“I’m calling the Pentagon,” Jerry Cole announced and stood up. “We’ll get every spy satellite we can and move them to the area. They’ll look for any anomalies.”
“Tell them not to attack,” Banyon pleaded. “At least until we know more from the cave.”
“I can’t promise that,” Colonel Cole replied and shook his head. “There are a lot of very nervous military men at the Pentagon and the UN.”
“You should have the general send some men to Ecuador too,” Gunny Joe said. “The Sumi are single minded. They intend to build a city there. Since we destroyed their existing plans, I’m sure they don’t have another set of plans. That would be redundant in their minds. I’m equally sure that will send a survey party to start over. They need three cities to support their people.”
“I need to call Mobi,” Banyon said urgently. “He needs to protect his people and get them out of the jungle.” Mobi was the leader of the indigenous tribe that lived in the area. Banyon had met him when the team was in Ecuador recently.
As soon as the colonel reached the corner of the room to make his call, and before Banyon was able to get out his phone, Maya slid into Banyon’s view.
“We’ve finished examining the weapons that Professor Gersch brought us. We are still missing three important weapons. Someone is going to have to go to the Vatican and get them for us,” she explained.
“Crap!” Banyon yelled out. The problems were becoming over-whelming.
Chapter Eleven
The head of the Antiquities Archives at the Vatican in Rome was Father Paolo Angelo. He was charged with keeping track of the many hidden treasures of the Catholic Church. He was also a chapter leader of The Society of Orion. A papal priest had been a member of the society since the advent of Christianity. Father Angelo was the current leader and very good at keeping secrets.
He looked around his plush office that was situated deep in the archives and wondered how long he would keep his position. He was stewing in a dichotomy. Should I let them steal the Orion weapons or stop them,” he thought.
He had been warned by Father Hector from Ecuador that if he didn’t give up the weapons, someone would come and take them. They were needed to stop an invasion from space. It was not an option.
But the papacy had dictated that under no circumstances were the weapons to be made available. The church had allowed some to be lent out over seventy years ago and it had led to World War II. The church was determined to never let that happen again. The fact that the destiny of all the humans on earth was at stake carried little weight with the church. The papacy believed that acknowledging they had the weapons would create more negative publicity for the church. They didn’t want that. Besides, they were sure that God would protect them.
Father Paolo Angelo had sworn allegiance to both the Catholic Church and The Society of Orion. One would win and one would lose.
When he reached his decision, he got up from his desk and collected a small bag from his personal vault. He wrote a short note and attached it to the bag.
He found his way to the section of the archives where the Orion weapons were kept and deposited the bag in the middle of the cache.
He had decided to resign from both positions. The fate of humanity was more important to him. He had decided to become a monk. He was sure that his services would be needed soon.
Chapter Twelve
General Wendell Whitehead was in his small office in the bowels of the Pentagon when he received the life-changing call from his field operative Colonel Gerald Cole, head of the secretive SIM team.
“Oh boy,” he yelled out when he hung up the phone. Finally, I’m going to get some action, he thought gleefully.
General Whitehead was head of the top secret Extraterrestrial Tracking Department (ETD) for the DoD. He himself had little authority to make things happen, but he reported directly to the Secretary of Defense. The SOD could move mountains.
The general had his first encounter with extraterrestrials when he was a test pilot assigned to area 51 twenty years earlier. He was flying a test plane when a circular space ship suddenly pulled alongside his jet. It circled the plane and then shot off into the distance at an unbelievable speed. The experience affected him so deeply that he volunteered to head up a program to track and monitor new reports of alien sightings.
The job turned out to be boring and nonproductive. While the military had hard evidence of aliens, they keep that information from the public. He spent most of his time writing official documents that denied the existence of aliens. Only a few military personnel knew the real truth. But now he had real confirmed sightings and possibly three theaters of invasion.
He knew that he would head up the missions to control the invasions and this made him happy. He would be fighting aliens on earth. What should we do first?
He picked up his phone and told his secretary to place a call to the Secretary of Defense.
***
Ten minutes later Colton Banyon’s phone rang. It was the President of the United States.
“Yes, sir,” Banyon said as he answered the call.
“Colt, what can you tell me about this possible invasion by aliens,” the President said without preamble. Banyon was used to his abruptness.
“First let me explain that the Sumi, that’s what they call themselves, are actually human. They lived on earth about five hundred million years ago and left. They want to come back now because their planet is dying. They’re not true aliens.”
“Are you saying that they come in peace?” The President gasped.
“Not exactly,” Banyon replied. “Their goal is to establish three cities in remote areas of the planet, then move their people to those cities. From there, they will expand into the rest of the world. They see this goal as a way to survive. That makes them desperate and dangerous. They have many advanced weapons and a large force of people to build their cities already near earth. When the time comes, we’ll have a hard time stopping them.”
“So they don’t intend to invade and wipe out everyone on earth?” The President asked curiously.
“If we let them gain a foothold, the results will be the same,” Banyon explained. “They plan to bring over a billion people here. If they do that this planet will not be able to support that many new people. We could all die.”
