“I was taken up the gangway and put on the ship which after a short trip took me to Belgium. From there, through Luxemburg and finally brought here to Munich. I was assigned to a war machine of unbelievable implication and consequence for the power of Germany.
“But enough of my plight; how in the world did you ever find out that I was here?”
We both sat down and began to explain everything that had led up to us being there. Her father was astonished that all of our paths had crossed in such a strange and extraordinary way.
“Something is brewing here in Germany with this new Chancellor, Heir Hitler, now called their Führer and I’m afraid of what it will all mean for the world.
“There is something about this man that is utterly irresistible to these people–he is a god to them, boasting of Germany rising out of the ashes as a phoenix being the master race and some such rubbish. I tell you war is going to break out one of these days soon, a war to end all wars.”
“Father, have they been treating you well?”
“Yes, their treatment has been fine but they are certainly slave drivers and not prone to linger around ideas very long; they want results quickly and the project they have me on, along with the others, is something out of a nightmare!”
As I was listening intently to what he was saying, it certainly began to raise the bloody hair on the back of my neck and I’m not one to quickly panic. “We have to get you out of here Professor and soon. What is this project you have been working on?”
He sat back with a disgusting look on his face. “It is of utmost secrecy and one of their Führer’s pet projects. Words cannot describe it… you must see this, this machine, which is only one of many monstrous killing mechanisms they have us all laboring on. Do you know what has become of Anders?
“We don’t know what they’ve done with him or if he has broken and told them where it is.”
“You two need to get back there immediately and acquire the chair as quickly as possible! It would most certainly be the key to their success or failure with these monstrous war machines. If they get their hands on it there is no telling how far it would take them!”
“It won’t be easy father; they’re looking for us now as we speak.”
“There is a way back to Hitler’s apartment headquarters without being seen; a little known post war abandon sewer I discovered that leads directly under the complex and you can gain access to the building through one of the outlets there– but you would need to be extremely careful, there are patrols scattered all around.”
Ara looked at her father with tears and hugged him again. “I don’t want to leave you here father; you need to come with us!”
“Ara, no. If they discovered I was missing, they would launch an all out manhunt for me which could endanger any hopes we might have of stopping them. It is of necessity that we wait till the time is right. Now you two must go and find the chair as soon as you can. We will have to say good by for now.”
Ara hugged her father one last time and he gave us directions to the entrance of the underground tunnels. We would enter them in an opening located at the side of the building, but we had to be extremely careful in avoiding any patrols. We worked our way to the far side of the warehouse, slipping past two of them playing cards, then out a side exit door. I looked around the dimly lit fenced yard but saw nothing that looked like the sewer entrance. The professor said it would be close by the exit but I wondered if they might have closed up the old entrance without the professor’s knowledge.
Then I noticed a stack of empty crates surrounded by four old cement bollards. Looking in both directions, we and carefully made our way to the crates and quietly began moving some of them out of the way. Two SS guards, undoubtedly making rounds, walked by smoking cigarettes, conversing in German and we waited till they passed, then resumed moving the crates.
I was just about ready to give up when happened to spot it half covered with growth; an aged rusted metal cover plate in the cement with some old looking letters stamped in it. This had bloody well be it I thought. Getting a grip on the cover we both slowly lifted it up revealing a dark musty metal rung ladder leading down to the cement passageways below, once used as a culvert for drainage. I went down first and Ara followed. It was bone dry and easy enough climbing down to the bottom. We peered down the length of the passageway which was quite long till it turned in another direction.
I quickly climbed back up and replaced the metal cover over the entrance then we both turned on our flashlights and began our underground trek to the apartment complex. The tunnel was smaller at first then connecting into a larger one which allowed us to stand. We made our way in the direction he had indicated to us. Thin shafts of light scattered here and there were beaming down from the city streets twenty feet above us, spotlighting the floors of the tunnels. Old rusted metal rung ladders leading up above were spread out all along the tunnels. Examining one of them with the flashlight, we noticed a street number on the ladder; further down another with a succeeding number.
I summed it up. “These must correspond with the old addresses above that were either still there or changed over time the tunnels were used.”
From there on out we began carefully checking each ladder we came across until finally coming across the label 41 TH. This had to be directly under Thierschstrasse 41, but where it led exactly was still unclear. We both decided that I should go up first and find out the precise location in the apartment the ladder would take us.
CHAPTER
SIXTEEN
Carefully and quietly I climbed the metal ladder which rose about twenty feet to the opening. Light was seeping out around the diameter of the cover but the location was yet to be distinguishable.
I had reached the top and extended my arm pushing against the cover plate which wouldn’t budge. It was then I began feeling vulnerable with an unsure feeling in continuing on; nevertheless we had to keep moving and find the chair. Climbing further up, I lowered my head and put my shoulder against the cover plate, gradually jarring it enough to shift it out of its obstinate resting place. One edge of it finally flipped up on the surface of the floor and I pushed harder to move it back from the opening. It was still dark and I stuck my head up to look around. The ladder had led me to the outside of the building. I climbed out to take a look around. A low fence surrounded the opening and it was definitely behind and outside of a building.
