Dane clicked the transmit button on the headset he wore. “Do another fly-over of Nazca. Thermal imaging. I’m sure there’s somebody down there.”
He made his way to the cockpit, climbing up the few steps and looking over the shoulder of the navigator at his display. They’d all seen the satellite imagery of the burning lines so it was no surprise as the imaging screen showed them once more, bright red lines and shapes covering the plain five thousand feet below.
“Hard to find a person’s image among all that,” the navigator said. He fine-tuned the display as he spoke. “Funny thing is those flame lines are very hot, but they’re not giving off much side-way heat. Almost as if they’re being contained. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Dane still felt strongly that there was a survivor below, even though he had no idea what the lines of fire displayed represented.
“Any image at body temp?” he asked.
“I’m going to fade out the temperature range for the lines,” the navigator said.
Dane clutched the handrail and the plane banked. The pilots were now settling into a racetrack, circling the Nazca Plain.
The lines slowly disappeared and all that was left was one tiny orange dot. “There’s your person.”
Dane took another step up into the cockpit to get the attention of the pilot in command. “Here’s the plan.”
**************
Reizer focused the small percentage of her brain she still had conscious control of into stopping her slow movement forward. For a moment, her body came to a halt. But then like an alcoholic who’d been dry for days and was offered a drink, her left foot shuffled forward toward the darkness.
There was a strange noise above her, one she couldn’t immediately place, then she realized it was a plane.
But then her right foot moved forward.
**************
Dane stood, pressing a hand against the headset. “Open the back ramp.”
“You’re crazy!” was the response from the loadmaster.
Dane tugged on both leg straps, making sure the parachute was tight to his body as he headed toward the rear of the plane. “Open the Goddamn ramp.”
Dane threw the headset to the floor and waited. He was rewarded with a swirl of air coming into the cargo bay as a crack opened up between the back ramp and the top of the rear as it began to recess into the tail section.
The crew chief was maneuvering a bundle in a torpedo shaped plastic case onto the ramp, attached to a steel cable with a static line. Dane attached his own static line just behind the bundles. The ramp locked down level. The night sky, strange looking with the red glow from below, beckoned. They were low, just below five hundred feet, to insure better accuracy. Dane didn’t have a reserve because if the main didn’t open there wouldn’t be time to deploy a second.
Dane didn’t want to jump. He’d done hundreds of parachute jumps in the Special Forces. That wasn’t the issue. The danger and evil below was what repelled him.
But he could feel the old woman, lost, drawn into the darkness.
The light turned green and he followed the bundle off the ramp. His feet met air and he free-fell for three seconds, then the static line deployed the chute, jerking him abruptly. He caught a glimpse of the bundle’s chute ahead and below, then saw he was headed toward one of the lines of fire. His hands grappled with the toggles on the front risers, trying to turn. The chute gave way reluctantly.
Three seconds after the chute opened, Dane was less than fifty feet up, descending rapidly, less than thirty horizontal feet from a twenty foot high wall of fire. He pulled both toggles, dumping air.
His feet touched down less than ten feet from the flame, the leading edge of the parachute hitting it, being incinerated in the process. Dane stumbled forward, the chute caught in a breeze, tugging him forward toward oblivion. His hands scrambled at the quick releases located on the front of his shoulders. He flipped open the metal plate, fingers searching for the small metal loops he had to pull to release the chute from the body harness.
He stuttered another step toward the fire, feeling the heat on his face. One finger caught the loop and pulled. The other was still searching as he took another forced step forward. The chute was half incinerated as it collapsed into the fire and that was what saved Dane from the flame, the chute losing form and power as it was destroyed. He jerked backward with all his strength, falling onto his back, still feeling a pull on the one shoulder, until he popped the second quick release.
He lay on his back, breathing hard for several moments. The first thing he noticed was that there was no sound. The flames were eerily silent. He lifted his head slightly. The wall was if a blast furnace was caught between two panes of glass. The fire swirled, but he noted that it was overall moving from left to right, as if there was a destination for it.
Dane got to his feet. He didn’t take off the parachute harness. He looked about for the bundle, hoping it hadn’t been caught in the flame. Instead of the bundle, he saw an old woman about forty feet away to the right, standing absolutely still. Looking past her, he spotted what had her mesmerized, the black hole into the flames were swirling.
“Hello!” Dane called. He’d read the data on the Nazca lines on the flight across the Pacific. “Doctor Reizer?”
She didn’t appear to hear him and Dane was startled as she took a step toward the black hole. He broke into a jog, heading toward her. “Doctor Reizer?”
Still no acknowledgement. She took another step toward the darkness.
Dane reached her and laid his hand on her shoulder. She started and turned in surprise.
“Doctor Reizer?”
She blinked, her eyes regaining focus, then she nodded. “Yes. Who are you?”
“Eric Dane. I’m here to get you out.”
“How?”
“Come with me,” Dane gently took her elbow with his hand and led her back toward where he had landed, knowing the bundle would be in that area. He pulled a small black book out of his pant side pocket and turned it on, activating the receiver. It immediately began beeping and the small screen showed an arrow pointing to the left.
