The Curse of Medusa

Hawke, Kim and Alex took their seats and watched the Defense Secretary as he thought about what to say next. This shit right here, Alex thought, is why my parents’ marriage fell apart.

“Back in the late sixties, the international political landscape was very different to today. We were in the middle of the Cold War with the Soviet Union, and our foreign policy was, accordingly, slightly more…”

“Paranoid?” Alex said.

Brooke gave his daughter a withering glance. “I was going to say slightly more interventionist than today. You had to be there to understand how it was. Like today, covert intelligence gathering was a big part of that policy. We had listening stations all over the world in a bid to intercept communiqués passing back and forth between the Kremlin and various Soviet client states around the world. These proxy states — Cuba, North Vietnam, Mozambique — were very important to the USSR as part of their plan to expand communism around the world.”

Hawke glanced at his watch. “Jack, we’re short on time — I think we’d prefer the Bluffer’s Guide if that’s okay with you.”

Alex winced, knowing that few people could talk to the Pentagon chief like that and get away with it, but when her father cracked a quick smile and leaned back in his chair with his hands behind his head, she knew Hawke had worked his magic on yet another unsuspecting soul. Maybe it was the accent, she thought.

“Sure, I’m sorry. The bottom line is simple. The NSA commissioned the construction of a listening station in northern Norway — a strong NATO ally since 1949 — with a view to monitoring radio signals in the far north arctic region. You wouldn’t believe what the Russians get up to up there… Anyway, so far so good, but here’s where it gets its classification level. With the construction of the listening station going on up there it was decided to attach a science station alongside. Having the two side by side was a big saving in funding.”

He paused again, and bit his lip in hesitation.

“Dad?”

“The men building the station found something in the ice core up there.”

Alex and Hawke shared a glance. Both had the same question.

The obvious question.

“What did they find, Jack?”

Brooke rubbed his nose and jaw, still uncomfortable with the way the conversation was going. Alex recognized his body language easily enough. He had done the same moves the afternoon he told her he was moving out to live across town. She was just a teenager at the time, and she could recall every instant of that moment — what they were both wearing, the way the sun came through the window and lit the dust motes floating down to her carpet, the words her father had used — it’s like this honey, your mother and I have decided to…

“Spit it out, Dad.” Even after so many years, her words were tinged with the bitterness of that memory.

“They found the severed head of what we later learned was Medusa.”

Alex looked at Hawke and knew he was thinking the same as her — an amazing revelation, but easier to accept given the events of the last few months. Kim Taylor on the other hand, was speechless with shock.

“Go on,” Hawke said.

“It gets worse. You’re aware of the mythological legend surrounding Medusa?”

Alex nodded gently.

“Sure,” Hawke said. “Anyone who looked at Medusa got turned to stone.”

Brooke sighed. “Turns out it’s not just a legend.”

“What do you mean?” Kim asked. “Is this even for real?”

“What happened at the Norwegian station came to light after the men working there stopped returning communications with a US air force base in Germany, which they used as a relay station. Obviously our guys got suspicious and a man named Colonel John Hill went up there to find out what was going on. At the time it was feared they’d been attacked by the Soviet Navy. What they found disabused them of that notion forever.”

“What did they find, exactly?” Hawke asked.

“They found all the men at the station had been turned to stone, and worse than that, when they discovered Medusa, several members of the search and recovery team were also turned to stone, including Colonel Hill himself. After they discovered what was doing it, the surviving men took the necessary precautions and secured the head. It was brought to the US and secured in a facility here — the one you went to today — Archive 7.”

“And it’s been there ever since?” Alex asked.

Brooke nodded. “Until today. When you told me about those men being turned to stone I knew straight away what Kimble had ordered out of Archive 7, but why is anyone’s guess.”

“How many people know about this?” Hawke asked.

“Not many. Less than a dozen by my reckoning, and that may or may not include our new Commander-in-Chief,” he said, referring to Kimble. “I don’t want to go all Rumsfeld on you both, but I know not even I know everything. When you get as far up the greasy pole as I have, you start to learn things about the world… dark things.”

“I can’t believe this is happening,” Kim said, rubbing her forehead.