Tam Nok knew about the failure here- the story of the coming of the Shadow over Angkor Kol Ker was too recent to have faded into legend. She was more interested in the island in the sea beyond the sea. It was described in some detail: rings of land and water, surrounding a central hill on which was a mighty temple and palace. Even at Angkor Wat where she had come from, the use of rings of water to protect those within was preserved.
But the water had not saved the ancient ones. The island was attacked by fire from the dark Shadow and decimated so completely it disappeared beneath the waves of the sea and the people scattered.
Tam Nok knew her people had come from the ocean, from the direction of the rising sun. But the ability to cross that sea had been lost- or perhaps deliberately forgotten as the generations passed. She could not go east. The writings she had told her there were others who had escaped and gone in different directions. And that she would have to find some of those others in order to uncover what she was looking for.
As the sun rose in the east, she shouldered her pack. She climbed down the stone stairs on the interior of the watchtower. Tam Nok turned toward the Shadow and began walking into the valley.
If she survived this first part, she still had a very long journey before her.
Chapter 3
THE PRESENT
1999 AD
Dane peered out the window of the helicopter and all he saw was open ocean. He held Chelsea’s leash tightly and scratched behind her ears to calm her down. She had been on helicopters before when they worked search and rescue and she had never liked the ride. The high pitch of the turbine engines caused her great discomfort. She strained against the leash, her tail thumping against Dane’s leg to show her displeasure.
Keeping tight hold, Dane slid down the red web seating, closer to Sin Fen, the only other occupant of the cargo bay of the two-bladed Chinook helicopter other than the crew chief. The middle of the cargo bay was full with two pallets of tied down gear.
Before getting on the chopper, they had taken a Navy transport from Andrews Air Force Base to Roosevelt Roads Naval Air Station on the eastern tip of Puerto Rico. Throughout the trip, Sin Fen had maintained her silence, working on her lap top computer. Dane had spent the early part of the flight napping, catching up on lost sleep and then reading, going through several books he had purchased at the post exchange before they took off, when he had been able to shake Sin Fen for a few minutes.
Chelsea squeezed between Dane and Sin Fen and promptly collapsed, her belly on the toes of his shoes, her chin resting on her front paws, somehow feeling comforted lying in that spot.
“What’s the fallout from the nukes in the Atlantic?” Dane asked.
“I received the latest report from Foreman over the modem before we took off,” Sin Fen said. “The bombs all detonated on the ocean floor, at depths between one thousand and three thousand feet. The navy has sent ships and subs to do a survey, but we have to assume there was damage to the line between the plate tectonics. I think this was a test- like the United States used to test nukes in Nevada and the Russians in Novlaya Svetlanya. Checking yield and effect. The fact that the Shadow tested along the junction of tectonic plates shows their electromagnetic surveillance of those joints definitely has a purpose.
“There was, of course, quite a bit of radiation released. Given the prevailing currents that run northeast, some of that is going to brush along the coasts of Iceland, Eire Land and England. What the effect will be is hard to say at this point although there’s no doubt fisheries throughout that area will be affected negatively.”
“Affected negatively?” Dane didn’t bother to wait for an amplification. “In other words, we don’t know much more than we did before eight nuclear bombs were exploded. Mind telling me exactly where we’re going?” he asked.
Sin Fen still had her laptop open and her almond eyes shifted their gaze from it to him for a second before returning. She type in a command and then showed him the screen. A ship was displayed. “That’s our next stop.”
“What is it?” Dane had never seen anything like it.
A massive ship was in the middle of an empty sea, a large wake indicating it was moving. A huge derrick took up the entire center of the ship, towering over it. Two helicopters sat on a landing pad on the stern, dwarfed by the derrick, giving an idea of how large the ship was. There was room on the pad for the Chinook they were on to land with some to spare.
“It's the Glomar Explorer,” Sin Fen said.
“A navy ship?”
