by J C Ryan
“We’ve had a few significant breakthroughs lately,” James explained. “Please bear with me so that I can give you the full story.”
Ben nodded for him to continue and James told him about the marathon video, which Carter saw in Egypt and how it led to their suspicions that it was a respirocyte human trial they were witnessing. He showed Ben the video.
Ben had a few questions and then asked James to continue.
He told Ben about the Sirralnnudam article in the archeological magazine and wound up with Carters discovery of the copy Mackenzie had made of the document.
“Shit Jim! That’s great news,” Ben grinned. “All of a sudden, a dark situation has been flooded with rays of sunshine.”
“That’s exactly how it feels Ben, like rays of sunshine.” James took a sip of his coffee, “Okay, so there are two things we need your help with.”
Ben put his cup down and said, “Ready, willing and able Jim. Bring it on.”
James took out the list of medical and pharmaceutical labs that DARPA provided to Irene and handed it to Ben. “I know the Mossad will have a much better list than this one. I’m pretty sure you’ve got better insight or rather I should say, much better inside information about the labs of the Middle East than we have.” James looked at Ben with raised eyebrows.
Ben nodded with a faint smile on his face. “Yes, for obvious reasons we do keep a close watch on all of them, known and unknown, above and below ground.”
“Well, our theory is that Mackenzie and Liam are being held at one of these labs. As someone with a doctorate in human molecular biology, Mackenzie would be a valuable asset to them. And with her son in their custody, they would have absolute control over her to ensure her cooperation.”
“I’ll start shaking those trees as soon as I’m back in Israel,” Ben agreed.
“We used the same analogy the other day; shaking trees and rattling cages,” James laughed.
“Okay, the cage we would like to rattle is the one in which Professor Anatolio Kakos lives. He’s the guy who wrote the article about the loss of the Sirralnnudam in the Journal of Archeological Science,” James pulled out the copy and handed it to Ben. “There’s the article, Kakos’ photo, and his email address is at the bottom of the article.”
“No problem. I’ve got a few good agents in those parts of the world. We’ll put the tabs on him right away,” Ben responded.
“We want everything on this guy, Ben. From the day he was born; his friends, family, and associates, financial records, habits, everything. I don’t have any evidence, but my instincts are screaming at me that this guy is just a proxy for someone else.”
“You know my opinion about instincts, Jim,” Ben smiled. “They are the result of the cooperation between my emotions and my brain. I never ignore them.”
Chapter 48 -
On our radar
The first few days after Carter started working on the false information about the ancient nukes, he found it especially difficult. His whole life he had been hunting and reporting the truth.
It was not always easy; Carter more often than not had to listen to and endure the ridicule of his colleagues in the archeological community. However, he had always been able to rise above that pettiness and had proved them wrong on quite a few occasions.
He and his grandfather Will had many discussions about the fact that certain archeological specifics were just too inconvenient for some to admit. Deliberately hiding the truth was at best very difficult for him.
Nevertheless, despite the many ethical arguments raging in his mind, while he was creating this whole farce on the A-Echelon servers, he only had to look at Mackenzie and Liam’s pictures, which he had set as the default background on his computer screen, to convince him that the end justified the means.
He checked with Rick Winslow to be sure that everything was in place and then started loading the false information on a daily basis.
GPR 3-D Images of the sites in North India and Egypt were uploaded, accompanied by his interpretation of the images. He also created and uploaded a report about the discovery of the burial site of the giants and included detailed information about the mysterious lights and a hitherto unidentified source of electricity in the city of the giants.
He added lots of speculation and several theories about the technological capabilities of the ancients, including the giants, and even quoted some of Mackenzie’s discoveries to prove his point.
They didn’t expect the mole to set off Rick’s traps on the servers in the first few days after Carter started loading information but they certainly started raising their eyebrows after two weeks of no nibbles or bites. James and Irene were wondering if the mole might somehow have become aware of their plans. Maybe the mole got scared after the botched surveillance operation on Carter. However, they decided that Carter should keep on doing what he was doing, loading new information onto the servers on a regular basis. If he were to discontinue those activities, it would immediately raise red flags with the mole if he or she looked at the data on the servers again.
***
A few days before James’ meeting with the President, a delegate of wealthy and influential businessmen from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia visited the United States. They were on a commercial foray to meet with American business leaders who would be interested in their money. These people had money to burn, and they wanted to invest in American companies.
A banquet in their honor was hosted by The Department of Commerce, and Xavier Algosaibi’s trusted friend was the guest speaker at the event.
The two men were elated to see each other in person after so many years. Communicating via encrypted phones and emails just didn’t match a face-to-face conversation.
“It’s been such a long time my friend, far too long,” Algosaibi smiled when they shook hands.
“Yes, you can say that again,” his friend replied.
“You look good my friend; I can see that time has been kind to you,” Algosaibi laughed.
