That seemed to make sense of some of what they’d heard.
Last night they’d stopped off for food. As Liam enjoyed a plate of grits and bacon andBob joylessly slurped a dubious-looking mixture of porridge and scrambled egg, they’dlistened in on the quiet talk among the diner’s regulars: truck drivers and localworkers stopping off on the way home. There were cautious words being exchanged about someresistance leader down in Washington state ‘givin’ them Naziscum a goddamn hiding’.
One of the men perched on a stool, wearing a grubby old Yankees baseball cap and threadbaredungarees, piped up. ‘I hear’d say them fighters is led by the ghost of none otherthan George Washington! Ain’t no harm them Germans can do tohim… seeing as how he’s a ghost an’ all. Bullets go right onthrough.’
‘Ain’t no ghost, Jeb. Shee’oot, that’sthe dumbest thing I hear’d in a long time,’ said another. ‘What Ihear’d is he goes by the name of Captain Fantastic, orsomesuch. Folks are sayin’ he’s some sorta… military superhero. Reckon maybehe’s like some secret super weapon the guv’mint was holdin’ backon.’
‘Either ways,’ said a third, ‘them Jerries is gettin’ kinda nervous’bout him, ain’t they?’
Murmurs of agreement.
Talk moved on to Kramer’s recent grand announcement that mankind’s history was tobe completely wiped clean; all of history’s past hatreds, religious intolerances, racialbigotry was to be put behind them… and erased. And that,more than anything else, seemed to be an issue that enraged the men gathered around thecounter.
‘They ain’t gonna get away with it!’ snapped one of them. ‘We foughtthem British for this here country of ours. Then we fought us a civil war too! Theycain’t take that kinda history off of us… an’… an’… burn it!’
‘I’m hidin’ my books an’ stuff; my encyclopedias what I bought my kids for school. I’m hidin’ that stuff in my attic incase them Krauties come house-searchin’. Sure as heck ain’t burnin’ it like they told us we got to.’
‘Ain’t right,’ agreed the waitress behind the counter. ‘Justain’t right.’
Now up ahead at the museum, it seemed Kramer’s dictum was already being put intoaction. As Bob passed over the intersection, swung the vehicle right and parked on the kerb infront of the museum, Liam got a closer look at what was going on.
‘Oh boy,’ he uttered.
On the forecourt in front of the steps leading up to the museum’s grand entrance, hecould see what appeared to be a large pile of bric-a-brac, a rubbish tip of twistedwooden things, books and papers, frames and furniture, the tangled limbs of stuffed animals ofall sizes. He watched in growing horror as half a dozen museum workers carried out an Egyptiansarcophagus. Faded flakes of blue and gold paint and shards of ancient dry wood crumbled awaybeneath the fragile object, leaving a trail of debris down the steps.
And then, under the watchful eye of several soldiers standing guard, they casually tossed iton to the pile, where it split and shattered, revealing the brittle, shrivelled carcass of amummified pharaoh, snapping into several pieces as it tumbled stiffly down one side of thelarge pile.
A dozen yards away several drums of fuel were lined up and a soldier stood beside themwaiting for the order to douse the exhibits and set them on fire.
‘My God… they’re going to burn it all,’ he whispered.
‘It is logical,’ replied Bob. ‘Kramer wishes not to be located by anyfuture agency operatives. No history will mean no reference points.’
‘I hope to God they haven’t made a start on the things storeddown in the basement.’ Liam cast a sideways glance at Bob. ‘How long have we gotleft before your brain explodes?’
Bob’s cool eyes narrowed. ‘Two hours and fifty-three minutes. We have little timeto waste.’
Liam realized he was trembling from head to foot, and cursed the fact that he looked soyoung. Perhaps the SS uniform he was wearing would be intimidating enough to ensure none ofthe workers nor any soldiers they might encounter would dare to look too closely at him, dareto question why someone so young should have an officer’s rank.
‘We must proceed,’ rumbled Bob.
‘You’re right.’ He puffed out nervous breath. ‘Bob, you go tell thosesoldiers we have come directly on Kramer’s orders to supervise the job.’
‘Yes.’
‘And tell them we will be inspecting the basement area.’
‘Yes.’
Bob climbed out of the automobile with Liam following in his wake.
Oh boy… this better work.
CHAPTER 74
2001, New York
They almost didn’t find the museum. It was just another dusty grey shell of abuilding amid a landscape of them: jagged walls of crumbling masonry and cracked marble.
‘That’s it? Are you sure?’
Foster nodded. ‘As best I can tell… that’s what was once the museum.’He looked up at the sun, faint and sick, hiding behind scudding clouds. It was high in thesky. ‘We’ve only got an afternoon of daylight left. Come on.’
As the three of them made their way up the rubble-covered steps and into the museum’smain entrance, Sal spotted a pale face observing them from behind the rusting hulk of a caracross the street.
‘Look!’ she gasped. ‘They’ve been following us!’
‘I never doubted that,’ said Foster.
‘But they’re getting braver,’ added Maddy. ‘Fire off a shot to scarethem away.’
Foster racked the shotgun and aimed it at the sky. But then he stopped.
‘Actually, no. Probably best I conserve the ammo for when we really need it.’
The girls looked uncomfortably at each other.
‘Come on, let’s get this done,’ he said, leading the way over the rubble and stepping into the gloomy, cavernous interior of themuseum.
Maddy snapped on her torch, Foster another. Their twin beams picked form out of the darkness.Twisted beams of metal, dust-covered masonry, the scorched and charred remains of a grandwoodwork staircase across the way.
‘Where’s the big dinosaur skeleton?’ asked Sal.
‘The museum must have been emptied before their nuclear war.’
‘I suppose it makes sense,’ said Maddy, her soft voice echoing around the insideof the entrance hall. ‘If back in ’57 people knew a nuclear exchange was on thehorizon, they’d have moved all the valuables to special nuclear bunkers and stuff,right? Do you think they’d have taken everything? Those guest books too?’
‘We’ll have to see. Where did that guard say they stored them?’
‘I think he said they stored them down in the museum’s basement. Some sort of anarchive down there.’
Foster panned his torch across the floor. There were doorways leading to other wings of themuseum, but he knew where the basement doors were; he’d visited this place often enoughover the years when not busy saving history.
‘Follow me. Up ahead on the right there’s a double door that leads down to thebasement.’
Maddy followed him as he stepped lightly across the dusty marble floor. Sal cast one lastglance over her shoulder at the outline of the front doorway, expecting to see the hunchedsilhouette of one of the creatures curiously peeking in.
She turned back to see Maddy and Foster a dozen yards ahead. ‘Hey, wait for me,’she whispered.
Foster’s torchlight picked out a faded sign on double doors: TOSTORAGE BASEMENT: STAFF ACCESS ONLY. He pushed against them, andwith the gritty sound of rubble and debris being pushed across the floor on the far side, theystiffly yielded.
He poked his head and torch through the gap. There was a stairwell beyond. He pushed againstthe doors until they were open enough to squeeze through and stepped inside. His torch pickedout smooth concrete walls and steps leading down.
‘Come on,’ he said.
Maddy reached out for Sal’s hand and could feel it trembling uncontrollably.‘Hey, it’s OK, Sal. Just down here, we’ll get what we’re after and beback home again,’ she whispered.