"Toward the end of the war," Kohler said, "the Anglo-Saxon powers developed the atomic bomb. The Jew Einstein suggested it in a letter to Roosevelt, although himself born in Germany; he betrayed his homeland."
Goring said, "Germany is not a homeland for any Jew."
Drily, Canaris said, "Herr Einstein seems to have agreed."
"They brought back material," Sacher said, "on the condition of Germany as it is now. It has been divided between the Anglo-Saxon powers and Communist Russia. Split in half, no longer a nation." He added, "Japan is as of this date a satellite of the United States. And communism has spread throughout the Orient; specifically into China." His voice was stony, impersonal, a mere recitation of facts without emotion. "It becomes evident how vital the assassination of Roosevelt was in shaping our world. If any one single event could be said to have -- "
"I would be interested in knowing," Goring broke in, "how our great wartime Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, who lead us to victory in '47, fared in this so-called Nebenwelt. I cannot imagine him in defeat."
"After the loss of North Africa," Kohler said, "the field marshal was transferred to France to take command of the forces awaiting invasion from England. While en route by car he was spotted by a British Spitfire and machine-gunned, hence hospitalized. He did not command during the invasion of Festung Europa at its West Wall." He paused. And then in a low voice said, "There is more."
"Well?" Goring demanded.
"Field Marshal Rommel joined a group of traitors conspiring against the life of Adolf Hitler."
"That could never be," Goring said.
"Wait," Canaris said, gesturing tensely. "Let him finish."
"The plot failed," Kohler said. "The conspirators were strangled and hung from meathooks, which is appropriate. Erwin Rommel, being a soldier and former patriot, was allowed to shoot himself. He so did."
Again there was silence, long and strained.
"I think," Goring said at last, "that these so-called 'artifactual documentations' are forgeries put together by the Abwehr." He studied Admiral Canaris, trying to penetrate the slightly ironic mask that had, at his words, slid in place. "The motivation, however, is unclear to me. Obviously in part it is to slander the field marshal. The rest I do not understand." He made his voice harsh and affirmative, but inwardly he felt doubt, confusion. He needed time to digest all of this. Certainly this trumped-up "disclosure" related to the current political crisis in the Reich's politics; that much was clear. Intuitively he sensed that Admiral Canaris and his counterintelligence organization had engineered the venture; after all, Kohler and Seligsohn were Abwehr agents, as had been the entire Kommando squad.
And yet -- it appeared true that an alternate universe did exist, as Sacher had, for a year and a half, declared. That much we did not dispute. If only he could send some of his own Luftwaffe people, loyal to him...
"I hasten to add, Herr Reichsmarshal," Kohler said, "that the decision to bomb English cities and not the radar network was not yours but the Fuhrer's." He peered hopefully at Goring.
Pacing about, his arms folded, Admiral Canaris said, half to himself, "For several minutes now I have been thinking of something odd. In Japanese-controlled regions, specifically the Rocky Mountain states and the PSA, a book has been circulating; it is banned here, but my office has routinely examined it. They say it's very popular among the Japanese, for reasons I do not understand. It is a work of fiction, pure fiction, or at least so we have up to now supposed."
"The Grasshopper Lies Heavy," Goring said. He had read it; the ban on reading Hawthorne Abendsen's book did, of course, not apply to him. "A narrative of the world as it would be today if the Allied powers had won the war."
Canaris said, "And also an analysis of how the Allied Powers could have won. They could have won, this Abendsen alleges, if the Soviet Union had stopped General von Paulus at Stalingrad. Abendsen bases his fictional world specifically on that." Turning to Sacher he said, "This is a historical condition reported by these two Kommandos; this occurred in Nebenwelt, so it would appear to me that Abendsen's book is an account of Nebenwelt."
"Not quite," Kohler said. "Both Seligsohn and myself are familiar with Abendsen's book; there is a vague resemblance between the world he describes and the environment studied by us over the past eighteen months. But many details vary. The relationship fails to be precise. By example, in the book Rexford Tugwell is president at the time America enters the war; in Nebenwelt, Roosevelt still -- "
"But Abendsen," Canaris persisted, "seems to have had at least a diffuse awareness of the Nebenwelt. Even if details differ, the resemblance is basic; to ignore it would be politically unwise."
"Why unwise?" Goring said.
Canaris gestured. "It means that Sacher has no monopoly as to access to Nebenwelt. If one man, Hawthorne Abendsen, is aware of it, then others can be -- have already been, perhaps. We don't have the undivided control over egress that we need."
"Need for what?" Goring said. He had never been able to fathom the admiral's convoluted thinking, typical as it was of intelligence reasoning.
A veiled expression appeared on the admiral's face. Obviously choosing his words with care, he said, "Any military operation planned by the army would now of necessity be shelved -- in view of this."
"Why?" Goring said, still not following. "What military undertaking is planned?" He thought at once of the space program, the colonization of Venus and Mars. So far, the Wehrmacht had stayed aloof; emigration had been handled solely by the SS. He wondered if at last the army intended to participate. Certainly it would help; so far the SS had signally failed to round up sufficient numbers of genetically adequate human specimens.
Canaris, however, switched to another area of the topic; slippery and deft, he eluded even a direct question. "A point-by-point comparison between Abendsen's imaginary alternate world and the Nebenwelt should be developed. I would like to know exactly how they compare and differ." He gestured. "It may be what the Japanese call synchronicity, a meaningless coincidence. Or rather what our own physicist Wolfgang Pauli calls synchronicity; I forget that the acausal connective concept is of German origin." He scowled. "It is their use of that damn oracle that confuses me, that I Ching they employ in the making of every decision. Fortunately the party has rejected it as degenerate oriental mysticism."
"The oracle," Kohler said, "exists in the Nebenwelt; we encountered it several times, although there is -- we found -- no widespread use. It does not appear at all in Abendsen's book, in the world he depicts."
"Another difference," Canaris said thoughtfully. He seemed for a time to chew on this point. "If we were to believe in the oracle," he said at last, "then we would suppose it to know of the existence of the Nebenwelt, inasmuch [as] it can be found there. Abendsen, I have read, makes use of the oracle; I understand, in fact, he plotted his book by means of the hexagrams. That might account for the resemblance of his fictional world to the Nebenwelt. But consider the hazard involved -- the hazard to Germany. The oracle is attempting to inform those who rely on it that..." He broke off, again scowling. "I'm talking about it as if it were alive."
Goring said, "We did well to ban it in German-occupied territory. I remember how emphatic Dr. Goebbels was on that issue; he foamed at the mouth when that modern composer -- what was his name? -- declared in print that he used it to develop chord progressions."