Sun of the Sleepless (33 page)

'Yeah, I just about remember,' Rey snorted, 'so we were supposed to wriggle and tickle inside? For what purpose?'

Senator Dru smiled to himself as he spoke.

'So that the old lady would swallow a bird to catch the spiders.'

He paused.

'Although the US Intelligence Services have been aware of
Dirigo Lux
and its association with us for years, they have buried the knowledge in some forgotten corner of their library; they only picked up on it recently quite by accident as we assumed that the Verker girl would sell it on her stall or that you would retrieve it first. The original plan called for Janssens to advertise the book after it had been sold to Verker and ultimately into obscurity. He was supposed to provide the trigger for the involvement of US Intelligence. As it turned out, events worked out better than we could have hoped for. The point is that we also needed a reason for getting you involved, the ring was just an insurance policy in case we needed something that presented more of a challenge to retrieve, allowing you to be kept in the field for longer.'

Rey's jaw was tightening even further.

'That didn't quite work out as expected though,' he said sarcastically.

'No,' Senator Dru conceded, 'you were rather more efficient than we expected you to be. Well done. Janssens himself sold the ring to the Moroccan lad but perhaps he should have been more ambiguous in the description that he gave to Frans, however, we had to give you something to go on or you would have simply gauged the retrieval of the ring as impossible and given up.'

'So we gave that guy a headache for nothing? We stole it from him!' Rey chided.

He was still confused and shook his head.

'I don't see what the point was though, why would you put us at risk?'

'Come along now Rey,' retorted Senator Dru.

'The Americans are not stupid, they can spot a set-up a mile away. We needed to give them something real, something to get their teeth into. Once we had the US interested in our little flies we had you placed in the open as the spiders; we knew that they would find you sooner or later -'

'Helped by you no doubt!' interrupted Rey.

'Of course. We needed the US to identify you so that when our little bird started to sing the intelligence services would be too entranced with the melody to realise that we were dictating the song. As the old rhyme goes, how absurd to swallow a bird! They wouldn't have believed it if we hadn't conveniently provided prime suspects that confirmed their suspicions. We made them see what we wanted them to see. With our little bird now securely in place we can control their investigation.'

Rey muttered to himself before responding.

'What about us? We're expendable I suppose?'

'Far from it!' Senator Dru said solemnly.

'We've always wanted and needed you to complete your primary mission; we even had a backup team trailing you all along, ready to support you if the worst case scenario occurred. I'm just glad that you didn't spot them but I suppose that you were preoccupied. You must understand that we had to give the Americans something real.

'As I suggested before, their investigation into you will turn up everything that confirms their own suspicions; you are a perfect choice as the worst kind of terrorist, the type that they fear most - a westerner with a professional military background and a clean record. No identifiable affiliation with fundamentalism and no evidence of your aims.'

'So why not just tell us from the start, we could have played the whole game knowing what was going on instead of this!'

Rey's exasperation was clearly evident in his tone.

'We needed you to be possessed of plausible deniability in the worst case scenario. Yes, you are important, but our little bird is incredibly significant and provides us with subtle leverage beyond the blunt threat of our weapons. Ordinarily, a nation like the US does not give in to threats or even direct action, no matter the cost in human or material terms. They have to be beguiled to make them respond in accordance with our plans.

'You were specifically selected for this operation because we knew that you would be able to handle any situation that might crop up. It also helped that you were about to go dark anyway as part of your primary mission. All things considered, you were the perfect candidate and the outcome of this admitted distraction has vindicated our decision to use you.'

'So what now?' asked Rey curtly, ignoring the flattery that had been wielded in appeasement.

'You fly to England, then drive to Scotland and complete your primary mission. Obviously, your previous cover has been entirely blown but that is no problem. You know that we've handled this kind of situation many times before. You will all be well looked after.'

Rey grunted in acknowledgement.

'Did Frans know?'

'No. He was as much a pawn as you and Akosua.'

'Are you going to tell him?'

'Yes, when he arrives at the safe house in Krefeld.'

'What then?'

Senator Dru paused for a moment, tensing his jaw slightly.

'Rey, I have detailed the reality of events to you as a matter of courtesy, I felt obliged to let you know that, unfortunately, we had to use you as bait in the pursuit of our goals, however, do not forget that you are addressing the Cipher of Artemis. It is a reality of life that I sometimes have to take tough decisions - the privilege of rank you may say - and occasionally those decisions needfully compromise the safety of my own troops.'

Rey felt the chastisement burn within him, knowing that Senator Dru was right. He himself had put his own team members at risk on different occasions, not telling them the whole truth of what might transpire.

'Yes, I'm sorry Senator, I understand.'

'You're an exceptional Knight Errant, Rey, a Patrician!' Senator Dru's tone was conciliatory and earnest.

'It should be no secret that you will be elevated to the rank of Knight Commander after the completion of this affair and I have no doubt that you will continue to rise still higher. I know how you must feel under the circumstances but remember that I have also been there; I have risen through the ranks, from the Principalities to the Dominions to the Powers. I was a Knight Errant for ten years just as you are now, then a Commander and Elector.

'I know what it is like to be on the front line. It is not so long that I have been tied to a desk as a Cardinal and now as a Senator, but I have earned my elevation just as you are earning yours. Make no mistake, I understand your difficulties but I also have to take tough calls in the furtherance of our Great Work. You have complied with your orders with distinction and your meritorious performance has been noted, but now you need to return to your primary mission and complete it as required. This other task is no longer your concern.'

