The Great Altruist by Z. D. Robinson Page B

uniform decorated with medals and neatly pressed. His face was weathered but still clean-shaven and his eyes hidden by the brim of his hat.
     
                Genesis arrived a few seconds after Jadzia regained consciousness in her new body. She flew around the room, making sure it was secure from prying eyes.
     
                “If my memory serves me correctly,” Jadzia said, “I’d say I’m in the body of Hitler’s Chief of the General Staff, Ludwig Beck.”
     
                “The Munich Agreement hasn’t been signed yet. It won’t be for another couple of months.”
     
                “When are we?”
     
                “It’s May, 1938. From what I could discern, Beck is about to meet with Hitler later today.”
     
                “Where are we?”
     
                “In Berchtesgaden.”
     
                “I thought I was supposed to just watch.”
     
                “You will shortly. His assistant is coming. When he does, I’ll slip into the stream and merge your consciousness with his. He won’t know you’re there and you’ll have no control over him. It may feel like a lucid dream at first.”
     
                “But you’ll be watching me, right?”
     
                “Yes. You’re in no danger, but when the meeting is over, we’ll decide what to do next.”
     
                “What about my mind? This guy is a Nazi.”
     
                “But the link is stable. He must not be poisoned entirely.”
     
                Just then, there was a knock at the door. Genesis disappeared, and almost instantly, Jadzia could no longer speak. She could only hear the officer’s voice.
     
                “Come in,” Ludwig said as though coming out of a daydream.
     
                His assistant entered and said: “Sir, the car is waiting.”
     
                “Very well, then,” he answered and followed the assistant out the door.
     
                Genesis was right: watching the drive to the meeting with Hitler through Ludwig Beck’s eyes felt like a dream at first. The commute was short and soon Beck was escorted into a large, well-adorned room with a dozen officials seated casually and Chancellor Hitler at a desk.
     
                The officials remained seated as Beck entered the room. Hitler, though, was quick to greet him with a hearty hand-shake.
     
                “Please join us,” Hitler said with a smile.
     
                The other officers and staff members smiled and greeted Beck in their own ways, some simply nodded and smiled, others shook his hand as he sat down.
     
                “I’d like you to explain the details of the memo you sent us,” Hitler said. “I thought you were in favor of our plan to declare war on the Czechs.”
     
                “Of course I am,” Beck said.
     
                “That’s not what this suggests,” another officer, Werner von Fritsch, interrupted.
     
                “We’ve had this conversation before, Werner,” said Beck. “You know I believe that war with the Czechs is the only way to take back the Sudetenland. I just don’t believe that time is now.”
     
                “Oh yes,” said Wilhelm Keitel, the Chief of the German High Command and Germany’s war minister. “You’ve made that quite plain when you questioned the Fuhrer last year.”
     
                Beck ignored Keitel’s bait and turned to Hitler. “Fuhrer, I only said what I did because the facts did not support your belief that France was on the verge of a civil war.”
     
                Hitler wasted little time on thinking of a response. “You’re entitled to your opinion, Ludwig. But your calculations are childish.”
     
                “We need the Sudetenland,