Order of the Black Sun Box Set 4

by Preston William Child

“Thank you, Sam!” he said. “Call me as soon as you land and we’ll meet you there.”

  With a weary exhale he placed the phone on the table in his living room, where he was nursing a cup of bitter black coffee. Through the empty rum bottle he stared at the front door, too tired and depressed to get dressed before Mieke would arrive. She was due to be there soon.

  “And so it begins,” he sighed in miserable slurs of fatigue. He had hardly slept an hour all night. Something about those people Cheryl had brought with her did not feel right. Cheryl did not feel good. Mieke was pulling off something borderline illegal. Sam was already slightly vexed at Billy’s constant excuses and there were no classes scheduled for the week, so he wouldn’t make a dime. And now that Sam’s people were already traveling from Scotland to come and investigate the fake claim, Billy felt even more terrified at the uncertain outcome of the whole thing. He had nowhere to turn; he had to see it through, or nobody would ever trust him again. He simply could not falter now, because his only alternative would be unemployment, which was not an alternative at all, since without a family to support him he was bound to end up on the streets of the city’s already crumbling infrastructure.

  Just like the city he resided in, his life had once been vibrant and successful with international acclaim and full of allure. But now, mismanagement and greed had taken its toll forcing him to enter a very gray zone in an attempt of recovery. Billy Malgas shook his head and forced his limbs to action if only to change posture and appear enthusiastic. The one good thing in all of this was that he was going to see Sam again. The lad was an entertaining and energetic presence; Billy would welcome at this juncture of his life and career.

  After a quick shower, Dr. Malgas got dressed in his best smart casual attire. He could not deny that to looking decent and having brushed the rum off his breath made him feel better about everything. In the mirror, he looked like a proper academic again and by some force of will plastered a smile on his face, just to see how he would look to Sam Cleave and his team he didn’t know yet.

  "Not too bad, not too bad," he grinned wider, throwing in a bit of attitude in his pose. "You keep this up. You might just sell this bullshit to them, after all... and if you do," he came up close to the mirror to scrutinize his features, "you might just come out of it stinking rich with endorsements and guest lecture invitations!”

  A knock at his door kicked Dr. Billy Malgas into action. Mieke was here.

  On their way to the harbor, Dr. Malgas thought it was a good idea to familiarize himself with Mieke’s plan and the details of the ship in question. It was a windy morning in Port Elizabeth, and the brunt of the traffic was gone since rush hour had already passed. Mieke had suggested having brunch at the Sea Lion Restaurant and Fisheries, a well-loved eatery on the harbor’s long line of fish markets and yacht clubs.

  “How did you find this wreck in the first place, Mieke?” he asked her.

  "I have known about it for a long time, actually. My brother and his girlfriend once took my parents and me out to the sea for a fishing day. Her father is retired and very well off. He used to love being out on the open sea, but his health didn’t allow him to go out on the yacht so much. So she told my brother to invite us. It was on a Sunday, I remember,” she explained, gesturing wildly with her hands as she always did.

  “So they all know about it?” he asked.

  “No. When we lay at anchor, you know, everybody was drinking and listening to music on the bar stereo, I jumped into the water to cool off. It was more of a dare from my brother," she giggled. "Nobody else wanted to go, so I won two hundred bucks with that bet!"

  Dr. Malgas enjoyed her enthusiasm so much that he almost forgot to ask about the more significant details, "Okay, okay, but do you know exactly where it is?"

  “I saw it when I dove under the ship. Almost had a bloody heart attack," she recounted with a wince of terror. "Just saw this huge dark thing under me! Jesus, I almost died when I saw it at first. It is huge, Dr. Malgas. And only I saw it."

  “Are you sure? How long ago was this?” he asked.

  "Positive. Of course, I don't know if anyone else has seen it before or after me. No-one ever reported it or said anything," she told him.

  “How long ago?” he persisted.

  “Um, about six months? Just before the summer," she recalled. Malgas gave it some thought. So far it all seemed plausible. Even if they found out that it was not the Graf Spee, he could still claim that had simply been mistaken.

