The Milestone Protocol

by Ernest Dempsey

  “The flood?”

  “Sure,” Magnus agreed partially. “Almost every culture has a flood story, but was that the first cataclysm that struck the planet? Was there another before it?” He let the question hang for a moment before he continued. “One that was engineered by the ancients of this world?”

  “We have no evidence that human records go back that—”

  “Ah-ah-ah,” Magnus chided, waving a finger in the air. “While the records of the Aboriginal tribes of Australia are scarce, we have found evidence of their existence going back as far as thirty and even close to forty thousand years. And then there is the new genetic sequencing issue that shows DNA from Australia mingling with that recovered in South America. It is clear that we don’t have an accurate timeline of events for human history on Earth. Most adhere to the Biblical timeline of history, but that doesn’t account for its own stories from Genesis.”

  Magnus noted the question in his guest’s eyes and motioned toward the lift. “Come. As I said, much faster to take the lift. That walk is a good half hour, and there’s nothing to see in there but tunnels.”

  Kevin wanted to protest. Just to see the precision of the tunnels and how they were hewn into the mountain would have been a huge thrill, but he also understood that they were on the precipice of ending civilization and that he would have months down here in this underground hole to explore and see everything there was to see.

  He followed Magnus over to the lift and stepped on as one of six guards held open the bars until everyone was on board. Then the man, sporting a thick black beard and matching hair, closed the lift gate and nodded to another guy in the same nondescript black uniform.

  The second pressed a button on the control panel, and the maintenance elevator began to descend.

  The winch overhead hummed to life, and the lift dropped into the shaft. Lights fixed to the sides illuminated the vertical tunnel, as did lights fixed to the elevator platform. Kevin was glad for the lights. He was already unnerved about going so far underground, though he’d read some mines, such as those in Russia, went down nearly four thousand feet into the earth’s surface.

  Diamond mines—indeed, most kinds of mines—were marvels of modern engineering, and the men and women who worked them were a different kind of tough than ordinary people Kevin had met in his “normal” life.

  The lift stopped at another level about eighty feet down. This corridor was encased in steel, with covered fluorescent lights lining the angled walls above where they met the ceiling. It reminded the archaeologist of science fiction stories he’d read about spaceships in faraway solar systems and galaxies.

  The guard who’d closed the gate before pulled up a pin and opened the gate again, allowing everyone to step off. The armed men led the way down the futuristic tunnel to another elevator door that stood open. Unlike the previous lift that looked like it was something miners used every day, with beaten and scratched red metal railings and a worn floor, this elevator could have been right at home at the core of the most modern of skyscrapers, though wider and taller—Kevin assumed for moving large items or shipments.

  The gunmen stepped in and waited for Kevin and Magnus to board.

  “We were talking about Genesis and timelines,” Kevin reminded his employer as they crossed the threshold into the lift.

  Once on, thick steel doors closed. The control operator inserted a black card key into a slot and then pressed the bottom button on the panel. In a heartbeat, the elevator dropped rapidly, causing Kevin to momentarily lose his balance.

  Magnus pretended not to notice as he held on to a rail at the back of the small room. “The Genesis timeline is an interesting one,” he began. “I’ve heard some people say that it doesn’t jibe with the thirteen-thousand-year hypothesis because of the lunar calendars that were used in the past. There are also theologians who claim that the dating techniques for discovering certain pieces of evidence are flawed or inaccurate.”

  “And what do you think?” Kevin asked, his legs finally returning from their gelatinous state.

  Magnus turned to him. “We are told in the Biblical scriptures that the first humans lived in the Garden of Eden. There are other scriptures that reference a paradise-type place where early civilization thrived. If those people were immortal, as we are told, then they would have no accurate accounting for time. Why would they? The Bible tells us that Adam died at the age of 930 years, but was that time after the expulsion from the garden? Humanity could have lived for thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, of years before the exile from the Tree of Life that gave them the gift of immortality. I also imagine that the technology they had access to was capable of sustaining the planet in a perfectly symbiotic manner, which was part of the punishment when they were kicked out. There’s also the little problem of the land of Nod.”

  “Nod?”

  “Yes. Cain left his family after killing his brother. He married a woman from the land of Nod. Where was this magical place? And who were the people that lived there? This is another example of poor accounting by those who translated the ancient scriptures. Of course, as we advance forward we can learn more about that ancient world, unimpeded by the masses of people overcrowding our modern one. We will be able to uncover new evidence from history and propel humanity toward a greater future.”

  The elevator slowed dramatically and then glided onto the bottom floor with a subtle bump. The heavy steel doors opened, and the men stepped out into a massive control room that would have rivaled anything NASA ever created.

  “Welcome,” Magnus said, “to our little abode. Here, in this control room, we will begin a new civilization, one that will live in harmony with the earth and work toward colonizing other worlds so that humanity can not only survive, but thrive, and take its rightful place in the universe.”

  45

  Svalbard

  Sean peered through the windshield of the cargo truck as tiny flecks of snow blew over the hood. He admired the peaceful serenity of this place, out in the middle of the Arctic Circle, far away from the troubles of civilization, the rat race, and what had become a divided world.

