Nazi Magician: Inventor

by Ward Wagher

  They continued walking along the sidewalk, passing by others who took advantage of the good weather for exercise and fresh air.

  “Where are you from, Frau Hohltaube?” he asked.

  “Oh, I have lived in several places. I really do not call any city my home. Frankfort is as good as any.”

  “Do you have any children?”

  She fixed a glare upon him. “You seem to like to poke your nose in other people’s business, young Herr Faust.”

  “This is called getting to know your friends better,” he glared back at her.

  She chuckled softly. “I suppose I cannot argue with you on that point. I have never been married. The officious types do not mess much with a Frau. Mostly.”

  He laughed out loud. Florian and Jette twisted around to look at him. “Frau Hohltaube, you have the subtlety of a wet snowball.”

  “I believe surviving to adulthood was a signal event for you.” Her eyes twinkled. “Surviving the next decade will be decidedly more difficult.”

  “If I haven’t said it before, let me tell you again how much I appreciate all the help you have given to us, particularly to Jette.”

  “That is why I am here, Herr Faust. Some people naturally need more guidance through life than others.”

  He shook his head, ruefully. “And you are also adept at sliding in the knife, although that one was dull and rusty.”

  “It is part of what I do.”

  “Oh, there is no doubt about that.”

  The delicatessen had a small seating area inside, and they shared a tiny table where they ate their sandwiches. Dieter had frequented the place often enough that the proprietor worked to provide good service to a regular customer. The warmth and aromas made it a pleasant place to eat.

  Florian succeeded in getting Jette to relax enough so that she would giggle at the banter between the two men. Frau Hohltaube said little and seemed content to let Dieter and Florian carry the conversation. It appeared, though, like the scene immediately transformed itself into a frozen tableau when the door opened, and Rolf Kaaden walked in.

  Rolf walked towards the counter, but when he saw the group around the table, he changed course and walked over to them.

  “Hello, Dieter, Florian.” He nodded to Frau Marsden and pointedly ignored Jette.

  “Greetings, Rolf,” Dieter responded. “I don’t believe you have met Frau Hohltaube. And you have met Jette, of course.”

  He gave Jette an icy glare, which froze when he turned to Frau Hohltaube.

  “You will return to your lodging and forget you came in here,” the old lady growled.

  Without another word, Rolf turned and marched mechanically to the door and left the delicatessen. Dieter and Florian looked at each other and then to Frau Hohltaube.

  “I don’t believe I would want you angry with me,” Florian commented. “I don’t know how you convinced him to leave.”

  “I think he was ready to arrest me,” Jette said, her voice quavering.

  “He will not bother you for the time being, Liebling,” Frau Hohltaube said. “Your two friends here should now understand why it is best not to tarry with your plans. He is under pressure from Berlin to take into custody any Jews he encounters. He has hesitated because he depends upon Dieter for his success. But he is a weak man, and is driven by his prejudices.”

  “Should we leave today?” Florian asked.

  “I believe you have more time; however, what you have is limited.”

  “I’m not hungry anymore,” Dieter said, setting down his sandwich.

  “You cannot allow these things to disturb you, Herr Faust,” the old lady said. “It is merely confirmation of what you have already decided to do. I believe you have time to complete the devices you have designed for your protection.”

  “You have more confidence than we do, Frau Hohltaube,” Dieter replied. “We haven’t been able to make several of them work, let alone build them into devices.”

  “Then Jette and I shall help you this evening. It will be good for her to help anyway. You cannot afford for her to be a passive rider when you travel. It will require the skills of all of you.”

  “Uh, well, I suppose you might help.”

  “Of course we might. Now eat up. You need your strength.”

  With that, she picked up her sandwich and took a huge bite. Yet her mouth did not seem overly full as she chewed. Dieter wondered about that, as well as her ability to cow the SS man. When she spoke, Rolf immediately turned and left the shop. He had seen a lot of magic over the past several months in the laboratory. Now, he once again wondered if the old lady had magical powers of some sort. She certainly had no problems managing Rolf Kaaden.

  An hour later, the group had reconvened in Dieter’s room at the boarding house. It was crowded with the four of them plus the equipment.

  “Now, what is this device supposed to do?” Frau Hohltaube demanded.

  “It is supposed to render an area around the device invisible,” Dieter immediately replied.

  “Show me.”

  He nodded to Florian, who flipped the switch to the power supply. When he twisted the rheostat to increase the power to the device, the coffee cup resting in the center flickered slightly. Frau Hohltaube studied the output before speaking.

  “Reverse the leads,” she barked.

  “But that shouldn’t have any effect.”

  “It is not working now,” she said. “Reverse the leads.”

  Dieter looked at Florian and shrugged. Florian unscrewed the terminals and crossed over the power leads to the device.

  “Ready, Dieter?”

  “Let’s see what happens.”

  When he powered up the device and eased the rheostat up to the threshold, the coffee cup immediately blanked out. Florian sucked in a breath.

  “It works,” he said. “I don’t believe it.”

  Dieter turned up the rheostat, and the area of invisibility crept outward until the entire device was not visible. The surface of the small work table looked empty. He eased the power back down, and everything reappeared. He looked up at Frau Hohltaube with a shaky smile.

