Temple

He could have been what? seventy-five years old now, but he didn't look a day over fifty. His  Aryan features were still apparent, if worn with time. His white blond hair was thin on top. And his blue eyes sparkled; glistened with madness as he barked orders to his men;

'...then find that generator! off, you imbecile!' he bellowed into a radio then jabbed a pudgy finger at one of his commandos, 'You call Hauptmann Anistaze here right now'

The laboratory around the Nazi general was a mix of Chrom, modern equipment, white walls, vacuum chambers, but instead of working Laboratorians in white coats there were commandos with pistols. Now they all hustled out of the main glass doors that led out onto the boat's rear helipad deck.

But Renee only had eyes for the object that Ehrhardt held in his left hand,

An object wrapped inside a ragged purple cloth.

The idol.

At that moment, Heinrich Anistaze charged in from the helipad deck and stood to attention before Ehrhardt.

'You sent for me, sir.'

'What's going on?' Ehrhardt said.

'They're everywhere, Herr Oberstgruppenführer. There must be dozens of them, maybe more. They appear to have split up, taking out different sections of the fleet and causing sufficient damage,'

'Then we leave,' Ehrhardt said, handing the idol to Anistaze and guiding him back toward the helipad deck.

Quickly. We will take the idol in the helicopter and get it to the mine that way. Then, if the heads of government haven't responded to our demands by the time we insert the thyfium into the Supernova, we -will detonate it.'

From the wheelhouse of his newly-recovered Pibber, Race surveyed the aquatic battlefield around him.

What was left of the fleet still surged forward along the river, but it was a shadow of its former self.

Three Pibber were still afloat but one of them belonged to Race. Only one helipad barge remained, along with three of the Original five Rigid Raiders—and one of those belonged to Schroeder.

Van Lewens Scarab sped along in front of the fleet, and of course, there was the last Mosquito chopper—still wreaking havoc from above.

About forty yards behind him, Race saw Doogie's Goose seaplane wheel out of the wash Of the helipad barge in front of it, It surged out into the river proper in search of a clear stretch of water from which it could take off.

Race span to look forward.

About thirty yards ahead to the left of the Pibber, he saw the massive Nazi second boat powering along the river.

At that moment, however, as he watched the command boat Race suddenly saw men burst our onto its rear deck and dash for the white Bell jet Ranger helicopter sitting on its stem.

He recognised one of them instantly—Anistaze.

The other man was considerably older than Anistaze fat with a thick muscular neck and a semi-bald head. Race didn't know who he was, but he guessed that he was the man Srehoeder had spoken about earlier—the Stormtroopers' leader, Otto Ehrhardt Something like that Anistaze and Ehrhardt leapt into the rear compartment of the Bell jet Range and immediately the rotor blades on top of the chopper began to rotate, And then it hit Race, They are taking the idol!

Just then, as he was gazing the activity on the stern of the Command boat Race saw a flash of movement out of the corner of his eye fl glint of a small shadowy figure hustling down the floated passageway of the command boat

His eyes went wide;

it was Renee

She was running down the side passageway,

heading aft holding her M16 firmly at her chest.

She was going after the idol..

By herself.

Race watched in astonishment a Renee rounded the rear cornet of the passageway and opened fire on the Nazi chopper with her M16.

A couple of the Nazi troopers standing near the chopper were hit instantly- and dropped where they stood, but the others just turned and fired back at Renee with AK-47s.

Renee ducked in the face of their Duffie and fell back behind the corner as the Nazis on the helicopter deck took off after her.

Race could only watch in horror as she stumbled backwards up the starboard-side passageway of the command boat, heading towards the bow.

She fired wildly with her M-16 as she moved determinedly—keeping the Nazis at the aft end of the passageway pinned down, until at last she was able to hunker don at the forward end of the passageway holding her attackers at bay at the other end.

It was at that moment that Race saw him.

A lone Nazi commando. Moving slowly across the wide roof of the command boat, toward Renee's position!

The man held his gun high, and moved with slow deliberate steps, out of Renee's field of vision, sneaking up on her from above.

Renee had no chance of seeing him. No way of knowing he was there.

'Shit,' Race said, looking around himself for an option.

His eyes fell upon Doogie's seaplane skipping quickly over the waves behind his boat, coming alongside it—in between his Pibber and the command boat—as it dashed forward through the fleet in search of a clear stretch of water.