Free The Black Knight by Dean Crawford Page B

beryllium oxides are also referenced in the documents, as well as the extraordinary effects that the bell would create when activated. Supposedly, within a zone extended some two hundred meters out from the object crystals would form in animal tissue, blood would gel and separate and plants would decompose into a greasy substance. What sources we do have said that several scientists died while experimenting with the device, and that many feared even approaching it whether activated or not.’
    As Jarvis spoke, the image of a concrete framework standing derelict in a thin forest appeared on the monitor, like a hollow Colosseum with arches intact.
    ‘This object, The Henge, in the vicinity of the Wencelaus mine, is said to have served as a test-rig for the device, which remained tethered within while tests were being performed to determine its supposed anti-gravitational properties.’
    Several of the SEALS tutted and shook their heads, Ethan catching their skeptical mutterings from where he stood.
    ‘It’s myths and fantasies,’ Amy said, speaking for the first time. ‘None of this supposed evidence has ever been substantiated in any way, all of it merely shared by conspiracy theorists on the Internet without any effort to check sources or interview witnesses.’
    ‘It all sounds like conjecture to me,’ Ethan said finally. ‘And again, it doesn’t reveal anything about the Black Knight.’
    ‘Except that it does,’ Chandler replied, ignoring Amy as she rolled her eyes. ‘In 1936 an object is known to have plummeted out of the sky near Freiburg, in Germany’s Black Forest, and was recovered by the Nazis there for study. Whatever the object was, its discovery coincided with the sudden rise in military might and technological prowess of the Third Reich. I had our data analysis team calculate the object’s trajectory and then run it backwards to obtain orbital information, and its position would have coincided almost precisely with the current polar orbit of the Black Knight.’
    Ethan’s eyes narrowed as he tried to understand what he was hearing.
    ‘So Black Knight deployed something? Or maybe there was more than one of them?’
    ‘Perhaps,’ Jarvis said. ‘After all, according to orbital data it must have been up there for several thousand years and thus may have become unstable over time. If there was more than one, that’s what the Germans may have ended up with’
    ‘And this supposed German crash?’ Hannah asked. ‘Are you saying that what we’re heading toward in Antarctica must be where the Nazis hid it?’
    ‘All we can say for sure is that elements of the Third Reich fled to Antarctica via South America in the aftermath of their defeat, and that British and American forces attempted to pursue and destroy them in expeditions that ended not just after the war but some decades later.’
    ‘Decades?’ Hannah echoed. ‘We were still chasing them so recently?’
    ‘Many of the most wanted Nazis, those who served the SS and who ran the concentration camps, fled before the end of the war and many of them disappeared in South America,’ Chandler pointed out. ‘Israel especially spent many decades hunting down former war criminals and bringing them to trial.’ He gestured to the map of the Antarctic on the screen beside him. ‘The warm water channels into the Totten Glacier prove that no matter how outlandish it may seem, the Nazis could have travelled deep into the continent’s interior and developed a staging post for their proposed domination of the world, perhaps using Antarctica for a surprise naval attack. The Nazis were extremely fond of their naval power, Germany itself being landlocked, and had very well developed expertise in building submarine pens in marine environments.’
    Ethan looked at the map of Antarctica dominating the briefing room as Jarvis went on.
    ‘I’ll leave Captain Forrester to fill you in on what we think happened after the war, and I’ll check back in again in