For more than an hour, Austin laid out the timeline, touching on Tesla, Kovacs's escape from East Prussia and the electromagnetic warfare experiments conducted by the U.S. and the Soviets. He described his meeting with Barrett, the man who had translated the theorems into reality, the ship-sinking ocean disturbances and the plans to initiate a polar shift. Austin was aware of the fantastic nature of his story, so he left out a few details. Had he not seen them with his eyes he would never have believed in the existence of dwarf mammoths in a crystal city locked in an ancient volcano.

Even without the more unbelievable details, he faced a wall of skepticism. Austin made his case with the skill of a powerhouse attorney talking to a jury, but he knew he would be peppered with questions. An assistant secretary representing the Department of Defense cut Austin short when he was describing Jordan Gant's involvement with Margrave.

“You'll have to excuse me if I find it hard to believe that the head of a nonprofit organization and the billionaire owner of a respected software company are in cahoots to cause this so-called polar shift over some vague neo-anarchist cause.”

“You can argue about specifics,” Austin said, “but this is far from a vague cause. Lucifer used the bright lights of Broadway to send its message to the world and shut down New York City as a warning. I think 9/11 proved that you ignore seemingly lunatic warnings at your peril.”

“Where are these so-called transmitter ships?” asked a naval officer.

“Rio de Janeiro,” Austin replied.

“You said there were four ships earlier but one sank?”

“That's right. We assumed that a replacement ship would be built, but we found no sign of it, so we're assuming they're going ahead with the trio.”

“This should be a slam dunk,” the assistant secretary said. “I suggest we send the closest submarine to keep track of these ships, and if they engage in suspicious behavior we sink them.”

“What about diplomatic considerations?” the four-star general asked. “Shoot first and ask questions later on the high seas?”

“It would be no different than shooting down a civilian airliner targeting the White House or Congress,” the secretary said. “Can we do it?” he asked the naval officer.

“The navy likes a challenge,” he said.

“Then that's the plan. I'll run it by the secretary of defense and we can get the ball rolling. He'll brief the president when he gets back tomorrow.” He turned to Austin. “Thanks for bringing this to our attention.”

“I'm not through,” Austin said. “There's reason to believe we have something that will neutralize the polar shift. We may have found an antidote.”

Every eye in the room stared at him.

“What sort of antidote?” the general asked more out of politeness than interest.

“It's a set of electromagnetic frequencies that we think will counter the polar reversal.”