Chapter III:
Hunted Down
Five soldiers in full combat gear broke into the storage room with their automatic guns aimed and ready to fire.
- Lights on... He may be hiding here. -
- Maybe... Or maybe someone just left it turned on. - Said another.
- Anyway, we've got orders, let's take a look. -
The soldiers started moving through the room, searching for Maximilian amidst the confusion of things thrown all over the place. Hidden under a table surrounded by bags of rotting things and other rubbish, he was skipping heartbeats, praying and imagining they would find him any time soon.
-Domine, miserere me... - He whispered, praying, right before hearing a soldier walking right next to him.
- All clear here. - Said the man, whos Francophone accent Maximilian recognised as likely being from Quebec.
- Did you find him? - Said a young woman, entering the room.
- Negative, Your Highness. - Replied the soldiers.
The young Austrian prince froze as he recognised her: It was Clovis' sister, Princess Cornelia li Britannia.
- Then find him! - She commanded. - We need his head by the dawn: my father was transparent clear: NO HABSBURG MUST SURVIVE THE NIGHT. -
- Yes, Your Highness! - Replied the soldiers, leaving immediately.
He still noticed that she remained behind and sighed: - Was it really necessary? - Then after a pause: - Orders are orders, anyway. - She finally left.
As soon as Cornelia and her troops were at a safe distance, Clovis made Giulio get out of his hiding. It was now the time to escape.
- Come this way! I know it won't be easy. - Said Clovis, pointing at dormitory. Maximilian took a long breath and followed him.
The scene he saw was destined to remain impressed in his mind for the rest of his days: most of the bunk beds had fallen down, pillows and matrasses were impregnated with blood and torn apart by the bullets they had received. The pupils that were gathered there instead, his former friends and schoolmates, boys and girls alike, where lying everywhere, their bodies riddled with bullets and their blood, guts and even pieces of brain spread everywhere across the room.
- This can't be true... This can't be true. - Kept repeating Clovis, as they reached the window, which he opened.
Maximilian stopped and looked at him, dazed. - What now? -
- Out of the window, get to the Yeomen's Hut. You'll find help. -
- You don't come? - Asked Maximilian, still confused.
Clovis shook his head. - Can't, my friend. I'm sorry. - He then hugged tightly his friend. - Now go! Quick! -
Maximilian crossed the park in the direction of the Yeomen's Hut. This was the clubhouse of the alumni, many of which integrated the St. Edmund Yeomanry Regiment a beautiful building made in the style of an Alpine hunting hut.
Upon his arrival, all the lights of the hut were off; yet, as he checked on the door, he found it open. Immediately, a suspicion caught him: what if Clovis had set him a trap. But what for? He heard Cornelia saying Charles wanted him dead. If Clovis had wanted the same, he would have just done nothing. Thus, he opened the door and he entered the dark hall.
- Look who's here. - Said a voice in the darkness.
- Villetta? - He asked.
- And she brought in some help. - Added another voice, which sounded somewhat familiar to him.
- Let me introduce you to Lord Kewell Soresi. He's also an alumnus and just like me, serves in the Yeomanry. - Said Villetta.
Maximilian shook the hand of the man he could barely recognise in the darkness.
- Thanks for coming to my help. - He then started. - I... I think I might be in trouble. -
- You can bet you are. - Said Villetta, with a bitter laugh. - You've got the bloody special forces chasing you. -
- Yeah... I'm the fox tonight. - Agreed Maximilian, rethinking of his many foxhunts. -
- Cornelia is the Huntsman and the soldiers are the hounds, that's right. - Added Kewell.
- Indeed. - Agreed Maximilian, whom at this point really wished he could see the two interlocutors. - So, what's the plan? -
- Plan? - Asked Villetta. - Well, you will most likely die before sunset, I won't lie. However, if you do survive, Clovis bought you a first-class ticket on board of the Arcadian Star, which leaves this evening at seven for St. Petersburg. -
Kewell then provided some more detail: - So, now this is what will happen: you will follow us to a safe place where you will hide there until time to board. We will hand you fake documents and the ticket, all things provided by Clovis. - He made a pause. - Once we deliver you to the hiding, you'll be on your own. We are already risking too much by helping you and frankly, wasn't for Clovis, we would have never bothered. -
- Sure, fine. - Replied Maximilian. - Well then, lead the way. I don't want to burden you with my ill-fate more than you already have to. -
- Please, come this way. - Invited then Kewell, politely pushing him with a gloved hand. - We will take the underground or, to better say, the sewers. -
It took them more than one hour, or at least, that was what Maximilian estimated, of a disgusting walk in through the fetid sewers of New York City, before they could re-emerge, in the basement of some building.
