Enablers

Chapter 1

There’s nothing like the ride of a big Mercedes Jake thought as he raced over the elevated mid-town viaduct in his luxury automobile.

He’d picked up the newly prepped Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren yesterday. The $500,000 dollar price tag choked him. A perfectly dressed salesman repeated the specifications to him as he sipped a ‘low-fat decaf no foam venti latte’, brought in especially from the Starbucks to the prestigious ‘by appointment only’’ auto-dealership. He’d snubbed the offer of an in-store coffee from a drop dead gorgeous Chinese receptionist/host. Instead, he’d nonchalantly flipped her two twenties out of his overstuffed designer alligator wallet, asking her with his crooked smile if she ‘wouldn’t mind’ going to get him a ‘real coffee’ indicating the Starbucks across the street.

He could still hear the salesman’s banter ringing in his ears a he raced along.

5.5 hand-built supercharged engine, AMG V-8 617 horsepower, at 6,500 RPM.

The salesman’s perfect pitch rang like a bell in his head. The ‘new car smell’ was like a heady whiff of aphrodisiac in his nostrils. He breathed deeply once, greedily filling his lungs and again as he luxuriated in the potent effect it had on his ego.

I can afford it Jake said reassuring his image in the rear view mirror.

He still could not believe that sudden fortune had come his way.

I did it my way he sang the Frank Sinatra line.

He had thought of asking that pretty receptionist on a date but she’d disappeared after bringing him his coffee and change. She’d refused the tip he’d offered, leaving the money and a receipt in an envelope on the desk where he and the salesman had settled to ‘do the deal’. He knew she’d seen through him,

The bitch, he thought. That’s her loss.

Screw her he snarled at his reflection in the side window the way he would have liked to reject her, checking himself out.

Jake looked like ‘a bum in a suit’ and he knew it. He recalled the old expression ‘you can take the boy out of the gutter, but you can’t take the gutter out of the boy’. He wore his past on his face like a twice beaten dog. Jake was a nervous and rangy type of guy, until he was boozed up. He didn’t have the natural easy flair of one of those arrogant upper class jerks who’d grown with the style he was flaunting. He hated those ‘inheritance cases’ with a passion. He knew they’d never have accomplished anything on their own if it wasn’t for their history of granny bashing and the ‘Bank of Mom and Dad’. Jake imagined what he could have done with his life if he’d been handed everything on a silver platter.

Bastards he seethed. Entitled bastards.

His hair never looked perfect; he noticed his hang dog look in the mirror. In spite of paying four hundred dollars with the tip to ‘Jean-Pierre Claude’, the cities trendiest ‘hairdresser to the stars’, he didn’t have it. He preferred the night, when the light wasn’t honest. He’d completely forgotten about the girl in the showroom when the franchise owner had brought the head mechanic out onto the sales floor to congratulate him. The three men of the dealership applauded him for his discerning good taste. There’s nothing like false praise for a shallow mans spirit.

* * * * *

Chapter 2

Why not come out on the deck at look at the stars with us Herr Einstein?

An elegant American man and his overstuffed female companion stood over the frazzled looking scientist absently staring across the dining room table. In 1933 Dr. Albert Einstein and his wife Elsa had secretly planned their escape from Germany to America in every aspect, except an accounting for the potential of an early Atlantic storm season. The HMSS Westerland had seen better days. Much more stable ships had been designed since her maiden voyage forty years ago. The chopping southwesterly swells were taking the ship on the windward beam. The vessels broad keel rolled like a fat bottomed duck in a bathtub.

The HMSS Westerland was commissioned as a cruise ship for the European summer season taking wealthy British passengers from the grey and soggy skies above Southampton into the warm gentle waters and blue skies of the Mediterranean. She was designed to sit at dockside along any of the Riviera's in relative comfort afforded by the wide decks. It was considered a right of passage to sail The Med for anyone of the up and coming social set smarts in the years before Europe tore itself apart in another continental war. The ship had repositioned to Northern Europe to handle the increase in traffic across the Atlantic to America of immigrants seeking security in America from the increasing anti-Semitic movement called ‘The National Socialists’. The Nazi Party had recently risen to power in Germany on the back of a bitter recession and the hugely unpopular and oppressive reparations regime imposed on Germany after the First World War.

