“Garbo. I always liked that one,” Frank said. Garbo was a perfect code word for a fake-double agent. The more obvious reference was the Greta Garbo picture, The Two-Faced Woman, and talking about Greta Garbo in most circumstances was pretty benign and easy to work into conversation.
The other reference, though, was far more interesting—and known only to spooks. Juan Pujol García was a Spaniard who went to work spying on the British on behalf of the Nazis—except he was really working for the British. He did so well in his double role that he got the Iron Cross from Germany. And his code name during the war was Garbo.
“You doubted me?” Maggie teased.
Frank just smiled. “Always. Why didn’t you work it in at the Lubyanka? We got the SATCHMO all-clear from Washington. Big and brassy. Could’ve wrapped it up then and there.”
Maggie grimaced a little at that. “I figured you were doing SATCHMO. But I didn’t know where Beria was keeping his nuke. I needed more time. Tried to work Garbo in there, but you were way too spooked. And then you threw a chair through the fucking window and jumped. If you had just waited a few more minutes …”
“I’m not the most patient guy,” Frank said. “Glad you got my message. You didn’t give us a chance to catch up before you got out of Dodge. What have you been up to?”
Maggie shrugged. “Laying low, moving around a bit. Staying out of trouble. Well, there was that weekend in Atlantic City. A girl’s gotta have fun.”
“I don’t even want to know,” Frank said. “What about long term? What’cha gonna do with your life?”
“Honestly? No idea. For now, just gonna find a small, quiet corner of the world, not a lot of people. Somewhere to hunker down a while and sort things out. You?”
Frank shoved his hands in his pockets and took out his cigarettes and a lighter. “Gonna travel some. I still got all these languages in my head, might as well put ’em to use. Probably just do what I did back before Danny found me. Job to job, place to place, just see what a world without all this spy crap looks like.”
They both grew silent at Danny’s name and looked down at his final resting place. “He was a good guy,” Maggie said finally. “Fought for us every step of the way. Really thought it would work, that we’d do our time and then be left alone.”
“Maybe if he were still around. Now? I mean, we were dangerous before. Now, one of us tried to nuke Korea, and the rest of us know way too much. Danny’s gone, Vandenberg’s retired and doesn’t have much time left.” Frank lit his cigarette and took a long drag. “Nobody left to speak for us. We did the right thing.”
Maggie reached over, took Frank’s cigarette, and took a drag of her own. “We should’ve left years ago. But, it is what it is.” She handed the butt back to him. “How are the others?”
Frank smiled. “Cal’s fine. He had plans in place for him and his family. Rose ended up in Switzerland, doing something with physics there, of all things, and she took Ekaterina with her, working to get her officially adopted. Sorensen just moved to Winnipeg and just made contact with his family to get them up there.”
“Not smart,” Maggie said.
“I helped him work it out, don’t worry,” Frank replied. “And Yamato’s off God knows where. I’m trying to keep my ear to the ground for the others.”
She looked at him quizzically. “Why? It’s a risk.”
“Because he’d want me to,” Frank said, nodding at Danny’s tombstone.
They both stared at the grave for a while, until Maggie broke the silence. “All right. I’m off. See you around.”
“Maggie.”
She turned around, but Frank was at a loss for words. Of all the experts who’d inhabited his head for all those years, nobody had any idea of what to say next. “Wait … yeah. I, uh …”
Maggie smiled, turned back and gave him a peck on the cheek. “Trust me, I’m the last girl you’d want around. Go find someone nice.”
That wasn’t what Frank had in mind, which he figured she already knew, but the gesture was oddly comforting. “If I need to reach you …” he said finally.
This time, she turned and kept walking.
“Don’t,” she said.
History and MAJESTIC-12
“Which parts of this are real?”
When one writes historical fantasies, that’s a completely valid question, and my excellent editor, Cory Allyn, had to ask that a few times over the course of our work on the MAJESTIC-12 books. History is full of noteworthy characters and unusual circumstances, so you might be surprised as to what’s real, and what’s not. (Editor’s note: in a series full of superheroes and supernatural occurrences, the sections I originally noted as least plausible were usually the ones that stuck closest to actual history!)
The MAJESTIC-12 books are historical fantasy (or, perhaps, historical science fiction), but they’re not necessarily alternate history, because at the end of the day, I wanted to make sure the general course of history wouldn’t need to change as a result of the Variants’ existence. Consider the MJ-12 program as more of a secret history that leans on existing events and individuals to help inform the story.
