BLOODWORTH 3: Blut und Stahl by Tai Goodman (distant reading TXT) 📕

The bartender opened the cabinet and summoned the tank of Pink Fury. Phoenix stole one of the retail liquor flasks and filled it to the top. "Thanks. Have a good life." Phoenix walked through the back entrance and exited the bar. 

"Welp. About time to keep going. Can't stay here for long."

 While exiting the bar, Nazi security vehicles appeared at the front of the building where a man with an earpiece announced, "Masked Terror! You are to exit zhis building with your hands above your head! You are surrounded!" 

Phoenix's mask displayed a set of winding teeth flapping its lips, and then a laughing smiley face. "Faulty plan, dumbass. Your suspect just left the building."  Phoenix continued his journey onto the streets. Abhy then appeared to his right. "Hey... Babe." 

Phoenix waved at her. "From what I heard back there you got yourself into a nasty fight. Correct?"

"Yeah. Those fucks, they don't learn at ALL."

"I know they don't. They are like suicidal people. But anyways, it is clear we miss you. I have to go." Phoenix watched Abhy walk across a crosswalk with a bunch of people and disappear. Phoenix removed his mask and hid it inside of his jacket. Nighttime was getting closer. Phoenix walked by a Nazi with a cap and asked, "Hey, where can I-"

"AHT- AHT- AHT! It's KOMMANDANT first, American, you should know zhis by now," the man spoke. Phoenix shook his head and said, "Alrighty then, KOMMANDANT, where's the nearest hotel?"

"I recommend you vatch your attitude, I already do not like it."

"I'll talk the way I want to, motherfucker."

"Keep speaking like that and I vill kill you right here on the street. I do not care if people are vatching."

"Go ahead and do it then. Not like I've got anything better to do."

The Kommandant pulled out his pistol and pushed it against Phoenix's face. "Go on, DO IT. WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?" Phoenix questioned him with a red face and an angry scowl. Before he pulled the trigger, the Kommandant hesitated, holstering his weapon into his belt.

"You vant a hotel, I'll give you one so you may get out of my face- Go down two blocks, take a left. Leland Hartfield Hotel is visible, you cannot miss it. Und if you do miss it, don't come back because I don't want to talk to you." Phoenix nodded and said, "Go fuck yourself." 

He walked past the Kommandant. The eyes of the Nazi watched Phoenix stagger towards the direction he gave him. Under his breath, his chapped lips murmurred, "Dummes Arschloch." 

"Time to get some shut-eye. You did great old man. But your mission ain't over yet." 

LELAND HARTFIELD HOTEL

8:32 P.M.

Phoenix arrived at the front desk and asked, "Just this night, please." The receptionist spun around in her chair and revealed herself as a robotic humanoid. "One night will be: CALCULATING.... CALCULATING... Eighty einheiten or dollars." He pulled out his leather wallet filled with cash. "You got enough money in this thing to buy fucking Boardwalk, or even a hotel for it." Phoenix pulled out the cash, inserting it into the slot that appeared on the desktop.

Then the receptionist dispensed a keycard. "Have a great day." 

"Floor 5. Room 506. Get there. Get sleep." Phoenix stepped into an elevator with a man in a three piece suit. "What floor you going to?" he questioned Phoenix. "Fifth." The man pressed the fifth option on the touchscreen panel in the elevator. The elevator then traveled upwards. While they were standing there, waiting for the lift to arrive at the floor, the person inquired, "Does something smell like... blood or iron to you?"

"Nope."

"I worked as a butcher before. Kinds of smells like that roamed the store. Pungent, I must say."

"I wouldn't know."

 "Uh huh... What's your name?"

"Phoenix Leopard."

"Leopard? That your actual name or that just a nickname?"

"My actual name." 

 "Cool. I'm Jack. Jack Vincent. You from Arkansas or you just rolling through?"

"I'm from New Orleans."

"Huh. You heard about all the bad things that happened there? You'd have to be crazy to still live there."

"What do you mean?" Phoenix questioned, balling up his fist.

"The Masked Terror. That one terrorist with a mask and a fur coat. He's the guy who killed about a hundred Nazis, crashed a blimp and Raumfahre 9-1 in the same day. It's insane. He also went and murdered Obermannstrafuhrer Pultzei and her husband. And then her son." 

Phoenix grinned. "Sounds horrible." The man examined Phoenix's attire from where he was standing. "Does it really, Phoenix? Or should I say, Masked Terror?" 

Phoenix looked both ways and then rammed the man into the wall of the elevator. "YOU SHUT YOUR FUCKING MOUTH, HOW DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?" Phoenix screamed at him. "HEY! HEY! I DIDN'T MEAN IT LIKE THAT! CHILL OUT!" he told him to simmer his attitude down. Phoenix released Jack, having him sink onto the ground. "Jesus Christ... You've got a powerful grab." Phoenix popped his knuckles and place and said, "Now... Tell me how you know who I am, or I'll give you my permission to die."

"I work for a detective agency-"

Phoenix smiled and said, "Oh! So you're here to kill me?"

