Nellis sat back down at the table as he went on.
‘Black Knight’s orbit has begun to decay at a greater rate than we predicted, likely as a result of micro-meteorite impacts over thousands of years that have reduced its velocity. In short, it’s coming down and soon. Our mission is to secure the object before anybody else can reach it, because while we can veil signals intelligence from Black Knight nobody is going to fail to see the re-entry burn when a fifteen ton alien satellite comes down through the atmosphere at hypersonic speed.’
‘How come we haven’t brought it down already, in the Space Shuttle?’ Vaughn asked.
‘Too big and too heavy,’ Jarvis replied. ‘Believe me, we would have had this thing down here long ago if it had been possible. There was apparently some talk in the 1990s of tethering it to the International Space Station for long-term study, but the International bit of that equation prevented us from doing so. Even today, nobody wants Russia or China getting their hands on whatever technology might be aboard that thing.’
‘What’s the plan then?’ Ethan asked. ‘Where is this thing going to come down and why are we here talking about it? Surely this is a military situation?’
General Nellis shifted uncomfortably in his seat and gestured for Jarvis to continue.
‘Black Knight’s signals are getting a reply,’ Jarvis announced.
The scientists at the table almost erupted in shouts of delight and excitement, their faces beaming with astonishment.
‘A reply?’ one of them uttered, a young woman with brown hair in a neat bob whose name tag said her name was Amy. ‘From where?’
Jarvis switched the image on the screen from one of the Black Knight to an orbital satellite image of a region of the globe that was instantly recognizable.
‘The Antarctic,’ he announced. ‘The signals travelling up are much weaker than those coming down but there’s no question about it: somebody up there is talking to Black Knight, and we have absolutely no idea who it might be.’
Ethan stared at the image of the return signal’s source as Nellis spoke.
‘Ethan, you have suitable experience in dealing with these kinds of phenomena, and with Nicola Lopez out of the picture for now I’d like you to take Hannah Ford down there with a research team and figure out what the hell’s going on.’
Ethan glanced across at Hannah. ‘I’m not sure that we can be of any help, and what about logistics?’
‘We can’t make a major assault force deployment to the Antarctic,’ Nellis explained. ‘The Russians and the Chinese would identify it in an instant and move assets of their own in order to figure out what we’re doing. The best shot we have at this is deploying a small team to intercept and examine Black Knight and the source of the earth-bound signals, while we figure out a way of getting more support to you.’
‘What about security, and firepower?’ Hannah asked. ‘It’s not impossible that other people know about Black Knight no matter how well NASA thinks they’ve covered it up. The Soviets got into space before we did and may have some idea of what’s up there.’
‘We’ll be dispatching you with a twelve man team from the US Navy SEALs,’ Jarvis explained. ‘They’re trained for Arctic warfare and will be deployed to protect you all. You’ll leave in an hour aboard an Air Force KC-135 bound for Port Stanley on the British Falkland Islands, and from there fly south to join the US Coastguard vessel Polar Star off McMurdo Sound, Antarctica. The SEAL support will likely involve whatever means we can produce of getting Black Knight out of the area and onto US soil.’
‘If it survives,’ Ethan said. ‘There’s no guarantee that it will endure the burn-up in descent.’
‘We’re acting on the presumption that it will,’ Jarvis admitted. ‘But once that thing hits the atmosphere it’ll be leaving a trail of fire across the entire night sky. We might be able to announce it as a comet or meteor burning up in the atmosphere, but we can’t forecast it or the Russians and others will of course search for it and the whole thing will be blown.’
Ethan nodded.
‘Where is Black Knight predicted to impact?’
‘That’s the thing,’ Nellis revealed. ‘It’s slowing down and appears to be preparing to touch down close to the source of the earth-bound signals.’
Ethan stared at the general.
‘Slowing down?’ he echoed. ‘On purpose?’
‘Yes,’ Nellis replied. ‘It recently changed direction. We think that it may be under intelligent control.’
V
Gordon LeMay stood in an apartment on the 39th floor of the Pierre Hotel and looked out over the expanses of the city’s Upper East Side and Central Park. Despite being the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and having the ear of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the President himself, LeMay realized that he was intimidated by the sheer exuberance that he was witnessing.
The apartment contained five bedrooms, marble floors and walls, voice-controlled lights and facilities and a wall-mounted, concave screen seven feet across that probably cost more than LeMay earned in a year. But he was only in one apartment, of the many that were currently being rented. His employers, a cabal of men who were colloquially known as Majestic Twelve, had rented out the entire top floor of the hotel to ensure absolute secrecy. LeMay knew that the cost of doing so was in the order of half a million dollars per month, the rent coming with a butler service, twice-daily maid service and a chauffeur driven Jaguar.
LeMay had arrived via that Jaguar to a discreet entrance at the rear of the hotel to avoid being spotted or photographed by any journalists who might be lingering outside the hotel in the hopes of getting a shot of the latest movie star hogging the front pages of the news. LeMay’s graying features and sagging jowls were well known to the media, frequent interviews and sessions in Congress or the Senate a feature of his role within the law enforcement and intelligence community. Likewise he knew that the existing members of Majestic Twelve would also arrive discreetly, even though their identities were unknown even to LeMay and that even were they to be photographed they would not be recognized by the ordinary man in the street. It was a curious irony when compared to the global media presence of Presidents and Prime Ministers that the people who held the greatest wealth and power in the world were virtually unknown and made great efforts to remain that way. Although they normally met only once annually under the cover of the Bilderberg Group meetings, today was an important day and LeMay had been summoned to New York to meet with them for the first time.
Few people knew of the existence, let alone the relevance, of the Bilderberg Group.
Members of the Bilderberg, together with their sister organizations — the Trilateral Commission and the Council on Foreign Relations, were charged with the post-war take-over of the democratic process. The measures implemented by this group provided general control of the world economy through indirect political means.
Bilderberg was originally conceived by Joseph H. Retinger and Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands. Prince Bernhard, at the time, was an important figure in the oil industry and held a major position in Royal Dutch Petroleum, otherwise known as Shell Oil.
In 1952 Retinger approached Bernhard with a proposal for a covert conference to involve NATO leaders in general discussion on international affairs. The meeting would allow each participant to speak his mind freely because no media representative would be permitted inside; nor would there be any news bulletin about the meeting or the topics discussed. If any leaks occurred, the journalists responsible would be “discouraged” from reporting it.