Lauren before he left on this insane escapade. He would miss her more than anything else.
Werner and his men neared the end of the alley. Werner eyed the pile of boxes, lit up by the Nazi’s torchlights. The SS men had their firearms at the pile.
A flash of brilliant white light surrounded the heap of boxes and a loud, mysterious crackling noise rang out.
The SS men stopped dead in their tracks. None of the men had ever witnessed so bizarre an incident. These trained men of steel, including Officer Werner, became apprehensive about what they had just seen.
“Check it out,” Werner cautiously said to his men.
Obeying directions from a superior, the five men, with weapons drawn, slowly pulled apart the pile of boxes. Nothing was found except for a few red ants scurrying about.
Everybody was speechless. The men knew they had seen their fugitive run down into this alley. There was no other place he could have hid or could have gone to. Wanting not to appear weak in front of his men, SS Officer Werner simply said, “Move it out.” His men complied.
The occurrence did haunt Werner, though. The once proud SS officer became a heavy drinker, and then a full-fledged alcoholic. He would die of liver failure in 1938 before the war broke out. His family never would understand why he became what he did, but to the five SS men with him on that night in that dark alley, there was little doubt as to what had caused Werner’s confidence to have been shaken and what had led to his inevitable decline.
CHAPTER THREE
Wayne materialized in the time machine in Dr. Hoffmann’s laboratory. Dr. Hoffmann was nowhere in sight. He got out of the contraption, stroked his ruffled hair, and exhaled deeply. He was relieved to be back home, and not a minute too soon.
“I’ve been planning this for years. Nothing can go wrong,” Wayne said imitating Dr. Hoffmann. “Yeah, right.”
The door to the lab was opened. In walked Dr. Lisa Hoffmann. Wayne noticied something was odd immediately.
Dr. Hoffmann’s glasses were gone. Her hair had a sharp blond tint to it compared to the brown it had always been previously and was cut quite short, much like a military haircut. She was also less frail than she had looked when Wayne had last seen her. Dr. Hoffmann was more muscular and athletic.
Wayne’s anger slipped away as he relaxed. He had planned on really letting Dr. Hoffmann know how angry he was with her for letting him stay in Nazi Germany for so long and for not telling him the real reason why she had sent him back, but he couldn’t muster the energy.
“Boy, am I glad to finally see you!” Wayne blurted out. “You kept me there almost long enough to get me killed. But I’m back, damn it! And I ain’t never leaving again.”
“I did it, Doc. I did it! Just like you planned it.”
“
“What did you say?” Wayne asked.
“Who are you?” Dr. Hoffmann wanted to know.
“Hey, how long was I gone? Why didn’t you bring me back the same night I left? Did you cut your hair? I think I liked it better longer. Anyway, I—”
Dr. Hoffmann stood firm. “You have three seconds to tell me who you are and what you are doing in my lab.”
“Let me tell you, Dr. Hoffmann, you have a weird sense of humor. It’s me, Wayne Goldberg, who do you think?” Dr. Hoffmann did not look amused at all.
“I can’t believe I actually did it,” Wayne continued. “I slipped the stuff into the drink, then he croaked, and then, these fuckin’ Nazi soldiers…”
Dr. Hoffmann walked out of the lab, closing and locking the door behind her.
Wayne was bewildered. “Doc, where are you going?” he yelled. He attempted to open the door, but couldn’t. Wayne looked at the clock on the wall. It read 9:35. Wayne sat down and tried to figure out what Dr. Hoffmann was up to. Is this how he would be thanked for risking his life for her?
Ten minutes later, Wayne was pacing back and forth. “I don’t know,” he thought out loud, “maybe she soaked up too much radiation and that made her go bonkers.” Wayne heard the sound of the lab door being unlocked. “It’s about time.” The door swung open.
“Did you finally come to your sen—”
Wayne’s jaw dropped ajar as two men entered the laboratory gripping machine guns and pointed the weapons directly at him. More startling to Wayne was the fact that the men were dressed exactly like the Nazis he had eluded previously that night, right down to their swastika armbands. Dr. Lisa Hoffmann was present with these men.
“A joke is a joke, Doctor,” Wayne said. “What’s going on?”
The two men dressed as Nazis took hold of Wayne, who resisted. One of the men he resisted struck Wayne in the face, connecting hard, causing his nose to bleed.
“You fuckin’ asshole!” Wayne cried out.
One of the men handcuffed Wayne’s hands behind his back, while the other blindfolded him.
Wayne was shocked at what was happening. “What is this? You hate Nazis,” he managed to scream out. “Remember the letter your father wrote you before the Nazis murdered him and your mother—”
Wayne was gagged with a cloth, and dragged out of the lab room by the two men. As Dr. Hoffmann watched this intruder being “escorted” out, worry lines creased her forehead.
The inside of Gestapo headquarters in New Berlin City looked much like a typical police station would, with its generic bland desks in neat rows. A Gestapo man sat at each desk, some talking on the telephone and others doing paperwork.
Seated on a chair, in front of one of the desks, a young lady wept. On the desk sat a loaf of bread.
“Please forgive me, but I was starving.” the young lady said with tears streaming down her cheeks. “I have not eaten in a week.”
A Gestapo man sat stoically behind the desk. “The Party makes sure everybody gets enough to eat. Stealing is a severe criminal act.”
“Yes, but I spent my food allowance on my child. He has a high fever and needed additional medicine. The doctor—”
The Gestapo man was not impressed. “Every German citizen is aware of the penalty for theft. The Reich cannot have a society of animals running around stealing. You shall receive the proper punishment,” he said emotionless.
The Gestapo man stood up. He surveyed the young lady’s right hand. It was days like this that he realized just how much he loved his occupation and how he would not change it for anything in the world.
“No! No! Please!” the young lady frantically cried.
Wayne was brought into the building and roughly escorted between the rows of desks towards the back of the room.
Wayne sensed that something had gone terribly wrong. Wayne thought that somehow he must have changed the course of history.
The Gestapo Nazis who had brought him in threw Wayne onto a small, wooden chair.
SS Captain Von Helldorf strode over. The Gestapo man saluted him.
Wayne’s blindfold was removed, as was the gag from his mouth. His hands, however, were left handcuffed. The handcuffs had been locked tightly around his wrists, and Wayne wished that they had been removed before the blindfold or gag.
“
Wayne remained silent. Von Helldorf saw fit to slap him hard.
