Sun of the Sleepless (35 page)

Jackson paused to let the full impact of the event sink it.

'The small attacking aircraft was identified as a Messerschmitt 163 commonly known as a Komet, probably operated from an airfield near Saarbrücken. It was a very fast rocket propelled plane, possibly the fastest aircraft of the time but with a very limited range, no more than thirty miles or so. The idea was that the aircraft was a very fast bomber interceptor, it would take-off and fly to a target area very quickly and then dive three or four times to strafe lumbering enemy aircraft.

'Now, the FBI report gave no other corroborating evidence, however, I just happened to have located a classified document concerning the loss of thirty aircraft near Luxembourg on September 15th, 1944. They were part of a diversionary raid to detract from the main sortie which was headed to Kiel, just south of the German border with Denmark. The official report indicates that only eleven aircraft were lost overall, however, the classified report clearly shows that statement to be false and it was never released at the time because of the effect it could have had on moral.'

Jolene and Dale just stared at him in astounded disbelief.

'The thing is, I believe that this evidence points to a different area of research which was to be combined with the remote propulsion system also being developed, probably to be installed in the type of inexpensive craft that was shot down a month later in the Pacific region. In this case, the Komet was probably remote controlled by wireless and was being used to deploy an experimental explosive device.

'In the case of the Foo Fighters, they were developing the means of delivering the explosive device using highly manoeuvrable but disposable craft. Combined together, such technologies would truly have delivered a
Wunderwaffe
- a wonder weapon - that could have changed the course of the war even at that late stage!'

'Could it have just been the plane's rocket fuel exploding?' Dale quizzed, shaking his head.

'No, I checked the Komet's performance record and the only instances of engines blowing were in the early test prototypes and later as a result of battle damage; in this case, there was no battle. From the description this was something new, the flattened radial shock wave as described is incredibly unusual and the lack of debris shows that the effects were quite different to conventional weapons, then and now. This weapon destroyed a whole formation of thirty bombers, but think what it could have done if projected onto a city.'

'Alright, very impressive, but is it true?' Jolene retorted.

'Yes, I think so,' nodded Jackson, 'there is evidence that the FBI reports were declassified by accident, even in 1998. There is always a risk in heavily compartmented projects of missing documents since upgrading the classification of a something that is already out there can sometimes reveal the nature of the very secret you're trying to hide.

'There are some irate memos on file indicating that that the military tried to prevent the FBI reports from coming out but they simply argued that the contents could be used to ridicule the intelligence services. After the documents were released, everything went quiet again, probably because they could then be used for misinformation - never waste a good disaster as they say - the object being for the public to conclude that they couldn't relate to anything important if they were now in the public domain.'

The room remained quiet for a while as Jolene considered Jackson's story.

'So we have a clear link from the Sun of the Sleepless to the Vril Society. We have the Vril Society playing an instrumental role in initiating the development of new technologies through the Society for Truth based on Aether physics, we have a consistent connection with the Nazis and the development resources to continue that research and we have hearsay evidence that a highly unusual propulsion and weapons system was deployed, even if in an experimental form. Is that correct?'

'A fair summation I would say.'

'Great,' Jolene gasped, slumping slightly, 'that will do for now, we'll send everything across to Kappel and confirm what he wants us to do next.'

'What about Hanna's great-granddaughter and the RFID? What happens now?' asked Jackson.

Jolene shook her head curtly.

'That is up to Kappel, we now have evidence that links all of these things together and which supports the contention that the Sun of the Sleepless has the capacity to employ a WMD.'

'So let's make the call,' Dale said, smiling at the surreal nature of the whole proposition.

'Good evening Jolene, gentlemen.'

Stefan Kappel's expression was slightly weary as he nodded on the screen, acknowledging the assembled trio in the Ambassador's conference suite.

'Good evening sir,' Jolene replied in a crisp tone and momentarily oblivious to Kappel's actual time zone.

'We have a further report which I hope has reached you safely. I must apologise for the late transmission but we have literally just finished reviewing the document and I wanted to ensure that we could have a brief meeting to close off the day and so that Jackson can give a review if necessary.'

The face on the video screen nodded.

'That is fine, give me your summary and I will go through the detail later.'

Jolene looked over to Jackson and raised her eyebrows, impelling him to cough and start his exposition.

'Good evening sir, I apologise in advance if this seems to meander but a number of interesting aspects to this case have been uncovered and I want to give you a
précis
of all of them. As a consequence, the thread may seem a little entangled at times.'

Jackson smiled benignly as Kappel waved a hand in frank acceptance.

'Understood, please go ahead.'

He coughed again and lifted a bundle of paper-clipped pages to read from, withdrawing his glasses from the breast pocket of his jacket and sliding them on to perch on the end of his nose.

'Sir, attached to my hypothesis for the development of the Sun of the Sleepless group and their integration into the Nazi regime up to and during World War II, you will find a number of appendices which may prove useful in proving the veracity of my conclusions. Alternatively, I'm happy to accept that my conclusions may equally prove to be simply overly imaginative. Either way, I have prepared factual information for further research and intelligence gathering. As for the conclusions, I'd like to start right at the beginning if I may?'

Kappel flicked through the bundle of papers which had been transmitted to his office and printed out. He peered at the last set of pages and without looking up responded drolly.

'Your disclaimer has been duly noted, please continue.'

After a good half hour, Jackson had completed his summation of the evidence and his deductions. Kappel simply sat silently, seemingly in shocked contemplation.

