Nick of Time

by Ted Bell

  “We are in your hands, McIver, aren’t we, Colonel?” the captain replied. “Unless of course, you try anything foolish and then you and your daughter are in the hands of our Gestapo friends back there. Do I make myself perfectly clear, Herr, uh, McIver?”

  Hobbes could scarcely imagine a worse fate for he and Katie than being left to the devices of the mad surgeon and his assistant. “It goes without saying, Captain,” Hobbes said, and then for good measure added, “Heil, Hitler!”

  “Heil, Hitler!” they all shouted, and pulled up the hoods on their ponchos. “Let’s go!” Little Willy said, and bounded up the ladder like a wiry monkey. The rest followed and in a moment they were standing atop the conning tower in the pouring rain. The circular walls of glistening black granite towered all around them and because of the storm above, and the dense rainfall, midday was almost dark as night in the lagoon. The captain threw a switch and powerful klieg lights mounted around the conning tower lit up the length of the sub’s black hull, raindrops hissing on its broad decks.

  Hobbes said a silent prayer for Hawke, Nick, and Gunner, still visitors in another century, praying that they were safe.

  Hobbes could barely make out the lights on his dock in the driving, needle-sharp rain as they climbed over the side and began their descent to the U-boat’s deck. The fact that not all of the lights on the dock were illuminated was a good sign. Clearly, Hawke was not at home and expecting him. His plan still stood a chance of success.

  Each of the black rubber rafts had two wooden thwart seats. Hobbes and Kate did as they were told and took the forward seat in the first raft. Von Krieg and Little Willy sat just behind them and took up the paddles. Hobbes craned his neck around and saw Moeller and Klaus climb into the second raft and shove off from the U-boat.

  He noticed that the crewman manning the deck gun had it trained directly at him. Not a good sign, he thought. He heard the captain tell Dr. Moeller in German to stay behind his own raft and to watch every move the Englishman made. Then he too shoved off and began rowing away from the sub. It was a little over a hundred yards to the dock through pouring rain.

  Hobbes took Kate’s hand and squeezed it. There were many things he would have liked to say to her at that point, but he felt it was better and safer to just stare straight ahead in silence. So far, his plan was working beautifully. But it was far from over. Gradually, he saw the dark green line of the dock emerge through the grey curtain of rain. The only noise other than the rain on his poncho was the rhythmic sound of the paddles cutting the water, and it echoed inside the walls of the lagoon. Ninety yards. It was almost over.

  Then von Krieg said something that chilled Hobbes to the very bone.

  “Do you still have that scar under your left arm, fencing master?” the captain said pleasantly above the hiss of the rain. Hobbes froze.

  “Scar?” Hobbes asked. “What on earth are you talking about?”

  “Surely you remember? I gave it to you the first day I arrived in your quarters at Oxford,” von Krieg continued. “You were trying to teach the awkward young German boy how to fence like a proper Englishman, remember? I lost my safety tip just as I was lunging for your heart, as I recall, and nicked your chest. Pity.”

  “You must have me confused with someone else, Captain,” Hobbes said without turning around. “I haven’t the slightest clue what you’re talking about.”

  “Oh, I think you do. You know very well. Hobbes, isn’t it?” von Krieg replied. “Or is it Commander Hobbes now? British Royal Navy Intelligence, as I recall from your last dossier in Berlin.”

  “I am sorry, Captain. You’re mistaken. My name is Angus McIver. Surely you don’t keep dossiers on lighthouse keepers in Berlin,” Hobbes said, still facing forward and buying a little time.

  He squeezed Katie’s hand and she turned a fearful face up at him. He was glad she couldn’t see what he was doing as he reached beneath his rain-drenched poncho and inside his jacket. All bets were off now. He was down to a few desperate chances. He felt the cold steel of his little snubbed-nose .38 police special. It was small enough to fit in the palm of his hand, but quite deadly at ranges such as this. It had been small enough to hide in the compartment above his berth.

  “I’ve never made a mistake in my life, Commander Hobbes!” he heard the captain snort behind him.

  “Are you calling me a liar, sir?” When Hobbes turned, he had the gun in his hand.

