for ID# 1004717 W.C. in another era |
He could feel his heart pounding. These years have seen everything turn life threatening. Trying to rest was nearly impossible but any ability to rest at all was important to take advantage of. The hours would be long and hard once the message came through. There were so few left. The city was a shell of what it once was. The only buildings still standing were occupied by the Nazis. Nathan knew his family was dead. They were all dead. The only ones left were like him, resisters who have managed to not get caught. Got to rest. I need to be alert when it is time. All Nathan could think of was the new system to get word to each other. For every pocket of fighters the Nazis killed, all the more joined forces. Determined men and women refusing to be wiped from history. Brave souls determined to salvage what they could of their countries. Determined and inventive in ways they could never have believed. The Nazis had their Enigma, the secret code, yet unknown to them, broken by the Brits. A code through which an idea was born. Nathan didn’t know who put it together but he learned the codes. He didn’t know who his contact was only that the operator knew the signal he was to transmit to. At dawn the first use of the W.C. would connect the pockets of resistors to each other. It was ingenious. From England to Russia a network would form in hours instead of weeks. Each cell connected only to two others. The network structure was adroit, that is, in theory. Nathan drifted into a light sleep praying that the first transmission was successful. The sun barely creaked over the horizon when Nathan was up and getting ready. There were six of them in his pod though they never settled in close enough to be taken together. Soft signals were heard and returned and the group began to band together. The short wave radio was tucked as safely away as the crowned jewels might have been though they knew at this time it was far more valuable. The time, the risks taken, the lives lost across Europe to put these miracle machines and the W.C. program into the right hands, kept working, and most of all kept safely hidden was incalculable. When Hans caught up with Nathan and then Conrad, Hans took one of the three loaves of bread left for him by the cook at the Constatter. He broke it and passed it to the two men and took a hunk for himself. Soon Fredrich, Jon, and Eric joined them and also got the treasured bread to eat as they in turn passed around a weak semblance of coffee. Then they were off. On schedule and feeling hopeful and alive they headed for the sewer system where they would join the other half of their team. One after the other the group entered the caverns system of tunnels. And finally the full group met up with the man sitting before the treasured radio as well as a transistor radio sitting next to it softly playing a German melody. At exactly 6:00am the BBC began the story hour. It appeared no different than on any other day but today was most different. The story today was specially constructed to deliver the first message using the W.C. network. Well practiced and ready, the men each began their assigned task. Hans was busy writing the script as Joseph, a man from the other group , transcribed the letters and words into a scheduled plan which Cap the man working the radio transmitted to the unseen next cell of fighters. John and Eric were already busy gathering supplies for the mission and like a fine tuned machine each man did his job with precision. Hearts pounded and the excitement was phenomenal as the work was carried out in silence save for the tapping of the radio. When the message was taken and forwarded the precious radios were gathered and wrapped and packed with everything else and the group was ready to do what had to be done. So much could go wrong. They could be caught on the street. An ambush could be waiting at their destination. Each prayed to the God of his understanding and inhaling the fear of the courageous they made their way to the first station given in the instructions by the W.C. message. Just fifteen kilometers beyond the munitions depot this band of men were to set the explosives. Nathan wondered how many jobs were prescribed in the W.C. message as it was delivered across the region. There was no way of knowing. Everything was in place. The men huddled in near silence and they waited. Hans and Nathan, lifelong friends,spoke in whispered tones of the day the Nazis were defeated. They shared barely audible dreams Their eyes annimated as their hopes for a future played in their minds, theirs and the wonderful W.C. They imaginred the day when the W.C. would serve to connect a peaceful people in ways that the Post could only dream. Instant conversation without the cost of the telly. Joseph could write his stories and send them to the publishers in no more time than it took to hit the send button. And remembering the annoyance Joesph's mother once showed about the loose papers cluttering their home. He could store them neatly and secretly. As they waited their voices became still. Their hopes were small piece of happiness in a damp, dark hiding place. The closer time moved to success or horrible failure the silence grew deafening. They realized they had all connected, hand to hand. And then it happened.At precisely 8:00pm along the course of three hundred and twenty five kilometers the answer to their prayers and efforts could be heard as a network of tracks intended to deliver soldiers and weapons to the front began exploding. Other cells of fighters doing their assigned duties blew up various buildings and the electricty was taken out putting the whole country in a blanket of blackness. The sky lit up in the brightest of colors as their enemies were destroyed. At 4:00am a new story was sent along the underground to the men thanks to the bravery of each and every one of you The W.C.. is a winner! |