  “How are we going to convince professional historians and salvage divers that this is indeed the Graf Spee, Mieke? You do know that those ships had a certain construction and other features like emblems and deck guns only the Germans used,” he frowned.

  They pulled into the harbor area, passing countless train tracks to reach the security checkpoint.

  “I took care of that too,” she winked. It was meant to put him at ease, but Dr. Malgas only tensed up at the thought of the young blonde beauty being at the helm of his reputation. After having their IDs checked, Mieke and Dr. Malgas took the small road behind the row of structures along the harbor front to the restaurant.

  “How, Mieke?” he whispered urgently. “My nerves are frayed, girl. I have to know what you know. When these people get here, I have to sound sure of my game. Now how did you ‘take care' of the details?"

  They ordered coffee and took the menus from the waiter.

  Mieke suddenly looked guilty. Her eyes danced in his glare as she sought the right words. Dr. Malgas felt his throat close up above his hammering heart. He felt too sick to eat now. Judging by her expression, she had done something he might have to pay for later, he feared.

  “Mieke,” he said blandly. “Just tell me. Now.”

  She took a deep breath. “I had the emblem cast in iron and then oxidized to rust and look approximately the right age,” she admitted. His face remained unchanged as the words still found their way through his logic. “My brother and two of his metallurgist colleagues did it for us, and then we went out to the estimated area and dropped the plaques into the water. If they find those in the vicinity of the ship they’re bound to agree that it must be part of the Graf Spee, right?”

  Dr. Malgas shook his head relentlessly in disbelief. “The metallurgists and your brother… they know what is going on?”

  “I swore them to secrecy, and I paid them out of my trust fund. If this works, we’ll get all our money back. Don’t worry about it,” she insisted.

  “Jesus Christ, Mieke!” he whispered hard, leaning toward her across the table. “Do you realize what this little secret is going to cost us if they find out it’s all…”

  The waiter arrived to take their orders.

  "Can you please come back in a few minutes?" Malgas snapped at the unwelcome intrusion. "And bring me a double Red Heart Rum. Neat. No ice."

  “They won’t find out, Doctor. Remember, nobody said we did a dive down there, so they can’t blame us if it turns out to be fake! It could just be an honest misidentification. Relax, or you will never successfully sell this hoax,” she whispered. She looked up, past him to the deck entrance. By his description and from some old photos she recognized the stylish woman, who was accompanied by two stern-looking suited men.

  “Just a heads-up. Cheryl Tobias is here.”

  11

  Gadgets Ready, Engines Fueled

  Purdue listened to the lively chatter within his normally quiet mansion, as Sam and the women debated the best way to get to the wreck site.

  “If we fly down, we’ll have to wait a few days for Crystal’s survey ship to make it down there,” Nina countered. “If we charter a boat there for, say, three days, we can, at least, scout the area and locate the vessel in the meantime.”

  “That would be a waste of time. We may as well travel on the survey ship in the first place,” Crystal negated the idea.

  They were trying to figure out how to proceed, especially since the wreck was in territorial waters and the whole excursio
n had to be as inconspicuous as possible. Purdue smiled.

  “You do realize that chartering a ship would double the expenses and that others would know that something is afoot, right?” Purdue called from the adjacent study, where he was mapping out a route on his tablet. It was a brand new version of his tablet he had only been using for three days so far, but he was getting the hang of it.

  He could hear their moans of defeat at his comment, but they soon started arguing again. The suggested schedule would allow for them to spend approximately three days on the eastern coast of South Africa hoping they wouldn’t arouse suspicion from locals or the coast guards. The whole excursion would be expensive either way, he thought, so he wanted to give his latest invention a try. Purdue had been working on the software since Sam approached him about the prospect of a Nazi Panzerschiff in the Indian Ocean.

