“Do you believe this Russian theory?”
“I don't disbelieve it, sir, until I know exactly what is causing it.”
“Ahh-” Simmons’ voice sounded in the background.
“Go ahead, Professor,” the President said.
“The Earth as a big crystal theory is a bunch of poppycock,” Simmons said. “The lithosphere, the outer surface of the planet, which is where these Events are located, has been moving for millions of years. Thus any crystal formation would be so disfigured by continental drift as to make such patterns unrecognizable. Also, there is no evidence in the first place of the planet having any sort of massive crystalline structure.”
“Anything to say to that, Foreman?” the President asked.
Foreman could picture the President sitting in his office with his advisers; a man who had not even been born when Foreman was flying combat missions in World War II; sitting among other men who had not known the strife of world-wide conflict. “No one has conclusively proven the continental drift theory or-”
“What is your degree in?” Professor Simmons demanded.
“I don’t have a degree,” Foreman said. “I was discussing a theory and all I want the President to know is that you were discussing a theory also. I think we take too much for granted as fact that, although most evidence points that way, might not indeed be fact. I’ve been studying these Gates for over sixty years. I would say I know more about them than you do, Professor Simmons, but at least I can admit what I do know isn’t much.”
“So obviously you knew something was strange about this area in Cambodia before Michelet Industries sent its plane over the Angkor Gate?” the President asked.
“Yes, sir, I did.”
“You didn't think it proper to warn Mister Michelet?”
“Sir, how could I warn them? You've seen the data on Bright Eye getting destroyed and still you doubt what I am telling you about these places. We gave Michelet the data on the Angkor Gate area. The planes lost. The Special Forces mission lost. We did warn him as best we could. He still went ahead.”
“What happened to his plane?”
“It's down, sir, inside the borders of the Angkor Gate. Bright Eye did manage to get a picture of it and pinpoint the location. I’m having that picture forwarded to Mister Michelet to aid him in trying to recover the plane and his daughter.”
There was a short silence, then National Security Adviser Bancroft spoke. “You wouldn’t just have happened to have set all this up, would you have Foreman?”
“Set what up?” Foreman asked.
“Michelet sending his survey plane over Angkor Gate?”
“Sir, Michelet Technologies has been interested in that area for many years. It was inevitable that they would eventually send some sort of reconnaissance. As I said earlier, there was no way I could directly warn Michelet against doing that. I did send him enough information so that he had an awareness of the danger.”
“A very carefully worded reply,” the President noted. “What if these Gates appear elsewhere? What happens?”
“I can only make an educated guess at that, sir, based on Devil’s Sea, Bermuda Triangle and Angkor. There is a legend of an ancient capitol city of the Khmer Empire, a city called Angkor Kol Ker. Apparently the Angkor Gate overran it in 800 AD.”
“And?” the President impatiently demanded.
“And the city was devastated. An empire that was perhaps the strongest on Earth at its time disappeared and its capitol is now only known as a legend.
“And that was only one Gate, not sixteen, like we’re seeing now. I also have a suspicion what is happening now predates even that long ago event. I’ve talked with Professor Takato Nagoya, who runs the Japanese team that is investigating the Devil’s Sea Gate. Based on various data, he thinks that what is happening now happened once before in Earth’s history.”
“When was that?”
“Ten thousand years ago. Nagoya believes that the legend of Atlantis, as related by Plato in the Timaeus and Critias, two of his dialogues, tells the true story of what happened when all these Vile Vortices grew into Gates and tried to connect. He believes that a highly advanced human civilization was destroyed to the point where it is only a legend. That one of the Vile Vortices, now known as Bermuda Triangle Gate or the Bermuda Triangle, opened on top of Atlantis and destroyed it.”
“Hogwash!” Simmons exploded.
“Doctor Nagoya does has several doctorate degrees, Professor Simmons; in fact he is one of Japan’s foremost scientists. Mister President, I believe we are facing a dire threat not only to these specific areas but to mankind as a whole. It wasn’t hogwash or poppycock that destroyed Bright Eye; or made the Scorpion disappear so many years ago; or that knocked Michelet’s plane out of the sky.
“I believe we are being invaded through these Gates, sir, and we cannot sit on our current level of scientific knowledge insisting that it can’t be so, when in fact, it is already happening. We cannot intellectually appease this threat. Something’s happening, sir, and I don’t believe we have the time or the latitude to stick our heads up our asses and ignore what is going on.
“Sir, there is a long history of men in power, men who have the responsibility given to them, of not waking up to threats before it is too late. Remember Chamberlain in 1939 with Hitler? They had facts then, which they chose to ignore or squeeze into their own fanciful imaginings.”
“You’re walking a very dangerous line there,” the President’s voice was ice cold.
“Sir, if you think I am worried about my career or my pension or my position or anything else other than this threat, you are wrong. This invasion is real and this time there won’t be anywhere for people to run to and our country won’t be left alone.”
There was a long silence.
“And now?” the President finally asked. “What do we do now?”
“Sir, I'm hoping to find out what is on the other side in the Angkor Gate and then to formulate a plan of action.”
“How are you going to do that? Nothing has come back from there.”
“As I told you earlier, sir, one man did. He is currently with Mister Michelet. When he went in, he was contacted in some manner by something or someone inside that area. There was also a radio transmission to him just before Michelet’s plane went down from what appears to be one of his old teammates inside the Angkor Gate. I don’t know how that could be, but it’s the best lead we have. The man went in once and came out. I'm hoping he can do it again, this time with more information. In the meanwhile, I do have a list of actions that will put us in position to respond in a variety of ways once we find out what is really going on.”
“And if we don’t find out what is really going on?” the President asked. “God help us then, Mister President,” Foreman said.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Even though it was three in the morning, a blast of heat hit Dane as he stepped onto the short staircase pressed up against the plane's door. But more than the heat, the smell brought back a cacophony of memories. An odor of exotic food, human sweat, and the faint tinge of disease and dirt made him feel for a moment that he was back in Saigon so many years ago.
Dane looked at the lights reflecting off the runway: Don Muang Airport was not that much different than it had been when he'd come here on R & R. Dane felt the same rush of bad feelings come over him that he had then. This was a sick place. Dane had only spent a day in Bangkok, holed up in a motel room before catching the first flight back to Vietnam and, for him, the peace and security of MACV-SOG's base camp. There was too much human misery in Bangkok, too much hopelessness and he couldn’t block it out.