He smiled; Roth suddenly understood why Himmler looked so pleased. Only a handful of Germans had been mentioned in the electronic resource, at least they’d only found a handful, but all of them had been printed out and distributed around the Reich. Himmler had been shocked to learn that he would commit suicide, five years from today.
“Has the Fuhrer seen the reports?” Roth asked. “If Galland is correct, we have to adapt ourselves as quickly as possible; we need to mobilise and prepare for a very different war.”
“The Fuhrer has seen many of the reports,” Himmler said. The unspoken message was clear; there were some that the Fuhrer had not seen. “We seem to have to use Jews to have any chance at all at making an atomic bomb. We will not discuss that matter – with anyone! It would only upset them.”
“Jawohl, Herr Reichsführer,” Roth said, refusing to smile at the joke. It could be so easily construed as disloyalty.
“You will take over the project to build an atomic bomb,” Himmler said. “The Fuhrer himself has ordered it. You will have complete authority to conscript all atomic scientists, including Jews and… Slavs, should there be any. Fortunately, the basic principles are outlined in the Encyclopaedia Britannica, along with those of rocketry. Your second task, just as important, is to ensure that any useful information is distributed to the correct people, from medical information to rocket scientists.”
His eyes focused in on Roth with uncanny and unnerving speed. “Inform me; what have you done so far?”
“A handful of the prisoners, including the pilots of the aircraft, are being removed even as we speak to the aircraft development companies, both Professor Messerschmitt and Professor Heinkel were astounded to hear of the discovery, as was Udet. We can expect some breakthroughs. A handful of other prisoners, with the exception of Professor Horton and his family, have also been distributed to places where their knowledge can be used; a doctor, two nurses, a farmer and a political scientist, whatever that is.
“We recovered a printer and several of what Oliver calls ‘ink cartridges’ from the wreck, and we’ve been printing out as much as we can,” he said. “Fortunately, duplicating the ink – at least the black ink – was a simple matter; a French factory was able to produce as much as we might desire, although the quality has fallen sharply. Eventually, Oliver warns us that something will break and the laptops will become useless, but we’ve copied some of the files to the other laptops and we’ll start sending them around the Reich.”
Himmler smiled. “You seem to have become very used to using the technology,” he said. The gentle bonhomie was back. “Do you feel that you will master it?”
Roth grinned, allowing his enthusiasm to show. “Herr Reichsführer, a child could use the laptops; they are so simple. Once we duplicate some of the technology, we will be unbeatable…”
Himmler cut him off. “As you know, we intercepted a broadcast from Britain – and a new one from Ambassador Hempel, in Ireland,” he said. “Herr Hempel reports that a delegation from the new Britain visited Ireland, and they are apparently planning to continue the war. Some of their radio broadcasts are quite alarming; they seem to lump us, Hideki Tojo and Stalin together, despite the Japanese Prime Minister being Fumimaro Konoe.”
“They do seem to go through Prime Ministers at an astounding rate,” Roth observed. “Herr Reichsführer, have you informed the Japanese ambassador?”
“It is a shame that they recalled Hiroshi Oshima,” Himmler said. “I have had a brief discussion with the current ambassador, but he was sceptical.” He made a disgusted face. “We may have to pass him one of the laptops, and copies of the Encyclopaedia Britannica.”
“Jawohl, Herr Reichsführer,” Roth said, knowing that objections would be futile. “Might I enquire as to when I will be meeting with the Fuhrer?”
“Later today,” Himmler said. “Now, what did the esteemed Field Marshall have to say?”
Roth nodded to himself. General Kesselring had been ordered, directly from Berlin – which meant Hitler himself – to prepare a plan for countering the future Britain. Roth had, with some reluctance, given up most of the books on the future war in Iraq – and had even let him ask Oliver some questions.
“He said that the situation appeared more promising than it seemed at first glance,” he said. Himmler looked relived. “While we are far weaker than we were, we might have some advantages, not least weight of numbers. Still, we really need more information – more precise data.”
Himmler nodded. “Do you have a plan to get the information, Standartenfuhrer?”
Roth winced internally at the far from subtle reminder of his low rank. “We need to make contact with Oliver’s associates,” he said. “They have to get us information – genuinely useful information – that will help us to adapt as quickly as we can. Oliver believes that they – the future British – will have problems of their own, but they can adapt to it. We have a window of opportunity to take what they have for the Reich, but a very short one.”
“We have been shown our destiny, have we?” Adolf Hitler, Fuhrer of the Greater German Reich, pronounced. “We have been shown, not our destiny, but a possible future – if we lose our strength and will! We have been shown a glimpse of a possible future, where Europe groans under the slavery of the French and the Russians, of a future where all the virtues of the German Volk are crushed!
“Providence has shown us the way forward,” he thundered, his voice rising. “With our inflexible will, we will adapt to the future; the menace of godless soviet communism and the insidious menace of the Jews will be crushed instead!”
Jim Oliver didn’t dare look at his watch. The Fuhrer was speaking and had been speaking for nearly an hour, thundering about Jewish plots that had brought down the Reich – and completely ignoring the fact that it had been him who’d given the fatal orders; not to invade Britain, not to press the advantage in the North African campaign, to launch an ill-prepared invasion of Russia, to stand at Stalingrad…
“With the application of German will and power, we will crush this Jewish future,” he bellowed. “With our window into the future, we will prevail!”
His face shifted rapidly as he sat down. Beside him, a fat man clapped noisily, his medals rattling on his ample chest; Herman Goring, head of the Luffwaffe, and now one of the senior Party officials. Around the table, Kesselring, Raeder, Jodl, Manstein and a handful of people he didn’t recognise, listened carefully and raptly. He felt almost as if he had fallen into a snake pit; the Wehrmacht officers eyed the Luffwaffe officers as if they were at war with them, rather than the British and associated minor governments-in-exile. Absently, he wondered what had happened to DeGaulle; had he been on the 1940 Britain when it vanished?
Hitler poked with a single finger at the laptop. “Is there any Jewish science in this?” He demanded, fixing Oliver with his gaze. He shivered; Hitler’s stare wasn’t hostile, it was darkly compelling, inviting him to share in a glorious crusade into darkness. Himmler, however, had carefully briefed him first; there were certain subjects that were never to be mentioned in front of Hitler.