Having completed his surgical strike on the French brigands who had crossed the border into Luxembourg—laying siege to the royal house of the small but proud nation—Bruno wasted no time checking on the Grand Duchess and her family.
The battlefield still smoldered. Shell casings glinted beneath the broken moonlight. Fires hissed in the distance as the Werwolf soldiers moved like wraiths through the palace corridors, sweeping for stragglers.
Bruno and a small cadre of veteran soldiers followed what remained of the Luxembourgish Gendarmerie into the palace's inner sanctum—a concealed bunker complex buried beneath the estate, more panic room than proper bomb shelter, but heavily fortified nonetheless.
Royal guards stood at attention before the reinforced doors, stone-faced and bruised but unbroken. Behind them, the royal family of Luxembourg had taken refuge in an emergency chamber designed for maximum concealment, hidden deep in the foundations of the estate.
