He was sure she was bluffing. This was an attempt to delay execution. "I really doubt you have any information which could be helpful to me. It's more likely you are trying to avoid the inevitable. What is this information and how can you prove it?" he asked. "First I need to have your word that we have a deal." she replied. "No, I won't give you that word. The best I can do is to take the information into consideration. It would need to be quite valuable in order to save you. That's the best and only offer I will give you." he said.
Figuring she didn't have any other options Monique revealed what she knew. "Due to my involvement in the Ark Pyramid project I was given access to classified information. In July of 1947 our government recovered a data recorder from the crash in Roswell, New Mexico. We didn't have the technology to unlock the data until a few months ago. The data was a video feed from the craft of the alien who was flying the ship when it crashed. There are over eight hours of footage. The display console of the alien craft is visible. There were hieroglyphs displayed on the console as well as navigation data. The ship we recovered the data from was part of an armada. After the video was analyzed it looks as if the armada was defending Earth against an invading force. The ship recovered in Roswell was damaged during the defense of Earth and crashed landed. I can get a copy of the data file." she said. “How can you get a copy of the data file?” Vincent asked. “If you let me contact a friend at the agency, he will send it to me.” she said. “Not a chance. You won’t be contacting anyone outside of this ship.” he said.
"Don't listen to her. The longer she’s kept alive the more danger we’ll be in." Dominic said. Vincent ignored Dominic for the moment. "Who has access to this data?" he asked. "I have a friend in the agency who might help me if he knows I'm in trouble. He might be able to get it. It is astounding. I was part of the team which analyzed the data. I'm sure there is information which would be helpful to you." she said. “Does the director have access to this data?” Vincent asked. “Of course. Only a handful of people even know it exists.” she said.
Vincent took into consideration everything she had said. "You've bought yourself a reprieve for the moment. I have my own resources. If your story is true and I'm able to get access to the data, we might be able to come to an arrangement." He knew Agent Carson would have access to the information, if he was still alive. He would have to try and get word to Enzo quickly.
If it were possible, he would have screamed. Agent Carson looked out the gap in the grizzly bear and could make out a gas station through the window of the canopy on the truck. Suddenly his abductor and two other men appeared in the window. They were looking right at him. He could hear them talking about the bear and what a trophy it was. His abductor was bragging about his grizzly kill with the locals. It stunk and he was cold, it was unbearable. In retrospect he wished his abductor would have killed him. He would have the man killed when he got out of this situation. Nobody treated a CIA agent like this and got away with it.
An hour later the truck pulled into a small warehouse. The agent was removed from the bear, his restraints were released, and he was allowed to use the bathroom and get some water. He was still naked and under gunpoint the entire time. "Whatever you're being paid, I'll triple it. I can give you whatever you want." he pleaded. "You can't give me anything I don't already have or need. Take this pill, we still have a long way to go." Agent Carson tried to run and was quickly tackled with his head hitting the concrete floor with a thud. He woke up a short time later bound and gagged in the back of what looked like an old moving truck without any windows. He was still traveling to an unknown destination. He had been kept alive for a reason. Someone wanted something from him. When he finally met the person who had arranged his abduction he would negotiate his way out and then have everyone involved killed.
The story Monique told was tantalizing, but it could have all been made up. Evidence would be needed to save her. "Do you believe her story?" Vincent asked Dominic. "No, I don't believe it one bit. As long as we keep an eye on her and don't let her near any communication devices there is no harm in waiting. Are you going to contact Enzo?" Dominic asked. "You bet your ass. I hope it’s not too late." Vincent said.
Vincent needed to contact Enzo as quickly as possible. Hopefully Agent Carson was still alive. The Captain granted him access to a secure communications console. The ship had traveled well beyond the orbit of the moon. There would be a brief communications delay of about nine seconds. Enzo appeared on his monitor, and he told him the story. "Is Agent Carson still alive? If so, can you get the information from him?" he asked and waited impatiently for the delay. "I expect Agent Carson to arrive anytime. It will be a few days at most. If he has access to the data I will get it. It’s hazardous to keep Agent Murphy alive. Use extreme caution and don't let her out of your sight. As soon as I have information from Agent Carson I'll let you know. It should be soon. If you can get anymore useful information from Monique, be sure to let me know. Remember Vincenzo, never underestimate your enemy. It can be lethal.” Enzo said.
Vincent found Dalton and shared the unbelievable story from Monique. "If it's true it would be confirmation of Maria's work. It's a frightening prospect the human race could have been exterminated. The Roswell crash was in early July of 1947. The Goat Rocks sighting was on June twenty forth of the same year. The events were only two weeks apart. That's incredible. There's no way it can be a coincidence. Something obviously was happening in the area of Earth. The artifacts and treasure must have been moved right before the battle in the event Earth was invaded and overtaken. I hope her story is true, it would really be amazing to see the video footage. Maybe we can figure out what really happened in 1947." Dalton said.
