The Portent

by Michael S. Heiser

  “That’s awesome,” Malcolm exclaimed, beaming. “I think we all need reminders like that—that God still does that sort of thing.”

  “It reminds me a little of Melissa’s near-death experience back at Mount Weather,” Brian said to Malcolm, who nodded.

  “I was thinking that, too,” Melissa added. “I’m still not sure about what that meant, but I think it’s safe to say it was supernatural.”

  “Let’s not talk about that place,” Dee moaned.

  “You’re never going to see it again,” Malcolm assured her. “And you can’t let living underground remind you of it, either. Besides, look around—this is pretty sweet.”

  “Sure, it’s nice—and we all agree that it has Area 51 beat by a mile—but you know that’s not what I’m talking about.”

  “The Colonel isn’t going to find us here,” he insisted.

  “It’s not just the Colonel we need to be worried about,” Dee said, sounding more agitated, “especially if Brian is right about what happened with Adam. That’s why I don’t like thinking about Mount Weather. What’s worse, one of Brian’s Watchers, or a little gray twerp that reads minds?”

  “They have limitations,” Brian said confidently. “Or we’d already be toast.”

  “Umm, Brian …”

  He felt Melissa touch his arm and turned to her. Her eyes motioned away from the couch. He turned his head toward the dumbfounded audience listening to the argument, their expressions a spectrum of disbelief and apprehension.

  “Did I really just hear you say ‘Area 51’?” Ward asked through a dry mouth.

  “ ‘Little gray guys’?” Madison asked, her eyes wide.

  Brian sighed. “I guess it’s our turn now.”

  41

  I have learned to use the word ‘impossible’ with the greatest caution.

  —Wernher von Braun

  “I’m speechless,” Neff said, glancing at his watch. “I can’t believe the four of you spent the summer at Area 51 and Mount Weather, riding in UFOs, experiencing HAARP in action, seeing alien bodies—not to mention the personal tragedies of having friends and colleagues killed. It’s just mind-boggling.”

  “That’s putting it mildly,” Brian replied. “We were all shell-shocked last summer when we found out where we were. We knew the situation we were involved in was serious since we were put in there against our will, but we had no idea. I hope you understand now why I felt like your involvement with us was risky.”

  “Absolutely.”

  “I’m glad we decided to send Summit to her room,” Nili added. “This would be too much for her.”

  “I’m not only amazed at where you all were,” Ward added, “but that we actually got two of you out.”

  “Ditto,” added Malcolm.

  “So, if I’m following,” Malone interjected, “you were taken to Area 51 and given a bogus environmental crisis as the reason for your ‘recruitment.’ Then later, the people in charge—this ‘Group’—arranged a series of revelations to convince you that what was really in play was a government extraterrestrial disclosure?”

  “Exactly,” Melissa answered. “When the Group saw we weren’t buying the first yarn, we allegedly got the truth from them about alien disclosure.”

  “But that turned out to be a misdirection as well?” Ward asked uncertainly.

  “Yes, but that’s something we had to deduce on our own. For sure the mole inside the Group filled in a lot of gaps, but we had our own suspicions before he spilled everything.”

  “You mean the Lieutenant Sheppard you told us about,” Malone interrupted, “the one who was motivated by guilt by what he had done to you two in the past?”

  “The one that Father Benedict shot?” Madison recalled.

  “Yes,” Brian confirmed. “When Sheppard revealed himself, it was an incredible shock. Of all the things that happened last summer, that was the most unexpected. It brought Melissa and me full circle and wound up helping us get off the base.”

  “What caused your initial suspicions about the alien-disclosure scenario?” Neff asked.

  “Melissa was on to it first,” Brian said, looking in her direction.

  “I started to think we were being taken for another ride when we were shown the alien corpses—or what they presented to us as dead aliens. There were some features that I knew could have been alterations.”

  “Did you share your suspicions with any of your colleagues?” Nili asked.

