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  Santo’s estimation of his height above the island was fairly accurate at a hundred meters. What was not accurate was where above the island he was. Instead of plummeting to the ground, the D-wing crashed into the ocean like a huge man doing a championship belly flop. Doctor Marls hailed Santo,

  “You are not coming back to me. I turned all your programs back on. You are supposed to report back to me.”

  There was no reply and so in a snit he walked away from his computer and more to himself, sneered,

  “I do not understand why these inept field operatives do not do as they are told.”

  Chapter 21

  Maria was not happy to learn that Santo wanted to go on a small search and recovery mission by himself. When he came back with Kirk from Alakati, investigating what became the mysterious hole in the ground hidden by an artificial shrub, she saw the excited look in his eyes. Her fear was that he would succumb to that hidden soldier deep inside him. It was the part of her man that she hated and was glad to see slowly fade from his old identity.

  This morning, while preparing for his mission, he tried to hide from her what he was taking on his trip. Somehow, she knew something was suspicious, that he was doing something he did not want her to see. She tried her best to continue with the rest of her day not fearing that the man she loved and had committed her life to was possibly once again reverting to a call of the wild, returning to the soldier suppressed deep inside him by the weight of a daughter. At the beginning, so many years ago, she knew she had fallen in love with a man of action. Many times in their bed, she failed to feel loving arms around her but rather felt cold arms of steel that had taken many lives. Granted, lives of the enemy, lives taken that would have taken theirs. It took a while to feel the warmth of his hands rather than cold steel.

  She saw the same wild animal look in his eyes when he took the gun from her hand and without remorse or guilt, shoot Duchess Josephine de Myer-David right between the eyes. Granted, it was not a revenge or anger killing, but rather an act to protect Belle from the Duchess who threatened to kill her. Maria understood all she could do was hope that Santo came back from this mission safe and remembered that he was now a father, a reason to put aside whatever was boiling up inside him. It was all she could do, hope. As much of a distraction as it was, there was still work in her lab to be done.

  What she and Kirk had discovered in the mysterious alien cave now justified a full team of experts to investigate further. She was talking to Spain through a secure computer link and said,

  “No Zely, I do not want a soldier, I’m asking you for someone familiar with alien micro- organisms, viruses and such.”

  Zely Rivas was in charge of their Spanish secret laboratory and now better understood the request. Maria was assured that if they came to get the best alien toxicologist and diagnostic expert in that field, a young woman who only wanted to be referred to as Pia was ready to join the search and discovery team Maria was gathering.

  Maria’s next call went to Switzerland, to the laboratory specializing in preserving and understanding alien technology specific to gravity waves and how to retro-engineer it. Unfortunately for her, she ended up talking to Dr. Marls who was still cantankerous as ever.

  “Why do you people insist on bothering me? I am a busy man.”

  He was still mad that Santo had not reported back to him. She tried her best to continue in a forced pleasant mood. She explained her desire to borrow Otto Becker, a project leader in other alien sites, specifically the Earth Tunnels under the third vertebra of Ayers Rock in Australia. As in Spain, she was assured that if they sent a D-wing for him, he would be ready.

  The third person she wanted on the team to explore what she hoped was a secret Anannaki laboratory was a person specializing in alien computers, Jessika Reynaldi. Because most of their D-wings were destroyed along with the House of the Nazarene’s island, they only had five operational D-wings left and Santo was away in one of them. As best she could, she coordinated pickup times at the labs she was borrowing specialists from. By the time she was finished, it was already getting close to noon.

  When Kirk entered her office, he saw what appeared to be a distraught Maria sitting behind her desk. As a true friend, in a caring manner he asked,

  “What’s the matter? You look like you just lost your best friend.”

  In that instance, he realized he had said something wrong. Her sad fawn eyes made him want to turn and run out the door. She forlornly replied,

  “Santo has missed all of his scheduled check-ins. According to the timetable he was supposed to be back by now.”

  Kirk understood her anxiety. Missing a check-in meant trouble. He asked,

  “Do you want me to grab a D-wing and check up on him?”

  Appreciative of his concern, she nevertheless responded,

  “No, Kirk, but thank you. I want you to gather the two specialists I have brought here and give them a mission briefing and what each of their duties will be in the cave. Leave for the cave right after that and I will catch up later. Make sure they understand their specific job.”

  She then added,

  “I was going to do that but I want to go looking for Santo myself.”

  Chapter 22

  The conference room for the House of the Nazarene was an empty room in the main airport hangar. In it was a long folding table with five chairs. One chair will remain empty as Maria was off looking for Santo. A small table off to the side was filled with bottled water and a coffee urn. It was expected that Maria, with her great craving for coffee would be drinking most of it. A plate of sandwiches was next to the water.