Jackson pushed his spectacles further up his nose into a more comfortable position and started to read from the last few pages of his document.

'As for the appendices, Appendix 1 is a list of the names of the Vrilerinnen, the Vril psychics as reported by Hanna Paulus,' he announced.

'Not much more is known apart from their names. I'm afraid that I have not succeeded in tracing any further information from civil records, either historical or modern. Appendix 2 contains a list of some of the girls who were recruited into the Vril Society Sisterhood with notations for members who were regarded as the elite, what I have termed as 'initiates', however, I should clarify that this list is incomplete.'

Jackson flicked over a page and then peeped over the top of his spectacles as he glanced at the screen.

'Appendix 3 is also based on information originally provided by Hanna Paulus, this time detailing a few of the scientists who were connected to the Society for Truth along with their respective areas of expertise. Although Hanna didn't necessarily know who these men and women were at the time, I have cross-referenced the names with what we know now.

'Appendix 4 is a list of notable locations, covering the dispersal of the Vril Society staff and members, including the psychics, also the Society for Truth and the scientists, although the latter section is a little sketchy.

'Appendix 5 is a list of references - both open source and classified - that I have used to derive this presentation. It isn't exhaustive but it provides the basic audit trail for further investigation and I have tried to record relevant chronological information whenever available.'

After a further moment of inscrutable contemplation, Kappel seemed to animate himself to respond.

'Excellent!' he nodded, flicking through the pages again.

'You've done some great work here. I am very impressed that this has been the product of only a day's work. We'll need to run it all of course but I definitely think that we have something to go on here. Thank-you.'

Kappel placed the bundle of papers to one side and breathed in.

'Now I'd like to give you round-up of events from the other investigation teams, please don't interrupt, I'll take questions at the end. I'm also getting a little bit of feedback so would you mind muting your microphone as I speak?'

As Jolene leaned forward and tapped a button on the remote control that controlled the conference system, Kappel reached for his computer mouse and appeared to double-click something on his laptop monitor. After a brief flicker of the video screen he started to ramble through a long list of status reports received from teams investigating the threat in other parts of the world.

The trio sat listening, Jolene apparently the most interested in what was being said but as she watched the presentation her secure mobile cell phone started to ring. Even with their conference microphone muted, she was keen to stop the trill chirruping and quickly reached into a pocket of her flying jacket hanging over the back of her chair. Retrieving the phone she glanced at the display and stopped. Something was wrong; the caller was identified as Stefan Kappel.

Jolene stared up at the big video screen, seeing Kappel relating facts and figures from ongoing leads and then looked back down to her phone. She stood up and walked away from the table before answering the call.

'Jolene, don't say anything, I have to make this quick!'

She recognised the voice of the Deputy Director.

'The presentation you're now watching is pre-recorded, the diplomatic conference system is almost certainly being intercepted and monitored and I needed to be able to call you via a line which I know is secure and without attracting any attention. They're going to think that I'm on screen for a while but I don't want to press my luck.'

Jolene thought quickly.

'Alright, how can I help?'

'Is the room secure, did you sweep it for listening devices as I suggested?'

'Errr, yes, Stanley and Oliver saw to that.'

'Good, now listen carefully, I have prepared a completely secure communications channel at Wiesbaden, you are to transfer to that location and set-up field operations from there as soon as possible. Everything Jackson has uncovered is right on the money - everything - he just doesn't have the full story yet. I needed you to reach these conclusions on your own initiative before I could intervene and tell you the real story, there is too much at stake and there are people within the government and military who will stop at nothing to get the technology we're currently being threatened with.

'The threat is a reality but some of our people have the crazy idea that we can play this whole thing to our advantage. I'll tell you more once you're in Germany. In the mean time, watch yourselves, only talk to me. I have people I can trust in Wiesbaden so you'll be in safe hands once you get there but be careful. You're still groping around in the dark and that has kept you safe, but I'm under surveillance and if I had told you what you know now right off the bat we'd probably all be dead. Wait for my call Jolene, now get back to the screen, the recording finishes in a minute or so.'

The call ended abruptly and Jolene stood stunned for a moment before walking back to the table and slowly sliding into her chair.

'Everything alright?' Jackson said, looking slightly concerned.

'Fine,' nodded Jolene distractedly, 'just a confirmation regarding the Special Forces team I put on standby.'

Jackson grunted in acknowledgement and went back to watching the presentation.

After a further brief appraisal, the screen flickered slightly as Kappel sat back in his chair; he exhaled loudly and leaned forward again, clasping his fingers together.

'So, I hope that gives you some idea of what else is going on, which of course, isn't much considering what we are faced with. Now, I don't know if your research will lead us anywhere but we need to consider all possibilities, no matter how fanciful, so I would like you to join the Special Forces team you asked me to put on alert in Wiesbaden, it will be easier to coordinate any future operations from that location.'

'Sir,' Jackson interjected after releasing the mute button for the conference microphone, 'you may be aware that we located a relative of Hanna Paulus near to Frankfurt, I'd like permission to pay her a visit.'

'Sounds good to me, just get to the base by close of play Sunday and we'll see where it goes from there. That should give you enough time to get some rest this evening before you travel over. I've already seen the reports on the RF Chip and have instigated some enquiries with the British authorities concerning the UK subsidiary of Open-EZ so if we have to move quickly we should be alright. We're still trying to identify the abductors of the Verker girl. Have a good evening and unless anything comes up in the mean time, I expect to speak with you again in twenty-four hours. Thank you.'