“Okay,” Stafford said. “We need Aaron to stay here and control the server.”
“The trap is set,” Jake said. “Now we wait and see if they take the bait.”
CHAPTER 21
“Are we going to know when the signal is sent to go to the shelters?” Jake asked.
“Oh, yeah,” Honi replied. “Brett is busy with the graphics, so I have Tracy monitoring the burner phones. They shouldn’t be hard to spot — thousands of burner cell phones going off at the same time. It’ll take a few seconds to retrieve the content of the calls. If they’re going to take the bait, when do you think the calls will go out?”
“Well, the detonation took place a little after four this morning. With under eighteen hours travel time for the CME, minus twelve hours warning, I’d say around ten this morning, east coast time — seven on the west coast.”
“That’s in about five hours,” she replied. “I’ll let Tracy know. I just feel like we should be there, not stuck in the middle of Bolivia.”
“Yeah. Fastest time to get back home is ten hours. By then most of the action is going to be over.”
They walked out of the building into the darkness. Jake turned on the light of his M-16 rifle and swept the bright beam around. The ground was actually asphalt paving painted with small squares in six different muted colors, ranging from very light green to dark green, with some brown and black mixed in. The building was covered with the same colors.
“Fractal camouflage,” Jake said. “No wonder it looked like trees from the satellite.”
They walked over to the undamaged saucer covered with a fractal camouflage tarp. The saucer was fifty feet in diameter and ten feet high. Both the top and the bottom were gentle domes with their curve blending to a straight angle that met in a sharp circular edge six feet off the ground. Jake lifted the tarp and looked underneath.
“The door’s open. Has anybody been inside yet?”
Honi shook her head. “Possible radiation hazard. Andropov has to check it out first.”
“So what’s wrong with now?”
“Nothing, I guess. Let’s go get him.”
“I don’t have my radiation suit,” Andropov protested.
Honi put her fists on her hips.
“Okay, okay,” he said. “But if it looks even a little hot, I’m out of there.”
“Agreed,” Jake replied. “We aren’t going to need the camo tarp.” He gave it a hard yank. The whole tarp slid off the saucer and crumpled to the ground in a semicircular pile.
Andropov went into the Osprey and emerged carrying his radiation sensor and a flashlight. He started with the outside surface and crawled underneath the saucer.
“Same signature as the one in New Mexico,” he said. He scrambled out from underneath and continued with checking the ramp, as he slowly entered the saucer. “Element 115 is present. Radiation levels are above background but still within safe levels. They must have been able to shield the passenger compartment from the drive source.”
“So we can come in?” Jake asked.
“Yes. Just don’t touch anything until we know what it does.”
Jake ducked under the circular edge of the saucer; Honi walked straight in. They slowly crept up the ramp. The inside room was circular with a center section raised six inches above the surrounding floor. Two padded seats were mounted in the center on swivels next to a curved console, which formed three-quarters of a circle around the two seats. The outer edge of the room was formed into a continuous padded bench with safety harnesses placed at three-foot intervals. The ceiling sloped down from the curved dome at the top leaving just enough room for someone to sit comfortably on the bench. Jake couldn’t stand up straight unless he stood on or next to the central platform, but Honi could. She walked around the room taking in the sleekness of the design.
Jake stepped up onto the central platform and examined the console.
“Hey. The labels look like they’re in German.”
Andropov came over and looked. “They are. At least it’s not like some of the alien writing I’ve seen. This I can understand.”
“How do we turn on the lights?” Jake asked.
Andropov studied the console. “There’s nothing about lights here. This button says ‘Power’.” Under the label was a circle darkly etched into the console. There were no buttons, knobs or switches. Just the smooth flat light gray surface with words etched above circular and rectangular zones.
Jake reached out and touched the circle under the ‘Power’ label. A quiet whirring noise emanated from the floor.
“No, no, no,” Andropov yelled. “I told you not to touch anything!” He began sweeping his radiation sensor around wildly.
“Actually, you told me not to touch anything until we knew what it did. This turns on the power, just like it said.”
Andropov moved his sensor down to the floor and, stooped over, walked around the center console. “Radiation levels are higher, but still tolerable.”
Honi stepped up on the center platform and sat in the seat on the left. The inner domed ceiling began to glow soft white, which spread to the sloped section around the upper half of the saucer. Suddenly images appeared on the ceiling and the lighted sloped section. Everything around the saucer was visually clear, as if it was daylight and the sides didn’t exist at all.
Jake could see three Army soldiers turning toward the saucer. He saw their mouths move as the sound was filtering in through the open doorway. Dave Smith of the President’s Unit came running out of the building. A soldier pointed to the ramp on the saucer and Dave came running on in.
“What the hell are you guys doing?”
“We seem to have gained a functioning saucer,” Jake said. “Now all we have to do is figure out how to fly it home.”
“Oh, no you don’t. We have experienced pilots for that. You aren’t qualified to fly anything. I’ve read your service jacket, now shut this thing down before you get somebody killed.”
“The longer this saucer sets here, the more likely the other saucer is to return,” Jake said. “And it may not be alone. We need to move it sooner rather than later.”
Dave pursed his lips and looked around the inside of the saucer. “We were planning on lifting it out with a CH-47 Chinook helicopter. But we can’t get one in here until noon, seven and a half hours from now.”
“We would like to be back in Washington when the rest of this goes down,” Jake said.
“So would we,” Dave replied. He looked at the round bench seat circling the room. As Dave’s eyes moved jerkily from one harness to another, Jake could see him assessing the space for his team.
“Do you have any certified pilots in your unit?” Jake asked.
“Yeah,” Dave replied slowly.
“Any of them read German?”
Dave looked at the console. “Unfortunately, no, we don’t.”
Jake smiled. “Let me guess. You’re the pilot.”
Dave smiled. “Actually, two of us are pilots, but neither of us knows any German.”
“Andropov knows German. So what are we waiting for?”
“We don’t know how this thing operates and we don’t know about navigation. We don’t even know what kind of fuel it uses.”
“The Professor said one of these saucers flew to Mars and back. I’m guessing fuel isn’t going to be an issue, and if one of these saucers went to Mars and back, the navigation system has to be pretty sophisticated and easy to use. In fact I’d bet the flight controls are user friendly, as well.”
Dave looked closely at the console. Jake could almost see the wheels turning in Dave’s mind.
“Sit in this seat,” Jake suggested.
Dave walked around the console and sat next to Honi. He studied the words on the console and observed what was happening outside the saucer by looking at the walls.