stepped into the car along with Underbill, Von Seeckt, the same black material as the skin. The rock sides of the
Slayden, Ferrel, and Cruise. The car immediately started cavern were also smooth, and the floor totally flat.
up and they were whisked into a brightly lit tunnel. They walked alongside the struts, dwarfed by the sheer
Underbill continued to play tour guide. "It's a little over mass of the ship above them. Underhill pointed at the cen-
four miles to Hangar Two, where we found the mothership. ter as they passed it. "We call it the mothership not just
In fact, that's the reason this base is here. Most people because of its size, but also because there's space in the
think we picked this site because of the isolation, but that center hold to contain all the bouncers and about a dozen
was simply an added benefit. more. There are cradles in there that are the exact dimen-
"This part of Nevada was originally being looked over to sions to hold every bouncer. We believe this is the way the
90 ROBERT DOHERTY AREA 51 91
bouncers got here to Earth, as they are not capable of
small doorway in a concrete wall. A metal hatch closed
leaving the atmosphere on their own power."
behind them and they were inside a blast bunker. "We have
"But we still can't even open the external cargo bay
two men on board in the control room. They are simply
doors." Von Seeckt spoke for the first time. "And you want
going to turn on the engine, leave it on for ten seconds,
to start the engine," he added accusingly, glaring at Un-
and turn it off. They are not going to engage the drive. It's
derbill.
sort of like starting a car engine but leaving the transmis-
"Now, Werner, we've been through all that before," Un-
sion in neutral."
derhill said.
"We hope," Von Seeckt muttered.
"It took us forty-five years to simply get in," Von Seeckt
"FIVE MINUTES."
said. "I was here for all forty-five of those years. Now in the
"You are witnessing history," Underbill said to Duncan.
space of a few months, you want to try and fly this!"
"We have every possible monitoring device set up here,"
"What are you so worried about?" Duncan asked. She'd
Ferrel added. "This should give us what we need to under-
read the file on Von Seeckt and personally, given the man's
stand the engine."
background, she did not much care for him. His constant
Duncan glanced over at Von Seeckt, who was sitting in
complaining did little to ameliorate that impression.
one of the folding chairs along the back wall of the bunker.
"If I knew what I was worried about, I'd be even more
He seemed uninterested in what was going on.
worried," Von Seeckt answered. "We don't understand at
"ONE MINUTE."
all how this ship works." He stopped to catch his breath
The countdown now started by the second, reminding
and the other members of the party paused also, over three
Duncan of the space shots she had watched as a youngster.
quarters of the way to the nose.
"TEN.
Von Seeckt continued. "I believe part of the propulsion
"NINE.
system of this craft works using gravity. In this case it
"EIGHT.
would be the gravity of our planet. Who knows what it
"SEVEN.
would do if it got turned on? Do you want to be responsi-
"SIX.
ble for affecting our gravity?"
"FIVE.
"That's my area of expertise," Ferrel said, "and I can
"FOUR.
assure you there are no problems."
"THREE.
"I feel so much better," Von Seeckt snapped back.
"TWO.
A voice on a sound system echoed through the cavern:
"ONE.
"TEN MINUTES UNTIL INITIATION. ALL PERSON-
"INITIATION."
NEL ARE TO BE INSIDE PROTECTION. TEN MIN-
Duncan felt a wave of nausea sweep through her. She
UTES."
staggered, then leaned over, feeling the contents of her
"Gentlemen, enough," Underbill ordered. They were at
breakfast in Las Vegas come up. She fell to her knees and
the base of the scaffolding. "We can see the inside later,
vomited on the concrete floor. Then, just as quickly, it was
but for now, let's go over here." He led the way toward a
over.
92 ROBERT DOHERTY
"ALL CLEAR. ALL CLEAR. PERSONNEL MAY 6
LEAVE PROTECTION."
Duncan stood, feeling the taste of acid in the back of her
mouth. The men all looked pale and shaken also, but none
of them had thrown up.
