Dr. Snip Ch. 02

Kemp was going to prevaricate but he felt her hand close around his scrotum and start to squeeze, he gave her all the information that he knew.

'Thank you Kemp, you have been such a help that I'm not going to kill you,' she said coldly.

'However I don't like you, and I feel that you must be punished for your cruel actions here.'

As she had a captive audience she told him about her friend Dr. Snip and his unique way of dealing with perverts.

'However I don't believe that castrating you, would stop your torture of the women of this camp. If anything it would probably make you more vicious than you are now.'

Angel thought for a moment, considering various options, she had already studied the Nuremberg War Crimes records via her implant. There was no mention of Kemp being punished by that famous court. She realised the responsibility that Steve assumed when it came down to becoming Judge, Jury and Executioner. At the final point she either accepted the responsibility or passed the buck.

'The buck stops here,' she decided and activating her monofilament nails severed his spinal cord precisely where her implant advised her, to achieve the desired effect. Kemp lost all sensation in the lower part of his body; he would spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair.

The SS had no time or sympathy for cripples, and he would be sent back to the anonymity of a civilian life until he died.

'Dr. Snip would probably have just killed you, but he always was the soft one of us,' she remarked, before she jumped back to the pre-arranged location to meet Steve.

Steve had planned to just wait for Angel to retrieve the QT, but he got bored very quickly and decided to rescue the paintings himself. As he didn't have the co-ordinates of the interior of the blocked up cave and didn't really want to guess them, he decided to jump back to 1930 before the war began. He arrived as planned and found the cave open and deserted; he wandered in and explored the interior.

It went back quite a way into the hill and at the deepest part was a large cavern, by the light of his torch he could see that it was nice and dry. He assumed that this was where the Nazis would store the paintings and recorded the precise co-ords, for later use. Then he realised that as he was already here, he only had to jump ahead in time to get to the paintings.

No sooner thought than done and he appeared in the same place, but now he was surrounded by rare paintings as expected. What he hadn't expected was the heap of bodies lying in a line by the far wall. There were ten of them, and they had each been shot in the head at close range. This was sickening enough, but these had been children about ten or twelve years old.

They had obviously been chosen because of having to work in such a confining space. The now familiar cold feeling crept over him, as he looked at the scene.

'Merlin, please rewind until I say stop, one hour jumps. DONE. Steve had learned to trust his ghost in the machine, that was The World Brain of the twenty-sixth century.

Since Merlin had proved that he could jump Steve out of the path of a speeding bullet, he had experienced an emotional bond between himself and the AI. Although Steve doubted that Merlin 'liked' him, he believed that he had become valuable to the entity and had come to trust it more and more. Rewind was the codeword for an automatic series of small jumps backward in time at varying jump sizes.

At one hour jumps, occurring every second it was as if Steve was watching a videotape jerkily rewinding in front of his eyes. Suddenly the small bodies were reanimated and Steve said Stop. He appeared in the cave just as the Nazi guard was pushing the group of children back against the wall, prior to shooting them as ordered.

The children were bone tired and scared, they had been carrying paintings from the SS lorries into the cave for two days with little in the way of food and water. When the guard started to push them against the wall, they thought they were going to be given the chance to rest for a while. Little Gretchen asked him for a glass of water, as she was really thirsty.

'You won't need any water anymore Jew,' he replied coldly as he drew his Luger pistol and cocked the action. Gretchen looked past the guard at the strange big man that had appeared behind the guard.

'Excuse me, I'm looking for the nearest Synagogue,' Steve asked the guard. The man gasped in shock and spun around to find the source of the voice. His Luger was plucked from his hand, and a fist smashed into his gut doubling him up onto the floor of the cave.

When the guard had recovered enough to listen, Steve told him that he was taking the children away. Unless the guard wanted to be shot for extreme incompetence, it would be best if he simply reported that he had killed the children and allowed his officer to seal the cave with explosives. Covering the guard with the pistol, Steve told the children to gather around him and hold on to his coat.

