Copyright © 2020 by Robert A Webster
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise without written permission from the publisher. It is illegal to copy this book, post it to a website, or distribute it by any other means without permission.
Robert A Webster asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
First edition
Table of Contents
Part One
1
If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed
2
If you want to shine like the sun, first you have to burn like it.
3
Things are not always right because they are hard, but if they are right one must not mind if they are also hard.
4
For there is one thing we must never forget; the majority can never replace the man.
5
The man who has no sense of history, is like a man who has no ears or eyes
6
The true guide of life is to do what is right.
7
If youre going through hell, keep going.
8
You never can tell whether bad luck may not after all turn out to be good luck
9
Life doesnt forgive weakness.
10
Never deprive someone of hope; it may be all they have
11
Mankind grew strong through eternal struggle; it follows that he shall perish through eternal peace
12
Gods and beasts, that is what our world is made of
13
Anyone can deal with victory. Only the mighty can bear defeat
14
The price of greatness is responsibility over each of your thoughts
15
If freedom is short of weapons, we must compensate with willpower
16
Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.
17
Words build bridges into unexplored regions
18
Difficulties mastered are opportunities won.
19
To improve is to change, so to be perfect is to have changed often.
20
It is a fine thing to be honest, but it is also very important to be right
21
Epilogue
23
In the not too distant future
24
Awakening
25
Revelation
26
If the oceans die, we die. We cant live on this planet with a dead ocean
27
The New Frontier
28
Theres money to be made by driving a species extinct
29
There is no such thing as sustainable seafood in a dying ocean
30
Bad actors make convincing politicians
31
Lesson 1: Greed stops the ability of a species to live in harmony with its environment
32
Death is a great Equaliser
33
Life is a terminal illness
34
Technology is a useful servant but a dangerous master
35
There is Friendship in the heart of danger
36
Arrogance is knowledge without wisdom
37
There is no such thing as a foolproof plan if there are fools about
38
When love kills love
39
Lesson 2: Technology nurtures the human race
40
You need a crime, a detective, and the solution.
41
Love can start with an unexpected hello
42
Everything is an illusion
43
Into the Belly of the Beast
44
There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact
45
Never attempt to win by force what can be won by deception
46
Lesson 3: Faith is a commodity easily bought
47
Revelation 2
48
Awakening 2
49
Next
50
Appendix
About the Author
Also by Robert A Webster
1
If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed
Total devastation surrounded the solitary figure. Bombed-out buildings and semi-submerged wrecks of a decimated fleet were all that remained of a navy that once dominated the oceans. The man stood at the end of a concrete jetty, lost in his thoughts with his hands clasped behind his back. His weary features and silver hair made him appear far older than his fifty-six years as he gazed at the ocean, cursing under his breath. With the rumble of explosions in the distance, he inhaled, filling his lungs with tarnished, salty sea air.
* * *
Several hours earlier, the dockside swarmed with military personnel. Throughout the night they had unloaded boxes and crates from trucks, sweating and swearing as they struggled to load them onto a sleek black U-boat by moonlight. Having to run for cover occasionally as the now familiar drone of Merlin engines roared overhead, dropping their deadly payloads around them.
With their job now done, the soldiers, sapped of their strength, murmured as they clambered aboard the trucks and then driven away. The smell of cordite lingered, along with a film of oil and diesel fuel that covered the waters surface inside the harbour.
The dockside was now quiet, with a few of the U-boats crew and a handful of black-uniformed SS officers milling around the gangway.
The senior officer received a call through his portable field telephone and he barked out orders. Activity resumed as SS soldiers with machine guns rounded up the U-boats crew and ushered them aboard the vessel, while the senior SS officer and two junior officers remained on the dockside.
The hatches closed and the three SS officers went to the foot of the gangway. A black Mercedes 770-K with darkened windows pulled up beside them and the junior officers opened the vehicles doors. They snapped to attention as a man and woman stepped out.
The man ignored the SS soldiers and headed along the jetty. The young officers glanced wide-eyed at each other while the woman spoke to the senior SS officer.
