The Eye of Odin – 1940
Hitler's Headquarters, Tannenberg, Germany
There was a crisp bite to the autumn air as the man got out of the car. Here at the Fuehrer’s private retreat at Tannenberg in the Black Forest, autumn was in full bloom. He was a big man, blond and striking, possessed of great strength and at the same time an air of reserved detachment. If one were to look at him briefly there would be nothing unusual about his appearance, but a second glance would show that his left eye did not focus, and was a glass replacement. His uniform marked him as an Oberst in the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht, and his bearing spoke of authority. A servant opened the door for him and he strode down the corridors. He had been here twice before, and his memory served him well. As he approached the end of a long hallway, the two guards snapped to attention. He saluted the men, who returned in kind. “Your papers, sir.” The Oberst presented his credentials, and they opened the door for him.
Inside was a thick haze of smoke and blustering voices, most of which he had heard before. At the head of the table, a short man waved to him “Good afternoon, Oberst Noth. Please come in.” The Fuhrer was in a good mood today, to greet him directly. Noth looked around the table at the men assembled who would conquer the world, the leaders of the Reich. First was Grots-Admiral Erich Raeder of the Kriegsmarine, the man who had conquered Denmark and Norway, and who was often seen but almost never heard.
Next to him was Fritz Todt, master-builder of the western defenses and Minister of Arms and Munitions. A nervous, snakelike man, he rarely spoke unless asked a direct question. After Todt was Reichsmarschall Herman Goring, commander of the Luftwaffe, and Noth almost sneered. The man was a waste of humanity, a morphine-addled fool who rose on the merits of others. He dozed in his outlandish uniform with his Grand Cross of the Iron Cross hanging from his neck. Obergruppenfhrer Reinhard Heydrich of the Sicherheitsdienst sat on his left, Himmler’s personal hatchet man who could destroy generals with his infamous files. Reichsfuhrer SS Heinrich Himmler sat next to Heydrich, the two men got along very well and Heydrich owed much of his success to his mentor. Noth wasn’t sure, but Himmler radiated a certain vitality and youthful energy he had seen before. He would keep an eye on him. Next was a man Noth absolutely loathed, Governor-General Hans Frank, master of German Poland. A cruel man with a sloping forehead, Frank had been having difficulty lately keeping Warsaw quiet and kept demanding more SS to keep them in line. Noth took the open seat next to him.
Oberst Noth had arrived in time for the end of Albert Speer’s presentation to the Fuhrer of the new Germania. The table was covered with models of buildings that would be built in Berlin to the glory of the Reich. At the south end of the three-mile-long Avenue of Germany would be a great arch of victory four hundred feet high, which could fit the French Arc de Triomphe inside it. At the north end would be the great Dome of the Reich, a monstrous building with a dome eight hundred feet across and seven hundred feet high. Speer was showing it to the Fuhrer now “As you can see, the whole circumference of the dome will be adorned with great statues of Teutonic myth. Marble, obsidian, limestone, and even crystal from every part of our new Germania will be seen in our Welthauptstdat. At the front of the dome, most prominent is Odin rendered in white marble with black crystal ravens on his shoulders, forever bestowing his wisdom upon our Reich.” Oberst Noth smirked at this. “Flanking him are Thor and Freyr; Victorious War and Vitality of Spirit which will always accompany the Ubermensch wherever he goes. And here…” He went on and on about this statue or that column, Oberst Noth found it almost as tiresome as Goring did. He was, however, amused that Speer had designed his buildings such that if they collapsed they would leave behind aesthetically pleasing ruins. An old saying crossed Noth’s mind “If you plan to fail, you have failed to plan.
Finally, it was over, and attendants cleared out Speers models and blueprints. It would be a great city, if it was ever built. Drinks were served, and the men around the table relaxed. “So, Minister Todt, how goes your great Atlantic Wall?” Himmler sipped brandy. “Are you keeping us quite safe from the Irish and the Americans?” There was laughter around the table. Since England had made peace, the need for defenses in the west had been lowered in priority. The film reels of massive bunkers and seas of barbed wire were now considered quaint.
Minister Todt also laughed. He had served well, and his star was on the rise “I suppose we have nothing to fear from the Irish, though I do miss the French wine. Is it any wonder the southwest got so much concrete?” More laughter.
