There was a long silence in the dark war room. Kelly felt numb. In a matter of seconds, they had lost a man who had become a valued ally and put an end to Adolf Hitler before he could inflict even more damage on the world.

These were stunning developments. Far too much to digest.

Boyd caught her eye and blew out a long breath. "He isn't dead," he said in disgust.

"Who isn't dead?"

"Hitler. I used a choke hold—a sleeper hold—and he'll only be out for fifteen to twenty minutes."

Kelly's eyes bulged. "What?" she said in disbelief. "But you told Hahn that he was."

"I know. It was the least I could do for him in the last seconds of his life."

"Well then kill him now!" insisted Kelly. "What are you waiting for? Give me a gun and I'll do it."

"Aren't you the one who won't kill spiders? Who would never take a helpless life unless you had to."

"Are you kidding me? This isn't a spider. This is Adolf fricking Hitler. No one has ever deserved to die more. And we do have to take his life. Killing him will save millions."

Kelly couldn't believe her ears. Was Justin Boyd really hesitating? Yes, he killed only reluctantly, and only when necessary, but no case had ever been more open and shut.

"What about changing history?" said Boyd.

"Too late. You've wiped out one of Hitler's residences, killed dozens of guards, including his private team. You kidnapped him."

"I know. But I think this has happened before. I think we did it in a previous cycle. Maybe an infinite number of previous cycles. Sage has no record of Rolling Hills Mansion. But how can that be? It should be as famous to history as the Berghof."

"The what?" said Kelly.

"Just trust me, since it was scheduled to be one of Hitler's principal headquarters very soon, Sage should know all about it. It should have been part of our history. But I think our actions here are what changed that. We left Hitler alive. My guess is that he'll awaken, humiliated. He won't want the world to know how vulnerable he was. That he was at our mercy. That we killed more than thirty members of his security detail.

"So he'll hide it," continued Boyd. "He'll call one of his inner circle to come get him, and pretend this never happened. He'll pretend he was never here. I wouldn't put it past him to torch the place on his way out. But no matter what, I'm sure he'll keep these events a closely guarded secret. So closely guarded that the Rolling Hills Mansion never makes the history books."

Kelly shrank back in disgust. "Even if we haven't changed our future to this point," she said, "we need to now. Because this abomination has to die. And no amount of inertia will keep history on track with a change this huge."

"Didn't you promise the Enigma AI that you'd do your best to minimize changes?"

"This situation supersedes that promise. If there's ever a justification for changing history, this is it."

"Even if this were true, we have to let him wake up. Sage just told me she doesn't have enough of a voice sample to impersonate him with perfect accuracy."

"How can that be?"

"Hitler purposely shrieked his words out when speaking publicly. He thought it helped him project the ultimate command presence. There is only one known recording of his normal speaking voice, and this has been degraded through time."

"But you just had him all to yourself?"

"Yes, but I insisted he remain silent. I only let him speak to bark the order for you to join us. I asked Sage if she could transmit an impersonated voice through these phones when I was planning our escape, but I thought what you thought. That she'd have plenty of Hitler voice samples to go on. When I learned this wasn't the case, I planned to get him to talk once you were safe. But Hahn only had seconds to live, and he was pleading to see him dead. And we owed him that."

"So we're stuck here until Adolf Hitler comes to and we can get him to use his inside voice? Really?"

"I'm afraid so," said Boyd. "But I think we're safe here. This place doesn't get uninvited guests. When I was planning this, Hahn gave me the name of one of the Luftwaffe pilots tasked with the transport of supplies and human resources between here and the Atlantis Cube site in Canada. A Captain Warren Kruger. Kruger didn't bring either of us here, so he won't know who we are, and he speaks English. Hahn also diagrammed the placement of the tripwires in Canada and the layout of every building in the encampment, which Sage recorded."

Kelly sighed. She knew of Boyd's inspired plan to have Sage impersonate Hitler and order a pilot to take them back to Canada, but she didn't know the details. Still, it was obvious that they couldn't jeopardize their escape by having Sage use a less-than-perfect impersonation.

"You've never really walked me through the entire plan from here," she said.

"It's simple. We pick up a phone in the war room connected to Hitler's switchboard, and have 'Hitler' ask a switchboard operator to place a call to this Captain Kruger. The switchboard will know the call is originating from here and will make sure that Kruger is informed that the Fuhrer is on the line. With a perfect impersonation, he won't doubt it's really Hitler for a second."

Boyd paused. "I'll be feeding Sage her lines in real-time. I plan on having Sage/Hitler tell the captain that you and I saved the Fuhrer's life at the Rolling Hills Mansion, but that Kruger can never breathe a word of this to another soul. Ever. That we're Canadians working for the Reich who need to be reinstalled in Canada. That Hitler wants him to pick us up at the mansion's roundabout as soon as possible and fly us to wherever we want to go. That he needs to follow Justin Boyd's every order, no matter what, as if Boyd were the Fuhrer himself. And again, Hitler will insist that not even Kruger's superiors can know that this discussion ever took place. That it's a top-secret mission that can never be disclosed to anyone."

"That should do the trick," said Kelly.

"As I said, we should be safe in this room for some time to come. But as an added precaution, we can wait in the tunnels until Kruger's expected arrival time here, and then meet him at the roundabout."

"How do we get inside the tunnels, anyway?" asked Kelly. "Trapdoor?"

Boyd shined a flashlight against the back wall, which showed shelf after shelf of military texts. "That's a sliding bookcase," he said with the hint of a smile. "There's an entrance and ramp down to the tunnels behind it."

Kelly groaned. "Wow," she said. "A sliding bookcase leading to a secret room is cliché, even in 1943."

"True, but unless you expect there to be a tunnel system, you'd never think to check."

"Okay," said Kelly, changing the subject. "I love the plan. But as soon as Sage has the Hitler voice sample she needs, you are going to be killing him, right?"

Boyd frowned. "Look, it's been the dream of millions to kill this bastard. Mine too. I can't tell you how hard it was not to pull the trigger when I first had him in my sights. But I've had access to Sage's database and dozens of hours of downtime to study up on this war. And it turns out that we shouldn't kill him. Not now."

"Are you out of your mind?"

"Come on, Kelly," he said, sounding hurt. "You don't think I despise him as much as you do? As much as anyone would? You don't think I'd give my life a hundred times over to see him dead? But hear me out."

Kelly nodded, coming back to her senses. He was right to be hurt. He had never given her a reason to doubt his judgment. So the least she could do was give him the benefit of the doubt. "Sorry, Justin," she said. "I know you must have your reasons. Go ahead."

"Look, I understand. When Hitler is involved, emotions run high, and all bets are off. But killing him now could well make the future worse rather than better. Much worse."

Kelly's eyes narrowed. Hitler's reign had been so horrific and bloody, it never crossed her mind that history might be worse if he were killed prematurely. But maybe this was so. Boyd seemed certain of it.

"The more I read about this time, and the more I thought about it," continued Boyd, "the more it seems like a miracle that things worked out as well as they did. And yes, I'm well aware that more than seventy-five million people perished in World War II. That Hitler gassed six million Jews, and exterminated, castrated, or sterilized untold others, be they Gypsies, homosexuals, the disabled, clergy, and so on. He was an equal opportunity psychopath. But even given these atrocities, it was still a miracle things didn't turn out even worse.

"First, a little relevant background," he added. "In 1939, Germany and Russia signed a treaty of non-aggression known as the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. Then, in 1940, Hitler tried to get Russia to ally with Germany and the Axis powers, and came close. If he had succeeded, Germany, Russia, Japan, and Italy would have conquered the world and divided up the spoils. Nothing could have stopped them. But the negotiations broke down, and a year later Hitler stabbed Stalin in the back, invading Russia in direct violation of their non-aggression pact."

Boyd paused. "You should also know that in a few months from now, FDR, Churchill, and Stalin secretly met for the first time in Tehran, Iran. Secretly will meet," he corrected.

"Keep going," said Kelly. "Don't worry about tenses, I know what you mean."

"This meeting ultimately will lead to plans for the D-Day invasion of Normandy. These were very tense and delicate discussions, which almost fell apart."

Kelly found herself hanging on Boyd's every word. She had never been a history buff. On the other hand, she was now sitting in a pitch-black room illuminated only by flashlight, giving this the feel of a spooky-story session at a campout, debating whether or not to kill Adolf Hitler, while the man in question sat ten feet away.

If this couldn't bring history to life, nothing ever could.

"I could flesh out my thesis for hours, but I'll get right to it. If we kill Hitler tonight, Nazi Germany could be dramatically weakened. His death could leave a power vacuum and spark a civil war, crippling Germany. Which you'd think would be ideal. You'd think the Allies would then go on to an easy victory. Game over."

"Why isn't that the case?" asked Kelly.

"Because this could well set the stage for Russia to take Hitler's place. With Germany defanged, Stalin could roll across Europe and take over very quickly. The Russian army at the end of the war had more than twice as many men and armaments as the rest of the Allies combined. And the alliance between the Allies and Russia was uneasy, at best. Both sides had plans drawn up to attack the other at the end of the war. Both sides suspected they'd be enemies in a World War III soon enough, so why not start it when their armies and equipment were already in full gear? In some ways it's a miracle that these tensions only led to a cold war between Russia and America after WWII, rather than a hot one."

Kelly shook her head. How had she not known any of this?

