Free Operation Wolfe Cub: A Chilling Historical Thriller (THE TIME TO TELL Book 1) by H.C. Wells

starting with US-1. “We want to know what’s under this thing!”
    “Yes, and I want to know why this bastard’s so fast. What about the wings here too? Tell us about those. This thing fuu-lys.”
    Doc thought for a moment as he gazed up into the spotty clouds. “I thought you might like to know all of that. Come, come over here. Follow me.” He then reached down on deck in back of the cockpit near the stern and cracked open the sealed twin engine bunkers, sending air spewing out. “There, you see? Two Rolls-Royce Merlin 7 aero-engines—water tight—modified to my specifications for marine use.”
    US-1 asked, “Rolls-Royce? I thought this was a German vessel.”
    Doc snickered, “Oh, yes, it is. We stole them from United Kingdom. That was the easy part.”
    US-2 dropped his attitude. “You stole them?”
    “Yes…the hard part was smuggling them back into Germany with the war going on. The only time we could do it was in the morning. About three o’clock as I recall.”
    US-1 looked confused. “Aero engines? But they’re for planes. Why didn’t you use German plane engines?”
    “Plane engines, yes. They had what we scientists needed. German aero-engines are
kaput
. Every one of our engineers knew this.”
    US-1 recalled, “What about those United States-made Ford engines you told us about in the training lab?”
    Doc smiled. “What I said to you was true. He’s our good friend and longtime supporter. Henry Ford. He sent over a couple of 1940 Lincoln Zephyr 8 V 12s, but we couldn’t give them enough boost. The Americans call them ‘stinking heifers,’ and now I know why. Anyway, when we got them tuned in to going four hundred horsepower or better, they went
poof!
Yes,
poof
. Their crankshafts were too long to harness the torque effectively.”
    Doc then pointed down into the engine compartments. “Now
these
engines were the predecessor of the legendary Rolls Peregrine and Kestrel seven hundred horsepower engines from the British…have you heard about their Super Spitfire racing planes? No? How about the Hawker Hurricanes? Oh well, doesn’t matter for the purposes of Operation Wolfe Cub. When we cranked up the superchargers you see here with octane boost, they tipped our meters at eighteen hundred horsepower.”
    US-1 and 2 grinned as Doc kept talking, “Oh, but you haven’t seen anything yet…take a look at this over here.” He rubbed his knuckles, and then tugged on another sealed hatch next to the engine bays. As soon as he cracked it open, vaporized fog rose from within. He then paused to wait for the fog to clear before opening it fully. “Our Aero engines are used for fast takeoffs and getaways, as you already found out…here’s what will get us across the ocean with less petrol. It’s our underwater power too…the first advanced propulsion technology that works seamlessly—well up to twenty knots.”
    Both officers looked eager when Doc motioned gladly with an open hand. “Questions anyone?”
    “Yes, we have a lot.”
    “I’ll move on then:”
    A: “What you see is the first fully successful accomplishment from our flying disc engineers of our top secret spacecraft division.”
    Q: “Oh, I heard about flying…real flying discs that fly. Am I right?”
    A: “No, no, no. Funny you mention. Our flying discs are ridiculous as far as I’m concerned. They never could get them to fly straight—so they crashed. Sure did wonders for keeping everyone on their toes guessing about them though, I must say. Our Foo Fighters were not meant to be, I suppose.”
    Q: “Why’s that? Why don’t they work?”
    A: “It was their centrifugal problem, among other things. Steering was impossible to master under the twisting force. None of us were able to figure out how to control them, so we kept crashing everywhere.”
    Q: “No way to control them? I get it, so couldn’t you do something else?”
    A: “Yes. We worked on drones for a while with some degree of success. We couldn’t arm