  “It works.”

  “Of course it does. Now you need to test it with a human subject. Jette has volunteered.”

  Florian glanced at the young girl. “Are you sure you want to do this?”

  “We need to prove it works for humans. None of the other devices seems to bother people. I will try it.”

  “Can you climb onto the table?” Florian asked.

  “If you help.”

  He removed the coffee cup and took her hand. She gracefully lept upon the table and stood in the center of the device ring.

  “Are you sure you want to do this?” Dieter asked.

  “I said I was. Don’t tempt me to step down again. This is a little scary.”

  “You will be fine, Liebchen,” Frau Hohltaube said.

  “Okay, Florian,” Dieter said, “let’s do this.”

  Florian again toggled the switch to the power supply, and Dieter began twisting the rheostat slowly. When he reached the threshold, Jette suddenly disappeared.

  “Jette, can you hear me?” Dieter asked.

  “Yes. What do you see?”

  “You have disappeared completely. Can you see anything?”

  “Yes, I can see as before, except that it is a little hazy.”

  “Okay, we are powering down again.”

  He twisted the rheostat in the opposite direction, and the girl reappeared.

  “Is that what you needed?” the old lady asked.

  “Yes, we can take it from here,” Florian stated confidently.

  “Wait!” Dieter said.

  Everyone looked at him.

  “Oh, Jette, you can get down. Frau Hohltaube, we have a device that seems to defy gravity, but we have been unable to devise a means to control the movement. Might you help us with that?”

  “Yes, I would be happy to do so.”

  An hour later, after Frau Hohltaube and
Jette left the room, Dieter and Florian looked at the device in amazement. Getting the machine to levitate presented no significant problem, but now they were able to guide its movement precisely, using the prototype control stick that Konrad had devised.

  “I can’t believe she made just those two changes, and the thing worked,” Florian said. “We need to come with a way to test this outside without bringing down upon us the wrath of Rolf.”

  “The Wrath of Rolf?” Dieter asked. “Did you just make that up?”

  “Yes. Do you like it?”

  “I think I am going to have to open the window and throw up. That was disgusting.”

  “I knew you would like it.”

  “You know we have all the pieces we need to make this project work?”

  “Yes, Dieter, that has occurred to me. Do you suppose we should leave tonight?”

  “We need to buy some food. We don’t know how long we will be on the road.”

  “We won’t be on the road,” Florian said. “With this, your KdF Wagen could fly.”

  “We’ve got to mount it in the car and test it. We have no idea what will go wrong. We have got to determine whether we can make the entire vehicle invisible. Do you have any idea how to navigate across the Atlantic? Will this fly that far without falling out of the sky?”

  Florian turned pale. “Okay, okay. I suggest we quit for tonight and talk to Frau Hohltaube. Perhaps she can give us some ideas about things.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  January 2, 1940

  The pounding on the door awakened Dieter in the early hours of the morning. He immediately thought that Jette or Florian had some kind of emergency. He leaped out of bed and stumbled to the door. When he opened it, Rolf pushed into the room, along with two Gestapo agents.

  “Get some clothes on, Dieter, you are coming with me.”

  “What? Why?”

  “Just do as I say. I do not want to drag you out into the snow in your smallclothes.”

  He was close to panic and very frightened but was able to obey Rolf’s commands. He walked back to where he sat down on the edge of the bed and reached for the trousers he had left lying on the floor. The socks were there also, so he pulled them on and stepped into his shoes. He reached for a shirt.

  “Don’t worry about the shirt. Just grab your coat.”

  When Rolf behaved this way, he had learned not to argue or interrupt. He was terrified of landing in one of the interrogation rooms of the Gestapo headquarters and what might happen to him. He was glad that even though it was late, he and Florian had carried the equipment and devices down to the KdF Wagen. There wasn’t anything in his room to raise eyebrows.

  A dark sedan waited at the curb, the engine idling, and the lights reflecting against the snowflakes. He could see the shadow of a driver waiting behind the wheel. And it was snowing hard. Several inches were on the ground, and the flakes whipped and whirled, driven by the wind.

  He was shoved into the back seat with a Gestapo thug on each side. Rolf climbed into the front seat next to the driver. Dieter heard the crunch as the driver shifted into first gear, and the car pulled away from the curb, sliding in the snow. He wanted to ask where they were going, but Rolf would likely not tell him. He would find out soon enough, anyway, he supposed

  They drove across downtown Frankfort, and Dieter wondered if this were the last time he would see anything other than four brick walls and a door. But they pulled up in front of a hotel, and Rolf immediately stepped out and walked into the hotel. The Gestapo agents pulled him out of the car and escorted him into the hotel. While they were brusque, they did not handle him roughly.

  The elevator took them to the third floor, and the agents walked him down the hall and entered a suite. The agents walked him over and pointed him to a chair. He sat down, and they retreated to flank the door. At least they hadn’t tied him to the chair. What was this? He could feel the sweat gathering in his armpits and soaking through the front of his pajamas. A few moments later, he heard a toilet flush, and then Rolf walked out of what was probably the bathroom. He walked over and dropped onto a sofa across from Dieter. He crossed his legs and laid an arm casually across the back of the couch.

