Codename: Omega (feat. The Apiary Society) (7 page)

On the second floor, he nearly collided with a man carrying a large box of files out of William  Donovan’s office.  Price stuck his head into the door and said, “What the hell’s going on here?”

Donovan tapped the mouth of a half-empty bottle of Irish whisky on his desk and slurred, “We’re being shut down, Sean.  Let’s drink.”

“Shut down?  That’s insane.  The US just blew up half of Japan.  She needs OSS more than ever.”

Donovan shook his head and slid an empty shot glass across the desk.  “President Truman is signing an order in two months that renders us obsolete.  Got the phone call today.”  Donovan filled both of their glasses and said, “Cheers.  Thanks for playing.  I guess I should be happy it wasn’t a bullet in the head.”

Price took the glass from him and downed it.  He slumped into a chair and said, “So what happens now?”

Donovan shrugged as he poured another drink.  “Don’t know.  Don’t care.  Truman and Hoover can have it.  I’m done.”  His eyes closed briefly, but as quickly as his head started to fall toward the desk, it popped back up again.  “What are you doing here, anyway?  I thought you quit.”

“I didn’t quit.  I took a break.”  

“Did you go someplace nice?”  Donovan leaned forward on his desk and whispered, “Somewhere with a lot of pretty girls, Sean?  Big, buxom, women with coconuts over their ladyparts?”

“No,” Price said.  “Somewhere a little colder.”

Their eyes met and Donovan suddenly broke out in a sloppy laugh.  He pounded the desk and said, “I knew it!  I knew it wasn’t in Africa.  You sly dog.”

Price stuck his hand across the desk, “Give me that bottle before you poison yourself.” 

Donovan leaned back in his chair as Price poured both of them another whiskey.  There was a soft knock on the door.  “Come on in!” Donovan shouted.  “Come on.  Take it.  Take it all.  Go stuff it up your ass for all I care.” 

A tiny man stood at the door, holding his hat in his hands.  He spoke with a thick German accent when he said, “I beg your pardon.  I was hoping to find Mr. William Donovan here, but the building seems to be unoccupied.”

Donovan looked up and suddenly snorted in laughter.  He snapped his fingers several times. “You look just like that guy!  What’s his name?  With the bushy hair.  The science fellow.”

“
Ja
, I get that a lot.”

Price swallowed the last of the whiskey in his glass and set it down on the table.  He turned around to look at the person speaking and leapt to his feet. 

Albert Einstein’s eyes glittered as he looked at Price, “You must be the one they call Omega.”    

***

They went outside the office to get away from the snoring. 

Price shut Donovan’s office door and told Professor Einstein to follow him down the hall.  “We can talk in quiet downstairs in the conference room.”

Einstein shook his head in amazement, “I have wanted to meet you for so very long.  The stories I have heard.  You cannot imagine.”

“If you’re still willing to get on an elevator with me, I am guessing you didn’t hear the worst ones.”

“No, no, my boy,” the Professor said, patting Price gently on the arm.  “I know that you only did what needed to be done.  It is the same for me.  I create the Atomic Bomb so that we have it before the Nazis.  But then the Nazis are defeated and we use it against Japan.”

Price pressed the basement floor button and looked at the old man.  Einstein’s eyes were baggy and red.  “Your research won us the war though,” Price said. 

“A heavy, heavy price to pay for such a thing,” Einstein said.  “All those innocent people.  Roosevelt would not have done that.  He’d have let the soldiers fight.  That is how it should be, ja?”

“Yeah,” Price said.  The elevator doors opened and Price led the Professor down the hallway toward the conference room.  There was a large projection screen in the center of the room, although the projector and film canisters had already been removed.  “So what brings you here today, Professor?”

“There were almost three hundred thousand Japanese killed by my Atomic Bombs.  Six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust.  Many, many millions more killed from all of the fighting in the wars.” 

“Yes.  It was a terrible time,” Price said.   

“Time!” Einstein said.  “That is exactly what I want to talk to you about today.  You, the one they call Omega, who vanishes in and out of the air and passes through walls.  It is you who is going to help me save the whole world!”   

“How?”  

“By killing Adolph Hitler.”

Price paused.  “But…we already did that, Professor.” 