Sin Fen shook her head. "It was built in 1973 by Howard Hughes for the CIA."
Dane saw the long arm of Foreman involved in that somehow. “To do what? Oil exploration?"
"The cover story that Hughes gave the press was that the Glomar Explorer was built to mine minerals off the ocean floor. That’s even what he told the people building it.
“It was constructed at York, Pennsylvania and is over two hundred meters long. Hughes spent about four hundred million of the government’s dollars on the thing without the taxpayers knowing about it. And that was in 1973 dollars- A recent refit just cost over six hundred million. To get it to the Pacific, they had to sail it around South America because it wouldn't fit through the Panama Canal.
"While the ship was built on the east coast, a companion craft was built in California called the HMB-1, Hughes Marine Barge. It's about a hundred meters long and built like an underwater aircraft hanger.
"The barge and the ship work together when needed. While the Glomar is the surface platform, the HMB-1 is submergible. It's got a giant claw, remote TV camera and lights. It can dock with the Glomar in the well of the ship underneath the derrick.
“The Glomar and HMB-1 were actually built to be part of a secret CIA mission called Project Jennifer. The purpose of that project was to recover a Russian submarine that had gone down in the Pacific with all hands. They went after the sub in 1974.”
“Did they recover it?”
“Part of it,” Sin Fen acknowledged. “The claw grabbed hold and they started bringing it up, but the submarine broke. They only got about a forty foot section. Enough to recover some cipher codes and manuals. Along with two nuclear torpedoes.”
“Why would they spend that much money to get a Russian submarine?” Dane asked. “Our technology was ahead of theirs. There isn’t much we could have learned.”
“Recovering the cipher codes for the Soviet fleet was the priority,” Sin Fen said.
“How long between the Russian sub going down and the Glomar pulling up that piece?”
“A year and a half.”
“Then recovering the cipher codes is bullshit,” Dane said. “The Russians would have changed their ciphers the day after they lost the sub.”
“But the CIA still had tapes of all the classified traffic that had been transmitted using those codes while the sub was still sailing,” Sin Fen said. “Even going back and breaking year and a half old transmissions can still reveal a lot of intelligence about fleet operations.”
Dane glanced out the porthole at the open ocean. “The cover story was undersea mining,” he said. “And the story you’re telling me is that the CIA wanted to recover a Russian submarine for the cipher codes. Now, tell me the real reason the Glomar Explorer was built.”
Sin Fen closed the laptop. “You are very distrusting, aren’t you?”
“I’d be stupid not to be,” Dane said.
Sin Fen nodded. “I apologize. Old habits die hard. I am so used to lying and telling cover stories. Working with Foreman all these years, not knowing what the gates were, we had to be very careful. We also had to manipulate people to do what we wanted without ever letting them have a hint what the real reason for their actions was or it was most likely they would not do what we wanted.”
“Like sending my recon team after a downed spy plane in Cambodia,” Dane said.
“Yes, but there was a downed spy plane,” Sin Fen said.
“Downed because it was flying a mission
for Foreman, concerning the Angkor gate, not supporting our war effort in Vietnam,” Dane noted. “And he wanted more than just the black box from the plane recovered- he wanted my team and his man, Castle, to check out the gate on the ground.”
“Please believe that our motives are good although our means might be deceptive.”
“Right,” Dane said in such a tone that Chelsea lifted her head and regarded him with her golden eyes for a few seconds, before pushing her head against his knee, earning a scratch behind the ears. “Back to the Glomar,” Dane said.
“The real reason for the Glomar Explorer was to recover the Russian submarine.”
“But why did Foreman want the Glomar to do that?” Dane asked. “He was never interested in old cipher codes or Russian subs, was he?”
“He was interested in submarines when they went through a gate,” Sin Fen said. “This particular vessel disappeared for a week in 1973 during passage through the area known as the Devil’s Sea off the coast of Japan. The Russian Navy got a bit excited about losing a nuclear armed sub as you can expect.
