Chase The Rabbit: Gretch Bayonne Action Adventure Series Book #1 (7 page)

                                                                      ***

I took a sip of whiskey and contemplated what I should do next. I didn’t have many choices. I could lay in my sling and wait for someone to come rescue me or take the ladder back up to the observation point to the top of the Graf and see if it was possible to walk on her back. A few slugs later, I was climbing the ladder to freedom. 

Just before I opened the hatch, I tied one end of the rope around my waist and the other to the top of the ladder. 
If I do fall
, I thought,
at least this rope may save my life
. 

              I stepped out of the hole and onto her back. The wind blew strong, but not hard enough to whisk me away. I took a few cautious steps. Her back seemed safe and rigid. And from that vantage point, I again could see the green earth below and the blue sky to each side and above me. The difference from being inside the belly of the ship and outside on her back was like night and day. It was like being reborn, like going from the womb to the world.

              I was flying again. The surface was relatively flat to each side, about thirty feet wide, before it started sloping downward slightly. There was no fear of falling. I decided I would not go back down. I would be happy to ride her back all the way to Los Angeles. To hell with the guts and the stars. I wasn’t here for them anyway. I was just along for the ride.
They will look for me,
I thought,
but I don’t care. I will go back down when we reach Olympia Stadium.  But not before then.    

              I’d gone about a hundred feet from the hatch when the rope stopped me. I was at the end of my rope, literally. 
Damn!
I thought.
I need a longer rope!
 

              I turned around and started walking back. At that very moment, one of the monkeys jumped out of the hatch and started running towards me.
Jumping Hell!
I thought.
What now?

              If that weren’t insane enough, the damned monkey was quickly followed by first one man, then another, chasing him! They were the nice security Nazis! For some reason, they were chasing the monkey. I was confused as hell and felt invaded upon.

              The monkey stopped about ten feet from me, and the Nazis stopped about ten feet behind him. I looked at the monkey, then the men, then the monkey again.

              “What the hell is going on?” I shouted.

              “He has the key!” one of them shouted desperately. 

              Sure enough, the monkey was holding a gold key on a chain. I shook my head in utter disbelief.

              “Okay,” I said. “I take it that is important.”

              “It is a matter of life and death that we get that key back!” one of them said.

              I got the impression that the monkey liked the shiny key. And for the first time I empathized with the monkey, having been reborn and all.

              “Not that I give a cat’s paw, but what is so god awful important about this key?” I asked them.

              The monkey sat looking at the key as if he knew the answer. The men crept closer to the monkey and startled him. He ran a few feet towards me then stopped and turned towards the Nazis.

              “Just stay there!” I said. I reached into my pocket and pulled out the bananas Alvon had given me. 

              “Hey boy,” I said kneeling down. “I’ll make you a deal. You give me the key, and I will give you these bananas.” 

              The monkey looked me in the eyes as if he understood.  He was turning his head back and forth rapidly from me to the Nazis.

              “We must have that key now!” they were shouting.

              “Just stay put! You’re spooking him,” I replied.

              “Here, little fella,” I said holding out the bananas.

              The damned monkey snatched the bananas and dropped the key. It bounced and went sliding out of my reach. The Nazis screamed like school-girls and one of them ran and dove headfirst towards the key and down the side of the vessel. I knew he was going to fall to his death, and knowing I had the rope on, I made a split second decision to try to grab him. Given one more second, I am sure I would have let him go. I just didn’t have time to think.

              I dove like I was going into a great swimming pool. Miraculously, I was able to grab his legs a second before my rope ran out, which stopped us suddenly in mid-fall.  We were about half way down the Graf top side and slammed hard against her belly, nearly knocking me unconscious.

              Somehow I was able to hang onto him. I had the breath knocked out of me and contemplated whether I should let go of him. I couldn’t pull myself back up by the rope, hanging upside down, without the use of my hands.  But I did hang on.
This damn key better be real important,
I thought.

              A moment later, we were being pulled back up. It seemed to take forever until we reached the top again. When we finally did, I saw the person who saved our lives.      

Chapter Six

D
eath had just licked me on the face like a German Shepherd after getting pork scraps, and I was pissed off about it. And just as it dawned on me that I was not going to die, or sack the rabbit as I call it, a voice called out from behind me. 

              “Bay! What the hell is going on here?”

              It was my old friend Bela, accompanied by Alvon the Monkey Man and the other security guard.  

              “I don’t know!” I said hugging him. “But thank you for saving me!”

              “Why are you up here?” Bela asked.

              “Because I didn’t want to be down there!” I answered.

              The wind was picking up as we walked back towards the hatch.

              “This is amazing!” Bela said. “Quite the bird’s eye view!”

              “Or bat’s?” I joked.

              “Let’s get back inside!” Bela said. 