  “No, I didn’t trust anyone there,” Melissa answered. “At least, that’s what I told myself. The truth is that I sort of knew Brian was honest, but I didn’t care—all I felt when I saw him was contempt.”

  “Why?” Nili asked, wide-eyed with surprise. “How could you feel that way, especially now that you’re together?”

  “It wasn’t him so much as what he stood for. It’s hard to explain. Let’s just say that Brian reminded me of people in my past who had ruined my life. All I could think about was getting revenge. He was a convenient target.”

  “What changed?”

  Melissa looked at Brian warmly. “He saved my life. I treated him like garbage and did all I could to humiliate him, and he gave me my life in return—and almost got himself killed doing it.”

  Brian listened as Melissa recounted the dramatic twist of fate that had led to their reconciliation, the unexpected catalyst that had brought them to where they were now. Flashes of the powerful security dogs’ vicious attack on the surface at Area 51 streaked across his memory. He closed his eyes and tried to tune out the details.

  “Brian, are you okay?”

  He opened his eyes and looked in the direction of the words he’d heard. It was Madison.

  “Yeah,” he assured her along with everyone else, as they had all turned their attention to him. “I just haven’t thought much about it. I didn’t think at all when it happened. I just knew what I had to do and did it.”

  “Combat is the same way,” Nili said, “but the decision must still be made. You were very brave.”

  “I’d have died on the tarmac if it wasn’t for Melissa’s quick thinking. She saved me as well.”

  “Based on what I’ve heard just now, that’s very likely,” Neff said.

  “You don’t seem to have suffered any permanent damage,” Clarise said in a transparently curious tone.

  “I don’t have any,” Brian answered.

  “How is that?”

  “Well, this is where we get to the part about little gray guys—living ones, or so it seemed at the time.”

  The group listened with riveted fascination as Brian related their encounter with Adam and his healing. Malcolm and Dee added their own experience at Mount Weather with the spindly gray creature.

  “I’ll say it again,” Nili spoke when they were finished, “Summit should not hear about these things. This would give her nightmares.”

  “Are you absolutely certain that you weren’t really healed by Adam—that it was nanotechnology?” Clarise inquired.

  “Absolutely,” Malcolm answered her. “I saw it myself. I had enough experience with nanotech in my own PhD work to know that’s what I was looking at under the electron microscope. His blood was swimming with nanobots, and they reassembled the destroyed tissues and nerves in no time. It was spectacular.”

  “Adam didn’t inject me with anything,” Brian added, “but the base doctor did, shortly before the meeting. I’m convinced the Group had staged the episode to make us believe. Lieutenant Sheppard also told us point-blank that the Group had the technology to create a conscious life form through nanotechnology. In effect, they have the blueprints and recipes for everything they need.”

  “I know it sounds macabre,” Clarise continued, the fascination evident on her face, “but I’ve just got to see that for myself. I’ve read a lot about nanotechnology, and that sort of application and performance just isn’t available today, at least in any public setting.”

  “If you want to draw some blood, that’s fine,” Brian said
with a chuckle.

  “I’ll bet you can show everyone now,” Malcolm said, looking at Brian with raised eyebrows.

  “What do you mean?” Brian asked.

  “Haven’t you ever wondered if what’s inside you is still active? No time like the present to find out.”

  “To answer your question, Malcolm, no, I haven’t thought about what might still be inside me.”

  “No way.”

  “Way—and you’ve got that look on your face again.”

  “What look?” he asked with a knowing grin.

  “The reckless one.”

  42

  Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.

  —Corrie ten Boom

  “Come on, let’s see what happens if you cut your finger or something. I bet it will heal in a couple minutes.”

  “Come on, Malcolm.”

  “Don’t tell me that you wouldn’t like to see.”

  “I can live without the suspense.”

  “Just a little nick. If it doesn’t work, you can cut me, too. We’ll be blood brothers.” He laughed.

  “Do you believe this?” Brian asked Melissa.