“Then the submarine suddenly appeared a week later, exactly where it had disappeared as if nothing had happened. Except it wasn’t answering any radio calls. Then, less than an hour after reappearing, it goes down in very deep water. Too deep for the Russians to rescue anyone or even recover anything from the wreck with the technology that was available at that time.”
“But not too deep for Foreman to try,” Dane said.
“Correct. He was able to get the CIA to fund Glomar on the possibility of getting those cipher codes and classified manuals. Give the navy an idea what the Russian nuclear submarine capability was. Plus he got Howard Hughes to help. Mister Foreman has always been very good at getting wealthy individuals in the private sector to aid his cause.”
“Did Foreman learn anything from the wreckage he did recover?”
“What Foreman was really interested in was the nuclear power plant and the nuclear weapons. The Glomar wasn’t able to get the power plant and he only recovered two of the fourteen nuclear weapons it had on board.”
Dane waited.
“Some of the nuclear weapon berths were empty,” Sin Fen finally allowed.
“Meaning the weapons were removed from the sub.”
“Correct. And the two weapons recovered had been worked on.”
“Worked on?”
“Casings taken off. Parts removed.”
“That helps explain how the nukes from the Wyoming were aimed, fired and detonated,” Dane noted.
“Indeed it does,” Sin Fen said.
“What else?”
“You are persistent, aren’t you?” Sin Fen didn’t wait for an answer. “They recovered some bodies off the Russian submarine.”
“That’s to be expected.”
“Not these bodies,” Sin Fen said. “There were a total of eight in the section recovered. Four were Russian crewmembers. The other four- well, three were Japanese and one was, as near as could be determined, an American.”
“What were they doing on a Russian submarine?” Dane asked.
“That’s a good question. A couple of years ago, Foreman made some discrete inquiries with his counterpart in Russia- a man named Kolkov- who was investigating what he called Vile Vortices- their name for the gates.
“Kolkov confirmed that when this Russian submarine sailed there were no foreigners on board. Foreman is of the opinion that these strangers came on board while the sub was in the Devil’s Sea gate.”
“Sort of the way I was transported on board the Scorpion?”
“Perhaps. Or perhaps these people were inside the gate to begin with. Even more interesting is that we were never able to identify the American, nor could the Japanese identify the other bodies. However, one of the Japanese bodies had some work done on his teeth that was indicative of the state of dentistry in Japan in the early 1900s. Yet the body was in his prime- no more than 30.”
“We know time is different on the other side of the gates,” Dane said.
“We know that now,” Sin Fen corrected. “We didn’t know it then.”
“Is it possible that the Shadow can use people?” Dane asked.
“The Ones Before used Flaherty, so it is possible the Shadow can use humans.”
Dane rubbed his hand across his forehead, feeling the onset of a headache. “Why did the submarine sink?”
“That’s another intriguing thing,” Sin Fen said. “It appears that the Russians had quite a few ships of their fleet in the area, searching for the sub. When it reappeared, rather than recover it, the Russians seem to have sunk it.”
“Why?”
“We don’t know. We couldn’t even get Kolkov to confirm that.”
“Because of the foreigners on board?” Dane wondered.
“Perhaps.”
“Or perhaps because of the nukes on board?”
“Or the nukes not on board,” Sin Fen said with a slight smile.
Dane could pick up the aura of her emotion. He could tell she knew how frustrated he was by the lack of clear-cut answers to the many mysteries surrounding the gates.
“Is that why Foreman is so worried about the Wyoming?” Dane asked. “Even though the crew took a fatal dose of radiation, he’s concerned there might be others on board.”
“Yes.”
“But the sub would still be hot, wouldn’t it?” Dane asked. “Anyone going on board would receive a fatal dose.”
“Yes, but-” Sin Fen shrugged to indicate this was another mystery beyond her. “That Trident was launched from the Wyoming, there’s no doubt about that. Whether there’s anybody alive on board is kind of moot now.”
