“Heinrich, you always told me the best political tool is the weapon of terror. You made me understand cruelty commands respect and that, despite the fact others will disapprove of our actions, it is necessary. We do not ask for their love, only their fear and capitulation. I make you this solemn promise. We will rise from the ashes.”
She looked upward toward the soaring ceiling and smiled. After a long gaze upon the patron saint, tears began to stream down Brit’s face. She clenched her eyes shut and managed a smile.
“Heinrich, meine liebe, my days on Earth have come to an end. This will be my last opportunity to speak with you here until I join you in the afterlife. It will not be much longer. Ich liebe dich.” I love you.
Brit pushed herself up until she was standing next to the ornately carved pew. Bracing herself with her left hand, she straightened her curved back as best she could, stuck her chin out, and snapped her right arm straight into the air.
“Sieg Heil! Sieg Heil! Sieg Heil!”
Three days later, Brit Jorgensen, mistress of Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler, and mother of two of his children, died peacefully in her sleep.
Part I
As one star sinks behind the horizon, another rises into view.
Chapter One
Aboard the Sea Searcher II
One Hundred Seventy Miles North of Puerto Rico
North Atlantic Ocean
The arriving helicopter’s engine wound down, and the rotors slowed to a rhythmic whop-whop as its passengers exited. Gunner Fox suppressed his annoyance at the intrusion, as he was intent on studying the satellite images and nautical charts. He was searching for clues as to the whereabouts of the other salvage operation they’d encountered on the ocean floor.
It was the playful back-and-forth of his fellow operatives, Cameron Mills and Barret King, that caused him to turn his attention to the new arrivals. He turned just as the woman announced herself.
“Hi. I’m Dr. Harper Randolph.”
Gunner, out of respect, retrieved his tee shirt out of the waistband of his cargo pants and pulled it over his head. He’d borrowed it from a member of the Sea Searcher’s crew. It was imprinted with a red and white dive flag and the black silhouette of a diver floating across it. Underneath the flag, it read Fins Up.
He pointed toward the newcomer’s tee shirt and quipped, “Great minds.”
Slightly puzzled, she paused and then looked down at her shirt and over at his. Harper oftentimes chose a tee shirt from her selection of nearly a hundred in her closet to correspond with a particular investigation she was involved in. Her shirt depicted a great white shark swimming beneath the ocean surface with a scuba diver just above it. The commonly used phrase by divers, fins up, was emblazoned across her chest.
“Apparently,” she said with a laugh. Then she got down to business. “The chopper pilot thought you guys might’ve been the team that took the submersible to the ocean floor.”
“That’s right. I’m Gunner Fox. This is—”
Harper cut him off. “American hero,” she said with a smile. Although she hadn’t immediately recognized Gunner, she naturally recognized his name.
Gunner blushed, a rare occurrence. He shied away from publicity. “Nah, not really. It was a team effort.” He turned to Cam and Bear, who quickly introduced themselves.
Bear was eager to meet the new arrivals. “I’m Barrett King, but they call me Bear.” He stuck his hand out to shake Harper’s, but she didn’t attempt to return the gesture.
“Hi, Bear. Um, I don’t shake hands. Sorry. It’s just a thing, you know?”
Cam spoke up. “Cameron Mills, and I get it. Besides, you don’t wanna touch him anyway. You don’t know where he’s been.”
The women shared a wink and a laugh at Bear’s expense. He furrowed his brow and scowled but, as always, took the good-natured ribbing in stride.
Harper continued. “This is Dr. Li Kwon, who’ll be accompanying me on board the Sea Searcher I. We’re gonna try to make some sense of what happened.”
“Are you guys CDC?” asked Cam.
“Not anymore,” replied Harper. “We hang our hats at DARPA now. Sort of, anyway. They’ve kept us traveling a lot lately. Can you fill us in?”
“Don’t you wanna get settled in first?” asked Bear. “The cabins are small, but—”
“No, thanks,” she replied. She pointed to the Sea Searcher I, which was being cleaned up by a hazmat crew. “We’re tardy for the party over there. They’ve secured the samples we need, but we need to review the scene before we can get started in the lab.”
Harper and her partner, Kwon, had recently returned from China, where they’d raced against time to find the origins of a mysterious novel virus that first revealed itself in a downtown Las Vegas casino. The disease’s origins were in China, but their investigation had been hampered by the secrecy of the Communist Chinese government, so the two of them had had to enter the country surreptitiously to get answers.
Kwon stepped toward the charts and satellite images. He looked to Cam and pointed at the photographs. “May I?”
Cam stood to the side and gestured for Kwon to help himself. “Sure, although it’s hard to make out the details.”
He eased past her. Cam’s eyebrows lowered as she observed his movements. She made eye contact with Gunner, who provided her an imperceptible nod. There was more to Dr. Li Kwon than met the eye.
Kwon held up two of the images so that the sunlight illuminated more of the details. Then he scanned those on the table and arranged them so that four were placed in order, revealing a better view of the wreckage.
“Kriegsmarine,” he muttered. “Probably Type IX, long version. None of the other nines would’ve attempted a mission of this length.”
Cam was intrigued. “Are