Things were progressing much as Bruno had predicted on the global stage. The year was currently 1911, and soon enough the advanced Type XXI U-Boats Bruno had prepared years in advance would begin production, hopefully replacing the current U-Boat Types, which were woefully obsolete when compared to the variant he had introduced to the world decades in advance.
And while his armored vehicles, planes, and warships were all either already in production, or were getting close to it, there was one other invention Bruno had not introduced until now. It was, frankly speaking, an oversight on his part not to do so earlier, but at the same time, he still had enough time left before the war began that it didn’t matter all that much. Currently, Bruno was at home, with a beer stein in one hand and a sandwich in the other, looking over the details of the rough draft he had just concluded. It was a rather small device, at least compared to the weapons he had already designed.
But it was perhaps the most critical piece of technology to ensure the success of the German Reich in the Great War that was to come.
Granted, Bruno did not know all the ins and outs of the initial design, nor was he fully versed in the study of cryptography, but he had plenty of men in his employ who could make his vision a reality. The mechanical engineering aspects of the legendary cipher known as the “Enigma Machine” were well within his field of expertise to at least get a proof of concept going.
The Enigma Machine was, as previously stated, a cipher, and quite the advanced one at that. It was said in more common circles to have been damn near uncrackable and would have never been solved if not for several blunders of the Third Reich, some of which were entirely political and bureaucratic in nature.
While the Polish, with the aid of the French Intelligence Services, managed to create a device capable of cracking the Enigma Code as early as 1933, updates to the platform, such as adding a fourth rotor, made such efforts obsolete.
It was not until 1942, when a British mathematician and logician named Alan Turing managed to overcome these problems, and only after the Allies had managed to capture German cipher keys.
Frankly speaking, however, such knowledge was well beyond the Entente’s capabilities during the Great War, and Bruno expected a proper Enigma Machine developed in accordance with the standards of its last generation from his previous life would be more than enough to make it impossible to intercept and decode German communications.
The Enigma Machine itself was a rather simple instrument, making use of a combination of mechanical and electrical subsystems.
The mechanical subsystem consisted of a keyboard and a set of rotating disks that were arranged adjacently along a spindle. The spindle was one of various components to turn at least one rotor with each key press.
Finally, there was a series of lamps, one for each letter. These lamps would light up for the corresponding letter of the alphabet in accordance with the encrypted code on the rotor. Aside from that, it was relatively lightweight and completely portable.
While Bruno had just finished his lunch for the day, his wife Heidi knocked on the door. The rules were simple in Bruno’s office: nobody was allowed to enter without first obtaining permission to do so. Even Heidi had to abide by these rules, not that she found fault with them.
She had previously knocked on her husband’s door to make sure he was ready for lunch and had done so just now, after giving the man enough time to complete the meal, in order to collect his plate and glass, which she was quick to announce after knocking thrice.
“Dear, are you finished with your meal, or do you need another five minutes?”
Having just wiped his mouth from the liquid that remained after completing his beer, Bruno was quick to announce that he was indeed ready for his plate and mug to be taken away.
“Perfect timing, I just finished…”
Seeing this as having been granted permission to enter her husband’s office, Heidi quickly smiled as she opened the door, walking over to Bruno’s desk as she collected the empty plate and beer stein. She did not say a word as she was tidying up, that is until she noticed the device sitting on Bruno’s desk.
Having family members in German Intelligence, Heidi was all too aware of what a cipher was. Although the one Bruno had rather crudely drawn was fairly advanced, so much so that she was quick to comment on its design.
“Well, I was not expecting you to be working on such a thing. This is a cipher, isn’t it? I have to say it’s a rather ingenious design. Where did you come up with such a thing?”
Bruno had yet to learn that his wife was more or less involved with the intelligence side of things within the German Reich. She had family members who were deeply entrenched in a variety of intelligence branches, and she had regular communication with them.
A lot of people owed her favors, and she commonly collected on them to look out for her family’s safety and prosperity, all without Bruno knowing. Because of this, Bruno was rather surprised that she knew what he had designed, and how it would theoretically function. He quickly commented on this oddity that his wife had just expressed in front of him.
“Since when are you a master of all things mechanical? Heidi, do you honestly know what this is?”
Heidi left Bruno even further stunned when she wore a conceited smirk before walking out the door, not bothering to fully reveal the extent of her knowledge on the subject. Instead, she caused her husband to have even more questions as she shut the door behind herself.
“You’re not the only one protecting this family, you know…”
Bruno stared dumbfounded at the door that Heidi had long since closed behind herself after carrying away his empty plate and beer stein. He honestly could not tell if the woman was joking or not. However, she did appear to have some degree of knowledge about what he had designed, that much was certain.
Perhaps the enigma of the day was not the machine he had crafted a functional proof of concept for, but rather it was his wife. Just how much did he not know about the woman he loved despite growing up together and being married all these years?
This was truly a question worth investigating, and because of this, Bruno immediately shifted his focus away from making preparations for the war and instead into investigating his wife’s background, searching for things he may have overlooked over the years.
Heidi had wanted to tell Bruno about her ties to the other half of her family for years, but he never seemed to ask, and she could never find the words to tell him about it. But as she had said, Bruno had not been the only one protecting their family.
Though a bastard, Heidi had connections to very powerful people, especially within the world of German intelligence. Not only did she use these connections to keep an eye on Bruno and ensure he was safe in whatever conflict he had thrown himself into, but also to counter those shadowy figures working behind the scenes to harm him and their family.
Sure, Bruno had taken precautions to protect his family after angering the Black Hand, but he didn’t have the proper ties to German Intelligence, other than the Stasi, to thoroughly work against the actions of the Black Hand and their many, many attempts on his life and that of
his family.
Heidi had more or less been the one working behind the scenes, together with her family and friends in German Intelligence, toward this effort. In fact, if Bruno knew the number of Black Hand leadership she had caused the deaths of, he would be shocked.
The Black Hand had rapidly grown in size since their first attempt on Bruno’s life, only to have one-third of its membership find themselves with mysterious deaths over the years. A simple whisper here and there, and the agents of the German Reich’s foreign intelligence agency could be moved to take their lives.
Heidi, having family in very powerful positions within these intelligence agencies, needed to simply make use of these personal connections and give them a name that she wanted to disappear from history. And they would.
While Bruno was investigating her background, she had settled down on the sofa with a glass of wine in her hand and a folder. A folder that contained the photograph of a man Bruno would be deeply familiar with. The photograph was of Dragutin Dimitrijevi?, better known by the nickname of “Apis.” He was the leader of the Black Hand.
After closing the folder and putting it aside, Heidi reached toward a nearby phone and dialed a number, having the operator connect her to one of her cousins. A man who was currently the deputy director of German Foreign Intelligence.
“Hello, Friedrich… Yes, this is your cousin Heidi. How have you been? That’s good to hear. You tell Maria and the kids that they are always in my heart and prayers. Anyways, Friedrich, there’s a favor I would like to ask of you…”
Nobody would hear the conversation that would be had between Heidi and her cousin, nor would anyone be aware that the result of it was that the legendary leader of the Black Hand had now become marked for death by the German Reich.
Whether or not he would live long enough to see the end result of the chaos he had sown upon the world had yet to be seen.