Having fully scouted the areas of Schloss Wewelsburg that aren’t guarded by enhanced creatures, MI6s team of enhanced individuals are planning their next move. The team consists of Mademoiselle Mimi Dubois, La Résistance fighter and mistress of skills; Miss Madeline Forsyth, SOE operative and a living shadow; Sven Hyse, Norwegian Resistance soldier and shapeshifter; and Franklin Fort, hard bitten soldier and teleporter.

Wewelsburg Village, Germany, November 1942

OK! You know your teams, and you know your objectives! Let’s do this!

Sven rubs out the rough map of the Schloss that he has drawn in the dirt that was the culmination of thirty minutes of planning. He then transforms once again into a sea eagle and Madeline and I slide onto him in our shadow forms.

During that thirty minute briefing I had rigged three explosives charges set to detonate at zero one fifteen hours, and a fourth charge set with a ten second timer. The other four charges will be going inside the building with Madeline and I. Eagle Sven lands on the roof of the Schloss and Madeline and I quickly slip off, in a matter of seconds a small thrush is sat on the edge of the inner gutter. Madeline, who has been carrying Sven’s bag, delivers it to his perch atop one of the smaller towers and leaves it there alongside her rifle and ammunition.

Madeline and I then slide down the inner wall of the Schloss towards the window of the Kommandant’s secretary on the ground floor. I push out with my senses and discover that all of the enhanced are in the same locations as previously, and so Madeline slices in through the closed window and then cracks it open a tiny bit so that I can follow her in. By zero forty five hours we are both hidden within the office awaiting our time to move.

At our team’s observation point, as the minute hand moves to forty five, Frank disappears out of existence only to reappear one hundred yards away in the edge of the treeline running around the village of Wewelsburg. Twenty seconds later Frank has travelled just over a mile and is crouched on top of the dormer vent on the uppermost of the smaller towers. He pauses long enough to survey the perimeter of the German base and then disappears once more.

Having dropped us off, Sven readies his equipment on top of the dormer vent on the lower of the smaller towers. Once he is satisfied that everything is ready he transforms back into a large hawk, grabs one of the explosive charges in his talons and flaps up into the dark night sky to get a good view of the bases troop placement.

Frank reappears just behind the bases fuel tank and as he is looking for his next blink location he hears the sound of German voices drawing closer. Not wishing to run the risk of triggering an early alarm he teleports instantly back to his perch on the small tower and watches as two German guards return a Wolfenhund back to the kennels before heading off to the accommodation block.

Having circled the Schloss and noted that while it is clearly at a higher level of watchfulness it is not at full alert, Sven lands just behind the fuel tank ready to place his charge. He is only mildly surprised when Frank appears next to him. Frank drops into a crouch and sneaks across to the back of the generator building while Sven places his charge on the fuel tank.

Once he has finished Sven leaps up into the night sky once again heading for his perch and his rifle. Frank places one of his charges on the temporary generator truck that is parked up behind the main generator building, he then levers up one of the buildings vents just enough so that he can see inside. A second later and he is stood within the generator building and he quickly places his final charge against the generators fuel line. A heartbeat later and Frank is kneeling on his own tower dormer with his rifle nestled into his shoulder. The time is now zero one hundred hours and the wait begins.

Inside the secretaries office Madeline and I hear the patrol approaching and so we quickly slip out and hide in the inner courtyard until they have passed. Once we know that they are moving toward the lower wing we decide to head to our target in the basement of the Schloss. We slip down the tower stairs and find a single door in the towers basement room, we listen at the door and can hear two German voices discussing how dull this guard shift is. Then one of them says;

It so quiet down here, even the bloody patrol doesn’t bother coming down!

Music to our ears. We slide up to the dark ceiling and settle in to wait.

If any of the Wolfenkorps troops had looked up to the top of the towers, and if they had very sharp eyes and a lot of luck, they may have seen two figures kneeling with rifles aimed at the two Wolfenkorps troops keeping watch on top of the larger tower. The clock ticks past zero one fifteen, then zero one sixteen. All four of us wait in silence with our patience being eroded as each second slips by without the expected explosion.

Then the tension is broken. Zero one seventeen and the silence is shattered by a double explosion as first the charge explodes closely followed by the fuel tank burning off in catastrophic fashion. The detonation is the cue, and it is closely followed by the double crack sound of twin rifle shots. Frank drops his target with a head shot and simultaneously Sven kills his target with a bullet to the chest.

But the sound of the rifle shots are lost in the noise of both generators exploding as the final two charges do their work. Frank once again disappears and reappears on the top of the large tower where he quickly checks the bodies and relieves them of their grenades. Sven transforms back into a hawk and picks up his final charge and heads for the halftrack.

Seconds after the main generator is disabled the Schloss is plunged into darkness. That is the cue for Madeline and I. We slide in under the basement door and immediately the enhanced owl starts to screech, but in the darkness the guards are unable to tell what it is screeching at. With her dark vision, and the fact that I have borrowed is from her, Madeline and I are both able to see. In front of us we can see two Wolfenkorps guards, two security doors, one of which has the enhanced owl position above it. Madeline puts two shots into one of the guards and I put three into the other. Madeline’s third shot silences the owl.

Sven lands in the back of the halftrack and places his charge. Knowing that it is on only a ten second timer he quickly launches himself up into the sky once more and is circling in time to watch the fourth explosion of the night destroy the halftrack and cause damage to some of the troops milling about in the vicinity. Sven quickly returns to his perch and transforms back into himself and once again picks up his rifle.

