Chapter 48
All League members greeted and praised Tom Swift as their savior. Now they were all together again, the idea of throwing a spanner in Totenkopf's works was discussed.
"That may not be necessary." Said Tom. "The doctor has ceased all contribution to the war effort. This was announced after the homunculi fields were destroyed along with the super zeppelin. The military presence in this complex is shipping out as we speak."
"That means our mission has already succeeded." Said Tarzan.
"No." Bellowed Biggles.
"Not yet." Added Mors.
"We must kill Totenkopf." Screeched Irma.
Gregor articulated his limbs in agreement.
"Glad to hear it." Said a voice with a Danish accent.
A lab coated scientist appeared from around the corner.
"Everyone." Said Tom. "This man helped me with the electro-magnetic pulse bomb. His name is Dr."
"Kraft." Everyone cut in.
The Danish scientist had been secretly informed by Tom of the odd assembly of personages that arrived on the island. Gregor was no surprise to him as he had seen the insect man carted away on a gurney. Kraft had seen the spaceship he built fly to and return from Mars; what he was told of the red planet's inhabitants, did not prepare him for the sight of the League. They were a jar of mixed oddities.
"You know me?" He asked.
Mors answered. "Your kidnapping prompted the formation of this League."
"So your here to eliminate Totenkopf as well as rescuing me?" Inquired Kraft.
Irma answered. "He has done unspeakably bad things in the name of science and so must be dealt with."
Biggles added. "He has a God complex and a heightened scientific skill to justify it, thus he will create the world anew. It is frightening to imagine how everyone's lives will be changed under his shadow."
Mors continued. "Sounds like, even if the war would end tomorrow, Totenkopf will soon establish a new world order policed by automatons and maybe even a new breed of homunculi. No he must not proceed unchecked."
Tarzan finished. "We must get to him."
"I know the way to him." Announced Kraft.
Everyone moved into the elevator as per Kraft's directions, he took it up to a high floor then led the League down a corridor.
Tom asked Biggles about the rocket trip. The pilot gave a brief account of the ride while thanking the lad for the tool, acknowledging Stalhein and Gregor as his co-saviors. The subsequent co-operation Tom gave to Totenkopf was explained as a way to get familiar with his works and advanced science; also it was in return for a promise not to vivisect Gregor. Irma informed Tom that the mad doctor had no intention of keeping that promise, she rescued the insect man from being thus butchered in the name of science. Gregor articulated his limbs in agreement.
"That bastard." Uttered Tom.
"There is no humanity in that fiend." Said Irma. "People are just lab rats to him."
Kraft opened a door to a dimly lit museum. All League members were fascinated by the exhibits. A huge dinosaur skeleton dominated the floor.
"It's an Iguanodon." Said the Dane. "One of many prehistoric species Totenkopf has brought back from extinction. There are living ones in the swamp."
A sculpture of Adam and Eve encoiled by the serpent, faced the dinosaur. It showed Adam reaching up to the tree of knowledge for the forbidden fruit.
Another skeleton appeared in a glass casing, it was roughly human, only half the size and with outspread wings.
"It's an angel." Despaired Biggles. "The bastard killed an angel."
Mors added. "No wonder he has a God complex."
"Looks like he has killed a devil too." Said Irma as she pointed at a large glass casing. The figure inside was a tall robust humanoid with the head of a bull, complete with horns.
"That's a minotour." Announced Mors.
"Is it a sculpture?" Asked Tom.
"No. It's stuffed." Answered Mors.
All members of the League juggled explanations, in their minds, for this exhibit. Did Totenkopf summon a demon then kill and taxidermied it; or did he locate or reproduce a man bull from Greek myth then do likewise?
"The office doors are here." Snapped Kraft.
Everyone's attention shifted to a well lit foyer with two large golden doors, each had a giant Tesla coil by their hinges.
"Totenkopf is in here." Whispered Kraft. "Let's go."
Dr Kraft was way ahead of the League, he rushed the doors to open them, stepping on a metal floor plate at their feet.
"No doctor." Yelled Tom.
The Tesla coils buzzed into swift activity and each spat out synthetic lightning at the rushing presence in between them. When they met, Kraft was there; he stiffened then was instantly burnt and sublimated into a skeleton which fell down to the floor and smashed apart.
Lightning continued to emanate from the coils; it got wider and thicker, until the doorway became a screen where an image of Totenkopf's face appeared.
"Who dares come before me?" Blared the Totenkopf image in a deep foreboding voice. "Who dares enter this place? What has begun cannot be stopped."
