Ancients

13

Ryan had pulled the shift security from the complex and ordered a full detail to meet Jack and Carl at the airfield. Twenty heavily armed men accompanied the two men and their very valuable cargo. The large group took no chances as they entered the massive, dilapidated hangar of the main gate for the complex.

Ryan and Mendenhall met the colonel and captain at the elevator. The two men and their security looked small in the cavernous lift used for the transport of large artifacts into the underground facility.

"Lieutenant," Jack said as he stepped from the lift.

"Colonel, Captain, exciting trip, I understand?"

"It seems it was mission standard for us anymore," Everett said as he spied Virginia Pollock exiting the elevator from the complex below.

"Glad to have you two back in one piece. You had us worried, as usual," she said, approaching the men.

"Well, here's what the hubbub was about." Carl handed her a large case.

She accepted the case and then looked at the two officers. "All those deaths for this ..." She handed the case to Mendenhall. "Will, make sure Pete Golding gets this right away down on level eighteen, lab six; he's waiting on it."

Mendenhall took the case and Ryan made his exit with him.

"The president has placed a lot of emphasis on making sure the Coalition doesn't get their hands on the diamond. Niles wants us to get it and has promised you all the support you need."

Jack nodded and started for the elevator. "So the president has bought in fully to the theory of the quakes?"

Virginia pushed the Down button on the pneumatic elevator for level seven. She then related the horrid facts of the Tomlinson raid.

Jack and Carl were silent as they stepped into the elevator. Virginia followed and the doors closed.

"The Russians downed what they believe is a U.S. Air Force aircraft carrying strange equipment. They say it was transmitting the same type of audio signal as the tape in the Sea of Japan."

"These people are still a step ahead of us, maybe even two or three," Everett said as the elevator arrived at level seven.

"Mr. Everett, get with Ryan and give me a duty roster and pick a strike team ready to leave as soon as the science teams get this plate thing figured out. Virginia, what archaeologist and experienced dig people can you afford to part with?"

"Well, I think we'll send the same people that were just there, Sandra Leekie and her team."

"That's fine, but cut it to bare bones, Doctor. I don't want any kids on this trip."

"Do you expect the Coalition to find you, Jack?"

Collins had started to turn and leave for the security offices but stopped short.

"Ask the FBI if these unconscionable bastards do the unexpected. Yes, Virginia, they will be there waiting for us. They failed once getting access to that diamond; I don't think they will stop now."

The fifteen-thousand-year-old bronze plate, centered on the lab table in the middle of the room, was a mystery to the brilliant minds studying it. Several technicians from the Archaeological Studies, Forensics, and Mathematical Engineering departments surrounded the amazing find, mystified by its workings.

The plate itself was unremarkable in its design. It was comprised of two sheets of thinly plated bronze sandwiching a thinly shaved quartz crystal. A 3-D image supplied by Europa was projected onto a wall screen, and all the other departments, including Mechanical Engineering and Nuclear Sciences, were studying the strange plate from their own labs.

Linguistics experts were poring over the symbols etched into the bronze facing of the plate, while engineers examined a small clamshell-like protuberance in the exact center of the object. The clamshell bulge was on both sides of the plate and was three inches in diameter.

Pete Golding and Sarah McIntire had stopped by the lab to see the amazing find brought back by Jack and Carl. They were taking a break from leading the scroll search with one hundred others. They stayed back and out of the way as the other qualified scientists assigned to the plate map studied it and spoke quietly among themselves.

Pete stepped back farther to get a look at the strange design. What little hair he had was askew and he was chewing on a pencil. He was just getting ready to turn away and retrieve Sarah when a thought struck him out of nowhere. He turned slowly and looked closer at the clamshell centerpiece. He cleared his throat.

Martha and Carmichael were there, too. They were studying a linguistics report of the strange symbols when they heard Pete trying to get everyone's attention.

"The centerpiece of the object--have you, ladies and gentlemen, formed an opinion on this?"

Virginia Pollock, who was sitting next to the two Ancients, turned toward the director of the computer center.

"As with the other symbols on the facing of the object, the conclusion is it's a three-D symbol for the sun. If you look closely at the etched portions of the plate, the exact match is the sun, which is clearly next to that of the quarter moon. The lines at the center of the sun may just be artwork placed there by the whoever etched the symbols."

"Clamshell," Pete mumbled, still chewing on his pencil.

"Excuse me?" one of the design engineers asked from his spot next to the map.

Not all those in attendance inside the lab understood what Pete had said.

Sarah tapped Pete on the shoulder and pointed to the pencil in his mouth.

Pete slowly understood and removed the pencil. "The sun, as you've deemed it, in the center of the plate--it resembles a clamshell aperture."

Martha glanced at the strange-looking director of the computer center and then tapped Carmichael on the arm to get his attention.

"Professor Golding, your science is an exact one, but sometimes ancient technologies are not. If you would step closer to the plate, you will see that the etched lines on the depiction of the sun are perfectly matched. No one in antiquity could get separate sections of metal to match so perfectly that there is no discernible separation between the two. Believe me, Professor: the lines are etched into the bronze."

Pete looked at the scientist from the Mechanical Engineering Department and then stepped closer to the plate. Sarah bit her lip, knowing that the Golding was overstepping his territory. She looked at Virginia and gave her an uneasy smile.

Pete looked very closely at the bulge and then at the symbol for the sun at the bottom of the large plate. He stepped to the opposite side of the lab table and looked at the bulge from that side and then at the bottom of the plate. There were no symbols there. There were, however, two small points of bronze protruding from each of the plate's lower corners.

"Lens cap," he mumbled.

"Pete, don't you and Sarah have a team on level fifteen you are supervising?" Virginia asked.

"Wait, please." Carmichael Rothman was looking at Pete intently. "Young man, did you say 'lens cap'?"

Pete looked up from the plate and pushed his glasses back up his nose. "Yes," he said, trying to focus on the older man.

"Pete, I appreciate you help here, but this is not a clamshell aperture," said an exasperated engineer. "The edges fit too perfectly. Look." He produced a small jeweler's screwdriver, placed the tip on one of the eight line etchings, and probed around it. He tried to push in and lift, but the small screwdriver could find no place to wedge against for advantage in prying the section apart. "You see, it would have to have been engineered on a modern CNC machinist tool."

Pete looked from the engineer to Sarah, who was just getting ready to pull the tired computer man from the lab. She did not try, though, as Pete shook his head.

"The symbols on the front are not duplicated on the back. The only things on the reverse side are the clamshell--or sun, if you prefer--and the two small points sticking out of the lower corners of the plate."

"We noticed the points of bronze. They are possibly casting marks from when the plate was forged," the same engineer said as he looked at the others for support. He received nods of agreement from everyone.

"I'm sorry, I don't believe those two points are casting marks from a mold. They do resemble something I work with quite often, though."

"What is that, young man?" Martha asked.

Pete looked around the lab until he found what he was looking for. He smiled uneasily as he unplugged a handheld buffer and then looked at the electrical cord. Then he cut the three-pronged plug off with an exacto knife. Then he split the black cord in two, one positive and one negative. Then he attached one end to the lower-left piece of bronze and then repeated the process on the right. He wrapped the wire around them several times.

"I cut the plug off because I don't want to fry what's inside ... if anything. So ..." Pete looked around and saw what he wanted. "Young lady, can you pass me the battery from that digital recorder, please?"

The technician removed the back of the recorder and handed Pete a double-A battery.

"Most kind, thank you. This may be enough, but I'm not sure." Pete placed one end of the wire on the positive side of the battery. Then he looked up at the men and women around him. "Okay, here we go," he said, as he placed the other end of the split wire onto the negative post.

As all eyes focused on the plate, nothing happened. Pete adjusted the wires on the battery for a better connection and ... still nothing.

The man from mechanical engineering who was closest to the plate smiled. "It's all right, Pete; at least you eliminated the idea from future consideration. The lines are just lines and not separate sections." He tapped the bulge in the plate. "They are too precise to--"

A small swish came from the plate and several people actually gasped in surprise. The small clamshell spun in a circle from right to left and opened, revealing a crystal protuberance front and back.

"Well, in a way you were right--the engineering did not allow for the sections to separate, but it did allow for them to expand and open. Huh!" Pete said as he stepped closer to the plate and looked.

"I'll be damned," the engineer said.

"Don't feel bad--your tapping the aperture may have freed it. After all, it has probably been fifteen thousand years since it was last opened."

Sarah looked from Pete to Virginia. They both smiled as they realized that sometimes experts could be too close to the objects they studied, while an outsider could come in and see something they could not. Pete Golding, though, was not an outsider; he was a man who had a brain that could think far faster than most. He was almost on a level with Niles Compton.

Pete released the electrical cord and the clamshell remained open. Then he stepped to the front of the plate and examined it again.

"These symbols don't match any other in the history archives and not even those hieroglyphs we studied direct from the scrolls we uncovered?" He turned to face the two Atlanteans. "And these symbols mean nothing to either of you?"

"We are not familiar with them, no."

The professor of ancient languages, who had spent several hours with Carmichael and Martha learning the basics of the dead tongue of Atlantis and who had used a combination of written words and hieroglyphs to make it easier to study the written language of the scrolls, turned back to the plate and pushed his hand through his hair.

"We're stumped, Pete."

Pete walked up to the plate and ran his fingers first over the symbols and then slowly over the center hole, where the sandwiched crystal protruded. The other technicians looked at him and shook their heads, thinking that the computer wiz was only in the way. His fingers slowly felt the deep lines of the symbols and then he stepped back and looked at them.