”How did the Jew labor work out for you?” Hans Frank puffed on his cigar. “It is all my men can do to make them stay in line, let alone do an honest day’s work. The Slavic Jews are the most obstinate I’ve run across. Even taking their children won’t make them work harder, the women just cry and the men rush my guards.”
Todt’s hand twitched. He enjoyed cigars, but the Fuhrer did not, and so at these meetings he went without. “I find it is best to employ a stick-and-carrot with the Jew. Find out which work gang has done the best, and give them extra-rations on Sunday. Find out which has done the worst, and kill the five worst workers. If it helps, let their priests” he avoided the word rabbi “hold a service once in a while. Prayer calms, just make sure they don’t speak in their mongrel tongue and incite the men to riot.”
”They can try,” Himmler shook his head. But the Jew doesn’t have the stomach for much more than goldsmithing.” Again, they laughed, and all reached for rings or watches unaware they were doing it. Grand Admiral Raeder did not smile.
Hitler cleared his throat, and the room quieted. “Gentlemen, the Reich is at a crossroads. England has sued for peace, as I expected them to, and the German is master from Gibraltar to the Red Sea, and from Norway to Sudan.” He paused, for effect. “But now we must decide where next to turn our gaze, where next to march the iron heel of German perfection. Today we here will make that decision.”
”My Fuhrer,” Raeder was the first to speak. “Our greatest enemy is America. Corrupt though it is, the resources of half a continent are at its’ disposal and it could grow to be a giant. I could take my Kriegsmarine and capture Iceland, and from there ravage the whole of the eastern United States. Perhaps, in a year, we could take Newfoundland and hang it like a great boulder over the Americans. They would not dare speak ill against us then.”
”You give them too much credit, Herr Admiral.” Todt spoke up. “They have no navy to speak of, and their President,” He emphasized the word “must please the people to get elected. America has no stomach for war.”
Raeder’s jaw clenched. “Yes, fifteen battleships untouched by war is nothing to speak of. I am so glad to have your reassurances.”
Goring stirred in his chair. “From Iceland, my Luftwaffe could rain death on America. They are no match for my fighters and bombers.”
”We must consider Iceland,” Raeder went on “if for no other reason than they are brother Aryans of the purest blood. Think what they could do to enrich the Reich, my Fuhrer.” With Norway and Denmark occupied, and England no longer a threat, the Kriegsmarine was in danger of being relegated to a lesser importance, unless Raeder could convince the Fuhrer of the necessity of a navy.
”Yes, think what all that Aryan blood could do,” Governor-General Frank interrupted “when the mongrel communists are strong enough to attack us. The Soviet Union has a military that far outnumbers us and grows stronger every day. A full assault from the Baltic to the Black Sea and the Russians won’t be able to contain us. Within months we can take Moscow and march the Wehrmacht all the way to the Volga. The Baltic states are ripe to be liberated, and the commanders of the Soviet Army could not stand up even to Finland.” Frank’s arguments all masked the fact that an invasion of the Soviet Union would make his territory the most important, giving him all manner of resources and funds to spend at his discretion.
Himmler nodded. There would be plenty of new territory for his SS to cull through. “I agree. We cannot allow such a den of Bolshevism and perversion to continue. We can be ready by May of next year, to take Moscow before the winter falls. Once Germany spreads to the Black Sea and the Urals, she will be unassailable in the east.”
Oberst Odwin Noth cleared his throat. He had been silent until now. “My apologies, Herr Himmler, but I do not think it will be so easy to attack the Soviets as you say.” There was silence as some of the men around the table sharply drew in a breath. Whole families had disappeared for lesser offenses to the Reichsfuhrer. Oberst Noth opened his case and passed around folios to the men at the table. “My analysis indicates that invading the Soviet Union would provoke a declaration of war by the United States, and the Soviet Union would do the same if we declared war on the United States.” He looked at Grand Admiral Raeder. “With both powers arrayed against us, a war would be long and difficult, and could destroy the Reich even in victory.”