A rough sea had the ill prepared passengers looking sea-sick and green. The ships bulbous stern wallowed in the deep troughs before righting, only to repeat the gut-wrenching motion again after falling off the crest of the next passing wave under the keel. Some of the ambulatory passengers found relief by hanging off the leeward rails of the promenade deck, in the fresh air but out of the chill wind and salt spray. It was a clear night with the light of a full moon dancing on the crests of the waves. It was the type of night that only a seaman could love.

Yes of course Einstein said to the gentleman who gently urged him to follow.

Four people at the table got up unsteadily. Arm in arm the party proceeded across the unsteady deck and out the swinging doors towards the open promenade. The Einstein’s were accompanied by his secretary, Helen Dukas and his assistant Dr. Walter Mayer. They had fled Germany after hearing very ugly news affecting the Jewish populations in the cities. It had been decided that it wouldn’t be long before the hatred reached them in their academic isolation at the Prussian Institute of Education and the Arts. A group of American scientists had travelled to Germany to convince top Jewish scientists to consider leaving.

Among the group of American scientists, were ‘political liaison officers’ from the American Embassy who continually warned the German scientists of another war building in Europe. In fact, they were intelligence agents working for various secret agencies within the US government. The upper echelons of the administration knew full well that war was coming; they were bankrolling it through the back door. America wanted to ‘cream off’ the elite of the international scientific community so that it would be in a dominant position technologically once the war was over.

Germany had begun to isolate its propulsion engineers, Russia had started imprisoning theirs. Theoretical scientists like Einstein weren’t on the radar screen yet. The Americans were thinking ahead. War was tremendously profitable for the military industrial complex, no matter who won. The biggest winners were the plutocrats who controlled the machinery of the armaments industry. The European conflict was centered on the control of the global economy. The old European elite was going to strong-arm the upstart Americans out of the market, the Americans had other ideas.

The thought of another war was considered impossible by the general public who were convinced that the ‘The Great War’ that had ended in 1917 was the ‘War to End all Wars’.

It couldn’t possibly happen again said the majority of people asked.

The last war had been too horrible to imagine. Millions of people were starved out of their homes and displaced, millions had been killed. The effects were still being felt, rubble and cinder was still being cleared away. Children and widows still mourned for dead fathers and husbands. The wounds were still fresh and the grass grew bitter in the graveyards. Surely, no one could be that crazy?

Dr Edward Hubble had accompanied the contingent specifically to intrigue Einstein with his new theory of the ‘Big Bang’. Einstein was enticed by the level of intellectual activity in the west. It was promised that pure science could be pursued and not the militaristic regime and race for advanced weaponry that had been sweeping through his European community in the 1930’s. He decided that he must marry his new formula to this relative theory, convinced that he could discover the secret to the origin of life in the universe. Albert was captivated by this idea, that the universe could be interpreted and made understandable by the science of man. His mind was ripe for what was to come. He had been promised a blank cheque for any research he wished to consider. It was an offer he could not refuse. The Americans seemed so nice.

As he stared out over the sea, Einstein had a vision that rocked him to the foundation of his soul. He suddenly turned and ran like a drunken man across the rolling deck towards the gangway back into the tawdry ships garishly lighted interior.

Albert his wife cried after him Where are you going?

She lost her head scarf to the wind. She was startled by the sudden departure as he broke from her grasp.

Eureka, Einstein called back with a giddy smile on his face, his long stringy hair blowing wildly in the wind.

He was running to his cabin for his notebooks. He had to write down what he had seen in the stars relationship to the rolling ship, as it had appeared in his mind.

I have it he shouted to his startled companions.

