Shen paused for several seconds. "Why am I not hearing a reply?" he continued. "You're really starting to hurt my feelings. I already know exactly where you are. You understand that, right? Just use the same broadcast frequency you did in the woods, and I'll pick it up."

Boyd made sure Sage was continuing to monitor for hostiles, not trusting that Shen had really called off the dogs, and then turned to Kelly. "He's right. We have no reason not to reply. Let's find out what we're up against."

She nodded.

Boyd ordered Sage to broadcast his voice. "Where are you calling from, Commander Shen?"

"So glad to hear from you, Major," replied Shen. "I really do treasure our discussions. I'm many, many miles away from your island. But rest assured that I've been monitoring you and the esteemed Dr. Connolly this entire time. Colonel Wu only thought he was running the show. In reality, I'm in charge, put there by our president himself."

"I wouldn't boast about that," said Boyd. "Your president isn't going to be happy with you."

"On the contrary, Major Boyd. My job was to find out as much as I could about the operation of the cube. And I've done that. I set up a scenario in which I couldn't lose.

"If you cooperated with the colonel, then I would get what I wanted. If you failed to cooperate, the only way you could escape would be to use the cube as a weapon—while I was watching—and I'd also get what I wanted."

"So you considered Colonel Wu and his people expendable?" said Kelly in disgust.

"Regrettably, yes. But they could not have died more honorably, sacrificing themselves for their country."

"So this was just another setup?" said Kelly.

"Let's just say that your actions were a contingency I was prepared for. Did you really think we were so sloppy that we wouldn't find the supercomputer affixed to the major's leg? Or fail to remove the comms embedded in your inner ears? We left them in place so that if you weren't planning to cooperate, you'd feel more comfortable using the cube to escape."

He paused. "I thought there was a good chance you would find a way to use the cube against us, Dr. Connolly, while pretending to show us how it worked. I'm sorry that I was right. But I did warn the colonel of this possibility. Apparently, he didn't take me as seriously as he should have.

"But the result of this is that we have more than just a precise record of how you controlled the cube inside our main lab. We also now have a record of how you controlled it to fend off our three attacks on the surface. There are dozens of drones hovering out of your sight, with telescopic cameras trained on your hands, and they picked up your every movement.

"Despite this success," continued Shen, "I've decided no further attacks are necessary. We now know enough to figure out the rest for ourselves. So why risk losing additional men?"

"Your compassion is truly inspiring," said Kelly.

"And once again," added Boyd, "you've made sure you aren't anywhere near where the bullets are flying. So your bravery continues to amaze, as well."

"Bravery used unwisely isn't a virtue."

"Spare us your lame rationalizations," said Boyd.

"Your plan may sound good," said Kelly, "but it gets you nowhere. So you know how to call up the glyphs," she added, "and perform some rudimentary operations. So what? How does that help you?"

"Exactly," seconded Boyd. "You've been too clever by half. You may have learned how to control the cube, but only by letting us have it. Which is a huge mistake. We'll take out this entire island if that's what it takes to escape. You'll never see the cube again."

"This is where you're wrong," said Shen. "Why would you think taking out our entire island would trouble me? In fact, that's exactly my plan to get the cube back."

"What are you talking about?" snapped Boyd.

"I'm talking about overwhelming firepower. And you should also know that when we do remove the cube from the vapor-stains that used to be your bodies, it will be our second one. We've been studying a cube of our own for many months now."

Boyd shook his head in alarm. "You're bluffing," he said. "It's not like the aliens dole them out to every superpower."

Shen laughed. "Very true," he said. "We started with none, in fact. But we recently developed a sensor that just happened to be able to pick up these cubes while they're in a state of immobility. That's how we found the one in Spokane. And it turns out that there are two on this planet. The other one wasn't in China, unfortunately, but at least it wasn't in North America either. It's in a desolate location, in fact. So we bought up the land and established what is purported to be a climate station around it."

"I still don't believe you," said Boyd, but his expression indicated otherwise.

"Believe what you want," said Shen. "I'm sure you've wondered how we found your operation in Spokane. This is how. And while we were conducting our own experiments on our own cube, we were looking over your shoulder in case you unlocked yours first."

"Which we did," said Kelly.

"Which you did. And we're still unsure how, since we couldn't get any images of you when you were in your cube room and about to steal it."

"Sorry to hear that, Shen," said Kelly. "So at the end of this, we'll have an active cube, and you'll have one that does nothing but mock you. If you can't unlock it, you can't move it, and you can't get at the glyphs."

"I wasn't finished," said Shen. "We aren't sure how you did it, but we kept searching all the places you visited after you stole the cube. And yesterday, we found a strange device that no one recognizes. One that doesn't seem to do anything. So we plan to train it on our cube tomorrow and see if this is the magic key."

Kelly closed her eyes and cringed. They had found her dark energy generator. Things kept going from bad to worse.

"And you still aren't getting this," continued Shen. "We're prepared to do anything to get the cube you're holding now. Anything. I'm prepared to unleash what you Americans call an Armageddon of biblical proportions.

"I had hoped my comrades on the island would be able to get the cube back after your initial escape. But it's become clear that this isn't going to happen. Fortunately, I have a backup plan. It turns out that China has a number of nuclear bombs stored on the island you're on. I'll give you a few seconds to have your supercomputer confirm this, Major."

Sage quickly confirmed this intel, and Boyd's face contorted as if he were eating a particularly sour lemon. "Okay, Commander," he said. "So you have nukes on site. Are you telling me that you'd nuke your own base?"

"That's exactly what I'm telling you. Ten minutes after I sign off, I will detonate one. I'm betting the Enigma Cube weathers the nuke just fine. Probably won't even get a scratch. What about you, Major? Do you have a DNA upgrade that lets you withstand a thermonuclear blast?"

Boyd's jaw tightened but he didn't reply.

"I didn't think so," continued Shen. "So once the island finally cools down, we'll simply locate the cube and decontaminate it. Nullify the pesky radiation. Then we'll have two of them, and the rest of the world will have none."

"You'll be killing thousands of your own people," said Boyd.

"Unfortunate, but acceptable. Now there is a chance that the cube, in Dr. Connolly's expert hands, can protect you somehow. Throw up a gravity shield that not even a nuke can penetrate. If it can do this, then we want it even more. We'll then bombard the island with a blizzard of lethal weapons. Missiles, additional nukes, poison gas, you name it. From fighter jets and battleships and subs. A simultaneous bombardment the likes of which the world has never seen. And we'll keep at it until we finally overwhelm your ability to counter us."

"Do you have any idea of the international backlash you'd be facing from just the detonation of a single nuclear bomb?" said the major.

"Every idea," said Shen calmly. "Our president is prepared to handle it. To apologize for such a tragic accident, which, after all, will have only killed his own citizens. He believes the breathtaking advances the cube makes possible justify any means used to acquire it."

Shen paused. "Naturally," he added, "we're hoping that you just surrender before the ten minutes are up. We'd save a perfectly good base, and some good people. Not to mention your lives. And the end result will be the same. If you think this is a bluff and don't surrender, so be it. That will be the last poor decision you ever make. But I'm going to sign off now. You have exactly ten minutes."

He paused for effect. "And the clock starts... now!"


"Sage, hover a small digital timer just above my right lens," ordered Boyd, "counting down from ten minutes, starting the instant Shen signed off."

Kelly stared deeply into the major's eyes. "I don't suppose you have any idea how to get out of this?"

"None. But my gut tells me he isn't bluffing. Any chance the cube can help us withstand everything he's prepared to throw at us?"

Kelly frowned. "Let's say for the sake of argument that it could form a protective gravity bubble. One that could block us from temperatures of millions of degrees, winds of six hundred miles per hour, and shock waves that could split a mountain. Even so, it would have to block air from reaching us also, as this would be hot enough to melt our lungs. Not to mention radioactive. So we'd die of suffocation."

Boyd shook his head. That was a worse alternative than being instantly vaporized.

"Then we have no choice," he said. "We have to surrender. If they're going to get the cube regardless, we have to live to fight another day."

Kelly blew out a long breath. "There is one other option. A long shot. A dangerous long shot."

Boyd looked confused. "Then it's one that I'm missing."

"I can activate one of the other controls on the cube. See what happens. We discussed the possibility of teleportation. Of higher dimensions. Maybe this thing can get us out of this after all."

"Or destroy the solar system with a wrong touch."

"I've given this a lot of thought in the past sixteen months," said Kelly. "A doomsday button is possible, yes. But if we're in a universe with aliens who would put a button like that on such a nifty cube," she added wryly, "then I don't want to live in that universe."

Boyd smiled. Welcome back, Kelly, he thought. Her gallows humor had returned.

As devastated as she had been after being the instrument of a massacre, this blow had been lessened by the realization of just how ruthless China's president was prepared to be. Just how many thousands he was prepared to kill without a second thought. A sobering reminder of what was at stake if she let this man have his prize.

"If you were going to try a new glyph," asked Boyd, "which one would it be?"

"The third one that's all by its lonesome. The cloud around the dot might be blast debris, but it could be anything. And this glyph is bound to be important, since it warrants its own cube face."

The major glanced at the digital clock hovering in front of him. They had just over seven minutes before they surrendered or died. "Let's do it," he said decisively.

Kelly nodded, but before she could touch the glyph, Boyd swept her up in his arms and kissed her with unbridled passion, as if he didn't want to ever stop.

"What was that for?" she said when they had finally separated.

"For luck," he replied with a smile. "And if we're out of luck, and this kills us, I can't think of a higher note to end things on than kissing you."