"What happened?" Duncan asked.
"Nothing happened," Ferrel replied.
"Goddammit," Duncan snapped. "I felt it. Something
happened."
"The engine was turned on and then off," Ferrel said.
"As far as what the effect we felt was, we'll have to analyze The data was being read before it was fully cognizant. The
our data." He pointed at a television screen. "You can see signal came from the northeast. The power reading was not
from the replay that nothing happened." And indeed, on accurate enough to give distance to the disturbance. A
the screen, the mothership sat completely still as the digital quick time check showed that it had not been long since
readout in the lower right hand corner went through the the last time it had been awakened.
countdown. This time, though, it knew what had caused the distur-
Duncan wiped a hand across her mouth and looked back bance. The data from the sensors matched information in
at Von Seeckt, who was still in his seat. She felt embar- its memory. The nature of the signal was clear and it knew
rassed to have thrown up, but Ferrel's response to her brief the source.
illness seemed a bit nonchalant. For the first time she won- Action had to be taken. Valuable energy would have to
dered if the old man might not be as crazy as he sounded. be expended. As quickly as the decision had been made,
execution was begun. The order was given. The next time
In the conference room Gullick and the inner circle of this occurred, it would be ready and have forces in place.
Majic-12 had watched the test on video, although there had
been nothing to really see. The mothership had simply sat
there, but the data links indicated that the power had in-
deed been turned on and the ship seemed to function
properly.
Gullick smiled, momentarily erasing all the stress lines
on his face and scalp. "Gentlemen, the countdown contin-
ues as planned."
AREA 51 95
"What do you want to know?" Jarvis asked as he fin-
7 ished off the drink he had in front of him in one gulp.
"Area 51," Kelly said.
Jarvis laughed again. "And? There's a whole lot going
on out there. Anything in specific?"
"Why don't you just start and I'll get specific as you go
along," Kelly replied.
Jarvis nodded. "Okay. The usual, then. First, of course,
you want to know how I know anything about Area 51,
right?" He didn't wait for an answer. "I worked there from
May 1991 to March 1992. I was a contract employee hired
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA
by the NRO, the National Reconnaissance Office. I
T-121 HOURS worked on propulsion systems, trying to reverse-engi-
"Steve Jarvis?" neer . . ." He paused. "Well, let me back up slightly. You
The bartender grimaced and pointed toward a booth at know what they have out at Groom Lake, right?"
the rear. As Kelly walked toward it, she studied the man "Why don't you tell me?"
sitting there. She hated to admit it, but he didn't look like "Nine alien spacecraft," Jarvis said. "They're in a hangar
cut into the side of the mountain. The government can fly
the flake she had expected. Jarvis had straight black hair
some of them, but they don't know how the engines work.
and wore wire-rim glasses. He was well dressed in a sport
Thus they can't replicate them. That's why I was called in."
coat and tie. Not at all what she had expected from both
"Where'd the government get these craft?" Kelly asked.
the subject matter and the discussion on the phone. He was
Jarvis shrugged. "Got me. I don't know. Some say we
eyeing her as she approached and she could see his disap-
traded for them, kind of like an interstellar used-car lot,
pointment. He must have had hopes for someone taller
but I don't believe that. Maybe we just found them. Maybe
and with more curves, she assumed.
they crashed, but the ones I saw seemed intact and showed
He stood. "You have the money?" no sign of having crashed."
So much for second impressions, Kelly thought. She "Why'd they bring you in?"
pulled out an envelope and handed it to him. Johnny really "To figure out the engines. I did my dissertation at MIT
owed her now, she thought. Jarvis looked in the envelope, on the possibility of magnetic propulsion. We already use
thumbed through the bills, and then sat back down, signal- magnets on things such as high-speed trains, and the mili-
ing for the waitress. "Would you like a drink?" tary has been working on a magnetic gun for a long time.
