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Karl shifted his eyes to Bruno. "Are those who are not present here today on board the Ulrich Wolf?"
Bruno nodded. "All family members are comfortably settled in their residence quarters."
"And the supplies and equipment?"
Wilhelm Wolf raised a hand and reported. "Food stocks have been loaded and stored aboard all four vessels. All ship's personnel are on board and accounted for. Every piece of equipment and all electronic systems have been tested and retested. They all function perfectly. Nothing has been left to chance or overlooked. Every contingency has been considered and alternatives prepared. The ships are in total readiness for the onslaught of even the strongest tidal waves anticipated by our computer projections. All that is left is for the rest of us to fly to the Ulrich Wolf and wait for the resurrection."
Karl smiled. "You will have to go without me. I will follow later. It is critical that I oversee the final preparations at our mining operation at Okuma Bay."
"Do not be late," said Elsie, smiling. "We might have to sail without you.
Karl laughed. "Never fear, dear sister. I have no intention of missing the boat."
Rosa raised her hand. "Did the American scientist decipher the Amenes inscriptions before she escaped the ship?"
Karl shook his head. "Unfortunately, whatever information she discovered, she took with her."
"Can't our agents retrieve it?" asked Bruno.
"I fear not. She is too well protected at the American Embassy. By the time we devised a plan and mounted an operation to seize her again, it would be too late. The deadline would be upon us."
Albert Wolf, the paleoecologist of the family, who was an expert in ancient environments and their effects on primeval plant and animal life, motioned to speak. "It would have been most beneficial to have studied a narrative by those who lived through the last cataclysm, but I believe our computer projections have given us a fairly accurate picture of what to expect."
"Once the ships are swept into open water," said Elsie, "our first priority is to ensure that they are rigidly sealed against all contamination from ash, volcanic gases, and smoke."
"You may rest easy on that problem, cousin," said Berndt Wolf, the family's engineering genius. "The ship's interiors are designed to become completely airtight in a matter of seconds. Then specially constructed filtering equipment takes over. All systems have been exactingly tested and have proven one hundred percent efficient. A pure, breathable atmosphere for an extended period of time is a confirmed reality."
"Have we decided on what part of the world we will come ashore after it's safe to do so?" asked Maria Wolf.
"We're still in the process of accumulating data and calculating projections," answered Albert. "We must determine exactly how the cataclysm and tidal waves will alter the world's coasts. It will be mostly a matter of analyzing the situation after the havoc has abated."
Karl glanced down the table at his kinsmen. "Much will depend on how the landmasses have changed.
Europe may become inundated as far as the Urals in Russia. Water may fill the Sahara Desert. Ice will cover Canada and the United States. Our first priority is to survive the onslaught and wait patiently before deciding on where to establish a headquarters city for our new world order."
"We have several sites under consideration," said Wilhelm. "The prime considerations are a port, such as San Francisco, where we can moor the ships, preferably a location with nearby land suitable for growing crops and orchards, and a centralized area that facilitates transportation and the spread of our authority around the new world. Much will depend upon the extent of the cataclysm."
"Do we have any idea how long we must remain on board the ships before we can venture ashore?"
asked Gerda Wolf, whose expertise was education and who had been chosen to supervise the fleet's school systems.
Albert looked at her and smiled. "Certainly no longer than we have to, my sister. Years will pass, but we have no way of predicting exactly how long it will take before we can safely begin our conquest of the land."
"The people who survive on high ground?" queried Maria. "How will we treat them?"
"There will be pitifully few," replied Bruno. "Those who we can find and round up will be placed in secure areas to cope as best they can."
"We're not going to assist them?"
Bruno shook his head. "We cannot weaken our own food supplies before our people have the opportunity to subsist off the land."
"In time, except for those of us of the Fourth Reich," said Max Wolf, "the rest of mankind will become extinct. Survival of the fittest. That is the way of evolution. It was ordained by the Fuhrer that a master race would someday govern the world. We are that master race."
"Let us be honest, Uncle," said Felix Wolf. "We are not fanatical Nazis. The Nazi party died with our grandparents. Our generation pays homage to Adolf Hitler only for his foresight. We do not worship the swastika or shout `Heil' in front of his picture. We are our own race, created to rid the present world of crime, corruption, and disease by establishing a higher level of mankind-- one that will build a new society free from the sins of the old one. Through our genes, a new race will emerge, pure and untouched by the evils of the past
."
"Well said." Otto Wolf spoke, after sitting quietly through the conference. "Felix has eloquently summed up our purpose and commitment. Now all that is left is for us to carry our great quest through to a triumphant conclusion."