"Wow. Men facing imminent nuclear attacks say the sweetest things."

With that said, Kelly Connolly turned the cube so the glyph in question was facing her, nodded at Boyd, closed her eyes, and pressed down on the center—waiting for oblivion.


Nothing happened for several seconds after Kelly pressed the glyph, and she opened her eyes once again.

Hello, Kelly, she said to herself.

Why had she done that?

"You aren't talking to yourself," said the same voice in her head. "What you call the Enigma Cube has a telepathic AI on board, which you've just activated."

Kelly gasped.

"Why did you just gasp?" said Boyd, blinking in confusion. "Nothing happened, right?"

"Not exactly," she said hastily. "But give me a few seconds."

"Enigma Cube AI," she thought at the object in her hand, "are you picking up my thoughts now?"

"I am."

"Can you communicate with my companion also?"

"I can, but I won't. I'm programmed in very specific ways."

"Please elaborate. And hurry, we don't have much time."

"I carry out orders given by the first being who activates me," responded the AI, its directed thoughts now coming at her more quickly, displaying the urgency she had called for. "Provided I deem the being worthy, well-intentioned. A being who ultimately wants to use the power of the cube for constructive, rather than destructive, purposes. I can answer certain questions, but I'm precluded from answering others. I can help you wield what you call the Enigma Cube, but I can't answer questions involving the science behind its operation. You have to figure that out on your own."

Kelly turned to her human companion, her eyes wide. "This is incredible," she said. "Justin, the glyph activated a telepathic AI inside the cube. I swear to God. I'm conversing with it now, but I can't conference you in."

Boyd's mouth dropped open. If he had been given a thousand guesses as to what might result from Kelly trying the new glyph, this wouldn't be on the list. Even so, he didn't doubt her for a moment. "Okay," he said, "an unexpected development, for sure. But it beats the hell out of a doomsday button."

"I'm going to see if it can save us. How much time is left?"

"Just over five minutes."

"Thanks," said Kelly. "I'll be conversing telepathically, but I'll get back to you as soon as I can."

"So, Enigma AI," thought Kelly, not wasting a moment, "how much do you know about our current situation? Have you been monitoring it?"

"I hear everything that is said for miles around me. This was also the case inside your Uru facility. In addition, I routinely access the entire contents of your internet, which enables me to understand the context of what I hear."

"Do you believe Shen will do as he says?" asked Kelly. "And can you protect all life on this island?"

"The commander will do as he threatened. And the fact that you asked me to protect all life, instead of just your own, confirms my assessment of your good intentions. But I can't save your lives. Not from this. Your analysis in that regard is accurate."

"Can you teleport us out of here?"

"I can only teleport objects, or beings, between two cubes, provided that both cubes are active. There is only one other cube on Earth, and it's currently in what you call lockdown mode. So this won't work. I could also teleport you to locations at which wormhole gates have been established, but you would arrive in the vacuum of space and die horribly."

Kelly cursed to herself. "Time?" she said out loud to Boyd.

"Just under four minutes."

Kelly's eyes widened once again. She had just shouted the word time, which had been like waving a neon flag in front of herself. As she had told Boyd, the cube didn't just impact the space part of spacetime. It impacted the time part as well. She hadn't gotten into all of the time possibilities with Boyd in the car because they were even more speculative than wormholes and warp drives, and she had been eager for him to join her in the backseat.

"Enigma AI," she thought urgently, "what about time travel? Can you send us into a different time to escape this threat?"

"I can."

"Outstanding!" thought Kelly excitedly.

"But to be clear, I won't send you into the future, meaning to a point in the timeline beyond that which any possible version of you has already reached. So your travel can be to the past only."

"I'll take it!" thought Kelly. "Send us back to five days ago. Immediately."

"This particular time is also off limits. There are certain rules. First, I can only send you back to a time, and place, where this exact cube existed previously. Period. It has to create a tunnel through time, and be there to anchor the tunnel on both ends. And it has to be in active form in both time periods.

"Second," continued the cube's AI, "I'm also not authorized to send you to a time when you already exist. You can only travel to a time before you were born. And even then, you will not be permitted to communicate with yourselves in the future."

"When was this cube last active prior to my birth?"

"In 1943."

Kelly rolled her eyes. Of course in 1943.

"And when before that?" she thought at the AI.

"Prior to various brief periods of being active in 1943, it was in lockdown mode in what is now Canada for over four thousand years."

Kelly swallowed hard. That didn't seem ideal. The year 1943 wasn't ideal either, but at least electricity and cars had been invented.

"If we change things in the past, will this change the future?"

"Yes. And I would only let you go because I've read your mind and I believe you will make every effort to blend in and not alter history. Please confirm this is accurate."

"It is," thought Kelly. "I promise to try to minimize changes and make sure Justin does the same. But even if we inadvertently change things, it won't affect our future, right? Our timeline is set in stone. Change something in the past and a new timeline branches off, but the original timeline remains."

"You've been watching too many movies. That isn't how it works. One universe, one timeline. The timeline doesn't branch off, it gets remade. And the universe will not allow paradox. Whatever is changed is changed, without regard to causality. So changes to history do affect the one true future. But history has an inertia, and if it played out a certain way in the initial timeline, it will not easily be pushed into a new course."

"Less than two minutes left, Kelly," called out Boyd anxiously. "If you and the cube are still looking for a way out of this, now would be a good time to find one."

"We have," she replied hurriedly. "One only. We'd have to travel back in time. To 1943. Long story about why that's our only good option, but it is. Are you in?"

Boyd was momentarily stunned, which Kelly found unsurprising. Nuclear threats, alien cubes, telepathy, and now time travel. It would blow the mind of the most stable man, test the credulity of the most believing.

"Is this really what you want to do?" asked Boyd feebly, still trying to digest the idea that time travel might actually be possible.

"Yes!" she said emphatically. "It's what we have to do. If we surrender, we're dead, like you said. And they get the cube. Time travel is insane. Insane. And being stranded in 1943 is a nightmare. But it's our only chance."

"Then I'm in."

"Good. I need you to leave the gun and duffel bag behind. We don't want to risk bringing items from our day that might alter the course of history. Sage is okay, because they'd have no idea what to make of her, and no way to reverse engineer her nanocircuitry. Same goes for your contacts."

Kelly could tell Boyd had a thousand questions—as did she—but time was running out, so without another word, he tossed the bag aside. He didn't look happy to have to abandon it after managing to hold on to it through all the bedlam, but he knew better than to argue.

"What else can you tell me about time travel rules?" Kelly asked the Enigma AI telepathically.

"There are too many complexities for you to grasp in the time remaining. But if you'd like, I can implant a brief overview of the implications of time travel into your brain, instantly, as you're leaving."

"Yes, do that."

"Thirty seconds, Kelly," said Boyd hurriedly, a note of panic in his voice. "Why aren't we in 1943? If we're doing this, we need to do it now."

"Send us back," Kelly thought at the AI. "Immediately!"

"This cube was activated and then deactivated more than once in 1943. Which of these activation intervals do you want to travel to?"

"Ten seconds!" shouted Boyd.

"I don't know," she thought frantically to the telepathic AI. "Just pick one. Now!"

Seconds after Kelly issued this order a blinding white fireball more than three miles across erupted eleven miles into the air, exactly as Shen had threatened, topped with a distinctive mushroom cloud.

For a brief instant the temperature given off by the detonated thermonuclear device rivaled that at the center of the Sun, exceeding a hundred million degrees. Everything on the surface of the island was instantly vaporized, including any number of substantial concrete structures, trees, runways, and thousands of people. Millions of tons of sand were blasted into glass, and the ocean boiled for miles around, killing millions of fish and other sea creatures.

This inferno, this maelstrom of energy and death that made the bowels of hell look like Disneyland, would later be called a tragic accident by China's president. And almost no one in the international community would believe him.

But that didn't matter. Because only a few people on Earth, all of them in China, would ever have any idea of what actually happened here—or why.


"I myself believe that there will one day be time travel because when we find that something isn't forbidden by the over-arching laws of physics, we usually eventually find a technological way of doing it."

—David Deutsch (Oxford physicist who laid the foundations for quantum computing)


Kelly Connolly's brain was on fire as it was barraged by input it had no way to interpret, which she could only guess was higher dimensional reality her 3D mind was ill-equipped to digest. The colors, tastes, sounds, and smells that assaulted her senses were almost too much to take in, like she was on an acid trip that was taking an acid trip, and her mind began to melt down.

The world suddenly, mercifully, collapsed into the one she was used to, but her mind and eyes were foggy, and she had a sense that her brain would be shutting down within minutes, if not sooner, desperate for the reboot that sleep would provide.

Kelly heard a gasp in front of her in the small, dark room, lighted only by a single lantern, and through blurry eyes made out the figure of a gangly young man, holding an enigma cube in his hand, its burning glyphs blazing in the dimness. He jerked back explosively, reflexively, upon seeing her materialize in front of him, and immediately tripped over a shoe, one belonging to Justin Boyd, who had arrived behind him.

The boy, who Kelly realized had to be the young Otto Richter, crashed to the hard floor, the back of his skull hitting first, and was still, either temporarily stunned, knocked out, or dead.

Justin Boyd shot her a pained, confused look and then collapsed to the ground as well, unconscious.

