at was built into it. It showed a schematic, with Turcotte pressed the open button and the doors slid rooms labeled and green lights in each little box. The oth- apart, revealing a small foyer and another door and an- ers quickly gathered around. other warning sign: "Archives," Turcotte said, resting a finger on a room. He looked up at Nabinger and Von Seeckt. "That's yours." He SUBLEVEL 2 reached into his pocket and pulled out the stun gun. "You AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY. meet anyone, use this. Just aim and pull the trigger, the RED CLEARANCE REQUIRED. gun does the rest. You've got five minutes. Then be back here whether you found what you're looking for or not." An opening for a card key to be passed through was just Nabinger oriented himself with the diagram and looked below the sign. Turcotte held up the card key he'd appro- down the corridor. "Right. Let's go." He headed off with priated from the Suburban. It was orange. "We're still out Von Seeckt. of the depth of Mr. Spencer's security range." He stepped Turcotte pointed. "I'd say your friend is in one of these forward and shrugged off the small backpack he had on. two places." One was labeled HOLDING AREA and the other "But I think I can handle this little roadblock." He re- BIOLAB. moved a small black box. "Biolab," Kelly said. "What's that?" Kelly asked. They sprinted in the opposite direction from the one "Something I found in the van. They had all sorts of Von Seeckt and Nabinger had taken. The hall was quiet goodies back there." A card key was attached to the box by and they passed several doors with nameplates on the out- several wires. Turcotte slid it into the slot in the direction side--obviously offices for the people who worked here in opposite that indicated by the arrow. "It reads the door the daytime. code backward, memorizes it, and then reverses the code. "Left," Kelly said. A set of swinging double doors waited I've used similar devices in some of my other assignments." at the end of a short corridor. They halted and Kelly He slid it down in the proper direction and the two doors arched her eyebrows at Turcotte in question as they heard slip open to reveal a guard seated at a desk ten feet away. someone cough on the other side. "Hey!" the guard yelled, bounding to his feet. "We charge," Turcotte whispered. Turcotte dropped the box and reached for the stun gun. "You don't have much of a tactical repertoire," Kelly It got caught in his pocket and he abandoned the effort, replied quietly. sprinting forward. The guard's gun had just cleared his hol- Turcotte pushed the doors open and stepped in. A mid- 286 ROBERT DOHERTY 287 AREA 51 die-aged woman in a white coat was bent over a large "But I can't just open it. The shock will kill the obj--" She chest-high rectangular black object. Her hair was pulled caught herself. "The patient. I have to do this in proper back tight in a bun and she peered up over a pair of procedure." glasses. "How long?" Turcotte asked. "Who are you?" she demanded. "Fifteen minutes to--" "Johnny Simmons?" Turcotte asked. "Make it five." "What?" the woman replied, but Turcotte caught the shift of her eyes to the black object. At the other end of this level of the facility Von Seeckt and He walked past her and looked down. It reminded him Professor Nabinger were staring at an intellectual treasure of an oversized coffin. There was a panel on the top--what trove. The archives had been dark when they opened the the woman had been looking at. "What is this?" he asked. doors. When Nabinger hit the lights, a room full of large "Who are you people?" The woman looked past them at filing cabinets had come into view. Opening drawers, they the door. "What are you doing here?" found photos. The drawers were labeled with numbers that There were a number of cables coming out of the ceiling, meant nothing to the two men. At the far end of the room going into the black top. Some of the cables were clear and there was a vault door with a small glass window. Von there was fluid in them. He turned on the woman. "Get Seeckt peered through. "The original stone tablets from him out of there." the mothership cavern are in there," he said. "But they "Johnny's in there?" Kelly stared at the casing. She must have photographs of them in these cabinets." walked over and picked up a clipboard hanging on a hook. Nabinger was already opening drawers. "Here's the She checked the papers on it. same high runes from the site in Mexico that Slader "Someone's in there," Turcotte said. "Those are IV showed me," Nabinger