The Book
Chapter 13
XIII
The sergeant standing guard at the guardhouse peered into the vehicle, appearing to size up the man and woman inside. It was the official vehicle of the Roswell Sheriff's Department, but it might as well have been a carload of tourists from Kansas wearing Hawaiian shirts and cameras around their necks, a lost group of revelers on their way to party in Vegas, or a carload of bearded Saudi's with bulging robes for all the sergeant seemed to care.
"Sorry, sir. No one is allowed on the base without proper authorization."
"I understand that, son," Jim said softly, "But I'm the sheriff, and I have official business with General Hawthorn."
"General Hawthorn isn't on the base right now, sir. He's away."
"Then I'll see General Hawkins… Please."
"Sorry, sir. Regulations…"
"I know all about regulations, son," Jim said. "I've written my share of them. Why don't you call the General on that phone over there and tell him I'm on the way in. Get his permission if you need it."
"Sorry, sir. The General doesn't like to be bothered unless it's an emergency or unless it's someone he's expecting."
Jim looked at Amy and sighed.
"You could do what I did," Amy whispered.
"What's that?"
"Floor it and leave the guard in the dust."
"Oh! Right! Judge Lewis would love that! We both get shot!"
Amy nodded. "Yeah… they did shoot my car to pieces."
"We'll think of another way," Jim said. "There's more than one way to skin a cat… or a sergeant."
Jim looked at the sergeant, sizing him up in turn, then he turned to Amy and said, just loudly enough for the sergeant to hear,
"We could go above the General, I guess… inform Washington about the alien…"
Amy put her finger over her lips. "Shhh. Lower your voice, Jim. The guard may hear you."
"What was that?" the guard asked, leaning into the driver's side window.
"Nothing," Jim said.
"You said something about the alien."
"You must have heard wrong," Jim said. "I said the, uh, the daily run…"
"Yeah… of the local newspaper…" Amy added. "That's what he said."
"No he didn't," the sergeant said with conviction. "He said something about 'the alien.' What do you know about the alien?"
"Sergeant," Jim said, his eyes seeming to flash with anger, "There are no real aliens!" Jim looked around, as though making sure they were alone and no one else was listening. Then in a lowered voice, he said, "You're asking me about classified information, sergeant… information that was intended for the General. I don't think your asking about it will go over well with the General. I can't tell you anything else, and I strongly recommend that you forget that this conversation ever took place!"
The sergeant swallowed, momentarily unsure how to proceed, then he looked Jim and Amy over again.
"I'll let General Hawkins know you're on your way in, Sheriff. A small contingent of army vehicles will meet you on the way and escort you to the General. You are to stay with the convoy. Do not attempt to leave it or you will be shot. Is that clear?"
"Perfectly, sergeant." Jim gave the sergeant a quick salute then slowly drove off down the road leading to the base. Once they were out of sight of the guard, Amy leaned over and kissed Jim.
"What was that stuff about an alien, Jim?"
Jim grinned. "This is Roswell… There's always an alien, Amy."
Amy smiled. "You were brilliant, Jim! We work great together!"
"Yeah… I was, wasn't I?" Jim grinned and looked at Amy. "You were pretty brilliant yourself. How'd you get to be so sneaky?"
"Never mind," Amy said with a smile. "Just don't forget it."
**********
As fate would have it, General Hawkins was on the phone in his office at that very moment with the budget makers in Washington.
"General, it's not just you. All the budgets are being scrutinized," the voice on the other end said, only half apologetically. "Congress and the Senate approved a higher budget than last year, but they aren't going to increase it as much as most of you would like. You have many unusual expenses."
"This is area 51, Senator. We're going to have unusual expenses. It's expected."
"I know that, General, but you are still answerable for what you spend. For example, what's this item called "ADL Disaster Preparedness Plan?"
"That, Senator, is not
negotiable. I assure you it's absolutely essential for the protection of this
base and our ongoing operations."