Lets leave him for a while, Hans; this could be the last time he will see his beloved country.
Hans Kruger, the senior SS officer, clicked his heels together and nodded to confirm the womans request. They watched the man ranting to himself as he strode up the jetty. Hans then ordered the junior SS officers to escort the woman to join the man on the jetty.
Hans watched them walk a short distance. He then took out his pistol and, hiding it behind his back, marched over to the Mercedes and tapped on the drivers window. The driver, looking at the grinning SS officer, wound down the window and Hans shot him in the head. Holstering his smoking Luger, Hans then went over to wait at the foot of the gangway.
The man had remained undisturbed until the sound of strident footsteps approaching broke his train of thought as the woman stopped behind him, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder. He smelled her familiar reassuring fragrance as she said in a soft voice, Theyre ready to leave.
He turned and smiled at the woman. The two young officers who accompanied her snapped to attention, raised an arm in salute, and stared ahead to avoid eye contact with the man, who gazed once more at the hills and countryside surrounding the crater-filled and demolished buildings of the once-great dockyard. The rusted and twisted metallic hulks that strewn around the harbour were the corpses of a once-proud fleet. Tears welled up in his eyes, knowing that he would never return. Composing himself, he walked with the woman by his side. They strode past the escorts, who fell in behind them and marched toward the large black U-boat, moored at the centre of the partly destroyed jetty. The vessel gently rolled from side to side, moved by rippling waves of the gentle spring tide.
The group walked up to the foot of the U-boats gangway and stopped in front of Hans.
Everything set? the man asked.
Hans snapped to attention, confirming that everything was going according to plan, with the crew detained for now in the forward compartment. The man glanced at the car parked several yards away. He again addressed the officer. Well done, SS-Oberfüehrer. What about the other matter? he asked. The officer then removed a photograph from his pocket and handed it to him. He stared at it for a few moments and then gave it to the woman, who, after glancing at the photo, smiled and put the picture in her handbag.
Very well Lets get underway, said the man and walked up the gangway with the woman at his side. Without turning back, they headed inside the side hatch of the conning tower.
SS-Oberfüehrer Hans Kruger was a tall, well-built man. He had a domineering presence who commanded both respect and fear. Although a commando, his real forte was far more sinister. He only took his orders from two men: his boss, SS-Gruppefüehrer Heinrich Muller, head of the feared Gestapo, and the man who had just entered the U-boat.
Hans remained on the dockside and marched over to the two escort officers.
You served the Fatherland well. Your families will be proud of you.
The two young officers stood erect and motionless. Hans removed his Luger from its holster, placed the barrel against the forehead of one young officer, and fired a shot between his eyes, killing him instantly. The other soldier urinated but remained motionless; his eyes squinted under the rim of his black peak cap before his end came.
Hans dragged the lifeless bodies over to the parked car one at a time, dumping them onto the back seat. He removed a container of diesel from the cars boot and doused the flammable mix over the corpses and the car. He stood back and threw in a lit match and as the flames spread, Hans strode up the gangway into the vessel.
The U-boat became a hive of activity, as submariners came out of the hatchways and cast off the mooring lines. The Captain and several of his submariners went onto the conning tower bridge, where the Captain gave orders to the deck crew to make ready to shove off. It was a well-orchestrated routine, carried out and performed many times by this experienced and battle-hardened crew. The submariners, after completing their tasks, headed back inside the vessel. Having experienced war in all its savagery, the crew ignored the blazing Mercedes as they readied the vessel for sea.
The U-boat slewed away from the jetty, heading toward the mouth of the small port of Farge estuary. The vessel sailed out of the harbour and, like a sleek whale, eased its way into open water.
Apart from the Captain, the conning tower crew went below decks. Korvettenkapitän Karl Viktor watched as the vessel picked up speed, leaving his country in its wake. An explosion echoed from the jetty as the diesel ignited the Mercedes fuel tank, blowing it and its dead occupants to smithereens.