The men at the table wondered who this man was to speak to the masters of the Reich in such a way. Heydrich had looked for the man’s record when he had come to note for providing intelligence during the French campaign but could find nothing other than his name, place of birth, and certification of racial purity. In truth, only five men in the whole of Germany knew the truth of Oberst Odwin Noth, and two of them were in this room. “If we can attack neither America nor Russia, what then,” the Obergruppenfeuhrer stared hard at him “do you propose we do?”
”I propose, Herr Heydrich, that we do neither.” Goring laughed at this, as did Todt, but the rest were quiet. Noth looked through his papers. “If you will look at page two of my briefing, I have devised a third option which I believe will safeguard the future of the Reich.”
”INDIA?” Frank was almost livid. “You think the Reich should invade India? That is absurd!” He pounded on the table. “England has surrendered, and her colonies are ours.”
”Forgive me, Herr Governor-General, but the treaty England signed is moot if it cannot enforce it on the colonies. We have Persia, and we have North Africa, but England’s further colonies have apparently outgrown it. What I am proposing is an assault through Persia from Egypt, into India, and along the Caspian sea. We can give arms to the Indian Fascist Subhas Chandra Bose, and if India is to choose between conquerors one meter tall or two, I think I know who they will pick.” That got a laugh from some of the men. The caricatures of the Japanese were all over Germany, despite their being allies.
”We will link up with Japanese forces in the East and then assist them in flushing out the French in indochina. I predict this effort will take up to the end of 1943, at which point Japan will be poised to eliminate Australia. By then, we will have encircled the whole of the Soviet Union with German superiority and made the Indian Ocean into a German one. At that point, we can consider fighting America or the Soviets, or even the Japanese. Nobody will be able to stop us.”
”If we can hold them until 1943, my Ural bomber will destroy our enemies.” That was Goring again, with his supposed Ural Bomber which, if we’re ever built, would give Oberst Noth a heart attack.
”How do we know that America and Russia won’t stab us in the back while were marching through Asia?” Frank was angry that the Fuhrer seemed to be listening to this nonsense.
Oberst Noth turned to another page. “To immobilize America, all we have to do is take Grand Admiral Raeder’s plan and invade Iceland.” If the entire north-Atlantic is filled with German U-boats, America won’t be able to come near Europe. Raeder nodded, thoughtfully. He liked his sleek, deadly submarines, and this would keep them alive for years to come.
Noth continued. “As for the Soviets, let them come. Stalin will abide by the treaty until he thinks he can win, and by the time he has an army strong enough, Poland will be a mighty shield to blunt his attack. Instead of an Atlantic wall, we build a polish one to keep Stalin’s Mongol hordes at bay. In a game of numbers, the Soviets will have more men than us for a decade, so we must wait them out and starve them for supplies.
Hitler nodded. “We must consider these plans carefully.” The discussions went long into the night. After midnight, the meeting was adjourned but Hitler asked Oberst Noth to remain after. In the silence, it was only the two of them. “Do you truly think this is our best chance, Odin?”
”I do, Adolph.” They sat at a corner of the table and talked as equals.
”So many things can go wrong. I may be a genius, but Stalin is Stalin. He could attack us before Poland is ready.”
”He could, but I do not think he will.” There was a slight smile on Odin’s face. “In fifteen years, you will be master of the world.”
”Yes, but what happens next?” Hitler looked at the man. As a child, he had almost drowned in a river near his home, but a man had jumped in and saved him. Three years ago, he had spotted the same man in a plaza in Berlin, not a day older. He had had him brought to his private offices and questioned him. Odin had been a mid-level Lieutenant in the OKW, trying to guide the Reich, but nobody would listen. Then, Hitler listened. Sometimes he had gone on his own instincts, as with the Ardennes, but they worked well together. “It is late, my friend. I will think about your proposal as well as Barbarossa.”
”Goodnight, my Fuhrer.” Odin saluted and went to his room.
The lodge was quiet, even servants weren’t seen as he walked to his room. He turned on the electric light and went to his private bathroom, marveling at the modern conveniences the party leaders took for granted. Water flowing into one’s own home was a minor wonder to him, even after all these years. He washed his face and reached for the faucet when the hair on his neck bristled. He tensed, and spun, dropping to a crouch as he drew a large knife from its sheath on his back. The blade was almost to his ear when an audible *click* made him freeze. Standing just inside the room holding a pistol was a man so similar to Odin he could be his younger brother. “Hello, Loki.” He said in the old Norse tongue.
