by Ian Andrew
On stepping inside she swiped her card and selected the Sub-6th floor. The descent was rapid and the doors opened to reveal a corridor that ran in a shallow left hand turn for about 200-metres. The floor was snugly lined with rubber matting and the walls were a pastel pink shade. The lighting was subdued and at strategic points, providing complete coverage, were three cameras mounted on the ceiling. Each fed its imagery to a small inner security booth situated on the other side of a wide and solid metal door that marked the end of the rubber walkway.
They walked the length of the space, passing the entrances to the emergency stairs where Leigh would normally have come out and when they were a few metres from the metal door it gave a loud, sharp click and swung open towards them. The quiet hum of servos drove the heavy steel automatically into a slight recess set in the pink wall. As it opened it revealed a small security desk with a single soldier who had control of entry into the lower laboratories.
As they passed the security desk the corridor widened a little before coming to a T-junction. The bar of the T was a wide thoroughfare running straight from West to East for 200-metres. On the north side, directly opposite the junction, was the entrance to a central canteen and rest-area equipped with a library, televisions and soft furnishings. It also doubled as a meeting room, training space and staff party room if the occasion arose. Down each of the legs, again running off the northern side, were the entrances to a total of eight laboratories that constituted the Ladenburg Research Unit.
Each laboratory had an official and often pompous name. But each had also been given a slightly less formal moniker by the less than pompous scientists in the ‘Jewel’. The lab furthest east was officially called the Armament and Explosives Research Facility but was always referred to as Arnie. Whilst the one furthest west was the Optical Systems Calibration Laboratory but was affectionately called Oscar. To the south side of the main corridor, opposite each of the labs were the offices of the Project Directors and senior managers. In the far south-west corner, right next to Wolfgang’s office was a secure briefing facility with direct communications to the Gestapo Offices in Whitehall and Berlin.
At the east and west walls marking the ends of the corridor were wide doors that were electronically sealed and alarmed. They led to a shallow ramp that spiralled up to the surface and came out into a secure holding pen. Designed to be used for emergency evacuations the ramp was subject to 24-hour camera surveillance. It was also equipped with motion detectors, infrared sensors and had, just in case someone decided to use it as a backdoor into the labs, command-detonated anti-personnel mines embedded in its walls at regular intervals.
Wolfgang and Leigh headed left towards Oscar.
“Now, Leigh, a surprise for you. Francine came back from Marseille on Thursday.”
“Really?” Leigh asked excitedly, “I thought she was out there for another couple of months?”
Leigh liked all her colleagues in varying degrees but she was closer to Francine than the rest. A native of Quebec, Francine Xu was arguably the world’s most respected specialist in the design of the multilayered silicon wafers required for cascade lasers. Testimony to her intellect and ability was the fact that she was one of a rare few mixed-race members of the technical directorate. Her very survival into adulthood was proof of the Regime’s capability to ignore its own boundaries and rules when it suited. Her French mother and Chinese father had both been senior lecturers in physics and their liaisons had been tolerated due to their value to the Reich. The resultant Francine was the combination of her parents’ intellect, temperament and looks. Short, slim and with a complexion that belied her forty-five years she maintained a freshness of face and physique that put others a decade younger to shame. Her dark hair was always cut just below shoulder length and with her dark eyes and her darker rimmed glasses she was a very beautiful woman.
Francine had been seconded to the Marseille Institute of Technology in February to assist on a research project and Leigh was delighted at her return. The women had been friends since their days at the Arcand Institute in Toronto and Francine had helped Leigh immensely after the car crash.
“Konrad requested that she come back. In fact request is a little soft for the way he told Professor Chabonne in Marseille to send her back. I would have heard the phone conversation from the other end of the building. In the end poor Konrad had to fly over to Marseille and convince Professor Chabonne in person. I think he’s keen to put his best team back together again, now that Thule is going live,” Wolfgang continued as he bustled his way down the corridor. Leigh smiled as the prospect of working with the full team again. She knew Konrad would have wanted them all back in his fold.
Professor Dr–Ing Konrad Lippisch, the director of Project Thule, had been her mentor and supervising professor during her Doctorate in Stuttgart. Back in 2007 when she had first arrived fresh out of Cambridge he had been a lecturer on her Master’s Degree course. He’d told her she had great potential and encouraged her to stay for her doctorate as soon as possible. On his recommendation she was assigned to the prototype High Energy Laser Program and he gambled a lot of his personal credibility on her being capable of finishing her PhD in five years. Leigh had done it in four, graduated sub auspiciis Dux and Konrad was not surprised. For her part she not only respected him as a scientist but also cherished his friendship. He was witty and charming, full of fun yet utterly professional and his intelligence was not confined to science.
