"I know," said Hitler, and made it sound the most natural thing in the world. "I was born for greatness, I will be great. But you have earned it with your perception, your understanding, with your ability to point out objectively what I could not see for my raging emotions."
"It is only common sense, Adolph. You had the idea; clearly, the idea was in you. A year, two years, it would have materialized. I merely acted like a catalyst."
"To the East," said Hitler in a dreamy voice, all the while his eyes burned furiously, "is the Bolshevik, the Red Scourge, the hated, feared enemy of mankind. To the West is the Democratic world, the England of many centuries, the France of polite ways and laughable indecisions, the young America, still trying its wings.
"Which is the enemy of the people? I will tell you which. It is as you have said. The Red, the Communist Bolshevik is the enemy of the people. Tell them, 'See, the Red is coming!' and they will run, to arms, defending their homes and what they love as if it were Ragnarok itself. Good. We will tell them that.
"And which is the enemy of Hitler, the real enemy of Hitler who—as you say—was born to lead Germany, the Third Reich, to world glory? It is not the Red Bolshevik, no. It is the West, with its standard of living, its broad, idealistic aims which while incapable of bearing fruit are nevertheless infinitely attractive; the West with its showcase democracy, the West with its guaranteed personal liberties for morons and sub-morons, the West which yearns after the individual to the neglect of the state and so makes all individuals everywhere yearn so too.
"I will fire my people with hatred for the Red when hatred for the Jew has weakened because one day we will exterminate the Jew. The one is a legitimate hatred, the other a fancied one—but with the fires once stoked, the hatred will burn brightly. When it turns, as assuredly it will, to still a third and now unthinkable hatred, frenzy will ride high the crest of a wave—and the legions of the Third Reich will turn suddenly and devastatingly on the West, which today the German people cannot hate but which will one day bear the brunt of their hatred and power and rage because I, Hitler, tell them so."
"I am glad I could bring this to the surface in you so much sooner than it otherwise might have appeared," said the non-descript man.
"You are glad? You?" Tears streamed down Hitler's face, yet he laughed. "Think how I feel. I, Hitler. A man today, a God tomorrow, because you showed me the way. Name your price, request your reward; when the world is mine the half you want shall be yours."
"I want only what is best for Germany and its people," said the man.
"What he means," Laniq whispered to Tedor, "is he wants what is best for the monopolist. Naturally he's one of our own people. Fortunately for the world, he drove this point home too strongly. Hitler will move, and soon, making a wild, incredible bid for power. When it aborts, he will bide his time for another decade, giving the free world additional time to prepare."