“These are the surviving members of the twelve-man Kommando group originally sent through our nexus,” Sacher said. “That is now eighteen months ago that we first became aware of the parallel universe, which we then called die Nebenwelt, because it borders this, and is beside it constantly, plus being available by means of a weak spot, such as exists here. Such we have known the entire eighteen months. Now we can present accurate specifics relating to this Nebenwelt, and it is for this presentation, Herr Reichsmarshal, that Admiral Canaris and yourself have been asked to meet with me here. I introduce Herr Kohler and Herr Seligsohn to you; they will speak briefly on their encounter.”
“I am Kohler,” the shorter of the two men explained. Beside him his companion self-consciously reseated himself. In a squeaky, untrained voice Kohler continued, “We with others of our Kommando unit who survived the crossing from here to that world but who did not also survive the crossing back, as we did, lived ordinary lives in the Nebenwelt for virtually a year and a half, speaking the English language with facility, it being the language of this geographical area in that universe. We found it to be a reasonably satisfactory milieu, but overrun with Jews. We inquired, via the public library and through accidental contacts, as to why that would be, and also why English and not German dominates as the spoken and written language. As we had anticipated before our crossing — as Herr Sacher originally theorized — the Nebenwelt constitutes an alternate Earth to ours in which the Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis mishandled the war and allowed the Allied Nations of Communism and Plutocracy a victory by default. Because of this, America remains a number one Jew State, and the Bolsheviks control half the world, the other half; they have divided the world between them, as Dr. Goebbels predicted in event of an Axis defeat.”
There was silence, then. No one spoke as the Reichsmarshal and Admiral Canaris pondered.
“Did you manage,” Canaris asked presently, “to make out specifically why their war miscarried?”
Irritably, Goring said, “What does that matter? Technical details; for academic scholars.” To Sacher he said, “Your Nebenwelt is a hallucination, a phantasm. It isn’t real, not like this.” He rapped his knuckles noisily against a nearby case filled with scientific texts.
Kohler said, “We brought back artifactual documentation.”
“Faked,” Goring said bitingly.
“It is up to me to determine that,” Admiral Canaris pointed out. He walked to the table, bent to scrutinize the assembled papers and objects. “Why do you reject this idea ad hoc, Reichsmarshal?” He glanced inquiringly at Goring. “Is it that you can’t conceive of this? As Herr Kohler says, we’ve known of it — at least theoretically — for a year and a half. You’ve had a long time to digest the idea, and now we have material brought back by men who’ve been living there. I find it intriguing.” He picked up a massive book from the desk, thumbed through it intently. “But, of course, disturbing.” He eyed Kohler, who remained doggedly on his feet, unwilling to back down. “We have here something called The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, by William Shirer.” Glancing at Kohler, he said, “I gather this will answer as to the ‘technical details.’ ” His voice was withering.
“The period up to 1945,” Kohler agreed, nodding. “I have read it several times; it is complete, absolutely the best I could find there. At several bookstores in New York I asked and was told this volume is totally comprehensive; it is certainly not one I selected at random.” His voice rang with conviction. “And it certainly is not faked.”
Sacher said, “While waiting for you, Admiral, and you, Reichsmarshal, to arrive here” — he took the book from Canaris, opened to a marked place — “I personally examined this. Let me read you.”
“Just tell us,” Canaris said.
“Their history,” Sacher said, “apparently diverged from ours in the early thirties. President Roosevelt was not successfully assassinated and was in office in 1941 when America entered the war against the Axis.”
“Bricker never became president?” Canaris said alertly.
“No, Herr Admiral.” Sacher shook his head.
“In prosecuting the war,” Kohler said, “Field Marshal Rommel failed to take Cairo and therefore never managed to link up with the German army coming down from Russia. Nor did the German army break the Russian lines; at a town called Stalingrad on the Volga the Communist hordes counterattacked and destroyed our entire Sixth Army corps.”
