Her eyes felt swollen and sandy, although she looked perfectly normal to the untrained eye. Nina felt as if she had stepped into a dream. Lack of sleep made her feel like a zombie and she dreaded the obligatory small talk she would have to engage in before she would be forced to deal with that traitor she once thought she had developed a fancy for.
"Good morning, Dr. Gould," Gary, the pilot, smiled, as the small lady's posh bop cut became disheveled by the gusts of the rotors. Her clothing whipped up from the upturn of the machine's gale but she attempted a smile, "Good morning. I'm sorry I am a bit tardy—overslept."
"No problem, ma'am. I needed a coffee break anyway," the friendly pilot winked.
His kind demeanor made her feel better. For a minute she forgot that she was unhappy about getting into the helicopter, but Gary was one of those people who could make a paranoid agoraphobic feel at ease if he had to. After loading her bag into the Robbie he helped her in.
"Everything okay? No worries, ma'am, I have been a pilot for twenty years and I have a smashing good record," he assured her, and then realized his choice of words were rather unfit for the passenger's comfort. Nina raised an eyebrow to the remark and the poor man smiled sheepishly.
"I am a bit uncomfortable in cramped spaces, that's all," she winced politely, so that he would understand any strange reactions from her.
"Ah!" he nodded as he closed the door. The sound of the rotating blades above Nina's head reminded her of a carnivorous ceiling fan that was sucking her up into it. From the inside of the helicopter the chopping thuds pulsed into her gut, an awfully peculiar sensation she had never had before. Gary got in and showed her how to strap in. He was always reluctant to buckle up women, because it was uncomfortable and dangerous. One slip and he'd be sued for sexual harassment. Nina did not usually mind flying, but now that she was again in some form of hovercraft, just like her trip to Wolfenstein, she was inadvertently thrown a slideshow of memories to the expedition from which she thought she'd never escape alive.
It was perhaps a good thing that she jumped at the sudden lift of the Robbie. It saved her from remembering the particularly heinous things about Wolfenstein that she still had nightmares about on occasion. Her tummy tingled from the positive Gs she pulled as the craft ascended higher and higher in the mild wind, which rocked it gently. Gary smiled at the lady's sudden grip on the seat as they bunted forward, snout tilted forward.
He knew enough about people skills to read when someone did not want to talk during the flight. She seemed to be one of those, so the pilot kept quiet and hoped that the scenery would impress Dr. Gould. But Dr. Gould thought of other things than the majestic panorama. After Purdue briefed her she had plowed into her books and data disks about Nazi treasure and the U-boats that were supposed to transport it to various locations around the world. It was a fascinating, although generally unfounded, theory.
With her research Nina had discovered that a few U-boats went missing during the latter part of the Second World War, unaccounted for and never registered. Registered submarines from numerous countries that were using the XXI class were all accounted for, regardless of how and where their fate had finally led them. Three that she knew of never made it to their destinations after trying to reach a German ally, Japan, with supposed art treasures. It was a well-known fact that a lot of those treasures had never been recovered. The thought of maybe having found one of them excited her to no end. Not only would it finally initiate her success to open academic doors, but on a personal level, as a lover of history, the thought was undeniably exhilarating.
On the other hand, she could not find anything good about seeing Sam again. Her mother always told her that holding grudges only made life heavier, "like dragging
"Good morning, Dr. Gould," Gary, the pilot, smiled, as the small lady's posh bop cut became disheveled by the gusts of the rotors. Her clothing whipped up from the upturn of the machine's gale but she attempted a smile, "Good morning. I'm sorry I am a bit tardy—overslept."
"No problem, ma'am. I needed a coffee break anyway," the friendly pilot winked.
His kind demeanor made her feel better. For a minute she forgot that she was unhappy about getting into the helicopter, but Gary was one of those people who could make a paranoid agoraphobic feel at ease if he had to. After loading her bag into the Robbie he helped her in.
"Everything okay? No worries, ma'am, I have been a pilot for twenty years and I have a smashing good record," he assured her, and then realized his choice of words were rather unfit for the passenger's comfort. Nina raised an eyebrow to the remark and the poor man smiled sheepishly.
"I am a bit uncomfortable in cramped spaces, that's all," she winced politely, so that he would understand any strange reactions from her.
"Ah!" he nodded as he closed the door. The sound of the rotating blades above Nina's head reminded her of a carnivorous ceiling fan that was sucking her up into it. From the inside of the helicopter the chopping thuds pulsed into her gut, an awfully peculiar sensation she had never had before. Gary got in and showed her how to strap in. He was always reluctant to buckle up women, because it was uncomfortable and dangerous. One slip and he'd be sued for sexual harassment. Nina did not usually mind flying, but now that she was again in some form of hovercraft, just like her trip to Wolfenstein, she was inadvertently thrown a slideshow of memories to the expedition from which she thought she'd never escape alive.
It was perhaps a good thing that she jumped at the sudden lift of the Robbie. It saved her from remembering the particularly heinous things about Wolfenstein that she still had nightmares about on occasion. Her tummy tingled from the positive Gs she pulled as the craft ascended higher and higher in the mild wind, which rocked it gently. Gary smiled at the lady's sudden grip on the seat as they bunted forward, snout tilted forward.
He knew enough about people skills to read when someone did not want to talk during the flight. She seemed to be one of those, so the pilot kept quiet and hoped that the scenery would impress Dr. Gould. But Dr. Gould thought of other things than the majestic panorama. After Purdue briefed her she had plowed into her books and data disks about Nazi treasure and the U-boats that were supposed to transport it to various locations around the world. It was a fascinating, although generally unfounded, theory.
With her research Nina had discovered that a few U-boats went missing during the latter part of the Second World War, unaccounted for and never registered. Registered submarines from numerous countries that were using the XXI class were all accounted for, regardless of how and where their fate had finally led them. Three that she knew of never made it to their destinations after trying to reach a German ally, Japan, with supposed art treasures. It was a well-known fact that a lot of those treasures had never been recovered. The thought of maybe having found one of them excited her to no end. Not only would it finally initiate her success to open academic doors, but on a personal level, as a lover of history, the thought was undeniably exhilarating.
On the other hand, she could not find anything good about seeing Sam again. Her mother always told her that holding grudges only made life heavier, "like dragging
Similar Books
