“I think I’m going to be sick.”
Dr. Hoffmann rubbed an ointment on Wayne’s back.
“That feels good,” Wayne said. “By the way, who was the pudgy guy in the painting?”
Dr. Hoffmann replied, “Karl Goring, the Fuhrer. He is the son of Hermann Goring.”
“I can see the resemblance,” Wayne said. “What was with that pledge? Do you believe all that garbage you were saying?
“Please, Wayne, be careful with what you say. You never know who might be listening,” Dr. Hoffmann warned. She started to place bandages on the welts on Wayne’s back. In a soft tone, she said, “I have always thought, ever since I first learned the National Pledge in grade school, that it was an inadequate one. It is a vow of loyalty to a person, the Fuhrer, when it would be more logical to pledge allegiance to our country, Germany. But I am required, as are all Germans, to state the Pledge once per evening before bedtime.”
“Well, I saw the way the kids said it,” Wayne observed, “from their hearts. They sure brainwash them young.”
Dr. Hoffmann finished the bandaging.
“Thank you,” Wayne said appreciatively. “Now, I’ve been thinking about what we can do. On January 30th, 1933, at precisely 8:35 p.m., Hitler drank a cup of champagne that I laced with something to stop his heart. Now, you send me back to that night at exactly 8:35 p.m., and I’ll use modern techniques to start his heart again so that he lives. That way, with Hitler in charge of the German armies, there will be a World War Two, but the Krauts will definitely be the losers”
“There is a problem with that,” Dr. Hoffmann said.
“What?” Wayne exclaimed. He stood up, and felt like pacing, as was his habit when he had nervous energy to burn, but the room was too small to do any of that. “It’ll work. It’s the only chance we’ve got.”
Dr. Hoffmann sat down on the bed. “I cannot run my time machine without Gadolinium crystals to power it and I haven’t any. The time machine hasn’t even been tested yet.”
“If it’s not working, how then did I arrive back in 1995?” Wayne wanted to know.
“You were sent only temporarily back to another point in time,” Dr. Hoffmann explained. “Even without a time machine, the matter that comprises your body would have been pulled back to its original starting point eventually. It simply did not belong in another time frame. A time machine would have only sped the process up. I, Dr. Hoffmann, American with a working time machine, became Dr. Hoffmann, German without a working time machine, the moment Adolf Hitler died. That is why your arrival back to 1995 was delayed. With no existing time machine to speed up the process, your organic matter was naturally brought back to its original place in time.”
Wayne did not really understand what Dr. Hoffmann was talking about. He was only interested in undoing what he had done. “Where can we get a hold of those Gadolinium crystals?”
“There is only one location where the crystals are produced,” Dr. Hoffmann answered. “At the military base called Oberkoblenz. The crystals, being very radioactive, are a component of German bombs. It would be impossible for you to get inside that base, though. Only select personnel work there.”
“Could you get in there?” Wayne asked.
Dr. Hoffmann shook her head no. “I, unfortunately, would not be able to get clearance for Oberklobenz.” Then she made a rather strange remark. “In a short while, we might all be doomed anyway.”
Wayne’s ears perked up at what he had just heard. “What do you mean by that?”
“Since the Great War, Germany has managed to threaten and coerce Japan into giving up most of its territories outside of Asia, with the exception of one very important piece of land that the Japanese still have under their control. Germany desperately wants to get a hold of this territory.”
“And that is?”
“The South American rainforest, and all of its lumber, oil, and other natural resources they can rape it of.”
Wayne sighed, “You have to be kidding.”
Dr. Hoffmann continued, “Some of my colleagues in high places have informed me that the powers that be in the Reich Ministry of War are planning to carry out their threat to bomb the Japanese capital of Tokyo. If they do that, the Japanese have said they will retaliate with what they call the T bomb.”
“The T Bomb?”
“T stands for Total Destruction,” she said. “A bomb so powerful that it could set off an atomic chain reaction and destroy all life on Earth.”
“They wouldn’t!”
“Yes, the Japanese would,” Dr. Hoffman said. “In 1975, when Germany tried to take control of the Japanese ruled Hawaiian Islands, the Japanese government used biological warfare to destroy all life on them and make them uninhabitable. They very much still have the Kamikaze attitude.”
“That’s insane,” Wayne said. Then he asked, “Where is Oberkoblenz Military Base?”
“A few kilometers away from Lindenwold,” she said.
Wayne did not know where she was talking about. “Where’s Lindenwold? Tell me where in relation to what American city.”
Dr. Hoffmann thought for a moment, and then replied, “It would have been called, I believe, Syracuse, before the war.”
Wayne knew where Syracuse was, in what had been upstate New York. He had a friend who had attended university there.
“Couldn’t you get me in? Don’t you have connections? Or passes? Or something?” Wayne said desperately. “We have to get a hold of those crystals.”
“Let’s talk about this tomorrow,” she said. “It is too risky a discussion to chance any of the family hearing it. The children are both loyal members of the Hitler
“But, Doc-“
“Tomorrow, you will come to work with me. You cannot be left here alone. I am sorry that I called the authorities on you, but I did so out of fear. Good night.” She turned to leave.
“Doctor Hoffmann, I will get a hold of those crystals at any cost,” Wayne promised her. “I will not live the rest of my life with this on my conscience.”
Dr. Hoffmann exited the room.
Wayne turned off the lamp and laid face down on the bed. He was completely exhausted, and his back still hurting. Every time he attempted to close his eyelids to fall asleep, a thousand images flashed before his eyes — what he had gone through in the past 24 hours, getting his hands on those crystals to power the time machine, and, of course, Lauren. Finally, with difficulty, he drifted into a deep sleep.
Wayne had slept a little under 3 hours when he jumped awake at the sound of his room door being kicked open and the sight of SS Captain Von Helldorf and two armed Gestapo Nazis with machine guns pointed directly at him. Dr. Hoffmann was with them.
“So we meet again, my friend,” Von Helldorf said in his wicked tone.
Dr. Hoffmann, wearing a troubled look on her face, blurted out, “Wayne, I had nothing to do with this, I swear to…”
“Shut her up,” Von Helldorf ordered one of his men.
The Gestapo Nazi slapped the professor hard across her face with the back of his hand.
Wayne moved towards Von Helldorf, “You fucking bastard.”
The same Nazi who had slapped Dr. Hoffmann hit Wayne hard in the stomach with the butt of his weapon. Wayne doubled over in pain.
“I checked with the Reich Institute for Scientific Experiments,” the SS Captain informed Dr. Hoffmann. “They are not familiar with your experiment. I do not like being lied to, Doctor. I have checked your records. You have served the Reich well for the past twenty-five years with your research. Why you should do anything foolish now is a mystery to me.” Von Helldorf held up the official papers that Dr. Hoffmann had given him. He directed his attention at a frightened Wayne, “These papers indicate you are a Heinrich Grubermann, identification number 87- 46932, your German bloodline documented back to 1832. There is only one problem with that, my friend. The Reich Central Security Office has no records of a Heinrich Grubermann, identification number 87-46932. Can it be that you are a Jew?” He focused his cold, steely eyes on Dr. Hoffmann and said to her, “Surely you know the penalty for aiding a Jew in any way is death.” He commanded his men, “Take him away.”