- Where are we? - Asked Maximilian, thankful for being freed from the terrible odour and the darkness, once they entered a simple underground room in concrete.
- Chinatown, not one of the fanciest neighboorhods, but we're close to Brooklyn Piers and that's what matters. -
- Yes, of course. - Replied Maximilian. - And what now? -
- Now we leave and you stay. - Said Villetta, handing him a watch. - You need to be at the pier of the Dominion Lines at no later than half past six. -
- Fine, I will. - Replied Maximilian, nodding.
- You most likely won't. - Replied Kewell. - Anyway, we wish you luck, Your Highness. - Maximilian noticed a note of sarcasm in the way he pronounced those last two words.
- Farewell, Maximilian. - Added Villetta.
The two then, without any further word, turned their back to him and left, leaving him alone in that basement.
The rest of the night (not still much longer), was for Maximilian a long and painful wait. One one hand, he wished to receive news from his family back home. Yet, he had no way of doing it. Not a cell phone, not a phone, he was hermetically cut off from the world. He eventually sat on the ground, against a wall and started thinking about all that happened: his friends, schoolmates and probably his family were dead, or likely dead, he could presume that, by then and Cornelia was hunting him down. He was the fox, the fox, the fox...
He started crying. He wanted them back, all of them, more than ever and he wished he could hug his mother... No, he hoped he would still hug her!
Hours passed and this torture only made suffer him more and more. He checked again on the watch. It was an Army watch, one of those made for the officers... His Patek-Philippe remained at the school, together with the signer ring and his whole life. Focus on the task: check the time. It was only 09:10 am.
He looked around. They had left him water, something to eat: sandwiches, chocolate and some apples. He ate an apple and some chocolate, while still trying to convince himself that maybe not everything was lost.
Around 11:00 am, he finally he received a visit.
Initially, when he heard the doors on the upper floor opening and closing, he was assailed by terror and he started preparing himself for the worst. His fears, however, were dissipated when the basement door opened and he recognised the slow step of Clovis, on the stairs.
- Clovis! - He exclaimed, going to meet his friend.
- Max! - Replied the prince, coming to hug him. He didn't look good. His eyes were red and his expression betrayed exhaustion and resignation.
- Are you alright? - Asked Maximilian, seeing the state of his friend.
Clovis nodded. - I'm fine. - His voice was feeble and sad. - I'm really sorry about all of this, I... - He paused. - I brought you something. - With those words, he handed Maximilian his watch, his signet ring and a small box in dark-red leather with engraved in gold the crest of the Habsburg House and on its opening, the wax seal of some pope (Maximilian recognised the Triregnum on top of the crest). - I retrieved what I could, this morning and well, I could only take with me few small things, so I recalled you deemed them as the most important. -
- Thanks. - Said Maximilian, wearing immediately both his watch and the golden ring, which had the Habsburg crest engraved in a coral stone. He then looked at the box for a few moments. - You know, I have no idea of what's in it. Papa always told me it's been passed on into our family since the 16th century and not to use it, unless strictly needed. So I... -
- Max. - Interrupted him Clovis, with a serious, dark expression on his face. - I talked this morning with mama back home in Pendragon. - He paused. - About your family. -
Maximilan's heartbeats increased and looked at Clovis demanding that he continued.
- They... - Clovis hesitated, biting his lips and struggling not to cry. - Papa... - He shook his head. - My father had everyone rounded up at Habsburg Palace and executed. -
Maximilian felt like the world was crumbling around him: - All of them? -
Clovis nodded, sighing and tearing. - You parents, your siblings, uncles, aunts, cousins... He didn't spare anyone. -
Maximilian fell back, sitting on the floor, he then sunk is face in his hands. - I don't understand. - He whispered, his voice too feeble for him to speak loud. - Why? What did we do? - He felt like a hole was dug inside him. A sensation of emptiness which pervaded him and took possession of his heart.
- Mama had these sent to me. - Added Clovis, handing him another leather box, this one dark green, which he opened, showing, wrapped in purpure silk, a golden seal. - It was all she could recover. - He then turned more solemn: - Your Imperial and Royal Highness, I present you with the Seal of the Imperial House of Habsburg. You're the Archduke of Austria now, the last Habsburg. -
Maximilian had just the time to take that other box with him that from outside they began to hear the syrens of the police cars, helicopters and troops assembling.
- You brought them here. - Said Maximilian in shock, still with the box in his hands, looking at Clovis, who was just as terrified as him.