When the Security Directorate posted her to Toronto in late 2012 she had missed him a great deal. Then a year after her arrival in Canada, Konrad had been sent over to head up the research on the new Laser Acquisition systems. They had immediately slipped back into their easy way of working. They would go out to dinner together and simply enjoyed each other’s company in and out of work. Some people had thought they were having a romance and when Leigh heard the rumour she did nothing to scotch it. The gossip strengthened whilst she was convalescing after her crash as on each occasion Konrad travelled to Europe he would visit Leigh in hospital. It was quite easy to believe that she would have been his romantic liaison; even now he was a very young looking fifty-five year old, stood ramrod straight at 195cm tall and reminded everyone who met him of an old fashioned movie star. Why wouldn’t a woman, even twenty years his junior, be swept off her feet?
Leigh was quite happy to have people think that she and Konrad might be more than friends, because she knew the truth was a lot more dangerous for her mentor. He had confided in her after too much red wine one night, but Leigh had not shared her secrets. Konrad knew nothing of her religion or purpose in life. He was the one person that she had seriously considered telling but in the end decided she couldn’t burden him with it. Her own self-preservation also prevented her. She knew if he was ever compromised it would not be pleasant. She loved him like a father and knew he loved her in a reciprocal manner. But, that wouldn’t stop him talking in the right circumstances and so she maintained her own counsel.
“Have a good day Leigh,” said Wolfgang as he continued down the corridor to his office.
“You too Professor,” she called after him as she pushed open the heavy-duty, flexible PVC doors and entered into the main space of Oscar. The motion sensors detected her and turned on the lights.
Chapter 16
Leigh sighed out loud. The Oscar Lab had been her second home since the team had relocated from Toronto almost four years before. A scientific laboratory was where she excelled. She loved her work. She always had even from her earliest days in Stuttgart over a decade before. At first her conscience had balked at the idea of working on military systems, but her parents had told her to trust that the Lord would place her where she needed to be. All she had to do was work as well as she could and trust in God. So that is what she had done.
She walked over to the small coffee percolator and set about making the first of many jugs that would be made during the day. As the water began to flow through she wandered round the lab just checking wha
t was where and if anything significant had changed in the week she had been away. It was almost like a dog running circles in its kennel before it could comfortably settle down. It was Leigh’s routine in any lab if she had been away. She paused and leant up against one of the small ring laser station benches. She thought that maybe this time was different. For the first time in such a long time she might have a confidant. Someone to talk to about the Creed and devotion and emotions and memories. She had missed that so much since her parents had died. Her mind drifted back to Toronto, to the day she had come back after the car accident. Walking into a lab for the first time in almost six months had been such an explosion of emotions. She had been so relieved to be back in the comforting surrounds of science and yet that first day back had reinforced how desperately alone she was in life. She had no family left yet she knew that the Turner Creed would be her strength and her career would be her focus.
***
Her career had been on track. The PhD she had completed in Stuttgart had seen her contribute to the existing theories on Micro and Nanostructures in Optoelectronics. Her posting to Toronto had made her a recognised authority in the field.
When the Luftwaffe Procurement Command had instigated a specialist research project into electro-optical navigation systems in Paderborn, she was the obvious choice to head it up. She had left for Germany in January 2014 and was due back in Toronto by the June. But the car crash in the May that took her parents had almost killed her as well. She had multiple fractures, severe internal injuries including a punctured lung and a ruptured spleen. But it had been the skull fracture and the resultant subdural-haematoma that had concerned her surgeons most. She had been kept in an induced coma for four weeks and was operated on three times just to relieve the pressure building up in her skull. Her recovery was slow even after she had regained consciousness.
Professor Faber had flown over to see her twice in those weeks, but she didn’t actually remember him visiting until the end of June. He had sat next to her bed and told her to take the time to heal. It wasn’t like her job wasn’t going to be there for her and she should focus on getting better.
She didn’t want to take her time but she required further surgeries on her head, more to repair the damage to her internal organs and four separate procedures to save her right leg. Initially the damage to it had led her surgeons to contemplate amputation. Once the surgery finished the long, slow process of physiotherapy began. She tried to discharge herself from the hospital in the August, but the protestations of her doctors finally won out. They had said the only reason she had lived at all was that she had been young and fit, but that didn’t mean she was capable of healing fully without a longer convalescence.
She tried to read the final report papers of the project she had been leading but that proved more difficult than she had expected. Her concentration drifted in and out, it sometimes took ten minutes to do a simple mental arithmetic problem and most worrying, she couldn’t remember things she was sure she should know. It was the memory loss that told her all was not well and that she should heed the advice of her surgeons. Her belief in God sustained her through the worst.
Eventually it took five months for her to be discharged. She still needed intensive physiotherapy to get the full movement back in her right knee, but her doctors agreed this could be done in Toronto. They offered her crutches that she refused. They gave her a walking stick and insisted she take it. She did. Unfortunately she managed to leave it behind in the taxi that took her from the hospital back to her digs in Paderborn. She was determined to lose the limp on her right side as quickly as possible. She also wanted to get back to Canada simply to put distance between her and the place where her parents had died. She finally made the return trip in November 2014.
