Chase The Rabbit: Gretch Bayonne Action Adventure Series Book #1 (23 page)

              “Son of a bitch!” I shouted. “I thought I was going to die! What the hell is going on, Howard!”

              “Come on!” Hughes, said. “Get in the plane and I will tell you!”

              We took off into the sky and I couldn’t have been more relieved. As we leveled off, I had a boat load of questions for Mr. Hughes.

              “I know this seems a bit crazy right now,” Howard said. “But I am taking you to see a movie that will explain a lot of things.”

              “I don’t think a movie is going to explain anything,” I answered. “Who were those men that brought me here? I just found Mark, and he was hauled off, just like me. A movie is not going to explain this, Howard.”

              “It’s a lot more than a movie,” he said. “That is just the start.”

              We flew on for about two hours. Most of that time was spent making small talk about movies. Howard liked to talk about his movies. And it was clear to me, I wasn’t going to get a straight answer out of him as to where we were headed or why. I suspected it had something to do with the Graf. Other than that, I was clueless. 

              We finally descended on what looked like a military base in the middle of the desert. There were many buildings, and a runway that looked pretty rough from the sky. 

              “This is it,” Hughes said. “We are there.”

              We taxied down the runway and went into a large hangar. 

              “Where are we?” I asked.

              “Area 51,” Hughes said.

              “What the hell is that?” I asked as we climbed out of the plane.

              “This is the most secret place on the face of the planet,” Hughes responded.

              We entered a large elevator and started going down.

I don’t know how many stories we dropped, but it took a long time. A hundred. Maybe more. We had to be at least a thousand feet underground. The elevator door swooshed open and I followed Hughes down a long corridor.  We entered a large room that had bright lights and a high ceiling.

              “This is the control room,” Hughes announced excitedly. 

              There were five movie screens, approximately six feet wide and four feet tall, arranged on angles so you could see them all at one time. A dozen large chairs completed the bizarre theater.

              “Have a seat, Bay,” Hughes said. “It’s showtime!”

              The lights slowly dimmed as the film began. I immediately recognized that the scene was shot in William Randolph Hearst’s library. It was his desk. Unoccupied, until he came into shot and sat down. 

“I am William Randolph Hearst,” he said. “And if you are seeing this film now, it is 1982. I have requested that this document not be shown for fifty years. My intentions for it to be revealed long after my death are strictly personal. And to set the record straight about The Rose.”

Hearst was looking straight into the camera. It appeared he’d filmed it himself.

“What the hell is this?” I asked Hughes. “And what is The Rose?”             

              “Shut up,” Howard said, “and keep watching.”

              The date 1916 showed up in huge white letters. Hearst continued his narration.

“1916: The German warship Zeppelin LZ61 is shot down off the coast of Lowestoft, England by British fighter aircraft.”

“My God,” I said. “That is the ship that killed my parents!”

              “Keep watching, Bay,” Howard said.

“1917: An infinite reserve of helium gas is discovered in a massive mine owned by the Hearst family.” 

“Why did he mention the Lowestoft event?” I asked.

              “Shut up, Bay. Just keep watching.”

“1918: John Rockefeller, Henry Ford, Nikola Tesla and United States General Alvin Rosenthal attend a secret meeting in Washington, D.C. that I arranged. Project Rose is set in motion.”

              “Is this for real?” I asked. 

“1919: Hundreds of U.S. Army troops converge in the desert in Nevada. It is known as a new secret military training facility, code name: Area 51.”

              “That is where we are now?” I asked. “Area 51?”

              “Yes,” Hughes said. “Now watch this.”

“1920: An article appears in the New York World newspaper that a massive military airship is being constructed underground at Area 51. The reporter is found dead the following week.”

My jaw dropped. I couldn’t wrap my brain around what I was hearing. But here was the old man himself, shelling it out.

“1921: Project Rose employs hundreds of civilian subcontractors who are all sworn to secrecy. Twenty-two men alleged to be involved in the project disappear that year. A city just outside of the area springs up for the sole purpose of accommodating the non-military workers. It would become the most secret city on the face of the planet.  Albert Einstein visits New York City and is given the Nobel Prize for his considerable work in physics. He meets with me and Tesla and contributes considerably to the project in just one hour.”

              “This is a confession,” I said, “on film.”

              “Why do you think he doesn’t want it to be shown for fifty years?” replied Hughes.

“1922: The final design of The Rose is completed by Tesla and me. Tesla incorporates working blocks with direct energy that apparently are powered by magical means. Many of the elements are not understood by the engineers that worked on the project and details are kept secret from Rockefeller and Ford. ‘You fill a balloon with helium, and it floats’, I told them at the time. ‘And you put engines on it to control where it goes. Beyond that, I leave it to Tesla’.”

The five screens that this movie were being shown on almost surrounded me. And the sound was unlike anything I’d heard at a motion picture theater. Hearst was riveting.  He was, after all, William Randolph Hearst. 

