Without answering, she slid the paper across the desk and he read it. After putting it down, he asked,
“So, what do you intend to do about it?”
“I don’t know Santo. I mean the whole purpose of having laboratories all over the world was this thing about not putting all of our eggs in one basket.”
Santo painfully remembered all too well how easily the Duchess was able to destroy the House of the Nazarene. Everything was in one place, on the island of Ile de Celeste. With the fire power of one alien satellite she easily destroyed the castle and all the laboratories including killing most of the scientist. Maria added,
“As awkward as having laboratories all over the world are, I just don’t want to go back to having everything here.”
“And you feel that if you grant this request, it will set precedence for other scientists to join us here?”
She nodded.
After a thought, he asked,
“If you approve, will she have to move her laboratory equipment here?”
“Yes, that’s just it. Everything including her computers will have to come here.”
Santo said,
“Then, as a suggestion, allow her the transfer but make it conditional.”
“Like what?”
“Such as being reviewed in a few months, maybe three.”
“Yes, that’s all well and good but don’t forget the real reason she is requesting the move. It has nothing to do with her research. She has fallen in love and wants to be with him.”
Looking at the request paper again, Santo paused and contributed,
“I guess that if you send her back to the Spanish Laboratory she will be despondent and her research will suffer.”
“Yes. There is no denying the power of true love and what a couple will do to stay together. I’m also afraid that if I deny the request, I will lose not only a brilliant alien toxicologist but a well-trained Flight Controller as well.”
Santo asked,
“What are you going to do?”
“That’s why I asked you here, to advise me.”
After another moment of thought, Santo asked,
“Is there room for her here?”
Suspecting what he was going to say, she nodded and said,
“Yes, I could put her computers in with Ming-Lo Ching, our financial acquisitions specialist. Obviously she will be living with Henrik in his hangar quarters.”
Knowing that she wanted the lovers together but didn’t want to set precedence for others, Santo came up with the perfect solution.
“Then why not make it an order from the leader of the House of the Nazarene. For whatever reason you can come up with, let it be known that you have a project demanding her attention here. Just don’t let it be known that it was because of her request.”
After smiling and nodding her approval, she added,
“That’s why I keep you around.”
Thinking than the meeting was over, she was surprised that he stayed seated. She asked,
“What?”
Because his question seemed to have come out of the blue, she was slightly put aback by it.
“What is your intention with the dimensional transmitter we brought back from the Siberian Triangle?”
“I don’t know yet. I don’t feel that we should destroy it but at the same time, it’s a very dangerous thing in the wrong hands. My initial thought was to store it away some place safe. I just don’t know where yet.”
Then with a curious eye, she added,
“Why are you asking?”
“I think I might be able to help you with that.”
After explaining his plan, she asked,
“Are you sure about the security?”
When he nodded she added,
“Very well, do it. But hurry back. I want you in India with us when the Anunnaki ship reaches the moon. It should be there in the matter of hours.”
“Not a problem. If I’m late I’ll leave from there and go directly to India.”
A short while later Santo was in the Supply building adjacent to the hangar. What was initially just a shed with sparse supplies had now transformed to bulging with provisions looking more like a giant department store. He went to the far corner and retrieved a black rubberized full body outfit. Remembering how awkward it was to slip on while in the confines of the D-wing, he stepped into it now. This was the same thermal suit worn years before when they discovered the Anunnaki cave in Turkey and were mistaken for the Black Spirits haunting the countryside. For a fitting test, he put on the black helmet and looked like a featureless black robot.
With the helmet tucked under his arm, he entered the hangar to see Henrik waiting for him. When seeing him wearing the black thermal outfit, Henrik asked,
“Another trip to the North Pole Sir?”
“No Henrik, to a place even colder than that.”
He then asked,
“Has my package been delivered?”
“Yes Sir. I put it on the passenger seat.”
He then hesitantly asked,
“Sir, has Pia’s request for a transfer been considered?”
Knowing that it was not for him to say, as Santo climbed into the D-wing he said,
“That’s a matter for Maria. Best you ask her.”
Santo’s casual wink gave Henrik cause for hope.
While racing into the Alps the D-wing entered a torrential snow storm driven by gale force winds. Visibility was zero and he was forced to maneuver through the steep mountains by computer guidance. This was the home of the Snow Monks, an alien species living in the isolation of the Alps. Santo came across them a few years ago while cooperating with the Vatican. Why they came to Earth and opted to live in this forsaken environment was a mystery. All he knew about them was that they easily survive in the freezing cold and guarded secrets for the Vatican in an ice cave impossible for normal people to reach, unless you had a D-wing.