  “Actually, I’m kind of curious about it now, too.”

  “Count me in,” seconded Dee.

  “The motion passes!” Madison said enthusiastically.

  Brian rolled his eyes.

  “I’ll get a knife and some gauze,” Clarise said, her own curiosity getting the better of her.

  She returned a few moments later and handed the knife to Brian. Everyone watched as he lightly ran the edge of the knife against the underside of his ring finger. Clarise dabbed the blood and then wrapped his finger in gauze.

  “If they’re still in there working, it won’t take long,” Brian said with a sigh. “The whole arm was healed in less than an hour. Any more questions while we wait?”

  Malone’s phone went off. “Kamran asks, ‘What about Adam and consciousness?’ ” he read aloud.

  “Good question,” Dee spoke up. “Mind you, I’d still like to believe the little freak was an alien, given the alternative, but to be honest, consciousness doesn’t require that he was a real alien. It only requires a brain. The leap here is that a brain could be constructed from the ground up with nanotechnology, but if it was, it should do what a brain does.”

  “Would an artificial being have a soul?” Ward asked, incredulously.

  “It would depend on how much terms like ‘soul’ and ‘consciousness’ really overlap,” said Brian, “as well as what a soul actually is and where it comes from. Theologically speaking, the Bible isn’t clear on that. Personally, I don’t think the soul has a one-to-one correspondence with the brain, but like Dee said, a brain is required. After all, higher animals have consciousness—but it’s dog or cat consciousness, for instance. Animals possess a consciousness that doesn’t include sentience—self-awareness. Sentience may be a clue to whatever the soul is—that disembodied self-awareness that, according to the Bible, survives death.”

  “Some specialists in animal cognition think they have detected self-awareness in animals—say, birds—since they can communicate thoughts,” Dee went on, “but that’s still controversial since the communication must be interpreted. But aside from that, I’d agree sentience is not to be equated with consciousness. It transcends consciousness.”

  “So you’re saying you suspect that Adam was manufactured through nanotechnology and had enough conscious awareness to move from person to person?” Madison asked. “But what about the thoughts in your head and the communication that went on?”

  “That’s the part we disagree on,” Brian said.

  “Only because what you think is worse,” Dee reminded everyone.

  “My viewpoint,” Brian began, “is that if Adam were a genuine ET, why would they have needed to make it seem like he had healing powers?”

  “Worship?” Sabi suggested.

  “We’ve thought about that,” said Melissa. “That might have been the Group’s intent, but if it was, then our present knowledge that he didn’t heal Brian argues against him being a true alien. If he’s a real ET and just couldn’t heal anyone, why didn’t the Group tell us that Adam gave them nanotechnology for medical purposes or something? That would have shielded them from the problem. It would never have been an issue. But they didn’t do that.”

  “By now you know my belief that the thoughts came from another source,” Brian explained. “I don’t think it was Adam in our heads. Remember, the voice told me to touch Melissa’s hand. That prompting would demonstrate that my arm was repairing. But Adam wasn’t, in fact, my healer—the nanobots prove that. That makes the whole thing seem orchestrated. Someone else had to be in on it. Getting a voice in my head was either another piece of technology or a non-human entity acting to deceive me. Father Benedict suspected it was beings referred to in the Bible and other Jewish texts as Watchers.”

  “Melissa,” Fern asked, shifting the topic slightly, “your near-death experience has come up a few times. I presume that happened when Brian’s friend—what was his name?”

  “Neil Bandstra.”

  “Yes, Neil. Did you have your experience when he tried to kill you?”

  “That’s right,” Melissa confirmed. “I left my body and was taken to a room at Mount Weather. Later, when I recovered, we retraced the path and found a room that had a Nazi occult symbol in it—a black sun. We also found a human tooth there.”

  “Creepy.” Madison shuddered. “Do you have any idea what it meant?”

