The God Complex: A Thriller (29 page)

Cash had insisted they wait for Kyle and Bill’s return before leaving. A halfhearted hug from his son was his only reward, but it was enough for him to have justified the delay. Travis was dropping them in Nevada in his Gulfstream G550, where another jet would take them onto their final destination, while Travis would head back to Washington. The four bodyguards were being left at the lodge, the only stipulation Cash had made as part of the deal to accompany Senator Noble to Switzerland.

“I don’t like it,” whispered Rigs into his ear for the tenth time. He looked across
at Senator Noble. “I don’t trust him!”

Cash stayed silent
. He didn’t disagree but didn’t want to fuel Rigs’ mistrust. Once he went down that road, it was a hard road for him to climb back from.

Sophie was still buried in her laptop, fielding questions from the Senator, who had, Cash noted, a knowing grin. The Senator knew far more than he was letting on and Cash felt sure, far more than he’d ever let on.

The sound of the landing gear dropping signaled their arrival. Cash looked out of the window. Total darkness, no landing strip was visible ahead. Rigs punched him in the shoulder and pointed out the same problem.

“Senator, are you sure we’re at the right place?” asked Cash.

“Can you see a runway?” he asked.

“No,” replied Cash
, “just complete and total darkness!”

“Well
, we’re in the right place then,” he said as the wheels touched down for a perfect landing. “In the daylight it looks like the desert floor, it’s painted like a trompe l’oeil.”

Rigs looked
at Cash. “It’s an effect that makes the image look real, like an optical illusion,” explained Cash.

“Would hardly be a secret base, if it wasn’t hidden,” he said as the plane travelled off the runway and into a hangar cut into the mountainside.

Cash looked over at Travis. His face was a picture. He had no idea it existed either and he was head of the CIA!

The Senator looked at them both
. “If it makes you feel any better, even the President doesn’t know about this place,” he said standing. “Welcome to the best kept secret in America, Alien Hunters!” announced the Senator, leading them towards a door at the far end of the hangar. A number of strange craft sat inside the hangar. One looked particularly familiar to Sophie.

“And the work we do at Area 51?” asked Travis, the not
-so-secret base he was fully aware of.

“These guys keep an eye on that but they have a far more open remit to explore the possible, or maybe even the impossible
. Let’s go meet the boss.”

“You didn’t know about this place?” Cash
asked Travis.

“Not a clue
. Area 51 is the only area I’m aware of and to be honest, it’s really only a testing area for experimental equipment. Nothing like that,” he said, pointing at the strange aircraft that sat in the hangar.

“I’ve seen models and drawings of
those aircraft before,” said Sophie in a whisper.

“Where?” asked Travis.

“From all across the ancient sites. That one there!” She indicated a small one-seater aircraft with a bulbous front and flat end and an oversized tail. “It’s the same shape as a small piece of gold jewelry I’ve seen. It’s been dated over 4,000 years old.

“I’d like to introduce you to the boss here,” announced the Senator
, gesturing towards a woman who appeared in the doorway, dressed in full uniform and standing to attention.

“This is Colonel Thalia
—”

Travis stepped forward
. “Valdez,” he finished. “We’ve met before. You were transferred out of Area 51 against our wishes,” he said, shaking the Colonel’s hand and turned to the Senator. “If I remember correctly, it was because your committee refused to fund Thalia’s crazy work. You created this?”

“Not personally, it is legitimate intelligence work,” replied the Senator.

“All totally off the books, and with no links to any intelligence division?” asked Travis. “I think we may have an issue with the misappropriation of funds, Senator.”

“Before you say another word, why don’t we let Colonel Valdez tell us what they do here?”

Thalia stood back and gestured for them to enter the facility. As furious as Travis was, he was as keen as the rest to see what they were doing.

“I’m not sure what the Senator has shared with you about our facility here
, but we are tasked with discovering advanced civilizations, whether that be alien or human. Perhaps we should start in the AV room?” She directed them to the second door along an endless corridor.

The AV room turned out to be nothing more than a projector room with around twenty chairs. The Colonel started running through a slide show.

“We’ve seen most of these,” said Cash, as picture after picture of some of the weird and amazing structures from Pumapunka, Tiwanaku and Saksaywaman appeared on the screen. The Colonel’s commentary wasn’t dissimilar to Sophie’s, even down to them having dated the sites older than was officially recognized. The Colonel, noting the unrest, rushed through the slides, culminating in the Great Pyramid of Giza.

“If ever there
were a structure on the planet that screamed advanced civilization, it is this one.” She ran through the details that Sophie had provided earlier, although there were a few more that even Sophie didn’t know.

“
You’ll notice there is no capstone. We believe that this would have been made of copper and has been stolen at some point. Copper, as you’re aware, is an excellent conductor. Consider also the precise location of the pyramid. If you laid the world out flat, the pyramid is the exact center of all the landmass. I’m not a specialist in the area but I’m reliably informed that electromagnetic fields differ around the world, and the great pyramid sits on top of one of the most powerful spots.”

