Tom and The Wizard-11

"We'll, this should be interesting." Tom said, "Now that we're away, I'll finally see how the Nazis were able to fly their saucers to and from the Inner Earth all these years."

The Wizard chuckled. "I think you're going to be disappointed."

"Speaking of which," Tom said, double-checking the instrument panel, "I am disappointed, after a fashion."

"How so, Thomas?"

"After you come get me at the last moment before I get gunned down in a firefight, and you explain to me that I am needed to win a war, this turns out to be more like something out of Inglorious Bastards than The Guns of Navarone or Where Eagles Dare. I was all prepared for everything to go wrong, but it didn't. I was all ready to pull contingency after contingency, but the plan worked more or less as intended. Blood, sweat, tears, all that- yet we had a few minor wounds and that was it."

"You're saying it was all too easy?"

Tom nodded. "Yeah."

"It was." The Wizard said, and with a wave of his hand he held Tom fast.

"You're a good man, Thomas, which is why I'm doing what I am doing now. These Nazis we captured are, indeed, going to surface authorities. However, they're not going to be put on trial. They're going to disappear down a rabbit hole, at it were, and never be seen again by those outside the system. They will be debrief, interrogated, cross-examined, and once every last useful bit of intelligence is out of their minds they will be quietly and effortless dispatched. Maybe their organs will be recycled, or not; I don't know. No one on the surface will ever know that they yet lived; at some point, when it is most convenient to do so, what's left of their remains will be allowed to be found and identified, crossing them off the list. It will likely coincide with the list itself being closed down, and hunt operations ended, since it will be at the point when any probability of recovery will be moot due to old age."

The Wizard then put his hand upon Tom's head.

"But I cannot allow them to have you, Thomas. As I said, you are a good man, and good men are very hard to find in any age. It is bothersome, and distasteful, but I must do what is necessary to both fulfill the greater good and preserve a useful ally for future employment."

In the other hand, The Wizard held an insignia of Longfellow Hold, which he now placed on Tom's head and held in place.

"Longfellow is well aware of how things truly are. He will explain, and do so better than I, why you cannot return to the surface world- not yet. Once he is satisfied that you are ready, then I shall come back for you and bring you home- but not before he, and I, and prepared."

The Wizard's face frowned, and a tremor in his voice surfaced.

"I am sorry, Thomas. This is the least I could do unto you."

And with that, The Wizard teleported Tom back to Longfellow Hold, using ties of sympathy and contageon to bend space and time for the brief moment necessary to push Tom through the hole that lasted but a second and away from him and the commandeered saucer. Now alone, The Wizard punched into the com system a passcode; it activated a hidden function, and then The Wizard made contact.

"White One to Council. I have the last of them. All liabilities removed. Request recovery."

A woman's voice answered. "Request granted. Welcome home."

The saucer became enveloped in a 20-sided figure made of light, and then disappeared. The Wizard was away.

Back in Longfellow Hold, Tom appeared in a chair in Longfellow's chambers. Longfellow stood over him, took back the insignia, and handed Tom a drink.

"Looks like you're staying a while longer, my boy."