said, holding up large ten-by-fif- tubes. I don't know what they're carrying, but someone's in teen-inch glossies. there on the receiving end." "Yes, yes," Von Seeckt said absently, throwing open "It's Johnny," Kelly said, holding up the clipboard. drawer after drawer. "We need to find ones she didn't "Get him out of there," Turcotte repeated. show you--the ones from the mothership cavern. I do not "I don't know who you are," the woman began, "but-- believe our Captain Turcotte will have much patience once Turcotte slid his Browning High Power out of its holster. his five-minute limit is up." He pulled the hammer back with his thumb. "You got five Nabinger started going through drawers more quickly. seconds or I put a round through your left thigh." The woman glared at him. "You wouldn't dare!" The woman's hands shook as she worked on the panel. "He would," Kelly said. "And if he didn't, I would. Open Most of the cables had been disconnected and she was it!" checking some readings. "One. Two. Three." Turcotte dropped the barrel and "What did you people do to him?" Kelly asked. aimed at the woman's leg. "It's complicated," the woman said. "All right. All right!" The woman held up her hands. "E-D-O-M?" Kelly spelled out the letters. 288 ROBERT DOHERTY 289 AREA 51 The woman stiffened. "How do you know of that?" Kelly looked at the woman. "Finish the job," Turcotte said. "Please don't," the woman begged. The woman hit a key and the box began beeping. "It will "The change starts here," Kelly said. She shot the be safe to open in thirty seconds." woman with the stun gun, then hurried after the others. They piled into the elevator. Turcotte leaned Johnny up Von Seeckt had paused at one drawer, looking at the against the wall and Kelly kneeled to support him. photos more carefully. At the end of the aisle Nabinger Turcotte punched in the button labeled G and the eleva- was moving on to the next cabinet when he noticed some- tor rose. He poked Nabinger in the chest. "You and Kelly thing in a glass cabinet on the wall. He moved over and carry him out to the van." stared at the object inside. "What are you doing?" Kelly asked. Von Seeckt held up a handful of pictures. "These are the "My job," Turcotte said. "I'll link up with you in Utah. photos from the mothership cavern! Let us rejoin the good Capitol Reef National Park. It's small. I'll find you." captain." "Why aren't you going with us?" Kelly demanded. "I'm going to see what's on sublevel one," Turcotte said. The beeping stopped and the woman pointed at a lever on "Plus, I'll create a diversion so you can get away." He hus- the side of the box. "Lift that." tled them out into the garage, then stepped back into the Turcotte grabbed the red handle and pulled it up. With a elevator. hiss the lid came up, revealing a naked Johnny Simmons "But--" The shutting doors cut off the rest of her words. submerged inside a pool of dark-colored liquid. Needles Turcotte punched in sublevel 2 and the elevator went were stuck in both arms and tubes led to his lower body. A back down to where he had just left. The doors opened on tube was inserted in his mouth, a clear plastic-type material the unconscious guard. Turcotte ran out and grabbed the wrapped around the tube and molded to his face, ensuring guard's body. He dragged the body back, wedging it in the a seal to keep the fluid out. doorway to keep the doors from shutting. Then he "I have to remove the oxygen tube and the catheters and shrugged off the backpack of gear he had appropriated IVs," the woman said. from the van. He knew it was only a matter of time before "Do it." Turcotte said. He turned as Von Seeckt and some alarm was raised. They had to have some sort of Nabinger appeared in the doorway. Nabinger's hands were internal checks with the guards, and when the sublevel 2 bleeding and he held something wrapped in his jacket. guard didn't respond . . . well, then things would get ex- "You were not at--" Von Seeckt halted in midsentence citing. when he saw the body inside the black box. "Ah, these He laid out two one-pound charges of C-6 explosive he'd people! They never stopped. They never stopped." found in the van on the carpeted floor of the elevator. He "Enough," Turcotte ordered. The woman was done. He molded the puttylike material into two foot-long half cir- leaned over and scooped Johnny up. "Let's go." cles, placing them about two and a half feet apart in the "What do I do with her?" Kelly asked. center of the floor. He pushed a nonelectric blasting cap "Kill her," Turcotte snapped as he headed out the