pushed into the arena. Like the man who had been used as a guinea pig for their unarmed combat, he wore a shirt and pants and nothing else, and was shivering with apprehension. He cast a hasty glance around him, getting his bearings, and then began to run, not very fast and continually tripping.
‘Come along,’ Cleiner commanded.
Karen raised the gun, and then lowered it again. ‘I can’t,’ she gasped. ‘I can’t just kill a man.’
‘Fraulein,’ Cleiner said. ‘I have given you an order, and I have explained to you what disobeying an order will involve.’
Tears began to dribble down Karen’s cheeks. ‘You can’t order me to kill a man, Herr Doctor. You can’t.’
‘Listen to me very carefully, Karen. I am a soft-hearted man, and therefore I am going to give you another chance. I am also going to repeat that if you fail to carry out any order given you by a superior in the SD, then you are of no more use to us, or to anyone. Do you understand this?’
Karen’s head bobbed up and down.
‘That’s a good girl. Again,’ he called.
There was a brief hesitation, then the prisoner reappeared. Now he knew the set-up, and immediately began running as hard as he could. Karen raised the pistol and fired again and again and again. Sand spurted from punctured bags, and the man reached the other entrance and disappeared. ‘Oh, gosh!’ Karen said, lowering the empty gun.
