Cohen was cursing to himself. It was so simple!
Why didn't he think of the catacombs under the cities.
It was a gigantic maze of tunnels under carved in sandstone under the city. A lot of houses had their basement connected to the maze and you could walk for kilometers down there without seeing the sun. It was ancient. Even in the age of the Romans, the people already hid in the tunnel systems and in during the thirty years war the majority of the inhabitants of the city stayed in there for decades to hide from the various marauding packs of mercenaries.
Most people his age knew the maze like the back of their own hands, since the last war made them take cover there for weeks and months.
This was so simple that it was embarrassing.
After the war all known entrances where closed with heavy steel doors and security locks, but he always suspected that the maze was still used as a place to hide by people with shady business.
He wanted keys for all those doors and he didn't want to dishonour his workplace by going in a obviously forbidden place without give the civil forces in town a call.
He called the police and the chief promised to call him back to tell him the start time after he had organised a search group.
This was good. The Police could to an official search while him and his men could sneak through and search a bit more discreetly.
Cohen opened the door of his office, to search for his colleague and would have almost fallen over a certain Albino sitting on the floor hovering over a map. Cohen blinked in surprise.
He knew the kid, because he was a troublemaker and he found him a few times trying to climb over the school fence in the early morning.
He also knew, because it was announced on the graduation party last summer, that Gilbert started to work in the military as a strategist. He may not have the experience, but he wasn't useless, for what Cohen planned to do.
"Boy, if you want to help get your friends back here as fast as you can and come to my office. We've got a trace."
There was a shadow of despair in the boys eye but he nodded frantically and grasped his cellphone in hurry.
Meanwhile Mr. Arthur Kirkland climbed down the gully and followed the sewer until he found a massive steel door. The lock was broken open the door was ajar by a few centimeters.
Arthur hesistated to push it open and go in.
there was at least one person inside, and while he wasn't weak, he was also noone who could win a fight with a group of thugs, that were able to easily overwhelm a big guy like Ludwig.
Somewhere in the dark a sharp laugh made him flinch.
"He totally barfed all over you!" echoed the unpleasant voice of a man through the tunnel behind the door.
"Shut up!" grunted a second man. He sounded like he was pretty big and barely controlling his anger.
"Hey kid! It's boring! Stop sleeping!" The sound of something soft and heavy scratching over damp stone floor. Arthur cursed, before he slipped through the door, he took is phone out, why it was weak, he still had a connection.
He send Cohen the street name and a photo of the door, so they knew where to search, then he started to get closer to harsh sound of fists on skin.
He was almost there and saw Ludwig leaned against the wall, a bandage around his head (it wasn't easy to determine if the kid was awake), when something hard hit the back of his head and he lost consciousness.
When he came back to senses he as leaning next to his student and at the other side of the room there was an relatively small guy watching a movie on his cellphone.
Arthur made sure to not disturb him and silently turned his head towards Ludwig.
"Oi!" he whispered quietly."You awake?"
A silent nod from the boy before let his head fall on Arthur's shoulder, making it look like an the move of an unconscious man. The English teacher kept his eyes in their guardian.
"You shouldn't have come here..." the boy breathed against his ears.
"I won't let my precious little student be alone in this."
A silent snort.
Arthur carefully pulled the young man closer. Ludwigs cloths were wet, as if the kidnappers had tried to wake him by pouring water over him, and the skin under it was cold. He must be freezing.
Ludwig shivered under his touch but lean in the warmth gratefully.
Arthur didn't care anymore if it was normal or okay for him to feel this way... he's known this kid since he was a toddler he had taken care for him, since the kid was old enough to play football... he wouldn't stop caring for him now. He didn't care if it was the right thing to do as a teacher... well probably it was extremely stupid...but he felt it was the right thing to do for Arthur Kirkland, to try anything to help this student and keep him as safe as possible until help arrived.
Mr Theudebert just controlled one of the schools security cameras, when a cursing Mr Cohen almost toppled over his stepladder, making the blond man come down a bit faster than he planned.
"Moin, Chef!" he grunted in surprise and waited patient until his boss stopped ranting and was able to explain, what happened.
"Yò..."he said deep in thoughts after Jakob ended and stuffing his fists in the pockets of his boiler suit. "So, he gév' you a tip ta söarch in de catacomps and den he vent in dere kno'ing dat dere are peeple he verrhy likely cän not fight?!"
"Yup."
"Iss'er total meschugge?!"
"Very likely."
"Was'n Idiot!"
"Yup!"
"So, vat's ya plän?"
I really like writing scenes between Germania and Cohen... I just really like writing old guy bromance. 3~
"Meschugge" btw. is a german word of hebrew origin and means something like "crazy".
