Editor's note: Well, Rapaire started off this idea about a caper involving the Manhattan Project's secret work in Chicago in 1942, so I guess he gets to call the shots on the timeline. Here's the scoop about the Italian scientist Enrico Fermi, who headed up the hidden lab in Chicago...

Upon the discovery of fission, by Hahn and Strassmann early in 1939, Fermi immediately saw the possibility of emission of secondary neutrons and of a chain reaction. He proceeded to work with tremendous enthusiasm, and directed a classical series of experiments which ultimately led to the atomic pile and the first controlled nuclear chain reaction. This took place in Chicago on December 2, 1942 - on a volleyball field situated beneath Chicago's stadium. He subsequently played an important part in solving the problems connected with the development of the first atomic bomb (He was one of the leaders of the team of physicists on the Manhattan Project for the development of nuclear energy and the atomic bomb.)

So...we've got a secret lab in an underground volleyball field (of all things!) under Chicago Stadium. Wild! And the first controlled nuclear reaction of an atomic pile is set to take place on December 2, 1942, almost a year to the day after Pearl Harbour...and Hitler's lunatic declaration of war on the USA which followed very shortly after the Japanese attack...thus solving a big problem for FDR, who certainly wanted to start fighting the Germans without delay.

Our story, therefore, had best be set in late 1942...say early November/42. This means that Lieutenant Brehmer (alias Hans Becker) and his new boss 'Otto' and the various other German agents will have been forced to adopt yet new identities...and are now disguised as...Dutchmen? Belgians? Or something like that...

The scene involving Leutnant Brehmer's escape across Lake Superior will have been a flashback to earlier events that occurred in December 1940. The poor, frustrated Messerschmitt pilot has been languishing in Chicago for nearly 2 years now, doing espionage work for 'Otto'! (His only real desire having been to return to combat with his squadron, which is now involved in desperate fighting in Russia, as the Stalingrad campaign moves into its final, disastrous phase...)

Sheesh! Oh, well, it was Rapaire's idea, like I said...

- LH