  “I am somewhat confused, Dieter.”

  Dieter stared at the other man. He was confused, too.

  “What do you want to know?”

  “Earlier this evening,” as he glanced at his wristwatch, “I guess it was last night, now. I decided to step out for a bite to eat. I wanted to visit a delicatessen a friend recommended. I recall walking to the door of the deli and spotting you at a table in the back. And then I found myself back here in my room. I don’t remember anything else.”

  “Did your minders there,” and he pointed to the Gestapo men, “see what happened?”

  “They were not with me. I am most puzzled. I am still hungry, so I apparently did not eat. I wondered if maybe you pulled one of your magical tricks on me.”

  “You came into the deli. You walked towards the counter and then saw us and came over to the table. After saying hello, you turned and left.”

  Rolf leaned forward on the sofa. “Who was with you?”

  Dieter decided to risk an understatement. “Florian was with me.”

  “And I just left?”

  “I thought it was a little strange. Have you been feeling ill?”

  “I didn’t think so,” Rolf laughed nervously, “but now I wonder.”

  “You honestly do not remember that?”

  Rolf jumped to his feet and began pacing the room while rubbing his face.

  “This concerns me, Dieter. I was hoping you would be able to help. I thought maybe you had caused the confusion.”

  “I do not know how to put magical spells on people. I am not sure it is even possible. I have never even considered it.”

  Rolf paced the room again and stopped in front of Dieter with his hands on his hips.

  “Are you going to be able to go back to sleep?”

  It was now Dieter’s turn to laugh nervously. “I do not even know what time it is.”

  Rolf looked at his watch again. “It is nearly five in the morning.”

  “I am up for the day, then. And you have been up all night.”

  “I have done that before, and I’ll do it again. Listen, Dieter, please allow me to have breakfast sent up here for you. It’s the least I can do.”

  “That is very generous of you.”

  “And I apologize for frightening you. Getting dragged out of bed in the middle of the night by the Gestapo is supposed to terrify people.”

  “Well, I suppose it did.”

  “Right. I wasn’t thinking at the time. I am still upset about this.”

  He walked over and picked up the telephone.

  “Please have a breakfast buffet for four sent to my room immediately.”

  He walked back over and collapsed on the sofa. “This has been a long night, and I have been unkind to my friend. Tell me, how are things going on your projects?”

  “Karl is working on a prototype whirlwind device. We are considering the best way to go about testing it. I have no idea how powerful it will be, but…”

  “Your devices always seem to exceed expectations. I will talk to the base commandant and see if we can find some open countryside where you can test the device. It wouldn’t do to sweep the buildings of the base up into a tornado.”

  “That had occurred to me,” he admitted.

  “Just so. I think something like that could be handy. I just wish you could have gotten your flying device to work.”

  “That was frustrating,” Dieter said. “I tried everything I could think of. Once we get some other things out of the way, I would like to back and work on it some more. It should work.”

  Rolf snapped his fingers. “I just remembered. I have something for you.”

  He disappeared into the bedroom and returned a few moments later to hand Dieter an envelope.

  “What’s this?”

  “
It’s your bonus for the whirlwind machine. We retrieved some Reichmarks from some of the verdammte Jews, and I thought I would just give it to you. It won’t go to the bank, and you won’t have to pay any taxes. I thought you might like that.”

  “The thought of not paying taxes is attractive.”

  Rolf chuckled. “I gathered you would like that.”

  During the ride back to the rooming house, Dieter wondered what to do about the cash Rolf had given him. It was blood money as far as he was concerned since it was stolen from the unfortunate Jews. He wondered if it would be acceptable to add it to their escape fund. He thought maybe he should talk to Frau Hohltaube to see if she had any thoughts. He knew she would, but instead wondered whether he would be able to accept her comments.

  As he walked the hallway to his room, an arm reached out of a doorway and pulled him into a room.

  “Where were you?” Florian asked in a fierce whisper. “I peeked out after the Gestapo marched past with you. I was getting ready to load up the car and get Jette out of here.”

  “You wouldn’t believe it. Rolf dragged me to his hotel room, where he questioned me about last night. He was getting ready to visit the delicatessen and saw me inside but remembered nothing until he was back in the hotel room. He wondered if I had performed some magic on him of some sort.”

  “Is that possible?”

  “How would I know? I don’t know how I could even try something like that. Usually, with the devices, I can visualize what will happen. I’ve never given much thought to doing something like that with people.”

  Florian rolled his tongue round in his cheek as he thought. “Do you think Frau Hohltaube had something to do with it?”

  “I am almost certain she did. I saw her do something like this once before. When Jette was accosted, she just showed up and sent the Gestapo off with their tails between their legs.”

  “That old woman is spooky.”

  “We need to get downstairs to breakfast,” Dieter said. “Let me put my coat in my room and get dressed.”

  “Get dressed?”

  Dieter opened his coat and showed Florian his nightshirt roughly tucked into his trousers.

  “Oh. Yes, don’t let me stop you, Dieter.”