She received the full version of the coming of Jesus.
“James,” Harry said, while leaning back with his drink on his belly, “how’s about a toast from you?”
I raised my glass and looked slowly around at my friends. “To Bebe.”
The chorus of ooohs reminded me of Friday night at Batts. Amy, all the while looked from face to face with an expression of intense curiosity.
“Amy,” I said, “it’s not fair to you, but you just heard an inside reference that is confidential. For now, just go along with us.”
“Deal,” she said. “Now can I make a toast? It’s a combination wish, toast and request.”
We all picked up our glasses.
“Can someone take me to the dance?”
Dinner was delicious.
In the morning we hurried through breakfast and arrived at Bill’s Garage almost a full hour before our scheduled departure. Harry was there in his office turning the air blue with his old briar pipe. We joined him in a cup of coffee he poured from a battered old percolator. Before we had had our second sip, Alice breezed through the door as though her entrance was routine. Her companion was Amy, smiling so wide I hardly recognized her.
At times a group can act as one on impulse. The four of us just said hello and Harry invited us to board the Hercules. We started toward the door to the hangar when Alice froze us in our tracks.
“Halt!” she shouted. “About face.”
We performed an admirable military turn and stood at attention.
“Okay, smart-asses, unless you grovel I won’t say another word until we land in Germany.”
“Let us begin again,” Harry said. “Hello Alice, nice to see you and oh, I see you have Amy with you. Why is she here pray tell?”
“I’m so glad you asked,” Alice replied. “I had a meeting with the Director last night. We talked about how successful we’ve been lately by relying on instinct and gut feelings and we both had the same feeling about Amy. She has a strong back, the right attitude and she speaks four languages including German. Amy knows about the final test and she says that she will understand if any of you have reservations. What she said only proves she’s a good liar. All in favor of Amy joining the Band raise a paw.”
All four of our paws went up at once. Amy clenched her fists and did a little dance. “I’d hug you all, but Alice said you’d likely try to feel me up.”
“But that’s our standard initiation,”M2 said.
Again, M1 tried without success to think of something to say.
“You can just pick up and leave, just like that?” I asked her.
“I made a couple of phone calls,” Amy said. “Some people weren’t too happy, but tough, I am out the door.”
Harry broke up the party. “Enough of this warm and fuzzy stuff. Nora calls and we must depart.”
We began to roll as soon as the fuselage door closed.
Amy spotted the Kilroy cartoon with the Dance Band reference. “What’s the deal here?”
“It’s a Kilroy cartoon…” I began, but Amy interrupted.
“I know all about that. My grandpa was in World War II.”
“Amy, you come here and sit next to me.” Alice said. “I’ll fill you in as best I can, but it’s a long story.”
“This is not my busy time,” M1 said. “Perhaps Amy would like a Marine’s version of our adventures.”
“And perhaps that Marine has heard of the stockade and latrine duty,” Alice said pointedly. “Can you say jailbait?”
M1 said nothing and I couldn’t read his face. Since it’s all I can do to manage my own affairs, I wasn’t tempted to join in.
Harry was reaching to climb up to his office when Amy called to him, “Harry, is there any chance I could be up there for the takeoff? I’ve never been in an airplane like this.”
Harry looked at Alice for approval then said, “Follow me.”
As she climbed, Alice reached over to cover M2’s eyes. The takeoff was old hat to us so we just sat and waited until we were at altitude and the noise level reduced. Amy rejoined us with flushed cheeks. I wondered if she was going into overload. This was the best day of her life and she was sucking it dry. Alice began her history lesson and the boys all leaned back to hear the tale of our exploits which was as good as any in flight movie. Amy must have had a high security clearance because Alice included the story of the bar of soap.
CHAPTER 8
We arrived at the Leipzig/Halle airport before sundown. I had quit trying to keep track of the days nor did I attempt to reset my watch. I left those chores to my buddies. Because of the heavy packs we were carrying, our contact, Fritz, pulled his van up to the door for loading. While we were handing stuff off, Amy took a good look at Fritz. When she had a chance, she moved close to where I was working.