The main doors of the Schloss open up and two Wolfenhund leading two handlers exit. They are closely followed by a Wolfenkorps Unterfeldwebel and all of them are heading towards the burning generator building. Unfortunately for them that puts them square in the sights of both Frank and Sven. Yet again the sound of twin rifle shots rings out and one of the Wolfenhund drops motionless to the floor, shortly followed by the other Wolfenhund’s handler. The remaining two troopers dive for cover while the second Wolfenhund runs free into the darkness.

The Unterfeldwebel and the second handler begin crawling for the safety of the buildings, with no knowledge of where the shots are coming from they end up remaining within the sights of Frank and Sven. Frank fires at the Unterfeldwebel and hits him square in the back. It is a shot that should kill a normal man, but he continues to crawl for safety and it becomes obvious that he is not a normal man. Frank has found the enhanced Wolfenkorps that we had not yet seen, but that I had sensed. A second later another shot rings out and the Unterfeldwebel stops moving. Sven ejects the spent cartridge and reloads with a slight smile on his face.

In the basement I quickly search the two Wolfenkorps bodies while Madeline checks out the two doors. One of them has a small white plaque that says that it is a boiler room but the other is unmarked. As we are searching there comes three bangs from the other side of the unmarked door. Madeline walks over to it and bangs on it twice. There is no reply so she slides into the room beyond under the security door. She finds herself in a large room that seems to be being used as a scientific office and sterile room. At the far side of the room are a set of double doors that remind Madeline of large refrigerator doors, but what draws her attention are the two scientists in the middle of the room discussing what is happening;

...is the second time that this has happened. And that wasn’t the correct signal from the guards

Calm down Klaus, it is just another power cut. And as for the signal being wrong, those guards are so lazy they have probably forgotten the correct signal.

Madeline transforms from her shadow form into herself and walks slowly towards the two scientists. At the same time I slide in under the door I over hear Madeline, in flawless German, saying;

What is beyond that door?

One of the scientists replies;

Who is that?

Madeline shoots the scientist and then turns to the remaining scientist and repeats the question. That is enough to loosen his lips;

There are chemicals stored behind there. They are for experiments on the Wolfenkorps soldiers.

Madeline changes track;

Who’s in charge?

We don’t know! We answer to Oberstleutnant Baynurn.

Who is the lead scientist?

Professor Vogel.

I transform into myself and Madeline tells the scientist to open the double doors. He moves to one of the tables and lights a paraffin lamp, as light flickers around the room you can see the shock in his face as he realises that he is faced with two female SS officers. Both of whom are aiming pistols at him. He quickly heads for the doors and opens them, in the small room beyond there is a large, locked metal cabinet. Madeline says;

Open it!

The German scientist replies that they don’t have the key, they are just here to monitor the temperature. Madeline then asks him how much of the chemical there is, the scientist moves to one of the filing cabinets and pulls out a file;

We are currently holding twenty three vials of the chemical.

Madeline heads into the room to look at the cabinet and I tell the scientist to move to the far corner of the room. When he is there I say;

Heil Hitler!

There is a moment's hesitation from the scientist before he half heartedly copies me. It is that hesitation that saves his life. I tie him up and gag him.

On the towers Frank and Sven are sowing chaos and confusion with well picked sniper shots. Frank takes out the other Wolfenhund handler while Sven picks off a Wolfenkorps trooper who was looking for an enemy to fight. More troops are now rushing from the camp and the accommodation block towards the burning buildings to see what they can do, Frank and Sven scan the troops through their rifle scopes looking for officers and when they find them the trigger is gently squeezed as they exhale slowly. Two officers drop dead.

By this stage the Germans have started to realise that the sniper shots are coming from their own towers, Frank spots a Wolfenkorps officer in the doorway of the accommodation block pointing in his direction and signaling for two troopers to head in that direction. As the troopers set off at a run Frank’s rifle barks and the Wolfenkorps officer is thrown backwards into the accommodation block foyer where he leaves a blood trail down the wall on the far side. The two troopers quickly hit the deck and scramble for cover.

With more and more troops focusing on the towers of the Schloss both Frank and Sven decide that it is time to change their angle of attack. Frank teleports from the top of the larger tower into the edge of the forest north of the main gate so that he can get a clear line of sight to the front of the castle. Sven transforms into a hawk once more and, clutching a grenade in his claw, flies towards the top of the accommodation block.

Madeline successfully picks the lock on the large metal cabinet and opens the doors where she discovers yet another set of locked cupboard doors. She sets about with her lockpicks again and unlocks this second set of doors. Inside she discovers twenty three metal test tubes stored in refrigerated conditions. We find carry cases for the test tubes, each one capable of holding six test tubes, and remove all of the samples before I rig a demolition charge set to detonate at zero one thirty two hours. Carrying two test tube cases each, we transform into shadows and head for the offices of Wolfenkorps Beta.

Sven lands on the roof of the accommodation block and spots groups of scientists and troops hiding at the rear of the building. He pulls the pin on the grenade with his beak and drops it into the centre of the largest group. The smaller explosion causes more chaos than the earlier large explosions as the huddled groups realise that they are not safe behind the building either.

Frank shoulders his rifle, grabs his MP40, and begins to stealth towards the perimeter fence. But he is spotted by a couple of the Wolfenkorps troops who, seeing an SS trooper stalking towards the fence, hail him. Frank levels his MP40 and both guards drop to the floor amid a hail of bullets. Knowing that he has now definitely given his position away he stalks back into the woods.