"Okay, Virginia has explained we're extremely short on time. Therefore, we must find the closest examples of what they are through other means. First, let us concentrate our ... excuse me ... you must concentrate your efforts on the crystal inside. The bulge at the center, front and back, is key. We now know that, since the clamshell aperture was there for protecting. My guess is that it is a lens of some sort." He looked around, hoping that the other scientists were not taking offense.

"Keep going, Pete, you seem to be on a roll," Virginia said from her seat.

"Europa, query," he said as he straightened up and examined the 3-D virtual reality projected on the screen. "Analysis of x-ray of crystal between the two bronze halves, please."

"Exact number of crystal flaws found in five separate depths of crystal is seven billion fifty-two thousand."

"Explain depths analysis, please."

"Flaws found at 1.7, 1.8, 2.7, 2.9, and 3.1 centimeters of plate crystal depth and 1.9, 2.1, 2.5, 2.8, and 3.2 centimeters in width."

"This can't be," Sarah said from her position in front of the projection. "If the crystal is flawed with natural fractures or formation abnormalities, they wouldn't be located at exact depths and would be far more random in the width; they would be throughout the crystal and certainly not at certain depths only."

Pete Golding listened to Sarah's expert geological explanation but did not comment. Instead, he examined the flaws as seen from the front and the side projections as sent through Europa from an electron microscope and x-ray imager.

"Gentlemen and ladies, let's return our efforts now to the symbols one last time. As I said before, we will find their closest relations in the linguistics family from other languages and symbols from the ancient world."

Several members of Ancient Languages Department looked from one to another, but they stepped aside in deference to Pete's genius for thinking beyond the norm.

"Europa, query: the three symbols arrayed at the bottom of the plate below the exposed crystal at the center." Pete removed a small penlight from his many pens and pencils in their plastic holder in his shirt and clicked it on and shone the bright beam through the center hole, producing nothing but regular light on the other side. "You stated in your report earlier that there is no reference in the linguistics historical record for any word, symbol, or hieroglyphs known, is that correct?"

"Correct, Dr. Golding."

"Query: what are the closest hieroglyph or symbol matches to the three symbols as taken from all known civilizations throughout history, preferably the earliest examples?"

"Formulating," answered the womanly voice of Europa.

Sarah walked over to stand next to Martha and Carmichael and looked at them with a questioning glance. They both shrugged, but were also curious as to where Pete was going with this.

"There is only one familiar symbol recognizable in the historical-linguistic record. The centerline symbol designated number two bears resemblance to ancient Sumerian symbol for 'storm,' as taken from hieroglyph discovered outside presentday Iraq in 1971."

Pete ran the word repeatedly in his mind as he paced in front of the image on the screen. Then he walked over and shone his penlight through the hole once more. Then he smiled and stood straight and looked at Sarah.

"There's no way those flaws could have been a fluke of nature and just happened to be formed naturally?"

"Impossible. I couldn't even begin to calculate the odds of their being at five exact depths."

"This is impossible," Pete said, smiling. "Europa, query: at current magnification level of electron microscope, is there any indication of any other flaws in the sandwiched crystal?"

"None, Dr. Golding."

"Please order the electron microscope to repeat the side scan of the interior crystal and raise the magnification power on each pass and continue side scan until a flaw in its thickness is detected. Continue until magnification power hits its limit."

"Pete, you're losing me and everyone else here," Sarah said, but as she looked from Pete to the smiling couple next to her, she became aware that all three were thinking the same thing.

"Microscopic scan complete. Five distinct engineered sections found at setting one million times power."

"What?" one of the engineers exclaimed. "That's impossible. We're not even capable of this today!"

Sarah and most of the others were confused by all this.

"Europa, enlighten our audience as to the sections mentioned."

"Five sections, engineered as separate crystal shavings, placed together as one flat surface, indicating that earlier flaws are not flaws as previously reported, but surface symbols etched onto the five separate crystal plates."

The projection changed and Europa produced an animated image showing the sides of five separate crystal surfaces being placed together to form one flat, almost-solid crystal plate. The image rotated and they saw what they had once thought were flaws inside the sandwiched crystal plates at the depths had Europa reported.

"That is impossible. Even today, we cannot get two surfaces that flush without major separation throughout each of the joining surfaces. The engineering is impossible!"

Pete was looking at the rotating image and smiling. "Nonetheless, there it is." He turned and looked at Martha and Carmichael. "An amazing race of people, to be sure."

"But why do this? What in the hell is this thing?" the head of Linguistics asked.

"I believe what we're looking at is an ancient visual disk. Just like what we use today in the computer center," Pete said. "Can we get some electrical leads and attach them to the bronze connection at the back of the plate, please."

As the engineers rolled over a large box that supplied twenty-five thousand volts of mobile electricity, Pete tried his best to explain his theory.

"The middle symbol that Europa said has a resemblance to an ancient Sumerian hieroglyph for 'storm' ... Well, if you see what I see, it becomes apparent. The rounded objects that look like hills or mountains are actually clouds; thus, Europa saw the "storm' of Sumerian origin. However, the zigzagging line beneath is a stumper. I believe that it's not just any storm, but an electrical storm. Lightning, if you will. And this line here," he pointed to the thin line with two dots on the front and the back, "we didn't recognize it because it's a view from the side of this very bronze plate before us. See here, in the center of the plate are the two crystal protuberances. Ladies and gentlemen, what those are is a lens, pure and simple."

"A projector?" Sara asked.

"Not only have we a projector but also video disk inside the projector, dear Sarah. And not only that--I believe, rudimentarily speaking, of course people who invented this were using a rough form of electrical power."

Several people started saying things like impossible and no way, but Pete only smiled while looking around the room.

"Can we also bring the portable laser over, please," he asked the mechanical engineers, who did as he asked. "Europa, remove the current images from the screen, please." The images of the plate vanished. "Could we dim the lights? I really don't know how efficient this will be."

The lights lowered and Pete attached the two electrical leads to the sides of the large plate. "What we are doing is supplying electricity to the conduit of the device--in this case, bronze, highly conductive and efficient, more so than our small battery. By doing this, I believe, we are exciting something that was placed on what we thought were small scratches or flaws on each of the crystal plates that are meshed together. Now we will place the laser and shine it through the aperture of the centerline crystal, or what the Ancients used as a lens."

Pete turned on the electrical power and then maneuvered the laser head close to the plate and centered it on the lens. On the other side, a very blurry light appeared on the screen. Pete first pulled the laser back from the hole and the projection worsened. Then he adjusted again, this time bringing the laser head up until it almost touched the crystal protrusion. Suddenly the image cleared and about twenty schematic drawings appeared. Map locations and what looked like numbers and more symbols. However, as the images solidified, they could clearly see that the center of the picture was an exact duplicate of the ancient map recovered from Westchester, New York. The Mediterranean was there, and located in its exact center were the ringed islands of Atlantis.

"Can we bring up the electrical power, please, by say, oh, five thousand volts?"

Suddenly they heard a low swishing sound and the lens turned in its plate, swirling outward and simultaneously becoming more concave. Then the green and blue images rounded and the pictures seemed to leave the projector screen altogether and form a three-dimensional hologram. The gathered scientists were stunned as locations in Africa, Spain, and then Atlantis itself floated in front of their eyes. They could even make out a huge aqueduct that rose a thousand feet above the sands of the Nile Delta and stretched across the Mediterranean to the island.

"The billions of microscopic scratches inside the sandwiched crystals--when put together, they form these holographic images. When separate, they are flat and meaningless. The lens must be layered in differing thicknesses to create the hologram. The mathematics involved in that alone are purely in the realm of Einstein. Their crafting of crystals is one of the keys to their civilization."

One of the four mathematicians clapped once and actually stepped inside the huge hologram.

"What do you see, Professor Stein?" Virginia asked.

"When Pete mentioned Einstein, it struck me. These symbols at the bottom of the hologram--I believe it is a key to their mathematics system. It's very close to the system we have today. You won't believe this, but I think these here ..." He pointed to the symbols in the center of the floating hologram and then suddenly pulled back as he felt foolish thinking that he could touch the image. "Anyway, I will swear on my PhD that these symbols are their prime numbers. The same as ours as demonstrated by Euclid in 300 BCE--two, three, five, seven, eleven, thirteen, seventeen, nineteen, twenty-three, twenty-nine, and so on."

"And these numbers dead center of the map in the Med, and these two sets, one in Egypt, one in Ethiopia, and one other on the outermost eastern ring of Atlantis ... this is where Crete would be today?" Pete asked.

"I don't know yet, but I think we can figure this out rather quickly. These were brilliant and advanced people, but now that we know they used the same prime numbers as us, we can crack this thing rather quickly."

Virginia walked up to the hologram and ran her hand through the green and blue images. Then she focused on two areas of the Atlantis map.

"This area looks like it could be the only remaining part of Atlantis above water; you're right, it could only be Crete." Then she moved her hand and indicated the area that Stein had indicated in Egypt. "I'm sure--no, positive that these are coordinates. Moreover, Professor, you are right, they do use the same prime-numbers system as our own. These are longitude and latitude."

"You're right, young Virginia. If I read this right, it's 25.44 north and 32.40 south. Europa, can you verify location of coordinates, please."

"The indicated coordinates 25.44 N, 32.40 S, is location in southern valley in the nation of Egypt, valley is named on local and world maps as Valley of the Kings, named so for the--"

"The Valley of the Kings," Martha said from her chair, cutting short Europa's lengthy answer.

With so many images emanating from the ancient disk, the one that took up the largest space was the giant depiction of the ringed continent. The great center of it was the capital, and far below it--miles down, it looked to be--were great caverns with a multitude of tunnels and passages.

Sarah saw something that caught her attention.

