“Captain, I have news.” Fassbaden’s voice resonated through the cabin door.
“Come in.”
Opening the door, Manny leaned his tall frame forward, stepped into the cabin. “Busy?”
Erich shrugged. “Close the door, Manny.”
His exec did so, then pulled up the only other chair in the room. He sat with his hands interlaced in front of him as though he were in the waiting room of a doctor. “The rescue team is ready to depart. The hydroplane fix will probably hold, Kress tells me. The aft escape hatch may be a problem. The tolerances are small, and he cannot guarantee a proper seal.”
Erich exhaled softly. “Without a machine shop and a foundry at his disposal, I cannot expect miracles. My only concern now is that we are seaworthy enough to continue the mission.”
“I believe we are. We can always continue with only the exit chamber flooded and the lower hatch sealed.”
“Good. Good,” said Erich, looking at his old friend with a sardonic grin. “The larger question is when we will continue the original mission.”
Manny leaned forward, removed his officer’s cap and ran a large, bony hand through his thick hair. Like many of the crew, he had also stopped shaving and his beard was struggling through the stage that made any man look like an unkempt tramp. “I agree. How much time will we lose in this place?”
“Exactly. Something happened here, Manny. And I have a feeling it was very bad. There may not be anyone left to rescue or recover.”
“And I assume you want my input.”
Erich nodded. “But quickly, we need to get ashore.”
Reaching for a cigarette, he shook two out of his pack. After he and Erich had ignited them, they leaned back, watched the thin blue streams they exhaled.
“All right,” said Manny. “As you may expect, I have been thinking about our situation. We are now in the month of May. Eisenhower is almost in Berlin, and if we are smart, we should be praying he beats the Russians to the Reichstag.”
Erich knew where his friend was headed with the conversation. They shared a similar one in a bar called die Wharfratte in Trondheim before shipping out on the U-5001. There were many thousands of very unhappy Russian soldiers looking for some revenge against the Germans. If the communists gained control of the Fatherland, there would be a terrible punishment meted out, whereas the Americans would, in their patronizing way, believe they should spread their democracy over the landscape like so much fertilizer.
“Are you suggesting we cancel the remainder of the mission?” Erich was not ready to admit he had entertained that very notion; he needed input from his friend.
“No, I have not reached that point, yet. We need to see what has happened here. But we also need to consider all the implications, all the options.”
“No doubt you have been thinking about them.”
Fassbaden nodded. He held up his hand, ticking off each point, finger by finger. “One — we are expected to meet the Sturm in six days. Two — Ostermann says we are presently a little less than 1600 nautical miles from rendezvous at Montauk Point. Three — that means — even if we maintained a less than optimum submerged speed of 20 knots — we will need a minimum of four days to be in position.”
Erich grinned. “It looks like you have given this very much thought. What about the maneuvers? The tests were never completed.”
Fassbaden shook his head, smiled. “I think we can safely conclude this boat is seaworthy. Were it not, we would be dead by now.”
“Agreed.” Erich stood. “Let’s get that rescue party off.”
Manny hesitated.
“What? More?”
Fassbaden shrugged. “Not that much. I would never say this to anyone else, but what is the point of finishing this mission? We both agree the war is over. The ‘Bulge’ proved that.”
“It was not von Runstedt’s fault,” said Erich wistfully. “It was a bad plan.”
“You speak as if our ‘Fuhrer’ actually had a few good ones.” Fassbaden scowled. “Christ in heaven, how did we get ourselves into this mess?”
“We would make ourselves crazy trying to answer that. Stay on course — we must decide if the mission is even worth completing.”
Fassbaden looked at him like a detective sorting out evidence. “If you know more than the rest of us, then I am not qualified to give my opinion.”
“That is true. And there is one part of the mission entrusted only to me.”
“Which is?”
Erich shrugged. Given their current situation, did it matter if he shared top secrets with his friend? “Are you telling me you have not considered the facts you already know? Manny, you have probably pulled together all the final pieces of the puzzle.”
Fassbaden nodded. “I have been thinking, yes. Let’s see… We carry a single plane and its payload, and we are to pick up its crew and an additional bomb. Close to New York. To what end? Why would we want to send a single plane to attack an American city?”
Erich stared at him. “I think you know. Tell me.”
“It is real?” said Fassbaden. “They did it.”
Erich nodded. “My orders were to inform the crew at the rendezvous point. So what if I am a little early.”
“Unbelievable!”
Both men sat silently for a moment. They had both been privy to the rumors circulating through High Command that Heisenberg and the rest of German physicists were a lot closer to creating what was called a “fission bomb” than anyone imagined. Their quest had been called Project Norway, and the payload aboard the ME-5X was indeed a product of that secret weapons program.
“They want us to drop a super-bomb on New York.”
“Yes, and if it works, a second one on Washington. The Sturm is bringing it to us.”
“Oh my God…” Manny looked pale.
“The question begins and ends with us. Do we need to do this?” said Erich. “Will the killing of maybe 100,000 civilians change the course of the war, or just make us a special group of murderers?”
“What about Dresden? Why did they do it to a place like that?”
Erich nodded. “I know. I have heard all the same reasons as you. Although, even Goering admitted the firestorm was unexpected. And the Brits tried to justify it as payback for Coventry before that.”
“Yes, I have heard all that.”
Erich felt disgusted by it all. “Well, what the hell are we talking about, Manny? Are we in a fucking war, or not?”
Fassbaden flushed — either from embarrassment or anger, it did not matter. “Yes, we are…”
“So I ask you — do we continue the madness, or do we stop it?”
“That is sounding fearfully noble, Captain.”
Erich knew his friend was serious when he addressed him as “Captain.” He used the formality as a means of distancing himself from his friend. “Is that such a bad thing? I have to tell you — I am weary of being a soldier.”
“You are not alone in that.”
“If we drop a bomb on New York,” said Erich. “We will not bring back Dresden. Or anyone else who died in this mess.”
“I know, I know,” said Fassbaden. “I am not comfortable making decisions like this. It makes me question my own purpose. Whether or not I have wasted my time, my life.”
“I think that is a question most soldiers must face.”
“More so for the ones who fight on the losing side.” Manny grinned with absolutely no humor intended.
“It is natural to feel this way. You do not have to explain yourself.” Erich smiled the fatherly smile all captains practice in the mirror. “In the meantime, I trust you took some great care in selecting two crews.”
“Two?” His exec looked at him with curiosity. Manny tilted his head, raked his large hand through his hair again.