b) A U-boat blew up. – Division of Anti-Submarine Warfare doubts whether the simultaneous explosion of all the torpedoes in a U-boat could produce an explosion of the magnitude here reported.
c) That the shock was due to a subterranean earthquake.
The shock of the explosion and lack of any visible effect supports the view that the explosion occurred below the surface.
These reports appear sufficiently remarkable to warrant further investigation. It is therefore suggested that the Masters of all ships of this convoy be asked to describe their experiences at this time, and whether any eruption of the surface of the water was seen. It is requested that Division of Anti-Submarine Warfare may be informed of any facts which throw any light on the origin of this unexplained explosion.”
“Pretty amazing,” said Kelly. “An undersea earthquake? I hardly think that would register as an explosion, or have the effects described by the eye witnesses. Since when would an earthquake produce quantities of dead fish at the surface? No, this was clearly an explosion.”
“The Royal Navy felt that it could not be a U-boat, even if all her torpedoes exploded at once—it was that damn big. They didn’t even consider it might be a mine—much too small. And there were no reports on the German side indicating any loss of a U-boat here.”
“Then it had to be on Darlington Court,” said Paul.
“But that was discounted as well,” said Maeve. “That ship was just carrying wheat.”
“Wheat can explode,” said Robert. “Grain silos have ignited in the past.”
“True, but the explosion was enormous,” said Paul, “That’s what the report says, so perhaps it had a little help. And we must remember our Sherlock Holmes— ‘When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.’ And Darlington Court is what remains, at least in our history. She was the only ship that was under water in that area, because British Security was still afloat as was Cockaponset, just about to sink. Her captain’s report states the explosion literally shook his boat.”
“Add a nice bomb to all that wheat and you might get a fairly significant detonation,” said Robert. “You think the Assassins managed to get a bomb aboard her to possibly sink her and save Wohlfarth torpedoes?”
“Well we know how much these terrorists love to blow things up,” said Paul. “Someone has obviously intervened here to spare Darlington Court. She doesn’t get hit and there is no underwater explosion reported in the altered Meridian. That’s even more evidence that she was the source of that unexplained event. Suppose they had a bomb hidden in her hold. Suppose they meant to detonate it when Wohlfarth fires, giving him another kill, as it were. It may have influenced his decision on retaining that last torpedo.”
“Then they would want to time it perfectly if it was a ruse to dissuade Wohlfarth from wasting a torpedo,” said Robert. “There were two explosions on Darlington Court, in the RAM Bank history, fore and aft. But this really big explosion happened well after that in our data. Look at the times noted in the reports. Darlington Court is hit twice at 09:38, and the explosion is reported at 10:50. That’s seventy-two minutes later, well after Wohlfarth’s attack should have been concluded.”
They sat with that for a while, trying to imagine scenarios where the explosion could be fit neatly into an intervention plan. “Could they have planned to blow up Darlington Court, and just botched the timing?” Paul suggested.
“Or could it have been aimed at causing damage to the German U-Boats, a very powerful undersea explosion,” Kelly put in. “In that case it would be the other side involved—the Order.”
“Well whatever it was, they botched it on both counts,” said Maeve. “If they smuggled a bomb on board they should have detonated it the instant a U-Boat was sighted. The convoy would assume it was torpedoed, but they blew it. Wohlfarth got to the ship too quickly, sunk it, and their bomb went off later, accounting for the underwater explosion as Paul suggests, at least in our history.”
“Yet none of this happens on the altered Meridian,” said Robert. “That’s the time line we’re dealing with now.”
“This is some serious shit here,” said Kelly. “What do you mean, in our history? You’re talking like the Assassins or the Order were at work on our timeline. There are signs of intervention all over this attack on the convoy.”
Robert didn’t catch the full implications of what Kelly had said, being caught up with his own train of thought. “Now reason this out,” he said. “Any ship that survives here is at least one more torpedo for Wohlfarth and U-556 to use elsewhere. All three go down in our RAM Bank data. Yet one survives when we look at altered history. On the surface you might conclude an intervention like this would have been run by the Assassins. As for the bomb, I’ll go along with Paul and Maeve and agree they may have had a bomb aboard Darlington Court, possibly to get rid of her before she enters Wohlfarth’s periscope sights and thus remove at least one potential target. But the Assassins wouldn’t have done that.”
“This is getting very curious,” said Paul. “I wondered what you were up to, and it seems you dug up some fairly interesting research here. Yet this bit about Darlington Court still has a lot of haze around it. This was a fairly large convoy. There would have been no shortage of potential targets here.”
“Yes,” said Robert. “I must say that I have an odd feeling about all of this. I can’t quite put it together in my mind yet, but I found other signs of what looked like obvious tampering concerning these ships. Darlington Court was moved from column seven in the Convoy to the lead ship in column four just before the U-boat attack. Wohlfarth attacks column four. Could someone be moving her into harm’s way, I wondered? Then there was a lot of shenanigans concerning that third ship.”
“Cockaponset?”
“Yes, she was supposed to have been assigned to convoy HX-123, but that assignment was cancelled. Then she was to sail with convoy HX-125—cancelled, then HX-125—also cancelled. Finally she gets assigned to HX-126, the fateful convoy Wohlfarth finds.”
“It’s as if someone really wanted that ship in convoy HX-126,” said Maeve.
“I considered that,” said Robert. “But why? There was no shortage of ships, as Paul says. Why does this one have to be in the convoy? And if the steaming position of Darlington Court was moved deliberately, putting her right ahead of British Security in column number four, then that would be the Order at work. They want her to get hit…” He let that fall like a stone in still water, and waited for their reactions.
Maeve seemed to pale with that thought, finally picking up on the thread Kelly had hold of a moment earlier. “But this all happened in our history—the cancelations regarding Cockaponset, the repositioning of Darlington Court, the odd explosion. Robert was reading data from our RAM Bank in those ship reports. If this bomb theory holds up, then it means someone was operating against our Meridian before we even became aware of this!” The conclusion was obvious. “If that is so, then… By God! Do you realize what that would have to mean? Our history, the RAM Bank data, all of it would have to be—“