The outside of Merlin's conjuror's cabinet was a simple blue box, but inside it was a sprawling labyrinth of twisting bulkheads and endless companion ways. The control room just inside was a vast three storey affair, with a brilliant power shaft dominating its center. In the midst of that glass column crystal spheres bobbed up and down as Merlin circled the anachronistic controls mounted around the power shaft.
"Where are we going?" asked Robyn.
"Nuremberg," answered Merlin as he pulled levers abd spun dials, "the thirtieth of April, nineteen forty-five. I'm trying to get us there before ten after two in the afternoon."
"Why ten after two?" I asked.
"That's when Lieutenant Horn takes possession of the Spear of Destiny," explained Merlin as the globes in the column ceased their rise and fall, indicating that Merlin's cabinet had materialized
"How do you know that this is when time was altered?" asked Robyn.
Pressing a key on an antique typewriter mounted on one panel on the column, Merlin turned on the giant circular viewscreen mounted on a walk near the cabinet's exterior doors. A blasted city sprawled in the screen, obviously bombed out by some terrible war.
"Nuremberg on the day the American's liberated it from the Nazi terror," explained Merlin as he descended a ramp from the control platform to the cabinet's exterior door. "This is a week point in time. This afternoon, anything could happen. All of time and space lies in the balance. We have to make certain that the Americans, not the Nazis take possession of the Spear. Come along you two."
We emerged from the cabinet and walked about the smoking ruins of Nuremberg. Not long after, Merlin pointed out towards a bombed out section of the city. A tunnel could be clearly seen.
"That's it!" shouted Merlin. "That's the tunnel leading to the bunker that the Spear was found in."
The sound of gunfire rang out from the nearby tunnel. A soldier in an olive drab uniform was backing out of the tunnel firing his sidearm blindly. Energy bolts from some beam weapon shot out of the tunnel. The soldier ran out of rounds and turned about to run. A metal sphere, less than a meter in diameter, flew out of the tunnel. Energy bolts shot forth from the floating sphere. The soldier ran in and out of rubble, barely evading the deadly rays.
"I.C.E. heads!" cried Robyn as she drew her Space Guard sidearm that she kept in her purse.
"The Institute for Coordinated Experiments?" I asked.
"That's them," said Merlin who suddenly took a rather comic looking double take at Robyn's fusion gun. "What are you doing with a gun. How many times have I told you, no guns?"
The soldier was nearing us, the flying sphere quicky closing on him.
"What is that thing?" I asked as I drew my sidearm that I kept concealed in my suit jacket.
"What is with the guns?" demanded an angry Merlin. Just as I targeted the I.C.E. Head Merlin pulled the gun from my hand and tossed it aside. At that same moment one of the metal monster's energy bolts hit the soldier.
"Damn it, Merlin!" I shouted. "I could have saved him."
As soon as the soldier fell, the flying sphere ceased its fire and returned to the tunnel.
"He's dead," pronounced Robyn who had been the first to leave cover and attend to the soldier.
"I could have saved him," I said as Merlin and I joined Robyn.
"Merlin, look," said a visibly angry Robyn.
The man wore the bars of an American Army lieutenant. On a patch above a pocket on his green shirt was the name "Horn".
"We failed," I sighed.