On the second floor of the Schloss Madeline and I, who are once again in solid form, pause long enough for me to check my watch. It is zero one twenty six, only nine minutes since the first explosion. We are well aware that the longer we are the greater the chance that the German’s will recover from the shock and organise themselves. With the clock ticking we get on with the second target of Madeline and my task.

Madeline steps into the Oberst’s office and grabs a bottle of schnapps, she then heads to the administration offices and opens all of the draws and scatters the paperwork around the rooms. While we are doing that we feel the crump of an explosion going off below us in the building. Madeline douses the paper in alcohol before lighting a match and setting fire to the whole lot.

From the woods, as he is stealthing away, Frank sees that the scientists and troops are leaving from the main gate and running for the safety of the village of Wewelsburg. Frank decides to make the village less safe and disappears, to reappear on top of one of the houses. He gets out his rifle and starts searching for troops in the crowd leaving the Schloss.

Knowing that time is against, Madeline and I split up. She heads for the first floor offices to set fire to all of the paperwork of Wolfenkorps Alpha, while I head to the radio room to set one of our charges to take it out of action. It is zero one forty hours.

Frank shoots another Wolfenkorps trooper, causing the Schloss evacuees to dive for cover. At that moment he hears the sound of a siren from further in town, a few seconds later he sees a civilian fire engine driving at speed towards the Schloss. Sven, who has returned to his perch, takes aim with his rifle. As the fire engine enters the gate of the Schloss Sven opens fire and shoots the driver dead. He reloads and shoots the petrol tank causing the fire engine to burn in the perimeter gateway.

By zero one fifty hours Madeline and I have completed our tasks and are exiting the Schloss via the large tower and heading for the woods and then our observation point rendezvous. Meanwhile, Frank and Sven are both sowing chaos in the form of thrown grenades. Sven from the top of the Schloss’ tower and Frank from the village’s rooftops. When they run out of grenades Frank decides that it is time to move to the rendezvous. Sven has different ideas.

Sven is taking a couple more shots from his perch when he hears a commanding voice raised amid the din. The voice is shouting for the troops to get back to the Schloss, Sven scans around and catches sight of an officer leading a small group of troops back towards the main doors. Sven’s rifle barks again and the officer is blown backwards off of his feet. The troops scatter. It is then that Sven decides that his work is almost done.

He transforms once more into a hawk and flaps down to the corpse of the Wolfenhund that he shot. Upon closer inspection it appears the the beast has some kind of crystal matted into its fur, and Sven believes that it is this that made it difficult to kill. He grabs a sample of the beasts fur and leaps up into the night sky heading for the observation point.

Paderborn Lippstadt Airfield, Germany, November 1942

By zero three fifty hours we are gathered at the southwest corner of the airfield preparing to steal a Junkers JU88. To the north we can see the glow of Schloss Wewelsburg burning in the night sky. Madeline had already scouted the area and crippled the one operational fighter aircraft at the airfield, while I had checked out the fuel load and confirmed that the Junkers was three quarters full and that it would be just enough to get us home.

There is also a half full Heinkel, and Madeline had also crippled that to give us a head start. I rig our final two charges to detonate at zero four hundred hours and Sven flys them into place on the airfields fuel tank and their radio mast, again hoping to cripple their communication ability and buy us a few more precious minutes. As Sven heads in to set the final of the two charges the rest of us move in and board the Junkers. I drop down into the pilots seat and immediately begin the preflight check sequence. Frank slides into the tail gunners position and Madeline takes the nose gunners position, and once Sven returns he drops grudgingly into the navigators seat. I look at him and he does not fill me with confidence, it is at these moments that I remember how useful Doctor Jackal was.

At zero four oh one hours there is a huge explosion as the airfields fuel tank explodes. I fire the engines of the Junkers.

Inside a blacked out Schloss Wewelsburg MI6s team of enhanced are investigating the activities of their German counterparts, the Wolfenkorps. The team consists of Mademoiselle Mimi Dubois, La Résistance fighter and mistress of skills; Miss Madeline Forsyth, SOE operative and a living shadow; Sven Hyse, Norwegian Resistance soldier and shapeshifter; and Franklin Fort, hard bitten soldier and teleporter.

Wewelsburg Village, Germany, November 1942

For a few seconds, by the light of the match, we can see that we are in the spartan office of the Oberst’s secretary and that everything is as we left it. It then goes dark once more as the match burns out. Frank turns on his torch and once again the office is illuminated. Frank and Sven hold up in the office, with Sven letting us know that if he does venture out then he will take the form of a Wulfenhund and will identify himself to us by saying;

Sausages!

With that image in our heads, Madeline and I head out in shadow form to scout the Schloss further.

We slide under the secretaries door and Madeline turns right, heading for the two administration offices at the end of the corridor, and I turn left towards the door at the end of the corridor and the rest of the Schloss. I pause on the threshold just long enough to reach out with my senses and confirm that all of the enhanced that I had previously sensed are still in their original locations, and then slide up to the ceiling and slip through the top of the doorway.

I find myself in a large room with a single door clearly leading into the tower at this end of the building and a set of double doors that seem to go through to the wing between the two smaller towers. The room seems to contain a number of items of grand furniture in keeping with a building of this stature, but the furniture does look like it may have been removed from some of the rooms off of the corridor to make space for the office furniture. I slide across the high ceiling and slip my head through the doorway into the tower, the tower room is very similar to the tower that we entered through. However, the spiral staircase here goes up to the towers upper levels but also descends unlike the staircase in the other tower.

