'Not to worry,' he said, 'although there are many roads that lead off from this main route, with this system I can search the major traffic hubs in the area to see if we get a match anywhere in the time frame you are talking about. We should be able to tell where they turned off.'
He concentrated on his keyboard and selected a number of parameters to refine his search, allowing the system to filter through a subset of all the vehicle license plates it had collated during the normal course of daily operation.
'Give the system a few minutes and we should have something, shall we get a coffee?'
Pieter nodded and relaxed a little in the knowledge that Steve would pursue the search and find the van as a matter of professional and technical pride.
Some ten minutes later, Pieter gazed at the screen as a list of route points was displayed, indicating that the target vehicle had entered a minor town as identified by the plates being scanned and logged at a couple of junctions.
'Fantastich, nicht war?' Steve enthused. 'It can log license plates from all over Germany and we have regional hubs in most of the federated states that feed into a central database. Our big problem is that we cannot cross-check the numbers with our vehicle licensing violations databases because they are not fast enough to cope with the queries, also, there are some political concerns over privacy. We can track the cars but we don't have the systems in place to check out whether they are wanted for anything, unless we put a special high-priority search tag in place. That sort of work is usually requested by patrol officers based on suspicious activity but in the future, we can automate the whole thing. As for this vehicle, I can see that it entered the town and unless the license plates were changed, it appears to still be there.'
Pieter frowned and thought for a moment.
'I don't suppose that you can you tell if the plates have been changed?'
Smiling satisfactorily, Steve's eyes widened with pride.
'Naturlich! I can cross-reference every vehicle that entered with every vehicle that left. If a vehicle left but never entered, then the license plates may belong to a vehicle that has always remained within the town or it may not have been logged before over the last few years, but that is unlikely. In such cases, it is most probable that the license plates have been applied within the town. It will take a little longer to obtain a list of vehicles; maybe another ten minutes, but I can find that information with no problem.'
Pieter hummed, relieved and impressed with the facilities to identify and track a car even if the plates had been changed. He supped his tepid coffee and waited as Steve entered a number of further search and cross-reference parameters, his gut instinct telling him that he was closer than ever.
In due course, everything was revealed; the town was Krefeld and all evidence indicated that the van was still there. Pieter even knew where it had turned off from the main north-south route of the A57 and his primary search location was in the least populated south-eastern corner of the town. Of course, there was no guarantee that Gertrude Verker was still in the same location as she may have been taken away in any of the cars that the Steve had identified as leaving the vicinity but at least it was a definite place to start looking. Just a half-hour car journey from Oberhausen to Krefeld and Pieter would soon be able to wander around the area on foot to try and spot the van. He was sure that he would determine the final destination of the Renault and in the process, locate Gertrude - with any luck, they might all be on their way home within a few of hours.
Chapter XXIII
The Twilight of The Gods
Kappel swigged from a glass of water that he had poured for himself and rubbed his lips together to wet them, his whole mouth and throat dry from the experience of too little sleep over the last few days. He carefully placed the glass onto his desk and leaned forward, taking a breath and interlocking his fingers as he pressed his thumbs together and waggled them back and forth in a kind of nervous tic, staring at the faces of Jackson and Jolene on his computer screen.
'By this time, it was early March of 1945 and Himmler was Commander-in-Chief of the so-called Army Group Vistula although his headquarters had actually been forced back to west of the Oder River. He was completely ineffective as a military leader and the few offensives that were rallied were actually commanded by one of his Generals, but only after intervention by Hitler to avert further failures. Even so, he was closer to the action than he had ever been before and faced with the stark reality of the situation that the German military forces were facing, he was a nervous wreck and couldn't handle the responsibility.'
Jackson nodded, knowing something of the facts.
'He resigned his post didn't he?'
'Yes,' agreed Kappel, 'but not before fate had intervened in an unexpected way. The man who had displayed all the emotion of an accountant's clerk, calmly totting up the extermination figures to tally the progress of the final solution, this same man became indecisive and panic stricken when exposed to the actuality of warfare, even though he was safely ensconced in an HQ away from the immediate dangers of the front. His fears acted to push him into a vision of mystical prophecy, in so much that the dramatic near destruction of the Nazi dream was threatened, but where the opportunity to snatch glorious victory from the jaws of defeat was just within reach. He believed that, in fact, the ultimate triumph was at hand, a melodramatic cliffhanger that was predicated upon his visions of spiritual superiority rather than the blood of the millions who had died in the conflict and were yet still continuing to give their lives.'
'He wanted to deploy the Bell weaponry?' Jolene asked unsurely.
'Just so, he envisioned a dramatic final confrontation, a singular battle that would prove to the whole world that providence was on the side of the National Socialists and that the gods themselves would not allow the Nazi ideology to fail. The time had come for the ultimate Wunderwaffe to be deployed; he would deliver the all-powerful ring forged from the Rheingold to his master and bask in the glory of having saved the thousand year Reich. The event would stop the enemy forces in their tracks, forcing them to retreat. It would all be the stuff of future legends and myth, the culmination of a glorious quest where he had become the ultimate saviour of the Aryan ideal.'
