Operation Wolfe Cub: A Chilling Historical Thriller (THE TIME TO TELL Book 1) (3 page)

Their confidence seemed to grow by the second as their laughter quieted down all at once. Suddenly, all became serious as they had the chance to see the vessel in its entirety, courtesy of the moon. They gazed in awe as she rocked in the waves as if no violent ocean could ever disturb her. They seemed hardly scared, but they should have been. The comfort of their vessel distorted the reality of what they failed to see.

Indeed, perhaps a true omen was before them. From just above in the unadorned, black sky, the violent storm mysteriously paused in the middle of their joking but they hardly noticed. Far from funny was the far chance that maybe such an anarchic event circulating around them was, in fact, something to be feared beyond their comprehension. It was there and could have been seen circling, but none of them bothered to look up again, including Wolfe himself.

Perhaps it was just happenstance, like the moon that had appeared. However, the moon was quickly vanishing again. What they didn’t see kept them moving forward bravely, and the vessel they were next to fed their fires of desire. Their spirits soared to a new level of celebration as the moon slowly succumbed to the ever-increasing swirls of troublesome, black clouds.

“
Whowa! Hoo-hoo-hoo
!”

“I can’t believe it. We’re really going!”

“Believe it. We’re here! Look at what’s out there waiting for us!”

“Look out, big, bad ocean! Here we come!”

Dr. Wycliffe sought to calm them down. “Okay, okay… don’t lose your heads…this is it. Remember what you are here for, please.” He then looked over his shoulder to Wolfe walking up. “Okay, I want to see respect…quiet. Here he comes.
Shhhh, shhh, shhh
.”

They quickly sucked down to silence as they watched their superior taking his time walking up from behind. Rather confidently, he swaggered right up a few feet away then stood there straight as an arrow. Obviously, he already had heard the dishonorable hoots and cheers. He tried to forget about them for a moment by taking in the smell of the sea, but that ended quickly. Immediately, he focused on each one of them as if he were a drill sergeant looking over a loose platoon. Abruptly, he pushed his way past them to step in front of the vessel for a quick examination.

Dr. Wycliffe stepped closer. “She’s a beauty. At first I thought this was nothing but a dream. I had touched the vessel too. This is all…this is all very real.”

US-1 and US-2 quickly stepped up to feel the vessel too. “That’s right! We can’t believe it either. We will never let it down; we swear it until our flesh becomes the earth.”

“Our promise will not fail. We mean it on our lives. Never will we forget the day you gave us this chance.”

Dr. Wycliffe held them back. “
Shhhh
. Talk only if he asks, as I instructed.” He then turned to Wolfe. “Please excuse them. I regret to say they are still in training. I must say, there was such a diminutive amount of time to get the mission together.”

Wolfe seemed undeterred as Dr. Wycliffe stepped up closer to his side to whisper in his ear, “Vessel’s complete… she’s not fully tested yet, but she will get the baby safely to
our US destination. You can be sure…I am positive…if the US
Wehrwolf
malfunctions in any way, it will be because of my crew and me—not you.”

Wolfe had heard enough. He stepped back to get a better look at her sleek, serpent-like profile for one last observation, then tended to the baby’s whimper as if wanting to hear more. Still, he looked troubled, so Dr. Wycliffe anxiously stepped up. “The vessel’s a first generation, I know, but I-I-I…I assure you…she’s the best vessel this world has ever seen…I swear to you she should not fail above or below the water…her submersive capabilities were accelerated above and beyond by me personally. There’s no other better, except for the other prototype we used for additional parts.” He went on, “And we will not be discovered, I can promise you that to my grave. The special weapons panel has been verified and checked.”

Wolfe ignored the comments as he kept looking over the ship.

Dr. Wycliffe convincingly carried on, “Yes, yes…look at her. Nothing else will ever see her again…nothing, I assure. You have my word—may Christ have mercy on my soul.”

Only then did Wolfe start to relax as he looked back to the two young crew members in the dark.

Dr. Wycliffe stepped in front of him. “I promise you. It’s just two men, but their training has exceeded my expectations. It would be impossible not to trust them now…you’ve seen their selective process yourself, no?”

