I woke up later in the morning worrying that I would be late for school and then I remembered it was Sunday and I had agreed to meet Licia and Miguel. Mom and Dad were asleep so I didn't wake them. I figured Grandma was sleeping upstairs with Emma and Beryl. I checked on Pacman who was curled up with Dunc, both of them fast asleep, so I walked to Licia's place alone.
Miguel was already there and, as soon as we were settled around the kitchen table, Licia asked, 'Okay what happened?'
Miguel and I finished Denny's box of donut holes as I told them about my adventures with Kozak in Germany. Miguel was fascinated while Licia was more concerned.
'You must have been terrified.'
'That is a totally inadequate word. When Kozak lost me on the battle field, I was on the front line either with the Wehrmach or the Canadian army in the middle of a war. It was insane and it just kept getting worse. I will never forget the appalling stench of dead bodies rotting and open latrines and the unimaginable noise of constant explosion and the horrifying sight of bits of bodies strewn about the ground. I cannot understand how those soldiers were able to function. I shall be having nightmares about it for years. There is nothing glorious about war.'
'The only good thing is that I am back and, by some miracle, still in one piece. Some of the others weren't so lucky.'
I went on to describe everything that had happened and they listened in rapt silence except for the odd question. Talking about it made me feel a little less anxious but, eventually, my voice got hoarse.
Licia's mother insisted on cooking eggs and bacon for all of us and after that we went over to Silverwood School to work on our giant snow monsters.
Dunc was waiting for us outside. 'How am I supposed to be yehr bodyguard when yeh dinna tell me where yeh are?' he grumbled. 'It's as well Triple Oh gave yeh that tracking device.'
We all decided to help Licia as she resumed work on what she claimed was a rooster, I thought it was an elephant and Miguel insisted it was a pig. Dunc thought it looked like a goose.
'You know,' I said. 'One thing bothers me. I wonder why Triple Oh sent the truck back with the uranium. He must have known the Russians would use it for a bomb.'
Licia nodded. 'That's logical. The Russians did build a bomb a few years later.'
'Maybe,' Miguel said thoughtfully, 'he was just trying to make sure history didn't get changed.'
About an hour later Dr Zhang arrived in the Terramax and walked over to us.
'Ah-um. We need to talk but not here. Come to my office.'
In the office, he tapped a password into his keyboard and looked annoyed when Yonnie and Treeka appeared. 'What happened to Oppy?' he demanded.
'All hail, Your Supreme Modesty,' Yonnie said. 'Greetings.'
Treeka interrupted. 'Toktakunov scrambled Great Mother Oppy's operating system again. So, Murga was able to use the electric bookcase. Luckily, Yonnie and I had back-up copies of her software so we were able to put her back together faster than the last time.'
'Ah-um, who is this Tick-tock-off?' Dr Zhang said angrily. 'And why is he interfering with my work?'
'Toktakunov works for Murga,' Treeka said cheerfully. 'And Murga wants to know how Lord Ziff uses the nexus to control gravity.'
'Well, that explains everything,' he snapped sarcastically. 'Ah-um. How did Ziff get into this?'
'I am sorry,' I said. 'You remember Murga is trying to extract the genetic information implanted by my grandfather. He used the electric bookcase because Triple Oh, aka agent Onderdonk of the Time Agency, is tracking other nexusus. That's how Triple Oh tracked me down in Germany.'
Dr Zhang stared at me. 'You were in Germany? When?'
'Murga was holding my parents hostage near Berlin in 1945. I just got back with them, thanks to Triple Oh.'
'Ah-um . . . You didn't use the electric bookcase?'
'No. Murga or Toktakunov set up a nexus in Kozak's apartment on rue Bank street.'
'You don't need to say Rue all the time,' Licia said. 'It is French for Street.'
'I know that. I just like reading the street signs.'
'Ah-um. But how do these two hackers, Yanny and Tricky, figure in this?'
'Yonnie and Treeka,' I corrected. 'We think they are actually Oppy's daughters descended from two of your old back-up copies.'
'Ah-um, but how did that happen? And why are the police and these crazy American security people causing so much trouble.'
'Yonnie,' I said, 'tell him you haven't been hacking into US government computers.'
'We were not hacking,' Treeka said truculently. 'We were only cleaning up unnecessary clutter to improve speed and deleting malicious spyware. We were doing the U.S. government a favour.'
Denny arrived with another box of donut holes and we continued the discussion while we munched.
Dr Zhang insisted that Yonnie and Treeka stop altering US government computer software. He was adamant that we not tell Andy and Con about Yonnie and Treeka either as this would only raise more questions about his research work.
There was no one in our apartment when I got home. My parents were upstairs chatting with Grandma and Beryl and Dunc and Pacman were stuffing themselves in the kitchen with Emma.
'Thank you for rescuing us,' Mom said. 'I had almost given up hope of ever seeing you again. You were very brave.'
'I had a lot of help from Beryl, Triple Oh, Uncle Dunc and even Kozak,' I said.
Emma started preparing supper with Beryl while I outlined my adventure for Mom, Dad and Grandma. I left out most of the scary stuff and managed to make it sound like a funny adventure. Grandma thought I was making it up.
'I hope you like Silverwood School,' Mom said. 'I set it up with Principal Melvin Ball before I left for China.'
'Its amazing,' I told her. 'I didn't know school could be so much fun.'
Mom looked at me with a disapproving expression. 'Only fun?'
'Oh . . . and . . . I learned a lot.'
THE END
Thanks for reading Ziff Under Fire which is based on three superb books which you should be able to find at your local library.
The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes
The Guns of Normandy and The Guns of Victory by George Blackburn.
(You will find a gripping summary on Wattpad with the title, "Normandy 1944" by Dunc MacPhun)
I urge you to read these true stories which are as fascinating as any work of fiction.
This is the end of book four but there is a lot more about the story in the following epilogue and appendix.
End note.
It was 8:16 am on a pleasant sunny morning, August 6, 1945, when a lone B-29 dropped the untested U235 bomb (Little Boy) on Hiroshima, Japan. The bomb exploded with the force equivalent to 12,500 tons of TNT.
Within 2km of the explosion everything was destroyed. Near the centre of the explosion all life was vaporized, farther out it was carbonized by the heat flash. Of 76 000 buildings in Hiroshima, 48 000 were totally destroyed, 22 000 more were damaged. Ninety percent of the medical staff were killed or disabled. The horrified survivors did their best to help the severely injured but they continued to die from radiation exposure long after the explosion.
Estimates at the end of 1945, were 140,000 dead which increased to 340,000 in the next five years out of a population of 400,000.
The first Soviet (Russian) atomic bomb was detonated only four years later on August 29, 1949.
The Russians employed captured German scientists, with uranium seized from the German stockpile in Oranienburg and a design based on the American plutonium239 bomb (Fat Man) design stolen by Soviet spy rings working in the U.S. Manhattan Project.