At the other end of the building Madeline slides underneath the door of one of the administration offices, she finds herself in room with four desks for a secretarial typing pool as well as multiple filing cabinets. A quick glance confirms that the filing cabinets are organised under the same headings as those in the Oberst’s office, but there is far more detail here. Madeline quickly begins to leaf through the documents within to try and find the information that we are after.

I slip back out of the tower room and approach the double doors, I slide my head slowly through the top of the door and can see that the space between the two towers is a single large room. There is a large, sweeping staircase that heads down to the first floor below as well as a very grande writing table set up opposite the staircase. But none of this captures my attention more than the cage set high upon the wall on the far side of the room. Within the cage I can see a large owl looking out across the room. I believe that I have found one of the other enhanced creatures, the ones that can sense enhanced by sight. That is all the encouragement that I need to quickly retreat back to Sven and Frank.

With a number of files spread out across the typing pool desks Madeline believes that she is finally piecing together the story of the Wolfenkorps and their use of the enhanced chemical derived from cobalt 60. The effect of the rare isotope of cobalt 60 was first noticed during the nineteen twenties but it wasn’t until November 1941 that the first laboratory produced sample was manufactured. Wolfenkorps Beta was established to test the effect of this chemical on human subjects and its application to the war effort.

The original source of the cobalt 60 is identified as the Erzgebirge mountain range on the boarder of Germany and Czechoslovakia, the documents go on to say that a research facility was set up under Kohnstein alongside the research facility for Wolfenkorps Alpha, but that this facility was destroyed during an Allied bombing raid. At this point Madeline spots a reference note that cross references to a Wolfenkorps Alpha report on the destruction of their testing facility during October 1942. 

Madeline’s search also reveals a report on a large amount of low grade enhanced chemical that was diverted, and subsequently lost on route to Berlin in March 1942. Madeline guesses that it was that batch they gave us our enhanced powers. There are also details of the full refinement process of the cobalt 60 and the subsequent processes for creation of the enhanced chemical. She also discovers records detailing the process for application of the chemical to human subjects. It involves the injection of the chemical into the subject followed by a complex series of x-rays to trigger a reaction.

Inside the Oberst’s secretaries office Frank and Sven have made themselves comfortable, but as the seconds have lengthened into minutes boredom has started to take its toll on their patience. Fortunately at that moment I slide back in under the door and transform back into myself. I explain what I have discovered and I describe the caged owl, Sven instantly identifies it as a screech owl. They both then set to discussions as to how best to assault the Schloss creating as much of a distraction as possible. Leaving them to their planning I slip along the corridor to find Madeline and let her know what I have discovered. I find her stood on top of a desk taking photographs of a number of documents laid out across the floor of the room. Realising what she is doing I quickly start to help out and we capture mass images of all of the relevant documentation.

Just as we are returning all of the files to their correct filing cabinets the silence of the night is broken by a piercing trill. That can only be one of the enhanced screech owls, and our first thought is that Sven and frank have started to assault the Schloss. Madeline quickly darts across to the administration office that overlooks the inner courtyard and can see torchlight within the large room on the first floor. In the torchlight she can make out a small group of wolfenkorps troops following a Wolfenhund through the office.

We finish replacing all of the files and head back to the secretaries office. We find sven and Frank on guard within and we let them know that a patrol is heading through the Schloss and we believe that it is time to leave. They agree, and so Frank heads across the corridor into the Oberst’s office where he has a clear view of the woods outside of the perimeter fence. A second later and Frank disappears, reappearing just inside the tree line. Madeline and I retreat back to the secretaries office to find that Sven has transformed himself into a skunk and is spraying the four corners of the room to remove any trace of our scent.

Somewhat dumbfounded, Madeline and I wait for him to finish. He then transforms into a thrush and flaps out through the open window. Madeline and I then shut the shutters and the window making sure that the room is sealed and looks undisturbed, if somewhat smelly, and then we slide out and leave the Schloss as far away from the main gate as possible. As we are sliding out it is obvious that the number of patrols have been increased, but we easily avoid them. By zero four hundred hours we have regrouped at the observation point and agree that it is time to retreat back to our vehicle.

We hunker down for the day and take turns on watch while the others rest fully, as fully as you can on the floor of a forest in November with no fire. The daylight hours pass quietly and uneventfully, and by nineteen hundred hours we are once again positioned in our observation point with eyes on Schloss Wewelsburg. It is very apparent that they have fixed their generator, as the Schloss is once again lit up like an emblem of German superiority. Sven heads in to scout out the area as a small thrush. When he returns thirty minutes later he informs us that the Germans have brought in what looks like a mobile generator, which is parked up inside the compound, and that it is obvious that security has been tightened.

Madeline and I manage to convince the others that we should be allowed time to scout out the Schloss fully. They begrudgingly agree to give us two hours from the time that we are dropped off by Sven in his sea eagle form, if however, we do not make the pick up rendezvous then Sven and Frank will begin to attack the Schloss. With the deal done we transform into shadows and slide onto the sea eagle and by twenty hundred hours are winging our way high into the night sky. Once we are over the Schloss it becomes apparent that almost every light within the castle is still lit, and due to the light streaming out we agree to retreat back to the observation point.

Two hours later we try again, and this time discover the Schloss with lights being switched off as we approach. Sven takes us in high and drops like a stone towards the darkened courtyard in the centre of the Schloss, at the last second he extends his massive wings and brings us to a stop atop the inner gutter. Madeline slides left and I right and seconds later a small thrush flaps off of the roof and into the night sky.