"What is ADL? Some kind of terrorism?"
"That's… a pretty good description of it, Senator. Yeah."
"Well… the President has approved a fair amount of special funds for that… Maybe we can get it for you. Six million dollars isn't so very much in the total budget, but it's a lot for a single item such as this."
"Necessary, Senator. Believe me. That woman…"
"What?"
"That, uh, MOMENT… when we receive the funding… we will be able to protect ourselves and this base from any future unexpected incursions that might destabilize our existence here."
"Yes, well, just try to keep an eye on things from the viewpoint of the budget makers up here, General. You're not exempted from budgetary constraints just because you're in Roswell."
"Understood, Senator. I'll keep my eye on it."
The phone line disconnected, and the General hung up. Then he smiled. "I'll keep my eye on it. Six million dollars should be enough. See if you can get back on this base now, Miss Amy DeLuca!"
The General sat down and lit a cigar then leaned back in his chair. As he began to puff, there was a knock on his door.
"Enter. It's open."
"Sir," a young corporal said, "The informants are here… about the, uh… you know…"
"Send them in, Owens."
"Yes, sir."
The Corporal motioned, and Jim and Amy walked in. General Hawkins looked up and inhaled his cigar then began to cough violently. Finally, he managed to spit the cigar out onto his desk, then he struggled to get it onto an ashtray, but not before it had made a burn mark on the top of his highly polished desk.
"Those things are bad for your health," Jim said. "Are you okay? You appear ill."
General Hawkins' face had become several shades lighter than usual, and at first, he did appear to be ill. Then his face began to turn red, and he looked like he might have a stroke.
"I don't think cigars agree with you," Jim said.
"Sheriff, I'm not going to die from smoking cigars," General Hawkins managed to say. "This woman will give me a coronary before that ever happens."
"Amy?"
General Hawkins wrinkled his nose and made an obvious effort to calm himself, probably realizing the truth in what he had said to Jim.
"You told my men that you had information, Sheriff… about the alien. What information do you have?"
Jim shook his head… "I'm sorry, General. Somebody must have misunderstood. I'm looking for information, not giving it."
General Hawkins glared at Jim with a look of disbelief. "Sheriff, I'm not the information bureau. I don't have any information to give you on any subject. If you have no information to give me, then this meeting is over. I'll have my men escort you back off the base… and her." He motioned toward Amy.
"I want to know why the Army is interested in that little girl," Jim said, getting right down to brass nails… "What do you want from Liz Parker?"
"I don't know what you mean, Sheriff. The Army has no interest in any citizens here whatsoever. Is this girl someone to you, Sheriff?"
"You could say that."
"Well, it doesn't matter, because we don't have any interest in her, as you suggest. I don't even know who she is."
"You're not a very convincing liar," Amy said, picking up a file folder from the General's desk before he could stop her. The label on the lip said "Parker, E." This was no guarantee that this particular file was about Liz, of course, but the General's reaction left little doubt. He almost leapt over his desk to get the file back before she could open it.
"That is a private, confidential file, Miss DeLuca!"
"It's Mrs. Valenti now."
The General appeared to be genuinely surprised, but only momentarily. Then he continued…
"If you had opened that file, Miss DeLuca… Valenti… whatever… I would have had to shoot you. And that is not a cliché, Mrs. Valenti. That is a fact!"
Amy swallowed slightly. Somehow, she sensed that the General was not bluffing this time. He was deadly earnest. That file was for his eyes and his eyes only. The General sat back down and opened a drawer with files in it under his desk. Then he placed the Parker, E. file into the drawer with other files. Having done this, he pressed a button on his intercom and called the corporal back in.
"Corporal, escort the Sheriff… and his wife… off the base. If they try to lose the escort or try to return… shoot them. Is that understood?"
"Yes, sir." The corporal turned to Jim. "Let's go."
"Sorry, Jim," Amy said after they were off the base. "I didn't mean to get us kicked out. Now we don't have anything."
