The Gemini Divergence (20 page)

“I agree,” consented the General, “If they
wish to keep it from their public, we may still be able to keep our
distance. They will not be able to launch a major offensive without
alerting the American public. Perhaps we may even be able to reach
an agreement sometime in the future. But we must stop using the
radios as we have been, at once.”

“Of course, Mein Herr.”

“But what this development does guarantee,”
continued Kreutztrager, “Is that we need to continue spying on
them… as they will surely step up their spying on us.”

*~*

Inside of the Kremlin, yet outside of
Stalin’s office, many members of his entourage were waiting in
terror and suspense as they listened to the horrible sounds of
Stalin throwing a tantrum inside of his office.

The only person that they knew was inside of
the office with Stalin was Gennedy.

They had just sent him inside alone with the
latest American newspapers containing the Roswell press release on
the front pages of all of them.

They cringed at the sound of things smashing
against the wall as the tantrum progressed.

Then they gasped as the door knob to Stalin’s
office turned and the door cracked.

They wondered if there was going to be guards
escorting Gennedy from the office.

To their relief, it was Gennedy alone backing
out of the office saying, “Yes Comrade, right away Comrade Stalin,
Yes, Hitler autopsied again, this instant Comrade, You have my word
Comrade.”

Gennedy then closed the door and turned
around making the sign of the Cross.

He was white as a ghost, and then startled
again when he realized that the office was filled with people.

He then stated. “Comrade Stalin is… a little
upset. He is again convinced that Hitler is still alive, and now he
wants an investigation to see if Hitler really did escape to
Antarctica.”

Gennedy looked at the Admiral standing across
the room and ordered, “The People’s Navy is to sail at this instant
and survey the entire coast of Antarctica. If there are any unknown
settlements Comrade Stalin is to be notified immediately.”

The Admiral snapped to attention and
acknowledged, “At once,” he then turned and left.

He then turned to the Head of Intelligence
and ordered, “You are to find out what the Americans know about
this and what they have recovered at Roswell.”

Finally turning to the Head of Operation Myth
and said, “You must do everything that you have done in the last
months… again.”

*~*

It was unbelievably hot as Volmer wiped his
brow and noticed the only fan in the room was blowing on Lemay.
Fort Worth was much more humid than the desert he had become
acclimated to.

He was literally sitting with his hat in his
hands as Lemay was talking on the phone to Captain Hanson at White
Sands.

“What do you mean Von Braun wants more
funding?” snapped Lemay, “I’ve funded that snake oil selling kraut
a pile of money more than I should have already.”

Lemay looked at Volmer and whispered, “No
offense.”

Volmer politely replied, “None taken.”

Otmar was then distracted by seeing a landing
B-36 through the open window behind Lemay.

It was the largest airplane that he had ever
seen. It was simply colossal.

“Oh, so he’ll be glad to meet with me about
it,” Lemay sarcastically reiterated, ”Well what if I will gladly
keep him the hell out of my office. I have already had to tap dance
for the funds to move them to Redstone.”

Lemay took a puff of his Cigar and continued,
“I don’t have the time to listen to that Bosch carnival salesman.
Hell, his own people got tired of his bellyaching for money and put
him in jail for a few weeks. If Von Braun could figure out a way to
make rockets vacuum floors, he’d be selling them door to door.”

Lemay slammed the phone down and turned to
Volmer, “I am so sorry you had to hear that, Von Braun is starting
to get on my nerves.”

Volmer agreed and commented, “Yes, he is a
very polite and brilliant man, but he does have a side that can rub
a person the wrong way… Still, it is an accepted part of his talent
that allows him to accomplish giant projects that other scientists
could only dream of achieving.”

“Maybe so,” Lemay reluctantly agreed, “he
does run a big show for us.”

Volmer than asked, “I believe that you have
brought me into your office to discuss the future of my
research?”

“Yes, I am traveling to Washington today to
talk to the President about ‘your theory’ and my plan of combining
your little unit with some other units that I have been working
with in other parts of the country.”

“I’m planning on naming it the
51
^st
Air Base Unit,” explained Lemay, “I am sure that
your, young airmen will be overjoyed to lose their hats.”

Volmer chuckled along with Lemay and
answered, “Yes, Gus will probably burn his.”

Lemay chuckled and with his dry humor added,
“He better not… that’s government property,” as he then winked to
Volmer.

Otmar was slowly starting to understand
Lemay’s wit, but was still very uneasy about it, so he just grinned
and shook his head in agreement.

Lemay than got serious, “As you may have
heard, I have managed to get the funding to move most of the
paperclip scientists to Redstone Arsenal in Alabama, where they
will work on Von Braun’s newest rocket design.”

He flicked his ashes into a fancy ash tray on
his desk and continued, “I am sending another small contingent of
Paperclippers to NTS or the Nevada Test Site, to work on atomic
detection alongside our A-bomb testing boys.”

Volmer became confused and then asked, “So
which team will I be assigned to?” fearing that he would have to
spend more years in the American desert.

