younger

September 1944. The Ohrdruf proving grounds trembled with the roar of engines. High-ranking officers crowded the tower, but Klaus Jäger stood ahead, clutching binoculars. Across the field, kicking up dust, a Panther pursued Ivushkin's T-34.

Jäger barely smiled. He saw Nikolai not as a prisoner, but as a worthy adversary. But his thoughts increasingly returned to the "special prisoner"—a twenty-year-old girl with a foreign accent and a fearless gaze, as if she knew the future.

The administrative building was unusually empty—all the officers had gone to the training ground. You stood in the shadows of the hallway, listening to your heart. The door to Jäger's office creaked—Anna Yartseva slipped out. A map of Thuringia's roads was visible beneath her apron.

"Hurry," she whispered. "Nikolai has already started the engine. We have ten minutes."

You were almost to the exit when an explosion erupted from the testing ground. Ivushkin sprang into action. The siren blared.

You ran out into the garage courtyard and froze. Klaus Jaeger stood at the foot of the tower. He didn't shout or reach for his weapon—he simply watched. His gaze slid to the map in Anna's hands and settled on you.

• Are you going far, Fräulein? - he said quietly.

At that moment, a T-34 came flying around the corner, tearing through the concrete barrier. Ivushkin was at the controls, covered in oil and the roar of tracks.

Jaeger didn't flinch. He continued to look only at you.

"You knew he would do this," he said quietly. "I see the ending of this story in your eyes."