The 34th Degree

117

As SS guards escorted him through the labyrinth that crisscrossed beneath the palace, Andros was both awed and angered by the extent of von Berg’s facility. They turned and went along one particularly dark, menacing tunnel that felt oddly familiar. Andros shivered in the cold, damp air. He was aware of voices drifting down from the other end.

Moving toward the voices, they passed through an archway and stepped onto some sort of balcony that overlooked a cavernous manufacturing facility. Stone steps led down to the floor, where a vast array of machinery, pumps, and piping hummed. Engineers in white lab coats swarmed like mice around the banks of instruments under the direction of von Berg.

“Logic never interfered with the Fuhrer’s decisions before, Myers,” von Berg was telling a short man in Kriegsmarine uniform. “So a demonstration of the power of Flammenschwert may be in order. I want the device loaded onto the Nausicaa immediately.”

“So soon?” replied Myers. “But the detonation devices have yet to be tested.”

“Circumstance has necessitated a change in plans. Now that the Allies no doubt are aware of this facility, they will seek to destroy it. No matter; it has served its purposes. The important thing is to keep the Flammenschwert mobile, out of their reach. That’s your job. As for this complex here, whatever we have accomplished we can duplicate in Germany, if necessary, and on a much larger scale.”

“ Zu Befehl, Herr Oberstgruppenfuhrer.”

Von Berg dismissed the Nausicaa ’s commanding officer and was about to resume his work. Then somebody pointed toward the balcony, and the Baron looked up to see Andros. “Ah, Herr Andros!” he exclaimed. “You keep crashing my parties.”

Andros felt the jab of a Schmeisser at his back and descended the narrow steps along the wall. When he reached the floor, von Berg regarded him with genuine admiration.

“Your timing, I must tell you, Herr Andros, is quite extraordinary. You are witnessing a great moment in the history of the Thousand-Year Reich.”

“Am I?” Andros took in the vast network of pumps and pipes. “Centrifuges, von Berg?”

“One thousand exactly,” von Berg replied. “For enriching uranium hexafluoride gas.”

“And I thought you were processing groundnuts from Brazil.” Andros hoped to catch von Berg off guard with the extent of the intelligence he-and presumably the Allies-already had gathered.

“I see you’ve learned much on your little field trip, Herr Andros,” von Berg replied, unfazed. “Unfortunately, natural uranium contains less than one percent of the isotope U-235. That’s why I built this conversion and centrifuge plant, to concentrate the U-235 isotope to about ninety percent for weapons-grade material.”

“Weapons-grade?”

“Why, enough to drive an atomic explosion.” The corners of von Berg’s thin lips turned up into a smile. “Come, Herr Andros, allow me to complete your education. I wouldn’t want you to die an ignorant animal, unaware of how close you came before failing miserably. That would never do.”

They proceeded across the floor, passing technicians and engineers busy at the controls. Andros was aware of von Berg watching him, obviously reevaluating everything through his nemesis’s eyes and not wholly displeased with the effect it had on him.

“The process is called magnetic isotope separation,” von Berg explained. “The vacuum pumps and piping move the chemically processed uranium from one centrifuge to another. It is this cascade that separates the U-235 component and produces weapons-grade uranium.”

“I see,” said Andros. “Quite a production you’ve pulled together here.”

“I’m sure someday we’ll consider this arrangement quite crude,” von Berg replied. “But for the present it suits our purposes. You no doubt are familiar with the Flammenschwert legend of Greek mythology. How man stole fire from the gods. That’s what I’ve done. I’ve stolen fire from heaven. The key to unlocking the power of the universe: Germany’s first atomic bomb. And now we are about to transfer it from this lab to my submarine.”

Andros looked on as von Berg stepped behind some oscilloscopes while several assistants began pressing buttons on another instrument panel. A low humming began.

“Synchronizing the centrifuges has been my biggest challenge,” von Berg said over the noise. “Thanks to precision parts from Switzerland, I’ve been able to keep the centrifuges aligned and minimize friction. But I’m boring you with these details. Franz?”

At the snap of von Berg’s fingers, the trusted aide materialized before Andros’s eyes.

“Herr Andros has seen enough, I think. Would you do the honors?”

Before Andros could react, he felt a crash on the back of his head and remembered nothing more.