I push out with my senses and discover that what we assume to be enhanced security owls are all still in place, however, the enhanced with the Wolfenhund seem to be on the move on the ground floor. We head for the second floor of the large tower and slide in through the window, we turn right and head under the door of the lower wing. We find ourselves in a large, well appointed drawing room. We quickly move through it and under the next door finding ourselves in what appears to be a boardroom, complete with a large boardroom table and all of the trappings.

I push out with my senses once again and discover that the three enhanced beings on the ground floor are carrying out a full sweep of the rooms. Aware that time is against us we swiftly continue our search, pausing at every doorway to confirm where the enhanced beings are. Using this method we discover the offices of Wolfenkorps Alpha on the first floor of the upper wing. Madeline searches the filing cabinets while I am pushing out with my senses to check on the progress of the search party. They are moving up the upper of the small towers and then begin to move towards us along the first floor.

Madeline discovers that Wolfenkorps Alpha are engaged in using the power of the enhanced process to split the nucleus of an atom, the concept of which I struggle to understand to this day, to create a devastating weapon. I look on interestedly as Madeline is relaying the information and when she finally pauses for breath I point out that we need to hide as the search party is only two rooms away from us. We quickly slip behind some beautiful tapestries adorning the walls and seconds later hear the door to the office open. There is the heavy panting of a large dog and the voice of a young German says;

Warum müssen wir diese suchen immer noch durchführen?

There is a moment's pause and then an older man replies;

Mach einfach weiter mit deinen bestellungen!

The search party quickly moves through our room and out through the larger of the towers. I push out with my senses and can tell that they are moving into the first floor of the lower wing.

We push onwards and discover the offices for Oberst Krathlow and Oberstleutnant Schliefen, a quick search of the Oberst’s desk drawers reveals a similar set of orders with regards to the demonstration of the Wolfenkorps abilities. However, Madeline also discovers a report detailing that the project has suffered a significant setback due to the destruction of the delivery system facility under Kohnstein. The setback is so significant that they may not be able to take part in the demonstration.

Just as we are moving under the doorway into the next room, which appears to be a sitting room, we hear the unmistakable sound of a screech owl. I push out with my senses and discover that the patrol is moving back through the large room at the front of the Schloss towards us. Madeline and I quickly hide once again and the patrol passes through the sitting room and up the spiral stairs to the second floor. It is clear that they are doing a full sweep of the Schloss. We head downwards.

Heading along the upper wing of the ground floor we discover the offices of Wolfenkorps command, and in particular those of Generalleutnant Heinrich Gotz,  Kommandant Wolfenkorps and Generalmajor Helmut Kahl, Stellvertretender Kommandant Wolfenkorps. Madeline slips into the Generalleutnant’s office while I keep watch and discovers yet another copy of the orders, but this time also finds a copy of the reply suggesting a non-specific area near to Schloss Neuschwanstein as the site for the demonstration.

We continue forwards and discover an office and a large stationery cupboard, I steal a notebook and Madeline grabs a handful of blank Wolfenkorps paperwork to use for forged documents later if required. Moving ever onwards we find the Schloss’ radio room in the base of the larger tower and note down the frequencies for the next few days from their code book. We move along the ground floor of the lower wing and discover a kitchen, pantry, dining room, and stores. Of more interest, however, is the room of records that we discover. It contains mostly financial records, including those pertaining to personnel enlisted with Wolfenkorps. We note down as many of the names as possible, focusing on officers and scientists, and while searching we discover a note stating that all records with reference to test subjects of Wolfenkorps Beta have been moved to Schloss Neuschwanstein.

With that information we know that we cannot complete the missions second priority, ascertaining how many enhanced the Germans have created and what their powers are, and so we can now focus on priorities three and four. Madeline and I head for the lower wing of the first floor, as we had not been able to search it while the patrol was moving through, and discover two laboratories that appear to be being used by Wolfenkorps Alpha. A quick search of the notes in these rooms reveals that they are working with something called uranium-235 to effect the weapon of mass destruction.

Believing that we have searched all of the areas that are not guarded by the screech owls and Wolfenhund, Madeline and I retreat back to the roof and await pick up. It is now twenty three forty five hours and we are running out of reasons not to attack the Schloss.

MI6s enhanced team are currently on a mission deep in the heart of Germany investigating the activities of a secret enhanced section of the German war machine, the Wolfenkorps. The team consists of Mademoiselle Mimi Dubois, La Résistance fighter and mistress of skills; Miss Madeline Forsyth, SOE operative and a living shadow; Sven Hyse, Norwegian Resistance soldier and shapeshifter; and Franklin Fort, hard bitten soldier and teleporter.

Wewelsburg Village, Germany, November 1942

Madeline hands me the letter from the drawer of Oberst Frauden, it is dated a week ago and clearly states that both Wolfenkorps Alpha and Beta teams will be taking part in a demonstration of their skills to national civilian and military leadership. Very interesting indeed.

Having had a quick scan through the the filing cabinets I let Madeline know that I have found sections on finances, resources, progress summaries, locations, and production information. Everything appears to be high level summaries, as you might expect in the office of the head of one of the teams. To double check I pull one of the files with regards to production information. The documents within confirm that progress is being made with regards to the industrialisation of the production of the enhanced chemical, the process began in September 1942 and is due for completion either late 1942 or early in 1943. The main production hub is listed as Schloss Neuschwanstein, Hohenschwangau, Bavaria, Germany. I make a quick note of this in my field notebook.