"So cripple Germany," continued Boyd, "and Stalin might break off from his uneasy alliance with the rest of the Allied powers and complete the world conquest that Hitler started. And Stalin was an epic, historic monster in his own right. He executed more than a million of his own citizens. Millions more died in labor camps, massacres, and famines. Many historians believe that Stalin was responsible for even more deaths than Hitler was. He was just as ruthless a psychopath, but in many ways he was better at it than Hitler. Shrewder."

Boyd paused to allow this to sink in. "So weaken the Nazis," he continued, "and you might find yourself with an even bigger monster to deal with. But there is another alternative, one that I think is more likely. If we kill Hitler tonight, we might make the Nazis considerably stronger. Strong enough to win the war this time.

"Not hard to imagine," he added. "Hitler was superstitious and irrational. And by 1943 his health was deteriorating quickly. Not only was he flatulent, he was often ill with stomach pains, headaches, nausea, and diarrhea, and was on a host of meds to keep him going. He slept late and demanded that he never be disturbed. He paralyzed his own forces by insisting on too much control, by not being available until eleven or noon, and by failing to heed wise advice from his best generals. For example, Rommel wanted to position tank divisions close to the French coastline to repel a D-Day style invasion, but his request was overruled by Hitler. Will be overruled.

"So it's easy to imagine Hitler's replacement being much more competent than he was. He surrounded himself with ruthless men who subscribed to his vision of totalitarianism. And many of these were better strategists, in better health, who would be more willing to delegate, allow themselves to be awakened in emergencies, make better decisions, and so on. And even if Himmler wasn't the one to take over, he'd remain exceedingly powerful, so the holocaust would very likely continue unabated."

Kelly considered. She couldn't argue Boyd's point. Just because Hitler had excelled at fanning zealotry, hatred, and a diseased ideology didn't make him a master war strategist.

"And what if the new, stronger Nazi leader decided to try to bury the hatchet with Russia?" continued Boyd. "To tempt Stalin to switch sides and join Germany and Japan, as Hitler had tried to do in 1940? The new leader could insist that Hitler was solely to blame for the collapse of the German-Soviet Axis talks, and for later stabbing them in the back. That he, the new leader, had been dead set against the invasion of Russia, and had been horrified by this development. The more competent the German leader, the more it would be in Russia's best interest to change sides. Join them rather than fight them."

"In which case the Allies would be screwed."

"Very," agreed Boyd. "But even if this didn't happen, a stronger Nazi leader could change Stalin's calculations. As I said, FDR had barely managed to talk him into supporting D-Day, with great difficulty. So replace Hitler now, and maybe Stalin doesn't support D-Day this time, and it never happens.

"Worse, maybe it happens, but it now becomes the ultimate disaster. The new Fuhrer might listen to Rommel and be ready for the attack this time. Or at least allow himself to be awakened in time to react properly and win the day."

Kelly felt sick to her stomach. Boyd had laid it out like a demented Goldilocks fable. Strengthen Germany and Nazi fascism might dominate the world for decades, maybe centuries to come. Weaken Germany, and Stalinist Russia might dominate the world, with its own form of fascism in communist clothing. But leave Hitler in power and you threaded the needle—the porridge was just right.

"So you have all these forces," continued Boyd, "balanced on a razor's edge. A delicate dynamic. Treacherously complex. Push on any side of the triangle just a little and you might end up with German domination, Russian domination, or World War III between the US and Russia.

"And this is before trying to factor in the atomic bomb, which won't be ready in the current timeline until the middle of 1945. With Hitler gone, do the Nazis make the sabotage of the Manhattan Project a top priority? Does Russia decide to go after it? Is America thrashed by either Germany or Russia to the point where it feels forced to drop atomic bombs on Europe once they're available? And would this even succeed? After all, if Russia or Germany controlled the skies, they could well prevent this from happening, as the bombs could only be dropped by slow-moving planes."

Kelly swallowed hard. "I had no idea things could get this complicated," she admitted.

"When Hahn told me where we were," said Boyd, "and suggested killing Hitler, I was against it, not wanting to risk everything to try it. But I changed my mind. As you said, if ever there was a justification to take risks, to change history, this was it. But before I went forward, I took it upon myself to double-check the implications."

He shook his head miserably. "No one was more shocked by what this revealed than I was. How could killing Hitler be the wrong decision? It was an insane result, one that I fought for some time. If we don't end him now, millions more will die in gas chambers. And how could I live with myself, knowing I had the chance to kill him and didn't take it?

"Besides," he added, "my analysis could be dead wrong. It's like trying to read tea leaves. Historians might be able to poke holes in my thesis the size of Texas, and ten of them could come to ten different conclusions."

Boyd sighed. "I finally realized there was only thing I could be certain of—the way things turned out in the history we know. In the time period we're in now, there were four fascist/totalitarian forces, led by four monsters: Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Benito Mussolini, and Hideki Tojo.

"While Stalinist Russia was technically communist rather than fascist, because of the way Stalin wielded his communism, the practical outcome was almost identical. And Tojo was just as ruthless as Hitler and Stalin. Between 1937 and 1945, the Japanese military murdered as many as six million Chinese, Koreans, and others, many of them civilians. During the infamous Nanking Massacre alone, the Japanese slaughtered hundreds of thousands of Chinese and raped thousands of women."

Boyd paused for several seconds to let this sink in.

"But despite this worldwide surge of brutal fascist tyrants," he continued, "all arising at the same time, in the history we know, fascism was defeated, and democracy ended up thriving. So I've concluded that even if my analysis only has a small chance of being correct, how can I take any risk that this outcome might change? How can I live with myself if Stalin ends up replacing Hitler and succeeds in turning the world fascist where Hitler failed? Or if the Nazis end up winning this time? Or if in the new timeline, the Manhattan Project bomb is sabotaged, and Tojo's Japan somehow becomes triumphant?

"This change of history could well result in the defeat of the Allies, of America. Instead of the rise of democratic, peace-loving societies around the world, which we know is what happens if Hitler lives until 1945, we could get the opposite."

Kelly shook her head in horror. WWII had been sickening on so many levels. These years were humanity's very darkest. But after the war ended, the world improved with every passing decade. Less poverty, longer life, fewer wars, more democracies. It was far from perfect, but it was almost as if the world had hit rock bottom in these years, and then vowed to avoid the future it had narrowly missed at all costs.

"Goddammit!" she said in disgust. "We're going to have to let the bastard live, aren't we? I so want this evil asshole to die, I can't even tell you."

"You don't have to. I know. And I don't like it any more than you do. If I could kill him as a baby, I'd do it in a heartbeat. But not in 1943, when the world's war machines are in full gear, and so many forces are in such delicate balance."

"Well, as much as I hate to say it, thanks for doing such a thorough analysis. I never imagined saying this, but killing Hitler here really could have been the biggest mistake we ever made. So what now?"

"He'll awaken any minute. We'll get a voice sample to satisfy Sage's needs, bind and gag him more securely, and knock him unconscious so he won't trouble us while we recruit Kruger and begin our flight to Canada."

"Won't Hitler find out we called this Luftwaffe captain when he comes to?"

"That's doubtful. He'll think we fled the moment we could. Which is what I told him we'd be doing. I told him that if he did as I asked, I'd leave him alive and we'd flee to England—you know, just to throw in a little misdirection. Not that he'd imagine we'd go back to Canada in a million years. Or imagine we'd impersonate his voice and call a pilot."

"So you're going to put him in another sleeper hold right before the pilot is due to pick us up?"

"Not a chance," said Boyd with a weary smile. "I need him knocked out for an extended period when we leave. And there won't be anything gentle about the way I do it this time. I can't kill this repulsive maggot of a man. But the least I can do is make sure that he wakes up in some serious pain."


 "Battle not with monsters,

 Lest ye become a monster.

 And if you gaze into the abyss,

 The abyss gazes back into you."

—Friedrich Nietzsche, German philosopher


The never-ending roar of the transport plane's churning propellers wailed in Kelly Connolly's head, but while she had expected the journey to be long, perilous, and cramped, it turned out to be a godsend, instead, a tranquil life preserver in a stormy sea.

Boyd's plan had gone like clockwork, and Captain Kruger couldn't have been more accommodating—still pinching himself that he had actually spoken to the Fuhrer—and willing to do anything for the two people who he had been told had saved the Fuhrer's life.

Sage, in her debut role playing the most evil man in history, had ordered Kruger to take them to Canada and to follow Boyd's orders. The captain had been surprised when Boyd asked to be flown to the secret Atlantis Cube site. Even more surprised when Boyd insisted that he maintain radio silence, to the point of not even responding to Colonel Zimmerman's attempts to contact him upon arrival. Kruger would simply land, drop them off, and then take off again before the propellers even stopped spinning, never telling another soul the identities of the passengers he had flown. Or even that he had made the trip.

The Luftwaffe pilot had understandably questioned these strange orders, but Boyd had told him he wasn't free to answer, and had then reminded him they were on a secret mission that had the Fuhrer's full support. Given how convincing Sage's performance had been, Kruger didn't press any further.

The torturous flight Kelly had imagined turned out to be amazing. Instead of cramped seats and quarters, she and Boyd could practically luxuriate in the private cargo hold, a sizable space they had all to themselves, since they were the only passengers or cargo on board. The hold was crisscrossed with rope handholds, but the flight had been remarkably smooth, and these were rarely necessary.