“I would like for you to try it again!”  

***

Albert Einstein stood in the empty conference room, waiting.  He had been squeezing his right hand shut for so long he could no longer feel his fingers.  The air crackled with static electricity and Sean Price shimmered into existence, standing naked on the floor in front of him.    

 Einstein held up his hand to stop Price from speaking.  “Don’t tell me.  I want to see it for myself.”  Einstein slowly uncurled his fingers and looked into his empty palm. 

“I couldn’t do it,” Price said. 

Einstein sighed with defeat and picked up a nub of chalk.  He immediately began scribbling equations across the surface, writing so fast that white dust blew across his entire hand.  “You can move through space, ja?” Einstein said.  He drew a wide circle around one set of equations.  “This is space.”  He walked down to the opposite end of the board and slapped it with the palm of his hand.  “This is time!  You move through space, you can move through time.  Try again.”

“I can’t do it, Professor.  It’s impossible.”

The old man hopped up and down with his fists clenched, “Whole thing is impossible!  You already can do impossible, Omega.  Go again.”

“I want to try something first,” Price said.  He walked over to his jacket and rummaged in the pockets, finding a photograph.  Price handed the photograph to Einstein and said, “Hold that in front of you.” 

“Who is this woman?  I have seen her face before.”

“Just hold it there.”  Price backed up several feet from the Professor and took a deep breath.  He launched into a full sprint, running directly at the old man. 

Einstein held the picture in front of him like a shield, clenching his eyelids shut as Price charged.  He braced himself for impact, but when he felt nothing, opened his eyes and blinked into nothingness.   

Price passed through Einstein and found himself inside a small tunnel with a tiny speck of daylight at the opposite end.  The light was closing rapidly and Price ran as fast as he could, diving to reach it. 

He rolled across rocky terrain, stabbing himself on branches and bushes as he toppled to the ground.  He got up and looked around.  It was hot and sunny.  Summertime.  Price studied the mountain peaks and full, lush foliage.  He heard the sound of rushing water and realized where he was. 

Price made his way down the mountain slope to where Eva Braun sunned herself on a rock overlooking a large pond.  She was completely naked, with rich, tanned skin that off-set her short-cropped, sun-bleached hair.  It occurred to Price he did not know what year it was, or whether they’d met yet.  He could not tell if Eva would recognize him or run away screaming. 

He made his way toward the water carefully, not wanting to startle her, but she turned and looked directly at him.  “Sean?”

Price froze in place.  “Eva?”

She leapt up from the beach and into the water, swimming toward him.  He met her in the middle of the pond where she wrapped her legs around him and kissed him on the mouth.  “I wasn’t expecting you,” she said.  “Why did you come?”  

“I wanted to see you.” 

Eva turned to glance over her shoulder.  “He is supposed to come down here to check on me.  He wants to make sure none of the guards are peeking on me while I swim.” 

Price kissed her on the mouth, the chin, the neck, consumed with her, but forced himself away to say, “Listen to me!  I need to tell you something.” 

She pressed her finger to his lips, “
Berchtesgaden
is not safe for us.  Meet me in my room tonight and we can talk about anything you want.”  She turned again and gasped at the sight of a german shepherd coming down the path.  Hitler would not be far behind.  She grabbed him by the top of the head and pushed him underwater, “Go down, you must vanish!”    

Price forced himself back up, “Don’t take the pills!  No matter who gives them to you.  Promise me!”

“Whatever you say, my love.  Now go!  Go!”  Eva pushed his head back down below while he was still talking and Price choked on water in the darkness before he vanished. 

***

Albert Einstein stood in the empty conference room, waiting.  He had been squeezing his right hand shut for so long he could no longer feel his fingers.  The air crackled with static electricity and Sean Price shimmered into existence, standing naked on the floor in front of him.    

Einstein held up his hand to stop Price from speaking.  “Don’t tell me.  I want to see it for myself.”  The Professor slowly uncurled his fingers and looked down at the small silver coin in his palm.  “You did it, my boy,” he whispered.  “You did it!  Tell me what happened!”

“Ten seconds ago, I gave you that coin and told you to hold it for me until I came back.  You told me to say hello to your future self.”

Einstein stared at the coin in wonder and laughed, “Well, hello then.” 