I also spot that the summary file has a reference number which seems to point to more detailed filing system where further information can be found. I make a note of the reference number and check with Madeline what she thinks that we should do. We both replace what we have found and leave the place as we found it, including Madeline relocking the Oberst’s drawer, we then exit the office and slip under the door of the secretaries office opposite. We find ourselves in a very spartan office with no documentation or filing visible. While I check out the window in here for an exit route, Madeline checks out the office of Oberstleutnant Baynurn but finds little of interest.

We had been within Schloss Wewelsburg for approximately fifty minutes by the time that we were searching for a safe exit route, at that same moment Private Fort’s patience had given out and he decided to come looking for us in fear that we had been captured. Frank blinks in and out of this reality and within seconds has covered the half mile to the forest's edge. He checks his surroundings and is just about to teleport across the open fields when his powers fail him. Unperturbed, Frank hugs the shadows and creeps stealthily towards his target.

By zero one forty five hours Madeline and I are on the roof of Schloss Wewelsburg while Sven hops around in his thrush form looking for the best flight path off of the roof avoiding the worst of the searchlights. Just as Sven is sliding down the pitch of the roof to rejoin us, Madeline points to the tower to our right, we both look in the direction that she is pointing to and we spot Frank crouched at the top of the tower. As we are watching, he disappears once again and reappears a heartbeat later sat astride one of the attic windows. Madeline quickly covers him from the sight of the Wolfenkorps guards on top of the main tower with a patch of absolute darkness.

We all converge on Frank and ask him why he has come in just as we were about to retreat back to him, he just looks at us and says;

You took to long! I am a man of action and I strike while the iron is hot!

Madeline looks scornfully at him, although Frank was oblivious to her look as she was still in her shadow form, and asks him;

How many of these missions have you been on?

Frank is silent and Madeline follows up with;

Exactly! Then I suggest that you follow our lead and meet us back at the observation point.

Frank nods his assent and then disappears once again. He blinks into reality at the top of the tower again before disappearing again. Sven transforms into a sea eagle and Madeline and I slide onto him, he then launches himself off of the roof and after a brief dive begins to climb up into the night sky. As Sven is pulling away from Schloss Wewelsburg Madeline and I look back towards the castle and are pleased to see that it looks like the alarm hasn’t been sounded.

We regroup and discuss what we have found. Sven is very keen to go in and blow up the buildings generator and fuel tank with explosives, and then attack the accommodation block creating as much havoc as possible to cause a distraction. He would also like to get control of the halftrack and take it for a destructive spin. Frank looks very keen on this plan, but I point out that the mission has a number of priorities and that causing chaos is the lowest priority on the list;

We need more information first!

With a bit of a deflated expression on his face, Sven transforms once again into a thrush and heads in for a closer look at the accommodation block and the generator. The accommodation block is four stories high and at this time of night does not have many lights on. Sven lands on the roof of the building and then hops down to the window ledge of one of the rooms that still has a light on. Through a gap in the curtains he can see a middle aged man sat at a desk writing. On the back of the door of the small room Sven can see a white laboratory coat hung up. It would appear that there are scientists on site here, which makes sense.

Sven flaps down to the generator building but can not see anything inside as it is dark inside. From his perch on top of the generator building he has a clear view of the main gate and he sees two guards with what is clearly one of the enhanced dogs that we saw under Kohnstein. Sven returns to us and lets us know what he has discovered, Frank asks about the enhanced dogs and we explain to him what they are, it was then that Madeline coined the term Wolfenhund.

I suggest that we need to know what is in the other outbuildings, and in particular the generator building, and Sven begrudgingly says that we have thirty minutes to scout them out but that is all. It would seem that Frank’s ‘man of action’ speech is having an effect on Sven’s approach.

Madeline and I slip into the compound in shadow form and slide up to the generator building. We discover a vent large enough for us to glide through and find ourselves inside looking at a diesel generator, using the engineering skill that I borrowed when we were stealing a ship to break the blockade of Malta, I give the generator a look over. I am suddenly reminded of an old La Résistance trick of putting sugar in the petrol tanks of German vehicles to clog the fuel filters and disable them, and with my borrowed knowledge I am well aware that sand and dirt will do a very similar thing. I tell Madeline my new plan and she approves.

We slip out of the generator building and slide past the fuel tank feeding the generator to the remaining outbuilding. Now that we are closer it is obvious that this final building is a new prefabricated structure with a metal roof. Suddenly, my paranoia kicks in and I push out with my senses to check if there are any enhanced in the area. I had started to think of my ability similar to that of a submarines active sonar by this time and I remember turning to Madeline and gesturing that I had issued a ‘ping’ and had three returns.

I focus on one of the returns and push out once more with my senses, but I get nothing but a void. Madeline and I are then chilled by the sound of a large dog howling from within the building. That single howl is quickly joined by two other howls from within. I make the educated guess that there are three Wolfenhund within the new building. Madeline points out that there are raised voices coming from the direction of the front gate, we quickly slide up the walls and hide on the roof of the prefabricated building. As the voices get closer we can hear;

...t’s got into them? Something must’ve disturbed them.

A second voice replies;

They are normally very quiet. Check the door.

The first voice answers;

It’s shut tight, let’s have a look around.

We hear the sound of them circling around the Wolfenhund kennel, for that is what we now believe it to be, and we can also hear the sound of their Wolfenhund sniffing about looking for a scent to follow. We breathe a sigh of relief when he doesn’t find one and they all return to the main gate. Once they have reached the gate we leave and head back to regroup with the others at the observation point.

