by Erik Foge
“Thank you.” Erik grinned and made his way back to his table, as he thought If only Aramis really knew.
Jamie stared at Erik as if she asked what that was all about. He shook his head, telling her it was nothing.
Their mouth-watering dessert arrived on a plate with a lit candle and accompanied by all the staff, including Aramis, who wished them a happy engagement on behalf of Le Jules Verne and the people of France. Jamie and Erik made a wish and blew out the candle while they admired the cursive chocolate Des moments heureux ensemble (Happy Times Together) writing on the white plate.
When completely satisfied, they walked hand-in-hand to the exit, everyone in Le Jules Verne stood up and applauded. Jamie whispered in Erik’s ear that he should smile and be happy. Erik raised his hand to thank everyone, and Jamie smiled and waved gracefully. They strolled to the elevator, climbed in, and descended to the ground where D’Artagnan was waiting for them.
“How was it, major?”
“I know I can speak for both of us; it was wonderful. Thank you, D’Artagnan.”
“You are very welcome, major. Where to now?”
Erik glanced at Jamie. She mouthed home.
At Erik’s instructions, D’Artagnan drove off, and as they approached the hotel entrance, he glanced into the back seat and said, “Major, if you need anything let me know.”
Erik smiled. “I will.”
D’Artagnan opened the door for them again, then closed it behind them. After they said their goodbyes, he got back in the car, leaned out the window and said, “Oh, major, my son said hi and congratulations.”
Puzzled, Erik frowned. “Who is your son?”
“You met him the same day you met me.” Before Erik could ask for something more specific, D’Artagnan drove off.
Back in their hotel room, Jamie stripped down to her white lace bra, panties, garter belt, stockings, and red ruby heels while Erik watched with delight.
She winked and gave a suggestive smile and said, “Hi, professor.”
Erik thought to himself, Oh boy, this is going to be a long night…and it was.
17. JUST THE BEGINING
“There will come a time when you believe everything is finished. Yet that will be the beginning.”
— Louis L’Amour
Jamie was in the shower, relaxing after a long, delightful afternoon playing tourist, while Erik lay in bed pondering what restaurant they would go to for dinner. He checked the duffel bag to make sure they still had plenty of money and sent a silent thank you to Bonesteiner for sending it with Jamie. A file Erik hadn’t seen before lay against the side of the bag; he pulled it out and discovered a post-it note from Bonesteiner on the outside:
Erik, I found this. Use it to your advantage and watch your back.
Erik opened it and read. It was a dossier from 1944, and, he noted it with interest, it was about him.
OFFICE OF STRATEGIC SERVICES
FILE NUMBER: OSS1-JLCF-TS46-357
NAME: Erik Függer
ALIAS: Joe Turner
DATE OF BIRTH: unknown
HAIR COLOR: Dark Brown
EYE COLOR: Blue
HEIGHT: 5 feet 6 inches
WEIGHT: 180 lbs
DISTINGUISHING MARKS/FEATURES: small scar above left knee
PLACED OF BIRTH: unknown
KNOWN PHOBIA(S): unknown
AVERSION(S): unknown
ALLERGY(IES): Penicillin and Sulfur
RESIDENCE: unknown
CONTACT NUMBERS: unknown
FATHER: unknown
MOTHER: unknown
SIBLING(S): unknown
KNOWN RELATIONSHIP(S): Jamie Anderson
CURRENT POSITION: unknown
WEAPON(S): small firearms
LANGUAGE(S): English (native), German
HOBBY(IES): History
LIKE(S): unknown
DISLIKE(S): unknown
POLITICAL AFFILIATION(S): unknown
RELIGIOUS AFFILIATION(S): unknown
EDUCATION: unknown
AUGUST 1, 1944: At 1600 went to Château d’Apigné, General Omar Bradley’s headquarters. Spoke to General Bradley about an individual claiming to be an OSS agent named Erik Függer. He said he gave the rank as Major. General Bradley advised me on 23 July 1944 that there was small arms fire outside the Château, killing two GIs and German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel. A female lieutenant gave General Bradley two dossiers: 1- Erik Függer, claiming he was an OSS agent and 2- Captain Cerberus, who was a German agent. Files are now misplaced, lost or taken. Függer was treated by General Bradley’s physician and taken to Clinique Mutualiste de la Sagesse. General Bradley’s physician stated that Függer had the following injuries: left kneecap dislocated, three fingers were broken on the left hand, and five ribs cracked on right side. Went to Clinique Mutualiste de la Sagesse and he was not there.
