Karl Ernst could see Elaine’s happiness; yet felt her tenseness brewing as well. Probably Fesel. He thought. Yet Karl Ernst noticed except for the greeting, Ewa Mann had not said a word. Why was she here with Fesel? What was going on in her mind?
What did she think of Elaine?
“And that’s not all the good news, my dear Karl Ernst. I have here your new personal assistant for your next project, which we will not bore Elaine with right now. I can say with certainty you will be going into areas you are sure to enjoy with your next project and with our lovely Ewa.” Fesel said almost pushing Ewa in front of Karl Ernst.
Fesel went on with more descriptions of Karl Ernst’s new assignment filled with sexual innuendoes, even those of an unsophisticated sort anyone could perceive. Not only did he almost describe the new assignment as if it were a sex act, but included numerous references to how Ewa Mann would be working ‘very close’ to Karl Ernst. All in the room could see how this was affecting Elaine, who was biting her lip to keep her emotions under control.
“Thank-you, Heinrich.” Karl Ernst interrupted Fesel. “Thank-you for informing us of the wonderful news of the Reich’s victory and my new work, but we have to be going.”
“But, let us go out and celebrate!” Fesel countered, hoping to have more time to drive the wedge deeper between Karl Ernst and Elaine.
“Thank-you, but we already have invitation we need to keep.” The tone of finality in Karl Ernst’s voice told everyone in the room the visit was ending. Even Fesel took the cue and prepared to leave, but wanted to get one more stab in.
“Elaine, lovely Elaine! Always a pleasure to see you!”
“Thank-you, Herr Doctor.” Elaine responded respectfully.
“And you must come visit all of us…” Fesel eyed Ewa, “…at our house of mysteries to see all that your husband is doing for the glory of the Reich.”
“That I may, thank-you. Good night.”
Fesel made a grab at getting a definite date. “Then how about this Tuesday? We all will be having a special lunch for everyone at 12:30. Please join us. You can meet the entire staff and have a tour afterwards. I will conduct it personally.”
Even though Elaine did not want to have anything to do with Fesel, the allure of being about to see the inside of the famous and secretive Dark Fire Project overruled her feelings toward him.
“Certainly, Herr Doctor, I’d be happy to come.” Elaine said smiling and focusing the word ‘happy’ while glancing at Ewa.
Lord Everton put three fingers from his left hand to his temples and began to rub while raising his right hand as if to call for silence.
“We have forgotten to toast his son!”
A look of horror overcame Lady Hightower. “Oh my! Please do forgive us, Admiral.”
The Admiral, who was already standing to prepare to leave, sat back down.
“Well, once again, I think my husband has a better grasp on that situation, don’t you dear?”
“I think the Admiral should know that when putting cheese in the mousetrap, you should always leave room for the mouse.” Lord Everton said while preparing another bowl for his pipe.
“My husband seems to believe that a deception…” Lady Hightower paused to wait for Lord Everton to give an approving bow that her translation was correct, “…may exist in your son’s rescue attempt.”
The Admiral gripped his hat. How could they know of these plans? He thought.
“Were you not planning one?”
The Admiral remained silent, wondering how Lord Everton could see such things, and how his wife could translate her husband’s odd, cryptic ramblings.
“Well, apparently someone is, and there may be some trouble.” Lady Hightower closed her eyes. “Dear, can you tell the Admiral who appears to be helping his son, and where the trouble lies?”
Lord Everton lit his pipe. “People are always available for work in the past tense, but they drink for the future.”
Lady Hightower opened her eyes slowly. Warmth filled the Admiral’s mind when their eyes met, and he spoke without thinking. “Is he suggesting that a department or person I worked with in the past has something to do with this?”
Lady Hightower nodded in the affirmative.
The Admiral’s question as to how Lady Hightower understood her husband’s odd statements were answered by this experience. “And this department or person is the source of the trouble with my son?”
Lady Hightower nodded in the affirmative again.
“Could they be related somehow?”
“Have you seen her?”
“Just her photo.”
“Well, I can tell you first hand her photo does not do her justice.”
“Better than this?” Schiller lifted the photo of Bettina out of the files.
“Far better. She is a lot thinner and her tits are bigger, far bigger.”
Both men were beginning to find something else in common besides hate. Schiller took out a cigarette from his drawer and offered one to Kriederman, who took it. While this was a common form of politeness found in any other office around the world, this offer had a greater significance at the moment. It was a peace offering, after an entire career of open – and at times – dirty competition. As both men lit their cigarettes, the shared moment and experience seemed to say: “We have something in common now.” However, neither could say such a sentence since neither of them experienced such a philosophy of forgiveness, so their cigarettes did the talking and thus acted as the symbol for their unity.
“Since this Otto fellow and Bettina are a couple, I suggest we get them when they are both together.”
“Agreed, we could use this link to the Lampe couple as our justification for bringing them both in. We could hold her a while and let Goebbels sweat, or let her go once he is contacted. Either way he may get some idea if she speaks against him. What do you think?”
Kriederman thought for a moment. “Let’s play it by ear. Perhaps we might wish to make our play based on how Goebbels reacts.”
“That’s wise thinking, Lieutenant.” Schiller and Kriederman were now seeing another element they had in common – their hatred of Reichminister Joseph Goebbels. Unknown at the moment to either of them, both had a run in with Goebbels early in their careers that caused setbacks in promotions, their assignments, and in their love lives. Now it was payback time.
Lucht angrily pushed the huge book in front of him towards the end of his desk. “Acch! This is ridiculous. I’m an astrologer, no a theologian.” Lucht already told Fesel months ago all astrological references in the Bible have already been recorded and analyzed centuries ago. “How can we find more?”
Karl Ernst’s frustration grew as well, but he did not show it. Both men had been given the German, English, and Latin versions of the Bible and told to construct, find, or interpret a segment to could predict a Nazi victory. “Well, I thought the interpretation you created on the piece within Revelation on the divided twelve toes of the old Roman boot coming together again was quite genius. Really, I for one, never imagined that passage could represent the re-unification of the Roman Empire to represent a united Nazi Europe, or that a German Empire would cover all the lands of ancient Rome.” Krafft looked at the wall map above them. “With the successes of our Afrika Korps, you description could very well be!”