pictures with covers of sports magazines. The father closed the door and said, «Maybe it’s time you stopped kicking around,» he started from afar, «this filthy, old, black ball, of dark Mexican origins?»
«But pa-a-apa…» Diego cringed at the thought of being deprived of his single favorite preoccupation.
«Don’t even start,» the father went on in a deliberately strict manner.
«But why? I promise that I will do my homework on time. I won’t ever skip school. I promise! I promise! I promise!» Big tears flowed down his face.
«Oh, I never knew that you could cry!» The father chuckled, «Alright, don’t howl, I just wanted to say that you’ve played enough with this prehistoric ball, Diego. Why don’t you look under your bed? I think there is something waiting for you now for four hours!»
Diego gave his father a suspicious glance and crawled under the bed, from where a moment later came out a hysterical cry of joy.
«Olé! Olé! Olé! Olé-é-é-é! Thank you, papa!»
Like a brisk snake, he crawled out from under the bed and his trembling hands lay a brand-new football, covered in shiny black and white hexagons.
«It’s real! Leather! The guys will be so pleased. Maybe our team will even be allowed to play on a real field now!»
The father, still pretending to have a stern face, said, «But you must promise your mother and I that this will not harm your schooling! Especially – mathematics.»
«Of course, papa,» Diego was barely listening to him as he swept into the kitchen, «Mama, ma-a-a-ma-a-a, look what I have! Papa gave me this, a ball from real leather!»
«I hope you won’t have any more problems at school, understand?» The mother tried to sound resolute, «Now go wash your hands, you little monkey… with so-o-o-ap!»
«Yes, mama, I promise!»
«What’s the matter with your hand?» She grabbed Diego’s wrist, as he was about to slip by. Dried blood protruded along the edges of the dark plaster glued over his entire left palm. «Your sore has still not healed? Tomorrow we go to the doctor – my uncle Savigna. What is this… three weeks have passed, but the cut has not healed! You’ll catch an infection! How are you going to play without your hands?»
«But I play using my legs,» responded the central striker with an infectious boyish laugh as he headed to bathe.
There, left alone, and furtively glancing at the door, Diego grimaced as he ripped the dirty plaster. Then, his face turned pale and serious as he washed the wound in the cold running tap water and, raising his hand closer to the face, studying it carefully. Indeed, the wound began to tighten. The boy dabbed it with a piece of toilet paper, which quickly turned into a faint pink colour. Diego quivered his hand, brushing a momentary stupor, and pasted the plaster back into place. Then with both hands he «combed» his rough curls, showed himself his pink tongue in the mirror and to his mother’s «Di-e-e-ego!» he shouted back: «I’m coming, ma-a-a!»
CHAPTER 4
To: Head of Intelligence Directorate, General Staff of the Red Army, General I.I. Ilichev
From: Head of Second Chief Directorate, Anglo-American Residence, Lieutenant K.M. Litvinov
November 27, 1942
OPERATIONAL REPORT
Comrade General,
Our U.S. resident «Rockwood» revealed that the object of our interest was present during the so-called Baltimore Experiment. It is established that the agency «Nixon, Kraft and Locksmith,» presented by Mr. Morgan, had a contract with the U.S. military for the supply of sensitive equipment. On the day of the experiment, Mr. Tesla was secretly brought by the secret service agency «Tangerine» to the port of Baltimore from New York on a five-seat plane (reg. no. 685-AS).
The Baltimore Experiment (for your reference)
According to our data, the U.S. military attempted to build a ship invisible to the enemy’s radar and magnetic mines. Using the calculations derived by Mr. Einstein, the destroyer «Aldridge» was installed with special generators. To our knowledge, the project attracted Mr. Tesla’s attention. His participation in the experiment was highly confidential. The reason that the participation of Mr. Tesla was given the highest degree of secrecy confirms our hypothesis that Mr. Tesla used an unknown mechanism of his own invention in the experiment. In addition, we know that an elevated degree of activity of the Abwehr, the German counterintelligence agency, was directed not at the outcome of the experiment, but at the object that Mr. Tesla brought aboard the destroyer.
During the test conducted on Oct. 28, 1942 in dock no. 4 of the Baltimore port, two events happened. First, the ship, surrounded by powerful electromagnetic field discharges, not only disappeared from the radar screen, but literally vanished in the truest sense of the word in a green cloud. Second, after some time, the «Aldridge» reappeared in another place, by the exit into the waters near dock no. 12. In the opinion of doctors, the crew on board was completely distraught,
Our agents interviewed all possible witnesses to the experiment. In particular (for a bribe of 465 dollars), we received the most interesting testimony from senior sailor Mr. Ramirez Allende from the transport ship «Andrew Furuseth,» a vessel that was part of the control group of the Baltimore experiment. Mr. Allende personally saw how the «Aldridge» melted in a strange, greenish glow to a buzzing sound surrounding the destroyer’s force field. Other witnesses indicated that immediately after the discovery of the ship, Special Forces were thrown on board to block all approaches to the ship and all exits on board. Soon after, a speedboat brought a man (Mr. Allende’s photograph identifies the man with exact certainty as Mr. Tesla). The man was immediately escorted to the bridge, from which he returned shortly. He was carrying a metal suitcase in his hands. While descending back into the high-speed boat, according to Mr. Allende, the man (Mr. Tesla) suddenly exclaimed «Oh, shit!» as if from a burn and let his bag out of his hands, throwing it aside. The bag opened and a small ball rolled onto the deck – this object radiated a striking green glow, like a fire welding. The glow lasted for several seconds, and then stopped. Gunmen accompanying Mr. Tesla put the ball away in the metal box. A trace of burnt wood was clearly visible on the deck of the ship.
The most interesting item in Allende’s testimony to our agent was the description of the effects of the experiment. Some incredible things have been happening to the men that returned «from nowhere.» They seemed to have fallen out of the real course of time (the term «frozen» was used). There were cases of spontaneous combustion. Two of the «frozen» men suddenly ignited and burned for eighteen days. Despite all efforts, rescuers in the hospital were unable to stop the burning of the bodies. There were also other oddities – for example, one of the sailors of the «Aldridge» disappeared forever, having passed straight through the wall of his apartment in front of his wife and child. We cannot confirm these accounts, as it is likely that Mr. Allende exaggerated some of his testimony to receive more money.
According to agent «Rockwood,» the U.S. Navy leadership denies the Baltimore Experiment, claiming that nothing of such nature occurred in Baltimore this year. However, we found documents showing that Mr. Einstein has been in the employ of the U.S. Navy Department in Washington D.C. this year. We have copies of the leaflets with the calculations made by hand by Mr.