The computer easily guided him through blinding and hammering snow-driven wind. Minutes later he came to an ice castle looking more like a giant icicle precariously clinging to a steep cliff. As before, he put the D-wing down in the middle of the plaza and waited for the Red Monk, their leader to come to him. When seeing him approach, before opening the canopy, Santo donned the helmet. Now standing in front of the red Monk looking black and surrounded by ice and snow, he activated his translator program and said,
“Greeting from the Vatican. I have come to ask a service of you.”
The Red Monk knew that he was talking to the same human who had once helped rid their ice castle of the Anunnaki. Santo explained what he wanted to put in the cave along with the other Vatican secrets. He said to the Red Monk,
“Your DNA can activate a dimensional portal to your world. Before it is hidden, if you wish, you may use it to return to your own world.”
The Red Monk explained,
“Thank you for thinking of us but that will not be possible. Our world was once an ice planet with a similar environment as this. We left our world because of global climate change. The glaciers melted and forests grew. We cannot return to a planet that no longer supports us. We are the last of our kind and so will stay here where we can be of service to our Lord and the Vatican.”
With arrangements made to hide the dimensional transmitter in the same cave as the greatest damaging secrets to the Vatican, Santo pointed to his D-wing and said,
“Then come and show me where in the cave to hide it.”
Looking as if he had tasted something most foul, the Red Monk cast an incredulous eye to the craft and said,
“That will not be necessary. You go and I’ll meet you there.”
Knowing that the cave was at least a three day torturous hike through the mountains, and in this weather, Santo wondered how that would be possible. Regardless, after all they are incredible aliens, Santo jumped back into his D-wing and set coordinates for the secret cave.
A few minutes later, Santo approached the remote mountain. The
cave was in the middle of a massive vertical cliff and even if it were a clear day, which it never was in this mountain range, it could not be seen from the ground or air. With wind howling and snow blowing in vicious circles, Santo let the computer guide him into the cave. It was massive. The walls and floor were covered in thick ice. With a delicate hand on the controls he raised the D-wing straight up to another level inside the cave. At the top, he inched forward and set down on a large ledge. Although freezing cold, it was clear of the outside storms and so he was able to see boxes on the floor. They were the secrets the Vatican could not destroy but didn’t want anything to do with or the world to know about. As the Red Monk had once said,
“We hide and guard the embarrassments of the Vatican.”
Opening the canopy and careful not to slip in the ice, Santo got out and reached for the wooden crate on the passenger seat containing the transmitter. His black thermal suit and full face helmet shielded him against the freezing temperature. To his right he saw the three Snow Monks clad in brown robes. Their heads were covered with cowls and sitting cross-legged watching over the secrets with frozen eyes. As he had learned the first time that he was here, they were not dead. They were the guardians of the secrets. Because it was an eerie sight, a voice from behind startled him.
“Place your secret here.”
He snapped around to see the same Red Monk standing there pointing to a spot on the floor. Suppressing the question of how he got here that fast, Santo half walked and half slide to the spot and gently place the wooden crate next to the others. With the task complete, he turned to the Red Monk and said,
“I shall inform the Vatican of your service to us.”
It was a casual reply, as if it were nothing.
“Commander Razk has already been informed and approved of our service to you.”
After climbing back into the D-wing, Santo turned to say farewell but was not surprised to see the Red Monk had mysteriously disappeared. More of a gesture of respect, he turned to the three frozen Monks, nodded and said,
“Look after it for us.”
Inside his head he heard,
“It shall be done.”
At that, he manoeuvred out of the cave and shot high into the stratosphere. Because it took longer than he thought, rather than fly back to headquarters, he set his GPS for India.
Chapter 70
When Santo called Maria and reported his late status, it was decided that she and Waldorf would take his D-wing and meet him in India. She then called Helga and asked,
“Belle is not here. Do you have her there?”
“Yes, she and Robert are hunched over an old map and making secret notes of some kind. I’m not sure but judging by their excitement, I think they are plotting something evil.”
Maria laughed and said,
“Best keep them tied up for a while then.”
And then,
“Listen, Waldorf and I have to meet Santo in India about this Nazarene ship going to the moon. Will you keep an eye on her for a while?”
“Yes, of course.”
“Good, I should have Waldorf back in a couple of hours.”
Despite a rare cloudy day in Desuya northern India, a slight breeze rolling off the mountains was unable to cool the air and lower the soaking humidity. In an open area to the side of the village, barefoot kids played soccer on a dirt field. They seemed oblivious to the heat, running and shouting as they chased a half inflated leather ball. In the village, the open markets were crammed with locals under colorful canopies trying hard to hog the shade. Merchants were feverously fanning their wares trying to keep flies away and prevent the unusually hot day from cooking the meat.
