Reece shook his head. “At that point, the only one who had died was the hunter, so the thought of taking additional precautions didn’t even occur to anyone.”
“How close did they get to it?”
“They put it on a truck and drove it back to Bozeman.”
“They touched it and they’re still alive?”
“Yes, sir. Once we realized there might be a connection between the other deaths and the object, we put the men under observation, but it’s been several days and so far they’ve shown no sign of illness.”
Durant let the information sit for a moment. It was possible the deaths had been coincidental, but that seemed unlikely. Perhaps a chemical reaction that was active for only a short time after Venus arrived? Whatever the case, it seemed Venus was no longer harmful. “So why isn’t this still in Bozeman?”
“The Bozeman office is not a secured facility. The only place they could store it was in their parking area under a tarp. Leavenworth’s the largest military facility in the region, so it made sense to have it brought here.”
Where you and your general could get credit for the find, Durant thought.
Unfortunately for Captain Reece and his boss, things weren’t going to play out the way they’d planned.
This was Durant’s show now, and it was going to change his life. There would be no more advising others on their projects. No more dealing with assignments that didn’t interest him. From now on there would be only pure science.
If he arranged things correctly.
“Do you have a secure phone I can use?” he asked.
The captain looked uncomfortable. “Dr. Durant, I must remind you of the restrictions you agreed to before I showed you Venus.”
“Do you want answers or not, Captain? Because I’m going to need to consult someone.”
More fidgeting. “We were hoping that you could handle this situation on your own.”
“Well, you were wrong.” A pause. “But I can make my inquiries without divulging the reason behind them. Is that acceptable?”
The captain thought for a moment, and then nodded. “There’s an office near the dressing area. Let me show you.”
Once he was alone, Durant ignored the phone and instead wrote down the outline of a plan. Plenty of things still needed to be figured out, but he was happy with the initial structure and had answers for the most immediate issues. He could worry about everything else after he had the box transferred to a safe location.
It was on this last point that his work with underground structures proved useful. He knew the perfect place, a facility he’d consulted on during its construction. A self-contained instillation isolated in the mountains of Colorado, deep underground, which could prove useful if his research encountered any unexpected problems. Most importantly, it was unoccupied due to military cutbacks. In a way, it was as if it had been built for this very situation.
The other big issue concerned who needed to know. If the box truly was from beyond Earth, then it was the most important thing to happen to humanity since…well, ever. Knowledge of its existence, especially before everything was known about it, could cause fear and chaos. Something this monumental needed to be kept under wraps until the right time. The fewer who knew about it, the better.
The ideal situation would see Durant reporting to a single individual. As far as he was concerned, only one person fit that bill. Setting up a private meeting would be tricky, but his job had gained him several highly placed contacts he could use to arrange things.
As he was thinking his plan through, a much better code name than Venus, the goddess of love, came to him.
Titan.
A god above of the gods.
Perfect.
He found Reece in the locker room, his coveralls and gas mask now hanging in one of the stalls.
“I need to take another look,” Durant said. “Have to confirm something.”
“Oh, um, of course.”
While the captain started suiting up again, Durant, who was still wearing his coveralls, pulled his mask and hood back on and reentered the large room. By the time Reece joined him, Durant was standing next to Titan, examining one of the legs.
When he saw the captain, he straightened and walked over. Then, in a very deliberate manner, he pulled the mask and hood off his head. It was a risk, but in his mind a small one.
“What are you doing?” Reece asked, shocked. “You don’t know what you might be exposed to!”
“Captain Reece, I know exactly what I’m being exposed to. Nothing that we don’t encounter walking down the street every day.” He donned a sad smile. “I’m sorry to disappoint you, but what you have here is not what you had hoped.”
“What do you mean?”
“Like you, I was excited at first. It seemed…well, unbelievable. Unfortunately, it was. When I took a closer look, I began to suspect the truth. The phone call I made has confirmed it. This is an experimental piece of equipment belonging to a USAAC research team.” United States Army Air Corps. “There are only two of these in existence, so your confusion is understandable. I’ve seen the other one myself. But it’s a newer version and looks considerably different, so I didn’t make the connection right away.”
“No metal is that light,” the captain argued.
Durant made a show of wrestling with a thought before saying, “What I’m about to tell you is beyond top secret, but since you retrieved…”—he almost said Titan—“Venus, you’ve earned an explanation. The craft is part of a test of new manufacturing technics that could be used in future aircraft development. You’ve never seen a metal that light because there hasn’t been one. No one but the team working with it and a few chosen others are aware of it.” The trace of a smile. “All of them humans, by the way.”
The captain looked as if his whole world had crumbled in on itself. His gaze strayed from Durant to the craft. “Why have I heard nothing about it?”
