When the hand from below grabbed his ankle and pulled him under, Popeye had his pistol ready. He had a brief glimpse through the water of Olivetti’s blank face as the man pulled himself toward him.
Popeye McGraw put the muzzle against his comrade’s forehead. “I’m sorry, buddy.” He hesitated pulling the trigger, looking into his friend’s eyes. And in that moment, the nanovirus flowed over his hand, freezing his nerves, infiltrating his system.
McGraw’s last free thought was that he had failed his buddy, his mission, and his country.
CHAPTER 12
Area 51
“Our mission is to infiltrate operational area Aker—the Giza Plateau—and secure both Doctor Duncan and any alien artifacts we come across, with emphasis on finding the Grail.” Graves slapped the pointer on the acetate covering the small-scale map of the Middle East. “We will depart this location at 0500 Zulu time via bouncer for transport to an Israeli military airfield located here at Hazerim, ten miles west of Beersheba. There we will crossload onto an Air Force MC-130.”
Turcotte followed the pointer in Graves’s hand as the team leader continued the briefing. It was standing operating procedure (SOP) for a team to present a briefback—their operational plan—at the end of isolation to their commander in order to get final approval of the mission and plan. Turcotte was a believer in following SOP. It reduced the possibility of screwups, and routine also reinforced men’s confidence. Turcotte leaned forward and followed the tip of the point as Graves drew it west, bisecting the Sinai Peninsula.
“We will fly low level across the Sinai to the Gulf of Suez. At that point, the MC-130 pilots have several possible routes to the target and they will decide the safest one to take depending on electronic intelligence of Egyptian air defenses at the time. All routes put us over the drop zone, DZ Nile, located here, two kilometers upstream on the Nile from the underground river which we have designated as Route Alpha.”
Turcotte held up a hand, causing the captain to pause. “Two klicks upstream? Why so far?”
“I’ve talked to the navigator for the MC-130 on a secure SATCOM link,” Graves said. “He says they go any further to the north, they will most definitely be spotted. It gets crowded very fast as you move north toward Cairo. As it is, they think they have a small window to get us over the river with a steep bank, a long enough flight over it to get all of us out, then they will have to bank hard again to get over the desert and out of sight.”
“How long will it take us to cover two klicks swimming?” Turcotte was trying to remember the times he’d done what special forces called maritime operations. Two kilometers was going to take a little while, even wearing the TASC-suits.
“We won’t be swimming it, sir,” Graves said. “The TASC-suits have fittings for propulsion units. Based on other operations we’ve conducted underwater using the suits, we can make it to the opening of Route Alpha in under ten minutes.”
Turcotte caught the note in Graves’s voice. He knew that the captain had everything locked down from the second they took off in the bouncer to the moment they entered that tunnel, but from there this mission was an unknown. And that bothered the officer. Turcotte now knew why Yakov had been hammering at him to slow down, to read the translation of Burton’s manuscript, to gather intelligence. For just a moment, Turcotte considered whether they should scrub the evening’s mission and delay it for twenty-four hours. Then he thought of Lisa trapped somewhere under the Giza Plateau and he knew they had to go.
“Continue with the briefback,” Turcotte ordered the team leader. The operational briefing was depressingly short.
There was a lot of “playing it by ear” once they got in the tunnel. So much so that even Turcotte had to acknowledge the scarcity of good intelligence. Exfiltration was also iffy with no backup to the helicopters from the peacekeeping force.
To balance the lack of planning and intelligence, Turcotte felt they had an advantage with the TASC-suits. Duncan had been told that the suit had taken four billion dollars and fifteen years to develop under a covert research program funded by the black budget. She’d confessed her concern to Turcotte that Majestic-12 and Area 51 had a lot to do with the technology that went into the suit—appropriated Airlia technology.
The briefback was over and Graves was waiting for any questions. Turcotte only had one. “Are we all set?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Good. Let’s get the gear ready for loading.” He noted that Yakov had entered the room for the latter part of the briefback. The Russian came over to him once it was done.
