The Never War

FIRST EARTH

We rode the rest of the way back to the Manhattan Tower Hotel in silence. I think we were all trying to get our minds around the fact that there was going to be a disaster the next day. Winn Farrow was going to light the fuse that would lead to one of the most infamous catastrophes in history. He was going to blow up the airshipHindenburg.

There wasn’t all that much I knew about the crash. The basic event was one of those things that everybody knew about because it was such a big deal. I’d seen pictures of theHindenburgin flames. I’d seen scratchy news footage of people jumping from the passenger compartment, desperately trying to escape. There was also a famous radio broadcast where some news guy was announcing the arrival of the ship, and then had to keep his head together to describe the horror of the fiery crash.

It was a famous moment in history; it was going to happen the next day. Question was, what were we going to do about it?

When we got back to the hotel, Gunny stayed in the car. “You boys go up to your room,” he said. “I’ve got a friend who can fix this car up like new. No sense in having Caplesmith on my back. We’ve got bigger fish to fry.” He hit the gas and peeled out, leaving us alone on the sidewalk.

“Why are we going to fry big fish?” Spader asked.

“It’s just an expression,” I said.

“Too bad,” he said. “I’m hungry.”

We entered the building through the kitchen and grabbed some fruit. Turned out I was pretty hungry too. The next trick was to get back to our room without being seen by any of Max Rose’s goon squad. The plan was to dodge them.

We got halfway through the kitchen when we walked straight into the same thug who nailed us the last time. Didn’t he ever go home?

“Well, lookee here,” he said. “You two boys look like you been through the war. You smell like it too.”

“Back off, bozo,” I said, trying to act all tough. “We gotta go change and-“

The goon grabbed us by the arms and marched us toward the elevators. I guess I didn’t act tough enough. Next thing we knew, we were being shoved into the living room of the penthouse. So much for our plan of dodging Max Rose.

“And don’t touch nothing,” the goon ordered. “You two are disgusting.”

The guy left, giving us a short window to figure out what we would say to Max Rose.

“We gotta tell him,” Spader said instantly. “Everything.”

“Yeah, right,” I shot back. “We’ll tell him how I’m from the future and that’s how I know theHindenburgis going to explode tomorrow. Perfect.”

“Well, you can’t saythat,”Spader countered.

“Duh.”

“But if we tell him Winn Farrow is going to blow up the zeppelin, Rose could send his thugs to stop him. They could do the job for us!”

I had to think about that. Spader might be right. If our mission was to stop Farrow and Saint Dane from blowing up theHindenburg, we could use all the help we could get, even if it was from a gang of thugs. This could be a real easy solution. But for some reason, the idea of telling Max Rose what was going to happen made me uneasy.

“You might be right,” I finally answered. “But let’s not tell him anything yet. Not until we’ve worked this through.”

“We don’t have time, Pendragon!” Spader argued. “The sooner we tell him, the better chance he’ll have of stopping Saint Dane.”

“You mean stopping Farrow,” I said.

“Whatever. Hobey, mate, we gotta tell him!”

“No, we don’t. Not yet. Don’t say anything, all right?”

Before Spader could answer, the door opened on the far side of the room and Max Rose entered with Harlow. Both were dressed in silky pajamas. Big surprise. When he saw us, Max Rose’s face lit up with a big smile.

“Buck! Flash! You’re not dead!” he bellowed.

Obviously.

Harlow got close to us, took a sniff, and wrinkled her nose. “You boys been playing with fire?”

“No, but Winn Farrow has,” Spader said quickly.

I shot Spader a look, willing him to keep quiet.

Rose and Harlow plopped down on the couch, waiting to hear our report. “I’d ask you to sit down, boys, but to be honest, you stink,” Rose said.

“No problem,” I said. “How ‘bout if we get changed and washed up before telling you what happened?”

“Do I look like a patient man?” Rose asked. “Tell me now.” Spader looked at me, expecting me to start talking because that’s what I always did. But as I stood there in front of Rose, I didn’t know what to say. I was in total brain lock. Nothing was coming.

Rose added, “I guess since you two aren’t dead, my old friend Winn is going to respect my request to mind his own business, am I right?”

I needed to come up with a story that would give us time to figure out the best way to handle the news. But I was coming up empty. A second later it didn’t matter anymore.

“Winn Farrow is going to blow up theHindenburg,”Spader blurted out.

I closed my eyes. There it was. Bang. Spader had just set something in motion that was now officially out of our hands.

Max Rose jumped to his feet in surprise. “He’s going to…?”

He couldn’t finish the sentence. He started to pace nervously. Believe it or not, he not only seemed surprised, he looked scared. That was the last thing I expected. Max Rose was a guy who didn’t even blink while staring into an assassin’s gun. But now, after hearing that theHindenburgmight go down in flames, he was on the hairy edge of cracking. He stormed over to his bar and poured himself a drink. This time he didn’t shoot any Three Stooges fizzy water into it either. He wanted it strong.

“How?” he demanded to know.

I didn’t answer. This was Spader’s show now.

“He’s got these rocket nasties,” Spader said. “He’s going to shoot one at the airship and blow it up.”

“You think it’ll work?” Rose asked.

“Take a look at us, mate,” Spader said. “He shot one of those bad boys into his slaughterhouse, with us inside. There’s nothing left of the place.”

Rose gulped down his drink and wiped his mouth with the sleeve of his expensive bathrobe. His hand was shaking. Harlow stood up and slinked over to him.

“Don’t worry, Maxie,” she said calmly. “Farrow’s too dumb to pull off something like that.”

Rose was starting to sweat. “Yeah?” he barked at her. “And what if he gets lucky? Do you know how much I got riding on that big balloon?”

I took a chance and asked, “What is it that’s coming in?”

I don’t think Rose would have answered if he weren’t so upset.

“Payment,” he shot back at me. “I’ve done a lot of work for those Germans. I’ve shipped them equipment and tools and scrap metal and a whole lot of other things. It’s cost me millions. I went out on a very long limb for those Nazi creeps. I’m in debt to a lot of people. The kind of people you don’t want to be in debt to. If I don’t get that payment…” He didn’t finish the sentence. Whatever it was, it would be ugly. Oh yeah, Max Rose was scared.

“Why don’t the Nazis just write you a check or something?” I asked.

“It ain’t that easy,” Rose answered. “This isn’t the kind of transaction you want traced. By anybody. We had to be creative. There’s cash on that balloon. Lots of it. They’re also sending me bonds and a load of diamonds. Flawless diamonds. I’ve even got a couple of paintings coming in that were done by some famous dead guys. They’re worth millions! That’s the way they wanted to pay me and I agreed. They’re sending it all in on that blimp so it’ll be easier to get through customs. Iknewit was a rotten idea.” Now I knew what Winn Farrow meant when he said he was going to hit Max Rose where it hurt the most. If Farrow destroyed theHindenburg, it would be the end of Max Rose’s business. Worse, going by how scared Rose looked, I’d say it would be the end of Max Rose himself.

“It’s okay, Maxie,” Harlow said soothingly. “You’ll figure something out.”

Rose took another drink to calm himself. “You boys did good,” he said softly. “I won’t forget that. Now get out of here. I need time to think.”

Time to think. Yeah, tell me about it. I needed a little of that too. I wished I had more time to think before I let Spader give away the show to Max Rose. Now a chain reaction had started that we had no control over, all because I didn’t have enough time to think.

I think I had better start learning how to think faster.

(CONTINUED)