She put her hand through the projected image of Egypt, then stepped to her left and looked at the symbols surrounding modern-day Crete and the Valley of the Kings. Another image showed what looked like giant stairways spiraling down into the earth, and at the bottom of these, one in Crete, one in Egypt, were great tunnels running to the centermost island of Atlantis. No, she corrected herself, running under Atlantis.

"What in the hell are we looking at here, Sarah?" Pete asked.

"From the scrolls that we've deciphered thus far, we have learned that slaves were abducted in many countries, mysteriously disappearing from time to time. Now look at this, the Valley of the Kings, where the pharaohs were laid to rest before their trip to the underworld. Now, I think we may have found the front and back door to that underworld--doors to a city and civilization that sank almost fifteen thousand years ago."

Virginia was not listening. She once more ran her hand through the floating hologram, this time through the terrain of Africa.

"For the moment, everything outside of the scrolls must be placed on hold. I need the exact coordinates for this location here. My guess is it's Ethiopia," Virginia said as she turned to face the others. "Pete, thank you for leading us through this. You can poke your nose in anywhere you want from now on."

Pete reddened as he nodded his thanks.

"I will now alert the president and Director Compton in Washington that I am officially calling an Event alert." She turned to Pete once again. "You will have to do without Sarah for the time being. Get with the Cartography Department and Europa and get me those exact coordinates in Ethiopia ASAP, I mean right now!"

Men and women started to move and Pete shot through the door as Virginia picked up the phone and pushed the Intercom button.

"Attention to all departments: an Event alert has just been called. I need Colonel Collins and his discovery team to report for briefing in ten minutes. This is no drill."

The Event Group went into action on all levels of the complex. Alice would get the official guidelines for the discovery team to Europa, and then orders would be sent out to be displayed on departmental computers for whatever actions their divisions had to take.

Most of the people left the room, but Sarah stayed where she was, looking at a strange pattern of lines that were grouped into fours. One of them was shaped roughly like the North American continent, while the other groupings were unfamiliar. For some reason, that same flickering thought entered and then left her memory just as fast. She decided that it was nothing of value at the moment and moved off.

Down in security, Jack heard the announcement of the alert and looked at Carl from over his desk.

"Only sixteen hours; not bad," Jack said.

"So, you expect to meet our blond-haired friend in Ethiopia, huh?"

Jack had stood and started for the door, but he stopped at Carl's words and turned, and his look was intense.

"I'm banking on it, swabby."

Five minutes later, Collins and his discovery team were in logistics, drawing supplies for the dig in Ethiopia, when the next announcement went out.

"Attention, Event Order has been canceled; Discovery Team Phoenix security element is to stand down. Dig team will continue to prep. Colonel Collins and Captain Everett, report to the main conference room."

Everett looked at Jack. "What kind of happy horseshit is this?"

Virginia was pacing in front of the large monitor on the far left side of the conference table as Jack and Carl entered the room. Alice was jotting down notes and looked small as the only one sitting at the large table.

"Niles, Jack and Carl are here. You explain this to them."

Collins looked at Virginia as he took up position in front of the high-definition screen.

"Niles, what's going on? We have to be on a plane in about twenty minutes," Jack said, looking at Niles's tired face.

"Jack, you and your team have been ordered to stand down by the president. He feels that the importance of getting to that device dictates that this be a military recovery operation."

"What in the hell are we, rent-a-cops?" Everett asked angrily.

"Captain, you are not aware of the pressures we have building here. I was not about to add to the president's burden by arguing the point any more than I have." They saw Niles force himself to calm down. "Look, he knows what kind of a job you two did at Pearl; if it wasn't for that, he would never have fully realized the importance of this device the Coalition seeks. The Security Council would feel better having a Special Operations team sent in with Professor Leekie."

Jack knew there was no use in trying to argue the point. He took a deep breath to calm himself because he thought that Niles had more than likely fought hard and lost the argument with the president.

"Jack, have you heard of a Major Marshall Dutton?"

"Jesus," was all Jack said as he lowered his head.

"Who is he, Jack?" Carl asked.

"A career officer who's by the book and very, very, predictable. Niles, didn't they learn anything by having the FBI blown to hell and watching a SEAL team get decimated by these people? We're dealing with an element that knows how to do one thing particularly well, and that's killing."

"I know, but I can't sit here and argue with the Security Council about the classified details of our Group's security element and their prowess."

"The woman in Hawaii--she's not going to let us just waltz into Ethiopia and take the item they desperately need," Jack said as he looked around him and then back at Niles, on the monitor. "She's going to be there, Niles. Ethiopia isn't large enough to hide a bunch of Americans out digging in the sand."

"Colonel, this Major Dutton is being briefed on enemy capabilities. The situation outside of the actual dig is out of our hands." Niles looked around him as if he were a conspirator in a grand scheme. Then he faced the camera and raised his left eyebrow.

Alice smiled from her place at the table. "Pay attention here. I know that look," she whispered.

"Colonel Collins, during the formal request for the dig, the president spoke to Vice President Salinka of Ethiopia, who granted our request on the spot. He cited the deed you and your vacationing revelers pulled off by saving those students on the Blue Nile. He requested during the meeting that you come back to Ethiopia and receive his personal thanks for saving the life of his only daughter, Hallie. So, I am ordering a forty-eight-hour stand-down period for rest and recuperation for Captain Everett, Mr. Ryan, Mendenhall, and you. I figure you could go fishing again. Perhaps the same spot where you caught your last big one."

Collins and Everett turned away from the monitor and left the conference room without another word.

Virginia crossed her arms and looked at the screen. "I'm beginning to think you're picking up bad habits from those two."

"I haven't a clue as to what you're referring to. Now, I have to go, the North Koreans have just sent five more divisions south from Pyongyang."

With those words the monitor went dark, and with it the good feeling Virginia had about Niles and his subterfuge. Time was in short supply and the Coalition and North Koreans controlled the clock.

Dr. Leekie and her team of four Event Group specialists guessed the age of the ruined mosque at close to twenty-three hundred years. The once-great minaret and tower were but a ghost of the former structure, having fallen into the sands many hundreds of years before the founding of America. The foundations and walls that remained upright allowed the wind to howl through them with soft moaning sounds.

There were aspects of the mosque that confused the professor. The surviving walls had been constructed around the time of Christ, plus or minus a few hundred years, she estimated. However, the foundations were much older. Leekie could not say how old they were because they were built in a style she had never seen before. They were not Roman or Greek and certainly not Egyptian.

"Not much to look at, is it?" Ryan asked, lying prone between Jack and Carl as they watched through binoculars from a rise of sand.

"Not much," Everett mumbled in answer, gazing at the professor down below, about a quarter of a mile away.

Professor Leekie was taking measurements inside the ancient mosque with the help of two of her archaeology team and Will Mendenhall, whom Jack had snuck onto the team as an archaeological assistant. The Ethiopian laborers hired by the professor for the dig stood watching from under a date tree

"I have to tell you, Jack, I sure hope you're wrong on this one. The way that Major Dutton has his men deployed, they're very exposed. Mendenhall keeps looking around and he doesn't look too happy."

Collins lowered his binoculars and glanced at Everett, but hesitated as he noticed Ryan in his new desert wear, complete with zinc oxide on his nose and a blue baseball cap with a white kerchief attached to the back to protect his neck from the sun. Jack shook his head and then raised the binoculars again.

"Mr. Ryan, since you're dressed for it, go a thousand yards to our rear and watch the desert to our back. If Dutton won't deploy his men properly, we will."

Ryan turned and looked at the vastness of the wasteland behind him with a frown. "What desert?" he joked.

Leekie was just rolling up a tape measure when Major Dutton and his platoon leader approached.

"The laborers are going to have one hell of a time digging through this sand. I would have expected better soil for a burial spot," Leekie said as she shaded her eyes and looked at the stern countenance of Major Dutton. "Are you sure you have the coordinates my people gave you correct?"

"In my line of work, miss, reading a map is fundamental," answered Dutton as he looked away.

"It's Professor, or, if you prefer, just Leekie."

"Ma'am, I would appreciate it if you would get on with your survey. This was not supposed to take as long as it has."

"I won't go into a long and boring speech about the dangers of ancient burial sites, Major. One wrong move and we could have the entire area collapse under our feet."

"Well, have you anything to report?"

"Not yet," she answered, and then she waved the diggers over and used the interpreter to order several pilot holes dug in the sand for her equipment to take readings.

"Major, we will be placing portable ultrasound units at the base of what's left of the foundations and inside the remains of the prayer tower. If there's something buried here, that should tell us."

Jack had moved away from Everett and stood watching the eastern part of the desert. The midday sun was a killer as he stood still and listened. He had that old prickly feeling in his stomach that told him they were not alone in the desert. For the life of him, he could not tell where a potential enemy could hide. There was very little cover, just scrub and sand. The Blue Nile was more than a kilometer away, and any force coming from there would have given ample warning to the op team at the mosque site.

He shook his head as he started to turn, and as he did so he saw a mark in the sand. It was only a track, but it was one with which he was familiar. He did not want to lean down and examine it in case eyes were on him, so he removed his sunglasses and stretched, and as he did so he eyed the track more closely. It was a track in the literal sense: padded and linked; the sort of track used on a bulldozer or a backhoe. It had been brushed over but not completely wiped from the desert floor.

He replaced his glasses and turned back to the mosque. He had just confirmed that the dig team was not alone in the desert. Jack also knew that they had arrived too late.

As he casually walked back to where Everett was watching the camp and mosque, he reached into his pocket and felt the reassuring touch of his panic button.

Professor Leekie was getting frustrated with her equipment. She slapped at the laptop computer she had perched on the broken wall and cursed.

"This damn sand is so thick, it's almost impenetrable."

Dutton was just returning from the perimeter of the encampment, where he had checked on the positions of his twenty-five-man team. He shook his head after hearing Leekie curse her equipment. He saw her assistants return from laying their last remote ultrasound probe in the ruined tower of the mosque.