Kruger had brought along four military-issue sleeping bags for them to use to get comfortable, the same design German soldiers had used to keep warm at night on the Russian front. These were large, rugged, and brownish-green in color, with canvas on the outside and soft flannel within, along with flat metal buttons, leather-reinforced buttonholes, and brass grommets. Mercifully, the bags had no military or Nazi markings. Like the vast majority of people around the world, they found the swastika repugnant, and had been drowning in these symbols since their arrival in the past.

The two American passengers both managed to get in ten hours of sound sleep on a trip that would last twenty-eight, having been more exhausted, physically and mentally, than they had ever been. Kruger had taken a four-hour nap during a layover on a tiny island, one of dozens spread throughout the five hundred thousand square miles that comprised the Hudson Bay. An island too small and unimportant to even show up on charts. The island was rarely used by the Nazis, for refueling purposes only, and they had been the sole inhabitants during their entire stay there.

The fact that Kelly could spread out, sleep, and relax with no immediate threats to her life, to history, or to the fate of humankind was amazing in and of itself. But the multiple sessions of lovemaking she and Justin Boyd engaged in as soon as they realized they were alone, as fast as they could tear each other's clothes off, were even more amazing.

The sex had been intense, passionate, electric. They had worked as a team, survived against incredible odds, saved each other's lives a number of times, and were highly compatible even before they were thrown together in the trenches. But in addition, she learned that having her life in constant danger, operating under intense, adrenaline-fueled fight-or-flight conditions for days, had unleashed a greater need for human contact, for intimacy, for connection, than she had ever felt before. The lovemaking was almost a religious experience for her, a desperately needed release for her body and mind.

Afterward, they would chat for hours, growing ever closer, and then fall asleep, only to awaken and repeat the entire sequence all over again. They allowed themselves to temporarily pretend they were back in 2027, having a normal existence, and speak of friends, and family, and careers, and favorite books and movies, and anything else that might be considered normal for a couple to share after having epic sex.

Kelly tried to put all worries out of her mind, but one managed to burrow its way in. If her grandfather's future was changed in the slightest, she would never be born. But Boyd would. His parents in faraway Nebraska wouldn't be affected at all.

In this case, she might be able to travel to some point in the future, possibly even back to 2027. This would depend on whether the cube was ever activated in the new timeline, since she would no longer exist to activate it herself, and time travel required an active cube on the other end.

There was no way to know if this would be the case, but if it were, she'd be able to get back to modern civilization. Boyd, on the other hand, would not be, as he would be blocked by another version of himself.

So what would she do in this case? How could she not travel back to her own time? She didn't belong here. She had never waxed nostalgically for life in 1943. What would she do in a scientifically primitive world, without access to a computer, or the internet, or a cell phone? There was so much she took for granted that didn't exist here.

But how could she leave Boyd behind? How could she sentence him to this same fate all alone? A fate he would never have had to face if not for her, since her theft of the cube had set everything that followed in motion.

Besides, they were great together. They weren't in love—maybe only because no adult would admit, even to themselves, that they had fallen in love so quickly—but it was only a matter of time.

The ethical dilemmas, the impossible decisions, just kept coming, and didn't get any easier. Just a week ago, her biggest decision was which type of cheese to buy. Now her decisions involved stealing the world's most powerful object, engaging in mass murder, killing Adolf Hitler, changing history, and leaving a man behind whom she was coming to love.

She realized as she thought it through that she wouldn't abandon him. That she couldn't abandon him. To do so was unthinkable. And she was equally sure that he wouldn't abandon her if their situations were reversed.

When they were two hours from their destination, they made love for a fourth time, which was almost as epic as the first three, and she rested her head on Boyd's chest, as content as she had ever been.

"Now that's the way to join the mile-high club," he said, putting his arm around her.

"Really?" replied Kelly with a grin. "You wouldn't prefer having sex inside a disgusting 737 lavatory the size of a dresser?"

"Not so much."

"Yeah, I never got the appeal. I guess people do it for the excitement, not the venue."

"Well, I prefer to be boring," said Boyd in amusement. "Our first kiss was inside the back seat of a car while hiding from Chinese commandos. Our first sex was in the cargo hold of a Nazi long-distance transport plane, more than fifty years before we were born." He grinned. "I mean, who hasn't done that? It's a tale as old as time. Maybe we're being too cliché."

Kelly laughed. "Nah, it's best to stick with the classics. And what girl hasn't dreamed of sleeping with a guy for the first time inside a Nazi plane?"

He rolled his eyes. "I know we've alluded to this before, but how did we get in a situation where every second brings another absurdity?"

"It wasn't easy, that's for sure," said Kelly wryly.

They laid in silence for several minutes. "I can't tell you how great I feel right now," said Boyd. "How great I feel about you. About us. But in a few minutes, I'm going to have to leave this fantasy and begin preparing for the landing—and for after the landing."

Kelly winced. "I know," she said, and seconds later, several tears escaped and rolled down her face, a habit she had developed lately that she couldn't seem to break.

Boyd kissed her forehead gently and remained silent, allowing her to decide if she wanted to share her feelings or keep them to herself.

"Sorry," she said softly. "But how can it be that we have yet another massacre to commit? One is inconceivable. But they just keep coming. It's too much. I know we've had this discussion before, but I have enough blood on my hands for a thousand lifetimes."

"I know. And it's little comfort, but all I can keep telling you is that we've made the decisions we've had to make. Horrible decisions that have been forced upon us. A train was about to hit ten people, so you switched the track to only kill one. Intellectually, you know you had no choice. But emotionally, it isn't about the math. It's easy for you, a wonderful, caring person, to lose sight of the ten lives saved, and focus on the one your actions ended."

Boyd shook his head. "Still," he continued, "you have to know you did the right thing. That it was the only possible decision. That if you hadn't had the strength to make this decision, you'd be even more haunted by the ten lives you failed to save."

He kissed her gently on the forehead once again and held her in silence.

"Let me try a different angle," he continued after a few minutes had passed. "You read your grandfather's journal. Read of his plans to wipe out the entire Nazi compound in Canada, which included SS soldiers, but also numerous civilian scientists. He must have done this himself the first time, before whatever loop we might be in got started. And while his journal said he didn't remember doing it, when you read it, you assumed he had, right?"

She nodded.

"And you understood why. To keep the cube from Hitler. Because if witnesses were left behind, Hitler would be even more interested in Otto and the cube and would galvanize every resource he had to hunt them both down."

Boyd paused. "So what did you think of Otto after you read this passage? Did you see him as a monster?"

"No," she said with a sigh. "I saw him as having to make impossible choices. But choices that were well justified. Choices he was forced into. I saw him as a hero for making sure the cube was protected first from Hitler, and then from mankind."

"Then why aren't you a hero for doing the same?"

"I get what you're saying. I did find Otto's actions justifiable. But that was when they were in the abstract, eighty-four years in the past. When I'm the one pulling the trigger, when I'm the one looking into the eyes of fellow human beings as I end their lives, I feel like the opposite of a hero."

"I know," said Boyd softly. "And I keep putting you in this position, over and over again. It's a nightmare that won't end. So you need to sit this one out. I've got it. Just hide near the runway and it'll be over before you know it."

Kelly was tempted to take him up on this offer, even though putting blinders on was nothing but self-delusion. Boyd likely could handle the situation without her. He would have the element of surprise. He possessed telephoto lenses and bionic hearing. But even better, he had made certain they would land at night, when his night-vision lenses would provide the ultimate advantage. His reflexes and strength were genetically enhanced, and his blood was so doped with respirocytes he could run for miles without taking a breath. He was smarter than they were, better trained, more experienced.

She frowned. Even if he could handle this alone, she couldn't let him. They were in this together. Anything could happen, and with her along, his task was greatly simplified. He would just need to get her to the cube, rather than battle the entire encampment himself.

Strangely, she was buoyed by what the Enigma AI had told her, that it had judged her somehow and found her to be worthy, well-intentioned. She had no idea how this judgment had been made, and against what standard. And she wasn't sure why she should care about an assessment made by an alien AI. Still, this did help her as she contemplated the unspeakable.

"Thanks, Justin," she said after a long silence, "but I can't let you shoulder this burden all on your own. Not when I can help by using an unstoppable weapon. And not with stakes as high as they are."

Kelly sighed miserably. "You know," she added, "Nietzsche once said that if you battled with monsters, you couldn't help but become one yourself. That it was inevitable."

Boyd kissed her gently on the forehead one last time. "That's only because Nietzsche never met you," he said earnestly.


The transport plane was equipped with an instrument landing system, which had become increasingly popular during the war for use when runway lighting was ill-advised, and Kruger had landed in the dark on this very runway dozens of times. His landing on this occasion was perfect, and he stopped just long enough for his passengers to exit before turning and launching the plane back into the sky.

Boyd was loaded to the gills with weapons, and Kelly clutched a large rucksack with medical supplies, food, and water. Once again, she would be carrying the bag to free Boyd's hands for the assault to come.

Boyd was fully aware that the SS soldiers on sky watch couldn't have missed the transport plane's approach and landing, even if they had been blind, as they were quite familiar with the roar of six separate propellers, three on each wing. They would be waking Zimmerman even now, reporting that an unscheduled German transport plane had mysteriously landed and taken off again while maintaining radio silence, and the colonel would send men to investigate.

Boyd had briefly considered eliminating these men as they approached the runway, but without a silencer, he would need to kill them all with a knife, and this would be challenging, even for him. If any of them got off a single shot, the entire camp would be awake and on high alert.