  The first person to enter the room was the project leader, Kirk Waller. As the team was going to leave for the cave right after the mission briefing, he was already appropriately dressed for the mission. He was carrying a folder with the names and expertize of the two new members of the exploratory team. Following him was Otto Becker, the scientist Maria borrowed from the cantankerous Doctor in Switzerland. He was a handsome young man, dark hair, tanned and tall. Proving his familiarity with House of the Nazarene briefings, he went directly to the refreshment table and grabbed a sandwich.

  A few minutes later Jessika entered the room. By the wish of Maria and understood by both Kirk and Jessika, she requested that their relationship be kept low profile. When entering the room, it was difficult but she managed not to return Kirk’s wink with a warm smile. She was dressed in a durable one-piece field outfit covering her from head to toe and a baseball cap. Although the coveralls were not complimentary to her charm, all Kirk saw in his imagination was Jessika wearing a sexy red dress. She marched straight up to the refreshment table and took a bottle of water. Kirk did not miss that Otto winked at her. He also did not miss Jessika’s returning flirt. It was in his mind to define the boundaries of a secret relationship to her later on.

  When Pia, the alien toxicology and micro-organism expert from Spain walked into the room, in shock and surprise, all eyes swung over to stare at her. At first, Kirk assumed that she had somehow escaped from school and inadvertently wandered into the meeting. She was sixteen but looked twelve. Accenting her youth was the fact she was only an inch or two over five feet tall. Having suffered doubt as a child prodigy because of her age and gender all of her life, Pia had developed a thick protective outer shell.

  Because she knew Kirk was the project leader, she walked straight up to him. As proof of her sarcastic protective skin, she made the mistake of barking at Kirk. Her comment was far from being indicative of a cute little girl.

  “What the hell are you looking at?”

  Kirk’s pleasant demeanor slipped just a tad bit. He decided to return the nasty comment in kind. Deliberately looking straight ahead and over top of her head, he said,

  “Nothing. You are so short I didn’t even see you enter the room.”

  Perhaps it was because Jessika saw herself as a little girl suffering the same intolerance to genius while in her youth she quickly stepped forward a
nd wedged herself between the combatants. She politely said to Pia,

  “Come over to the refreshment table and let’s get you a bottle of water.”

  While walking over, still glaring at Kirk over her shoulder, Pia said,

  “I prefer coffee.”

  The expertize missing for an exploration of the cave was Zak Zander. While in the cave, Maria saw an abundance of dials with strange configurations attached to them. Assuming that they were instructions or directions for proper use, she naturally wanted an authority on alien writings on the team. Because Zak was too old for the journey, in fact, he refused to go, it was therefore agreed that they could transmit pictures to him and he would interpret from the comfort of his chair. Without proper guidance, Jessika saw Pia as growing into a cantankerous Zak. Perhaps it was just an occupational hazard of being a prodigy.

  After a formal introduction of the team and instructions, everybody was clear on their assigned job. Jessika, in the hope of suppressing what she saw as tension building between a child and Kirk aimed a gritty eye at him and said,

  “To make this a successful mission, I hope we can all work in unity and put the mandate of the House of the Nazarene first and foremost.”

  Pia, with her head just barely above the table bolted a sneering expression at Kirk. Looking down at her, he whispered,

  “Do you want a cushion to sit on?”

  Jessika pointed to a door leading to the main hangar and said,

  “Let’s get this exciting mission underway.”

  Unfortunately, the large four passenger D-wing was delayed from an underwater exploration of an ancient sunken city in the Gulf of Mexico, just off the coast of Cuba. Because of Santo and Maria’s experience in Australia involving an alien underwater community, she wanted to know if there was an alien connection to this discovery. It had only just arrived in the hangar as the four members entered. After touching down, Ron Hubbert, a senior member and survivor of the House of the Nazarene jumped out and pointed a finger at Kirk. Apparently it was a familiar gesture only understood by men of action. While walking away, Ron held up a computer flash drive and said,

  “I have to get this computer data and pictures to the lab right away. Sorry I brought it back late.”

  They still had to wait while Henrik and his team of technicians ran diagnostics and downloaded computer data. Although Kirk pretended to be busy with paperwork signing release forms, one eye was attached to Jessika and Otto standing there talking and smiling at each other. Finally when the ‘all clear’ was given, Kirk pointed and said,

  “Alright then, let’s hop in and get going.”

  Unfortunately, for Kirk, Otto and Jessika scampered into the back seat and sat together. Although he wanted to pretend that it did not bother him, it did. Somehow, there was now a green-eyed monster sitting in the pilot seat. Pia was forced to sit in the passenger seat next to him. Thinking that Jessika was right, that it was time to stop this childish bantering between adult and child. In all sincerity he said,

  “I can elevate the seat a bit so you can see out the window if you like.”

  He thought it was amazing how a sixteen-year-old girl could squint and project such a bone chilling expression unbecoming her tender age and gender. The finger gesture was clearly understood though.

