The Time Portal 5: The Nazi

by Joe Corso

  When he closed his eyes to sleep, he thought of Father Ignatio and the small group of men waiting for him down the pass. With wood and a good fire, they just might survive the night. That thought was on his mind as he drifted off to sleep. He knew with a certainty that he had to leave the cave at daylight, even though he dreaded the thought of leaving the warmth and security of the cave. The thought that Father Ignatio could have decided to brave the storm and continue up the mountain convinced him that there was always the chance that if he lingered after daylight, he just might bump into the priest and his team. So he finally allowed himself to drift into a restless sleep. He woke to the red glow of daylight rising over the horizon, which created a rainbow, caused by the sun’s rays reflecting off the falling snow. He put his sheepskin on and bundled up warmly, and then he took a look outside. The snow was still falling, but it was much lighter now. Was the storm ending? Or is it just a lull before the full brunt of the storm begins again? He looked up the pass and then at the overcast sky, but he couldn’t tell. He shook his head, staring at snowdrifts packed as high along the trail as a man’s chest, which would make travel difficult. Then he smiled, thinking that as difficult as it was for him, it would be twice as difficult for his fellow travelers to follow him . . . that is, if they had survived last night’s storm.

  Everyone who used this trail understood this was the wrong time of the year to cross these mountains, and the early snows proved it. But in a way, it was advantageous to Keisling, because only a fool would attempt to cross these mountains during a snowstorm, with the realization that an avalanche could sweep a man away in a split second, and Keisling knew from experience that this heavy accumulation of snow would hide many unseen dangers. No, a sensible person would wait until the snows thawed. But Keisling could not afford the time to be sensible.

  Keisling had traveled six hours last night to reach the cave, but there was another reason for his wanting to reach the cave during the night. It placed him near the mountain’s crest, which meant there was a chance he could be down the other side by evening. He placed the wood and his sword on Victor’s heavy robe and tied it down, knowing that if he had to spend another night in this weather, he wouldn’t survive without wood for a fire. So he grabbed the robe and dragged it out of the cave, then he pulled it up the side of the mountain. Once he crested the mountain, he discovered to his delight that he was wrong, because the snow wasn’t packed high along the trail on the other side of the mountain. The mountain itself acted as a barrier that prevented snow from accumulating on the narrow path that extended to the other side of the mountain. The light accumulation of snow turned to ice during the night, which made dragging the wood on the downward trip much easier.

  Keisling thought of how lucky he had been. If the snow had fallen from the east last night, this pass would be impossible to travel on. But the snow fell from the west, which covered this side of the mountain, and the deep snow made travel virtually impossible. He took a moment to say a silent prayer that last night’s heavy snow would prevent Father Ignatio from leaving camp today.

  * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

  Father Ignatio fretted over the fact that Victor hadn’t returned.

  “He should have been here by now. Something must have happened to him.”

  “I shouldn’t have left them alone,” Thomas snapped. “I never did trust that mercenary.”

  “Well, let’s not jump to conclusions when we don’t know the facts, Thomas. Something may have happened to them. Once we discover what happened to Victor, we’ll know what we must do. In the meantime, we must get started on our journey, or we’ll never get to England. Don’t forget; we still have a long way to go.”

  Thomas replied forcefully, “I disagree. We should remain here until I can determine what happened to Victor and Keisling. It doesn’t make sense to continue if the mercenary is not with us. He was the one that the inquisition ordered to kidnap the princess, not us, and if he’s not with us, then our mission is compromised. I suggest that you three return to the inn and wait for me there. Once I discover what has happened to them, I’ll return to the inn, and we’ll discuss our options then.”

  Father Ignatio really wanted to continue the journey, but he couldn’t argue with Thomas’s logic. Because without the mercenary, they really had no reason to continue on to England, so Father Ignatio reluctantly turned around and led the small group back down the mountain to the little town, and to the inn in which they had recently lodged.

  Thomas made his way to the spot he helped Victor chop down the tree, and could find no sign of either of them, which was odd, he thought. He had no way of knowing that the snows from last night covered all signs of Victor’s death, making it virtually impossible to discover that Victor had been murdered here. Thomas was about to continue upward, but he decided to peek over the ledge first. He looked down, and thought he saw what looked like a body at the bottom of the mountain, but at this height, he couldn’t be certain. It could be anything lying down there. Even though snowfall was light, from this height, it was difficult to see anything clearly. He turned and allowed his eyes to follow the narrow trail up the side of the mountain, searching for a sign of the two men, but he saw nothing. He looked over the ledge again, and decided that instead of trudging up the mountain, he would backtrack down the trail and, at the first opportunity, he would climb down into the ravine, and take a closer look at the object lying at the bottom of this mountain.