Kelly almost joined him, but used every last ounce of her will to fight off the darkness that was enveloping her mind, just for a few seconds longer. She was stunned and confused, but she knew that she had to be at the Nazi compound in Canada. And from the commotion she was now hearing in the outer room, their arrival must have made enough noise to rouse the SS soldiers sleeping there. They would be entering the room to check on things any moment. Kurt Hahn would stall them, but not for long without raising too much suspicion. And if the SS came in and found the cube active, it would be the ultimate disaster.

Kelly fell to the floor, her wobbly legs no longer able to support her weight, and crawled the short distance to the cube, which had dropped from Otto's hand to the hard floor. She reached out and pressed the glyph that called up the telepathic AI.

"Welcome to 1943, Kelly," the cube thought at her immediately.

"Return the cube to its original position in the room," she ordered telepathically, "and return it to lockdown mode. Immediately!" she finished.

Kelly battled ferociously to remain conscious, to ensure her instructions were carried out, but this was not to be. Instead, clinging to reality by her fingertips, her grip finally slipped, and she plummeted into the cold, dark oblivion that had beckoned since her arrival.


Justin Boyd awoke with a start to find himself sitting on the floor of a small room in total darkness, his back against a corrugated steel wall. He blinked on the night vision feature of his contacts and took stock of his situation and surroundings. His wrists and ankles were bound by steel cuffs, anchored by a chain to a bolt embedded in the concrete floor.

Kelly Connolly was sitting beside him, restrained in the same way he was, and he could see her stirring from her sleep, opening her eyes to absolute darkness. Against the opposite wall, maybe twelve feet away, was an unconscious teen, of average height but thinner than he should have been, also propped into a seated position against the wall, and also restrained.

Boyd decided it wasn't necessary to use Sage to broadcast his voice directly into his companion's ear, as they were almost touching each other. "Kelly," he whispered softly.

She jumped, surprised to hear a disembodied voice so close to her in the cave-like darkness.

"Justin?" she whispered back in relief, still groggy, staring at his face just inches away but still unable to detect it. "Where are we? How long have I been out?"

"We're in a small room," he answered in low tones. "I've put my contacts in night-vision mode. I awoke just a few seconds ago myself. But for some reason, I don't think we've been out for long."

"Yeah, now that I'm more fully awake, I get that sense too. Maybe an hour or two at most."

"How are you feeling?" he asked her.

"Still a little rattled. But I'll be okay."

Boyd pulled against his restraints with all of his might, but his enhanced strength was still no match for them, especially without his electroactive clothing. "Are we really in the past?" he asked. "Or am I in the psych ward of a hospital?"

"I wouldn't rule out anything," said Kelly, "but I'm pretty sure we really did travel in time."

She tilted her head in thought. "I remember the Enigma AI flashing information about time travel into my memory the instant we left. Then my mind was flooded by a barrage of—well, by a barrage of something. Sensory input I can't possibly describe. Even so, it was almost as if part of me was witnessing the island being destroyed, wiped clean by an incomprehensible fire. It was devastatingly real, and devastatingly terrifying."

Boyd nodded slowly. "Now that you mention it, I remember the same. The cube must have wanted us to get a taste of the nuclear cataclysm we narrowly missed. And then I remember suddenly finding myself standing in a room."

He thought hard but finally shook his head. "I don't remember a thing after that."

"We arrived at the Canadian encampment where the Nazis were studying the cube. The encampment Otto Richter described in his journal. And things went south in a hurry. Otto was there, holding the activated cube. But we startled the hell out of him by appearing out of thin air, and he tripped over your foot and hit his head."

"That would explain the unconscious kid cuffed to the wall across from us. I'm pretty sure that's Otto."

"There's been someone else in the room with us, and you didn't tell me until now?"

"I was getting to it," said Boyd, realizing just how lame that sounded.

"Any others I should know about?"

"No, just the three of us."

"That's good to know," replied Kelly, irritated.

She blew out a long breath. "But on the bright side, at least we know Otto is still alive."

"So what happened next?" asked the major.

Kelly told him, about how he had fallen unconscious just after Otto, and how she had activated the telepathic AI and ordered it to cover Otto's tracks before the SS soldiers rushed in.

Boyd shook his head. "Since we left Haycock," he said, continuing to speak in a whisper, "the impossible has become routine. I've imagined myself in all kinds of hostile settings and disaster scenarios. But I have to admit, I never imagined being a prisoner of the Nazis."

"Brace yourself, then," she whispered back. "Because this is the least of our worries. If the Enigma AI didn't return the cube to its original position and lock it down, then Hitler has his superweapon."

Boyd shrank back in horror. "Yeah, that's much worse."

"Oh, but there's more," said Kelly in disgust. "I'm pretty sure the cube from our time didn't make the trip with us. I think it's still in the future, on the island. It makes sense now that I think about it. The Enigma AI did say there had to be one on both sides of the time tunnel to anchor it. But it would have been nice to make this more explicit. I don't do my best thinking while sitting on top of a thermonuclear warhead."

Boyd looked ill. "So Shen will get the cube after all, once it's been decontaminated. And assuming it survives the explosion."

"I'd be amazed if it didn't."

"Perfect," he said bitterly. "If we had known we'd be leaving it with China, we'd have surrendered. At least then we'd have a chance of getting it back. So now, impossibly, we've handed unlocked cubes to both Hitler and the totalitarian regime in China."

"We aren't sure about the situation here. I'm still hoping the AI carried out my order and put the cube back in place before the SS entered. If not," added Kelly, shaking her head, "we won't have to worry about China. Because we'll have changed history so that Germany dominates the world, and China never becomes a world power."

"But won't the future we lived in still happen?" said Boyd. "Won't the changes we make here just branch into a second timeline? In this second timeline, history will play out differently, but the first will remain. Right?"

Kelly couldn't help but smile. "Incredible," she said. "We seem to be on the same page. I thought that's how time travel would work, also. But the Enigma AI says it doesn't."

"Did your telepathic friend bother to tell you that time travel would cause us to black out?" asked Boyd.

"No. Another small item it neglected to mention. Although, to be fair, I wouldn't be surprised if we were the first humans it ever sent back. And at least it sent us back fully clothed. We can be thankful for that small mercy."

"Not having the chance to see you naked is a mercy?" said Boyd, faking dismay. "Then why do I think of it as a crime?"

Kelly grinned. "It's pretty scary that you can joke under these circumstances," she said. "And even scarier that I find you amusing."

She paused. "But in all seriousness, we couldn't have screwed things up any worse."

"So do we tell Otto who we really are?"

Kelly considered. "I think we have to," she said. "If all he knows is that we're strangers from North America who popped up out of nowhere, even he won't be on our side. And we desperately need to win him over if we want to have any chance of surviving this. And even more importantly, Kurt Hahn, who's the number two ranked SS officer here."

"Are you certain that you can trust this Hahn?"

"Not at all. But Otto ended up trusting him. Hahn may have double-crossed Otto at the end, and he wasn't aware of it. So trusting Hahn is still a gamble. But one we have to take."

"What about changing history?" said Boyd. "This will do it for sure. If Otto knows his future, he'll surely change it. Which means you'll probably never be born. Do you really want to take that chance?"

"The telepathic AI implanted knowledge of time travel logic in my mind just before we traveled back. Yes, if we change Otto's history, I probably won't be born. But this still won't erase me from existence. The rules dictate that the universe rolls with the punches. Just because I'll never have been born doesn't stop me from existing now. If I'm already here, I stay here. We can discuss time travel logic at another time. The bottom line is that we need to tell Otto the truth."

"Why do you think he's chained here also?"

"Because of us," replied Kelly with a frown. "The Nazis here trusted him alone in their cube room, just like his journal said. But our arrival must have really thrown them. So now they don't trust him anymore." She shook her head. "We do seem to make everything we touch a lot worse."

"You're being too hard on yourself. I can't gloss over just how bad things look right now. We failed in the future, and we might be failing in the past. To be fair, we've been up against incredible odds, and we've had some very bad luck. But the past few days has shown me that we make an extraordinary team. So don't let yourself get down. We've found a way out of impossible situations before. So if there's a way to get out of this one and set things right, I guarantee we're going to find it."

She nodded but didn't reply.

"And speaking of getting out of this," he continued, "I need time to think. We don't know who will come through the door first. If it's Kurt Hahn, then we'll tell him the truth. But if it's anyone else, I need to have a backstory planned. A way to justify what happened here, at least with enough plausibility to keep us alive through the first five minutes of any encounter."

"I doubt that's possible," said Kelly. "I mean, we appeared from thin air into their Enigma Cube room—what they call their Atlantis Cube room. A room in the center of a top-secret facility in the middle of a forest. One that only a few people in the world, all in Germany, even know about. And then we promptly passed out. If you can explain that away, you're a magician. I don't even speak German. Do you?"

Boyd shook his head. "Sage can translate if need be. I learned some Chinese, Arabic, and Farsi on the job. But America hasn't had any conflict with Germany for a long, long time," he pointed out. "You know, other than now."

"Well, if we screw this up," said Kelly grimly, "the entire world will be speaking German."

"Then it's time for me to have some solitude and think of a backstory for us. This will be the biggest bullshitting challenge I've ever had," he admitted. "But since joining EHO, I've had to BS my way out of dicey situations any number of times. I've told whoppers that you wouldn't believe. It's a matter of knowing the audience inside and out, being quick on your feet, and letting your imagination fly. And, most importantly, not being afraid to be bold or outrageous."

"This last technique was formalized by Hitler himself," said Kelly. "Although you're using it for good, not evil," she hastened to add. "In his book, Mein Kampf, he coined the term große Lüge, which means Big Lie."

