The Krakow Klub (33 page)

Hitler mercilessly went after enemies and
many former friends and supporters. His daring move was a turning
point and established him as the supreme leader, in fact,
a dictator
, of all Germany. The years that
followed were some of the darkest of human history. Stoellar had
admired Hitler for the brazen and sudden purge of his enemies and
perceived
enemies. He planned to do the same
thing.

Erik Stoellar was not a Hitler. He didn’t
hate any particular ethnic group. He didn’t hate any specific
religious dogma or political affiliation. Erik Stoellar was very
fair. He only hated anyone who opposed him in any way regardless of
creed, color, gender, or national origin. In his
way,
Stoellar was worse than Hitler. Hitler let his
hatred consume him and probably led to his early demise. Stoellar
would not make such a stupid mistake. The one thing he hated most
was
failure
.

Operation Plato did not have a definitive
“kill list.” Stoellar would have been completely happy to pull it
off with very few deaths. However, like any aspiring dictator,
achieving the desired level of power was more important than the
means. He would not hesitate to kill one person, or ten thousand,
to achieve his goal. To
him,
the difference
between one and ten thousand was merely the number of zeros.

Erik Stoellar should have been a very happy
man indeed. Operation Plato was going well at the moment. But there
was one nagging problem that continued to trouble him. Where was
this Dr. Jim Slater? Number Eleven still had no definite location
for him.

Her last report had been most unsettling.

****

Number Eleven had sent Malone on his spy
mission. The boat was a leaky old fishing vessel with a broken
radio. The engine belched acrid smoke into the pristine environment
as he sputtered along towards the island. When it came into view,
he tinkered with the
engine,
and it coughed
and fell silent. Then, as the craft slowly bobbed toward the
island, he prepared to complete his mission.

He wore a ragged, oil-stained shirt and
shorts and a grubby fishing cap. Beside him, in the bottom of the
boat, lay his fishing gear. Scattered about the boat were several
nearly empty water containers along with a dozen empty beer
cans.

At last, as the boat neared the beach, he
pulled a tiny digital camera from his shirt pocket and took several
photographs. Before he could put the camera back into his pocket, a
strong wind
rose
and rocked the boat
violently, causing him to lose his balance and drop the camera. He
watched in frustration as it slowly fluttered beneath the waves
until it
disappeared
. Frustrated but
undeterred, he made several more attempts to reach the shore. Each
time that he neared the island, this same strong wind would push
him back. At last, he turned his boat homeward, started the engine,
and prayed that he would make it safely back to the marina at Key
West.

Eleven had been furious
at his
failure
to provide her with any useful information. She
summarily refused to pay Malone his fee, saying that he had
provided her nothing and probably had not even tried to get to the
island. She accused him of simply hiding out in some bar for
several hours dong nothing but drinking and then trying to collect
his fee.

He swore at her and left the marina with an
oath of vengeance. He had done his part to the best of his ability
and she should have paid him. Malone might have been a colorful and
harmless character around Key
West,
but he did
not take kindly to being cheated.

Eleven immediately reported the event to
Stoellar, who was becoming more and more certain that Slater and
his mysterious friend possessed unusual powers, perhaps enough to
stop him. Something would have to be done, and very soon.

Stoellar drummed his fingers aimlessly on his
desk as he racked his brain for a solution to the Slater problem.
Then, he had an idea that just might work. It would be daring,
bold, and not without
risk,
but he had to deal
with the problem immediately. He’d address the consequences of his
audacious actions later.

He picked up his phone and called General Lew
McGowan. “McGowan, I know that you’re
busy,
but I have an urgent situation that requires your immediate
attention.”

“Okay, what is it.”

“There’s a small island about fifty miles
from Key West named Scott Key. Whoever is on that island is causing
us serious problems. I want you to send a squad of Special Forces
to land on that island. They are to secure the island and arrest
everyone on it. I want
the inhabitants
of that
island taken to a secure location for questioning. I’ll personally
send someone to handle the interviews. Call me immediately when you
have confirmation
that the island is secured and all
people there are in
custody.

“Yes, sir,” McGowan replied and
wondered
what
could
be so important
on an insignificant little
pile of sand
called
Scott Key. Stoellar was always on top of things, so something very
serious must be up.

McGowan immediately called his
second-in-command, Brigadier Lucas, for a meeting. He trusted Lucas
as much as he trusted anyone, which was not much. But, he must be
careful in dealing with him because he wasn’t sure that Lucas was
or was not part of the organization. Nevertheless, he would have to
take a chance.

“Lucas, get a squad of special forces down to
Key West ASAP. Have the squad leader contact me personally for the
briefing. Also, notify the commanding officer at the naval station
down there and alert them to the squad’s arrival. I want helicopter
transport available to them as soon as they land. Last thing, I’ll
need an interrogation room available to me and make sure that it
has video cameras.

“This operation is classified so keep your
mouth shut.”

“In preparing
for battle
I
have always found that plans are useless, but planning is
indispensable.
”
- General Dwight D. Eisenhower

“Give me six hours to chop
down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the
axe.
” -
Abraham Lincoln

John Scott was not born
with
the temperament
to be patient. Perhaps it was his long line
of hard-working German genes from his human side that urged him to
be decisive and to act immediately. However, over the years, he
slowly but surely learned to value patience before taking actions.
Sometimes he had to fight hard within himself when his human side
was screaming for action and his Mylean side was urging for
caution.

