Tom and the Wizard-04

"So, the big deal here is that the Nazis want the secrets behind the science that you folks mastered, and thus the technology you use. Am I right?" Tom said.

"Well, yes." The Wizard said, interrupting Longfellow.

"My people have been here for thousands of years, fleeing here before the Great Flood on the surface drowned most of the world and that within it." Longfellow said, "Unlike so many survivors, we never degenerated. We retained our civilization and culture, losing only our place in the world. Down here, inside the Earth, we held fast to our new settlement and focused upon peaceful co-existence."

"And, in the process, came to become the keepers of knowledge long ago lost to the surface world." The Wizard said, "Well, most of it."

"However, we haven't been involved in the sort of conflicts that you surface people saw in recent generations." Longfellow said, "Our conflicts are small in scale, and restricted in scope, so we haven't had need of the sort of war-making capacity that your states on the surface do. We've fought well with what we've had, and adapted as fast as we could manage, but this is still a losing war."

"Longfellow Hold endured only so long because the Nazis also lacked serious war-fighting capacity." The Wizard said, "Some of my absences have been spent here buying time for a solution, but that is no longer an option."

"Their air force is much expanded," Longfellow said, "and now their soldiers are easily a match for ours one-for-one. Combined with their superior production capacity-"

"-and you're throwing a Hail Mary pass." Tom said.

"Something that I hear you're experienced at not only attempting, but succeeding at executing, as I hear." Longfellow said.

Tom looked over at the Wizard. "I've told a few anecdotes over a drink or two, after dinner, much like we are now." The Wizard said.

"Well, it's not like I'm in a position to refuse." Tom said, "What do we have to work with?"

"Longfellow, myself, a dozen of his folk, and you."

Tom loaded the blaster shells into his Smith & Wesson Model 19 revolver, slowly spinned the cylinder, and then gently closed it back into place with an audible click.

"Well, we are now an army." Tom said.

The Wizard smirked and gave Tom a salute. "Yes, sir, General."

A dozen men, their leader, his old mentor, and himself against easily a hundred-fold their number in Nazi super-soldiers that have armed flying saucers- this comparison made Tom scratch his head.

"Can you tell me who's in charge over there?"

"Indeed." The Wizard, "The man in charge is an individual known only as 'The Demogogue'."

Tom rolled his eyes. "At least it's not Hitler's frozen corpse. Tell me all that you know."