***

“What is the time?”

“Three in the morning.”

“Ah.  Won’t your friend be angry that we are waking him up at such an unusual hour?”

Price pressed “Wild Bill” Donovan’s doorbell and said, “Nah.” 

Footfalls came down the staircase inside the house, followed by the unmistakable sound of a shotgun racking.  Donovan opened the door with the barrel aimed at Sean’s face.  “What the
hell
are you doing?”

“Obviously, I came to kill you.  That’s why I brought Albert Einstein with me and rang the doorbell.”

Donovan swiped his hand through his hair and said, “Christ.  Come on in.  This better be important.”

The sat down in the study, and Donovan listened quietly while they explained Einstein’s theory of time-travel.  He nodded his head several times, but did not speak.  “So what do you think?” Price said. 

Donovan crossed his legs and tightened his robe, taking a deep breath before he said, “I think you have to kill him when he’s a kid.”

“Come again?” Price said.

“No, no, no,” Einstein said, shaking his head.  “That is incorrect.  I have a perfect plan.  Omega can break into Lansberg Prison while Hitler is imprisoned there.  He can make it look like a suicide.”

“By then it’s too late.  You’ll only make him a martyr.  I have the perfect opportunity!”  Donovan got up from the chair and went over to the study’s closet.  He bent down and lifted a pile of clothes that covered a safe at the bottom.  “I held onto a few things from OSS.  Didn’t know who to give them to, to be honest.  I’m sure that cross-dressing freak Hoover would love to get his hands on this, but since he didn’t ask, I’m not volunteering.” 

Donovan removed a file stamped TOP SECRET across every inch of it.  He spread the files contents across the coffee table, displaying dozens of photographs of Hitler.  Price picked up the one that showed the
Fuhrer,
surrounded by swastikas,
smashing his fist against a podium. 

Donovan pointed to a family portrait that showed a different stern-faced man sitting next to his wife, with two young boys and an infant female between them.  “This was taken in Leonding when Hitler was seven years old.  Right before Adolph was born, three of his older siblings had already died.  The little boy next to him was named Edmund.  He died four years later of the measles.  It’s said that after that, Adolph changed.”

“Is that his father?” Price said. 

Donovan nodded, “That is Alois Hitler, Sr.  Fond of the drink.  Used his wife as a punching bag on regular occasions.”

Einstein picked up the photograph and said, “It must have been very difficult to grow up in that environment.”  

Price looked sideways at the Professor, “It happens to a lot of people.  They don’t go committing genocide as a result of it.  Anyway, this was your plan to begin with.”

Donovan dropped the family photo on top of the others and said, “That family was used to loss.  With all the death and disease happening to the other siblings, it won’t raise an eyebrow if the kid doesn’t wake up one morning.”

“What do you have in mind?” Price said.

“Keep it simple.”

“Pillow over the face while he’s asleep?” Price said.

“Just like the old days.  I like it,” Donovan said. 

“This is outrageous!” Einstein said, jumping to his feet.  “We are talking about the murder of a little boy and you discuss it as easily as if you were ordering dinner.  All I wanted to do was spare the lives of innocents.”

“This will,” Donovan said.

“This is immoral, and I will not be part of it,” Einstein said.  “I come to you to prevent one crime against humanity and you answer me with something equally horrific.  I will not allow you to do this.”

“How’s that, Professor?” Donovan said.  “Who are you going to tell and really, what would you tell them?”

Einstein’s fists shook in frustration before he turned and stormed out of the house.  Price called out the Professor’s name and got up to go after him, but Donovan stayed him.  “Let him go, Sean.  The world needs idealists like him and it needs people like us.”

“And what kind of people are we?” Sean said.

“The ones who make it possible for the idealists to exist.”     

***

1899

Swastikas decorated the monastery’s entrance.  They were carved into the building on either side of the door and repeated at each window.  Price ducked in the bushes outside of the building and peeked into an office widow.  “Perfect,” he whispered. 

He materialized inside the office and snatched a long priest’s robe from a hook behind the door.  No sooner had he slid his arms through it when a young boy came barging through the door and stopped abruptly.  Price looked down at his bare feet peeking out from the robe and then back at the boy.  “Was it you?”