The Grail a5-5 Read online

  “He has the scars from the fire,” Turcotte noted.

  “He also withheld telling us he was a Watcher for a long time,” Yakov said.

  “We need a Watcher’s ring,” Turcotte said simply. “If there are no Watchers at Silbury, then I won’t believe him.”

  “Do you have a plan?” Yakov asked. The two of them were the only occupants, beside the pilot and copilot.

  “Not yet.”

  “Should we knock on the side of the hill and ask them if they can spare us a ring?”

  “Why don’t you do that?” Turcotte snapped.

  “My friend, I think you are not seeing the forest for the trees.”

  “Look,” Turcotte held out a photograph. “See how the side of the hill is indented right here?”

  Yakov took the picture. “Yes.”

  “Remember at Qian-Ling how there was an opening for a bouncer to go in and out on the side of the mountain?”

  “Yes.”

  Turcotte tapped the picture. “That’s where we’re going to knock.”

  CHAPTER 8

  Easter Island

  Popeye McGraw and Olivetti simply sat in the zodiac, bobbing in the slight swell. As a SEAL they’d traveled all over the world and seen some pretty amazing sights, from the interior of whorehouses in the Philippines to the full fury of a Pacific typhoon to the northern lights off the shore of Alaska, but they’d never seen anything like the black wall that shimmered in front of their boat.

  “Damn,” Popeye said, which pretty much summed it up. Olivetti spit over the side of the zodiac. “Yeah.”

  Popeye grabbed his tanks and slid them on. He secured his weapon and equipment bag. “Ready?”

  “Yeah.”

  Popeye did one last position check using the ground positioning receiver — GPR — confirming they were over the spot where they needed to be. He sealed the GPR in its waterproof bag. They turned the valves that connected the five chambers that made up the U-shaped outer hull, opening them to each other. Then Popeye opened a valve cap near the rear and air rushed out. He turned and opened another valve, attaching a hose from a CO2 tank secured on the floor of the zodiac securely to it.

  Both men fit their mouthpieces, turned their backs to the water, sat on the transom, then flopped overboard. They bobbed in the water as the zodiac slowly settled lower and lower. They grabbed the hull nearest them and wrapped their arms over it, helping push out the last of the air. Popeye reached over and secured the valve cap as the zodiac reached less than neutral buoyancy and slipped beneath the waves. Olivetti attached a lead from the lifeline that lay on top of the buoyancy tubes to a line around his waist. Then both men dove.

  They had worked together so often that they fell into a pattern as soon as they started diving, angling toward the wall — Popeye in the lead with his nav board held out in front, Olivetti right on his fins pulling the deflated zodiac behind him.

  Popeye paused as he saw the black wall just ahead, then went vertical, diving straight down. He slowed as he saw the bottom. A large divot had been carved out of the bottom as if a large hand had scraped along the coral and rock.

  Cautiously, Popeye settled down to the lowest point of the divot. There was a gap below the shield wall, about seven feet deep. He looked over his shoulder at Olivetti floating behind him, the zodiac slowly settling to the bottom. There was no question if they were going through.

  Popeye finned forward, scraping his belly on the bottom. He went for several seconds, then rolled on his back. He was through. He floated up as Olivetti shoved the deflated zodiac through next. Popeye pulled it through, then the other SEAL followed.

  Popeye grabbed Olivetti’s shoulder and gestured furiously. Ahead of them was a long gray wall, touching the bottom as it reached toward shore. The Washington. It was moving very slowly, the hull edging back into deeper water. Looking closer, the two SEALs could see that a black film covered the hull where it was touching the bottom, fluctuating as if it were alive. They’d heard the reports of how the ship had been taken over and had no desire to get closer.

  Popeye jerked a thumb toward the surface. Olivetti nodded and twisted a valve on the CO2 canister. The zodiac began filling and ascending, the two SEALs following. By the time the boat reached the surface it was almost fully inflated.