“You will be the only one authorized to
travel back and forth, not even Herr Von Braun will be allowed to
travel back and forth freely,” answered Lemay, “He has stated that
he cannot function without your work on his rockets, and I insisted
that you continue to work on our new technology intelligence
unit.”

“Well, I am flattered, Herr General,”
stammered Volmer, “but do you believe that I can handle that much
work.”

“You’ve been doing it for the last year or
two haven’t you?”

“Well, yes, but…”

Lemay than interrupted, “Well good then, it’s
settled.”

Volmer swallowed loudly.

After a brief pause, Lemay asked, “Tell me
Mr. Volmer, those samples that you sent to Los Alamos, can they
also detect what kind of fuel that those Hessians were burning in
that levitating top of theirs. I have had some of my best enemy
technology experts look at the debris that looked like turbine
fragments from the Roswell wreckage, and they tell me that there is
not a fuel in existence that could power those turbines… And yet,
they burned something in those craft to get there from wherever in
Hell’s half acre there base is located, to White Sands and
back.”

Volmer answered “Well… that’s never been done
before, but one could test for almost anything, if one knew what
they were looking for.”

“Stick your nose into that,” ordered Lemay,
“and drop me a line if you pick up another scent.”

Volmer returned a look of utter confusion as
he again tried to decipher Lemay’s constant barrage of idioms with
the limited language skills that he had been able to pick up so far
since coming to America.

~~~**^**~~~

The
Cold War / The Presidential Briefing

General Lemay finally achieved his face to
face with President Truman and was able to plead his case to a
surprisingly open man.

He told the President; Volmer’s theories
about the Germans making undetected technological leaps, about the
results of the directional listening devices, about the markings on
the wreckage, the attempt on Volmer’s life for knowing too much
about it all, the indispensable work on Von Braun’s rockets, and
lastly, about Volmer’s breakthroughs in atomic proliferation
detection.

Lemay went further to tell the seemingly
interested President about the small group of servicemen that had
been assigned to Volmer, and how they were committed to go anywhere
at a moments notice and develop and utilize the latest technology
to gather essential information, at a cost that was pennies on the
dollar for what time-honored espionage had traditionally cost.

Truman replied that he had heard about the
space voices, and about the Arnold sighting and he too suspected
the secret German Horton or Amerika Bomber, and thought that it was
either the Russians, or now in light of Lemay’s briefing, possibly
even Germans.

He then concurred and agreed to order the
creation of a new highly secret organization that would use the
highest technology and the brightest minds available, to be
constructed under the umbrella of the up and coming independent Air
Force.

This new organization would have no
operatives that could be captured and give away its existence and
would use the most advanced laboratory practices to deduce who and
where nuclear weapons or any other advanced secret military systems
were being researched or constructed, and bring it to the attention
of the US State Department without the knowledge of any other
outside organization, including the new Air Force.

Even though it would be supported, funded,
and fundamentally organized by the new Air Force, it would only
report directly to the State Department and all of its operations
would remain classified at a level above the need to know of even
the highest ranking Air Force Commander, or any other intelligence
agency including the soon to be created CIA.

No one was to know that the United States was
going to have this ability.

No one that is, except the members of the
organization itself, and the highest levels of the U.S
Government.

They both agreed that it would be important
to disguise everyday operations under some inert global reaching
U.S. agency.

They came to the conclusion that they would
use the new Air Force Weather Service and the U.S. Geological
Survey to be able to transport scientific monitoring equipment to
locations throughout the globe.

Lemay proudly reported to the President that
he had already started constructing such a group.

One that would be the perfect acorn to grow
into the needed tree, and that he was just looking for the green
light to properly fund and grow the new organization.

Truman then told Lemay that he was very
alarmed that there could actually be a cohesive organized and
obviously funded group of escaped Nazis.

He further told Lemay that the Department of
the Navy had informed him that the Russian Navy was doing
unprecedented and unexplained patrols around Antarctica, and
wondered if the Russians knew something that they didn’t.

Truman was apprehensive about sending our own
Navy to investigate in any noticeable strength larger than its need
to resupply Antarctic research already in progress, because its
presence could spark an international incident, but he would order
our subs to start patrolling under the ice of both poles.

Lemay then comforted the President by telling
him that within the year the B-36 squadrons would be operational,
and that they could fly missions anywhere in the world and return
to Fort Worth without refueling.

We would certainly be able to convert one for
this new organization, just as Airman Danuser and Mr. Volmer
converted the B-29 that they presently use.

If they were to convert one of the new B-36s
into a research platform, then no one could hide from the United
States any where on the globe or in the space surrounding the
Earth.

We would have the capability to detect
unwanted technological growth anywhere.

17 September 1947

General Dwight D. Eisenhower directed the
Army Air Corps to coordinate detection of nuclear detonations
anywhere in the world.

18 September 1947

U.S. Air Force created

*~*

Later in 1947 the new Air Force combined
several groups including the 51
^st
Air Base Unit and
organized them into AFOAT, or the Air Force Office of Applied
Technologies, later known as AFTAC along with the 53
^rd
and 55
^th
Weather Reconnaissance Squadrons.

~~~**^**~~~