Weapons of choice

"All I said," she began, "was that we'd have little trouble defeating the Axis navies if we engaged them ourselves. Even with the damage we took at Midway. Their weapons and doctrine are generations behind our own. But just as they're generations behind us, so are the Allies, not just technically, but culturally, as well. We can help here. We could probably rescue those guys in the prison camps, for instance, and they'd be insanely grateful. At least at first.

"But if we're here permanently, we pose a significant threat to their way of life just as surely as would defeat by the Axis powers. Not as dire a threat, of course. But a threat nonetheless."

"How so, Lieutenant?" came the deep bass rumble of Colonel J. Lonesome Jones. She suspected he already knew the answer.

"This is nineteen forty-two," she said. "Begging the colonel's pardon, sir, but by the standards of this time, you are not an African American-"

She was going to continue, but she didn't have to. Johnson finished the thought for her.

"No. I'm a nigger."

"And I'm a little coolie girl," said Rachel. "And Captain Halabi is a half-breed, and some of us are wogs and kikes and dagos. These guys aren't Nazis, but they're not going to understand us. And my guess is that what they don't understand and cannot control, they'll eventually treat as threatening."

"There's nothing eventual about it," said Francois from the couch. She rubbed her eyes. They looked very red and watery to Rachel.

"It's already begun," the doctor went on. "The riot down in Honolulu today, Borghino getting shot, Anderson and Miyazaki getting whacked. I tell you… what they did to that woman…"

Halabi looked like she was about to ask the doctor to shut up, but the surgeon plowed on anyway. She was bitter and furious, and she spat her words out like poison darts.

"They stuck a piece of piece barbed wire inside her, and used it like a fucking pipe cleaner. I tell you, Lonesome, if we catch these assholes and they still get away with it, I am going to personally draw down and cap 'em myself."

Halabi folded her arms uncomfortably.

"Now, Doctor, I don't think it's come to that-"

"But it's coming, Captain, believe me. You didn't meet that asshole detective today. I'll lay money on the barrelhead that he soft-pedals the whole thing, and when it turns out to be some good ol' local boy, the fix will go in. You can fuckin' bank on it. They plucked two slugs out of that chief petty officer this afternoon. Damn near killed him. But do you think they kept the fucking things? Even though we specifically told them to hold on to them, so we could test them? No. They're 'missing.' Lost in the confusion at the hospital. It's already begun."

Rachel thought Halabi was going to argue the point.

But she didn't.

31

BERLIN, 0721 HOURS, 8 JUNE 1942

The sealed case traveled from Japan to Europe in the diplomatic pouch of the Spanish embassy's military attache. He took a Portuguese flying boat to Ankara and thence to Athens and Berlin, where the package was turned over to a colonel of Reichsfuhrer Heinrich Himmler's personal guard. From there it went directly to the SS head himself.

Himmler was a quiet man. His hands were dainty and lined with blue veins. He always looked short of sleep, and he wasn't given to histrionics like many of his colleagues. He licked his lips, took a sip of the herbal tea in the cup on his desk, and read the instructions for operating the device that Steckel had sent.

He wondered, briefly, whether he should have it checked. It might be a bomb.

He read the instructions again, and then summoned his secretary.

"Wait until I am out of the room, then press this button," said Himmler. "I will return momentarily."

The young man, clicked his heels together and barked, "Immediately, Reichsfuhrer."

"No," sighed Himmler. "When I am safely out of the room. Not until then."

The flint-eyed young man nodded.

Three minutes later, Himmler was back. The device, a flexipad, according to Steckel, glowed serenely atop his desk. His secretary was impressed.

"It is made by the Braun company," he said helpfully. "German technology is a wonder, mein Reichsfuhrer."

Himmler nodded and dismissed him from the room. He perused Steckel's notes again, and followed the first set of instructions.

The handsome, perhaps too-pretty face of the SD man filled the glass plate on the front of the pad.

"Heil Hitler!" he shouted.

Himmler jumped in fright and his secretary came rushing back in.

"It's all right," the SS chief said shakily. "It is just a recording on this unit."

"Remarkable," said the young man as he retreated again.

Steckel continued to speak on the screen.

"Reichsfuhrer, I have taken the liberty of sending you this device because the wonders we have discovered out here must be seen to be believed. With the help of Major Brasch and our Japanese comrades, I have prepared a short presentation for you, outlining some of the major developments."