The Gemini Divergence (16 page)

*~*

Gus and the rest of the team from the Field
Activities Group/Project Mogul were out in the rural desert of New
Mexico preparing to cast off yet another experimental balloon.

Their hurried and determined work showed that
they were getting used to their job, as it was obvious that they
had done this many times before.

Everything was now ready to go. All they had
to do was to launch the balloon and clean up. But, Gus had
reservations.

He climbed into the passenger seat of one of
the trucks and unfolded a map and started reading.

One of his co-workers, Jack Jennings,
approached and asked, “Why don’t we just let her go, I thought you
did all of the calculations already.

“I did,” responded Gus, “But Mr. Volmer has
always been here to double check them, and he hasn’t shown up yet.
I don’t know if he will.

Gus then pointed to some ominous black clouds
on the horizon and continued, “I am also worried about that. If it
comes this way, and it looks like it is, how far off course will it
send this balloon, all of my calculations are for the normal winds
in the area. All of the ascent and descent timers are set to
release ballast and then release gas, in order to keep the balloon
within the White Sands area, but if those storm winds kick in, who
knows where it will come down.”

As they were looking in the direction of the
looming thunder head, Jack pointed and asked, “Look at that rooster
tail of dust, isn’t that a vehicle coming?”

Gus put down the map and stood on the truck’s
running board as he used his hand over his eyes to block the sun,
“I believe that it is. It must be Mr. Volmer.”

A few moments passed as they awaited the
forthcoming of the approaching car. Once it got closer, they
recognized that it was Volmer, in an Army motor pool sedan.

As the car pulled around and the young airmen
approached, Volmer leaned his head out of the window with his usual
overtly large appearing eyes showing through his glasses. The dust
was now falling out of the sky onto his fedora where his sweat had
been soaking through the brow, “Herr Danuser, I am so sorry to be
so late. I have so many assignments to keep up with… Your General
Lemay is very demanding.”

“That’s all right Mr. Volmer I am glad to see
you. I was hesitant to launch it without you, since you always
double check my calculations.”

“Well have you calculated for it to cross
over the Trinity Test Range and take sample for the duration of the
target overpass?”

“Yes,” answered Gus.

“And have you done the ascent and descent
automation timer calculations and settings?” quizzed Volmer.

“Yes, I did those already.”

“Well then,” Volmer went on, “I am confident
that you have done everything that needs to be done. I have full
confidence in your abilities Herr Danuser, Why don’t you let the
other airmen launch the balloon?”

Gus turned to Jack and gave him a
thumbs-up.

Jack then turned to the other airmen that
were standing on the flat bed truck where the balloon was still
being tethered by an extended boom, and yelled, “Let her go, he
said it’s ok.”

As the other airmen released the balloon, Gus
turned back to Volmer and asked, “Aren’t you concerned about that
approaching storm?”

Volmer turned and looked in the direction of
the storm and said, “Oh, I hope that it will not be a problem, but
I have too many deadlines to meet to delay a launch. We’ll just
have to hope for the best,” as Volmer restarted the car and put it
into gear, “sorry I have to leave again, I have much paper work
that still has to be done at R.A.A.F. before I can even return to
White Sands. I trust that you will take care of everything here
Herr Danuser.”

At that, the airmen waved and Volmer pulled
away. They watched him drive off back in the direction of the
encroaching storm, and then turned their heads to watch the
embarking balloon moving away from them in the opposite
direction.

“Think we’ll be able to find it again
tomorrow?” asked Jack.