“He looks just like Sergeant Schultz,” she whispered.
“We noticed that,” I whispered back.
Once we finished with our baggage, we loaded up and drove off. Fritz was in a good mood.
“This has been a very good month for me,” he said. “Much more of this and I can retire on the Riviera.”
Alice’s phone played its song and when she rang off, she told us that the sub had been an easy find. “With its back end ripped open it sank tail first and was sticking straight up in the mud like a lawn dart. It proved to be a straightforward lift. The vessel was now safely in the hold of the ship and well out in international waters. Carl is on board and will go in as soon as they drain the water. Man oh man, I’m not given to the supernatural, but it’s almost creepy the way things are working for us.”
Fritz, who also must have had some level of security clearance, delivered us to our drop off site. As soon as we unloaded, he drove off. It took a few minutes to strap on our packs because each one weighed close to one hundred pounds. Alice called Anna who gave us an all clear. She said the weather was favorable and she was able to remain aloft all day, but just in case, she was using a glider with an auxiliary power unit. She also said that all was quiet in the entire area.
“I will remain until the light fades,” she said, “then I will return to the airfield for the night. Good luck to you.”
We were all breathing hard by the time we arrived at the fake ruin. Thankfully dropping our packs, we paused for a rest in front of the big iron door. Amy knew all about this, but she was practically shaking with excitement. “I know this is real,” she exclaimed, “but I can hardly believe my eyes. Pinch me.”
An ever-cooperative M2 reached to do just that, but she quickly danced away, while reprimanding the Marine. “Behave yourself, Michael,” she said.
After a careful look around, our designated leader, M1, let Amy open the door. We hoisted our loads and entered as before with M1 in the lead and M2 in back. M2 pulled a small box out of one of his pockets. One end sprouted a long wire that he tossed out onto the ground then closed the door, leaving the box inside.“This is a radio relay unit,” he said. “It lets us stay in contact with Anna, Fritz and home base.”
CHAPTER 9
M2 secured the inner door with its now silent hinges and we descended to the entrance tunnel. Amy had so many questions that M1 had to order silence.
“Oh my gosh!” Amy exclaimed when our flashlights illuminated the great locomotive. “How can this be—I mean in here—impossible.”
M1 told us to drop our packs and open a big zipper on the side. Behind the zipper, I found a small, folded bicycle. M1 demonstrated and we each opened our own. We hopped on and pedaled down the tunnel, dropping our packs as we passed the entrance to the map room.
“This is a quick orientation tour for Amy,” M1 said. “Alice didn’t tell her what lies behind the big door at the end.”
“Say, how long is this—whatever it is that were in?” Amy asked.
“We didn’t measure it,” M1 said, “but we’re moving right along so we’ll be there shortly.”
“What’s behind these doors we keep passing?
Alice hadn
’t had time to cover that during her lecture.
“Need-to-know, need-to-know, need-to-know,” I replied.
“Where art thou duct tape,” Alice said, “now that I need you so badly.”
Soon enough the far wall came into view and we parked on the platform. As M1 and M2 prepared to open the big doors, M1 told us to douse our lights.
“Wow,” Amy said, “I’ve never experienced dark like this.”
I heard the doors swing open a bit then M1 turned on a flashlight, but he pointed it to the floor and exposed only our feet.
“Let’s take about ten steps forward,” he said.
We followed him and bunched up some.
M1 gave the order, “Turn on your lights, gang.”
“I’m freaking out,” Amy squeaked. “This can’t be real.”
“I’ll take it home with me,” Harry exclaimed.
Our new set of more powerful lights revealed the flying saucer much better than the first time.
“Is there a hatch?” the ever-curious Harry asked.
“This is our first good look,” M2 said.
“I don’t see a damn hatch,” Harry growled.
“You and Alice can come back later if you like,” M1 replied.