- It was Cornelia... - Murmured Clovis, turning wrathful: - That bitch! She had mefollowed. -
Maximilian got up. - That's the only escape. - He said, pointing at the sewers.
- It is. - Agreed Clovis. - You go ahead. I'll distract them. -
- No! - Replied Lodovico. - I lost my whole family, I'm not losing my friend as well. -
- I'm an imperial prince. - There won't be much they can do to me. Now go, before it's too late, go! -
Maximilian obeyed and returned down to the darkness of the sewers.
"Damn, Cornelia sent in the terriers." Was his first thought when, getting down to the sewers, he found himself targeted by a soldier that was using infrared glasses.
He didn't have the time to stop thinking about what miracolous force saved him, as he was a certain target for the soldier, who had just been there waiting for him. He ran.
Soon he figured out that he was being chased by at least a dozen of soldiers and that the numbers were constantly increasing. Even worse: they would fire at him at the first good occasion, the objective, after all, was to kill him, not to capture him.
He first noticed they were coming from multiple directions and were closing in: he needed to hide.
He found as the only possibility a hole in that foetid and dirty tunnell, but as he tried to make light with a Zippo he had with him, he noticed a disgusting population of uncanny animals inside it.
"I'm not doing it." He thought, for a moment.
Yet, he did, as he felt the steps of the soldiers closer and closer.
The following fifteen minutes would likely be the longest and most traumatic of his entire life. He was lying in a hole filled with bin and carcasses, populated by rats, cockroaches and all sort of bugs, while right above his head the soldiers were moving back and forth, searching for him. He nearly regretted not being shot, as he began to notice, underneath his clothers, moving on his skin, the wet fur of rats and the cold, humid legs of many oversized insects. They were everywhere, even in his hair and he struggled not to throw up.
He did so, however, once the soldiers were gone and he got out of that disgusting place, removing dozens of those underworldly creatures from his clothes. He was free for now and he resumed his wandering through the sewers.
He had no idea what to do, or where to go.
He was alone in the world now: no more friends, no more family, no more school. He wanted to cry, first, then he wanted to end his life: what would he, a Britannian posh boy lost in a sewer, do? Even if he had managed to board the ocean liner at Brooklyn Piers, where would he go then? What would he do in St. Petersburg?
All those thoughts still tormented him as he reached an exhaust which faced the Hudson River mouth. Sunlight at last.
It was indeed a nice, sunny day of spring. Ocean liners, tankers and other boats moved up and down the Hudson Bay, some where leaving, some coming in. Nobody seemed to even have noticed the tragedy of the Catholic Party. At least, it seemed so, sitting on the edge of that enormous pipe.
"There goes the Andrea Doria." He thought, noticing the iconic Italian ship that connected Boston and New York with Napoli and Genova elegant. He travelled a few times on it, back in happier times, when he would go with his family spend holidays in Italy. On the other side of the river, he also saw, already docked there, the RMS Arcadia Star of the Dominion Lines, which instead connected New York with St. Petersburg.
He felt like giving everything up and remain there until being found and killed by Cornelia's forces. At least, he thought, he would be reunited with his family.
Yet, he quickly rejected such thoughts: Clovis had just put in risk his life for him and so did Villetta and Kewell. Was him really going to be this ungrateful? No way, he had to stay alive or at least try and do it for them, if not for him.
"Well, I'm in the hands of God, if there's one." He then thought, before letting himself go, slipping down the edge until being in the freezing waters of the Hudson. Destination Governor's Island.
Swimming in the Hudson was far from an easy task. He knew he should not swim against the stream, but he also worried that the streams would take him far away from his destination. He also had to worry about another thing: the boats moving all around him and that at any time could hit and kill him. Any distraction would be fatal.
Making things harder, was the temperature of the water, which soon began to affect him. The cold creeped in and he started losing sensitivity in the extremities of the body, his movements grew slower and very soon he realised that jumping into that water might have been a fatal mistake. Yet, it was too late to think about it and he decided to keep swimming until reaching Governor's Island, calling his last strengths to his help.
His swimming training had paid off, but going to a heavily garrisoned island such as that one wasn't certainly in line with the concept of 'surviving'. Plus, with now all of the Armed Forces mobilised to search for him and he in such a pitiful state, I would have taken very little to be discovered.
The young Archduke thus kept swimming around until reaching some rocks close to the residential district, where the Admiral and the other garrison officers lived. That part of the island was far less patrolled and life went as usual, with the families of the residents enjoying the day, kids playing in the gardens and people seemingly completely indifferent to the facts of the previous night and to his search.