door. into each charge. He'd crimped detonating cord into each 290 ROBERT DOHERTY 291 AREA 51 fuse in the van, so all he had to do was tie the loose ends of pulled the pin, and tossed it toward the sound of the guns. the det cord together with a square knot, leaving enough to He squeezed his eyes shut and put his hands over his ears. put on the M60 fuse igniter. The igniter was about six As soon as he felt the concussion, he sprang up. In his inches long by an inch in diameter with a metal ring at the last assignment Turcotte had fired thousands of rounds opposite end from the det cord. from the pistol every day. It was an extension of his body The det cord was just long enough for him to step out- and he could put a round into a quarter-sized circle at side the elevator doors. He pulled the unconscious guard out of the way and held one of the doors open with his left twenty-five feet. One guard was kneeling, submachine gun dangling on hand. Then he checked his watch. It had been almost five the end of its sling, his hands rubbing his eyes. The other minutes since he'd let the others out in the garage. They still had his weapon ready but was disoriented, facing ought to be getting near the metal gate. He'd give them toward the wall, blinking and shaking his head. Turcotte another two minutes, then showtime. The seconds dragged fired twice, hitting the first man in the center of his fore- by slowly. head, throwing the body back. The next round hit the sec- Time. Turcotte put the M60 in his mouth, clamping ond man in the temple. As he keeled over, his dead finger down on it with his teeth. He pulled the metal ring with his jerked back on the trigger, sending a stream of bullets into right hand. The detonating cord burned at twenty thousand feet per the wall. Turcotte slowly slid on his belly up into the corridor. He second. The result was that Turcotte was still pulling when got to his feet, staying low in a crouch. The hall extended the charges exploded. He threw down the igniter and about sixty feet, to a dead end. There were several doors to stepped into the elevator. A three-foot hole was in the the left and another corridor turning to the right. There floor. Turcotte jumped in, falling ten feet, landing on the were red lights flashing and a teeth-jarring low-frequency concrete bottom of the elevator shaft. He heard alarms siren wailing. One of the doors to the left opened and screaming in the distance. Turcotte snapped a shot in that direction, causing whoever The sublevel elevator doors were at waist level. Turcotte it was to slam the door shut. There were name plaques next reached up and jammed his fingers between them and to each door on the left and Turcotte surmised that those pulled. He felt some of the stitches Cruise had put in his rooms were quarters for sublevel 1 staff. side pop. The doors grudgingly gave six inches, then the He abandoned his cautious approach and ran forward, emergency program kicked in and they began opening of turning the corner to the right. The hall he faced was ten their own accord. feet long, ending in a double set of doors with more dire Turcotte had his Browning out in his right hand as he warnings in red posted on them. Turcotte pushed the doors peeked up over the lip. There were two guards standing in open and stepped in. The rough concrete floor angled the corridor and they were ready, the explosion having down to a large cavern carved out of the mountain. The alerted them. Bullets ripped in above Turcotte's head. He ceiling was twenty feet high and the far wall a hundred ducked and heard the rounds thump into the wall above his meters away. What caught Turcotte's attention first were head. He removed a flash-bang grenade from his pocket, several dozen large vertical vats that were full of some am- 292 ROBERT DOHERTY 293 AREA 51 ber-colored liquid and each one holding something in it. t'me of night he didn't think there was a platoon of men Turcotte stepped up to the nearest one and peered in. He hanging around "just in case." recoiled as he recognized what was a human being. There A humming noise drew his attention back to the pyra- were tubes coming in and out of the body and the entire mid A golden glow was flowing out of the apex, forming a head was encased in a black bulb with numerous wires three-foot-diameter circle in the air above. Turcotte stag- going into it. It reminded Turcotte of what had been done gered back. His head felt as if an ax had split his brain from to Johnny Simmons, except on a more sophisticated level. ear to ear. He turned and