Santo arrived in Desuya first and with stealth mode enabled, prepared to land a short distance from the satellite tracking station. He set down inside a building under construction. It had finished four walls but was missing the roof. Hidden from view by the four walls, he opened the canopy and prepared to jump out. As soon as he did he was hammered hard with stifling heat and immediately closed the canopy again. Wisdom and comfort combined to suggest that it was best to wait for the others in the luxury of a temperature controlled D-wing.
After waiting only a few minutes, Maria’s voice came over the radio.
“We are above you and coming down.”
Looking at his screen, he saw Waldorf’s D-wing far overhead and said,
“I have you on screen.”
A few minutes later, three strangers walked along a narrow path toward the secret satellite facility. Both Santo and Waldorf pretended to ignore the stifling heat but Maria was not that good of an actress. After wiping her forehead with an arm she looked into the field where the children were playing soccer and said, “I’m sweating already. How can they possibly be running around like that?”
At the front of the building they ignored the three bikes. Two were leaning against the building and one was on the ground as if it had fainted from the heat. Inside, despite the shade it seemed even hotter. They saw the old man apparently oblivious to the heat and looking comfortable enough. He was snoring the day away in his rattan chair. Santo thought perhaps he should install a better security system to their satellite tracking headquarters.
As they carefully made their way down the unsteady wooden steps, a laser beam activated and beeped a soft barely heard warning of the intruders. Apparently that was the security system. Overhead fans madly spun at top speed directing a slight breeze to the three visitors but did nothing to make them comfortable.
At the bottom of the basement, Maria looked around the semi-dark room. She saw the massive screen at the far end that was keeping track of all their orbiting satellites in real time. Santo looked around and to each of the operators. Apparently they were too busy to notice them or just didn’t care that the leader of the House of the Nazarene had come for a visit.
With her back to the visitors, Presha Bhat was sitting at her computer intently working the programs with one hand and feverishly directing a portable fan over her face with the other. When the alert to intruders sounded, she lazily turned around and the visitors were finally acknowledged. Jumping up, she respectfully greeted them. While pulling a soaking wet blouse away from her chest, Maria said,
“Perhaps we can splurge a little bit and install some air conditioning in here for you.”
As if it was an unnecessary but kind offer, Presha waved it off and said,
“No need for the expense. The computers are cooled by the fans and operating perfectly.”
She then pointed to three large screens looking more like three large pieces of glass precariously suspended by rustic chains from the ceiling and said,
“Your timing is impeccable. The Anunnaki ship is in final approach and entering a slow-down phase.”
She then turned to her crew who were still ignoring the strangers and bellowed something in Hindi. Immediately three technicians jumped up and dragged their chairs over to the guests. Waldorf quickly claimed the one with the pillow on it while Santo and Maria declined to sit. Two chairs were then dragged back to their appropriate desks.
Another technician seemed pleased to offer them some water in plastic bottles. Grateful for it, feeling dehydrated already Maria quickly gulped down a couple of mouthfuls. It was disgusting tap water practically as warm as the room. It seemed no matter to Waldorf who emptied the bottle in a few swigs. Santo, still disturbed by the lack of proper security said to Presha,
“Perhaps we should have a word or two about your lack of security.”
As if it too was no concern, she waved it off with the sweep of a hand and said,
“No, need. My uncle is upstairs keeping the pesky children away.”
A buzzer sounded and somebody from a dark corner of the room announced,
“We have the final approach on screen.”
The three dangling flat screen monitors lit up and everybody turned to face them. Presha proudly said,
“If you don’t mind, when I heard you were
installing a video camera I thought it best to have three cameras installed for more wide-ranging visuals.”
Although Maria was slightly peeved that her authority had been circumvented, she nonetheless nodded her approval. Presha then laughed and added,
“The old goat said that he was a busy man but did it anyway.”
On the three screens appeared crystal clear high definition pictures of a distant gray orb pitted with craters. Maria voiced a concern,
“It’s such a large area. Do you think the ship will have any trouble locating the Anunnaki fortress?”
Presha seemed proud to announce,
“It’s attracted to the homing signal. It will be as easy to locate as a straw in a pile of needles.”
As much as she butchered the adage, the intent was understood.
As it skimmed the gray desolate surface racing to its homing signal located in the middle of the Sea of Tranquility, all three cameras offered clear visuals of the approach. As it neared the crater, the ship slowed down and hovered on top of the rim. After a few minutes of nothing happening, just hovering there, Maria asked,
“Why is it just hovering like that? Why isn’t it landing?”
Santo thought he knew and proposed,
“It might be waiting for approach and landing codes from aliens inside the fortress.”
Surprised, she blurted out,
The Noah Satellite Page 33
