Origins:
The Reich
By Mark Henrikson
Key Move Publications, LLC
Copyright Mark Henrikson, 2014
St. Louis Missouri
DON’T MISS THESE OTHER
EXCITING TITLES IN THE
ORIGINS SERIES
Book 1: Origins
Book 2: Centurion’s Rise
Book 3: Reformation
Book 4: The Reich
Book 5: A Greater Good
TO THE READER:
Large sections of this novel delve into events surrounding the rise and fall of Nazi Germany and touch upon many aspects of the Holocaust. The language I used in these sections was for the most part direct quotes or paraphrasing from actual speeches delivered by prominent members of the Third Reich. These in no way shape or form reflect my thoughts and/or feelings about the Jewish faith, the Soviet/Russian people or the tragic events of that era. This is simply how it was back then and I found researching specifics on the subject to be profoundly disturbing.
To the history buffs, just like my previous installments in the Origins series, I did my very best to remain as true to actual history as possible in the flashback sequences. What liberties I did take were done for the sake of simplifying extremely complex issues, timelines and events to preserve entertainment value for the reader while staying absolutely true to the historical significance and meaning.
I hope you enjoy reading this novel as much as I did writing it. As always, I would love to hear your opinions on this novel or the entire series. Find me on Goodreads.com, let me hear it on Amazon, shoot me an email at [email protected], or drop by on Facebook under ‘Origins Series’. Good things are always nice to hear, and so is constructive criticism; just remember the constructive part.
ENJOY!!!
Prologue: For the Right Reasons
Terrance found himself staring out the tinted backseat window of his town car as it made maddeningly slow progress down the crowded streets of Cairo, Egypt. Why today? Of all the days of the year, why did his duties as an executive committee member of the National Security Agency have to pull him away today?
Three hours earlier he was in Rome, in a private hospital delivery room along with everyone he truly loved in the world. The whole process was fascinating to him. Back in his day, everyone except the doctor and nurse paced anxiously back and forth in the waiting room and then lit up a cigar when the news came. At least that is what he had heard since his NSA duties caused him to miss the birth of his only child back then.
In today’s world, everyone was invited into the birthing room to witness the magical moment firsthand. Even though he stood at the head of the bed, it felt quite uncomfortable knowing his daughter’s underside was splayed open for anyone to step around and have a good look, and quite a few did. Even his exceedingly prude ex-wife stepped around to have a gander.
Terrance had to admit that he was tempted to take a look at his first grandchild coming into the world. He might have even brought himself to do it were it not for his damned cell phone. It was as if Mark, his best yet most infuriating field agent, had an alarm clock to let him know the exact wrong moments to call. Just as his daughter was gathering her strength for one last push, his hip began emitting a noise and vibration that drew the hateful ire of his ex-wife from the foot of the bed.
Her eyes said it all, ‘I knew you couldn’t step away; even for this moment you couldn’t just step away from that all-consuming job of yours.’ She was right of course. In fact, it was the one and only reason for their divorce all those years ago.
Terrance was not one to regret decisions once made, particularly when they progressed his career within the covert agency, but he never forgave himself for missing the birth of his only child. With that in mind, he promised himself and his daughter that he would be there when his first grandchild came into the world.
Now, once again he had a moment of choice: his family or his career. In truth there was no choice. He wanted to shatter the phone with his heel on the tiled floor out of frustration. Instead, he quietly kissed his thoroughly distracted daughter on the forehead and stepped out of the room without a verbal explanation because none was required, his behavior was well known to all those present.
Once he felt the hospital room door close behind him, Terrance leaned the back of his head against the wooden barrier and allowed himself a moment of self-pity before placing the vibrating phone to his ear.
“Terrance, it’s time for you to actually earn that fat paycheck of yours,” a voice barked from the other end.
Every fatherly instinct he possessed demanded a response of ‘go to hell’ followed by turning off the damned phone and stepping back into the room, but this was Mark calling. A month earlier, he would have happily ignored the call, but now he knew the full depth of his field agent’s work and the stakes involved: confirmed cases of alien activity on Earth, an attempt by said aliens to contact their home world, and the existence of a weapon able to alter the moon’s orbit with catastrophic effect. If he did not take the call, it meant jeopardizing his grandchild’s future and that was unacceptable.
Terrance heard a sharp slap followed by an infant’s cry on the other side of the door. He half turned to take a quick look, but turned his back on the moment to work for the child’s future. At least that is what he told himself while walking alone down the long hospital corridor while listening to Mark explain the situation.
A few hours later Terrance found himself in the sun soaked deserts of Egypt. He was to take command of the alien situation so Mark could travel stateside and meet with the alleged leader of the alien presence on Earth, this Hastelloy character.
As his convoy of six midnight black town cars turned onto the flat sands of the Giza Plateau, the iconic sight of the three great pyramids came into full view. Terrance took no wonder or pleasure from it; he did not see the last surviving wonder of the ancient world standing before him. He saw only a threatening instrument of his planet’s destruction.