AUGUST 2, 1944: Went to several hospitals in the area and there was no trace of him.
AUGUST 7, 1944: Continued search. All leads were coming up negative.
AUGUST 15, 1944: Results were back from OSS database, no agent named Erik Függer. Also, there were no German agents named Cerberus. I was beginning to wonder what country or what agency they worked for. Still looking for Függer, no leads or luck yet.
AUGUST 23, 1944: Got lead that Függer was using the name Joe Turner and was located in Clinique du Moulin-Bruz in Saint-Jacques-de-la-Lande. We got there too late; he left on his own accord. The good news was that I interviewed the doctor who was taking care of him and got a good description of him (see drawing in file). Also, found that he has a girlfriend named Jamie Anderson. Ran her name in the database search, came up negative.
AUGUST 30, 1944: He disappeared, checking surrounding areas.
SEPTEMBER 4, 1944: Függer went to General Bradley’s headquarters, the reason was unclear. I heard he and Field Marshal Montgomery got into an argument over Operation Market Garden. Függer said he believed that Germany was not defeated, and they would launch another offensive in the west (did not say where), and they were coming out with new weapons. Later that day, we got a lead he was staying in the L’Hôtel, 13 Rue des Beaux-Arts, 75006, in room 310, Paris, France. Got in fire-fight, my one partner was seriously injured: one was shot in the knee. The other was killed: right elbow had compound fracture, Body of sternum was shattered and neck was broken. I had never seen such a thing before. As for myself, my head was grazed by a bullet, destroying my glasses.
SEPTEMBER 7, 1944: No trace of him again.
SEPTEMBER 21, 1944: Still nothing. Függer had either changed his identity or died. Case closed.
TO BE UPDATED AS NECESSARY
Erik exhaled forcefully.
Jamie, wearing just a towel, gave him a bear hug from behind and kissed him on the cheek. She looked over his shoulder and asked, “What are you looking at, babe?”
“A dossier.” He turned to her with a raised eyebrow.
“Oh babe, I’m sorry; Admiral Bonesteiner told me to give that to you.”
“Try not to forget these things.” Erik gently tapped the folder on her head. “Have you looked inside this?”
Jamie shook her head. “Who or what is it on?”
“Me.”
Her eyes lit up. “So I can see what you did in the CIA?”
“Mmm, no.” He poked her between her breasts and tugged the towel. “You, including me, will never be able to see my dossier with the agency.” He loosened the towel a little. “It is in a very secure location, unlike this towel.”
“Where would your file be kept?”
Erik gave her a look as if to say why are you asking me this now?
“Babe, I’m just asking. So do you know?”
He nodded.
“So can you tell me?”
“Langley.”
“CIA Headquarters?”
Erik nodded again.
“I bet it’s very hard to get into that room,” Jamie said.
“Really, you think so?”
“Erik
don’t be sarcastic, I’m curious.” Jamie looked over his shoulder and began to read; her expression grew puzzled. “The dates are all 1944.”
“It is about me, from 1944.”
“But you weren’t around then.” Her eyes widened as the realization dawned on her. “Oh my gosh, we’re in 1944. This is because you were sent back in time.”
“Bingo.”
She peered again at the document, then recoiled. “I’m in there, too.” She clutched the towel tightly around her. “Babe, I’m scared.”
Erik hugged her, then looked into her eyes and said, “I’ll never let anything happen to you. I made you that promise and I intend to keep it.” He rubbed her cheek, then kissed her deeply until she melted in his arms. “Every time we go out,” he said and paused for a breath, “we’ll be low key and keep to ourselves. We’ll always leave and come back together. According to this, we have nineteen days until we’ll be in the clear.” Unless things change. Which they can, Erik thought.
