The Heritage Paper

Chapter 14



Arriving at his office just beneath the clouds, Otto peered down at the magnificent skyline of New York City. It was as if he were levitating above the great metropolis. No wonder people think I have a god complex, he thought to himself with a grin. But reaching the top of the world was only the first step—a journey sixty-plus years in the making—it was now time to run it.

He felt a tremble go through his body, and noticed his hands shaking. He didn’t know if it was from the overwhelming anticipation, or just the effects of his advanced age.

The last few days had been the most stressful of his life. Whether to remove Ellen from the equation was the toughest decision he’d had to make since being anointed the leader of the Apostles—it was as if it were a final test. But Ellen had spared him the gut-wrenching choice, by choosing to take her own life—her loyalty shining through one final time.

When Otto heard the news, the first thing he thought of was the Führer. He always had a special spot for Ellen, but the Führer understood the importance of making the ultimate sacrifice to reach necessary goals. He had predicted this day many years ago, and now he’d taken Ellen home so she could join him in viewing their great triumph.

Thoughts of his mentor momentarily calmed Otto, and stopped the shaking. But as he studied his wrinkled hands, he realized he no longer recognized them. That was the cruel part of the aging process—he remained trapped within the excruciating knowledge of his deterioration. He envied Ellen, and her alien sightings, unaware that her mind had turned to mush.

In his mind, he was still the dashing young spy of yesteryear. His legend grew to the heights of the Loch Ness Monster within Nazi circles. Nobody could ever identify the mysterious Otto, but they knew he was present, camouflaged seamlessly into the background.

And perhaps his greatest secret was that the renowned Nazi spy wasn’t even German. He grew up in Dublin as Petey O’Neill. He’d come a long way from that street-hustling kid in Ireland, who was only a toddler when his brother was killed during Bloody Sunday. At the mere age of ten, Petey carried out orders to kill a British intelligence agent—disguised by his youth, they never saw him coming—to achieve justice for the brother he never really knew.

The British came after him mercilessly. This was no surprise, since the British never understood the concept of mercy, and his life in Dublin was effectively over. In order to save his last remaining son, Petey’s father moved his family to the States—Brooklyn, to be specific.

Petey never fit in his new surroundings. Ironic, since his natural ability to assimilate into any situation is what made him such a lethal spy. As he entered his teens, he grew to hate America, and especially the Jews who controlled his father’s job. The one he slaved at over a hundred hours a week—until one day when they decided they didn’t need him anymore, and killed him and Petey’s mother.

By his mid-teens, Petey was orphaned and passed around from neighbor to neighbor. He did find comfort in the Good Book. Not the Bible, but a visionary work by an up-and-coming German politico named Adolf Hitler, called Mein Kampf. It was as if he’d understood Petey’s pain. A pain that he could only numb by running—he channeled his tortured emotions into becoming the top high school track athlete in New York. Just the thought of those days bemused Otto. He patted his old legs, wondering if they were napping and would wake up in time to sprint to the finish line.

Many in his Brooklyn neighborhood, made up of hardworking Irish, Germans, and Italians, raised money for the local track star, so he could attend the 1936 Olympics Games in Munich. Jesse Owens stole the headlines at the Games that year, but nobody ran faster than Petey O’Neill. He ran all the way to a new life. He wouldn’t return to America for nine years.

While at the Olympics, he posed as a British diplomat in order to gain a meeting with his hero. The Führer was impressed by Petey’s ability to avoid his security, which, combined with his desperate need for English-speaking spies, made him an ideal choice to become a German intelligence officer. It was an offer he couldn’t refuse. Petey might not have been blood German, but his loyalty to the Führer was unmatched, and he was willing to go to any length to prove it when challenged, which the Führer constantly did.

He was assigned to Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler, who many considered the second most powerful man in Germany, and unquestionably the most ruthless. Petey was sent to Britain, where he enlisted as an agent in the British SIS named Peter Jansen. Mixing trickery with charm, and his debonair nature—he still believed the James Bond character created by Ian Fleming, whom he crossed paths in British intelligence circles, was based on him—he moved quickly up the ladder.

When war broke out in 1939, Peter Jansen was able to pass important strategic information to Himmler, including the British plans to defend Belgium and France. With each piece of classified information he turned over he grew in stature and responsibility.

His signature moment came in May of 1941, although he wouldn’t realize the significance until much later. He was to establish communication between the Duke of Hamilton and his German contacts, to create a secret meeting in which Hitler’s right-hand-man, Rudolf Hess, would travel to Britain as an envoy of peace. Peter Jansen tipped off the SIS about this meeting, allowing the British to capture Hess.

Of course, it wasn’t Hess who had parachuted to what he thought was the Duke of Hamilton’s residence. Nor was the man who spent the rest of his life jailed in Spandau Prison after being convicted as a war criminal at the Nuremberg Trials.

The Führer was so impressed by the Hess operation that he began affectionately referring to Petey as Otto, because he “carried the spirit of the ‘Iron Chancellor’ Otto von Bismarck,” who was credited with the unification of Germany. It also catapulted him into his most trusted inner circle—a group of twelve men and women anointed as the Apostles. The group’s name was a sign of both the Führer’s contrarian side and gargantuan ego. He didn’t lack for either. But its formation showed a pragmatic side that was not normally his strength.

The purpose of the Apostles was to carry on the workings of the Reich if the war effort failed—a fact that all German leaders grasped long before the stubborn Führer. It was a plan that Otto unknowingly set into motion when he helped remove the real Hess from Germany. Hess was accompanied by a child named Josef, who was entrusted with returning the Reich to its rightful place. Hess would serve as the child’s father in their new home, while the plane was flown by a brilliant German intelligence officer, who would play the role of Josef’s mother.

And while the plan was enacted over the next six decades, the chaos of April 30, 1945 in the Führerbunker was a constant reminder to Otto that things don’t always go as planned. It was a day that almost derailed the entire operation before it began. But even with the many bumps in the road, including the many issues concerning Josef, they were now on the threshold of regaining the kingdom in the most glorious fashion.

He looked down again at his shaky hands that held his cell phone. He understood now why they shook. He dreaded making this call.

The Candidate answered on the first ring.

Otto didn’t mince words. “Your grandmother has gone home.”

He could hear the choke in the Candidate’s breathing—he knew how much she meant to him. But like a great leader, he rallied, “She sacrificed her life for future generations.”

“And her sacrifice went beyond what we expected. She did it on her own.”

The Candidate sounded surprised, but relieved. He had argued passionately against silencing Ellen. Like those before him in his family, he was both stubbornly loyal and optimistic to a fault. But he also had the highest of leadership qualities, which Otto had spotted long before the Candidate understood his gift, so it didn’t surprise him that he eventually signed off on what was best for the group.

The Candidate spoke assertively, “Her behavior was erratic at the end. Did she talk to anyone about the Apostles? Are there any other trails that need to be covered?”

“Her only contact was with Maggie, whom she was helping with a school project. We can question the girl, but Ellen’s faculties had slipped greatly at the end. She couldn’t differentiate between the Apostles and aliens.”

A long silence ensued, before the Candidate said, “It’s time for the children to come home. I was the same age as Maggie when I was brought in. With the kingdom within our sights, I think the timing is ideal.”

With that, the Candidate hung up the phone.