  Popeye’s head burst into the open air and he blinked. The Washington’s enormous bulk filled his vision. Something was different about the ship. He’d spent a lot of time aboard Nimitz-class carriers and he didn’t doubt his first impression. He scanned the ship from bow to stern, checking for the differences.

  The first thing that struck him was that there was no one moving; not a single crew member. A ghost ship, slowly sliding into the ocean from the shore. But then he saw more. The island, which contained the ship’s bridge and operations center, was more streamlined. The various radar and communication masts were different too, although Popeye wasn’t sure what that meant. The bow, facing inland, was torn and twisted, but even as he watched, he could swear that it was being repaired, centimeter by centimeter, even though he could see no men working on it. He felt a chill watching the majestic carrier, the pride of the fleet, being controlled by forces he couldn’t understand.

  He shifted toward the island. Six maoi statues gazed out to sea. Popeye rolled on board the zodiac, Olivetti following. They were a half mile away from the carrier, now afloat. Olivetti cranked the engine and they turned to the west to circle around the island. The first part of their mission was complete, although they weren’t exactly sure what their report would say.

  Qian-Ling, China

  The main tunnel widened beyond the scope of the lights Lexina and her comrades carried. From the echo their feet made on the stone floor, it was obvious they were entering a large open space.

  Lexina froze, seeing a tiny point of light, above and ahead. The light grew stronger, illuminating the cavern they had entered. It was over a quarter mile wide and a half mile long, with the roof over four hundred feet above their heads, where the glowing orb was now at full power. The walls were smoothly cut stone, the floor so flat it looked polished. But it was the center of the far wall that drew the attention of Lexina and the other Ones Who Wait.

  Two golden doors, inlaid with intricate lettering, each one hundred feet high and fifty wide, were set in the wall. Doors worthy of a god. Like moths to a flame, Lexina, Coridan, Elek, and Gergor were drawn forward, across the cavern floor. They stopped in front, overwhelmed by the sheer size and beauty of the doors. Etched into the gold was High Rune lettering mixed with Chinese symbols.

  Elek pointed. “That is the sign of Shi Huangdi, the first Emperor of China.” But Lexina could make out something in High Rune that was much more significant. “Artad and his people are behind these doors waiting to awake!”

  “How do we open them?” Coridan asked, always the practical one.

  Lexina continued to translate what she could of the High Runes, and found the answer, right before them. “This—” she held the Spear of Destiny “—goes here.” She put the point on a spot at eye level exactly along the seam where the doors met. The spot she was pointing to was outlined with black metal, b’ja, the metal of the Airlia.

  She pushed the spear, pressing it against the black. The point slid into the b’ja to the base of the tip, then stopped. Lexina let go and stepped back. The doors seemed to shimmer, then, as if a stone had been thrown in a pond, the gold changed to black in an ever-widening circle. When both doors were completely black, there was a loud groaning, as if the metal were protesting. The seam split smoothly and the doors began swinging outward, the spear staying in the opening.

  Area 51

  Professor Mualama hit control-D on his keyboard and looked up as the screen filled with words. He turned as Che Lu came into the conference in response to summons.

  “What do you have?” she asked.

  “You’ll find this interesting.” Mualama pointed at the screen.

  BURTON MANUSCRIPT: CHAPTER 2


  Following the destruction of Atlantis and the departure of Aspasia for the skies and the disappearance of Artad, the Watchers at first thought that the world was free of the direct influence of these creatures from the stars. It turned out they were wrong.

  Some of The Guides traveled to the Middle East and established a place called The Mission. There appeared in Egypt around nine thousand years before the birth of Christ, new gods, called Neteru, of whom Isis and Osiris were the two primary ones. The Watchers eventually learned that these new gods were a different form of Guide who wore the ka of Aspasia and some of his other Airlia, being their Shadows on Earth to prepare for their return. These were of an order above that of Guide in a way, because they had the memories of the Airlia imprinted on their brain.