Housed inside the Pyramid of Khufu, in four recently discovered and inaccessible chambers, was alien equipment capable of manipulating gravitational forces between the Earth and sun. Terrance did not pretend to understand the technology involved, but he certainly respected the effect it had courtesy of a demonstration given by the aliens. The beings temporarily pulled the moon a few kilometers closer to the Earth, resulting in flash flooding and tectonic activity the world over before returning the celestial body to its normal position.
Either the Great Pyramid or the control chamber inside the Sphinx needed to be destroyed. Those were the only thoughts on Terrance’s mind as he stepped out of the car to greet his subordinate.
“Lucky for you I was attending a conference in Rome when you called,” Terrance lied. Showing value in family was a sign of weakness within the agency and a point of leverage for enemies.
“Welcome back to the field,” Mark exclaimed and followed it with a bright smile intended to antagonize. He tried to temper the moment a bit by offering a handshake, but Terrance was having none of Mark’s games this day.
Instead, Terrance looked back at the row of black cars and tossed his head forward as if to say ‘come on already’. On his command, doors popped open and a cadre of hard men began stepping out.
“What do we have?” Terrance demanded of Mark.
“Six SEALs have the tunnel entrance secured while two others and I have been holding down the command area. Unfortunately, the Egyptian military showed up with a few hundred more men here and at the tunnel entrance. That should make things a little more interesting for you, but it is their country after all,” Mark responded while leaning to look behind Terrance. “Now, what do you have?”
; Terrance turned his head in a casual manner from side to side evaluating his surroundings. Without addressing Mark directly he answered, “Muscle, and the authority to take whatever action I deem necessary.”
“There is no need for rash actions just yet,” Mark cautioned. “We have them contained for the time being. Just give me a little time with this leader of theirs.”
“Speaking of time, you should be going. My plane is set to take you directly to Washington, D.C.,” Terrance said as he walked past Mark as if he did not even exist. Terrance was in charge now and he would see that the tough decisions were made for the future of his country, his planet, and now his grandchild.
Chapter 1: Change of Fortunes
It had been a bad day, in fact a miserable week, Mark thought while standing in the middle of his brother’s office with his own sidearm held to his head. Oddly enough, it all started with answers. Answers for which Mark had spent his entire NSA career searching.
Was there truly alien activity on Earth? Yes. Did Mark know who and where they were? Yes, at least four of them. Did they pose a threat? The fact that one now pointed a gun at his head, another single-handedly downed nine of his armed agents, and two more controlled a device capable of ending all life on the planet kind of forced an affirmative answer to that question as well.
It was not just Hastelloy and his Novi crew either. A recent phone conversation with his partner, Frank, let Mark know the Alpha were also a threat in the here and now. Somehow, the creatures had found a way to take over and animate the famed Terracotta Soldiers standing guard outside the tomb of China’s first emperor. There were over five thousand of the hardened clay figures, which made the threat they posed extremely credible.
Mark looked into the eyes of Hastelloy to see if Frank’s update was new information for the Novi captain. The man had an impenetrable poker face when it came to concealing his emotions from others. That fact made it all the more alarming for Mark when he saw deep and defined lines of concern from around the man’s eyes and across his brow. The man holding the gun was definitely concerned, perhaps even scared.
Silent seconds ticked by until those facial lines melted away and Hastelloy spoke in a calm voice. “It appears the Alpha are still a threat. Can we follow Frank and the Chinese agent’s example and set aside our differences to deal with it?”
This captain of a crashed alien crew was very much a man of action. Before Mark could formulate a response, he watched the aim of his pistol move away from his head to that of Hastelloy’s other crewman in the room.
“You know what to do,” Hastelloy instructed and then pulled the trigger and adjusted his aim back to Mark.
“No!” both Mark and his older brother Jeffrey managed to shout in stereo before Gallono’s lifeless body hit the floor.
“What have you done?” Mark bellowed. “My boss has the tunnel exit under siege. Assuming you bring Gallono back with your Nexus device, he’ll be trapped inside the Sphinx chamber.”
Hastelloy looked at Dr. Jeffrey Holmes who was leaning to the side as he vomited at the sight of his longtime secretary’s gray matter and blood sprayed against his office wall. “Gallono is fine,” he reassured his former psychiatrist and looked to Mark. “You don’t seriously think I’m foolish enough to only have one way out of the Nexus chamber do you?”
My god, this is out of control. Everything is completely out of control, Mark told himself. Two alien races were going to slug it out here on Earth. If they did not bring about Armageddon, mankind might still make it happen on its own if Terrance went postal in Egypt trying to neutralize the Novi’s doomsday weapon. It did not even have to be nuclear, just a conventional attack by the United States on a sovereign Middle Eastern nation might bring about World War III.
Then of course there was the NASA probe speeding away from Earth. That expensive piece of hardware was busy blaring a transmission hijacked by Hastelloy to summon his people to Earth. This was supposedly done so that the Novi could arrive to take Hastelloy and his crew home. It seemed rather naïve to think they would then just leave Earth alone to find its own developmental path after everything that had transpired.