  “Yes, as a matter of fact, I am,” von Krieg said, looking with disdain at the small silver weapon in Hobbes’s hand.

  And Hobbes saw that both the captain and Little Willy had their big Lugers sticking out of their ponchos and pointed at the middle of his forehead. It was over. He’d never get off two shots fast enough and everyone knew it.

  Von Krieg was smiling under his poncho, Willy’s ferretlike face was hidden in the shadows of his own hood. Hobbes could sense he wasn’t smiling. He was sure Willy was so filled with cold fury at Hobbes’s deception that only a prize as desirable as Lord Hawke had kept him from exploding and killing Hobbes immediately.

  The SS colonel sat rock still, seething, his finger tense around the trigger. Hobbes had made a fool of him in front of the captain. Hobbes knew then that he could expect not a trace of mercy, no matter what happened in the next few minutes.

  Hobbes lowered his pistol. The look on von Krieg’s face told him his charade was finally over. Which meant this was going to be a lot more difficult than he’d imagined. At any rate, they wouldn’t dare shoot him until he got them safely inside the castle. The raft was no place to try anything, certainly not with Kate by his side. He casually tossed his pistol into the water and smiled as if it had all been only been a silly misunderstanding.

  “Your name is Hobbes,” the captain said coldly in his clipped German accent. “After Oxford, you took an advanced engineering degree and flew experimental aircraft for the Navy. After that, you joined British Intelligence and were stationed at various posts in Europe and South America, becoming station chief at Rio de Janeiro and finally returning to England. You then joined the Naval Advanced Weapons Group where you and your old friend Richard Hawke from Oxford got reacquainted, and the rest of course, is history. As are you, I might add.”

  Hobbes smiled. “Ah, well, Wolfie,” Hobbes said, smiling at the captain’s reaction to the use of his old university nickname, “it was worth a try, I suppose. All’s fair in love and war and all that. You’ve got quite a file on me, I must say. When did you finally catch me out? Or did you know all along?”

  “No, I don’t think so, Commander,” von Krieg said. “You see, I finally found a faded photograph in my sea chest last night. My fencing club at Oxford. And who do I see standing puffed up with pride in the middle of our little group? Why, my new friend the lighthouse keeper! I shared this photo this morning with Colonel Steiner and he agreed it was a remarkable likeness, didn’t you Willy?”

  Little Willy nodded inside his poncho but still said nothing. So they’d known his true identity all morning! Despite himself, he was impressed with their performance on the bridge of the U-boat and later when the sub was slipping through the hidden opening to the lagoon. Von Krieg had probably made Little Willy contain his anger at least until they were safely inside Hawke Lagoon. Hobbes saw that they were nearing the dock. He had come so close to pulling off his masquerade! Now he simply had to concentrate on keeping himself and Kate alive until they reached the castle itself. He wondered if the captain could control Little Willy that long. He prayed he could.

  “Then I’m surprised that I’m still alive, Captain,” Hobbes said. He knew the only reason they hadn’t killed him yet was their intense desire to gain entrance to the castle itself. Once that was accomplished, his life expectancy would take a dramatic turn for the worse.

  “The colonel here wanted, to put it delicately, to deal with you personally this morning, Commander,” von Krieg continued, “but I convinced him otherwise. I said no, Willy, we’ve come this far. Let’s allow the commander t
o show us how to penetrate the Hawke Castle security devices and then we’ll deal with unpleasant matters after that.”

  Finally, a cold voice came from inside the shadowy hood of Willy’s poncho, words sharp as razors.

  “Take a deep breath, Commander,” the SS colonel said. “And enjoy it. You only have a few left, I promise you.” He cocked his Luger and Hobbes flinched involuntarily, waiting for the bullet. The seconds stretched out.

  Hobbes stared at the dock less than fifty feet away. The time for false bravado had passed. His only hope was to keep the U-boat captain calm and stay alive until they were all on the dock. He said, “And the child, Captain?”

  “We are not monsters, Commander Hobbes,” von Krieg replied. “In the event that something unfortunate should happen to you, Dr. Moeller will see that the child is returned unharmed to her home.” Hobbes stiffened and put his arm around Kate, drawing her close. Moeller would see her safely home? He didn’t believe a word of it.