Albert Einstein had seen the future. He saw what might strike fear into the mind of any sane man or woman. He saw what no one else had the chutzpa to imagine. That was understandable given the effete and rarefied social environments he travelled in. What he had envisioned was not one universe but a layered pantheon of dimensions making up a universe of many worlds, many minds and an infinite number of variations. In the silver reflections of the moonlight on the waves he saw the universe as a shattering mirror infinitely reflecting back into itself.

He and his colleagues had been discussing the limitations of the universe as having four dimensions made up of height, width, length and the fourth dimension, time.

How ridiculous and simple minded they had all been. Those formulae were for children, they had been developed in the last century he thought as he raced along the corridor feeling the slick enamel paint under his stubby fingers.

We’ve been living in the past he laughed at his own quip as he ran down the hallway running his hands along the wall of the companionway to steady himself on the deck.

He would later describe his moment of insight as one where he was ‘as giddy as a school girl’.

Ya he said aloud, we have been working on the assumptions of a hundred years ago.

The rolling ship had slid his agile brain into a state that unleashed a frenzy of activity. He reached his cabin and burst through the door. His hands searched through his pockets for a pencil, he uplifted everything in the room looking for his notebooks but couldn’t lay his hands on them.

Ach, Gott in Himmel he cried out in exasperation when he realized that his wife had put his papers away in the steamer trunk and locked it.

He tried to wrench it open but the stiff brass locks wouldn’t budge. He could envision the keys hanging around her ample waist on a sash along with her watch and eye glasses case. In desperation to capture his vision he began to write on the white walls of the cabin. By the time his wife Elsa returned to the cabin he had torn away a wooden desk from the wall and had covered two of the four walls with his mathematical hieroglyphics. The characters of his computations bent around the rivets on the deck head in the same way he envisioned space bending around mass and light becoming a highway to a parallel dimension.

Oh Albert, must you make such a mess she cried, but he had left her on her own for the world only he could understand.

She saw that he was oblivious to her presence. Elsa went to the bar and ordered champagne; it was all being paid for by the Americans. When they arrived in New York, Albert wouldn’t come straight away to the comfortable apartment the government had prepared for him and Elsa. He insisted on going on, directly to the new physics laboratory at Princeton where advance notice had been made of his coming. The anticipation of his arrival had created a continuum of excitement in the scientific community. He had agreed to accept the offer of military funding in direct conflict with his previously vocal opposition to war.

He had been a devout pacifist until he had seen the rise of Nazi ideology and the brutal treatment of the Jews. On the two week voyage to America he had been inundated with horror stories of what was to come. The ‘nice Americans’ who had coincidentally been on the same ship with him and several of the top scientists had managed to persuade him to join them against the aggression of the Nazi’s and the European elite who controlled them.

In public, it was agreed that he would espouse peace, but in secret he would work in earnest with a newly assembled group of star scientists from around the world to create a weapon so powerful that no nation would dare declare war again without risking it being turned on them. Of course the Americans did not tell Dr.Einstein the whole truth; they didn’t tell him that they were prepared to use the fate of the Jews to further their own plans to dominate the world with a diabolical style of Christian Democracy. Einstein and his fellow scientists set to work building machines that were proposed as ‘roadblocks’ to the maniacal regimes of Nazi’s and any who may follow them.

* * * * *

Chapter 3

Traffic was light as he sped into the city. Jake was anticipating another successful encounter with tonight’s ‘fresh meat’.

Eleven o’clock he smiled, checking the blue dash clock.

"Vulture Hour’ he confirmed with a smirk.

Jake knew he’d get to the bar scene at the right time. The crowd would’ve thinned out and only the saps drinking too much after coming for ‘a few’ after work would be there. Office girls and the occasional rich bitch professional he hunted would be pissed on the steady stream of drinks that had been sent their way. He liked the idea of dominating a woman who rode men all day. He especially liked demeaning doctors and lawyers he picked off when he got lucky.

The girls he was after were ones who’d blown off advances all night because rejecting guys was their thing. He knew these vicious skanks made a game of putting guys down and stomping their egos. They would’ve been drinking free cocktails all night and spent the evening laughing about every inadequacy of the sender. The men would drink a few shots of rejection and leave alone. Jake had been that lonely loser a thousand times. Nice guys finish last he chimed in.

