Introduction
2046 AD
The courtroom was filled with select reporters from mainstream media outlets who were known by the government for their history of favorable reporting. The prosecutor stood, waving his hand to control the hologram that helped him visually illustrate his oratory to the three judges. There was no jury of his peers for the defendant. Those days ended nearly a decade ago, as did most of the liberties that had been considered sacred by most Americans in the early years of the defendant’s life.
The defendant’s memory was accessed via the microchip implanted at the base of his brain, against his will, and transmitted wirelessly to a high definition, 3-D hologram. The microchip, euphemistically named the Life Enhancement Monitor, or LEM, was developed with the intention of monitoring a person’s health. For example, emergency responders would be dispatched upon the first sign of a heart attack. This simple device could save millions of lives and dollars and therefore could be justified as a mandate of the Affordable Healthcare Act, imposed by an executive order. Soon, everyone in America who received government benefits of any kind was required to have the LEM implanted. In time, the majority of Americans began to accept the LEM as a way of life. More and more uses for the LEM were developed. Before long, the LEM stored all of the host’s financial records and medical records, enabling a person to make financial transactions without having to carry a card or cash. More time passed, and the LEM began to be used by the criminal justice system to monitor people with criminal records and those under house arrest. Today, the LEM monitors are believed to prevent terrorist attacks and crime in general and even to control thought. The United States government points to the fact that crime is almost nonexistent thanks to the LEM. Liberty minded ex-patriots see things quite differently.
“You are about to hear and see a fantastic tale, provided directly by the defendant’s memory, that many of you will find hard to fathom; but when this trial is over, you will believe that this 147-year-old man is not a day older, physiologically, than he was one hundred years ago, and you will believe that the defendant is guilty of the charges of accessory to murder, crimes against humanity, and terrorism.
“Adolf Hitler officially died on April 30, 1945, but he didn’t. Hitler escaped by submarine, carrying about fifty men to Argentina, arriving in May 18, 1945. One of those men was… is the defendant.
“On May 27, three days before his ‘death,’ at the stroke of midnight, Hitler ordered his team to move according to plan. The details had been planned by head of Gestapo Heinrich Müller, right down to the clothes worn by the body doubles that would pass for the corpses of Hitler and his future bride, Eva Braun. The defendant was there. Together with Hitler and Eva Braun and others, he escaped through a secret tunnel leading away from the infamous underground bunker. The city of Berlin was on fire. Despite the explosions, they made their way to the Hohenzollerndamm in the Wilmersdorf district and from there they made their way to a boulevard that ran through the center of Berlin. A Junkers-52 transport aircraft awaiting them.
“The plane flew the defendant, the führer, Eva Braun, and others first to Denmark, then to Spain, and eventually to the Canary Islands. From there, they took a submarine to South America. About fifty people disembarked from two submarines around 11:00 p.m. on May 18, 1945, near the small port of Necochea, about three hundred miles south of Buenos Aires.
“Four men were there to greet them with pack mules and to help Hitler and the defendant cross the Andes Mountain to Argentina. They lived together in hiding at Hacienda San Ramón.
“One hundred years later, the defendant was discovered about six miles away in San Carlos de Barilche, not a day older than he was way back in 1945.
“We know this is all true, because the LEM does not allow a person to lie.”