"My tab or yours?" Kelly responded. But all those systems generate a magnetic field of their
Jarvis laughed. "Yours, of course." own, which requires a lot of energy. My theory was that
"11 have a Coke," she told the waitress while Jarvis or- since the planet already has a magnetic field, if there was
dered his "usual." some way we could manipulate and control that field with
96 ROBERT DOHERTY AREA 51 97
an engine we would have an unlimited source of energy for "Every workday. It's an unmarked 737 with a red stripe
an atmospheric craft." down the side."
"So the government just hired you out of the blue and "Get back to Area 51," Kelly said, flipping a page.
took you to a top-secret installation?" "What was it like?"
"No, they didn't hire me out of the blue. I had worked "Like I said, tight security. Everything out of sight. The
for the government before down at White Sands. A joint saucers were inside a big hangar. They had three of them
contract with JPL working on the possibility of using a partially disassembled. Those are the ones I got to work
long, sloping magnetic track on a mountainside to launch on.
satellites into orbit." "They were about thirty feet in diameter. Silver metal
"Not many mountainsides at White Sands," Kelly said. for skin. Flat bottom. About ten feet in from the edges on
Jarvis smiled, but it didn't quite reach his eyes. "Are you top the saucer becomes hemispherical to a flat semicircle
trying to test my credibility?" top, about five to eight feet around."
Jarvis finished his drink and ordered another before con-
"I paid you five hundred dollars," Kelly said. "I get to tinuing. "The bitch of working on the engines was that
ask the questions." there really weren't any. That really threw the military guys
"Okay, you're right," Jarvis agreed. "There aren't any for a loop. You know how a jet fighter is designed: basically
mountainsides at White Sands. We were simply working on a large engine with a small place for the pilot to sit. Well,
the theory on a small scale. Best we ever got up to was a the disks were mostly empty on the inside. There were
one-to-thirty model. You can do that using a sand dune." these sort of man-sized depressions in the center. I guess
"So they brought you up to Area 51," Kelly prompted, where the crew sat.
making a notation in a small notebook. "Anyway. Getting back to the engines that weren't. I
"Yeah. It was weird. I reported to McCarren Field here told you my theory: magnetic propulsion working off a field
in Vegas and they put us on this 737 and flew us out there. of energy that is already there. Most conventional engines
I had a Q clearance already from my previous work, so that take up a lot of space because they have to produce energy.
was okay. But, boy, they had the tightest security I've ever The disk engines simply had to redirect energy. There were
seen. You couldn't fart without someone looking over your coils around the edge of the disk, built into the edge and
shoulder. Those security people were scary, walking the floor." Jarvis smiled. "That also explains why they are
around in these black windbreakers, wearing shades and saucer or disk shaped. The coils are circular and need to be
carrying submachine guns." in order to be able to redirect the energy in any direction."
"Did you stay out there at Area 51?" Kelly found herself falling under Jarvis's spell. His words
"No. They shuttled us back and forth every day on the made sense, which was her second surprise of the day. She
737. The only people who live out there are the military had to remind herself what she had learned on her last
people, as far as I could tell. All the scientific people and phone call earlier today before heading to the airport.
the worker bees--they were on that plane." "The setup of the coils was relatively simple. The prob-
"That plane flies every day?" lem was that we couldn't replicate; hell, we couldn't even
AREA 51 99
98 ROBERT DOHERTY
more valid. But they have blackballed me. I can't get a
describe the metal that made up the coils. It actually wasn't research job anywhere, so I make my living as best I can."
a metal. It was more of a . . ." Jarvis paused. "Suffice it to "I thought it might simply be because you never gradu-
say it was different and the best minds we had there ated from MIT," Kelly said.
couldn't figure it out." Jarvis carefully put his drink down. "Our hour is almost
"Why did they terminate your contract?" Kelly asked. up."