“Hell yes,” Harry spouted. “I want to personally fly that thing back to Bill’s Garage.”
I didn’t comment on the fact that the entrance had a big plug of concrete.
We made the trip back in silence as Amy tried to sort things in her mind. At the map room entrance, we parked our vehicles and lugged our baggage to the metal door. M2 left one of the radio relay devices hanging on the outside.
“Here’s an idea,” Alice said. “Amy speaks German. Let’s see if she can figure out the lock sequence.”
She read the buttons twice. “I think Braunau am Inn was Hitler’s birthplace. Is that the answer?”
“The kid has a brain,” M2 said. “She is scary smart.”
“You know who to thank for bringing her along,” said a very smug Alice, while pushing the sequence.
It was fun to watch our newest member as M2 pulled the door open, which turned on the lights. We let her and Harry enter the map room first and gave them a minute to take it all in.
M1 took us all down to the big table for a conference.
“We need to map this whole place and look in all the rooms, but my guess is that out there we’ll just find more mysterious devices or empty places. I tend to think that this room holds the big secret, whatever it may be, so I need a vote. Do we go out and map the place first or do we concentrate our efforts here.”
Amy and Harry abstained, but the rest of us voted to start in the map room.
I spoke up, “Every time I think of this place, my mind goes to the bank vault. If it’s okay with you, I’d like to tackle that big door.”
There was a general murmur of agreement.
“That will be your second task,” M1 said. “First see if Carl told the truth about the secret drawer and the diary. It will be in German and you’re the one to read it. Amy won’t know what to look for.”
“You’re right,” I said. “In all the excitement, it slipped my mind.”
“Amy and Harry,” M1 said, “You two look around and familiarize yourselves with the room. There’s a crapper up there on the right. I wish Amisi were here. We have to go through all of these desks, but James and Amy are the only ones who can read the papers.”
“I can read German,” Harry said.
“Who knew?” M1 said. “You guys are a constant wonder. How come you have this hidden talent?”
“My last name is Bismarck. I’m in the same tree with Otto von Bismarck and my parents spoke the language at home.”
To Amy, M1 said, “You and Harry get going. Look around then start going through the desks. The rest of us will follow you and look for things other than papers.”
“How about M2 and I take a quick mapping tour and see what’s in the rooms we haven’t explored?” Alice said.
“Makes sense,” M1 said. “Check in every half hour, okay? And now let’s do it.”
Moments later, Alice called down from the entrance. “Hey guys, there are small flagpoles on each side of the entrance door, but only one has a flag. Did any of you take a souvenir?”
Everyone said no. M2 checked his camera and said that the flag was missing when we entered the room the first time. I suggested Carl might have taken it and made a mental note to ask him.
The big desk was the same one that had held the engraved stone and the bronze coin. The hidden drawer was exactly where Carl said it would be and the diary was there waiting for me. I sat down at the General’s desk and opened the small book.
“Carl was right. This is a mess,” I said to M1. “It looks like someone in a great rush simply opened the book, grabbed a fistful of pages and tore them out. I’ll see what I can do.”
It took me about an hour to read, sort and fill the gaps in fragmented sentences. I found a partial list of the people who went on the trip and those who were waiting in South America. It did not give their location. I’m sure that the powers in Washington would find the names of interest, but that information was of no immediate use to us. Fortunately, the upper right corner of every remaining partial page had a pre-printed date. I was able to sequence such information that I could glean. Using the unknown officer’s clipboard, I wrote out in English what I had learned.
“Hey guys,” I called out, “join me here and I’ll read you some Nazi stuff.” After showing them the ruined book and telling them of the name list, I turned to what I had written. “It’s in the form of a dated list with lots of dates missing. There are obscure references to people and events, but like Carl Manheim’s diary that we found in Cleveland, it’s frustrating in what it fails to reveal. Anything I put in brackets is my guess as to what is missing. Anyway, here it goes:
December 8, 1944—Celebrations last through - (the day/night.) - The entity has proven - (friendly and) - cooperative.