We tell the others everything that we have discovered, as well as my plan to disable the generator without the use of explosives. It is agreed that we need to go back in and search the main Schloss, and that Madeline and I will head in and disable the generator and then the others will meet us on the roof of the Schloss, including Frank. Madeline and I will get into the Oberst secretaries office and open the window so that the others can gain entry.

By zero three thirty two Madeline and I, carrying a small bag of fine dirt, are sliding into the generator building. As we were passing through the fence we had spotted that the guards were patrolling the perimeter fence with one of the Wolfenhund. Inside the generator building I gain access to the fuel input line and pour in the contents of my small bag, I then seal up the fuel line and we slip out of the building and hide ourselves by the base of one of the powerful flood lights that is illuminating the Schloss, and we wait.

It is a tense twelve minute wait. But, eventually the flood lights flicker and seconds later they die. Schloss Wewelsburg is plunged into darkness. It becomes obvious that the generator was powering the whole building and not just the exterior lights, Madeline and I start to move in. At the moment that the lights go out, taking that as their cue, Sven leaps into the air in the guise of a hawk and Frank disappears.

Madeline and I get to the bottom of the stream bed that circles this side of the Schloss, we spot the main doors open and a Wolfenkorps Unterfeldwebel, with a trooper by his side, rush out and head towards the generator building. Once they have passed we slide up the outside of the Schloss and onto the roof. By the time we get there Sven is perched on the interior gutter and Frank is sat astride one of the attic roof windows.

Madeline and I slip in through the Oberst secretaries office window and once inside we quietly open the window and then the shutters. There is just enough moonlight for Frank to see the inside of the office and a second later he has disappeared from the top of the attic window and is stood inside the office. Sven transforms into a thrush and flies in, once we are all inside Madeline closes the shutters once more. As soon as the shutters are closed and the room is plunged into darkness Frank strikes a match and the room is lit with the low light.

MI6s new look enhanced team are currently on a mission deep in the heart of Germany, and things aren’t quite going to plan. The team consists of Mademoiselle Mimi Dubois, La Résistance fighter and mistress of skills; Miss Madeline Forsyth, SOE operative and a living shadow; Sven Hyse, Norwegian Resistance soldier and shapeshifter; and Franklin Fort, hard bitten soldier and teleporter.

Paderborn Lippstadt Airfield, Germany, November 1942

Private Franklin Fort looks around himself and is pleased to find that the airfield remains dark and quiet. He notices a large water butt resting against the outside wall of one of the dark, massive hangers. He looks down at the dead body of the German driver at his feet, stoops and hoists it up onto his shoulder and heads for the water butt.

Inside the airfields mess the rest of the team awaiting the return of the Luftwaffe Leutnant who has left us to arrange transport for us. To those around us we appear to be weary travelers enjoying a brief rest and a good cup of coffee, but really we are all starting to get concerned about the length of time that it is taking for Frank to join us. I say out loud that I am going to head out for a cigarette and some fresh air and leave Madeline and Sven inside.

Once I am outside I light my cigarette and look nervously towards where our plane landed. After what seems like hours but was only a matter of minutes, the silhouette of Frank carrying his kitbag looms out of the darkness towards me. I ask the obvious question with my eyes and he responds quietly in English;

Problem! Had to deal with the driver!

I know exactly what he means by ‘deal with’, and the fact that his jacket looks like he has hastily washed something off it I guess that the German driver did not live to tell of the encounter. I give Frank a cigarette and head back inside to inform the others. A minute after I have broken the news the Luftwaffe Leutnant returns and lets us know that the car is ready for us, Madeline makes a point of asking him to inform our pilot that he may leave immediately.

We make to leave quickly, with Frank taking his place in the driver's seat and Madeline next to him. Myself and Sven settle into the back seat of the car, as we are leaving I make sure to thank the Luftwaffe Leutnant and he hands me the airfield’s telephone number and asks that we return the car at our earliest convenience. I flutter my eyelashes and tell him that I will see him soon.

I tell Frank to drive us across the airfield and head for the gate leading towards Lippstadt, the route takes us past our plane as it is taxiing towards the runway and we get an almost imperceptible acknowledgement from the pilot as we pass. We clear the gate without issue and as we are driving away from the airfield we spot our aeroplane climbing up into the dark night sky. Frank drives while I navigate using our map, it is a painful reminder of how useful Doctor Jackal and his magnificent memory were. As soon as we are able we double back away from Lippstadt and head towards the village of Oberntudorf and the woodland beyond where we plan to ditch the car.

I remember that we were driving heedlessly along a small country lane towards the village of Oberntudorf with no idea of what was up ahead when it hit me. I asked Frank to pull the car off of the road and kill the lights. We had been successful so far in our missions because we were cautious and used our significant abilities to our advantage, but here we were heading into the unknown without doing that. I don’t know if we had got too confident, or if the addition of Private Fort to our team had changed our dynamic, but I believed that we needed to get back to what we did well.

By this time it was just after midnight and I asked Sven to scout ahead while we waited in the dark, by the side of the road. Sven transformed into a small bird and flapped up into the night sky. He heads towards the village and as he is crossing the main road that runs north south he spots a motorbike and sidecar speed past heading north, as he watches it head into the distance he sees the lights of a large convoy of trucks heading south towards the village down the main road. He flies out east across the river and then turns south and flies out over the countryside and finally crosses over the woodland.