"We have plenty," Jim said. "We know he's got a file on Liz, and we know it's highly classified. That in itself speaks volumes. And you didn't get us kicked out, Amy. General Hawkins would have kicked us out anyway. He was prepared to do that as soon as he found out we had no information for him."
Amy smiled. "Yeah, but I had hoped to learn more from him."
"We'll just have to take what we can get," Jim said. Then he grinned. "Besides, I didn't come away with nothing, Amy. The General left his passwords filled in on his computer screen. It timed out and went dark while we were standing there talking to him, but I memorized it as soon as we went in."
Amy smiled. "You can hack into his computer!"
"Mmm hmmm, well, maybe. I'll have to get past the system… and maybe a firewall or two. I may need some help for that. But once I'm in, I've got the passwords."
"Passwords? Plural?"
"Yeah… Looks like he's double password protected."
"What are they?"
"Blow1em-up. And 54321Zero."
Amy looked at Jim and shook her head. "Why does that not surprise me, Jim?"
Jim pulled the SUV up to the front of the Sheriff's Department and went inside quickly with Amy. He powered up the computer and sat down in front of it.
"Where do I start?"
Two hours later, Jim stopped typing and looked at the screen. He read. Then he read some more. Then he whistled softly.
"What? What did you find," Amy asked, running back to his side.
"The Army's been doing research on Liz's DNA, her medical background, and… her genealogy. They've traced her genealogy back more than… ten thousand years? I don't think that's even possible."
Amy looked at the notes. "It looks like a lot of it is pieced together from conjecture. There's no solid data to go on. Why would they go to all this trouble? What's back there in Liz's past that the Army is worried about… ten thousand years ago? Talk about statute of limitations that never run out! That poor girl! Scroll down, Jim. I want to read the rest…"
**********
Back on the base, three people were making their way through the dark tunnels under the mountain.
"I didn't know the Army had all these unfinished tunnels," Michael said. "I thought when we got out of the compound, we'd be out in the open somewhere on the base."
"We could have done that," Rahn agreed. "But the soldiers would have spotted us above ground. These unfinished tunnels go on for miles and miles in all directions. The mountain is riveted with them."
"I can see that," Michael said. "Where do they go?"
"Some of them go around in circles… some go to the other side of the mountain… some go nowhere, they merely end at what you call a death end."
"Dead end," Max corrected.
"Isn't that the same thing?"
"It kind of means the same," Michael said, "but we're used to the term 'dead end.' What you said sounds more like what it really could be, and we'd rather not think about it that way."
Rahn nodded. "Well, if we choose the right tunnels, we can dig through a layer of soft dirt about eighteen feet and be inside a natural cavern. The cavern will take us off of the base, and we should be able to come out after the sun goes down without being seen."
"How did you find this out," Michael asked. "Won't the Army be expecting us to try that if it's the only way out?"
"They don't know about it," Rahn said. "I obtained a map of the tunnels by shape-shifting to look like someone who would not be noticed on the base. I compared the map of the tunnels –the finished ones and the unfinished ones- to a geological map from your library. The tunnels mostly go in circles or to death… dead ends… or to other installations on the base. A few of the unfinished tunnels appear to be uncharted. If my calculations are correct, though, there is one place… only one… where we can break through into the cavern. We will have to dig through about eighteen feet of dirt, but it is not hard or very stony."
"We can do that," Michael said. "But what about Maria and Isabel? We don't know where they are?"
"And what will they have done to Liz," Max wondered aloud sadly. "I heard Liz survived but is in a coma. I need to be there to protect her… if they haven't killed her already. She's vulnerable."
"She's alive," Rahn said. "And she is no longer asleep. She is awake."
Max looked at Rahn and broke into a wide grin. "She's awake? I knew I felt something! I knew it!"
"She cannot move her legs, Zan. She must move in what you call a wheelchair."
