Order of the Black Sun Box Set 4

by Preston William Child

  “Indeed,” he attempted to joust with an insuperable opponent. “Which makes my expertise invaluable and indisputable.”

  Sam cringed. Purdue held his breath. Mieke and Cheryl wagered silently. Nina leaned forward with her elbows resting firmly on her thighs. “The only thing undisputable here, my dear colleague, is your lack of interest in determining if your find is indeed of historical significance, perhaps born from a lack of knowledge on the subject of modern German history, specifically World War II and the armament of that period.”

  Dr. Malgas was insulted. He looked to Sam for support, but Sam knew better than to come between Nina and her quarry. He simply shrugged and played dumb to Billy Malgas’ plea, implying that he would be of no use in such an argument, which in part was true. Sam certainly did not know which navy let alone which class the vessel belonged to.

  “Now, if you are so convinced that this is the Graf Spee, I assume you won’t have to join me in reviewing the footage?” Nina asked evenly.

  “I respectfully decline, yes,” he muttered. “Sam, I cannot believe you brought someone with you, who second-guesses my findings and on top of that tries to disprove everything I assert.”

  Sam was taken aback. “How can you blame this on me? Purdue always employs Dr. Gould to…”

  “Yes, I can guess why,” Malgas remarked suggestively as his eyes examined Nina’s body. She went ashen. Nina was livid, and knowing that she was no stranger to taking things to a physical level, Sam took a stance between her and Dr. Malgas to finish his sentence.

  “No, because she is the best, when it comes to German WWII history, Billy,” Sam asserted forcefully. “And if you feel threatened by the idea of your find being investigated by internationally revered professionals, it makes me feel that there might be something you’re keeping from us.” Nina had no desire to confront the archeologist anymore, who was highly unprofessional in her eyes. For once she felt completely vindicated. Mieke shifted uncomfortably. Dr. Malgas was stunned to silence from the words that had hit way too close to home. His eyes stared past Sam's impressive body at his assistant, but she only looked on in suspended shock.

  “Apparently you think I am out of my depth here,” Dr. Malgas finally said and rose to his feet. “Such a pity you had to come all the way down here, Sam. Had I known where your loyalty lies, I would have asked another journalist to get the exclusive on my find. Unfortunately, as things stand now, we would have to work together to conclude this salvage.”

  “Precisely. So we should try to all get along, right?” Crystal suggested light-heartedly, clasping her hands together in nervous anticipation.

  “I agree with that,” Mieke nodded. “We might be on the brink of something amazing that would benefit us all, so let’s not screw it all up, hey?”

  Billy Malgas cleared his throat, waiting for Sam to step aside. The archeologist disappeared into his room and closed the door. Sam relaxed and sank down next to Nina, exhaling hard in relief.

  “What a prick,” he said softly. “If we hadn’t gone through all this trouble already, I’d say let’s pack up and leave him to find his own sponsor and team; see how far he gets on his contacts and bankruptcy.”

  Purdue looked up. “Bankruptcy?”

  Sam regretted his comment the moment he uttered it. Mieke bit her lip anxiously, praying that their plan would not fall apart. Hoping that their secret would not be discovered, she thought of a way to keep things even and calm for the rest of the excursion. A lot of things needed to be patched. Otherwise, the plan would sink too. Too many things were threatening the success of the project and in her opinion, there were too many people involved.

  Sam Cleave knew too much about Dr. Malgas’ situation and she feared that he could very well steal the project’s glory from her boss. Still, she dared not say anything and retired for the evening although she knew very well that she would not get any sleep while the meticulous Nina Gould’s eyes were studying their hoax.

  21

  The First Secret

  In the morning, Nina called a secret meeting with Dave Purdue and Crystal Meyer regarding the wreck's salvage. Just after 3 am she had finished checking the shape, the deck arms and other features of the design of the alleged World War II Panzerschiff. Sam had fallen asleep on the sofa in the living room where she had worked because he had been worried about Dr. Malgas possible retaliation after Nina had made an utter fool of him. Even more so, if Sam’s completely random thought that Billy could possibly have been harboring a secret happened to be true, he had figured the man may have well been desperate enough to do something reckless and target the very person who had called his bluff – Nina.