"Like I just said, we couldn't figure it out so there was no Kelly looked at her watch. "Not even close. You did
need to keep us around. I assume they brought other peo- work at White Sands, but the records show it was on the
ple in." basic construction of a new research facility, not in the
"What do you know about a man named Mike Frank- facility itself. In fact, there is no record of you receiving a
lin?" degree any higher than a BS from the State University of
"The nut who lives up in Rachel?" New York at Albany in 1978."
"He's dead," Kelly said, watching Jarvis carefully. "If you have any more questions you'd better ask them
"Took them long enough" was his only reply as he took before your time is up," Jarvis said.
another drink. "Did you talk to a man named Johnny Simmons?"
"Took who long enough?" Kelly asked. "I don't recognize the name."
"The government." Jarvis leaned forward. "From what I Kelly described Johnny, but Jarvis maintained ignorance.
heard Franklin was a jerk. He led people up there on She decided to go back on the attack.
White Sides Mountain to look down at the Groom Lake "I checked with Lori Turner, who interviewed you last
complex. They would catch him and tell him not to come year for cable TV. She says most of your background
back but he kept coming back. What did he expect?" doesn't check out. That makes me doubt your story. That
"You don't seem very interested in how he died," Kelly means either you're a liar or a plant to feed false informa-
said. "You just seem to assume it was the government that tion. In either case it tells me your story about Area 51 is
killed him." bullshit."
"Maybe he had a heart attack." Jarvis shrugged. "I don't Jarvis stood. "Time's up. Been a pleasure." He turned
really give a shit." and walked out of the bar.
"Aren't you worried about the government coming after "Great," Kelly muttered to herself. She needed a way
you? You seem to be more of a threat than Franklin was." into Area 51 and Jarvis obviously was not the way. She'd
"That's why I'm talking to you," Jarvis replied. "That's just pissed away five hundred dollars and gotten nowhere.
why I went on that talk show last year. That's why I keep Her hope had been that Johnny had contacted Jarvis.
myself in the public eye." She looked down at the notes she had made during the
"I thought it was the five hundred dollars," Kelly replied interview. What would her dad do in this situation? He'd
dryly. always said the best way to overcome an obstacle was to
"Yeah, the money helps. But I really do it to keep the approach it in a manner that was least expected. He'd also
spooks off my ass. The government won't kill me because it said that in the case of getting into a place that was
would raise too many questions and actually make my story
100 ROBERT DOHERTY
guarded, approach it not at the weakest place, but at the 8
strongest because that was the least-expected avenue.
What was the strongest thing about Area 51, from what
Jarvis and the research said? "Security," Kelly muttered to
herself, still looking at her notes. They had to have people
employed to do their security. Driving out to the Groom
Lake area would certainly bring her into contact with the
security people, but Johnny had done that and he was
gone.
She circled 757 on her pad. That was it. Tomorrow morn-
ing she would go out to the airfield and see if anyone got DEVIL'S NEST, NEBRASKA
off the plane. If they did, she'd follow them and see what
T-119 HOURS
she could turn up. And if tomorrow morning didn't work,
then there was always tomorrow evening. "We're green," Prague announced to the men gathered
around him in the dark. "Our eye in the sky says the objec-
tive is clear. I want all three birds airborne in two mikes.
Move out." Prague headed toward one of the small AH-6
helicopters and gestured at Turcotte. "You're with me,
meat. Backseat."
Turcotte grimaced. The meat comment was getting real
old, but now was not the time to face it down. He followed
Prague and joined him in the helicopter. Prague took the
seat up front next to the pilot, while Turcotte had the entire
backseat to himself. The doors were off and the cold night
air swirled inside, making Turcotte regret he had not put
on long underwear. He wished he had been better briefed
on what was going to happen. He zipped his black Gore-
Tex jacket up tight over his coveralls and took the headset
that was hanging on the roof and placed it on, over the
small plug already in his ear for the FM radio on the team
frequency.