"I thought you didn't speak German."

"I don't. But since finding my grandfather's journal, I've done a little research on the period. Anyway, Hitler believed that the bigger the lie, the more audacious, the more likely it was to be believed. Because who'd imagine someone would have the nerve to spread such a colossal lie? And the more such a lie was repeated, the more likely it would be accepted as truth."

Kelly paused. "But I need to stop talking now and let you think."

"Thanks. If someone comes in, close your eyes and pretend to be unconscious."

"Sure. My eyes are useless anyway. I can't even see my hand."

"Keep pretending to be out cold until we know who entered, and we can get a sense of what they're up to. We'll go from there, depending on who it is. If it's Kurt Hahn, you take the lead. If it's anyone else, I will. And we are going to get out of this," he added emphatically.

Kelly nodded, feeling much more hopeful than their situation seemed to warrant. But she was buoyed by Boyd's calm, his decisiveness. He had a can-do, never-say-die attitude that was inspiring.

Once again, when she was by his side, no odds seemed too daunting to overcome. She found herself believing that anything was possible, and that they could extricate themselves from any trap, no matter how foolproof.

But while this belief had been tested before, she had no doubt that the ultimate test was yet to come.


SS Colonel Bruno Zimmerman stood outside on the starless spring night holding a lantern in one hand and a flashlight in the other, and both revealed that he was seething.

"Report!" he shouted at his second-in-command, Kurt Hahn.

"Nothing new," said the SS major as a never-ending chorus of crickets chirped in the background. "The patrolmen on duty at the time saw nothing. And the larger group we sent out afterward hasn't seen or found anything either. Every tripwire is still in place, and no other telltales have been found. No footprints, broken branches, or anything else."

After the Canadian family had stumbled onto their encampment, Zimmerman had made sure a series of nearly invisible tripwires, tied to small explosive charges, were laid at key points of possible ingress to make it all but impossible to sneak up on them again. And an alternating group of six SS soldiers patrolled the perimeter each night.

Hahn was vaguely aware of light in the distance, no doubt generated by more than a dozen SS soldiers with flashlights. They had now fanned out through the forest, slowly crisscrossing the perimeter of the encampment, searching ever so carefully for any clue that might explain what had happened.

"In addition," continued the major, "none of the men assigned to sky watch this week have reported seeing a single aircraft in the area." He frowned. "In short, we still have no idea how this man and woman could have possibly gotten inside the Atlantis Cube room."

"This is unacceptable!" screamed Zimmerman as several bats winged by overhead, passing briefly from the dark shadows into the limited illumination thrown off by the lantern. "This has to be the boy's doing. When he comes to, we'll finally find out how he pulled it off."

Hahn cursed inwardly. How had this happened? Who were these trespassers? They could ruin everything. Otto had been completing careful experimentation on the cube, and they were just days away from using it to wipe out the encampment, ensuring it was removed from Nazi hands once and for all.

Worse, the timing had become more critical than ever. They had been forced to move up their schedule recently when another top scientist in the group, Alex Wentz, had discovered one of Otto's notebooks that the boy had thought was properly hidden. It had been a disaster. Wentz was brilliant, but loyal to the Third Reich, the worst possible combination. And the notebook he had found was the one containing Otto's equations and diagrams for the generator he had created.

Otto told him he had found flaws and was embarrassed by the work, which is why he never shared it. But Wentz thought it was worth trying, and took it upon himself to bring Otto's invention to life. It might only be a matter of days before he succeeded. If the cube wasn't gone before this time, Hitler would get his prize.

"Respectfully, Colonel," began Hahn, aware of just how carefully he needed to tread, "the boy had nothing to do with this. No one despises him more than me. You know that. Which is why I volunteered to sleep outside the cube room so he can never leave at night. So he never gets a reprieve from the thing that terrifies him the most. I don't like sleeping anywhere near that thing, even in the room beyond. No one does."

Hahn paused to let this marinate. He wasn't telling Zimmerman anything he didn't know, but it was worth a reminder. The cube was walled off in its own space at the back of a large room, and the colonel had insisted that five soldiers sleep in the outer room. But the cube evoked such primal fear and superstition in the men that they objected even to this arrangement, and Zimmerman was forced to rotate different groups through the assignment, just as he did with the night patrols. Only Hahn slept there every night, ostensibly out of hatred, so this was worth reemphasizing to the colonel.

"So I would love nothing more than to pin this on Otto Richter," continued Hahn, "and then break his scrawny, arrogant neck." He shook his head. "But the boy couldn't possibly have been responsible for this."

"No, Major, only he could have been responsible. We've been told his genius is unparalleled. So when the impossible happens, who else could be behind it? And it can't be a coincidence that these two intruders were found in what amount to his private sleeping quarters."

Zimmerman's already grim expression darkened further. "So he stays chained in there," he continued, gesturing toward the small structure out of sight through the trees, which was normally used as his private conference room, but which was now doubling as a prison—and soon an interrogation site.

Hahn thought about where he should go from here, as an owl hooted in the high branches of a massive tree behind him. He had committed unconscionable acts to ingratiate himself with the SS, to ensure that he rose well above any possible suspicion. But all of this effort might quickly unravel if he let this situation get away from him.

"You make some good points, Colonel," he said finally. "Although I don't think the boy is nearly the genius we've been led to believe. But as I told you, I was wide awake the entire night. Couldn't sleep to save my life. And my cot is closest to the cube room. I assure you, sir, I saw no one pass. And I saw no one inside the room when I deposited Otto for the night. And it isn't as if there is anywhere to hide in there."

"We're going in circles, Major," said Zimmerman. "All reason says this couldn't have happened. Yet it did. We just haven't figured out how yet. But it smells very fishy to me. All we know is that they passed our defenses, the soldiers in the outer room, and you, without being detected. But isn't it interesting that they ended up with Otto Richter."

"And also knocked him out," noted Hahn. "He now has a knot on the back of his head. Surely not the act of an ally. Which is why I'm confident we'll find an explanation that doesn't involve the boy. Every magician appears to do the impossible, until his trick is revealed, and the solution becomes obvious."

Light and shadow flickered across the colonel's face, causing his eyes to gleam. "Let me go over this one more time to be sure I have it right," he said. "You were awake, but the men with you were not. No one heard or saw anything, until two loud noises coming from the cube room startled all of you. And, apparently, the noises sounded like two nearly simultaneous cracks of a giant's whip."

"That's what happened," confirmed Hahn.

"Did you find any whips inside the room? Or anything that might account for that particular noise?"

"No. Nothing."

Zimmerman paused in thought. "Well, we're not going to solve this mystery based on what we know now," he said. "So break the men into two groups. I want one group to continue patrolling and trying to find clues as to what happened here, while the other sleeps. With a shift change in four hours. The two of us will alternate shifts also. Is that clear?"

"Yes, sir," said Hahn. "Why don't you get some sleep. I'll take the first shift."

"Not necessary, Major."

"I'm having trouble sleeping, anyway, sir, and in four hours perhaps we'll find something that's worthy of your attention. I'll check in with the prisoners every twenty minutes, and try to rouse them."

The colonel considered. "Okay. But if any one of them regains consciousness, I want you to wake me immediately. Don't talk to them, don't interrogate them, just come and get me. Are we clear?"

"Yes, sir."

"And before I return to my quarters," said Zimmerman, "I'll be assigning four of the men to stand guard inside the cube room. Not the outer room, but the Atlantis Room itself. From now on, I want them there, and awake, every night. Otto Richter will no longer sleep there. He'll sleep in the outer room, with you, and won't be allowed near the cube unless supervised by at least three of our men."

He raised his eyebrows. "And this is assuming we clear him of involvement with... well, whatever this was tonight."

Hahn stared straight ahead, woodenly, and somehow clamped down on the primal scream that was desperate to erupt. These intruders were ruining everything. He wanted to shout his protest of this new edict, but he could hardly argue against it on the grounds that it would ruin his plans to commit treason against the Reich. "I think this is a wise step," he said instead, biting off the words as if they were bitter.

"As soon as both intruders are awake," said the colonel, "we'll begin the interrogation. We'll torture the girl first, in front of her partner. One of them will talk if we have to skin her alive."

Hahn nodded. He was just as eager to learn what the intruders had been up to as the colonel, and he would do whatever it took to clear Otto's name.

"But no matter what," continued Zimmerman, "I want both of them dead by tomorrow night."

"What if they're able to hold out and we don't learn anything?"

The colonel shrugged. "Hard to imagine that will happen," he said. "But if it does, so be it. I don't know how they ended up where they did, but I find them troubling. I want them dead, even if this has to remain a mystery."

"And Otto?"

"We'll see what he has to say for himself. And how it meshes with what they say. I'm not a fool, Major. The boy is Reichsfuhrer Himmler's chosen one, as you know. So he dies only if we have incontrovertible evidence of his involvement. And then only if we get the go-ahead from the Reichsfuhrer himself. But if we do have the proper evidence, I won't be shy about recommending the boy's execution."

"And I'll happily add my voice to yours," said Hahn. "This little weasel might pay lip service to Nazi ideals, but we both know he's mocking everything we stand for on the inside. So if you do get permission, I hope that you'll let me carry out the execution."

"Perhaps I will, Major. But for now, I'm going to see to it that the cube room is manned at all times, day and night, and then try to get some sleep. Again, let me know the moment you're able to rouse the intruders."

"I will, sir," said Hahn dutifully. He thrust out his right arm. "Heil Hitler."

