When the zeppelin came into sight Mary and Marcus stared in awe. Even Marcus, being used to the amazing feats of engineering the Romans constructed on a regular basis, was amazed that people could build such a thing. His eyes were glued to the giant hydrogen balloon as it descended. Mary could see she was losing him and she elbowed him in the ribs a couple times to get him snap out of it.
The airship floated gracefully down to the ground, jets of water spewing out of compartments on the giant ship’s underbelly as the crew vented ballast to get it to level out at the right distance off the ground. Then the ropes came out and a mob of men ran in to grab them. They used the lines to guide ship’s bow into place against the tall mooring tower. A few of the ship’s crew were sticking their heads out of windows in the bow, calling down to the line handlers to help them line everything up properly.
To Marcus and Mary it seemed like ages until the ship was finally ready to disembark, but eventually a ladder was wheeled into place under a hatch in the ship’s belly and the passengers began to climb out. Almost immediately they spotted Richter in the line of people walking across the field towards the waiting crowd. Marcus saw the briefcase in his hand. Richter was scanning the line of taxis and limousines waiting on the other side of the fence and Marcus followed his line of sight to a long black car displaying little swastika flags on the hood.
“That’s it,” he said to Mary, pointing.
The two of them headed at a quick pace to the car where Campbell was waiting and climbed in just in time to watch Richter’s car start to drive away. They followed close, but unfortunately for them it wasn’t heading where they wanted it to. Campbell had assumed that Richter had a car waiting for him which would take him the couple hundred miles to Berlin, but as he followed that car it brought them right back to the train station.
Marcus and Mary followed Richter into the train station as Campbell found a place to park the car. They decided that Marcus would follow Richter as closely as he could while Mary kept her distance and tried to keep an eye on Marcus and one on Campbell at the same time so they wouldn’t lose each other. That plan worked for about thirty seconds.
As soon as Richter walked through the door he was gone, and though Marcus did a good job sticking close to him Mary lost Marcus almost immediately. Campbell parked the car in a drop off zone, grabbed the suitcase out of the back and scrambled towards the building, searching the crowd for Mary.
Campbell grabbed her by the arm and they tried to push their way inside but the crowd was thick and they couldn’t see Richter or Marcus anywhere. They pushed their way through the lobby and out the doors on the other side that led to the tracks where hundreds of people were waiting for their trains to start boarding.
As they walked out onto the platform a train was pulling away, and beyond it they could see three more trains lined up along other platforms. There were walkways that carried people from one platform to the next and large signs in German informed passengers which train was leaving when. They watched the huge crowds of passengers walking from platform to platform, searching for Richter or Marcus. They saw a lot of men in Nazi uniforms headed to the farthest platform and figured that was their best bet. As they got close they saw Marcus stepping onto the caboose of a long black train with swastikas painted on the cars. He was dragging a body dressed in a white server’s uniform.
Campbell read the sign on the Nazi military train’s platform and it said departure at 4:45. He glanced at a large clock on one of the pillars that read 4:35. He pulled on Mary’s arm again and led her at a quick pace into the men’s bathroom, past a few men who gave them looks of concern mixed with silent praise, and shoved her into a stall.
“What the hell are you doing?!” Mary whispered angrily at Campbell.
“We need to get on that train,” Campbell replied as he searched through his suitcase.
“Then what are we doing in here?” she asked urgently.
“Aha,” he said, ignoring her question as he found what he was looking for. “Thank you, Marcus, for making us keep these.”
He took the SS uniform which had been a little tight on Marcus out of the bag and handed it to Mary. It would be loose on her but the it would be way too short on him. He told her to hurry and they changed quickly. Mary set her hat low on her head and Campbell told her not to speak. He hoped what little German he knew would be enough to get them by.
They walked casually along the walkway between the tracks, Campbell carrying the black suitcase with the large red swastika stenciled on it. There was a German soldier blocking the walkway to train stopping everyone who approached. He would check soldier’ passes as they came up and direct them to various cars. As Campbell and Mary walked up he saluted and waved them towards the second to last car.
Campbell returned the officer’s salute lazily like he had seen Hitler do in old videos and they climbed into the car. There were rows of seats that faced each other with little tables in between. The car probably could have held fifty people but very few of the seats were taken. There was one man facing away from them at the far end of the car and a small group of officers talking to each other at another booth. No one seemed to notice them walk in.
Campbell motioned for Mary to take a seat at the first booth they came to and he slid in across from her, facing away from the door so he could see the whole car. They sat for a few minutes, neither of saying anything, until the train lurched and started to move. They knew were they were on the same train as Marcus, which presumably was the same train as Richter, but neither of them had a clue what to do next.
About ten minutes went by in silence as they tried to figure out a plan. Campbell was just about to get up and try to search the train when he saw Marcus’s face in the window in the door at the back of the car. He was waving at Campbell, trying to get his attention.
“Stay put,” Campbell said quietly to Mary as he got up. He walked down the aisle to the back of the car, his head down, trying not to get noticed. When he got to the door Marcus was mouthing something and pointing to the last seat, the man sitting by himself. Campbell looked down and saw Richter. There were a bunch of papers spread out on the little table in front of him and he was so focused on them that he took no notice of Campbell.
