“Well, you’ve got some time, so get to work,” Kelly said as she finished the second hand, then picked up a road map. She found where they had to meet Turcotte. “You’ve got all night,” she announced. “I think we should get off this main road and take back roads through the mountains, heading west until we get to the linkup spot.”
“How soon do you think they’ll be after us?” Nabinger asked.
“They’re already after us,” Kelly said. “After us following this latest escapade, you mean. I think we’ll be okay. I just hope Turcotte made it out all right.”
“I am not concerned about them being after us,” Von Seeckt said. “I am concerned that we only have seventy-two hours before the mothership flies.”
The Cube, Area 51
General Gullick did not look like a man who had just been awakened five minutes ago. His uniform was well pressed and his face clean shaven. Major Quinn had to wonder if Gullick shaved his face and skull before he went to bed every night for just such an occurrence as this—always ready for action. It suddenly occurred to Quinn that maybe the general never slept. Maybe he just lay there in the dark, wide-awake, waiting for the next crisis.
“Let me hear it from the beginning,” Gullick ordered as the other members of Majic-12, minus Dr. Duncan, straggled in.
There wasn’t much to tell. Quinn summarized the information an excited security chief had called in from Dulce.
In reality, Quinn realized, as he recited the brief list of facts concerning the break-in and the abduction of the reporter Simmons and the theft of photos from the archives, they knew more here at the Cube, because it was obvious from the description from the guards and the female scientist who’d been on shift that it had been Von Seeckt, Turcotte, Reynolds, and Nabinger acting in concert.
“I underestimated all of them,” Gullick said when Quinn was done. “Especially Von Seeckt and Turcotte.”
Kennedy leaned forward. “We’re in trouble. They’re going to go to the media with this Simmons fellow.”
“How far into conditioning was Simmons?” Gullick asked.
Quinn was puzzled. What were they talking about?
Kennedy consulted his notepad. “They were sixty percent into phase four.” Gullick looked at Doctor Slayden. “What do you think?”
Slayden considered it. “I can’t say for sure.”
“Goddammit!” Gullick’s fist smashed into the desktop. “I’m tired of people bullshitting me when I ask them a question.”
The room was silent for several moments, then Slayden spoke. “They disconnected Simmons before treatment was complete. That had to be a shock to his system, and the way his mind will react to that, nobody knows. If nothing else happens, the sixty percent he did have will be enough to assure that Simmons will be discredited if he speaks publicly. He’ll fit in with all the other wackos, to use a rather unscientific term.”
“What about the photos they stole?” General Brown asked.
“They were of the high rune tablets,” Gullick said.
“Even if Nabinger can decipher the language, it will be quite a while before other scientists can verify his translation. The tablets are not a problem. Even if they go to the media, it will take a little time before anyone starts believing their story. They really don’t have any proof.”
Gullick’s voice was void of emotion, but a vein throbbed in his forehead. “All right. Then we’re still back at the original problem—Von Seeckt and Turcotte. They’re the threat, but I think at this point we can handle them for a little while. Long enough, at least, for us to finish the countdown. That’s all that matters.”
Quinn found that a little hard to believe. What about afterward? he wanted to ask, but he kept his mouth shut.
He knew that question would only earn him grief, so he chose another one. “What about the foo fighters?”
“We’ll deal with that and this new problem too,” Gullick snapped. “Prepare everything to move up twenty-four hours.”
“But—” Quinn began. The general cut him off again with a glare.
“I want the hangar opened tomorrow,” Gullick said, “and I want the flight to be tomorrow night.” Gullick looked around the table. “I think everyone has a lot of work to do, so I suggest you get moving.” As they all got up, his voice halted them. “By the way. I want the orders on capturing Von Seeckt and his crew changed. It’s no longer capture at any cost. It is terminate with highest sanction.”
