“This Bermuda Triangle Gate is the Bermuda Triangle, isn't it?” The President didn't pause for an answer. “A myth.”
“No, sir, it's not. The crew of the Scorpion was not killed by a myth.”
“What were they killed by?”
“I don't know, sir.”
The explosion from the other end caused even Foreman to stiffen in his hard backed seat. “Good Lord, man! Fifty years and you don't know? An entire submarine lost with its crew and you don't know? And what else? I see here a spy plane working for you was also lost. And a Special Forces team that you sent in to recover the spy plane's black box never made it back out.”
Foreman leaned forward. “Someone came out from that Special Forces team, sir.”
“One man? So?”
“It looks like he's going back in, sir.”
“And?” The President’s voice was sharp. “We just lost a satellite and a nuclear reactor. God help us if any of that radioactive material comes down over a populated area.”
Foreman glanced at the papers taped to the glass wall. “Sir, we've got a bigger problem than that.”
There was a long pause, then the President's voice came back, under tight control. “And that is?”
“Our spy satellites are picking up electromagnetic and radioactive disturbances at various places around the globe.” Foreman paused, but no one interrupted him so he continued. “The signature of these disturbances is the same that always presages activation of the Angkor, Devil’s Sea or Bermuda Triangle Gates but this is occurring in greater quantity than we’ve ever seen and at some locations where we suspected there might be Gates but weren’t certain.”
“How many signatures?” the President asked.
“Sixteen, sir.”
“Where?”
“All over the globe.”
“Where in United States?” the President clarified.
“The readings aren't exact, sir, but Bermuda Triangle Gate appears ready to open again. If it expands twenty percent from the largest perimeter we’ve recorded, it will touch Miami. But we've also got two new sites, one on the Baja Peninsula south of San Diego and one just off the shore of Alaska, near Valdez, the southern terminal of the Alaskan Pipeline. There's also one in Canada, north of Calgary. From what I'm reading, the Gates that could open at each of these sites would be roughly triangular and almost two hundred miles along each side.”
Silence reigned for a few moments, then the President spoke again. “Going back to the start of this conversation, Mister Foreman, can you give me any idea what these Gates are, other than whoever and whatever goes into them never comes out? A Gate indicated to me that you think these things lead somewhere. Where?”
“Sir, I've had the best minds study the available data, unfortunately we don't have much information other than the facts you just received. As far as we can determine, we believe Devil’s Sea, Bermuda Triangle and Angkor Gates to be any of several things:
“One possibility is that they could be a door to another dimension that we don't recognize yet with our current level of physics. Another is a gateway to an alternate universe coexisting with ours. Another could be an attempt by an alien culture to open an interstellar gateway from their location to Earth. Another could simply be a physical anomaly of our planet itself, which we have not yet figured out. Or it could be something totally beyond our capability to understand.”
“That's not helping much,” the President said.
“Sir, I haven't been the only one interested in this phenomenon. The Russians and Japanese have also studied them. In fact, over the years, the Russians have been much more interested in this than we had been. They do have two Gates inside their borders.”
“And what have they discovered?”
“Not much more than we have, sir. Besides investigating their two Events, I know they've managed to lose two submarines investigating Bermuda Triangle Gate and several planes over Angkor Gate. I also believe they've sent two ground elements into the Angkor Gate in Cambodia. One in 1956 and one in 1978. Both disappeared without a trace.”
“What about their Gates?” the President asked.
“Naturally, I don’t have much information on that. One is in Lake Baikal. The other-” Foreman paused, then plunged in. “The other is located right around Chernobyl. The Russians believe that the disaster at that plant was somehow connected to this.”
“Yeah, they’d like to believe anything,” the President snarled, “but the fact that they couldn’t build a decent nuclear power plant.”
“I can’t really comment on that,” Foreman said. “But I also know that the Japanese have lost ships and submarines in what I call Devil’s Sea Gate and they call the Devil’s Sea. The latest intelligence report indicates that they have an active cell inside their government that is keeping tabs on the Devil’s Sea Gate, much like what I am doing. There are some who believe their recent earthquake and resulting tsunami might be related to the Devil’s Sea Gate.”
Foreman could sense the growing frustration on the other side of the world. He continued on. “But the Russians do have a theory, sir, and some of this new data our satellites are collecting, these new locations, tends to support that theory somewhat in some of its aspects.”
“What do they think it is?” the President asked.
“In the 60's, three Russian scientists published an article in Khimiyai Zhizn, the journal of the old Soviet Academy of Sciences. The title was: Is The Earth A Large Crystal?”
There was no comment about that. Foreman knew that the seriousness of what was going on was finally sinking in to warrant the silence after such a statement.
“The three Russian scientists had backgrounds in history, electronics and engineering, a rather eclectic group. They started with a theory that a matrix of cosmic energy was built into our planet at the time of its formation and that we can still see the effects of this matrix today in such places as Angkor Gate or Bermuda Triangle.”
“Oh, give me a break,” a new voice exclaimed, “I've never heard such poppycock.”
“That's Professor Simmons, my science adviser,” the President informed Foreman. “He just got here a few minutes ago and I wanted him to listen in on this.”
“Should I continue?” Foreman asked, “or perhaps Professor Simmons has a better theory.”
“I'll discuss what he has to think when I'm done with you,” the President said. “Continue.”
“The Russian theory divides the world into twelve pentagonal slabs. On top of those slabs are twenty equilateral triangles. Using this overlay, they point out that these triangles have had a great influence on the world in many ways: fault lines for earthquakes lie along them; magnetic anomalies exist; ancient civilizations tended to be clustered along some of them.
“What’s most interesting to our current situation is that there are places called Vile Vortices at the juncture of some of these large triangles. One such place is Bermuda Triangle Gate also known as the Bermuda Triangle. Another is Angkor Gate in Cambodia, which we believes centers around an ancient city called Angkor Kol Ker. Devil’s Sea Gate, called the Devil’s Sea off the east coast of Japan is another. Chernobyl was built adjacent to one of these sites. The Lake Baikal site is also at one of these junctures. These new Gates that are now showing magnetic anomalies are also at Vile Vortices.”
“Why are these places acting up now?” the President asked.
“I don't know, sir. Over the years I've seen quite an ebb and flow to Devil’s Sea, Bermuda Triangle and Angkor to the point where there is no trace of them at all at certain times. The Russians feel that there is an internal mathematical harmony to this entire crystalline structure and that explains the rhythmic nature of the disturbances.”