  While Otto was regaling Jessika with stories of his adventures in other alien sites, Kirk pretended that it did not faze him. While flying high over Turkey, in an effort to get all involved in a conversation, Kirk said,

  “All your gear and what we decided to be important to the exploration of the cave was flown in there this morning.”

  Looking at Pia, he asked,

  “What’s the first thing you are going to do there?”

  Her reply was totally expected, a glare that could melt stone. He understood that even if he opened the canopy and turned the D-wing upside down, the internal gravity would still keep her secure in the seat. From the back, Jessika sweetly asked Kirk,

  “Mister Waller, how soon will we arrive?”

  Kirk frowned and replied,

  “Oh please, call me Kirk. We are in final approach now. If you look down you will see the village of Alakati.”

  There was playfulness in her reply that only he recognized.

  “Thank you Kirk.”

  Chapter 23

  Professor Bartow Asker nervously sat at a rickety table while being grilled by the Turkish Antiquities Inspector Buruk. Buruk was holding in his hand a crumbled piece of paper and demanding,

  “What is the meaning of vitrified? Why could we not trace your email?”

  After a great inhale for courage, hoping it was a look of tedium for repeatedly being asked the same question, the Professor coolly repeated,

  “I told you already. Because there is research and discovery competition between the Universities, we often transmit in code. Evidence of rock super-heated to glass is strong evidence that a meteorite landed up in the valley. The tremendous impact and heat turned stone to glass. That is all I was coding to my associates at the university.”

  By his suspicious nature, Buruk did not believe a single word. He shoved his face into the Professor’s and while spewing bad breath, threatened,

  “You understand by the conditions of your privilege to explore our countryside, all discoveries and information must be reported to me first.”

  “Yes, of course I do.”

  Thinking that he had the Professor dead to rights, he triumphantly bellowed,

  “Then why was it not entered into your report to me?”

  There was strength in his reply.

  “Because I didn’t think a simple rock would interest you.”

  When the Professor was released, Buruk said to Yesin,

  “I do not trust that man. I am sure he is a spy for the Russians. Have you managed to locate who he sent the email to?”

  “No. It was coded through too many satellites. We simply do not have the capacity to trace it.”

  Buruk could not understand why a simple communique to a university should be so complicated and filtered through satellites. While in deep suspicious thought, he mumbled,

  “I want to know who he really sent that email to.”

  Yesin said something that sent hateful chills up and down Buruk’s spine,

  “Perhaps we should ask the Russians for assistance.”

  As he left the room and stomped on a cigarette, he sneered,

  “Never!”

  Outside, he saw the Professor winding his way through the village streets and decided to follow him.

  A few minutes later, the Professor walked out of the village and back to the valley of the Dark Spirits. As the Professor picked up the pace, he hoped he was not too late for his meeting with Kirk. Overlooking the field, he sat on a stone and looked out over the valley and the distant lake. Not far away, Inspector Buruk stood behind a tree and observed him through binoculars. He wondered what on Earth was in the lake that held his attention.

  Chapter 24

  With the D-wing cloaked, Kirk circled the field of the Dark Spirits. He related to his passengers how they came to discover the shaft and pointed to the artificial shrub concealing the trap door. While doing so, he noticed that little Pia had trouble getting her eyes up to the canopy and looking down at the field. Because it did not matter to the people sitting inside the D-wing, he tilted it to the side giving her a better look.

  Suddenly he was glad that he was covertly considerate of her diminished size. Pia pointed and asked,

  “Why is there a man sitting on a rock over there looking so intently at the lake?”

  All eyes darted to a dot in the distance. Kirk maneuvered the cloaked vehicle closer and eventually recognized the Professor. He wanted to uncloak but Pia’s second discovery prevented it. She pointed and said,

  “And there, over on the other hill is another man.”

  Kirk recognized Inspector Buruk and immediately understood the problem. He explained to his crew who the Professor and the ot
her man was, adding,

  “Maria had approved Professor Asker coming into the cave to see what he was responsible for discovering. After dropping you people off in the cave, I was going to come back and pick him up. Clearly, that is not going to happen now. I’ll have to figure out how to communicate with him without being seen.”

  Letting that problem go for now, Kirk zipped down to the lake. While dropping the D-wing straight into the water the smooth surfaced reacted with a splash as if a rock thrown into the calm surface. Professor Asker saw the splash of water and got excited. Soon he will finally see what all the excitement was about. Inspector Buruk wondered why the Professor stood and was suddenly excited.

  Under the lake, Kirk maneuvered the vehicle to the secret entry tunnel and a moment later surfaced in the cave. After another check of air quality, the canopy opened. While filled with wonder and excitement, all scampered out of the D-wing. Jessika immediately went to what she perceived to be the computer bank. Pia opened her medical research cases, started collection of air samples, scraping handles, and levers for biological residue. It was by the command of Maria that as much DNA should be collected as possible. Otto, obeying the command of his assignment stood staring at a blank stone wall and asked Kirk,