Even Jollyrei was stunned. Especially Jollyrei was stunned. To be confronted by a beautiful woman when you are in the altogether is, well, stunning. To be gazing at such beauty when you’d expected blinding agony was even more unsettling.
“Would you like to crucify me instead of Jollyrei?” inquired Barb. “You can if you like. You don’t scare me. Nothing that you can do scares me…. Schiller!” She spat the name at him, deliberately omitting the title.
“Arrest that woman!” screamed Schiller, finding his voice at last. As they grabbed her, he lost all self-control.
“Tell me!! Tell me now!” he screamed. Barb just gazed at him, calmly and condescendingly.
“She will not tell you,” groaned Messaline. “I did not tell you, and neither will she.”
“We’ll see about that!” snarled Schiller. He lit a match and set fire to Messa’s pubic hair. Messaline screamed, a deep throated wail of agony that froze Wraggles blood.
“One of you will talk!”
“See? That is your problem, Schiller.” Barb was icy calm, and apparently unmoved by Messaline’s agony. “You’re used to getting your own way through torture, Messaline and I are not like other people. We can endure it. We enjoy seeing your panic as your time slips inexorably away.” She looked around the SS men there. “You do realise, don’t you gentlemen, that all this has nothing to do with Germany?” She repeated the phrase in perfect German.
“Shut up!” bellowed Schiller.
“Oh, now you want me to be quiet! A moment ago you wanted me to talk, now you want me to be quiet? You really aren’t very bright, are you? Now I’ll tell you what to do. I came here to get Messa, and I shall take Messa. Why don’t you get her down for me?”
Wraggles was astonished by her calmness, but not surprised by Schiller’s infuriated reply.
“Strip her and crucify her! Never mind the pilot, he can wait. We’ll crucify them all in due course. But she’s first.”
“By all means, do,” smiled Barb, beginning to undress. “Could you tell me what the time is, please?”
Wraggles consulted his watch. “It’s 4:34 am, Barb.”
“Really? As late as that? Where does the time go?” She reached back to undo her bra, then paused. “No, it’s not worth it. Might was well keep my clothes on.” She picked up her blouse and began to do up the buttons.
“What the fuck are you doing?” Schiller was apoplectic with rage. “I said ‘strip her’, you lazy oafs! Let’s teach this woman who’s boss!”
“Wait a moment….” One of the Serjeants spoke, in halting English. “What did she mean, ‘nothing to do with Germany’?”
“Ah! There is intelligent life in the SS, despite your well-deserved reputation as knuckle-dragging thugs! The information he wants…..”
“SILENCE!!!! You will carry out my orders or I will shoot you dead! You will not question my orders! Do I make myself understood.”
“Time?” queried Barb again, as they ripped off her blouse and bra.
“4:35 precisely,” replied Wraggles, aroused by her breasts and puzzled by her question. His arousal increased as they stripped her fully naked and began to drag her towards the cross that Jollyrei had just vacated.
"Great Scott!" ejaculated Wraggles.