Goebbels responded, “Yes, they are in the Fuehrer’s private chambers.”
Nox walked up to Hitler and held out his large hand. “Give me your Luger.”
Hitler was under no illusion as to who was in power at this moment and dutifully handed the weapon to Nox, “Yes Sir.”
The pistol was almost difficult to hold; it was tiny compared to the size of Nox’s oversized fingers. Nox walked past the three of them and into Hitler’s chambers. A single shot was heard. A few minutes later, Nox walked back into the room. “I forced Eva’s look-a-like to ingest cyanide.”
Nox pointed at Goebbels. “Take pictures, burn the bodies in the garden.”
Nox then turned to General Krebs, “Wait two hours and notify the Generals in the field that the Fuehrer is dead.”
Nox then reached into a hidden compartment within his body armor and pulled out a small container. Handing it to Krebs, he said, “A gift for you. This contains enough cyanide to kill both of you. I suggest you use it before the Soviets take this bunker.”
Nox then turned to Hitler, “Your U-boats were launched for Argentina a few days ago. All your belongings will arrive as planned. I personally saw to it that your instructions were followed. You and Eva will live out your days in a villa in the Andes Mountains. Go get Eva now; we need to leave.”
Lying was easy for Nox. The trick was to shroud your lie in a believable truth.
Nox turned to Goebbels and Krebs. “You both need to ingest the poison before the Soviets get here. I expect absolute secrecy about Hitler’s whereabouts.”
“I will take this secret to my grave,” Krebs assured Nox.
Hitler and Eva emerged from one of the back rooms, each carrying a small travel bag.
“Follow me,” Nox said.
As they exited the bunker, Nox shot each one of the German guards with his thought-controlled particle beam incinerator. Less witnesses.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
May 1, 1945
The Kremlin, Moscow
As Nox entered Soviet airspace, he disengaged his optical stealth so that his flying saucer could be seen by the Russian military. He intentionally slowed his craft so that the Russians would be able to fully take in what they were seeing; he needed to demonstrate his superiority to Stalin long before they met.
As expected, Soviet air defenses began firing into the sky. Nox was not concerned; there was no possibility of them striking his craft.
Nox wanted to make certain that Stalin and the Soviet commanders were watching. He did not take a direct route to Moscow, but rather, intentionally flew his craft over known military installations to draw as much fire as possible.
After two hours of spectacularly evading Soviet air defenses, he had attracted three Russian military planes. They seemed to be following him at a distance. Nox could have easily shot down the Soviet planes, but his goal was not to kill Russians, only to clearly demonstrate his military superiority.
As Nox approached Moscow, the anti-aircraft weapons stopped. Nox assumed they gave up and decided to stop wasting ammunition. He had not shot a single Russian plane or engaged a single Russian anti-aircraft position, he had simply allowed them to shoot at him.
As Nox approached the spot where he believed the Kremlin to be, he was shocked. The Kremlin, which had been built hundreds of years earlier as a walled city, sat on a 68-acre parcel that was completely enclosed by ten-foot-thick brick walls. Along the 7,332 feet of red brick walls stood 20 towers. Inside the huge governmental complex were numerous structures that housed ornate governmental and administrative offices, lavish churches with golden onion-shaped domes, and extensive ammo depots.
A couple of years earlier, in the Moscow campaign, Hitler had expended considerable resources bombing Moscow and the Kremlin. Nox knew what the Kremlin was supposed to look like because of the numerous pictures he had seen. Nox made it a point to study the great cities of all the major countries on Earth, especially those of his enemies. Nox was expecting to see shiny golden domes atop buildings that had miraculously been spared by the many bombing runs Either that, or burned out ruins.
To Nox’s surprise, where the Kremlin was supposed to be, stood a row of tenement apartment buildings. It looked like government or army housing, certainly not the elaborate Neo-Classical architecture that was supposed to be the Kremlin.
Were his instruments off? Was he in the wrong place?
As he sat in the cockpit of his antigravity fighter, trying to reconcile what he knew to be true against what he saw before him, his focus shifted, and the Kremlin he knew to exist appeared before his eyes.
Had the Russians invented active optical stealth? How could his estimates of their technology be that far off?
Then he realized the truth. The Russians had not developed optical stealth; they had used a 1,000-year-old ploy. They had painted the Kremlin to look like a series of unimportant apartment buildings. The once elegant gold domes were painted brown to deceive German pilots looking down to drop their payload of destruction. The impressive brick walls of the Kremlin were painted to look like the sides of buildings with rows of nondescript windows. False shells of buildings were built up around the Kremlin, like a Hollywood movie set. Nox realized immediately why the Nazi pilots could not accurately target the Kremlin, they could not see it from the sky.
Those clever bastards.
Nox looked for the perfect place to set down the AG Fighter. Red Square was directly outside the walled Kremlin. Running along another side of the walled compound was a river. The walls came together into a triangular shape. If he landed in Red Square, then the people that mattered most would have to leave the walls of the Kremlin to meet him. That would be okay, but would make for an anticlimactic moment. Nox knew this was a time for diplomacy. He chose to set his craft down in Cathedral Square in front of the Assumption Cathedral. Cathedral Square is an open space that is centrally located within the complex and visible from many important buildings.
Nox sat in his cockpit for a few minutes, simply for effect. He knew exactly what he was going to say. Waiting to exit the fighter was for the human’s benefit, just like the blood sacrifices. Nox did not really like the taste of blood, nor did he derive any energy from killing certain people. He just knew that it solidified his control over them. Nox was certain Stalin and his top advisors would have already been gathered and discussing the situation. There was not a battalion of Russian soldiers in front of his craft. Instead, Joseph Stalin walked out from the Soviet Senate building with five soldiers and began to make his way towards Nox’s craft.
Both Nox and Stalin had played their roles perfectly. Nox had telegraphed his position of power. Stalin knew he was powerless against Nox’s superior technology; so, he chose not to embarrass himself by surrounding the ship with impotent guards.
This guy is a true leader, a vicious, murderous leader, but someone I can work with.
Stalin stopped about 30 feet from the disc-shaped craft that was resting on its landing gear. He was wearing his iconic long, gray trench coat, shiny black boots, and military cap. The five soldiers were standing a few feet behind him, with submachine guns ready at the hip position, but not aimed at the craft.
Nox walked down the ramp that had extended from the bottom of the craft. He was surprised at how little damage the Kremlin had sustained during the war, unlike Berlin, the Kremlin was in good shape. One could no longer see the sumptuous elegance of the Neo-Classical design through the façade of scaffolding and paint, but Nox was sure it would shine again soon.