As she was recovering, gulping air in the mask in Munitions, she heard jackboots approach on the run in the corridor. Her only thought was to hide, her half-baked notion of trying to cozy up to Hitler abandoned. All she wanted to do now was find Hi. Getting quickly to the floor, she began crawling quietly down an aisle between stacks of assorted equipment, as she heard the jackboots run into the room. Rounding a corner in the aisle, Eva raised herself high enough to peek over the equipment, and saw that it was Hitler himself gulping air from a gas mask.

Strapping the mask onto his head, Hitler rushed to a collection of submachine guns, on a table at the far end of the room. He did not yet know what kind of force in addition to Hickenlooper he was dealing with. But Hitler knew of no beings except vampires who could take submachine-gun bullets with impunity.

No sooner did Hitler grab up a loaded submachine gun than Hi, still wearing his mask, his dagger dripping Rottenführer blood, came rushing into the room. Hi stopped, looked around, and didn't see Hitler, who had gone into a crouch. Then the Führer stood suddenly erect. Hitler didn't even know it was Hi as he sprayed him with bullets, sending Hi careening backward against a stack of equipment and then to the floor.

For a moment Hi, covered with bloody wounds, was out if not dead. Eva, hiding by some frogman equipment, feared the worst. But in the next moment Hi was getting back to his feet, shaken but hardly worse for the wear. "Mein Führer," Hi called to him mockingly, "you think to destroy me with bullets or bombs?"

Hitler had picked up a hand grenade. Seeing it was Hi who opposed him, Hitler pulled the pin anyway. "I'll try anything once, Schütze!" he called back, and threw the grenade at him.

Hi instinctively ducked down into an aisle. The grenade hit the wall, bounced over into Eva's aisle, and exploded. Hi watched in amazement as Eva, holding something in her hand, was blown into the air, to land in a neighboring aisle, amid a rain of debris.

Hitler, looking for Hi, advanced along the tables of equipment with the submachine gun. Picking up the gun again during the explosion, and still wearing his sight-limiting gas mask, Hitler had failed to see flying Eva. Enough bullets, Hitler thought, ought to wear Hickenlooper down. They would at least keep him off his feet for a while.

Bleeding Hi, on his hands and knees, frantically yanked off his gas mask. He couldn't find his dagger, which he had dropped when hit by the bullets. Then he saw Eva crawl out from an adjoining aisle. Dazed, she looked awful, hair frizzled, suit tattered, her gas mask hanging in shreds from her blackened face. She slid something across the floor to Hi. She had held onto it right through the explosion. Grabbing it up, Hi saw that it was a frogman's spring-powered spear gun, its barbed spear ready to fire. Thank God and Eva, Hi thought, it hadn't discharged in the blast.

Hi fleetingly saw Hitler's masked head moving behind an equipment stack as the Führer approached the corner of Hi's aisle. From the floor Hi aimed the spear gun at the corner, just high enough to shoot for the Führer's heart. Hitler came past the corner, turned to aim the submachine gun, and Hi fired the spear gun.

Hitler screamed as the spear pierced his body. Going straight through his heart, the spear's barbed, bloodied head stuck out of his back. Dropping the gun, Hitler kept from falling by propping a hand on the corner table. His other hand took hold of the shaft, but the spear was too firmly embedded, and Hitler too suddenly weakened, for him to pull it out of the blood-pouring wound.

Hitler glared through his mask at Hi, who stared back, hoping to watch Hitler die. But Hitler disappointed him. After a moment the Führer reached down, picked up the submachine gun with effort, and staggered toward the door.

Hi went quickly to Eva, who sat up and leaned against a table leg as Hi knelt beside her. She was still dazed from the blast.

"I thought I told you to get off the compound," he said softly, putting a hand to her face.

"Why the hell didn't I listen?" she said.

"Get another mask and get going," Hi said. "I'm going after Hitler." He looked around and saw his dagger under a table. Retrieving it and his mask, he smiled back at Eva, said "Thanks for that spear gun," and headed for the door.