The Time Portal 5: The Nazi

by Joe Corso

  “Were the bombs activated successfully?” he asked Lucky, but it was Rutgar Weiss that answered.

  “Yes, the bombs are activated and counting down as we speak. I set the timer for one hour. We have another forty-five minutes before the world changes. Herr Mueller, we did as you requested. The bombs are activated and now we would like to be paid and, with your permission, I want to be as far away from here as humanly possible.”

  “Of course, Dr. Weiss.”

  He reached into his inner jacket pocket, took out his personal checkbook, and wrote out two five-million-dollar checks, one for each of the physicists. “Take the checks to my secretary and she’ll arrange for the transfer of funds to your bank.”

  “I want the both of you to email me your new addresses and phone numbers if they have changed. I may require your services in the future, and I want to be able to contact you.”

  “Yes, sir,” the two echoed in harmony.

  “What about me?” Lucky said angrily. “How come my two friends are still here? Why haven’t they left? If I remember right, you gave me your word.”

  “Yes, yes I did. I usually keep my word, but this time, I’m afraid that I had to break it.”

  “But why?” Lucky asked. “I’ve done as you asked. Why not let us go?”

  Lucky was acting contrite to give Mueller the impression of uncertainty, when in fact he was furious. Mueller had just sealed his fate. As rich as he was, he would spend the rest of his life in some hellhole, yet to be determined.

  Mueller smiled malevolently at him. “Please do me the courtesy of returning to my newly created titanium cell.”

  “And if I don’t?” Mueller pointed to two of his men standing at the entrance to the cell, facing Dukie and Nicky, and they had their guns pointed at them.

  “Then I’ll have to punish your friends.”

  Lucky looked at the two men and then at his friends, assessing the situation, He had no choice, so he backed into the cell. As soon as the doors closed, a mist flowed from the vents in the ceiling, filling the room. Lucky, Nicky, and Dukie fell to the cold concrete floor, unconscious.

  Lucky awoke in an antiseptic room to bright lights flooding his sensitive eyes. He immediately sat bolt upright, ready to fight. Mueller was standing alongside him. Beside Mueller were two men and one female, all dressed in white hospital gowns. Lucky didn’t like the feeling he was getting.

  “What have you done to me.?”

  “Why absolutely nothing, Mr. Campo.”

  Lucky looked down at his hands. There were two flat ultra-shiny bracelets on his wrists. To the casual observer, the bracelets looked to be very expensive and like very unique jewelry, but that wasn’t the case with these bracelets.

  “What are these bracelets doing on my wrists?”

  Mueller looked at one of his technicians.

  “Carl, why don’t you explain to Mr. Campo why these bracelets are very special.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Karl looked at Lucky and began to explain. “Mr. Campo, before I begin, I want to apologize for having to put these on you. I read your file and I’m very impressed. I would have loved the chance to discuss your newfound abilities and . . .”

  Mueller interrupted. “Stop this nonsense and get on with it, Karl. We have no time for idle chatter.”

  Karl looked deflated. “Yes. Of course, Mr. Mueller.” He turned to Lucky. “These bracelets, Mr. Campo, are made of titanium, which is the hardest metal on the surface of this planet. Knowing how titanium affects you, we added a small circuit board to them, which produces a harmless solar-powered current, which sends a signal with the exact same properties as titanium. There is nothing in the bracelet that will harm you other than curtailing your ability to travel in time.”

  Lucky panicked at the thought of never seeing his princess and son again.

  “Get these off of me. I have a wife and son back in the 12th Century, and I must get back to them.”

  Karl hung his head, ashamed at what he had done. “I have a wife and son too, Mr. Campo, and I know how hard it would be for me to never see them again. Please forgive me. I meant you no harm.

  “Get out of the way, Karl.” Mueller pushed Karl aside.

  “You are stuck here in the present, Mr. Campo. You will never leave this time again. Never.”

  “Why are you doing this to me?”

  Mueller looked amused. “You must be joking, Mr. Campo. If I let you regain your powers, I’m sure you would somehow find a way to take my fortune from me, especially now when I’ll need it the most.”

  Lucky stepped back and turned away from Mueller and, when his back was turned, Lucky tried to create a portal, with no success.