“You did hear the part where I told you it’s a secret project, didn’t you? Now that you’ve seen it, I’m going to need you and anyone else who knows about it to sign some documents stating you will share this knowledge with no one and you will never mention it again.”
“Are you sure? I mean, it doesn’t seem like something that—”
“Captain Reece, I realize the idea of a craft from space is appealing, exciting even. But do you honestly think there are beings from another world sending ships to Earth?”
The captain said nothing.
“You have done a great service for the air corps,” Durant said. “And though you won’t be publicly acknowledged for your actions, know that people in important positions will be aware of what you’ve done.”
Reece looked back at Durant. “What do they call it?”
It was hard for Durant to keep from grinning. With that simple question, the captain had gone from believing in space vehicles to accepting that the box was a creation of man.
“As I’m sure you can understand, that’s classified.”
SIX
Project Titan Facility, Colorado
April 20, 1939
DURANT COULD HARDLY believe it was finally time.
Since that fateful day at Fort Leavenworth the previous November, he’d been working nonstop to make this moment happen.
His first task was figuring out a way to see President Roosevelt alone. Any formal appointment would involve advisors and God knows who else, but, as luck would have it, the day after Durant became aware of Titan, FDR had left Washington to spend a couple of weeks in Warm Springs, Georgia. Though the president would still be surrounded by his people, Durant thought the more relaxed nature of the trip would provide the opportunity he needed. He hopped on the first train south he could get.
The president spent much of his time at the Georgia Warm Springs Foundation, a facility he’d helped found that was dedicated to the improvement of those with polio. The mountain water in the facility’s swimming pool was said to contain healing properties.
Durant kn
ew his window of opportunity would be small, so he practiced over and over what he would say. His chance came two days after he arrived. That evening, Roosevelt was to have dinner with the residents of the foundation. Durant used his military credentials to get into the facility and then waited for the right moment.
Not long after dessert was served, Durant slipped into the just vacated seat next to the president. When FDR glanced at him, Durant said, “Good evening, Mr. President. I’m Dr. Leonard Durant, M-Tech.”
Roosevelt extended a hand. “Pleasure to meet you, Doctor.”
After they shook, the president started to turn away. Durant said, “There’s a war coming, sir.”
Roosevelt looked back. “That’s rather pessimistic, Dr. Durant.” He smiled. “Have you tried the cobbler? It’s really quite extraordinary.”
“You know it’s coming, too, sir. I know you do. But what if I could tell you there’s a weapon that could end it before it even began?”
“M-Tech, you said?”
“Yes, sir.”
“If there really was such a weapon, then it’s the War Department you should be talking to, not me.”
“No, sir. You’re the only one I can talk to about this.”
“And why is that?”
“Because it’s going to change the world.”
FDR stared at him. “Right. Well, it’s been a pleasure talking to you.” He looked as if he was going to signal one of the men standing by the wall behind him.
Durant said, “Please, sir. All I need is five minutes of your time. Alone. I guarantee that you will feel the same as I do when I’m through.”
“Alone.”
“That’s right, sir. It’s imperative that no one else knows about what we discuss.”
“Dr. Durant, if you want to meet with me, you can try to set up a meeting through my secretary. But I should warn you, I have a fairly full sched—”
“Mr. President, all I ask is that you check me out, make sure I am who I say I am, and then, if you are so inclined, give me those five minutes.” He set a small card on the table. “This is the phone for the room where I’m staying. I’ll await your call.”
He was up and gone before the president could say anything else.
Two full days passed without his phone ringing. Then, at nine p.m. on the third day, as he lay in bed staring at the ceiling, the call came.
“The president would like to see you at his home,” a woman who identified herself as FDR’s secretary said.
“Of course. When?”
“Now.”
The five-minute private meeting extended to well over an hour. When Durant departed, he had exactly what he’d come for, a mandate to put together whatever resources—human and physical—he needed to learn everything he could about Titan. Roosevelt, for his part, vowed not to share the information with anyone.
Durant’s first order of business was to confirm with Captain Reece that the Titan machine had been crated and was awaiting transfer. Next, he contacted the owner of a Denver-area construction company and arranged for it to pick up a “custom-made pump system” from Fort Leavenworth, then take it back to its storage facility in Colorado and hold until contacted again.
Durant set about recruiting people for his team. Secrecy would be of utmost importance. He wanted nothing less than first-class researchers and technicians, but candidates had to be free of personal entanglements and able to commit to complete isolation until the time came when their discoveries could be shared. These parameters made the task difficult but not impossible.
The next job was getting the facility operational and stocking it with supplies. The president assigned a platoon of elite soldiers to assist Durant. After move-in day, they would take on the role of facility security, but in the months prior they proved useful in clearing the roads of snow and helping to make the base ready.