"Fifteen thousand years ago this area was forest land with compacted soil good for trees and plants. This equipment should have no trouble penetrating a few lousy feet of sand to reach the old earth beneath."

"What's the matter, Professor Leekie, modern science failing you?" Dutton asked with a smile, masking his ire.

"If we have to use the laborers to remove six or seven feet of sand before we can search, we'll be here forever. Let me try the probes attached to the walls; their base should be closer to that ancient topsoil--at least two thousand years closer."

Dutton heard Professor Leekie curse again:

"Damn, I'm getting a better reading, but there's still nothing there. No metal and no empty space that would indicate a shaft or cave.... Damn, I thought ... Oh ... Just damn!"

One of the Event Group assistants slapped his head with his palm. "Just a sec, Doc. I didn't switch on that last sonic probe."

Leekie shook her head and watched as the young man trotted back to the base of the prayer tower and vanished through the arched doorway. She wanted to shout out that it wasn't necessary but then decided that they had to be thorough, at least.

"All right, Doc, it's on," her assistant called out from the tower's opening.

Leekie switched the mode over to the frequency of the last probe. When the picture came onto the screen, she saw only a rounded blackness, as if she were looking into an old well. She tapped the laptop once again in anger.

"This thing, I swear--" She looked over at the base of the prayer tower. It was round. Then she looked at the screen again. The darkness there was round, too. She looked up suddenly. "There's nothing!"

"Well, maybe your people were wrong and this is just a wild goose--"

"No, I mean there's nothing there! The ultrasound probe isn't picking up anything under the sand inside the prayer tower but empty space!"

"What are you saying, Professor?" Dutton asked.

"I'm saying that the empty space I'm looking at is a covered shaft of some kind and it's deep. Damn, this may be the place. The mosque is here to cover the opening!"

"I was informed that no one knew about this spot until recently," Dutton stated. "You said earlier this burial site predates all religions. So why is there a mosque here?"

"Who knows? Maybe it wasn't a mosque to begin with. Maybe it was something else long ago and future generations just added to the foundations." Leekie's pretty face lit up with the answer to her earlier question concerning the age of the mosque and its foundations. "My God, that's why the foundation and wall ages don't match. Don't you see, it all fits! The people of this area, never knowing an original structure covered the ancient burial site, have used this place repeatedly. They never knew that a structure was here literally thousands of years before their civilization was even born."

"Okay, you sold me, Professor. What are you waiting for--let's recover this device," Dutton said, impatient to be out of there.

"I can't believe it," Leekie said, slamming her laptop closed. She smiled and jumped up and slapped the reserved Dutton on the shoulder. Then she ran to get the diggers to unearth the shaft inside the smashed prayer tower.

"She's excited about something," Jack said, adjusting his field glasses. "She must have discovered the burial site."

Carl watched Leekie as she hastily gave out orders; the reserved professor was more excited than any of her colleagues at Group had ever seen her before.

"Damn, Jack, you didn't say she gets to keep the diamond, did you?" Everett asked.

The Ethiopian diggers worked within the confined space of the ancient and collapsed prayer-tower base. The sun was now beyond its zenith, which cut the heat significantly. The sand was loose and hard to keep out of the hole they were digging. Finally, a shovel struck something hard with a loud ping--a sound that Leekie had always equated with finding buried treasure.

Three workers went to their knees and started shoveling the remaining sand out with their hands, until they hit a smooth surface. Leekie squeezed her way through the workers and knelt, brushing away the last of the sand.

"A cover stone," she said barely above a whisper.

"What's a cover stone, Doc," Mendenhall whispered beside her.

"In ancient times, civilizations such as the Egyptians and Greeks used cover stones to ... well ... cover anything buried. They were a deterrent to grave robbers and usually had curses written in their language warning an intruder that foul things and horrible deaths would befall them if they removed the cover stone."

"I guess that's you, huh, Doc?" Mendenhall asked, becoming nervous when she mentioned the word curses.

"Yes, that's me, Lieutenant."

Leekie instructed her team to remove the large, flat stone from the hole. Three Americans plus Will started pulling and prying with long-handled steel bars. The stone moved easily, and Leekie was surprised at the ease of removal after thousands of years.

"Can we get some lights over here?" she called out.

In minutes, several high-powered lights were shining down into the deep shaft. Leekie pulled a long tube filled with green liquid out of her pack. She snapped the inner casing inside the tube, then shook the liquid inside to life. When it began to glow bright green, she tossed it into the hole, where it soon struck bottom.

"There's flat flooring beneath. This is definitely a manmade excavation."

Mendenhall watched as Leekie removed a small device that resembled a flashlight from a case, turned it on, and pointed it down into the shaft. A thin red laser caught some of the swirling dust, making the beam visible. She turned it off after only a second and looked at the readout on the handle.

"It's only seventy-five feet deep. We can rappel down."

Mendenhall wished the colonel were there to lead this side of things, but he couldn't dwell on that now as he reached into his rucksack and brought out his gear used for a short repel.

"That cover stone was blank, right, Doc?"

Ten minutes later, Mendenhall and two of the Green Berets had hammered their rope stakes deep into the soil closest to the tower's foundation. Then they tossed their ropes into the shaft. Will pushed off first from the edge, quickly followed by the two Special Ops soldiers.

Will let the rope play through his belly ring smoothly, hitting the sidewall only twice to cover the seventy-five feet to the bottom. He held his position two feet above and examined the packed earth in the green glow of the nightstick. He saw solid footing below and then allowed the final feet of rope to slide through his gloves. He hit bottom and immediately shone his flashlight around the large chamber. A moment later, the two soldiers hit bottom and joined him.

"Holy shit," Mendenhall said as his light caught the large and intimidating features of two statues along the far wall. "I think we hit the right spot."

"Now, that's impressive," one of the soldiers said as he looked at the closest twelve-foot statue. "Who is it?"

"Zeus," Mendenhall answered. "Listen," he said.

The two Special Forces men quieted as they shone their lights around the earthen room. The twin statues of Zeus, on either side of a long and dark corridor, watched them as they looked around. Will' shone his flashlight down the eight-foot-high corridor and caught sight of a sloping ledge in the distance.

"When these guys dug a hole, they really dug one," Will said as he glanced down and noticed something in the outer limits of his light's range.

"What in the hell--" He leaned down and felt the dark earth. It was wet, and as he held his fingers to the light, he saw that they were red with blood. It had been there for a while but, without the sun to dry it out, remained moist. As he aimed his light around the ground, he saw that he was standing in a large stain that had yet to soak entirely into the soil.

One of the soldiers stepped past Will and started forward.

"Major Dutton wants this recon done ASAP," he said as Mendenhall reached out and tried to stop him.

Leekie had briefed every team member who was to enter the dig about the intelligence of ancient people when it came to protecting their property.

The staff sergeant had taken only four steps, and then his fifth footstep depressed a patch of soil covering a pressure plate with a connection to a sealed ceramic jar. The jar broke and released salt acid that had become stronger over the centuries. It burned through an ancient spun cable of copper, which snapped with a loud ping and sent a solid wall of razor-sharpened bronze down on top of the soldier.

Mendenhall watched in horror as the fifteen-foot-wide wall came down, slicing cleanly through the soldier's body, the backside of which stayed upright. The wall stayed in place as the horror of half a man peeled away from the wall. Will ran forward and started to bend down, but then he felt it was a waste of time. Instead, he placed his hands against the razor-edged wall and pushed up. The wall slid into the cave's ceiling as easily as a window blind. Once Mendenhall saw the other half of the soldier, he turned away, but not before he thought about the bloodstain that he'd seen moments before the sergeant tripped the booby trap.

Mendenhall slowly pulled the 9-millimeter from the back of his pants and looked around with renewed interest, knowing that they had not been the first to enter the cave.

Leekie was staring down into the hole and was becoming anxious when there was no immediate word from Mendenhall. She stood and brushed sand from her pants and then left to find her repelling equipment. When she returned, she climbed to the edge of the tunnel after tying her rope off to the spikes.

She smiled at her American team members and was about to push off from the edge when the world exploded around her. She was thrown over the lip of the shaft by a blast she never saw coming. Her belly ring caught the rope but her momentum, plus her weight, was too much for the twist of rope to catch and she fell down the shaft.

She felt the rush of cooler air and came awake enough to reach for the rope. Her grasp slowed her momentum, cutting her speed in half, and then by a quarter, until her back struck the cool earth below.

The Special Ops team returned fire at the low-flying helicopters after the first volley of Hellfire missiles struck the low foundations of the mosque. The old AH-1 Cobra attack helicopters were legend in aviation and had earned the respect of ground soldiers the world over.

The Coalition pilots chosen for this ambush were very good. One was Israeli trained and the other British. They attacked Major Dutton's ground element with devastating effect. Twenty-millimeter explosive rounds struck positions and tore into flesh and sinew with ease. Dutton was lucky thus far, as only three of his men lay dead after the first pass of the two Cobras. The major saw that they could not stay out in the open and ordered the platoon to the protection of the crumbling mosque.

Once the major had dived behind one of the low foundations, he pulled out a small transmitter similar to the one Collins was carrying. He pushed the Transmit button and said two words: "Feather River!"

The first of the two Cobra gunships came low over a scrub dune and loosed a barrage of rockets that struck the crumbling walls of the mosque. Several soldiers and diggers were buried alive as the explosions tore through the ancient stone.

"Are you ready for the surprise of your life, assholes?" Dutton screamed at the second Cobra as it made a low pass and started strafing positions where his men had dug in.

There was a low rumble coming from the south and Dutton smiled in anticipation. These jerks don't know who they're messin' with, he thought.