Beside him Herr Seligsohn murmured, “And” — he did not look directly at Goring — “the Luftwaffe concentrated on bombing civilian population centers in Britain and did not put out of action their radar network. So, consequently, no invasion of the British Isles took place.”
“Toward the end of the war,” Kohler said, “the Anglo-Saxon powers developed the atomic bomb. The Jew Einstein suggested it in a letter to Roosevelt, although himself born in Germany; he betrayed his homeland.”
Goring said, “Germany is not a homeland for any Jew.”
Drily, Canaris said, “Herr Einstein seems to have agreed.”
“They brought back material,” Sacher said, “on the condition of Germany as it is now. It has been divided between the Anglo-Saxon powers and Communist Russia. Split in half, no longer a nation.” He added, “Japan is as of this date a satellite of the United States. And communism has spread throughout the Orient; specifically into China.” His voice was stony, impersonal, a mere recitation of facts without emotion. “It becomes evident how vital the assassination of Roosevelt was in shaping our world. If any one single event could be said to have — ”
“I would be interested in knowing,” Goring broke in, “how our great wartime Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, who lead us to victory in ’47, fared in this so-called Nebenwelt. I cannot imagine him in defeat.”
“After the loss of North Africa,” Kohler said, “the field marshal was transferred to France to take command of the forces awaiting invasion from England. While en route by car he was spotted by a British Spitfire and machine-gunned, hence hospitalized. He did not command during the invasion of Festung Europa at its West Wall.” He paused. And then in a low voice said, “There is more.”
“Well?” Goring demanded.
“Field Marshal Rommel joined a group of traitors conspiring against the life of Adolf Hitler.”
“That could never be,” Goring said.
“Wait,” Canaris said, gesturing tensely. “Let him finish.”
“The plot failed,” Kohler said. “The conspirators were strangled and hung from meathooks, which is appropriate. Erwin Rommel, being a soldier and former patriot, was allowed to shoot himself. He so did.”
Again there was silence, long and strained.
“I think,” Goring said at last, “that these so-called ‘artifactual documentations’ are forgeries put together by the Abwehr.” He studied Admiral Canaris, trying to penetrate the slightly ironic mask that had, at his words, slid in place. “The motivation, however, is unclear to me. Obviously in part it is to slander the field marshal. The rest I do not understand.” He made his voice harsh and affirmative, but inwardly he felt doubt, confusion. He needed time to digest all of this. Certainly this trumped-up “disclosure” related to the current political crisis in the Reich’s politics; that much was clear. Intuitively he sensed that Admiral Canaris and his counterintelligence organization had engineered the venture; after all, Kohler and Seligsohn were Abwehr agents, as had been the entire Kommando squad.
And yet — it appeared true that an alternate universe did exist, as Sacher had, for a year and a half, declared. That much we did not dispute. If only he could send some of his own Luftwaffe people, loyal to him. . .
“I hasten to add, Herr Reichsmarshal,” Kohler said, “that the decision to bomb English cities and not the radar network was not yours but the Fuhrer’s.” He peered hopefully at Goring.
Pacing about, his arms folded, Admiral Canaris said, half to himself, “For several minutes now I have been thinking of something odd. In Japanese-controlled regions, specifically the Rocky Mountain states and the PSA, a book has been circulating; it is banned here, but my office has routinely examined it. They say it’s very popular among the Japanese, for reasons I do not understand. It is a work of fiction, pure fiction, or at least so we have up to now supposed.”
“The Grasshopper Lies Heavy,” Goring said. He had read it; the ban on reading Hawthorne Abendsen’s book did, of course, not apply to him. “A narrative of the world as it would be today if the Allied powers had won the war.”
Canaris said, “And also an analysis of how the Allied Powers could have won. They could have won, this Abendsen alleges, if the Soviet Union had stopped General von Paulus at Stalingrad. Abendsen bases his fictional world specifically on that.” Turning to Sacher he said, “This is a historical condition reported by these two Kommandos; this occurred in Nebenwelt, so it would appear to me that Abendsen’s book is an account of Nebenwelt.”