Wolfe looked the other way, pondering with silent cynicism, so Dr. Wycliffe stepped in front of him once again. “I know what you’re thinking, but please. They—know—nothing—else. Final training has to take place at sea now. There is no other way, considering the circumstances. They will fight too; I assure…fight to the death.”

Wolfe looked down to Dr. Wycliffe’s hands, which were holding a radio-controlled, metal box of some sort, with two
antennas he had just pulled out from his satchel. Dr. Wycliffe looked down too, realizing what he hadn’t said and gulped. “Oh,
um
, no it’s not what you think it is…it’s just a control box, which I can demonstrate. All communications have been aborted from the ship, per your request. We have absolutely no assistance from the outside world. Please, climb aboard and see.”

Wolfe didn’t bother.

Dr. Wycliffe continued, “My crew has been informed too. No radio means we will engage hostiles—against either side if we have to.” After pausing, he said, “Our top priority is defense only, of course. No combat unless the baby’s life is in jeopardy.”

Wolfe looked back at the ship, presumably for a final once-over, though he hardly looked convinced. Dr. Wycliffe circled him, continuing on, “Yes, yes. I checked everything myself. She’s ready…we are ready. We have no more time. We must go before the tide goes away. We still have to navigate the reefs. I must apologize, but the time is now, my friend… the time to go is now.”

Wolfe stroked his chin, then blew out a deep-held breath. “So be it…let it be forever done…carry on.”

The faltering flickers of lightning looked surreal as it repeatedly revealed the danger of what lay in wait out in the ocean just beyond. The rage of the white caps alone looked almost impossible to overcome by any kind of vessel. The waters looked reckless, but the ship braved them, nevertheless.

So far the vessel had faired through the massive waves pounding against her stern. Just two chains anchored her down to keep her from floating away. Each heavy, iron link yanked together tightly, testing their iron strength with each passing jolt.

This brute of a vessel bore a few more merits worth mentioning. She looked to be a shocking engineering marvel
and a design of surprise. Clearly her looks were ahead of the time, if one could get past her sinister shape.

Her 1940s construction was evident throughout. Most noticeable was her surface, heavy-laden with crown-headed rivets the size of nickels. Her entire hull mastered the French curve in every way and from almost every angle. Size apparently didn’t matter. From the tip of her bow to the bulk of her stern, she wasn’t much longer than a school bus.

Her main deck crowned downward slightly at the bow all too beautifully, yet the deck was well-suited to walk on. Presumably, aerodynamics was the answer. Straight down from there on each side toward the stern was a pair of aerodynamically-designed, sturdy fins that resembled dwarfed airplane wings. This pair of eye-openers must have had a purpose beyond making someone look twice, though aesthetics without function began to have a notorious effect during the era. Much more remained to be seen of the wings. They spread themselves away from the hull all too gracefully, resembling a jet more than a watercraft. They gave the impression of being much too short for flying.

Wings and things seemed like only the beginning. Just below these unproven fins were small, glass observation portholes. Accompanying each porthole were smaller portholes beside them without any protective glass at all. They contained the most troubling feature found through the darkness: stout war cannons, looking too intimidating to reveal themselves just yet, so they remained inside. Concealed next to them were more portholes of weapons. One could call them “pocket cannons,” except the smaller ones contained twin-barreled guns loaded up for double the trouble. Whether she was truly a scientific marvel still remained to be seen, but so far, she resembled the likes of a small, sexy, seagoing warlord.

Her space-age cockpit was another example of idiosyncrasies hard to relate to. For starters, no space age invention
had gave them the ideas. Space craft didn’t come until later after the war, or did it? If fiction were fact, then there it was as plain as being under a glass bonnet of nighttime sky. Her hatch began with a neatly-contoured, almond shape that barely stuck above the deck. Quite frankly, the drivers inside couldn’t see what the engineers were thinking. However, it did favor a risky style in back toward the stern. What protected the navigators inside seemed like very little. The hatch was nothing more than a sleek, oval bubble of clear glass, which one could only hope wouldn’t break. It looked very fragile, but surely had to be tough enough to take on the huge waves gathering momentum behind her.

Deeper inside, size may have mattered more. The entire cockpit itself had plenty of elbow room, with a spacious, well-designed seating area for three, with elaborate captain’s chairs, each of which had its own navigation controls. However, the center chair contained more. It was the one with an optical overhead mounted on top of the glass bonnet.

