The Eve of Abounding Wickedness

by Mark Spaid

  “Because when it was time to make their move, they would’ve wanted people in their late twenties or early thirties waiting in the wings in case it took longer for the moment of the takeover.”

  “Makes sense,” Mason said.

  “What happened to the grandfather who kept the journal?” Will asked.

  “He came back to town in a hurry as he was being pursued by the Nazis. He gave the journal to a little girl. The grandfather was found strangled then the girl gave the journal to Jerun’s dad. The next day she was found murdered and they killed the dad too.” Jerun and his mother came to America as she had a relative who lived right here in Bloomington.”

  “Wow, that is strange and they never bothered Jerun or his mom?” Tatiana asked.

  “No, I guess they were hiding in plain sight,” Justin said.

  “So, there could be a large number of these Nazi descendants in Indiana or all over the country,” Wil said.

  “Yes, without a doubt,” Justin replied.

  “Are you going to try and track them down?” Sterling asked.

  “I’m not sure…after all even if we found some, there’s no law against being a Nazi,” Justin said.

  “But what if some of them are here in Bloomington?” Lexi asked.

  “What if they are? We couldn’t do anything about it and I doubt if they’re a threat to us,” Justin said. Dave and Tatiana shifted in their seats at that comment.

  “Can we try and trace at least the original six boys?” Will asked.

  “I’m going to try with Jo’s help,” Justin said.

  “How do you start with abandoned, derelict houses?” Mason asked.

  “I don’t know but the great Jo will find a way,” Justin said and Jozette rolled her eyes and shook her head.

  “There’s not much I can do but I’ll try just to shut him up,” Jozette as she gave Justin a cheesy grin.

  “That’s all I have,” Justin said. “I thought everyone should know.”

  “I agree,” Andy said. “Jo, Lind and I already knew this stuff and we’ve discussed it but like Justin says, there’s nothing to do even if we found some of them.”

  “What were they expected to do?” Lexi asked.

  “Maybe nothing overt but perhaps they were supposed to spread the word of how great National Socialism was and is,” Justin said.

  “I have to believe it was more than just that,” Andy said.

  “It was,” Dave said and they all turned to look at the man who’d said almost nothing up till now.

  “What?” Warren asked.

  “Justin said they weren’t a threat to any of us. He doesn’t know what Tatiana and I know and Sol. He’ll be here tomorrow; he had some things to take care of so we came first.”

  “What is it, Dave?” Belinda asked. He looked at everyone then at Tatiana and she nodded for him to tell them what he knew.

  “I can say that I had no idea what Justin was going to say and he doesn’t know what I’m about to tell you either. Yet they’re inexplicably tied together in what has to be the greatest coincidence of all time.” There were looks of confusion and curiosity.

  “Tell us, Dave,” Will said.

  “Okay, when I was here after we returned from Russia, I received a text that sort of discombobulated me. You remember; it upset me because it was a message from an old friend saying he was in trouble and feared for his life…he had to see me very soon. Ron Shapiro and I went to college together. I majored in history and he in physics. Later when I worked on a degree in physics, he helped me with my dissertation. He worked at NASA until they cut back then he went to a small college in New Hampshire. A friend of his and mine named Bobby Trenton, actually, I barely knew him but Ron knew him well; he came into the picture. He’d been on the down and out in New York when he found a job working for a collector.”

  “Collecting what?” Andy asked.

  “Antiques, paintings, sculptures, priceless artifacts, etc. One day a man sold the owner a notebook.”

  “What kind of notebook?” Justin asked.

  “That just it, no one knew until Bobby snuck it out of its container and hand copied some pages.” Dave paused for a moment. “Does the name Tesla mean anything to anyone?”

  “Oh boy,” Warren said as his eyes widened.

  “Tell me this isn’t what I think it is,” Little Wolf added.

  “It is,” Dave said.

  “Where’s the notebook now?” Warren asked.