Enzo called his resident technical wizard. “I’m going to need a security notebook with a scrambling device. The notebook will need to be able to perform fingerprint and retina scans. It will also need to be untraceable in every way. Will this be a problem?” he asked. The techno wizard said it would not be a problem and was relatively simple. It paid to hire the very best. “You will need to be present and it might be unpleasant. Be prepared and concentrate on the task at hand.” Enzo said.
After three days of driving, Martino was tired as he backed into an old barn in upstate New York. Today was payday and he would be done with this annoying little man. Enzo was waiting for him as he drove inside the windowless barn. He turned off the engine and Enzo closed the barn door behind him.
The back door opened when the truck came to a stop. The first thing Benjamin saw was Enzo Moretti standing before him with a gun. Suddenly everything fell into place. Somehow he had found out the truth about Maria. “Hello Agent Carson, welcome to New York. Did our friend here treat you well?” Enzo asked as Martino hauled him out of the van and tossed him onto the dirty barn floor. He landed hard adding more bruises to his battered body.
The duct tape was removed from his mouth, and he was promptly punched in the nose. Blood began to run down his face. “Did you believe you could kill my sister and get away with it?” Enzo asked. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Who’s your sister?” Benjamin said. “Maria Moretti was my sister. But you already knew that didn’t you? Don’t bother denying what you’ve done. We know without a doubt you gave the order to have her killed. Stop playing games.” Enzo said as he punched him again. “Are you ready to play nice?” Enzo asked. “You won’t get away with this.” Agent Carson said. Enzo was getting annoyed with the bravado from the man. "You're dumber then you let on, and that's saying quite a bit. Remember the transport you blew up last week killing everyone onboard? All you did was blow up eight pigs. The crew wasn't onboard." Enzo said. "That's not true. We saw them board." the Agent said. "Yes you did, but you didn't see them get off the ship inside a cargo container." Enzo replied.
"Agent Carson you are now going to access the CIA database and provide us with a copy of the Roswell video." He couldn't believe Enzo knew about the Roswell video. Only a handful of people in the entire government were
aware it existed and he trusted all of them. It was disturbing to know one of them was a traitor. "I don't know what you're talking about." he said. Enzo was growing tired of the charade, and shot the agent in the knee. He waited for the screaming to subside. "Let's try this again. If you cooperate, it might just save your life. Access the secure database and find the file." Enzo demanded.
The pain was excruciating. He hadn’t ever felt anything like it. His knee was shattered into pieces and he was bleeding heavily. There weren’t many options. Accessing the database was the only possible way out at the moment. He didn’t want to be shot again or tortured some other way. “Fine, I’ll access the damn file. Just don’t shoot me again.” he said. After the fingerprint and retina scans were performed access was granted to the CIA database. Each keystroke was monitored closely by Enzo who still had his finger on the trigger. Agent Carson found the file and made a copy. "The file has been copied. You now have access. You said it would save my life, let's talk about my release. How did you know about the file by the way?" he asked.
The technician nodded at Enzo indicating the file was safe and accessible. "You weren't the only CIA agent who was kidnapped recently. Agent Murphy was taken aboard a transport which you didn’t manage to blow to pieces. She told us about the file and how she didn't seem to like you very much.
I told you giving us the file might save your life. You killed my sister, there is nothing you could do which would save yourself from the justice of my family. I have a gift for you from Vincenzo." Enzo slowly raised his gun and shot Agent Carson through the forehead.
The waiting felt like it was taking forever. She didn't know where Vincent had these supposed resources, but it was very unlikely he would get anywhere near the Roswell file. She personally knew the handful of people who had access to it. They were all longtime and dedicated employees of the agency. She couldn't see a reason why any of them would take the risk to help some unknown archeologist. The odds of Vincent succeeding and her life being saved were exceedingly small, but it was the only hope she had.
She never planned on being in space. If the file were recovered Vincent would know the secret of Rhea and it’s rings. To have the opportunity to explore the discovery would be something she would never have imagined. The more she had become involved with investigating the Roswell incident and the Ark Pyramid, the more she became interested in space and what purpose the aliens served.
Vincent made another drink for Dalton and himself as they continued their review of the photos. Nothing new had been discovered for awhile and it was becoming an exercise in futility. The Captain came through the open doorway. "You have a communication request in the command center." They both got up knowing it could only be Enzo.
"I have two items of interest for you Vincenzo. The first is the file you requested. I'm transmitting it now. Our friendly Agent Carson didn't want to part with it. We had a quick debate about the pros and cons of my request. I made a good point and he eventually came around. The second item is to let you know Agent Carson won’t be around any longer. I gave him a gift for you Vincenzo. Maria can now rest in peace. Let me know if there is anything else I can help you with."
Vincent was overwhelmed, it took a moment to take in everything he had been told. To know justice had prevailed was a relief. His grandmother’s killer was dead, and the Roswell file described by Monique actually existed. He couldn’t wait to see what was on it. "Thank you Uncle. There's no way I can express my gratitude. I will keep you updated as things develop." he said and ended the communication. "Holy shit." Dalton said. "No doubt, let's go find Monique and see what we've got." Vincent replied.
