Chapter 350: The Visitor, Part 18
Occupied Vienna - 10 June, early morning
Hofburg Palace was quiet at three in the morning. Everybody was asleep, except for the guards who stood watch outside all night long. That changed when tranquilizer darts flew out of nowhere, striking the guards watching one of the side gates to the palace and quickly knocking them out. Unnoticed by anyone, two figures emerged from the darkness, took keys from one of the guards, and unlocked the gate, walking in the direction of the palace.
"That was easier than expected," whispered Inquisitor Hans.
"Don't say that!" Inquisitor Conrad hissed. "This is probably the second time we broke into the palace, and the security in there is probably much tighter than last time."
"Hey, it's just a simple rescue operation, Conrad," said Hans, "We go in, find Wilhelm and give him his grace, and then get out. Easy."
"You said that when we were trying to break out Innitzer," replied Conrad, "And look what happened!"
Hans said no more as they approached the palace. Conrad took out a small spherical device with two handles on opposite sides and a rod jutting out at a perpendicular angle to the handles. The two Inquisitors grabbed one handle each, and Conrad pointed the rod in the direction of the wall.
"Uh, you sure about this?" said Hans. "Shouldn't we have tested it before bringing it here? What happens if it doesn't get us past the wall?"
"Don't think about," said Conrad.
He muttered the word "Salire," and the engravings all over the surface of the sphere glowed a bright white. A second later, they found themselves in the small reception room on the other side of the wall. Conrad pocketed the crude teleportation device, as it would need at least half an hour to charge up enough power for a long distance jump back to the Resistance bunker. But that was more than enough time to find Wilhelm. Plus they wouldn't have to worry about getting out of the palace.
"Why couldn't we have just teleported closer to him?" Hans said. "Could have saved us the trouble of getting in."
"We risk materializing inside a wall," said Conrad, "Now let's go."
They found a door and entered a hallway, looking for any stairs or elevators. Intercepted Angeloi communications had told them that Wilhelm was likely being held in one of the experiment labs in the basement, below the floor with the prison cells.
"Over here," said Hans, pointing at an elevator down the hall.
They walked over to the elevator and got inside. Conrad pushed the button for the basement's second level, and the elevator slowly descended. After about half a minute, which he spent wondering why the security here was so lax, a bell dinged, and the doors opened, revealing a pure white hallway.
The floor tiles were white. The walls were white. The ceiling was white, and so were the lights illuminating the hallway. Everything was clean and tidy. Conrad saw no decorations or furniture anywhere besides a few plain chairs. There was a row of plain doors with small viewing windows on one side of the hallway. Light filtered in from through the windows. It appeared somebody forgot to turn off the lights.
"Okay," said Hans, "So which room is he in?"
"I don't know," said Conrad, "I'm afraid we'll have to look inside each lab, one at a time."
The Inquisitors walked over to the first door and peered inside. Conrad barely stopped himself from vomiting as he saw a Middle Eastern-looking man strapped to a table, wearing only a simple prison garb, hanging over a tub of water. He had obviously been waterboarded, but that wasn't all. Much of his skin had been torn off, revealing muscle and bone beneath it.
"That's not Wilhelm," said Hans, "Let's move on."
Conrad sighed with relief, hoping that that was the worst. He was wrong.
Inside the next lab, a man sat on a table, his chest sliced open, revealing his organs inside. His mouth was seen shut, and his eyes and ears were gone. Conrad quickly moved to the next lab, where he saw a woman lying on a table, her limbs gone and replaced with wires running to a machine. There were other words implanted throughout her body, and her brain was exposed, wires directly embedded in parts of it. In the next lab, he saw a young boy and girl, fused to each other by their backs and the tops of their heads.
As he walked further down the hallway, the monstrosities became more uncanny and reality-defying. There were test subjects with pieces of machinery embedded into their bodies or replacing limbs. There were those who had limbs or body parts that looked like they were from animals. There were those who had Inquisition-style sit-ups engraved on their bodies. There were those who had been tested on with prototype Inquisition weapons, their bodies twisted and mangled beyond comprehension. In some labs, he just saw severed heads, hooked up to wires and tubes, that were still alive.