  “Gone; it was stolen a few weeks after it arrived.”

  “I hate to ask this but do you know who took it?” Little Wolf asked.

  “There’ve been so many groups and individuals looking for it over the years; it could be anyone,” Dave replied.

  “But you have an idea,” Little Wolf said.

  “I do.”

  “What is it?” Belinda asked, “and who is this Tesla guy?”

  “Lind,” Jozette said with a perturbed voice and Little Wolf stepped in to help.

  “Miss Belinda, Nikola Tesla was a scientist who worked on many important things including what Mr. Warren worked on in the desert. He was a genius like Einstein and when he died in 1943 many people thought he had secrets in his hotel room that could change the world,” Little Wolf explained.

  “Did he?”

  “Nobody knows; his hotel room was ransacked by the FBI but they found nothing.”

  “What were they looking for?”

  “No one’s quite sure but his notebook would be coveted by many, including bad guys.”

  “Why?”

  “Because it’s possible that he was working on something called the Unified Field Theory.”

  “What’s that?” Little Wolf looked Dave and Warren.

  “Miss Belinda, it’s very complicated but I can tell you sometime after Mr. Dave is through talking, okay?”

  “Okay.” She found out some of the things she wanted and was satisfied to just listen.

  “A few weeks later Ron was visited in his lab by a couple of unscrupulous characters and was given an ultimatum.”

  “What kind of ultimatum?” Andy asked.

  “To be blunt, they said come work for us and keep your mouth shut or your family’s dead.”

  “He did of course,” Jozette said.

  “Yes, and it is Tesla’s notebook and it is the UFT.”

  “Is it complete?”

  “No, much of it was done but there’s no connection between the four fields. The final equilibrium’s necessary and if that isn’t solved then there’s little value to the UFT,” Dave said.

  “The first work was simple but when Ron tries to match the derivatives, he hits a roadblock,” Warren said.

  “Yes, that’s what he said to me. It looks like it’s so close that you can solve it in five minutes.”

  “But he gets leftovers,” Warren said.

  “Yes, how do you know, Warren?”

  “I worked on it myself in grad school.”

  “And?” Dave asked.

  “Same problem he’s facing. The derivatives have to match and the power output from all four fields must be identical. If not, the field won’t hold and you have nothing.”

  “It’s almost impossible,” Andy remarked.

  “That’s right, Andy. That’s the problem he’s facing.”

  “What’s your friend’s field?” Will asked.

  “Electromagnetism.”

  “Is he the best in the world?”

  “He might be now,” Dave answered.

  “What do you mean?”

  “The best was Reva Kumar from the University of New Delhi.”

  “Why didn’t they ask her?” Will said.

  “I think they did and she told them no.”

  “Where is she then?” Will asked.

  “Dead; strangled. They’re not taking no for an answer. The number two person in the field Nikola Shevelevitch also turned them down and he was shot. So, you can see why Ron’s scared for his life.”

  “And I’m guessi
ng Ron was given a deadline or else?”

  “Not a specific date but he thinks they’re growing impatient with him.”

  “After your friend, who are the leading people in electromagnetism?” Andy asked.

  “Warren, Sol and me in that order,” Dave said and there was silence for a few moments as everyone was thinking. Jozette looked at Ariel and her lips were trembling. Jozette went and sat by her.

  “So, you think one or all three of you will be next?” Will asked.

  “Will, don’t say that,” Lexi said.

  “No, he’s right,” Dave said. ‘That’s why we came here in person. Between Warren and me, you’re all involved.”

  “The girls?” Belinda asked.

  “Especially the girls. Ron was given a packet of photographs by one of the men who visited him and it was pictures of his wife and kids shopping, at school, on a walk, etc.”

  “This is bad, Dave,” Jozette said.

  “It’s very bad, indeed.”

  “Okay, so, who are these people?” Little Wolf asked.

