Area 51: The Mission-3 (24 page)

Kopina walked over to the rack and stood next to one of them. "This suit has taken fifteen years of development. We put as much work into this at Space Command as the Air Force put into the Stealth bomber. This suit represents four billion dollars of research and experimentation."

"I'm surprised I haven't heard of this program." "It was highly classified,"

Osebold said, as if that explained everything quite satisfactorily.

It was dark inside the Cube conference room, only a single light in the corner giving any relief. Larry Kincaid had his feet up on the conference table, leaning far back in a seat, a cigarette dangling from his lips. He was staring at his computer screen.

"No smoking," Major Quinn said with no emphasis on the words. He sat down across from Kincaid, several file folders under his arm.

Kincaid took another puff. "What ya got?"

"The bodies from the vats at Scorpion Base have been flown in. They're not the same as what we got here with the two STAAR bodies."

"What's different?"

"These don't have any of the Airlia genes. Just plain human clones."

"So they were growing their own people down there?" Kincaid wasn't surprised by much anymore.

"Looks like it."

"And what exactly are these STAAR people?"

"Autopsy's done on the ones we had here. Or as done as the UNAOC people can do."

"And?"

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"And those two STAAR people aren't people, but they aren't aliens either. Some kind of DNA combination. Mostly human"—Quinn thumbed through the papers—"eighty-six percent human. Other than eyes, there's some discrepancy in the skin pigment, the hair. That's the obvious stuff. The not-so-obvious stuff is that the brain is a little different."

"Different how?" Kincaid asked.

"The frontal lobe is a little bigger, and they have more connections between the two hemispheres."

"Does that make them smarter?" Kincaid wanted to know.

"Maybe. Maybe not." Quinn smiled. "Hell, we're doing the autopsy on them, remember, not the other way around."

"Yeah, well, Turcotte and those USAMRIID guys are doing autopsies on some human bodies down in South America."

"Another strange thing."

"Yes?"

"Their genitalia are underformed. The UNAOC people think they must reproduce mechanically. Perhaps using the cloning vats."

"They can't have sex?" Kincaid asked.

"Doesn't look like it was important to them." Quinn pointed at the cigarette.

"Got a spare?"

Kincaid pulled a pack out of his shirt pocket and extended it. There was only one cigarette in it.

"Damn." Kincaid shook his head. "The stuff keeps getting deeper and deeper."

"What about South America?" Quinn asked as he fired up.

"They've forwarded what they've found to USAMRIID. Hope to get some sort of readout shortly on what the bug is. Imagery shows it's spreading. Two 207

more villages wiped out. Closing in on two thousand dead. Anything on Temiltepec?"

"The classified records say that the guardian was recovered at Temiltepec,"

Quinn said. He ignored the look that statement garnered him from Kincaid. "But no matter how well someone tries to cover up, there's always a loose end."

"And what thread did you find to pull on?" Kincaid asked.

"I pulled the classified flight record for Groom Lake," Quinn said.

"And?"

"And on those dates that the classified record shows that someone from Majestic went to Temiltepec, the flight log from the Groom Lake tower indicates an Air Force executive transport plane with a flight plan for La Paz."

"Bolivia."

"Long way from Mexico," Quinn said.

"Indeed."

"In fact, it's pretty close to the ruins at Tiahuanaco."

"So the guardian might have been there?"

"It's possible."

Kincaid thought about it. "What about The Mission?"

Quinn pulled out a file folder with a red TOP SECRET stamp at the top and bottom. "I found this in the files. The CIA rep to Majestic-12 asked the same question a couple of years ago. There's not much here, but what is written is pretty remarkable.

"The CIA had reports of a place called The Mission in South America." Quinn smiled. "When they chased Che Guevara, they thought that was where he was heading."

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"You're pulling my leg," Kincaid said. "Che Guevara?"

"I'm not kidding. This Mission place sounds like it's been around awhile. The CIA tried backtracking it. The most current report says it might have been in Bolivia— where Che was killed—but that it moved sometime in the seventies.