This series hews close to history because … I really couldn’t make this stuff up if I tried. There was plenty to mine throughout the Cold War, a period in the history of espionage that was about as Wild West as you could possibly imagine. When the emergence of superpowered agents seems almost rational in comparison, how could you not run with it?
That said, I certainly took my liberties here and there over the course of the trilogy. The first book, MJ-12: Inception, had a looser connection to real historical events, but was closely intertwined with real conspiracy-theory lore. The infamous “Truman memo” ordering the creation of Operation Majestic Twelve—which is a very “real” document you can find quite easily with a quick Google search, but is widely considered by historical scholars to be utterly fake—was dated September 24, 1947, and has long been used by UFO enthusiasts as proof of the “Roswell incident.” I decided early on to leverage the MJ-12 myth for this series, so the memo was a major touchpoint. In doing so, I moved the establishment of Area 51 forward a bit to 1948—in real life, it was established as a secret CIA aircraft-testing facility in 1955.
The real-life inauguration of Czechoslovakian President Klement Gottwald in June 1948 served as another touchpoint in that first book, even if the event simply provided a reasonable excuse for the new MJ-12 agents to rendezvous with their potential double agent.
The MJ-12 UFO mythos also informed a huge number of characters in the books—Roscoe Hillenkoetter, Hoyt Vandenberg, James Forrestal, the Dulles brothers, Harry S. Truman, and Dwight D. Eisenhower, just to name a few. Forrestal’s mysterious death in 1949 became a key plot point in MJ-12: Shadows; similarly, that sad event became a rallying cry for real-life conspiracy theorists who claim that he was murdered to cover up the existence of extraterrestrial life.
As the series continued, I shifted away from MAJESTIC-12 conspiracy lore and more toward historical fact. The utter chaos in Syria in 1949, for example, played a huge role in MJ-12: Shadows. There were three coups in Syria that year, the first sponsored by the CIA and the other two well out of the agency’s control. Not only did these events come with an immense amount of drama—the burglary of Miles Copeland’s home in Damascus actually happened—but they felt, to me, like an object lesson in what happens when the United States tries to covertly meddle in other nations’ affairs.
The first successful nuclear test by the Soviet Union in 1949 was the other major touchpoint in Shadows. Again, those events in Kazakhstan gave me an immense amount of material to work with, right down to the structures on site and the people involved. Yes, I did play around with some of the details—Laverentiy Beria was actually the political director of the USSR’s nuclear effort, for example, but it’s highly unlikely he exercised such a direct role in such a critical military project.
Beria, as you’ve just read, was one of the movers and shakers in the Soviet
Union in the waning days of Stalin’s rule, and had a good shot at replacing him as Premier after his death in 1953. There are those who claim Beria played a, shall we say, active role in Stalin’s demise; while this hasn’t been proven, Beria’s reputation as a murderous bastard makes the theory plausible, at the very least. Indeed, Beria was responsible for the deaths of millions of innocents in the post-war Soviet Union, and did much to further, and benefit from, the culture of fear under Stalin.
That interregnum period between Stalin’s death and Khrushchev’s consolidation of power is very lightly covered in American history lessons, but the uncertainty and fear felt by the Soviets can’t be understated, and Beria’s eventual purge and execution were ultimately a key turning point in history; had he successfully taken control of the country, the Soviet Union would’ve gone down an even darker path. Khrushchev was no saint, but the glimmers of reform during his rule would never have occurred without him. I would argue that if Beria had won the day, there might still be a Soviet Union today, complete with an ongoing Cold War and nuclear tensions.
While the Kremlin’s internal power struggle made the perfect backdrop for Endgame, there were obviously major liberties taken, and not just Beria’s superhuman abilities. Beria never meddled in the armistice talks in Korea, for example, and certainly did not travel there to do so. His control over the USSR’s nuclear arsenal had waned considerably by 1953 as well. However, the workers’ protests in East Berlin actually did serve to undermine his credibility as head of the Soviet Union’s spying and secret police organizations, and really were used by Khrushchev and others against him.
In the end, I think there are some very interesting things to be learned from the Cold War, especially in today’s geopolitical climate. It’s been nearly thirty years since the end of the Cold War, more than fifty years since the heyday of the CIA’s cowboy covert actions, and more than sixty years since McCarthyism nearly put a stranglehold on individual liberties in America.
But the lessons from these events, and their application to modern American life, I’ll leave to you to determine.
Acknowledgments
Now I’m six books into a career I didn’t really believe I’d have a decade ago, and there are so many excellent people who have helped make this a reality. Naming everyone who has made a positive impact on my career as an author would be an entire extra chapter of this book, and likely interesting only to me. So to all those fellow authors who have lifted me up and made me a part of an excellent, welcoming community within science fiction and fantasy, know that your generosity means more to me than I could ever say.
