Polar Shift (NUMA Files 6)

She sat down and said, "I couldn't sleep."

"I can understand that. You've been through a lot in the last few days."

"Uncle Karl said that the men who murdered the expedition were after me. Something about a secret I supposedly know. I don't know what's going on, but I feel responsible for much of what has happened."

"It's not your fault. They think the secret was passed down from your grandfather, an electrical engineer named Lazlo Kovacs."

"You're mistaken. My grandfather's name was Janos, like mine."

Austin shook his head. "That was the name Kovacs assumed after he escaped from Germany at the end of World War Two."

"I don't understand."

"Your grandfather was being forced to work for the Nazis on electromagnetic weapons. He escaped from a secret lab shortly before the Russians overran East Prussia. He was apparently helped by a young member of the German resistance. The German's name was Karl."

"Uncle Karl! I always wondered what his connection was to my grandfather. They seemed so different yet so bound together."

"Now you know."

"This is insane! My grandfather never gave me any secret formula for a death ray or whatever it is they're looking for."

"You may know more than you know. Your paper on the extinction of the woolly mammoth hinted at deeper knowledge of his work."

"After the discovery of those creatures on the island, my paper is a joke. I can't wait to get back there to do some research."

"Petrov has vowed to work through academic rather than governmental circles to protect your furry friends. He's had some political trouble, and he thinks this will help his cause."

"I'm glad to hear that. But getting back to my grandfather, I went to him when I was in college with my theory of a cataclysmic extinction because he was the only scientist I knew. There was skepticism about a polar shift being possible. He said that it could happen, and had happened. That it could be caused by natural phenomena, or man-made, in the future, when the technology became available. He showed me some equations having to do with electromagnetism that he said proved his point. That's all. Later, when I was working on my thesis after his death, I incorporated his work into the paper."

"That's all he said on the subject?"

"Yes. We never really talked much about science. When my parents died, he became a father and mother to me. I remember him making up bedtime poems to get me to sleep." She sipped her coffee. "How did you and Joe happen to come to our rescue?"

"I heard from a reliable source that your life might be in danger because of your family connection."

"You rushed all the way from the other side of the world for that?"

"If I had known Uncle Karl had the situation pretty much in hand, I wouldn't have worried as much."

"Uncle Karl saved my life, but I'm afraid we were both on our last legs when you and Joe dropped down out of the sky. I'm puzzled. I thought NUMA studies the oceans."

"That's exactly why I'm here. There have been some strange disturbances in the sea that could have something to do with something your grandfather published. It was a set of equations called the Kovacs Theorems."

"I don't understand."

"You said Lazlo Kovacs theorized that electromagnetic transmissions could be used to trigger a polar shift. In the future."

"Yes, that's right."

"Well, the future is now."

"Who would want to do something like that? And why?"

Austin spread his hands. "I'm not sure. When we get back to Washington, I have someone Id like you to talk to. Maybe you can sort things out."

"I was hoping to stop in Fairbanks first."

"I'm afraid there isn't time for that. There may be a great deal at stake here."