Opening
A “science project” becomes a mass assassination plot as Michael O'Shaunessey watches his cover disintegrate in a whirlwind of double-crosses, violence, and split-second choices. With a bomb ticking and an avalanche alarm driving guests into danger, Michael fights to save Professor Goldsmit—and discovers the Projekt 1065 plans have vanished.
What Happens
Chapter 86: Our Science Project
In the hotel room, Ottmar orders the boys to unpack their suitcases and collect pieces marked with red dots. He expertly assembles the components into a bomb with a timer and enough explosives to level the hotel. Michael realizes he and the boys have been unwitting “loyal mules,” smuggling bomb parts into neutral Switzerland.
Ottmar outlines the plan. He and Erhard will hide the bomb in the basement while Michael and Fritz Brendler report a fake crack in the snowpack at the front desk. The alarm will herd every guest—including Professor Goldsmit—into the basement for “safety,” where the bomb will detonate after fifteen minutes. With Fritz confirming Goldsmit is on-site, the operation starts immediately. Michael freezes—there’s no time to warn anyone.
Chapter 87: The Boy Who Cried Wolf
On their way to the front desk, Michael makes a last attempt to stop Fritz, begging him not to murder hundreds of civilians. Fritz dismisses him and equates their attack to Allied bombing raids on Germany, a chilling display of The Corrupting Influence of Ideology. Michael bolts, finds a Swiss soldier and a lieutenant, and leads them to the basement to intercept Ottmar and Erhard.
Michael identifies the suitcase with the “bomb”—but when the lieutenant opens it, it’s stuffed with clothing. In an instant, Michael understands the trap. The boys anticipated his betrayal and pulled off a textbook act of Deception and Espionage, giving Ottmar the decoy and Fritz the real device. The avalanche alarm blares through the resort right on cue. Convinced Michael is pranking them, the soldiers withdraw, leaving him alone with a furious Ottmar and Erhard.
Chapter 88: The Final Lesson
Ottmar and Erhard attack, pummeling Michael to the floor. Crashing into a tall stack of chairs, Michael flashes back to a London schoolyard and the rule drilled into him: if you fell down, it was over. The memory crystallizes the theme of Courage, Fear, and Confronting Weakness as Michael rejects panic and fights smarter, not harder.
He yanks the chair stack down, burying Ottmar and Erhard long enough to escape. Pushing against the flood of guests hustled basement-ward by the alarm, Michael sprints upstairs, scanning for Fritz and the bomb. He barrels straight into a man he recognizes from a photograph—Professor Goldsmit.
Chapter 89: The Target
Michael urgently tells Goldsmit he’s in danger and must not go to the basement. Switching to English, he reveals his true identity: he’s an Allied spy sent to save the professor because the Nazis know about his atomic research. Goldsmit hesitates, trying to absorb the impossible.
When Michael adds that the Nazis don’t respect Swiss neutrality, Ottmar—recovered from the chair avalanche—slams into them from behind, proving Michael’s point with a knife and a tackle.
Chapter 90: A New Complication
Ottmar pins Goldsmit and raises a dagger. Michael tackles Ottmar, and the two grapple for the blade. Ottmar wins leverage, knife to Michael’s throat—until Michael’s hand finds a shattered vase. He smashes it against Ottmar’s head, knocking him out cold.
Michael pivots to evacuation: get Goldsmit out of the hotel, and the mission dies without its target. But Goldsmit insists they must also recruit physicist Otto Strassmann for the Manhattan Project. Michael refuses to split focus. As they run for the exit, Michael detours to the outdoor hiding place to grab the Projekt 1065 plans. He pries out the loose stone—and stares into an empty hole. The plans are gone.
Character Development
Michael sheds hesitation for decisive action as the operation erupts around him. He misreads the suitcase gambit but recovers instantly, turning a schoolyard trauma into a tactical edge and prioritizing the mission over vengeance.
- Michael O’Shaughnessey: From paralysis to improvisation—outsmarting bullies with the chair collapse, revealing his identity to save Goldsmit, and shifting objectives when the plans disappear.
- Fritz Brendler: Fully radicalized; he justifies mass murder and outmaneuvers Michael with the suitcase switch, severing any remnants of friendship.
- Ottmar and Erhard: Not mere thugs—cold planners who anticipate betrayal, weaponize a decoy, and nearly kill Michael and Goldsmit.
Themes & Symbols
These chapters turn deception into architecture. The fake avalanche alarm funnels victims to the bomb; the decoy suitcase discredits Michael before authorities can act. Espionage logic governs everything—who believes what, when, and why—and the wrong belief at the wrong moment becomes fatal.
Michael’s fight evokes courage as a strategic choice rather than brute force. He refuses to replay his childhood humiliation and instead converts fear into a plan. At the same time, war corrodes moral lines: Fritz’s argument that slaughtering civilians is “no different” from Allied raids shows how ideology rationalizes atrocity. The broken vase becomes an improvised symbol of survival—beauty shattered into a weapon—while the empty hiding place signals the newest betrayal and the widening reach of Friendship and Betrayal.
Key Quotes
“Loyal mules.”
- Michael’s realization reframes the boys’ entire journey. Their obedience and patriotism are exploited to smuggle a bomb into neutral territory, underscoring the moral blindness that espionage can cultivate in its youngest operatives.
“If you fell down, it was over.”
- The lesson from London becomes a survival algorithm. Michael stops fighting the wrong fight, weaponizes his surroundings, and escapes—an evolution from fear to tactical composure.
“No different.”
- Fritz’s justification collapses moral distinctions between targeted assassination and wartime bombing. The phrase exposes how ideology strips nuance and sanctifies any atrocity that serves the cause.
Why This Matters and Section Significance
This sequence is the story’s kinetic climax, where careful spycraft detonates into action. Michael’s cover is blown to his enemies, the bomb is active, and the resort’s systems are turned against its guests. Saving Goldsmit seems like victory—until the empty cache reframes the mission entirely. The stolen Projekt 1065 plans raise the stakes from stopping a single assassination to preventing a technological breakthrough from changing the war, propelling the narrative into a desperate endgame.