“So what are you saying, it channel
ed energy?” asked Cash. “Like a power station?”

“We’re not entirely sure
, but potentially yes, either to create power or even more interestingly, to transmit into space. Or even both, the power generated could have been significant.”

“So we’re talking about airlines?” asked Cash.

“Or just an advanced race who, like us, wished to see if anyone was out there, a bit like the messages we send today for that exact same purpose.”

“And the aircraft in your hangar?”

“You recognized some didn’t you?’ asked Thalia with a smile.

Sophie nodded, a few vaguely but one in particular.

“Working prototypes, using the scale and design from the drawings and artifacts that have been found around the world.”

“Working?” asked Sophie
.

Thalia nodded
. “Fully working, yes!”

“Holy shit!”
Sophie said, thinking back to the discussion with Cash. How did the different civilizations all know about pyramids?

“But how can we not know about all this
?” Sophie asked Thalia. “How can the world be in the dark about what happened in our past?”

“
Are we? If you were to read some passages in ancient texts, the Torah, the bible, many of the oldest documented writings, there are numerous references to gods coming down from the sky in fiery clouds. In many of the ancient artifacts, there are rocket type drawings and symbols. The hieroglyphs have many examples of rocket type drawings. Heaven itself… what is heaven? When we talk of heaven we look to the sky.”

“What are you saying
, that the gods were aliens?” asked Travis.

“I’m not saying that, I’m saying there’s more than one way to read what was written
. I mean, if you lived two thousand years ago and saw a spaceship, how would you describe it, if you’ve not seen anything like it before and no words exist to describe it?”

“But what you
’re suggesting is that God actually existed as flesh and blood,” said Sophie.

Thalia shrugged
. “All I can give you is what we can decipher from the clues that have been left to us.”

“So the prototypes could be lucky coincidences?”

“They could be. There are many more that didn’t work. Although one thing to consider is that nowhere in nature does a flying bird have a vertical tail, something that is a must for us to be able to fly. Many, many examples from across the sites have vertical tails. If they were trying to symbolize birds why turn their tails through ninety degrees?”

Travis
got up. “I’m sorry guys but I need to head back to Washington. Keep in touch,” he said, looking at Cash in particular, before gesturing for the Senator to follow him into the corridor.

“Travis?”

“Why in the hell is this work not part of Area 51? They’re doing work that you and your committee closed down ten years ago!”

“We believed the nature of the work was a little too controversial for mainstream
—”

“So you keep it from everyone? The
y’re working on stuff that could be helping Area 51 develop God alone knows what.”

“Area 51,
about which in 2013 your agency published a paper to explain its purpose? That Area 51?” asked the Senator, raising his voice with each word.

“We’re talking about impacts on religion, the perception of our origins, we’re talking about real knowledge of potential alien intervention. Do you think the public need
s that? Do you think the government wants that? Or the church, the Vatican, the Muslims, the Jews? Can you imagine a world where religions were categorically disproved? The moral code, the ethics which drive people, order, control of the masses, belief in a purpose. As Karl Marx famously said ‘
religion is the opium of the people
.’ Well imagine seven billion people suddenly going cold turkey. A world without any of these would be a world plunged into chaos.

“
But you can’t just create your own secret agency!”

“And why the hell not
! My committee members and I have been elected into our positions by the people of the United States of America to look after their interests. And that’s exactly what we’re doing.”

The Senator turned and reentered the AV room, leaving a speechless Travis Davies behind. Travis had every intention
of marching back in to give him hell but it was pointless. The man thought he was beyond reproach, untouchable. Travis rushed back to the hangar. He was already running late.

***

“In your research, have you found any detail about the end of the world?” asked Sophie.

“We’ve seen a few references
to that but to be honest,” Thalia replied, “the date we’ve calculated is so far off that we’ve left it and moved on to other areas.”

“Thanks,” said Sophie, although it hadn’t helped
. They were still in the dark as to why the guardians were so keen to protect a secret that was potentially millions of years in the future.

“If we’re finished here, we can grab some food and then you can
take a look at some of our prototypes,” Thalia suggested.

“Sounds good,” said Cash.

“You coming?” asked Cash when everyone started to move away except for Rigs, who sat transfixed on a photo of the pyramid.

Rigs waited until it was
only the two of them alone in the room. “We’re missing something,” he said, his eyes not moving away from the screen. “Something really big!”

Cash looked at the image
. A few people were visible like ants at the base of the structure, putting the scale of the pyramid into perspective. It was huge, far bigger than Cash had appreciated.

“We’re not dealing with humans,” said Rigs standing
up.

“So
, what? Aliens?” asked Cash.

