'Physical matter was not made of the four elements per se,' Jackson interrupted, 'rather, it displayed one or more attributes of the classical elements. However, the fifth element was a kind of super element that the other four inherited their properties from; it existed in its own right but was incredibly difficult to derive and next to impossible to handle. Alchemists throughout history have tried to extract the pure fifth element.
'Now, Maria indicated that the Sun of the Sleepless had once known how to derive and control the fifth element; however, the secret had been lost to them. In spite of this, it was stated that a new world order would arise when the secret had been uncovered again and those with the correct knowledge, such as the Society for Truth and the girls that had reached the upper echelons of the Sisterhood, would go on to become the inheritors of the earth, populating a new age of peace and enlightenment.'
Dale's expression changed, as if he'd just had a revelation.
'Isn't that what Hitler wanted to do? Isn't this group just a prototype Nazi Party?'
'Always with the Nazis!' Jackson sighed loudly as he stared up, apparently searching the false ceiling for the words to explain his theory. 'Remember what I said about Venus and Aphrodite, about the image of a
femme fatale
? In this case it was literally so. They were enticing the fledgling Nazi Party and its upper echelons by presenting themselves as conformant to that developing ideology. You can see how they entered each organisation to use it as a Trojan Horse to infiltrate the next more influential target.
'Using her reputation as a medium, Maria associates herself with the Thule Society. She then uses her Thulist connections to gradually reform the Vril Society which she purports to represent, promoting her Sisterhood to attract teenage girls from which she can recruit particularly adept members. Then there is the Society for Truth, attracting radical scientists from which she also selects specific individuals who demonstrate an aptitude for the apparent pseudo-science that she is promoting. All along they are associating themselves with the Nazi elite, preparing for the time when doors can be opened to the resources of the entire German nation.
'The Thule Society, The Vril Society, The Society for Truth, all utilised to give them respectability but to hide their true intentions, always working for the benefit of the Sun of the Sleepless; everything else is a cover. There is a plan, there is an objective and it has nothing to do with Nazism per se.'
Jolene held up her hands to stop Jackson in his tracks.
'Alright! How much more of this stuff is there? We need to come to some conclusions for Kappel, I mean, what was the objective? Why were they infiltrating? If this is the same group that is threatening us now, what was their intention back then?'
Jackson puckered one cheek and shrugged.
'I have lots of raw data but I don't know for certain what it all means. I have information right up until the end of World War II but I can only conjecture as to their intentions.'
'So conjecture -'
He pursed his lips and considered his thoughts.
'First of all, let me give you some background into what the word Vril actually refers to, as the concept caused something of a stir not only back in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, it also had something of a revival in conspiracy circles starting from around the 1960's.'
He looked down at his laptop computer and repeatedly tapped the keyboard, flicking through the sequence of slides in his presentation until a scanned page of typed text appeared:
'What is vril?' I asked.
Therewith Zee began to enter into an explanation of which I understood very little, for there is no word in any language I know which is an exact synonym for vril. I should call it electricity, except that it comprehends in its manifold branches other forces of nature, to which, in our scientific nomenclature, differing names are assigned, such as magnetism, galvanism, etc. These people consider that in vril they have arrived at the unity in natural energic agencies, which has been conjectured by many philosophers above ground, and which Faraday thus intimates under the more cautious term of correlation:--
'I have long held an opinion,' says that illustrious experimentalist, 'almost amounting to a conviction, in common, I believe, with many other lovers of natural knowledge, that the various forms under which the forces of matter are made manifest have one common origin; or, in other words, are so directly related and mutually dependent, that they are convertible, as it were, into one another, and possess equivalents of power in their action.'
'This slide is cropped from an original intelligence analysis report produced in 1919 as part of the operation involving Hanna Paulus. It is actually an extract from a book written by Edward Bulwer-Lytton in 1871 entitled 'The Coming Race' which told of a subterranean nation of angelic beings who wished to reclaim the surface of the Earth and who threaten to destroy mankind in the process, if they deem it necessary.
In the story, Vril is presented as an all-permeating fluid which can be utilised to heal illness or inflict disease, create and destroy matter; in effect it can be used for good or evil.'
'So you're linking this to the Quintessence and the Aether?' Jolene asked as she stared at the text.
'Exactly! My conjecture is that Vril was considered to be a reality by this group and who knows, maybe the subterranean race described in Bulwer-Lytton's book is a complex metaphor for the people of the Sun of the Sleepless, I don't know, but one thing is clear, the Society for Truth that Maria effectively controlled was specifically looking for the real manifestation of Vril, as attested by Willy Ley, a notable German science writer on rocketry and space exploration who emigrated to the US in the late 1930's. Something like a decade later, he contributed to an article in the May 1947 edition of a science fiction magazine called 'Astounding Science Fiction', the piece was entitled 'Pseudoscience in Naziland' and in it he made the following statement -'
Jackson tapped his keyboard and another scan of some typed text appeared:
'The Ariosophers could at least quote a few Biblical passages in support of their ideas - they stated that their founder had been a Catholic priest before 'he saw the light'. The next group was literally founded upon a novel. That group which I think called itself Wahrheitsgesellschaft - Society for Truth - and which was more or less localized in Berlin, devoted its spare time looking for Vril. Yes, their convictions were founded upon Bulwer-Lytton's 'The Coming Race'. They knew that the book was fiction, Bulwer-Lytton had used that device in order to be able to tell the truth about this 'power'. The subterranean humanity was nonsense, Vril was not. Possibly it had enabled the British, who kept it as a State secret, to amass their colonial empire. Surely the Romans had had it, enclosed in small metal balls, which guarded their homes and were referred to as 'Lares'. For reasons which I failed to penetrate, the secret of Vril could be found by contemplating the structure of an apple, sliced in halves.'
