The Seventh Secret

Chapter 28 — Historical Teleportation

After marking the time of the wreck’s re-appearance, Purdue’s party knew how much time the recovery team had to complete repairs before the vessel would be gone again.

“This is going to slow us down considerably,” Crystal lamented. The diving crew was assembled to plan the next steps. It consisted of four men from the tug crew that would follow Crystal’s orders. “The seven-hour-cycle disrupts our schedule significantly, so we have to haul ass as soon as we get down there.”

As the men formed a circle around Crystal and Purdue, Mieke slipped in behind Nina and just gave the historian a wink. Sam was filming the discussion like a documentary, looking forward to present it all to Dr. Malgas when they would meet up again soon. Mieke sat down next to Nina. She had a suggestion about what could be the cause of the wreck’s odd behavior, but she did not want to interrupt the divers before they had their orders.

When Crystal had delegated the respective tasks, Mieke cleared her throat.

“I just want to wish you all good luck,” she smiled. Ali’s divers acknowledged her reluctantly, since she was nothing but a distraction right now. She put her arms around two of the divers and gave them a halfhearted hug before returning to her seat next to Nina. The historian frowned at her, “Are you drunk, Blonde Ambition?”

Mieke laughed. “No! The place is bleak enough, methinks. What everyone needs is a little good cheer; a little encouragement. It’s all so glum.”

“I suppose,” Nina shrugged. She watched Sam getting zipped up by the beautiful tall lawyer again, but she decided not let it faze her this time, thanks to Sam’s previous reassurance.

“You know what I think?” Mieke asked Nina as the rest of the party left for the dive, and Sam readied his filming gear to submerge last. "I have a theory, and you, as a historian, might agree," the blonde said.

Nina raised an eyebrow. “Let’s hear it.”

“Are you sure… certain… that this is a Nazi ship from the Second World War?” she asked. Nina nodded, “Positive.”

‘I wonder if I should tell her that it is not the Admiral Graf Spee,’ Nina wondered as she waited for the girl’s theory.

“So, I was thinking, this ship might have something in common with the USS Eldridge,” Mieke suggested.

Then it finally sunk in. "Go on," she urged Mieke.

“What is the USS Eldridge?” Ali asked, with Manni standing next to him. Outside, the divers disappeared under water to start working on the wreck.

While Nina explained it to the men, she felt an epiphany at what Mieke had just suggested. Of course! She should have known this, but for some reason the Eldridge had never crossed her mind. She had been too preoccupied with other nonsense to notice that the wreck behaved like the Eldridge was reputed to.

“The USS Eldridge was a United States military vessel that was allegedly used in the Philadelphia Experiment of 1943,” Nina sighed, placing her palms together and hugging her hands with her inner thighs while she recounted the legendary experiment. “They wanted to test a scientific theory,” she explained, making a point of keeping her explanation simple for the mariners, who did not know much about physics.

“What theory?” Manni asked, folding his arms. He enjoyed the small woman’s sharp mind, but he did not like it when women were smarter than men. To him, they were either whores or good laborers that fetched a decent price in trade.

“In short, they wanted to make a ship disappear. If they could have pulled it off, they could have made their whole fleet invisible to the enemy, you see?” she said.

“Did it work?” Ali asked, intrigued that science could possibly explain what terrified him so much.

Nina shrugged and sighed, “It did, in some form, they say. The popular story is that the Eldridge disappeared in a flash of blue light and was teleported over 200 miles, re-appearing in front of another ship’s crew as witnesses before vanishing again and returning to the original site…”

“But upon appearing back in Philadelphia,” Mieke interrupted excitedly, “the ship had reputedly gone ten minutes back in time too!”

Ali and Manni slowly looked at each other.

“Rubbish,” Manni said.

“Okay,” Mieke shrugged, “but how else would you explain this wreck under us disappearing every seven hours? Is that rubbish too? You call it bullshit, but you saw it with your own eyes.” Nina put her hand firmly on Mieke’s arm to warn her not to challenge the men.

“What?” Mieke asked Nina out loud. “Zain and Sibu are right over there.”

“Still,” Nina said almost imperceptibly. “Keep it nice and cozy.”

Ali and Manni exchanged angry sounding words in their language. Mieke nudged Nina and whispered, “That is not Egyptian.”

“Are you sure?” Nina asked.

“My major may be archeology but my minor is linguistics, darling, and that’s not Egyptian.”

Nina smiled at Manni and Ali as she pulled Mieke up by her arm. They joined Zain and Sibu to feel a little safer.

“What language was it then, Mieke?” Nina asked once they were a safe distance away.

“I have no idea,” the girl replied.

“Zain. Sibu,” Nina said. “Please do not let us out of your sight, at least until the others are back.”

“Why?” he asked with an aggressive undertone in his voice. “What did they say? Did they threaten you?”

Mieke calmed him down, reminding him that they were outnumbered right now. Nina peered at the two skinny sailors. "Just don't turn your back on them."