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Chapter Fourteen
More Than Alien Artefacts

Screaming.

Someone was screaming.

Then Eroica realized it was he who was screaming as the last of his fingers was broken. His long, beautiful, elegant fingers that were now a twisted mass of pulp at the ends of his hands. He felt tears burning his eyes; pain, anger, outrage, and terror, all rolled into one.

There was an easy chair several feet away that held the orchestrator of his torment, each scream producing a chuckle of sadistic delight.

Eroica raised his head and looked at his tormenter through unfocused eyes, still struggling to understand why this was happening. He wanted to ask, but was too busy gasping for breath between his screams of agony. He had already been subjected to a horrendous beating before being literally packed off to this…torture chamber. He was currently on his knees, his chest pressed up against a wooden table, his arms stretched out and clamped into place, making it impossible for him to move or pull away. He had been beaten with a whip to a point where he was certain he had no skin left on his back. After that, they started on his hands…

Now the clamps were being removed and he slumped to the floor in a battered heap. Time for the next phase of his torture, he thought dully as he was dragged across the room and dumped in a bloodied mass in front of a device he could not readily identify. From his place on the floor, Eroica could make out his tormentor’s face, and a sudden horrifying thought solidified in his mind. He was going to die. Slowly. Painfully. As surely as the sun rose in the morning, he was going to die. No one knew where he was, not even himself, so no one would be able to find him. Not even Klaus, if he were inclined to even bother looking for him, which he doubted.

Suddenly shackles that were attached to heavy chains were being fastened around his wrists and ankles. He wanted to fight, to pull away, to struggle, but he lacked the strength to do any of these things. Just moving his battered body was agony.

He was going to die.

And he had no idea why, nor did he think he would ever find out.

* * *

The TARDIS materialized in the center of an empty parking lot. The Doctor was the first to exit and strode to the door of the building that his companion had told him housed a horrifying amount of alien technology. Jason followed carrying two large cases containing the explosives that had been supplied by NATO. He was trying to ignore the Major, who was following behind him telling him not to drop the bundle and generally making a nuisance of himself. K-9 trailed dutifully behind the group.

Finally Jason had heard enough and rounded on the Major. “Look, if you think you can do a better job, why don’t you carry these yourself?” So saying, he dropped the bundles at the Major’s feet.

The Major turned through three shades of purple. “Verdammt. I give the orders!” he snarled.

“Major, you can take your orders and—”

Jason’s insult was interrupted when K-9 abruptly announced, “Sensor detect three humans present, Master.”

The Doctor had been trying to ignore the inevitable argument between Jason and the Major, going instead to open the door. He pushed it open and then looked down at the automation that was now at his feet, pocketing his sonic screwdriver at the same time. “Three? The building is supposed to be empty.”

“Negative, Master.” K-9 chirped, his sensor ears still whirring noisily. “Sensors detect two unknown humans. Positive identification; Dorian Red Gloria.”

This announcement stunned them all.

“Dorian?” Jason gasped. “K-9, are you sure?”

“Checking.” The sensors twitched again. “Affirmative.”

The Major gave a low growl. Now he was certain the thief had returned to steal something, believing the others to be members of Eroica’s gang. Then he wondered what the thief’s reaction would be when he learned they were going to blow up the building and its contents. He turned to Jason with a smug expression on his face. “What else did he want to steal from here?” he asked as he made his way to the open door.

Jason gave him a dark look and, to his credit, kept his temper. Barely. “Nothing. I think he took the computer chips just because they were lying around. He said the only thing worth stealing was the bowl. Everything else was too vulgar.” He looked at the Major in the eye. “He said it reminded him of you. Functional, not flashy.”

The Major was taken aback by this backhanded compliment. “If there is nothing to steal, then why else would he be here?” he asked logically.

The answer came as the unmistakable sound of Eroica screaming in agony echoed through the building. The Major spun on his heel at the sound, his gun in his hand as if by magic.

“Bloody hell!” Jason cried, his hair standing on end.

Klaus was already storming into the building and down the corridor. “Stay here,” he ordered.