"NO! NO! Listen to me- I don't like Nazis either, but I blend in. I can't stand their language, their sausage, and I can't stand their racist attitudes. I'm on your side. All I did was put the pieces together and then I identified you."

The elevator reached the fifth floor and the two men stepped out. "Well. Guess this is where we part ways. Good luck doing whatever you'll be doing." Phoenix nodded, but then the intercom turned on and said, "The complimentary dinner will close in 35 minutes. Das kostenlose Abendessen endet in fünfunddreißig Minuten." Phoenix said, "You going to that thing?"

While Jack was walking to his room, he said, "Yep." 

Phoenix inserted his keycard into the doorknob's machination. "Welcome to your hotel room. Enjoy your stay. Willkommen in Ihrem Hotelzimmer, genießen Sie Ihren Aufenthalt," the doorknob spoke. "Robots don't talk, go fuck yourself."

The moment he entered the room, the smell of fresh luxurious flowers soared into his nostrils. "Smells good in here." Phoenix pulled the handlebars off of his back and laid them against the wall by the doorway. He removed his coat, his shirt, and his pads. Wounds, bruises, and cuts were all over his chest and arms. There was blood within the cracks, coagulated. Phoenix entered the bathroom and looked at himself in the mirror.

On his face was baggy eyelids, dirty facial features, and a long brown beard that reached his Adam's apple. "Who is that? Is that really me? The cuts, the injuries, the dirt, it's a blanket covering me." Phoenix picked up a hotel-provided razor and shaving cream by the sink's side. "Time to trim this." Phoenix rubbed lathers of shaving cream all over the corners of his beard. Then a memory of him loading up an assault rifle in the war flashed into his vision. The razor closed in on the very first hair of his beard... And then a memory of him threatening Hans with a blowtorch flashed into his mind. Plethoras and piles of hair accumulated on the counter, giving Phoenix the memory of the time he found Peter and Stanley by a pile of Nazi corpses. "Alright old man, you're done." Phoenix's face was freed from a nasty beard. His jawline was clear to see. 

Phoenix then dragged his clothes into the shower to wash the blood and dirt off of them. 

"Can't call room service. They'll be suspicious of me. When there's a job, you do it yourself." Phoenix put his shirt back on and exited to go to the complimentary dinner. 

"Attention, the complimentary dinner will close in 15 minutes. Achtung, das kostenlose Abendessen wird in 15 Minuten geschlossen." Phoenix hurried to the elevator. 

Once the elevator reached the bottom floor, the moment he entered the dining hall, he noticed an entire buffet of stuff, with a line around it. Phoenix grabbed a tray from an automated robot and followed along. Jack appeared behind him and said, "What time did you get here?"

He flinched from Jack unexpectedly speaking to him. "GAH- Don't do that! Scared the crap outta me!"

"Jeez, I'm sorry.. But anyways, when did you get here?" 

"About a minute ago." 

"I've been here, just getting up for seconds." 

Phoenix walked in front of a tray full of meat, sauce, and mozzerella cheese, constricted by a tortilla. "Won't know until you try. Might be your last meal." Phoenix placed a roll on his tray and moved by to a long sausage. "I don't eat German shit." The line continued along with Phoenix. There were buttery and steamed rolls on a platter underneath the buffet window. Phoenix picked up two with the tongs, and a little boy besides him was trying to reach for the second pair. Phoenix examined his movements, and then glanced back at the rolls. "Here, buddy." Phoenix placed a roll on the boy's tray.

"Thank you, sir." 

"Welcome." 

Phoenix had a smile on his face. "I haven't heard that phrase in a while. 'Thank you.' Because everybody is apparently an ungrateful brat."

Phoenix took a small hamburger with angus beef, a slice of melted gruyere cheese, two dill pickles, a tomato slice, a bushy piece of lettuce, all connected with a single toothpick. "That's what I call a burger." 

He sat down at an empty table, with Jack tagging along. "Wasn't expecting company." Jack smiled, responding with, "Well you look like you could use some." Jack had a piece of bratwurst, a hamburger, a shishkebab, and a few French fries. Phoenix took a bite out of the burger, and his taste buds soared into outer space due to the desired and exquisite taste. 

"Just like I said. That's what I call a burger. Whoever cooked it deserves a medal, I don't give a shit who tries to deny it." Then Peter and Hans sat down by the two. Phoenix watched the two eat, and Peter asked Hans, "Hey... Where's the ketchup?"

"I don't know. Do not ask me. I did not cook zhis meal."

Phoenix eyeballed the two, and watched the two walk away to go find something. A big wide man walked past them, and the two disappeared. "What the fuck's going on?"

And Jack also disappeared.

 SOUTHERN MISSOURI

Phoenix drove into town, and arrived in front of a parade of Nazis, marching like toy soldiers. "What in the fuck is all of this?" 

He drove around the parade's road barriers and entered the deep depths of Missouri. There were no ways through it. Phoenix prepared to ram through the parade, and noticed snipers up on balconies of nearby buildings. "DAMMIT!" 

Phoenix then looked to his left and watched a crossing guard waving his hands at drivers. Phoenix looked