Chapter 1
Kalimantan, Indonesia – 1944
Isamu Imahara felt out of place on the steamy island of Kalimantan, Indonesia. He knew he was fortunate not to be stationed in a combat area, but the position of military ruler of the island wasn't one he relished performing. Imahara had been in the army for several years now, but not of his own choice. His family could trace their roots back to the aristocracy and the Samurai, and his father and grandfathers had held high ranking positions in the military. The family tradition was not something that he could easily turn away from, in fact, it was his father's influence that had gotten him his commission, not his own actions or talents.
What Imahara really wanted to do with his life, was to study science and engineering. He carried tools of that trade around with him where ever he went, taking every opportunity to satisfy his craving for experimenting, invention, and scientific studies. Isamu had a modest chemistry setup, and both a telescope and microscope with optics made by the great Alvin Clark. He also had a shelf full of reference books covering many scientific disciplines. Not exactly what a military leader would carry into the field in his foot locker, but his rank did come with its privileges.
The local inhabitants of the island didn't take very kindly to the invasion of their native soil by the Japanese army, but they were powerless to stop them. An airstrip had paved over some of their most prized farmland, warships were now anchored in the harbor where they had caught the best fish, and the homes of many upper class citizens were now being used by the military as bases of operation, and quarters for their high ranking officers. Isamu felt guilty for this, even though none of this had been done under his command. He had been dropped into his position of power after the army had already moved in, and the officer he replaced had been recalled and given a combat position on the front lines.
Imahara did try to mend fences with the locals by appointing several of the native inhabitants to important positions under himself. He felt that it might be better if one of their own handed down the edicts from above, as that might soften the impact. Isamu treated his majordomos with respect and friendship, with the result that he soon had help from the locals to pursue his true ambitions of scientific pursuits.
While he was out exploring the countryside deep inland on a quest to study the local flora, Imahara noticed that his compass would sometimes go crazy, either pointing far from magnetic north, or spin wildly. The phenomenon seemed to be centered near a low spot in a valley surrounded by dense vegetation. When Imahara inquired about the area he was told that about a hundred years ago there had been a bright streak of light across the sky, and that a glowing object had crashed into the valley in a huge fireball. Isamu realized at once that there must be a meteorite buried in the valley, probably one with a high iron concentration with magnetic properties similar to magnetite or loadstone. He decided to return later equipped with excavating equipment, and an electronic mine locater to discover exactly what lay buried there. Before he could organize his expedition, the weather turned nasty and the island was pounded by a tremendous thunder storm. Bolts of lighting, hail and a deluge of rain scoured the landscape for many days. Several large lightning crashes landed in the valley where his suspected meteorite lay buried.
A week later, after the weather had cleared, Isamu Imahara and several of the locals whom he had befriended made their way through the dense vegetation to look for the crater left by the visitor from space over a century ago. As they approached the site, Imahara's mine detector started to go crazy, emitting loud high pitched squeals, its meters jumping back and forth violently. The compasses carried by the expeditioneers were rendered useless as they spun around at high speed like electric motors. As they got closer to the crater these effects only increased in intensity. The locals started getting nervous, fearing that the gods were about to smite them for entering cursed ground. Imahara selected what he thought was the likely spot, and grabbing a pick, started to dig into the earth. Two of his followers each picked up shovels and also began to excavate. It took them several hours to reach the level where the deposits left by the meteorite were buried. The sun was getting low in the sky, and they had only enough time to unearth about a pound of mineral before they would have to return back to civilization, not wanting to travel back in the dark.
Imahara spent several months studying the mineral that he had discovered, it was like no magnetite he had ever seen before. He could draw sparks from his powered down radio set when the material was brought close to it, and unless he kept it locked in a thick iron safe, the radio would not operate with the jar of mineral in the same room. It appeared that the stuff was either emitting electromagnetic waves, or was radioactive. He tried exposing photographic plates with the material, but no fogging was produced, so this clearly wasn't anything like radium. He was totally baffled by this strange phenomenon.
Meanwhile, the war wasn't going well for Japan. Macarthur was rampaging though the Pacific routing the Japanese forces as he went. Imahara received orders from the high command to return back to Japan, along with most of his forces. A skeleton force would be left behind to slow down the advance of the enemy, and his troops were now needed to protect the home land from the expected invasion. Isamu packed up his belongings, and carefully stowed the mineral specimens for further study back home. Back in Japan, he found himself being moved about as preparations for the defense of the island homeland from the allies was being hurried up. In early August of 1945, his personal scientific equipment, his notebooks, and the mineral samples were stored in a warehouse in Nagasaki, while Imahara himself was transferred back to Tokyo.