“Hell, I don’t know, I hope so,” replied
Gus.

~~~**^**~~~

The Cold War / The
Mission

As the lightning flashed in a scintillating
resonance, it illuminated the ominous thunder head to the
night.

Visible only when the lightning bolts shot
out of the clouds, one could barely discern three flying discs
moving over the desert.

These saucers had been specially modified to
run dark and silent; tailor made for the Fallschirmjaeger Heit.

Hauptman Pfautsch was piloting the lead
craft, and the only person on board all of the saucers that he did
not personally hand pick was Schwerig, who was sitting directly
beside him as co-pilot.

Schwerig asked, “How on earth can you see in
this muck?”

Practically all that one could see on the
other side of the cockpit windows was the rain beating onto the
wind screen.

Hauptman Pfautsch responded, “I can’t.” After
he paused and then turned to Schwerig and grinned, he explained. “I
purposely flew over Alamogordo many times in the night and day to
be able to pick landmarks that were visible in the day and the
night. I can then use those landmarks and dead reckoning to set my
bearing, now all I have to do is watch my speed and altitude and
maintain the bearing for an exact period of time.”

He pointed to the console and said, “I have a
timer set there, as soon as it goes off, we look down, and we
should be able to see the lights of our objective.”

Schwerig then grinned back and said, “I am
very impressed with your raid plan.”

Your idea to cause such a stir at Muroc Dry
Lake Bed today was a magnificent touch. The Americans will be
focusing on that area and not be ready for us here at all. It was a
perfect diversionary maneuver.”

“All things that I have learned through
experience, Mein Herr, responded the Hauptman, “Skorzeny was a
profound influence on my strategic planning.”

Schwerig answered, “Yes, it is very sad for
the Fatherland that he has been captured and is suffering trial at
Nuremburg. We can only hope he might escape to come to our aid
again… Are you sure that they will not detect our arrival?” asked
Schwerig.

“They will detect nothing. We noticed very
early in the flight testing of these saucer shaped craft that they
had little or no radar reflection, and thus are practically
invisible to radar detection. On a clear day the image would appear
as a very small bird if at all, and in this storm, they will see
nothing.”

“This storm is a stroke of luck, I doubt that
anybody will see or hear us arrive.” added Schwerig, “Have you
informed your men to use their firearms, only as a final
option?”

“I have briefed them well Oberstleutnant
Schwerig.” answered Pfautsch, “The mission should unfold exactly as
planned.”

*~*

The radio was playing a pleasant 40’s big
band ballad. It’s only interruptions were from the lightning.

Gus and Volmer were sitting on a couch,
listening to the music which was accompanied by the ominous yet
still soothing sounds of the storm, while drinking bottled
beer.

The windows were open and the wind was
blowing the curtains into the room; seemingly dancing to the music
and the storm in a mesmerizing motion.

Volmer spoke, “Oh, I never thought that I
would see the day that I would be so happy to see such a storm. The
temperature must have dropped thirty degrees.”

Gus answered, “Yup, I think that this is the
first time in days that I wasn’t sweating.”

“Ya, that is wunderbar,” Volmer answered
euphorically.

They listened to the music for a moment as
the lightning flashed again, lighting up the room and causing the
radio to play a burst of static, which seemed to magically
harmonize with the rain pounding onto the tin roof.

Then Gus asked, “Where do you think that
balloon is?”

“God only knows my son. It is a very good
thing that we still have ground filtration units to take samples as
well, so I will not have to show up in front of Herr Lemay empty
handed.”

“I guess that is what I will be doing
tomorrow… You know, going out and collecting all of the ground unit
samples.”

“Be very careful of the latent radio
activity, I think that you sometimes forget what some of the things
that we sample for are.”

“I will Mr. Volmer, I promise… What are those
radio listening devices that we are loading on those air sampling
balloons listening for anyway?”

Volmer thought for a second, because Lemay
had forbade him from telling his theories about what they were
listening for to anyone, except Lemay, so he answered, “Oh, we are
just doing experiments with transmissions for when we develop
rockets that will actually travel around the outside of the globe,
then we will be able to communicate with them.”

Gus trusted Volmer greatly. He believed,
rightfully so, that he was a very honest man, but he sensed a
hidden agenda, or an agenda driven by somebody other that Volmer,
that was deliberately being kept away from him.

Gus than explained, “I was just wondering
anyway, because I always hear what the other equipment systems have
found, but when I load one of those listening devices on the
balloons, I never hear what they have found.”

Volmer sat for a moment, then pondered out
loud, “I wonder where on Earth that balloon will show up?”

*~*

Pfautsch’s raiding party had landed and
disembarked. There were about twenty men, all in black.

They huddled into a circle and Hauptman
Pfautsch started to speak in a whispering tone, “Now all of you
follow me, when we get to Volmer’s quarters I want everyone to do
their planned job, no improvising, I will not tolerate it.”

The lightning flashed and Schwerig started to
count under his breath, “One thousand one, one thousand two.”

Pfautsch looked at Schwerig, showing his
thoughts with his facial expression, as if to say,
what the hell
are you doing
? Then quietly, he asked, while chuckling with
blatant cynicism, “What are you… six?”

Schwerig just grinned back at Pfautsch and
started counting again at the next flash of light, then signaled
with his gun, already in his hand, for everybody to go.

The well trained paratroopers advanced with
great stealth through the compound. They had looked at maps and
models again and again, and knew their objective by heart.

*~*

Otto Hein was sitting in the dark within his
room, listening to the storm, waiting for the right moment to take
advantage of the situation.

He was oblivious to the fact that Schwerig
and Pfautsch were already on the compound, he didn’t even know that
they were coming tonight.

But he did know something that Schwerig did
not.

Volmer was not in his quarters or at White
Sands at all. He stayed the night at Roswell Army Air Field with
Gus.

He had also asked Volmer to see the drawings
the day before, and knew that Volmer had retrieved them from Von
Braun, and now had them in his quarters, somewhere.

Hein thought that this would be the perfect
time to sneak into Volmer’s quarters and steal the drawings.

He would then wreck the rest of the home to
make it appear like a random break in.

Nobody would be out in this. The storm was
perfect cover.

So quietly, he slipped out of his room, into
the rain, and across the compound towards Volmer’s quarters.

*~*

“There it is,” said Schwerig, as he crouched
behind a bush, referring to the Quonset hut in front of them.

Volmer had earned some perks from Lemay for
doing his less highly regarded research jobs for him, so unlike
most other paperclip scientists Volmer along with other select few
had their own quarters.

Pfautsch was crouched directly behind
Schwerig and turned to signal the others behind to leapfrog
past.

Once they had men around the entire perimeter
of the building, Pfautsch and Schwerig crept up to the rear
door.

Pfautsch was the first there and he noticed
that the door was already cracked open.

He opened it slightly and looked into the
darkness within. It looked to be a kitchen.

He turned back around and looked at Schwerig
for a reaction.

Schwerig shrugged and signaled for him to
proceed.

Once they were both inside of the kitchen
they could hear that there was somebody making noise in the other
room.

Pfautsch started forward, but Schwerig put
his hand on his shoulder and stopped him.

Schwerig then went first down the hallway
that led from the kitchen to the living room.

He stopped in the dark of the hallway,
watching a man in the living room rifling through some drawers.
Pfautsch remained in the kitchen door watching back and forth
between the back door and Schwerig.