John Schettler - Golem 7

“You were probably getting variation data from the Golems,” said Maeve.

“I guess so, because I had hard notes in front of me that were completely contradicted by what I was seeing on the screen.”

“Well, maestro here worked up a pretty significant variation all on his own.” She gestured to Paul with a thumb, and the professor smiled, glad someone else was the focal point of Maeve’s ire for a change.

“Then I must have been seeing alterations caused by this message you sent, Paul.”

“Right, we know all about it. We’ve been reading it here on the Golem Module. Golem Bank 7 has been giving Kelly fits. But we’re going to try and reverse this intervention.” He told Robert what he had in mind.

Maeve was not happy, but she could think of no other solution so she conceded the fight and allowed Paul to go forward. “So how are you going to sign off on this one?” She asked.

“We’re going to make it seem that the transmission was cut off by enemy action,” said Paul. “There was a scene like that in the movie. The Germans catch a coast watcher trying to transmit from his shack, and they burst in and gun him down.”

“What movie?”

“ Sink the Bismarck , the 1960 classic.”

“You’re working up scenarios based on this movie?”

“Of course not, but you make a good point, and it’s the only thing that I can think of that will make sense. We can’t very well tell them the independent call signs have been compromised and then sign off with one. Nor can we used an established agent’s sign. So we’ll just have to make it seem that the message was cut off. But before we do anything we had better consider all our variables here. Tell us what you were on to, Robert, I don’t want to miss anything else important enough to sink ships.”

“Well…It’s this German U-boat. Number 556, the boat with the odd connection to Bismarck . I was trying to run down its service history and learned it came upon convoy HX-126 on May 20th. Our RAM Bank data has a fairly detailed report, with interviews from the convoy commodore, and from witnesses on ships that were torpedoed. Then the German U-Boat data bank also has a clear record of every ship sunk by this boat. It was captained by Herbert Wohlfarth.”

“Yes, I remember reading about this,” said Paul. “He vowed to always defend Bismarck from harm as a way of thanking Lindemann for sending his band over at the boat’s commissioning ceremony.”

“Exactly,” said Robert. “Well, in our RAM Bank data he was unable to answer the call because he had expended the last of his torpedoes in this attack on convoy HX-126.”

“Not in all these Golem data sets,” said Kelly.

“That’s what I was talking about!” Robert said excitedly. “The information kept changing on me. I took a look at that British cruiser we thought the Assassins were operating against. First it was Sheffield having mechanical problems with her engines, then that vanished and Sheffield was involved in a battle and put out of action—it wasn’t even there! Another cruiser had come up in her place. And look at this,” he pointed. “It’s not what I have in my notes at all. I can fetch the notebooks for you, and you’ll see.“

“We’ll take your word for it,” Maeve assured him.

“Then I took a look at this U-boat, but every time I checked the data seemed to change. First off I learned Wohlfarth retained one torpedo, forsaking a shot at the last of three ships he was to have sunk on that convoy in the hopes of finding something better.”

“That is the very same torpedo he hits Repulse with,” said Kelly.

“Then that was obviously caused by Paul’s intervention,” said Maeve.

“Alright,” Robert went on, “so then I get a new variation. I checked the convoy records and that third ship is still not sunk. U-556 has a torpedo when it steams south to the vicinity of Bismarck’s last stand. In fact it has two torpedoes. He encounters Force H this time, not Tovey’s fleet as in Paul’s intervention, and this time he is able to successfully target Ark Royal.”

“Yes!” said Paul. “Kennedy’s book on this subject makes mention of this. He states that Wohlfarth found himself in a perfect position to attack, though he notes that U-556 could do nothing but watch at that point.”

“The U-boat site even goes so far as to state that he watched the fateful air strike take off,” said Robert, “the last strike on Bismarck that damaged her rudders and doomed her. But not now. Not this time. Wohlfarth fires his last torpedo, and hits Ark Royal. It’s not a fatal hit, but it does cause flooding and the resulting list prevents further air operations, particularly in the very high seas they were navigating.”

Paul had a troubled look on his face. “Could Wohlfarth be a Free Radical, just like Lütjens? Could his decision on retaining that last torpedo and how he chooses to use it be our principle lever on these events?”

“A willful decision is seldom a true Pushpoint,” said Maeve. “If Wohlfarth is a Free Radical then there isn’t much we can do about him or his choices. And there’s one more thing to consider,” she warned. “This could all have resulted from a counter operation. We’ve opened the continuum now, and the Assassins may have picked up on that, seeing what we are trying to do. They could have launched a defensive operation already, or yet another attack aimed at assuring Bismarck gets to a safe port.”

“Good point,” said Paul. “That could account for all the dissonance we have in the Golem data stream as well—and for your confusion on how U-556 operates, Robert. If they have a Nexus Point open on this as well, then we would certainly see a lot of confusion in potential results. It’s clear that the air strike by Ark Royal was a vital stroke against Bismarck in the real history. All the interventions thus far seem to have been aimed at preventing it. First they operate against Sheffield , because the mistaken attack causes the British to correct their faulty magnetic pistols on the torpedoes.”

“I don’t think they could have known that by preventing a torpedo attack on Gneisenau they would also be preventing one on Bismarck , said Maeve. But that’s what happened in the altered history. They could have just been trying to buck up the odds for Bismarck’s safe return by making sure that there was another German ship available at Brest that could sortie out to aid her.”

“Right,” said Paul.

“Then, in the intervention Paul just ran, it’s U-556 that takes a prominent role” said Robert. “The reports we’ve had so far show Wohlfarth disabling Repulse with his extra torpedo, yet my notes say it was Ark Royal —at least before everything started getting fuzzy on me. The bottom line is the same, however. Wohlfarth retains a torpedo and uses it to strike a British capital ship that would have been instrumental in sinking the German battleship. We don’t know about Repulse . Perhaps her viability in Paul’s intervention might not have mattered, but we do know that without her King George V cannot stand alone.”

“And in that other variation you uncovered before the Golems went haywire, Wohlfarth strikes Ark Royal instead. Force H cannot slow Bismarck down in that event,” said Paul. “So how do we operate now? How do we try to persuade Wohlfarth to fire that last torpedo at a lowly steamer?”