Mendenhall and the remaining sergeant ran back the way they had come, jumping over the line of pressure devices that activated the deadly trap and separated the cave from the manmade excavation at the rear. The slope was all but forgotten when the attack started above them. Heavy thumping and explosions sounded as they came closer to the shaft. Mendenhall reached Leekie first and knelt beside her. The Special Forces sergeant looked up the shaft and saw a body fall against the opening and drape over the edge for a moment, then fall toward them.

"Look out!" he called.

The sergeant pulled Will and the unconscious Leekie clear of the hole just as one of the Ethiopian laborers hit the ground with a large hole in his chest. The young sergeant quickly ran forward and checked the man.

"He's dead," he said and then ran for one of the dangling ropes.

"Well, the doc's alive, just had the wind knocked out of her," Will said as he looked up. "Hey, don't do that!"

The sergeant had reached one of the ropes and had started to pull himself up, ignoring Mendenhall's order.

"Sergeant, I order you to--"

The sergeant suddenly fell back down. He hit with a thud and Mendenhall saw the perfectly round hole in his forehead.

"Dammit," he cursed. He then quickly gathered Leekie up and made for the darkness of the cave.

Collins was just getting ready to move down to assist the defense of the mosque but Everett forcibly stayed him with a hand.

"Jesus, Jack, we have company!" he said, looking through his binoculars.

Collins focused his field glasses to the left and saw several vehicles approaching the area between the low dunes. Then he looked skyward as the roar of jet engines screamed above them. Two F-15 Eagles were making a run on the attacking Cobras. This was Dutton's sure-fire backup plan. Jack again lowered the view of his glasses and saw that the vehicles had stopped and men were removing tarps from the backs of trucks.

"Damn! It's an ambush!" Jack said as he clenched his teeth. "They were expecting Dutton to have air cover!"

Everett followed Jack's lead and focused on the vehicles.

"SAMs!"

"Those Eagle pilots are sitting ducks," Collins said as he dropped his glasses and reached for the radio on his belt. He turned to the frequency that the expedition used and hit the Transmit button.

"American aircraft, this is friendly asset on the ground to the south. Abort your attack run, I repeat, abort your run, we have mobile SAMs tracking you from--"

Collins stopped talking because he knew he was too late to save the Americans as four brown-painted missiles left their launch platforms.

The two F-15s screeched in low and the lead pilot targeted the first Cobra in line. He was about to fire his 20-millimeter cannon into the thin armor of the attack chopper when his threat receiver started going crazy. The American pilot was too late. As he started to abort his attack and two SAMs apiece tore into their airframes.

Major Dutton, in his anger, actually forgot where he was for the briefest of moments and stood as the American aircraft disintegrated right before his eyes. As he cursed the trap that had been set, his body jerked as ten 20-millimeter rounds tore through his body. The stream of death reached out toward the mosque and the remnants of the Special Forces team.

"Ryan!" Jack called as he stripped his pack away, opened it, and pulled out several extra clips of ammunition for his Beretta. "Get over here."

Everett anticipated Collins's order and started stripping away all his unnecessary gear. He reached into his pack and pulled out an MP-5 with a folding stock. He took out a bandolier of ammunition and slung it around his neck. Then, as Ryan approached, he tossed him his pack.

"Weapon and ammo only," Everett said as he placed a magazine into the MP-5 and charged the handle, chambering a round.

"Damn, what in the hell did I miss?"

Jack reached into his pocket, pulled out his small transmitter, and hastily broke off the plastic cover that protected the red button inside. He pushed the button until it clicked and then tossed it away. He chambered a round into his Beretta and then looked at Ryan and Everett.

"We have a quarter mile to cover. I don't know if the doc is still alive, but I know Will must already be inside of whatever Leekie found in the tower's base. We have one goal: make sure these bastards do not get the diamond. Ready ... Go!"

The three men broke and ran toward the mosque.

Four additional mobile SAM vehicles arrived and took up station behind the same dune that had hidden the first four. A Land Rover broke free from the group of trucks. The small vehicle headed for the mosque and the attackers did not see the three Americans break and run for the site below. They kept to the backside of the dunes as they ran.

The Land Rover was equipped with a .50-caliber machine gun that was perched on the top, and a gunner started firing at the few men left inside the mosque's walls. The two Cobras kept swooping in and firing streams of 20-millimeter rounds into the piles of rubble.

The four-wheel-drive SUV stopped only fifty feet outside the walls and the gunner continued to fire into the ruins. One Special Forces sergeant stood and loosed a full magazine at the Coalition vehicle and managed to drop the gunner, while the rest of his bullets ricocheted off the Rover's armored skin and glass. A circling Cobra fired its remaining rockets and killed the sergeant before he could take cover again.

The vehicle slowly started to advance when the return fire from the mosque fell off to nothing. Three men jumped out and ran for cover. One of the Cobras took up a hovering position a hundred feet over the mosque and covered the ground team as they cautiously approached.

Suddenly, the last remaining Green Beret stood and arrogantly aimed a small tube at the hovering Cobra. The Stinger let loose with a screech as it left the launcher. The three men fired at the man who stood bravely watching the missile's exhaust trail as it tracked the Coalition's Cobra.

The Cobra pilot turned as soon as his missile-warning system lit up. He popped chaff and flares in an attempt to escape. However, the distance was far too short and the Stinger was fast. The small but powerful missile made impact on the engine housing on the starboard side and tore through into the engine itself. The warhead detonated and blew the engine and rotors entirely free of the airframe. The attack chopper simply fell one hundred feet into the largest section of the mosque and exploded.

The three Coalition men ducked the flying debris and then quickly recovered. The first man to fire took a quick and terrible vengeance for their downed pilot. He fired and struck the last of Major Dutton's ground team. The man fell through the tower doorway and lay dead in the sand. The three men stood and waved the second Cobra in to safeguard them as they checked the ruins for survivors.

Collins, Everett, and Ryan saw the Green Beret attack on the Cobra as they neared the last dune before they had to break cover.

"Good for him," Everett said as he saw the chopper explode.

The three men slowed and then slid into the sand as they came to the edge of last dune. Jack looked around and saw the last of the three attackers enter the tower base. He grimaced as he heard shots fired and screams of men as they were shot down in cold blood.

"Goddammit!" Jack said as he ducked back. "Dutton should have known better. With the mosque around them, they could have held off a brigade for half a damn day. We've got to take out that last Cobra."

"The only way we can do that is have a bunch of bullets shot at us."

"I've got to take the Land Rover; we need that fifty-cal."

"If we had just one damn grenade," Everett said.

"Mr. Ryan, you're the fastest. If I take out the fifty-gunner from here, can you sprint the distance before another takes his place?"

Ryan was breathing heavily and it wasn't just because they had run a quarter of a mile. He was frightened.

"No; I would have to start before you take a shot. It won't take long for someone to pop up and start shooting at us again. I'll run, and when he turns to fire I'll take him out. That will give me about twenty yards to cover and the time I need."

Collins looked at the small navy pilot and nodded.

Everett shook his head and tossed Jack the MP-5. He knew that Ryan had never lacked for balls, but what made him so convincing was that he was always scared to death. Scared men got the job done.

"Don't be shy about wasting ammo, flyboy--empty a full magazine of nine-mil through that sunroof of theirs," Everett said, and then he pulled out his own Beretta.

"Right," Ryan said as he looked at the colonel. "Don't miss, or my boat-surfing days are over."

Collins was silent as he extended the retractable stock and then wrapped the MP-5s shoulder strap around his forearm. He raised the rear site and adjusted for distance. Then he placed the stock into his shoulder.

"Okay, Colonel," Ryan said, taking three deep breaths. "Do some of that black-operations stuff you're famous for," he said as he suddenly burst free of the dune and ran as if the devil himself were chasing him.

As luck would have it, Ryan broke cover just as the remaining Cobra turned and gained a better vantage point. That was where his luck ended. The gunner on the top of the Land Rover must have had excellent instincts for danger, because before Ryan had taken five steps the gunner started turning the heavy weapon his way. To Ryan it was as if everything went into surreal slowness as he awaited the large-caliber rounds to hit his small body and tear it apart.

Jack kept both eyes open as he aimed. In his peripheral vision he saw the long barrel of the .50-caliber turn in Ryan's direction. Collins took a breath and then allowed half of the air out. Then he sighted again, taking his time. The sight was center-lined on the man's throat. Jack figured that the MP-5 would bolt up at the split-second discharge of the bullet, so he accounted for recoil and pulled the trigger.

Ryan saw the gunner smile as he continued to run. He knew the man had two fingers on the triggers of the machine gun, so he concentrated on running even faster. When he was sure he was done for, Ryan felt something buzz past his left ear. Just when he wondered if the colonel had forgotten about him, he saw the gunner's head snap back, and then the barrel of the .50-caliber slowly rose into the air as the man fell back into the sunroof.

Ryan covered the remaining distance without a rational thought in his head. Just before he reached the Land Rover, he knocked his sunglasses off and then hit the bumper perfectly and bounded up and onto the roof. He actually started shooting before he had aimed into the cab, and several bullets hit the roof with a loud thud. Then he adjusted and fired directly into a man who was rising to take the gunner's place, and then he shot the driver, who was quite shocked at his own death.

Jack stood and along with Everett made a dash for the mosque. At the same moment, the last Cobra completed its turn and saw the two men break from the sand dune. It banked hard and made a run for the sprinting men.