  There is a device called a ka. The word in ancient Egyptian means soul or spirit. The symbol for it is two extended arms with no body in between. I have seen this sign on walls and even carved into statues, such as the ka statue of Hor Auibre from the thirteenth dynasty.

  I have talked to scholars about the root of the ka and there is much that is not known. They feel that the ka means something more than just the soul. It represents the sustaining power of life, an interesting term if one thinks about it. There are many representations of a ka being fashioned by the ram-headed god Khnum and it was meant to be a double or twin of the person from which it was drawn. The ka came into existence when a person was born, and the term “to go to one’s ka” meant one died and the ka was passed on.

  The hemu-ka were a kind of priests that facilitated the passing on of the ka.

  I was told by Kaji about the Airlia. But he also talked of Ones Who Were Not Born of Women, also known as The Ones Who Wait. Throughout the history I will recount to you, there will be those who are “shadows” of Airlia from both sides. How they come into being, I do not know. But they are not born.

  This first age of civilization in Egypt was the age of the rule of the Airlia Shadow gods. As the Watchers received this disquieting report, it was often debated whether they should interfere to stop this, but they remained true to their rules. Also, it appeared that this handful of Shadow Guides did not seek to conquer or expand their empire. Their mission was unclear for a very long time.

  I think, also, that unspoken among the Watchers was the knowledge there was nothing they could do to fight the Shadow Guides, who had the loyalty of their new cast of Guide-priests and the population who followed the priests, as the wedjat themselves had once given their loyalty.

  For thousands of years there was peace and prosperity in Egypt — as long as the people worshipped the Shadow Guides under their new names.

  It appears that Aspasia was able to rescue more out of Atlantis than was first thought and pass it on to the Shadows. The Grail was reported to be in Egypt along with the master guardian machine and other Airlia artifacts. This guardian machine was the device Aspasia used to transform men into Guides. There was also a machine that was used with the ka to imprint the personality of each Airlia on the human mind, allowing it a kind of immortality.

  The guardian has been described to me as a gold or red pyramid of varying heights, from several to twenty feet, which makes me think there might be more than one of these things located at various places around the world. I came close to seeing one in South America, but that comes later.

  The ka machine has been a closely guarded secret among the Guides. Wherever it is, The Mission is. For many years it was at Giza — the Highland of Aker, a region named after one of the Shadow Guides.

  Extensive tunneling was done by the Shadow Guides underneath the Highland of Aker. The Hall of Records, taken from Atlantis before it was destroyed, was secreted below the stone sphinx. The carving became a thing of legend among the people of Egypt; they spoke of it only in whispers and no one wrote of it under penalty of death. None were allowed to approach close or else they were struck down by guards. This is why historians today know so little of the stone sphinx or why it was carved.

  Plans were made for more buildings near the sphinx, but these were not carried out before the end of the age of the Neteru.

  As happened in Atlantis, there were others who could fight these Shadow-gods. As long as the Neteru maintained a low presence, they existed. But around the time of four thousand years before the birth of Christ, they attempted to expand their empire. Thus there appeared in Northern Egypt two of The Ones Who Wait who pretended to be Gods named Nepthys and Seth. A civil war broke out. The Ones Who Wait were successful at first, slaying Osiris and Isis, and the other Neteru, thus ending the first age of that kingdom. But the Ones Who Wait were not able to make their escape before being slain in turn by the faithful followers of the Neteru, led by a Guide named Horus.

  Thus Egypt passed into the second age, the time of the followers of Horus, a Guide, not a Shadow.

  While all this was happening in Egypt, Watchers tried to find where The Mission and The Ones Who Wait were hiding and what they were doing. As near as I can determine, the Watchers suspected that The Ones Who Wait had a secret base in Africa, close enough so that they could keep watch on Egypt and The Mission, which they also believed was now somewhere not far from Egypt. Having traversed that harsh land, I know how well hidden those bases might have been.