  “Not really,” Melissa confessed. “The black sun wasn’t hard to recognize. Given the connections between the UFO technology we saw at Area 51 and the Nazi scientists brought into the US rocketry and aeronautics programs under Operation Paperclip, a Nazi occult symbol didn’t seem out of place—at least in hindsight. We have no idea about the tooth.”

  “It has to mean more,” Neff insisted. “We know now that the Colonel did indeed have an interest in Becky, and the only reason he’d have encountered her was by investigating what she and her boyfriend had on them—pieces of architectural plans for a Nazi base in the Antarctic. I didn’t like the notion of coincidences before, but after meeting you and learning all that’s happened, there’s no way that what you saw or Becky showing up is random. What do you think, Sabi?”

  “I agree,” he said, concentration etched on his face. “God is up to something.”

  “How did you know what the black sun meant?” Malone asked Melissa.

  “It’s part of my field. I’ve read thousands of pages about Nazi occultism. In my life before Area 51, I wrote a book and several articles about that sort of thing.”

  “I thought your expertise was church history,” Neff said in surprise.

  “I’ve had a lot of graduate work there, but it isn’t my PhD field.”

  “You know,” Neff continued, “we actually don’t know much about you, Melissa. We didn’t ask about your identity before since we didn’t have a reason to pry.”

  “And you wouldn’t have gotten an answer anyway,” Brian said matter-of-factly.

  “No doubt,” Neff noted, “and now we know precisely why. Malone and I assumed Melissa Carter wasn’t your real name, but now I’m even more curious as to your background.”

  “My real name is Melissa Kelley. My PhD is in American studies, and my academic focus is apocalyptic religious cults, especially neo-Nazi groups.”

  Malone stared at her in disbelief. “Did she just say what I think she said?” he asked eagerly, looking around at Sabi and then the others.

  “Yes,” Melissa said, hesitating slightly. “I taught at Georgetown until this past summer. That’s how Becky knew me. Is there a problem?”

  “I didn’t catch any of that on my recording,” Malone said, turning to Neff. “I only got about half their conversation after I followed them to the coffee shop. Can you believe it?”

  “In light of the last few weeks,” Neff replied, grinning widely, “you bet. But
it’s still amazing.”

  “What is it?” Melissa asked.

  “Most of us have read your book on right-wing Christian apocalyptic groups,” Malone answered. “It’s been a go-to resource for trying to understand some of the cultural shifts we keep running into. It has given us clarity on some fronts, but it has mostly produced a slew of breadcrumb trails to religious and occult ideas that we sense are important for what we’re seeing in the world, but which we know nothing about. And here you are! It’s like you just dropped right into our laps,” he exclaimed.

  Melissa had no response, taken aback by this additional intersection of their circumstances.

  “Wow,” said Ward. “The four of you are exactly who we need to help us think through everything we’re trying to process. You cover all the bases.”

  “That’s true,” Sabi said, smiling faintly and enjoying the moment. “For the child of God, there is no such thing as an accident. What a blessing for our research.”

  “All of these details explain a lot about what you were posting online,” Malone said to Brian. “And I assume now that you had input from Melissa, since some of it involved occult research.”

  “That’s true,” Brian answered. “Father Benedict thought it was important that I post my thoughts online. I felt I owed it to him to go through with it. Melissa is extremely knowledgeable in all the intellectual histories behind mainstream and fringe occult worldviews. There are an amazing number of intersections between all that and belief in aliens and UFO experiences, so we’ve had a lot to think about as we try to figure out the point of it all. We tried to be careful, though. I presumed that if the Colonel saw anything that only we would have seen or heard, he’d have known one of us was behind the posting and track us down.”

  “That’s not exactly what I was thinking of, though,” Malone noted. “I mean the tone. Like I told you back in North Dakota, I got a sense that you knew something was going on right now, but it was never clear.”

  “That’s because we’re still not sure how the pieces fit together. Andrew had his own views, but I’m not sure I agree with them. Neither does Melissa.”