The Apocalypse Watch - Softcover

Ludlum, Robert

 
9780553569575: The Apocalypse Watch
Softcover
ISBN 10: 0553569570 ISBN 13: 9780553569575
Verlag: Bantam Books, 1996

Inhaltsangabe

American agent Harry Latham has penetrated the fortresslike mountain hideaway of the Brotherhood of the Watch, a neo-Nazi organization that was born in the days after the fall of the Third Reich. But on the eve of his most spectacular success, after three years in deep cover, Harry disappears.

Drew Latham, Special Officer for Consular Operations in Paris, is frantic to discover his older brother’s fate. But when Drew receives the good news that Harry has surfaced, gut-twisting doubts arise. For Harry has emerged with an explosive document: a list of secret supporters of the Brotherhood, among them high-ranking officials of the United States and its allies. But is it legitimate? The search for the truth about Harry and the growing Nazi threat will plunge Drew into a labyrinth of deceit and death. And whoever makes it out alive will hold the fate of the free world in his hands.

Praise for Robert Ludlum and The Apocalypse Watch

“A powerful, exploding novel . . . vintage Ludlum in fine form.”—Booklist

“If a Pulitzer Prize were awarded for escapist fiction, Robert Ludlum undoubtedly would have won it. Ten times over.”—Mobile Register

“Bloody great fun.”—Kirkus Reviews

Die Inhaltsangabe kann sich auf eine andere Ausgabe dieses Titels beziehen.

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Robert Ludlum was the author of twenty-one novels, each a New York Times bestseller. There are more than 210 million of his books in print, and they have been translated into thirty-two languages. In addition to the Jason Bourne series—The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy, and The Bourne Ultimatum—he was the author of The Scarlatti Inheritance, The Chancellor Manuscript,and The Apocalypse Watch, among many others. Mr. Ludlum passed away in March 2001.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

Thirty-two months of grueling serpentine work were about to bear fruit, thought Latham.  Nearly three years of building a life, a life that was not his, were about to come to an end.  The incessant, maddening, exhausting travels throughout Europe and the Middle East, synchronized down to hours, even minutes, so he'd be at a specific place at a given time, where others could swear on their lives that they had seen him.  And the scum of the world he had dealt with--arms merchants without conscience, whose extraordinary profits were measured by supertankers of blood; drug lords, killing and crippling generations of children everywhere; compromised politicians, even statesmen, who bent and thwarted laws for the benefit of the manipulators--it was all finished.  There would be no more frenzied funneling of gargantuan sums of money through laundered Swiss accounts, secret numbers, pectrograph signatures, all part of the deadly games of international terrorism.  Harry Latham's personal nightmare, as vital as it was, was over.

"We are here, Herr Lassiter," said Latham's German companion as the mountain vehicle pulled up to a barrack door under the roped green screening high above. "It is much warmer now, much more pleasant, nicht wahr?"

"It certainly is," answered the deep-cover intelligence officer, sitting down from the rear seat.  "I'm actually sweating under these clothes."

"We'll take the outerwear off inside and have yours dried for return."

"I'd appreciate it.  I must be back in Munich by tonight."

"Yes, we understand.  Come, the Kommandant."   As the two approached the heavy black wooden door with the scarlet swastika emblazoned in the center, there was a whooshing sound in the air.  Above, through the translucent green screening, the large wings of a glider swooped in descending circles into the valley. "Another wonder, Herr Lassiter? It is released from its mother aircraft at an altitude of roughly thirteen hundred feet.  Naturlich, the pilot must be extremely well trained, for the winds are dangerous, so unpredictable. It is used only in emergencies."

"I can see how it comes down.  How does it get up?"

"The same winds, mein Herr, with the assistance of disposable booster rockets.  In the thirties, we Germans developed the most advanced glider aircraft."

"Why not use a conventional small plane?"

"Too easily monitored.  A glider can be pulled up from a field, a clear pasture.  A plane must be fueled, be serviced, have maintenance, and frequently, even a flight plan."

