by Steve Alten
‘As I said, energy is all around us. Our senses may not perceive it, but this room is filled with energy. It emanates from our bodies as heat and brain waves. It bounces around this room in multitudes of frequencies. By discerning an energy pattern, we can tap into it, using devices such as radios and televisions, videophones and satellite dishes… devices that would have been labeled the work of the Devil when this city was first christened. But the mind is also a device, and by fine-tuning it, we can communicate with those who have moved on to higher dimensions of energy. Spirits are aspects of God, Dominique, and it is spirits that create souls. Death is not the end, but the beginning of a transitional stage. After we die, our perceptions change, expanding as we acquire the higher dimensions.’
‘How do you know these things?’
Evelyn’s face creases into a smile. ‘Because, my dear, I’ve been there. I’ve crossed over.’
Dominique feels her flesh crawl.
‘Happened many years ago when I was living in Miami, right after Hurricane Andrew. Once the storm had passed, I went outside to walk my basset hound, Oscar. Stepped right in a puddle of wet leaves and zap -never noticing the downed electrical wire. Charge must’ve hit me like a ton of bricks.’
Dominique looks at the older woman as if for the first time. ‘So what happened? Did you really die?’
‘As they say, I was dead as a doorknob. The first thing I remember is feeling free, every physical burden instantly gone. My consciousness floated above my body, and it was a strange sensation to look down at myself, sprawled across the sidewalk like a puppet who’d lost her strings. A lifeless body is never very flattering. And poor Oscar, barking his head off. You know, I think he actually sensed my spirit hovering overhead.’
‘Were you scared?’
‘Not in the least, and I’ve never been scared since.’
‘What happened next?’
‘My consciousness began moving through a dark tunnel, and up ahead, I could see a light. It was God’s light, and it bathed me in a kind of love I had never experienced before.’ She pauses. ‘This is making you uncomfortable?’
‘A little. If this is some sort of sales pitch to convert me-’
‘Believe me, I’m the last person to preach religion. Fact is, I died an atheist, and not a very happy one. Of course, none of that ever occurred to me, until I experienced the life review.’
‘The life review?’
‘It’s your entire existence, every moment, every deed, every thought and feeling of everyone you’ve ever been in contact with, and you don’t just experience it from your own perspective, but from that of others-the people you hurt, the people you helped. It was amazing and incredibly intense, some of it quite sad, but most of it wonderful, like being immersed in a sea of unconditional love. Still, I saw my shortcomings, and it was quite an awakening. And then I realized I wasn’t alone, that my parents’ souls were by my side. I didn’t want to leave, but they told me it wasn’t my time just yet, that I still had things I had to do in order to fulfill my mission in life. And suddenly, just like that, I was back in my body. It felt so heavy, like a lead suit, and I hurt terribly inside. I could hear and feel the paramedics working on me, and I felt sad, because I really wanted to stay with my parents.’
‘You said you came back to fulfill a mission?’
Evelyn sits back in her chair. ‘For years, I assumed my mission was simply to help people understand death. When I recovered from my injuries, I went to work on my first book. To date, I’ve interviewed eighty-seven people, all of whom shared similar near-death experiences with me. I’ve compiled a library of pertinent data, and I’ve written two best-sellers. Despite these postdeath successes, I always felt something was missing. And then my sister died.’
Evelyn stands. Crosses the room. Opens a desk drawer and returns with a color photograph. ‘Maria and I were inseparable as children, born only thirteen months apart. The two of us attended Cambridge together. I’ll never forget the night she told me she was going off on some Mayan expedition with Julius and that jerk, Pierre Borgia. The news just about broke my heart.’
Dominique stares at the photo of the two sisters, taken while they were in England. ‘Your eyes? In this photo they’re black, like your sister’s.’
‘Yes. They changed after the accident. In fact, it wasn’t until after the lightning strike that I became a necromancer.’
‘You said earlier you’ve been in touch with your sister.’
‘She’s been my spiritual companion, my guide into the higher dimensions, the higher states of consciousness. The higher states are the forces of God’s light, the forces of good. The higher our own frequencies of good, the easier it is for us to attune to their light.’
‘Are there forces of evil?’
