Slowly, my crew assembled themselves, and trans-shipped to Sturm. I felt a great relief — my premonition of losing the crew would not come true. When there were only four men remaining aboard — Manny, Massenburg, and Hauser, the young cook, I told them what I had been thinking. I confessed to a terrible realization that my life no longer had a purpose. The Germany I had served, albeit reluctantly, had ceased to exist.
And I am struck by a deeper truth — I have no desire to ever return there, to ever see it again.
To the three men still with me, I brought up the possibility of the earlier alternate plan we’d discussed. I told them this was the time to decide whether or not to act upon it.
Before they could reply, I told them I would not be going back on Sturm.
Manny and Hausser understood, but Massenburg had two questions. One, was I planning to go down with my ship? And two, if not, then what?
After explaining my intentions, Chief Massenburg thanked me profusely, but declined to join us. He believed he was too old and too much a German to attempt a fresh start in a country so different. I told he him he had been my best non-com, and I would miss him. He saluted me, swore himself to secrecy, and departed for the cruiser.
Leaving the three of us. None with any family remaining in Germany. None with any good real reason to return to a place where a terrible Russo-European punishment would be the rule of the day.
These issues decided, I informed Captain Kaltenbach I would attempt to nurse U-5001 back to Trondheim. The cruiser sailed east, leaving me, Manny, and Hausser in its wake.
Since the war was at an end, I decided to keep my boat on the surface as we departed the rendezvous point and headed for the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay.
I have further decided to not surrender my boat to the Americans. Better they never know how close we came to destroying their greatest city.
My last entry.
After running more than 14 hours, as dawn fills the sky, Manny estimates we have pushed our way north into the Bay as far as we dare. The water here is deep enough to claim our boat.
We will now prepare to scuttle, and take our chances.
Chapter Twenty-One
“That’s it,” said Tommy, his voice just above a whisper. “Oh, man…”
“They scuttled and deserted.” Dex admired this guy, Bruckner. He had brass ones.
“So what’s this all mean?” Tommy sipped on a Natty Boh.
“More than I want to think about. At least for tonight.” Dex wasn’t sure he should alarm Tommy with his suspicions at this point. His imagination still sparked with images of the underground Nazi base, the shipwreck that had fallen through the pack-ice — the light tower.
And the coolest part was Bruckner, himself. He’d recorded his story in a simple, dispassionate but very readable style. A reporter on the scene, no more or less. It could have been the basic translation, but Dex doubted it. He wasn’t even sure Bruckner cared if anyone ever read his log.
Either the log had been left intentionally in the captain’s quarters, or last-minute events kept Bruckner from retrieving it. Whatever the case, his story stood on its own. Although that wouldn’t stop Dex from checking ship registries for the names Nebuchadenezzar and Sturm. Probably a waste of time — those boats were real, he was certain. But seeing them in print somewhere would apply the epoxy of total truth to the whole story.
But there was one problem — a huge problem — he would need to verify before alerting anyone to a possible danger. He wasn’t even sure he should tell the rest of the guys yet. Tommy had read the same thing as Dex and hadn’t noticed it. So, it might be nothing.
Or, it might be everything.
“Hey, Dex… Earth to Dex.” Tommy tapped him on the shoulder. “Whatsamatter with you?”
“Oh, sorry. I was just thinking about something.”
“What?”
“When we go back down to the wreck tomorrow, it might be the last time we can do it.” Dex moused in a few commands, closing the translation website as he spoke. Then he saved the text of the log to a flash drive and encrypted it with a password. Then he clipped it to his keyring. He thought about putting it in the strong box, but the lock was broken, and anyone finding the originals wouldn’t need his translation for long. But he knew he didn’t want anything on his laptop drive, so the last thing he did was run his security program that flushed out and cyber-shredded anything he’d been doing connected with the 5001. Call him paranoid, but now that the good old “authorities” knew the sub was down there, he was going to keep things as tight as possible.
“Last time,” said Tommy. “Yeah, you said that before. Hey, you want a brewski?”
“No thanks, I’m going to hit the road. Like I was saying, tomorrow might be the last dive on that boat. I want to get out early, and I want to be the first team down. You okay with that?”
Tommy looked a little surprised. “You want me?”
Dex wanted him for two reasons: one, because of his training, he was a good guy to have around in a dangerous situation; and two, none of the other guys wanted much to do with him.
Of course, he wasn’t going to tell him that second reason…
“Yeah, things might get a little dicey down there, and you’re the guy I need in a pinch.”
Tommy smiled, chucked him on the shoulder. “Cool.”
Dex started to pack up his computer and the rest of the stuff. He was about to slip the brick of inter-matter, the translated text, and the log into his backpack, then stopped himself.
“Tommy, you think Augie would mind if we stashed this stuff with him for a little while?”
Looking over at the old guy dozing on the couch, Tommy smiled. “You kidding? Aug’s the best. He’d be glad to keep an eye on it.”
“Good,” said Dex, as he replaced the log and printed-out pages in Bruckner’s strongbox. Stuffing the box into the backpack, he paused as he picked up the strange brick. Now that he had an idea what it might be, decided it would probably be a better idea to never let the object out of reach. He handed the laptop and the backpack to Tommy. “You clear it with him, okay?”
“No prob. But how come?”
Dex shrugged. “I don’t know. I just have a feeling it’ll be safer here. At least for now. Call it a hunch, you know?”
“Sure, I got ya,” said Tommy.
Looking at his watch, Dex headed for the door. “Tell Augie thanks when you wake him up. I’ll see you at the dock. Regular time.”
“You got it. I’ll be there.” Tommy noticed he still carried the metallic slab. “Hey, I thought you said you were leaving everything here.”
“Everything but this.” Dex shook hands with him, thanked him, and slipped out the door into the festive lights of Little Italy.
As he walked to his car, he wondered if he was being a jerk with all the precautions, and he waved that off. He’d stayed alive doing dangerous things throughout a long Navy hitch because he listened to his instincts on more than one occasion.
And his internal Early Warning System was beeping right now. No way was he going to ignore it.
Part Two
Chapter Twenty-Two