Terminal Call
A “Deeper State” Novel
Richard Winslow
1937. Two Gestapo agents arrive in Lake Ronkonkoma, New York, to assume control of a secret German naval operation. They successfully blend into the small village, going virtually unnoticed.
1989. Gordon, a CIA agent stationed in Israel, meets Mona, an American woman finishing her tour of duty in the Israeli Defense Forces. They begin a short and torrid relationship that ends poorly.
An assignment from a mysterious man brings Mona back to the United States to learn about some decades-old bones recently uncovered on the shore of Lake Ronkonkoma. Mona is surprised to cross paths with Gordon, who is now covertly operating with the FBI and is assisting in their investigation of the “remains case” at the lake.
They begin to untangle mysteries, starting with what the German Navy was secretly constructing at the lake in 1937. As they investigate, they discover disturbing evidence of a conspiracy begun several years before the United States entered World War II.
Corruption within the Vatican, Gestapo agents still active on American soil, and several murders complicate matters for Mona and Gordon. As they put the pieces together, they learn that an encrypted message has been sent to an unknown recipient by an outmoded, yet operational German Enigma Machine.
The Terminal Call has been made. Will the havoc that ensues result in a catastrophic conclusion? Only one man who is prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice knows the answer.
About Richard Winslow
Richard L. Winslow is an author, commercial broadcaster, and world traveler who lives on Long Island, New York. He became fascinated with Lake Ronkonkoma—the pivotal setting for much of the action in Terminal Call....Upon learning of the Lake’s storied and mysterious history, including the disturbing fact that German sailors were openly working and living among civilians in the area in the 1930s, he was driven to write what he considers “The story that must be told.” Many conversations with longtime locals and extensive historical research informed this fictional thriller.
The frightening facts behind the unforgettable fiction...
Lake Ronkonkoma, situated in the geographical center of Long Island, New York, now bleak and neglected, was once pristine and beautiful. Mystery, however, has always surrounded the lake. Its visibility is obscured below a level of three feet, and the depths of some parts remain unknown.
The murkiness of the waters does not allow charting of the sources of the several underground streams that feed it. At times the lake rises as if alive and then for inexplicable reasons settles down “in her own time,” as locals say.
Over the years, several young men who’d braved those shadowy waters had disappeared and as it continued to grow, the lake like a stealthy thief, covertly stole more of the shoreline. The eastern waterfront once housed storied casinos and sordid nightlife, but those viewing the area five decades later need creative imaginations to believe it. The few remaining structures that dotted the shore were weather-beaten and mostly abandoned.
These wooden edifices had once been the summer homes of those who couldn’t quite afford the houses of the Gold Coast on the North Shore of Long Island closer to Manhattan, or the lavish oceanfront mansions built by celebrities of stage and screen who called the Hamptons their playground.
Lake Ronkonkoma has a compelling and macabre legend known as “The Curse Of The Indian Princess,” the tale of a young woman who fell in love with a white man, only to be punished by tribal chiefs who forbade the affair, causing the heartsick girl to commit suicide by drowning herself in the lake’s insatiable waters. The Lady of the Lake, in retribution, is alleged to claim the life of one male victim per year.