  The Watchers searched for the base for many years. Several Watchers who went on that mission were never heard from again.

  “Interesting,” was Che Lu’s comment as she read. “There has always been speculation among those who dared to think that there were ages to the kingdom of Egypt before that of the pharaohs. Even staunch Egyptologists are at a loss to explain how the kingdom sprang, apparently fully formed, into existence and then didn’t progress for over three thousand years.”

  “It still doesn’t tell us where The Mission is,” Mualama noted, “or what the Grail is.”

  “But it does say there was a master guardian computer at Giza,” Che Lu said. “That confirms the message that Kelly Reynolds sent us from Easter Island. If we can find this master guardian, perhaps we can control the other guardians. This may be very important.”

  “If it’s still there,” Mualama said. “This is talking about a time over twelve thousand years ago. Much has happened since then.”

  “This possible Airlia base that’s mentioned,” Che Lu continued. “I think that I might have something that will help with that. Nabinger had a page of High Rune symbols that he believed were coordinates for Airlia bases, but he couldn’t line them up with anything. The problem he had was that he was using our number system based on tens, while I think the Airlia system was actually based on units of twelve. I believe I’ve been able to correctly translate the coordinates, but I have not had a chance to apply it to a map.”

  “Perhaps someone here can help you with that,” Mualama suggested. He scrolled down. “You’ll find this very interesting.”

  If Aspasia left behind some of his people in Shadow form to walk the Earth and try to regain the glory of Atlantis in Egypt, what of Artad’s group? Where did they go?

  I eventually found the answer to that buried among the many parchments I pored through and translated over the years. China.

  I have not had the opportunity to travel to that land, so all I know of it I have gathered from the Watcher scrolls and written histories that I have been able to find, merging the two to find some semblance of the truth.

  According to the Watchers there were “white people” in western China around 9,000 B.C. This was a small enclave of The Ones Who Wait.

  Around five millennia before the birth of Christ, large numbers of Chinese people began settling in the Yellow River Valley. This was possible because two things, previously unknown, became prevalent — agriculture and animal husbandry. While I do not mean to say that man could have not invented these on his own, I find it curious that in different places in the world these two advances came about at roughly the same time. I believe this was due to the diaspora from Atlantis and also the influence of Th
e Ones Who Wait and The Mission.

  As in Egypt, within an amazingly short period of time, civilization began to flourish in China. The first Emperor — a myth to historians, a fact to Watcher records — was called Shi Huangdi. He was also known as the Yellow Emperor or the White Emperor, depending on which account one reads. He was also considered to be the “Son of Heaven.” He is credited with inventing writing, yet there are some scholars who point out that the characters used were so advanced they must have come from an earlier type of writing — obviously High Rune writing from Atlantis.

  Mathematics also was “invented” under Shi Huangdi. It is interesting to note that the first number systems used in China were based on factors of six.

  According to Watcher records, Shi Huangdi was a Shadow of Artad or even, perhaps, Artad himself.

  Shi Huangdi’s empire was barely on its feet when it faced assault from The Mission. An Empress named Chiyou — a Guide, according to Watcher scrolls — attacked him from the south. It is written in Chinese legend that a decisive battle was fought at Zhuolu. It is said that Chiyou rode a dragon into battle, one which let out a thick fog all over the field of combat, but that Shi Huangdi was able to lead his troops out of the fog and into victory using his “compass chariot.”

  Chiyou was killed and the dragon captured, but Shi Huangdi was forced to relinquish the kingdom to humans, just as had happened in Egypt. He also left plans for a massive building project — the Great Wall of China, which was constructed by the first human emperor. I do not know why the Wall was built, although perhaps it is simply as it appears, a defensive line against barbarians, allowing China to develop in relative peace.

  Another event of great interest to me occurred later in China’s history. Artad was reported to be buried in a great tomb, somewhere in the western part of China, equipped with many security devices. A special key was needed to open this tomb, when, according to legend, Shi Huangdi would return.