“I don’t know but we didn’t build that,” said Rigs
.

T
he lights blinked once and the room filled with an ear-bursting pulsating of a klaxon in full flow.

Through it all, Cash heard a scream
.
Sophie
. He ran.

The recorded history of the Sicarii Order was as old as the bible itself. However, their history stretched back into the depths of the Jewish faith. They were trained killers with one goal: to protect the faith at any cost. Through history, their links to the Jewish faith had lessened but their expertise and training in killing had grown. The art of killing had become a lucrative and profitable business. Failure was not an option to the Sicarii. If they took on a job, the honor of each of the twenty-strong order was on the line.

Katya’s failure to secure Senator Bertie Noble and keep him safe for the Nobles had resulted in two additional Sicarii being sent to assist her in the hunt to find him. Their Jewish links allowed them access to one of the most extensive and resourceful intelligence agencies in the world. The Mossad and their Sayanim, the Jewish helpers, who
, when called upon by the State of Israel, would help where possible. Although not linked to the Mossad or part of the Israeli Government, the Sicarii were at their disposal whenever needed and never at any cost. In return, when the Sicarii requested assistance, the Mossad delivered without question. The only caveat was that they couldn’t harm the state of Israel, something they knew the Sicarii would never do anyway.

It had taken two days
for the first hit. A Sayanim pilot employed by the CIA had reported that the Senator had boarded his aircraft, but the destination was sketchy, somewhere in upstate Montana.

It had been enough for Katya
. She had secured a private jet, the fastest they could get, and headed out west, loading every piece of kit they might possibly need. She wasn’t missing an opportunity to secure her target. The New Citation X was being pushed to its limits as Katya raced across the country. The new destination had come in right before they arrived in Montana. The pilot reprogrammed the new destination for Nevada, where they arrived to find nothing.

They
frantically checked the coordinates and their dials. There was nothing below except for dark desert floor surrounded by mountains.

“There’s nothing there,” insisted the pilot.

A beep on her phone signaled a new message, forwarded from the Sayanim. ‘Landed on dark runway disguised as ground. Hangar and facility in mountain, runway only visible through night vision goggles.’

Katya looked
at her two colleagues.

“Jump?” she asked.

Both nodded. They were as keen to secure the Senator as Katya. Five minutes later, the three highly trained killers were parachuting from the Citation preparing their weapons on their drift down to the desert floor below. A fast jog after disposing of their parachutes had them standing on the well disguised runway. Their major problem was getting into the actual facility. There wasn’t even a hint of seam where they could blow a door to gain entry.

“We could be setting off motion sensors and
God knows what out here,” said Mika, the younger of the two Sicarii who had joined Katya.

“Katya, I have to agree, we’ve been a little hasty here,” said Levi, one of the older and more experienced Sicarii. He was next in line to lead the order. It was a very simple hierarchy
. The most experienced Sicarii led the order, upholding the traditions as they had been followed since the order began.

Katya was about to agree when the groaning sounds began
. The mountain was lifting. There were no seams to be seen because there weren’t any, the mountain rose from the ground, sliding up into itself. A darkened hangar sat open before them, a full five minutes had passed for the mountain to open. A small jet taxied out of the hangar and out onto the runway. Its engines were already screaming by the time it reached the end of the runway. It shot across the darkened floor in front of them. They lay prone where they had stood, off to the side of the runway. Not a soul was in sight as the aircraft leaped into the sky. The groan sounded again; the mountain was closing.

“I don’t like it,” said Levi
. “We’ve no idea what we’re up against in there.”

Katya felt the responsibility of
her previous failure mentally and physically. Her wound stung like a bitch. She got up to a crouch and ran towards the hangar. Mika looked at Levi, the senior member of the team.

“Go!” he said
.

T
he Sicarii always stuck together.

Katya had her MP7 up and ready
when she entered the hangar, sweeping the area in front of her; Mika and Levi were doing the same on either side of her. Between them they were covering the full arc of the hangar.

Mika had been right
. They had triggered a silent alarm. Air Force Security personnel rushed towards them from a small watch room at the back of the hangar. Katya, Levi and Mika opened fire. Their silenced MP7 Heckler and Koch submachine guns sent spit after deadly spit, sending the security forces crashing to the floor. Ten airmen were dead before they even knew it wasn’t a drill.

With the hangar secure
, they reached the door to the facility; it was a solid steel mass. The alarm klaxon began to wind up, its pulses pounding the ear drums with an aim of disorientating attackers. The Sicarii barely noticed it. Their training covered noise, flashes, tasers. They were desensitized to the normal distractions deployed to debilitate people.

Levi placed a charge and motioned for his colleagues to step back. It blew, the door held. He placed another charge, slightly larger. It blew, the door held.

He placed a larger charge, motioning for his colleagues to step well back. It blew, and the door finally gave way.