Dane and Reizer went down a small incline and then he saw the bundle lying among the rocks and stone. He knelt next to it and opened it.
“Who are you?” Reizer asked as Dane worked.
“I’m an American. I’ve been—” Dane paused as he’d never quite explained his strange role to anyone—“been fighting the force inside the gate.”
Reizer looked over her shoulder at the dark sphere drawing in the flame. “It is evil, isn’t it?”
“I don’t know much about good or evil,” Dane said. “I just know that whatever is behind that doesn’t give a damn about us. And it appears we are in the way of whatever it is trying to do.” He laid out a steel canister, then heaved a large nylon bundle out on the ground, unfolding it. “Do you have any idea what is causing these lines of fire or what they are?”
“The old ones—the lines and wedges—are more powerful than the newer ones, the animal images. I’ve always picked up a sense of power about this place. Something I’ve never experienced anywhere else.”
Power. Dane thought about that. The Shadow always seemed eager for power. But he had no idea what kind of power it was drawing off the Nazca Plain. He attached a hose from the canister to a valve on the bottom of the nylon. Then he made sure the looped steel cable inside the container was attached to the bottom of the deflated balloon. He took the loop at the free end of the cable and, using double locking snap links, attached it to the center point on the front of his harness.
“What are you doing?” Reizer asked.
“Getting us out of here.”
“I think there is a way to walk out,” Reizer said. She pointed. “If we go around the tail of the monkey and then go south—” her voice trailed off.
“I’ve seen the images from the sky,” Dane said. “There’s no way out of here except that way—”he pointed up.
“How—” Reizer began, but Dane shushed her, the small earpiece crackled.
“Dane, this is Talon Six. Status?”
“Inflating,” Dane said.
“Don’t forget to turn the beacon on,” the pilot reminded him.
Dane cursed to himself as he went over to the balloon and switched on a small electronic beacon. He’d almost forgotten. He went back to the helium canister and twisted a knob. “Inflating,” he repeated.
The balloon began to inflate, growing in size.
“Where’s the basket?” Reizer asked.
“There isn’t.”
Her eyes followed the thin steel cable at the base of the balloon into the canister and then the trail end to Dane’s vest. “You’re joking.”
“Afraid not.” The balloon was half full and lifting off the ground. Dane pulled another harness out of the bundle and held it up. “Turn around and put your arms out.”
“Oh my, this is not good for an old woman,” Reizer complained, even as she did as he asked.
Dane slipped the harness over her shoulders, then squatted. He ran one of the legs straps through. “Hold this in your left hand.” He grabbed the other strap. “This in your right.”
The balloon was full and lifting, uncoiling the cable. Dane went around to Reizer’s front and quickly connected the leg straps, pulling them tight, hearing Reizer grunt as he did so. There was no time for niceties.
The earpiece came alive. “We have the beacon. Are you ready? Over.”
Dane grabbed a small piece of nylon webbing that had double snap links at both ends. He hooked one set into his chest connection point. “Ready,” he said as he attached the other end to the connection point on Reizer’s harness.
“Are you sure this will work?” Reizer asked. They both could hear the airplane in-bound.
Dane had been pulled out ex-filtration points during his time in Vietnam this way, usually by helicopter, instead of the Fulton, but one time he had actually done the Fulton. “Yes.”
“Will it hurt?”
“It’ll be a fun ride.”
The pilot’s voice intruded. “Ten seconds out. Are you green? Over.”
“We’re green,” Dane said. He reached forward and gathered the tiny old lady in his arms. The sound of the plane was growing louder.
Two hundred feet above them, the pilot of the Talon had the beacon centered and fifty feet above the plane on the low light vision television screen he was using to fly. “Five seconds,” he announced. “Four. Three. Two. One.”
On the ground, Dane felt nothing for about two seconds as the slack was pulled out of the cable. Then he was jerked straight up into the sky, almost losing his grip on Reizer.
The force vector on the cable was vertical for about three seconds, lifting them over a hundred feet up, then they were pulled horizontally, behind and below the Talon.
“We have a lock on the cable,” the pilot announced. “Cutting balloon free.”
A set of metal shears closed on the cable, just above where clamps held tight between the whiskers. They snapped shut and the balloon was released. The cable below the plane slowly went from vertical to horizontal until Dane and Reizer were bouncing about in the air almost a hundred and fifty feet directly behind the plane.
The loadmaster in the rear of the Talon had locked down a small crane and winch onto the open rear platform as soon as Dane had jumped and he was ready. He lowered the crane, then reeled out a small length of cable with a hook on the end. As the plane with its two human attachments roared through the sky at a hundred and fifty miles an hour, he fished for the Fulton cable.
“Are you all right?” Dane had to scream to be heard above the air whistling by and the roar of the plane just ahead of them.
There was no verbal reply, just Reizer’s head nodding into his chest. Dane tried to look at the open back ramp, but the wind was too strong, causing his eyes to tear up.