If this was indeed Thierschstrasse 41, it wasn’t inside the building and therefore too risky for us to go any further. I climbed back down to give Ara the bad news and upon reaching the main tunnel she was gone.
“Richard! Over here,” came her voice from a large bisecting pipe in the wall of the tunnel further up from the ladder, the beam of her flashlight was flashing at the entrance.
I answered. “Stay there I’ll be right back.”
Replacing the cover plate to the outside, I returned to the large pipe entrance in the wall, peered in and could see her waving the flashlight back and forth signaling me.
“Another entrance, down here!” she said excitedly.
I climbed up into the cement pipe and crawled down about twenty feet or so to where she was crouching down. “This looks like another old service entrance of some sort, hopefully it is still 41.”
“It’s a heavy metal grate, probably a drain of some sort on the floor in the basement.”
The metal grate was about two feet square with a thick metal grid that looked like a long time floor drain; I pushed up on it and slid it back; the opening was directly under a piece of machinery. Raising my arm up through the opening, I pushed whatever it was slowly out of the way. That same familiar odor of soap wafted through my nostrils again. No. It couldn’t be, I thought. I poked my head up through the opening and to my amazement we were back in the laundry room of Thierschstrasse 41!
“This floor drain must have been used when the apartment complex was first built using the original sewer lines.” I grabbed Ara’s hand. “Come on we�
�ve got to squeeze through.”
“Ok, we know where the chair is. Now one of us has to get it and go back; the other will have to follow with a tracker.”
We made our way up through the old floor drain and replaced the heavy grate. No one seemed to be down on that floor and we immediately went out in the hallway and down to the small storage room to check on the trackers which, thank god, were still there.
We now had to check on the room where Anders was being questioned. If we calculated correctly the chair should be in there.
Ara grabbed my arm. “Richard, I’ll take the chair back. Hopefully things should still be alright at the conduit. Eric and I will keep things in order till you arrive with father.”
“Alright but be careful, things are getting pretty crazy at this point and we don’t want any more trouble. I’m going to stick around for the meantime and see what’s become of Anders and the jewels.”
We opened the door to the room and glanced around. No chair. Both of us walked in and searched the room dumbfounded, but it was gone.
“I know that chair was here when he was being questioned and now it’s gone! He was either able to somehow escape, or they now know about it and moved it somewhere else.”
We both looked at each other in disbelief.
“Ara, we have to find out what happened to it. Stay here and I’ll take a tracker to the conduit −”
Just then we heard the sound of voices and footsteps coming our way. Quickly ducking into the laundry room, we heard a voice we both recognized; it was Anders, now conversing casually with one of the Germans!
“You can tell the Führer he will not regret his decision.”
“I tell you Anders, if this plan plays out as planned for the Führer, you will be one of his key contacts and there is no telling where it could lead for you.”
They walked into another of the rooms on the basement level and we quickly and carefully moved up to the door to listen. Ara placed her head on my chest with one ear against the door and held my hand. We both listened intently.
“… as we discussed earlier, the Führer needs to know if your island fits as a suitable location for his strategic pacific submarine base, and you will need to communicate to us the exact location of your island. When the right time approaches you personally will be the contact in charge of seeing that all operations are going smoothly there and report to us anything critical to those operations.
“You will commence as a First Liutenant SS Obersturrnfuhrer, which is a greatly bestowed honor from the Führer. Following that, it will be up to you as to where it will lead.”
We looked at each other in astonishment. Ara turned around in disgust, clenched her fists with a shrill whisper. “Richard, he’s selling out our little island for a position and influence with this, this crazy man who’s obviously power hungry!”
We listened carefully as the conversation continued. “If this chair can indeed do what you say it can do, it is truly more than remarkable! Its value to us is more than all the jewels you could bargain with and I am more than anxious in observing this phenomenon first hand as you leave here. Are you sure you can take these things along with you?
“Yes, all will arrive there safely with me don’t worry.”
“Then go now and when you arrive, set it up as you’ve been shown. Take control of the island, we don’t care how; destroy what you will, kill who you must, but gain control over it and set it up for the Führer to inspect when the time is ripe.”
I could have stormed in right then but it was taking too much of a chance. Besides, I didn’t want any more harm to come to Ara than was absolutely necessary. We had to stop this madness but it had to be timed right or it could blow up in our faces.
I grabbed Ara’s arm. “Let’s get to the trackers; we need to follow him back.”
She turned putting both her hands on my chest. “You must save my father, Richard; get him out of this nightmare place while I return to the Conduit. Maybe with Eric’s help I can stop Anders from going any further with this. No one must find our island and above all, we can never allow it to be used as a base for this crazy man’s exploits!”
She put her arms around me, kissed me and opened the supply room door to access the trackers. “I better go quickly; now you know the way back to the warehouse. You’ve got to get father, put him in this other tracker and send him home.”
