Beneath Still Waters
A wrecked German bomber…key to the secrets of the Third Reich?All it took was one phone call and TV show host and archaeologist Annja Creed is in mortal danger. Her producer Doug Morrell has been abducted by a greedy treasure hunter who's seeking the lost raubgold, or looted gold of Nazi Germany. The terms are simple: retrieve the bounty and Doug lives. Fail, and he dies…Now Annja and her friends must find a missing German fighter plane that was shot down over the Alps in 1945. According to legend, the aircraft not only holds a shipment of gold the Nazis had stolen, but also carried the last letters of the führer himself. Letters that point to a more startling treasure buried underwater halfway around the world. But Annja isn't interested in treasure, or even unearthing historic relics. Annja has one agenda: get Doug out alive…even if it means drawing her sword from its otherworldly sheath. Even if it means death.Because once greed drives a man to violence, nothing will stop him…
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A wrecked German bomberâ¦key to the secrets of the Third Reich?
All it took was one phone call and TV show host and archaeologist Annja Creed is in mortal danger. Her producer Doug Morrell has been abducted by a greedy treasure hunter whoâs seeking the lost raubgold, or looted gold of Nazi Germany. The terms are simple: retrieve the bounty and Doug lives. Fail, and he diesâ¦
Now Annja and her friends must find a missing German fighter plane that was shot down over the Alps in 1945. According to legend, the aircraft not only holds a shipment of gold the Nazis had stolen, but also carried the last letters of the führer himself. Letters that point to a more startling treasure buried underwater halfway around the world. But Annja isnât interested in treasure, or even unearthing historic relics. Annja has one agenda: get Doug out aliveâ¦even if it means drawing her sword from its otherworldly sheath. Even if it means death.
Because once greed drives a man to violence, nothing will stop himâ¦
It was Doug on the screen. He was tied to a metal chair in a nondescript room.
Annjaâs anxiety propelled her closer to the hotel roomâs television as she turned up the volume on the DVD player.
Not that Doug was speaking. His arms and legs were tied to the chair, leaving his hands free and his bare feet resting on what looked to be a wet concrete floor. The camera was close enough that Annja could tell his face was bloody and swollen. A thin line of dried blood ran down the side of his face. When he raised his head and looked at the camera, the one eye not swollen shut was filled with fear.
âHelp me, Annja,â he said, and his voice was little better than a croak. âI donât care what he asks you to do or who he asks you to do it toâIâll die here if you donât do what he wants.â
The camera zoomed in on his face and then slipped down to his body and stopped on his right hand. That close, Annja could see that his last two fingers were bent at odd angles.
She could hear Doug saying, âNo, no, I didnât do anything! Donât!â She steeled herself but she didnât turn away. Annja owed it to him to watch what he was having to endure.
A gloved hand reached into the camera frame. It was neither large nor small, so she couldnât tell if it was a manâs or a womanâs, though she suspected the former. Not because a woman couldnât be that cruelâshe knew from experience that that certainly wasnât the caseâbut because her mystery caller whoâd sent the DVD had claimed to be the one who had kidnapped Doug.
The individual took hold of Dougâs middle finger and snapped it. Doug let out a shriek of pain and the screen went blank.
Watching the kidnapper inflict pain on Doug to coerce her into action filled Annja with a righteous fury.
Heâd picked the wrong woman to tangle with.
Beneath Still Waters
Alex Archer
THELEGEND
â¦THE ENGLISH COMMANDER TOOK
JOANâS SWORD AND RAISED IT HIGH.
The broadsword, plain and unadorned,
gleamed in the firelight. He put the tip against the ground and his foot at the center of the blade. The broadsword shattered, fragments falling into the mud. The crowd surged forward, peasant and soldier, and snatched the shards from the trampled mud. The commander tossed the hilt deep into the crowd. Smoke almost obscured Joan, but she continued praying till the end, until finally the flames climbed her body and she sagged against the restraints.
Joan of Arc died that fateful day in France,
but her legend and sword are rebornâ¦
Contents
April 5, 1945Outside Potsdam, Germany
One last mission.
Thatâs how theyâd sold it to him. One final mission that would not only provide for their future security, but would put his name in the history books alongside those of Goering, Goebbels and Himmler, men who had gone above and beyond the call of duty in their aid and support of the Fatherland.
One final mission for the glory of the Third Reich.
Major Konrad Brandt had wanted to laugh in their faces.
He didnât give a damn about the history books, the Nazi Party, or even the survival of the Third Reich. All of it was meaningless in his eyes. All he cared about was getting out of Germany before everything fell completely into ruin. He knew that day wouldnât be long in coming, knew that time was running out, but his personal sense of duty to the oaths he had sworn, to serve and protect the Fatherland, had so far kept him from simply turning his back on his comrades and abandoning his post, no matter how insane matters had become. When they told him that this mission would take him beyond the borders of their lost and forsaken country without need of return, he knew his salvation had arrived and heâd practically fallen over himself to accept the responsibility.
