by Ward Wagher
CHAPTER SIX
October 25, 1939
When Ignatz stepped into the laboratory that morning, he looked curiously at Jette. The girl sat in a chair along one wall and looked down at the floor. Dieter looked over and saw Ignatz, so he hurried over to follow Ignatz into his office.
“I suppose you are going to explain that to me,” Ignatz said with a smile.
Dieter was relieved that his boss did not seem angry. The man was unpredictable and would become petulant when provoked. At the moment, he looked bemused.
“Jette knows how to use a typewriter and has filing skills. I thought maybe your disposition would improve if we could do something about your office.”
He was betting that if he called attention to something the whole lab teased Ignatz about, the man would not feel threatened. And teasing him usually kept him from getting defensive.
“And what is wrong with my office, Dieter?” he asked, waving his arm around.
“I only worry that you might be crushed if one of these stacks of paper collapses. Not to mention the seismic event that something like this would cause.”
“Oh, thank you very much. Let me get a cup of coffee, and then we will talk.”
Dieter was relieved that the other man seemed to be in a good humor this morning. He hoped that it would continue. Ignatz granted him a tremendous amount of latitude. That was because Dieter routinely delivered. Just the power cell, or whatever they eventually decided to call it, would revolutionize many aspects of the Reich. And Dieter planned to continue creating successful projects.
The laboratory manager had poured his coffee and now finished loading the cup with sugar. He glanced over at where Dieter stood in front of his bench.
“Come on into my office, Dieter. We can talk.”
Dieter immediately marched into the office and closed the door behind him. Ignatz dropped into his chair, but Dieter remained standing. There was no place for him to sit. The other three chairs in the small office were stacked with books and papers. Other than the narrow path from the door to Ignatz’s chair, the floor was occupied by stacks of papers. Dieter thought the place looked like some kind of a dervish had set up a life-sized chess game in the office.
“Now, what was it you wanted to explain?” Ignatz asked.
“You have complained about the paperwork enough, Ignatz. I found someone who has the skills you are looking for.”
“She seems young,” Ignatz said.
“I think she may be promising enough for you to try her in that position.”
Ignatz looked around at the disorder in the room and shook his head. “You are right; things couldn’t get any worse in here. Very well, let me talk to her.”
“I think they probably could,” Dieter said, “but that’s the topic of another conversation.”
Ignatz shook his fist at Dieter. “Go bring the girl. And then you need to get to work.”
“Of course, Ignatz.”
He opened the door and walked over to Jette. “Herr Schneider will see you now, Jette. He seems to be in a good mood this morning.”
“I heard that, Dieter,” came a voice from the office.
“He is really very nice,” Dieter reassured the girl.
“Thank you,” she replied so quietly that he had a hard time hearing her.
The girl rose and ghosted into Ignatz’s office. She turned and closed the door in response to his order. Dieter walked back over to his bench.
“Hey Dieter, who’s the Fräulein?” Florian asked.
“Just a friend,” he replied. “She needed a job, and I thought about the ongoing disaster that is Ignatz’s office. Maybe she could call his life magically to order.”
“Not possible,” Florian stated.
“Are you two conspiring?” Ludwig asked as he drifted over.
“Just trying to bring some efficiency to Ignatz’s office.
Ludwig snorted. It sounded like a large animal in the forest. “I think it is not a lack of ability on the part of our beloved boss; it’s rather a lack of desire.”
“If Ignatz doesn’t want to hire her, maybe we could use her as a lab assistant,” Florian said. “God knows we would be more productive if we had some clerical help.”
“What are you doing with the glass rod, Dieter?” Ludwig asked.
“I think I can use it to focus light.”
Ludwig folded his arms across his chest. “This I will have to see. I haven’t the foggiest idea of what is behind these things, but they work for you anyway. I can get a small reading off the power pack, but that’s about it. How you and Florian do it, I haven’t the slightest idea.”
About ten minutes later, Ignatz opened his office door. “Dieter! Over here, if you please.”
Dieter worked his way across the lab towards Ignatz’s office.
“I have decided to hire Jette,” he said without preamble. “I will leave to see if I can find a small desk for her. She has already begun.”
Dieter looked over Ignatz’s shoulder and saw that the girl was already sifting through the paper. He hoped it would work out. Jette badly needed a job. Ignatz needed help in organizing the lab. Dieter wondered how the boss had survived for so long. His office was a disaster.
“Thank you for my job,” Jette said quietly as they walked home from the laboratory.
“I was glad to help out,” Dieter replied. “I think Ignatz was pleased with your work today.”
“That is good. I have papers now that say I am employed. But they still say that I am a Jew.”
“Why should anyone care whether you are a Jew?” Dieter asked. “It just makes no sense. The Jews are people just like us.”
“My papa said that after the great war, the people looked for something on which to pin the blame for their loss. They have blamed the Jews for so hard and so long that nobody wants to disbelieve it.”
“That is just nuts.”
“And what about you, Dieter,” she said, “what is your background?”
