Chapter One - The Everglades

July 21, 1945. The Everglades was arguably the most natural ecosystem on Earth. Through every assault upon the landscape, its resiliency proved superior. Balance, as intended by God, was the manner in which the universe thrived. Attacks by apex predators shifted prey continually across the landscape. Constant movement was the only manner guaranteeing bountiful futures.

The city of Miami was bracketed to the north by a prisoner of war camp at Bal Harbor; as well as one in South Dade’s piney woods. German combatants captured in North African campaigns were brought to these camps; serving out the war as POWs. Their country surrendered on May 7^th of that year.

Not until news came of Japanese surrender, did World War II officially end.

Twenty-seven million Russians had been killed along with a half million Americans. Between two and three million Germans lost their lives.

Humanity never clearly distinguished predator from prey. Outside nature, apex predators lived shadowy existences.

The city’s Burdine Stadium was a source of pride for a community whose population recently eclipsed one hundred thousand. The structure was renamed the Orange Bowl in 1959.

Citizens from distinct communities, in the culturally rich city, met at the central location to celebrate the end of the war.

Hope burgeoned among all residents.

Defensive posts had been maintained throughout the war. German submarines sank twenty-four ships along the seaboard of Florida during the war. Relief resonated with the surrender of Nazi hordes months earlier. Revelation of atrocities perpetrated in concentration camps brought forth awareness of acute evil that existed. It had been openly supported by German citizens.

No one envisioned Hitler as a puppet of ancient families. Desire to control every aspect of life was never satiated. Sadistic energy recoiled when encountering beauty. Innate hatred compelled malevolence toward destruction. Intensely inverted energy swirled inward; collapsing upon violent vortexes without Godly reassurance.

Psychoses required continual feeding.

Regardless of the outcome of the Second World War, humanity remained on a collision course between good and evil. Success required perpetual confrontation. It was the nature of the universe.

Benevolent humanity outnumbered evil 99 to 1. Altruism was exploited by the minority.

The ninety-nine percent exchanged genuine smiles with strangers; encountering humanity possessing purity of intentions. Eternal and sincere souls embraced optimism. Inability to conceive anything beyond hope-filled futures contributed to naiveté.

Emotional impotence was exploited by those bent on destruction and control.

Unbeknownst to those celebrating armistice, the fight to free humanity had only begun. Conflict lasted generations. Glacially slow tactics advanced evil agendas and eroded prosperity from average citizens. Wealth was perceived as spiritual by oligarchs; incapable of conceiving anything beyond the material world. Their greatest challenge was to eliminate God from the consciousnesses of the majority.

Achieving centralized global control meant first gaining footholds in local communities. The elite’s Hitler experiment, accomplishing world domination through aggression, failed miserably. Evil hadn’t considered the strength and resolve of a coalesced world’s population. The desire for instantaneous possession of the world’s wealth was jettisoned in favor of intergenerational subversion. Eroding prosperity across familial epochs was deemed the more successful tact.

Flamingo Point was the southernmost entrance into the Everglades. It offered naturalists an escape into Florida’s organic habitat. It was that isolated landing spot deemed adequate for launching an invasion. Armed resistance wouldn’t be encountered. Unlike the invasion at Normandy, mass casualties of those working for evil couldn’t be tolerated. Outsized odds dictated stealth.

Rat-lines originating in Germany extended through Spain with eventual landing spots in various countries of South America. Contingency plans, in case of Nazi failure, developed routes of escape. Soldiers most valued for evil tendencies embraced the commitment to weaken humanity.

Aristocratic monopolies manifested through psychological control of the masses.

Aided by rich American industrialists, Germans were brought into internment camps for one reason; to release into the population at war’s end.

Paxton Barrington led a family of American Bankers. The man’d been forced to retreat into societal shadows. His bank’s vaults contained over a ton of Nazi gold. It was on American soil; protected by the man’s organization.

It was a circumstance repeated in many communities across the country. Rich industrialist families, who’d controlled nineteenth century America, wanted the country for themselves. 

The banker’d also been a part of the Businessman’s plot to overthrow the presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. A plot exposed by General Smedley Butler. The singular patriot spoke of the group’s intent in front of congress. The military man’d been approached by Robber Barons to secure the services of loyal troops. Their goal was nothing short of a coup d’état. The attempted overthrow of America occurred in 1933; the same year Hitler came to power in Germany. It became a failed front upon which global elite were forced to fall back and regroup.

American defenses became relaxed. The latest iteration of the war to end all wars recently ended.

No one in Miami was aware of the German U-Boat five hundred yards offshore; south of Flamingo Point. The ship operated within rat-lines moving high-valued Nazis to safety across the globe. Those who possessed the desire to dogmatically suppress humanity were protected from trials at Nuremberg.