Evelyn pauses, choosing her words carefully. ‘By creating a world of free will, God allowed for the forces of both good and evil, light and dark. These “lesser lights” as I call them, fall into several different categories. Ghosts are the deceased who remain too confused to move into the light. Sometimes our negative thoughts or ignorance invites them into our lives. Ouija boards, for instance, set us up for ghostly pranks. By praying for these confused entities, we can help them realize the reality of their situation and guide them into the light.
‘More dangerous are poltergeists. Poltergeists have their own agenda. They are dark and evil and believe they can use their knowledge of the universe to manipulate our world. Poltergeists are the false prophets the Bible warns us about. They will entice us with their knowledge, but are not to be trusted. They can cause us great harm.
‘The purer sources of light bring us closest to God. These are the spirits. Spirits are our friends. They never judge or manipulate us, they are here only to help us see the truth. Angels are the brightest lights in the spiritual world, the messengers of God’s essence. They are always available to help, but it is up to us to ask for their assistance. Among the angels are the cherubim, seraphim, guardian angels, and archangels.’
‘And you can see them? You can see your sister?’
‘No, but I can feel her presence when we communicate.’
‘And she’s told you about Mick?’
Evelyn nods. ‘Take my hands in yours and close your eyes. Quiet your mind. Breathe in through your nose as slowly and deeply as you can, then gently out through your mouth. Focus on your feelings for Michael. Extinguish your sadness and feel him in your heart. Center yourself upon your love for him.’
Dominique breathes. She thinks of Mick and how much she misses him.
Evelyn registers Dominique’s increased energy flow as she meditates. She centers herself, moving deeper into her own meditation.
In due course she speaks: ‘Dear Lord, hold us in Your loving light. Allow Your angels to guide us, so that our experiences may be for the highest good. We thank You for all You have done, and ask You now to reveal our dearly departed, Maria Rosen-Gabriel, to us.’
A long pause, then Evelyn speaks again, this time in a higher, raspy voice not her own.
‘My son has not passed into the spiritual realm. Michael has imprisoned himself in purgatory.’
Dominique’s eyes flash open. ‘My God… Mick’s in Hell?’
‘There is no Hell. Michael’s soul is shackled with anger-an anger that comes from a life devoid of love. He was asked to make a great sacrifice. Now he loathes the decision and curses his existence, marooned on an island of space-time surrounded by an ocean of evil.‘
‘Is… is he safe?’
‘He is in great danger. A powerful poltergeist tortures him and the Nephilim -a population of lost souls. Michael’s internal rage blinds him, preventing him from defeating the poltergeist, and yet he feels compelled to remain, for it is his heavenly light that comforts the Fallen Ones. All are trapped in an equilibrium of existence, a higher temporal plane, what you would call Hell. It is Michael’s presence within this existence that has created a third-dimensional loop of space-time. The loop must be
broken to save Michael, the souls of the Fallen, and humanity.’
Dominique’s fingers ache within Evelyn’s steely grip as she stares at the tears streaming down the old woman’s cheeks. ‘Maria… will I ever see him again?’
‘The Creation Story foretold in the Mayan Popol Vuh rewrites itself. The final battle will again be waged. The journey of good and evil begins anew with the rebirth of your sons. It is your role to prepare them for a battle that was waged and lost eons ago. If they are successful, then Michael will be resurrected. If they fail, then humanity is lost.
‘But beware, for another shall be born on the day of the twins’ birth. Negative energy shall flow to this child, tainting its soul while strengthening its spirit. It is this abomination that imprisons my son and disrupts the space-time continuum. It is this unholiest of unholies that tortures the Nephilim, feeding off their life force.
‘Guard against the Abomination, Dominique. Do not allow it to spawn.’
3
JANUARY 26, 2013: THE WHITE HOUSE, WASHINGTON, DC
Ennis Chaney, the second appointed vice president in history to ascend to the highest office in the land, enters the Oval Office, feeling all his sixty-seven years. African-American, with deeply set owlish eyes, the former Senator from Pennsylvania has been commander in chief forty-two tumultuous days, ever since his predecessor, Mark Maller, took his own life in an attempt to stave off a global nuclear holocaust.
Since then, every dawn has been a blessing, every day twenty-four hours in hell.
Chaney barely has time to make his way behind his desk when his chief of staff, Katherine Gleason, buzzes him on the intercom. ‘Jesus, Kathy, at least give me a chance to sit down.’