“I don’t know,” he replied. “My parents are both dead, and I never knew them. I have no idea who my relatives are. It’s strange – I suppose I could be a Jew, and no one knows it. How could anyone tell?”
“Dieter, it’s not safe to say things like that,” she cautioned. “Someone could accuse you of being a Jew, and you would not be able to prove that you are not.”
“Ignatz protects everyone in the laboratory, Jette. We produce things for the Reich, and they leave us alone. You will be safe.”
“Are we truly safe anywhere? If the Gestapo came to the lab, who would stop them?”
He heard the anguish in her voice and wanted to protect her. “Jette, we are doing important work for the Reich. Very important. The Gestapo won’t bother us.”
“I hope not. I wish I could find out what happened to Papa and Mutti. When I came home, I saw the Gestapo taking them out and…” and she gulped, “I just did not know what to do.”
They walked further before Dieter spoke again. “I don’t know what to say.”
She patted his arm. “I’m sorry. I should not lay this on you.”
“No, that’s okay. You need a friend, and I am happy to be your friend.”
When they entered the house, they were enveloped with the smell of pork loin. The rooming house now seemed like a warm, cheerful place. Jette looked at it as a haven.
“It smells like we will eat well tonight,” Dieter said.
“It does smell heavenly,” she commented.
“You can eat pork?” he asked.
“We… I am not an observant Jew. I can eat whatever I want. I am a good German. I just don’t know why people don’t understand that.”
Dieter could think of nothing else to say. They walked up the stairs to the second floor, where Jette went to her room. Dieter made his way to the third floor and his turret. When he walked in the door, Frau Hohltaube stood in the center of his room. He jumped.
“I didn’t expect to find you here, Frau Hohltaube!”
&nb
sp; “No matter. I understand you were able to find employment for Jette.”
“Yes,” he replied, “Ignatz was glad to get the help. She made a lot of progress cleaning up the paper in his office. I think she will work out well.”
“That is good.”
“She worries about her parents.”
The old woman frowned. “That is sad. There is nothing I can do about that. This land is in the grip of an evil power. You both must be very careful. And you, young man, need to be more cautious in your speech. I will not always be able to intervene for you with the Gestapo.”
“I know that,” he replied. “I’m just glad you showed up yesterday to rescue Jette. I cannot believe how depraved those people are.”
“Remember, Herr Faust,” she said. “When people like that gain power, they behave with great cruelty to others. They are very dangerous.”
“I understand,” he said.
“And see that you remember,” she warned.
CHAPTER SEVEN
October 27, 1939
Dieter struggled with the new project he had been working on all week. He was not sure what the result would look like, but he had a feeling that what he was attempting had possibilities. Ludwig had done an excellent job of polishing the ends of the rod and getting it silvered. He had spent the week building a frame for the glass rod to rest on and then mounted an array of lightbulbs and reflectors around it.
Having completed most of the assembly, he gave some thought on how to test the apparatus. He thought that perhaps the ends of the rod should not be pointed at anything or anyone. Having lined up the device on his bench, he secured a piece of sheet metal in the vice at the end of the bench. He looked around the lab for a moment. Ludwig was working on a portable carry pack for the power supply. Florian tested the original power supply with various resisters in an attempt to measure the power generation potential of the device.
Konrad was out on some kind of an errand for Ignatz, while Ignatz resolutely worked through the paper on his desk. Jette moved in and out of Ignatz’s office on her task of sorting through the piles of documents. She had made a sizable dent in the work during the week, and Dieter wondered what Ignatz would find for her to do after she finished sorting things.
Dieter decided there was no time like the present to test the new piece of equipment. If it failed, he could spend the weekend pondering the failure. If it worked, he would have a satisfactory rest on Saturday and Sunday. He connected the power leads to a new power supply that Ludwig had built, and he had tested. He began twisting the control knob for the power supply and could see a glow around the device as the lightbulbs started warming up. He was careful because he had learned that there was a threshold where the power would build up suddenly and burn out the bulbs.
As the lightbulbs gradually grew brighter, Dieter began to think that the experiment would not work in the way he expected. He heard a slight hum coming from the device, but nothing much was happening. He eased the knob further and watched as the lightbulbs emitted a more intense light. Still, nothing else happened. So, he continued to twist the knob around, trying to avoid the burst of power that would blow the bulbs. Ignatz yelled when they had to replace bulbs.
Suddenly the power supply kicked over, and the light bulbs shined brightly. There was a sharp crack, and an arrow of white light bisected the lab. He heard Jette shriek as he threw up an arm to shield his vision from the intense flash. He blinked rapidly as the laboratory seemed dark, and he tried to clear the afterimage from his sight.
Ignatz stomped out of his office and walked over to Dieter’s bench.
“And what have you done now, young man?” he shouted.
“I am not sure, Ignatz,” Dieter replied. “I am still trying to see again.”
Florian and Ludwig had moved quickly over to Dieter’s bench as neither had been watching when Dieter triggered the experiment. Jette stood near the exit door and held her hands over her mouth. A haze of smoke hung in the air as did the smell of hot metal.