When they were all touching him, he asked Merlin to calculate the total size of the group and jump them back to 1930. DONE As far as Gretchen and the rest of the children were concerned the cave just seemed to flicker, and the guard disappeared. Light was shining in from the opening, and Steve lead them all out of the cave into the sunshine.

Steve looked at his motley crew of kids in the light of day. They were all malnourished and exhausted, and a few of the youngest ones were starting to cry. What to do with ten children in this state? The first thing was to get them somewhere safe and feed them.

'Hold hands again please,' he told them 'we are going to my home for a good feed.' Gretchen and the others smiled at the mention of food, and clustered around Steve excitedly. He jumped them all into the back garden of his house in England. After they had stared there fill at the new surroundings, he lead them into the kitchen.

He was unsure of what to let them eat; he had no idea of what was Kosher. He settled on tins of vegetable soup, and big glasses of milk all round to take off the edge. The oldest of them was a twelve-year-old girl named Helga. Like them all she was a German, who happened to follow the Jewish faith. She had finally realised that she was going to die in the camp, and had been praying for an angel to rescue her.

This big strange man with his divine powers, had rescued her and her fellow prisoners. As she was slurping down the hot soup, she was looking at him intently. She couldn't see any wings, but the long black leather coat could be concealing them. She thought that he was probably Mikal the Archangel. He could be Israil the Angel of Death, he certainly could look very frightening sometimes.

She was startled when he came over to her and asked her to supervise the bathing of the children, while he went to purchase new sets of clothes for them all. Helga was honoured to be put in charge, and promised him that they would all be clean and tidy by the time he returned. The only place Steve could think of to purchase ten sets of clothes for a bunch of kids, was the school uniform shop in town.

He jumped to within walking distance of the shop. With the assistance of a helpful shop owner, purchased a dozen sets of uniforms complete with shoes socks and underwear. He bought a few extra sets, in case he had messed up on the sizes. Steve also went to a kosher restaurant, and ordered eleven takeaways full of meats and other Jewish favourites to treat the kids.

By the time he returned, all the children were sitting in the living room wrapped in big fluffy towels, and looking no different from any other kids. They gathered around with big smiles, when he appeared in front of them loaded down with various sized bags. Before he gave them the uniforms, he allowed them to pig out on the takeaways. Steve reasoned that they were bound to get gravy on the uniforms, if they dressed before dinner.

Just as well he hadn't dressed them first, as the little clean faces were soon covered in gravy, as they ripped into the first good Jewish dinner they had eaten in months. The towels were put to good use in wiping mouths, and greasy hands. Steve was going to get them dressed, until he noticed that most of them were nodding off. The combination of extreme hard work followed by the shock of being rescued, plus the shock of travelling by QT, had exhausted them all.

The good hot food was the final straw, and seeing them so tired he jumped to the nearest camping shop and purchased ten sleeping bags. He reappeared just a few seconds after leaving them, so was able to get them all tucked in before they fell completely asleep. Helga was the last to succumb, and she fell asleep watching him sitting in his armchair by the open fireplace deep in thought.

When the last child had fallen into a deep sleep, he got up and went to his trophy room. From the pocket of his coat he withdrew the Luger he had taken from the nazi guard. After carefully unloading it he mounted it on the wall, alongside the other souvenirs of his adventures.

As usual when he had a problem to think about he took down his favourite souvenir Excalibur. Taking a clean cloth from the kitchen drawer sat and polished the razor sharp blade. Polishing the already gleaming sword calmed him, and allowed him to concentrate on the problem at hand. He had acquired ten orphaned German children who were Jewish, what to do with them?

He had an idea, not the best idea he had ever had but a possible solution. What was the point of having powerful friends, if you didn't take advantage of them now and again? While the children were sleeping, he jumped back to a certain chapel in the Vatican. The Pope was sitting quietly in deep prayer as Steve materialised, and didn't seem to notice him.

Steve took the opportunity to relax on a nearby pew, and go over the arguments he would use to get the Popes help.

'Hello Steve, nice to see you again.' A quiet voice broke into his reverie.