Professor Faber had kept her position open and insisted to the Institute of Physics in Potsdam, who kept offering him replacements, that he didn’t want anyone else. He had been backed by a number of the senior faculty members in Toronto and at Paderborn who all recognised that Leigh Wilson was a one-in-a-generation mind. Faber had gone so far to say that, given time, he could see her as a future head of the whole Reich Technical Directorate.
***
The coffee percolator’s beeping recalled her from the memories. As she poured a cup and popped a little saccharin tablet in, Francine came through the door of the lab. Leigh smiled at the coincidence. Francine had been the first one to greet her that day in Toronto as well.
“Surprise!” Francine called out as she walked in.
“Hi Franci, and yes it’s a surprise. You could have phoned.” Leigh set her cup down and hugged her friend.
“I didn’t know. Konrad flew over last week and just pulled me back here. I thought old Chabonne was going to have a fit. But it’s all good. I liked Marseille but seriously, they’re even more fucked up than we are. Do you know what the security detail said to me when I arrived?”
Leigh shook her head.
“Oh, hello, are you the new cleaner?”
Leigh’s mouth dropped open, “You’re kidding!”
“Nope. The cleaner! That’s what they said. I went ballistic. It took a couple of days but eventually I had the head of the Institute’s security detachment muster all of his personnel and have them apologise publicly to me.”
“And?”
“And what?” Francine smirked.
“And what did you say? If you had a whole Wehrmacht security detachment in front of you I can’t imagine that the head of the Women in Science movement let them go without giving them at least a small lecture in equality.”
“I may have said a few things.” Francine smiled coyly.
“Did you get into trouble again?”
“Just another interview with the Kripo. They asked if I was trying to make them arrest me for public criticism of the Reich and the Party.”
“And?”
“And I told them to fuck off and find someone else who could do what I do. Once they find her then I have no doubt Berlin will sanction my arrest. Until then I suggested they write up the report and file it with the others.”
“Franci, do you ever think you might want to be a little careful?”
“No. Stuff them. Until they pay us equally and afford young women the same opportunities as men then the answer is no. You know me Leigh.” Francine gave Leigh her best smile.
“Yes I do and I hope you never change. Love you! And I’m so glad you’re back.” She hugged her friend again.
“I’m glad I’m back too.”
“Excuse me, Doctor Wilson?” the voice came from Schütze Lukas, who had just appeared at the door of Oscar.
“Yes?” said Leigh as she moved towards him.
“I have your swipe card.”
“Excellent, thank you.”
“Allow me,” said Francine and took the card from the young soldier, whilst deliberately brushing her hand against his. He blushed.
Francine reached up and gently stroked his cheek.
“Aww. You’ve gone quite red. Are you alright Herr Untersturmführer?”
“Um, uh, no Ma’am. I mean, yes Ma’am, I am alright but, um, but I’m not an Untersturmführer, I, I mean I’m only a Schütze. Ma’am.”
“Oh Leigh, he called me Ma’am, how adorable.” She stepped closer to the young soldier and continued to stroke his cheek.
“Francine, stop teasing him,” Leigh rebuked in a soft tone. Schütze Lukas was backing toward the door yet somehow couldn’t seem to break away completely from Francine. In the end she tapped him on the chin with her index finger.
“Be off with you or you’ll get us both in trouble.” And with that she stepped away from him.
Lukas nearly fell over his own feet but somehow managed to turn and leave the laboratory whilst Francine turned back to Leigh and winked at her, “Oh I love my job.”
“You’re the only girl I know that can make soldiers of the Reich blush. That poor lad is young enough to...”
“Be exciting!” Fr
ancine finished for her. “Anyway, how come if he hit on me he’d be a stud but if I hit on him I’m a slutty girl?”
“Come on Franci, you know I’m on your side.”
“Yeah but you’re not enough. Everyone needs to accept it as normal. Imagine that, female equality as normal.”
Leigh couldn’t help but adore her friend. She was passionate, dedicated and a brilliant scientist to boot.
“Deep breath Franci.”
Francine huffed a dramatic sigh and switched tack, “Guess what I did in Marseille?”
“Is this another conquest story?”
“No you cheeky cow,” Francine laughed and added, “I’m not gonna tell you now. I’ll make you read the paper.”
“Yeah, and is it a thrilling title?”
“Advances in Graphene Oxide-Polymer Multilayer Films and Their Impact on the Silicon Wafer of the Future.”
Leigh rolled her eyes and made a face and Franci play punched her in the arm.
Over the next half hour the rest of the scientists on Project Thule arrived into the lab. Jerome Mills, originally from Larne, on the Irish coast, was the team’s electronic expert. Wilhelm Darnell was from San Diego in the German States of America and an expert on Ring Laser design. Claire Bergen, from Salzburg was Leigh’s Optoelectronics sidekick and a specialist in semiconductor laser technologies. Dimitri Petrovlav was from Podolsk, just to the south of Moscow and a theoretical scientist specialising in gravitational anomalies.
