“What about theHindenburg?”Gunny asked. “How big a change could that make?”
Patrick had to sit down. It was like the weight of what he was about to say was making it hard for him to stay on his feet.
“Saint Dane hit the jackpot,” he said. “He found a single event in history that if changed, would turn the future inside out. If he succeeds, he’ll push all three territories into chaos.”
That was exactly what I didn’t want to hear. “How can one change do so much?” I asked.
“That’s what I’ve got to show you,” Patrick answered. He hit the white button on his chair and called out, “Computer. HindenburgVariation. Item number one.”
Instantly the image of Max Rose appeared before us.
“It’s all about this guy Maximilian Rose,” Patrick began. “He started doing business with the Nazis in 1935.”
“We know that,” I said. “He said he was shipping them tools and scrap metal.”
“That’s not all he was shipping them,” Patrick said. “Computer. Item number two.”
Appearing before us was a group of men. None of them looked familiar. They were all white guys with short haircuts and wearing suits. They looked like a bunch of dorks.
“Who are they?” Gunny asked.
“Spies,” Patrick answered quickly.
“Spies?” I asked. “You mean like James Bond?”
“Industrial spies,” said Patrick. “The kind of guys who sell secrets about companies and manufacturing plans and designs. These are all Americans who worked for Max Rose. Some of them did it for the money, others were forced into it by Rose’s thugs. Every one of them had valuable secrets the Nazis would have loved to get hold of.”
“And Max Rose was selling them these secrets?” Gunny asked.
“Yes. That is, until May sixth, 1937. Computer. Item three.”
The gang of spies disappeared and was replaced by an image of a wrecked car. Whatever had happened to this vehicle, it was ugly, because it was a step above scrap metal. I guarantee, nobody could walk away from a wreck like that.
“May sixth, six fiftyp.m.,”Patrick explained. “Intersection of Toms River Road and Route five-twenty-seven… Max Rose is killed in a collision with a state trooper. But that alone wouldn’t have stopped his spy business. He had lieutenants who would have picked up right where he left off. Except for one thing: Item four.”
The car wreck disappeared and we then saw the familiar image of theHindenburgon fire.
“When theHindenburgwent down,” Patrick explained, “a huge payment from the Nazis to Max Rose went down with it. Records show there was a shipment on board with four million American dollars, bonds, jewels, and artwork. All gone in thirty-seven seconds.”
“Bad for Rose,” Gunny said.
“Worse than bad. Losing that money destroyed Rose’s organization,” Patrick said. “Payments couldn’t be made. Ties were severed. Some of the spies sank back into deep cover, never to be heard from again. Others got arrested. Bottom line is the crash of theHindenburgput Rose’s spies out of business.”
“Okay,” I said. “Now we know what happened. What did your computer figure out would happen if theHindenburgdidn’t crash?”
Patrick hesitated, then stood up and paced.
“I input one single change,” he finally said. “I input the variable that theHindenburgarrived safely.” Patrick took a deep breath, then continued. “It took the computer twenty minutes to calculate all the changes. Pendragon, that’s like saying a computer from Second Earth took a lifetime to calculate pi. That’s how extensive the changes were. Every resource, every data bank, every bit of memory was called into play. It knocked everybody else in the library offline. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“So? Show us,” I said.
Patrick sat back down in his chair. He hit the button and said weakly, “Item five.”
A man appeared. A lone man with salt-and-pepper-colored hair. He was short, with wire-rimmed glasses and a gray suit. He didn’t look familiar at all.
“This is Dani Schmidt,” Patrick said nervously, “a physicist working for the Nazis. He never played a big part in history, because he was a failure. The project he devoted the final years of his life to was never finished. He was executed by the Nazis in 1944. His only crime was failure. But that was under the old scenario. If theHindenburghad survived, his life would have taken a different turn. Item six.”
The image of Dani Schmidt disappeared, and was replaced by a large, gray piece of equipment that looked like a fat torpedo.
“When theHindenburgarrived safely, the payment was made to keep Max Rose’s spy operation in business. More information was stolen from the U.S. and fed to the Nazis. They in turn gave it to Dani Schmidt. It was scientific data they never would have gotten if theHindenburghad crashed.”
“So what is that thing?” I asked, pointing to the gray torpedo.
“That was the project Dani Schmidt was working on,” Patrick said. “With the scientific information stolen from the United States, he was able to put the final pieces of his project together.” Patrick then took a deep breath. “Item seven.”
The image of the torpedo was replaced by an image that looked very familiar. It was a bird’s-eye view of Washington, D.C. I could see the Capitol, the Washington Monument, and the Lincoln Memorial.
“May twenty-fourth, 1944,” Patrick said with a shaky voice. “The Germans were on the run. The Allies would invade Europe in two weeks. The war would only last another year or so. But on that date, Dani Schmidt’s project was brought into play.”
We then saw an image that made my knees buckle. There before us, looking as real as if we were watching it from an airplane, we saw Washington, D.C. hit by an atomic bomb. The city was vaporized. The familiar, horrific mushroom cloud rose up over the shattered capital like an evil tombstone.
“That was at ten o’clock in the morning,” Patrick said. “There was more to come. Item eight.”
The rubble of Washington, D.C. was replaced by a view of Manhattan Island.
Gunny breathed out, “Oh, no.”
Boom. New York got slammed too.
“That bomb landed north of Manhattan at ten fifteen. Item nine.”
The mushroom cloud over New York was replaced by an aerial view of London. Boom. London was history.
“Ten twenty-five. The Nazis sent out long-range bombers with the world’s first atomic bombs.”
“Shut it off!” I yelled.
“Clear,” Patrick said softly, and the destruction of London was gone.
“How can this machine know that?” I demanded. “It’s just a guess.”
“It’s not,” Patrick said. “This was always the Nazis’ plan. But they never developed a working bomb, so it was never carried out. With the help of the information stolen from the United States by Max Rose’s spy network, Dani Schmidt was able to complete his work. There’s very little guesswork here. If theHindenburgarrives safely, Germany will be the first to develop an atomic bomb. And they will use it.”
“What will happen from there?” Gunny said softly. He looked like he was in shock. “I don’t want to see it, just tell me.”
“Most of the northeast United States will be devastated by the two blasts. They’ll have to deal with radiation for years. Pendragon, your home of Stony Brook, Connecticut, will no longer exist. Earthquakes set off by the blast in New York will see to that.”
Now I had to sit down. I wasn’t nervous anymore. I was sick.
“Bottom line is, the Germans will win the war,” Patrick said. “Adolf Hitler’s evil vision will spread throughout the world, just as he planned. As you can imagine, from that point on, the world will take a much different course. Let me show you one last thing. Item fifty-six.”
On the platform we saw another overhead view. This was of New York City. The only reason I knew it was New York was because I saw a chunk of building that looked like the Empire State Building. But it wasn’t a tall, majestic building anymore. It was only the top few floors. The building must have tumbled when the bomb fell and now only the top few floors were left. We saw several more views of the destroyed city. There were people waiting