‘Sorry, sir. Your seven o’clock appointment is here.’
‘Fine, send them in, and get me some of those chocolate chip cookies I had yesterday at the G-9 meeting. The wife says I’m gaining weight, but I’d don’t care, I need the caffeine.’
‘Yes, sir.’
A moment later, Kathy opens the outer office door, escorting two men inside. The first is Chaney’s friend, Marvin Teperman, a short Canadian exobiologist with a pencil-thin mustache and an annoyingly warm smile. The second man is all business, a gray-haired colonel in full-dress uniform. Chaney notices a slight hitch in the man’s step. An attache case is handcuffed to his left wrist.
Marvin beams his usual smile. ‘Morning, Mr. President. Great day to be alive, eh? Allow me to present Colonel Jack McClellan, United States Air Force.’
‘Colonel.’ Chaney motions to McClellan’s leg. ‘Old war injury?’
‘Prosthetic. Damn diabetes.’
‘Tough break.’ For a fleeting moment, Chaney feels guilty about ordering the cookies. ‘Have a seat. You’ll forgive me, Colonel, but this is my first MAJESTIC-12 briefing. Maybe you could sort of bring me up to speed? I was never big on those X-Files shows.’
The colonel shrugs off the insult. ‘Sir, Operation MAJESTIC-12 was established on September 24, 1947, by special classified presidential order following the recovery of airborne objects that fell over Roswell, New Mexico, between July 4 and July 6 of that same year.’
‘By fallen airborne objects, you mean UFOs?’
‘Yes, sir, and Hollywood aside, I can assure you that this was no special effect. Technically speaking, our unit originated in 1941 with a UFO retrieval case that took place in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. It wasn’t until ’47 that Truman officially funded the organization. Over the years, MAJESTIC-12 has utilized the services of some of the most brilliant minds in the world, including Albert Einstein and Robert Oppenheimer. Even after all these years, it remains our government’s most supersecret program.’
‘Guess that explains the little wrist ornament.’
The colonel nods. ‘These aren’t your ordinary run-of-the-mill handcuffs either, sir. The bracelet monitors my pulse. Should my heart stop beating, should the chain be severed, or the wrong access code entered, the contents of the briefcase would instantly incinerate from within.’
‘Well, since there’s no smoking permitted in my office, I guess I’d better enter the correct code.’ Chaney stands, leans over his desk, then carefully enters his access code on the briefcase’s security pad.
The locking mechanism deactivates, allowing the colonel to open the case.
McClellan removes a half-inch-thick computerized clipboard, sealed in plastic, and hands it to the president.
‘Thank you, Colonel. Now gentlemen, if you’ll give me a few minutes-’
‘Of course, sir.’ The colonel sits back in his chair.
Marvin just stares and grins.
The president sighs. He retrieves his reading glasses from his top desk drawer, then peels off the file’s plastic wrapper, enters his daily access code to the wafer-thin screen, and begins reading off the LED monitor.
TOP SECRET/MAJESTIC-12
WARNING: Unauthorized access or viewing of this document without the appropriate authorizations will result in permanent incarceration or sanction by authorized use of deadly force.
PROGRESS REPORT ON SPECIAL ACCESS PROGRAM
GOLDEN FLEECE
21 January 2013
ORIGINS
1. On 14 December 2012, at approximately 14:30 hours, EST, an electromagnetic force field equivalent to several billion amperes activated across the entire globe, destroying more than 1,000 Russian ICBMs and SLBMs targeted for North America, effectively saving the United States. MAJESTIC teams traced the EM array to exotic crystalline biomemnetic devices serving as transformer nodes and relay junctures within and/or below ancient structures of Angkor Wat, the Great Pyramid of Giza, Stonehenge, the Pyramid of the Sun at Teotihuacan, Mexico, and under the complex at Tiahuanacu in Peru.
2. MAJESTIC teams were able to trace the common origin of the EM pulse to a vessel buried 217 feet beneath the Kukulcan Pyramid in Chichen Itza (Yucatan Peninsula). The EM pulse itself was transmitted to relay junctures by way of an antenna mast which morphed out of the vertical axis of the buried vessel and up through the core of the 1,000-year-old Mayan superstructure. This was later confirmed by Michael Gabriel and his female companion, Dominique Vazquez, who were able to access the vessel by way of a freshwater aquifer (cenote) located a mile north of the pyramid.