“I’m putting you and your team on the payroll as of now,” the big man uttered. “You need to find a way to stop them.”
“I’m working on that very problem right now,” Banyon said. He then told the President what his team was planning. When he was done, the President immediately spoke.
“What can we do to help? The DoD wants to bomb the hell out of them. Should I let them?”
“Give me about sixteen hours to complete my current missions, then you can decide,” Banyon pleaded. “If we do this right it will be a win-win for everybody.”
“But I need to do something,” The President moaned.
“Send troops to Ecuador and try to capture the first site survey team. We believe that they will send about a hundred Sumi to resurvey the land.”
“I’m going to station nuclear subs off the coast of Ecuador as well, just in case we need them.”
“Put as many assets as possible in striking distance of Cambodia and Northern India as well. We have no guarantee that our plan will work,” Banyon explained.
“Is there anything else I can do right now?” The President asked solicitously.
“As a matter-of-fact there is,” Banyon replied. And then he told him.
Part Three
First Attack
Chapter Thirteen
Once Banyon calmed down from his call from the President, he decided he needed to call Mobi and have him evacuate his people out of the jungle. The Indian told him not to worry. His people had prepared for this day and he would handle everything. Banyon felt a little better and decided to move on to the next project. He called over the Vatican team.
Steve Pellegrino was in char
ge of the mission for the Vatican site. He had volunteered because he was Catholic and could speak passable Italian.
“Do you have a plan yet?” Banyon asked him.
“We can do this,” the always optimistic security specialist responded. “But I’ll need some people to get it done right.”
“Who?” Banyon inquired.
“I’ll need Heather, she’ll be a nun. I will also need Chase because he is our best safe cracker. Timmy will handle the electronics and I’ll need either Tom, Dick, or Harry for protection,” Steve replied.
“Take Harry,” Banyon replied. “Are there any loose ends?”
“Yes, the disguises,” Steve quickly answered. “We need a priest outfit, a nun outfit, a choirboy tunic, a Gendarme uniform and a Swiss guard tunic.”
“Wow, your plan sounds complicated. What about transportation?” Banyon inquired.
“If we take the company jet,” Steve explained. “We could be there and back in sixteen hours.”
Banyon didn’t hesitate. “Mandy,” he called out.
The young woman rushed over and stood next to Steve. “What do you need?”
“Steve, Mandy will be your logistics expert and go with you to the site. She’ll stay outside and provide communications,” Banyon said with a wink. It told Steve that Wolf will be watching and help steal the Orion weapons.
“Let’s get going then,” Steve announced. “We will only have six hours on the ground in Rome.”
“How romantic,” Mandy said sarcastically.
“Meanwhile we’ll go to the second depository,” Banyon said thoughtfully. “We’ll meet up in Istanbul. I’ll let Mandy know where. Then all of us will be going to Cambodia.”
“Okay, let’s get the team together,” Steve said to Mandy as they rushed off.
Chapter Fourteen
The Vatican team left knowing that their plan was not complete, but they believed that they could work out the issues during the five hour plane ride to Rome. Most importantly, Mandy needed to find their disguises.
Colton Banyon and Colonel Cole now approached the dining room table where the Patel women were stacking the Orion weapons in piles by type of weapon. There were many piles on the shiny table top.
“So what’s the final count?” Banyon asked.
“Well,” Maya said and scratched her head. “We actually have one hundred and five if you count all the weapons that the SIM team brought. Five are not true Orion weapons, but are still weapons.”
“So how many new weapons did we collect?” Banyon next asked.
“We have collected two new Orion weapons,” Previne replied proudly.
“One is called Peeler, Maya continued. “It is used to shred bark from trees. It’s similar to the knife device called Cut. The second one is called Mauler. It’s a huge cutting tool that the Sumi use for chopping wood into small pieces so they can store more on their ships.”
“You know Colt,” Colonel Cole exclaimed. “All of the Sumi weapons are really work tools to help them build things or collect wood. Some might be adaptable as a weapon of war, but they don’t appear to be offensive weapons.”
“Good to know that,” Banyon responded, but he wasn’t sure that the colonel was right.
“I don’t think that they want to start a fight. I think that they have only one desire — to build cities here,” the colonel added.
Banyon wasn’t sure why Colonel Cole said that, but let it go for now. “Which of the Orion weapons are we missing?”
“There are three,” Maya explained. “The first is called the Roller. It crushes anything in its path, much like a bulldozer, only it is much larger. The other two weapons are original Orion weapons.”
“Oh?” Banyon questioned.
“One is the Vision weapon,” Pramilla told them. “The codex indicates that it can predict the future if one drinks wine from the jug. It was the same jug that Nostradamus claimed to use for his predictions.”
“That could or couldn’t be useful,” Banyon replied. “We may not want to know what is ahead.”
“The last one is called Divider. It’s often described as Moses staff which he used to part the Red Sea, but it really creates a force field that can push things aside. We also believe that it has other uses.”