They both opened their comms so they could hear whatever the other heard, as they had done in the mansion. Boyd wanted all communications between them to go through Sage, with him speaking subvocally and her whispering.

But he first addressed his AI. "You have the tripwire map Hahn gave me in Berlin," he said, "but this map may be out of date. So process all visual input from my lenses from here on out, scanning for tripwires and anything else out of place in a forest. Alert me as soon as you identify anything."

"Understood," said Sage.

Boyd could detect flashlights quickly approaching, and estimated that Zimmerman was sending four men to investigate.

"Okay, Kelly," he said subvocally. "Let's get this over with."

There were flashlights in the bag Kelly carried, but while he hated to effectively blind her once again, any glow in the blackness would give their position away. He took her hand and guided her carefully through the woods, circling around beyond the approaching investigative force. Their pace was necessarily slow, but they made it to their destination with no trouble, as expected, easily avoiding the three tripwires that Sage identified.

As unsettling as the darkness was for Kelly, it once again proved itself to be Boyd's greatest ally.

They made their way to the edge of the encampment closest to the cube room, where Otto's journal indicated Kurt Hahn had helped him hide and retrieve his dark energy generator each morning and night. It should be inside a hollowed-out section of a large fallen tree, camouflaged by a removable moss-covered plug of dirt and roots that Hahn had found in another section of forest. Boyd found the fallen tree in question, and both he and Kelly held their breath. If Otto had moved the generator, their odds of success would plummet.

The American major removed the moss plug and reached in. It was there! Right where it was supposed to be. A device that would have been groundbreaking in 2027, but which was an absolute miracle in 1943.

"So far, so good," said Boyd, placing the device gently inside Kelly's rucksack.

With this completed, he located an overgrown area of the forest floor about ten feet away, at the base of a mighty trunk, and sat Kelly down.

"Watch carefully for any beams of light heading your direction," he told her. "Roll out of their way if you can. If you can't, let me know immediately."

"Will do," she replied, and even though he was very close, he could only hear her faint whisper through his comm, which was reassuring.

He made his way to the building that housed the cube and was encouraged by how silent and sedate the encampment seemed to be. Based on flashlights, the four men were now making their way back from the runway, no doubt still scratching their heads, and a number of others were spread out beyond the periphery of the camp, on standard patrol.

He hated to leave Kelly alone, even for a moment, but clearing a path for her to reach the cube would be very ugly, and he wasn't about to let her witness it. Guards would be awake in the cube room. But this wouldn't be the case in the outer room, and killing soldiers in their sleep was a whole new level of despicable.

Once he was finished with these heinous acts, he would kill the men guarding the cube and drag them into the dark outer room to join their slain comrades. Finally, with this completed, he would guide Otto and Kelly past the grisly dead bodies, which they'd be unable to see, and into the cube room. Once Kelly unlocked the cube, she could do her thing, and it would all be over.

Boyd entered the structure with practiced quiet and took inventory. Five SS soldiers were spread out on cots, all of them sleeping.

He surveyed the room for a second time, his pulse quickening.

Where was Otto Richter?

When they had been here last, the eighteen-year-old had lost his permission to sleep with the cube, but had been relegated to the outer room. Boyd had counted on this not changing.

But it had. And while no plan survived engagement with the enemy, this was a potentially disastrous development.

"Change of plans," he said subvocally to Kelly. "Otto isn't here. We need to find him fast. I'll conduct an interrogation and keep you posted."

Boyd removed a combat knife from its sheath and carefully slit the first guard's throat, pressing his left hand over the soldier's mouth, pushing up to expose his jugular, and then slashing through it in a single motion with his right, taking care that the eruption of blood didn't hit him or any of the other guards. He repeated this process three more times, quickly and methodically.

With four down, he pressed his hand hard over the mouth of the fifth to suppress noise, but instead of killing him, put him in a sleeper hold. This time he cut off the man's airway for a much shorter period of time than he had done with Hitler, ensuring the soldier would only be out for a minute or two.

When Boyd felt the body go limp, he lifted the man in a fireman's carry and rushed outside and into darkness, moving through the woods for about twenty seconds to put distance between himself and the encampment.

The soldier came to less than a minute later to find himself being held from behind, with a knife pressed into his throat. "Where is Otto Richter?" whispered Boyd.

"Ich spreche kein Englisch," replied his hostage.

Boyd consulted Sage, who was down to her last few hours of power. "Flustern oder sterben," he hissed, repeating the exact pronunciation provided by his AI. Whisper or die. "Wo ist Otto Richter?"

After two minutes of further knife-point interrogation, Boyd had his answers, and snapped the SS soldier's neck, lowering his limp body to the forest floor. He then brought Kelly up to speed. She had heard the man's words, but wasn't able to translate.

Just that morning, Otto had been caught destroying the dark energy generator that Alex Wentz had been constructing, using Otto's found notebook. Wentz must have been very near the finish line, and it was clear that Otto had decided he had no other choice but to show his hand, in what must have been an act of total desperation. An act designed to buy his granddaughter and her commando friend a few more weeks to make it back to Canada. Remarkably, Otto hadn't given up hope that they would somehow find a way.

The German prodigy was now chained once again inside the same conference room/prison in which they had first met. This was his first day of what was expected to be two weeks of solitary confinement.

And Colonel Zimmerman once again held the keys to his shackles.

Which meant that what should have been a straightforward Op had suddenly become far more complicated.

"Stay where you are," he told Kelly as he began making his way back to the encampment. "I'll get the keys from Zimmerman, free Otto, and then get you into the cube room as planned."

Two flashlight beams suddenly appeared, and Boyd dived into the brush a second before they swept by where he had been. He guessed they were being held by two of the men who had investigated the strange landing and takeoff, and they were getting closer in a hurry.

Boyd stayed to the side of the beams, behind a tree, and waited for them to pass.

Closer. Closer. Now!

Boyd slipped soundlessly from the shadows and fell into place behind one of the two men, snatching his head and breaking his neck with a sickening crack.

His partner jumped in surprise and turned to fire, but Boyd chopped the gun from his hand and spun him around. Before the man knew what was happening the American was behind him with a knife to his neck, just as his comrade had recently been.

"Flustern oder sterben," said Boyd in his ear, whisper or die, which was becoming his favorite German phrase. "Do you speak English?" he added.

"Yes," whispered the SS soldier.

"Good. Were you part of the team checking out the runway?"

"Yes."

"Have you reported your findings to Zimmerman?"

"Yes, just a few minutes ago. But there weren't any findings."

"So where is the colonel now?"

"I can't tell you that."

Boyd flicked his knife, and blood began to fall from a deep slash he had made under the man's chin. "Where is your colonel now?" he repeated. "Don't be a hero. I'll get the information anyway, and you'll be dead."

The soldier's chin throbbed painfully as he considered these words. "You'll let me go if I tell you?" he said, his blood continuing to water the forest floor.

"I will," said Boyd, disgusted by the necessity of having to lie, but knowing he had no choice but to kill the man, and consoling himself that the typical SS soldier was a sadistic thug with neither honor nor compassion.

"He's heading to the radio room to contact Berlin," the guard said.

Of course he was, thought Boyd. The colonel would be demanding to know who had sent a phantom transport plane. This Op should have been long over by now, and the longer it wasn't, the more complications would develop.

Boyd twisted hard, breaking the man's neck, and ordered Sage to show him the location of the radio room from the map Hahn had drawn of the compound and tripwires. He raced there as quickly as he could, abandoning caution in his haste to stop this upcoming communication from taking place.

Boyd found the surprisingly large building that housed the radio equipment and rushed inside with his gun drawn. Zimmerman was in front of a bank of equipment on the far side of the room, but he was still turning dials and had yet to make any connections.

"Freeze!" said the American forcefully, keeping his voice low.

The room was illuminated by a lantern, and the colonel stared at Boyd as if he had seen a ghost. "You!" he whispered, his eyes bulging. "How did you get back here? I was told you would never leave Berlin again."

"Don't believe everything you hear."

"Why would you come back?"

"For the boy. We heard you were treating him poorly again."

"He deserves it. Not the loyal Nazi we'd like to see."

"So I hear. But I need the keys to his shackles. Let me have them and I'll let you live."

Zimmerman shook his head. "We both know that's a lie," he said.

His eyes narrowed in thought. Suddenly, he snatched his gun from its holster, but kept it down, making sure not to point it at Boyd. "But you can't shoot me either, can you?" he added. "If you do, the entire camp comes to life. Like you've kicked an anthill. Even a man as skilled as you can't take them all on. Especially since your wife is probably nearby. You can't kill us all and protect her at the same time.

"So stay where you are and I'll keep my gun down," continued the colonel. "Take a step closer to try to kill me with a knife or other quiet method, and I'll either shoot you first, or you'll have to shoot me. Either way, the noise will attract attention you can't have."

Boyd cursed inwardly. Zimmerman continued to prove himself one of the sharpest adversaries he had ever encountered. He, on the other hand, had failed to think this action through, and now would pay the price.

"You're correct," he said calmly. "I would prefer not to wake the camp. But make no mistake, if you draw on me, or try to leave this room, I'll shoot you and take my chances."

"Looks like we have a standoff," said the German. "So here's what I propose. I agree to let you leave here, and you agree not to return. Just holster your gun and go. I won't sound the alarm for ten minutes."

"Interesting proposal," said Boyd. "Let me think about it."

"Kelly, I assume you're hearing this," he said subvocally.

