Dark Crusader Dig

An anon in a previous bread posted: >>2861925, tying the DoD twat about a retiring aircraft with a spy novel. I was going to suggest for Notables, but got sidetracked with digging.

>Anons the DoD twat about c130 retiring 0476 "The Dark Crusader" is a spy novel. Excerpt above..

>Notable plot

>https://astrofella.wordpress.com/2014/09/04/the-dark-crusader-alistair-maclean/

See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dark_Crusader

The Dark Crusader (US title: The Black Shrike), by Alistair MacLean (writing as Ian Stuart).

Note that MacLean had a habit of writing stories based (sometimes loosely) on true events. He was one of the most popular authors of his day. His stuff's not bad if you want something enjoyable as a 'popcorn movie' sort of read. He was very unpopular with the critics of the time, though - too low-brow.

I can totally see him as being connected to all of … whatever the fuck it is we're discovering here, somehow.

To expand on the plot a little. Some points that activated my almonds:

>Eight top-level scientists and their wives disappear … specialists in different areas of modern technology.

<Top level scientists and their wives.

>… offered high rates of pay to applicants who were married, had no children and were prepared for immediate travel.

<Follow the wives? Or blackmail through family.

<No children is interesting, too.

>All eight scientists had disappeared in Australia or en route there

<Australia (FVEY/Cabal as fuck)

>[Our heroes] find themselves kidnapped at a bus stop in Fiji. They escape to the island of Vardu, a remote coral atoll in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, which is currently home to Professor Witherspoon, a noted archaeologist.

<Fiji.

>Private island.

<Archaeology. Immediately made me think of whatever the fuck's happening underground right now, and also the whole 'the entirity of history might be partially fake' thing we've got going on.

>Witherspoon is actually LeClerc, the mastermind behind a plot to steal a British missile, the Dark Crusader, for an unnamed foreign power.

<Missile tech stolen.

<Foreign power.

A lot of that seems awfully relevant. Even if you drop my more spurious connections, we've at least got mysterious goings on in Ausfailia (Cabal as fuck), Fiji (Bronfmans, etc.), private islands, and missile tech stolen by a foreign power (it's the Soviets in the book, but we know there's China fuckery afoot at the minute), which seems a little to convenient to be coincidental.

If that's not enough coincidences for you, I actually own MacLean's entire collection, and have done some skimming. I was drawn to the fact that there's a massive tunnel network (big enough to get trains down) under the mysterious archaeologist/spy's island.

<Private island with a tunnel network.

Really?

I'm going to start reading the book tonight. I'll report when I'm done, but wanted to get more competent/autistic eyes on this as soon as possible.

I also watched the video on the DoD tweet. When the airman names the plane, he looks uncomfortable and a little shifty. Almost as if he's lying. I wonder if that's the plane's real nickname.

I think these are comms of some sort.

[Digging Intensifies]