  CHAPTER 17

  PRESENT

  Since Lucky couldn’t create a portal any longer, he studied the two matching titanium bracelets, wondering if he could somehow use the circuit boards impregnated in them to his advantage. Interesting concept, he thought, but how would he go about manipulating that energy to his advantage? This energy was created by circuit boards and inanimate objects full of swirling electrons. Maybe he wouldn’t be successful in circumventing the energies these two annoying little devices were causing in him, but maybe he could nudge the energies into a slightly different direction. Lucky wasn’t a scientist, so he didn’t know if what he was about to try was a viable scientific possibility, but he smiled, thinking that creating a portal wasn’t either. He just couldn’t wait for Mueller to come down here and kill him; he had to try something, so he decided he would try this idea out for starters. So far, he had evolved to the point where if he concentrated properly, he could alter his body’s molecular frequency to a point where it would match the molecular vibratory frequency of an inanimate object, like a door or a wall - or maybe even these bracelets. But they were titanium and he was powerless against titanium. Wait a minute, he thought. I may be powerless against titanium, but not against a simple circuit board. What would happen if I manipulated the current coursing through the boards? What would the result be? He was becoming excited thinking about the possibility. Well, there was only one way to find out if his little experiment would work - he had to try it, and see if it worked.

  Normally, all Lucky had to do at this stage of his evolving consciousness was to think of where he wanted to go and a portal would manifest itself. It was like rubbing a lamp and a genie would appear to take him wherever he wanted to go. But these weren’t normal times, not with these titanium bracelets on his wrists; no, he had to do this the old-fashioned way. The way he did it when he was in Vlad the Impaler’s cell in his dungeon when he was forced to create a portal for the first time. He lay back on his cot and he tried to make himself as comfortable as he could on the thin fabric that substituted for a mattress, and he began to relax his mind.

  When he reached the beta level, the level he was at the first time he created a portal, he began to picture the vibratory frequency in his body slowing down, while at the same time, he compartmentalized the circuit boards in the bracelets, from the bracelets themselves, so that he and they were side by side in his mind. He pictured the energy flowing from the circuit boards as a liquid and joining the energy in the titanium bracelets. At first, it was like trying to push a billiard ba
ll through a keyhole. He just couldn’t get it to work. Not at first, but realizing that he had no other options, he kept trying. He was trying so hard that he was sweating. He was trying to force that billiard ball through the keyhole and it wasn’t working. He assessed what he was doing and how he was positioned. His hands were extended and it didn’t work. But what if he put them close, so that the bracelets were touching. Maybe it would complete the circuit and work.

  He decided to try it again, but this time with the bracelets touching. He lay back again and relaxed and just as he was about to intensify his concentration, he heard a voice say, “RELAX, relax and keep the rings touching and you will succeed in more ways than one.” He thought to himself, More ways than one? What the hell was that all about? But he did as the voice suggested and relaxed, making sure that his wrists were crossed so the two rings made contact, and as he relaxed, he watched the billiard ball become pliable as putty, and it slipped through the keyhole. His mind melded with the circuit boards, and he could see the shift in energy. It was like watching a train traveling on tracks and, at the push of a button, the tracks switched, allowing the train to travel on a different track, in a different direction. They were one, now going in different directions, and he could not only feel the energy flowing along the circuit boards, he could see it. While on the conscious level, the energy in the circuit boards could be measured, but in Lucky’s mind, he could actually see the energy flowing inside the bracelets, like water cascading off Niagara Falls and into the basin below. It was that powerful and surprisingly beautiful in multiple variations of Technicolor. Lucky and the energy melded as one and he felt a kinship to it. It was a strange feeling, a feeling of love, or of being in love. He knew that something good would result from the interaction between him and whatever energy was flowing from the bracelets into his wrists.

  Lucky opened his eyes and, there, waiting for him, was not one but two shimmering portals. Even though he felt his journey was starting all over again from the beginning, he was ecstatic because he was successful in creating not one but two portals. He knew that he was still captive to where the portals took him, but this was a start. He turned to his friends.

  “Wake up, guys. We’re getting outta here.”

  He handed a gun to each to them and he told them to hold onto him. Dukie’s eyes widened as he was handed one of the guns.

  “Where the hell did you get these?”

  “Tell ya later. Here we go.”

  The three men stepped into the portal and disappeared. They stepped out of this portal into a disturbingly grim environment. The usually unperturbed Nicky backed up in horror as he looked at thousands of macabre skulls appearing to laugh menacingly at him. But it was only the light from the torches spread out along the narrow path reflecting off of the white skeletal bones, creating the illusion that the skulls were laughing at them. “Where the hell is this place?” Dukie asked. Lucky looked around and he knew exactly what this was, but he had no idea where it was.