December 9, 1944—The Führer has sent our Dr. Ha – (possibly Hans Kammler) – congratulations and – (a bottle? case? of) - cognac Monnet.
December 19, 1944—Initial contact group, unable – (find? locate?) – access points, but search continues.
January 2, 1945—Reichsführer Himmler’s visit has been – (great) – success. All resources and – (they got all that they asked for) – granted.
February 27, 1945—Our technological discoveries – (must be good news) – astounding. Reverse – (engineering, must be successful) – incredible fruits. If we can hold – (hold off) – Bolsheviks just a – (little longer) – victory will – (be ours.)
April, 4, 1945—Berlin is doomed. The war is lost. We have only one – (hope left)
April 22, 194— Entity seems increasingly – (less) cooperative. Emergency measures – (need to be taken) - Original team must be divided – (probably in two) Dr. Schmidt will leave tonight for (who knows where?) Dr. Weber will – (leave tomorrow, soon.)
April 26, 1945—Two teams were successful, but – (the Entity) - has discovered our intent. All access has been denied. – (Our position) desperate.
April 27, 1944—Orders to evacuate. (May God help) – us all. Heil Hitler.” I looked at the group and shrugged. “That’s all I could figure out. Not a lot there.”
“True,” Harry said, “but it could tie in with what we discover later on.”
I asked for and got permission to tackle the big steel door and M1 came with me.
“Looks rather forbidding, does it not?” M1 said, as we approached the large door. “You ever crack a safe before?”
“I blew up a bank building once. That’s about it.”
The right dial wouldn’t budge but the left dial spun free. It had an unusual square hole in its center. I could hear no tumbler clicking. “You know,” I said, “I’m thinking of the entrance door up top. It has a clever façade, but still, it’s a simple device. I’m wondering if they did the same here.”
&n
bsp; Alice came trotting in with some news about the submarine. “I just talked to Carl. He said that the submarine interior was in a remarkable state of preservation. Apparently, the front, from the conning tower up remained almost watertight for all this time. There was just maybe fifty gallons of seepage from the bulkhead forward. We won’t talk about the corpses, thank you, but they can recover most of the art as well as lots of gold and jewelry. The papers recovered didn’t seem to relate to anything that could be of use to us—no safe combinations or whatever.”
“Doesn’t look like Carl can help us,” I said.
“There was one other thing,” Alice said, “The expert on German submarines of that era found an object that wasn’t standard issue for any sub that he knew about. He gave it to Carl.”
“Did Carl describe it to you in any detail?” I asked.
“A little bit, but it meant nothing to me,” she said. “I couldn’t visualize it so I thought I’d have you talk to him.”
“Can you dial him up from here?” I asked.
“Sure,” she said, while punching numbers into her phone. “M2 has put relay devices in place.” When he answered, Alice said, “Carl, James is here. I’ll give him the phone now.”
She handed me the instrument. “Hello, Carl. How was the trip?”
“Great,” he said, “but Ms. Dance said I should describe this thing to you.”
“Go ahead,” I said.
As he described the object, I soon realized it was a crank and it would fit the hole in the dial perfectly.
“Stand by, Carl,” I said to the phone—then to Alice, “Carl has exactly what we need. Get it here ASAP.”
“I’ll call the Director. May as well have Carl deliver it,” she said, while punching some numbers in another phone. It was a fast connection. “Sir, Carl Manheim has found something and we need him here as soon as possible. I’m sure you can expedite this better than me. Yes, sir, thank you.” She grinned at me. “Carl will be here in ten to twelve hours.”
I gave Carl the news and rang off.
“Okay,” M1 said, we’ll explore a bit, eat then sleep,” he said. “Once James gets this monster door open, I want everyone sharp and alert. Alice, lead on and show us what you and M2 have found.”
LOST AND FORGOTTEN: Book 2 The Secret Path Page 6