  There was none of that here. Not in the Arctic. He wished it weren’t so cold there, and a little closer to home, so he could visit more often just to get away from the noise.

  Sean traveled plenty, as did all the IAA agents, but their journeys rarely took them to such remote locations.

  He thought about the trip to the Sahara several years before, and about the discovery they made there. That was about as distant a spot as he’d ever visited, but even that was reachable by car or a short plane ride.

  The aurora borealis shimmered and writhed overhead, snaking its way through the sky amid the stars in the background. Snow glowed dimly on the mountains around them and on the flats between the hills.

  The truck hit a bump on the road and jostled Sean and the others. He tugged at the collar of the delivery company uniform he’d borrowed from the men at the hangar. It was fortunate the workers had spares on hand in their lockers. Sean hated to think about wearing clothes someone else had been wearing for who knew how long.

  Getting the two delivery trucks had been easy enough, though he’d expected trouble when the group decided going the truck route would be the best play. He had imagined a shootout or, at the very least, a sneak attack on the drivers and their loading crews that would end in some kind of hand-to-hand combat.

  Instead, when Sean saw the men, he realized they weren’t part of the cult. They were ordinary workers just doing their jobs. He realized it when he and his team approached the hangar where the two trucks were loading their supplies. Sean observed the men closely, and while he couldn’t tell if they had the ankh tattoos that all the other cult members bore, there were no gunmen standing watch, no guards, and no other signs that the men were anything but delivery guys.

  Sean suggested that they use an alternative approach, one that ended up costing Tommy $10,000.

  Tommy offered to pay the men $2,500
each to take a break for the next few hours and assured them that the cargo would still be delivered to the diamond mine at the mountain. The four delivery men considered the offer, weighing the risk of losing their job against what would amount to about half a month’s salary for just sitting on their tails for a couple of hours.

  When Tommy saw they were still on the fence about it, he reassured them, promising that no one was going to find out about it, and that there was nowhere for them to go on the island other than into town or to the mine. They certainly didn’t want to borrow the trucks for a joyride in the eternal night.

  His explanation made sense, and the delivery crew accepted the offer, happy to take a break for a few hours and check their accounts, wondering when the wire transfer would finally hit. Tommy collected their ID cards that they said would get them into the mine, along with the keys. He knew the money transfer wouldn’t show until the next business day, which he reminded the men, but that didn’t stop them from checking their phones as Tommy and the rest of the team loaded into the vehicles.

  The cargo bays in both trucks were heated, which made things livable in the back for the members of the team hiding there.

  Sean drove the first vehicle, and Dak drove the second, a decision that had everything to do with the men’s experience in the field with tenuous situations. They could have let the women drive, but it was assumed that whoever was guarding the mine entrance would be expecting men.

  As the cargo trucks drove away, Sean watched the men in the rearview mirror as they laughed and clapped each other on the back and made their way into an office on the side of the hangar. He’d been 99 percent sure the men were legitimate cargo delivery guys, but when he saw their reactions as he and the other truck drove away, he knew his assessment had been correct.

  The truck bounced and rumbled on the rough, snow-covered road, and Sean hoped that the knobby tires had enough grip not to slide off and into the icy lake to his right.

  He shrugged off the concern and continued around a long left-hand curve. Around a tall hill, bright lights appeared at the top of another rise straight ahead, and a hundred-foot-deep pit dropped into the earth to the left.

  Sean pulled up the CB radio and held it to his mouth. “Okay. The mine is straight ahead. Stay with me. I hope this works. If it doesn’t, we’re going to have to force our way in.”

  “Understood,” Dak said.

  They’d already discussed the contingency plan if things didn’t go as hoped. With little analysis on the entrance to the mine, the team was working on several assumptions. The first was that it would be sealed shut with a large vault-like gate that—without an access code—would be impenetrable.

  As Sean rolled up to the two guard shacks, he realized that wasn’t the case at all. The initial gate blocking the way into the mine was little more than a chain-link fence on wheels. There was barbed wire at the top, stretched out in both directions at an angle, but if he’d needed to step on the gas and barge through, Sean had no reservations that the big cargo truck would be up to the task.

  He slowed to a stop and waited as one of the guards emerged from the shack to the left while another waited inside, looking at a computer screen. Sean made sure his black mask was still pulled up over his nose and his matching beanie down low, close to his eyebrows.

  The guard approached, and Sean lowered the window. He held out the ID card and allowed the guard to inspect it. The man looked up at him with a strange, suspicious glint in his eyes, then nodded and handed the card back to Sean.

  That was easy, Sean thought.

  But his relief was only temporary.

  “I’m going to have to take a look in the back,” the guard announced in a thick Scandinavian accent. It could have been Norwegian, but there was a hint of some other nationality to it.

  Sean nodded his understanding but didn’t want to speak. He could imitate accents from all over the world. It was one of his gifts, and one that had served him well during his time in the field for Axis. Now, however, he wasn’t sure which accent the guards might be expecting, so the less talking did, the better.