Keeping Titan in a non-governmentally secured facility might have seemed foolish, but Durant believed doing so would lessen any interest in what was inside. His gamble paid off, as the box sat unmolested from December until just that morning, when members of the security team, dressed in civilian clothing, loaded the large crate onto a truck and drove it to the Project Titan facility.
The entrance to the underground base was hidden within a plain-looking, one-story building constructed under a natural rock overhang that prevented it from being seen by aircraft. The main ways down were a set of stairs and a passenger elevator, both reached via a false wall in the middle room of the building. There was a freight elevator that was accessed outside the structure, at a section of rock underneath the overhang that had been carved away to serve as the top end of the elevator shaft. When the elevator was not in use, a meticulously crafted panel that looked and felt like the surrounding rock would be attached to the front of the doors to conceal their existence.
At the moment, the panel was set to the side and the freight elevator doors were wide open. Eight soldiers removed the crate and carried it across the soggy ground into the lift. The crate wasn’t particularly heavy—most of the weight came from the wooden box—but it was bulky and required many hands to steady it.
“Cargo secure, sir,” the lieutenant in charge said to Durant once the crate had been lowered to the elevator’s floor.
Durant pushed the down button and the doors closed.
The excitement of the moment was nearly overwhelming. Five months he’d been planning for this day. Five months of thinking about the Titan craft sitting in its box, its secrets yet to be discovered. Five months of being unable to touch it and pry into its mysteries.
Five long months.
But now the wait was over.
It was only by sheer will power that he wasn’t smiling like a kid on Christmas morning.
When he’d pictured this moment, he thought the ride down would feel like it was taking forever. But in reality, the car stopped and the doors opened before he knew it.
Durant stepped outside, waited for the soldiers to pick up the crate again, and then led them down the wide, brightly lit corridor. Like most of the base, the walls were covered in concrete, hiding the fact they were under tons of rock and earth.
When the group reached the first of the blast doors, Durant stopped. One of the rules he’d created for security team members was that they were never to pass beyond it. Their domain was everywhere from just outside the blast door to the surface. The other side of the door was the exclusive world of Durant and his team.
“Here will be fine,” he said.
The men set the crate down.
“Thank you, Lieutenant,” Durant said. “That will be all. Please secure the elevator entrance.”
“Yes, sir.”
Instead of taking the freight elevator up, the men headed the other way down the corridor to the passenger elevator. Durant waited until he heard the elevator doors close before he stepped through the blast doors.
The ten members of his science team who had arrived were waiting inside. They had spent the past couple of days familiarizing themselves with the base. Seven more were scheduled for arrival within the next week. More would come after Durant filled the remaining positions.
“It’s here,” he said.
The group hurried into the corridor. Like him, they couldn’t wait to get their hands on the craft.
Though he had briefed them on Titan’s weight, the scientists were still surprised they were able to lift the crate so easily. After they crossed the threshold of the first blast door, Durant pressed a series of buttons on the control panel that swung the door shut.
The group carried the crate out of the curved corridor, into the cavernous space and across the threshold of the second blast door. From there it was a straight shot to what they called the Titan Room, a space originally intended as a workshop for the repair and maintenance of the machinery needed to run the facility. Durant had ordered the equipment there moved to several smaller storage rooms.
“Right there,” Durant said when the crate was i
n the exact center of the room.
The team lowered the box and stepped back, staring at it.
Dr. Abel Chambers was the first to speak. “Can we open it now?”
The eagerness in his eyes matched that in everyone else’s.
Durant walked over to a table, picked up the crowbar lying there, and returned to the others. “Who wants to do the honors?”
“It should be you,” Chambers said.
The others nodded in agreement.
It took five minutes to get all the pieces of the crate separated and out of the way.
Silence—not even the sound of a breath—as all eyes focused on Titan.
Even though Durant had seen it before, it was only the one time, so he too was mesmerized. If anything, it seemed shinier now than it had before, as if it had gained a new chrome finish. He wondered how he could have ever considered, even for a moment, that it was anything but otherworldly.
The technology of 1939 paled in comparison to that needed to construct Titan.
No, man had not made this.
“It’s…amazing,” someone finally whispered.
The word was woefully inadequate for what stood before them. All words were.
Durant let them savor the moment for several more seconds before he said, “Okay. Time to get to work.”
MATERIAL MAN
SEVEN
Project Titan Facility, Colorado
October 18, 1942
ULTIMATE BLAME FOR the accident was Durant’s. He knew it, and though no one said anything, his team knew it, too.
He’d been driving his people relentlessly, encouraging them to work twelve and sometimes sixteen hours a day, seven days a week, for months. There was good reason for this. December 7 would mark the one-year anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and the entry of the US into the war. Every day American soldiers and sailors were dying, not to mention all the civilians the war was eating up. If the scientists could learn anything from the Titan craft that could help bring an end to the hostilities, then it was worth every extra minute they spent examining it.
Mine: The Arrival Page 4
