Jed Gorman responded to a radio call from Mission Control in Houston. ‘Hi, Houston. Jack, we may have a problem. Something’s gone down here, and we may have to delay the launch.’
A few minutes later, Swan sat with Gorman at his desk in his office. ‘Well, you just heard it. Unless we got solid proof of a sabotage attempt, Flight says we are to continue on schedule. You heard him, the whole world is watching.’
Swan nodded. ‘Yes of course it is, and that’s the whole point.’
Gorman looked puzzled. Suddenly the phone rang and he picked up the receiver. ‘Gorman. Say that again? Okay, I’ll be right down.’ He replaced the receiver. ‘The Data Controller’s been found dead in the Computer Room with a blow to the back of the head. Looks like Peter Weisemann, is now a murder suspect, Mr Swan. You better come with me.’
As the two men rushed out of the control room, Lars Brauer walked back in from another entrance and returned to his desk. He acknowledged his fellow team members. ‘Did you have any luck finding, Peter?’ asked one of them.
Brauer shook his head. ‘No, I have searched everywhere, but could not find him.’ He picked up a pen and started to plot some figures on a pre-set form.
Swan and Gorman arrived at the Computer Room. A security guard standing outside blocked them, but after recognising the Launch Controller, he let them inside.
The medical officer was examining the body, which now lay on the floor. ‘How did he die?’ Gorman asked.
‘Looks like the guy had a massive heart attack, after being hit over the head. There was no sign of a haemorrhage, but it seems the shock sent him into fatal cardiac arrest.’
Swan knelt down. ‘May I look at the blow to his head?’
‘Sure,’ said the medical officer hesitantly. He looked at Gorman, as if to say: who is this guy?
Gorman responded. ‘This is Alex Swan, from the British Ministry of Defence.’
‘Wow, looks like we have here a real James Bond.’
Swan gave the medical officer, a scathing look.
‘Sorry,’ said the officer, seeing the offended look on the Englishman’s face.
Swan smiled to appreciate the apology. He examined the bruising around the head, realising it was a superficial blow. ‘I think you’re right, I don’t think the blow would have killed him, yet it is extremely rare for someone to go into cardiac arrest from a blow to the head. Did he have any medical problems?’
The Medical Officer picked up a file from the desk and thumbed through it. ‘Nope. According to this, he was in good shape, went for a run every day, had a good diet and slept ok.’
Swan stood back up, shaking his head. ‘This just doesn’t add up,’ he mumbled.
‘Yeah, it beats me, too,’ agreed the Medical Officer. ‘I guess, we’ll know more when we take him to the morgue for an autopsy,’ he added. Swan agreed. ‘By the way, who found him?’ The medic thought for a moment. ‘I don’t know, I had a call from the phone outside, asking for a medic, no wait, they asked for a medical person.’
‘What did they sound like?’ asked Swan
‘Well, they actually sounded like one of the German guys.’
The speaker sounded, indicating launch time was now T-Minus three hours thirty minutes. Gorman raised his head to look at the speaker. ‘I’ve got to get back to the Control Room, they’ll be taking the astronauts out to the pad soon.’
Chapter 49
It was only by chance, a janitor mopping the floor outside the storage room, had run out of cleaning fluid, and so had unlocked the door to retrieve some more. Inside the small room, it didn’t take him long to discover the slumped body of Peter Weisemann on the floor, before raising the alarm.
Alex Swan was in the records office, going through the files of the German technicians, when he had been informed that Weisemann had been found. He had rushed to the scene, only to hear the medic almost repeat himself from what he had said about the previous incident. ‘Cardiac arrest? I just don’t get it at all.’ I checked this guy over only last week. He was as fit as a man of his age could be.’
Swan sighed, ‘A bit of a coincidence to have two fit men suddenly have heart attacks, don’t you think?’
The Medical Officer nodded. ‘I’ve got agree with you, Mr Swan. This is damn peculiar. I have checked him over and I can’t see anything, this guy could have taken to cause his condition. I suppose after a more thorough examination, we may find something.’
Swan agreed. There was nothing more he could do. Weisemann was dead, but this hadn’t closed the file, instead, a new entry had just been added, an entry informing him, another Onyx Cross operative, was very much still at large.
He checked the large digital clock above him; the red digits, indicating launch time was now T-Minus two-hours and forty-four minutes.
After briefing Gorman regarding the dead German engine specialist, Swan received a request to visit the Chief’s office, before he was set to board his plane for the quick flight down to Mission Control, Houston. The confident sounding voice behind the door beckoned, ‘please come in.’
Swan entered the office to be approached by a man wearing black trousers, and white shirt rolled up at the sleeves, opened at the neck. His hair was greying at the sides and combed to one side. They shook hands. The man introduced himself, and gestured for Swan to sit down, which he did in front of the large desk. He also confirmed to Swan, he could not spare much time, a plane was waiting to take him to Texas.
The man moved to sit on the edge of his desk. ‘Mr Swan, I have just been informed, you were correct, after all. I must apologise for my arrogance earlier. So please, tell me what this is all about.’
Swan showed his appreciation for the apology. ‘Do you know a Gunther Fleischer?’
The man scratched his temple. ‘I remember the name. I think I met him at Peenemunde, a few times. He worked a lot with Klaus Kemmler, I assume that you know of him?’
Swan nodded. ‘Tell me about Operation Sternstruppe?’
The man looked at the floor. ‘This was the secret directive to prevent German technical knowledge from falling into the hands of the Allies. The Red Army was closing in on us, and everything was handed over to the SS. Rumours were rife, we were all to be shot, rather than any of us falling into Russian hands. It was just a matter of time, before our superiors would call for us, and I did not want that to happen. I feared for my life and the life of my men. I knew that our destiny was with the Americans, so I took my team and as many documents of my research, as everyone could carry and hid them.’ He slapped his thigh. ‘So here we are, and look at the progress my loyal team have made.’
Swan gave him a cynical look, beginning to feel uncomfortable talking to this man. ‘Yes, old Nazi technology has come a long way.’
The Chief Engineer was unhappy with Swan’s reaction. ‘Come now, Mr Swan. We are days away of putting a human being on the Moon. Surely, this means something, to make up for how it all started? Yes, I agree, it may have begun with a rocket of terror, but now, we have made one of wonder! The Saturn Five, is the rocket I dreamed of, when I was a boy.’
Swan stood up, unable to contain himself any longer, he paced in front of the German. ‘Yes, that is true, and I can see, you are indeed very proud of your achievements, Mr Von Braun. But, let me just tell you about one of those rockets of terror, you are trying so hard to move away from. On the 11th of November 1944, at 18.32 at a launch site in Scheveningen, Battery 444, fired one of your V2 rockets from a clearing in the woods known as, the Ahrenwald. The target was London. In their haste, the team responsible for the fuelling forgot to check the fuel levels of the peroxide.’ Von Braun clearly understood, this would have resulted in the tank not being filled enough to meet its intended target, causing the missile to burn short of its planned point of re-entry.