              “Yes,” I replied, “but when we get back down, I am going to whoop these guys asses. Just wanted to warn you.”

              “Don’t cause any trouble with these men,” Bela warned. “They are guests from Germany.”

              “I don’t care,” I replied. “I just hung upside down a thousand feet to save one of them, and I deserve an explanation!”

We went down the ladder one at a time. I made sure Bela went first, followed by me and Alvon, then it was Hans’ and Stefan’s turn. I wanted to be there waiting for them when they came down. 

              “What is so important about this key that you would risk my life for it?” I shouted.

              Hans pushed me away, shaking his head as Stefan came down the ladder. 

              “It is our mission to get a box to Mr. Hearst,” he said.

              “And what is in this box?” I demanded.

              “It is a personal, handwritten letter from Adolph Hitler,” Stefan explained. “We have it in a locked box. My job is to protect the box, and Hans’ job is to guard the key.”

              “Hitler?” I asked. “Why would he want to get a letter to Hearst?”

              Bela and Alvon were standing behind me, taking this all in. The men were more than a little nervous and appeared reluctant to disclose any more information, especially in front of my friend Lugosi and Monkey Man.

              Adolph Hitler was apparently going to be the next Chancellor of Germany. I knew little about him, just that my journalist friend, von Wiegand had interviewed him a year ago and told me off the record that the man seemed dangerous. 

              “Take me to the box,” I said. “I want to read the letter.”

              “We can take you to the box,” said Hans, “but you may not read the letter. It is for Hearst’s eyes only.”

              “Listen!” I said. “I could have let you fall off the edge along with the key! I just saved your mission, not to mention your life! I think I have a right to know why!”

              They looked at each other nervously. 

              “What if I were to take the box to Hearst?” Bela asked them.

              “You could do that?” one of them asked.

              “Yes, I could. You obviously have not had any luck.  You see, Mr. Hearst is on a very tight schedule on this trip.  He is overseeing the shooting of a documentary, and every minute is filled up.”

              “It is not likely that you two will be able to see him,” I added.             

              “That is correct, Bay,” Bela continued. “But I am scheduled to shoot my part of the documentary later this evening. I could deliver the box to him then.”

              “It may be the only way,” one of the men whispered to the other.

              “But how will we know that it has been done?” Hans asked. “We have to be sure without doubt that he has received it.”

              “I could take you both back to the observation point and help you off to an early departure,” I said. “Mr. Lugosi is giving you his word!”

              “Yes,” Hans replied. “Very well then, we will give you the box.”

              “Don’t make it sound like you are doing us a favor,” I replied. “It is the other way around.”

              “You are right, sir,” Stefan said. “And thank you for saving my life. I will never forget that.”

              We headed back down into the breathing spine towards the tail of the massive floating whale of a ship. It was as creepy as ever, the giant lungs pulsating slightly toward us. This was no afternoon stroll in the park. I felt like I was going to pass out by the time we got to the ladder. 

              “So where is it?” I asked.

              Stefan went straight for the cardboard box that I had sat on the evening before, the one with the flashbulbs in it. He dug around and pulled out a small metal lockbox. 

             
Well, son of a bitch
, I thought.
So they brought the flashbulbs on board to hide the box in!

              Monkey Man Alvon looked at me, smiling. He was the only other person who knew about the box with the flashbulbs, besides the Chinese man, who was still standing in the exact, same spot. I’d come to ignore him, like furniture. 

              “This is it,” Stefan said, handing it to me.

              Bela shook his head in amazement. I was sure we were both thinking the same thing. This is just too easy! 

              “And the key?” I asked.

              Hans walked towards me and ceremoniously placed the chain that held the golden key, around my neck.  I felt like I’d just won an Olympic event.

              Bela and I walked through the door to the passenger area. This time, the damn thing wasn’t locked. I looked behind me and saw Monkey Man smiling ear to ear. He winked at me. Maybe he wasn’t so bad after all. But I still didn’t like the damned monkeys. 

“Follow me,” Bela instructed. 

              We walked down the narrow hallway and ducked into one of the rooms on the right. It was just like the one I’d fallen into earlier, where I’d met Marion Davies and Jean Harlow. I nervously inserted the gold key into the box and turned it. 

              “You know we shouldn’t be doing this,” Bela said.

              “We said we would deliver it to Hearst,” I replied. “I never said I wouldn’t read it.”

              He nodded in agreement as I opened the mysterious box. Inside, there was an envelope. Oddly enough, it was not sealed. I pulled the papers out and unfolded them nervously. It appeared to be a handwritten letter, written in German.

              “I can’t read this!” I said frustrated, handing it to Bela. “What does it say?”

              Bela studied the documents for a moment and said, “Yes, you are right, my friend. It is German. And I too, cannot read German.”