ran, heading away from the cor- A golden glow to the right caught Turcotte's attention. ridor he'd come down. When he'd first come into the room He ran in that direction and stopped in surprise as he he'd realized they hadn't gotten all this equipment in here cleared the last vat. The glow came from the surface of a through the elevator he'd destroyed. There had to be an- small pyramid, about eight feet high and four feet across other way. He fought to keep his concentration against the each base side. tidal wave of pain that surged through his skull. Several cables hanging from the ceiling were hooked The floor began sloping up again. A large vertical door into it, but it was the texture of the surface that caught and beckoned. Turcotte grabbed the strap on the bottom of it held Turcotte's attention. It was perfectly smooth and solid and pulled up. It lifted to reveal a large freight elevator. appearing. The surface seemed to be some sort of metal Stepping in, he pulled the door back down and checked the and when Turcotte touched it, it was cool and as unyielding control panel. It had the same two-key system, but the keys as the hardest steel. Yet the glow seemed to come right out were only needed to go down. He punched in HP and the of the material. floor jerked. There were markings all over it. Turcotte recognized the The pain in his head slowly subsided as he got farther high rune writing from the photos Nabinger had shown away from sublevel 1. He went up past 2, 3, then 4. The him. parking garage passed by, then almost ten seconds of There was a noise. Turcotte spun and fired. A guard movement passed until the light came on for HP. The ele- racing through the double doors returned fire with a sub- vator came to a halt. Turcotte pulled up on the inside strap machine gun, his rounds hitting several of the vats, shatter- and the door opened onto a large bay carved into the side ing glass, the liquid pouring out. The man was disoriented of the mountain. Camouflage netting overhung the open by the layout of the room and had fired instinctively at the end and the place was dimly lit with red night-lights. Crates sound of Turcotte's gun. and boxes were stacked about. If there had been a guard Turcotte fired again, more carefully, and hit the man up here he must have responded to the alarm on the lower twice, killing him. He felt nothing. He was in action mode, level, because the place was deserted. Turcotte ran across taking care of what needed to be done. He needed infor- to the netting and peered out. A steel platform large mation and he had plenty from what he had seen in this enough to take the biggest helicopter in the inventory had room. He didn't expect any more guards soon. One of the been erected out there. He walked out onto it. The side of Catch-22's of a place like this was that the more guards you e mountain was very steep here. Turcotte looked down. had, the more people you had who were security risks. This The valley below was in darkness, giving no idea how far 294 ROBERT DOHERTY 295 AREA 51 down it went. Eight hundred feet above, the top of the disconnecting. Then he dialed a new number with a 910 mountain was silhouetted against the light of the moon. area code. Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Turcotte slid over the edge of the platform onto the rock- A sleepy voice answered. "Colonel Mickell." and-dirt mountainside and began climbing. "It's Mike Turcotte, sir." After a few minutes he could see lights moving in the The voice woke up. "Jesus, Turc, what the fuck have you valley below. Reinforcements. It would take them a while done?" to get air assets in--he hoped. Having been in Special Op- Turcotte leaned against the phone booth, energy drain- erations for years, Turcotte knew that there just weren't ing out of his body. "I don't know, sir. I don't know what's packs of men sitting around with high-speed helicopters going on. What have you heard?" waiting around every corner. "I haven't heard shit except somebody wants your ass He moved from rock to rock, clinging to bushes at times. bad. One of those agencies with a whole bunch of letters He'd learned mountain climbing during a tour in Germany has put out a classified 'grab and hold' on you. I about shit and this slope wasn't technically very difficult. The dark- when I saw it come through in my reading file." ness was a bit of a problem, but his eyes were adjusting. Mickell was the deputy commander of the Special He reached the top of the mountain after forty-five min- Forces Training Command at Fort Bragg and an old