“Why didn’t they recover the rest of the Russian submarine?” Dane asked.
“They tried to, but the weather was getting bad and the Soviets were starting to sniff around. The CIA pulled the plug.”
“So there’s nukes unaccounted for there also,” Dane summarized.
Sin Fen nodded. “It’s very highly classified, but not counting the recent loss of the Wyoming there are over two hundred nuclear weapons from submarines and aircraft that have disappeared in or around the gates unaccounted for.”
“That will help me sleep better at night,” Dane said.
“The Wyoming’s Tridents are certainly the most powerful weapons and delivery systems.”
“What’s the status of the Glomar Explorer now?”
"After Project Jennifer it was docked at Sausita, California for over a decade. When the Cold War ended in '89, we even tried to sell or lease it to the Russians to help recover their other lost subs. The Russians weren’t interested. Then it was bought by a civilian corporation and refurbished a year and a half ago."
“Let me guess-” Dane said. “Since Howard Hughes has been dead for a while I would guess Michelet Technologies?”
Sin Fen nodded. “Yes.”
“It’s headed for the site we’re going to?”
“Correct.”
“And what are we supposed to do when we get there?”
“Try to find the Shield,” Sin Fen said.
“And we need this ship in order to do that?” Dane was beginning to get a uniquely bad feeling about this mission.
“Using other resources, Mister Foreman has determined that the place we have to look is on the bottom of the ocean floor at that spot.”
“Of course,” Dane said. “Why should it be easy?”
Dane felt her mental probing and he blocked it. During the mission into Cambodia he had been able to communicate’ with her through mental images, something Dane had had all his life- he had just never encountered anyone else with the ability. He found it both intriguing and disconcerting.
“Very good,” Sin Fen commented. “You have learned much.”
“Who are you?” Dane asked abruptly.
“I work for Mister Foreman.”
“It’s not that simple,” Dane said.
“No, it is not.”
�
�You told me you grew up in Cambodia, near the Angkor gate,” Dane said.
“Yes.”
He probed her mentally and was easily deflected. “How did you gain this ability?”
Sin Fen shrugged. “How did you? I know as much about my past as you do about yours.”
Dane felt Chelsea stir slightly against his feet, then settle down.
“I read your classified files,” Sin Fen said. “Even if I didn’t, I have a very good idea of your background. You were an orphan. You have no idea who your biological parents are. Neither do I. You moved from place to place as a child. So did I. You joined the army at seventeen and went off to war. I became involved in black market activities in PhnomPenh when I was but a child- anything to avoid being forced into the prostitution that the other girls at the orphanage were pressed into. I was contacted by Foreman. You were recruited by Foreman when you were in Vietnam. And here we are now.”
“How did Foreman find us?” Dane asked.
“I think Foreman is able to find us because he is one of us’,” Sin Fen said. “You’ve tried to get into his mind. It is a wall, just as yours is to me now. He has some sort of connection to the gates, just as we do. Do you know about his brother?”
Dane shook his head.
“Foreman’s brother disappeared into the Devil’s gate off the coast of Japan in the last month of World War II while flying an attack mission. Foreman was in the same squadron and was the only plane that avoided disappearing.”
“He sensed it was dangerous,” Dane said.
Sin Fen nodded. “And then he got assigned to Fort Lauderdale Naval Air Station. He was supposed to be a member of Flight Nineteen.”
“The flight of TBM Avengers that disappeared into the Bermuda Triangle,” Dane said.
“Yes. He didn’t go on that flight and watched them disappear on the radar screen.”
“So he knows enough to avoid going into the gates,” Dane said, “but he’s not afraid to send others in.”
“He had dedicated his life to finding out what the gates are and who is on the other side. To do that, he has searched for others like him.”
Atlantis: Bermuda Triangle a-2 Page 3
