Chapter Two
The squad moved through the town and took a road that led up towards the richer mansions that were built upon the hill, the great houses overlooking the town below. A few that had been occupied only two years ago, now stood empty, the rich possessions now gathering dust or sitting in a thief or Nazi storage compartment. Meanwhile, the other mansions stood proudly as their Nazi supporter residents threw extravagant parties as they heiled Hitler.
Annabeth spat at the ground. Her father lived in one of those mansions. He could be throwing a party right now, toasting to Hitler with all the other Nazi suck-ups.
They're brainwashed, she thought. Brainwashed with fear and pressure.
A part of her wanted to argue, the rebel side of her. Her grey eyes hardened as she thought about all the horrible things that Hitler had said about the Jews. Germany had eaten it up, and Austria scurried for the table scraps. Frederick Chase was one of the dogs of Hitler. Yet, there were the men and women who had not fallen into the Nazi trap. Sadly, they had to go along with the others so as not to attract the attention of the Gestapo. But the rebels had connections. Though rich, and therefore the most seen in the public eye, the people on the mansions were a mixture of both Nazi and patriot. To a patriot's house was where the squad was marching now.
As they climbed the road, Annabeth gritted her teeth in annoyance. The reason? They weren't really on the road. So as not to be seen by the cars that occasionally passed, they were walking in the muddy ditches right next to the tree line. Should a car pass by, it would be easy to hide in the trees. Not only that, but they were also going uphill with heavy weapons and an unconscious Nazi officer.
Eventually, they reached the peak of the hill and stealthily stayed behind the wall that shielded the street lined with mansions from the slope of the hill. Annabeth knew the road by heart. At a certain part of the wall, the squad halted and went downhill slightly where there was a slight cliff of land. From there they turned right and made their way down a thin, hidden path that stopped about 3 feet down by slope, 10 feet in length. To their left was the slope of the hill downward and to their right was the slope of the hill going up. At the end of the path, Annabeth stopped and faced the hill. Hidden by the branches of a nearby pine tree, the wooden door would have been almost impossible to see had you not known its location.
Moving the branches aside with one hand, Annabeth rapped her the knuckles of her other hand on the smooth wood in a certain way. Which is to say, the morse code version of the letter "O", repeated five times.
A small window slid open, revealing a set of mischievous brown eyes. "What's the password?"
Annabeth rolled her eyes. "I already did it."
"Uh-huh. I didn't hear it," the brown eyes said.
"O-five" she said irritatedly.
"Nope."
"Then what?"
"That's for me to know and you to find out."
Annabeth's eyes flared and she reached into her boot, revealing a pistol which she promptly pointed at the eyes in the door. "How's this for a password?"
The brown eyes widened and the door hurriedly swung open, revealing a sheepishly smiling, curly-haired teenager with an upturned nose standing at the opening of a tunnel. Behind him was a small table with a lantern, a deck of cards, and a newspaper, completed by a chair. "Uh, sorry Annie. You know it gets boring over here. Just trying to make things more interesting."
Annabeth wasn't moved. "That's why Travis is supposed to be with you, besides being the back-up in case you get your brains blown out like you would've had I been a Nazi." She glanced around the entrance area and returned her gaze to the boy. "Where is Travis?"
A mischievous smile crept across the boy's face. "I'm sure he wouldn't be with a certain Katie Gardner, not that you heard it from me."
Annabeth rolled her eyes. "Alright Connor, enough shenanigans. We have weapons and an unconscious Nazi officer and we-"
"You have a Nazi!?" Connor shouted. He quickly pulled out his gun, frantically pointing it with a randomness that made Annabeth's eyes widen.
"CONNOR! Put the gun down! He's unconscious!" she explained before one of her men got a bullet in the eye.
Connor blinked and put away the gun, blushing in embarrassment. "Sorry Annie, uh, I guess I got a little excited."
Annabeth rolled her eyes. "Just move aside so we don't freeze out here," she said, gesturing to her squad who was calming down now that the gun was gone.
Connor sheepishly stepped out of the way and the men behind Annabeth filed into the tunnel which was only lit by the lantern on the table next to Connor. One brought out a flashlight and continued down the tunnel, the others in tow. Meanwhile Annabeth turned to the curly haired boy. "I'll have someone send two more people to take over you shift in about an hour."
Connor nodded and went back to his place by the table and Annabeth made her way down the tunnel to follow her men. The tunnel ended about 40 feet ahead, a torch about every 10 feet on each wall. At the end of the tunnel, was another door where her men stood, waiting for admittance. At the sound of whispered words, the door opened a moment later. The men filed in and Annabeth followed. Behind the door was another boy with blonde hair and blue eyes.
"Good evening Michael," Annabeth greeted.
The boy nodded back and closed the door behind her as Annabeth entered the room.
The room was large, but not tall. The concrete ceiling was 10 feet overhead and yellow lights were spaced about the ceiling. The floor was wood, while the walls were concrete. Along the walls were work tables, some messy with papers, others orderely, and some with strange half-built contraptions on them. At one end of the room were large trunks where the squad was carrying its weapons. All around the room men were working, sweating in the stuffy air. In the center, two table were pushed together and 4 people stood around it, staring at a large map unfurled on the table, once in a while making adjustments. Two of them were bickering as they examined the map and the volume coming from them was rising steadily.