  “Guys, we’re in the catacombs somewhere, so let’s stay where we are so we don’t get lost. If we make a wrong turn, we may never find the portal, so let’s stay here for a few minutes while I think things out. I know that we’re in the catacombs, but I don’t know if this is the Italian, or the French catacombs. You know, with all things considered, I’m glad we found this place.”

  His two friends looked at him as if he were crazy.

  “You’re glad we found this place? If it’s not too much trouble, buddy, can you explain what you mean by that?” Nicky asked sarcastically. Lucky had a shadow of a smile on his face when he answered.

  “I’m happy I found the place, because this is where I’m gonna take Adolph Mueller. He’s gonna spend the rest of his life trying to find his way out of here, and if he does, he’ll still be in the past somewhere, in a time period that he’ll find very hard to adjust to. And you wanna know something. I think that whatever powers there are in the universe just gave me the answer to the question I kept asking myself. What miserable place can I take Mueller to? And I was guided here. Don’t you see? This portal lives in Mueller’s castle. It has now become a simple matter to visit him, knock him out, and take him down to the dungeon and then into this portal. We leave him here in the catacombs, and then we’re out of there - just like that.”

  “How about getting us out of here, like right now,” Dukie said. “You’re right. I saw enough. Let’s get out of here.”

  They tried the second portal and stepped out into a lush green valley with a river flowing through it on one side and a mountain range on the other. There were no villages, houses, or pedestrians anywhere about, so the men, happy to be free, decided to walk toward the sun. The weather was balmy, the sun warm on their bodies, the sky a cobalt blue, with a few white patches of clouds floating lazily above them.

  “We have to keep walking until I find us another portal. This is gonna be an adventure because we’ll have to use the portals I can find, until I find one that will take us back to the present.”

  “Hell, I don’t care where we are because anyplace is better than where we were. And this place, wherever it is, sure feels good to me. Look at the river and the mountains. They’re beautiful. This sure is a nice place to settle down in. And speaking of the river, why don’t we try and catch us some fish. I’m starved.”

  “Good idea,” Dukie said.

  Lucky agreed. “Let’s head for that copse of trees, and we’ll try to make a spear to catch fish with. That’s what I did when I found myself in the Australian outback. Only then, I had my boot knife with me. Do either of you happen to have a knife on you?”

  Dukie said, “I have this little knife I carry on my keychain that I use to clean my fingernails with. But I don’t think it’ll do us any good.”

  “Give it to me.” Lucky examined it. “This might work.”

  The boys searched through the woods for a branch or a long piece wood they could make into a spear. They were finally rewarded when Nicky found a branch long enough to do the job for them. They broke the branch and pulled it free from the tree. Then they picked it clean of leaves and small branches as best they could. Lucky painstakingly trimmed the tree with the pathetic little knife. It was slow going, but eventually he succeeded in trimming the end of the branch. Then he scraped the tip of the shaft on a rough rock until he had a passably sharp edge. “Okay, let’s give it a try.” After many tries, they caught a large fish, and then soon after, they caught a second one. A fire was started, the fish cleaned, and then cooked over the fire. After eating, the boys cleaned up, and like the plains Indians, when they left, no one knew they had ever been there.

  When they were about to leave, Lucky noticed a small path leading deeper into the woods through the dense shrubbery.

  “Looks like maybe a goat or a deer a path.”

  “Think we should follow it?” Dukie asked.

  Lucky nodded. “Might be a good idea. It could lead to a settlement of some kind. Let’s see where it takes us.”

  They followed the narrow path for about ten minutes, until they heard a scream. “Sounds like a woman’s scream.”

  “Yeah; come on. Maybe we can help.”

  The three men hurried through the narrow path until they came to a clearing where three young men and a young woman were trying to kill a large wild boar. Only there were two wild boars and although the young men were trying to spear it, the second wild boar had the girl trapped by a tree. The animal lowered its head and was about to charge the girl when Lucky fired three shots, hoping that the 9MM hollow points rounds were powerful enough to stop the animal. This was one time he wished he had his FN5.7, with its armor piercing shells. At almost the same time that Lucky fired his weapon, Dukie and Nicky fired their guns at the second wild boar. It was over in a matter of seconds. The animals were dead and the four young hunters were safe, but they hadn’t moved an inch for fear of being killed by the same magic that had killed the wild boars. Magic was the only explanation for what they had w
itnessed. In all of their young lives, they had never seen wild animals killed so quickly and efficiently with magic. The men tucked their weapons under their belts and raised their hands in supplication, indicating that they were friends and they meant them no harm. Lucky waved at the older boy, who appeared to be the leader of this little group, to come over to him, and when he did, Lucky tried talking to him. “Do you speak English?”