James drove up to the hotel and parked his car. “Well here we are.” James got out of the car followed by Werner and Pomson.
“A very beautiful day. Werner you barely slept on the plane you should get some sleep,” Pomson noted.
“I’m not tired,” werner replied.
“Werner…”
“Fine,” Werner sighed. “I’ll get some sleep. I expect you and James to play nice though.”
“I’ll behave if he does.”
“Evelyn, I mean it. The sooner we figure out what’s going on the sooner we can go home and you won’t have to see him again.” The trio walked into the office where there was a deer at the front desk.
“Two rooms with two beds each please,” Werner said.
“How long will you be staying?”
“Two to three weeks at least.”
“Alright I have you set for rooms 23 and 24 with the connecting dining area.” The Deer replied after typing on his keyboard. “That’ll be $98.99.”
“I’ve got this covered.” Werner said pulling out his wallet and giving the exact amount.”
“Thank you and have a nice night.” The deer set the keys on the counter Werner giving one to James and taking the other.
“You have a nice one too sir.” Werner replied. The trio walked to their rooms to set their bags down.
“I do hope we don’t have any fights ahead of us.” James commented “Given our history with hotels.”
“Heh, yeah.” Werner chuckled. “I’ve had enough fighting for one lifetime.”
“I sure hope you don’t get into any.” Pomson added. “I don’t want to have to patch you up after a fight you barely won.”
“Or get injured as many times as you have during our adventures.”
“I wasn’t THAT injured.” Werner bemoaned.
“I could bring up various examples of you being injured in Pelvandia.” James commented.
“I get it I got injured a lot there.”
“You were so well known in the medical bay they knew your blood type by heart!”
“I never knew this.” Pomson interjected looking to Werner.
“I got better at not getting so injured after Pelvandia dear.”
“I should hope so.” Pomson replied. “I would hate to see you in such condition.”
“Hey, Evelyn I’ll be alright. We’ll find out what’s going on and we will go back to normal.”
“I hope so.” Pomson replied yawning.
“Yeah you need some sleep Werner.” James added.
“Good point.” Werner unlocked his door allowing pomson in first. “Good night James.”
“Night Werner.” James replied the two closing their doors at the same time.
About eight hours passed and Werner woke up alone in his room. He looked out to see James and Pomson in the connected dining area chatting. He couldn’t tell what they were chatting about bout it seemed friendly enough. “You two having fun?” Werner walked to the table the two were at.
“Oh! You’re awake,” Pomson turned to face Werner.
“It’s going… well as well as it can,” James replied.
“Well did you wo figure anything out yet?”
“Not yet Werner, but when kerzach gets here it should speed up the process.”
“Yeah.”
“James could you get us something to eat?” Pomson asked.
“Sure, I could do that.” James walked to the door leaving through his room.
“Did you want to talk Evelyn?”
“No, but I’ve been thinking.”
“Us when are you going to pop the question?”
Werner blushed. “Well...uh… I’ve been waiting for the right time.”
“As they say there’s no time like the present.”
“I haven’t even bought a ring yet!”
Pomson chuckled. “Okay, I’ll give you some more time, but I think you’re ready.”
“It’s not just a matter of the ring.”
“What else could it be?”
“My grandfather and his… shadow. Well… one of my grandfathers.”
“What about it?”
“My grandfather Rudolf Donitz… my dad’s dad.” Werner sighed. “Though, he’d be fine with you.”
“Ah.”
“He was a member of the Waffen SS. He and his brothers fought in separate branches of Wermarcht. His youngest brother Walter fought in the Heer, his elder brother Friedrich fought in the Luftwaffe and his middle brother Joachim fought in the Kriegsmarine.”
“How many of them died in the war?”
“Friedrich and Joachim. Friedrich died in a Soviet POW camp after he was shot down behind their lines, while Joachim died on the Bismarck when it was sunk.”
“And what did they do at the end?”
“Walter fought under General Walter Wenck in the 12 Army trying to reach Berlin while Rudolf fought in Berlin itself. Walter surrendered to the Americans while Rudolf surrendered to the Russians”
“It doesn’t matter no matter what your ancestors did. I still care for you.”
“And I care for you Evelyn,” Werner replied. The two stood there for a few moments slowly drawing closer to each other.”
As their lips were about to touch the sound of a clearing throat interrupted them. “Do you two need to be alone for a moment?” James asked.
“No Evelyn and I were just… talking about my grandfathers.” Werner and Pomson reeled backwards.
“I see.”
“He was talking about what his grandfather's did in World War II.”
“Oh really? I have a story about mine he was a scientist like myself,” James said. “In fact he worked worked on the atom bomb.”
“You never told me that!” Werner exclaimed. “Mine were all soldiers.”
“Well with how you helped with dragonstorm it seems you had some of their skill.”
“Well… not entirely.”
“Father really never talked about what his parents did. I don’t think he even knew what he did.”
“That’s a shame. Even though James and I fought against him it still would be nice to know what his father did during World War II.”
“You respect your foes. That’s very commendable.”
“Well Shakespeare did have some lines in his plays about that. Kinda why I made that experiment when I worked there. I wanted to find a way for his works to come back and maybe have some new ones.”
“And that’s why you brought that book when we went through the gate.”
“Yeah and then it failed by throwing us out.”
“Well I got a call Kerzach he just landed and is on his way here.”
“Good when he gets here the work can begin.”
“Yeah then we can see what’s going on.”
Werner started setting out papers on the table with James as Pomson watched.
Pomson took a bit of some of the food James had brought. “Not bad.”
“Thanks, I know it isn’t much but it’s what I could find.”
A knock on the door interrupted the moment. “Who could that be?” Werner wondered as he walked to the door opening it.
“Ah, Mr. Donitz.” A short balding man stood there in the doorway. “You’re a long way from the desert.”
Werner stood there in the door gritting his teeth it was already a bad enough time. “Agent Whittaker,” Werner replied with the utmost contempt. “How… lovely to see you again.”