CHAPTER 27
Capitol Reef National Park, Utah
Adjusted T - 44 Hours
Just north of Monument Valley, Capitol Reef National Park was right in the middle of the Rocky Mountains. This time of year it was virtually deserted. In fact, in a few weeks the gates would be locked for the winter snows. The lack of people, and out-of-the-way location, were two reasons Turcotte had selected it as their meeting point. The location put a lot of distance between themselves and Dulce.
He drove in past the empty Ranger station and followed the road around. At the first campsite he spotted the van.
Kelly was standing outside, stun gun in hand, watching his truck. She relaxed when she saw him step out. There was a concrete walkway at the end of the campsite, going along the top of the cliff on which the site was located. It afforded a beautiful view of the surrounding mountains—or would have if the sun was up.
“Good to see you,” Kelly said.
“How is everyone?” Turcotte asked, stretching his arms out.
“Johnny’s semiconscious. Whenever he gains consciousness, he’s delirious. I don’t know what those people did to him but it’s bad. Von Seeckt’s sleeping inside. Nabinger is looking at photos from the mothership hangar.”
“Has he gotten anything?” Turcotte asked.
“What about you?” Kelly asked in response. “What happened? What was done on sublevel one?”
“I don’t really know,” Turcotte answered honestly and vaguely. He walked to the side door and slipped in, Kelly following.
“What have you got?” he asked the archaeologist.
“Better wake up Von Seeckt,” Nabinger said. “He’ll want to hear this.”
It took Von Seeckt a few minutes to get fully awake and then they all gathered around Professor Nabinger. He held a legal pad covered with pencil marks. “First you have to understand that my knowledge of the high rune language is very rudimentary. I have a very small working vocabulary, and to compound that fact, there are symbols here that—although I believe they mean the same as similar symbols from other sources—have slight differences in the way they are marked.
“The other problem is that the symbols that represent what we could call verbs are most difficult to make out because of the variations in tense, which change the basic symbol.
“Beyond the simple deciphering of the symbols and the words they might mean,” Nabinger continued, “there is an additional problem to working with a picture language. The ancient Egyptians called hieroglyphics ‘medu metcher.’ That means ‘the gods’ words.’ The word hieroglyphs, which is Greek, refers specifically to the drawings in temples. It is difficult for us in the modern day to understand a language that was developed to explain the religious and mythical—”
“Wait a second.” Turcotte was tired and had had a long night. “You’re talking about hieroglyphics now. Let’s stick with the high runes and what they say.”
Nabinger was tired also. “I’m trying to explain all this to you so that you can take my few translations in the proper context. It would be wrong of us to superimpose our own culture and ideas upon what was written by a culture with a totally different set of values and ideas.” He tapped the photos. “And here we are dealing with what appears to be an alien culture. We don’t have a clue if their perception of reality is the same as ours.”
“We’re flying their ships,” Turcotte noted. “It couldn’t be that far off.” He thought of the pyramid and the golden glow above it and mentally reconsidered his last statement.
“And no
t only that,” Kelly added, “but didn’t you tell us earlier that it appears this high rune language was the precursor to all of mankind’s written languages and probably served as the starting point for those languages? So if the roots are common, we must be able to understand it better than if they were totally alien.”
“Yes, yes,” Nabinger said. “But there is just enough of a common root for me to decipher some of this text. This is—”
Turcotte placed a large hand on Nabinger’s shoulder.
“Professor. It’s late. We all need to get some sleep. But before we sleep we need to decide what we’re going to do next. To do that we need to know what you have, as good as you have been able to get it.”
Nabinger nodded. “All right. There were two main stones set up in the cavern. Those are the two I have spent all my time on. There are others I will have to get to tomorrow. But here is what I do have.
“Please note where I have question marks after certain parts. That means that I am not quite certain of what—”
“Just show it to us!” Turcotte said.
Nabinger slid the first page under the small dome light.
THE CHIEF(?) SHIP/CRAFT NEGATIVE(?) FLY ENGINE/POWER(?) DANGEROUS
ALL SIGNS NEGATIVE/BAD(?) AND MUST BE NEGATIVE/STOPPED(?)