Ryan saw the Cobra, but it had not seen him. He jumped through the sunroof and landed on something soft and wet. He took the handles of the large weapon and hoped he remembered how to fire the thing. He was short enough that he didn't need to lean down to bring the barrel into the air. He aimed at the attacking Cobra and fired. The first five rounds flew out of the barrel and then the weapon jerked out of Ryan's hands, almost breaking his fingers. He cursed and took the .50-caliber again and aimed. He braced himself this time and cut loose a long stream of bullets. He saw the tracers and adjusted his fire until it crossed paths with the slow-moving Cobra just as it started firing its 20-millimeter cannon at Collins and Everett. Ryan's fire hit the cockpit and smashed through the canopy glass and into the pilot and the weapon's man.

Ryan's jaw fell as he watched the Cobra turn over and fall away. The rotors smashed into the scrub and the small helicopter erupted in a fireball.

Fifty yards away, Jack and Carl had stopped and were looking at the downed Cobra and then back at Ryan. The small navy man waved quickly and then ducked as small-caliber rounds struck the Range Rover from the rear. When Ryan turned, he saw ten men running in his direction. It crossed his mind for a split second to turn the machine gun on the charging Coalition men, but he decided that he had pressed his luck just as far as he could for the day. He hopped out and ran to the mosque.

Collins and Everett ran through the opening of the tower base and slammed right into two Coalition men who had entered unseen. Everett slammed the man so hard that he hit the rounded wall, and when he rebounded toward Carl, he shot him three times. The other didn't live quite as long, as Collins in a last-second move raised his 9-millimeter and shot the man twice in the head. Everett almost shot Ryan as he entered the tower base.

Jack didn't wait for the others as he wrapped one of the three ropes around his right boot once and then took up a large loop in his right hand. Then, without hesitation, he pushed off into the shaft. Ryan and Everett followed. Ryan didn't know how to rappel without the proper equipment, so he just grabbed the rope and went hand over hand until it started cutting and burning. As he slid down the rope, he passed Everett and Collins and hit the bottom with a thud.

"Dammit," he cried out as he rolled onto his stomach. Everett and Collins landed softly next to him and removed the ropes from their feet. "I think you forgot to train me on that little trick with the rope," he said as he started to rise, wiping blood from his hands.

"Sorry about that. I Didn't think we had the time to show you," Jack said as he took the 9-millimeter from his belt.

"Damn, it's dark," said Everett as he tried to penetrate the darkness around them beyond the light shining down the shaft.

Above, they heard the sounds of many vehicles approaching the mosque.

Jack's foot struck something and he reached down and saw that it was a field pack. He held it toward the sunlight and saw that it was marked with Leekie's name. He opened it and fished inside until he found what he was looking for. He brought out a phosphorescent flare and struck it. He held it up and the darkness gave way to bright light.

"Whoa, I think this may be the place," Everett said as he took in the statues.

Jack looked down and saw one set of tracks leading away from the antechamber of the cave.

"Looks like another opening there, Jack," Everett said as he pointed his weapon at the large opening.

The three men started forward slowly. They walked along the stone-and-earthen walls carved to resemble pillars. There were strange designs etched into them that depicted bulls, disks of a blazing sun, and women and fighting soldiers in armor. Hieroglyphs identical to those they had seen on the scrolls they had recovered lined the walls.

"Ah, Jesus," Ryan said, disgust edging his voice.

Jack held the flare closer and saw the horrible death that had befallen one of Dutton's men. The two halves of his body lay crumpled side by side as if they were just laundry waiting to be picked up.

"Watch where you step," Jack said as he threw the flare down and struck another. He held it close to the dirt floor and saw the sun designs on the packed earth. "Look," he said as he pointed the flare at the ground. Then he looked up and saw a large slit in the natural rock formation where something was hidden, just waiting for someone to step on the sun designs on the ground.

"I wish Sarah was here, she knows these traps far better than us," Ryan said as he slowly backed away from the dead man.

Collins hopped over the line of pressure plates after making sure that one trap didn't lead directly to another. They slowly and cautiously entered what they had thought was another cave, but as the light struck and dispelled the blackness, they saw that it was a manmade extension of the natural cave. Jack could see where the ledge sloped steeply down in front of them.

"Listen," he said.

"Running water," Carl ventured. "A lot of it."

As they entered the larger excavation, Jack felt the same feeling he'd had earlier in the desert above. Eyes were on them. He tried to see beyond the steep slope, but there was nothing.

"Lieutenant?" he shouted.

"Colonel?"

It was Will Mendenhall, his voice echoing off the walls just below the slope's edge. He stood, lowered his 9-millimeter, and took a deep breath.

"I'm sure glad to see you guys."

"Is Leekie with you?" asked Jack.

"She's right here. I thought we were going to make a last stand. I was going to take as many of those bastards with me as I could."

The professor limped up the slope and joined Will.

"Glad to see you made it, Doc," Collins said as he stepped forward.

"Major Dutton, his team?" Mendenhall asked.

Everett just shook his head.

"Damn."

"What have we got down there?"

"You're not going to believe this," Mendenhall said. "Show 'em, Doc."

Leekie gestured for the men to follow. She veered to the right side of the slope and then asked Jack for the flare. She touched it to a small ledge and the entire slope lit up with a ring of fire. The ledge, as it turned out, was a trough filled with something ancient, the smell of which was horrible. Everett, Ryan, and Collins watched as the ring of fire illuminated a series of ornamental pillars that lined each side of the slope, which led to an underground river that raged in front of them. The cool waters fell from a great waterfall that exited an opening sixty feet above. As the water from above struck below, it misted and then disappeared as it entered a natural cave that had stalactites and stalagmites lining the upper and lower edges, making the cave seem as if it were an open mouth full of very sharp teeth.

The vision on the other side of the river was what caught their attention. Placed at the very water's edge on the far shore was a small temple of marble and sandstone that gleamed in the flare's false light. Inside, they could see a giant bronze bull, head and right leg bent as it pawed the ground, just as if it were frozen in time while in the act of attacking.

"Now that is something," Everett said, gazing at the incredible sight.

Mendenhall took Collins by the arm and leaned close.

"I didn't want to tell the doc this earlier, Colonel, but we weren't the first ones here."

"I figured as much. I saw some heavy-equipment tracks in the desert. That, coupled with the fact that the Coalition hit so fast and hard, tells me they were nearby, just waiting to spring their ambush."

Everett heard the last of the conversation as he stepped up.

"If we recovered the plate map, how in the hell did they get here first?" Will asked, looking from Jack to Carl.

"I don't know. After searching for it for thousands of years, they suddenly pop up out of nowhere. Did we miss something in Hawaii?"

"No one from Leekie's group entered before you, Lieutenant?"

"No, sir; I and two Special Ops men were the first."

Leekie and Ryan joined the group.

"What are we waiting for? Let's get what we came to get," she said as she looked at the serious faces of the three.

"I'm the strongest swimmer, Jack; I'll get a rope across and tie it off," Everett said.

"Yeah, just don't end up in Cairo in that current."

Ten minutes later, after Everett had given them all a scare by not coming up for six minutes, they saw him break the surface of the river a hundred yards downstream of the temple. He rested for only a moment before he worked his way back along the slim shore. He tied the rope off to the first pillar in line and made it fast. He then waved the others into the water.

Everett looked around the base of the temple for anything that resembled the trough that Leekie had ignited, but found none. He did, however, find torches, last lit when the foul place had its secret first placed there. Carl pulled his Zippo lighter out of his pocket and reached for the first of the ancient torches. He placed the flame next to it, then hesitated as he saw that it was made from a human arm. The skeletal hand of it held a small bowl. Carl hit it with the flame and it sprang to life with the same awful smell as the trough across the way. He lit all the torches that lined the walls of the temple.

Leekie and Ryan, tied together, were the first to traverse the rope hand over hand. Mendenhall and Collins followed. Everett was at the shore's edge to assist each out of the water.

They rested for only a moment and then made their way to the temple steps. The men allowed Leekie to examine the marble steps first so that they wouldn't make the same mistake as the sergeant had made back in the first cave. Then, she waved them forward. It was Jack who noticed that, for having been buried for close to fifteen thousand years, the temple was in remarkable shape.

Leekie was the first to enter the temple. Everett had retrieved a torch and Jack lit off one of their last flares as they looked on with amazement at the work that had gone into building such a thing beneath the earth. Spaced around and in front of each pillar, lifelike statues of men stared out at them with blank eyes. Some were dressed in ancient armor, others in the flowing robes of a politician. Most were impressive in looks but small in stature. The largest was of a bearded man, a soldier perhaps, with a battle helmet in the crook of his right arm and in his left a bronze spear, which stood out brightly against the white marble of his body. The statue was only five foot seven inches high, much taller than its adjoining companions.

"If these were men of Atlantis, they weren't all that impressive in size," Ryan said, feeling even taller as he stood next to the largest statue. He had no way of knowing that the statue was once of Talos, the last of the great Titans.

"Well, ancient man was a very small creature compared with humans today. Even in biblical times men rarely, if ever, topped a height over five-eight," Leekie said, looking at Ryan.

"Jack," Everett called as he and Mendenhall stood in front of the giant bronze bull.

Collins joined them as Everett shone the torch over the lowered horns of the beast. Jack saw two notches about fifteen inches wide on each of the horns.

"Professor, could you look at this," he called. "Could these notches have held something?"

"Dammit!" Leekie said as she looked at the horns. "The blue diamond was more than likely cradled by the two horns."

"Maybe they were just--"

"It was very difficult removing the diamond from its locked base on those horns, I assure you." The female voice, raised over the sounds of the river, caught them off guard.

Collins, Everett, Ryan, Mendenhall, and Leekie took cover behind the pillars. Jack ventured a look across the river and saw fifty men slowly coming down the slope. The blond-haired woman was behind them, walking slowly with the use of a cane. The soldiers stood silhouetted in the light of the fire ring. She gestured right and then left as her men took up positions in various places on the slope.