Current location unknown, but they think it's still in South America somewhere."

"Come on—" Kincaid began, but Quinn cut him off.

"No, wait a second. This is interesting. This report says that before he went to Cuba. Che first spent a couple of years traveling all over South America on foot and by bicycle. He then made his living by writing articles about ruins in South America."

"Could he have come across the guardian or The Mission?" Kincaid asked.

"I don't know," Quinn replied, "but according to the CIA he was heading toward a place called The Mission when he was caught by the Bolivian Army, backed up by U.S. Special Forces troops, another little fact that's not well known."

Quinn turned the page. "The CIA wanted to find this Mission, as they thought it might be a Communist front organization. Checking Che's writings, they found he paid special attention to an ancient site called Tiahuanaco in Bolivia." He scanned down the page.

"The dots are connecting," Kincaid commented, "but I can't figure out why."

"Before Che, in the late forties, the OSS, the forerunner of the CIA, had interest in a place called The Mission because it was reported to be a gathering place for members of the defeated Third Reich. It's well known that there was an escape pipeline to South America for Nazis during and after the war. The OSS/

CIA heard rumors that the scientists who weren't

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snatched up by our Operation Paperclip or the Russians went to The Mission,"

Quinn added.

"Despite that, they weren't able to find the exact location of The Mission.

They got word from some contacts that it was originally from Spain, and that it had come over the Atlantic sometime in the fifteenth century. But beyond that, it seems like the CIA stopped the investigation."

"Wait a second," Kincaid said. "Columbus didn't discover America until 1492."

"I'm just telling you what the CIA uncovered. Perhaps those date problems are why the CIA didn't follow through on the investigation."

"Or perhaps there was another reason they dropped the investigation." Kincaid looked around the Cube. "Like they've stopped digging at Dulce."

Quinn shut the folder. "I don't know." He opened another folder. "But my computer whiz kid has managed to pull something out of one of the hard drives Turcotte got out of Scorpion Base and it references The Mission."

"What is it?" Kincaid asked.

Quinn smiled. "You think the Che Guevara stuff is weird, wait until you read this." He slid a computer printout over to Kincaid, who picked it up and read: THE MISSION & The Inquisition (research reconstruction and field report 10/21/92-Coridan-)

Overview :

The Papal Inquisition was instituted in 1231 for the apprehension and trial of heretics. The Mission, now established, as previous entries note, in central Italy, seized upon this oppor-

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tunity to expand its power aligning it-self with the church. It was to continue in this role both in the Old and New Worlds for the next four centuries until the hysteria that fueled the Inquisition waned. The Inquisition was only one of several actions The Mission undertook during this time period, but one that bears our interest.

While the Inquisition focused on heretics, The Mission's task in this quest was more specific. It was to weed out those individuals who posed a threat in terms of theoretical advancement.

That they were effective in this effort can be seen by the lack of scientific advancement by mankind for the next several centuries.

The Mission seemed to want to ride a line between encouraging economic development, to increase mankind's numbers, and holding back scientific development, to decrease mankind's potential. Examples :

In 1600 Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake for postulating a heliocentric system. I found direct evidence of Mission involvement in both designating Bruno for the Inquisition and forcing through his conviction and execution. More interesting is The Mission's involvement in the case of Galileo. The 1616 Edict on Copernicanism can be laid to The Mission's desire to keep mankind from looking to the stars, even at the most base level. As a result, in 1624, 211

after publication of his Dialoguen the Tides," Galileo was brought to Rome to be tried for heresy. Again, involvement of The Mission can be found through the office of the Fiscal Proctor, one of the officers of the Inquisition. In this case, the Proctor went by the name Domeka, which I have traced to The Mission and other actions (see App. 1 for cross-references).

That the Inquisition was not completely successful-Galileo was only sentenced to house arrest for the rest of his life-indicates not the waning power of The Missionn but rather the influence of TOWW.

"What's TOWW?" Kincaid had finished reading.

"I have no idea," Quinn said. "I'm having my computer guy check."

