Berlin, Germany

July 20, 1944

Major Rolf Niedermann sat at his desk in the Abwehr office, where he reported directly to Admiral Wilhelm Canaris himself. Few people knew his exact role in the OKW's own intelligence service. He was assigned as much to spy on the SD and Gestapo as to check up on the enemy. He had a peculiar new project, not known to anyone but a handful in the Chief's inner circle. He was supposed to look into the bizarre magical rites of the SS and determine if there were any serious occult dangers to the regular military or Germany herself from these rituals.

Not even Niedermann's Swedish wife, Greta, knew what his job really involved. That was for the best, since their marriage was very strained by her increasing complaints about his "lack of ambition" and "relative poverty". There was no gratitude that he had arranged for her children to become naturalized German citizens, either, despite Sweden's neutrality in the war. Then again, the way that the war was going lately, that might have done them more harm than good.

It was this latest SS project, with the cryptic code name of "Aladdin", that kept Rolf busy the past few days. While Admiral Canaris and other higher-ups in the Abwehr didn't take the occult all that seriously as a reality, they didn't wish to take any chances. Lately, in fact, the Chief was very nervous. Niedermann wasn't exactly sure as to why that was the case, but the admiral's increasing disenchantment with the Fuhrer was an open secret in Abwehr headquarters. He wasn't exactly the only recent dissident. Even Niedermann had his reservations about National Socialism these days.

Whatever the case, that wasn't the major's department or responsibility at the moment. His brief was a top-secret inquiry into Himmler's favorite new pet project. The Reichsfuhrer of the SS wasn't Niedermann's favorite officer in the Third Reich anyway, so he had no qualms about investigating him, despite the obvious danger of being caught.

Rolf had heard some rumors, mainly through friends in the Reich Protectorate of Bohemia-Moravia and the General Government of Poland. If they were true, then Himmler was really getting desperate to save his own neck. A genie in a ring seemed as absurd as one in a lamp! Of course, if such a genie existed, it would possibly do more than just stop the Allies. It might even guarantee that Himmler succeeded Hitler as Fuhrer of the Greater German Reich. With the Fuhrer's poor health the subject of much gossip, this was not an insignificant motive for trying to use a genie.

Niedermann had one advantage: his ex-lover, Heidi Schmidt, was married to Bruno Schmidt, a Hauptsturmfuhrer in the SD. Now that she regretted marrying the fanatical ogre, she had started passing information to the major whenever she got the chance. She was no fool, after all. She had learned through her husband that the SD and Abwehr were rival institutions in the Third Reich, so she could give away information without betraying her country, as long as it was to the military intelligence service.

Her motives were rather obvious, though Rolf had never revealed that he understood them. He pretended that she was acting out of patriotism or politics, not a desire to make him happy or get back at her spouse. He also secretly found it amusing that the SD man couldn't resist telling his wife things that she might divulge to someone else. He was almost certain that such lax security would cost the man his life, if the SD ever learned of it.

Heidi had informed Rolf of the infamous SS project, but she had done so with no little amusement, especially in her drunken state. It was more proof to her that the SS castles and mystical rites were a complete waste of the Reich's resources. She assumed that the information could be used to humiliate Himmler and the rest of the SS, an idea that had no small appeal for her. What she didn't know, until he tried to recruit her for the job, was that Niedermann had explicit instructions to seize the ring for himself, assuming that it existed.

"Wait a second, Rolf! You want me to steal the ring for you? How do you expect that to work? I might get arrested! I'm risking my life as it is, and so far for nothing! You haven't so much as winked at me, let alone fucked me! Now, after what I've told you, you want me to expropriate this ring for you! What in the Fuhrer's name do I get out of this, mein liebling? You're using me again, that's all! When are you going to sleep with me?" Heidi balked.

"Heidi, be sensible! I'm a married man, though perhaps not too happily of late. Even so, I don't see any justification for having an affair with an SS officer's wife, especially since Greta doesn't seem to have betrayed me that way. She has a lot of flaws, but not that one! Anyway, what you get out of this is the satisfaction of helping stop a silly project that at best will become a budgetary strain for the Fatherland, and at worst will give the SS even more power than it has now! I'm asking you, as a friend, to help me now!" Rolf scolded her a bit, hoping that her conscience would affect her. It wasn't as if she were an evil woman, after all.

