D. MacHale - The Never War

“Do I look like a patient man?” Rose asked. “Tell me now.” Spader looked at me, expecting me to start talking because that’s what I always did. But as I stood there in front of Rose, I didn’t know what to say. I was in total brain lock. Nothing was coming.

Rose added, “I guess since you two aren’t dead, my old friend Winn is going to respect my request to mind his own business, am I right?”

I needed to come up with a story that would give us time to figure out the best way to handle the news. But I was coming up empty. A second later it didn’t matter anymore.

“Winn Farrow is going to blow up theHindenburg,”Spader blurted out.

I closed my eyes. There it was. Bang. Spader had just set something in motion that was now officially out of our hands.

Max Rose jumped to his feet in surprise. “He’s going to…?”

He couldn’t finish the sentence. He started to pace nervously. Believe it or not, he not only seemed surprised, he looked scared. That was the last thing I expected. Max Rose was a guy who didn’t even blink while staring into an assassin’s gun. But now, after hearing that theHindenburgmight go down in flames, he was on the hairy edge of cracking. He stormed over to his bar and poured himself a drink. This time he didn’t shoot any Three Stooges fizzy water into it either. He wanted it strong.

“How?” he demanded to know.

I didn’t answer. This was Spader’s show now.

“He’s got these rocket nasties,” Spader said. “He’s going to shoot one at the airship and blow it up.”

“You think it’ll work?” Rose asked.

“Take a look at us, mate,” Spader said. “He shot one of those bad boys into his slaughterhouse, with us inside. There’s nothing left of the place.”

Rose gulped down his drink and wiped his mouth with the sleeve of his expensive bathrobe. His hand was shaking. Harlow stood up and slinked over to him.

“Don’t worry, Maxie,” she said calmly. “Farrow’s too dumb to pull off something like that.”

Rose was starting to sweat. “Yeah?” he barked at her. “And what if he gets lucky? Do you know how much I got riding on that big balloon?”

I took a chance and asked, “What is it that’s coming in?”

I don’t think Rose would have answered if he weren’t so upset.

“Payment,” he shot back at me. “I’ve done a lot of work for those Germans. I’ve shipped them equipment and tools and scrap metal and a whole lot of other things. It’s cost me millions. I went out on a very long limb for those Nazi creeps. I’m in debt to a lot of people. The kind of people you don’t want to be in debt to. If I don’t get that payment…” He didn’t finish the sentence. Whatever it was, it would be ugly. Oh yeah, Max Rose was scared.

“Why don’t the Nazis just write you a check or something?” I asked.

“It ain’t that easy,” Rose answered. “This isn’t the kind of transaction you want traced. By anybody. We had to be creative. There’s cash on that balloon. Lots of it. They’re also sending me bonds and a load of diamonds. Flawless diamonds. I’ve even got a couple of paintings coming in that were done by some famous dead guys. They’re worth millions! That’s the way they wanted to pay me and I agreed. They’re sending it all in on that blimp so it’ll be easier to get through customs. Iknewit was a rotten idea.” Now I knew what Winn Farrow meant when he said he was going to hit Max Rose where it hurt the most. If Farrow destroyed theHindenburg, it would be the end of Max Rose’s business. Worse, going by how scared Rose looked, I’d say it would be the end of Max Rose himself.

“It’s okay, Maxie,” Harlow said soothingly. “You’ll figure something out.”

Rose took another drink to calm himself. “You boys did good,” he said softly. “I won’t forget that. Now get out of here. I need time to think.”

Time to think. Yeah, tell me about it. I needed a little of that too. I wished I had more time to think before I let Spader give away the show to Max Rose. Now a chain reaction had started that we had no control over, all because I didn’t have enough time to think.

I think I had better start learning how to think faster.

(CONTINUED)

Spader and I backed out of the room and quickly left Max Rose’s penthouse. We took the stairs down to the sixth floor to avoid Dewey. We didn’t want to explain the way we looked to him or anybody else. As soon as we got inside our room and closed the door, Spader let out a happy shout.

“Hobey, yes!” he yelled. “Rose is going to send his thugs to stop Farrow. We did it. TheHindenburgis safe.”

I stared at Spader, my anger slowly building. “I asked you not to tell him about Farrow’s plan.”

“I know, mate, but I had to. That was our chance. You weren’t talking so I had to take it.”

“And what if it was the wrong move?” I asked, trying not to boil over. “This isn’t just about two gangsters who hate each other. We’ve got a whole territory to worry about.”

“C’mon, Pendragon,” Spader cajoled. “You know it was the right thing to do. We outsmarted Saint Dane. Again. We won!”

“Man, I hope you’re right.”

I needed to be alone to think, so I left Spader and headed for the bathroom. I got rid of my burned clothes and stood in the warm shower to clean off the dried blood. The cuts andbruises were nothing that wouldn’t heal quickly. We were both very lucky.

As I stood in that shower, I wracked my brain for answers. Not just about theHindenburg, but about Spader. He was driven by his need for revenge. Fine, I wanted to put Saint Dane out of business too. But though Spader and I were on the same side, we had different ideas on how to fight the war. I was afraid this would show up to bite us in the butt someday. Today was that day. Our butts had been bitten.

Still, I didn’t want this to be an ego thing. I didn’t want to be angry at him just because he didn’t listen to me. Who am I? I don’t know everything. Maybe he had done the right thing. Maybe the reason we were on First Earth was to do exactly what he had done. By uncovering Farrow’s plot to destroy theHindenburgand telling Max Rose about it, we might have saved the airship.

But that led me to the most troubling thought of all. As horrible as the destruction of theHindenburgwas going to be, we didn’t know what it had to do with Saint Dane’s overall plan. Saint Dane’s goal was to find the turning point of a territory and push it the wrong way. The question was, what did theHindenburghave to do with the turning point of First Earth? It was a German ship, but did it have anything to do with the coming war? Would saving theHindenburgstop the war from happening?

There were too many unanswered questions for me to think our mission here on First Earth was over.

When I got out of the shower, Gunny was there. Spader had already told him how he felt sure Rose’s gang would save theHindenburg. Gunny wanted to be happy, but he had this confused look that told me he wasn’t any more convinced than I was. It was time to put everything out there in plain language.

“Here’s what we know for sure,” I began. “Max Rose has been working for the Nazis. They owe him a bunch of money. He needs the payment, bad, and it’s coming in on theHindenburg. Cash, diamonds, bonds, paintings, and who knows what else. It’s all flying in over the ocean right now. Winn Farrow, Rose’s enemy, knows how important the payment is to Rose, so he’s going to blow theHindenburgout of the sky.”

“That’s an extreme thing to do, just to get revenge,” Gunny said.

“Farrow’s an extreme guy,” Spader shot back. “But now Max Rose knows what he’s up to, and he’ll stop him from destroying the ship. TheHindenburgwill be saved! Sniggers for everyone!”