Borman looked into the priest’s eyes. What he asked could be regarded in some circles as an act of treachery. It was certainly more than enough to justify his dishonourable discharge from the Air Force.
It was a long way down from national hero to universal disgrace, although he suspected it would never happen — that would reflect too poorly on the space program, right at the moment America was closer than ever to landing the first men on the Moon.
But men, it seemed, would not be alone up there.
“What do we know about them?” Borman asked.
“There is a dialogue of sorts between ourselves and the Anunnaki,” said Paulson. “This is where my involvement with Verus might become a little clearer for you. The Anunnaki have a liaison who is based inside the Vatican. Being the most enduring of human institutions of the past two millennia, they saw Vatican City as the most strategic place to work from.”
Borman looked at Menzel. “Meaning the intelligence community is forced to negotiate with the Catholic Church on matters of the utmost secrecy.”
“Secrecy has never been a problem for the Vatican,” Paulson assured him. “It is very much in the interests of the Church to keep a lid on the Anunnaki presence.”
“You’re confident they represent no threat to the planet?”
“The Earth is their home too,” Menzel said. “They’ve been here for thousands of years. If there is a point in time when one must assume a migrant to be naturalised, the Anunnaki passed it a long time ago.”
“They have a particular connection with Earth history you of all people will appreciate,” said Paulson. “They are mentioned in the Bible.”
Borman’s eyes widened and he examined the priest’s eyes closely for signs of a lie.
“Mentioned where?”
“In the Old Testament, of course. In a number of places — in Daniel and Jubilees they are called the Watchers. They’re also called the Nephilim.”
“The Nephilim were fallen angels,” Borman recalled.
“Angel is a very emotive word, Colonel,” Menzel replied. “One man’s angel is another man’s alien. But as those passages suggest, their presence on Earth was, in those days at least, openly acknowledged.”
“There are those among the higher ranks of the clergy who believe the Nephilim might be closer to gods than angels,” said Paulson.
Menzel rolled his eyes at the priest’s description. “Frank, you’ve no doubt heard mention of a missing link in anthropology — an undiscovered piece of humanity’s evolution absent from the fossil record that would link ancient man to homo sapiens. We believe the Anunnaki are that missing link.”
Borman was incredulous. “How does that work?”
“Cross-breeding,” said Menzel. “To quote the Old Testament: ‘The sons of the gods laying with the daughters of men’.”
“In theological terms, one might go so far as to call them our Creators,” said Paulson.
Borman didn’t know what to say. It was enough to make him — indeed anyone — question their most fundamental beliefs. This was a revelation so immense it had the capacity to bring about a paradigm shift in modern civilisation. Wars had been fought over less.
No wonder the Catholic Church was happy to keep it a secret.
Borman stared hard at Clarence Paulson. “If what you say is true, surely you are the last man I should trust with my photographs. The Vatican would never want them to see the light of day. If the Anunnaki are gods, as you put it, the Church is little more than an empty vessel.”
Paulson nodded, as if in agreement. “Which is why I operate at arm’s length from the Vatican. The Church has no authority inside the Verus Foundation.”
“I only have your word on that.”
“No, you have mine as well,” said Menzel. “And believe me, I have no interest in preserving the Christian myth.”
Borman shifted uncomfortably in his seat. He found Menzel both arrogant and offensive. But he also knew he must find a way to keep his personal feelings at a distance and think like a military man.
He pondered the value of the photographs from an intelligence perspective. On their own, they would not reveal much. The astronauts’ observations would offer a much more useful insight into the capabilities of the Anunnaki spacecraft. The photographic evidence would merely confirm their sighting. Photographic analysis might offer something more useful, but the existence of the alien craft itself was obviously no great surprise.
“If the Verus Foundation is already operating inside the intelligence loop, why not simply request a copy of the photos?” Borman asked them.
“That would seem an obvious solution, wouldn’t it?” said Menzel. “And if the various arms of US intelligence cooperated rather than competed with one another, it might even be possible. But the NSA and the CIA don’t trust one another, and neither has much faith in the competence of defence intelligence. The level of classification we’re talking about here also goes way beyond normal intelligence channels. Only a handful of people will be made aware of your photographs. To everyone outside that closed loop, they simply won’t exist.
“How do you request access to something that doesn’t exist?”
Once more, Gordon Cooper’s sighting sprang to mind. Borman could see his photos disappearing in just the same way. “What guarantee would I have you won’t use this against me, or that the photos will be leaked and my crew will take the blame?”
Menzel leant forward in his chair. “The Verus Foundation is not completely autonomous. Any decision to publicly reveal anything from its archives must to be unilaterally agreed upon by the people in that closed loop I told you about.”
“It’s the only way to ensure the foundation can continue to function,” said Paulson. “Any future release of information can never come from us. It must be attributed to a different source, most likely an arm of government.”
“Or science,” Menzel added.
“For the sake of credibility,” said Paulson.
“Look around you,” said Menzel. “In this room, there are no secrets. Here and now I give you my word as a scientist and a patriot this photo will remain in the Verus archive for at least 50 years. Probably longer. However, from the moment we return to the Yorktown I shall never admit this discussion took place.”
“This information changes everything,” said Borman. “What makes you think humanity will ever be ready to hear it? By what measure could anybody make that call? Surely the impact will be the same, whether you go public now or in 50 years.”
“Computers are changing the world,” said Menzel. “There will come a day when information will spread so quickly that no intelligence service in the world will be able to stop it.”
Borman wanted to trust them, but it was a big ask. “You’re with Navy intelligence,” he reminded Menzel. “I take it you realise this makes you complicit in an act of treason.”
Menzel shook his head. “Treason is an action designed to deliberately threaten one’s own nation. This is no such thing. All the relevant people will still see your photographs. I am merely acting upon an opportunity to record a moment in human history that might otherwise get lost in a miasma of compartmentalised secrecy. No-one but Verus has the bigger picture in mind with this material.”
It’s why Harry Truman set up the foundation alongside MJ-12 in the first place, thought Menzel.
“This is about so much more than intelligence, it’s about the truth,” the astrophysicist continued. “One hundred years from now, don’t you want the world to look back and see what you three have seen up there?”
Borman sighed. The man had a point.