“Can we just disappear?” Jamie asked.
Erik shook his head. “If we change anything, we’ll change the timeline, and that could make things worse. No, we’ll just play it cool and not alter history.”
“Oh, there’s something else, too.” Jamie dug into the duffle bag and pulled out a book. “Another thing Admiral Bonesteiner told me to give to you. Sorry I didn’t remember sooner. I’ll make us some tea.”
She handed him the 2008 edition of World War Two for Morons.
18. ON THE EDGE OF THE WORLD
“The world is very different now. For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty and all forms of human life.”
— John F. Kennedy
While Jamie made tea, Erik flipped casually through the pages of the 2008 edition of World War Two for Morons. On page 276 he discovered a section on how, in 2008, the European Theater of War World Two was changed when ONE sent someone back in time to 1944. Erik’s blood surged and he slammed his right fist into his left palm. He had to force himself to calm down before reading:
After the failed attempt to kill Hitler in July 1944, another assassination attempt was undertaken in October in Berlin, inside the Führer’s Bunker. The attempt succeeded and Hitler was assassinated.
On October 2, 1944, at 12:55 p.m. while the advancing American and British armies neared the German border in the west, and Russian armies continued their attacks in the east, Hitler was in his bunker when shots were heard in the Reich’s Chancellery. From eyewitness accounts, the assassin, in an SS officer uniform, approached the entrance of the bunker, presented his identification, then single-handedly killed the guards. He then shot the other guards in the area and proceeded down the stairs to the bunker. Hitler’s SS bodyguards were not able to stop the assassin.
Hitler was in a meeting with a high-ranking SS officer. They were leaning over a table studying maps and diagrams, and discussing how Germany would change the tides of war with their new Miracle Weapons, such as the V-2 rocket, when the assassin barged in, shooting and killing Hitler. The high-ranking SS officer, Lieutenant General Hans Kammler, survived the assassination with minor injuries and gave this account.
No one knew whether the assassin was sent by the Allies or a member of an inner faction of the Reich. But Hitler’s death didn’t end the war as the Allies had hoped; it caused turmoil and chaos within the hierarchy of the Third Reich. The result of Hitler’s assassination was a more organized and stronger Third Reich.
Erik shook his head. He should lay low and try to survive, but Bonesteiner was telling Erik he needed to find a way to resolve the problem. He continued reading and learned that immediately after Hitler’s death, a power struggle within the Reich occurred. Goebbels, Himmler, and Goering each set up their alliances and cut-throated the others to gain control of the party. The end result was that Goebbels became Führer of the Reich and Goering was murdered. In addition, Goebbels listened to Admiral Karl Dönitz and the OKW (German High Command) and increased production of U-boats, new jets, and tanks. Goebbels gave total freedom to the German Staff to plan their attack in the west, giving Germany more time to develop new weapons.
Goebbels, along with other generals and high-ranking Nazis, knew they couldn’t win the war in Europe with America and Russia’s mass production of weapons, so they planned psychological victory with Project “Prufstand XII” which targeted New York and Washington D.C.
Dönitz, Kammler, and Speer began work in late 1944 at Peenemunde on developing a U-boat that was able to carry V-2 rockets with atomic warheads. Since the size of V-2 rockets (length forty-five feet, eleven inches) rendered them too large to be placed in a U-boat hull, the conning tower of a Type XXI U-boat was modified to house three V-2 rockets. Once in launching position, the V-2 would be fueled, its guidance system set, and the rocket would be launched and head toward its target. With all these new Miracle Weapons, Goebbels was positive he could force England and the United States into a separate peace treaty and then he could focus on Russia.
Jamie brought the tea, took hers onto the balcony and left Erik to his book. He ignored the steaming cup on the table before him. Erik shook his head in disbelief at what he read. He stood and walked around to release some of his frustration. The information in the book was clear what will happen and even if Erik tried to present this to Bradley to make an attempt to change history, they would want solid proof. He would try, but an opportunity needed to present itself. Erik sighed and continued reading.
