Area 51 (30 page)

Von Seeckt nodded. "After all these years, do you know, that never occurred to me? It should have, after all I have seen since."

"All that is fine and well," Nabinger said impatiently, "but not important right now. What is important is—what was in the box?"

'The box was sealed when we found it and Klein refused to allow me to open it.

As my friend Captain Turcotte so aptly has noted, Klein was a stickler for following orders.

The British took me, and the box, and I was hustled away. First back to Cairo.

Then on a plane. . . ." Von Seeckt paused. "Suffice it to say I eventually ended up in England in the hands of the SOE."

"SOE?" Nabinger asked.

"Special Operations Executive," Kelly said.

Von Seeckt nodded. "Quite correct, as the English would say. They interrogated me, and I told them what I knew. Which wasn't much. They also checked the box for radioactivity. And got a positive reading." He looked at Kelly, sensing her change in mood. "You know something of the SOE?"

"As I said earlier, my father was in the OSS. The American counterpart to the SOE."

Von Seeckt stroked his beard. "That is most intriguing.

The SOE turned me over to the OSS. Apparently radioactivity was the Americans'

province."

"The British didn't open the box either?" Nabinger was trying very hard to control his patience.

"They couldn't open the box," Von Seeckt corrected. "So they shipped me off to the United States. The box was on the same plane. After all, the British did have a war to fight and apparently more important things to attend to. Also, as I was to find out, radioactivity was the province of the Americans."

"Did the box ever get opened?" Nabinger almost groaned the question.

"Yes, yes, it did," Von Seeckt said. "The Americans did that. They kept me in a place outside of Washington, somewhere out in the country. To this day I could not tell you where it was. The box went somewhere else and I was interrogated.

Then they seemed to forget about me for several weeks. One day two men showed up at my jail cell.

One was a lieutenant colonel and the other a civilian. They took me to a new place." Von Seeckt pointed to the northeast, along the road. "To Dulce."

"The box?" Nabinger's patience was exhausted.

"There was a small nuclear weapon in the box," Von Seeckt said.

"Oh fuck," Turcotte said. "What have we gotten into here?"

Nabinger slowly sat back in his seat. "Buried under the Great Pyramid for ten thousand years?"

"Buried under the pyramid for approximately ten thousand years," Von Seeckt confirmed. "Of course, we only guessed in the beginning that that was what it was. The Americans were just at the start of the Manhattan Project at the time, so our knowledge was rather primitive by today's standards. Ten years earlier and we probably would not have had a clue what was in the box.

"We took the bomb apart. Very carefully." Von Seeckt chuckled. "The Americans always thought I knew more than I knew. After all, I had been found with the damn thing. But the longer I was there, the more I did know as we worked. Even with today's technology, though, I do not believe they are able to make a bomb as small and lightweight and efficient as that one we worked on. It was amazing.

There were parts that I still don't understand. But we were able to learn enough from it--along with the work being done in other places--to put together the bombs we did use to end that war."

"So this bomb from the pyramid--it was from the same people who built these disks and the mothership?" Nabinger's question was rhetorical. "That raises so many questions and issues about the pyramid and why it was built.

Perhaps--"

"Professor." Turcotte's voice cut through like the cold wind that was blowing in the door. "Those questions can wait. Right now we need to get a little farther up the road.

It's not that far to Dulce, and we have to wait until dark to try anything, but I'd like to take a look around during daylight. You can discuss this on the way."

As Von Seeckt and Nabinger climbed into the back of the van, Kelly tapped Turcotte on the arm and leaned close. "Did you ever see this mothership that Von Seeckt is so worried about?"

"No. I only saw the smaller bouncers." Turcotte looked at her. "Why?"

"Because we only have Von Seeckt's word that it exists.

And his story about what he admits to doing during World War II doesn't thrill me. What if there's more that he's not telling us? He was SS, for Christ's sake."

"Is there anything specific that makes you doubt his story about what is going on now?" Turcotte asked.

"I've learned to question things, and my question is, if the mothership doesn't exist, then maybe this whole thing is a setup. And even if it does exist, maybe this whole thing is a setup."

"A setup for what?" Turcotte asked.

"If I knew that, I'd know if it was a setup," Kelly said.

A small smile crept along Turcotte's lips. "I like that.

Paranoid thinking. Makes me feel almost sane."

"Next chance we get, I'll tell you my story, and you'll understand why I'm paranoid."

THE CUBE, AREA 51

"General." Dr. Slayden inclined his head toward Gullick, then took in the other people in the room. "Gentlemen and lady."

Slayden was an old man, formerly the second oldest on the committee after Von Seeckt, now the oldest with the one empty chair on the right side of the table. Slayden was bald and his forehead was wrinkled. His major distinguishing feature was his bushy white eyebrows, quite startling given his naked skull.

General Gullick had always thought Slayden a worthless member of Majic-12, but Duncan's visit had forced him to search for ways to gain time. The psychologist had been the answer.

Slayden began. "There have been numerous movies and books published in the field of science fiction about the reaction of people on Earth to alien contact--either here on Earth if the aliens come to us or in the future when we expand to the stars. There have, in fact, been several government work groups over the last several decades dedicated to projecting possible reactions to contact with extraterrestrial life forms.

"While Project Blue Book was the Air Force's official watchdog for unidentified flying objects, there were classified study groups composed of social psychologists and military representatives, whose purpose was to prepare contingency plans for alien contact. These projects fell under the province of DARPA--the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. I was one of the original members of DARPA's contact committee.

"The problem we were given was initially a theoretical one." Slayden smiled. "Of course, at the time, we on the committee did not know of the existence of this facility. We were also severely restricted by ethical and security considerations. We were working with the subject of large-group dynamics: how the people of Earth would respond to an outside entity. The ability to conduct realistic experimentation was almost nil. In fact our most valid research data base was the public reaction to the broadcast of The War of the Worlds by Orson Welles in 1938.