Finding the way ahead clear he swings back north towards the village of Wewelsburg and our ultimate target. The castle stands out like a beacon in the night, it’s walls are lit up by searchlights making it an imposing sight within the village. As the small bird flaps over the castle he spots a number of tents set up on the grass outside of the castle as well as a parked halftrack. The castle has a perimeter fence approximately fifty yards from the main walls and a couple of manned guard posts pierce the fence. Sven then continues back towards us in the parked car.

A small thrush lands on the roof of our car, hops onto the ground and then transforms back into Sven. Sven tells us everything that he has discovered and by zero thirty hours Frank is driving us southeast through Oberntudorf once we are beyond the village Frank turns us south towards the treeline. Once we are deep within the woods we find a small track that leads deeper into the woods, Frank attempts to drive up the track but gets the car stuck in the deep mud. I take over at the wheel, and using my borrowed skill, I manage to free the car and get it deeper into the woods.

Frank and I spend several minutes camouflaging the car and hiding the tracks that we made heading into the deep woods. Once we have finished we start to hike towards the castle, within seconds Frank is hiking alone through the woods being flanked by a couple of shadows and preceded by a small bird. Frank covers the two and a quarter miles in very little time and by zero one hundred hours he is crouched just within the treeline three quarters of a mile from Castle Wewelsburg. He raises his binoculars and spots that there are two guards stationed on top of the largest of the three towers.

Madeline, Sven, and I screw silencers onto our pistols and loosen the straps on our knives. Sven then transforms into a sea eagle and Madeline and I transform into shadows and slide onto him. This has the added effect of making him black, meaning that he will be harder to spot against the night sky. Frank agrees to wait in the treeline and keep watch with his binoculars, he lets us know that he will come in if he believes that we are in trouble.

Sven takes us on a wide berth around the castle and drops from a great height towards the darker inner edge of the roofline, aiming to land on the wide inner guttering. As he is circling it is easy to spot the tents pitched outside the castle walls but within the perimeter fence, judging by the numbers of tents I believed that there were twenty to thirty troops stationed there, an entire platoon. Sven lands almost silently in the shadow of the inner roofline between the two smaller towers, and a heartbeat later two shadows slip off of his form onto the roof. A couple of seconds later and the sea eagle is transformed into a small thrush. All is quiet and we appear not to have been detected.

I push out with my senses to see if I can detect any enhanced in the area. I get a definite hit. I push once more to ascertain the number of enhanced within my range and am both shocked and scared when I get eight returns not including my two colleagues. Three of them are on the ground floor of one of the smaller towers, a further two are located on the first and second floors adjacent to that tower, and three more are located on the fourth floor of the other small tower.

I slide around to the middle of the next block, shadowed by Madeline, and push out once again with my senses but this time I get nothing new back. We continue around to the middle of the final block and I push again. This time I get a new return and work out that it must be located in the basement of the building. Madeline and I slide onto the smaller tower containing three enhanced on the fourth floor and I push out with my sense once more, this time with the aim of finding out what enhanced powers they have. After several minutes I discover that all three of them are gifted with three hundred and sixty degree vision, that they can see in total darkness, and most concerningly they can detect enhanced abilities by sight.

We decide to use the same tactic on the three enhanced on the ground floor of the other smaller tower. I push out with my senses once again and instantly recognise the aura of one of them as a guard beast similar to the ones we encountered under Kohnstein in the Mittelwerk facility. I push my senses onto the next one of the three and discover that it is enhanced with the ability to resist damage and the ability to take greater damage before becoming incapacitated. I find that a little worrying. I move on the the third enhanced in that location and push out once more with my senses. But this time I cannot detect anything. It is as if I know that something is there, but it is just a void in my senses.

As I am worrying about the dark hole in my senses, Madeline has a dog howl from the ground floor of the tower. We quickly move back to Sven and wait to see if anything happens. I breathe a sigh of relief when nothing does. Madeline and I decide to investigate the larger of the three towers and slide down to one of it’s windows. We find ourselves looking into a large, circular room. It is empty with the exception of a spiral staircase heading up through the ceiling and down through the floor. We slip in through the window on the third floor of the tower and head down the staircase, on the second floor of the tower we discover two doors leading off into the wings.

We slide under the right hand door and find ourselves in a carpeted corridor with a single door at the far end, and three pairs of doors facing each other along the length of the corridor. The nearest pair have little white plaques declaring them as;

Verwaltung

Madeline looks at me and mouths ‘Administration’. I push out with my senses and confirm that there are no enhanced in our immediate vicinity. We move along the corridor in shadow form to the next pair of doors, these are also labelled with white plaques. The door to our right is signed;

Oberstleutnant Baynurn Stellvertretender Leiter Wolfenkorps Beta

The door opposite is marked as Oberstleutnant Baynurn’s secretary. So we have found the office of the deputy head of Wolfenkorps beta team. Move move to the final set of doors in the corridor and discover that they are signed;

Oberst Frauden Kopf Wolfenkorps Beta

Once again, the door opposite is that of Oberst Frauden’s secretary. Madeline and I slip under the Oberst’s door and find ourselves in a very tidy office. I quickly move to the filing cabinets within the room and start to leaf through the files while Madeline, using her lockpicks, unlocks the Oberst’s desk drawer. Inside she discovers a single file containing a single piece of paper. That piece of paper is a letter informing Oberst Frauden that both Wolfenkorps Alpha and Beta teams are scheduled to perform a demonstration for interested parties. The location and timing of the demonstration are to be confirmed at a later date. Madeline looks very pleased with herself.