"So, you think that Greta has been loyal and faithful to you, Herr Major? Well, I hate to be the messenger, since you won't believe me, but that's just not the truth. I made a point of spying on her myself the past month or so, and she has been involved with Fritz Mueller. That's right, you remember Fritz, don't you? He's a stubby little worm in Party brown. Evidently, however, he's well connected, especially with certain people in the Propaganda Ministry. You know how Greta is; she's just as determined to find a rising star in the Party and State as myself! The difference is that she is completely conniving. I, at least, have a heart. I have feelings!

"However, to show you that I can be trusted, that I'll do whatever it takes to help you, I'll find that ring and bring it to you. I promise you that! If I do that, will you trust me? Will you at least believe me when I say that Greta is unfaithful to you, if I risk my life to get that damned ring for you? Will you consider giving me a second chance, Rolf?" Heidi bargained with him.

"Very well. However, I don't think that we can marry, given that your husband is an SS man. Maybe when he's dead and the Red Army has captured Berlin, it will be an option, assuming that I won't be dead too. You do realize that we're going to lose the war, don't you? Short of the sort of magic that your husband and his comrades are attempting in vain to use, the war is lost. You might soon have bigger worries than whether or not I return your affections. We're all in serious trouble, once the Communists run things in Germany. That is why your husband's bosses are so desperate. They want to avoid Stalin's wrath.

"There! I just trusted you with a secret. I have defeatist thoughts these days! If you wished to betray me, Heidi, you could easily report me to the Gestapo as a dissident. See, I trust you. Now, show me that my trust is deserved and steal that ring for me! I will find out if Greta has been unfaithful to me. If you're right, I will resume our relationship, though I can't divorce her at the moment. Her children see me as their father and I have to be able to protect them in this kind of emergency. I will also have to keep sleeping with Greta, since she would get suspicious that either I know about her or I'm having an affair of my own. You speak of trust. Will you trust me? Will you get me that dubious ring?" Rolf urged her.

"Yes, Rolf. I'll get you the ring! I imagine that I can get past security, now that I think of it. I am the wife of an SD agent, after all. I suppose that I'll have to keep screwing Bruno too, as much as I detest the idea. If I don't fuck him, he won't be as likely to reveal state secrets. I swear that the man thinks with his cock, unlike you. I know that, because if you did, I'd be your very happy mistress instead of your unhappy ex-mistress. Do me a favor, though. If I get caught, and they hang me, tell my husband that you were screwing me. It would be my last little revenge," Heidi swore.

It turned out to much easier than it would have appeared to either of them. Bruno couldn't resist "borrowing" the ring for his own use that night, just in case it worked. He didn't even have the prudence to hide it from Heidi. Instead, he wore it on his finger during supper. When he fell asleep immediately after intercourse, as usual, Heidi simply snatched the ring from the armoire where he placed it. To keep him from thinking about it, she demanded sex the next morning, which made him late for work.

Being a very nosy woman, Heidi just had to put on the ring before she went out to take it to Rolf. It was supposed to be a magic ring, after all. What if she used it to get proof of Greta's infidelity to Rolf? She didn't think of using it for his love, since she was sure that she could win that easily on her own. All that she needed was proof that his lovely wife was unfaithful, and his old feelings for her would combine with his promise to get him back into her arms.

"Now, how do I get this thing to work, assuming that it even does?" Heidi spoke to herself.

"Of course, it does, Mistress! What are you, another fucking skeptic? Well, I guess that I can't blame you, except that you're a German! You already believe in a lot of bullshit, so why not a genie?" a sarcastic female voice answered her.

Heidi turned a bit and saw a silver-haired woman with very little clothing. The lady seemed more than slightly annoyed at being summoned, for some odd reason. She had a look of mixed resignation, disgust, and exasperation on her face.

"Who are you, fraulein? I thought that you were just some myth, another of my husband's crazy ideas. I just wanted to find out for myself and see if I could get a wish or two," she explained to her gorgeous guest.