friend. utes. He turned to the west, following the ridgeline that he "Can you help me, sir?" had seen coming into town during the day. He moved "What do you need?" quicker now that he was gradually descending. His head "I need to find out if someone is for real and, if she is, still hurt, feeling as if a massive headache was worming its how to contact her." way around his head, moving from section to section. What "Give me her name." had that pyramid been? It definitely wasn't man-made. He "Duncan. Dr. Lisa Duncan. She told me she was the knew it was connected to the bouncers and mothership. President's adviser to a thing called Majic-12." But how was it connected to the bodies in the vats? What Mickell whistled. "Oh, man, you're in some deep stuff. the hell was going on down there? How do I reach you?" He saw the lights of Dulce to his left and he curved "You don't, sir. I'll get back in contact with you." downslope in that direction, heading for the western edge "Watch your butt, Turc." of town. As the ridgeline leveled out to valley floor he "Yes, sir." passed the first houses. An occasional dog barked, but Turcotte slowly hung up the phone. He wasn't one hun- Turcotte moved swiftly, not worried right now about the dred percent certain that Mickell would back him up. He locals. didn't know why Duncan's number didn't work. The only He spotted a pay phone outside a closed bowling area means of communication she'd given him as he went un- and jogged up to it. He picked up the receiver and dialed dercover and it had been out now for a couple of days. Not the number Dr. Duncan had given him. After the second good. Not good at all. He'd just killed three men this eve- ring a mechanical device informed that the number was no ning. "Fuck," Turcotte muttered. What the hell was that longer in service. Turcotte pushed down the metal lever, pyramid? I 296 ROBERT DOHERTY Turcotte rubbed his forehead. He'd played his last cards. 26 When it got down to it, he had to admit that the only people he could trust right now were heading for Utah and the rendezvous he had planned. He didn't want to go there, but it was the only place he could go. He looked about. There was a pickup truck parked on the street. Goddamn, his head hurt. Turcotte drew deep inside, relying on years of harsh training. He drew up strength where most would find nothing. And headed for the pickup truck. ROUTE 64, NORTHWEST NEW MEXICO T-7O HOURS, 4O MINUTES Johnny Simmons started screaming and Kelly's best efforts couldn't stop it. She wrapped her arms around him and held him tight, whispering words of comfort in his ear. Getting out of the facility had been even easier than getting in. They'd piled into the Suburban, driven out past the unsuspecting guard, and linked back up with the van. Returning the still-unconscious driver to his own truck, they'd jumped into the van and driven back down through town and turned left on Route 64. "Can't you keep him quiet?" Von Seeckt asked from the driver's seat, checking the rearview mirror. "I'd be screaming too," Kelly answered, "if I'd been locked in that thing for four days. You just drive. No one can hear him except us." Johnny quieted down and appeared to fall asleep or, Kelly thought, slip into unconsciousness. She turned to Nabinger, who had his hands wrapped in a bloodstained towel. Kelly pulled out the first-aid kit. "What happened to you, Professor?" "There was something I had to get and it was in a glass case. I couldn't find a key so I broke the glass," Nabinger replied. 299 AREA 51 298 ROBERT DOHERTY ing this latest escapade, you mean. I think we'll be okay. I "Couldn't you have used something other than your just hope Turcotte made it out all right." hand to break the glass?" Kelly asked as she pulled out the "I am not concerned about them being after us," Von gauze and tape. Seeckt said. "I am concerned that we only have seventy- "I was in a hurry," Nabinger replied. After a moment's two hours before the mothership flies." silence he added, "I wasn't thinking about my hands." "What was so important?" Kelly inquired. Nabinger carefully unwrapped something from his jacket. He held a piece of wood, slightly curved, about two THE CUBE, AREA 51 feet long by one foot high and an inch thick. Even in the General Gullick did not look like a man who had just been dim light in the back of the van she could see that it was awakened five minutes ago. His uniform was well pressed covered with small carved characters. and his face clean shaven. Major Quinn had to wonder if "It's a rongorongo tablet from Easter