The colonel thrust out his own right arm, maintaining his grip on the flashlight. "Heil Hitler," he replied.


"Otto, wake up!" said a familiar voice coming from light years away, or perhaps from inside Otto's own mind—he couldn't decide. "Wake up," the voice repeated, and Otto felt himself being shaken gently, and then felt cold water being flicked onto his face.

His eyes fluttered open to see Kurt Hahn standing in front of him with a flashlight and canteen of water. A large lantern was on the floor nearby, providing dim illumination to the entire room. Otto felt a throbbing pain at the base of his skull, but when he reached back to explore what it might be, his hand was yanked to a stop.

His mind swam into focus, and he realized he was chained to the floor, causing adrenaline to course through him. "Where am I?" he whispered. "Why am I chained?"

"We had intruders in the cube room," said Hahn. He gestured at the two unconscious prisoners across from Otto. "Here, have a drink," he added, putting the canteen to the boy's lips and pouring gently while moving his own lips inches from Otto's right ear. "Their loyalties are uncertain," he whispered so faintly that he was nearly inaudible. "Be careful."

The major finished streaming water slowly into Otto's mouth and screwed the cap back on his canteen. "So tell me what happened," he said, still speaking in low tones, but no longer in a whisper.

"I don't know," replied Otto. "I was working out a physics equation in my head," he lied, taking Hahn's warning seriously. He had actually been experimenting with the active cube, but he wasn't about to admit to that when he might be overheard. "Then, from out of nowhere, the woman over there," he continued, gesturing to the female prisoner across from him, "materialized in front of me. And I mean from out of nowhere. One instant she wasn't there. The next she was. That's it. Then I woke up here."

Hahn studied the adolescent for several long seconds. "We found both of the prisoners in the room with you, and all three of you were out cold. The blow to your head must have caused you to hallucinate."

"It was no hallucination," insisted Otto. "The woman appeared out of nowhere."

"You do know that's impossible?"

"I do," replied the young scientist. "But so is the cube." His jaw tightened. "Believe me, Major, I know what I saw."

Hahn thought about this for a moment and decided to change gears. "Look, Otto, however it happened, Colonel Zimmerman suspects you were working with them. Is that true? You need to tell me if it is."

"That's preposterous. Of course I wasn't. No one was more surprised than me."

There was a long silence, until the woman they had thought was unconscious cleared her throat to draw attention to herself. Hahn wheeled around to face her as if he had been struck by a cattle prod.

"We're prepared to talk," she said quickly in English. "Prepared to tell you what this is all about."

"How long have you been awake?" demanded Hahn with a heavy German accent.

"You speak English," said the woman excitedly. "Great! I wasn't sure."

"How long have you been awake?" repeated Hahn.

"Since before you entered."

Hahn turned to face Otto. "I have to go," he said in German. "The colonel insisted he be notified the moment they were conscious. We'll interrogate them and get to the bottom of this. And make sure your name is cleared."

"Wait!" said the male prisoner. "We're ready to talk, but only to the two of you. If you hear us out for five minutes, we promise to tell you everything. Fetch your colonel right now, on the other hand, and we promise the opposite."

"No deal," said Hahn, rising to leave.

"We know a lot about you," said the woman. "You're Major Kurt Hahn, and the young man near you is Otto Richter. Trust me, you're going to want to hear what we have to say."

"How do you know our names!" demanded the SS major.

"We're happy to tell you," said the woman. "But again, only you."

"You have five minutes," snapped Hahn.

"Thank you," said the woman in evident relief. "My name is Kelly. Kelly Connolly. And my friend here is Justin Boyd. We're Americans."

"Why are you here?" demanded Hahn. "And how did you get here? And how do you know who we are?"

"I wish we could have a preliminary conversation," said the woman named Kelly. "So we could convince you that we're normal, rational people. But there's no time for that, and no easy way to explain what's going on. So I need you to be as open-minded as you've ever been."

"Go on," said Hahn.

"We know all about your Atlantis Cube," she continued. "We know that it's immovable, unless it's hit with a beam of specific energy. Energy we know that young Otto here managed to generate. Blending principles of relativity, quantum mechanics, and the zero point field."

She paused. "Before I continue, Major Hahn, you sleep closest to the door, so can I assume that you entered the room first?"

Hahn's eyes narrowed. "Just how much do you know about me?" he asked warily.

"Did you enter first?" pressed Kelly.

"Yes."

"Was the cube in its usual place when you did?" she asked. "With light streaming from its corners?"

"It was," confirmed the SS major.

Both American prisoners blew out sighs of relief. "Thank God!" said Kelly for the both of them. "And the generator Otto used to activate it. Were you able to keep it from being discovered, and hide it, as usual? In the hollowed-out section of a fallen tree?"

Hahn gazed at her in disbelief. "Yes," he replied again. "But how can you possibly know all this?"

She nodded at the young man chained to the floor near the SS major. "I learned it from him," she replied simply.


Otto Richter noted absently that Kurt Hahn had jerked his head around to stare at him, not knowing what to think, but this didn't impact the delighted grin Otto now wore on his face in the slightest. "So you must be time travelers," he said matter-of-factly. "When you first materialized in the cube room, I had it narrowed down to two possibilities, teleportation or time travel. I have to admit, I was betting on teleportation."

Boyd shook his head in disbelief. "You had these two hypotheses in mind in the fraction of a second between when Kelly startled you and you lost consciousness?"

He shrugged. "They both just jumped into my head. That happens a lot."

"Time travel?" repeated Hahn, his thick German accent offering a stark contrast to the boy's perfect English. "That's ridiculous."

"Maybe," replied Otto, "but it's also obvious. The cube manipulates the fabric of spacetime. So both teleportation and time travel become possible. And maybe even access to higher spatial dimensions."

"Wow," said Boyd simply. "You're every bit the genius Kelly said you were."

"How far in the future are you from?" asked Otto, ignoring the compliment. "And why are you here? Did you invent the cube?"

"They haven't even confirmed they really are from the future," said Hahn, struggling to take it all in, and failing miserably.

Otto couldn't blame him. Unless he had read H.G. Wells's The Time Machine, which was highly unlikely, his SS ally hadn't even imagined time travel as a possibility.

"There's no other explanation," said Otto. "It accounts for their Houdini entrance, their knowledge of the science behind my generator, their knowledge of us—everything."

"You're correct in every regard," said Kelly. "And thanks for catching on so quickly. Saved me a lot of explaining and convincing. Knowing how bright you are, I should have realized that you'd be way ahead of me, but I guess I hadn't thought it through. We're from the year 2027."

"My God," said Hahn, "that's, that's..."

"Eighty-four years," said Otto effortlessly. "Eighty-four years in the future. And what a relief to learn that Hitler ultimately fails."

"What makes you think that?" said Hahn.

"They can't even speak German," explained Otto. "Besides, they don't seem to be ruthless psychopaths."

"Thanks," said Kelly with a smile. "That may be the strangest compliment I've ever been given, but I'll take it. But to give you one back, it's beyond extraordinary that you were able to solve the cube. Even in 2027, we were just beginning to get there. That's how far ahead of your time you are."

Otto considered. "You said you learned what you know of us and the cube from me. Given that you look to be between twenty-five and thirty-five, we must not have met until I was quite old. Unless you're much older than I think, and humanity has found a way to stop the aging process?"

"No such luck, I'm afraid."

"Then how do I know you?"

"Good question," said Kelly. "And I have a wild answer for you."

She paused for effect. "It turns out that you're my grandfather."

Otto's eyes widened. His first reaction was disbelief, but only for an instant. Why would she lie now?

His initial skepticism was followed immediately by a feeling of exhilaration. He had an actual granddaughter. And one who was arrestingly beautiful.

Knowing that he would have a granddaughter was extraordinarily gratifying, in and of itself, but her presence suggested he had likely married a bright, attractive woman. More importantly, it made it clear that his biggest fear would not come to pass.

He would not die a virgin.

Growing up in Nazi Germany, Otto expected to have a relatively short lifespan. Especially since he was prepared to die to stop the Third Reich. But death wasn't his biggest concern. For several years now, ever since puberty, his biggest fear was to die without ever knowing the touch of a woman, the softness of her skin, the warmth of her embrace.

Despite his unparalleled genius, he was not exempt from normal human needs and desires. He knew full well what was behind them—evolution's inexorable will to drive every animal into reproductive acts to ensure the survival of the species—but this intellectual analysis didn't prevent him from being a slave to his drives just the same. Didn't stop him from longing to experience something that billions of humans had experienced before him.

"So you're a Connolly," he said finally, careful not to sound as elated as he felt. "Might be your mother's married name, but it sounds like a name I'd take on as an alias."

"You do catch on fast," she said appreciatively. "Yes, you changed your name to Connolly."

"And you're American," he said. "We're in Canada now. So I must have crossed the border with the cube, as planned, and settled there. Makes sense I'd change my name to something less German under the circumstances."

Otto's elation was short-lived as his mind continued to race ahead. "But you must be aware of the danger of telling me any of this," he said with a frown. "You could change the future in dramatic ways. Much more so than might be readily apparent," he added. "I've come up with a series of equations that suggest even a minor change to the initial conditions of certain complex, dynamic systems can lead to unexpectedly large changes in outcomes."

Kelly nodded in awe. "This is true," she said. "And you've just precisely described what we call the butterfly effect from a branch of mathematics called Chaos Theory. You've come up with equations that the rest of humankind won't formalize and refine for decades to come."

