McCracken came to the models of Washington and Tel Aviv and froze. Apparently, in these two cases the toymaker hadn’t been able to wait, and the resulting sight was bone-chilling. The old man had outdone himself. Even in miniature, the panic, the utter desperation of cities caught in the merciless grip of the White Death, was clear. Cars had smashed into each other. Small figures writhed and clawed at the air. Blaine could almost hear the screams.
“You look quite good in that uniform, Mr. McCracken,” a voice called from behind him.
Blaine turned around slowly.
“You didn’t go for your gun. I’m disappointed,” said Hans Tessen. “Take the pistol out slowly with two fingers and toss it toward me, please.”
McCracken did as he was told. The pistol clanged against the floor and slid the Nazi’s way.
“Congratulations on a brilliant acting job,” Blaine told him.
Tessen kept his gun steady, a smile brewing on his lips. “I was quite good, wasn’t I?”
“I should have killed you myself.”
“But we were allies, were we not? Don’t forget that I saved your life in Izmir. From the Tau, of all forces.”
“To further your own interests, of course.”
Tessen nodded, beaming. “And why not, Mr. McCracken? So strange life is, so theatrical.”
“Correct me if I’m wrong: you’re one of the leaders of this bunch. Yes?”
“If by ‘bunch’ you are referring to a Nazi movement that now spans all corners of the globe, yes, I am.” He stiffened his chin. His crew cut gleamed in the naked light of the room. “Ever since the end of the war, I have worked toward the day that is almost upon us. A day, I regret to tell you, you will not live to see.”
“Not a sight I would cherish.”
“Oh, but it will be one to behold. Our destiny achieved at long last. We were not wrong in our aims in World War II; we were merely ahead of our time. Time has finally caught up with us.”
“You’re dreaming.”
“Apparently so is a very large segment of the population of your country. That is where our literature has been shipped from, where our swastikas have been sewn and molded, and where a huge portion of the funds that helped sustain our dreams has originated.” Tessen came a little closer, one of his hands sliding affectionately over one of the toymaker’s World War II models. “Look around you, Mr. McCracken. Look at the world. The economic structure is on the verge of collapsing. The middle class has been lumped into the lower class. People are poor. People are angry. They crave order, anything that can give them back what they feel rightfully belongs to them. In every country, not just the U.S., support for our movements has been overwhelming, because order is what we offer. The anger and frustration that has allowed our movement to flourish again here in Germany is being mirrored all over the world. Our people are out there and they are ready, they are committed. They go by different names in different corners of the world — the Ku Klux Klan, the German People’s Union, the African Resistance Movement — but they stand for the same thing, and they are waiting for the chance we can give them. We will rise back to power because the world will want us, need us.”
Blaine fixed his gaze briefly on the nearly completed models. “Not all the world, apparently.”
“We know where our enemies are, Mr. McCracken. This time they will be neutralized before they can lead the resistance against us.”
“Neutralized with the White Death you now have in your possession.”
Tessen’s smile continued to glow. “I prefer to say back in our possession, and that is precisely why we so desperately required your services. Not to disappoint, you performed wonderfully. You brought us to the White Death. We never could have done it without you, so you see that, more than anyone, you deserve to wear that uniform.”
“The maps that fell into my hands and Hazelhurst’s …”
“Copies made from documents opened up with the reunification of the two Germanys. A terrible oversight on our part, but eventually a blessed one.”
Blaine was nodding. “Because Rothstein’s revived Tau had already removed the White Death from your chamber, and only because of Hazelhurst’s dig did you become aware of that fact.”
“Thanks to your participation, of course.”
“You were in Kansas, at the air force base.”
“Not me, one of my men. We followed you from the time you ‘escaped’ from this house the first time. Unfortunately, the man who trailed you to the United States left the area of that air force base before you turned the tables on your captors. But he had found what I had sent him for, and with the identity of the Tau leader shockingly clear, it was an easy guess as to where the White Death was stored. Of course I don’t have to tell you this; you came to the same conclusion yourself.”
“You never were able to come up with the formula yourselves, were you?”
“But Rothstein was all too happy to fill the void. What we found at that kibbutz was five times the contents of the crates. Five times!” Tessen gloated. “Strange, isn’t it, that we could not act to achieve our destiny until vast reserves of the White Death were available to us? Thanks to Rothstein, that came to pass. And thanks to you, we found Rothstein.”
“So in pursuing its vengeance, the Tau ends up aiding the rise of the Fourth Reich.”
“And why not? The symbol of the Jews helped give birth to the Third. It’s only fitting that the work of the Jews gives rise to the Fourth.”
Again Blaine looked back at the toymaker’s latest models. “Except it’s not going to be only the Jews this time, is it?”
“We have learned from our mistakes, Mr. McCracken. Far more than ethnicity will determine who our enemies are and whom we destroy.”
“The thing that doesn’t figure here is that when your comrades were dying horribly after the war, you must have known the White Death was to blame.”
“We were scattered, running for our lives. By the time we had reorganized sufficiently, the killing had stopped and the entrance to the chamber the Jews had found had been sealed again.”
“Yes, by them.”
“Only we didn’t know about Rothstein. We assumed that our greatest secret was safe again, waiting for us to come and retrieve the reserves to join a new and vast supply.”
“Which might never have happened …”
“If not for the Tau’s return,” Tessen completed. “And then you brought us to them.”
“And now you have the White Death.”
Tessen nodded. “Right here, stored in tanks concealed in a secret subbasement. The tanks have been waiting for it for years. Too bad your mission to destroy it has failed.”
Blaine shook his head. “That wasn’t my mission at all.”
“Please, McCracken,” Tessen scoffed, “spare me.”
“Sorry. Not part of my mission, either. My mission was to find out where you stashed the White Death to make sure it doesn’t live beyond you.”
Tessen was about to respond when gunshots rang out on the grounds of the estate. Rapid fire intermixed with horrible, twisted screams.
“No,” the Nazi muttered, moving toward the window but keeping his eyes fixed on McCracken. “No …”