13th September 2011
08:52 GMT -5
I want to ask 'Is this really necessary?', but given that I ended up pissing blood after last time I spoke during this part I think I'll hold my tongue.
And anyway, I know that it's not. Manacled wrist and ankles and with a bag over my head, all I can do is shuffle along as directed. To be fair, the soldiers who escort me are usually 'reasonable' about that part;
any defiance is met with a beating, but they don't hit you for failing to comply faster than you physically
can.
This time.
"Halt."
I stop. It's been a while since GCSE German, but I think that's what he wants.
No part of my body is exposed, but the slight change in air pressure pushes the material of the bag slightly and I feel
that. A door opening.
A
slight tap to the back and I start moving again, the echo… A small room. As expected, I'm led forwards, turned and then sat down. There's a clicking, chinking noise as my ankle manacles are attached to the floor, then the manacles holding my forearms together are released so that my arms can be attached to the chair's arm rests.
A cheeky 'danke schoen' at this point is
not wise.
"Danke. Wegtreten."
I recognise that voice. One more day with all of my remaining teeth intact. Wonderful. I hear the guards who escorted me march out. The doors here are muffled so I don't hear it close, but I do hear the sound of footsteps cut off.
And then the bag is pulled free, and joy of joys the light isn't blinding.
"Prisoner."
Strange that a man who has spent so much time in America still has such a pronounced accent.
"Overman. How may I be of service?"
Because if vanishing from my world wasn't enough, I appeared on one where the Nazis won the Second World War. And they are rather thin skinned about being called 'Nazis'.
Overman himself is actually not that bad. The Second World War was effectively over while he was still a teenager, so I can hardly blame him for how things turned out.
I didn't actually
notice that there were
literally no black people around until Doll Man pointed it out to me.
"I have thought about what you said."
I just about manage to shrug. I think these seats were made for people a great deal stronger than me, and I can't get a lot of motion out of my shoulders.
"Could you be more specific? I have said a great many things in chairs like this."
"The state of the world. Your thoughts on how mankind naturally divides itself in whatever way seems logical, and then fights amongst itself."
"Absent a unifying ideology, yes. I doubt that the first generation fascists would recognise what your society is now, even if they weren't displeased with it."
"An enemy outside and an enemy inside."
"People are easier to convince to take radical action when they feel threatened. If you want to arrest your political opponents, it's easier if people believe that there are people living around them working to destroy the things they value. Even if it's only a simpleton trying to burn down a public building."
He looks at me impassively.
"I thought that you had learned to be more careful with your words. If I was Leatherwing, you would have lost another tooth."
"If you were Leatherwing, I wouldn't be bothering. You want something. From
me."
"Even so…"
"Leatherwing didn't hit me because I was
incautious. He hit me because I couldn't tell him what he wanted to know. Everything else was a rationalisation." I shake my head. "I don't-."
"I am ordering your release."
I blink.
"What?"
"You are right. You do not know anything. You broke a few minor laws that you did not know existed, and which are only there to make people afraid to step out of line. If it were not for your ring, you would not be here now."
"I assume that I'm not getting it back."
"No. But you were right when you warned us about its negative mental effects. That was what finally convinced Leatherwing to stop opposing your release."
"Ah, thank you. I rather assumed that he'd just have me shot."
Overman nods. "He eased off when I made it clear that I valued your input. My… Speech to the Reichsmen has made several people in the upper levels of the Party uncomfortable. They are making sure not to press me over minor matters."
"May I ask why I'm chained up? Are you afraid that I'll break my knuckles on your face?"
"I am concerned that someone might use the fact that you are unbound as an excuse to shoot you. The paperwork is still being processed. Once it is complete, you will be a citizen of the Kingdom of Britain. Until then, you are a prisoner."
I nod. "Do you..? Want to tell me what the speech was?"
"It concerned… Some thoughts I had concerning the Reich. The events of the post-war period."
"The genocide."
"Genos..? Ah." He nods. "From the Greek. 'Tribe-killing'."
"And… What did you say about it?"
"I said that I bitterly regretted it."
I frown. "I… Didn't think that you… Personally…"
He shakes his head.
"They killed a great many people. 'Enemies of the state', I was told. I put it from my mind, as you said. Other people were moved into ghettos. Most of the killing happened when I was away from the Earth. Even I cannot hear through vacuum."
I nod. "And what do you want to do about it?"
"I want to free a talkative Englischer who knows what modern society is when it is not formed by the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei."
"Right, but… Do you want to talk about reform to your civilisation, or..? Something more extreme?"
He looks me directly in the eyes-. No, higher. Forehead? Is he planning on using heat vision on me, or is he looking at the patterns of activity in my brain?
"What do you mean by that?"
"I remember hearing in a history documentary about a letter Hitler wrote to a party official who was trying to get promoted to head of his local party office. Hitler told him that if he was certain that he had majority support, he should 'just take over'. Social Darwinism was a big thing in the Party back then. You're the strongest man on the planet, and you're popular with every generation since the war."
"Not with everyone."
"Uncle Sam is insane. Speaking from personal experience, there."
"They are told that the 'cleansing' was a harsh necessity that their grandparents undertook for their benefit. They do not see it as I do."
Like Leatherwing, a man whose grandfather once said that if it was known that he compared Hitler to an ape, '
no chimpanzee would ever speak to me again'. But what am I supposed to say to Overman about it?
"So are we looking for peaceful reform..? Or are we looking for a time machine?"