Ellis only frowns to that, then reaches out and grabs his son’s arm. “We need to talk,” he says, glancing this way and that to make sure no one’s close enough to listen.
“What is it?” Mark says, alarm in his voice.
“Well, first of all…” Ellis says, glancing around one more time, then satisfied that no one is there, he focuses in on his son, “…what was with that Sirian ship back there at Dulce?”
Mark sighs. “Long story. What do you know of the off-world political situation as it currently stands?”
“Well,” Ellis begins, “we know most of the treaties between the humans and the Grays have been broken, the same with the treaties between us and the lizards. But then we’ve known that since ’75, just as we’ve known of the Grays’ expansion into the various underground bases that used to be solely our own.”
“And what of the disturbance in relations this has caused?”
Ellis shakes his head. “We know nothing of that.”
Mark nods. “The Grays took advantage of the chaos created from the events in ’75 to invade and conquer several of the older underground colonies. Apparently this has led to quite the fight in the Ashtar Collective, with many of the humanoids and the hybrids splitting off to join the Andro-Pleiadean Federation.”
“That drastic?” Ellis says.
“It gets worse,” Mark replies. “Ego is now being compressed in on itself. It's imploding on itself, and we’re finding huge pockets of incredible negativity, not only here, but in other parts of the galaxy as well. On Sirius B, for instance, there’s a terrible civil war going on right now. In Perseus, there are 21 systems getting ready to go to war in a battle between the Orion Group and the benevolent races of the Andromedan Council.”
“Damn, how’d things get so dicey?”
Mark shakes his head and lets out a sigh. “Something in the universe is speeding up, dad… but we don’t know what it is, where it is, or how to stop it.”
“God?” Ellis asks, and Mark shrugs, saying, “Could be.”
Silence falls for a moment as both men think on that, then Ellis speaks again.
“They’re still focused on non-intervention, right?”
Mark nods again. “Nothing to worry about there. It’s the Reptilians and some heartless humanoids that’ve joined them that we need to worry about. Together they’ve joined the interventionists of the Draco-Orion Empire.”
“Great,” Ellis says with a sigh and a long eye roll.
“There’s more,” Mark continues. “The Sirius-B system — aside from Arcturus and our own Sol group — has been shaken badly by this split between the two opposing Ashtarian factions. The division we see on Earth because of events in ’75 has expanded well beyond the stars. The Pleiadean-backed Sirian humanoids and the Orion-backed Sirian Reptilians have never been at each other’s throat as much as they are now.”
“You make it sound like what happened at Dulce four years ago is just the tip of the iceberg.”
“It is. What happened down in that base caused a chain reaction that’s rippled across this whole sector of the galaxy. Before ’75, the Reptilians had been invited to the peace talks in Telos, an act of good faith, sure, but a clear signal as well that the humanoids wanted to put the past behind them, and move forward in a peaceful and productive way.”
Ellis scoffs. “It’s that peace that might’ve scared the damn lizards more than anything.”
“Many were saying that the invitation to the peace talks was nothing more than a gesture,” Mark says with a shrug, “and one the Reptilians-Gray alliance would never have attended anyways. Most figured that their insatiable appetite for conquest and empire-building would make whatever peace treaties they signed nothing more than promises waiting to be broken.”
“Which is what they’ve become.”
Mark nods. “And now the conflicts in Sirius between the Andro-Pleiadean-backed Ashtar forces and the Draco-Orion-backed Ashtar forces — which were infiltrated and commandeered by Draco-Orion agents — have now spread to the Sol system, as both stellar superpowers have focused on this most strategic system, intent on protecting their respective ’interests’ here from being subverted by the other side.”
“Not sure I could understand it all if I wanted to,” Ellis says with a chuckle, one that makes him realize how tired he is.
“You should get some rest, dad.” Mark can see how tired his father is. He’s 65, he thinks, at that age he should be down in Florida, sleeping late and enjoying the golf course as much as he can.
“I will,” Ellis replies, “but first, let me get at what I think might be a bigger problem for us… at least for the moment.”
“Oh?”
“I think we have some traitors in our midst.” Ellis narrows his eyes, but says nothing, waiting for his father to go on. Ellis does so. “I’m not sure who’s all involved, but I think it might go all the way up to MJ12. I think it might even involve elements of Delta Force, the Black Berets, Air Force Blue Berets, the Secret Service, FBI Division Five, CIA stormtroopers and Dulce Base security.”
“Damn,” Mark says after giving out a surprised whistle.
“A few years back several of our best scientists were captured by the Grays after they had discovered the ‘Grand Deception,’ as we called it. It involved the permanent abduction of thousands of humans to Dulce and other bases for God only knows what purposes.” He looks sternly at his son. “I don’t have to tell you that it’s a clear violation of all the existing treaties.”
“You sure it’s a conspiracy?”
“I don’t believe for one second that MJ12 was unaware of these abductees. What I think happened is that those above MJ12 — the Black Monk/Majic agency — was aware and had agreed to an exchange in human lives for advanced alien technology.”
“So someone in MJ12 is against us… but what about someone here at Blue Lake?”
Ellis nods. “You heard me mention Delta Force just now. Well, who heads them up?”
“On our team?” Mark asks. “Aaron Haney. Overall… well, wouldn’t that be…” his eyes widen when the realization hits him, “…General Anderholt?” Mark scoffs. “You don’t think he’s mixed up in all this, do you, dad?”
“I don’t know what to think anymore,” Ellis says. He shakes his head, sighs, and rolls his eyes. To Mark, he’s clearly blaming himself. “Look, I didn’t know about it until after we started the attack,”
“But how did you know?”
“Simple,” Ellis says, looking back at his son, “though I didn’t notice it at the time.” He shakes his head and looks down at the ground again before looking back up at Mark. “It was the tube trains! There’s no way that last train of women could have gone on its own unless someone on the outside made it so. That someone would have to be high-ranking, and with access to the area bases.”
“Oh, c’mon!” Mark says. “That could have been the Grays in another base.”
“Sending their captives to safety?” Ellis asks with a narrow-eyed look.
“Oh, Jeez! I mean… what are you saying?” Mark says, his face screwing up in concern. “Are you telling me that we’ve got a traitor in our midst?”
“That’s exactly what I’m telling you.”
It was Mark shaking his head and rolling his eyes and letting out a sigh this time. “Goddamn it!” he says, slamming one fist down into his open palm. “The Sirians warned me about something like this when I was there. They said, ‘trust no one, even those that you think are on your team.’” He shakes his head and scoffs before looking back at his father. “The way I took it at the time, they were telling me not to trust you, dad.” He shakes his head again. “I just couldn’t believe what they were saying, and it was a big reason I decided to leave and come back to Earth.” He sighs again. “Now I know it wasn’t you they were talking about, but this… this… someone that’s playing both sides.”