  His multi-functional tablet had been upgraded with his own software and he was now able to employ external data he – as he put it – “grabbed from the atmosphere” to locate anything he wanted to. He had not tested the software’s ability to penetrate water without scrambling coordinates yet. It had already proven to be a problem to navigate through atmospheric disturbances at different locations around the globe, depending on the season, weather and distance from the magnetic influences of the poles.

  If he was closer to the wreck, in person, it would be child’s play. Better yet, he would not have to go out on a yacht every day to survey. He could do it from the coast, undetected. Once he had gathered enough information for the sonar mapping, his only problem would be to get the wreck raised and towed out of territorial into international waters. In case they would run into any trouble with the coast guard, Crystal would deal with the legal side of it. From the same, data Nina would be able establish the authenticity and likelihood of it being the infamous battle ship, and once that was determined and the wreck was worth the salvage, he would pull out the ace he had up his sleeve.

  “Purdue,” Sam groaned as he stumbled into the study, “please tell me you have a solution! Those women are going to be the death of me!” His hand was in his hair, his tired eyes blinking profusely, as he leaned on Purdue’s desk. Purdue just smiled contentedly, ignoring Sam’s plight, since he knew they were bickering for no reason.

  “I already have the solution,” he said calmly. Nina appeared behind Sam.

  “What?” she frowned. “Would it have been too much of a bother to tell us this before we racked our brains to work out the logistical nightmare South Africa poses?”

  “I considered it,” he teased, punching in his password to open the final draft of the design he hoped to have conquered.

  Nina rolled her eyes, but she was secretly relieved. Crystal joined her and Sam in silent anticipation.

  “Well? Don’t exclude us from the latest great Purduic plan,” Crystal pried in her sternest tone, mocking him.

  “Purduic?” Nina asked, staring at the tall lawyer with a look of warning. “Don’t flatter him too much. He already thinks he is a god!”

  Sam chuckled.

  Purdue waited for the tone to announce he was signed in and softly said, “Behold, my kingdom of simplicity.” He turned the tablet and lifted the top so that they could see the bright blue lines and numbers that filled the black screen. Some of the numbers were red and in the top right corner there was a lime green digital compass.

  “This is to keep us from going arse about face on all the data we collect on the screen, see?” Purdue explained the compass.

  “And what are all those lines?” Nina asked.

  “It looks like the lines on a map.” Sam quickly excused, “That much is obvious, but, I would like to know exactly what they are for.”

  "Wonder no more, dear lad, wonder no more," Purdue boasted, sounding much like a snake oil salesman of old trying to show off his elixirs. "Those are contour lines of the ocean floor. By these contours, we can calculate the distance between different depths. But there is more…”

  “Ooh, I’m positively tingling,” Nina said in a pretend-bored tone with a smirk on her pretty face. Crystal winked at her in amusement.

  Purdue touched the screen with two sweeps of his index finger along the bottom frame and the contour lines blurred to almost nothing, but a wealth of strange shapes of all sizes and infrequent arrangement appeared. "This is sonar mode. It uses high-frequency sonar in a 5km radius to detect objects on the same terrain. The only part I have not determined beyond doubt is its submarine accuracy."

  "That could pose a problem since we have to see beyond that distance on the ocean floor. Dr. Malgas is adamant that the vessel is close to the edge of South African territorial waters,” Sam added.

  “I know,” Purdue nodded, his light blue eyes darting over the objects on the screen as he mulled it over. “I will just have to increase its reach.”

  “So, when and how are we going?” Nina asked.

  Purdue snapped out of his deep thought, “Oh! I have decided to rent a house on the coast, maybe a holiday rental. Then I can use the landscaper software from there until we know exactly where the wreck is located.”

  “You do know that Bluewater Bay is not exactly a holiday destination, right?" Crystal informed Purdue. "It is an ordinary town, and I doubt anyone who lives on the beach will just give up their house for you to use.”

  Purdue scoffed. He flashed one of his trademark confident smiles at the women and patted Sam on the shoulder as he walked by. “Sam, could you check the property sites and get us a house, please? Make sure they can’t resist the bait, will you?”