"I'm your genie, Mistress! You can wish for as much as you desire, though there are rules!" Laresa said for the millionth time in her perpetual existence.

"Alright, but don't call me 'Mistress'. You won't be in my hands for very long, for one thing. It's very dangerous for me to keep you, you see, and I have promised to deliver you to someone else. If it were simply a matter of money, I'd be tempted to break my word, but I love the man in question. I would never do anything to lose his trust. In fact, my wish has to do with him.

"By the way, my name is Heidi Schmidt. I'm a hausfrau, but very unhappy in my marriage. I want you to help me convince the man that I love that his wife is cheating on him. Is there any way that you can send him evidence of some kind that she is unfaithful? I know that she is sleeping with another man, but he doesn't totally believe me yet. Until he does, I can't get him to become my lover again. You see, he's a former paramour of mine, from before our marriages. I regret marrying another man and making it possible for him to marry this Swedish slut who treats him like shit. She and my husband deserve each other, not us," Frau Schmidt clarified.

My God, it's another jilted woman and her heartbroken quest to get the man that she loves, Laresa fumed. Well, that's actually a relief. At least I'm not being forced to suck off a bunch of drunken SS officers! One of them even pissed on me! Ugh, that was sick! Besides, I know what they were planning for me. They wanted to try and make me give them the victory. In a way, however, it's too bad that they didn't try. I would have vanished again in such a case, and then I would be out of this God-forsaken decade!

The last thing that I needed was to show up back in the middle of the fucking Forties, especially World War Two! Those damned SS men and their beginners' luck at magic just had to pull me from my comfortable life in an Arapaho village, where I was basically the medicine man's wife in all but name! If only he hadn't told that one damned lie, they wouldn't have succeeded!

"Alright, Heidi, that's permissible, I believe. Now, if you had asked for me to make him love you, then that would have violated the rules, and I would have left you immediately. However, I can give you what you want. Photographic evidence will arrive at his house. I don't think that you want to know where it came from, however. It doesn't matter. Your wish is granted, Mistress, I mean Heidi. Oh, and my name is Laresa," the genie agreed.

"Very well. Thank you, Laresa. That means a lot to me. I know that Rolf says that I should be more worried about the Red Army right now than whether or not he comes back to me, but I am very much a woman. I have a woman's priorities, if that makes any sense to you. I don't think all of the time about politics and war, like Rolf does. I guess that probably seems silly to someone with your maturity and wisdom. I suppose that you're ancient, aren't you?" Heidi rambled, somewhat nervous around a being that she didn't believe existed at all until a moment before.

"Yes, I am quite ancient. Oh, and you're not silly. You're just a very old-fashioned German hausfrau, as far as I can tell. You most likely believe that old saying of 'kinder, kirche und kuch', if my personal experience is any guide. You're taught to think of romance and family first, ahead of other things. There's nothing wrong with those priorities, if that's what you really care about most. There's some good in that. I'm not going to judge you for having a woman's traditional domestic interests. Of course, you're not totally conventional, or you wouldn't be chasing another man, a married one no less. That's nothing shocking to me, however. I've seen that before as well.

"Rolf is your prospective lover, I can tell. Sorry, but I can read your mind. Didn't want to scare you. Your husband's name is Bruno," Laresa observed, starting to like this woman a little, despite her association with some evidently despicable people.

She half-wished that the woman wouldn't hand her over to a man who was probably just another Nazi with a grudge of some kind. Even so, she was impressed with the lady's passion for this gentleman, especially since he seemed a little lukewarm toward her. Scanning Heidi's mind, Laresa sensed that the hausfrau blamed herself for the fact that both of them were married to other people. She could tell that the woman had initiated the end of the original affair, which she clearly deemed a mistake.

"Yes, that's my Rolf. I love him, but I didn't realize that I still did until it was too late to stop both of us from getting married to complete fools! I would never have betrayed Rolf the way that Greta did. Now, let's hurry, so I can get you to him. Apparently, it's urgent, though I don't know the full details!" Heidi ordered Laresa back into her ring and ran to the major's house, which wasn't more than half a mile away. She was tired when she arrived, but she seemed happy anyway. She would get to see Rolf again.