“That one has merit,” Colonel Cole exclaimed and pointed at the picture of the weapon.
“We have run across one unusual problem though,” Maya pointed out sheepishly.
“What’s that?” Banyon asked.
“One of the Reducers doesn’t work,” Previne replied. “It was one of those that Kerry brought us.”
“It doesn’t work?” Banyon questioned. “That’s very strange considering what we know about Vril. The power of Vril is very long lasting.”
“It seems lighter than the other Reducers and we have tested every weapon. They all work but this one,” Maya explained. She held it out for Banyon to hold. It looked the same, but it definitely was lighter than the other Reducers.
“Impossible,” Colonel Cole shouted. “All the weapons have been under lock and key for many years. Maybe that one is different somehow.”
“Or maybe something happened to the Vril inside,” Banyon offered as his heart beat a little faster.
“Kerry, get over here,” A red-faced Colonel Cole turned and bellowed loudly.
“What’s up?” Kerry asked jovially as he joined the crowd at the table.
“Have any of the weapons left your sight since we took them out of the vault?” The colonel demanded.
“No, of course not,” Kerry said with slight annoyance. “But I did try to open a Reducer back in the lab before we left.”
“And,” the colonel demanded.
“I couldn’t get it open. The metal is unknown and too strong. It was a waste of my time.”
“This could be the answer we have been waiting for,” Banyon said enthusiastically. “There may be a way to destroy Vril and it’s located in your lab.”
“But there were a lot of things going on in the lab,” Kerry said. “Anything could have destroyed the Vril.”
“I’m going to look into this on my own,” Banyon offered. “But in the meantime I need you to write down everything that you can remember about what was going on in the lab when you were there.”
“I’ll get on it right now,” the young man agreed and went to write things down. Banyon knew that Wolf would already be researching the past for a clue as well.
Banyon now turned his attention back to the Orion weapons. “We are going to arm everyone with some of the weapons. Which ones do we have the most of?”
“That would be the Reducer,” Maya replied. “Remember it is like a laser gun used to cut wood. We have enough for everyone on the team to have one.”
“Good,” Banyon responded. “The three of you need to divvy up the rest of the weapons. I just need the one called Speak that translates languages.
“We only have two of those,” Pramilla said. “We’ll make sure that you get one.”
“How many Rise devices do we have?” Banyon now asked.
“We have eighteen of the antigravity devices, but they need to have a base to carry things. The devices by themselves don’t do anything.”
“How about using surf boards?” Eric the surfer threw out as he joined the group. “We would look cool and have transportation too.”
Banyon immediately called over Tom and Dick. “I have an assignment for you two,” he said.
“Finally some action,” Tom replied with a grin.
“Well, maybe not, but it will be vital to our plan,” Banyon explained.
“What do you need boss,” Dick answered seriously.
“I want you to immediately leave for Istanbul. There I want you rent a house big enough for all of us for the week. Stock it with food and drinks. Then I want you to purchase eighteen surf boards. Next I want you to install mounts on a pole to hold this device on all of them.” Banyon showed them the Rise device. “Can you do that?”
“I’m good with my hands,” Dick replied.
“Do you want us to purchase any guns as well?” Tom asked.
“No need. We have enough firepower on the jet,” Banyon told them.
“We’ll get it done by the time you get there,” Dick replied confidently.
“Do you have your company issued credit cards?” Banyon inquired.
“We’ll charge everything on them,” Tom said.
“Good,” Banyon uttered. “The government is now paying for everything and not me.” Banyon turned to the remaining people in the room. “From now on everything you buy is to go on a company credit card so we can document our expenses to the government.”
“Yes, sir,” Dick replied.
“Banyon turned, “Loni, please call Mandy on the plane and tell her.”
“I’ll do it right now,” she replied.
“My God, Colt,” Colonel Cole gasped. “You’re beginning to sound just like me when I was Bart Longwood.”
“I know,” Colton Banyon replied with disgust.
Chapter Fifteen
The first skirmish between the Sumi invaders and the earth people was not initiated by the Sumi. The military was not to blame either. Nor was it any of Banyon’s people. The war was actually initiated by a crazed, greedy, drug lord in Cambodia. He wanted his poppy fields back.
It started when Kiri Keo, the Supreme Leader of the largest heroin cartel in Southeast Asia, received an urgent call from his second in command, Bona.
He had sent the young man along with six armed warriors into the northeastern part of his vast land holdings to investigate the possibility of some poachers stealing his poppy plants. When Bona found the intruders he was to call Keo on his walkie-talkie. Once the intruders were located, the drug lord’s plan was to send in over a hundred of his most hardened private army members and kill everyone.
Keo had been limping around his white sterile veranda and had worked himself into frenzy by the time the call came in. He snatched the phone off the table, dropped it on the floor and cursed as he bent down to pick it up. He fumbled with the buttons on the phone and this only heightened his rage.
The Society of Orion Book #7: The Turkish Findings (Colton Banyon Mystery 21) Page 4