"Yes! And I think he's right. If the camp is alerted, anything can happen. Especially if one of the SS finds me to use against you. The only way you'll be able to use your gun is if I turn myself from a liability into an asset. So I'm going to get control of the cube. This will free you up to kill Zimmerman and get Otto."

"There are guards still in the cube room," protested Boyd, "armed and awake."

"I can repeat what I did on Sun Island. But if there's any gunfire, you'll spook the soldiers guarding the cube. So find a way to maintain your stalemate until I have the cube secured."

Boyd wanted desperately to argue with her, to insist that her plan was too dangerous, but he knew it was the right move and that every second mattered. "I will, Kelly, good luck," he said quickly.

He wanted to tell her to take care of herself, that he was falling in love with her, but this would only serve to distract her. "Deactivate your comm so you can concentrate," he said instead, "and I'll do the same. Let me know when you have the cube secured."

"Roger that," said Kelly.

Boyd had maintained eye contact with Zimmerman the entire time he was communicating with Kelly, and now frowned and shook his head. "After further consideration," he said, "I'm afraid your proposal won't work for me. We'll need to come up with another. Do you at least have the keys to Otto's shackles in your pocket?"

"I do. I forgot to add that if you agree to leave, I'll give you the keys and let you take Otto Richter with you."

"That may just do the trick," said Boyd. "I have to admit that you've impressed the hell out of me, Colonel. You outwitted me thoroughly the first time I was here, and you reasoned your way to a stalemate now. I've continued to underestimate you."

Boyd paused. "Your suspicions about Kurt Hahn were also correct," he continued. "You were able to sense he had turned traitor based on the flimsiest of evidence, even after years of what appeared to be loyal service to the Reich."

Zimmerman ignored the compliments. "Who are you really, Herr Boyd?" he said. "An American spy?"

"The cube can facilitate time travel," said Boyd, acutely aware of the need to continue stalling. "I'm from the future. And it turns out that you Nazis lose big."

The SS colonel's eyes narrowed in thought. "Or do we win big," he said, "and you've come back to try to change that?"

"You doubted my clairvoyance, but you're willing to accept that I'm from the future? Just like that?"

"I'm good at reading people."

"You should change sides, Colonel. We could use a man like you in the future. What do I have to do to make that happen?" he asked, frantically searching for additional ways to delay the inevitable gunshots for just a few minutes longer.


Kelly Connolly pulled a flashlight from her rucksack and entered the building that housed the Atlantis Cube, shining the light so it illuminated the cube room entrance at the back of the structure. She knew better than to shine it around the room she was now in, not wanting to see Boyd's earlier handiwork.

She knocked gently at the door and waited. It was thrown open to reveal four guards inside. Their faces showed absolute shock upon seeing her there. She had been the only woman they had seen in some time, and they were not about to forget her.

"Frau Boyd?" said one of them as she boldly pushed her way inside.

"Hello, gentlemen," she said pleasantly. "Do any of you speak English?"

"I do," said the shortest of the four. "What is this about?"

Kelly kept a mental note of the elapsed time. She had to be quick, because Boyd couldn't maintain his stalemate with Zimmerman for long.

"I'm here to show you how to use the cube. To turn you into heroes in the eyes of your Fuhrer."

The man shot her a look of contempt. "Sure you are," he said.

"I'll prove what I say in just a moment. Please translate for your comrades."

While he was doing this, Kelly reached carefully inside the open rucksack and removed Otto's generator, ever so slowly, making sure none of them got jumpy.

Without waiting for permission, she walked over to the cube and lifted the steel box that was covering it, releasing its brilliant, otherworldly light.

The men began to point their weapons at her, but quickly lowered them, realizing that she couldn't possibly harm or move the cube, as dozens of top scientists hadn't even managed to scratch it. She hit a switch on Otto's generator. In a single instant, the light ceased streaming from the cube's corners, and it became solid rather than a cage.

She ignored the four gasps coming from behind her and proceeded to press and hold the cube's corners, bringing up fiery glyphs, which blazed in the dark room. The mouths of all four SS guards were now open, and they were so transfixed that not one made a move to lift his gun.

She reached out and calmly pressed the glyph that called up the telepathic AI.

"Step away from the cube!" demanded the English-speaking soldier, suddenly coming to his senses.

"Of course," she said, lifting her hands in the air so they could all see them.

"Enigma AI," she thought, mentally bracing herself for what she needed to do. "Increase the force of gravity in such a way as to break the necks of the men in this room. Please make sure they die quickly with as little suffering as possible."

"When would you like this to happen?" said the AI's voice in her head.

"Immediately!" she thought, squeezing her eyes shut.

She heard four sharp cracks and opened her eyes to see all four SS soldiers now dead on the floor nearby. A wave of nausea overtook her, but she fought through it. "Enigma AI," she thought at it, deciding that this name was too clumsy, "from now on, please respond to the name Eeny."

"Eeny it is," responded the AI.

Kelly tapped a finger twice just beyond her ear canal to reactivate her comm. "Justin, I have the cube and the room is secured," she reported.


Major Justin Boyd heard Kelly's voice in his ear and marveled once again at this remarkable woman. He was beginning to think that they were truly an unbeatable team.

Bruno Zimmerman was in the middle of a sentence, but Boyd no longer needed to stall. He squeezed off two quick shots, killing him instantly, and closed the distance between them, frisking the SS colonel rapidly until he found the keys he was looking for.

Every soldier in the encampment and on patrol would now be up and on full alert, with guns and flashlights at the ready. "Well done," he said to Kelly out loud. "I'll get Otto and be with you soon. How many men did you have to take out?"

"Four."

As Boyd neared the door he did the math in his head. There had been twenty-five SS in total before Hahn had left. He had killed eight and Kelly four, which meant that only twelve remained.

He exited the radio room and made his way to where Otto was being held, dodging the men who were flying around the dark woods, setting up lighting and trying to discover the origin of the two gunshots.

Boyd made it to the prison, illuminated by a single dim lantern, and entered quickly. Otto had been awakened by the gunshots as well, and was fully alert. In fact, he already had his hands and ankles positioned so the locks would be easy for Boyd to get to, having anticipated his arrival.

"Is Kelly okay?" he said by way of greeting, which brought a smile to Boyd's face as he went about unlocking his shackles.

"She's fine and in control of the cube," he replied hurriedly. "She can hear us and says hello. We need to get you back to the cube room right away."

Now free, Otto rose from the ground. "I hoped you'd be able to make it back, but I never really thought you would."

The door burst open and two men entered with guns drawn. Boyd kicked the lantern out and spun Otto to the ground in one fluid motion, coming up firing. He killed both soldiers and pulled Otto back up from the ground, the entire action taking only a few seconds.

Otto's eyes bulged, not from the near-death experience, but from the dazzling speed of Boyd's reflexes and decision-making.

"Stay behind me," said the American, rushing from the prison as three more SS soldiers approached, having heard the additional gunfire and shining flashlights on the two escapees.

Boyd dived into the darkness and made quick work of the three soldiers before continuing to make his way toward Kelly and the cube.

"Justin, talk to me," said Kelly frantically. "Are you and Otto okay?"

"We're both fine and on our way," he replied out loud, suddenly realizing he wasn't detecting any additional activity in or near the compound.

"Thank God!" she said. "I've been able to kill seven more of them with the cube," she reported.

"Outstanding!" said Boyd. "With the five I just eliminated, that's all of them. We did it, Kelly! The hard way. We'll meet you just outside the cube building. I know Otto's eager to see you."


Kelly threw her arms around Otto Richter and held him close, never losing her grip on the cube in her right hand. "Thank God you're okay," she said. The adolescent returned the hug awkwardly, having little experience with affection that wasn't coming from his parents.

She then embraced Boyd, kissing him as they parted.

"Why haven't we seen any of the scientists?" she asked.

"They're lying low in their quarters," said Otto. "They aren't about to pop their heads out of a foxhole when shooting begins."

"So they're just huddling inside in a panic," said Kelly, "hoping that the soldiers handle whatever is going on?"

"Yes," said Otto.

After an extended silence, Kelly turned to Boyd and shook her head. "I can't do it," she said numbly. "I won't. I don't care what happens, Justin, but I've had enough. If letting these scientists live somehow turns the world fascist, or even destroys the entire planet, I'm willing to take that chance."

Boyd and Otto exchanged glances but didn't speak.

"Except for rarities like Kurt Hahn," she continued, "the SS is comprised of cruel, ruthless zealots, too brainwashed for redemption. Zealots who would have killed us without a second thought. So we killed them, instead. I get that. But enough already. I'm not saying these scientists are saints. Some might be as big a monster as Joseph Mengele. I'm just saying I'm done killing."

Boyd studied her and then nodded. "Okay," he said.

"Okay?" she repeated, looking surprised. She had expected an argument.

"Yes. Okay. I agree with you. It's a risk to the future, but one we need to take. Hopefully, if it is a change, it won't be a big enough one to nudge history off its course. As you said, history is more resilient than it seems. But regardless, I'm glad you drew the line, Kelly. You're right. Killing Nazis, killing soldiers, is one thing. But enough is enough. I knew that if anyone could battle monsters without becoming one, it would be you."

"I'm pretty sure that I am one already."

"Not even close," said Boyd. "And thank you for bringing me back from the brink."

He sighed. "But if we're going to take this risk, I have an idea for how we can minimize it."