  She had had no idea why Sam camped out there, but she had assumed that he had fallen asleep watching endless episodes of X-Files on cable TV. After she had completed compiling her report, she had quietly withdrawn to her bedroom upstairs with her laptop under her arm. Only when she had woken up at 6 am she had decided to request the opinions of financiers of the operation.

  In her bedroom, Purdue and Crystal joined her with morning coffee behind a locked door.

  “After studying every nook and cranny of this ship, I have to concede that it is a pocket battleship from the thirties,” she declared.

  “Excellent,” Purdue raved.

  “But…”

  “Oh my God,” he said. “I should have known.”

  Nina pursed her lips, waiting for him to finish his lamenting. “But I have no conclusive proof that it is the Admiral Graf Spee. The reason for my doubt is that I have checked virtually every account on record about this damn ship. They all say the same thing,” she sighed. “And this is what has me repudiate the possibility that the vessel we’ve been looking at is the Graf Spee.”

  “And what is that?” Purdue asked.

  "I'll make it as short as I can, considering we don’t have much time,” Nina said. “The records say that the Admiral Graf Spee had been operating in the Southern Atlantic, not in the Indian Ocean, for one.”

  “Alright, but you mentioned before that it had sailed along the eastern coast here toward the Cape of Good Hope,” Crystal interrupted respectfully, to make sure she remembered correctly.

  “That is correct, Crystal,” Nina affirmed, “but it wasn’t scuttled here. You see, its last operation was the Battle of the River Plate, on December 13, 1939. In a nutshell, during this skirmish the Graf Spee encountered the HMS Exeter and two Leander-class cruisers – British ships.”

  “Okay, got it so far,” Purdue nodded.

  “But the Graf Spee did not flee. The British commander of the Exeter had the other ships spread out, obviously to increase the targets the German ship would have to deal with. The Graf Spee shot at the Exeter with her main battery, using her secondary armament for the others, and then the British ships fired back,” she recounted. “However… apparently the Exeter was hit by seven 11 inch shells and several near misses caused significant splinter damage. Sixty-one of her crew were killed and another twenty-three wounded. All three 8-inch turrets were put out of action, and her speed was reduced significantly, so it was forced to withdraw; therefore the other ships moved in to divert the brunt of the attack from the Exeter,” Nina explained briefly

  “So the Graf Spee won then,” Crystal said.

  “No, it retreated and fled, but after another exchange of fire later on with quite a solid success, the Graf Spee retreated into the River Plate estuary. There was a stalemate, because the British ships stayed their position to keep the Graf Spee from sneaking out to the open sea again, see?” she continued excitedly. “Bear with me, I have a point on this.”

  Purdue’s coffee had gone cold and after a valiant attempt at the bitter beverage, he winced and just put it down. Crystal sighed with boredom. She found history interesting, but she could not care less about Nina's stories.

  “In the course of the engagement, the Graf Spee had been hit approximately 70 times; 36 men had been killed and 60 wounded, including her captain. Eventually, all
her ammo had run out, and the bow was in such a bad state that she would never have been able to sail back to Germany. On top of that, the Brits bluffed, conveying the impression, that more of their ships had arrived, just waiting for the Graf Spee to try her luck,” Nina smiled. “To avoid the ship being interned for the remainder of the war under the regulations of the Hague convention, the captain eventually ordered the ship to be scuttled right there… on December 17, 1939, in Uruguay. Not Bluewater Bay, not Simonstad – Uruguay – with an audience of 20,000 people watching the fireworks. Fourteen different accounts that I followed up with say the same.”

  “Could it have been fourteen versions of the same account? I really want this to be the Graf Spee,” Crystal admitted. “I’ll play Devil’s Advocate until I’m blue in the face.”

  “I doubt you will, honey,” Nina smiled. “Today – and you can check Google Maps if you don’t believe me – pieces of the Graf Spee are lying at a depth of a mere 11m, clearly visible," Nina bragged with her well-researched back-up.