  “Goodbye, Mr. Campo. Sleep well. I will see you after Russia is destroyed.”

  Lucky laughed out loud, and waved his hand at Mueller. “Sorry to disappoint you, but nothing will happen in Russia.”

  Mueller turned and rushed back to the cell.

  “What do you mean, nothing will happen? Weren’t the bombs activated?”

  “Yes, they were activated.”

  “Then what is the problem? The bombs will go off as planned.”

  “No they won’t. Those bombs will never go off.”

  “You are bluffing, Mr. Campo. I see it now. You are just trying to get a rise out of me. Well, it won’t work. My scientists would never betray me, considering the consequences if they did, and besides, why would they betray me when I’ve paid them a fortune for their services.”

  “In that sense, you are correct. Those two men would never betray you. They did exactly as you instructed; they activated the bombs.”

  “Then what is the problem, Mr. Campo? The timers are set to go off in . . .” Mueller checked his watch. “. . . exactly eighteen minutes.”

  Lucky wanted to make Mueller sweat a little by making him think that he hadn’t lost his ability to travel in time.

  “Go away, Mueller. You double-crossed me and, because of that, I promise you, that I will stop the bombs from going off, and I will do it without leaving this room.”

  Mueller’s face became somber and his demeanor doubtful. “You are bluffing. How can you do what you say you can do while never leaving this cell, which I remind you, is lined with titanium?”

  “You have no idea of the powers I possess. Time travel is only one of my abilities. After I disable the bombs, I will take great pleasure in destroying you. Now I would like you to leave. I have work to do.”

  CHAPTER 14

  12TH CENTURY

  Keisling rested against the side of the mountain while Victor used his sword to chop down the last tree. Then the trimming of the tree began and, after that chore was completed, the tree and branches would have to be chopped into logs suitable for a campfire. He looked up at the mountain and knew they would need more of this wood if they were to make it over the mountain peaks. His eyes left the mountain and looked over the ledge they were on. If Victor missed with a swing of his sword, he could plunge over the cliff and fall into the deep valley below. But Victor’s sword was accurate, and he wasn’t missing. Since that was the case, then Keisling would just have to help make that happen. He rose from where he was resting and walked over to Victor. “You are tired. Give me your sword and I’ll finish chopping the tree for you.”

  Victor was tempted, sorely tempted to let Leopold have the sword. He was tired, very tired, and he could certainly use a short break.

  Keisling estimated the distance from where Victor stood, to the edge of the ledge they were on at about six feet, and about ten feet from where he now stood, but he realized he would not get the opportunity to kill Victor unless he got his sword. He put out his hand. “The sword, Victor. I’ll finish cutting this tree for you.”

  “No. I’ll keep my sword. But I do need to take a few minutes to rest.”

  With the knowledge that he wouldn’t get the sword, Keisling figured that plan “B” was his next option. Plan “B” consisted of killing Victor with the boot knife he
bought along with the sheepskin while at the inn. “Come on, Victor, since you won’t give me your sword, sit down. Relax a little while and get your strength back.”

  “Yes, that sounds like a good idea. I’m exhausted and need to rest a little while.” As soon as Victor sat down, Keisling reached over with the knife and, without warning, he gutted Victor. As Victor held his gut to keep his insides from spilling out, Keisling shoved him over the cliff, but mercifully, Victor was dead before he hit the ground. Keisling turned to where he had been resting, and he spotted his sword, and the heavy robe he had removed, to make it easier to cut down the tree. Keisling picked it up and placed all of the cut wood on it, but before leaving, he covered all signs of a struggle with dry leaves. Then he dragged the heavy cloak with the wood on it, up the mountain toward the cave.