Ara quickly stood on her toes kissing me once again, sat down in one of the trackers and quickly vanished. I had no way of knowing if she would make it back before Anders, but I couldn’t worry about that now. I had to go back through the tunnel to the warehouse and get back to her father.
Returning through the tunnels was not as difficult as at first and I had no trouble finding my way back into the warehouse. As I was carefully returning to her father’s room the dawn was beginning to break and I knew I had to move faster if I was to avoid getting caught. The workday would begin soon and I had to know more of this terrible machine the Germans were so protective over.
The professor was glad to see me returning and asked about Ara. I told him she was safe for now but that Anders was now a major threat and planning to make the island a base for Hitler’s submarines.
“We will make sure there is never a German submarine base on your island professor be assured of that! Can you describe this German killing machine you were beginning to tell us about earlier?”
“You truthfully need to see it for yourself. There is another underground system that leads directly to the prototype of this thing. The Nazi’s have been using it in a full blown effort to shuttle alternating work crews back and forth; this week it is my rotation.
It is my responsibility to complete work and testing on the vortex engine components. If we can manage to get you down close enough to the transport vehicle, you can sneak onboard before we leave.”
“So who exactly are these Nazi’s anyway?”
“An ever growing number of Germans that have elected to follow Hitler as their Führer; he has promised them immortality and quite insane you know. They all wear the armband with the Swastika symbol.”
“So that’s what the symbol stands for―Nazi’s.”
“Strangely enough it is actually the symbol of good luck, but they’ve taken it and turned it into a symbol of evil!”
“The tunnel will take us directly out of Munich and out in the countryside to an old abandon cement works. There, down in the lower layers this monstrous thing is sitting.”
Great! Another tunnel, just what I wanted to hear. I was fed up with bloody tunnels at this point. Whoever this Hitler was, it was obvious that he wasn’t going to be satisfied being the king of Germany; his plans sounded much loftier. With the way the Germans were deceptively going about it, shrouded in secrecy, it would certainly alarm all the nations of the world knowing what they’re really up to. Their motives seemed demonic in nature and others must be made aware of it soon. I remained hidden in his room till he was called to work and then went with him down to the level of the transport tunnel leading to the project.
It was apparent the Germans spared no expense on this tunnel alone. They must have put hundreds of man hours in the building of it in order to reach all the way out of Munich and into the countryside.
At the moment though, something was up. Officers were moving around in a fervor, conferring together then splitting up as if searching for something or someone – It suddenly dawned on me just what it was all about. The German I had left gagged in the closet had been missing and there was now an all out alert in the warehouse. Making our way to the transport tunnel, I walked quickly by his side as far as I could without being noticed and then I had to duck out of sight. The Germans were passing by in squads of three and each one armed. I carefully made my way down the tunnel as far as I could until I saw the professor already sitting in the shuttle truck.
It had a large canvas cover over the back end, probably holding tools and supplies. The motor was running and getting ready to leave
. As it began to move, I ran as fast as I could, my arms extending as far as possible and diving for the tailgate barely grabbing hold of it. As the truck began speeding away, I was being dragged behind and the cement began eating into my shoes. I managed to pull myself up into the opening of the canvas; then, crawling over the tailgate and into the back. I quickly ducked down out of sight just as we were passing a final set of guards; we were on our way.
CHAPTER
SEVENTEEN
That tunnel was unbelievable in length. We must have driven two or three miles underground, all the while passing various patrol stations. I was beginning to become bloody paranoid with the thought of what were to happen if I was caught.
Suddenly we drove out of the tunnel and into what looked like a very large cement arena shaded from direct sunlight. I peered out through the canvas in the back of the truck and saw an enormous camouflaged netting overhead spread out and covering the entire area we had entered. Surprisingly there were very few guards milling around and the driver abruptly stopped. He immediately got out of the truck and walked over to one of them he must have known.
The window in the back of the cab slid open and the professor’s face appeared. “Richard you need to hurry and get into one of their mechanics overalls and boots. They are in one of the metal lockers at the end of the truck!”
I fumbled around and finally found some green khaki overalls with a pair of black ankle boots and changed into them. The professor looked back again approving. “Good Richard. Lower the back tailgate and I’ll come around,” he directed.
“This had bloody well better work professor or I won’t be around much longer!”
“Just stay quiet and let me do any talking; you are my assistant for today.”
As I climbed out of the back of the truck I was aghast! There, just yards away from us, was truly a most dreadful and terrible sight. If there was ever a doomsday machine, this was it. My description would never do it justice, being a most bizarre conception. It must have stood twenty feet tall and bell shaped, that is, a round and flattened out bell, made of solid grey steel, almost identical to a concept coming from H.G. Wells or Jules Verne’s vision of flying saucers. The diameter of it had to be a good forty to fifty feet as it sat up on three telescoping legs each with a set of double wheels at the bottom. A band of metal similar to a hat band circled around the upper portion of the craft with portholes all round and it carried that Nazi swastika.
The Chair Page 9