The Tesla Experiment

Chapter 31

Purdue was devastated that he could not make contact long enough with Lydia and Nina on the other side of his transmission. To make matters worse he could not discuss his predicament with anyone here. They would either think he was insane, as Diekmann did, or they would laugh it off as a joke. Hopeless, he sat on the bank of the small rivulet a few meters from Jean’s house. After the French Resistance sent out their scouts to stop the advancing convoys Purdue was welcome to spend some time relaxing at the little stream.

Jean had noticed how troubled the English stranger seemed, but he did not want to impose. Purdue wanted some solitude to think about a way to get in touch with Lydia and Nina even if it was too late for him to return. From his right pocket he pulled the BAT, now virtually worthless to him. He just shook his head, unable to formulate a way to get it to work again.

“What are you doing?” a voice asked behind him. It was Celeste. She had come with Henri and his family to find protection in the mountains.

“I’m just thinking,” he smiled sadly.

“What is that?” she asked.

“Just a little radio device I can’t use anymore,” Purdue explained, trying to stay positive and kind while his world was falling apart inside him.

“Why? Are the batteries flat?” she asked.

He looked up at her, surprised at the simple way in which children saw conundrums. He nodded and tossed it up a few times, catching it again.

“So why don’t you charge the batteries again?” she asked.

“How?” Purdue played along, not giving her solution a second thought.

“Jean and his brother use the water wheels here to generate electricity,” she mentioned casually. “You should ask them to help you charge the batteries for you.”

Purdue could not believe it. Her common observation was actually quite solid. Instantly his own heart felt recharged too. He jumped up and dusted off his clothes.

“Celeste, could you show me where they generate the electricity?” he asked.

“Of course,” she smiled. “Come, I’ll show you.”

She walked up past the water mill and pointed out a small stone building, no bigger than Purdue’s bathroom back home. Inside he could only marvel at what he found. There were a myriad of devices and dials connected to various conductors that ran along the walls. The water wheel acted as generator for the four small houses outside town, so that they could be independent of the rest of the commune. Purdue was elated.

“Dear Celeste, you have no idea how clever you are!” he cheered with a warm smile. The girl did not know what was so amazing about what she suggested, but she was happy for Purdue nonetheless. He went to see Jean to ask his permission to use his generator. Of course Jean wanted to know what he needed it for, and with a grown up the battery explanation would not be sufficient.

“I have to charge this device to a certain amount of volts, Jean. And unfortunately it is a matter of urgency. My time is running out to…” he gave it some thought, “…contact the people who sent me by using this radio. But the charge has run out and I need it to communicate.”

“Oh, that should be very easy,” the Frenchman replied. “Why didn’t you just say so?”

Purdue hoped that he could have the device charged to the required voltage to reach the right thermal point, otherwise his attempts would be futile. Jean leaned against the wall of the small shack, “So what do you use this device for?”

It was the question Purdue had dreaded. He had no idea how Jean would take it if he had to tell him the truth.

“I need it to be charged so high that it would be able to reach a certain temperature when I switch it on,” Purdue explained, trying to sound as serious as possible. But to his pleasant surprise his host did not care for much more than that.

“Oh, alright then. Connect it up and charge it as long as you think. I have to meet with some of the militia members in a few minutes. Would you excuse me?” he asked cordially.

“Absolutely,” Purdue smiled. “Don’t let me keep you.”

He would let the BAT charge for the next few hours and attempt contact soon after. It worried him that they claimed to have trouble on the other side. It made him feel helpless, but as soon as he had juiced up the BAT he would find out what was going on. Not only did he need to contact Lydia, but he had to get the word out to allies of the French Resistance.

Purdue did not want to imperil the people of the French countryside with his presence there, but he could not let them know that he was the reason the Nazi’s were scouring the small towns. With Helmut dead and the macabre keepsake in Purdue’s possession, it was time to leave them behind so that he could transmit to Lydia and hopefully return home this time. With the BAT in his pocket he hitched a ride with one of Jean’s men, making his way back up toward where he knew Diekmann’s division would be stationed for the next few days. He alerted the local militia and told them where to ambush the 2nd Panzer Division ‘Das Reich’ before the Allieds locked on to the Vril Society under the noses of the SS.

In Berlin the clandestine societies that represented the Allied Forces, even various operatives and celebrities from the United Kingdom and the United States gathered their resources to create a dragnet for the Vril Society’s leaders. Masquerading as interested parties versed in the occult, psychics and mediums from all over Germany sought out the two women who led the Vril Society.

Purdue knew that he had to find a way to get back to Lyon, 2015 at all costs. With the French Resistance at his side, he managed to spread the word about the Vril’s plans to reinforce the Reich’s weapons with Tesla’s work and use their power to topple the Nazi’s. Hitler was furious.

In Berlin the Nazi High Command had ordered the arrest of all the members of the Vril Society and the Black Sun. This was, however, not what was written in history books, the reason for which would also explain the discrepancies between historical facts and what Purdue found to be happening first hand. But he was not to realize this just yet.

What baffled him was the fact that he ran into doppelgangers almost everywhere he went. Several people he met along the way were the spitting image of people he knew in his place and time. Famous people from history turned out to look quite different from those he had learned of in his history text books and so even the dates of certain events differed slightly. He wrote it off to inaccurate accounts or the manipulation of information.

Purdue made the rest of his journey on foot to avoid being detected by German forces in France. Outside one of the small villages he hiked up through the woods. Just before his twelve hours had run out, he slipped into a low hanging cliff that formed a cave structure, and he got ready one last time to return home.