  Crystal zoned out in thought and finally replied, “In 11m of water off the coast – that would make the wreck a navigational hazard.” She looked at Nina and Purdue. “They would have had to tow it away or dismantle it completely.”

  “They did. In 2004, they raised a 27 metric tons gunnery range-finding telemeter. And in 2006, they retrieved the 400kg crest of the eagle and swastika from its stern. Boom! Mystery solved. This, lady and gentleman, is not the Graf Spee," Nina concluded.

  Outside the door Cheryl’s eyes grew wide, her shaking hands covering her mouth. The distressing news made her sick, sicker than her morning withdrawal and she bolted for the bathroom. She threw up huddled over the toilet bowl; certain, that Zain would kill her if he found out she had led them on a hoax treasure hunt.

  In Cheryl’s absence, the conversation continued, and had she listened, it could have saved her from a lot of inner turmoil.

  “The reason I asked the two of you to hear me out first was because the funding of this expedition and its continuation depends on the two of you,” Nina said. She lowered her voice for the question she had called them here for. “It is entirely up to the two of you whether I divulge this information officially to the group. Now, I was thinking, since we already have Crystal’s contractors on their way…”

  Crystal smiled. “I like your way of thinking, Nina!”

  “You are saying we should pretend that we don’t know this and still tow the ship?” Purdue guessed. “Well, are you confident that this is the same class of ship?”

  “Positive,” Nina affirmed, nodding zealously. Purdue had to smile at the idea. He had already spent so much money to fund the operation, so why not continue anyway?

  “So it is of historic value. Who knows, perhaps even more so than the Graf Spee, depending on what we find on it,” Crystal smiled. “Let’s do it, Dave. Let’s salvage this wreck and see how far we can take it north. You never know what kind of secrets it yields!”

  “But we don’t tell anyone else. Agreed?” Crystal suggested.

  “Agreed,” Purdue replied.

  Nina smiled slyly, closing the lid of her laptop. “It will be our little secret.”

  22

  The Second Secret

  In the afternoon, Crystal got word from her men on the salvage tug that they would soon arrive in South African waters.

  "We can start collecting our gear so long, people," Purdue announced as Crystal filled him in on the schedule. "Naturally the first part of the expedition revolves around the most trying and daring of all our tasks concerning Dr. Malgas' find. That is, of course, to tow the wreck into international waters without the local authorities getting wind of it.”

  “Cutting it thin, aren’t we?” Dr. Malgas asked with a heavy weight of worry in his voice. He chugged back some brandy, looking quite the worse for wear since his argument with Dr. Gould. It seemed that he had abandoned all care about the ramifications of his doings, as long as he could tag along and take credit for the lost ship when the time came. His weary eyes sought Mieke’s face, who assured him with a nod that everything would work swimmingly if he kept his cool during the process.

  “Cutting it thin is what we do best, Dr. Malgas,” Purdue smiled. “We have learned under harrowing circumstances that there is not really no alternative to just biting the bullet and getting things done.”

  “We have researched the coastline well, Dr. Malgas,” Crystal reassured him, appearing next to Purdue as if she was his shadow. “We have investigated all the angles and factors carefully, so don’t fret. We have obtained the coast guard’s roster and schedule to make sure they do not pass us by at an inconvenient time, so to speak,” she smiled at Purdue and Sam.

  Nina watched the affair with a keen eye, feeling the tension between all the factions in this excursion, but keeping her doubts and judgments firmly to herself. Crystal spoke like a stewardess, very sure of herself. But Nina wondered if the master diver was really as confident as she led on. Certainly the notion that the ship was a not what they had thought it would be had to leave her, at least, a little bit insecure.

  “I have been making notes about the routines of our neighbors, their habits and such,” Sam winked at Billy Malgas. “Between myself, Purdue and Crystal we have made sure that our window of operation stays undeterred while we work.”

  Crystal cleared her throat, still reeling from the secret they shared. “I hate to play Devil’s Advocate here, but…” she took a moment as everyone turned their attentions to her, “…but won’t the locals find a salvage tug a bit suspicious right here in their waters?”