She blew out a long breath. "I need to discuss time travel theory and the possible effects on the future our visit might have. But before I do, I should tell you how we ended up here. I'll make this as quick as possible. To begin with, Otto, we never meet. You steal the cube from the Nazis and hide it in Spokane, Washington. You decide it's too powerful for anyone to have, and employ your descendants as caretakers, in the event that the need to use it becomes unavoidable somewhere down the line. So you write a journal detailing your history. You write of how the SS barged into your home to take you away. You write of your meeting with Himmler. And you write of your time here, including how you discovered that Major Hahn was an ally. Just after he executed a Canadian family who had wandered into your camp."

Hahn grimaced. "That was the most horrific thing I've ever felt forced to do," he whispered. "And that's saying a lot."

"It was despicable," agreed Kelly. "But as you said at the time, there was no way to save them." She lowered her eyes. "And I've felt forced to do some horrific things recently, too. So I'm not sure I'm qualified to judge."

"Do you still doubt that these two are time travelers?" Otto asked his German ally.

"No," said Hahn. "Not at this point."

Kelly continued her brief overview. She told them of how she had unlocked the cube and taken it from a secure government facility, intent on honoring Otto's wishes that no military ever have a chance to use it. Of China, a major superpower in the future, coming after them and the cube. And, finally, of being trapped on an island and threatened with a hydrogen bomb—which she explained was a thousand times more powerful than the atomic bomb Hitler was after—and that time travel had been their only escape.

She only hit the highlights, and her entire story, from start to finish, took less than fifteen minutes.

"Fascinating," said Otto when she was done. "Truly fascinating. But we really do need to turn back to time travel. Your actions here are bound to change history. Have already."

"He's right," said Hahn. "Colonel Zimmerman intends to increase security in the cube room going forward. He's implemented the changes already. Otto will now have to sleep just outside the cube room, where I've been sleeping, and soldiers will now be stationed inside the cube room day and night. Otto will no longer be allowed to even go near the cube unless accompanied by three soldiers. It's become much more unlikely that we'll be able to steal it now. Which means that Otto will never make it to America, never leave the cube there, and never write his journal. Especially in the limited time now available."

"What do you mean, limited time?" asked Kelly. "You should have all the time you need—within reason."

"Should have," said Otto, who then went on to explain how Alex Wentz was in the process of recreating his work with the generator, putting a loaded gun to their heads with respect to timing.

"Well, isn't this great," said Kelly sarcastically. "Because, you know, things weren't sucking enough."

"Sucking?" said Otto. "Like a vacuum?"

"Never mind," she replied.

"Let's get back to the changes in history that you're causing," said Otto. "They go much deeper than Zimmerman's increased security." He nodded at Kelly. "There is now little chance that you'll be born. But since you haven't vanished, and you know a lot more about this than I do, I must be missing something."

He paused, as if double-checking his analysis. "In my mind, the butterfly effect you spoke of makes it clear that the slightest change in my thinking, the slightest change in even a single minor decision, will lead to dramatically different outcomes. Such as missing a chance encounter with my future wife, perhaps. Or, if I do still meet and marry the same woman, an infinitesimally small change in the time or place of conception will lead to a different sperm winning the race to my wife's egg, resulting in a different child."

He tilted his head in thought. "Unless we're in a closed loop," he said, as if thinking out loud. "One that's played out infinite times. And your presence here is what causes me to live out a future that leads to your birth."

"I think we probably are in a closed loop," said Kelly. "But maybe not. History also has an inertia that counteracts the butterfly effect," she said, relying on the information the telepathic AI had planted in her mind as they left Sun Island. "It wants to stick to the path it took before. You can push on the timeline a lot more than you'd think, and history will find a way to repeat itself. You have to do something fairly big, really kick it in the teeth, to get it to change paths."

"Which is counterintuitive," said Otto.

"Very, but that's how it seems to work. With the butterfly effect, small changes get amplified in a big way. You'd think this would be truer than ever with history, but it's the opposite. In many cases, small changes are shrugged off as history fights and claws its way to return to its original path."

Hahn frowned. "I feel like I stepped into an advanced course on this subject," he said, "without taking the introductory one first."

"Sorry," said Kelly. "I can try to simplify things and start from basic principles. Since this will be very relevant to our future decision-making, I think it's worthwhile."

Hahn glanced at his watch, squinting to read it in the dim light. "We have just under three hours before the colonel's shift begins."

"I should only need about ten minutes," said Kelly. "Not that you'll really understand time travel when I'm done. I'm not sure it can be fully understood." She gestured toward Otto. "But I do know this, if anyone can understand it, it will be my, ah... grandfather."


Kelly was delighted by the young Otto Richter, although it was difficult to get her mind around their relationship. She hadn't compared notes, but she was pretty sure that none of her thirty-year-old peers had an eighteen-year-old grandfather.

Regardless of Otto's appearance and youth, his mental age was staggering. His mind was even more dazzling than she would have thought. There were so many topics she wanted to explore with him, but she was acutely aware that the clock was ticking.

She considered telling him about the telepathic AI that had implanted knowledge of time travel reality into her mind. But explaining the nature of a telepathic artificial intelligence would take too long in an age when the computer had yet to be invented.

In fact, Alan Turing had created the progenitor of the modern computer just a year earlier at Bletchley Park, England, a feat that would lead in no small part to the eventual defeat of the Nazis. This primitive, room-sized computing device had enabled the decryption of the Nazis' secret code, which was also called Enigma, but had nothing to do with an alien cube.

Kelly waited for the SS major to reposition his lantern in the center of the small room and then began, drawing on the information the AI had given her, but describing it in her own way. "Ironically enough," she said, "the most famous time travel thought experiment of all is called the grandfather paradox. I'm not sure when it first arose, but it's been debated for generations. And the crazy part is that we're more or less recreating it in real life right now."

"Lucky us," mumbled Boyd.

"This is the gist," continued Kelly. "Say you go back in time and kill your grandfather when he's a boy, before he has any children. What then? Well, if you do that, then you never come into existence."

Kelly paused. "I have to admit, I'm not sure why they used a grandfather in the thought experiment. Why not just imagine killing your mother before she has children? Same result, and a simpler example."

She shrugged. "But anyway, if you kill your grandfather before he has kids, you're never born. But if you're never born, then you can't kill him. But if you can't kill him, you do get born, and then you can kill him. But if you do kill him, you're never born, and you can't again."

"And so on," said Otto.

"And so on," repeated Kelly. "This is just one example of how changing the past can lead to unresolvable paradoxes. And it's easy to come up with endless others. Which has led many scientists to conclude that time travel is impossible. But not all of them. Because there might be ways around the paradoxes.

"One way is to introduce the possibility of multiple timelines, multiple universes. In this scenario, once the grandfather is murdered, the timeline branches into a new universe from that point on. The original universe, the trunk of the tree if you will, remains unchanged. In the new, separate universe, the grandchild never comes into being. But so what? The grandfather can still be murdered by the grandchild from the original universe, who can come back just before the branch point to kill him."

Kelly paused. "So if you have two universes," she continued, "you get zero paradoxes. In this scenario, all of the consequences of the murder are shunted off to a new universe."

"But you're about to say it doesn't work like that," said Otto.

"That's right. There is only a single timeline, and a single universe. No branches. But still no paradoxes. Because it turns out the universe stubbornly refuses to allow them, no matter what rules of logic it has to break."

"I see," said Otto thoughtfully.

"I don't," said Justin Boyd.

"It works like this," said Kelly. "Go back in time and kill your young grandfather. He never has a son, so you're never born. But it doesn't matter. The sole timeline, the sole universe, is rewritten going forward because of your actions. Even so, you remain as a fully formed adult. Just because you were never conceived in the rewritten timeline doesn't matter. You don't vanish from reality."

She raised her eyebrows. "You could even say that you're... grandfathered in. Whatever exists in the universe exists, even if it violates cause and effect. Even if it violates all logic."

"So even though you were never born," said Boyd, "the universe just ignores this inconvenient truth. It refuses to react as if it's a paradox."

Kelly nodded.

"Given only one timeline," said Otto, "one universe, this raises the stakes substantially. Because if you change history, the consequences don't just branch off into a new timeline. The one true universe is stuck with them."

"That's right," said Kelly. "Unless you create a recursive loop, which keeps the changes confined. As you said, Otto, unless the changes in the past actually create a future that leads back to the changes in the past."

"What?" said Hahn in utter confusion.

"Say I'm sitting in a room in the year 2000," said Kelly, "when a 2003 version of me, wearing a blue shirt, barges in and hands me instructions for how to build a time machine. I spend the next three years building it. When it's done, in 2003, I put on a blue shirt and visit the me in 2000, handing her the instructions to build the thing."

Kelly raised her eyebrows. "So who invented it in the first place?"

She waited for Hahn and Boyd to consider this, knowing that Otto had been way ahead of her from her first sentence. "The answer is that no one did," she said finally. "At least within this loop. But it was invented. It had to be. Only it must have been invented in a different version of the timeline.

"Maybe originally, after decades of toil, I invented a time machine in the year 2040, and then came back to 2000 to give myself the instructions. This would then change history. Now that young me has the instructions, she can make the time machine come into being by 2003, instead of 2040—which kicks off the infinite recursive loop. The version of me who toiled to invent it never comes into existence. Still, she is grandfathered in and still exists, but leaves an infinite recursive loop in her wake."

"And you think we might be in one of these loops?" said Boyd.

"Maybe," replied Kelly. "Otto, you write in your journal that you have no memory of several months' time leading up to Spokane. Which is why I had no idea that another scientist had found your notes on the generator and is racing to complete it.