'A fool's dream,' Jackson said, half imagining the situation.
'A nightmare,' Kappel concurred, 'but when Himmler theatrically conveyed the news of the wonder weapon that would soon be capable of subjugating the entire world, Hitler fumed before exploding into a furious rage, launching a tirade of abuse that derided the naivety displayed by his most loyal Reichsführer-SS. He was astounded that Himmler was actually suggesting that the definitive doomsday machine could be placed into the hands of any of his Generals, whether SS or Wehrmacht.
'Hitler had regularly pronounced his despised general staff as untrustworthy and even treasonous. Was he about to place a weapon of such strategic importance into the hands of treacherous men who would probably turn it against the Führer himself in order to save their own skins? The project name of Rheingold made Hitler's anger even worse - the very premise of Wagner's opera was that greed and the lust for power in the form of 'the ring' had destroyed all those who tried to possess it, even the gods. As Hitler saw it, rather than providing a weapon that would deliver victory, Himmler had actually come perilously close to replicating the finale to 'The Ring of The Nibelung'- Götterdämmerung, the twilight of the gods!
'He raged at Himmler to cancel the project immediately, to destroy everything lest the advancing Russian forces acquire it, or even worse, his own Generals. It was an order that Himmler dare not disobey even though Hitler was raging at him from a bunker miles away and buried under a beleaguered Berlin.'
Shaking her head slowly, Jolene was unable to contemplate why one of the most evil men in history had declined the offer of the ultimate weapon, albeit in prototype form.
'- but surely this could have won the war for them, why would Hitler waste such an opportunity based solely on his distrust of his Generals? Th
ey could have secured the operation of the weapon, surely?'
Kappel grinned and shook his head.
'Hitler wouldn't hear of it, he blamed the collapse of the Reich on the lack of commitment of the German people and believed that they no longer deserved victory. Remember, at that stage he was only interested in a scorched-earth policy and the truth is, if had of been in control of the first atomic bomb he would have probably used it on Berlin rather than the enemy. Mind you, it's just as well that he was not interested, his attitude convinced Himmler that his Führer was no longer an effective leader and events took another turn when on March 13th, 1945, claiming illness and nervous exhaustion, Himmler abandoned his command of Army Group Vistula and retired to a sanatorium; his resignation was received by Hitler later that same night. Completely disillusioned but still enthralled with the ideal of the master race, embodied within his SS, he attempted to initiate negotiations with the allies soon after and promised to deliver a negotiated peace with a number of caveats that ensured his own continuation of power and allowed for the concentration of German forces to complete the war in the East against the Soviets. However, what he didn't know was that the treasures he thought he could offer had already been appropriated by none other than the Chief of the Nazi Chancellery, Martin Bormann.
'When Himmler approached the negotiating table, he didn't know that the Reich cupboards had effectively been stripped bare. Bormann had seen the coming demise for a long time and had made his plans accordingly, he had secretly made contact with the allies and his biggest lure was the Nazi atomic technology, but, he kept the best secret for himself and as far as he was concerned, the atomic bomb was a fire cracker compared to the promised power of the Bell.'
The room was silent for a moment before Jackson warily spoke up.
'Atomic bomb? Sir, that is the second time you have mentioned it. How could Bormann offer the atomic bomb? How could Hitler ever have had control of it?'
The question was met with a shrug.
'As I alluded to earlier, allied history has it that the US was first to develop, test and deploy the atomic bomb, however, the truth is that the Germans were way ahead of us, contrary to the alleged failure of the Nazi atomic ambitions that history now promotes. You see, when we dropped Little Boy on Hiroshima and Fat Man on Nagasaki, we deployed two very different types of atomic weapon. The Fat Man was plutonium based and was quite complex, requiring the relatively sophisticated coordination of shaped charge explosives to create an implosion of the fissionable material. From a technological point of view, the plutonium bomb dropped on Nagasaki represented the cutting edge technology but it couldn't necessarily be relied upon. As it happens, the design performed as expected having previously been tested in July 1945 near to the White Sands Proving Ground.
'However, with the Little Boy the main objective was to deploy a weapon that was absolutely guaranteed to work and it was considered as the primary weapon using proven technology. That said, the device was never actually tested by the US and various reasons for this have been publicly stated, including the lack of sufficient quantities of uranium 235 to be used on a test. The truth is a little more provocative in that we already knew the weapon would work because in fact it had been tested - not by us but by the Germans.'
Jolene was aghast at the suggestion.
'Sir, this is incredible, surely it cannot be true?'
Kappel simply raised his palms in a open gesture of indifference.
'The Manhattan Project was way behind in the delivery of sufficient quantities of uranium 235. As the capitulation and demise of Nazi Germany became imminent, Bormann struck a deal. Although the Nazis had the technology for an atomic bomb they couldn't really use it, only the true fanatics were interested in prolonging the war and the atomic programme itself was a more effective bargaining chip at the negotiating table than deployed on the battlefield; Germany had lost, the bomb was not about to change that outcome. The point is the war in the Pacific was still raging and we needed to supplement our own programme, especially in terms of stocks of uranium 235, so when Bormann talked, we listened.'