Island," Nabinger Gullick shaved his face and skull before he went to bed said. "Do you know how rare these are? Only twenty-one every night for just such an occurrence as this--always are known to be in existence. This must be one that was ready for action. It suddenly occurred to Quinn that maybe secreted away." the general never slept. Maybe he just lay there in the dark, Kelly pointed at the eight-by-ten glossies that the two wide-awake, waiting for the next crisis. men had gathered. "What are those?" "Let me hear it from the beginning," Gullick ordered as Nabinger reluctantly looked from the tablet to the table, the other members of Majic-12, minus Dr. Duncan, strag- where the photos were piled. "Von Seeckt told me those gled in. are the photographs taken by the first team to enter the There wasn't much to tell. Quinn summarized the infor- mothership cavern. They found flat stones with high mation an excited security chief had called in from Dulce. runes." In reality, Quinn realized, as he recited the brief list of "What do they say?" Kelly asked as she finished one facts concerning the break-in and the abduction of the re- hand and began working on the other. porter Simmons and the theft of photos from the archives, Nabinger looked at the photos. "Well, it's not like read- they knew more here at the Cube, because it was obvious ing the newspaper, you know. This will take time." from the description from the guards and the female scien- "Well, you've got some time, so get to work," Kelly said tist who'd been on shift that it had been Von Seeckt, as she finished the second hand, then picked up a road Turcotte, Reynolds, and Nabinger acting in concert. map. She found where they had to meet Turcotte. "You've "I underestimated all of them," Gullick said when Quinn got all night," she announced. "I think we should get off was done. "Especially Von Seeckt and Turcotte." this main road and take back roads through the mountains, Kennedy leaned forward. "We're in trouble. They're go- heading west until we get to the linkup spot." ing to go to the media with this Simmons fellow." "How soon do you think they'll be after us?" Nabinger "How far into conditioning was Simmons?" Gullick asked. asked. "They're already after us," Kelly said. "After us follow- 300 ROBERT DOHERTY 301 AREA 5 1 Quinn was puzzled. What were they talking about? snapped. "Prepare everything to move up twenty-four Kennedy consulted his notepad. "They were sixty per- hours." cent into phase four." "But-" Quinn began. The general cut him off again Gullick looked at Doctor Slayden. "What do you think?" with a glare. Slayden considered it. "I can't say for sure." "I want the hangar opened tomorrow," Gullick said, "Goddammit!" Gullick's fist smashed into the desktop. "and I want the flight to be tomorrow night." Gullick "I'm tired of people bullshitting me when I ask them a looked around the table. "I think everyone has a lot of question." work to do, so I suggest you get moving." As they all got The room was silent for several moments, then Slayden up, his voice halted them. "By the way. I want the orders spoke. "They disconnected Simmons before treatment was on capturing Von Seeckt and his crew changed. It's no complete. That had to be a shock to his system, and the longer capture at any cost. It is terminate with highest way his mind will react to that, nobody knows. If nothing sanction." else happens, the sixty percent he did have will be enough to assure that Simmons will be discredited if he speaks publicly. He'll fit in with all the other wackos, to use a rather unscientific term." "What about the photos they stole?" General Brown asked. "They were of the high rune tablets," Gullick said. "Even if Nabinger can decipher the language, it will be quite a while before other scientists can verify his transla- tion. The tablets are not a problem. Even if they go to the media, it will take a little time before anyone starts believ- ing their story. They really don't have any proof." Gullick's voice was void of emotion, but a vein throbbed in his forehead. "All right. Then we're still back at the original problem--Von Seeckt and Turcotte. They're the threat, but I think at this point we can handle them for a little while. Long enough, at least, for us to finish the countdown. That's all that matters." Quinn found that a little hard to believe. What about afterward? he wanted to ask, but he kept his mouth shut. He knew that question would only earn him grief, so he chose another one. "What about the foo fighters?" "We'll deal with that and this