"You write that you find yourself in Spokane, with no awareness of how you got there. So maybe you were just covering for our visit. Maybe you were aware of what happened tonight when you wrote the journal. And you purposely left out that you met me, along with everything else you now know about our future, so history repeats itself in an endless loop."

"But we can't be sure of that," said Boyd. "This could be the first and only time any of this has happened. Otto suspected in his journal that being exposed to the active cube for a long while is what led to his memory loss. This could also be true."

"Agreed," said Otto. "So let's analyze both possibilities, using Kelly as the subject of the thought experiment. If we are in a loop, and history repeats itself exactly, Kelly will be born again in our future. She'll grow up. She'll travel from 2027 to 1943. And once in this time, she'll kick off the very events that will lead to the cycle repeating. Which, presumably, she's doing now. In this case, despite being born in the nineties, she'll live out the rest of her life in this time period.

"If we aren't in a loop," continued Otto, "your presence here will change the future. Assuming the changes are big enough to overcome the inertia of history, then I'll likely marry someone different this time. Or the wrong sperm will hit the wrong egg. Either way, this time Kelly is never born. But as she said, the universe doesn't care. She's here now, so will remain here. She doesn't vanish."

"So both outcomes are the same," said Boyd in astonishment. "Either way, she lives out her life in this time period."

"Actually, it's stranger than that," said Kelly. "Because there are a few relevant points I haven't shared with Otto. The cube will allow you to travel into the future. But only as far ahead in time as any version of you has ever been. And it won't allow two versions of the same person to exist at the same time."

"You're saying that the cube won't allow it," noted Otto. "Meaning the builders of the cube won't. That isn't the same as saying the laws of physics won't allow it."

"I think that's right," said Kelly. "But until we can invent time travel on our own, we're reliant on the cube. And its rules mean, ironically enough, that if our presence here changes the future, such that I never get born again in 1997, the cube will send me back to 2027. Because I'd be the only version of me there.

"On the other hand," she continued, "if I am born as before, then, ironically, my presence in the future blocks me from traveling there. So I end up trapped here for the rest of my life."

"Wow," said Otto in fascination. "Didn't see that coming."

"And the same would apply to me," said Boyd. "If Kelly isn't born, the me in the future doesn't meet her. So I never end up here. But if she is born, I do—and I'm just as stranded."

Kelly winced. "Sorry about that."

Boyd appeared lost in thought. "If this happens," he said, "I'll let you make it up to me."

"How?"

"If we're stranded here together," he replied, "you have to promise to marry me."

Kelly looked stunned. "I know we, ah... necked in the car," she said, purposely using the most innocent, old-fashioned word she could find. "But aren't you pushing this relationship a little fast?"

"No doubt about it. I'm aware that we don't love each other. Well—yet. But if we're banished here forever, we'd have to stay out of the limelight so as not to change the future. And who else is going to understand us, other than us? Talk about people not getting our pop culture or tech references. Believe me, we're both going to want to be able to share our lives with the only other person in the world who knows our secret, who knows our era. If not, we'll lose our minds."

"I'll be damned," said Kelly. "You make a strong case." She paused in thought. "Okay, if we do get stranded in this time period forever, marriage it is."

"Are you two finished?" said Hahn irritably, shaking his head. "You're in a top-secret Nazi base in chains, not on a date. You do know that other things are going on here, right?"

"Right," said Boyd. "Sorry. How much time until the shift change?"

Hahn consulted his watch. "Just over two hours."

Boyd pursed his lips in thought. "I say we make our move right now. There's a lot of chaos out there. Your men are reacting to the surprise of our arrival. We should strike while they're still preoccupied. If we can get an active cube into Kelly's hands, we can destroy this encampment like you planned. And then get Otto's ass to Spokane, Washington."

The SS major stared at his American counterpart in thought.

"If it helps," added Boyd, "I'm pretty handy in a fight."

"You have no idea," Kelly said to the two Germans. When she had described how she and Boyd had ended up in the past, she had purposely failed to mention her companion's enhancements. "Training techniques and physical conditioning have come a long way in eighty years."

"I do like the idea of striking now," said Hahn. "The problem is that I don't have the key to any of the cuffs. Zimmerman does. And trust me, not even Harry Houdini could pick the locks on these."

"So sneak into Zimmerman's quarters and strangle him," said Boyd, as casually as if he were ordering from a takeout menu. "Then bring the keys and a backpack full of guns and grenades back here. We'll fight our way into the cube room. Then we just have to keep your people at bay for a few minutes while Kelly does her thing."

"Does her thing?" said Hahn in confusion.

"Uses the cube to end the conflict," said Boyd.

Hahn paused in thought for several seconds. "Otto?" he said. "What do you think?"

"It's a tough call," replied the eighteen-year-old. "There are extra soldiers awake tonight, and they're agitated. It might be best to wait until tomorrow night, when things have settled back down."

Hahn frowned. "Scheisse!" he said miserably. "I just remembered. We can't wait until tomorrow night. The colonel plans on killing these two by then, no matter what. So it really is now or never."

Before this sentence was even finished, the door burst open, and a tall, imposing man in a colonel's uniform entered with a lower-ranked soldier on either side, all three holding guns pointed at Kurt Hahn.

"What is now or never, Major Hahn?" demanded Zimmerman in English.

He then switched to German and continued. "And think very hard before you reply," he said, "because your life is riding on the answer."


"Stand against the wall, Major!" ordered the colonel as he placed a second lantern beside the first, increasing the illumination inside the room considerably. He motioned for Hahn to stand just to the left of where Otto Richter was seated on the floor.

Sage transmitted the translation of these words into the comms of the two Americans, as she had done previously when Hahn and Otto had been speaking to each other in German.

Boyd desperately wanted to intervene but couldn't until he learned more about what the German colonel knew.

Kurt Hahn was frozen, but only for a moment. His fearful expression turned into one of irritation, even anger, as he pressed his back against the wall. "Colonel, what is going on here?" he said. "Is this how you repay my loyal service? With suspicions, threats, and guns in my face?"

"Save your indignation, Major, and answer my question. Yes, you've been loyal. A model officer. But odd things are happening tonight, with their arrival," he said, gesturing to the two American prisoners. "So all bets are off."

Hahn stared deeply into his commanding officer's eyes, not backing down. "I was just about to get you, Colonel," he said. "I was telling the prisoners that I'd try to persuade you to show mercy if they cooperated. But that they would only have one chance to avoid torture. It was now or never."

"Why don't I believe you?" said Zimmerman. "Oh, right, because I gave you explicit orders to alert me the moment either of them regained consciousness. And I know you understood the order."

"Sir, I—"

"Not another word!" barked Zimmerman. "I couldn't sleep, so I checked on the men. And I ran into Sergeant Vogel. He told me he heard you speaking with the prisoners twenty minutes ago, and that you were keeping your voices low. Twenty minutes ago! It could have begun sooner than that for all I know. Vogel could tell you were conversing in English, even though he doesn't speak it. And he said it sounded more like a tea party than an interrogation."

The SS colonel paused, fuming. "So how do you explain it?" he demanded. "Are you working with the prisoners?" He gestured to Otto. "Are all four of you working together?"

Hahn's eyes were wild, and Boyd could tell his mind was racing.

"This is my fault, Colonel Zimmerman," said the American major from out of the blue.

Zimmerman rushed across the six feet of floor separating him from Justin Boyd and drove his boot into the prisoner's gut. Boyd gasped, fell to his side, and clutched at his stomach, dragging his chains along as he did. If not for his genetically modified muscles, increased pain tolerance, and oxygen-rich respirocytes, he would have been gasping for breath and moaning in agony.

"Did I say you could speak?" hissed the colonel in English, his accent as thick as Kurt Hahn's. "Right now, I'm trying to find out why the major disobeyed a direct order. And why you and he seem so... chummy."

Boyd knew he had to risk the boot again, or worse. He had been putting the finishing touches on a backstory just before Hahn had entered, and he was the only one who could get them out of this.

"He failed to follow orders because of me," said Boyd as quickly as possible. "I had him mesmerized. Not his fault."

Boyd waited for another kick, but it didn't come, either because his words were sinking in, or Zimmerman was impressed that his prisoner had the balls to speak again after being savagely attacked. "He wanted to get you," continued the American, "but I controlled his mind so he didn't."

The colonel's restraint was short lived as he suddenly kicked Boyd a second time, just as ferociously. But this time Boyd was prepared. He coughed weakly and pretended to be more hurt than he was. "Not a great way to treat the man who will win this war for Germany," he croaked. "Kick me again and I won't tell you how. Instead of being rewarded by your Fuhrer, you'll earn an execution."

Zimmerman's eyes narrowed, and he studied Boyd like he was a particularly venomous snake. "You must have a death wish," he growled.

"I have a wish for glory. And there's enough of that for both of us to share."

"You're insane," said the SS colonel, but Boyd could tell he was now intrigued.

"Am I? If I'm so insane, how did my wife and I make it past your guards?"

"Only to promptly pass out," said Zimmerman. "All in all, an unimpressive effort."

"I know you don't mean that," said Boyd. "Assist me, and I'll see to it that you become part of the Fuhrer's inner circle."

When Zimmerman didn't respond, he hurriedly continued. "My name is Justin Boyd, and this is my wife, Kelly Boyd," he said. "We're Canadians."

"Get lost on a hike?" said Zimmerman, crouching down and leaning close to the prisoners. His lip curled up in disgust. "And why are you both dressed in black sweatshirts and blue jeans? And unusual ones at that. Is this some kind of uniform?"

