The Time Portal 5: The Nazi

by Joe Corso

  The boy shook his head. “Auribus teneo lupus.” “I hold a wolf by the tail,” he said. It was Latin, meaning that he was in a dangerous situation - where both holding onto the wolf or letting go could each be deadly.

  Nicky who was a choirboy when he was young, recognized that the boy spoke to them in Latin. “Lucky, the kid is speaking Latin.” Lucky’s parents were originally from Sicily, so he tried talking to them in Italian using a heavy Sicilian dialect. Both the boy and the girl recognized a few words. “Now we’re getting somewhere. Ask them where we are.”

  “Dove siamo?” The boy didn’t respond. Then Lucky remembered an old Robert Taylor picture Quo Vadis, which meant “Where goest?” So he motioned with his hands and asked, “Quo? (Where?)”

  The boy’s eyes lit up as recognition set in. He smiled. “Sicania.” The boy motioned, using all sorts of sign language. He pointed to the two wild boars, motioning that he wanted to carry them somewhere. Lucky nodded his approval and the three boys got busy tying a rope around the animal’s legs, then a long pole was inserted between the rope. This allowed them to lift the animal up, making it easy for them to carry. Nicky and Dukie did what the Latin boys did. They slid the extra pole under the ropes tied to the hooves of the second animal, and they picked it up, and then they followed the young strangers as they treaded the narrow path to a destination that only they knew. After carrying the heavy animal for a distance along the narrow path, they had to stop to rest twice. They carried the heavy animals for twenty minutes, and then they stepped out of the narrow path, and into a clearing. About a quarter of a mile ahead in the distance, they noticed a beautiful, large estate awaiting them. As they got closer, Lucky marveled at the exquisite beauty of the place.

  When they finally arrived at the villa, the young men and lady were no longer afraid of the three strangers. Not only did the strangers save them from being gored and possibly killed by the wild boars, they managed to kill the two animals using magic, while at the same time they saved Tia’s life. Then showing that they were humble, they carried the second animal to the villa. All of this was explained to their father, Rufio Albio, consul to Rome in the year AD 335.

  Their father had been alerted by his servants that his sons and daughter were here and they had three strangers with them. The servants informed him that the strangers helped his children carry the two boars to the villa and that impressed Rufio. But he wondered who the strangers were.

  “Father,” Tia called out. “We have brought three strangers back with us. They killed the animals, and saved me from being gored by one of them. Please allow them to stay here for a few days.”

  Rufio smiled warmly at his daughter, whom he loved dearly. He could never refuse her anything. Well, that is, anything within reason. “My child, we have sixty-three rooms in our villa, and I would guess that all of the rooms are not occupied at the moment.”

  She laughed at his remark. “No, Father I’m sure not all sixty-three rooms are being used.”

  Her father looked at her with a twinkle in his eyes, and asked her, “Have you ever known me to have refused a stranger a nights lodging? Of course they can stay. Now tell me, do you know where they come from, or where they goest?”

  “No, Father. They speak a strange tongue, but they proved that they are great wizards, for they demonstrated great power.”

  Her father was suddenly very interested in what she was telling him. He took her gently by her arm and led her away from the others to a side portico, where they wouldn’t be heard. “Now tell me, child. What is this power that you speak of that you say they possess?” Tia spent the next few minutes explaining everything that happened, starting when she was about to be gored.

  CHAPTER 18

  335 AD

  The three strangers were each taken to a room prepared just for them. A change of clothes was laid out on each bed while the clothes they wore were being cleaned for them. The men placed their guns under the togas they were given to wear, and when they were dressed, Tia led them to a room known as a triclinium. This was the room in which the upper class ate their dinners. Before they sat down to eat, Rufio tried to introduce the three strangers to the guests, but Lucky couldn’t understand a word of Latin, so the introductions were difficult. Lucky recognized the name of Emperor Maximus Herculius and Cicero, and he wondered if he was just introduced to them, but he didn’t say anything. The three of them not being able to understand the language felt like deaf mutes. All they could do was smile and nod their heads foolishly. Eating dinner was uncomfortable because the meal was eaten on the triclinium, a three-sided sofa and, unlike dinners at home where you sat on a chair, and ate at a table, here they ate with their bodies extended, their left arms resting on cushions to hold up their heads, while they used their right arms to take food off a table adorned with beautiful flowers, which added beauty to the delicious meal.

  The three men from Queens, New York had never tasted wild boar before, and the delicacy more than made up for their being forced to eat in an uncomfortable position. Nicky quipped, “I bet Mickey would enjoy eating like this.” The other two agreed and laughed at the thought of him lying on the triclinium, with his legs stretched out, eating his food. Their unintended laughter made everyone at the table wonder what was said to make them laugh so.

  Lucky leaned over and whispered, “I hope they don’t bring out their favorite champion, and ask me to fight him to entertain the guests, like I had to do for the King of England when I first got there.” But his fear was unfounded because after dinner, Rufio walked over and motioned for them to come with him. Rufio tried talking to them in the Roman language, but he soon realized that they didn’t understand him. He tried Greek with still no success, and then he tried Sicania, the language spoken by the natives of this island. Rufio was pleasantly surprised when Lucky answered him in a dialect that was difficult to understand, but they managed to communicate, which made everyone happy, especially Tia, who was hanging onto every word Dukie said. Tia looked at her father and told him to go ahead, that she would show the young man around. Rufio nodded indulgently, and asked his remaining two guests where they hailed from. Lucky answered, “From a land far, far away.”

  This answer seemed to mystify their host. “But surely you come from somewhere Rome has interests in?”

  “No, sir. We come from a land that Rome has yet to discover.”

  “But Rome has conquered half of the known world.”

  “Yes, sir. And we mean no disrespect, but we come from a land far from where even mighty Rome could never conquer.” Rufio took the comment at first as an insult to Rome, but then he smiled and took Lucky by the arm and began to explain why he built this villa and to show him its special features. The most impressive was the peristyle mosaics that adorned all of the floors, and many walls of the sumptuous villa. Lucky discovered that Rufio Albio was consul to Rome, and he was a very important man. He was the person who organized the capture and transport of all the animals used in the in the Roman Coliseum. He stayed at his villa most of the time and only went to Rome when necessary.

  Tia had mentioned to Dukie that her father didn’t have to pay Rome the exorbitant taxes she needed to maintain her army, if he stayed here at his villa. Lucky smiled. “Crafty old politician.” Then he looked around at the extraordinary beauty of the place, and admitted to himself that he wouldn’t want to leave here either if this were his place.

  Finally, Rufio came out with it. “My children tell me that you used magic to kill the boars. Is this true?”

  “Yes. It’s magic in this place and time, but not in ours.” What Lucky just said didn’t make any sense to Rufio.

  “How can it be magic here and not where you come from? I don’t understand. Could you demonstrate your magic for me?”

  Lucky agreed. He figured that since they were shown such wonderful hospitality, it was only right to provide a little entertainment for him and his guests. “Please take us outside somewhere, and then send someone to inform your guests that
they should join us.” Lucky noticed a few soldiers among the crowd and he asked Rufio if he had an old shield they could use in their demonstration. Rufio motioned to a guard for him to approach him, and after a few words were said, he nodded and left. He returned shortly, with what looked to be a new shield. “Don’t you have an old shield? We will destroy this one and it will be useless when we are finished.”

  Rufio shrugged his shoulders and smiled. “It is worth the expense of one shield if you can do as you say. Come now; I’m anxious to see the power that you possess. And I’m sure my guests will be entertained as well.” The shield was hung on a post that Lucky had selected earlier. Lucky looked around at the eager faces of the guests. He had no idea that there were this many guests staying here. He motioned with his arm that they should back up a few feet. He didn’t want hot spent cartridges hitting them in their faces. Each man had fifteen rounds and one in the chamber, but they didn’t want to use all of their ammo just to entertain a few people. They were pretty certain that they would need their guns before this adventure was over, so while the guests were gathering, they had talked amongst themselves and decided to use half of a clip and no more. “Let’s shoot in bursts of three, three, and two. Okay? Let’s hope that one three-shot burst will do the job. We used some ammo to kill the wild boars and I really don’t want to dip into the boxes for any more ammo than I have to.” Lucky looked around the room to make sure all of the guests were safely away from the hot shells, then he said, “Let’s rock and roll.” With that, they reached under their togas, pulled their guns and they each fired three rounds simultaneously. The guest screamed, the shield went flying backwards off the post, and gun smoke filled the air. The shooting happened so fast that many people didn’t know what just happened. Rufio was stoic, but underneath his calm facade, he trembled at the demonstration he just witnessed. He looked at one of his guards, raised his chin, and tilted his head in the direction of the shield. The guard was hesitant at first, but he carefully picked up the shield and brought it to Rufio. The Roman shield is made of wood and is covered with a sheet of metal and it is very effective in protecting a soldier from a sword, an arrow, and a spear in the midst of battle, but this battle-tested, specially designed Roman shield was utterly destroyed in less than ten seconds. Rufio examined the fragmented pieces of wood and he put his finger through the holes in the metal and then he realized that these men possessed a power like none that he had ever witnessed before in his life. They would bear watching.

  As Rufio was examining the shield in front of the nervous soldier, a thought crossed Lucky’s mind. He was still wearing his experimental iWatch and he wondered if it could do what his iPhone could do. His demonstration worked for the King and Queen of England, so maybe it would work here too. He took his watch off and examined it, looking for some way to extract music from it. That is, if it had music stored somewhere inside of it. Knowing Jack, he must have taken it into consideration when he got the watch, so Lucky kept examining it until he found a place for earphones. He reached into his jacket, hoping that he still had his earphones, found them, and plugged them in, hoping he could now find music suitable for this age. He managed with a little effort to scroll to the music folder, then he quickly scanned a few notes of each song until he came to an Italian guitar solo featuring Italian love songs. This was as close as he was going to get to any semblance of Roman music and these songs wouldn’t be written for many centuries in the future, but it just might have the effect he hoped for.

  “Rufio, I have another surprise for you. Place these on your ears and listen.”

  Rufio put them in hesitantly, while Lucky held his watch high enough so that the earphones wouldn’t pop out of Rufio’s ears. But as soon as the guitar music played, Rufio looked around the room for the strange instrument. Seeing none, he looked questioningly at Lucky, who smiled reassuringly at him. “It’s beautiful magic, Rufio. Enjoy it.” Nicky and Dukie were confused as to what Lucky was doing, but when they noticed the earphones, they knew the watch must be programmed to store music, so they relaxed. Lucky would tell them about it later.

  Everyone wondered what the string was that led to Rufio’s ears that seemed to pleasure him so. After a while, he turned to one of his guests and motioned for him to step forward. He took the plugs out of his ears and gently placed them in his guest’s ears. The man immediately pulled them out of his ears and looked at them. Rufio told him to put them back on and listen to the sounds. The man did as he was told and soon he was carried away with the sounds of the melodious strings playing haunting Italian love songs. Soon everyone had his or her turn to experience the strange but wonderfully soothing music. When the evening was over, Rufio thanked his three guests for the most entertaining evening he and his guests had ever experienced. They would talk about this night for years to come. Lucky and the boys put on a show that made Rufio proud, and because of them, he would even be talked about in the Senate of Rome.

  When the guests had either left, or gone to their rooms, Rufio took Lucky to his office, where they shared a fine glass of wine from Rufio’s own winery. “Tell me truthfully, Lucky. How do you come by the marvels you showed us today?”

  Lucky raised his hands and displayed his wristbands. “These bracelets have me imprisoned. They were placed on me by an evil man. My friends and I barely escaped from his dungeon with our lives. I will not be free until I have them removed.”

  Rufio examined them and said, “Tomorrow, I will have my blacksmith look at it. He should be able to remove them. But that still doesn’t tell me where you obtained your powers. Those metal objects that spit fire and that device you wear on your wrist that makes music.”

  “It does much more than play music. Look.” Lucky scrolled down to the camera folder, found “projector” and hit the movie button. “Watch.” He scanned the room and then pointed the watch at a white wall, and hoped he was doing this right. He was becoming comfortable with the watch the more he played with it. A moving picture in full color flashed on the wall.

  Rufio stared in amazement. “Is that I?”

  “Yes. That is you. Do you like yourself?”

  “I didn’t know that was how I looked.” Rufio was excited and, for a moment, he behaved like a kid at Christmas, waiting for Santa Claus.

  Lucky decided to tell Rufio the truth. “Rufio, I know that what I’m about to tell you will be hard for you to believe. My friends and have traveled here from the future. As I mentioned before, we barely escaped with our lives. When these bracelets come off of me, I can travel in time. With them on, I have managed to get here, but with great difficulty. If your blacksmith can remove them, you will have my gratitude and, if you are ever in trouble, or if you need me for any reason, all you have to do is to think of me and I will know it - and then I’ll come back here to help you. But I can do nothing until these come off.”

  The following morning, a lovely female servant asked Lucky to come with him. Lucky followed her through the labyrinth of rooms until they came to a side door that led outside. He followed her out the door and around the back until they came to an open shed with a forge in it, where Lucky saw a blacksmith busy working a bellows. The man saw Lucky approaching and stopped what he was doing. He was a large man for these times, almost as big as Lucky, who stood six-foot-one. The young woman left and the blacksmith reached down and picked up Lucky’s wrist and he examined the bracelet. “Hmm,” he said. “I never saw metal like this before. Before they started on the bracelets, Lucky spoke to him in the Sicilian dialect and the big blacksmith understood, so he spoke to Lucky in the language the natives spoke.

  What kind of metal is this?”

  “Titanium,” Lucky answered.

  “Titanium? I never heard of that metal before.”

  Lucky nodded. “It is much stronger than any metal you have ever worked with.”

  The man inclined his head. “Interesting. Let me see what I can do with it.” He took a rasp from his shelf and started to file. “Hmm,” he said again. “Yo
u right. It’s very hard metal. My file didn’t make scratch on it. I’ll try something different. Come over here.” He had Lucky sit down in front of a foot-powered belt-driven grinding wheel. “I made this myself. It comes in handy for difficult jobs like this one. Place your wrist over here. I want to make sure that when the bracelet comes off, I don’t cut half of your wrist off.”

  Lucky agreed. “I wouldn’t like that either.”

  They both laughed.

  “Come on; let’s get started. This will take a while.” Lucky liked this guy’s attitude. If he heard the man right, he hadn’t a doubt that he could remove the bracelet, and Lucky liked that. The blacksmith first tried the stone, but that didn’t make a dent in the bracelet. So he removed the stone and inserted a metal wheel with a series of sharp ridges like a file would have, only this wheel was designed very cleverly. It had a set of sharp ridges protruding in front of another set of sharp ridges, or teeth, on either side of it. The result was that as the first set of teeth bit into the metal, the teeth on either side of the main one would widen the cut, making it easier to cut through the metal.

  CHAPTER 19

  PRESENT - POLAND: THE BLACK FOREST

  Adolph Mueller’s Headquarters

  Mueller just stood there, staring at the empty cell. He was sweating now. He knew that Lucky would keep his word and destroy him, and then he’d take him someplace in time that would be horrible. He’d read his file and he knew he’d do it. He rushed back upstairs and fired up his computer. He had to make sure his money was still in his accounts, knowing that Lucky would take it all from him the first chance he got.