  As if he had been waiting for someone to ask that very question, Purdue’s face lit up. With a warm smile, he walked toward Crystal and explained, “Oh, we have no concerns about that, my dear. I have a device I have been working on since Sam informed me of this fascinating operation back in Edinburgh.”

  Cheryl, Mieke, and Dr. Malgas perked up to see what Purdue was doing when he retrieved the item from a sturdy iron case. Inside the case, it was resting in a molded foam cradle to protect it from excessive vibration or impact. The gleaming little contraption gleamed like a mirrored box with a thin lid, which served as a screen or view finder for the genius inventor to mark coordinates on.

  “This is the TechMag Satellite Manipulator,” he said proudly.

  “Hey, I haven’t seen that one yet,” Sam mumbled, coming to scrutinize it.

  “No, no-one has. I thought to keep it on hand just until I had examined the conditions under which we had to move the wreck to get it out of the 12-mile-zone,” Purdue revealed. “I designed it while we were waiting to get our logistics sorted out. Lovely little thing, isn’t it?”

  Nina frowned, “And now, ladies and gentlemen, the question we all have on our tongues…allow me. What does it do?”

  Sam snickered, but the rest of the group seemed spellbound by the device, waiting with bated breath, ready to take in the incomprehensible jargon Purdue would use to explain his invention to them.

  "It will most probably sound like science fiction to you all, but in fact, it is very simple," Purdue began. "With this frequency modulator, I can manipulate certain satellites into applying the electro-magnetic resonance normally used in seismic imaging, for instance, to disturb the spin dynamics of protons in the atmosphere…"

  “Wait, wait,” Dr. Malgas interrupted. “Please, Mr. Purdue, can you explain the non-engineers amongst us can understand it as well?” Upon Malgas’ interruption, just about everyone agreed.

  “Not that we don’t appreciate your exceptional scientific knowledge, Dave,” Nina soothed, “but we just need to know what the little silver box of yours does to the ship out there.”

  She added a wink to soften the blow of ignorance Purdue must have felt at Malgas so rudely interrupting him.

  “Very well,” he sighed amicably, shifting his spectacles a bit higher on the bridge of his nose. “It makes the satellites I choose shoot a beam into the atmosphere to disturb it
wherever I point the device.”

  "And then?" Sam asked, intrigued.

  Purdue smiled. He knew Sam was sharp when it came to deducing things and trusted that the journalist would comprehend better than the others. “Then, the active disturbance in the particles in the water will literally alter the geophysical properties of the subsurface, my lad!”

  “You mean it will cause the water around the wreck to do something so that the sand will be rearranged?” Sam asked slowly, keeping his voice low, trying not to sound too foolish.

  “Wow!” Crystal reveled at the thought. “If that is the case, I can totally see where you are going with this.”

  “Precisely,” Purdue grinned, holding up the device, showing off the screen displaying coordinates and frequency waves at work. “Once we shift the sediment on the ocean floor around the wreck, it will literally move the ship with it toward the magnetic field where the pull is strongest."

  “Like geomagnetic forces prompt birds to migrate?” Nina asked.

  “Much like that yes, Nina,” Purdue nodded. “It will do what the ocean does anyway, but it will accelerate the movement to such an extent that this will happen in a very short time.”

  “Is anyone else finding this very dangerous or am I missing something?” Nina admitted, her arms folded tightly in front of her chest and her thumb nail between her teeth as she spoke. “This kind of geological shift would significantly influence tidal behavior, wouldn’t it?”

  She was met with silence, so she continued, "I mean if the ocean floor suddenly moved a gigantic fucking ship around like it's a chess piece, that amount of sediment and water would be instantly displaced, right? How come nobody else is seeing this?”

  “I see it,” Crystal agreed quietly, staring at the floor to find an answer to their predicament.

  “I have thought of that, Nina,” Purdue answered her, “but this is a chance we have to take. Perhaps if I made subtle adjustments, the result would be less dramatic than, say, a tsunami or an earthquake.”