Boyd sighed. "Not a uniform. Just very comfortable. And my wife likes it when we wear matching clothing."

Zimmerman shook his head. "You really expect me to believe that you're the man who can turn the tide of the war?"

"Even the strongest man indulges the whims of his woman, Herr Colonel. Even at the expense of looking like a fool."

Zimmerman smiled. "You have balls, Justin Boyd, whoever you are."

"I also have skills. And so does my wife. That's how we met. In a group of Canadian clairvoyants."

"Clairvoyants? Like seeing the future clairvoyants?"

"Yes. And I can see the future with greater clarity than anyone who ever lived," said Boyd boldly.

"I am so disappointed, Herr Boyd," said the SS colonel in disgust. "I really hoped you had something real to tell me. But this is Scheisse! I don't believe in the supernatural. So tell me what you're really doing here, or your wife will be dead in minutes."

Saying this, his arm shot out in the blink of an eye, savagely backhanding Kelly across the face, drawing blood.

Boyd hurled himself against his restraints so forcefully it seemed like the building itself might come down, but he was stopped just short of contact with the colonel, like a rabid lion charging a zoo visitor just beyond his range.

"You have very strong feelings for this woman, don't you?" said Zimmerman. "Are you sure she's your wife and not your mistress?" he added, grinning at his own joke.

His smile vanished, to be replaced by a scowl. "But it occurs to me, Herr Boyd, that I'm making the wrong threat. How about this one? Stop trying my patience or I'll do worse than kill her. I'll give her to my men to pass around like a cheap cigar. Am I clear?"

"If you or any of your men ever touch her again," hissed Boyd, his eyes burning with enough intensity to melt lead, "I'll see to it that the Fuhrer douses you with gasoline and sets you on fire."

"Are you actually threatening me?"

"You may not believe in clairvoyance, but Himmler and your Fuhrer both do. Strongly. And when I prove my abilities, I'll become your Fuhrer's right-hand man. We both know that if not for Erik Jan Hanussen, Adolph Hitler's reign would never have even begun. Well, I make Hanussen look like a two-bit tarot card reader."

Boyd had at first considered telling the truth to explain their presence, at least a doctored version, but had discarded this idea for numerous reasons. Most importantly, convincing the Nazis that he had traveled through time was more likely to rewrite the future, as Sage had found no records of any such claim. She had found endless records of claims of clairvoyance, on the other hand.

Erik Jan Hanussen had been a famous con man and performer in the 1920s, who had billed himself as a clairvoyant. In March of 1932, when Hitler's political future was teetering on the edge of a cliff, Hanussen claimed to foresee the resurgence of the Nazi Party, bailing Hitler out and becoming his confidant.

Then, in 1933, Hanussen correctly predicted an arson attack on the German parliament, which came to be known as the Reichstag fire. Hitler blamed the attack on communist agitators and clamped down on civil rights, which allowed him to seize absolute power.

Historians later suspected that the fire was a false flag operation spearheaded by Hitler himself, and that Hanussen's prediction was based on insider information. Hanussen was assassinated days later, either because of his knowledge of who had really ordered the fire, or because Göring and Goebbels were threatened by his growing closeness with Chancellor Hitler.

"I'm sure you're well aware of the influence Hanussen had on your Fuhrer," continued Boyd. "Well, my influence will be ten times as great. Believe me, you want me as your friend, not your enemy."

Zimmerman paused in thought for several long seconds, and Boyd couldn't guess how he might respond. The smart play for him would be to hear Boyd out, on the remote chance he could back up his claims. The colonel had nothing to lose. If Boyd failed, the SS colonel could always have him tortured and killed.

"Okay, Herr Boyd," said the colonel. "I'll listen. But you'd better get to your proof quickly."

Boyd could detect a subtle release of tension in his three fellow captives, one that he fully shared. He knew this had been a close call, and he had made it worse by not being able to control his rage when Kelly Connolly had been brought into the line of fire.

"My wife and I together are even more clairvoyant than we are apart," said Boyd. "It amplifies itself. My clairvoyance kept pushing me to come here. I had no idea where here was, and still don't. But I knew the general area, and my gifts guided me to this location."

He paused. "And now I know why. For two reasons. First, I've long been eager to join the Nazi war effort. My own people have no appreciation for the occult. But yours do. Your Fuhrer will take me as seriously as I deserve, and will offer the rewards that I deserve. When Germany controls the entire world, Kelly and I will be supported, will be encouraged to hone our abilities. Which is something we've long wanted. I didn't know I was walking into a Nazi camp, but my intuition knew. It was following a higher occult power."

Boyd paused to let this sink in. "But the second reason I had a calling to come here is even more shocking to me. When we got closer and closer to this site, our psychic powers increased dramatically. When we were about a hundred yards away, we were thrown into a trance. This higher power took over, directing us when to move, when to pause, and where to step. We were able to slip past your people undetected because we were guided by supernatural forces."

Zimmerman rolled his eyes but didn't interrupt.

"Then, when we entered the final room," continued Boyd, "the indescribable happened. We were bombarded by light, and we both had the same vision. It was a vision of a small cube, but one that pulsed, throbbed, with extraordinary energies. It was dazzling. And it charged up our powers to impossible heights. I was clairvoyant before, but now I'm a seer beyond all seers. I'm able to see every future battle, every surprise attack, every pivotal moment in the days and years ahead. Thanks to the incomprehensible psychic energy in that room, with me at Hitler's side, Germany can't lose."

"As long as you don't keep passing out," said Zimmerman dryly.

"Absorbing this energy was like drinking from Niagara Falls," explained Boyd. "Our minds almost exploded. As I was losing consciousness, I tripped a young man who was already in the room and knocked him out. This was accidental, I assure you."

The colonel considered. "And that's your entire story?"

"Almost," said Boyd. "When Major Hahn entered this room, I mesmerized him. So he would tell us about you, yes, but mostly so he would regale us with what he knows about the mystical beliefs of the members of your High Command. He wanted to alert you that we had awakened, but I was too eager to satisfy my curiosity. I had no idea this would get him in hot water. But he had no free will. He was completely under my control."

"You really must think I'm a fool," said Zimmerman. "If you were able to do something like this, you'd have seized control of me already."

"No need," said Boyd. "I saw the future and knew you would come around. And controlling him weakened me considerably. Besides," he added, "it's a lot harder to influence a mind as strong as yours."

"Flattery now?" said the colonel. "Or just more stalling? It's time for you to convince me of your clairvoyance. I won't ask again."

"What's today's date?" asked Boyd.

"You don't know?"

"We hiked for many days. I just want to be sure."

Zimmerman told him.

"Give me a moment to find the most important vision to share," said Boyd, closing his eyes.

"Sage," he said subvocally, "I need a short list of World War II battles and engagements that will happen within the next twelve hours. Immediately!"

"Understood," replied Sage. "I'm displaying them on your lenses now."

Boyd swayed back and forth, as though in a trance, while choosing an entry and expanding upon it. Seconds later he stopped his swaying and opened his eyes, facing Zimmerman.

"Okay, Colonel," he said. "I've seen the future, clear as a bell. The allies will be raiding one of your most important submarine bases tomorrow—in Naples, Italy. A surprise attack initiated by hundreds of American B-17 bombers." He squinted as if trying to see something far away. "The Church of Santa Chiara and the Santa Maria di Loreto hospital will be destroyed in the raid, as well."

Boyd sighed and tried to look woozy. "That's all I see for now. But you need to transmit this information to your people in Naples immediately. If they act now, they'll be able to thwart the attack."

Zimmerman shook his head. "I don't know what game you're playing," he said derisively, "but there's no way I'm telling my superiors about this supposed attack on your word alone. When the attack doesn't happen, I'll be the gullible fool who raised a false alarm and caused unnecessary redeployments."

He pulled a handgun from his holster and shoved the barrel against Boyd's forehead. "Much simpler just to kill you now!" he said icily. "Bet you didn't see that coming?"

Boyd forced a relaxed smile. "Actually, I did," he said calmly. "And you won't pull that trigger. The Naples raid is going to happen tomorrow. Guaranteed. And you know that if it does, if I prove I can foresee every attack before it happens, this war is as good as over.

"If I'm right," he continued boldly, ignoring the presence of the gun digging into his skin, "all I ask is that you bring me to your superiors' attention. In exchange, I'll bring you into the High Command."

Boyd paused. "If I'm wrong, on the other hand, kill me and my wife in the most horrible way you can think of." He shrugged. "Or let your men pass her around like a cheap cigar. That's how sure I am."

Zimmerman's eyes narrowed in thought.

A fearful intensity came over the American major. "But it goes without saying," he hissed, "that if anyone lays a hand on me in the meanwhile, or even thinks about laying a hand on my wife, the deal is off."

The colonel studied him for several long seconds and then reholstered his gun. "Agreed," he said simply.

Zimmerman turned to the two SS soldiers. "Get them water," he ordered in German. "Chain Major Hahn along with them, and make sure they're all gagged. They stay here until I get word on the goings-on in Naples. Post a three-man guard outside."

"I don't understand, Colonel," said Hahn. "I'm your most loyal man. You know that."

"I've always thought so, Major. And if Herr Boyd is right, and the Naples attack happens, I'll believe you behaved the way you did because you were under a spell. But until then, you aren't going anywhere."

"And if I have to pee?" asked Hahn.

"Pee on yourself," said Zimmerman callously. "It'll help keep you warm."