MUST BE SOON
“That must refer to the mothership,” Von Seeckt said. “The negative with the question mark in the first sentence—you don’t know for sure what that word is?”
“A verb,” Nabinger said. “It might be cannot or should not or will not.”
“Makes a bit of difference,” Turcotte noted. “I mean, what if the damn thing just broke? That would cover the old won’t, wouldn’t it? What if these aliens got stuck and their triple A plan didn’t cover Earth? And maybe that’s why that thing shouldn’t get cranked.”
Kelly put an arm on Turcotte’s shoulder. “See? You said ‘shouldn’t.’”
“Hard, isn’t it?” Nabinger said.
Turcotte rubbed the stubble of his beard. “Yeah, I get it. All right, go on.”
“THE OTHER (A)???? NOT WANT TO STAY BE GONE BEFORE ARRIVAL OF (B)???? (C)???? STANDS FIRM
NO CONTAMINATION/INTERFERENCE(?) WITH (WORD EQUALING HUMANS)
NATURAL COURSE MUST BE ALLOWED”
“No idea what was arriving?” Kelly asked. Her hand was still on Turcotte’s shoulder.
“It was a special symbol. One that I had never seen before,” Nabinger said. “From the basic set of the symbol I would say it represented a proper noun: a specific name. I’ve designated each unidentified symbol by a different letter before the question marks to show that they aren’t the same. As you will see on the next page, one of the noun symbols does repeat.”
“So they decided to leave us alone?” Kelly said.
“But obviously that didn’t happen,” Von Seeckt said.
“That bomb had to get into the pyramid somehow.”
“Yes,” Nabinger agreed. “And the high runes all over the planet. Somehow humans picked up some of that.”
“Probably because it didn’t work out the way they had planned. Apparently everyone didn’t go along so easily with getting stuck on Earth.” Nabinger turned over the last page.
DECISION MADE BY MEETING
(C)???? PREPARES TO IMPLEMENT DISAGREEMENT
BATTLE
OTHERS (D)???? FLEE FIGHT CHANGE HAS ARRIVED
IT IS OVER
DUTY IS (E)????
“So they fought among themselves?” Kelly said.
“Looks like it,” Nabinger said.
“And in the end they did their duty,” Turcotte said.
“But not perfectly,” Von Seeckt said. “We are still dealing with the repercussions.”
“I’ve got a stupid question,” Turcotte said. “Why would the people who built the mothership leave their messages on stone tablets?”
“Because that’s what whoever was left there had to work with,” Nabinger said. “This is big,” Kelly said. “Bigger than what they have at Area 51. This means history is not at all what we think it is. Hell evolution is not what we think. Do you know how that will affect people? Think about religion? About—”
“No “ Von Seeckt disagreed. “It is not bigger than what happening at Area 51. That is the first problem. Because in just under three days they are going to try to fly the mothership, and the marker left by the people who abandoned the mothership says don’t do it. We’ve got to stop it.”
“I’ve got another stupid question,” Turcotte said.
The other three waited.
“Why is Gullick in such a goddamn rush to fly the mothership? That’s bugged me from the very beginning.”
“I do not know,” Von Seeckt said. “It troubled me ever since he came up with the countdown to fly it. It was ridiculous. He wanted to fly it before we even ran a basic series of tests on it.”
Turcotte felt a pounding on the right side of his head.
“Something isn’t right about all this.”
“Ever since they went to Dulce early this year,” Von Seeckt said, “it all changed.”
Turcotte thought of the pyramid, the vats, the golden glow. The small orb that had destroyed the helicopter he was on in Nebraska. Too many pieces that didn’t fit. The only thing he knew for sure was that this was bigger than him right now.
“Let’s get a little sleep first,” Turcotte suggested. “We’re all tired and we’ll be able to think better with a couple of hours of rest. We’ll decide what to do in the morning. We still have forty-eight hours.”