”You’ve certainly made a mess of things, Odin.” Loki was standing in the uniform of an SS major. Nobody would dare question him while he wore that. “Sit down.” He motioned to a chair in the corner with his Luger. Odin’s own gun was on the bed, three meters away.
”You look well, my friend. How long has it been?” Odin tried to keep his voice jovial.
”Ten years, since Lusanne, when you killed Morrigan.” There was a boiling rage just under Loki’s even tone.
”I killed her? You are the one who put a bullet in her.”
”Yes, all you did was frame her as a communist and leave her in the cold. If I hadn’t, they would have interrogated her, and then God knows what would have come next!” Loki checked himself and regained his composure. “Do you know why I’m here?”
”I have an idea.” You’re here because you need me. You need my influence, and you are as tired of your pathetic Red Orchestra as I was. Do you see the power here?” Odin waved his hand. “Do you see what they can do? They are going to take over the world and build a temple in MY honor! And yours! It is what we tried to do back then, what you tried to do for Canut, but now it is going to work.”
”At what price?” Loki shook his head. “The gypsies, the Slavs, the Jews, who will be next? They almost got Methuselah in Prague, and I can’t contact nine of the others. NINE! The Germans plan to rule a world covered in bodies. That’s not the way.”
”What would you have me do, Loki?” Odin’s face was grave. “Runaway to Virginia like Arminius and his harem? Hide behind some notions of liberty and equality? Never. Have you seen these rockets the Germans make? Think of what they could do to save us if they have the resources to grow and build them up.”
Loki shook his head. ”It still doesn’t make it right, Odin. So much death, and your direct involvement. It is not our way.”
”It isn’t YOUR way, maybe, but it’s MY way.” Odin jammed a thumb into his chest. “Who do you think you are to sit in judgment over me, you little brat? Eldest? If Eldest himself came, I would tell him what I am telling you. We can RULE through a new Greater Germania. Once you’ve been around as long as I have, maybe you will finally see that.”
”Perhaps.” Loki reached into his coat and pulled out a folio.
”What’s that?”
”Proof. Proof of your collaboration with Soviet agents in an attempt to leave Germany wide open for killing strike in Poland. Once agents of the SS discovered this, they came to arrest you, but you put up a struggle...” He dropped the folio onto the dresser and pulled out a second Luger. He stepped to one side and then shot twice into the wall. “But, your resistance wasn’t enough.” He pointed his Luger at Odin.
The man’s eyes went wide as he realized what was happening. He moved to stand, but a pair of bullets went through his stomach, one of them piercing his spine. There were shouts of alarm in the corridor as Loki rushed to Odin’s side. He looked into the face of his friend and mentor, tears fighting at the corners of his eyes. “It had to be this way, old friend. I will see you at the high table.”
Odin’s right eye looked at him, blinking. There was no anger in his eyes, only sadness. “You’ve doomed them, you know. They’ll die by their own hate.”
”I know.” Loki stood up and shot him in the forehead, a final blow. The door burst open, and guards streamed in. On their heels was Reinhard Heydrich, his accomplice. He examined the corpse briefly before pointing to a man. “Inform the Fuhrer that Oberst Noth was killed resisting arrest for the charge of treason and collaboration.” He nodded to Loki and then left. Mentally, Loki cursed the man who had paid him to kill his friend. The German would get the war he wanted, and not even so-called gods like Loki knew where it would end. A thousand-year life was gone, and hardly anyone noticed. It didn’t seem right, somehow.
*The next day*
Hitler was still in shock. The man he had trusted, who by all evidence had been THE Odin, THE catalyst of the Norman conquest of Europe, the ultimate Aryan, had betrayed him. Allegedly, anyway. He couldn’t prove it, but the evidence was a little too neat. A confession of a communist spy, money in Odin’s house. It all added up, but the problem was it ALL added up. Either it was true, or Himmler had run him into a corner. Himmler or Heydrich, or maybe both. Himmler had known, had known everything. It had been necessary. Either way, Odin’s plan was tainted now, far too infamous to use. Too many people knew what had happened last night, but nobody knew all of it. He spoke to an aid “Contact Minister Todt and the OKW, have them begin making preparations. The invasion of Russia will proceed.”