  “Oh, look!” Kate exclaimed softly. “There’s the Petrel, Nicky’s sailboat!” Hobbes peered through the rain and saw the small white sloop moored alongside the dock, just as they’d left it. “I do hope my brother’s all right. And Gunner and Lord Hawke, too,” Katie said, as if she’d been reading his mind. Despite their own perilous situation, the three time travelers were never far from either of their thoughts.

  Was Kate crying? He felt her shivering beside him, and kissed her forehead. “It’ll be all right, my dear,” he whispered to her. “Just stay close to Uncle Hobbes’s side and do exactly as I say.” She rewarded him with a brave smile and said, “I’m only cold and wet, not afraid. I learned how not to be afraid from my brother. Besides, I have to take care of Horatio for Gunner until he gets back.”

  The raft covered the last few feet through the hissing downpour and then they saw the dock ladder loom up out of the rain. The raft bumped gently against it. Hobbes reached up for the bottom rung and put his weight down on it as he stood. He had designed the ladder so that even five pounds of pressure on any rung silently triggered Hawke Castle’s elaborate high voltage warning system. It was unfortunate that they’d found him out, he knew, but there were still a few surprises left, and a slim chance they could still survive this. He hoped that was true. The Tweedles, Fritz and Klaus, neared the dock.

  “You and the child up the ladder!” the U-boat skipper barked, waving his pistol at Commander Hobbes. “Now!” Hobbes lifted Kate up until she got her feet on the bottom rung and she climbed up onto the dock. He followed her up and then glanced at the hidden warning light set into the rock fifteen feet above the steel dock. It was flashing amber. That meant he’d definitely activated the secondary security system. They had about two minutes before the light turned red. Von Krieg came up the ladder with one hand, the other holding the Luger pointed at Hobbes. The SS colonel followed, and in a moment the four of them were standing on the dock, waiting for Fritz and Klaus in the second raft to join them. Kate clung to Hobbes and he knew she was afraid, maybe not for herself but certainly for him.

  Little Willy came directly to Hobbes and stood on his tiptoes so he could deliver a private message, out of Kate’s earshot.

  “How does it feel to be a dead man, Commander Hobbes?” Little Willy hissed from under his poncho. “Once we’re inside the castle, Dr. Moeller will make sure you live just long enough to regret making a fool of me, and it will be the worst ten minutes of your life, I assure you.”

  Hobbes didn’t answer the little colonel but looked over his shoulder into the lagoon and held his breath, waiting nervously for the two Gestapo men to tie their raft to the dock and ascend the ladder. He wanted all four Nazis on the dock surface before the warnings commenced. He glanced up at the warning light above and could tell from the rate of flashing that he had about thirty seconds left until it turned from amber to red. “Tell them to hurry,” he said to the captain.

  “Come on, you idiots, hurry up!” von Krieg screamed at the two thugs, who, because of their weight, were having a difficult time getting up the small ladder. Hobbes was silently grateful to see the Tweedles leap as if stung and scramble up the ladder. Fifteen seconds. The amber warning light was silently flashing very rapidly now and Dr. Moeller was coming up the ladder first.

  “Can I kill this lying English pig now, mein Kapitän?” Moeller asked as he clambered up onto the dock. He went up to Hobbes with his scalpel flashing, drawing the razor-sharp blade just under the commander’s chin with a teasing motion. Von Krieg never had a chance to answer the monster’s question.

  The unseen warning lights now all began flashing red.

  “You must leave at once!” boomed a voice from numerous loudspeakers mounted high above among the floodlights in the rocks.

  Suddenly, the entire lagoon was lit up with powerful flood-lights both from the rock walls surrounding them and under water. With the hissing lights and the rain, the darkness inside the towering granite walls was transformed into a brilliance of light and falling water. Hobbes felt they could all be standing under a cascading hundred-foot African waterfall at midday. A pleasant enough notion at the moment, and they were still alive.

