Robert A. Webster - Blue Flame

Copyright © 2020 by Robert A Webster

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise without written permission from the publisher. It is illegal to copy this book, post it to a website, or distribute it by any other means without permission.

Robert A Webster asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

First edition

Table of Contents

Part One 1

If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed

2

If you want to shine like the sun, first you have to burn like it.

3

Things are not always right because they are hard, but if they are right one must not mind if they are also hard.

4

For there is one thing we must never forget; the majority can never replace the man.

5

The man who has no sense of history, is like a man who has no ears or eyes

6

The true guide of life is to do what is right.

7

If you’re going through hell, keep going.

8

You never can tell whether bad luck may not after all turn out to be good luck

9

Life doesn’t forgive weakness.

10

Never deprive someone of hope; it may be all they have

11

Mankind grew strong through eternal struggle; it follows that he shall perish through eternal peace

12

God’s and beasts, that is what our world is made of

13

Anyone can deal with victory. Only the mighty can bear defeat

14

The price of greatness is responsibility over each of your thoughts

15

If freedom is short of weapons, we must compensate with willpower

16

Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.

17

Words build bridges into unexplored regions

18

Difficulties mastered are opportunities won.

19

To improve is to change, so to be perfect is to have changed often.

20

It is a fine thing to be honest, but it is also very important to be right

21

Epilogue

23

In the not too distant future

24

Awakening

25

Revelation

26

If the oceans die, we die. We can’t live on this planet with a dead ocean

27

The New Frontier

28

There’s money to be made by driving a species extinct

29

There is no such thing as sustainable seafood in a dying ocean

30

Bad actors make convincing politicians

31

Lesson 1: Greed stops the ability of a species to live in harmony with its environment

32

Death is a great Equaliser

33

Life is a terminal illness

34

Technology is a useful servant but a dangerous master

35

There is Friendship in the heart of danger

36

Arrogance is knowledge without wisdom

37

There is no such thing as a foolproof plan if there are fools about

38

When love kills love

39

Lesson 2: Technology nurtures the human race

40

You need a crime, a detective, and the solution.

41

Love can start with an unexpected hello

42

Everything is an illusion

43

Into the Belly of the Beast

44

There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact

45

Never attempt to win by force what can be won by deception

46

Lesson 3: Faith is a commodity easily bought

47

Revelation 2

48

Awakening 2

49

— Next —

50

Appendix

About the Author

Also by Robert A Webster

Total devastation surrounded the solitary figure. Bombed-out buildings and semi-submerged wrecks of a decimated fleet were all that remained of a navy that once dominated the oceans. The man stood at the end of a concrete jetty, lost in his thoughts with his hands clasped behind his back. His weary features and silver hair made him appear far older than his fifty-six years as he gazed at the ocean, cursing under his breath. With the rumble of explosions in the distance, he inhaled, filling his lungs with tarnished, salty sea air.

* * *

Several hours earlier, the dockside swarmed with military personnel. Throughout the night they had unloaded boxes and crates from trucks, sweating and swearing as they struggled to load them onto a sleek black U-boat by moonlight. Having to run for cover occasionally as the now familiar drone of Merlin engines roared overhead, dropping their deadly payloads around them.

With their job now done, the soldiers, sapped of their strength, murmured as they clambered aboard the trucks and then driven away. The smell of cordite lingered, along with a film of oil and diesel fuel that covered the water’s surface inside the harbour.

The dockside was now quiet, with a few of the U-boat’s crew and a handful of black-uniformed SS officers milling around the gangway.

The senior officer received a call through his portable field telephone and he barked out orders. Activity resumed as SS soldiers with machine guns rounded up the U-boat’s crew and ushered them aboard the vessel, while the senior SS officer and two junior officers remained on the dockside.

The hatches closed and the three SS officers went to the foot of the gangway. A black Mercedes 770-K with darkened windows pulled up beside them and the junior officers opened the vehicle’s doors. They snapped to attention as a man and woman stepped out.

The man ignored the SS soldiers and headed along the jetty. The young officers glanced wide-eyed at each other while the woman spoke to the senior SS officer.

“Let’s leave him for a while, Hans; this could be the last time he will see his beloved country.”

Hans Kruger, the senior SS officer, clicked his heels together and nodded to confirm the woman’s request. They watched the man ranting to himself as he strode up the jetty. Hans then ordered the junior SS officers to escort the woman to join the man on the jetty.

Hans watched them walk a short distance. He then took out his pistol and, hiding it behind his back, marched over to the Mercedes and tapped on the driver’s window. The driver, looking at the grinning SS officer, wound down the window and Hans shot him in the head. Holstering his smoking Luger, Hans then went over to wait at the foot of the gangway.

The man had remained undisturbed until the sound of strident footsteps approaching broke his train of thought as the woman stopped behind him, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder. He smelled her familiar reassuring fragrance as she said in a soft voice, “They’re ready to leave.”

He turned and smiled at the woman. The two young officers who accompanied her snapped to attention, raised an arm in salute, and stared ahead to avoid eye contact with the man, who gazed once more at the hills and countryside surrounding the crater-filled and demolished buildings of the once-great dockyard. The rusted and twisted metallic hulks that strewn around the harbour were the corpses of a once-proud fleet. Tears welled up in his eyes, knowing that he would never return. Composing himself, he walked with the woman by his side. They strode past the escorts, who fell in behind them and marched toward the large black U-boat, moored at the centre of the partly destroyed jetty. The vessel gently rolled from side to side, moved by rippling waves of the gentle spring tide.