He examined the papers over the man’s shoulder and saw the blueprints of the cylinder he would soon use to travel through time. He stared for just a second too long and Richter realized he was there.
“Doctor Campbell?” Richter asked, confused.
Campbell quickly opened the door and hurried through it. Marcus grabbed his arm and helped him hop across the little gap between the cars, into the caboose. Campbell took a look around and saw three men lying unconscious on the floor, one of them wearing nothing but his underwear. Marcus was wearing the uniform of a waiter.
“What is this?” Campbell asked, waving a hand around the car.
“They noticed me,” Marcus said. “Don’t worry I didn’t kill any of them.”
Campbell tried to push that out of his mind and focus on the Richter situation. Alright, he thought to himself, he’s seen the plans. He’s seen me. Marcus beat up a couple guys. What now?
Mary was watching Campbell walk down the aisle. No one seemed to be paying much attention to him, which was good. But then he stopped at the end. She could see Marcus through the window, he was pointing and saying something and Campbell stared down at the man in the seat facing away from her. That must be Richter, she thought.
Then she saw Campbell scramble through the door and he and Marcus disappeared in a hurry. Richter almost immediately got up and tried to follow them out, but he was having trouble with the door.
Richter yelled a stream of words in German and two of the men sitting at the other booth got up and ran over to help him. One of them had a key and they almost immediately had the door open and Richter disappeared through the doorway.
Crap, Mary thought to herself. She couldn’t just sit here, but if she got up she’d be noticed. The uniform she
was wearing obviously had some importance, but she didn’t speak the language they were using so it wouldn’t do her any good.
She waited until the two men who had gotten up to help Richter had also disappeared through the door and the other men at the table went back to their conversation, then she got up and walked after them.
As she got to the door, praying the Germans in the booth to her left didn’t look too closely at her, she glanced down the table Richter had been sitting at. The designs for the time machine were sitting on the table on top of a stack of papers. Without thinking she leaned over and scooped up the stack.
Marcus and Campbell were trying to figure out what to do next when there was a pounding on the door. Marcus had locked the doors to both cars, but that wouldn’t stop them for long. They were standing in a kitchen area and there were pots and pans everywhere. Campbell was trying to think up a plan. Marcus picked up a heavy iron skillet.
Campbell looked at him for a moment, and then back at the two soldiers with Richter. What the hell, he thought with a shrug of his shoulders and picked up a pot.
The door opened and Richter motioned for the two officers to go in first. Marcus backhanded the skillet like a tennis racket and the first man through the door’s head flew back into the doorframe, he fell to the ground. Campbell smacked the other man in the nose, then dropped the pot and dragged the man inside. Marcus reached out through the door, grabbed Richter, and pulled him in as well.
Campbell removed the officer’s pistol from its holster and pointed the muzzle at his nose. The man didn’t resist. Marcus dragged Richter to the ground and kneeled on top of him.
“What is the meaning of this?” Richter said, glancing from the brute on top of him over to the archaeologist he had met the day before, who now seemed to be kidnapping him. “Doctor Campbell, what is going on here?”
“I just need those papers you were looking at, Hans,” Campbell said, looking over at Richter, “then we’re out of here.”
“What do you want with-“
“We don’t have much time here, Hans,” Campbell cut him off.
Just then there was a commotion from the other car and Campbell looked behind him through the open doors to see two Germans manhandling Mary. The officer below him took that distraction as an opportunity to grab the pistol from Campbell’s hand and punch him in the face.
Campbell fell off the officer, who then kicked him in the chest which caused him to fall back onto the little platform on the other side of the door. He landed with his shoulder on the hitch connecting the two train cars and his head hanging over the tracks whizzing by below.
The officer got to his knees and lunged at Marcus, pulling him off of Richter, who rolled over and reached for the gun. Marcus and the officer wrestled on the floor of the caboose and Richter looked up to see Campbell lifting himself up on the little platform outside. He aimed the pistol just as Campbell pulled himself up to a sitting position and pulled the trigger. There was a click but no shot, the safety was on.
Campbell stared at the barrel of the gun for a second. He heard the click and then pulled himself to his feet, turned around and jumped the little gap to the other car. He landed in front of Mary, who was struggling with the two officers. They were pulling her away from the table with Richter’s papers and she was kicking and flailing her arms wildly. They were having trouble keeping a hold of her.
Campbell darted in through the door and tackled the man holding Mary’s right arm and brought him to the ground. With a hand free Mary started to claw at the man holding her other arm and when she cut his face with a fingernail he let go, letting her drop to the floor.
She watched Campbell wrestle with the officer and looked through the door to see Marcus wrestling with another one and Richter was climbing over them, heading towards her. She kicked the officer she had cut in the groin, causing him to drop to his knees, and gathered up the papers on the table.
With the pile of papers held tightly to her chest she looked down at the officer on top of Campbell, who was trying to choke him to death, and she kicked him from behind, her toe hitting its mark. He rolled over clutching his groin. She started to run down the aisle just as Richter made it across into their car.