"The major result of that broadcast was mass hysteria and fear. As this chart shows . . ."

As Slayden went through his repertoire, General Gullick shifted his attention to the computer screen built into the desktop in front of him. Everyone around the table already knew that what Slayden was saying was unimportant. Everyone, that is, except Dr. Duncan--that was the whole purpose of this briefing.

There was nothing new from the Lincoln task force on the foo fighters and nothing on Von Seeckt and the other three targets. Gullick reluctantly returned his attention to the briefing.

"However, no one had ever really considered the possibility of our exposure to alien life coming in the form of the discovery of the bouncers and mothership--a sort of archaeological discovery of extraterrestrial life. There have been people, most labeled crackpots, who have pointed to various artifacts and symbols on the planet as signs that we have been visited in the past by alien life forms. The bouncers and mothership are incontrovertible proof that this has happened. This presents us with several challenges but also a great opportunity."

Slayden had forgotten that this was mainly a propaganda briefing for Duncan, and he was totally immersed in his material. "You see, one of the greatest uncontrolled variables in contact theory was that the contact would occur at the discretion of the extraterrestrials. That they would come to us. Or that the discovery of evidence that the planet had been visited in the past by aliens would hit the news in an uncontrolled manner. Here at Area 51, though, we control that variable. We have the evidence and it is at our discretion that the information be revealed. Because we control that variable, we can also prepare both ourselves and the public for the moment of disclosure."

Slayden looked at Duncan. "You may have noticed over the course of the last several years an increasing number of reports in the news media about Area 51.

These reports did not start in a vacuum. We have done many things to deliberately lay the groundwork for the public to accept the revelation of what we have here.

"Contrary to what the press has reported, our security here has been designed not to keep observers out, but to actually allow observers to see what we want them to see.

We could have easily blocked access to all vantage points into the Groom Lake area. Instead we put holes in our security net at certain times and places and allowed designated visual and auditory stimuli to be observed and recorded.

"We also used agents of misinformation. One noted example is a man called Steve Jarvis, who has claimed for years to have worked out here at Area 51. In reality, Jarvis is an agent of ours who reveals information to media people.

Some of the information he gives is actually true, some is false. All of it is specifically designed to prepare people to accept without fear what we have here.

"We actually even ran a small test of disclosure several years ago when the Air Force rolled out the F-117 Stealth fighter and displayed it publicly. There was no valid military or security reason to reveal the existence of the Stealth fighter. In fact, the Air Force vigorously fought the disclosure. However, the operation was done to test media and popular reaction to a government revelation of something the government had previously kept secret from the populace.

"As you can see from my data on that . . ."

Gullick remembered that event well. The Air Force had screamed bloody murder about publicizing the F-117. But the interesting thing to Gullick was that Slayden and his spin doctors had turned the tables on the Air Force General Staff, pointing out to them the beneficial possibilities disclosure would bring in the arena of budgeting with Congress. In the end the Air Force had been enthusiastic about the event. Gullick wasn't foolish enough to believe, though, that the F-117 disclosure was anything like announcing the existence of the mothership. It sure sounded good, though.

Of course, Slayden was only giving Duncan the tip of the iceberg. Slayden and his people had early on presented one of the truths of psychological preparation: overstimulation.

And making people believe the truth to be much worse than it really was, was one of the major purposes of the Nightscape missions.

Nightscape had conducted numerous animal mutilations, rural overflights by the disks, and even human abductions. There was no way they would let Duncan know about that.

And even Slayden didn't know the extent of Nightscape; he didn't know of the need at Dulce for the people who were abducted or the animal parts that were brought back. Gullick rubbed the right side of his skull, irritated at the timbre of Slayden's voice. Goddamn academic assholes. Gullick checked his screen one more time, looking for an update on the search for both the foo fighters and Von Seeckt's group.

Gullick looked across the conference table at Duncan.

He was disgusted with outsiders whining and complaining about government secrecy and security. He thought it the most amazing paradox and could not understand why others didn't see it the way he did: If the public could handle knowing everything, then there wouldn't be any need for the secrecy because the world would be living in harmony.

It was the same people who decried the government that made the government necessary. If they all had the selfdiscipline that he and other military people had, the world would be a hell of a better place, Gullick thought as he waited impatiently for the briefing to be over so he could get back to real work.

24

ROUTE 666, NORTHWEST NEW MEXICO

T-81 HOURS

They still had the same van. Kelly had argued to ditch it, but Turcotte insisted they might need the equipment.

They'd compromised by switching the government license plate for a private one.

Kelly had assumed driving chores and watched in the rearview mirror as Turcotte sat in one of the four captain's chairs in the back, beside the communication and computer console that took up most of the left side. They both were listening as Von Seeckt and Nabinger put together what they had shared and tried to postulate some reasonable theories to explain what they had.

"We have to assume that the bomb you found in the pyramid was of the same technology as the disk and mothership," Nabinger said.

Von Seeckt nodded. "Yes, that is reasonable."

"Going beyond that, I think that many of the commonalities among ancient civilizations can now be explained."

Nabinger took out of his backpack the papers Slater had given him. "The high rune language that has been found at various spots across the world must have originated with these aliens. In fact, I would say that these aliens must have affected the natural progression of mankind's development." He then proceeded to explain the diffusionest theory of the rise of civilization.

When he'd finished Von Seeckt was deep in thought. "I have thought about this often over the years, wondering who left this marvelous technology behind and why. About ten thousand years ago there was an alien outpost on this planet. It was-- "Why aliens?" Turcotte asked suddenly, echoing the question that had popped up in Kelly's head.