Max grimaced, then he nodded. "We can deal with that. I can heal her… maybe… probably… but even if I can't, we can deal with that. She's alive, Rahn! You know what that means? She's alive!"
"Yes… and that may cause concern to the Army, Zan. She will be in great danger."
"I know. But why? What the hell does the Army care about Liz? I understand why they want to kill us. We're just aliens to them… but why Liz? She's an all-American girl… about as innocent and harmless as it's possible to be. It's all because of me, Rahn. Her life is in danger because of me… because she loves me. That's not fair."
"Maybe there is another reason, Zan."
There was silence for several long moments, then Max asked… "What reason, Rahn? What do you know that I don't?"
"I told you I was on the base looking for the map of the tunnels… I also saw some other things. I was especially interested in a file I saw that spoke of the book."
"What book?"
Rahn sighed. "Unfortunately, Zan, you would not know. You never received it. You only received the Destiny Book."
"You mean there was a second book?"
Rahn nodded.
"The ship that crashed in the 1940's carried the Destiny Book and a companion book, titled, Planet Under Siege: An Alternate Destiny. The warders managed to save the Destiny Book, but the Book Of Alternate Destinies, as it was known, could not be found in the crash in time, and the Army found it later in the crash debris. In it are actual pictures of you, Zan, and of you, Rath, and of Vilandra and Ava… from Antar… and the prediction that despite the efforts of the Antarian scientists, you might not end up following the destinies that you were programmed to follow.
This prediction was based partly on the 'vision' of an ancient hermit from a distant planet called Jeroglasst. Because of his visions, our scientists decided to do a linear life projection… that's a sort of scientific aging of DNA to determine expected progression patterns… and some of the tests suggested an outcome that agreed with what the ancient seer had predicted. Because of this, the scientists thought it prudent to include the predictions in writing for you to read when you came out of your pods… but they were not convinced of their certainty to the extent that they were ready to present them as fact. Rather, they included them as hypothesis and theory in the second book.
The U.S. Army succeeded in translating the book over the years since the crash, but the translation is flawed. The translators assumed that 'Planet Under Siege' meant Earth… and that 'An Alternate Destiny' was what the Antarians intended for Earth. So you see, basing their translation on this preconceived notion, the army has determined that all of Kivar's atrocities on Antar are… our plan for conquering the Earth.
But there is something else. The ancient seer saw a new queen in the flowing of the river of time, a queen who would be born on Earth of Earth parents but whose lineage would be discovered to go back to Antar thousands of years before. This new queen would die and be 'reawakened' by the new king Zan, after which some of her Antarian powers would be reawakened, and one day she would wipe away the final vestiges of the previous realm and help bring about a new presence on the planet. It meant an end to Kivar's lingering influence after his bloody rule… and a new peace on Antar under your rule, Zan, but… the Army believes that it means the end of human rule on Earth.
The predictions of the seer were emphatic in their assertion that this new queen's abilities… and her influence on you, Zan, would be singularly important… and that without her, you would not fulfill your destiny to return as king, and the hope to take back the planet would fail…"
Rahn looked at Max as though to emphasize what he had to say next… "The Army's translation, Zan, notes that Liz Parker is the key to conquering the Earth."
tbc
Coming next: Judge Lewis returns with treachery. Yeah, I know! I've said that the last two chapters! I guess I can't see into the River of Time as well as the Drax-ta-Kiya of Jeroglasst can. I can't pin down the time so precisely. But the judge hasn't been sitting by idly. He's been waiting for his chance. And the Army needs him to facilitate this particular operation for them. It's fortunate indeed that Liz and Alex have returned to their bodies, but the danger, especially to Liz, is still incalculable. The Army and the FBI have every intention of wiping out or neutralizing the threat to our world… that basically means Liz, Max, and Michael, and to be safe, Isabel and Tess (who is not with them yet in this story). The Special Unit agents of the Army and FBI can be ruthless and efficient… and they cry no tears.