“What was the third step?” Sam asked.
“To make missiles out of the same material.”
“Why?” Tom and Sam said in unison.
“Because if you can protect your machinery and people with impenetrable armor, then why not utilize the same material to develop weapons that can penetrate everything.”
“Use that to tip a nuclear ICBM and no country will ever be safe.”
“Exactly. Russia builds a nuclear Intercontinental Ballistic Missile and we build the National Missile Defense System. Now everyone wants a weapon that can penetrate it.”
Sam said, “Okay, now I see why our Defense Department was willing to gamble and spend big on the project, but what I don’t understand is what any of this has to do with King Arthur and Merlin’s SPELL book?”
Elise said, “Because Merlin was never a wizard.”
Chapter Fifty-Nine
Sam had left Guinevere with Matthew to show her the Tahila while he, Tom, and Elise discussed the highly classified events of the leakage from the Hanford Nuclear Site. Now that the course of the conversation was returning specifically back to King Arthur and Merlin, he thought Guinevere had a right to know the truth.
He opened the door to the mission room and stepped out to find Guinevere at the command center. “Guinevere, you’re going to want to hear this.”
She followed him back to the mission room and sat down next to him.
Sam said, “Elise cracked the encryption to the USB flash drive found on Caliburn. The dog, and his owner, Dr. Jim Patterson — who we believe was killed by Excalibur in the Tillamook State Forest — were part of a scientific military experiment. In the notes, Dr. Patterson alludes to the fact that the entire project was developed based on Merlin’s SPELL book that was first discovered after more than a decade of archeological research.”
Guinevere’s lips turned upward into a wry smile. “We now think Merlin’s magic made Excalibur and Caliburn.”
Sam sighed. “Sort of. Elise, do you want to explain?”
Elise nodded. “It was said that Merlin was lifetimes ahead of himself in terms of science and technology. Like Leonardo Da Vinci after him, he kept a book in which he drew detailed diagrams and mechanics of inventions that he knew wouldn’t be built for hundreds of years after he had died.”
Guinevere said, “We’re putting together inventions that Merlin left for us?”
Elise shrugged. “Not necessarily for us, but yeah.”
“But what could anyone from Merlin’s era — whatever that era was — be useful to us now?”
“It’s not that unbelievable,” Sam said. “For example, Leonardo da Vinci drew working diagrams of the first helicopter, noting at the time that they had no means of producing enough power to turn its rotating blades fast enough to create adequate lift, but one day in the future, people would. His design was proven possible by Igor Sikorsky, on September 14, 1939, when the VS-300, the world’s first practical helicopter, took flight at Stratford, Connecticut. That was hundreds of years after da Vinci died in 1519.”
Guinevere arched her eyebrow. “And you believe Merlin was even more ahead of him?”
“It’s not that unbelievable,” Sam pointed out. “A true polymath, like da Vinci, and like Merlin, might only come around once every few hundred years. It seems unfortunate to waste that by having one born in the Dark Ages, before their knowledge and ability could really help drive humanity forward.”
“What was Merlin?” Guinevere asked.
“He was a blacksmith,” answered Elise. “But not just any blacksmith. He was so far ahead of his time he came to be known as a wizard.”
Sam said to Tom, “See, he wasn’t a wizard.”
Tom said, “A great scientist with a SPELL book, he still sounds like a wizard to me.”
Guinevere turned to Elise. “That’s a good point. What spells did he cast, if he wasn’t a magician?”
Elise said, “One of the areas of advanced research and technology development that Merlin was interested in was the area of SPELLs — which stood for Science, Physiologically Enhanced Level Locums.”
Tom frowned. “Come again?”
“Merlin was using science to develop weapons that enhanced a person’s physiological abilities by increasing its level locums.”
“What’s a level locum?” Sam asked.
Elise said, “The word locum these days means something or someone that takes the place of another. We often think of them as doctors who stand in while the normal doctor is away. But in Merlin’s day, the Latin word, locum tenens, meant, temporary place holder. And in the days of King Arthur and the Round Table, his chivalrous knights were rated on their fighting ability in a series of combat levels. What Merlin aimed to do, was use SPELLs on a knight’s armor, or weapons, to artificially place them at a higher combat level.”
Guinevere smiled in disbelief. “Merlin was creating performance enhancing weapons and armor?”
Elise nodded. “It would appear so. What’s more, he made two in particular, that we still hear about in legends today — Excalibur, the Sword in the Stone, and Caliburn, King Arthur’s first sword that allowed him to single handedly defeat an invading Saxon army.”
Sam frowned. “He was just a blacksmith?”
“Not just any blacksmith,” Elise repeated. “He was a tinkerer and a scientist. But, yes, first and foremost he was a blacksmith, who became a legend, because he made King Arthur the greatest sword there ever was. What’s more, even though he wasn’t a wizard, he may as well have been. Some of the technology he wrote about in his SPELL book makes our engineers at DARPA look primitive.”
Sam said, “He was that advanced?”
“You’d better believe it.” Elise said, “The genetic engineering required to develop Excalibur and Caliburn were decades, if not more advanced than our top scientists today.”
Sam said, “All right, does it say anything about how we’re to use Merlin’s SPELL book to destroy Excalibur?”
“Not really. Only that both Excalibur and Caliburn’s skin is imbued by a powerful stone. It doesn’t reference what the stone is made out of, only that such a stone exists and is extremely rare. The stone has an effect on every cell in their body, altering it at a cellular level…”
Guinevere asked, “To do what?”
Elise replied, “To make their skin impenetrable to any old or modern-day weapon.”
Incredulous, Tom said, “You’re saying Excalibur can’t be killed with a modern bomb blast or armor penetrating bullets?”
“That’s right,” Elise said. “Only a weapon imbued by this ancient stone will be strong enough to penetrate their defensive skin.”
Sam said, “But that can’t be right. We took blood from Caliburn. The vet used a normal needle and syringe to draw blood. If Caliburn’s skin was invincible, wouldn’t the needle have just broken?”
“Not necessarily.” Elise’s purple eyes widened. “That’s the unique wonder with this level of genetic engineering. Both weapons were developed to have some control over their defensive system. Think about it. We need our skin to breathe, to sweat. If our entire bodies were impenetrable, we would be inflexible.”
Sam took a deep breath. “So, their skin hardens when they want to be protected?”
“Yeah, I think so,” Elise said.
Guinevere said, “I don’t even think it’s a conscious decision on their part. I think the defensive thing happens in a microsecond, in response to an actual injury inducing attack, such as being struck by a bullet, or in response to adrenaline’s release in a fight or flight response. Thinking back on it, Caliburn’s skin took on a chameleon type of camouflage in response to a gunned attack at Powell’s bookstore. It only settled down later, after we’d gotten away from the threat.”