“And to you Xavier. Your wife must be looking after you very well,” the man smiled.
Algosaibi chuckled. “I know you are a very busy man, but would you have a few minutes later so we can have a quick private discussion,” Algosaibi whispered.
“Xavier, I’m so sorry; I would have liked nothing more than to have a few minutes in private with you. There are so many things we need to catch up on, but I have been summoned by the President immediately after my speech. I won’t even be able to stay till the end of the dinner.”
Algosaibi smiled. “Not to worry my friend, I know all about it. I sometimes get that type of summons from the King. Well, then I guess we won’t see each other again before I leave.”
“My sincere apologies Xavier; I wish it could be different.”
Algosaibi stepped forward and extended his hand, leaned forward and whispered to his friend while shaking his hand. “Read the letter on there; it’s become critical that we step things up. Time is running out.”
When Algosaibi walked away, his friend said, “Excuse me” placed his hand in his pocket, took out his handkerchief, and sneezed. In the process, he had dropped the flash drive he had just received from Algosaibi in the same pocket.
***
Rick Winslow lived up to his reputation as the best of the best computer Special Forces gurus in the CIA. Within a few hours of getting access to the SSO’s - sun-synchronous orbit – spy satellite, he had data streaming into his computer from the drones hovering over Freydis. Not only that, but he had also hacked into the drones’ control center and was copying the data sent from there to the head office in Toronto.
In the process, he pinpointed the location of the control center 25.34 miles west of Freydis and had the exact street address of the base in Toronto.
Sean and Dylan were quietly impressed when Rick showed them what he had. “Good work, Rick. I don't know how you do it; you always make these things look so easy.”
“It’s not that difficult,” Rick snic
kered. “Not much different from kicking a door down and shooting a few bad guys. Once you know where to look and which buttons to press its easy sailing.”
“Yeah right, I hear you,” Dylan grinned while he plotted the GPS coordinates on the topographical maps Carter provided.
They asked Rick to maintain the surveillance and data collection until they told him to discontinue.
After Rick had left, they called in two of their operators and briefed them on the mission. The two men would cross the border into Canada at Niagara Falls, go to Toronto, check out the head office of the surveillance company, and plant bugs and deploy other observation equipment.
Once the first part of their mission was completed, they would make their way east to Quebec and launch the second part of the mission. There the objective was to get as close as possible to the drone control center, deploy more surveillance equipment and get out undetected.
Their cover story was that they were American students, backpacking in those parts. Therefore, they would take no military equipment with them.
Sean and Dylan’s strategy was to collect as much information as possible without being discovered.
When Carter heard about the mission, he was very keen to be part of it. “I have all these newly acquired skills – stalking, observation, you name it, and I don’t get to use them,” he complained.
“You’ll have to wait your turn Carter,” Dylan chuckled. “Just relax, let our guys take care of it this time. You’ve got more important things to do for now. Besides, if your face disappears from Freydis all of a sudden, you might just scare the drone operators away. We don’t want that. We want them to think you’re oblivious to what they are doing.”
***
The day of James’s monthly meeting with the President arrived quicker than he wanted. He had to give him an update on the A-Echelon projects, and Carter helped him to prepare for the meeting.
They held the meeting in the Situation Room at the White House. In attendance were the President, Vice President, Director of the CIA, one member of the National Security Council, and the Secretary of Defense.
During the first part of the meeting, James gave them an overview of A-Echelon projects and answered questions. As in the past, the Ancient Nuke Project was discussed in more detail than any of the others.
“As you are aware, Mr. President,” James explained, “Professor Devereux has recently been to Egypt to visit the City of Lights, and I have a few pictures and video clips from that trip to show you.” The President waved for him to continue and he showed them some of the photos and videos of the City as well as the burial chamber and the 3-D renderings created from the GPR scans.
After they had a look at the visuals, James continued. “During his visit they discovered an underground burial chamber and for the first time since the inauguration of that dig, they found inscriptions of what he believes to be the language of the giants. Until his most recent visit, that was one of the mysteries; there was no evidence of a written language.
“Professor Devereux always maintained that any civilization as advanced as theirs appeared to be must have had a written language.”
The President was about to speak when the Vice President interjected. “What bearing does the discovery of their language have on the nuclear threat we’re facing?”
James caught a fleeting squint of annoyance in the Presidents eyes. So the rumors are true, they don’t like each other.
James looked at the President to see if it was okay for him to continue and answer the Veep’s question. The President gave a slight nod. “In the City of Lights, advanced technology has been discovered; in fact, it is so advanced our scientists have been unable to explain it. The wireless transfer of electricity is an example of one of them, the source of the energy another.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, I get that,” The Vice President said impatiently. “What I’m asking is; what has that got to do with the ancient nukes?”