Another oddity succumbing itself to the character of this free-flying idea of a vessel was her large vertical center fin at the stern. It might have been one of the first things to notice when the men walked up to her, giving a cocky, “fair-warning” look of a massive predatory monster relating to a behemoth mechanical shark.

All in all, the most shocking part about her appearance did not relate to super marine crafts or predatory fish. Rather, she struck an idea as far-fetched as the stars. From the pointy bow, all the way back to her sleek trio of fins, she resembled a miniature, black version of the very first United States Space Shuttle,
Columbia
.
³

Wolfe’s shadowy posture expressed serious calculation for the prototype design. As he carefully looked over her hull
one last time, he suddenly spotted something he didn’t like. He hardly jumped for joy when he discovered that the same peculiar golden mark found on the two officer’s coats was also on the wings of his vessel. In fact, the golden emblems contrasting against the black body made them quite hard to miss.

Wolfe pointed to the one up on the center fin, which was the size of a large dinner plate. “Remove it!”

Dr. Wycliffe hesitated. “Please, reluctance chains me. We are proud of this.”

US-1 and US-2 stepped up: “No, you mustn’t, please. Peace—it’s in our hearts as it is on our coats. It should remind us while on our journey.”

“Yes, please. It’s all we have to look forward to.”

Dr. Wycliffe wrung his hands, begging: “Please, it is the vision. It’s now our vision too. Please, the ship, it will selfdestruct. I swear the ship and the symbol will disintegrate by my hand. Give us this guidance to go across the great seas. Please, I beg you.”

All three of them paused with little more to say as they waited to see what Wolfe might decide to do next. Suddenly, a strong wave caught their attention as it crashed beside them. As all of them watched the sudsy foam coast up the beach through the fading moonlight, Dr. Wycliffe sadly wiped the rain from his face and then readied his remote control box as if he wished to move on. “Please, the tide is moving away. We may come upon dry land soon. We have to go.”

Without saying much, Wolfe bowed in utter regret, as if all he’d done up to that point was just short of one great, big, bad idea.

Once more, lightning struck down at a distance with vengeance. Simultaneously, bright white light shed down on the entire ship, revealing the mysterious golden symbols once again. They gleamed so brightly that Wolfe had no choice but to glance at them for the last time. “Go!”

Dr. Wycliffe quickly focused his attention on the remote control box, pointing the two antennas toward the watercraft. Nervous from his excitement, he turned one of the toggle switches on and waited for a few long seconds. “Excuse me. It’s the tube filaments inside. They take a while to warm up…
ah
yes, here we are. It’s coming to them now.”

A red bulb slowly lit up on top of the box, and chattering noises escaped from the port bow, revealing a gangway ladder extending down onto the beach.

All of them, with the exception of Wolfe, jumped excitedly. Quickly, Dr. Wycliffe struck another toggle switch, sending the cockpit hatch spewing a pressurized vapor. Slowly, the hatch opened up, extending an exciting invitation to climb aboard, which they did.

Wolfe looked on from the beach as Dr. Wycliffe came back and reached down from the ladder. “All systems go. Time to give up the baby.”

As Wolfe hoisted the baby up safely into his arms, Dr. Wycliffe tried shaking off his curiosity. “Christ O’Mighty, so now he decides to cry…he’s acting like he’s leaving the father.”

He then gingerly took the baby into the cockpit and pressed his controls to close the hatch. At the very moment he sat down, a huge spill of lightning lit up the entire area. Thunder immediately followed, rumbling up through his feet.

Everyone inside felt it too as they looked out through the glass. Shock and awe kept them glued to their chairs as they got a good look at their leader left behind on the beach, silhouetted in the forefront of the lightning show.

Dr. Wycliffe spoke softly to his comrades as they all instinctively tooled with the components of the launch sequence, “Say good-bye to the man that made this possible.” He further muttered quietly, “He’s playing God if you ask me.”

Neither of his comrades heard him, so they begged his pardon to say it again.

Dr. Wycliffe quickly snapped out of his daze. “Oh, nothing…it was nothing. Say good-bye to him. That’s all I said.”