“There goes a one man wrecking crew,” Jason observed darkly, shaking his head. He threw a concerned look in the Doctor’s direction. “Should we really let him go off on his own?”

“I think we should leave this to the professional this time, Jason,” the Doctor replied. As an after thought, he added, “K-9, stay on sensor alert, just incase.”

“Master,” K-9 acknowledged, his sensor ears twitching a few times more.

The Doctor gave a satisfied grunt and looked over at his uneasy companion. “Come on, we’ve got work to do here,” he said firmly, and picked up one of the sacks they had brought with them. “Let’s see if we can get this building wired before he gets back.”

* * *

The Major followed the screams to the lower level of the building, appearing in the doorway of the torture chamber only seconds after the sounds stopped. He took in the scene in an appalled and horrified silence. The thief had been stripped naked and was hanging from shackles. The heavy chains attached to them were pulled up and over a large drum of some sort. His ankles were also in shackles and anchored to the floor, his body pulled taut. With a jolt Klaus recognized the device for what it was. Eroica was stretched out on an upright rack. His body…that exquisite, beautiful body, was now a bloodied mass of torn flesh. He could see raised welts wrapping around his torso that could only have been made by a whip. The thief’s hands were a twisted mess of bone and gristle, the blood from his damaged fingers running down his arms. His head was hanging limply forward, his mass of blond curls soaked with sweat and blood. In fact, there was blood everywhere, splattered on the walls, floor and ceiling, congealing in an ever widening pool beneath the suspended thief’s feet.

For a fleeting instant, Klaus thought he was too late and was annoyed with himself for feeling a pang of guilt and sorrow. Then he heard the thief’s ragged breathing and saw him move his head slightly, a shudder of pain shaking his body at the same time. The grip he had on the Magnum grew tighter and his face darkened visibly with his outrage.

“Mr. Tanner, this is most unsatisfactory,” came a husky voice from the chair. This was followed by a puff of smoke. The voice sounded slightly effeminate to the Major and his face darkened further. One queer killing another, he thought as the person in the chair went on to say, “I cannot see his face with all that hair in the way. Kindly remove it.”

Eroica raised his head to look at his tormenter and saw the Major standing in the doorway. How the hell did he find me? “Major…” he said in a voice that was scarcely above a whisper. “You came…”

The Major had to fight to keep himself from averting his eyes. He met Eroica’s gaze and saw raw terror in his enormous blue eyes. These men were going to kill him and he knew it. They both knew it. And only he could stop it. This last thought had obviously occurred to Eroica, as Klaus saw a ripple of uncertainty flash across his face. He knew the thief was wondering if he would even bother to intervene or if he would simply let him die. He drew himself to his full height, and turned his intense gaze, and the gun in his hand, in Tanner’s direction, leaving no room for doubt as to what his intensions were.

At first, Tanner thought his prisoner was hallucinating. He did a double take when he glanced across the room and saw the Major framed in the doorway, a look of thunder on his face and a very big gun in his hand. “Madam,” he said quietly, “we appear to have company.”

Madam! The Major was momentarily thrown. Recovering himself immediately, he entered the room. As he came around the chair, he saw the occupant was indeed a woman. In fact, it was Lucretia Salliari, the wife of Vittorio Salliari, the owner of the building, its collection and very probably the people in it. The Major kept his gun trained on Tanner, who was the most obvious threat. “Get him down,” he ordered succinctly. To his astonishment, the woman in the easy chair laughed at him. Not the wisest thing to do.

“Surely you must be joking?” she said, taking a drag on the cigarette in her hand and casually blowing the smoke in his direction.

Eroica would have loved to have told her that the Major never joked. Hell, he doubted he even possessed a sense of humor. But he barely had the strength to raise his head and watch as Klaus slowly moved towards him, finally standing more or less between himself and his tormentors. Oh, my poor Major. How you must be hating having to save me.

“I never joke,” the Major said coldly, unknowingly echoing the thief’s thoughts.

“Do you think I went to all this trouble for nothing? I’m not going to just hand Eroica over to you or anyone else,” the woman said pointedly. “You must be a fool to come in here, issuing demands. Do you have any idea who I am?”