Maximilian felt his rage growing, but he repressed it. It was neither time, nor place. Instead, he went into hiding in a bush, where he stayed for several hours, in spite of the hypothermia, which turned out to be now his new worst enemy. This continued until he noticed a family leaving its house. Hoping nobody would see him, he reached it and sneaked in with one thing in mind: to steal a uniform and get to Brooklyn Pier.
Everything seemed to work out perfectly for him: he managed to get to the house, stole a navy Commander uniform, cleaned himself a bit and got out in the streets, acting casually. He was slightly surprised, initially, when soldiers and sailors saluted him, but got used immediately, although he would keep using the Army salute (palm of the hand up), insteady of the Navy's (down).
Still, overall he felt more hopeful. He even had a clearer idea of what to do: he went to the Ventilation Building and used it to reach the tunnell which connected the Financial District with Brooklyn. He was surprised to find that through all that walking nobody followed him or asked him anything and even the few agents he crossed with once he got out of the tunnell and walked through the Brooklyn Piers, barely paid any attention to him. A few of them even greeted him with a respectful 'Thank you for your service'.
Everything was now working out well, all too well...
- Checkmate, Archduke Maximilian. - The gelid voice of Cornelia, followed by click of a gun being readied to fire, paralysed Maximilian just a few steps before the entrance of the Dominion Lines Terminal, at Brooklyn Pier N. 4. - Or should I say Tally-Ho? -
Maximilian turned back at her. Her expression was cold and firm. She did not express any emotion, neither regret or remorse, nor pleasure. Instinctively, Maximilian's lips arched in an expression of disgust. - What kind of human takes pleasure in killing? - He asked.
- Trust me, Archduke Maximilian, there is nothing personal in all of this. I just follow orders. -
- Indeed, you're no human, you're a tool. - Answered Maximilian, his blue eyes now filled with disdain. - But I guess you got me now. - He noticed more and more soldiers gathering behind Cornelia, under the shocked eyes of all the bystanders. - Take my life, then. At least tonight I'll be reunited with my family. -
Cornelia kept her look, filled with pride and spite. - Once again, there is nothing personal, Lord Maximilian. This being said, we've talked enough. Farewell, Archduke of Austria... -
She would have opened fire but right in that moment a biker on a Harley Davidson broke from the crowd in full speed, entering the semi-circle of troops around Maximilian and stopping right between him and Cornelia, who remained astonished. Right after, the biker took off his helmet, and from behind, Maximilian recognised Clovis' long blond hair.
- On my dead body, Cornelia. - Said Clovis.
- Clovis please. - Replied him Cornelia, in an annoyed tone. - Get the Hell out of the way. I've got a job to do. -
- You'll do it. - Replies Clovis. - On my dead body. - He then turned at the other soldiers. - And I dare you all as well. I am Clovis la Britannia, Imperial Prince of Britannia and Duke of Williamsburg. Come on, who has the balls to take me down? -
- Clovis, for the last time, I'm carrying papa's orders. - Said Cornelia.
- And I am carrying those of my personal morality and sense of honour, which you seem to be oblivious about. - Replied Clovis.
At those words, Cornelia had a shiver and in a burst of rage fired a number of times to the ground, right th her brother's feet. - Don't you ever dare to speak like this to me! - She shouted, advancing towards him.
- Or what? You'll shoot me? - Was his defiant reply. - Come on, do it! It's easy for you to kill those who welcomed you in their house and treated you with kindness and respect, isn't it? -
Cornelia stopped just inches from Clovis. - I... I... -
- You'll shoot me and then you'll shoot him, if you have lost any trace of humanity. - Said the young prince.
Cornelia hesitated for a bit more, then, still enraged gestured to her soldiers: "Fall Back". - There will be consequences for this, you know. - She stepped back.
- There will certainly be. - Was Clovis' calm reply. - But at least you have proven to still have some remnants of a decency and a morality, somewhere deep down. -
Without giving reply, Cornelia put her gun back in the holster, turned her back at both Clovis and Maximilian and left, getting into an Army Jeep.
They had made it, Maximilian survived!
Author Note
Dear readers,
I hope so far you are liking it. I know Code Geass' world is very futuristic and ocean liners are a bit anachronistic, but I've always found them fascinating and I still wanted them in my story. Also, as for the calendar, just making clear that I don't use the a.t.B. calendar, but the Gregorian one. As for the rest, hope you are enjoying it and feel free to leave me reviews or message me for questions, comments or whatnots.