  The rain had softened a little now and, as it fell down into the floodlit lagoon, it turned to a fine white mist. Hobbes was glad that Kate, who had seen and heard all these warnings and lights before, was not unduly afraid, and she wisely held his hand and said nothing. The black hull of the U-boat loomed large out in the swirling white mist at the center of the green lagoon. Hobbes was glad to see that occasionally the sub was completely obscured by the clouds of mist. It meant the sailor manning the deck gun didn’t have a clear view of what was going on at the dock.

  The metallic voice rang out again, bouncing around within the mist inside the towering rock walls.

  “This is a restricted area. This is a military facility, restricted to British government and military personnel. If you have not reboarded your vessel and left this lagoon within five minutes, severe measures will be taken. Extreme measures.”

  “A military facility, is it? What sort of measures, Commander?” von Krieg demanded, putting his Luger right up under Hobbes’s chin. “You never mentioned that this was a military installation!”

  “I warned you both that there were security obstacles to be overcome, Captain. Now please be so good as to get that thing out of my face or you can forget getting off this dock and gaining access to the castle.” Even though the Germans knew his true identity now, Hobbes knew he was still holding a few cards. If Kate weren’t involved, he would have been a lot less polite.

  Kate herself had no such qualms about polite behavior toward the Germans, however. She didn’t like the way the captain was treating her friend. She pulled the cat Horatio out from under her poncho and placed him on the dock.

  “Don’t you dare do that to my friend!” Katie screamed and kicked the captain as hard as she could, squarely in the shinbone. Von Krieg barked in pain as she drew her foot back to strike him again. He pointed his pistol at her curly red head.

  “Kate! Leave the captain alone! He’s not going to hurt us,” Hobbes said, grabbing her away from him. He saw to his amazement that the little girl actually stuck her tongue out at the U-boat captain with the Luger an inch from her nose. He put his hands on her shoulders and stationed her safely behind his back.

  “I repeat, Commander, what kind of extreme measures?” von Krieg shrieked, jamming the pistol once more in Hobbes’s face.

  “Ah, yes, I mentioned those, didn’t I?” Hobbes said. “I don’t want to shock you, Captain, but this dock is electrified.”

  “Electrified?” the captain screamed. “What do you mean electrified?”

  “Surely you’re familiar with electricity, Captain?”

  “You now have four minutes,” the recorded voice boomed again, echoing around and around the stone walls. “The dock you are standing on is electrified to ten thousand volts. Now the power is off. In less than four minutes it will automatically be switched o
n. Anyone standing on or touching the dock at that time risks serious injury or death. Reboard your vessel immediately. This is your last warning!”

  “Did he say ten thousand?” Hobbes said. “Actually, it’s twenty thousand volts, Captain. But it was felt that might be overly alarming.” Hobbes smiled, enjoying himself for the first time in many long, unendurable hours.

  “Twenty thousand volts!” Little Willy exclaimed. “My God, we’ll all fry!”

  Hobbes saw out of the corner of his eye that the doctor, and Klaus, too, had lost some of their taste for adventure. Both had turned deathly white and were edging back toward the ladder. The threat of twenty thousand volts tearing through your body usually had that effect on people, Hobbes noted with some satisfaction. He’d considered that very human emotion when he’d designed this system. Von Krieg swung his pistol around and leveled it at the plainly terrified Dr. Moeller.

  “If you move a single step closer to that ladder, Doctor, I’ll put a bullet in your fat cowardly back!” the captain said to the ashen-faced Gestapo agent. Hobbes noticed that they didn’t move, but neither did they retreat away from the dock’s edge. The two were rooted to the spot and plainly terrified. The Tweedles, at least, were out of the fight.

  “Three minutes. Repeat, three minutes. Electrification of the dock area will commence in three minutes. Leave the area at once.”

  “Kapitän, please!” Moeller pleaded. “This is insanity! We’ll all be killed!”

  “Silence! How do you disarm this abominable system, Commander?” the captain said, turning his attention back to Hobbes. “It’s most annoying.”

  “Right here!” Hobbes said, and hurried to the center lamppost where the Petrel was tied. There was a black control panel mounted on the post with a small lever on the left side. Hobbes pulled it down and the panel door swung open. Inside, beneath a row of red flashing lights, were a number of switches and a button pad.