An Ace in the Hole (445 wrds)

                “The fog of war has descended upon us again,” spat Churchill, into the telephone, grinding on the end of his cigar.  “Hitler and his mad dog 'Nah-zis’ have made a mockery out of Chamberlain just like I said they would.”

         “Don’t you think your being a bit melodramatic Winston?” exclaimed the U.S. president back through the receiver. "Hitler's plays crazy well, but he’s not totally insane. Plus you didn’t make any friends with your speech in the Commons last night. I know your pushing to be Prime Minister but if you push Neville too far the old dog could still freeze you out."

         “  I’m not worried, I got an ace in the hole, as you Yanks say,” replied Churchill.

         “Really?”

         “ Well, you’ll probably find out eventually but we have a surprise for Adolph," remarked Churchill as he tried, unsuccessfully, to marshal the papers hap-hazardly scattered about his desk. "Some of my friends in the Churchill group put us onto the idea of getting Tesla back on track making his tele-presence gun.”

         “That? He’s been trying to sell that to our Generals for years, it won’t work.”

         “ Don’t take me for a fool Franklin, I saw the reports but things have changed... Just hear me out before you judge. A couple of our M-12 operatives managed to introduce your Tesla to our Dirac after the Nobel awards, apparently they both have a fondness for a good card game. The long and short of it is they've been corresponding ever since. It looks like they're on to something, an updated version of Tesla's gun incorporating Dirac's equation. The practical upshot of it is a working anti-matter ray; I believe it’s called. Turns out a lot of Telsa‘s ideas fit with Dirac’s quantum theory. We’re calling it project CANDLE; they have a whole setup in a warehouse down at the Port of London...  If everything goes right it’ll be ready by mid 1941, making us invincible to offensive attacks."

         “Well then, lets hope Hitler doesn’t do anything rash like bomb the port before then.”

         “That’s rich, you Yanks are so paranoid, next thing you know you'll be thinking the Japanese will attack San Francisco with balloons. But I digress, like you said Hitler's mad but not that mad, those flying coffins of Goring's couldn’t make the coast of France let alone the channel as is," replied Winston.  “ We're perfectly safe on our island fortress. But sorry to cut you short old boy, I have a meeting with the damn Admiralty, Talk to you soon my boy.”

         “Good luck, Winston and keep me posted on CANDLE,” replied Roosevelt chuckling, as he hung up, "Give '‘em hell."