‘What of Aaron Mitchell?’
The tall, gaunt man’s question was neither accusing nor casual. Victor knew that they would likely be aware of what had occurred, for MJ-12 seemed to have eyes everywhere. None the less, it was a failure on Victor’s part — he should have ensured that Mitchell was killed when in custody.
‘Mitchell escaped from Florence ADX Security Max facility yesterday morning. I have no information regarding his whereabouts. I take full responsibility for this failure. I should have had him neutralized when I had the chance.’
‘And yet you did not,’ the tall man said. ‘Why?’
Victor took a breath before he replied.
‘Mitchell has served us for almost thirty years,’ he replied. ‘In that time he has never failed us, but he is getting older and is not able to perform for us as well as he once did. He questioned our loyalty to him, believed that we might abandon him at any moment. I took that opportunity to attempt to assure him that our loyalty was as strong as his had been, by allowing him to live. That was a mistake and a loose end that may now prove difficult to tie up.’
The gaunt man nodded, caught a few glances from his companions before he replied.
‘Loyalty, Victor, is a prized asset. Mitchell was worth giving the benefit of the doubt and his capture was regrettable. He did not kill the president at Travilah as he should have done, and thus now the only person who has failed us is Mitchell himself. We must move forward from this. How long before we have the artifact in our possession?’
Victor felt an overwhelming relief wash through him, a tension in his stomach unwinding as he sighed beneath his breath and spoke more easily.
‘Our sources inform me that the object will impact East Antarctica within just the hour. Our teams will be in position ready to take possession of the artifact, although we have evidence that the DIA is also deploying a team via the McMurdo research station.’
The tall, gaunt leader of Majestic Twelve peered at Victor.
‘Warner and Lopez?’
Victor nodded.
‘Warner and Ford, as it is at the moment. Lopez was injured during their last mission and is recuperating in a hospital in Washington DC.’
‘Then now is the time to strike,’ the gaunt man said. ‘Have somebody reliable finish Lopez off prior to our return to New York, while she cannot fight back. That will remove one thorn from our side for good while Warner is otherwise indisposed.’
Wilms nodded.
‘I don’t have many details but I think we can safely assume that given the sensitivity of the Antarctic mission the DIA will have deployed with armed escorts, likely Special Forces troops.’
The gaunt man frowned.
‘We cannot afford to have a major engagement in Antarctica, such an event will not go unnoticed.’
‘All media and military channels suggest that nobody outside of MJ-12 and select groups of NASA and DIA personnel are aware that the object is even in Earth orbit. For now, we have the advantage — I suggest that we use that and push forward in an attempt to beat the DIA team to the site. It has been many decades since Majestic Twelve assets have used the base.’
‘The site was abandoned decades ago when scientific research teams began building their damned observation posts all across Antarctica,’ the gaunt man lamented. ‘We could not afford our operation being disturbed or located, and we did not predict that Black Knight would suddenly begin its descent into the atmosphere.’
Victor knew that MJ-12 had been formed in the aftermath of the Second World War after a series of extraordinary events involving unknown craft observed in flight around the globe. Although such unidentified flying objects had been observed throughout history, even back as far as ancient Egypt, it was only recently that any headway had been made in understanding what the craft actually were and the nature of their purpose. When one such craft had impacted the ground in New Mexico in 1947, close to a town called Roswell, and aviator Kenneth Arnold had observed what he termed “saucer like discs” flying at tremendous speed near Mount Rainier in that same year, the Eisenhower administration had formed Majestic Twelve to coordinate a covert study of the phenomenon. What the administration of the time had not fully appreciated was that the founders of Majestic Twelve were men who had been fully aware of the Nazi experiments with supposed extra-terrestrial technology in the years before and during the Second World War, and involved in spiriting that technology away from the United States Government after the fall of Berlin. Majestic Twelve was not just a cabal of industrialists intent on the control of governments — it was actively continuing the work of the Nazis.
‘Do we have sufficient resources in place to recover the craft and secure it?’ Victor asked.
The men of Majestic Twelve looked at each other for a moment before the gaunt man nodded.
‘We do,’ he replied. ‘But it may prove difficult for the teams to gain access to the base.’
‘How so?’ Victor asked. ‘Is the glacier damaging the facility?’
The gaunt man shook his head.
‘The Nazis who built the base encountered something up there, which was why they never went as far as to occupy the location permanently.’
Victor felt a tingling on his arms as the hairs on the back of his neck rose up.
‘Encountered something?’
Number One nodded, his pale eyes haunted.
‘Our own people encountered the same thing years later, and we too abandoned the base and sealed it.’
Victor swallowed thickly. ‘What’s up there?’
The gaunt man shook his head.
‘You don’t want to know, but we can assume that neither our own or the DIA’s team will make it out of there alive.’
XI
Captain Forrester strode onto the bridge of the Polar Star, Ethan following as the captain barked an order to his crew.
‘Give us the bridge.’
The crew immediately vacated the bridge as the captain moved to stand behind the wheel and gently placed his hands upon it. Ethan got the impression that Forrester would rather be guiding his ship by hand through the icy seas than letting computers and GPS satellites navigate their course. The captain made a last few checks of the computers, and then as the last SEAL onto the bridge closed the door behind him, Forrester spoke clearly enough for them all to hear.
‘In 1947, as I’m sure you’ve all heard many times before, an unknown object crashed near Roswell in New Mexico. Captured by the United States Army Air Force, they announced proudly to the world that they had captured a flying saucer, that announcement appearing in several national newspapers. Within days the Air Force recanted that statement, claiming that what they’d found was a weather baloon.’
Ethan knew enough about the legend of what happened in Roswell to know that it was pretty hard to confuse the materials used to create weather balloons with those required to produce a flying metallic disc.
‘What is rarely reported is that the alleged crash also conincided with Kenneth Arnold’s sighting of similar objects near Mount Rainier in Washington State in the same year, both of these iconic events coinciding with a top secret United States Navy operation that was conducted in Antarctica in 1946 and 1947 as part of the Navy’s Antarctic Developments Program. The project became better known in later years as Operation Highjump.’
‘What was the operation for?’ Hannah Ford asked.
Forrester accessed a screen on the bridge controls and relayed it to a monitor mounted high on the bridge so that everyone could see it.
‘Operation Highjump was organized by Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd Jr., USN. Its primary mission was to establish the Antarctic research base Little America IV. The objectives were ostensibly to prepare crews for fighting in frigid conditions and full-on Arctic warfare, as well as extending the sovereignty of the United States over as much of Antarctica as possible. The government of the time had already recognized the threat of a battle-hardened Soviet Union’s ability to expand and consolidate its gains after the fall of Berlin.’