Thirty-six German scientists huddled together in a large clearing in the Canadian Forest, illuminated by almost fifty lanterns and flashlights, and faced two Americans and Otto Richter, who, after collecting ample supplies for their trip to Spokane, had herded the scientists there.

The American major and young scientist stood side by side, while Kelly sat five feet behind them, concealing the cube, the Wizard of Oz behind the curtain, wanting the attention to be drawn to the two males.

"Are you and Otto ready?" she whispered to Boyd through his comm.

"Go for it," he replied subvocally, signaling his young companion that they were about to begin.

Kelly issued telepathic orders to Eeny, and Boyd and Otto rose gently into the air, hovering about seven feet above the forest floor. Thirty-six pairs of eyes widened, and Boyd had no doubt that he now had their full and undivided attention.

"I have eliminated all the SS soldiers stationed here," he shouted, and Otto repeated the German translation just as loudly. "But I'm willing to let you live. Under certain conditions."

He paused to let these words sink in. "This woman and I are not human," he said. "We're from a planet thousands of light years away. One that has mastered science and technology that you can't possibly fathom. For any of you who are still skeptical of this claim, let me demonstrate in a way that's more... personal."

Boyd waited for Otto to finish the translation and then thrust both arms in front of him, palms showing, and tilted his hands upward, a priest motioning for his congregation to rise.

All thirty-six scientists lurched twenty-five feet into the air, accompanied by a symphony of their own gasps and screams of terror, and were held there.

"Silence!" shouted Boyd, as they had all begun talking at once, and his meaning was so clear that Otto didn't need to translate.

When tomb-like silence returned, Boyd turned his palms face down and brought both arms toward the ground. Kelly made sure the scientists followed suit, landing softly once again on the floor of the clearing. Boyd only wished he could do the same. He was pretending that floating in midair wasn't the least bit disconcerting, but the truth was quite different.

"When we learned you had found a cube we left behind," he continued, bellowing as he imagined a god might do, "my partner and I took human form. To get a taste for what is happening on your Earth." He shook his head haughtily. "And we're not impressed. Humanity is cruel and savage. Primitive, and undeserving of our help."

When Otto was done translating, he continued. "So we're destroying the cube. You don't deserve to study it. And we killed your soldiers. They didn't deserve to live."

He waited again for Otto to catch up. "But you do," he added. "Just barely. And you will if you do as I say. First, collect food and supplies. Quickly. Then leave here for good. In three hours I'll destroy the cube, which will create a crater with a radius of almost a mile. If you want to live, be sure you're beyond this radius in three hours.

"You're now behind Allied lines, so you'll need to come up with a convincing story of how you got here. Perhaps the Reich was forcing you to work on an undisclosed scientific project on a desert island in the Pacific, but on your way to it you were blown off course. You mutinied after landing on Canadian shores, intent on asylum."

Boyd paused, still hovering in the air. "All of you are clever, so you'll think of something. Just think through what questions you might get asked and have answers ready. And if you volunteer your expertise in service of the Allies, this will go a long way. Do whatever you need to do to convince the Canadians or Americans not to have you executed. All I ask is that you lead productive, peaceful lives.

"But here is what you can't do. You can't go back to Germany until after the war, or have any contact with the Reich. Most importantly, you can't tell anyone about the cube. Not a word. Not orally, or in writing. If you do this, I will know it. If you have any contact with any German who isn't here now, on any subject, I will know it. And I will make sure that you're killed. You will die more painfully than any human ever has."

While Otto translated, Boyd sent a subvocal message to Kelly. "How am I doing?" he asked.

"You have me convinced."

"Are you and Eeny ready to give them something more to think about?"

"We're at your service."

"What you've witnessed here is not magic," bellowed Boyd. "It's advanced technology that I can access with simple gestures. But in case you doubt that I can carry out my threat, I'll give you a further demonstration."

Boyd spent the next few minutes putting on a show, pretending to control immense power that Kelly and the cube's telepathic AI were actually wielding. Kelly had the cube uproot two mammoth trees at the edge of the clearing—which shook the ground like an earthquake—and toss them through the air and out of sight, like a giant who was throwing toothpicks. She caused two other trees to splinter into tiny fragments the size of toothpicks. She followed this up by having the cube seize a boulder weighing at least ten tons and fly it to the center of the clearing, where it was crushed into rubble and then sand. Finally, to make the demonstration personal, she pinned all thirty-six scientists to the ground, holding them there until they almost blacked out.

"Know this," shouted Boyd when the demonstrations were complete, "we have technology that will monitor your every word, every breath. The second you write or speak about what you call the Atlantis Cube, the instant you contact a German soldier or official, we will find out. And you will learn how a grape feels when someone crushes it beneath their heel. Are we clear?"

This question was answered with a hearty chorus of affirmatives even before Otto finished translating, and more after.

"Good," bellowed Boyd as he floated above the ground next to his young German partner. "We're taking the one called Otto Richter with us. Since he's the youngest among you, we want to see if we can mold him."

When Otto finished his translation, Boyd delivered his final words. "Go now. Get beyond the radius of destruction. But always remember that I can kill you with the snap of my fingers, but I have so far chosen not to."

He glared down at them in contempt. "So don't do anything to make me change my mind."


While the German scientists packed and prepared to leave, the two Americans brought Otto up to speed on what had transpired in Berlin, and he told them of his experiences.

Otto was saddened to learn the fate of his one German ally, but celebrated that Hahn had died a hero, and had been happy and at peace at the time, believing he had witnessed the demise of Adolf Hitler.

After all the young genius had been through, when it finally hit him that he was free of the Nazis forever, he shed tears of joy, and couldn't have been more grateful to the two Americans for making it possible. They reminded him that his path to freedom would have been much easier had they never arrived, but this didn't diminish his gratitude.

When the last of the scientists left, less than an hour later, dawn was finally breaking, and the trio found themselves alone in what had become a mixture of ghost town and killing field. Boyd led them into the forest, out of sight of any bodies, and they sat on the forest floor in a triangle, facing each other.

Boyd nodded at the brilliant young German. "So what do you think, Otto?" he said, changing the subject from the events in Berlin to the events that had just transpired. "Will our little performance keep your scientists from telling Hitler what happened here? And keep the cube out of the history books?"

"Very likely, yes. Although, I think it will ultimately depend on if they're able to successfully integrate into society."

"If only they had your ability to speak perfect American English," said Kelly.

"No doubt," said Otto. "A German accent isn't ideal right now. They're going to find themselves less than welcome here or in America, no matter how convincing a story they tell."

"I think you might be surprised," said Boyd. "Scientists and doctors are needed and respected no matter what wars their countries start. America and Russia will both take in scores of German scientists just after the war, even those who were in the Nazi party."

Otto raised his eyebrows. "That surprises me," he said. "But getting back to your performance, it was smart to play to their belief in science and technology rather than their superstitions. The scientists all pretended to believe the cube was made by ancient Aryans from Atlantis, but I'm sure they all really believed the obvious—that it was alien. Also, because they've lived for so many years in such a repressive society, they're already programmed to keep their mouths closed. So that's working for us."

"What's working against us?" asked Boyd.

"Mostly the fact that you don't speak German," said Otto. "You portrayed yourself as all-powerful and all-knowing. And the cube helped you make a very strong case for the all-powerful part. But they will wonder why someone who is all knowing needs a translator to speak German."

"Good point," said Boyd. "To be fair," he added with a smile, "I do know some Arabic and Farsi."

Otto laughed. "You should have told them that," he said wryly. "Because, obviously, that would have made all the difference."

"Wow," said Boyd, "even given all you've been through, you're still a smart ass. I think you take after Kelly."

"I'm pretty sure she takes after me," said Otto in amusement.

There were smiles all around, but Boyd soon became serious once more. "You're right about my lack of German language skills. It will make them scratch their heads. But I still think they'll refrain from talking about the cube."

"I agree," said Otto. "What would be the point? If your threat was real, telling others about the cube is a death sentence. If not, they have nothing to gain by talking, anyway. Who here will believe them? Especially since one has to see the cube to believe it, and the cube won't be available for a viewing. And tales about an all-powerful alien disguised as a Canadian clairvoyant—who can float—will be even less believable."

"What about Alex Wentz?" asked Boyd. "He was close to completing the dark energy generator. Would it change history if he did?"

"Hard to imagine it would," replied Kelly. "You made sure the generator he was working on and Otto's notebook were left behind. Even if he had a photographic memory, and could get the sophisticated parts needed to complete it, no one will even know it does anything. It can unlock the cube, yes, but there's no longer any cube to unlock."

"I'm sure you're right," said Boyd. "I guess we'll find out."

Kelly shrugged. "Even if letting the scientists go does change history for the worse, I'm prepared to accept it. I'm just relieved I came to my senses in time."

"Yeah, me too," said Boyd.

"I agree with your decision," said Otto, "but I can't bring myself to agree with the one you made in Germany." He shook his head and an expression of hatred came over his face, one fiercer and more all-consuming than the young scientist had seemed capable of. "Hitler needed to die," he hissed. "I would have killed him no matter what."

"An understandable instinct," said Boyd. "No one could have blamed you."

Otto looked ill. "What's even more horrific than his existence," he added in disgust, "is that we in Germany let him come to power. Many of us were dead set against it, but not enough. The majority stood by and let him commit his atrocities. Stood by while he and others treated millions of human beings like vermin, and engaged in endless acts of inhumanity. All the while convincing themselves that they were part of some Master Race."