CHAPTER 28
Hangar Two, Area 51
Adjusted T - 42 Hours
Major Quinn blinked hard, trying to keep his eyes open against the lack of sleep. He pulled the collar of his Gore-Tex parka tighter around his neck and shivered. It was cold in the desert at night, and the wind whipping in the open windows of the humvee did not help. They had left Hangar One ten minutes ago and were racing around the base of Groom Mountain, General Gullick at the wheel and Quinn in the passenger seat. He wondered why the general had had to choose the single vehicle from the motor pool that had no top to it, instead of one of the others, but he knew better than to ask.
There was no road. There never had been one. Roads showed up in satellite photos. They had stayed on the runway most of the distance, until they turned off and headed directly for the mountainside. Now they rolled across the desert floor, the suspension of the vehicle easily handling the rough terrain. Gullick leaned over and checked their GPS, ground positioning system, linked in to satellites overhead. It gave their location to within five feet, even on the move. The headlights on the jeep-like vehicle were off, and Gullick was using night vision goggles, allowing them to travel unseen to the naked eye. The outer security net was tight: no unwanted watchers on White Sides Mountain this evening. And the skies were being carefully watched with the invisible fingers of radar to keep out unwanted overflights. Helicopter gunships were ready on the flight line outside Hangar One.
Still, Gullick wanted to take no chances. He braked as a figure stepped out of the darkness. The man walked up to the humvee, weapon at the ready. The man snapped to attention when he recognized General Gullick. Despite the night vision goggles there was no mistaking the general’s presence.
“Sir! The engineers are just ahead, under that camouflage net.”
Gullick accelerated. Quinn was grateful when they finally stopped near several trucks parked under a desert camouflage net. An officer walked up to the humvee and smartly saluted.
“Sir, Captain Henson, Forty-Fifth Engineers.”
Gullick returned the salute and stepped out, Quinn following. “What’s your status?” Gullick asked.
“All charges are in place. We’re completing the final wiring now. We’ll be all set by dawn.” He held up a remote detonator the size of a cellular phone. “Then all it will take is a simple command on this. It’s linked into the computer that controls the sequence of firing.” Henson led the way to
a humvee parked under the camouflage net and showed the general a laptop. “The sequence is critical to get the rock in the outside wall to come down in a controlled manner. Very similar to what happens when they demolish tall buildings in a built-up area—making the rubble come down on itself but not hit the ship.”
The general took the remote and turned it around in his hands, almost caressing it.
“Be careful, sir,” Captain Henson said.
Gullick reached down and pulled out his pistol. He pushed the barrel into the underside of Henson’s jaw.
“Don’t you ever dare speak to me like that, mister. Do you understand?” His thumb cocked the hammer back, the sound very loud in the clear night air. “Yes, sir,” Henson managed to get out.
Gullick’s voice rose. “I have had to take shit from civilian pukes for thirty years! I’ll be goddamned if I will accept even the slightest disrespect from a man in uniform. Is that clear?”
“Yes, sir!”
Quinn froze, stunned at the outburst.
“You fucking people.” Gullick’s voice had dropped to a mutter, and although the gun was still pressing into Henson’s skin, his eyes had become unfocused. “I’ve given my life for you people,” Gullick whispered. “I’ve done all…” The general’s eyes refocused.
He quickly bolstered the gun and turned to the mountainside, behind which the mothership rested. “Show me the charges,” he said in a normal voice.
Capitol Reef National Park, Utah
A voice yelled out shrilly. “They’re here! They’re here!”
Turcotte had his gun out, hammer cocked, as he kicked open the driver’s door of the van and went down into squat, peering around in the dark for a target. The screaming continued and Turcotte slowly relaxed and stood up he recognized the voice. He walked around to the right side and opened the door.
Kelly held Johnny, gripping him tightly around the shoulders. “It’s not real Johnny. It’s not real.”
Simmons was pressed up in the left rear corner, staring wide-eyed straight ahead. “I can see them! I can see them? I’m not going to let them take me again! I won’t go back!”
Area 51 Page 27