Before James could reply, the President answered for him. He was very calm and collected, but James could see it was because he had made an effort to control his irritation. “I imagine if the Giants were so far advanced in electro technology that they might also have known a thing or two about nuclear technology which we don’t.” He lifted his eyebrows inquisitively at James.
“Yes, sir,” James nodded. “That’s precisely the reason Professor Devereux is so frantically trying to find the library of that city. He believes that somewhere they would have a library of some sort. In the meantime, he has already started working on the translation of those inscriptions.”
“Has he had any luck with that yet?” The President asked.
“No, sir he says the script looks like it could belong to a proto-Semitic language but so far he’s been unable to make any breakthrough. He’ll probably have to call in outside linguistic experts soon.”
“Is there anything else there that makes him think the answer could be in that place and not somewhere else?” The Director of the CIA asked.
“Yes sir, the relative proximity of the City of Lights to the places where ancient nuclear explosions supposedly took place. The city is not too far from the Saad Plateau in Libya where signs of a nuclear blast have been found; it’s also not too far from similar explosion sites in Syria, India, and Pakistan. The anomaly is that it seems the City of Lights existed during the times when those explosions took place, but there is no sign that they ever suffered the same fate.”
James had to fight the urge to crack up with laughter after giving them that preposterous rambling which Carter had prepared for him in anticipation of such a question.
“Maybe the Giants were the ones who attacked everyone else,” The Secretary of Defense noted. “Could they have been the ones who owned those weapons?”
“That’s entirely possible sir. That’s why Professor Devereux is so keen to find more of their written records,” James replied. He knew if he had to give one more of these ramblings that Carter prepared, he was going to embarrass himself by laughing, and that would also be the end of his career.
“Do you have more detailed information available that we can look at?” The Vice President asked.
“Yes, sir, we’ve got a lot more technical and detailed information stored on the A-Echelon servers. Do you want me to put that on a mass storage device and bring it to you?” James replied.
“Thanks. That would be good,” The Veep replied.
The meeting ended with the Vice President wanting to know what progress had been made toward the continuation of Mackenzie’s respirocyte project and getting a replacement for her.
James managed to remain vague without raising suspicion, by telling them that they were looking at a few options now and that he was confident he would be able to give them more details at the next meeting. He again explained that it was hard to find a person with the right skill sets who would also be able to pass through the rigorous security clearance process.
***
Nate Gordon had just come out of another stealth meeting with his top contact, NTC, as the man was referred to in CRS. He was on his way to the CRS headquarters to convey a few messages to the CEO, Dwayne Miller. The relationship between them had been strained since their last conversation when he had lambasted Miller because of the screw-ups on the Devereux Project. Miller was a good CEO and manager, he produced results, but recently had become complacent, and that almost dumped CRS into big trouble.
Gordon shrugged. I don’t care about his moping. Cowboys don’t cry. This is serious business and serious money.
“Good morning, Dwayne,” Gordon had a big smile on his face as he walked into Miller's office.
“Good morning, sir,” Miller replied and stood, very formal, almost stiff-necked.
“Ah, come-on Dwayne what’s with the sir thing today? Don’t tell me you’re still sulking after our last meeting.”
Miller grinned half embarrassed. “Please have a seat. What can I get you to drink?”
Gordo
n asked for coffee, and as soon as Miller’s secretary had served them and closed the office door, Gordon looked at his watch and said, “I’ve got 10 minutes, so I’ll be succinct.”
Miller nodded, pulled his writing pad towards him, and looked at Gordon to let him know he was ready.
“Okay, I just had a meeting with NTC, and there are a few crucial things we need to talk about. NTC has recently been in contact with his primary contact in Saudi Arabia. Now I don’t know who that is, but I’ll let you in on a dirty little secret if you don’t already know about it. NTC and his Saudi Arabian contact are the people who founded CRS. They are the ones who put up the money and got us our first clients.”
Miller shook his head. “I had no idea.”
“Well, now you do,” Gordon grinned. “We are doing a lot of work for those two ghosts; in fact, they are responsible for close to 60% of this company’s income. I don’t know, and I’m sure you’re completely unaware when CRS does work for them. They are involved in more industries and ventures than you can shake a stick at. They do their business through subsidiaries, front organizations, third parties, proxies you name it. There is no way anyone will ever be able to unravel their business dealings.”
Miller just nodded. He was only going to talk when it was necessary.
Gordon looked at his watch again. “So the long and the short of it is this; NTC has been put under pressure by his friend to step up the Devereux Project. He wants to see things happening faster. He also wanted me to pass on his friend’s disappointment about the recent mishaps.”
Miller cringed inwardly and nodded again.
“I won’t go there again,” Gordon waved his hand, “as far as I’m concerned I have passed that message on before, so no need to repeat it.”
“Thanks,” Miller whispered.
“What they want is Professor Devereux,” Gordon continued. “You’ll have to call in your experts on these types of matters and produce a detailed plan for the abduction of Devereux and provide them with the information within the next six weeks.”
