Homecoming

Thanx for the reviews! Karl's problems with Laura continue, and my unimaginativness of thinking up names for Germans is shown, because there's another charecter called Tomas who'll be appearing later on...

Karl's gaze flickered to the trench coat hanging on the carved hanger by the huge metal door. Along with his SS uniform, it was as much a part of him now as his mask. They had been repaired many times, so many that there was not much of the original material left. He remembered when he had been given these for the first time, just after he had been kicked out of Cambridge…

Karl pushed Laura forward in front of him impatiently. He didn't want to waste any time in getting back home, for the journey was long and, depending on whether they went by plane or car, rather annoying. Metal detectors meant that Karl couldn't take any weapons with him, and he felt almost naked without some sort of blade around. On the other hand, it would take several days to get back to Schloss Unterholz and the letter Cambridge would send would get there far quicker than that. Karl didn't want to let his father's anger have time to grow too much. The whole thing was making him angry too, and it was Laura who had to suffer the consequences. Well, it was her fault.

Franz chuckled slightly from behind him, obviously guessing what was going on in his mind.

"Aeroplane is it Karl?" he asked innocently.

"Ja," Karl growled.

"How are we going to get the girl on the plane without her giving the game away?" This question came from Tomas, impatient at being dragged away from his computers. Apparently he had been perfecting his hacking skills.

"He has a point. We can not gag her. People would start to wonder. If she is allowed to get away from us she could tell the officials," Erich, who was studying engineering, put in.

"I'll think of something. Now are we going or what?"

"We're going Karl," Franz told him, smiling behind his back.

Whilst Franz got behind the wheel of the big people carrier, the others piled in, Karl holding a knife to the back of Laura's neck and removing the gag. Tomas leaned over from the very back seats.

"What do you reckon Kroenen'll do to her?" he asked jovially.

"Something pretty nasty I'm sure Tomas," Franz said, a slight flicker of enjoyment in his voice.

"Yes, but what, exactly?" the hacker wanted to know.

Franz sighed. He noticed that Karl was smiling cruelly. "Remember the time when you went into Kroenen's lab looking for the bread knife? Like that."

Karl chuckled. "You were sick when you came back out again," he reminded him. Tomas looked annoyed.

"Yes, but I was younger then! I'm not that squeamish anymore!" he protested.

"You go on saying that Tomas," Erich said, smiling. "You go on saying that."

They had picked Stanstead both because it was near and because it wasn't very busy. They could get a reasonably priced British Airways flight from there to Munich and hire another people carrier to take them to the Schloss.Karl had grumbled a bit about the cost of leaving the car in the long stay car park, but Franz had pointed out to him that it was his parents who were the rich ones - all that stolen gold from the war and arms dealing with war-torn African countries – and it was only right that they should pay, and after that he shut up.

Now Karl sighed as he looked longingly at the long knife he was packing into the single bag of luggage they were taking. There wasn't any need to take changes of clothes; it wasn't all that far to Schloss Unterholz. There was no way he could take the weapon onto the plane though.

Erich took the big bag and heaved the shoulder strap up over his head.

"This weighs a ton!" he muttered, looking pointedly at Karl. "It's not as if you'll even need those swords."

"I will."

"There'll be other weapons at the castle."

"It's a bit too late to take them back now, isn't it!"

"Come on. We need to get moving," Franz said. "Lets go get and get those tickets. You did get them didn't you Tomas?"

"Yeah, yeah, of course. Jahwohl! It was easy."

"By 'easy' I suppose that means them were free, weren't they."

"Ja!"

Franz rolled his eyes. He watched Laura carefully as they headed to the check-in. If she made a break for it, both he and Karl could use their formidable martial art skills to take her down before she went five paces. He hoped though that she wouldn't try to escape. It would be too inconvenient.

Ben looked intently at the screen as the various items of hand luggage slid through the X-ray machine. This was the most entertainment he ever got working here at the airport. The days here were very dull.

Now several black leather trench coats were put down on the rollers, quickly followed by four bags and another coat; some sort of brand name. He glanced up, slightly surprised. Four men with blonde hair and blue eyes and a girl who was looking rather nervous were standing there. As the things passed through the machine he watched with great interest, making sure each took a long time so he could have a good look at it. Several books about Nazis were in there; a Torah in one, which seemed rather out of place; various bits of paper; some magazines in German; food; a PDA; and what he thought was a copy of Mein Kampf. Ben wondered who these people were, but of course, he would never find out. He was only an airport employee.

Franz stopped for a moment to pick up a copy of the Daily Mail before they got on the plane. He loved all politics and it was vitally important he keep up with the news, even though he detested trying to handle the broadsheet's pages in the confines of an aeroplane. You never knew what scraps of information could be gleaned from articles that seemed unimportant and dull.

Nothing much else happened as they boarded and waited for take-off. Laura reached into her bag once they were seated and drew out a Torah. Karl looked faintly disgusted, but he could hardly protest here. There was a slight change in the noise of the engines as the plane reached the runway, and then began to accelerate. With a lurch, they were off.

To be continued when they reach the castle…