“Now I know the why and how of the pyramids. They were space beacons, built by rebels using the limited technology they found and the human labor they could exploit to try to reach out to their own people if they ever came close enough.
“And the bomb the rebels took. Aspasia knew about that, but he couldn’t go in and take it away, not without letting the humans know of his power and existence or without having the rebels set it off.
“You see, the rebels, there weren’t many of them. There were never more than a few thousand of the Airlia on the planet at any one time. And they went other places and worked their way in among the humans. Jorgenson’s diffusionist theory is correct. There are many connections between all those ancient civilizations, and there is a reason they all started at roughly the same time, but it wasn’t because man crossed the ocean. It was because Atlantis was destroyed and the Airlia spread out across the planet.”
“I saw a pyramid just like the guardian but smaller, down on the lowest level in Dulce,” Turcotte said.
“Yes, that was the computer the rebels hid,” Nabinger said. “Not as powerful as the guardian but still far more advanced than anything we could comprehend. Gullick and his people must have just recovered that this year when the find was made at Jamiltepec in Mexico.”
“And Gullick turned it on,” Turcotte said, all the pieces falling into place.
“Yes,” Nabinger said. “And it didn’t work the way Gullick thought. He was no longer in control — the rebel computer was in control of him. It wanted the mothership. That was the thing the rebels wanted more than anything else: the only way to get home.”
Von Seeckt turned to Duncan. “I told you we must not try to fly the mothership. General Gullick and his people might have brought the wrath of this enemy down upon our planet!”
“I don’t think Gullick really knew what he was doing,” Turcotte said, rubbing the right side of his head.
“The threat the Airlia faced was thousands of years ago,” Duncan noted. “Certainly—”
“Certainly, nothing!” Von Seeckt cut her off. He pointed at the screen behind him. “This thing still works. The foo fighters this computer controls still fly. The bouncers still fly. What makes you think the enemy’s equipment isn’t still functioning out there somewhere, waiting to pick up a signal and go in and destroy Earth? The Airlia turned the mothership off because they were obviously losing their war!”
Lisa Duncan nodded. “This is beyond us. We have to bring the President here.” The golden glow suddenly went white, then a three-dimensional picture appeared. It showed the early-morning sky and a phalanx of small dots moving across. “What’s that?” Duncan asked.
“You might not get the chance to talk to the President,” Turcotte said. “Those are F-16’s coming this way.”
CHAPTER 34
Gullick sat in the back of the large Navy helicopter parked on the runway and listened in on the command frequency as the strike force moved in. There was enough ordnance on those planes to reduce the volcano to rubble. After that — Gullick shook his head, trying to get rid of a pounding headache and think clearly. They would have to dig down to the mothership again. And then, then—
“Are you all right, sir?” The navy lieutenant was worried. He didn’t know what was going on, but one thing for sure, the shit was hitting the fan.
“I’m fine,” Gullick snapped.
“We’ve got bogeys!” the radar man called out. “Coming up out of the volcano.”
The flight leader saw the foo fighters rising up to greet his planes. He’d been in the wardroom when the flight that had been dispatched to set the trap had gone down, their engines shut down by these very same craft.
“Eagle Flight, this is Eagle Six. Abort! Abort!”
The F-16’s banked hard and kicked in afterburners, the foo fighters in hot pursuit.
In the guardian cavern everyone relaxed as they watched the warplanes turn away, followed by the foo fighters.
“Seems like this guardian can take care of itself,” Turcotte said.
“Is there any way we can get hold of Washington?” Duncan asked. “I need to get this madman Gullick relieved.”
“Can you ask the guardian to let us use the SATCOM radio in the bouncer?” Turcotte asked Nabinger.
“I’ll try,” Nabinger replied.
Gullick had one last card up his sleeve. He knew there was an Aegis-class cruiser in the Lincoln battle group. He grabbed the microphone and called the admiral.
The three-dimensional glow suddenly shifted perspective and showed four trails of flame coming off a warship.
“What the hell are those?” Kelly asked, freezing Turcotte and Duncan in their tracks.
Turcotte spun around. “Tomahawk cruise missiles.”
“He’s going nuclear?” Duncan was shocked.
“No, those probably aren’t nuclear, but they carry a hell of a wallop,” Turcotte said.
“Do you think the foo fighters can stop them?
“No time. The foo fighters are chasing away the jets,” Turcotte said. “They’re out of position.”
They watched, mesmerized, as the four missiles hit supersonic speed and crossed the shoreline of Easter Island, less than three miles away.
“We’ve got maybe four seconds,” Turcotte said.
The image blanked out, then returned, showing the island unchanged. “What happened?” Kelly asked.
On the Lincoln the admiral was asking the same question of his staff on the battle bridge. He ignored General Gullick’s screamed demands as he talked to the officers working there.
“Near as I can tell, sir, there’s some sort of force field around the volcano. The Tomahawks were destroyed when they hit it.”
The admiral rubbed his forehead. He didn’t have a clue what was going on. He’d already lost six multimillion-dollar fighters, and now four Tomahawks.
“I demand you launch another strike!” Gullick was yelling on one frequency.
“Sir, I’ve got communication with someone claiming they are inside that volcano,” one of the men said.
“Give me that frequency,” the admiral said, ignoring Gullick. He picked up a mike. “This is Admiral Springfield.”
“Admiral, this is Lisa Duncan, the President’s science adviser. You’d better listen up and listen good. Who authorized you to attack this place?”
“General Gullick, ma’am.”
“General Gullick is insane.”
“He had the proper authorization codes and—”
“Admiral, I want you to get me a direct line to the President. I’ll give you my authorization codes to get that call through, and we’ll get this all sorted out. Clear?”
The admiral gave a relieved sigh. “Clear, ma’am.”
The golden tendril unwrapped itself from around Nabinger’s head and returned to the orb. The orb pulsed and seemed to grow larger.
“What’s happening?” Kelly asked.
“I don’t know,” Nabinger replied. “As much as I’m getting information from the guardian, it’s getting information from me.”
On Easter Island, Gullick was still yelling into the radio in the back of the helicopter when the navy lieutenant took off his headset and looked at the general. “Sir, I’m under orders to take you into custody.”
Gullick’s face twitched and he ripped off his own headset. “What? Who the hell do you think you are?”