“The commanding officer on the Wyoming, Captain Rogers, has decided to stay on station and continue performing their last assigned duty, which was to monitor the Bermuda Triangle Gate and be prepared for any contingency. There’s really nothing else for him to do.”
The President’s voice became firmer. “Gentlemen, I’ve been asking for options, but I’ve yet to get any. Before many more people get affected, we have got to do something!”
A silence filled the speaker and Foreman still didn’t move in his glass cubicle. He looked down at the console. Still no connection with Sin Fen.
“The source of this is in this Angkor Gate, isn’t it?” the President asked.
Foreman finally spoke. “It started there,” he acknowledged. “There seems to be other sources opened now at other Gates.”
“But this was the beginning?” the President pressed.
“Yes, sir.”
“Then why don’t we just blast it?” the President asked. “Wipe this Angkor place off the map?”
Foreman could hear the startled consternation that suggestion caused in the war room. Bancroft’s voice was the loudest. “Sir, this place happens to be in the middle of another country. We just can’t blast it off the map! Think of the international fall out.”
“Think of what we’re facing here!” the President returned. “This thing gets any worse there won’t be any international anything to worry about.”
“Sir,” Foreman said. “I agree that we have to destroy this source, but the problem is two-fold on a practical level. First, we don’t know exactly where inside the Angkor Gate the source is and we’re now talking about an area over two hundred square kilometers. It’s blocked all our imaging techniques.
“The second problem is how to destroy the source once found. You now know the history of these Gates and how they affect people, aircraft and ships. And you know what happened to the Thunder Dart. Anything that we try sending into the Angkor Gate will be destroyed. Michelet lost his plane; a chopper was just blasted trying to fly in there. We can’t see in and even if we could, I don’t know how we would take any action.”
“So we sit and wait until it consumes us?” the President’s voice went up a few levels.
“Sir, I’m trying to find the source,” Foreman said.
“Try harder.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Water washed over the top of Dane’s boot, soaking it and going up to his waist as he stepped into the moat. He looked at the slime covered water. The ground underneath his boot was smoothly cut stone. He could see that the moat extended for four hundred meters before ending at the crumbled wall that surrounded the city. Numerous trees and plants had taken root in the moat, making it part of the jungle, but Dane wondered what it must have looked like when the city was newly built and the moat full of clear water.
The air crackled and swirled overhead, dark streaks in the midst of the greyish-yellow clouds that blocked the sun. Jagged bolts of lightning lit up the sky in all directions.
He splashed forward, Freed and Beasley following closely.
To the south, wading through the same water, Ariana and Carpenter also saw the city walls. They no longer sensed forms around them and both felt more at ease now that they could see and weren’t surrounded by the mist. But the golden beam coming out of the center tower of the dead city and the ominous sky overhead produced its own share of anxiety.
Carpenter looked over her shoulder, back toward the massive ridge that surrounded the city. “Think the snake has a way through?”
“I hope not,” Ariana answered.
“What do you think is in the city?” Carpenter asked.
“I don’t know,” Ariana snapped.
“I do something to you?” Carpenter asked.
Ariana halted in surprise and looked at the other woman. “No.”
“Well, you sure act like it,” Carpenter said. She wiped a hand across her forehead and flicked away the sweat. “I’m just a minion, doing what I was told to do. I didn’t screw up your mission and I sure as hell helped you get this far. If you’re pissed at your father, pissed at Hie-Tech, pissed at God-knows-what, that’s fine, but we’re all we got, so let’s try to treat each other a little better, OK?”
Ariana slowly nodded. Carpenter reached out and gripped Ariana’s forearm and squeezed. Ariana wrapped her fingers around Carpenter’s, feeling the muscles rippling under her fingers.
“Let’s find out what’s going on,” Carpenter released her grip.
Chelsea eased under a bush, her nostrils flared wide. She edged forward to Sin Fen’s unconscious body, battered and bruised from the fall down the ravine. Chelsea dipped her head and ran her rough tongue along Sin Fen’s cheek. There was no response. Chelsea whined, wishing for her master.
She leaned forward, this time pushing her soft muzzle against the woman.
There was a hole in the stone wall. The blocks, each about four feet square, were blasted apart, as if a large hammer had come down on them. Dane climbed up some of the rubble and began working his way over it. Freed followed, giving Beasley a hand.
Dane felt his skin tingle as he crossed the center of the wall and entered Angkor Kol Ker. He paused, letting the other two catch up.
“Feel that?” Freed asked.
“Yes.” Dane stood perfectly still. “This is the heart of it.”
Dane looked left and right. A broad road ran along the inside of the wall. Directly ahead streets ran between stone buildings, which the jungle had battered but not completely obliterated. And above them, a kilometer away, the golden beam reached into the dark sky from the tip of the Prang.
As Dane climbed down the rubble, he heard something to his left. He spun in that direction, weapon coming up, even though he sensed no threat. The muzzle centered on two women, one black, one white.
“Ariana!” Freed ran forward.
Dane lowered the weapon as Freed reached the women. He followed with Beasley at his side. Freed rapidly did the introductions.
Ariana took them in with a sharp glance. “How do we get out?”
Dane almost smiled. She was wasting no time getting to the heart of the matter.
Freed pointed back in the direction they had come. “That way.”
Dane shook his head. “We haven’t accomplished what we came for.”
“I have,” Freed said.
Dane swept his hand toward the moat. “You’re welcome to go back.”
Freed paused. “We wouldn’t have a chance without you.”
Dane turned in the opposite direction. “That’s what we’re here for.”
Ariana followed his gaze. “A similar beam came out of our plane, but we blew it up.”
“Do you know what it is?” Dane asked, even though he already knew the answer.
“I don’t know what any of this is,” Ariana said.
Dane focused for a moment on the other woman. “You’re with Foreman also?” he asked Carpenter.
“How did you know that?”
Dane gave a short laugh. “Seems like his reach is everywhere. He’s had many years to prepare for this.”
Carpenter shrugged. “You obviously know more than I do.”
“What are we doing?” Freed asked in exasperation. “Let’s get out while we can.”
Dane shook his head. “If we don’t stop that-” he pointed at the beam-”there will be nothing for us to ‘get out’ to.”
“How do we stop it?” Freed demanded.
But Dane wasn’t listening. There was a crackling noise to the right. A small black circle appeared in the air, about a foot in diameter and four feet off the ground. The circle grew elliptically, extending down to the stone street.