The Oracle rejoined the group and sat down. “Zane, Brooks wanted me to bring you up to date on something that has… how shall I say… been passed around like a hot potato.” He paused, looking first at Hathaway and then at Zane. “Without beating around the bush, the whole thing arose in the aftermath of your operation in Switzerland and France.”
Zane raised an eyebrow. “What? Other than smoothing things over with our allies, that was put to bed weeks ago.”
The Oracle drew in a deep breath. “Unfortunately, it wasn’t, not by a long shot. In fact, it looks like we’re just starting to peel back the skin of a very big onion.”
Zane’s brow furrowed. What on earth was he talking about?
The Oracle nodded at Delphi’s chief technology specialist. “Brett, please start the slides.”
CHAPTER SIX
Brett lifted a controller and pressed a button. There was a dull hum as a projection screen lowered out of the ceiling. Once it was in place, he made a few keystrokes on his laptop, and an image appeared.
Zane frowned. What on earth was he looking at? It appeared to be a scientific diagram, with a series of four concentric circles. The smallest circle was labeled Earth.
The Oracle leaned forward in his chair. “Watson, as you may or may not know, there is a division of NASA that monitors celestial objects using radio waves.”
Zane nodded. “The DRA. Division of Radio Astronomy.”
Hathaway’s eyes widened, clearly in surprise that the operative knew the answer.
“Bravo, Watson. In addition to their work with celestial objects, the DRA also monitors the universe for sounds.”
“What sorts of sounds?” Zane asked.
The Oracle paused for a moment, as though considering his answer. “Any sounds, but particularly those they believe might be sent by intelligent beings.”
“ET.”
The Oracle nodded. “Yes, ET.”
Zane’s mind flashed back to Delphi’s last operation. A group led by Russian billionaire Alexander Mironov and former Roman Catholic priest Vincenzio Marrese had taken over the CERN command center in Prevessin, France. The takeover gave them unfettered control of the Large Hadron Collider, or LHC, the most powerful particle accelerator in the world. Their plan had been to use the collider to open a doorway to the heavens, through which they thought would come an alien visitation. Mironov and Marrese believed these same aliens had visited earth in ancient times, bringing with them the technology that had been used to construct a number of megalithic structures around the globe, including those in Egypt and South America.
A Delphi team led by Zane had thwarted those plans, but at great cost. The collider had been pressed beyond its working limit, triggering explosions that caused extensive damage to several buildings and the collider itself. In addition, Dutch physicist Markus VanGelder was killed by one of the blasts.
But something else had happened that night, a series of events that continued to haunt Zane to this very day. As a battle raged for control of the center, he followed former priest Marrese to the underground tunnels that housed the collider itself. He soon discovered that Marrese was holding captive Philippe Bachand, a pastor from Geneva who had assisted Delphi.
During the subsequent chase, Zane discovered that a mysterious column of light had appeared while the collider was in use. He had also seen at least three giant creatures, all of whom seemed to have come out of the column of light. In the intervening time since the mission, Zane had noticed that the memory of their appearance had faded. In fact, it had faded so much that he now wondered exactly what he had seen, if anything. Were the giants some sort of alien beings? Or were they figments of his imagination, brought on by smoke inhalation and the effects of anesthetic agents he’d been given earlier that night?
After the event was over, French police and emergency personnel combed the facility, but no reports of anything out of the ordinary ever surfaced. If something had been found, Zane felt sure word would’ve gotten back to Washington.
The Oracle cleared his throat and continued. “As I mentioned, the events at CERN didn’t mark the end of the story. On the night of the operation, the DRA picked up an odd sound coming from the area around Geneva and Prevessin.” He used a laser pointer to indicate the area between the innermost circle and the next one out. “It came from the troposphere, the first layer of the atmosphere.” He looked at Zane. “Apparently that sound was recorded around the same time that Mironov’s team operated the collider.”
Zane returned Ross’s gaze. “Does NASA believe there is a connection?”
The Oracle nodded. “Officially, they’re reluctant to talk, but when you get them alone, there are a few who say a wormhole was beginning to open. Others believe it was some sort of celestial link between our dimension and another one.”
“Back to the noise.” Zane paused then asked, “Do the NASA scientists believe it was made by the collider itself?”
“No. Again, this sound had a unique signature. CERN has been around for a while, so any noise emanating from the collider would be something they’d have on record.” The Oracle nodded at Brett, who pressed a key on his laptop. The next slide appeared, depicting a man with salt-and-pepper hair and a goatee. “The DRA subgroup that monitors these sounds is led by a man named Dr. Stetson Clark. Dr. Clark knew from news reports that the US had been involved in an operation near Geneva, and called his contact in Washington to let him know what they had found. And that’s where I’ll let Brooks take over.”
Hathaway stood and took the laser pointer from Ross. “As you can imagine, the US government takes any and all intergalactic communications seriously—”
“Wait,” Zane interrupted. “We’re already classifying this as an intergalactic communication? Isn’t that a little premature?”
Hathaway glared at the operative. “If you’d wait and listen to what I have to say, then you might change your mind.”
The Oracle turned toward Zane. “Let him finish, Watson.”
“As I was saying, the US government takes all intergalactic communications seriously, as it also does any reports of UFOs, strange craft, alien beings, and abductions. And it’s probably no surprise that we view these things through the lens of national security. That means that all cases are handled by the CIA and its affiliates.”
“Which would include Delphi,” the Oracle said.
“Correct,” Hathaway said. “In any event, while certainly compelling, the sound that registered that night did not set off any alarms in DC. It was what came in its wake. Something we believe could be one of the most important discoveries in decades.”
Zane frowned deeply.
Hathaway then nodded at Brett, who brought up the next slide. Zane leaned forward when the image appeared. It was a detailed map of South America, with a black dot blinking over northern Brazil.
Hathaway looked at Zane. He seemed pleased that he now had the operative’s attention. “The director asked Dr. Clark to look into the matter further. We needed to know if this was a simple anomaly or something that warranted further attention.
“A few days later, the director received a call from Clark. They had found something significant in one of the reports generated by their monitoring equipment.” Hathaway used the laser pointer to indicate the blinking black dot. “Just minutes after the sound was picked up in France, there was another corresponding sound picked up here, in Brazil.”
Zane nodded and whispered, “The Amazon basin.”
“The sound in Brazil had all of the same intrinsic properties as the one from France,” Hathaway continued. “In fact, we believe it was a response… a signal… a communication of some sort.”