“Yeah? If you like that, you’re gonna love this.” Ham pushed open the door across the hall, revealing a bathroom not much larger than a closet. Inside were an old-fashioned claw-foot tub and a sink with exposed pipes. “Notice anything missing?”
“Yeah. Where’s the…?” Mike stopped. “Oh, no. Don’t tell me it’s outside.”
“Yup. The outhouse is in the backyard, about ten feet from the kitchen door.” Ham shrugged. “At least it’s got its own woodstove.”
“Wow. The lap of luxury.”
“Leave it to Uncle Sam to spare no expense.” Ham shook his head. “And leave it to our nursemaids to claim the downstairs bedroom. ‘Security reasons,’ my ass.”
“Yeah, well…” Henry checked his watch. “’Bout time for everyone to meet up in the living room. Maybe we can persuade Igor to spring for a couple of prefab houses.”
The other two chuckled at the mention of the nickname the 390 Group had recently bestowed on Omar Bliss. “Ignorance is Bliss” became a whispered catchphrase when the colonel stubbornly resisted the group’s more radical proposals, and this led to some team members referring to him as Ignorance for a while until they realized that this wasn’t entirely true: Bliss wasn’t ignorant, really, just a bit behind the times. So Ignorance was shortened to Igor, which suited him even better: If you squinted a bit, the colonel did look a little like Dr. Frankenstein’s henchman. No one called him that to his face, though.
The colonel was already in the living room when Henry, Mike, and Ham came down from the loft and trooped in through the porch door. FBI agents Sabatini and Arnold were leaning against the fieldstone fireplace; they might have been a couple of weekend hunters were it not for the shoulder holsters visible beneath their unbuttoned jackets. The three team members had just taken seats when Gerry and Taylor came in. They’d spent the last hour unloading everyone’s belongings from the cars and were looking forward to taking a break before starting on the truck.
“Where’s Bob?” Taylor asked, looking around the room as he sat down on the couch next to Henry. “Aren’t we waiting for him?”
Bliss shook his head. “No, we’re going to have this meeting without him. I told him and Esther they’re excused so that they could make themselves at home, but the fact is there’s some things I want to talk about without his being around.”
The team members glanced at one another. “It’s about what happened the other day, isn’t it?” Ham said quietly.
“What else?” Taylor also kept his voice down. “I’ve worked with Bob for years, and I’ve never seen him like this. I mean, I don’t think he’s said ten words to me in the last couple of days…”
“Someone tried to kill him, and they damn near succeeded.” Mike scowled at him. “That would give anyone the heebie-jeebies.” He turned to Bliss. “Colonel, none of us are crazy about moving up here, but you probably did the right thing. If that guy was a German spy…”
“Was he a kraut?” Ham looked over at the two G-men. “Has anyone learned anything about him yet?”
“Nothing conclusive,” Sabatini admitted. “He wasn’t carrying any identification, and if there was someone working with him, he made a clean getaway. But his gun was German-made, and my office thinks he may also be responsible for the murder of a Beach Patrol watchman on Cape Cod earlier that morning.” The FBI agent shrugged. “So, yeah, it’s a safe bet the guy who tried to shoot Dr. Goddard was a Nazi.”
“Which means two things,” Bliss said. “One, the Germans consider Bob to be enough of a threat that they went to the trouble of sending someone over here to knock him off. And if that’s the case… two, the British air raid wasn’t entirely successful, and Silver Bird hasn’t been destroyed.”
Grim nods from around the room. The group had been informed of the RAF air raid on Peenemünde the day after it happened, and they’d hoped that it would have knocked Silbervogel down enough that the Germans might simply give up and cancel the project entirely. Indeed, there had been less urgency about Blue Horizon in recent weeks. Although work in Worcester continued, there was no longer a feeling that 390 Group was in a race against time. They were designing an experimental spacecraft that might still be used, but probably not before the war was over.
Their attitude changed as soon as they heard about what happened at City Hall. The colonel’s observation reinforced what they’d come to suspect: Goddard wouldn’t have been targeted if the Nazis didn’t think he might develop a deterrent to their antipodal bomber, and therefore Silver Bird was still under way.
“We’ve relocated you here in case he had accomplices,” Bliss continued, “but that’s not the only reason. Bob’s shook up by this, and so is Esther. We can’t have him trying to work on this project while worrying if he’s going to catch a bullet whenever he walks outside, and we risk having anyone going after you guys, too. I’m sorry the accommodations are a bit rough, but… well, we’ll try to make you as comfortable as possible, so long as you’re here.”
“And how long will that be?” Henry asked.
“Until your work is finished,” Bliss replied. Groans and irate murmurs greeted this remark, and he quickly held up his hand. “I know that’s a long time to keep you sequestered, but…”
“Sequestered?” Gerry stared at him. “What do you mean by that?”
Bliss hesitated, and Sabatini stepped in. “What this means is that new security protocols are now in effect. No one is to leave this camp without an FBI escort. We’ll drive someone into town to buy groceries, cigarettes, newspapers, or whatever else you need, but otherwise, you’re to remain here.”
“What about mail?” Mike asked.
“It’ll still come to Worcester. So far as anyone you know is concerned, you’re still at Clark University. And if you send anything out, it’ll be mailed from Worcester, too, so it’ll have that postmark.” Sabatini paused. “Naturally, you’ll refrain from saying anything about this place. Don’t give us reason to start reading your letters to make sure that you’re in compliance.”
“And the phone?” Henry asked. “I haven’t found one yet.”
“That’s because there isn’t one here and never has been. The guys who started this club were serious about getting away from it all.” Sabatini shrugged. “No loss. I’ve seen the local switchboard. It’s in the back of the general store, same place you’ll be buying food. The operator is an old biddy who looks like the type who’d be an eavesdropper, and the last thing we want is to have her hearing anything about Blue Horizon. That’s why we’ll be installing a radiotelephone next week. It’ll only be used for official communications, so don’t even think about using it to call your girlfriend.”
Henry stared at him, and Sabatini grinned. “Yeah, we know all about her,” he went on. “Frank figured out you were seeing someone on the sly and had us check her out, just to make sure she wasn’t a spy. She’s a peach, all right… but I hope she’s the patient type, because it’s going to be a while before you’ll see her again.”
Henry said nothing but instead fixed his gaze upon the floor. “Sorry, man,” Taylor said to him quietly, then he looked at Bliss again. “You still haven’t told us why Lloyd and Harry aren’t here. Couldn’t you fit more beds in the loft?”
Gerry shook his head. “Like there’s any more room up there.”
“Available space was one consideration, yes,” the colonel said, “but there’s another reason. Now that we’re getting close to actually bending metal, I’ve decided to send them down to Alamogordo, where they’ll join Lieutenant Jackson.”