The loadmaster snagged the cable on the fourth try. He slowly lifted until the Fulton cable slipped into the crane’s mouth. Then he clamped down on the cable with the teeth of the winch. For insurance, just in case something went wrong, he also secured the Fulton cable with a loop of cable fixed to the plane.
“I’ve got it,” he announced. “Disengage the nose lock.”
The pilot flipped a switch.
Dane felt his stomach lurch as they both free fell for a second, then were jerked forward once more.
The loadmaster hit the control for the winch and the cable was slowly reeled in. As the two got closer to the ramp, he had the crane lift up so that they would clear the edge.
Dane saw the tail of the plane above his head as he and Reizer were slowly drawn into the cargo bay. The wind decreased as the plane enveloped them. He bumped against the floor and tried to gain his feet, but was unable to. Hands were on him, holding him steady, pulling Reizer out of his arms.
“We’ve got them,” the loadmaster announced. The back ramp slowly went up sealing them off from the outside world.
Dane allowed the men inside to unhook him and strip the harness off. He turned to Reizer to see what kind of shape the old woman was in, hoping the trip hadn’t killed her.
She was smiling, thanking the Air Force crewmembers. She saw Dane looking at her. “I’ll have to do that again sometime. Most fun I’ve had in decades.”
Dane slumped back on the cargo web seating, exhausted. The Talon banked and headed for the nearest landing strip at Ica. Behind and below it, the Nazca plain burned fiercely in the night. Then, in an instant, the flames roared up into the sky over a thousand feet high, still narrowly caught in their channels.
**************
Chernobyl was a ghost town for the second time. A light breeze blew down the empty streets and over cooling tower number four, pushing death with it. Nothing lived within twenty miles in an elongated teardrop that was spreading to the northwest.
Thus there was no one to see when the black triangle reappeared in the center of the ruined tower. Two Valkyries floated up out of the top of the triangle, their white forms slowly appearing. Between them they held a black cylinder about five feet long and two feet in diameter. The front end tapered to a point, while the rear ended in a flat surface.
When they were completely clear of the triangle, they hovered in place, slowly turning until the point of the cylinder was pointing at tower number 3, a quarter mile away. The cylinder began to change at the rear, the black shifting to gold. When it reached the point, a golden ball began to form, growing to five feet in diameter. The golden ball remained still at that size for several seconds, then it suddenly shot forward.
The ball hit tower number 3 and seemed to be slowly absorbed into the cement at the same rate the cylinder had changed. Then the tower imploded, releasing a cloud or radioactive gas into the air.
The two Valkyries didn’t notice; they were already pointing the weapon at tower number
2.
**************
Alarms were ringing as Foreman ran into the control center. “What’s happening?”
“Activity at Chernobyl,” Ahana reported.
“What kind?”
“The Russians don’t know but their monitoring equipment has picked up a large spike in radioactivity.”
“I thought tower 4 was almost depleted,” Foreman slid into a chair at the conference table.
“It is. There seems to be—“ Ahana paused as her computer chimed and she checked the report. “The other towers seem to have been destroyed.” She held up a hand, anticipating Foreman’s next question. “It will be bad, Mister Foreman. The Russians fear they will have to evacuate Moscow. If they can accomplish such a task before the radioactivity reaches their capital.”
Foreman didn’t seem too concerned. “Radioactivity or tectonic action, the clock’s ticking.”
The captain of the FLIP entered and went straight to the CIA agent. “We’ve been ordered by the navy to evacuate the area.”
Foreman didn’t even acknowledge hi
m with a glance. “Any muonic activity in our gate?” he asked Ahana.
She checked her screen. “Nothing.”
“We hold in place,” he told the captain.
The captain had already seen Foreman ignore the navy once. “Sir, I must protest. The navy is responsible for our—”he never finished as a loud chime sounded from Ahana’s computer. She spun in her chair to face the screen.
“Activity. Here.”
Foreman jumped to his feet. “Get us out of here!” he yelled at the ship’s captain.
***************
“Back us off, all weapons systems at ready.” Captain Stokes remained in his leather command chair, issuing the orders in a calm voice. “Sonar?” he asked.
“No contact, just the warning from the FLIP of muonic activity.”
The operations center of the Connecticut was bathed in a low red light, allowing crewmen to more clearly see their computer screens. It was a long way from the days of World War II submarines with cramped conditions and water dripping from pipes, looking more like a high-tech computer lab than the nerve center of a submarine.
“Range?” Stokes called out.
“Four thousand,” the executive officer replied. “Speed fifteen knots and increasing.”
“Contact, contact,” the sonar man called out. “At the edge of the gate. Coming out. Large.”
Stokes forced himself to stay seated although he was tempted to walk over and grab a set of headphones.
“Range?” he asked.
“Four thousand.”
“Speed?”
“Not clear yet.”
Stokes turned his seat slightly. “XO?”
“We’re four thousand, five hundred meters from the gate. Speed twenty knots and accelerating.”
He turned in another direction. “Radar?”
Atlantis: Gate Page 10