Within the Reich Chancellery

Bruno sat at the table still. Long after Reimann had left.

The folder was thin, but the weight of its contents bent the light around Bruno's thoughts.

Three pages.

One black-and-white photograph, grainy, aerial, hastily deblurred by military analysts.

A desert.

A scarred patch of New Mexico nothingness surrounded by fences and railroad spurs.

"PROJECT: MANHATTAN"

Location: Site Y (Los Alamos)

Designation: Prototype nuclear implosion research. American-led. British and French scientific assistance. Now supported by exiled regimes.

Bruno read every word. Twice.

No need for speculation. No need for paranoia.

It was all here, calculations, early experiments, the names of physicists, and most crucially:

Progress: Primitive. Underpowered. Disorganized. No projected success before 1948, potentially even later.

He set the page down.

The fire crackled in the hearth.

"So… the Americans chase the sun."

He stood in silence for a moment, glass of brandy warming in his gloved hand.

Then a silent and wicked whisper.

"Let's make it consume them."

---

Later that night Bruno found himself in a privade audience with Kasier Wilhelm II.

The Private Imperial Study had changed little in fifty years.

Velvet wallpaper. Bronze light fixtures.

The ticking of a restored 18th-century clock, gifted to Wilhelm by Tsar Nicholas before the madness of the 20th century had consumed mankind.

Kaiser Wilhelm II sat behind his desk, half-shadowed by lamplight.

He was elderly, aging, yet still as rugged as a bull.

The years had been much kinder to the Kaiser in this life.

He was not exiled, depressed and watching his homeland be torn apart from the inside.

No, he was still the proud monarch, the German Emperor, and had access to the greatestg medical care the world had to offer.

In the previous timeline, Kaiser Wilhelm II died in 1941 at the age of 82 due to a pulmonary embolism.

But in this timeline, Bruno had ensured that the Kaiser received regular health screenings, and that the medical technology existed to treat such conditions.

By all accounts, Bruno suspected the Kaiser could outlive himself if he managed to play his cards right.

Bruno's own father had stubbornly lived for close to a century.

And now the Kaiser looked like he was doing the same.

He was nearing his eightieth birthday, but stood at attention like a man who had yet to reach the age of retirement.

"I take it this isn't a casual briefing," Wilhelm said, swirling a drink of his own.

"No, Your Majesty," Bruno replied. "This is a matter of existential future."

He laid the folder down before the Kaiser, opening it with a deliberate turn.

Wilhelm read in silence.

When he looked up, his voice was low.

"They seek to split the atom…"

Bruno nodded. "Crude designs. Lackluster containment. They barely understand what they're touching. But they will. Given time."

"How much time?"

"Ten years seems to be the current estimate. Sooner if they're lucky. Later if they bicker."

"And if they succeed?"

Bruno looked him dead in the eye.

"Then the world ends as we know it."

The fire crackled again. Wilhelm's eyes narrowed.

"You truly believe such a weapon is possible?"

"I know it is."

"And you truly believe… they would use it?"

Bruno didn't blink.

"The Americans are stubborn, and idealistic. They believe any nation which does not bend to its degenerate worldview is inherently wicked and evil. They state to be a nation under God, but in practice their virtues are the seven deadly sins."

Bruno paused for a second, formulating his thoughts into a precise scalpel. Rather thana brute hammer of rhetoric.

"Their pride will not allow them to permit the existence of a superpower based on faith, order, tradition, folk, and fatherland. They will surely vaporize our cities, especially if they think it can force an end to the war on their terms."

The Kaiser stood slowly and walked to the window, staring out over the quiet imperial gardens.

"You intend to sabotage their efforts?" he asked.

Bruno nodded.

"Yes. We plant a scientist. A 'defector.' Someone brilliant, trusted. He leads them just far enough to believe they're close. He builds them a bomb. He assures them it will work."

"And it won't?"

"Oh, it will," Bruno said. "Just… not in the way they expect."

A pause.

Wilhelm turned. "You're proposing we let them detonate it?"

"In their own lab. During testing. A flash. A crater. Dozens dead. Their most brilliant minds lost in fire and radiation."

Wilhelm grimaced. "Good God."

Bruno's voice softened.

"No. But it will make them believe they've seen him."

The Kaiser took his seat again.

"And your… man?"

"He'll be on 'vacation' during the final countdown. Plausible deniability. He'll return in tears. He'll blame his miscalculations. He'll be hailed a hero who survived. And in the aftermath, he'll sow the seed."

"What seed?"

Bruno smiled faintly. "That God never meant man to wield such fire. That it was divine punishment. That such weapons are inherently cursed."

Wilhelm stared into the fire for a long time.

"And what if they try again?"

"They will. But slowly. Cautiously. Paranoid. And we will watch them. Each time they so much as enrich uranium, we'll know."

Silence.

Wilhelm's hand clenched slowly on the glass. "This is not a victory we can parade."

"No," Bruno agreed. "This is a sin we commit in silence."

"History may judge us."

"It always does," Bruno said calmly, "but history has no teeth. Reality does."

Another silence. The Kaiser stood again, slower this time, and walked over to the sideboard. He poured himself a fresh drink… no ceremony.

He turned to face Bruno.

"You speak of these weapons with… certainty. Confidence. You speak not as if you imagine them… but as if you know them."

Bruno said nothing.

Wilhelm took a long sip, eyes never leaving him.

Then, with quiet finality:

"Tell me the truth, Bruno. Do we already possess such terrifying weapons of unimaginable destruction?"

Bruno's smirk was faint, arrogant, almost sadistic.

He raised his glass, let the firelight dance through the amber brandy, and took a slow sip.

Then he answered.

"Thousands."

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