Triumph over evil would be left to unborn citizens of Miami to prove God always wins.

A two-man pneumatic raft attempted to escape the submarine’s tidal influence as it floated within the greater ocean. One Nazi General and his subordinate Colonel paddled mightily to escape forces sucking them backward. Tons of water pulled them toward the vessel’s hull as it bobbed upon the ocean’s surface.

Once free, the men propelled their boat toward shore. A satchel containing one hundred thousand American dollars lay on the bottom of the raft. U.S. passports were secured with the help of those already in Miami who were sympathetic to the cause. Suitcases contained clothes suitable to 1945 American businessmen.

A 1940 Mercury Town Sedan awaited the men onshore. The vehicle was nondescript and meant to travel unnoticed on Miami’s streets.

When the inflatable approached a shoal, the two men waded through shallow water, until reaching dry land. Each retrieved ropes tied to the dingy’s port and starboard bow. They dragged the boat ashore behind them.

Without a word, each reached into the vessel and retrieved suitcases. Colonel Wilhelm Von Unterscheisse also recovered the leather satchel filled with money. Mammon offered financial seeding for U.S. organizations.

The General’s subordinate spent most of the war as undersecretary to Josef Goebbels’ propaganda machine in Berlin. His expertise was to be employed on the American population.

Orders were to assimilate. Approach was to erode each generation’s connection to God. Free of dogmatic German machinery, lies became subtle; directed at influencing beliefs Americans held dear. Eliminating God from the collective consciousness was best accomplished across generations.

The men knew they must find wives sympathetic to the Fatherland’s cause of world domination. Progeny would be responsible for subsequent iterations of their Final Solution. Hubris of brute strength caused failure during both World Wars. Patience dictated furthering a plan that wouldn’t come to fruition until the following millennium.

Holding the suitcase in his left hand, General Reinhard Hochstühl waved vigorously for the Colonel to follow him. The men left the Zodiac to be carried away by tidal forces.

Both men’s war-time superiors were too high profile for personal involvement. Subordinates understood eventual global control required clever capturing of American zeitgeist.

Nazis whose names appeared regularly in newspapers across the globe were sent to Argentina. They lived lives anonymously. Newly created civic organizations offered the front for war-criminals to gather and contribute to overall strategy.

Once the General and Colonel successfully landed in the Everglades, the submarine continued its voyage; shuttling war criminals to safety in South America.

The men moved quickly toward a dirt and gravel road that was infrequently maintained. As they approached, the driver of the Mercury flashed the car’s headlights.

Silently, the refugees shifted paths directly toward the car. Each man took a side and entered rear doors.

Both men sat holding luggage in their laps.

Colonel Von Unterscheisse laid the satchel containing the money on the floor between he and the General.

Without uttering a word, the driver sparked the car’s engine. It roared to life. The transmission was engaged, and the car spun around in a tight circle.

Unbeknownst to the Germans and their sympathizers, a young native American couple had come to witness a setting moon. It was a full moon; revered by their cultures. The young man, Franklin Billie, was a member of the Miccosukee Tribe. His girlfriend, Sarah Osceola, a member of the Seminole clan. Both were eighteen and exploring love for the first time.

The couple’s purest human connection had been interrupted by the obviously planned operation. Franklin and Sarah’s early morning date transformed them unwittingly into reconnaissance representatives of their tribes.

Car headlights illuminated the couple’s crouched position amongst the sawgrass.

“Stop the car,” the General commanded.

The most senior military officer exited the car with determination. He removed a Luger P08 from his inside jacket pocket and marched determinedly toward the young couple.

Franklin knew if he ran, Sarah wouldn’t be able to keep up with him. She’d be left to the man’s devices.

Naïve and ignorant of the ways of the world, the couple decided to stay and encounter man. It was their final decision.

The General marched toward the standing couple. He raised his pistol and shot both in respective foreheads; in quick succession.

The man hadn’t felt an equivalent rush of adrenaline since his final days at Sachsenhausen. He drew in and exhaled an almost orgasmic deep breath. Murder offered the man vitality.

General Hochstühl embodied evil energy.

Calmly, the senior officer strode back to the waiting vehicle.

Once seated, he commanded, “have someone come out here and bury those two. Make sure the grave is in a spot that will be affected by tides. I want their bodies to rot as quickly as nature allows.”

There was no response from either the driver or compatriot. Everyone knew orders were final. 

Without another word between them, all four men were propelled away from the beach. The road’s path wound circuitously through the driest Everglades’ landscape. The men’s destination was Miami proper. It was there they’d employ the satchel-full of cash creating fronted pursuits.