Monique was tired of being chaperoned around the ship. Dominic was escorting her back to her quarters from the bathroom when she bumped into Vincent and Dalton rounding a corner. "Dominic, we'll take her for now. We need to talk and then we'll get her back to her quarters." Vincent said. Monique could see Vincent was holding something. "What do you have?" she asked. "Perhaps your very existence. This is a copy of the file you told me about. If you were lying, we're about to find out. It had better be what you described." The three of them went to his quarters to open the file.
The video opened to empty space. Stars were in the background but not much else. Monique was right about the display console. Multiple images were being shown. A flight suit was being worn by the pilot. The camera captured part of the suit which contained the arms and hands. Occasionally the pilot would touch parts of the display. It was hard to tell with the flight suit on, but the arms and hands didn't appear to be dissimilar from those of humans.
Monique paused the video. "There it is. As you can see this is the video I described. Do I now have your word we can come to an arrangement?" she asked. “We haven’t seen anything of value yet. I’ll make a decision about a possible arrangement after we’ve seen the video. It looks like this is the real deal so far. We will discuss your future later, press play." he said.
The video resumed. "Our analysts told us this part of the video was taken in the Kuiper Belt. About every two minutes the stars and the arms of the pilot change position slightly. The video isn't constant. From what we could tell the video comes on for two out of every thirty three minutes during what we believe is routine operations. We think the video is recording position coordinates and updating the mission status intermittently. The ship is traveling at a tremendous speed. Early calculations put the speed at seventy five percent of light speed. It didn’t take long at all to reach Saturn. Here’s where it starts to get interesting." She said.
Vincent and Dalton were transfixed on the video as they saw what looked like a planet approaching. The video was continuous during the approach. The planet was indeed Saturn. The ship was slowing and heading for one of the moons. “Do you know what moon that is?” Dalton asked. “It’s Rhea.” Vincent said. He knew Rhea was essentially a frozen slush ball and the second largest moon of Saturn after Titan.
It looked as if the alien craft was going to crash into the moon until a massive door opened on the surface. As the ship went through the door hundreds of alien ships were visible. Ships were in various stages of construction. Aliens could be seen walking around the hanger performing various duties. The structure looked like it was being used as a hanger or staging area. Ships were separated in the hanger by size. Some were enormous while others were designed for a single pilot. Motion in the video stopped as the craft landed in the hanger. Vincent paused the video. “That’s extraordinary. Where did the ship come from?” he asked. “That’s a good question. Nobody seems to know. Three quarters the speed of light is extremely fast but it’s not nearly fast enough to conduct interstellar travel and plan for a battle. It would have taken decades to get here from the closest star systems. We know very little about these aliens but those small ships are not designed for comfort or long voyages. We don’t know where the aliens came from and if they have an alternate means of travel. Both are good questions we don’t have the answer to yet.” Monique said.
“Did you see the tenuous ring around Rhea? It’s the only known moon with a ring. For years we weren’t sure if a ring really existed around Rhea. The data was always inconclusive and nobody could agree on what type of material was in the ring. Our analysis of the video indicates that a ring does exist, and it’s made out of the same material the ships and the Ark Pyramid are made from. We believe the material in the ring system is artificial and is used in the construction of their ships. The ring system is a massive storage area of an unknown alien material. One of the analysts at the agency called the material tratium.” Monique said and restarted the video.
It was unknown how long the pilot was in the hanger and how long the video was off. “The video could have been off for a matter of minutes or it could have been months or years. The video only resumed when the pilot returned and powered up the ship.” Monique said. When the video resumed the feed showed the craft leaving the hanger and the area of Saturn altogether.
After the alien craft
left Saturn the video once again showed a mostly empty field of stars. In the blackness of space the stars shown brightly. The craft began to slow as it approached what was obviously Earth. An armada of alien ships circled the planet. The smaller craft were uniform in design and spread out in regular intervals. Monique said the CIA referred to them as interceptors.
The larger ships were not uniform in size or design. Ships varied in size and were constructed much differently from each other. All the ships larger then the interceptors were grouped together. There were sixty five of them according to Monique. Upon closer inspection the sixty five larger ships surrounded one massive craft. “We called that big one Bertha, it was about a hundred thousand miles from earth.” Monique said. As the craft continued toward Earth a green indicator started blinking on the display. Immediately the view out the cockpit changed as the craft changed direction. Suddenly the Moon was in the center of the view screen. Soon the Moon covered the entire field of view. Thousands of interceptors could be seen on the surface. The craft took an empty spot in the formation and joined the others.
Forty five minutes passed. The display on the console kept changing. At times images of ships appeared as well as hieroglyphs. Suddenly a bright purple image of Earth appeared on the display. All the ships on the surface of the Moon rose from the surface in unison. “They were using the Moon to hide and take the enemy from the rear. Those ships were out of the line of sight.” Monique said.
Lost Sols 1: Ancient Treasure Page 7