“1923: Work begins on the skeleton of the ship. While the basic design is that of a German Zeppelin, odd angular shapes are incorporated by Tesla that make the craft look spiky. They were made to house gravitational and non-gravitational energy equalizers that would, according to Tesla, not only power the ship, but allow it to travel at amazing speeds despite it’s massive size. There was a huge pendulum in the center of the ship. No one knew what it was used for. Tesla also designed the passenger sections of the craft to be airtight and contain their own oxygen source, complete with removing carbon monoxide. Tesla told me that this vessel could travel to the moon and back and not use any fuel.”

              “This is a movie idea, right?” I asked.

              “No,” Hughes whispered. “It is true.”

“1924: Rockefeller loses interest in the project and pulls out his financial support. It is speculated that the cost is too great and his faith in Tesla is at issue. It is rumored that Rockefeller had invested nearly twenty-million dollars in the project up to that point.”

Hearst was looking right at the camera. He was not an actor. It suddenly dawned on me that this was real. He wasn’t kidding. It made the hair stand up on my arms. But the film didn’t stop there.

“1925: Calvin Coolidge becomes President and is made aware of the government’s funding of Project Rose by a disgruntled Rockefeller. He demands all government funding and involvement in the project to cease.”

Hearst didn’t stop there.

              “1926: Military involvement continues under the guise of a training facility, despite President Coolidge’s orders.  General Rosenthal suffers a fatal heart attack.

“1927: Manufacturers in Missouri, Utah and Colorado fall short in filling orders for the aluminum based understructure of the ship. Work slows down on the project due to lack of resources. But the dream lives on.

“1928: Goodyear Tire Company is secretly contracted to manufacture eight rubber cells, each measuring over one thousand feet in length. A temporary plant is set up in Area 51 for the sole purpose of producing them on deadline.”

“How could this go on without people knowing?” I asked.

              “People knew,” Hughes replied. “They knew in the desert town. They knew when they were being paid. And they knew when to keep their mouths shut.”

“1929: Textile giants are given orders for massive amounts of special heavy fabric at a pay rate higher than they would normally receive. The fabric would be treated with a special chemical solution and used as the outer skin of The Rose. All subcontractors, including Goodyear, were working off the record. Despite the massive amount of money being spent, the project would ultimately contribute to the stock market crash of 1929.

“1930: Tesla’s engines were built at a small Midwestern tooling company and trucked five at a time to Area 51. There would be fifty engines in all. They would be the key to The Rose’s failure or success. After eighteen years in the making, and millions of dollars and man hours spent, it would come down to these engines.

“1931: Work on The Rose was nearing completion. I contacted Howard Hughes and asked him to be the test pilot. He accepted, of course. I also commissioned the Graf Zeppelin to transport Hollywood Stars on the first coast-to-coast flight of an airship under the pretense of publicizing the 1932 Summer Olympics. The idea was to make a spectacle out of the trip and film it for theatrical release. I would unveil The Rose at the premier of the Graf movie. The plan was to bring the ship down on top of the Marion Davies Theater just as the patrons were leaving. It would be the greatest debut of all time and change the world as we know it forever.” 

Chapter Twenty-One

I
sat in shock as the lights came up in the theater.

              “That was incredible!” I said. “Is it true?”

              “Every word of it,” a voice from behind me replied.

             
It was the old man, Hearst. He sat down next to me, smiling.

              “So what did you think of my little movie?” he asked.

              “It was just a movie, then?” I asked. “I mean, was this the outline for a real movie you are planning? Because, the story is amazing!”

              “No,” Hearst replied. “It is a documentary. And it is all true. Only a handful of people have seen it. The rest will have to wait until 1982.”

              “Then this ship,” I said, “The Rose. It actually exists?”

              “You are sitting in it now,” Hearst said.

              I looked around the room in confusion. It was a small movie theater. 

              Hearst stood up.

              “Come,” he said, “follow me.”

              We went into a wide hallway and passed through a huge, elegant dining room.  Then into a large kitchen, like you would find in a fancy restaurant.  What appeared to be a living room, complete with fireplace was next.

              “Where are we going?” I asked.

              “To the cockpit,” Hughes said.

              Another, long hallway led us to an amazing, wooden staircase. We descended the stairs and passed through three doors that finally opened up into a room with black walls. It was oval in shape. There was a long console at the front, with various levers, knobs, and tiny movie screens. It didn’t look like any cockpit I’d seen before.

              “Please,” Hearst said, “have a seat,” motioning towards one of six chairs at the console.

              “What is all this?” I asked.

              “This is the control room,” Hearst replied.

              “It is the cockpit,” Hughes added. “It is where you control the ship.”

              Howard began moving levers and flipping switches. Tiny colored lights started flashing and a low humming sound filled the room. It definitely looked like a movie set. I kept glancing around the room, expecting Lugosi to enter at any minute, dressed as a mad scientist.

              “Let me tell you why you are here,” Hearst said.

              “Please do,” I said.