"Simon Hawke - Time Wars 05 - The Nautilus Sanction" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hawke Simon)

passage from beneath the Arctic icecap. There is no sloping continental shelf, just vertical cliffs rising up
out of the sea and dropping off rapidly to great depths, making it ideal for a large submarine to lie close
in, completely undetected. A perfect location for a hidden missile base. There was nothing on Jan Mayan
at the time except for a small meteorological station. The last coded radio transmission from the
Vostochnaya Slava was a routine message on October 28, and then the submarine disappeared without
a trace. The United States denied any involvement in the disappearance of the sub. This information was
backed up by CIA reports to which Powers, of course, had access.
тАЬSubsequently, the TIA compiled data from other stations in other time periods, among which were
the following reports. In July of 1783, the British man-of-war Avenger picked up the sole survivor of
another British man-of-war, the Covenant. The shipwreck victim died soon after being rescuedтАЮ but not
before claiming the Covenant had been sunk by a тАШsea monsterтАЩ capable of great speed which spat fire
at the ship. He described it as being larger than a whale, with a fin very like a sharkтАЩs. Clearly, it could
have been the sail of a nuclear submarine.
тАЬIn August of 1652, during BritainтАЩs war with the Dutch over the First Navigation Act, the Dutch
ship Amsterdam was blown out of the water and completely obliterated while in a naval engagement
with the British ship, Albatross. The Albatross was destroyed in a flash burn, going up like a tinderbox.
The survivors who managed to get away in boats all died of what was reported to be scurvy, although
the symptoms were far more indicative of radiation sickness. Nearby ships reported the explosion of the
Amsterdam as being тАШcataclysmic,тАЩ surmising she was loaded to her gunwales with powder. However,
the powder magazineтАЩs explosion would not have accounted for the flash burn of the Albatross. An
atomic torpedo would.
тАЬNumerous sightings of a maritime phenomenon variously described as тАШan enormous thing,тАЩ a тАШlong,
spindle-shaped object,тАЩ and an тАШaquatic mammal of unknown originтАЩ were reported in the 19th century,
beginning in the year 1866, when the steamer Governor Higginson of the Calcutta and Burnach Steam
Navigation Company encountered a тАШmoving massтАЩ five miles off the coast of Australia. On the 23rd of
July of that same year, a similar sighting was reported in the Pacific Ocean by the Columbus, of the West
India and Pacific Steam Navigation Company. At the time, it was noted that these two sightings were
separated by a period of three days and a distance of over seven hundred nautical leagues. About two
weeks later, the Helvetia, of the Compagnie-Nationale and the Shannon, of the Royal Mail Steamship
Company, both sighted a тАШmonsterтАЩ in the Atlantic between the United States and Europe, estimating its
length at over five hundred feet, which would either have made it a whale of unprecedented size, a sea
monster of some sort, or a submarine. Several of these sightings also reported the тАШcreatureтАЩ was capable
of astonishing speed, others reported that it submerged immediately.
тАЬFinally, the most telling piece of evidence was uncovered on Jan Mayan Island, when a TIA
surveillance team, clocked back to the site of the Soviet subтАЩs disappearance, found an abandoned
Spatial Anomaly Displacement Detector. Needless to say, they did not have SADDтАЩs in the 20th
century. Temporal Intelligence fed all available data into their computers and, given the available
evidence, they have recreated a scenario of the most likely possibility for what occurred in the Arctic on
or about October 28, 1993 . . .тАЭ

The Arctic Wind howled through the rocks of the barren, ice-encrusted island, making it next to
impossible for the men to remain standing upright. They crouched behind an outcropping, huddled close
together in their temperature-controlled suits, looking like slick sea lions as the spray glistened on
polymer fabric, making droplets on the visors of their formfitting helmets. One man bent low over the
Spatial Anomaly Displacement Detector, adjusting the directional and depth scan and watching the
screen intently, his eyes locked onto the soft, green-glowing grid coordinate lines that crisscrossed the
monitor. A low, deep, resonant voice spoke over the headset inside his helmet.
тАЬAnything yet?тАЭ
тАЬNot yet. SheтАЩs down there. ItтАЩs just a matter of time. You canтАЩt hide something that displaces
28,000 tons from this instrument. All we need to do isтАФтАЭ