Rey remained silent and blinked slowly.

'Yes Senator.'

'Have a safe trip Rey, we're counting on you!'

As the line went dead, Rey pressed the button to hang-up the call and sighed deeply. He looked at Akosua who had a quizzical expression on her face as her teeth chattered against the cold air.

'Is there a problem?' she asked.

'No, no problem,' said Rey shaking his head in resignation.

'Come on, we've got a plane to catch and I'll tell you all about it once we're in the air.'

Jolene brusquely swung open the glass door of the Ambassador's conference suite and joined Jackson and Dale as they sat waiting for her in their usual seats. She quickly sat down opposite them and leaned forward.

'Alright Jackson, what do you have?'

Jackson fidgeted slightly and ran a palm over his cheeks and chin, feeling the bristle of newly grown stubble.

'Well Jolene, let me pick up from where I left off last time, around 1921 with Hanna Paulus as a kind of matron in the Vril Society Sisterhood.'

Jackson's audience settled themselves for the now familiar oratory tones of the CIA Librarian, expectantly waiting for his story to unfold.

'Starting in around 1920, the Vril Society for Metaphysics - as it had re-branded itself, shortened to the Vril Society or
Vril-Gesellschaft
in German - funded the purchase and rental of a number of buildings and residences on behalf of the Vril Society Sisterhood which it had recently incepted. These buildings were used for accommodation and schools for the growing population of sisterhood girls, providing a campus of dormitories and classrooms and with bases in a couple of cities; primarily located in Berlin although Hanna also mentions a campus in Munich.

'Now understand, we are essentially talking about a private boarding school here although the application and acceptance process for pupils is not clear. I have calculated that at its peak, the sisterhood appears to have been comprised of only one hundred to one hundred and twenty girls, grouped into classes of around ten pupils and supervised by a number of
Oberschwester
or senior sisters, Hanna being one of them. Ages of pupils ranged from as young as two or three years old right up to late teens although it appears that any single class catered for around a three year age gap.'

Jackson lightly slapped his papers onto the table and looked up.

'All of these specific details are in the appendices to my written report but I will mention that an elite group of initiates was selected from the whole school population, numbering around twelve in total. Now, although Maria Orsitsch and the Vrilerinnen made regular visits and led special classes for the elite group, the day to day running of the campus was basically left to the senior sisters.

'This activity continued right through the decade of the 1920's and Hanna's reports to the supposed
émigré
industrialists and expatriates - our State Department's cover if you recall - show a marked measure of pride in what she was reporting. Hanna clearly believed in what she was doing with the Vril Society Sisterhood, however, she is conspicuously ambiguous about our other group of concern, the Society for Truth. I believe that this is simply because she didn't know many details, but, there are a couple of exceptions to her ignorance of matters pertaining to the so-called
Wahrheitsgesellschaft
which I believe are highly significant.'

Jolene frowned in thought, 'So Hanna didn't know anything specific about the scientific aspects of the Vril Society?'

'Just so,' Jackson nodded, 'although she did provide some tantalising clues in espousing the wonders that she had been privy to. For example, during 1926 Hanna accompanied the elite girls as they travelled to Styria in south-east Austria on a field trip, notionally to study a timber flotation installation - basically a log flume - designed by one Viktor Schauberger, something of an inventor and natural philosopher who specialised in bio-mimicry. Now, this field is concerned with the study of systems that have evolved in nature in order to derive solutions for problems faced in engineering and society, although the subject is fundamentally concerned with the transfer of ideas and concepts readily available in the world around us in order to inspire man-made technology. Hanna's angle in her reports was that the Vril Society was performing miracles in the field of science and Germany would soon lead the world in the development of technology to aid mankind.'

'Why is this trip significant?' asked Jolene, squinting slightly. 'What do floating logs have to do with anything part from the lumber industry?'

Jackson tilted his head to one side as he considered his response.

'Well, it is particularly interesting from two distinct perspectives. The author of
Dirigo Lux
- the book that started this journey of discovery - regales an apocryphal tale that he claims occurred in his youth, sometime during the latter years of the seventeenth century. He writes that he attended a secretive gathering of students interested in the esoteric and occult arts to hear a great philosopher speak and during the meeting he impudently asks the sage, "What is the chief study of the philosopher?" to which the learned man replies, "It is the investigations of the operations of Nature".

'The young inquisitor then asks, "What may we learn from the operations of Nature?" to which he is told that, "Nature is the beginning and end of all things.'''

Dale shook his head and grimaced.

'I have no idea what that means.'

Jackson smiled as he looked between the faces of his audience.

'It means that bio-mimicry is a central tenet of the philosophy that the Sun of the Sleepless group subscribes to. It means that the work of Viktor Schauberger was of interest to them, inevitably so by his connection with the Society for Truth, it means that there is a clue in his work to other more secretive projects being undertaken at the time.'

'A log flume? Why would the transport of timber via waterways be relevant to the development of propulsion and weapons systems?' queried Jolene.

'Vortices!' exclaimed Jackson, beaming.

'Schauberger used an innovative approach in his flumes, employing swirling eddies and submerged vortices to handle heavier that water objects, which brings me to the other interesting perspective it sheds light on. You see, a common theme throughout most of Shauberger's work was the control and use of vortices to induce specific physical phenomena which could be engineered to beneficial effect. As I say, this effect was even evident within his log flume and I believe that the field trip was an effort to familiarise the elite initiates with the concept in a readily understandable example in order to prepare them for further more complex revelations.'