  “Aye! Absolutely,” Sam grinned and made for the high back chair behind Purdue’s computer on the desk. “What time should I give Dr. Malgas? Are we taking your jet?”

  "We are indeed," he heard Purdue say cheerfully on his way to the bar fridge. "Tell him we should be there by Tuesday late afternoon. Also, Crystal, do me a favor and draw up the necessary contracts for our crew, please. That includes Nina and Sam. Sam will give you the names of Dr. Malgas' team if he is bringing his own people.”

  “On it,” Crystal replied, and gave Purdue one of her sexy winks as she exited the room to fetch her laptop.

  “No chores for me, then?” Nina asked. Although she had never enjoyed being given orders, she felt excluded.

  “You have already gathered all the information you could get about the Admiral Graf Spee there is, haven’t you?” Purdue asked cordially. Nina nodded. “That means your work is done for now. You are welcome to roam or rest at your heart's delight, my dear," he smiled, tenderly running his hand through her hair like he used to when they were a couple. It ignited something in Nina, and she glanced over to Sam who was so engrossed in his task that he barely noticed her anymore. With the charming, rich German woman in their midst, Nina felt even more insignificant, and Sam's reciprocation to Crystal's flirtations confirmed her feelings.

  At that moment, Nina decided to stop the self-pity and remember who she was. She made the conscious choice of letting go of all her self-doubt and any inkling of inferiority she had been harboring since coming to Edinburgh a few days ago. Perhaps it was her new-ish life in her hometown of Oban that had changed her perception of herself. Living in the most hated house in Oban’s history, she had begun to feel lonely.

  As a fellow at Edinburgh University under the unbearable arrogance of the misogynist Prof. Matlock, she at least had had a schedule to focus on. Back then, several years ago, she had had classes to teach and exams to grade on a regular basis, keeping her mind off her personal life that lacked romance. Now that she was older, approaching her forties, there was a subliminal urge to settle down she had never entertained before; and for some reason it made her self-conscious.

  Somewhere along the way, the sexy historian had forgotten that her looks and petite body gave most women in their twenties a run for their money, but from now on, she decided, she would not be intimidated by anyone anymore. Dr. Nina Gould reclaimed her old self at that moment, and when Purdue stroked her l
uscious dark tresses she vowed to embrace her innate fury and use her delectable feminine wiles once more.

  “Why thank you, Dave,” she smiled in a special way he had not seen in years. “Call me if you need me… for anything.” Nina walked off, flicking her hair back. Where the ends bounced off the small of her back, Purdue watched her curvy hips sway seductively. It provoked a reaction in him, an intangible yet powerful reaction that he dared not act on while planning this important expedition. He had to keep his bearings to get the project off the ground and complete the salvage. But after that was taken care off, he had another excursion to embark on.

  He heard Sam talking on the phone about a beach house he wanted to rent. Crystal was filling in her contract templates as the rain began to patter against the study windows. The light grew faint from the darkening weather, and he switched on the hallway lights, still catching sight of Nina's petite frame descending the second story stairs.

  Purdue smiled and whispered, “Time for me to get you back, Nina.”

  12

  Arrival on African Soil

  After Purdue’s flight crew had made sure his passengers had only the best liquor and meals, the group arrived at a private airstrip just south of Walmer, a suburb of Port Elizabeth. The aircraft touched down just after 6.30pm after a two-day stint with a stay-over in London which had almost turned into a catastrophe. On Crystal’s insistence, they had had dinner at a restaurant Ashford, although Purdue and Nina thought it would have been better to get takeout and turn in early.

  Eventually, with Sam backing her, Purdue and Nina had surrendered to what they had considered an unnecessary trip. The menu had been excellent, the wine exquisite and the service surprisingly fast, but as they had left the establishment to go to the taxi Purdue called, they had hit a snag. Crystal’s bag had been ripped from her with such force that she had been slammed down on the pavement. Sam had pursued the thief, but when the culprit had disappeared into the shadows, two gunshots had rung out, and a slug spark just to Sam’s right had discouraged him from following the man any further.