An imperfect stream of lightning blurred the next line. The League assembled in front of the loud image to hear its testimony.
"I have been witness to a world consumed by hatred and bent on self-destruction. Watched as we have taken what was to be a paradise and failed in our responsibilities as its steward. I know now that the course the human race has set for itself cannot be changed. I am the last, desperate chance for a doomed planet."
Tom tore a wire out of the left Tesla coil base. Both coils powered down, switching the loud image off.
"Is it safe now?" Asked Biggles.
"Throw something onto the metal floor plate. " Instructed Tom.
Biggles took out his pistol and tossed it gently onto the lethal surface. Nothing happened.
It was Captain Mors who personally stepped forward and opened the golden doors. His understanding of physics gave him confidence in the deadly fields nullification.
Two large statues under a bright ceiling dome demanded the League's attention when they entered the room. They were each of men in togas: one was crouched forward showing a letterbox slot in his hollow cranium; the other was upright and holding a brain in the palm of his hand. The extracted organ was either an offering to the Gods which the bearer was looking up to, or he was thanking his creators for the divine gift of intelligence.
Blue lampshades filtered a dim light in the office. Full bookcases dominated one wall, metal shutters another. A large painting shared wall space with the bookcase, it was a reproduction of Michelangelo's The Creation of Adam.
There were several mahogany desks covered with notes on them; Totenkopf was behind one of them with his back to the shutters. Irma could smell a lingering faintness of the fear gas. It was too weak to affect anyone, but it had been dispensed in this office. The gas cylinder was on the mad doctor's desk, with its nozzle turned off.
A lamp turned on, it illuminated Totenkopf, who was seated wearing a crimson dressing gown. A rolled up piece of parchment rested in his hand. He was shivering in fear, not of the League that approached him, but of some vision the gas generated in his head.
"Hello Doctor." Greeted Mors in German.
Several more greetings followed in various languages and tones.
Biggles slammed his hand on the desk. "Do you still justify what you do; the misery, the monstrosities your brilliance makes?"
"Totenkopf half offered the pilot the parchment in his hand. "I have just had the worst visions imaginable." He stuttered in English. The fear gas had worked its effect on him.
"They were horrible." Totenkopf continued stuttering. "It was me in the next rocket; with the G-force bursting my blood veins inside me."
He turned to Irma. "It was me having those cruel volts of electricity surge through my body."
Next he faced Tarzan. "I was set upon by savage homunculi I had created, and was bodily torn apart."
The chair swiveled so he faced Gregor. "I was the poor creature in the science lab getting vivisected."
Mors was the next figure he turned to. "Fire in the sky and I started it with my rockets. The flames whooshed down to Earth and incinerated our world. They could not facilitate a new beginning on the World of Tomorrow; all they did was destroy the world we had."
Totenkopf got up off his chair and grasped Tom's arms. "Tom, you have a brilliant mind. Do not become like me. This world is all we have, you must look after it."
Tom gave a positive assurance to the stuttering doctor who then sat back in his chair.
To the League this was someone quite different from the loud image in the lightning screen.
Irma stated. "He will revert to his former wicked self as soon as the gas induced fear passes."
Biggles added. "Maybe he already has."
"Tomorrow." Yelled Totenkopf without stuttering.
The doctor reached one hand under the desk while the hand holding the parchment moved towards a button. To everyone, he was either reaching for a weapon under the desk or about to raise an alarm and summon further monstrosities, be they either mechanical or homunculi.
Three guns were drawn and went off simultaneously sending a deadly payload into the crimson dressing gown. Totenkopf died then and there still clutching the parchment; the impacts sent the swivel around one hundred and eighty degrees. Totenkopf faced the shutters now. Biggles, Irma and Mors put away their smoking pistols, each certain the doctor was dead.
Tom probed the surface under the desk. "There is no weapon down there, nor any button. The hand was on his knee, he was attending to an itch."
"And what of this button he was openly reaching for." Asked Biggles.
"I recognise that type of button." Answered Tom. "It is not an alarm or a summons.
"Watch." Tom pressed the button. The shutters opened revealing a full view of the volcano's interior. Another press of the button closed the shutters.
Biggles took the rolled up parchment from Totenkopf's hand. It had only two words written down. Forgive me.
The parchment was rolled up again and placed back into Totenkopf's dead hand, then the lamp was turned off.
"What do we do now?" Inquired Tom.
"We leave and go home." Answered Biggles. "We're done here."
"The Luftpirat can pick us up outside." Said Mors.
"Let's go."