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“Thank you for what?”

“Cutting pliers” Holding on with the last of the strength in his left hand, Bell jerked his right hand, and the tool slid out of his sleeve into his palers around the handles and squeezed with all he had left in him

The cable snapped

Isaac Bell’s last sight of the Acrobat before he vanished down the Mauretania’s stack was the astounded light in his eyes

50

Arriving at the Berliner Stadtschloss in a triuner handed his top hat to the palacethe commoners’ cloakroom and proceeded upstairs to Kaiser Wilhelm II’s private throne roo soldiers, industrialists, and bankers — the elite of the elite — had been summoned to observe the final demonstration of a device that the kaiser himself had proclaimed the epitome of German achievement

A pair of generals flaunting gruesoner serenely ignored the scornful aristocrats and took great pleasure in watching their expressions change when the kaiser ner and shook his hand, shouting, “Behold a true Gerin!”

Lackeys rushed in with apicture screen, acoustic horns, and an enorhts were dimmed His Majesty the kaiser sat on his throne The co picture of Kaiser Wilhel into this very room with his favorite dachshund tucked under his arm

When the monarch on the screen opened his htily froenerals’ scarred faces, thought Herner, were priceless The woric enchanted the kaiser

“Der Tag!” spoke the kaiser’s ie, easily heard over the clatter of the fil, not her end Victory depends not only on soldiers”

Herner closed his eyes He knew these words by heart He had edited the fils, and in a brilliant touch, when the kaiser had proclaimed his piece, the dachshund would bark at the camera and the kaiser would pat his head Millions would smile, touched that the kaiser loved his pets as much as any ordinary German

“Victory also depends on Ger our allies to join the war on Germany’s side One by one, Germany will destroy—”

Laughter interrupted the kaiser’s words — nervous laughter, which was choked off abruptly

Wagner opened his eyes and saw to his horror that even as the kaiser’s words issued fro at the ca was supposed to bark after the kaiser had finished speaking Somehow the sound and the picture had jumped apart

The kaiser leaped froenerals