Knock. Knock.
"Come in."
A slim, sharp-featured man entered the room, clearing his throat.
Only then did Werner look up, mustering the familiar figure before him with evident disdain.
"Speer."
Albert Speer allowed himself a faint smile, his lips returning to neutrality just as quickly.
"Minister Speer, if you would be so gracious," he corrected calmly.
Werner scoffed.
"I am not. Why are you here?"
Speer paused for a moment before pulling out a document.
"The next batch is to be released. Order of the Führer."
"The next batch…" Werner muttered, shaking his head slightly. "The next batch wouldn't happen to consist of every single Jew remaining in these camps?"
This time, Speer was the one to scoff.
"You know the answer. But Lehmann," Speer began, stepping closer, "this kind of criticism of the Führer's decisions…" He clicked his tongue. "Quite concerning."
"Concerning, you say? I find it rather concerning that my friend is surrounded by snakes like you."
Speer pushed the document further toward Werner, then turned and walked toward the door. Suddenly, he stopped, lingering for a moment before speaking again.
"He chose us himself. Perhaps he feels more familiar with the snakes than with whatever you believe yourself to be, Lehmann. Perhaps he can even be categorized as the same species."
"Your influence corrupts him!" Werner shouted, grabbing the documents with evident anger.
Speer opened the door, whispering something Werner no longer heard.
"Or perhaps he is a far worse species than all of us…"
Werner turned his gaze towards the documents after a while, reading through them. After a while he leaned back into his chair, tilting his head to the side, looking into nothingness for a moment.
Then he grabbed a pen lying besides the documents, quickly signing it.
SS-Leader Friedrich Lehmann
He closed the page, standing up, flexing his wrists.
"Matilda." He shouted, suddenly.
"Yes, Sir." An older secretary arrived in his office.
"I will go to visit Black Forest Lodge."
The secretary nodded, stepping away.
Black Forest Lodge
Werner climbed out of his car, adjusting his uniform while letting his gaze wander across the vast area.
He looked up, and high above the forest a majestic eagle circled, its wings glinting in the winter light, as if silently watching everything below.
A row of warehouses stood before him, utterly out of place in the surrounding endless forest. The warehouse furthest toward the cliff was still surrounded by a thick weave of scaffolding, workers finishing the last details.
Werner tilted his head toward the cliffside. There stood a majestic wooden forest lodge, overlooking the entire compound.
"Herr Lehmann."
A voice came from behind him, and Werner quickly turned, his gaze growing familiar.
"Herr von Braun," he replied, shaking hands with the man who, although famous, lived in the shadow of his genius brother. His name was Magnus von Braun. Werner had secured the loyalty of the two brothers very early on, under Paul's command.
"I wanted to speak with Herr Einstein and see how things are progressing," Werner said.
"Well, I can give you a tour. As for Herr Einstein… well." Magnus paused, his gaze drifting to the side for a moment.
Werner raised an eyebrow in concern.
"My brother should explain."
Werner nodded slowly before Magnus suddenly clapped his hands together.
"So, let us begin the tour."
The two men started walking toward the foremost warehouse, where two guards stood before the massive sliding door. They were clad in pristine black uniforms, bearing similarities, yet also clear differences, to Werner's own SS uniform. Their black hats were pulled low over their faces, allowing Werner to see only up to their noses.
Another difference was that the number of these uniforms was steadily increasing, while the number of SS men was steadily decreasing.
"Ghosts," Werner muttered with evident disdain, holding little regard for these men. They acted as Paul's elite force, assigned only to the most important missions or guard duties, including guarding Paul himself. Although their total number was fleetingly small, their skill was exceptional. Only one in 100,000 soldiers met the quota.
The two guards gave Werner a dangerous look, one of them especially tall and broad-built, something exceedingly rare.
Still, Werner and Magnus walked past them, slipping through the narrow gap of the door and entering the warehouse.
From the tall ceiling came light, mounted from steel cables were petroleum lamps, spending some light in the darkness. Whispers were barely heard over the sound of welding and hammering.
"The brain of this whole thing is of course the Führer but also our leading scientists. They design and live in the lodge you have admired before. But the true work happens here," Magnus said, nearing a large manufacturing area.
Werner widened his eyes once the full silhouette appeared in his eyes.
"V1," he whispered, something that Magnus heard despite the welding still ongoing on the rocket.
"You know of it?" he asked, bewildered.
"Well, the Führer told me," Werner muttered, scratching his head, with evident awkwardness.
"Although your information is not that recent," Magnus said, smiling triumphantly. "This is no longer a V1. This before you is the first V2 rocket. Although still a prototype and obviously not finished." Magnus pointed at a hole in the hull. "We will be testing at the end of this month. Around the 31st January."
Werner nodded, almost distantly, shocked by the rapid advance in technology.
"Yes it is truly marvelous," Magnus said, following Werner's gaze.
"Yes it is." Another voice came from behind, deep, charismatic, steps echoed through the tall hall.
