Peric glimpsed Stag Stopa, naked to his boots, reaching to grab up the weapon of a fallen Knight. He caught the traitor with a burst to the stomach. Stopa screamed, coughed blood, and collapsed, writhing in his death agonies. Feric ended it with a burst to Stopa's head; even a traitor deserved that much mercy.
136
la less than a minute, it was over. Bunks and floor were Strewn with the bodies of the traitors and the pleasure sluts from Zind. Here and there an SS man terminated someone's agony with a short burst. Then there was silence.
Suddenly Render shouted: "My Commander!"
Feric turned and saw that the SS Commandant had hold by the throat of a bleeding man that yet lived and was pulling him erect. As Feric saw the eyes of the dying thing, he realized that this was no man but a loathsome Dom. The cold hate that the creature exuded left no doubt there!
Feric approached and peered down at the dying Dom.
The contempt for all things human characteristic of the monstrosities blazed in the alien reptilian eyes like a dying ember. The creature spotted Feric and snarled defiance.
"May you die choking in your manure, worthless meat!"
it rasped. "May your genes be scattered to the winds!" It coughed up a large bubble of blood and expired.
"YOU noticed the accent, my Commander?" Remler asked.
Feric nodded. "From Zind itself I"
Feric surveyed the roomful of dead traitors, though perhaps many of them were as much victims as villians, dominated by an actual agent from Zind. A good thing that the blow had been struck when it had! Zind must indeed be girding for an early war if the swine dared this much. The danger was more immanent than anyone had dreamed.
"My Commander!" an SS man shouted. "The building is surrounded by Knights!"
"Come on, Waffingi" Feric said, and the two of them dashed outside to face a veritable sea of confused Knights, some in uniform, some half-dressed, some armed with rifles or submachine guns or truncheons, others standing around like half-wits, empty-handed.
At least when they saw Feric, the ragged horde fell into some semblance of attention. A goodly number gave the Party salute and shouted "Hail Jaggar!" but for the most part there was naught but confusion.
Feric minced no words. "Commandant Stopa and his officers were traitors plotting with Zind and have been executed. High Commander Waffing is now in direct command of both the Knights of the Swastika and the regular army in his new capacity as Field Marshall High Commander of the Security Forces of Heldon."
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He paused for a moment, letting that sink in before giving them the good news; this would make it easier to pull them together.
"The Sons of the Swastika have seized complete control of Heldon," Feric went on. "I have assumed the title of Supreme Commander of Heldon and I now rule by decree."
At this, the Knights broke into ragged, but loud and enthusiastic cheering. Feric let it go on for several minutes.
When he judged that the men's exuberance had had sufficient opportunity for expression, he signaled to Waffing with a nod of his head.
"Attention!" Waffing bellowed like a bull. Almost at once, the cheering troop fell silent, formed into somewhat makeshift ranks, clicked heels, and stood rigidly at attention.
"We have work to do and lots of it!" Waffing told them. "I want this mess cleaned up and the entire camp fit and ready to pass the most rigorous inspection within half an hour. Hail Heldon! Hail Victory! Hail Jaggar!"
Now the response was a mass salute of true military precision, and a chant of "Hail Jaggar!" that left nothing to be desired in the way of spirit or force. The New Age had been bom; the Swastika ruled all Heldon. The threat from within had been crushed, once and for all, and the nation was united behind the Party.
But as he returned the salute, Feric knew full well that his sacred mission was only beginning. Like a vast gan-grenous monstrosity, the Empire of Zind loomed on the eastern horizon, ready to burst like a gigantic pustule and engulf humanity in its reeking poison. Tonight, the tentacles of this cancerous mutant mass within the body of Heldon had been lopped off with ruthless force, but there would be no rest for Feric Jaggar and no peace for true humanity until the last foul mutant and monstrous Dom had been expunged from the face of the earth. The entire globe must be purified of all contaminating elements as Heldon had been purified tonight.
Today Heldon, tomorrow the worldl
138
10
Up on the high reviewing stand in front of the Palace of State, Feric Jaggar stood resplendent in bis black leather uniform, with its scarlet cloak flowing in the breeze, waiting for the grand parade to begin. To his right stood Lar Waffing in the new army uniform—light field-gray with a red swastika cape—and Seph Bogel in his Party uniform; to his left, Ludolf Best, also in trim black leather, and Bors Remler in black leather embellished with the twin red lightning strokes of the SS.