“The professor has translated more of the manuscript.”
“How much?”
“Another chapter.”
“Is it important?”
“We don’t know what’s important or not yet,” Yakov said.
Turcotte stretched out his back, feeling the strain of memorizing flight routes, emergency rally points, primary and alternate exfiltration points, code names, call signs, radio frequencies—all the details needed for the upcoming mission.
Turcotte bowed to the inevitable and followed Yakov to the elevator. The descent was made in silence, each man left to his own thoughts. Yakov wasn’t going with them, despite his protests. He was too large for any of the TASC-suits. Besides, Turcotte wanted him here at Area 51 to monitor everything that was happening.
Che Lu was sitting in her seat and it appeared to Turcotte she hadn’t moved since last they were there, although he knew she had been working with Quinn on Nabinger’s coordinates. He assumed she hadn’t come up with anything since she didn’t say anything.
Mualama was at the computer, and he silently pointed to the screen where the opening of a new chapter was displayed.
BURTON MANUSCRIPT: CHAPTER 4
After so many years of inactivity by The Mission and The Ones Who Wait, the destruction of the base at Ngorongoro triggered a burst of activity by both sides.
First—Egypt. Probably fearing retribution, The Mission removed their Guides from Egypt, ending the Second Age and ushering in the time of the Pharaohs, humans who took over the reign.
The long reach of The Mission was still present, though, as the plans for the Highland of Aker that Isis and Osiris had drawn up almost six thousand years earlier were revived. The Pharaohs built the massive pyramids we still see today on the Highland. The purpose of these was uncertain to Watchers at the time, although the best guess was that they were to guard the entrances to the underground passageways. When they were first built, they were covered with a sheathing of white limestone that could be seen for many, many miles.
“Nabinger told us the purpose of the pyramids,” Turcotte said to Yakov, who was also reading his copy. “They were a beacon, sending a radar signature from their smooth, flat surfaces into space.”
“But think what that means,” Yakov said. “The Mission had no other way to communicate into space.”
“Maybe they were trying to get ahold of Aspasia on Mars,” Che Lu suggested.
“But if they had access to a guardian,” Turcotte said, “they wouldn’t need to do that.”
“But maybe they didn’t have access anymore,” Yakov said.
“Remember the message Kelly Reynolds sent here?” Turcotte said. “The vision of the top of the Great Pyramid being removed—maybe that was the master guardian.” He shook his head. “But that doesn’t make any sense.”
I learned from Kaji that there were six major chambers—Duats—cut underneath the Highland of Aker. But even the Pharaohs and their priests were not aware of this. It was no longer the priests of the Neteru or the Horus-Guides that watched these chambers, but the line of Kaji. The rings they had from their time as the wedjat still worked on the doors of the Airlia. It is obvious that The Mission did not trust the pharaohs to guard their secrets, as much as they trusted secrecy, and the Watchers stepped into the vacuum. The Mission was aware that the Watchers did this. Why else would Al-Iblis have sent me after Kaji? But they did not fear the Watchers, so t
hey were not concerned.
With Egypt abandoned by The Mission and The Ones Who Wait base at Ngorongoro destroyed, where did the two groups go? This was the issue that plagued the Watchers for hundreds of years.
The first hints came with the development of civilization in China, far removed from the cradle of the Nile and the Middle East. It seemed too much of a coincidence that such great strides were made in that far-off land so suddenly.
I believe, based on what I have learned, that The Ones Who Wait set up their new headquarters somewhere in that land. The Mission remained somewhere in the vicinity of the Mediterranean, its influence felt throughout the civilizations that began to arise in that area.
A new phase of the Airlia civil war was ushered in, with both sides extending their tentacles into human civilization, trying to guide it in the way each deemed best for their side.
However, through all this, the Grail, I believe, remained inside the Hall of Records. To discover more, I had to travel to the Middle East.
