‘Right, first things first,’ he began. ‘We checked with DNA Analytics, and they haven’t got any results yet.’
Adams nodded his head. ‘Yeah, it’ll be at least another day or two, we figure. Hopefully the money will speed things up a bit, though.’
‘And the helicopter?’ Lynn asked anxiously.
‘Well, it looks like we were right about the Bilderberg Group. We used the numbers you gave us and traced the helicopters through several cut-offs and back channels to the person who chartered them.’ Stephenfield noted the look of anticipation on the faces of both Lynn and Adams. ‘Wesley Jones,’ he told them, and saw their looks turn to confusion, realizing that they would never have heard of the man. And why should they? ‘Fifty-six years old, ex-Defence Intelligence Agency, rank of colonel. Now the private aide to Stephen Jacobs.’
Adams and Lynn had been given dossiers on what Stephenfield had already found out about the Bilderberg Group and knew instantly who Stephen Jacobs was.
‘The chairman of the group?’ Adams asked for confirmation.
‘One and the same. So let me spell it out,’ Stephenfield carried on. ‘The aide of the chairman of the Bilderberg Group is the person who chartered the helicopters that took the team of engineers to the Antarctic, and that left with the body. We now have a clear, definite link between the group and what’s been happening to you both.’
‘OK,’ Adams said in a measured tone. ‘What else do we know?’
‘John wants to talk to you about that himself,’ Stephenfield said in answer, standing up from his chair. ‘Come on, let’s go.’
Hi Kdan Business Park is part of the San Xavier Development Authority, located in Tucson, just off the Nogales Highway. Situated within Tohono O’odham territory, it was regarded as something of a safe haven for John Ayita, who rented one of the small industrial units on a long-term lease.
The situation with Matt Adams and his ex-wife disturbed him greatly. Not only was one of their old comrades dead, but their entire unit had been shut down by an enemy that seemed enormously powerful. And what about the body that Lynn and her team — also all dead — had found in the Antarctic? What was the story behind that? What Ayita had learnt recently certainly hinted that it might be very special indeed, which was why it was attracting such very special attention. But it was where the remaining helicopter, the one that had carried the body, had ultimately landed that worried Ayita particularly. It meant the powers ranged against them, and which they would be forced to confront, were greater than they had at first thought.
They were going to have to enter the belly of the beast, and he couldn’t help but wonder if Adams still had the fight for it.
4
The sun was starting to set, a huge red fireball slowly descending behind the Tucson Mountains far to the west, when Stephenfield’s battered Ford sedan rolled into the industrial estate.
A large door was open in the side of Ayita’s unit, and Stephenfield drove slowly through, parking his car within the building itself, safe from prying eyes. He got out of the car, followed closely by Adams and Lynn.
The inside of the building appeared to be a small warehouse, and even contained stock of some kind, although Adams had no idea what it would be. Crates on pallets ran all round the walls of the available space, and an open stairway led to a second-level catwalk and a glass-fronted office that looked out on to the rest of the warehouse. As Adams looked up, he saw Ayita in the big window, gesturing for them to come up.
‘OK,’ Ayita said when they were all sitting on folding metal chairs in his Spartan office. ‘Sam will have already told you the connection to Jacobs, yes?’ He watched for confirmation before continuing, prowling the office like a big cat. ‘Right, so now I’ll tell you where the helicopter with the body landed. We tracked the route to McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas. Specifically, to the Janet Terminal.’
‘The Janet Terminal?’ Adams asked, the ramifications hitting him like a sledgehammer.
Ayita merely nodded his head.
‘OK,’ Lynn said, knowing she was missing something, ‘would someone like to tell me what is so special about the Janet Terminal?’
‘Do you want to tell her, Matt?’ Ayita asked.
Adams nodded his head slowly, turning to Lynn. ‘When I used to work down here, sometimes we’d go as far as Nevada. We got talking to the local tribes around the area, they pretty much know exactly what goes on. The Janet Terminal at McCarran has always had a lot of rumours about it, but the guys we knew filled us in. We checked it out and it was all true.’
‘What was true?’ Lynn asked.
Adams and Ayita exchanged looks. ‘The so-called “Janet flights” out of McCarran generally go to one place, and one place only,’ Adams said at length. ‘The US Air Force installation at Groom Lake. Better known to the world at large as Area 51.’
‘Area 51?’ Lynn asked incredulously. ‘Are you sure?’
Adams nodded his head, noting that he didn’t have to explain to Lynn what Area 51 was.
The base derives its name from being classified on maps of the 1950s and 1960s as ‘area 51’ of the Nevada Test and Training Range, a truly colossal military site of nearly four thousand seven hundred square miles — bigger than some countries.
Its very existence was denied for decades by the US government, which maintained that there was no such facility, but in actual fact, knowledge of the base’s existence — if not exactly what currently goes on there — is widespread.
The base is a top-secret military test and development facility, currently operated by Detachment 3 of the US Air Force Flight Test Centre, but founded in 1955 by Lockheed and the CIA in order to test their newly developed U2 spyplane. The base has been continually expanding ever since, and has been responsible for many other ‘black’ projects, including the A-12 ‘Blackbird’, the F-117 ‘Stealth Fighter’, and the B-2 ‘Stealth Bomber’. It has also played a key part in developing the latest battlefield advancements, such as unmanned reconnaissance and combat aircraft.
More notoriously, Area 51 is better known as being the repository for supposed alien UFO technology, which many people believe is hidden out at the Groom Lake facility. They say it is being reverse engineered, the only way to explain the US’ continued position at the forefront of military technology.
One of the primary beliefs of such conspiracy theorists is that the Air Force and CIA took possession of a UFO that was supposed to have crash-landed at Roswell in New Mexico back in 1947. They believe that it was then stored, along with its alien pilots, at Edwards Air Force Base while Area 51 was built, and was then shipped to the new facility for analysis. Many people argue that the entire purpose of the base is the analysis, reverse engineering, and use of alien technology.
With no proof, however, rumours about the base remained just that — rumours. And while Adams and Lynn both knew that this was the case, the coincidence just seemed too great, and their shared look said they were both thinking along the same lines.
‘So,’ Lynn said for both of them, ‘the body we found is now at the one place in the world that is rumoured to be using, or have access to, alien technology?’
Stephenfield nodded his head. ‘It makes you think, doesn’t it?’
Adams looked at him. ‘Can we get on to the base?’
‘We’ve considered the options but it doesn’t look viable. We could try and get on board one of the Janet flights and get delivered to the base directly, but the chance of being found is too great, especially when it comes to leaving the aircraft once it lands.