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, March 8, 2014
Hiroto Imahara drove the Jeep at a wild breakneck speed over the narrow back roads from the Indonesian side of the island toward Kuala Lumpur. The murder of Basir convinced him that the Black Hand was after him, and that they would stop at nothing to obtain the converter device prototype, and the mineral that made it possible. He kept looking over his shoulder expecting to see the black SUV that had been trailing him all over Kalimantan for the past few weeks. If only he had made the connection earlier, Basir might still be alive and their prototype would now be safely in Japan at the Science Ministry.
Hiroto thought back at the irony of it all, how an assignment by Professor Ochanomizu to survey the area surrounding 'ground zero' in Nagasaki for residual contamination, some seventy years after the attack that had ended the second world war, had led him to the discovery. During the survey he'd come across the long forgotten subbasement of a warehouse where he found his grandfather's effects that had been buried there since the end of the war. He then discovered the pages of the diary that mentioned the strange mineral the senior Imahara had found during the second world war. Hiroto also unearthed the samples of the strange mineral, and a crude device that Isamu had constructed to test a theory. From that day on Hiroto devoted himself to continuing the research that his grandfather had had started.
His early experiments with the mineral had been promising, the only problem was that the sample was too small. He needed enough to reach a "critical mass" to produce a "rotating dipole effect" that would be self sustaining. He knew that if he succeeded, he could produce a power converter that would be 100% efficient, a device that could produce electrical power from nothing by taping into the 'blanes' that made up the subatomic substance of the universe itself! He knew that device would be an almost limitless source of clean energy, but also that it could also be turned into the most hideous weapon that mankind had ever created.
It was while he was searching for the site where his grandfather had made the first discovery that he had met Basir. The strange little man was an inventor in his own right, building his own little physics laboratory in the basement of the high school where he taught science. Basir was scouting in the same valley, looking for insect and plant samples for his classroom lectures when the two met. Hiroto and Basir worked together to find the location of the meteorite, and to recover over 800 kilos of the mineral. Working together in Basir's laboratory, they had constructed a prototype of the converter, and were able to test it. Unbeknown to them however, they were being watched by sinister forces.
Basir had encountered the Black Hand once before, though he kept the encounter secret from Hiroto. An offshoot of the Kempeitai and the Black Dragons, the underworld organization trafficked in drugs, slaves, and technology. His laboratory had been broken into once before, though at the time it had contained nothing of any value, and nothing had been taken by the thieves. The police identified the break in as the work of the mysterious political syndicate, and advised Basir to be careful. The science teacher prudently moved his laboratory from his home to the school basement, and he wasn't bothered again, until that fatal day.
A week after their break through, Hiroto showed up at the laboratory to find Basir's bloody body, and the place in shambles. The prototype wasn't there as Hiroto had already taken it, and several hundred kilos of the mineral back to his hotel to pack for shipment back to Japan. He rushed back there and quickly stuffed his four suitcases with the scientific cargo, making it out of the building just as a black SUV rounded the corner. How he had given them the slip, he didn't know, but it was obvious that getting out of Indonesia was going to be tricky. Hiroto prayed that he could make it across the border to Malaysia, and that he might be able to slip out of the country. He kept off the main roads, taking the less traveled ones, hoping to avoid being spotted. It seemed to have worked.
Arriving at the airport, his heart fell to see that the next available direct flight to Japan was many hours away. Hiroto feared for his life, and knew he had to leave the island as quickly as possible. He scanned the boards looking for the first available flight toward home. The next flight out would be Malaysian Airlines flight 370 to Beijing. From there he could catch a connecting flight to Tokyo, it would have to do. Having only minutes to catch the flight, he bribed the one of the airport workers to sneak his overweight luggage onto the plane at the last minute before the flight. The aircraft loading operator was all too happy to accept Hiroto's gratuity and hastily loaded the last minute luggage into the aircraft's cargo bay.
As the aircraft took off, Hiroto breathed a sigh of relief. He'd escaped from the Black Hand mob, and soon the prototype converter that Basir had given his life to help build would be back at the Science Ministry where it could be perfected. Then the discovery would be in safe hands, and Japan would be free from dependence on oil and nuclear energy forever.
The aircraft banked sharply during the takeoff roll out to climb to cruising altitude. The hastily packed luggage in the cargo hold shifted and three heavy suitcases that were not strapped down well bounced around and landed in a heap against a conduit panel that housed the aircraft's fly by wire electronics. Twenty minutes later flight 370 disappeared from the air traffic control displays.