Fitzhenry bent forward, and Bantam could see the prayer in his eyes that he might reveal some secret, some truth that would make all the difference.
Bantam bowed his head. «We're so far off the rail from my timeline that my orders don't matter anymore. But anything I know still won’t help you, I'm afraid. Germany never invaded America in my timeline.
«But to answer your question. We won by hitting them on the beaches of Normandy. We surprised them. That was how we won. But that won’t work here in this world, unfortunately.»
«You were able to contain them in Europe?»
«Yes.»
«And you are sure you are not concealing information? There is naught that you refuse to tell me?»
«No,” Bantam said. «You have my word. My original orders were not to reveal any details of the future to anyone in 1944. But this isn’t the same 1944, now is it? My orders no longer apply. If there was something I could tell you that would help you win the war here, I would.»
«Very well,” Fitzhenry said. «You’re no rampsman: your word it true.»
BUT THE WAR arrived on their own doorstep even sooner than Fitzhenry had guessed. One grim morning, Rachelle and Bantam awakened to billowing smoke on the horizon. It was then that they knew: Hitler was merely a few days away from MacLaren.
Rachelle’s eyes filled with tears. «It feels like the end of all things, doesn’t it?» she said. «It’s more than just the horrible thing happening now. It’s more than that. It’s that all hope has been drained out of the world. Yes that’s it, exactly. It’s the end of hope.»
Bantam kissed her forehead. «We’ve been lucky to have the time we did. Many people don’t even get that. Don’t cry because it’s over; smile because it happened.»
«Oh, that’s beautiful. Let me guess: you’re quoting a great philosopher from your world.»
«Yes. His name was Doctor Seuss.»
«I should have liked to have met him,” Rachelle said.
Bantam smiled. «In this world, he won’t ever exist. Because of that,” Bantam nodded at the horizon, «he never can be.»
«You don’t know that,” Rachelle said. «You can’t know that.»
Bantam’s eyes touched the ground. «But I do. His real name is Geisel. They’ll think he’s Jewish. They’ll find him. And they’ll kill him.»
Something snapped inside Rachelle that morning. Bantam could feel it.
She had suddenly became very quiet and withdrawn. She went to see Volzstrang, and then Fitzhenry — alone. In fact, she’d insisted that Bantam not come along.
He’d respected her wishes. And they would all likely be dead in the next few days or even hours; everyone was going to have a very different and private way of dealing with that.
Yet something still gnawed at Bantam. He felt he was missing something important.
The guns on the horizon resumed, crowding his thoughts. The Nazi Clanker lines were gearing up for their final assault on MacLaren. The base itself was abuzz with defensive activity; men shoring up the walls, creating sandbagged gun nests, and preparing dirigibles for air and medical support.
To his surprise, Fitzhenry came to find him.
«Shouldn’t you be commanding the battle?» Bantam asked.
«I am,” Fitzhenry replied. «Oh, the physical battle will rage on without me. But that is of no import. Instead, I have one last gambit to play — something that Doctor Volzstrang believes has a real chance of turning the war to our favor. But as with all such gambits, there is a horrible, terrible price to pay. Come with me.»
Bantam’s stomach turned to jello. This frightened him horribly, sent ice rattling deep down to the core of his soul. What on earth could be this be about?
Horrible … terrible … horrible … terrible …
He was marched into the room where Volzstrang housed his time capsule.
To his horror, he saw Rachelle had locked herself inside.
She caught his eye through the window as soon as he entered. For a long moment, she held his gaze — then her eyes bent back down to whatever it was she was doing.
«What’s going on?» Bantam yelled at Volzstrang. «You have no right! That’s my capsule!»
«She is going to stop the Timewave,” Volzstrang explained calmly. «She will use the capsule to shatter it, right here and now. She will stop it propagating back through time. It will never cause the Day of the Red Sun. This should — “
«No!» Bantam howled. «No! Her parents met because of the Day! She’s going to wipe herself out of of history! She won’t ever have existed!»
Horrible, terrible price …
«But then our world will turn back into your world — the one where the Nazis were defeated. This is our hope.»
«That’s easy for you to say! You exist in both timelines! She doesn’t!»
Jesus, no … please please please no …
BOOM! The battle had begun outside. Already, ordinance was exploding nearby.
«You’re not going to do it. I won’t let you.» Bantam surged forward, lunging at the door of the capsule. But to his shock, it had been welded shut. Tears streaking down his face, he banged on the window. «Rachelle! Rachelle! Stop this!»
She looked up — and smiled, which cracked his heart. «My love,” Rachelle said. «This is the only way. Only someone versed in the Volzstrang Equations can properly operate the controls of your wonderous capsule to ensure that the Timewave is completely shattered. No trace of it may remain or our task will fail. Oh, before you protest: yes, Doctor Volzstrang attempted to create a ‘ton capable of doing this, but the task was too complex, it requires the delicacy of human hands and mind and now … now, we have simply run out of time.
«To repel a darkness this deep, there is naught but blood and toil and hard choices. But rejoice, for it was you who brought to us the means of our salvation.»
Rejoice? How could there be anything to rejoice about?
«Did I say only this morning that hope was no more? That was not so. It was you who brought us hope. It was you who gave us the means change our past and this remake the future. In this way, we can still win the unwinnable war.»
«By hell,” Bantam snarled, banging like a wild animal on the door, trying to kick it open. «By hell!»
Rachelle laughed gently. «I knew you would react this way. That is why I insisted the door be fused shut.»
The capsule was humming audibly now. The crackling tachyon energy he knew all too well was beginning to form around the exterior. It tickled and danced around the metal frame.
BOOM-BOOM! A pair of missiles. This explosion caused the nearby wall to lurch and blast cinder-soot into the room. They could hear men shouting orders outside, along with the sounds of return fire.
«Get her out of there!» Bantam insisted. He ran to Fitzhenry and shook him. «Do it, damn you! Get her out! Where’s the blowtorch?»
Fitzhenry did not reply.
«She wanted you to have this,” Volzstrang said, ignoring Bantam’s rage and handing him a wooden box with gold leaf edging. It looked like a flattened music box.
«It is not to be opened it until the day you depart for the past is again today.»
«What is it?»
Volzstrang shrugged. «The lady did not say.»
«You helped her plan this,” Bantam panted. «You premeditated this. Or how else did you have time to make this box? I’ll never forgive you.»
Volzstrang nodded. «I did. I confess. But which would you choose? A thousand years of the Nazi Reich? Or Rachelle? She knew this. And she knew you could never make that choice. Remember that when you return.»
Return? Return to where? He wasn’t in the capsule: Rachelle was.
With a jolt of panic, he realized she wasn't even wearing a spacesuit.
And then the Volzstrang Timewave was here with them. It seared and singed and struck and sizzled, making a great Faraday cage of entire room. Bantam could even feel it sparking around inside his own mouth …
Just then, BOOM! A wall came toppling down, crushing Fitzhenry in a wave of bricks. A Nazi Clanker stepped through the rubble, naphtha lamps sweeping across the room, looking for soldiers to kill.