And to all of the people who have steadily bought my books, reviewed them, told others about them, come to conventions to see me and get books signed, interacted with me online and likewise helped lift me up, I see you and deeply appreciate your time and your enthusiasm.
As we wrap up the MAJESTIC-12 series, I want to thank everyone at Night Shade Books, former and current, who helped bring all my novels thus far to bookshelves. Cory Allyn has been my editor for five novels now, and has been an excellent editor and collaborator in making these works better than they would’ve been. Richard “Shecky” Shealy is still, and likely will always be, the best copyeditor an author could ask for, given that enforcing continuity over three books is exponentially more difficult than a single novel. Jason Katzman, Ross Lockhart, and Jeremy Lassen are also to thank for making all this a reality.
There are also plenty of family and friends and coworkers who have supported me throughout my authorial career, giving me the encouragement and support I need to keep going. I want to give a special thanks to Linda Johnson, the absolute best boss I’ve had in more than a quarter-century of being in the workforce. Her unwavering support at work—and in life—is a big reason why I can write books and you get to read them.
This book is dedicated to Sara Megibow (at long last!), my agent and my friend. She is a tireless advocate of my work, and greets my ideas with just the right mix of enthusiasm and grounding. I’m proud and humbled to have someone like her in my corner.
Finally, as always, none of this would be nearly as much fun without my wife, Kate, and daughter, Anna. Thank you both for all your love and support and patience.
Here’s to the next adventure.
Michael J. Martinez
March 2018
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SET SAIL AMONG THE STARS WITH THIS UNCANNY TALE, WHERE ADVENTURE AWAITS
AND DIMENSIONS COLLIDE!
THE DAEDALUS INCIDENT
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Michael J. Martinez
978-1-59780-858-3
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“Genre bending often comes at great peril, but Martinez pulls it off with an assurance that makes all the pieces slot together perfectly.”
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Unexplainable earthquakes are disrupting Mars’s trillion-dollar mining operations in 2132, and investigations by Lieutenant Shaila Jain and her team lead to the discovery of a mysterious blue radiation and a three-hundred-year-old journal that is writing itself.
Lieutenant Thomas Weatherby of His Majesty’s Royal Navy is sailing aboard the HMS Daedalus in 1779, a frigate sailing both on the high seas between continents … and across the Solar System, chasing a powerful mystic toward mankind’s faraway colonies and bizarre alien worlds.
What neither Jain nor Weatherby realizes is that their journeys have more in common than either might think, as powerful beings have embarked upon a sinister quest to upset the balance of the planets—the consequences of which may reach far beyond the Solar System, threatening the very fabric of space itself.
TWO DIMENSIONS … DESTINED TO BECOME ENTANGLED!
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Lieutenant Commander Shaila Jain has been given the assignment of her dreams: the first manned mission to Saturn. But there’s unexpected competition from the Chinese when she arrives aboard the survey ship, and one of the planet’s moons, Enceladus, may harbor secrets deep under its icy crust.
For Thomas Weatherby, it’s been nineteen years since he was second lieutenant aboard the HMS Daedalus. Now a captain, Weatherby is in pursuit of an escaped French ship, traveling through the Void of space from Egypt to Saturn, home of the alien race the Xan. Meanwhile, back on Earth, alchemist Andrew Finch has ingratiated himself with Napoleon’s forces … and discovers the true, horrible reason why the French invaded Egypt in the first place.
The thrilling sequel to The Daedalus Incident, The Enceladus Crisis returns to Martinez’s action-packed Daedalus series with two dimensions of steampunk sailing adventure and modern space opera.
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Weatherby must follow the French to the green planet. Jain must decide if it’s possible to save the man she loves, or if he must be sacrificed for the good of two dimensions. On Venus, everything points to all-out war on the alien planet—and past and present will join forces one final time to destroy an ancient terror.
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MJ-12: INCEPTION
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Michael J. Martinez
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“A heady blend of super-spies and superpowers, MJ-12: Inception is Cold War-era science fiction done right. A taut thriller, and skillfully evocative.”—New York Times bestselling author Chris Roberson
In the aftermath of World War II, the United States and Russia are squaring off in a different kind of conflict, one that’s fought in the shadows, where there are whispers of strange and mysterious developments.
Normal people across the United States have inexplicably gained paranormal abilities. A factory worker can heal the sick and injured. A schoolteacher bends emotions to her will. A car salesman alters matter with a simple touch. A former soldier speaks to the dying and gains their memories as they pass on.
MJ-12: Endgame Page 27
