"We are supposed to be conquering the world," Dorsch said bitterly, repositioning some soldiers. "Instead, we rot in this jungle--watching your water shows, drinking blood out of bottles--while the Führer keeps writing his memoirs. How many volumes? Have you seen all those stacks of pages? You must speak to him, Kegel."

"It would not do any good," Kegel said, carefully aiming a cannon. "What is the rush, when we have all the time in the world?"

"You have said it yourself, Kegel: The longer we wait, the greater the risk of discovery."

Kegel looked impressed. "Did I say that?" Lighting a firecracker fuse, Kegel plugged his ears with his fingers. The firecracker went off in the cannon, blasting a marble into Dorsch's front ranks.

The Nazi vampires at Neuanfang had reason to complain. The first compound had been built in '44, before the war ended, in anticipation of the German defeat. Its builders, a combination of Nazis and laborers contracted by Brazilian sympathizers, were not even aware of its purpose. After Hitler and his initial SS cadre--vampires all, thanks to the exploited Countess Borca--moved in, the Führer spent two years toiling away on his memoirs, leaving Dorsch, Kegel, and the others with little to do but maintain the blood supply. Then Hitler made a humiliating discovery. The lower section of the neighboring Aripuana River was known as Rio Roosevelt.

No way was the Führer going to be headquartered by a river named, even in part, after FDR. So a new compound had to be built, this one over toward the Purús, with whatever labor force and materials the SS could secure. It was almost a three-year project, with most of the building supplies brought in piecemeal by a war-surplus helicopter out of Manaus. The poor non-suspecting, non-SS laborers were doomed to be captives, part of the new blood supply. And after all that, with Hitler relocated and back at work on his memoirs, it was discovered that Rio Roosevelt had been named after Theodore, not Franklin. Hitler pretended that that didn't matter. "You've seen one Roosevelt," he blustered, "you've seen them all."

Now the vampires languished at Neuanfang (New Beginning)--or, as some of them privately referred to the relocated compound, Neuneuanfang. Supplies such as gasoline were picked up when needed through a lone nearby village, visited only by the Hauptsturmführer with one or two Schützes, whom the villagers simply thought to be "soldiers." Morale on the compound was critically low. Even Kegel and Dorsch, with their silly little war games, were about to lose all their marbles.

"This could go on forever," Dorsch said, aiming a cannon. "Did we become vampires for nothing? We are not getting any younger."

"True," Kegel said. "But look at the bright side. We are also not getting any older."

"We are stuck. That's the bright side?" Dorsch lit the cannon's firecracker. "Stuck in time and place. And who might soon come after us?"

"Who might?" Kegel plugged his ears again. "Only a pack of fools."

Dorsch 's cannon fired, sending a marble right past Kegel's elbow and deep into the Paraná pine wall behind him.

Dorsch soon surrendered to Kegel. Humiliating as always, but on the usual lenient terms: Dorsch was getting good at personally replacing pine panels in Kegel's walls. Tonight's surrender came none too soon, as it was nearing time for the "water show" in Gebäude Vier, a weekly distraction that helped keep the level of morale on the compound above absolute zero.