new problem too," Gullick 303 AREA 51 him but it's bad. Von Seeckt's sleeping inside. Nabinger is looking at photos from the mothership hangar." "Has he gotten anything?" Turcotte asked. "What about you?" Kelly asked in response. "What hap- pened? What was done on sublevel one?" "I don't really know," Turcotte answered honestly and vaguely. He walked to the side door and slipped in, Kelly following. "What have you got?" he asked the archaeologist. "Better wake up Von Seeckt," Nabinger said. "He'll CAPITOL REEF NATIONAL PARK, UTAH want to hear this." ADJUSTED T - 4 4 HOURS It took Von Seeckt a few minutes to get fully awake and then they all gathered around Professor Nabinger. He held Just north of Monument Valley, Capitol Reef National a legal pad covered with pencil marks. Park was right in the middle of the Rocky Mountains. This "First you have to understand that my knowledge of the time of year it was virtually deserted. In fact, in a few high rune language is very rudimentary. I have a very small weeks the gates would be locked for the winter snows. The working vocabulary, and to compound that fact, there are lack of people, and out-of-the-way location, were two rea- symbols here that--although I believe they mean the same sons Turcotte had selected it as their meeting point. The as similar symbols from other sources--have slight differ- location put a lot of distance between themselves and ences in the way they are marked. Dulce. "The other problem is that the symbols that represent He drove in past the empty Ranger station and followed what we could call verbs are most difficult to make out the road around. At the first campsite he spotted the van. because of the variations in tense, which change the basic Kelly was standing outside, stun gun in hand, watching his symbol. truck. She relaxed when she saw him step out. There was a "Beyond the simple deciphering of the symbols and the concrete walkway at the end of the campsite, going along words they might mean," Nabinger continued, "there is an the top of the cliff on which the site was located. It af- additional problem to working with a picture language. forded a beautiful view of the surrounding mountains--or The ancient Egyptians called hieroglyphics 'medu metcher.' would have if the sun was up. That means 'the gods' words.' The word hieroglyphs, which "Good to see you," Kelly said. is Greek, refers specifically to the drawings in temples. It is "How is everyone?" Turcotte asked, stretching his arms difficult for us in the modern day to understand a language out. that was developed to explain the religious and mythi- "Johnny's semiconscious. Whenever he gains conscious- cal--" ness, he's delirious. I don't know what those people did to "Wait a second." Turcotte was tired and had had a long 304 ROBERT DOHERTY AREA 51 305 night. "You're talking about hieroglyphics now. Let's stick THE CHIEF(?) SHIP/CRAFT NEGATIVE(?) FLY with the high runes and what they say." ENGINE/POWER(?) DANGEROUS Nabinger was tired also. "I'm trying to explain all this to ALL SIGNS NEGATIVE/BAD(?) AND MUST BE you so that you can take my few translations in the proper NEGATIVE/STOPPED(?) context. It would be wrong of us to superimpose our own MUST BE SOON culture and ideas upon what was written by a culture with a totally different set of values and ideas." He tapped the "That must refer to the mothership," Von Seeckt said. photos. "And here we are dealing with what appears to be "The negative with the question mark in the first sen- an alien culture. We don't have a clue if their perception of tence- you don't know for sure what that word is?" reality is the same as ours." "A verb," Nabinger said. "It might be cannot or should "We're flying their ships," Turcotte noted. "It couldn't not or will not. " be that far off." He thought of the pyramid and the golden "Makes a bit of difference," Turcotte noted. "I mean, glow above it and mentally reconsidered his last statement. what if the damn thing just broke? That would cover the "And not only that," Kelly added, "but didn't you tell us old won 't, wouldn't it? What if these aliens got stuck and earlier that it appears this high rune language was the pre- their triple A plan didn't cover Earth? And maybe that's cursor to all of mankind's written languages and probably why that thing shouldn't get cranked." served as the starting point for those languages? So if the Kelly put an arm on Turcotte 's shoulder. "See? You said roots are common, we must be able to understand it better 'shouldn't.' " than if they were totally alien."