Richter jumped over Campbell and the downed officer chasing after Mary, who was carrying his papers. Campbell rolled over and pushed himself up and darted down the train after Richter.
Marcus had been trying to get the officer into submission, but he quickly gave up. He picked the man up and through him out the open door. The German managed to grab the connector between the two cars and tried to hold himself up, but just as Richter jumped over the gap he lost his grip and dropped onto the tracks below. He disappeared under the caboose as Marcus jumped the gap to chase after Richter.
Mary got the door at the other end of the car open and started to move across to the next car but she stopped as the door in front of her opened and she saw another German soldier staring at her. Richter was yelling something behind her and she panicked for a moment, but as the soldier started to move towards her she noticed the ladder next to the door on the outside of the car. She stuffed the papers into her shirt and started to climb, with Richter right at her heels.
Campbell was a half step behind Richter and turned the corner to follow him up the ladder just as the Nazi soldier jumped the gap. The moment Campbell’s foot touched the first step the soldier grabbed onto his legs, but Marcus was through the door at that same moment. He grabbed the soldier and pulled him into the car.
Mary started to run along the roof of the train car as Richter came up behind her but she quickly realized she didn’t have anywhere to go. She stopped in the middle of the train and turned to face Richter, hold her arms tight to her chest. The papers were stuffed inside her shirt and with the wind threatening to pull her off the train she was worried about them flying away.
Campbell got high enough up the latter to see over the roof of the train car. He watched Richter move slowly towards Mary, crouching low as he walked and swaying with the motion of the train. She kept looking from Richter to the other side of the car and back to Richter. Campbell climbed the rest of the way up the ladder until he pulled himself onto the roof. He had to fight the intense wind to try to keep himself upright.
“What is wrong with you people?!” Richter yelled across the roof of the train car at Mary. He had started in German, but she clearly didn’t understand him so he switched to what English he knew.
“We just need these papers,” Mary yelled back. “This machine can’t be built.”
“Look young lady,” Richter got stern, “those papers are worth a lot of money and you are in enough trouble already. Just hand them back.”
“No Hans,” Campbell yelled as he inched his way closer to Richter, who turned to look at him. He saw that he was trapped. “There’s a blueprint in that stack that we need. She’ll give the rest back, but we need that blueprint. It needs to be destroyed.”
“I don’t understand Doctor Campbell,” Richter was clearly confused.
“Trust me Hans. We really don’t have the time to explain, but if I let you walk away with those papers it’s going to cause a whole lot of trouble.”
Just then they felt a little lurch in the train. The steady rhythm of the steam engine had ceased and the train was clearly slowing down. Marcus was inside the car and he had just finished dealing with the soldier who had jumped over from the next car. He jammed the door so that no more of them could get across. He noticed that there were ladders on all of the cars, so he headed back the way he came to try and climb up the other side.
As the train was slowing Richter made up his mind. He ran at Mary and grabbed her shirt and pulled. The top few buttons broke and the shirt flew open, exposing the papers. She tried to cover them back up and Richter tried to pull them away. Campbell ran up behind Richter and tried to pull him off of her, but with the movement of the train under his feet he lost his balance he fell into Richter who fell into Mary. The three
of them went tumbling towards the back end of the car.
Marcus reached the top of the ladder just in time to grab Mary as she fell. Richter and Campbell tumbled over them and fell to the ground that was rushing by below the train. Mary’s shirt ripped as Marcus pulled her up and all the papers went flying into the wind. Marcus lowered himself down the ladder, holding Mary close to his body.
Campbell remembered watching stunt men in the movies tucking and rolling when they fell from tall buildings and he did his best to mimic them as he fell. It softened the blow a little but his leg broke as he hit the ground and he rolled thirty feet or so. He wound up sprawled out on the grass beside the train tracks. He bit through the pain and leaned up, looking around for Richter but he was no where to be seen.
Marcus and Mary jumped from the back of the train off to the side. The fall wasn’t far and the train wasn’t moving too fast so when they hit the ground they tumbled down the hill a little, but aside from a few scrapes and bruises they were fine. Marcus picked himself up and helped Mary to her feet and they ran the fifty yards or so down the bank to where Campbell was lying in the grass.
They had a few more minutes before the train would come to a stop, but when it did there would be a few hundred soldiers scouring the woods around this train track looking for them. When Marcus and Mary came up to Campbell he was pulling Richter’s device out of his pocket.
“God I hope you were wrong, Tesla,” he said as he moved the dials to 2011.
Chapter 10
Campbell pulled the beat up old truck into his driveway and turned off the headlights. He reached into one of the grocery bags on the passenger seat and opened the box of nicotine patches. After affixing the patch to his arm and letting out a little sigh of relief he grabbed the briefcase full of papers he needed to grade and the bags of groceries and headed towards the front door.
The lights were on and the front door was unlocked. When he stepped inside he heard Madonna’s ‘Like a Virgin’ blaring on the stereo in the living room. Of all the music in the past two hundred years, he thought as he walked up to the door, she picks this?
Out of Time: A story of archaeology... sort of Page 22