  “That’s the bizarre thing. Ron was working in the lab and the two guys were wandering around. One of them bent over to examine something on a lab table and Ron could see an emblem on the man’s belt.”

  “Oh, no, please tell me it isn’t what I think,” Little Wolf said. Not much slipped past Little Wolf. He was nearly always ahead of everyone else.

  “I wish I could, Little Wolf, and what he’s guessed is that the emblem was a Swastika.”

  “I don’t mind telling you I’m scared,” Lexi said.

  “Me too,” Julieta said.

  “We’re all scared and if someone isn’t, they should be and quickly. These guys mean business.”

  “Wait a minute; could it be these descendants I was just talking about?” Justin wondered.

  “It almost has to be,” Dave said. “There are Nazis all over the United States but you can bet that the descendants of the top Nazis are involved in this somehow. These men who coerced Ron are not the descendants but you can be certain they’re working for them somehow.

  “What’ll you do when they come for you to solve the UFT,” Little Wolf asked.

  “I won’t do anything to endanger my family or anyone else’s,” Dave replied.

  “Me too,” Warren said.

  “And Sol feels the same way I do,” Dave added.

  “What about the police?” Jozette asked.

  “No help I’m afraid. If we did that these guys would disappear only to come back when the coast was clear and maybe kill us because they’re mad,” Dave answered.

  “But then who’d finish their theory?” Sterling asked.

  “Ah, well put, Sterling,” Will said. “What about it Dave?”

  “He’s right but if we fail to solve it then they’ll kill us and who knows who else.”

  “Should we leave the country?” Warren asked.

  “I thought about it but I don’t think that’s the answer.”

  “What is the answer?” Julieta asked.

  “I don’t have one per se but I think there’s a chance we may be needed here if these guys get the solution to the UFT,” Dave replied.

  “Needed for what?” Will asked.

  “I’m not sure; it’s just an idea I have,” Dave said

  Schensburg, Germany

  December 1944

  “Are they ready to go?” An SS officer asked the doctor in charge at the house in Germany that housed the children of the top Nazi leaders.

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Good, now load them in the trucks. The male children and three nurses were loaded on two trucks and they drove away. The female children and the mothers were loaded onto another truck and it left. In an isolated area in the country the truck stopped and the mothers and their daughters and eh mothers of the male children who left earlier, were led out and to a remote place among some trees. SS guards ordered the women to walk down into a large hole that’d been dug They did though some objected. They were holding their babies when an order was given and two men opened up with machine guns. A bulldozer covered over the bodies and within a few months there was no indication that anything had happened there. That was the tomb for all the mothers and the female babies forever.

  “The nurses and the boys flew from Lisbon to New York then made their way across country to the Midwest. Back at the house in Schensburg, the doctor and three nurses were taken away, shot and buried in the woods. A day later the house was burned to the ground and the remains covered with a bulldozer, grass was planted and no trace was left of the birthing place in Schensburg

  The families were ready for their new babies. All six families were in the same small and isolated housing section that consisted of seven houses. Six for the families and one for the administrator of the program. The Nazi children would grow up and fulfill their mission. They’d wait until the time was right then they’d bring back The Third Reich.

  CHAPTER THREE

  “Have you solved it yet?” A man asked in a gruff voice and with a scowl on his face.

  “No,” Ron said.

  “Why not?”

  “It’s not fractions and decimals you know. It’s a complex set of equations and no one knows if it can ever be solved.”

  “Well, you better find a way if you know what’s good for you and your family.”

  “I know what’s at stake.”

  “Then I’d find an answer if I were you.”

  “What’re you going to do with this thing if I solve it?”

  “That’s not for you to know.”

