The War to End all Worlds Pt. 05

"Welcome to Vienna..." He paused, narrowing his eyes as he looked at me and then at Tjen and Yalen. "What brings you here?"

"We're tourists," I said, speaking Austrian with an American accent. I didn't bother to try and hide it. "We have relatives in the city – we're from America."

The guard frowned. "Tourists. From America." He looked at the spidercar. He pursed his lips. It was an American car, of course. I wondered, suddenly, if that was suspicious.

"We had it shipped with us," I explained. "Nothing beats American autocars!"

The guard shrugged. "Well, if you cause trouble, do not expect us to be kind." He gestured. "In. Next!" He shouted.

As we stomped into the city, Tjen whispered to me. "I had thought that we would need a paper. To indicate that we were here legally."

"Whatever for?" I asked. "Who'd organize and track such things. Besides..." I slapped the car. "It's not like this thing can hide anything dangerous. He didn't even check the trunk."

"This sucker barely has a trunk," Ollie said. It had barely had enough room for his rifle.

"I smell something divine," Yalen whispered. Her nose flared and she sat up, looking around. I was looking around as well – I had never seen another country. And I had heard that the Austrian Empire was a rough place. No one got to vote. There was no freedom of speech, no enshrined bill of rights. I wasn't sure if it was troubling or reliving that it looked so utterly normal. Like New York, they had their continual struggle against the red weed. Like New York, they had their poor. Like New York, they had their wealthy.

But unlike New York...oh my god...

My eyes half closed as I finally scented what Yalen had smelled.

"What is that?" I whispered. "It smells like coffee, but..."

"Stronger," Yalen said.

"Better," Darren whispered.

"I told you people Vienna had their coffee houses," Drusilla said, chuckling. "What's a mass extinction to do to stop that?"

We parked the Frisbie next to the divine smell. It was coming from a shop called, if the psychically transplanted language lessons were accurate, the Eagle's Nest. It was a small, pleasant looking coffee shop, with glass tables out front. Several people sat at them, sipping on their cups of coffee with clear delight. A waitress bustled here and there, but she bustled back inside before we could ask her any questions. I stepped away from the Frisbie and looked at the others.

"Well, come on," I said – noticing the odd looks we were getting. But I noticed that there weren't any Red Martians or Green Martians in the crowds. Not even an occasional face. I wondered if that made things easier or worse – did it mean that the Austrians were going to be less concerned about them, and thus, less hostile? Or did it mean that the lack of experience would make them more afraid. I shrugged and figured that we couldn't do much about it, one way or the others.

The bell jangled as the door swung inwards. The shop looked even more pleasant within. The floor was tiled and the walls were covered with pictures, but the dimmness of the shop made it hard to see any details. People lounged in chairs and seats. I noticed that they were actually a mixture of peoples. There were Austrians, yes. But there were also dark looking Turks and other people of a similar breed. They glanced at us, then stared as Yalen and Tjen joined me.

"Gipp," Tjen whispered, touching my shoulder. She touched a small symbol carved into the doorframe. It was an odd one. A circle with an + inside of it – but each edge of the + was bent, forming a hint of a circle. Something about it struck me as very familiar. But then a male voice called my attention. I looked over and saw a young, cheerful looking man leaning on the counter. He was wearing an apron, and had a bit of sugar on his left sleeve, as if he had just come from a bakery. I walked over to him.

He was young and unscarred, with piercing brown eyes and a mop of black hair. His face was cleanly shaved – freshly too, I didn't spot any stubble.

"How may I help you?" he asked, his voice relaxed despite the fact a nine foot tall Green Martian and a nearly naked Red Martian flanked me. I pulled some of the dollars I still had in my pockets.

"Uh, do you take American?" I asked, the gold coins ringing on the counter.

"I take gold," he said, chuckling. "You want some Turkish coffee? It's the specialty."

I nodded, having no idea what differentiated Turkish coffee from the regular kind. "Sure. Uh...no way to, um, do this gracefully. I swear, we're not spies. But...do you know people in the city?" I asked.

The man had turned his back to me and was working some kind of complicated coffee apparatus. It involved a lot more levers than I expected for coffee. His back stiffened and he looked over his shoulder, frowning slightly.

"I know some...but you do know mentioning you're not a spy makes you sound even more the spy," he said, frowning.

I chuckled. "True. Uh..." I shrugged. Gamble away, Gipp. "Do you know an Adolph Hitler?"

The man paused. "Well...yes."

"R-Really?" I asked, starting.

The man poured a cup, then turned to me, smiling. "That would be me. I am Adolph Hitler."

It felt as if the entire world had gone silent. My ears rang as I looked at him. Who knew lacking a mustache could change so much. And most of the visions had been as an older man – not this fresh faced man barely older than I. I stood there, stock still.

And then the door to the kitchen opened and a lusciously figured, dark brown woman emerged. Her forehead had a red dot painted on it, and she was dressed in a curious hodge podge of European styles and something far stranger – more beautiful, if I had to admit it. The combination was striking and exotic, and she did not seem to care if it got mussed as she squished up against the man I had come so far to kill.

"Who are-" she stopped, blinking as she saw Tjen and Yalen.

"Whose that!?" Tjen squeaked.

"This?" Hitler asked. "This is my wife, Saanvi! Saanvi, these, ah, fellows came to visit me."

Saanvi Hitler looked at us.

"Do you want a doughnut?" she asked, politely.

TO BE CONTINUED