Annabeth made her way to the table and stood beside the boy with the sandy blonde hair. "So what's up Luke?"
The boy turned to Annabeth and rolled her eyes, pointing a thumb at the two bickering people. "Clarisse and Thalia have been at it like that for twenty minutes now. I swear, I'm going to lose my hearing from all the screeching."
Annabeth smirked and turned to the fifth person at the table, a middle aged man with brown hair and a beard. Streaks of grey mingled with the brown in his beard and Annabeth wondered how long it would be before his beard was completely grey. Glancing over at the two screaming girls, she thought, not long. She decided to put a stop to the bickering as the noise had grown loud enough that the whole room was staring at them. "Enough!"
The girls turned to her and one continued to glare while a smile crossed the others face. "Annabeth, you're back" the smiling one said.
"Geez Thals, what's got you so hyped up?" Annabeth asked her.
The girl ran a hand through her spiky black hair and glared pointedly at the sour faced girl, who glared equally back. "Clarisse won't agree that we hold back squad C from following the Germans to the next town."
"Well, Thalia, since you obviously do not understand tactics, I'll explain it to you. Now is the correct time to attack because we have taken out their supplies! We need to attack while they're vulnerable!" Clarisse said, moving her gaze to Annabeth. "You were successful, weren't ya toots?"
Annabeth glared at the nickname and replied through gritted teeth, "Yes, and we have a prisoner."
The occupants of the table stared at Annabeth in surprise, who in turn gestured to the man who held the unconscious Nazi.
Immediately the Thalia and Clarisse burst into motion, Thalia shouting orders and Clarisse marching towards the officer. "Make sure he's unarmed! Ready the cell! Luke, make sure no one's coming!" Thalia ordered, pointing at the wooden ladder in the corner of the room which lead up to the cellar of the house.
Clarisse reached for the Nazi's gun and checked his pockets as the guard held the officer up. Meanwhile, Luke had dashed for the ladder while Thalia was readjusting her battle plans.
Soon the Nazi was unarmed and carried to the cells as Annabeth took her side next to Thalia. Throughout the brief chaos, the brown haired man had not moved. Annabeth turned to face him. "Chiron? What are you thinking?"
The man looked at her and then in the direction of the cells. "I am wondering why you brought a Nazi back from a sabotage and pillage mission," he replied.
Annabeth expected this. No prisoners had been mentioned in the planning of her squad's mission. "He was an officer. I thought he might know some information."
Chiron nodded and went back to the plans. Thalia, unfortunately for Annabeth, wasn't accepting. "What exactly was he an officer of?" she asked.
Annabeth's grey eyes moved to focus on Thalia. "He was leading an escort for the supply trucks."
A smirk crept across Thalia's face. "Oh, so it wasn't because he was hot?"
Annabeth's eyes widened in shock and she nearly slapped herself for allowing a faint blush to rise on her cheeks. She glared at the grinning spiky haired girl and opened her mouth to retort before she was interrupted by an "All clear Thals!"
The three at the table turned to look at Luke who was coming down the ladder. Thalia nodded and turned to Chiron. "Shall we discuss plans on what we're going to do now that we have hit the supply trucks?"
"I say we send a squad to the hills to flank the Germans and take them while they're distracted by the resistance in the next town," Clarisse declared, walking towards the table from the cell corridor.
Thalia glared and made to shout back and excuse but Luke beat her to it. "No, the troops are too far away by now. We need to leave the resistance over there take care of themselves."
"And leave them by themselves to face Grace? I don't think so," Clarisse threw back.
"May I say something?" Annabeth asked, inserting herself between Thalia and Clarisse who were now nose-to-nose.
The table turned to look at the grey eyed blonde. "I second Clarisse's idea, only with a few changes," she said.
Thalia and Luke looked at her in shock and Clarisse raised an eyebrow at the word "changes". Chiron simply looked on with a gleam in his eye, as if he knew Annabeth would make the plan a masterpiece.
Annabeth took a breath and tucked a hair behind her ear as she leaned over the map. "I suggest that we do in fact send a squad to flank the Germans, but…" she said, pointing to the hills and then to the city where the Nazis were marching. "How about we send in 2 other squads, one to act as a decoy to follow the Germans. Wouldn't they expect that we would follow them?" she asked, casting glances about the table. All were in agreement and waited for the next part of her plan.
"Then, while the Germans are distracted by not only the resistance of the town, and the rear squad, we send in the second squad, which will be hiding in the trees to attack them from the side. That squad should be big as the Germans will be flanked except on the hill side. We'll use the Eastern resistance and our squads to force them into the hill..." she explained, dragging her fingers in the direction of the hills.
"And the squad in the hills will come charging down on them," Thalia finished. "It would be a massacre."
"It's genius," Luke said.
Clarisse nodded in approval of the changes to her basic plan. Meanwhile, Annabeth's eyes had drifted to her mentor and her surrogate father. His blue eyes twinkled in pride and a small smile formed on her lips.
"So when do we strike?" Luke asked.
A battle-hungry smile made Clarisse's opinion obvious. "Now."
Author's Note: So what do you think of my battle plan? Connor's jumpy and as you can see, there's a mention of Tratie. Percy's passed out...Anyway, thanks for reading and to those who reviewed, thanks a ton. PLEASE REVIEW PEOPLE!