'No, I am not joking, that is what I was told with great solemnity and secrecy. Such a group actually existed, they even got out the first issue of a magazine which was to proclaim their credo. (I wish I had kept some of these things, but I had enough books to smuggle out as it was).'
Jackson placed the palms of his hands flat down either side of his laptop and leaned forward.
'Even if we take Willy Ley's statements as hearsay if not rather imaginative, we still have Hanna Paulus indicating that Maria regularly read from a book printed by permission of the Sun of the Sleepless to a select group of Vril Society Sisterhood initiates for I don't know what purpose, not to mention that she is also pulling the strings behind this mysterious Society for Truth group of scientists.
'On top of that, let us not forget the other members of the Vrilerinnen, who were actively engaging the higher echelons of the Nazi Party and if Hanna is to be believed, also making introductions to their cabal of scientists. All of this directed through the influence of the Vril Society on behalf of the Sun of the Sleepless.'
Jackson rubbed his chin and then removed his glasses, staring at Jolene intently.
'Personally, I think that Maria represented the Sun of the Sleepless group and that they had hedged their bets on the Nazis gaining power. With the Nazis in control, they intended to use their contacts to procure government resources in order to pursue their search for Vril and expand their experiments to harness the power of the Aether.
'I would even go as far as to suggest that at some point, they intended to usurp the Nazis, maybe even harbouring the intent to use any weapons that utilised the power of Vril against their erstwhile paymasters, intent on domination of the German government and perhaps, just perhaps, even the whole world.'
Dale softly blew out a lungful of air between puffed cheeks as Jolene continued to meet Jackson's gaze.
'You're serious?'
'Deadly!' Jackson answered earnestly.
She thought for a moment longer.
'How much evidence do you have, I mean real evidence?'
Jackson touched his laptop and smiled.
'I know, I know, it all sounds crazy, but I have verified lists of Thule members, the charter documents for The Vril Society Sisterhood, Hanna even provided the names of the Vrilerinnen and some of the scientists who were involved with the Society for Truth. We have the physical evidence of
Dirigo Lux
and of course, Sebottendorff's and Hanna's intelligence reports. On top of that, I have a host of unconfirmed conjecture from other sources alleging that so-called Zero Point Energy had been harnessed by a group of scientists working in a Nazi special weapons programme and some of the names match the list provided by Hanna.'
'Anything more concrete than conjecture?' asked Jolene.
'Not necessarily,' Jackson replied somewhat cagily, 'but you see, most of the information I have managed to collate came from orphaned documents, filed away and forgotten about. However, I also have a couple of trawl vector references that are still compartmented beyond my security clearance but which seem to relate to events in 1946, not to mention even further back in time. I can't help but think that they are technology related which is why they are still so highly classified.'
Jolene nibbled at the corner of her bottom lip, looking slightly pensive.
'We need to write this up and we need to make it good. I have no idea what Kappel will make of it all, but we need to give him something based in reality.'
'I'll need more time to conclude my preliminary research,' Jackson protested, 'I initially concentrated on establishing the link between the book and the Sun of the Sleepless, however, there is the historical aspect to consider, from examining the Nazi archives to the pedigree of this group right back to the eighteenth century, maybe beyond that.'
'We don't need a fanciful history lesson,' Jolene retorted, 'stick to their activities in World War II and track them forward as much as you can, right up to this minute if at all possible; forget the book for now, you can look into the historical provenance later!'
'Yeah,' Dale smirked sullenly, 'especially since it is all pointless anyway!'
A short silence ensued and it was clear that Dale was making an implication beyond the wit of the other two people in the room.
'Is that supposed to mean something?' queried Jolene, raising her eyebrows to prompt Dale further.
'Err, yeah,' Dale snorted, 'I mean, between Jackson burying his head in that book and you organising our field trips, you both seem to have ignored the obvious.'
Jolene leaned forward.
'Which is?'
Dale closed his eyes and shrugged his shoulders.
'I'd have thought that you would have realised that Kappel knows more than he is telling.'
'Stunning!' Jolene snapped.
'Of course he knows more than he is telling, we're on a need to know basis! He has no need to tell us everything. How long have you worked in the agency?'
'No,' Dale responded as he shook his head, 'you don't get me. Just think about the reason why we are here right now. Jackson is sitting there sipping his morning coffee when he gets a notification that a flagged book is for sale on the internet, so, he investigates. Alright, it seems a little strange and so I get seconded to go and pick it up. Now, no sooner has Jackson landed in Amsterdam than Kappel is organising a conference call between all of us. We all assumed that he wanted to know why we were interested in the book, but then Jackson confirmed the link with the Sun of the Sleepless which related to the name of this terrorist group that you'd been trying to investigate and which they're in such a panic over, so it seemed like we'd come full circle.'
'- and?'
Dale leaned in, mirroring Jolene's posture, illustrating the challenge he was making.
'I've mentioned this to you before, you said that they knew the name of the terrorist group in December last year and the agency must have linked it to the book and the Nazis right off, they have access to even more intelligence than Jackson does, so, why is it that they weren't investigating this group in the first place, why did they have to wait for a librarian to dig it up to lead them to it? Jackson had even found references to the book on the internet so it can't have been that difficult!'