The new history still had the Germans launching their offensive in the Ardennes, as they had done in 1940. The only major difference was that the offensive was to start in late November, and the heavily overcast weather would ground the Allies’ overwhelmingly superior air forces. Within eight weeks, at night, the Germans were able to assemble thirty Divisions. Then on 27 November 1944, the Germans launched their offensive known as Watch over the Rhine, or better known as The Battle of the Bulge. The German goal was to retake Antwerp and set up the launch pads for the V-2 rockets that would carry the atomic warheads. Within eight days, the German’s offensive was a complete success and on the fifth of December, the Allied forces surrendered at Antwerp. The Battle of the Bulge was over. The question the Allied commanders had was, “What’s next?”
Erik continued reading about Germany’s nuclear program from its developmental stages to testing of the A-4, A-10 and V-2 rockets from a U-boat. Its first successful test was in early December of 1944. This new class of U-boat was the XXIN, modeled after the XXI class U-boat. It housed three V-2 rockets within the modified conning tower. What made it a deadly weapon, and one of a kind, was the Anechoic tiles on the outer hull. They were about four millimeters in thickness and made from a material called Oppanol, a synthetic rubber with sonar absorbing properties. Erik rubbed his forehead, amazed and concerned. He took a deep breath and continued to read.
The new rockets, which were going be used on England and Russia, were known as the A-4 and A-10. What made the rockets even more deadly was that the Germans used a Binary Computer known as Z-3 (Konrad Zuse built the first Binary computer in 1938, called Z-1). Z-3 was to be used to program the V-2, A-4 and A-10 rockets for their new targets: New York City, Chicago, Washington D.C., London, Southampton, Leningrad, and Moscow. On March 15, 1945, roughly around nine o’clock eastern standard time, the Germans launched the rockets to their assigned targets. The U-boat launched its rockets, and in Europe rockets launched from Antwerp and Peenemünde. Moments later, bright lights flashed above each city from a blast radius of approximately five miles, and a mushroom cloud rose above the ruins and death. The book states the official estimated deaths totals:
New York City: 176,000 — 260,000
Chicago: 90,000 — 166,000
Washington D.C.: 60,000 — 80,000
London: 100,000 — 160,000
Southampton: 90,000 — 130,000
Leningrad: 150,000 — 210,000
Moscow: 200,000 — 286,000
Goebbel
s and the German High Command thought these attacks would make the Allies sue for peace. The Germans were correct in their assessment that the targets were of great importance and caused a great psychological effect in each country. However, they were wrong in their idea that it would make the Allied powers sue for peace; it made the war continue for another seven months.
Germany never got what they were hoping for—peace with the Allies. From the ashes and ruins, the Allies united again. The public wanted revenge and no mercy for Germany for what they did. From March fourth to fifteenth, Prime Minister Winston Churchill, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and General Secretary Joseph Stalin met again at the Yalta Conference. Both America and Britain had plans for ending the war more quickly in Europe, and the Russians planned to attack Japan even before Germany was defeated.
On April 12, 1945, Roosevelt died, and President Harry S. Truman took office. In his speech to the American people he said, “Carry the battle to them. Don’t let them bring it to you. Put them on the defensive and don’t ever apologize for anything.12” The same day Truman was briefed on the effects of the atomic bomb, and he said, “America was not built on fear. America was built on courage, on imagination and unbeatable determination to do the job at hand.13”
Next came the planning to end the war in Europe, known as Operation New World. Truman was briefed to carry this attack against Germany. The United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) built a base in Newfoundland, where in 1945 three of the new B-36 Peacemaker bombers were stationed. The USAAC considered the B-36 an intercontinental bomber because they could fly from Newfoundland to Berlin round trip.
In this alternate history, on July 3, 1945, at 6:00 p.m., air crews started preparing the three B-36 Peacemakers for their historic flight. The names of the three B-36 Peacemakers were the Niña, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria. It took approximately six hours to prepare the bombers, each of them carrying two atomic bombs. At approximately 12 noon, the bombers took off on their historic mission to end the war in Europe. It took them a little over twelve hours to reach their targets in Germany: the Niña to Cologne and Frankfurt; the Pinta to Bremerhaven and Hamburg, and the Santa Maria to Berlin.