  CHAPTER 15

  PRESENT

  As soon as Mueller walked away, the outer door to the titanium-lined cell slammed shut and the lights came on. Lucky spoke quietly so he couldn’t be heard by anyone monitoring his conversation. He told his friends how he used his new experimental iWatch to contact Oleg Karpov, alerting him to the bomb threat. He just hoped that Oleg successfully recorded the conversation. Not only would it give him the location where the bombs had been activated, it would also give him proof in a court of law that Mueller was a terrorist. But Lucky knew that if the Russians caught Mueller, they wouldn’t take him to court. They’d most likely do to him what they had done to Alexander Litvinenko, the ex-Soviet officer who was part of the Russian Federal Security Service, known simply as the RFSS. The British had given Litvinenko political asylum. When his autopsy was performed after his death, they found significant amounts of radionuclide polonium-210 or 210Po in his body. The assumption was that someone bumped into him and pricked him with a needle, which delivered the 210Po into his body. After his death, his wife insisted that the Russians had killed him, because he began working for MI5 or MI6 she wasn’t sure which, but one thing was for sure, and that was the Russians didn’t want him to divulge sensitive information to the British. Yep. The Russians have long memories and he was sure that this would happen to Mueller if they got to him before what he had planned for him didn’t work out.

  “Can you get us out of here?” Nicky asked.

  “Not with these on.”

  Lucky pulled up his sleeves to show his new jewelry.

  “Nice bracelets,” Dukie wisecracked.

  “Yeah, well, these bracelets are what’s preventing me from getting us out of here. They’re made of titanium, which I recently discovered cancels out my ability to create portals.”

  “No shit. They can do that?”

  “Yeah, they can. But before I throw in the towel, I want to try a few things. I can’t create a portal right now, but maybe with a little practice, I may be able to do something else.”

  “What do you think you’ll be able to do? Let me rephrase that. What is that something else that you’re hoping to do?”

  “I don’t know. But if I can manifest something, something is better than nothing, right?”

  “Right,” his two friends answered at the same time.

  “Now try not to bother me for a while. I’m betting that once Mueller finds out that the bombs didn’t go off, he’ll run down here mad as hell, and I’d sure like to have a little surprise in store for him when he does come down.”

  Lucky lay back on his cot and began the same routine he did when he was in Vlad the Impaler’s cell, where he was forced to learn how to create a portal. At first, he didn’t think he could do it, but creating a portal had been on the periphery of his mind for quite a while, so he gave in to it, and tried a number of different mind techniques in an attempt to create one, but up to that point, they all failed. It was when he relaxed his mind and allowed his consciousness to drift down to the beta level that he began to visualize the portal. He felt a current course through his body, and when he opened his eyes, the portal was there beckoning invitingly to him. When he stepped into it, he was disappointed because he thought that it only took him to the other side of the cell. His disappointment didn’t last long because he realized that although he was on the other side of the cell, he was also in a different century; he was in Vlad the Impaler’s time. It worked. He had created his first portal. That was what he was trying to do now. When this business with the portals began, Lucky didn’t believe in God, per se. He believed in something, but he could never define it. With the onset of his unique abilities, he knew that there was something, some force greater than the whole at work here. He believed in his abilities as an operative, and he was becoming a believer in a deity, or god force, and as his abilities evolved, he slowly became a true believer. He believed that God wouldn’t give him more than he could handle and he felt that God was with him now, even with his limited abilities. So he sat back on his cot and began to relax his mind and body.

  As far as jewel thieves went, Lucky was the best of the best, stealing exclusively from those who could afford it. That was before Dirk Sommerville blackmailed him and Mickey into coming to work for the CIA at the Compound, which was a little known unit of the CIA that worked autonomously from them. But ever since he discovered his first portal, his abilities slowly evolved. At first, he could only see a portal, and then he found that if he concentrated hard, he could create a portal, which would take him to whatever time in the past he wanted to go to. Then he began to sense when his friends living a thousand years in the past were in trouble and he discovered that he could create a portal that would take him directly to them at their moment of danger. In effect, he could sense a problem that was taking place a thousand years in the past and create a portal that would take him there to help the person, who unknowingly (or possibly knowingly) called out through time for his assistance. His evolving consciousness didn’t stop there, because he found that if he reduced or increased the vibratory frequency of the molecules in his body, he could walk through solid matter, such as a door or a wall. He had a hunch that his consciousness wasn’t through evolving yet. He had no idea what would come next, but he was ready for it. By this time, he accepted the fact that for him to be able to accomplish all of this, then there must be a creator - a force - a God. He wasn’t afraid of his evolving abilities, because he was convinced that God would never give him more than he could handle. He knew he was right, because every change occurred in a manner that he could accept and could handle.