Kincaid handed the printout back. "Geez, if they put Galileo away—" He didn't finish the sentence, just shaking his head.

"I'm forwarding this to Dr. Duncan," Quinn said. "She can figure out what to do with it." He looked up at the red digits on the clock that glowed at one of the rooms. "Under four hours until they launch at the Cape and Vandenberg."

Quinn held the cigarette up. "Better get a carton."

"I have lived many years by saying no to stupid ideas," Lo Fa said.

"I have lived many years also," Che Lu said. "But there is more to life than just breathing."

"Ah, don't start that with me." Lo Fa tapped the side 212

of his head with a crooked finger. "I have also had many people try to play with my mind over the years."

Che Lu laughed. "Your mind is like a rock. Who would want to play with it?"

Lo Fa's dark eyes were looking about the guerrilla camp. The women were gathered to one side, talking quietly among themselves, while the children played around them. The men, those who weren't on guard, were resting. Finally his eyes returned to Che Lu.

"I will go with you. But only me. I will order the others to move west, to get away from the army."

"How will we get in the tomb?" Che Lu asked.

"I will get us in. The same way I was able to get you away from there when the army was shooting at the Russians and Americans. You get us out once you find what you are looking for."

"It's a filovirus." Kenyon had finally isolated the bug.

"A filovirus?" Turcotte asked.

"A 'thread virus,' " Kenyon said. "Most viruses are round. A filo is long.

Looks like a jumbled string. Ebola's a filo, as is Marburg."

"So this is a cousin to Ebola?" Yakov asked.

"We don't know," Kenyon said. "This thing is an emerging virus."

"Emerging from where?" Turcotte asked.

"We don't know," Kenyon said.

"What do you know?" Yakov demanded.

"Where did it come from?" Turcotte asked, glancing at Yakov. "Is it man-made?"

"Man-made?" Kenyon frowned. "Why would anyone let something like this loose?

Many viruses are simply nature's defense against mankind's incursions into places we never were before."

"What do you mean?" Turcotte asked.

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"We're tearing up the rain forest," Kenyon said, "and so far, most of the nastiest bugs we've seen—the variants of Ebola and Marburg—have come out of the rain forest in Africa. It was only a matter of time before something came out of the Amazon. Humans have upset the ecological balance, and these viruses are fighting back against humans to re-right the balance."

"Are you saying this virus was always there in the forest and we came in and activated it?" Turcotte asked. Yakov was shaking his head.

"This virus," Kenyon said, "is what we call an emerging one. There are three ways viruses emerge: they jump from one species—which usually they are relatively benign in—to another, which they aren't benign in; or the virus is a new evolution from another type of virus, a mutation, basically; or it could have always existed and move from a smaller population to a larger population.

In the last case, this thing could have been killing humans out in the jungle for thousands of years, but now it's moved out into the general population."

"Is that possible?" Turcotte asked. "Wouldn't someone have noticed?"

"Not necessarily," Kenyon said. "We're now beginning to believe that the AIDS

virus might have been around for quite a while. Cases as far back as forty years ago are now being uncovered. They just didn't know what it was back there and called it something else. And it stayed in a very small population."

"Isn't there a fourth way a virus develops?" Yakov growled. "A man goes into a lab and tinkers with something, and out comes a virus that kills?"

Kenyon stared at the Russian. "The sophistication to produce a biological agent of this order is beyond our capabilities."

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"The key word is our," Yakov said. "We haven't built a ship capable of interstellar travel either."

"Which do you think this thing is?" Turcotte pressed Kenyon. "How did it evolve?"

"I don't know exactly," Kenyon said. "To find that out I need patient zero."

"Patient zero?"

"Patient zero is the disease's human starting point. If we can backtrack and find patient zero, then backtrack patient zero's steps, we can find what and where the disease jumped from to get to humans and we would be that much further on our way to understanding not only the disease itself, but how it started.

"A virus has to have a 'reservoir'—a living organism that it resides in that it doesn't kill—or at least kill as quickly as the filoviruses kill humans.