w.i.l.l.y Ley, and Klaus Riedel.'

The general gave a low whistle of respect. 'That's some bunch of

scientists,' he said. 'What were they up to?'

'We know that a number of small liquid-fuelled rockets were fired

from their testing ground in the Berlin suburb of Reinickerdorf. Then,

in April 1930, Captain Walter Dornberger was appointed to the

Ordnance Branch of the German Army's Ballistics and Weapons

Office, headed by one General Becker. Dornberger was to work on

rocket development at the army's k.u.mmersdorf firing range,

approximately fifteen miles south of Berlin. Two years later the VfR

demonstrated one of their liquid-fueled rockets to Dornberger and

other officers at k.u.mmersdorf.'

'I'm surprised I haven't heard of this,' Taylor said, sounding

slightly aggrieved.

'Maybe that's because recently, with Hitler's support, the Gestapo

moved in and overnight the VfR ceased to exist as a civilian

organization.'

'But it's now being used by the army.'

'Right. A lot of its members, including the reportedly up-andcoming Wernher von Braun, were taken under Dornberger's wing and

began working at k.u.mmersdorf in strict secrecy.'

'Ah,' the general said softly, 'so that's why our air force is

concerned!'

'd.a.m.ned right,' Bradley said. 'And if they knew what I recently

learned in Roswell, they'd be even more concerned.'

'And what was that, Mike?'

'Since G.o.ddard was so d.a.m.ned suspicious and frosty over the

phone,' Bradley explained, thinking again of Gladys Kinder and

feeling distinctly guilty, 'I visited Roswell in order to interview those

who'd known him there his engineers, the local townsfolk, and so

forth. Anyway, over the week I spent there, I became increasingly

concerned with the fact that G.o.ddard, with so little a.s.sistance either

financially or from fellow scientists, had managed to make such

extraordinary advances in rocket research. Then, shortly after the final

launch, I was introduced to a woman '