The provided excerpts from A Thousand Suns by Alex Scarrow detail a contemporary investigation into a World War II B-17 bomber wreck found off the American coast, driven by journalist Chris and diver Mark, who eventually discover the plane was flown by a German air crew and contained what is suspected to be a Nazi atomic bomb. Interspersed with this investigation are flashbacks to April 1945, revealing a desperate Nazi mission, led by Major Rall and pilot Max Kleinmann, to deliver this powerful weapon to New York. The modern-day narrative introduces James Wallace, a former intelligence asset who was involved in the original cover-up, who ultimately helps Chris escape pursuit from covert government agents trying to eliminate witnesses to the dangerous secret. The historical plot culminates with Kleinmann choosing to crash the bomber and the nuclear weapon in the Atlantic rather than fulfilling the catastrophic mission.