If all that was not enough, there was the more immediate danger of Hastelloy pointing a gun at Mark. Things were completely out of control, and there wasn’t a damn thing he could do about it.
Before Mark’s sullen mood could sink any farther, Hastelloy did the unthinkable. He released his grip on the gun that gave him control of the room and handed it over to Mark. “Once again the causes we both fight for are aligned. We are on the same side you and I.”
“For how long?” Mark asked after grasping the handle of his pistol. He then aimed the weapon at its former owner while he helped his brother back to an upright position as he turned his brother away from the carnage on his office wall and floor.
In response, Hastelloy extended an open palm toward Mark, “If you trust me, get me in front of your President or his Science Advisor. If not, then send me back to the Nexus and I will deal with the Alpha threat on this planet as I always have: alone.”
Mark pursed his lips while gently shaking his head in a moment of contemplation. His fortunes had completely reversed in the span of a heartbeat. He now had control of the room, and he had his former captor to thank for it. As a result, he now had options. The President was the only one with the authority to stop Terrance in Egypt and in the end, Hastelloy would be the man called upon to make first contact if the Novi did receive his message.
Hastelloy had managed the impossible feat of proving himself both incredibly dangerous and somewhat trustworthy at the same time. The question was, ‘did Mark trust him enough to put the alien leader in front of the President?’
Relying upon instinct rather than logic, Mark shook Hastelloy’s hand to seal the arrangement. “I have a plane waiting that can get both of us to Washington, D.C. in less than three hours. I make no promises about meeting either the President or his science advisor. We’ll at least be in the right city, but you need to convince me that I can trust you before I place you in a room with either of them.”
“All three of us are going,” Jeffrey declared while dabbing the last remnants of vomit from the corners of his mouth.
Mark was about to decline the notion, but Hastelloy spoke first to convince him otherwise. “No one on this planet knows me better than Dr. Holmes. If trusting me is still your concern, then he needs to come along and vouch for me.”
“I’ll make sure there’s another bag of peanuts on board,” Mark replied.
Chapter 2: Failed Containment
Frank hung up his cell phone, but in the process of putting it away he had the hearing deadened in his right ear. A submachine gun no more than a foot away from his head let rip a full clip and dizzied Frank for a moment. The target, a clay soldier advancing up the steps thirty feet away, just smiled and laughed a deep, haunting cackle as the bullets penetrated no more than a few millimeters into the soft clay surface. The deadly projectile’s only effect was to just flatten out and cling to the thing like a fly trapped on a sticky strip.
Out of ammunition now, the Chinese soldier dropped his weapon and charged the clay soldier at a full sprint. The man bent at the waist and lowered his shoulder to slam into the figure in a manner that would have made any football coach proud.
Unfortunately, the hulking clay figure managed to absorb the blow without losing its footing. Then like a child flinging a ragdoll, it tossed the Chinese soldier over the railing into the Terracotta soldier pit twenty feet below. If he managed to survive the fall, the man did not live long because the pit was now teeming with animated clay statues.
Frank looked to his left and locked eyes with Chin, his Chinese Ministry of State Security adversary now turned ally. “We stand about a snowball’s chance in hell in here; we need to fall back.”
Chin nodded in agreement as he and his remaining escort soldier started walking backwards toward the museum entrance doors. Frank holstered his weapon and grabbed hol
d of the two dumbfounded American archeologists standing nearby. Alex, usually feisty about anyone touching her, put up no struggle this time. Professor Russell simply went with the flow like an emotionless robot as he took in the visual of several hundred clay soldiers coming to life before his eyes.
The situation grew more dire with every passing second as a bright blue flash of energy flooded the football field sized chamber, contrasting with the darkness of the midnight hour. The strobe effect was disorienting, and brought with it the incremental danger of another statue coming to life with each flash.
Frank and his archeologist cargo quickened their pace to catch up with Chin as four clay soldiers finished climbing the steps and began prowling after them. The clay soldiers moved at a slow walk at first, as if gaining their bearings and purpose, but their pace soon accelerated to a brisk jog as they gathered momentum.
“My partner is gonna send help, but he’s half a world away,” Frank announced to Chin. “Ya’ll wouldn’t happen to have any more immediate assistance available now would you?”
“The MSS has put the military on high alert already, but any serious mobilization will take time. The nearby military base has dispatched what was immediately available. They’re assembling outside to contain the situation,” came a somewhat winded response.
The group was nearing a doorway that would lead them out of the soldier pit atrium and into the wide-open expanse of the museum’s entrance and reception area. With twenty feet to go, a bone jarring impact announced the landing of a clay warrior directly in their path to the exit. It was as if the massive creature dropped out of the sky.
Frank looked back in time to see another clay soldier step onto the clasped hand of its companion and launch into the air to land on the other side of the fleeing group, rendering them trapped.
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