Brad Thor
The Athena Project
Copyright © 2010 by Brad Thor
Mr. Gordon Wright, a generous contributor to the
Special Operations Warrior Foundation, dedicates this novel to his wife, Myrleen Wright, and his daughters, Karlie Wright and Kajsa Collins.
Mr. Wright, thank you for your commitment to the brave men
and women who keep our great nation safe.
“We make war so that we may live in peace.”
– Aristotle
All of the science in this novel is based on reality.
PROLOGUE
SOMEWHERE ABOVE FRANCE
1944
The sound of suppressed gunfire in the narrow fuselage was drowned out by the roar of the slipstream coupled with the plane’s engines. The soldiers accompanying the crates of documents back to Berlin lay dead and dying, their uniforms soaked with blood. Twenty-two-year-old Jacqueline Marceau ejected the spent magazine from her MP40 and inserted a fresh one.
Keeping an eye trained on the cockpit door, she shackled her prisoner, then retrieved her parachute and struggled into it.
She pulled a cap over her head and tucked her long blond hair inside so it wouldn’t whip her face on the way down. Next came goggles and a pair of leather gloves. It might have been summertime on the ground, but at this altitude it was bitterly cold.
She gave her gear one final check and then helped her prisoner to his feet. “Time to move, Herr Stiegler.”
The SS officer tried to fight back, but Marceau was ready for him. She slammed her weapon into his groin and as he doubled over, wrapped a webbing harness around his torso.