By the time he had received his Mylean
legacy,
he had accepted that the right thing
to do was a combination of what and when. The correct action at the
wrong time was just as bad as the wrong action at any time.
After observing his personal reactions, and those of
many others, over time, he became convinced that it was easier to
decide “what to do” than it was to decide “when to do it.”
The “when” part often begged for patience, even when the “what” was
patently obvious.

His study of history provided him many
examples to confirm the importance of timing. The history of
warfare was no exception. Warfare, perhaps more than any other of
man’s
endeavors, was replete with examples of
bad timing negating the value of an otherwise proper action.

John Scott would be served well by having
learned to have patience in a crisis.

****

By Tuesday noon, Scott Key was much calmer.
John and Sylvia had continued to meet regarding their business
relationship and the plans for the bullion vault. He treated her in
the utmost professional manner and showed respect for her
experience and knowledge. Eventually, she grew tired of listening
to his
never-ending
pleas of innocence
regarding Jim’s presence on the island and grudgingly accepted his
apologies. Nevertheless, somewhere in the back of her mind, she
still had that tiny little twinge of suspicion that John had
deliberately engineered her meeting with Jim Slater.

She
also was forced
to
admit, although grudgingly, and only to herself, that she still had
feelings for Jim. He had that rugged, handsome look of an athlete
and the upright bearing that betrayed his military background. In
fact, she began to notice some qualities that she might have missed
before or that he had developed since he returned to the States.
For example, he
doted
on that little dog. He
lavished affection on her constantly and catered to her every need.
How could such kindness come from the brooding person that he had
become at Oxford? He laughed more now, and the tiny little lines
around his eyes told her that he probably spent a lot of time
smiling, too.

****

Jim Slater and John Scott were frequently
huddled in strategy meetings leaving Julia and Sylvia to become
better acquainted with each other. They sat
on
the beach, looking out over the gentle waves and talking for hours.
Julia had many stories of her career in marine
archeology,
and Sylvia contributed stories about growing
up in Scotland, then moving to London and finally about her days at
Oxford and her career afterward. The situation in Washington, DC,
seemed far, far
away from their little island
paradise.

John and Jim were troubled by the devastating
events that the Krakow Klub had orchestrated. The first step in the
government takeover brought the crushing realization that the
nation was, indeed, in extreme danger. The Krakow Klub, even though
very small in numbers, apparently had the means and the resources
to pull off their plan.

Jim was adamant, “John, we’ve got to act to
stop this. Time isn’t on our side. With every day that passes, some
new crisis takes place.”

The two men were sitting outdoors after lunch
while the women were on the beach. John was becoming quite
agitated. “I’ve racked my brain for a plan that doesn’t include an
all-out
war,
but nothing looks promising. We
could win such a war but at what cost? I couldn’t live with a
massive loss of innocent lives. Maxxine has made several
suggestions,
but I think that we should go to
the space station and meet with her for an in-depth strategy
session.”

Jim agreed and suggested that they leave as
soon as possible. Unfortunately, they would have to explain the
situation to Julia and Sylvia. Julia was already knowledgeable of
John’s past
and
his Mylean heritage. She had
accepted the fact without any serious misgivings. However, Sylvia
was another issue. How could Jim break the news to her about her
host? About how the two of them had visited another planet? How
John had
obtained the island and all that
money? How would she accept the fact that the delightful Mister T
was actually a humanoid robot? He broke out into a cold sweat and
his heart began to pound.

John waved Mister T over and spoke softly to
him, instructing him to prepare the
spacecraft
and to wait for them.

Just then, the two women could be seen
strolling up the path toward them, arm in arm. Their laughter
drifted through the quiet air like soft music. John raised his
hand, palm outwards, to Jim.

“Let me handle this. I’ll take full
responsibility for any nuclear meltdown on the part of Sylvia.”

Jim’s heart almost shuddered to a sudden
stop. He could feel beads of cold sweat coursing down his forehead
and back.
It was
a moment of sheer terror. She
was there within arm’s length, but he could not reach out and take
her into his arms. After tonight, he feared that she would surely
be lost to him forever. The thought made him feel ill.

“Sit down, my dears. I have something that I
need to tell you.”

They sat down
quickly,
and Julia’s face betrayed that she feared something serious was
about to happen. Sylvia had no idea of what to expect, but, as
always, she was cautious.

John proceeded to give a brief history of his
life
and
his friendship with Jim. He outlined
their trip to the interstellar transporter. Then, he explained that
the Krakow Klub was behind the events in Washington, DC, and across
the nation.

Finally, he reached across, took Sylvia’s
hand, and looked directly into her eyes.

“Jim Slater and I are the only two people on
the planet who have any chance of saving our country from this
takeover. We’ve got to act swiftly and decisively. And, to do that,
we have to confer with Maxxine on my space station. We’ll only be
gone a couple of days at
most;
I’m going to
put Mister T in charge here.

“Julia, just take care of Sylvia and the
pups. You two will have nothing to fear. Mister T will be in
constant contact with us and with Maxxine. You’ll be able to reach
us as well.”

Sylvia was dumbfounded. She just stared at
the two men as if they were alien creatures themselves. Well, one
of them was half alien.

He continued, “I apologize to you for
springing this at such an inappropriate
time,
but the situation is urgent.”

He leaned forward and touched her wrist
gently, “I think that it might help if I show you the craft that
will take us to the space station.”

He took her hand and gently pulled her to an
upright position. Julia put her arm around her waist and gave her a
hug. “Sylvia, it’s all true. Impossible to believe at first, but
true. Just have faith in these two and give them your support.
This thing is
going to be the ultimate test
for
them,
and they’re going to need us backing
them up.”