He shook his head. "What does that say about humanity? Worse, Hitler isn't alone. Add in Stalin, Mussolini, and Tojo, and you have an undeniable pattern. Honestly, if not for the two of you, I'd have no hope for the species at all. You're a living demonstration that fascism loses, that humanity survives for at least eighty-four more years. But please tell me society gets better. I mean orders of magnitude better."

"It does," Kelly assured him. "Orders of magnitude better."

She had little knowledge of history, but she was aware of the long-term trajectory of history, having read several books that used the progress humanity had made socially and technologically over the decades to extrapolate how much progress could be expected in the future.

"On average," she continued, "the quality of human life in my time is demonstrably better in every way imaginable than it is now. More democracy, more tolerance, and more freedom. Higher literacy, fewer wars, and fewer violent deaths. The list goes on and on. Right now, only a small fraction of the world's population can read and write. But in my time, over ninety percent can. In 1950, three-quarters of the world will be living in extreme poverty. In my day, the figure is less than ten percent. Life expectancy has increased substantially, and we take medical advances for granted that the people of this time would see as miracles."

They still had almost two hours before they would crater the area and leave, so Kelly brought Otto up to speed on computers, the internet, cell phones, video, and GPS. As per usual, he was breathtakingly fast on the uptake.

"So in our age," she continued after her quick tutorial, "we have access to more information, and more entertainment, than the most farsighted visionary of this time would ever dare predict. We have instant access to tens of millions of books, hundreds of thousands of movies, weather from around the globe, directions to anywhere, and a dizzying array of goods and services that can be delivered to our doors within days. We have access to billions of pages of information that can be searched in an instant. Countless goods and services that used to be scarce are now abundant. We have better clothing, better housing, and better living conditions. Every decade the cost of computing power, electricity, long-distance communication, and countless other goods and services has plummeted."

Otto listened in rapt attention.

"Socially," continued Kelly, "the world has become ever more tolerant, with all races, religions, and sexual preferences not only accepted by most, but even celebrated. Yes, there is still bigotry and persecution in the world, but compared to the level seen in the time period we're in now, it's microscopic."

Boyd chimed in, describing such advances as supersonic jets, microwave ovens, and Moon and Mars missions, completed by rocket ships capable of returning from space and setting back down gently on a landing pad, like something out of an early science fiction novel.

"Absolutely amazing," said Otto in awe when they were done, having soaked it all in like a superintelligent sponge. "You must have to keep pinching yourself so you don't think it's all a dream."

Boyd shook his head. "Actually, not so much. Things have improved dramatically, but we still have a ways to go. And never underestimate the ability of human beings to take things for granted, and find ways to be miserable. The truth is, even though we live in the best of times, most of us believe the opposite. That poverty, and literacy, and so on have gotten worse, even though they've gotten considerably better. This is actually a fairly recent phenomenon. Just in the last thirty years or so."

"Why would that be?" asked Otto.

Boyd frowned. "Turns out that in our day we're drowning in news," he explained. "Every second, every day, a weight of news that is almost inconceivable. And those providing this news know that only the most dramatic will stand out. So we're told the sky is falling a hundred times a day. And rather than discuss how far we've come, the dire problems we thought our way out of, we amplify every problem, every behavior that is less than perfect, into crisis proportions. Pessimism sells far better than optimism."

"Incredible," said Otto. "More of you need a visit to 1943 to put things in perspective."

Kelly smiled. "No doubt about it. If I ever return, I'll never take our social or technological progress for granted again."

"I'd love to hear more about your world," said Otto.

"You'll have plenty of time for that," said Boyd. "We have a long journey ahead of us." He frowned. "Made longer because Sage can't help us navigate. She's finally out of power, and not even the heat of my body and motion of my leg will be enough to spark her back to life."

"But before we set out," said Kelly, turning her gaze on Otto, "you should know that apart from anything we can say about humanity as a whole, you, personally, have a wonderful life in store. At least if our activity here creates your future rather than changing it.

"Every family member who knew you and my grandmother always talked about how much in love the two of you were—throughout your entire marriage. A real fairy-tale love story, one for the ages. Your journal makes this clear also. You cherished every second together, and both your journal and family lore suggest that you experienced as much happiness during your life as anyone could ever ask for."

A smile spread over Otto's face. "Thank you for that, Kelly," he said. "One decision I need to make is whether or not I want to try to keep the future exactly the same as you remember it. It's a tough call. If I repeat history, I lead a life that sounds a lot like heaven. But the downside is that you would get born again—which would block you from returning to your own time. You'd be trapped here forever."

Kelly sighed. She had already decided she wasn't leaving Boyd no matter what. "It might not be as tough a call as you think," she said. "But we can discuss that later. For now, it's time to pretend to destroy the cube and cover our tracks."

They returned to the center of the encampment and Kelly gave instructions to the telepathic AI. As soon as she was finished, the cube released a torrent of energy that was devastating on a scale that was beyond biblical, making the power required to part the Red Sea seem infinitesimal.

While they were protected within a circle with a thirty-foot radius, the area beyond was not so fortunate. All at once, in a wave that passed at the speed of light, the forest for almost a mile around them collapsed in on itself, and they were deafened by the death throes of countless trees.

Mighty oaks and lowly foliage were crushed to the forest floor and then through it, tilling the ground and bringing up virgin rock and soil that had been buried, in an astonishing and terrifying cataclysm of raw energy the likes of which had never been witnessed from so close a vantage point.

In the blink of an eye, a massive stretch of what had been thriving forest became a shallow crater, six feet deep, as if an asteroid had struck, but without any fire or other fallout. While this was occurring, the earth shook wildly beneath them, knocking them off their feet, and they were unable to comprehend even a fraction of the power that had obliterated nine square miles of forest in seconds.

They reeled from the awesome destructive power that Kelly had unleashed, but they weren't quite done. They hiked for ten minutes, lowering themselves carefully to the shallow crater floor when they reached its edge, and Kelly turned the cube back on the Nazi encampment, crushing it also, so that it blended in with the rest of the devastation.

The steel structures, equipment, bodies, and runway were crushed to an unrecognizable slurry that was then pulled under the earth, leaving no trace of its previous existence.

When it was all over, Otto turned to Kelly with a haunted look in his eyes, one shared by the two Americans. "That was just the tiniest fraction of that thing's power, wasn't it?" he whispered.

Kelly nodded. "I'm afraid so."

"I mean, to look at the cube is to know it has virtually unlimited destructive power," said Otto. "But actually seeing this power in action brings home the point in a far more visceral way. I'm more certain than ever that deactivating it and hiding it in the woods of Spokane is the right thing to do. And that you did the right thing by stealing it from your government."

Otto Richter shook his head in horror. "God help us if the wrong person ever gets control of this thing," he finished solemnly.


Kelly, Boyd, and Otto hiked for three days before making it to civilization, and then spent two additional days working their way south, mostly sitting in the back of pickup trucks driven by Canadians kind enough to give them a lift. They learned they were closer to Seattle than Spokane and decided to stop there to begin with.

They arrived without a single nickel between them, nor did they have lodging or identification. Not an ideal start for a group with important things to accomplish who didn't want to draw attention to themselves.

So the first thing they did in Seattle was find and rob the largest bank in the city. After all they had been through, their Bonnie and Clyde act was almost boring, with Boyd's night vision and Kelly's precision control of the most powerful object on the planet almost making it too easy.

They broke in at night, and Kelly had the Enigma AI crush massive steel pins, each the circumference of a baseball bat, into nonexistence, the same steel pins that were holding a steel vault door, more than two feet thick, closed. The cube managed this surgically, without affecting the rest of the door at all, leaving a mystery that would never be solved.

Inside, they found millions of dollars in cash. They took exactly a thousand.

This amount, while the equivalent of about fifteen thousand in modern times, was still such a minuscule percentage of the total that bank management was never certain they had been robbed at all. They checked and rechecked how much they were supposed to have in the vault, and kept concluding they were short by a thousand, but were half convinced it was an accounting error.

In the end, the vault-door company replaced the faulty door along with the thousand dollars stolen, horrified that their best product had failed in such a mystifying way. The police pursued the case for a few weeks, mostly looking at rival vault-door companies for the culprit, and then quickly let it go.

Boyd spent some of this stolen money to buy clothing, hotel rooms, and specialized electrical equipment that Kelly and Otto used to jerry-rig a charger for Sage.

With Sage recharged and her database back online, they bet on horse racing and other sporting events to quickly parlay their nest egg into a small fortune, almost embarrassed to be taking advantage of such an overused time-travel cliché. Still, the proceeds completed their journey from rags to riches, enabling them to purchase a car and impeccably forged IDs.

Otto became Jim Connolly from Clear Lake, Iowa. And Kelly Connolly and Justin Boyd became Kelly Connolly and Justin Boyd, except this time with birth certificates dated in the 1910s rather than the 1990s.

Then, just over two weeks after they had cratered the secret Nazi base, they pulled their green, 1941 Buick Century into Spokane, and bought a house on the outskirts of town.

The next months were almost idyllic and went a long way toward healing all three of their tortured souls, not that Kelly or Boyd could ever fully heal. Otto got his first taste of true freedom since he had been eight and Hitler had come to power, and he forged a bond with the two time travelers that couldn't be stronger. And since he was happier and eating better, he filled out, and soon became the picture of health.

Boyd and Kelly found peace and calm, and to no one's surprise, fell madly in love, breaking all speed records. Two months after their arrival in Spokane, they were married by a Justice of the Peace, with Otto serving as best man.