  He relaxed his mind, and as he did, he thought of all of his enemies, and how they tried to control, dissect, or kill him, and he always seemed to come out of it unscathed. He made up his mind that he would surprise Mueller by overcoming this temporary condition.

  He tried for an hour to create a portal. He had descended to the beta level as he did in the past, but nothing worked. Suddenly, the lights went out, the door opened, and there stood Mueller, red faced and mad as hell. “The bombs didn’t go off. What did you do?” he screamed. Lucky regretted not having a surprise ready for Mueller.

  Lucky smiled. “What could I do? I was locked up in here.”

  “You did something. The bombs didn’t go off, so you must have done something.”

  “Maybe your two scientists didn’t activate the bombs. Maybe they just took your money and said that they did. Did you think of that?”

  “I questioned them and they had some rather unpleasant moments. No, they activated the bombs, I am sure of that. What I don’t know, and what I can’t figure out yet, is how you managed to do it. Come now, Mr. Campo, why don’t you tell me how you did it? I’d really like to know.”

  “I’m not through with you yet, Mueller. You will rue the day that you did this to my friends and me. I never make a promise I don’t keep - and I’m making you a promise right now. I will utterly destroy you. You will lose everything you worked so hard for and you will be penniless. Don’t look so crestfallen, Mueller. Cheer up, because I have plans for you.”

  Mueller smiled, trying hard to give the appearance that he wasn’t in
the least bothered by what Lucky just told him. But the truth was, he was terribly bothered it. “And what plans would they be, Mr. Campo?”

  “My plans for you are not finalized yet, but I’m spending all of my time thinking of the perfect place to take you when I get free. But don’t worry, because I promise you, when I make my decision, it will be a good day for me . . . but a very unpleasant day for you.”

  Mueller’s face turned beet red. “I will kill you before you can do anything more to me. You have taken away my chance for revenge against Russia and you will pay for it.” Mueller would have ordered his men to kill Lucky right then and there, but he was still spooked thinking of how Lucky managed to defuse the bombs with his titanium bracelets on his wrists, while locked in this titanium-lined prison. He decided that his revenge against Lucky would have to wait a little while longer, so he turned and stormed up the stairs, leaving Lucky wondering if he pushed Mueller’s buttons a little harder than he should have.

  Lucky was running out of time; he had to come up with a way to get out of this prison. “Damn these bracelets,” he murmured silently to himself. His friends had remained quiet, and when they saw Lucky lie back down on his cot and close his eyes, they stayed quiet, hoping that he’d find a way to get them out of here. Lucky always found a way out. He never failed and they had confidence that he wouldn’t fail now. Yeah, he’d find a way out; he always did.

  CHAPTER 16

  12TH CENTURY

  Keisling was physically exhausted from his exertions of struggling forward through the treacherous icy snow, while carefully gripping with his foot under the snow to prevent himself from slipping and falling to his death on the craggy rocks below. He fought the storm for six hours through the blinding snow that pasted his eyes and beard white. He was almost frozen, suffering from hypothermia, due to the freezing cold and heavy snows falling incessantly, and showing no signs of letting up. Then he blinked his eyes, thinking he was hallucinating, because through the heavy snow, the cave suddenly appeared before him. He staggered through the opening into the warmth of the cave then, exhausted, he leaned heavily against the side of the cave for a moment, attempting to catch his breath before bending down to pull his boot knife from his boot. He remembered that he had Victor’s sword. He tucked the knife back in his boot, took the sword that was bundled with the wood, and held it in front of him as a precaution against a wild animal, which might have ventured into the cave to get some shelter from the cold. He waited silently for a while in the dark, listening for any noises that might indicate danger, until he was finally satisfied that he was safe. Keisling took a flint from his pocket and, in spite of his cold, numb fingers, he managed to get a fire going, which created a flickering golden light, that illuminated the cave just enough to show that he was alone. Keisling added wood to the fire, allowing it to spread comfortable warmth throughout the cave, then he picked up one of the smaller logs and lit it to use as a torch. He didn’t want any surprises while he slept, so he decided to explore the rest of the cave before shutting his eyes. Signs of other occupants being here in the past were prevalent, such as old campfires and strange writings on the walls. Probably travelers like him, he thought, who wanted to get out of the cold for a spell. He relaxed when he saw that there was no sign that the cave was being used by humans or animals.