Jake wanted to be rich and successful growing up but people and circumstances conspired to hold him back. He coveted movie stars and business people enjoying ‘the good life’. It should have been him.

Things have changed he said, a scowl on his face.

He had everything except respect and adoration. It wasn’t fair he challenged.

‘After 11’ was Jake’s time. The ‘New Jake’ was the type of guy that appealed to a drunken girl. He had practiced banter. He wore an expensive suit and lots of showy bling. Jake kept his gold Rolex Masterpiece outside his folded French cuff. It was impressive ‘eye candy’. He had seen it in the news recently as the latest ‘must have’ accessories at over two hundred thousand dollars. The advertising confirmed that a ‘Rolex Masterpiece’ was the mark of a man. He knew from practice that showing the ‘bling bling’ was a good way to attract loose women. Drunken women liked the perception of action, Jake developed a technique. He stood at the bar laughing at nothing, pretending the bartender and he shared an inside joke, to draw attention to himself. Early on he’d slipped the bartender and doorman a couple of twenties each to play along. Women never seemed to figure out the ploy. Jake was expert at sizing up a shallow ego. He knew if he should mis-represent himself as a lawyer or a doctor, a movie producer or a successful businessman. He had a line of bullshit for every story.

He wasn’t sure that his own claim to fame as ‘an author’. It might not be the most effective line in these situations he thought.

These girls were made simple minded from all the booze. He used stereotypes and words they understood, anything having a well advertised connotation to wealth was better than ant esoteric concepts. Jake knew they had individual fantasies of meeting a ‘Mr.Right’ who would make their vapid dreams come true. They wanted the ‘Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous’. In their girl-fiend fantasies they’d squeeze a sucker dry then dump him for a big divorce settlement and fat alimony. It was every girls dream to lead some guy to destruction with their precious v-jay-jays. Jake spoon fed their expectations like a TV tuned to the ‘Lifestyle Network’. They would see what they wanted to see.

Jakes public image and his big Merc was a perfect closer, like fishing in a shallow pond. By the time Jake rolled in, the tipsy office workers would think they’d rung the bell and won a prize. If they got up immediately to ‘freshen up’ with a girlfriend in tow, Jake knew he was in. They would slather over his expensive suit while checking themselves out. He made sure they see his Rolex and fat diamond ring. He knew they’d be coaxing each other while peeing. To Jake it was a matter of patience to see which one came back first. Her face would be smeared and over-glittered; she would’ve hiked her skirt up, taken her panties off and pulled her blouse down expose her cleavage.

He liked the game to roll this way. He had it down to a science. Jake hadn’t slept a night alone in a year. He had a big house with a spectacular view. There were several big cars in his quintuple garage. He couldn’t talk to a woman unless he or she was drunk so that his personality was suppressed.

He repeated an adolescent anthem of the ZZ Top song on the radio. Every girl’s crazy ‘bout a sharp dressed man the song went.

Jake knew he fit the bill to that song; the two thousand dollar Italian wool suit he wore fit him well. The weight and drape was perfect he’d been assured by the sartorial salesman. He’d bought a dozen anyway, all in black. The pure acoustics of his luxury automobile made it sound like the band was in the back seat. Instead of the promised ride in Jake’s Mercedes-Benz, he’d speed his latest conquest straight over to his place, talking them in for ‘a nightcap’ over their protestations.

Once inside Jake poured them a stiff double Stoly, no ice so that the drink went down like a shooter.

Bottoms up he’d say, clinky clinky, all very civilized.

That put the girls right back in the zone. At that point they were a minutes from being naked on Jakes double bed getting nailed until they passed out. Some realized what was happening as he stuck his uncovered dick into them and some didn’t, either way they still had Jakes dick inside them before they knew what hit them. He found that the majority had been dazzled by the show of wealth and greed. In the morning some feigned anger and threaten him with ex-husbands or muscled boyfriends when