* * * * *
"Nein-nein-nein-nein-NEIN!" Professor Kraus exclaimed, interposing himself between Keller and Gonsalves: "Do not shoot him! That would be most ungrateful of us."
"Ungrateful?!" echoed the Gestapo agent (not sure he had heard correctly).
"Ja!" nodded the biochemist: "After all, Liebenkraft did hire him to help us find the girl. And, though mein old freund must now be presumed dead, Herr Gonsalves did bring her right to our front doorstep, just the same (however unwittingly). So, we must repay him by keeping him alive. If only to exploit him as a source of leverage in persuading her to help us...further our research."
Keller reholstered his Luger.
"Very well! I shall update Berlin, immediately. I will also request specific instructions as to what we are to do with him. Until then, he is _your_ personal responsibility!"
Kraus clicked his heels together, and bowed his head, accordingly. He then ordered two of the Waffen-SS guards (for that was the branch of the German war machine the brown-shirted guards belonged to) to disarm Gonsalves of his Browning Hi-power. Gun belt and all!
Only then did Kraus permit himself a grin worthy of a Cheshire cat...with rabies.
"Come, Herr Gonsalves. I will take you on a guided tour of our humble facility."
With the Schmeissers of his guards giving him no other choice in the matter, the expatriate Portuguese bounty hunter acquiesced. As a result, he learned all about the "magic mushrooms" from Tunguska and Gardnos. About the incredible effects the spores from those mushrooms had on the human body. And, of the experimentation the scientists of Isla Utgard had been carrying out on a hundred members of the Hitler Youth Corps.
"Now, in ancient India, our Aryan ancestors had discovered that soma--the psychedelic compound within the more conventional specimens of Amanita--was not water-soluble. Indeed; the members of some religious sects used to drink each others' urine to share the experience! But, naturally, we are more sophisticated than that. Let me show you."
The eight-man group entered a building parallel to the main research center. They went half-way down the front hall, therein, and stopped before a large window with a double-thick pane of glass. Looking through that window, Gonsalves beheld a dimly-lit simulation of a limestone cave. Complete with stalagmites made of cement coated with orange stucco paint. And, hanging from those stalagmites...
...were Brazilian vampire bats the size of Andean condors.
"Nombres de Todos Santos!" muttered Gonsalves as he crossed himself.
Kraus chuckled with shameless glee.
"This is the result of their sucking the blood of the guinea pigs we gigantized in Phase I of our research. Und the blood they cannot metabolize, for their own needs, is subsequently urinated into that pool of water beneath them!"
The biochemist pointed to a cement-lined simulation of an underground spring. And, milling about within its waters were leeches the size of half-grown anacondas!!
"When its time for a fresh supply of plasma," Kraus continued: "...we drain the pool, so our technicians can collect one of the leeches. After which, we pump its stomach und centrifugally filter the extracted contents before injecting the liquid into our young Prussian volunteers. Fifty boys und fifty girls!"
It was here they resumed the tour. Exiting the building at the other end of the hall, and going over to a pair of huge warehouses. The kind that looked like they might be harboring zeppelins left over from World War One! But, to his initial shock (which quickly turned to simmering anger), it actually housed all the blue-eyed blonde giantesses Kraus had been bragging about. Plus, one other.
Kaikala; her nakedness now camouflaged by a sailcloth straight jacket that bound-and-gagged her like an Egyptian mummy.
Surprisingly, though, the biochemist was no longer smiling. He was, in fact, now wearing a most somber frown. Noting that Gonsalves had observed this, Kraus explained.
"As successful as the injections have been, on these lovely young women, they have been proportionate failures mit the young men. Oh, they have grown to the same height, physically! Yet, within twenty-four hours of achieving that height, the young men become cataleptic. Lying there, drooling, like comatose idiots! That is why Liebenkraft was so desperately seeking Fraulein Herrera und her brother. Because they can attain twice the height of our Prussian youngsters, over and over and over again, with no ill-effect whatsoever! A capability we naturally wish to isolate...und duplicate."
"Unfortunately, for us, her brother recently disappeared from his longshoreman's job in Valparaiso. So, if our holding Fraulein Herrera hostage does not draw him out? Then, we shall start examining her."
tbc
Giantess World
Chapter End Notes:
*Names of All the Saints!"