  “Yes, I gathered that.,” Ron said as he went back to work. Work was scratching down functions and ideas then thinking. Theoretical physics has a mind of its own. You can stare at a board for hours maybe days and have nothing then a flash could come along and you have it. So far it was the former. Ron tried to look busy but he was getting nowhere and he was hoping his captors wouldn’t find out. He went home every night and saw Candy and the kids but he never knew when it’d be the last time. Candy understood what was happening but was as helpless as Ron. Every night and day there was a car sitting across the street from their house. It was kind of like the old saw; ‘you can’t run, you can’t hide and you can’t make it stop’. Ron had no illusions about the outcome of the whole thing. He expected to die and was afraid that Candy and the kids would join him. What could he do? Nothing.

  * * *

  What is Dr. Ron Shapiro trying to do to save his family and himself? He’s trying to solve the Unified Field Theory. Albert Einstein wrote the Special Theory of Relativity and the General Theory of Relativity in the very early Twentieth Century. Later he tried to unify the General Theory of Relativity with Electromagnetism. That moved him to try and unite all four of the basic forces in the Universe. Strong Interaction holds quarks together to form hadrons and holds neutrons and protons in the nucleus. The exchange particle is the gluon. Weak Interaction acts on electrons, neutrinos and quarks. The exchange particles for Weak Interaction are w and z bosons. Electromagnetism acts on all electrically charged particles and the exchange particle is the photon. Gravity acts on all objects and the exchange particle is the graviton. Can these four fields be united? Who knows? Physicists have been working on the idea for a hundred years. So far, nothing concrete. It’s theoretical physics and that’s a field that is similar to someone trying to pin a mass of jelly to a wall as it slowly slides down. When you think you have it under control, part of it moves off in a different direction.

  So, if the UFT is so important to people like these Nazis for one, what good is it if the theory is solved? What practical value could it have because these groups aren’t interested in the advance of science for humanitarian reasons. They crave one thing…control. They want all the power in the world at their fingertips. What could they do with it? If and, if is the key word, but if IT can be solved and if IT could bring together all four fields and create an equilibrium then the opportunity for devices are endless. Teleportation
…yes transporting objects through space to different locations. Time Travel…perhaps the most intriguing. A chance to go back in time and change things and one can be sure that if these Nazis got hold of it, things wouldn’t be the same as they are today. Is it possible? The theory would suggest it is. Finally, a weapon of incredible power and destructive potential. A weapon that could send an impulse around the globe that could destroy anything in its path. Ships, planes, buildings even entire cities could be wiped out in an instant. Ron knew all of this and it horrified him that such a thing could be reality if he completed the theory. But what choice did he have. If he refused, he and his family were dead. So, he went to work every day trying to solve something that seemed unsolvable, hoping that someone would come to his rescue. He also knew he was running out of time. His captors didn’t know he was getting nowhere…he had hundreds of pages of calculations and in fact he’d managed to bring the strong and weak forces together and the numbers worked. But that was only half the battle and not even the hard part. Electromagnetism was proving to be unmanageable…every time he tried to bring it in line with the strong and weak forces their numbers changed and he had to start over. Physics is frequently about approaching infinity and the numbers are so incredibly small that it’s considered error free when in reality there is an error no matter how infinitesimally small it might be. But close to infinity wouldn’t work for what he was doing. The numbers had to be perfect for the four fields to unify. And of course, gravity was a problem. It was everywhere and unlike electromagnetism, which he could regulate, it was impossible to shut off gravity. That’s where he was after three weeks. He pointed out to his captors that brilliant men had worked for years on the UFT and gotten nowhere. How could they expect him to do it in a few weeks? It fell on deaf ears. They wanted results now and he knew he couldn’t give them what they wanted. The Unified Field Theory was probably just that, a theory, and nothing more…or was it.

  Konstanz Germany

  May 15, 1945

  “Hitler’s dead and all the top Nazis are dead, in custody or on the run,” Walter Schultz said to the man sitting at a desk in an apartment in Konstanz, a small place on the Swiss border. SS Colonel Heinrich Leibnitz had discarded his uniform and moved there in early 1945 seeing that the end was near. He was wearing a Swiss hiking outfit complete with the hat.