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Authors: Lars Guignard
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understand that you don’t know who you can trust now, but I’m here to tell you that nothing has changed in that regard. I’m still your unit leader. So spell it out for me. Everything from the moment we parted ways at the hammam, exactly as it happened.”
I looked Crust in the eye. I thought about lying to him. Then I made a bet. I told the truth.
Chapter 14
I TOLD C RUST about both the Tesla journal and exactly what had happened with Jean-Marc. Crust sighed. The interior of the van was dark, the only light provided by the eerie glow of the computer screens, but I could tell that what I was saying wasn’t entirely new to him.
“Mike, you understand, that there is more going on here than just your father’s whereabouts, correct?”
“I’m beginning to get that impression.”
“The whole situation is wrapped around the Tesla technology in that journal. I’m no expert, but it sounds as though the journal you found contains research on a Tesla Device. A directed-energy weapon. We got confirmation of the Device’s existence around the same time we began to suspect a mole. That’s why you weren’t brought up to speed.”
“Because you like to send your agents in blind?”
“Because we didn’t know whether we could trust you.”
“What’s changed now?”
“You gave up your weapon, that’s what,” Crust said. “It might have been a stupid thing to do, but what’s changed is that I believe you, Mike. I believe you’re telling the truth.”
I listened, but I was going need more than that.
“Tell me what you know about Wardenclyffe Tower,” Crust said.
“It was a transmission tower built by Tesla in the early 1900s—a proof-of-concept device for wireless broadcasts and the wireless transmission of electricity.”
“And?” Crust said.
“Are you looking for speculation here?”
“Whatever you want.”
“And there are some schools of thought that say it was the wireless transmission of an electric charge from Wardenclyffe tower that caused the Tunguska event.”
“Yahtzee!” Crust said. “On June 30, 1908, five hundred thousand acres of Russian tundra near the Tunguska River were flattened and burned by an event that most of the world blamed on an asteroid strike. As it was, Tesla was documented to be running a test atop his Wardenclyffe Tower Energy Device the same night that Tunguska was hit.”
“So?” I said. “Tesla is working on his Device, Tunguska gets hit. Big deal. It’s possible that the two are related, but by no means guaranteed. They have a name for that fallacy in math. It’s called confusing correlation with causality. Just because A happened, doesn’t mean B caused it.”
“Yeah. Maybe. Cut to 1934.”
“It’s not as if I was briefed on this,” I said.
“So let me brief you. Twenty-six years later, in 1934, Nikola Tesla made claims to have invented a teleforce weapon. He called it a peace ray, a weapon to end all war. In reality, it was a directed-energy weapon capable of massive destruction. He tried to sell the Device to the United States, then to various European governments. He had no takers. No one believed it would work. Then he tried one more government. A government that had had experience with his experiments before.”
“So we’re back to the Russians?”
“Who else?” Crust said.
Crust reached into his pocket and tapped the screen of his Samsung smartphone. Three large monitors built into the wall of the van immediately lit up. The middle screen displayed what looked like a faded color photo taken many years previously. There was a bleak backdrop of straggly Northern trees and patches of unmelted snow. Spring in the northern latitudes. And there was a chain-link fence guarding a galvanized steel tower. The tower was made of interlocking metal struts which rose from a wide base, growing progressively narrower and more needle-like until they reached the top. At the top of the tower was a metallic ball.
From the scale of the shot,
I looked Crust in the eye. I thought about lying to him. Then I made a bet. I told the truth.
Chapter 14
I TOLD C RUST about both the Tesla journal and exactly what had happened with Jean-Marc. Crust sighed. The interior of the van was dark, the only light provided by the eerie glow of the computer screens, but I could tell that what I was saying wasn’t entirely new to him.
“Mike, you understand, that there is more going on here than just your father’s whereabouts, correct?”
“I’m beginning to get that impression.”
“The whole situation is wrapped around the Tesla technology in that journal. I’m no expert, but it sounds as though the journal you found contains research on a Tesla Device. A directed-energy weapon. We got confirmation of the Device’s existence around the same time we began to suspect a mole. That’s why you weren’t brought up to speed.”
“Because you like to send your agents in blind?”
“Because we didn’t know whether we could trust you.”
“What’s changed now?”
“You gave up your weapon, that’s what,” Crust said. “It might have been a stupid thing to do, but what’s changed is that I believe you, Mike. I believe you’re telling the truth.”
I listened, but I was going need more than that.
“Tell me what you know about Wardenclyffe Tower,” Crust said.
“It was a transmission tower built by Tesla in the early 1900s—a proof-of-concept device for wireless broadcasts and the wireless transmission of electricity.”
“And?” Crust said.
“Are you looking for speculation here?”
“Whatever you want.”
“And there are some schools of thought that say it was the wireless transmission of an electric charge from Wardenclyffe tower that caused the Tunguska event.”
“Yahtzee!” Crust said. “On June 30, 1908, five hundred thousand acres of Russian tundra near the Tunguska River were flattened and burned by an event that most of the world blamed on an asteroid strike. As it was, Tesla was documented to be running a test atop his Wardenclyffe Tower Energy Device the same night that Tunguska was hit.”
“So?” I said. “Tesla is working on his Device, Tunguska gets hit. Big deal. It’s possible that the two are related, but by no means guaranteed. They have a name for that fallacy in math. It’s called confusing correlation with causality. Just because A happened, doesn’t mean B caused it.”
“Yeah. Maybe. Cut to 1934.”
“It’s not as if I was briefed on this,” I said.
“So let me brief you. Twenty-six years later, in 1934, Nikola Tesla made claims to have invented a teleforce weapon. He called it a peace ray, a weapon to end all war. In reality, it was a directed-energy weapon capable of massive destruction. He tried to sell the Device to the United States, then to various European governments. He had no takers. No one believed it would work. Then he tried one more government. A government that had had experience with his experiments before.”
“So we’re back to the Russians?”
“Who else?” Crust said.
Crust reached into his pocket and tapped the screen of his Samsung smartphone. Three large monitors built into the wall of the van immediately lit up. The middle screen displayed what looked like a faded color photo taken many years previously. There was a bleak backdrop of straggly Northern trees and patches of unmelted snow. Spring in the northern latitudes. And there was a chain-link fence guarding a galvanized steel tower. The tower was made of interlocking metal struts which rose from a wide base, growing progressively narrower and more needle-like until they reached the top. At the top of the tower was a metallic ball.
From the scale of the shot,
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