They started seeing angels in the labs. Most of them were dead, their bodies surrounded with scorch marks from where their wings' shadows were burned into the floor. A few were still alive, strapped to tables or hooked up to machines, put in eternal agony. They all had multiple wounds on various parts of their bodies, many of them still fresh and leaking grace. Some had been shot or even decapitated. Who could do such atrocities to these people? Conrad thought.
Finally, they found Wilhelm's cell, and fortunately he hadn't been experimented on much, just tortured slightly. He was asleep, with several bruises and cuts on his face and limbs, but nothing that his grave couldn't fix.
They threw open the door and rushed over to him. "Wilhelm!" Conrad whispered. "This is the Resistance! We're here to get you out!"
When Wilhelm didn't answer, Hans slapped his face. Wilhelm immediately shot up and punched Hans in the face, sending him sprawling on the floor.
"Hey!" Hans shouted. "We're on the same side!"
"Who are you?" Wilhelm demanded. "What do you want? Are you with the Angeloi?"
"No," said Conrad, "We're with the Resistance."
"Must be a trick!" Wilhelm said. "You're with them, trying to get me to give them what they want!"
"If I were with them, would I give you this?" Conrad took out a small vial filled with grace and handed it to Wilhelm.
"Where did you get this?" Wilhelm asked. "Is it real?"
"Yes, it's real," said Conrad, "Ask Raphael."
"Raphael's here? Just my luck."
He uncapped the vial and poured its contents down his throat. He started convulsing violently, his head shaking as his body started radiating angelic energy.
"Hold him still!" shouted Conrad, grabbing his arms.
"No!" shouted Wilhelm. "That will mess up the integration process! You'll only--"
They heard the sound of the elevator dinging outside, followed by the sound of approaching footsteps.
"The Angeloi know we're here!" hissed Hans.
"Quickly!" Conrad took out the teleportation device, and he and Hans grabbed the handles.
"Wait, what about Wilhelm?" said Hans.
Conrad put Wilhelm's hand on the surface of the sphere.
"Didn't the manual say something about not using this device on angels?" said Hans.
"Shut up, we have no time!" said Conrad.
At that moment, several Angeloi guards burst into the room, led by Oberst Klaus Schulz. They pointed their guns at the three of them.
"Salire!" shouted Conrad.
The engravings on the device glowed, and Wilhelm screamed as his body was enveloped in a bright white light. The next thing they knew, Hans and Conrad were standing in the middle of the Inquisition bunker. Resistance operatives rushed over to check their vitals, while Octavia approached them.
"Welcome back, Inquisitors," said Octavia, "How did the mission go?"
"Well, we got out alive..." Conrad began, noticing that Wilhelm was not with them.
"Where's Wilhelm?" he asked Hans.
Hans shrugged. "Don't know. He was right next to us."
"You tried to use the teleportation device on him?" said Octavia.
"We had no choice," said Conrad, "They were literally about to get us."
Raphael and Uriel walked over to them. "So, where's Wilhelm?" asked Raphael. "I need to have a word with him."
"I really don't know," said Conrad, "Uriel, can you sense him?"
"No, I can't," said Uriel, "He's not in Vienna. For that matter, he's not in any other part of the Reich. Scratch that, he's not even on Earth. Never mind, he's not even in this universe anymore."
"He crossed over to the Anniona universe?" said Octavia.
"No, not that one, another one," said Uriel, "You didn't happen to activate the device when he was still integrating his grace, did you?"
"Actually, we did," said Conrad.
Uriel sighed. "That would be the problem. The spells on that device, combined with his in-progress integration of the grace, mean that he is now being teleported not in space but across universes and possibly time. It will last until his grace is fully integrated, but I don't know if he'll be able to find his way back at that moment since he might be far away in another part of the multiverse. And none of us here can go find him because Gabriel removed that ability."
"Okay, okay," said Octavia, "At least he's not in the hands of the Angeloi and Conrad and Hans are safe. Now, tomorrow we'll hold a briefing on this matter and work on a way to bring Wilhelm back to our universe. Until then, get some sleep, all of you. Dismissed."
The Inquisitors and archangels walked away.
"I hope Wilhelm's okay," said Hans.
"He should be," said Conrad, "He's an angel. Once he gets everything under control, he'll be right back."