Jack looked at his watch and saw that he desperately needed to stall the woman.

"I was hoping you drowned at Pearl Harbor," Jack called out.

"Almost, Colonel Collins, almost," Dahlia said as she paced to her left behind the wall of soldiers. "The Atlantean Key is safely where it should be. We recovered it only ten hours before your arrival here."

Collins did not respond as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a second transmitter, which he had hoped not to use. He looked at the excavated ceiling, hoping that it was mostly earth and not rock. He needed a ground-penetrating signal to pierce through to the surface. As he thought about how he was going to put the transmitter in the right spot, Everett joined him, after sneaking behind the temple.

"We're trapped like rats--there's no way out in the back--"

He went silent when he saw what Jack held in his hand.

"Oh, shit."

Everett recognized the small electronic marker that had a counterpart: one attached to a thousand-pound ground-penetration bomb called a bunker buster.

"I take it you alerted the air force already?"

"Just before we broke cover in the dunes. Niles insisted we have a failsafe."

"It would have been nice if the diamond was still here," Everett said, not taking his eyes off the remote signal.

"It would have been, swabby, but what the hell."

"Yeah, what the hell."

Collins walked to the front of the temple.

"Where did you take it, if you don't mind me asking?"

Dahlia smiled as Collins walked slowly down the steps of the temple. The man's arrogance was beyond anything she had ever seen. She came close to laughing at the bravado of this bastard.

"This isn't the movies, Colonel. I do not tell all even though I am sure you're living the last moments of your life. Just rest assured that because of your failure at the Arizona, the world will--"

Collins raised his weapon and fired as fast as anyone could have thought possible. The first bullet tore through one man's ear and struck Dahlia. It grazed her left shoulder just outside the protection of the vest she was wearing. The rest of the rounds struck men and dropped at least five of them. The commotion gave Jack the time he needed as he reared back and threw the designator across the river. The laser was broadcast on both sides, front and back, so he knew that it didn't need to land upright to work. The device landed about twenty feet up the slope.

"What are you waiting for?" Dahlia screamed, angered almost to the point of hysteria. "Kill that son of a bitch, kill them all!"

Jack hit the temple steps just as large chips of marble started flying. He rolled until he was safe behind one of the thick pillars.

Everett was stunned at what had just happened. Jack had caught even him off guard. He had thrown the transmitter as far as he was able to, giving them hope that they could survive what was coming. Carl fired five rounds into the swirling mist of the falls and hit three of the men.

Ryan and Mendenhall added their fire to Everett's and together they kept the Coalition mercenaries moving and ducking. Jack looked for Dahlia and finally saw her crouching low beside the fire trough. She was directing something behind her. Jack looked up the slope and saw a man place a tube to his upper shoulder.

"Get down!" he cried.

The LAWs rocket was old, but effective. It streaked out of its launch tube and struck a pillar at the front of the temple, smashing it, bringing some of the marble roof down with it.

Jack took careful aim and fired. The man holding the tube in the shadows across the way crumpled as the bullet hit the thickest part of his body; the stomach.

Dahlia saw the man lean forward and slide down the slope. She shook her head in anger, then stood and fired her own pistol at the temple.

Collins saw his chance, lined her up, and pulled the trigger, nothing. He cursed and ejected the spent clip and inserted another. He brought up the Beretta, but Dahlia had lowered her frame once more.

The aircraft was a B-1B bomber. In its belly was just one large egg it needed to drop--the bunker buster. It was there just as a last ditch effort in stopping the Coalition from obtaining the diamond just in case it had not been recovered by Major Dutton and Professor Leekie. Niles knew that it was a last-resort type of mission and called for only if there was no other way. So, naturally, when the air force informed him of the bomb drop, he lowered his head, thinking the worse.

"We have a painted target," said the pilot as he pickled his load off.

The bomb-bay doors opened automatically and the thousand-pound weapon fell free.

"We have a clean drop and designator is receiving target information."

"I hope someone down there knows how to duck," the copilot said as the B-1B bomber turned for home at Diego Garcia.

Dahlia waved forward more men with LAWs rockets. As the volume of Coalition fire increased, she knew she was close to ending the luck of this Colonel Collins. Her embarrassment would be erased and she would be able to look at herself once more without the shame of Collins around her neck.

She smiled, as the pitiful return fire was so ineffective that her men were starting to take chances by standing and taking better aim, pinning Collins and his few men down. It was now only a matter of time. Dahlia saw the men above her on the slope arming the rockets, and when she looked back down the incline she saw one of her men kick something along the ground. It was just dumb luck that she had seen it at all. The black case gleamed in the firelight flickering onto the slope as it skidded to a stop not five feet from her position.

Her eyes widened when she recognized the transmitter. Dahlia knew it was a geo-positioning transmitter, the sort used as a portable ground-penetrating lasing system.

"That crazy bastard is trying to kill us and himself!" she screamed indignantly as she broke free of her safe position and ran down the slope toward the return fire of Collins and his people.

The signal of the laser beacon was weakened by the topsoil and sand above it, but it was enough for the seeker head located in the nose of the bomb to lock on to. Small fins fore and aft maneuvered the fat weapon onto its glide path. This particular smart bomb was the largest in the U.S. inventory capable of guided flight. Falling from a height of thirty thousand feet, it had little trouble penetrating the thickness of the earth.

The world above and in front of them came crashing down. The bomb exploded off-target two hundred feet behind where the slope started in the natural portion of the cave. The fireball killed every man on his feet and buried the rest. The pillars of the temple cracked and started falling as Jack and the others broke for the water below them. They felt the heat burn their skin as they dived just as the earthen roof came cascading down.

Collins was the last to dive into the water and it was he who saw Dahlia as she was catapulted forward, cartwheeling through the air. She landed in the rushing torrent of water and immediately disappeared. Collins dived in and grabbed a handful of hair. He pulled her to the surface just as they shot into the mouthlike cave, and then the world around them went dark.

Jack held on to Dahlia as he tried to relax his body and allow the current to take them where it wanted. His only struggle was to keep the unconscious woman's head above water. At certain points, he found, the harsh current went far beneath the underground roof of the ancient river as it sped along. He saw momentary flashes of light ahead and heard the shouting of the others above the din of the rushing Blue Nile. Bright mineral deposits gleamed wetly as they screamed passed.

Jack's shoulder struck a stalactite and he careened into the smooth, age-worn wall, then a rip current pulled him and Dahlia under. Collins thought that this was where the river disappeared far below the desert and would not rise again until its waters mixed with those of the surface Nile far from where they were.

The roar of the river was growing even louder as Jack came close to passing out for lack of air. Suddenly the dark world filled with light and the waters warmed by twenty degrees as Jack kicked upward. The great current died out as he broke the surface into bright daylight. As he took in great gulps of air, he was never so glad to see the sun as it set low over the western horizon.

As he placed his arm around Dahlia's neck and started kicking, he felt hands and arms around him, pulling him through the water until his feet started dragging in the mud. He was pulled onto the hot sand lining the river. He heard Dahlia coughing and throwing up water next to him and he angrily shoved her body away from his own.

"Damn, Jack, you caught the biggest fish in this damn river," Everett said as he leaned down and made sure that the woman wasn't going to choke to death. "Freshwater piranha, I believe."

Collins coughed up water and rolled onto his stomach. Then he turned and looked at Everett.

"Next time we stay and shoot it out. That was not fun," he said as he looked beyond Carl. "We lose anyone?"

"All accounted for. Will broke his nose, Professor Leekie is crying about losing the temple, and Ryan is bitching that he lost his wallet, but it looks like we'll all live."

Jack pushed himself into a sitting position and looked from Carl to the blond woman lying on her stomach.

"We better find a phone and pass on the bad news."

"Think she'll talk?"

Collins stood on shaky feet, trying to clear his head. Then he looked down at the woman, who was just coming to.

"Yeah, she'll talk, or she may find herself being left in a country where people disappear all the time."

Jack, Carl, Mendenhall, and Ryan were standing behind the two-way glass looking into the interview room. Virginia, feeling sick after her supersonic flight from Nellis onboard an F-15 Eagle, was to handle the interview with Lorraine Matheson--Coalition code name Dahlia--who was presently sitting in a straight-back chair with her hands cuffed to its armrests.

In Nevada, Sarah and her geology team were watching the video feed in hopes of gaining an advantage in their scroll research.

"And they developed this Wave technology from copies of the same scrolls we have in our possession?" Virginia asked, with her arms placed firmly across her chest. Her demeanor was calm, but inside she was seething that this woman could order death and assassination as easily as ordering breakfast.

Dahlia was dressed in the same clothes she'd been wearing when she was apprehended. Virginia understood, from a woman's point of view, that this was grating on her.

"Yes."

Jack had received Dahlia's background check from Europa, who had hacked the FBI mainframe and pulled out her rather mundane file from its stored archives. Lorraine Matheson was the daughter of a wealthy author and was a graduate of U.C., Berkeley. She had squandered some years at the CIA as a researcher before finding the job boring. All through her young life, she had tried to be the exact opposite of her left-wing father and friends. She had eventually quit the CIA and drifted into freelance work in 1978. That was where her file ended.

"We know that certain members of the Coalition are related by blood to other Ancients, so they have heard the same stories about the Atlantean Key and the Wave being the cause of the destruction of Atlantis. Why does this Tomlinson believe he can control it?"

"His science teams estimate that the Wave will be enhanced by twenty million decibels, and the tone grooves on the diamond are a pinpoint decibel control for specific faults and their geologic makeup. That's all I've learned from Tomlinson; he's rather tight-lipped about his plans."

In Nevada, at the mention of geologic makeup, Sarah started thinking. The familiar thought was again at the edge of her memory, then it was gone.

