Jaeger appeared hesitant to speak, then: “It may have… how would you say… awakened something in here.”
“Awakened? Awakened what?”
Jaeger shrugged. “Whatever attacked and killed everyone at the Station, obviously. You saw the bodies…”
Erich shuddered at such a notion. He mentioned the statue they’d seen, and Jaeger nodded.
“Yes,” he said. “There are others like that, scattered throughout these ruins. Some depicting even more bizarre beings.”
“Are you suggesting we may be in danger from these things?”
“At this point, I don’t know what I think. I am sorry.”
“And what exactly were you trying to do when the accident happened?”
Jaeger looked at him with eyes tinged by fatigue and a touch of madness. “Have you ever heard of the Philosopher’s Stone?”
Erich paused as he searched his memory for the vaguely familiar term. Then: “Something to do with alchemy, as I recall.”
“Very good, Captain. Yes, it was the element sometimes called carmot, which could be changed or transmutated into whatever element was required.”
“All right,” said Erich. “Go on.”
“We have discovered artifacts that appear to be something like carmot. When we presented our initial findings to Dr. Heisenberg, he was intrigued enough to come here himself.”
“What?” said Manny. “Werner Heisenberg has been here?”
Jaeger nodded. “Rather than carmot, he called the substance we discovered ‘inter-matter’ because it appears to exist in a state unknown to modern physics. But the implications are world-shaking, gentlemen.”
“In what way,” said Manny.
“If we can discover the mechanism, the means to convert any substance into any other.” Jaeger beamed as he imagined a future utopia. “We can create infinite supplies of energy sources from our garbage, and that is just the most obvious use!”
“Hmmm,” said Erich. “It sounds like the term ‘precious metal’ would become obsolete.”
Jaeger waved him off. “Inconsequential. Whatever country controls inter-matter will rule the world.”
Erich sighed. “I think I’ve heard that phrase before…”
“What do you mean by that, Captain?”
“‘Ruling the world?’ Perhaps you have not noticed, Doctor, but things have not exactly been working out to plan.”
Jaeger bristled under the remark, but said nothing for a moment. Then he added: “I understand you may be war-weary, Captain. And I respect your feelings. However, we are all working under obligations, and we must all do our part. In fact, there is one more thing we must do here before we depart.”
Erich looked at the scientist with the perfect Aryan features. No doubt Jaeger had mortgaged his soul to the cause of the Fatherland long ago, and for a man like that, there was no turning back. “Let me guess,” said Erich. “We need to retrieve your magic stone.”
Chapter Nineteen
The translation routine became automatic through repetition, and Dex had lost count of how many pages he’d processed. Captain Bruckner had a lot to say, that was obvious. The Transliteral website was slow and clumsy — obviously designed only for snippets of text — but Augie had plenty of “Red,” as he called it, and he was treating the evening like a party. It wouldn’t be a problem. Pushing on until he cut-and-pasted the last of it into a big document file, he printed it out on Augie’s little Canon inkjet, and began to read. He handed off pages to Tommy, who was a slow, but careful reader.
The early pages were short and to the point, but no less interesting for it. Bruckner had been precise and detailed without being expansive. In each entry, he’d always noted the time, the depth, and map coordinates. With each passing word, Dex knew he and his pals had stumbled onto something extraordinary. As he and Don had figured, the big sub had been some sort of underwater aircraft carrier, but so far he saw no mention of its mission — other than a single notation regarding an eventual rendezvous with a German cruiser, Sturm.
Day after day, Bruckner continued to log in the story of his boat, and with each notation, Dex could see the captain allow more of his personal feelings and personality leak onto the pages, revealing a real person behind the words.
A person Dex found himself admiring — both for Bruckner’s obvious erudition and academics, but also a suggestion of a moral code other than the standard Nazi crap.
He read on, getting to know — through repetition — a few members of the crew: someone called Manny, the radioman Bischoff, and an apparent troublemaker named Liebling. Reliving the depth charge attacks, and the harrowing escapes from disaster felt realistic and vivid despite Bruckner’s precise language. Either the captain had a knack for using the exactly right word, or the online translation program was exceptionally good. Whatever the case, Dex found Bruckner’s log entries compelling.
The release of all the bow torpedoes was clever, but the entries which followed, detailing the entrance into a secret Nazi base, were utterly amazing. The total weirdness of the story came out of nowhere like a sucker-punch in a bar.
Although his initial reaction should have been to blow it off as a crazy story, as complete fiction, he could not.
For one reason.
Tommy and Dex had found the strange slab, and with the mention of “inter-matter,” he had a very good idea what it might be, and its possible value.
But even without the artifact, there was something starkly convincing in Bruckner’s words. It was clear Bruckner didn’t care whether or not any reader would ever believe him. For Bruckner, belief was not the issue. The underground Nazi station was real; the artifacts and technology there were equally real.
He hadn’t realized he’d paused to let his imagination ramble. Tommy was looking at him with a puzzled look.
“What?” said Dex.
“You got more pages? I caught up with you.”
Dex looked at the sheets on the table. “Yeah, there’s more. What do you think so far?”
Tommy shrugged as he glanced over at Augie dozing on the couch from one glass of Red too far. “Man, I don’t know. It’s a good story, that’s for sure.”
“You up for finishing it tonight?”
Tommy looked at him and smiled. “You know that one about the Pope in the woods, don’t you?”
“I’ll take that as a yes,” said Dex as he picked up the next page.
Chapter Twenty
Before we could arrange a final trip back to the ruins, Bischoff received a reply to my message to Berlin.
After applying the proper keys and rotations of the Enigma, I read the following:
Fuhrer dead by suicide. Russians and Americans at gates of Berlin. Checkmate. Admiral Doenitz assuming control of the Reich. Stand down. Await further orders.
With our mission on the verge of being stillborn, I needed time to think what we should do next. Where to go now? Do what?
When I informed the crew, a sense of relief permeated the heavy atmosphere of the boat. I told them our mission had changed, and we would be underway once I had all the details and specific changes.
I called in Fassbaden. I told him everything I knew about the impending end to the war, the mission, and the catalogue of choices we faced.
We were interrupted by Bischoff who brought me the following uncoded message: