The Time Portal 5: The Nazi

by Joe Corso

  “That, my friend, is none of your business.”

  At that moment, Stengal wanted to run his blade through the blacksmith, but he couldn’t have the law after him, so he thought better of it, knowing that his job was not to kill the blacksmith, but to kidnap the princess. No, the blacksmith could wait. He’d kill him later when he returned with the princess, if the opportunity presented itself.

  “I will not forget you, blacksmith. When I inquired at the inn where I could buy a horse, I was told to come to you. You had some for sale in your stable behind your shop. Now get me a horse.”

  The blacksmith nodded. “It is true. I do have a few horses but they are being held as collateral against a debt.”

  “Yet you sold a horse to the man who came in here earlier. Did you not?”

  “If I did or didn’t sell him a horse, it is still none of your business.”

  Stengal, realizing that by being obtuse, he was getting nowhere, so he decided on another approach. “Look, blacksmith, I mean you no disrespect. It’s just that my business requires me to travel a great distance, and in order to do that, I must have a horse for which I am willing to pay you more than it is worth.”

  The blacksmith relented. “I have one horse available that I can sell to you. I will bring him out for you to look at, and if you want him, he’s yours.”

  Stengal agreed, and the blacksmith pointed to the spot outside by the alley where he instructed Stengal to wait for him. When Stengal walked out the door to the designated spot to wait, the blacksmith walked out the back door and over to the barn to get the horse. Stengal watched the blacksmith as he led the horse through the alley to where he was waiting. The horse was one that the blacksmith couldn’t sell because it was old with not much fire left in her. But still, it was better than walking, so Josef Stengal bought the horse for fifteen silver pennies, which included an old, worn, and badly scuffed leather saddle. When Stengal looked at the horse, he wanted to kill the blacksmith. He would never have lowered himself to ride such a dilapidated old nag as this one was, let alone buy it. He wanted to tell the blacksmith no deal, but he couldn’t. He needed this horse, no matter how much he hated to ride it. Still, it was better than walking.

  Stengal dismounted in front of the inn and tied the horse to a rail and then he walked into the inn where the others were waiting for him. “I managed to purchase one horse. There don’t appear to be any other horses for sale in this village, so I will ride ahead, and after I take care of this business with the princess, I will meet up with you on the road somewhere.”

  Father Matthew was frightened, even though this had always been part of their plan. “But the king will send troops to find you when he discovers that the princess has been taken.”

  Stengal smiled mirthlessly. “I have eluded better men than the king. You have nothing to fear. It is I who will take the risk. But I promise you that when we are safely away from the castle, no one will find us - not the king’s guard, and not his wizard, and that I am sure of. When things quiet down, then I will get on the road again and find you. Then all of us will make our way back to Spain, only this time, we’ll have the princess to hand over to the inquisition.”

  CHAPTER 28

  PRESENT

  The professor settled the saucer gently on the roof of Mueller’s castle in Poland’s Black Forest, setting off two different alarms, a motion detector that was activated when the ship was picked up by the computer in the castle as it crossed the motion alarm’s beam and a vibration sensor that was tripped when the ship landed. Mueller panicked for the moment and immediately ran to his bank of monitors to check the roof. He panned the camera, but there was nothing on the roof. Mueller looked for help from his computer wizard Hans Grueber.

  “What do you think set the alarms off, Hans?”

  “As you can see, there is nothing on the roof, so it must have been birds that set them off.”

  “Birds? I haven’t seen any birds on the roof.”

  “Still, that doesn’t mean that they weren’t there. Here; look for yourself. There is nothing on the roof. What else could it have been, if not birds?”

  “Perhaps you are right. I’m reacting to every noise and alarm as if it were the devil himself coming for me.”

  He thought about what he just said and, without intending to, he laughed out loud. “What are you laughing at, Adolph?” Hans asked.

  “Nothing. I laughed at something stupid I just said. I said that I’m reacting to every noise and alarm as if it were the devil himself who was coming for me. And I may never have said truer words than those. Now keep your eyes on the monitors. I don’t want to be surprised by this Lucky Campo fellow.”

  The professor positioned the ship upon landing, so that the steps were facing away from the cameras. Lucky and the boys, with their invisibility suits on and activated, walked from the saucer to the door leading into the building. Mickey picked the lock in a matter of seconds and the boys entered the castle, once again setting off alarms. Mueller jumped out of his seat.

  “What was that?” Hans checked the bank of monitor screens, and he clearly saw the roof door swinging open back and forth, almost closing, until it finally slammed shut, silencing the alarm.

  “I’ll ask you again, Hans. What set off that alarm?”

  Hans shrugged his shoulders. “One of two things could have set that alarm off. The first is the door wasn’t closed properly. One of our men did a roof check, and when he reentered the building, he might have left the door ajar. Or someone could have broken into the building, which would have set off the alarm - but that is impossible.”

  “Why is it impossible, Hans?” Mueller asked the question, hoping against hope that Hans was right, but still something was nagging at him. He knew that something wasn’t right with all these alarms going off. “Why do you say it’s impossible for someone to have gained access to the building?”

  “Come over to the monitors, Mr. Mueller. See? Here is the roof door, which is closed now, probably by force of the wind, which is gusting quite heavily now. And look at the staircase. Empty. No one is in the staircase, so it must have been the wind that closed the door. Now I don’t have an answer as to why the door was not closed properly. I will have to question the men who checked the roof. They should have made sure that it was closed properly before coming back down here.”

  Mueller looked at each screen, studying it for any sign of something out of the ordinary, but no matter how hard he looked, he could find nothing wrong. Everything appeared to be normal with no intruders or anything suspicious happening either on the roof or on the stairway leading down towards the security room.

  Hans picked up the radio. “Victor, come in, please.”

  “Victor here.”

  “Victor, please come to the security office right away.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  A few minutes later, there was a knock on the door, but before opening it, Hans checked the peephole to see who it was. Satisfied, he opened the door and let in Victor.

  “You wanted to see me, sir?”

  Hans started to ask a question, but Mueller interrupted. “Did you check the roof earlier?”

  “Yes, I did. Why?”

  “Did you close the door behind you and secure it?”

  “Yes, I did. And I made sure that the door was locked from the inside. Why do you ask?”

  “Because the alarm went off and when we checked the monitor, the door wasn’t closed. It was swaying in the wind. Then it slammed shut, and the alarm went off.”

  “But that is impossible. I am certain that I shut the door behind me. It would be amateurish of me to do otherwise, and believe me, sir. I am anything but an amateur.”

  Mueller turned to Hans. “You see, Hans. Something is terribly wrong. Someone or something opened that door. I believe Victor when he said that he locked the door behind him. It would be foolish to think that he forgot to do such an obvious thing as that. It is ingrained in him through training and experience not to do otherwis
e. Contact the men and tell them that there are intruders in the building and I want them found.”

  A voice broke the silence between words, when there was nothing more to say.

  “No need to do that.”

  Mueller, Hans, and Victor looked around the room to see who said that, but there was no one there. Then suddenly, a mist, like a drizzle before the rain, formed before their faces, and then everything went black. The knockout spray worked perfectly. When the men opened their eyes, they found themselves strapped to chairs, secured by duct tape. Lucky had taken off his invisibility suit while the others kept them on and activated, allowing them to remain invisible. There was sheer terror in Mueller’s eyes, but Hans and Victor had curious looks on their faces, wondering how the intruders could have gotten in without being seen on their monitors. Hans assumed it was a computer glitch, somehow promulgated by these men, using the services of a master computer hacker.

  Before turning his attention to Mueller, Lucky addressed the other two men. “I’ll be leaving in a few moments. After I’m gone, you two can free yourselves from the tape. It’ll take you a good half hour, but you’ll be successful. As for Herr Mueller, he’s coming with me. You had better look for other employment, because you will never see Adolph Mueller again. I’m going to tape your mouths to prevent you from alerting others in this building, but again, you should have no problem freeing yourselves of your restraints. Look at the watch on the wall in front of you. I want you to promise me that you’ll be quiet and not move for the next fifteen minutes. If I have your word, then I’ll leave you as you are. If you don’t give me your word, or if you break it, I will come back and I will take you where I’m taking Herr Mueller. I promise you that you will live to regret that you didn’t listen to me. Now do I have your word that you won’t do anything for the next fifteen minutes?”

  Both Hans and Victor nodded, letting him know that they would comply.

  “Good,” Lucky said. He pointed at the door and it opened as if by magic, leaving the two men stunned. Then he pointed to Mueller, and Mueller’s eyebrows lifted and his eyes opened wide as he rose from his chair as if by magic and floated across the room, and then out the open door. Two invisible men were carrying him. Mueller’s two men, who were strapped in their chairs, looked at each other, and then at the clock. They weren’t about to try anything before the fifteen minutes were up.

  CHAPTER 29

  PRESENT

  Lucky told Mickey to make sure that he had the knockout canister in his hand, in case he encountered men when he went down the stairs. Lucky, Nicky, and Dukie carried the unconscious Mueller down the stairs, and they only came across one person, who, thanks to Mickey, was lying on the steps fast asleep. The men entered the dungeon area and walked directly to the titanium-lined cell, which Mueller had specially made to trap Lucky. Lucky checked the rear of the cell, the part that was beyond the Plexiglas section, partitioned off from the main cell, and he looked for the portals. He was relieved to see that they were still there. The portal closest to him was the one that would take them to the catacombs in the time period, he assumed was the late 1700s or early 1800s, but unless he explored the catacombs for tombs with dates on them, he had no way of knowing. Realistically, he would never explore the catacombs for fear of getting lost in the underground maze. He read somewhere that people got lost in the catacombs and never found their way out again, and they died there.

  “Give me the smelling salts. I want this guy awake when we leave him there.”

  Mickey cracked open a vial containing smelling salts, and then waved the fumes under Mueller’s nose. He instantly awoke from the effects of the knockout spray. With his eyes half opened and only partially awake, he suddenly became aware that he was in the cell he had constructed for Lucky.

  “What are you going to do with me?” he stammered.

  “It’s not what we’re going to do with you that you should be worried about, but where we’re going to take you. Now that should really concern you. You see . . . I’m gonna take you to your retirement home. That’s what I’m about to do. You thought that you took my powers away, but as you will soon learn, that didn’t happen.” Lucky wanted to leave Mueller with the impression that he had never lost his powers. When Lucky asked himself why this was important to him, he didn’t have an answer to his question, but somehow it was very important to him for the Nazi to think that.

  “Are you ready to visit your new home, Mueller?”

  Mueller cried out for someone . . . anyone, to come and help him, but no one came. Lucky picked him up and then he turned to his friends, who were still invisible.

  “Wait here. I’ll be back in a minute.”

  Mueller looked around to see who Lucky had just spoken to, but no one was there, and that really frightened him. Lucky took his arm and stepped forward, and they both disappeared into nothingness. Mueller felt the constriction caused by the portal and he panicked, but Lucky told him that this was normal. After taking a half dozen short steps to his left, Lucky pushed Mueller out of the portal and into the repulsive and harrowingly gloomy atmosphere of the catacombs, where thousands of skulls leered menacingly through the dark at Mueller, which made his blood run cold. He turned to say something to Lucky, but he was gone. No one was there and he was alone. Mueller was scared out of his wits, thinking he might faint.

  “Lucky, I know that you’re here somewhere. I know you can hear me. Please, I beg of you, take me away from here, please bring me back.”

  When there was no answer, he fell to the floor, sobbing, not knowing what else to do. He was a man who demanded to be obeyed, he expected to be obeyed, and yet there was no one there that he could call to for help. He got up off of the floor and took a torch from a holder on the wall and he reasoned that if the torches were lit, then there were people who maintained this avenue of the dead and they would find him. He didn’t know that some of the bodies that were brought down there had died from the plague, and once the torches burned down, he would be closeted in darkness. Mueller began walking along the corridors, passing thousands of the dead, turning blindly around one corner, and then another, until he was hopelessly lost among the miles of winding corridors. Yet he persevered, trying one corridor after another, hoping to find a way out. But the more he walked through the labyrinth of the dead, the more lost he became.

  Lucky stepped out of the portal and into the cell in Mueller’s castle. He knew that even though he couldn’t see them, the guys were there waiting for him. He whispered, “Guys, are you still here?”

  Three voices answered in the affirmative.

  “Come on then; let’s get to the saucer and head for home.”

  ASTORIA SAFE HOUSE - QUEENS (One week later)

  Mickey poured Lucky a cup of his German coffee, which he made by first boiling water, and then pouring ground coffee that he personally ground from fresh coffee beans into the boiling water. Then he stirred the mixture until the water was uniformly black. He studied the brew the way a scientist mixing chemicals would, and if he felt his concoction needed more coffee grounds, he would drop a pinch more of the coffee grinds into the water, which not only made it darker, but also stronger. When the coffee was as black as refined oil, he poured it into a cup through a strainer, to filter the grinds from the coffee. At first, not everyone in Lucky’s circle liked the strong brew, but when they got used to it, they found it to be not only refreshing, but also quite stimulating.

  At Lucky’s request, Mickey scheduled a board meeting for later that morning. Lucky needed to know that everything was in order before he returned to the 12th Century.

  “I want a report on how our company is doing.”

  Sal raised his hand. “I’ve been going to see Flackstein once a week to get updates on how he’s progressing and I think you’re gonna be impressed with what he’s accomplished.” Lucky laughed lightheartedly because Sal, a product of the school of hard knocks, was talking to him about their company like a corporate trader.

  “Go ahead,
Sal. What did you find out?”

  “Well, for one thing, Flackstein has the company not only operating in the black, but he’s made substantial profits. The research and development department has come up with some very unique items that he assures us we’ll be manufacturing next year at a profit.”

  “Wait a minute. Since when are we in the manufacturing business?”

  “He’s following Steve Jobs’ example and he’s doing what Jobs did with Apple. We design a product, and then we test it. When we are satisfied that it works the way it should, then we send it to our design department, and have them design a package that is pleasing to the eyes. Not only will the product be functionally perfect, it will also be aesthetically pleasing. That was Steve Jobs’ philosophy, and now it has become ours.”

  Lucky laughed outwardly. “Very good, Sal. I’m proud of you. And what about the rest of you? What have you got to say? Let’s start with you, Casey.”

  The men each brought Lucky up to date on what their role had been in helping the company grow. Flackstein was the brains behind the success of the company, and everyone, including Lucky, knew and acknowledged it. There was no doubt about it; Lucky had chosen wisely when he offered Flackstein the opportunity to head their new company.

  Before leaving the 21st Century and traveling back to his princess and son, Lucky wanted to visit the corporation he started.

  “Does anyone have a financial report for me to read?”

  Mickey reached into his attaché case and handed him a copy of the company’s financial statement.

  “Hmm, this is impressive. It appears that Flackstein is doing a great job as the president of our company. I knew I chose the right man for the job, and this financial statement proves it. Mickey?”

  “Yes, boss?”

  “Cut the ‘boss’ crap. I’m nobody’s boss; I’m your friend. Call Flackstein and tell him that we’ll be in later this morning to pay him a visit. Let him know that I’ll there with some of the board members.”