During their months in Spokane they also went about buying the land around which Otto would build a cabin to house the cube, making sure the purchase was untraceable. Basically, recreating history as they knew it.

When Otto learned that Kelly would be staying in this time period with Boyd, even if she was able to travel to the future, his decision with respect to his own future became simple. By all accounts, if history repeated itself precisely, Otto Richter, now Jim Connolly, would lead a joyous, happy, and loving life. So he dedicated himself to making this happen.

Kelly checked with the Enigma Cube AI every day, and every day Eeny confirmed that Kelly couldn't travel into the future because she already existed there. This meant that history really was unfolding just as it had before. That Otto had married the exact same woman under the exact same circumstances. That the exact same sperm had hit the exact same egg at the exact same instant to produce Kelly's father. Which meant that their presence in the past had always been factored into Otto's future, including their decision not to kill the Nazi scientists.

Once Otto had decided to repeat history, he decided to do so as meticulously as he could, down to leaving a leather-bound journal inside a zero-point energy text at some point in the future. A leather-bound journal that would contain the precise contents of the one Kelly had found, down to the comma.

Sage had uploaded a backup copy of Kelly's phone in 2027, which had contained her grandfather's journal. Each night, the AI would dictate the contents to Kelly's comm, and she would copy them to a notebook for Otto to later rewrite in his own hand. She found it endlessly frustrating that she couldn't just order Sage to print it out, but decided that recreating it by hand would be slightly faster than reinventing the laser printer.

Otto was delighted to read his own journal as it took form, and to use it as a blueprint. It gave few details about his personal life, which was ideal, so he wouldn't have to worry about memorizing lines and robotically trying to stay on a precise path. The journal had the name of the woman he would marry and that he loved her more than life itself, but didn't specify when, and under what circumstances, they would meet, and so on, so he was free to let events unfold organically.

Otto, being the genius he was, came to all the right conclusions about how the journal had skipped a generation and ultimately landed in Kelly's hands. He correctly assumed he had died suddenly before being able to share his knowledge with his own offspring.

Kelly had initially refused to confirm this or provide details. But Otto convinced her that he wouldn't let this foreknowledge become a sword of Damocles above his head, and that he was overjoyed to be destined to live a much longer and better life than he had ever dared hope for, despite a somewhat abrupt ending.

So Kelly told him about the heart attack, and its timing. He didn't want to change how the future would unfold, but he did drill down into the exact circumstances surrounding his death, including his last words, which would at least give him the option of potentially extending his life. If he did find a way to beat the heart attack, he could stage a fake death along the exact lines that Kelly had specified, and ensure future history remained intact. This would require him to persuade his wife to be a willing accomplice, but it wasn't beyond the realm of possibility.

Kelly and Boyd were deep in the mad, romantic stage of love, and could have been happy together in the pits of hell, as long as they had a bed and a few hours of privacy each night. Still, they were nagged by one critical piece of unfinished business. If the future unfolded as it had before, then they would be stuck in an infinite loop. One that began with their birth, led to their visit to Sun Island, and ended with them living out the rest of their lives in the past—only to repeat itself when they were born anew in the nineties once again.

But if this were the case, China would end up in possession of two Enigma Cubes, and the rest of the world would have none.

They discussed what to do about this at great length. Should they break the loop? Could they break the loop?

They first considered making a change that would result in Kelly not being born. But while this would disrupt the wonderful life in store for Otto, it wouldn't solve their problem. The cube would still be found, and Uru established. Boyd would still visit with Harry Salazar and suggest Haycock's dark energy generator be tried. And the Chinese would still have their cube, and still be spying on Uru, with the US none the wiser. Given the inertia of the timeline, without a dramatic kick in the teeth, the future would likely try to find a way back to its original track, with China ultimately gaining control of both cubes.

No, the only way to be sure they left the future in good hands was to find a way to alert future Kelly to the Chinese threat after she had joined the Enigma team. Otto would still live out the extraordinary life he was destined to have. Kelly would still find his journal as she had done before, ensuring the cube had a thoughtful and capable caretaker. And Chinese spying on their efforts would be exposed.

And none of this would have any effect on their current lives. Even though they would change the future so they would never be brought to Sun Island, and never travel to the past, it wouldn't matter. They were already in 1943 Spokane and grandfathered in. So was Otto. As long as no one went back and mucked with the past again, there was no changing what had just happened. All three would be able to move forward from here.

Still, if they were in an infinite loop, they feared that any effort to change the future and break the loop might be destined to fail.

On the other hand, Otto pointed out that this might only be their second time through. If so, their new knowledge of the first iteration of the loop might allow them to make the changes required to break free. Or maybe, after a nearly infinite number of passages through the loop, some random, quantum event would finally be disruptive enough to break them out.

Regardless, if there was any hope at all, they had to try. If they left the future as it was, they would have ensured totalitarianism was defeated in the past, while helping to seal a different variety of this in the future. A future in which billions of cameras and advanced computers were available to monitor an entire population, bringing Orwell's nightmarish vision into reality.

Eeny had become annoyingly unhelpful, refusing to answer time travel questions, or provide Kelly with any further information on the subject. The telepathic AI was only willing to confirm that she was still alive in the future, and that this had stopped being the case when she had vanished from Sun Island.

This information, while frustratingly scant, would at least tell them if they had successfully broken the loop. If so, Sun Island would never happen, and Eeny would confirm that Kelly was alive in the future beyond this time.

So when they weren't copying journals, setting up land permits and secret cabin construction, or getting married, they made almost a hundred attempts to change the future. Most of these attempts involved hiding Sage in a place that was unlikely to ever be stumbled upon, and having precision timers recharge her at a selected date and time in the far future, using a foolproof, redundant system that Otto had perfected. Upon awakening, Sage would tap the local Wi-Fi to deliver whatever warnings they wanted to send to themselves.

Yet the efforts failed every time, probably due to Eeny's intervention. The telepathic AI had made it clear it wouldn't allow two versions of a person to exist at the same time. But it had also specified that it wouldn't allow a version of a person in the past to communicate with themselves in the future.

They knew their efforts conflicted with this second rule, they just doubted Eeny could do anything about it.

Apparently, they were wrong.

Their efforts to communicate with others in the future also failed, even Tom Osborne. Otto believed Eeny was blocking this as well. Believed that the cube's AI had deemed that future actions the colonel would take, based on the information provided to him, would still impact the decision-making of the Kelly and Boyd who existed in the future. In this way, they would still be influencing their future selves, however indirectly.

Finally, almost four months after leaving Canada, the last in a long line of valiant attempts to change the future failed, and Boyd's frustration was greater than it had ever been. "Is there really a point to this anymore?" he asked as he and his two companions sat around a glass patio table in the backyard of their home, awaiting nightfall. "We always knew the loop might be inescapable. When do we decide that it is?"

"We've been over this," said Kelly. "And we aren't giving up. We can't. I've never been happier than I am now. But the way I left things in 2027 is driving me crazy. Haunting me. Because of me, the communist Chinese will have a monopoly on technology that can't be stopped or matched. I've condemned the entire world to a bleak future."

"How can you blame yourself?" said Boyd. "You had no idea this would happen."

"Doesn't matter. I'm still responsible. And even if I wasn't, I'd still be willing to move heaven and earth to do something about it."

"With the cube, you can move heaven and earth," pointed out Boyd. "And we have, at least metaphorically. We've tried to change the future using Sage, time capsules, journals, and hidden letters. We've tried to contact multiple people, and to intervene at multiple points on the timeline."

He grimaced. "It's not like we haven't been creative. But each time our future selves end up on Sun Island, and China gets both cubes. It's fate. Or maybe it's the inertia you've talked about. Future history actively resisting being pushed off course. Like the timeline is an elephant, and we're gnats trying to affect it."

Kelly shook her head. "My sense from what Eeny planted in my mind is that history has inertia, but not that much. There has to be a way to do this. The laws of physics aren't the problem. It's the laws of the cube."

"I agree," said Boyd. "But we can't change these either. Otto's the smartest person ever, and even his arguments for persuading Eeny to break the rules have failed."

Kelly's face fell. "I know," she said miserably. "But there's still no way I'm throwing in the towel."

She paused for several seconds in thought. Finally, she blew out a long breath. "But maybe it is time we moved away and let Otto live his life, meet his future wife, and find the happiness we know he'll find."

"How do you know you don't stay in my life here?" asked Otto.

"We can't be sure," said Kelly. "But there's a notable absence of any reference in your journal that could possibly hint at us."

The young genius nodded. "I think you're right," he said. "I just don't want you to leave."

"You guessed how this would play out from the very beginning, didn't you?" said Kelly.

"Yes. Given the rules Eeny laid out and the contents of the journal, I thought this is where we'd end up. Failing to change what happened in 2027 and staying trapped in the loop. With you and Justin concluding that you should move away to ensure my future."

Otto raised his eyebrows. "But there is one idea that I've been holding back," he said. "One that I think can circumvent the cube's rules."

"Holding back?" said Kelly in dismay. "If you think an idea might work, why would you ever hold it back?"

"I was waiting for us to exhaust all other possibilities."

Kelly frowned. "Which means we aren't going to like it," she said.

"I'm afraid not."

"Well, don't keep us in suspense," said Boyd. "What is it?"

"It's fairly simple, really," said the young genius.

He paused for effect. "You and Kelly have to commit suicide."