After translating the information about the First Two Ages of Egypt, I once more traveled to that country to see how much of the tale I could confirm. After all, there was the slightest of possibilities that the scrolls could lie, or perhaps even be fiction. If I had not seen the Black Sphinx with my own eyes, I might have had more doubts.
I learned that during the time of the Third Age, the time of the Pharaohs, between what Egyptologists call the Second Dynasty and the Third, that The Mission once more tried to implement change in Egypt to fulfill the original plans of the Guide-Shadows of the First Age. It was with the Third Dynasty of the Third Age that the first pyramids were built. These were built by men, without the assistance of the Airlia, but with the aid of plans drawn up by Osiris and Isis during the First Age.
The first pyramids were practice in studying how to build such structures. I have seen the pyramids of the Third Dynasty at Saqqara in Egypt—the step pyramids of Djoser and Sekhemket. During the Fourth Dynasty, the size increased as the art was being perfected. The bent pyramid of Sneferu at Dahshur was the precursor to the implementation of the plan on Giza.
When the pyramids of Giza were constructed, the Watchers were uncertain why they were built. Indeed, consulting the foremost experts alive today on the subject, I have learned they still are unsure of the reason for such a massive construction project. One of the great mysteries is that there is nothing written about either the pyramids or the stone sphinx in all the writings that have survived from that ancient kingdom. It is as if such a thing was forbidden, which I believe to be the case.
But I learned through one report from a Watcher a most interesting thing. When the Great Pyramid of Khufu was constructed, the capstone was of a different material than the rest. It was red in color.
And that capstone was removed by a flying disk during the Fourth Dynasty of the Third Age, shortly after the Great Pyramid was built as Egypt was reaching the peak of its power and expanding its empire in all directions. These flying disks were mentioned here and there in other Watcher documents. Obviously, they must be a craft of the Airlia.
With the removal of that capstone, it seems as if The Mission faded from influence not only in Egypt, but around the world for a long time. And the kingdom of Egypt slowly began to decline in power also.
I believe this capstone was one of these alien machines. Where it was taken, I do not know.
However, despite the removal of the capstone, the Ark and the Grail remained in Egypt, hidden in the Hall of Records, forgotten by all but the Watchers who guarded it.
I believe from what I have read and seen that The Mission moved its influence to the northern side of the Mediterranean, to Greece and across the Atlantic to the Americas, in Mexico. The rise of the Greek City states and the Olmecs in Mexico foretold the growing influence of The Guides among humans.
There is also the issue of these pyramid machines—it appears several were located at various points on the planet and early civilizations grew up around them.
The Ones Who Wait fought back in a different and disturbing manner. Instead of trying to establish states and armies at this time period, The Ones Who Wait worked at manipulating men across national and regional boundaries through the power of faith.
That this was effective can be seen through the fact that they managed to remove the Ark from Egypt. This event has been recorded, but little significance has ever been placed to it in terms of historical reality.
In 1,200 B.C. a member of an obscure tribe called Israelites managed to secure a place of power in Egypt. There are legends how this occurred, but the fact remains it happened.
One man, Moses, then gained freedom for his people by scouring the land with curses—events which The Ones Who Wait could certainly have helped orchestrate. Or, and this is what makes it so difficult, he could have been a Guide. Or even just a man interfering in things beyond his conception.
I do not mean here to deny the existence of God or his power, but only to tell what I have learned. The truth, which I have searched for all my life, is the truth I have found, not the truth others have found. Perhaps there is a divine power behind all things, even these alien creatures and their followers, but I do not proclaim to know.
Moses gained his people’s freedom, but just as important, he gained possession of the Ark, in which was held the Grail. He took it out of Egypt for the first time in over ten millennia and thus the tale becomes more interesting.
The chapter came to an end.
“Do we have any idea where the master guardian was taken?” Che Lu asked. “If we did, we’d be there,” Turcotte said.