"What is the Coalition's ultimate goal in all of this madness--to take over the world?" Virginia asked.

"You really don't understand anything, do you? The Coalition is out to eliminate the leadership of nations that are a drain on the material wealth of others. They play games with the support offered by building up armed forces used for only one purpose: the subjugation of their own people. Tomlinson seeks to eliminate them from the world stage. Not their people, as in the past attempts, but their leadership."

"If this is so, why the assassinations of western leaders and why a war in Korea that could bring down or weaken the United States?"

"The United States has always favored the status quo of the world. A weakened America will be swayed to mind its own affairs. Leaders financed wholly by the Coalition will receive the wealth of the world--food, money, and comforts will be supplied to their people. You see, why conquer when you can purchase. The use of the Wave is for those countries that will not let go of the old ways. It expeditious," Dahlia said with a smile.

Jack and Everett walked in and handed Virginia a file folder.

"Before we concern ourselves with the real questions you will be asking, have you delved into the more recent materials concerning your friends the Ancients?"

Collins just looked at the woman, not really concerned with what she had to say about Martha and Rothman.

"I think you may be somewhat shocked that they are not the innocents you may have been led to believe." Dahlia raised one eybrow and smirked.

Virginia sat in front of Dahlia and looked at her without saying anything for a moment. Jack and Carl stood with their backs against the glass and waited.

"I believe at this point I should be asking for legal counsel," Dahlia said, looking from face to face.

"Nah, we don't use 'em," Everett said from his place next to Jack.

Virginia opened the folder and pulled out a sheet of paper, then turned it around and laid it so that Dahlia could read it clearly.

"Do you recognize the letterhead on this document?" she asked.

The seal of the president of the United States was embossed at the top.

Dahlia looked and then leaned back in her chair. "Yes."

"Do you see the signature?"

"I have."

"This document clears you of all crimes committed in the United States and her allied treaty nations. In essence, Ms. Matheson, you are hereby pardoned before the facts are brought to public knowledge of the brutal crimes committed against the citizens of the United States. It is a document the new president did not want to sign. Am I clear on this point?"

Dahlia didn't blink an eye; she only waited.

Virginia frowned and placed the letter back into the file folder and started to stand. She was playing this out like an experienced trial lawyer.

"You are clear," Dahlia said before Virginia could stand.

"Good." She removed the letter once again and slid it over to the woman. "Now, the sooner you answer a few questions from my two colleagues here, the sooner you can sign this and then take that much-needed shower and change of clothes you're desperate for."

Collins walked over behind Dahlia and removed her right handcuff.

"Where is he?" he asked, still standing behind her.

Dahlia looked at the document in front of her and then up at Virginia, avoiding Jack as much as she could.

"Crete."

"Why Crete?"

"Because that's where the Coalition will make their final assault."

"How many?" Jack asked, finally turning around.

"Far more than you can handle. I believe your armed forces have far more pressing issues in Korea at the moment, as per Tomlinson's plan."

"How many?" Jack persisted.

"Two thousand defensive troops; I don't really know."

"Equipment?"

"I don't know."

"Again, why Crete?"

"You won't be able to get to them there. He's deep underground," she answered, finally looking Collins in the eyes, and then she smirked.

"Why?"

"To use the Wave, complete with Atlantean Key. He will attack Russia and China. That is everything I know."

Virginia placed the pen on the presidential decree. "Sign it."

Dahlia scribbled her name, never looking away from Collins.

Carl walked over and took the pen, then undid the other cuff. He helped her to her feet and pulled her toward the door.

"Come on, petunia, let's get you to a bar of soap. You're a little ripe."

Before Everett could pull her through the door, Dahlia stopped and turned to Jack.

"I can't resist, Colonel. I do have one more piece of information. Why Crete, you asked," she said, starting to laugh. "Tomlinson is in a city that sank fifteen thousand years ago. Good luck assaulting Atlantis, Colonel."

Everett pulled Dahlia away, but her laughter lingered.

Sarah was in the examination room, deep in thought as she perused one of the ancient scrolls as one of the professors from the Ancient Languages Department sat beside her, explaining a strange design pattern.

"How they even knew about the North and South American continents is anyone's guess. They must have had exploration vessels that at the very minimum rivaled the Vikings' ship design."

Sarah was only half listening as the small memory of the Wave pattern still flickered just beyond her grasp.

"Now, this particular pattern here, according to Europa, is a close match for the continental plate that North America sits on. I say 'resembles' because the fault lines listed by these swirls and valleys are not accurate, nor the ones here, closest to Russia. I really don't know what they are. Without some understanding of their science, we may never know."

Sarah turned to the professor. "Excuse me?"

"Without some understanding of--"

"No, not that. You say Europa didn't recognize the fault lines on the scroll the Ancients created?"

"No, she didn't. The blue swirls listed are accurate faults, but the thicker red lines are a mystery. So either the Atlanteans knew something we didn't and placed faults and plates that we can't see today, or--"

Sarah jumped up and ran out of the clean room. She took the elevator down to the engineering lab, where Pete Golding was still studying the plate and its hologram. Sarah ran right into the middle of the floating map and started looking for a design she had seen earlier.

"Sarah, what's the matter?" Pete asked.

Sarah finally found the design she had seen during the demonstration. It was a Key they hadn't recognized earlier. As she examined it, Pete started looking over her shoulder.

"This fault pattern here, Europa has confirmed it is accurate. This line here beneath it is the continental plate, the same here in Europe and Asia. I didn't recognize patterns in the shape of the continents earlier--only the North and South American plates, because of their unique shape. What's confusing me is that this same pattern is on the map Jack recovered from Westchester. Now that I see it on the hologram, I can tell it runs under both the faults and the tectonic plates. Now look at this," she said to Pete as her fingers traced a series of lines that led from one plate to the next, to the next, and so on. Some of the lines branched out and dwindled to nothing, like the branches of a tree, while the thicker, stronger lines connected the tectonic plates of the world by underground magma veins.

"What are you saying?"

"Somehow, the Atlantean scientists found a way to map what we can't do today. They found out that all the continents and the plates they sit on are in actuality connected."

Pete looked closer at the design, then his eyes widened as he finally pieced together what Sarah was driving at.

"Any massive assault on one tectonic plate could trigger a chain reaction around the world."

"Wouldn't the Coalition ... wouldn't they have seen this?" Pete asked.

"Not without this three-dimensional design they wouldn't. They didn't have the plate map, so they could never have known about it."

"Oh, Sarah, if they use this device on any of these major plates--"

"They could either shift entire continents ... or blow the planet to hell."

The most important meeting in the long and storied history of the Event Group was about to begin. The president's National Security Council was about to be formally introduced to several of the Event Group members. The Group's background would remain hidden from them, as the council thought they were to be briefed by Compton's secret think tank. Nevada and Ethiopia could see the council via video link.

"Ladies and gentlemen, we are very short of time here. The briefings will be short and to the point. Questions will be relayed to me and I will ask them," Niles said, sitting at the head of the table next to the president.

"Secretary of Defense Johnson, if you please."

"As of this moment, the situation in Korea, while not yet stable, has cooled somewhat. We have pulled back all defensive troops from the border and have entrenched around Seoul. The armored divisions of Kim Jong Il have not made any threatening gestures as of yet, but CIA reports there is tension between Kim and at least one of his generals in the field. We will get more on that in the next few hours. On reinforcing, we have deployed the Hundred and First and Eighty-second Airborne to act as rapid deployment out of Japan."

As everyone watched, pictures started flashing on monitors in Washington, Nevada, and Addis Abba.

"The Chinese and Russians are massing heavy bomber and fighter forces at their Pacific bases. They are not lowering their defense status even with the Coalition evidence we have provided them. We have the Eisenhower and Nimitz carrier groups steaming for the Sea of Japan, but it will take at least five more days to deploy them defensively." The secretary paused and removed his glasses. "We are spread thin. If anything outside of Korea erupts, we will be desperate to cover it."

Niles nodded in thanks. Then he turned to the head of the FBI. "Any word on the forensics end from Chicago?"

"We have concluded that none of the bodies found inside the house are that of William Tomlinson. We must surmise he escaped," he said angrily.

"Mr. President, my people have come up with several pieces of information that will be important to this meeting. I ask that close attention be paid to the military aspects of what is said because the shortages the secretary of defense spoke of are a very serious problem if what we think is happening is accurate."

The president nodded.

"Several of you know Colonel Jack Collins. Colonel, explain what you have uncovered on the Coalition and its whereabouts, please."

As briefly as possible, Jack explained what they had learned about the Coalition thus far. He explained the confrontation and failure at Pearl Harbor and the results of Dahlia's interrogation. Then came the shocker.

"In essence, the Coalition is going to strike at the Chinese and Russian nations within a short time frame. We have traced the Coalition hierarchy to a base on Crete, and this base is heavily defended."

"Ken, we need intelligence on this Crete operation as soon as possible," the president said.

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs nodded. "I will order photo recon overflights immediately."

"May I recommend satellite surveillance only, or we may tip our hand that we know where they are," Collins stated from the Ethiopian consulate.

"General, this will involve retasking a few satellites. You better get Space Command on it right away," the president ordered.

"Now, Jack, do we have any ideas on how we can assault the island with the few assets we have in the area?" Niles asked.

"A nuclear strike is out of the question because of the civilian population. Even if we could manage evacuating the populace, we believe the Coalition operation is under ground--very deep under ground, where air strikes are not possible. I'm afraid we have to do this the hard way."

"Colonel Collins, on Dr. Compton's recommendation, I am placing you in command of all operations outside of the actual assault. General Caulfield will coordinate with field command. Gentlemen, plan it well."

The president didn't say it outright, but he had just ordered the planning stage for the invasion of Atlantis.