“I don’t give a damn who you are!” Of course, the Major knew exactly who the she was, which only made him angrier. It was all too obvious this bitch thought she could do whatever she wanted, to whomever she wanted, just because she was wealthy.

“Ah, but I know you, Major Eberbach,” Lucretia said startlingly. The Major’s eyes narrowed but he remained unnervingly silent. She waved a hand in Eroica’s direction. “I know what a thorn in your side this irritating freak of nature has been all these years. I should think you’d be glad to be rid of him.”

In principle, the Major would have readily agreed that he probably would. But not like this. For all his revolting perversions and exasperating eccentricities, Eroica, Dorian Red Gloria, did not deserve this. No one did. He looked at Tanner, who actually recoiled from the cold, angry glare in his dark green eyes. Slowly and precisely, he ordered, “Get…him…down.” This time, his voice held back none of his anger and revulsion.

The watching Eroica felt a chill run down his spine. The Major was never more terrifying than when he was calm. Unnaturally calm. Frighteningly, unpredictably calm. He realized suddenly that his captors were going to die, they simply didn’t know it yet. In a life and death situation, Iron Klaus was not a force to be trifled with. He was a trained killer, who was very, very good at it, as many had learned to their eventual ignominious end.

“Certainly, Major,” Tanner said in a submissive tone. Suddenly his hand flashed to the table and he was hurling a knife across the room.

The Major did not even flinch. He spun through three-hundred and sixty degrees, the knife passing harmlessly by. He fired his Magnum the instant he stopped, killing the astonished Tanner with a single shot.

* * *

The sound of the shot resounded through the building, causing the Doctor and Jason to immediately stop what they were doing.

“K-9, was that a gunshot?” the Doctor asked.

“Affirmative.”

“How many life signs are you picking up, excluding us?”

K-9’s sensors twitched a moment. “Three life signs detected. One unidentified human. Major von dem Eberbach, and Dorian Red Gloria, Master.”

Jason threw a concerned look in the direction of the sound. “Leave it to the professional, indeed. Professional killer.”

* * *

The Major turned to Lucretia. Was the harpy actually smiling at him? “I guess you’ll have to get him down, you bitch,” he snarled. To his astonishment, she shook her head, taking another drag on her cigarette. Was the woman stupid! Could she not see the gun pointing at her?

“No,” she replied tersely. “Too much time, money and effort has been spent on this.”

“Why?”

The Major actually jumped when Eroica suddenly spoke, his voice hoarse and raw. He threw a quick glance in his direction. Now that he was closer, Klaus could see how pale and drawn he was. His body a single raw wound, his usually bright face now creased with pain. He was totally helpless. Damn the man! Why did he care?

Lucretia merely chuckled at Eroica’s question. “You don’t know, you irritating self-absorbed perversion? You, the thief who took what was mine?”

Eroica could not quite comprehend what he was being told. It was just too incredibly twisted to be real.

The Major, however, put it into more concise terms, although he himself was just as incredulous as the thief. “You did all this because he stole from you?”

“Exactly.”

“They were just stupid pieces of clay!”

“They were my stupid pieces of clay!” Lucretia countered.

“Mein Gott! And I thought he was perverse!” the Major exclaimed, nodding in Eroica’s direction. “But you! You are an abomination!”

To the Major’s surprise, Lucretia pulled a small handgun from beside her and pointed it at the helpless Eroica, who watched in an appalled silence as her finger slowly tightening on the trigger.

* * *

The Doctor had wired up the last of the explosives and was playing out the wires to the detonator that was just in front of the TARDIS doors.

Jason was in the process of stripping the ends off of the wires and twisting them together. He looked up when the Doctor arrived with the last of them.

“It’s been awfully quiet in there these last few minutes,” he observed nervously.

“Yes,” the Time Lord agreed. “Perhaps we should—”

He broke off as the sound of a gunshot that sounded more like an explosion echoed through the building. It was followed by Eroica screaming at the top of his voice. “Klaus!”

* * *

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