'Hello Sir, It's good to see you in good health, I'm sorry to bother you again but I have a problem that perhaps you could help me with.'

'Another confession? Well I'm sitting comfortably so please begin' the man Steve called Charles said amiably.

Steve told him the whole story of the raid on the German treasure cave, and how he had come by ten Jewish children. After listening intently to this tale Charles commented,

'So you now have ten children, and don't know what to do with them. You obviously couldn't have left them back there, because they would have been killed eventually.'

As a Polish man Charles knew only too well what the SS had been like. Also as Pontiff he also knew that the Catholic Church of the time, had done little to try and stop the pogroms against the Jewish people. The Church had since apologised for this, and he saw a chance here to partly atone for past mistakes.

'If you will allow me to help you Steve, I am willing to take charge of these children, and via my contact with the Chief Rabbi see that they are integrated into modern Israeli society.' Steve thanked him sincerely, and added that he intended to set up a trust fund for all the children to secure their future well being.

The Pope wouldn't hear of this, insisting that the Vatican would do this as partial reparation for past errors of policy. Steve and the Pontiff, discussed the details of this project for the rest of the night. They arranged for the children to be picked up from Rome's main railway station by a Papal vehicle, at a set time tomorrow. They also spoke about recent events in both their lives; Charles updated Steve on his progress towards stamping out Paedophiles in the Priesthood.

Steve had already noticed news stories, showing that the church was putting on the pressure to eradicate such people from the church. In turn Steve told the old man about recent changes in his policy on child molesters. He had now decided that those who would not be deterred by castration; would forfeit their lives. Charles was saddened to hear of this turn of events, he knew that Steve wasn't a killer by nature. He could sense that he wasn't comfortable, with the way things had turned out.

'If you were Catholic I could confess you and absolve you,' he said to Steve.

'That would be hypocritical I'm afraid,' Steve replied sadly

'as I intend to continue my war on these monsters to the death, either theirs or mine.'

'I must be going Sir, things to do you know,' he said as he stood up and shook Charles hand.

'Thank you for listening to my side of things, it's a comfort to me to be able to talk to you.'

The Pope watched calmly as Steve walked to the center of the small Chapel, and disappeared into thin air. Steve reappeared in his living room just seconds after he left; he hadn't wanted to leave the children alone for too long. They were all still sleeping peacefully except for Helga, who as the oldest of the group had been affected more deeply.

Her sleep was disturbed by nightmares, and she whimpered as she tossed and turned in her sleeping bag. Steve went over to her and sitting down on the floor held her hand in his, the contact woke her and she looked up at him silently. Squeezing his hand tightly she went back to sleep, he sat there all night holding her hand and thinking his own deep thoughts.

He wondered how Angel was faring with her mission. He wasn't worried about leaving her alone back there, as he intended to return to his guard position just a few minutes after leaving it. There was no danger of bumping into himself, as the agreed meeting place was well away from the treasure cave. The fact that he would literally be in two places at once, had ceased to concern him.

One of the perks of having a time machine was that if you arranged to meet someone at a certain place and a certain time, you could guarantee that you would be there. Despite spending twenty years jumping around the world, in the interim. The morning sun burst through his windows and found him still sitting by Helga.

He looked down at her, and saw that she had been awake and watching him for some time.

'Thank you Israil,' she whispered and smiled up at him. Steve thought she had said Israel, and told her that she would soon be in the Promised Land. He explained as best he could about the creation of Israel, and how the Jews had made it a home for their people.

She seemed to take the fact that she was now in her future with equanimity, and seemed excited at the prospect of going to this wondrous land. He felt it only honest to clarify to her that Israel was constantly under siege by its enemies who resented its existence, but even that didn't seem to upset her. Considering what she had been through recently, he didn't begrudge her a bit of hope.

With a happy laugh she jumped up and ran into the kitchen, to start making breakfast for everyone. Steve staggered into the bathroom to wash and wake himself up. By the time he had washed and dressed, she had made them all hot porridge and was organising the other children into a bathroom Rota.