  He rolled up his window as the guard walked around behind the truck. Sean looked over at Tommy, who looked anxiously in the side mirror to see what was going on in the rear. There was no sign of the guard. Only the truck behind them with Dak and Alex in the cab.

  Both Sean and Tommy knew that Niki, Tara, Emily, June, Adriana, and Tabitha waited in the back of the second truck with guns at the ready. They were instructed to hide behind the crates, and when the trucks came to a full stop, to be prepared for any contingency.

  The idea was that the guard would probably check the cargo of the first vehicle and then send the second on without bothering to look. After all, it was devastatingly cold out here, and the last thing any human wanted to do was to be exposed to the elements for longer than necessary.

  The guard disappeared behind the cargo van, and Sean looked on the screen in the center of the dash as the rear-camera display showed the guy lifting the clasp and raising the big door. He looked around for less than five seconds, then closed the bay again.

  Then, to everyone’s surprise, the man trudged around to the back of the second truck.

  Sean felt a wave of tension build in his gut.

  “He’s checking the second truck,” Sean said.

  “Yeah, thanks,” Tommy said, indicating the screen view. “I can see that. I hope he’s as thorough as he was with ours.”

  The guard rounded the corner of the second truck and vanished from sight.

  “What have you got, Dak?” Sean asked into the radio.

  “He’s trying to lift the clasp,” Dak replied. “But it looks like it’s frozen shut. Must have gotten wet before we left, or maybe some snow clogged it up. Either way, it doesn’t look like he can open it.”

  Sean and Tommy waited for what seemed like hours, hoping the guard couldn’t find a solution to the issue of the stuck door.

  A full minute and seven seconds later, Dak’s voice came over the radio. “He’s giving up.”

  The guard marched back toward the front of the two-truck convoy, shaking his head along the way. He motioned toward the shack, and the man inside pressed a button. The gate rolled away, clearing the path to an arched inflatable tunnel connected to the mountain.

  Sean remained calm and stepped on the gas, but once they were beyond the gate, he glanced at Tommy, who had paled during the ordeal.

  “You okay, pal?” Sean asked coolly.

  “Oh yeah. Fine. Just wasn’t sure if we were going to get through that gate.”

  Sean chuckled. “Good news is it’s only going to get harder from here.” He noticed the concerned look on his friend’s face. “Don’t worry, Schultzie. I’m sure there are only a few hundred, maybe a few thousand, of Sorenson’s troops in here.”

  The truck passed under the steel divide between the mountain and the outside. Both men saw the heavy steel gate opened to the side.

  “Looks a lot like NORAD,” Sean said.

  “I’ve never been there,” Tommy admitted.

  “Why would you go there?”

  “Good point.”

  Sean checked the side mirror multiple times to make sure Dak was keeping up as the two trucks rolled onto the smooth asphalt inside the mine tunnel.

  Tommy stared out the window at their surroundings. “Doesn’t look like any mine I’ve ever seen before. And I’ve been in a few.”

  “The mine carts and tracks will be down below,” Sean said, half joking.

  Tommy rolled his eyes. “I know that. I’m saying, this isn’t like any modern mine I’ve seen in that it’s much larger. Usually, the tunnels aren’t this big.”

  “It’s not really a mine anymore, though. Is it?”

  “I suppose not. They need this extra space to get big trucks in and possibly other equipment. Maybe helicopters. A few planes. Who knows what Magnus is planning?”

  The thought saddened Sean. Magnus had been a trusted friend,
a mentor, and benefactor for all of Sean’s adult life, and even before then. It didn’t do any good to wonder how much of Sean’s personality was due to the Swede’s influence. He would have time to contemplate that later, or so he hoped. In the back of his mind, he wondered if everyone would get out of this alive. He thought about Adriana, Emily, June, Tara and Alex, Niki, Tabitha, and Dak.

  Dak, of all the crew, would be okay with things. He was former Delta Force, accustomed to facing death and losing people closest to him. Sean had little doubts that Dak was mentally ready for the coming battle.

  But was Sean? Was he prepared to do whatever it took, to potentially sacrifice those he held dear, to stop a madman from killing billions?

  His reflexive answer was, of course, yes. But when the bullets started flying, would he still feel the same way?

  He’d fought alongside Tommy and Adriana more times than he cared to recall. Most of those times, his instincts and training had kicked in, leaving little room for doubt or concern. He’d trained Alex and Tara over the years, making them lethal in the field when the need arose. June and Emily could handle themselves, too, better than most special agents anywhere in the world. And Niki had, by all accounts, also been well trained.

  None of those facts soothed Sean’s nerves as he slowed down near the end of the tunnel. They were outnumbered, and there was no way to know by how many.

  A man in a black sweater and cargo pants—seemingly worn by everyone in the tunnel—waved at him as he approached and motioned toward an open parking spot near a maintenance lift. Signs on the rock wall and yellow paint on the asphalt designated the Loading Area.

  Sean waved to the man and steered the cargo truck to the right, stopping just short of the elevator. Dak pulled into the spot behind him, leaving enough room to unload the cargo between the trucks, but also close enough so that no one could get a clear view as Emily and the others in the back snuck out between the crates.