A tiny excerpt from the work-in-progress second novel, now that progress is once again being made. I’m hoping to have this done in a couple of months…

Prologue
May 10, 1941

Even though it was May, the night was bitterly cold, and the pilot was shivering in his leather flight suit as he approached his destination in the Scottish lowlands.

The cold, yes, that was it. The cold was the only reason for him to be shivering. His mission had nothing to do with it. He knew his mission would be a success — was he not, after all, a man of destiny? Had not Herr General Haushofer assured him as much? He was a new Parsifal, combining the compassion of the highest mind with the instincts of a warrior.

No, Rudolf Hess was not feeling any nerves as he prepared to bail out. He’d handled the flight perfectly — the late light in these Northern latitudes had meant that he’d had good visibility all the way — and while he was running out of fuel, enough that he had to fire all his ammunition to reduce the plane’s weight, he knew he didn’t have to land the plane itself, which was lucky as he was out of practice after a year grounded.

Damn Goering, he thought to himself once again, keeping me from doing my part for the Fatherland. Just because he’s too fat to fly any more, he thought I had to stay behind a desk too. The Reich needs soldiers and airmen, damnit! At least, it will if this doesn’t work…

As the plane started to descend, he grabbed the papers, the real reason he’d made the journey, and stuffed them inside his flight suit. He couldn’t forget those, or allow them to come to any harm. The writings on those papers needed to be given to the Duke of Hamilton. The fate of the Reich depended on it.

As he bailed out of the plane, Rudolf Hess knew that the judgement of history would be kind to him. He was going to end the war between Germany and the British Empire forever, and because of him the Reich would last a thousand years.

It’s just as it was in the Fuhrer’s plan, he assured himself. The shakes were just the Vril rising in his body. That was all. Just the Vril, and the cold…