Werner turned, mustering the man nearing. Clad in a tailored suit, hair like lightning and a charismatic smile.
"The brother," Werner said, watching Magnus from the side of his eye. An evident change in his demeanor was visible.
"Herr Lehmann, it is an honour to meet you." Wernher von Braun said, shaking hands with Werner.
"The honor is mine," Werner said, smiling awkwardly.
"Well, as I said, it truly is marvelous. Please thank the Führer again for his vast support. Without it… well, we would not even have the V1."
"How good is it? The V2 rocket?" Werner asked.
"How good? The best. A range of over three hundred kilometers, capable of reaching even Britain's hinterlands. With no effective defenses yet known, the V2 remains absolutely devastating."
Werner widened his eyes, surprised by the figures.
"Something like this…" he muttered. He could already imagine how far they would be in two years, in 1950, in 1960. It was unbelievable. A fleeting shiver went down his spine.
"Brother, I will continue the tour. Why don't you assist the booster team in the meantime," Wernher von Braun said sternly to his younger brother.
"I…" he began, hesitating. "Yes." He walked away silently, under Werner's watchful and slightly concerned gaze.
"So, as I said, let us continue the tour. The V2 is not the only revolutionary technology here."
"Jet propulsion." Braun gestured toward the massive turbines, where two men stood beside them, one giving instructions while the other worked intently on the machinery.
"Ernst Heinkel and Hans von Ohain," von Braun introduced, though the gesture was hardly necessary. At least not for Werner, who had already seen their faces in history books. But such encounters were no longer enough to truly shock him. He had met enough legends and zeniths already, in both the best and worst sense.
The scenery changed as the two men stepped outside. The damp winter sun shone pale upon a large metal structure, eerily familiar to Werner. It resembled one of Paul's old sketches, lying in a drawer back home, long since gathering dust.
"Radar. This is called radar. A miraculous technology that allows us to detect aircraft and ships long before they are visible to the human eye."
Werner nodded.
The two men continued past other experimental technologies until they reached the final warehouse. This one was surrounded by a tall metal fence and had a guard post of its own. A dozen heavily armed guards stood watch, while others patrolled inside the compound beyond the fence. The concrete building itself had no windows, unlike the others, and appeared larger and far more reinforced.
"This is?" Werner asked, stopping before the fence.
Von Braun sighed lightly.
"You wished to see Herr Einstein. He is here. As for this building and its purpose…"
He hesitated.
"This is even beyond me. But I know roughly what they are attempting inside. This building houses a top secret program called the Uranverein."
Werner widened his eyes once more. This time, a genuine shiver ran down his spine. He had always known it was a possibility. He had simply forced the thought out of his mind.
"I believe you may enter. I, however, may only do so with special permission from the man inside or from the Chief of the Special Research Bureau, the Führer himself," von Braun said, gesturing toward the guard post.
Werner nodded and stepped forward.
"Halt!" a guard shouted, blocking his path.
"Name and occupation!"
"Friedrich Lehmann…" Werner paused, clenching his teeth briefly. "Chief of the SS."
The guard studied him for a moment before entering the post. He picked up a telephone and spoke quietly. His position was immediately replaced by two other guards, who stood firmly in Werner's way.
The man on the phone glanced at Werner once before finally ending the call.
"You may pass."
Werner entered the building cautiously, an eerie feeling creeping over him.
What if all of this is radioactive? he wondered, shaking his head.
Still, he continued forward. Turning a corner, he suddenly bumped into a man wearing goggles and a protective suit.
"What the—?" the man exclaimed, studying Werner. "I did not expect visitors."
He pulled off his goggles, revealing his face.
"Heisenberg," Werner whispered, recognizing him instantly.
"Do we know each other?" Werner Heisenberg asked, leaning casually against the wall.
"Not personally. But we share the same accomplice… Albert Einstein," Werner replied, watching as Heisenberg's demeanor shifted.
"He is in the office over there," Heisenberg said curtly, pointing down the corridor.
Werner held his gaze for a moment before moving toward the indicated door.
"Shh… shh… shh…"
A loud rhythmic sound echoed from inside.
Werner opened the door.
His eyes immediately landed on the black leather sofa in the center of the room.
And widened again.
There lay Albert Einstein, dressed only in an undershirt, sprawled across the couch, mouth open, snoring loudly.
"He simply refuses to work," Heisenberg complained from behind Werner, leaning against the doorframe. "At first he assisted Braun. Then he calculated rocket trajectories and various projections. But once he realized they would be used for war rather than space travel, as he had been told, he refused outright. He claims to be a pacifist."
Heisenberg exhaled sharply.
"And then he appeared here. I do not know how. I do not know why. But when I asked him to work with me, given his brilliance, he simply shook his head and went to sleep on my couch."
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We are slowly approaching the end of Volume 2, building toward a crazy finale. My ideas for Volume 3 are peak… Your support keeps me going, even though I don't earn a single penny from this.
Thank you all for the support! I appreciate every Power Stone, comment, and review.