Werner's eyes remained on the ground before him. Every step was chosen with caution and then he stopped. His head slowly tilted upward while his eyes scanned the night sky. Something was audible, damp, and almost fleeting. It was an anomaly in the quiet streets of Berlin and it grew louder.
Werner squinted his eyes while turning toward the origin of the sound.
"What is it, Sir?" an SS man next to Werner asked while following his gaze.
"It sounds like..." Werner began while his eyes suddenly widened.
Two Messerschmitt fighters broke through the cloud bed while shooting through the sky and swinging their wings.
"Planes," Werner whispered while his gaze hardened. "Our signal."
The sound of propellers was barely audible over the splashes the SS men made while walking toward a certain building.
"Come on men!" Werner shouted. A dozen soldiers followed behind him. Their black SS uniforms were barely visible in the dark.
Although Werner's eyes remained stern while kicking in the door of the party building of the NSDAP, his inside remained in turmoil.
Months earlier: Crystal Night
The door was shut and only the back of a Wehrmacht uniform was visible, yet Werner did not raise his head. He held a glass while pouring a brown liquid inside. Slowly the glass filled, yet he did not lower the bottle.
His focus was instead on the reflection in the liquid. He saw his own eyes. Blue, sharp, weak, and full of fear.
"Is that not enough, young friend?" a quiet voice came from behind him while pulling him out of his state. He blinked while the glass was nearly filled completely.
"Yes," he muttered while picking up the nearly full glass and the one besides it which was only filled barely half. He turned and walked toward the table while meeting the eyes of the man who had spoken to him earlier.
His grey and disheveled hair shimmered under the shine of the table lamp while his eyes contained something unfathomable.
Werner pushed the half full glass over the wooden surface until it stood before Einstein who watched his every step.
"Is there something on your mind, friend?" Einstein asked carefully while Werner took a seat.
For a moment Werner smiled lightly, not because of amusement but because of the absurdity of the situation.
"You can call me Friedrich," he suddenly said almost awkwardly.
"Friedrich. You don't like your name, do you?" Einstein asked while looking at the glass before him.
"Not particularly," Werner answered with a tinge of sarcasm.
"Names," Einstein began. "They are so irrelevant if one thinks about it. Yes, of course they are defining our identity, but greatness and the boundless vastness could never be contained in a simple constellation of syllables. It is simple. You are you and I am I. We are what we want to be and if you don't want to be Friedrich, be someone else."
Werner averted his eyes while shaking his head lightly.
"What if I never have been Friedrich to begin with?" he suddenly asked while his eyes turned slightly red.
Einstein paused for a moment before finally taking the glass.
"Then who?"
"Someone else. Someone that does not belong here," Werner said while his gaze went through the window toward distant fires raging in Berlin. "And I am so tired of pretending that I am not," he added while sighing.
"Yes, you do not belong here, do you?" Einstein suddenly asked while his voice was somewhat darker than before. "You and Heinrich Jaeger are different somehow. It has always intrigued me. If you say you don't belong here, then where do you belong, friend?"
Werner met his eyes for a moment that felt longer than it actually was.
"The future."
"The future?" Einstein asked while tilting forward. He scanned Werner for any hesitation or anything other than hopelessness.
"And I miss it," Werner said. His voice grew louder while his eyes became wetter. "Everything and this." He pulled the fabric of his SS uniform. "This fabric is burning me every day. It hurts."
"Then why do you wear it?" Einstein asked quietly.
"For him. He has saved the ones I loved, thus I help as best as I can. But everything we are doing, I know it is a way to approach things, but my doubts are increasing together with my anger for the stillness. My anger for our inaction," Werner said. A single tear fell down his cheek and reached the ground.
"Are you talking about Herr Jaeger?" Einstein asked, still intrigued by Werner's words.
Werner sighed while standing up and turning around.
"I have already said too much tonight, Einstein, and you have asked too much. That is why I have a question for you," Werner began. His head was turned to the side while the fires in the distance were vaguely reflected in his eyes.
"And what is that?" Einstein asked while standing up too.
"We have captured you and brought you back to Germany. You know we want something from you. Will you do it?" Werner asked.
"That depends on what I am to do," Einstein whispered with his eyes squinted.
"No. What if it depends on who told you to do it? What if Heinrich Jaeger was someone who knows the future? Would you do everything he says just for the fact that he knows the future?" Werner asked.
"No. Of course not," Einstein answered while deep in thought. His gaze sometimes flickered up to Werner.
"Then you are stronger than me," Werner muttered while walking away. "I will continue to do so until the burns devour me."
"Friedrich, Friedrich!" Einstein shouted. The voice was distant and blank in Werner's mind.
Back in the present
"Lehmann, Lehmann!" another voice shouted. Werner looked up while his hand was pressed around the neck of an individual.
"Let him go, Lehmann," the man said again. He was sitting behind a desk while watching the happenings carefully.
"Why should I, Herr Bormann?" Werner asked while mustering the SS man whose neck he held in his grip. The man was desperately seeking air.
"Because you are not like that," Bormann said while leaning back into his chair.
Slowly Werner loosened his grip and shoved the man to the side.
"Cuff him," he ordered the soldiers. Their guns were still raised and blood was sticking to their uniforms. Their hair and faces were disheveled from the small but intense fight.
"The rest of you replace the previous guards," Werner said before grabbing a chair. Slowly he took a seat before Bormann who was still holding a cigar in his hand.
"So what is this?" Bormann finally asked while breaking the silence.
"What does it look like?" Werner asked provocatively.
"Who is supporting it and more importantly, who is leading it?" Bormann asked while his eyes squinted in calculation.
"You are quite interested for a dead man. Perhaps we will reserve you a noose next to Hess, your boss," Werner said. His tone was still trying to provoke Bormann who remained calm despite expectations.
"You could have killed me already. Time is essential in something like this," Bormann said while raising his cigar.
"I will," Werner answered.
"No, you won't," Bormann said while suddenly standing up. His tone was suddenly dangerous, a stern contrast to the calm before. "No. You. Won't." He continued while walking around the table.
"You need me. That is why I am still alive. You want to use me, right?" Bormann said while standing before Werner. "Witzleben, Raeder, no," Bormann said while walking the length of the room and watching Werner's reaction. "But they have to be involved, right?"
"Yes, but who is behind this? Is it Kesselring?" Bormann asked again while waiting for Werner's reaction. "No. Keitel, Göring, Himmler, no. Never. Hess, never," Bormann continued.
Werner raised an eyebrow upon hearing the dismissed tone Bormann used with Hess.
"And right in the middle of the war. Unbelievably daring but also smart," Bormann said while reaching Werner again. "There remain only two candidates. Come on, Lehmann, you won't make me do all the work, right? Rommel and Jaeger."
Werner widened his eyes for the first time while noticing that the man before him was very dangerous. He was far more than he had imagined. Finally Werner stood up again.
"Enough," he said while looking at Bormann with a disgusted gaze. His hand stopped for a moment in the air before slowly reaching into his breast pocket and pulling out a letter.
"Jaeger."
"You have thirty minutes to decide. And remember, you may not be the only one who received such a paper," Werner said. He turned and left behind an intrigued and dangerous Martin Bormann.
"A deal with the devil."Werner whispered, closing the door behind him."Or a deal between Devils."
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