Jenkins put down his second sheet of paper. He could see the military wanted to play with theory now, instead of looking at, what in his mind, were facts.
Admiral Payne noticed the discounted Jenkins. “OK, gentlemen, let us assume Hitler wanted to go somewhere now, as Mr. Jenkins has showed us is highly probable, but was delayed by helping Mussolini in Greece. Where could he be headed next?”
Paul Windelton raised his hand as if in a classroom. “Turkey?” Everyone looked at him collectively, seeming to demand clarification. “To provide a land route to Egypt. It would open a second front in the Middle East, plus take some pressure off Rommel.”
“Probable,” Lt. Kingston responded, “but Turkey’s neutrality is benefitting Hitler now as it is, he moves things through there freely now, in secret of course, they still have third party trading, why would he want to use troops there for access he already has?”
A murmur of agreement came from Jenkins, Captain Jameson, and the Admiral over the logic from the young Lieutenant. Lord Everton had moved closer to the wall map and was standing just below what was once Poland.
“Lord Everton?”
Lord Everton took two steps to the right and was now standing under Moscow.
Does this old fool suggest Germany will attack Russia? Jenkins thought. Impossible!
“He hates them – he hates them more than us – and he had this in his mind a long, long, time ago. Mr. Jenkins knows, yes, Mr. Jenkins knows he wants to start now, but he has to wait. But he won’t wait long. He will feel it is right on the 4th day of Mercury’s retrograde, and he will think this day will be just fine. But when it is too late, and surely Krafft knows also it is too late, the Sun entering Cancer will get him there, but not allow him to finish the job.”
A look of pain overcame Lord Everton. “I fear,” he looked at DeWohl, “that it is too late for our friend Krafft. He had been taken away… from all he loves. Many others who look at the stars are being taken as well. Many others.”
DeWohl felt another chill. He took out an ephemeris out of his briefcase and looked ahead in June on the day the Sun entered Cancer. His finger scrolled across to the Mercury position on that day and saw that Mercury would indeed be retrograde – the apparent backward movement starting four days earlier. His finger then scrolled across on the aspects Lord Everton mentioned, but did not say it aloud. He closed the book with his finger still on June 22, 1941.
DeWohl looked at Lord Everton and the Lord immediately turned to him and said. “You are correct. That is the date. It’s a bad day for Hitler to start an attack. But there are no astrologers to warn him against such a move. All German astrologers are with the Gestapo now.”
Chapter 22 – The Scientist
The prison door slammed shut behind him. Karl Ernst Krafft noticed around twenty other men standing around in an area the size of his tiny living room at home. The walls were once painted a light green, which had aged to an off white tint of green mixture that matched the color of many of the faces inside the cell.
“Karl Ernst?” A voice came from the left side of the cell behind several men who wore what once were fashionable suits – minus ties – with beaten and unshaven faces that were at least three days old. When the men parted Ernst Schulte-Strathaus wedged his way towards Krafft.
“Ernst!” Krafft had not seen the professor since his lectures at the Hamburg School of Astrology in the late 20’s, although they did maintain contact by an occasional letter. “Ernst Strathaus! What are you doing here?”
“The same as you, my old friend, the same as Hubert Reinholdt over there, Martin Schneller over there, Peter von Holstein… we’re all here!”
Krafft took a closer look at some of the faces, masked by scrappy beards, tired eyes, bumps, cuts and bruises from interrogations. After a few seconds he began to recognize some of the features of professors and researchers that had attended his lectures and visa versa.
“What’s going on here? Why are they arresting us?”
“Didn’t you hear?” Peter von Holstein asked surprised. “You didn’t hear about Hess?”
Krafft shook his head.
“Hess flew to Scotland!”
A mumbling clamor spread around the room. An unseen irritated guard down the hall screamed, “Quiet in there!”
“For peace?” Confused, Krafft thought the mission by Hess was officially sponsored.
“For peace? Ha! For a British prison!” Ernst Strathaus’s voice was parched and weakened, but his fervor could still be heard. “The BBC is having a field day with this one! Hess himself said Hitler had not knowledge of his visit…”
“He flew alone, bailed out over Scotland.” Hubert Reinholdt added.
Krafft had spent the entire day and night at the Dark Fire building complex with his work – and Ewa Mann. Neither had listened to the radio nor spoke with anyone else over the past 48 hours. “Flew alone… when… why?”
“You really haven’t heard? All of Germany is talking about it”
“The entire world is talking about it… and laughing about it. Ernst Strathaus’s voice turned to gloom. “That’s why Hitler is over the top.”
“Because of Hess?”
“Because of you, Karl Ernst.”
“What?”
“Hess replicated your prediction June 1941 as the time when Germany and England would have to be at peace, and verified this had to be done, or the tide would turn against us.”
“How did you know he verified my work?”
“Because I saw him doing so. He asked me to replicate the findings as well.”
“Well, did you?”
“Yes, your work on Hitler’s chart, the Third Reich’s, and the Weimar Republic’s as well. All three showed aspects the tide of a war starting in 1939 would turn against Germany in June of 1941 if peace or victory was not had by then.”
Murmurs of agreement spread amongst many in the cell. Many there knew Krafft had predicted this war, along with Nostradamus in Century 3 Quatrain 57.
Krafft reflected for a moment. “Why didn’t you tell me you replicated my work?”
“Sorry, my friend, I had to swear an oath of secrecy on any work I did for Hess.”
Krafft understood the meaning of an astrologer keeping his oath of secrecy, an important clause in the astrologer/client relationship. However, this new information did not fully answer Krafft’s wondering why so many of Germany’s top astrologers were in jail.
The bars on the jail clanked by three guards running their clubs over the edges and gaps, creating a distinct rhythm. The cell door opened and the guard pointed while shouting.
“You. You. You. Raus!”
Krafft, Martin Schneller, and Ernst Strathaus walked out as ordered.
All three were taken down a corridor, up a flight of stairs then outside to be loaded into a truck. One guard sat with the three men inside the covered bed of the truck but did not say a word the entire trip, which lasted six hours. When the trucks stopped and the four men jumped down, Krafft noticed a water tower with a name – Peenemünde – painted on in large gothic style black letters. The prisoners were marched to a building marked ‘Forshung’ (research). Krafft noticed Georg Lucht, who had a large cut below his ear, standing outside the building.
“George!” Krafft shouted.
“Silence.” The guard shouted while ramming the butt of his rifle in Krafft’s back.