Steve was impressed and thanked her, she just smiled shyly, and handed him a cup of tea. As there weren't enough chairs for all ten of them, they sat in a circle using their sleeping bags as seats. Steve explained the plan to them all. He was going to take them to Rome where a representative would meet them, and take them to a Rabbi who would arrange their journey to Israel. They all seemed happy to hear his plan, and were anxious to get going to this Promised Land.

Helga told them to get dressed in the uniforms that he had bought for them. When they were all dressed, he had them stand in a line for inspection. They looked like any group of school children, a bit undernourished but apart from that, unremarkable. He studied their little faces, trying to commit them to his memory but there were too many for him.

He would be lucky to remember Helga and perhaps little Gretchen. Still it didn't matter as long as they were safe, he told them to hold hands and form a circle around him. Without further ado he jumped them all to Rome's railway station, where their sudden appearance caused no fuss at all lost as they were in the milling crowds. He led them to the pick up point and they only had to wait for a few minutes until a small coach pulled up beside the kerb, and a priest who was driving asked if his name was Steve.

Steve and Helga ushered the children onto the bus, and when they were all safely on board she hugged him tightly.

'Goodbye Israil, thank you for saving us, we will all pray for you every day,' she said with tears in her eyes.

'Goodbye Helga, you will be safe now I promise you.' He whispered to her. As she looked at him he felt it was time to go, and with a smile and a wink he simply vanished. Helga was sad to see him leave, but she was a tough kid and wiping her eyes she got on the bus to her new future.

Steve had jumped to his pre-arranged meeting place with Angel; it was a ledge above a lake in the Jurassic. Angel looked up as he materialised, ' Hi lover what kept you, I've been here for two minutes.'

'Hi beautiful, how's the T-Rex situation?' he replied stripping off his clothes.

'There are none about at the moment' she replied, stripping off her own clothes.

Naked but for their utility belts that held the QT's and with a shout of Geronimo! they held hands and jumped off the ledge and plummeted fifty feet into the blue waters of the lake below. They splashed about for a while just having fun in being together again, before jumping back up to the ledge to dry in the sun. They updated each other on their separate adventures, as they laid quietly together on the ledge.

Although Steve's adventure was a small victory for humanity against the Nazi's, the main problem still existed. The Nazis may have control of a QT Device. There was no way of knowing at the moment whether or not they had discovered its true nature, but the longer they had it the more certain it would be discovered.

'So Kemp said that it had been sent to SS Headquarters in Berlin, that should be easy enough to find using war records.' Steve ventured.

'Do we sneak in and try and locate it, or jump in like the Terminator and smash everything until we find it?' Asked Angel.

'As there are two of us, why not both?' suggested Steve.

'I bagsy the Terminator part,' said Angel.

'Whoa there partner, that may be the most dangerous part, bullets may be flying before the end of the mission.' He protested.

'Ah but I'm armoured, so they wont kill me,' she answered.

'Have you ever been hit by a bullet? even if it cannot penetrate, the impact can still break bones and knock you out.'

'Ah but I can boost.' She reminded him.

'Only for a few seconds at a time my love.' He countered.

'OK then, as you aren't armoured and cannot boost how does that make you the best choice?'

'Merlin can move me out of the way of bullets, without me even having to see them coming.'

'I worry about the faith you have in that AI, I would rather not rely on anything other than myself.'

'That's because you are an Alpha female and are psychologically unable to.' He pointed out kindly.

'Besides I may have to kill people; and I don't want you stepping over that line if at all possible. Angel looked at her man seriously, 'That's the main reason isn't it, it's nothing to do with danger at all.'

He looked directly at her; she had the potential to be the most ferocious killing machine ever, but had never actually killed anyone yet. He wanted it to stay that way, killing people left darkness in your soul and Angel's soul was a blaze of light compared to his. Steve realised that he wasn't the same person that he had been before he obtained the QT, he felt a lot darker. He didn't want her to feel the way he felt sometimes in the night.