As Dieter’s sight gradually cleared, he first noted the clean, round hole in the piece of sheet metal he had stood at the end of the workbench. Across the room, a perfectly round one-inch hole was bored into the concrete wall of the laboratory.
“I suppose we ought to measure the depth of the hole in the wall over there,” Florian said. “That might be useful information.”
“But what did you do?” Ignatz asked.
Dieter coughed a couple of times from the fumes. “I was attempting to make a strong light beam. I thought it might be useful as a spotlight or something.”
Ignatz walked over to the wall and studied the hole. “I think you succeeded,” he said dryly.
“I think I blew out my light bulbs,” Dieter volunteered.
“Again,” Florian commented.
“Again,” Dieter agreed.
“This is getting expensive,” Ignatz stated. “I wonder if we could use arc lighting for these experiments.”
“I don’t think we could trigger them properly, or maybe we could with good timing.”
Ignatz Schneider folded his arms and contemplated what the young man had achieved. He used his habitual frown to hide his growing excitement. The methods Dieter used to generate the output from his device were unorthodox. He had read papers by Einstein and Heisenberg that described something like this but thought that it should not be this easy to make things work. He turned and walked back to his office, closing the door behind him.
“I think he’s mad at you,” Florian said.
“Naah,” Ludwig added, “if he were mad at Dieter, he would have yelled a lot. I think you’ve made his day.”
“I just hope I haven’t ruined my eyes. All I can see is a white beam.”
Florian stepped over and looked at his face. “You look like you have a sunburn, too. Maybe you should sit down and close your eyes for a while. Ignatz will be unhappy if we have to take you to the doctor.”
He knew there were a couple of chairs along one wall of the laboratory, so he turned to walk over to them and ran into the bench.
“Um, this is embarrassing.”
“Come on, Dieter, we’ll get you over there,” Florian said as he and Ludwig led the inventor over to the side of the lab.
As he sat in the chair trying to rest his eyes, Dieter thought about what he had accomplished. All he saw ahead was more work in trying to figure out precisely what had happened. When he operated the device, he could feel the lines of force as they resonated in the glass tube. The result was a beam of pure, coherent light. Although the brilliance blinded him, he felt what had happened. And he was surprised at the level of energy generated by the equipment. He had a lot to think about this weekend.
Jette had returned to her desk and began working through the papers she had earlier retrieved from Ignatz’s office. He had instructed her not to enter his office when the door was closed. She wondered if Dieter was in trouble. Perhaps she would ask him as they walked home later in the day.
Ignatz picked up his telephone and requested a connection to Colonel Klemperer in the RLM or Reich Air Ministry. The Faust boy had achieved a second breakthrough in his research. Ignatz was amazed. Dieter had no theoretical background in electrical theory or physics. Yet, he seemed almost to feel his way to significant advances in the field. What was puzzling was that only certain people could operate the devices. For his purposes, it seemed like the machines were powered by magic, and Dieter Faust was a magician.
“RLM Office of Research, Colonel Klemperer speaking.”
“Colonel, this is Ignatz Schneider.”
“And how may I help you today, Herr Schneider?”
“I have an interim report that you will find interesting.”
Klemperer leaned forward and checked his desk calendar. “As it happens, Herr Schneider, I have nothing else scheduled for today. You may come on over.”
“Thank you, Colonel,” Ignatz said. “I am on my way.”
Ignatz shrugged into his coat as
he walked out of the laboratory. When the door closed, the three men in the lab looked at each other.
“Where’s he going?” Ludwig asked.
“I think he’s going to see the boss,” Florian said. “Since he didn’t fire you on the spot, Dieter, he must be happy about the experiment.”
“I think I am going to need some kind of dark glasses before we try this again,” Dieter muttered. “I still see a white streak in my eyes.”
“Perhaps a welder’s mask would do the trick,” Ludwig said. “I will put it on my list of things to procure for the lab.”
“Somebody is going to yell about all the money we are spending here,” Dieter said. “This stuff is beginning to get expensive.”
“Nothing like a weapons lab,” Florian said. “This is a shoestring operation. And I think we just paid for ourselves a thousand times over. Or rather, you did, Dieter.”
“And I have no idea how I am doing it,” he commented.
“But don’t tell that to the colonel,” Ludwig said. “Let them think you are smart. Since they are not, they’re pretty easy to fool.”
“Easy for you to say,” Dieter grumbled. “You’re not the one standing in front of the colonel when he is expecting you to pull a rabbit out of the hat.”
“That’s what you have done,” Ludwig replied. “You have pulled a rabbit out of the hat. All you have to do is be yourself.”
“Thanks, Ludwig,” Dieter said.
“Think nothing of it.”
As he sat in the chair, his sight gradually returned. He would have no problem insisting that they require eye protection before continuing the experiments. That beam was bright! It would also make a marvelous weapon if they could get the details sorted out. He would be a hero of the Fatherland.