“The grid system I have from Nabinger might have that location,” Che Lu noted.
“But you haven’t been able to align, right?” Turcotte pointed out.
“Not yet.”
“You might want to ask Larry Kincaid for help,” Turcotte said. He checked his watch. It was time to be going. “If you get any more details on the chambers of the tunnels, forward it to me by secure satellite link,” he told Yakov.
“Good luck,” the Russian offered.
The acid drip of adrenaline was coursing through Turcotte’s veins, and burning his stomach. He was ready to go.
CHAPTER 13
Qian-Ling, China
Lexina stepped dangerously close to the dark wall. A rounded, black circle of metal had appeared from behind the veil about four feet off the ground. The circle grew larger as the wall slowly withdrew until it was four feet in diameter, then the metal began going straight back, revealing a tube.
“Do you think that is Artad?” Elek asked.
Lexina placed her hand on the end of the tube. “I don’t know. But we will shortly.”
Lexina paced along the black wall trying to control herself. Many lifetimes of waiting were slowly being fulfilled as the wall slid back centimeter by centimeter.
Area 51
“The world is a very strange place,” Che Lu said. “Who would have thought a year ago there would be a Russian agent and an old Chinese woman sitting inside the most secret place in America?”
She was in the conference room with Yakov. Her attempts to align the grid system with the planet had failed so far, but she felt sure she would eventually get it. When she’d been informed that the next chapter of the manuscript was ready for review, she had put that work on hold. She had not been able to find Larry Kincaid who was meeting with NASA officials over use of the Hubble. She settled down into the chair next to the Russian.
She removed a small leather pouch that was tied to her belt and opened it. Holding it a few inches above the tabletop, she let the contents spill out with a clatter.
“There have been stranger things happen,” Yakov said. “What are those?”
“Oracle bones,” Che Lu said. “They are what led me to Qian-Ling. They were sent to me by a dear friend who is now fighting in Western China.” She picked one up, a piece about six inches long by three wide. “See the markings—a version of High Runes. T
hey were found around Qian-Ling by peasant farmers digging in their fields.”
“And their purpose?” Yakov asked.
“They tell the future,” Che Lu said. She gathered the bones in her wrinkled hands and tossed them.
“What do they say?”
Che Lu gathered them, placed them in the bag and drew the string tight. “They were just a tool used by the Emperor’s soothsayers. I studied them with an old woman—older even than I—who could read them.”
“What did they say?”
“Several things,” Che Lu said sharply.
Yakov chuckled. “So it goes with soothsayers—give several answers and something is bound to come true.”
“Let us hope not in this case,” Che Lu said.
Yakov’s smile vanished. “What did they say?”
“Betrayal. Fear. Death. Darkness.”
“You are right. Nothing good can come of that. But you are also right in that it is just random chance that determines the fall of the bones.”
Yakov checked the clock on the conference room wall. Fifteen more minutes and the team would be landing in Israel. Even if they did find anything useful, time was running out for them to be able to get it to Turcotte. Once the team went through the second gateway of Rostau, they would be out of communication until they reemerged.
The screen lit up with the beginning of the next chapter.
“Let us read,” Yakov said to Che Lu, holding a chair out for her to sit.
BURTON MANUSCRIPT: CHAPTER 5
Around 1200 B.C. the tribes of Israel began their Exodus from Egypt led by Moses. Here I must give the “accepted” version of what happened next. According to the Old Testament account, they crossed the Red Sea when it was parted by the power of their God. The pursuing Egyptian forces were drowned when the waters fell back in place.
According to biblical sources, this group wandered in the desert—mostly in the Sinai—for forty years. Such a journey seems strange. The desert there, which I crossed going from Arabia to Egypt, is indeed large and desolate, but not that expansive. It is written that they were led by a column of smoke or cloud during the day and a pillar of fire at night. It seems that such guidance could have been more direct, except for the explanation that this was a punishment for the worship of false idols while Moses was away from them on Mount Sinai.
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