"Phantastisch,"  repeated the American.  "And--of course--the glider has few or no metal parts.  Plastic and sized cloth are difficult for radar grids to pick up."

"Difficult," agreed the new-age Nazi.  "Not completely impossible, but extremely difficult."

"Amazing," said Herr Lassiter as his companion opened the door of the valley's headquarters.  "You are all to be congratulated.  Your isolation is matched by your security.  Superb!" Feigning a casualness he did not feel, Latham looked around the large room.  There was a profusion of sophisticated computerized equipment, banks of consoles against each wall, starchy-uniformed operators in front of each, seemingly an equal mix of men and women....  Men and women--something was odd, at least not normal.  What was it? And then he knew; to an individual, the operators were young, generally in their twenties, mostly blond or light-haired, with clear, suntanned skin.  As a group they were inordinately attractive, like models corralled by an advertising agency to sit in front of a client's computer products, conveying the message that potential customers, too, would look like this if they bought the merchandise.

"Each is an expert, Mr. Lassiter," said an unfamiliar, monotonic voice behind Latham.  The American turned abruptly.  The newcomer was a man about his own age, dressed in camouflage fatigues and wearing a Wehrmacht officer's cap; he had silently emerged from an open doorway on the left.  "General Ulrich von Schnabe, your enthusiastic host, mein Herr," he continued, offering his hand.  "We meet a legend in his own time.  Such a privilege!"

"You're far too generous, General.  I'm merely an international businessman, but one with definite ideological persuasions, if you like."

"No doubt reached by years of international observation?"

"You could say that, and not be in error.  They claim that Africa was the first continent, yet, while others have developed over several thousand years, Afrika remains the Dark Continent, the black continent.  The northern shores are now havens for equally inferior people."

"Well said, Mr. Lassiter.  Yet you've made millions, some say billions, servicing the dark and darker skins."

"Why not? What better satisfaction can a man like me have than by helping them slaughter each other?"

"Wunderbar! Beautifully and perceptively stated...You were studying our group here, I watched you.  You can see for yourself that these, every one, are of Aryan blood.  Pure Aryan blood.  As are those everywhere in our valley. Each has been carefully selected, bloodlines traced, their commitment absolute."

The dream of the Lebensborn," said the American quietly, revially.  "The breeding farms estates actually, if I'm not mistaken, where the finest SS officers were bred to strong Teutonic men--"

Eichmann had studies done.  It was determined that the north Germanic female had not only the finest bone structure in Europe and extraordinary strength, but a marked subservience to the male," interrupted the general.

"The true superior race," concluded Lassiter admiringly.  Would that the dream had come true."

"In large measure it has," said Von Schnabe quietly.  "We believe a great many here, if not a majority, are the children of those women.  We stole lists from the Red Cross in Geneva, and spent years tracing down each family where the Lebensborn infants had been sent.  These, and others we shall recruit throughout Europe, are Sonnenkinder, the Children of the Sun.  The inheritors of the earth!"

"It's incredible."

"We're reaching out everywhere, and everywhere those selected respond to us, for the circumstances are the same.  Just as in the studies, when the stranglehold of the Versailles and Locarno treaty led to the economic collapse of the Weimar Republic and the influx of undesirables throughout Germany, so has the collapse of Berlin Wall led to chaos.  We are a nation in conflagration, the low-born non-Aryans crossing our borders in unlimited numbers, taking our jobs, polluting our morals, making whores of our women. Because where they come from it's perfectly acceptable.  It's totally unacceptable and it must stop! You agree, of course."

"Why else would I be here, General? I have funneled millions into your needs through the banks in Algiers by way of Marseilles.  My code has been FrÞre--Br³der--I trust it is...

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Verlag
Bantam Books
Erscheinungsdatum
1996
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
0553569570
ISBN 13 
9780553569575
Einband
Taschenbuch
Anzahl der Seiten
768
Kontakt zum Hersteller
Nicht verfügbar
Verantwortliche Person
Nicht verfügbar

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