Jolene sounded exasperated.
'We negotiated with Martin Bormann, the second most powerful man in Nazi Germany?'
Kappel smirked, 'Not just negotiated, we actually made a deal, besides, at that point Bormann was the most powerful man in Nazi Germany. Hitler had become a shambling wreck and was essentially just a figurehead. He couldn't command in an objective and organised way; he still believed that he had powerful armies just waiting to crush the enemy offensives even if he did have a nihilistic vision for the whole country. He wanted to take everybody down with him. It was Bormann who had his finger on the pulse, singularly omniscient in all matters of the crumbling Reich but always remaining in the shadows, secretly pursuing his own victory. Bormann traded stocks of uranium and a host of other technological marvels for immunity and freedom so when Himmler made his approach, there was nothing else to offer as far as we were concerned.'
It was Jackson who next betrayed his disbelief.
'Sir, this all sounds more fantastic than the theories I see in my department! Why would Bormann give us atomic secrets?'
Kappel became solemn, his face deadpan.
'What use was an atomic bomb against a vortex beam that could make it explode before the plane even took off? He had the ultimate defensive and offensive weapon, albeit still mostly on the drawing board and in prototype form only. He needed a secure way out for himself and the technology since the key to the future of the Reich was the Bell itself. Against the standing orders of Himmler that reflected Hitler's demand to destroy the machine, in early April 1945 Bormann ordered Kammler to wind up the project and shift everything out to a secure location in Norway, still held by a sizeable German military force.'
'So what actually happened?' asked Jolene.
Kappel took a swig from his glass of water and cleared his throat.
'Kammler used the only remaining Junkers 390 to evacuate the Bell from Silesia. It landed in Norway and both the uranium oxide cargo and the most important Bell components and designs were loaded aboard a Type XB U-boat with designation U-234. Departing the Norwegian port of Kristiansand in mid April, the initial plan called for it to head to Japan, however, that was a ruse to put their own German Naval command off the scent. The captain eventually changed course and headed for the US where U-234 finally entered Portsmouth Naval Shipyard and surrendered her crew and cargo to the us in mid May. Naturally, all of the cargo manifests were falsified but Bormann had kept to his part of the bargain although by then, he'd already gone underground having left the bunker two weeks earlier and rumoured to have been killed during his attempted escape.'
'Let me guess,' Jackson commented drily, 'he wasn't really dead?'
Kappel almost sniggered.
'Of course not! He successfully made his way out via Southern Germany to catch up with the Bell cargo!'
Jolene grimaced, '- but I thought you said that the cargo had been delivered to us aboard U-234? Are you saying that Bormann came to the US?'
'Not quite,' Kappel offered coyly, 'you see before docking at Portsmouth, U-234 had a secret rendezvous with another U-boat out at sea. Operating off the coast of New York, U-530 remained in the area until U-234 could come alongside and the Bell cargo was transferred from one boat to the other. U-234 continued on to Portsmouth but U-530 slowly made its way down to Argentina which was then considered as a sympathetic nation. Late in the evening of July 9th 1945, U-530 motored into Mar del Plata. As far as the official records go, nothing untoward was aboard, no senior Reich officers, no special cargo.
'Basically, the secret of the Bell had been successfully delivered as per Bormann's plans and it was all was now safely out of reach of the allies. As a foot note, the final flight of the Junkers 390 didn't end in Norway either. It had been refuelled and after a trans-Atlantic flight it was reported to have eventually landed at an airfield in Gualeguay, located in the Entre Rios province of Argent
ina. Bormann had ensured that the Bell technology would be delivered safely and had cleverly devised two delivery routes.
'Even if the plane went down with its cargo, his biggest insurance policy was that we would never sink the very U-boat that was being used to deliver the uranium oxide he had bartered for his life with. The delivery of the most important Bell components by sea probably constitutes the most significant maritime smuggling operation in history!'
Jackson and Jolene remained silent, taking in the events that had been described. They looked at each other a couple of times before Jolene spoke.
'Sir, first question; how do we know all of this? Secondly, where does the Sun of the Sleepless fit in, I mean, how is it that they have the vortex weapon if the Nazis managed to secure it in Argentina? What do we know about them?'
A grin creased Kappel's face.
'You ever heard of Operation Paperclip?'
It was Jackson who sat up in his chair.
'The US plan to take possession of Nazi Germany's technological innovations?'
'Absolutely correct!' barked the laptop speakers as the face on the screen nodded energetically.
'On May 8th, 1945, the victory over Nazi Germany was effectively complete and just like any other conquering army throughout all of history, we wanted our share of the spoils of war. Previously, with the end of the European conflict in sight, President Harry Truman had ordered the execution of 'Operation Overcast', later renamed as 'Paperclip' and a secret programme specifically aimed at recruiting the scientists of the Reich for employment in the US. Of course, we had been doing exactly that anyway for months and 'Paperclip' was just a formalisation of the recruitment we'd already started, nevertheless, the concepts of recruitment and employment probably do not reflect the reality of the terms and conditions that were imposed on the men and women we wanted.
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