3. Michael Gabriel is the only child of archaeologists Julius and Maria Gabriel (both deceased), whose body of work centered upon the Mayan calendar and its doomsday prophecy, predicted for 21 December 2012. On 24 August 2001, Julius Gabriel presented 32 years of research at a Harvard symposium attended by rival (and future secretary of state) Pierre Robert Borgia, who verbally assaulted the professor, interrupting his speech. Julius Gabriel suffered a fatal heart attack, dying in the arms of his son and only child, Michael, who then attacked Borgia. The incident cost Borgia his right eye and landed Gabriel in a mental asylum in Massachusetts, where he would spend the next eleven years, most of it in solitary confinement. He was subsequently transferred to a facility in Miami in summer of 2012 where he fell under Florida State University intern/grad student Dominique Vazquez’s care. Ms. Vazquez subsequently aided Gabriel’s escape in early December of 2012.
4. On 21 December 2012, a ‘transdimensional’ extraterrestrial biological, appearing as a giant serpent, rose from its own buried vessel beneath the Chicxulub Crater, the (Gulf of Mexico) impact site of an asteroid-like object that struck Earth 65 million years ago. The biological immediately targeted the EM pulse originating from Chichen Itza, making its way to the site through a series of aquifers. U.S. Armed Forces were unable to stop the entity, which appeared to be existing on two dimensional planes at once. Michael Gabriel was able to deactivate the biological, using an energy beam originating from the antenna of the vessel buried beneath the Kukulcan Pyramid. Michael Gabriel then entered the triplex orifice of the entity. Both Gabriel and the biological subsequently disappeared. His status remains unknown.
GOLDEN FLEECE
5. Following the events of 21 December 2012, POTUS complet
ed a new trade agreement with Mexico that included a private addendum placing Chichen Itza under U.S. jurisdiction. The public park was immediately shut down, security assigned to MAJESTIC-12 under the newly-formed GOLDEN FLEECE program. Project Director Dr. David Mohr (formerly of NASA) and exobiologist Marvin Teperman divided GOLDEN FLEECE personnel into the following independent programs.
SECURE amp; CAMOUFLAGE MAIN STRUCTURE:
Responsible for erecting a prefabricated camouflaged urethane shell resembling the exterior of the Kukulcan pyramid. On the night of 18 January 2013, the shell was set in place above the existing pyramid, thereby preventing discovery of subsequent GOLDEN FLEECE operations via satellite reconnaissance.
EXCAVATION-A:
Responsible for systematic removal, tagging, and storage of every stone used in the construction of the Kukulcan pyramid, overseen by Mexican archaeologists. Pyramid removal expected to be completed by 15 March 2013.
EXCAVATION-B:
Excavate access pit to buried vessel upon completion of Excavation-A.
EXCAVATION-C:
Access buried vessel via aquifer running beneath Kukulcan Pyramid. Underwater Assessment Team (UAT) made up of MAJESTIC-cleared personnel included laser physicists, theoretical physicists, metallurgists, aerospace engineers, psychiatric personnel, several noted neurophysiologists, and selected members of NASA’s Breakthrough Propulsion Physics (BPP) team. All UAT members SCUBA certified with at least 100 dive-hours.
EXCAVATION-C PRELIMINARY REPORT: EXTERIOR STRUCTURE
6. The burial vessel measures 722 feet long and is best described as ‘dagger-shaped,’ though this hardly begins to describe the vehicle. The forward hull tapers out like the front two-thirds of a surfboard and resembles the ‘Chine’ hull-form configuration similar to A-12 HABU (‘Blackbird’) style spy planes. The ‘Hilt’ starts out as a pronounced sphere, with large bulbous twin nacellelike structures that end in triangular vanes that enclose twin multichambered ‘exhausts’ located at the stern of the vessel. Smaller transverse thruster exhausts are located along the belly. Several engineers have theorized that the aerodynamic starship was configured to ‘surf’ an atmosphere or possibly even a hydrosphere in a manner similar to a ‘Waverider’ aerospace vehicle, but on a larger scale. The star cruiser’s enormous size rivals that of a medium to large cruise ship, with a design ‘cut’ that gives the impression of a warship. The keel is pronounced along the belly and is reminiscent of a Celtic warrior’s ribbed ax blade.