Because he was on the same bird as Prague--the mission
commander--Turcotte was immediately plugged into the
mission's secure satellite communications traffic as they
102 ROBERT DOHERTY 103
AREA 51
winged their way to the southwest over the fields of Ne- ground positioning receiver (GPR). Prague gave a hold sig-
braska. nal to the pilot.
"Nightscape Six, this is Cube Six. Status. Over." The "Cube Six, this is Nightscape Six. At Oscar Papa Romeo.
voice on the other end sounded familiar to Turcotte, but he Request final clearance. Over."
couldn't quite place who Cube Six was. "This is Cube Six. Eye in the sky still shows you are clear
Prague replied from the front seat. "This is Nightscape for a twelve-kilometer radius. No traffic within eighteen
Six. En route to Oscar Romeo Papa. Will hold there. klicks. Proceed. I say again, proceed. Out."
Over." "Roger. Out." Prague pointed out the windshield and
Turcotte followed the military terminology easily--ORP they were swooping across the dark sky again. "Phase one
stood for "objective rally point," the last place friendly initiated. Start the watch."
forces held before hitting an objective. Except in this case,
Turcotte still didn't have a clue what the objective was, nor
was he impressed with how friendly the forces around him THE CUBE, AREA 51
were, if Prague was to serve as the example. T - 1 1 8 HOURS, 3O MINUTES
The other, deep voice continued. "Roger, this is Cube
"Sir, we've got a shadow on Bouncer Three."
Six. Break. Bouncer Three, status? Over."
"A what?" Gullick spun around in his command chair.
A new voice came on the air. "This is Bouncer Three.
"What do you mean a shadow?"
Airborne and en route. Over."
Major Quinn pointed at the screen. "There's a bogey
"Roger. Wait for my command. Cube Six out."
right behind Three. We didn't pick it up before because it's
The pilot of the AH-6 swept even lower over the so small, but something's following Bouncer Three. I've
cornfields, the UH-60 Blackhawk following just to the rear checked the tapes and it's been there ever since Three left
and above. The other AH-6 flew trail. The corn gave way the hangar. Must have been somewhere in the vicinity
briefly to pasture with cattle breaking in all directions as when Three took off."
the helicopters came over, then the terrain turned back to "What is it?" Gullick demanded.
corn. Turcotte had never seen this many fields, even in "I don't know, sir. We were only able to catch it by track-
Germany. It seemed like all of Nebraska was one big ing satellite and infrared signature."
checkerboard of cultivation and ranching. Through his The Cube was hooked in to the U.S. Space Command's
night vision goggles he could see an occasional patch of Missile Warning Center, located inside Cheyenne Moun-
trees off in the distance, sometimes with lights peeking tain outside Colorado Springs. The Space Command was
through the trees, indicating that was where the farmers responsible for the Defense Support Program (DSP) satel-
and ranchers lived. What are we going after out here? lite system. DSP satellites blanketed the entire surface of
Turcotte wondered. the earth from an altitude of over twenty thousand miles
The pilot pulled back on the cyclic and reduced throttle. up in geosynchronous orbits. The system had originally
Turcotte could see Prague checking their location on a been developed to detect ICBM launches during the Cold
104 ROBERT DOHERTY AREA 51 105
War. During the Gulf War it had picked up every SCUD Gullick spoke into the boom mike just in front of his lips,
launch and proved so effective that the military had further keying the send button strapped to his belt. "Bouncer
refined the entire system to be effective enough to give Three, this is Cube Six. Do you have a visual on the bogey?
real-time warnings to local commanders at the tactical Over."
level--a valuable system that those in the Cube could tap "This is Three. Negative. We see nothing. Whatever it is,
into. Through the other members of Majic-12 Gullick had it's too far back. Over."
access to systems like DSP and many others. "This is Six. Give me some evasive maneuvers. Over."
Every three seconds the DSP system downloaded an in- The pilot of Three answered. "Wilco. Wait one. Over."
frared map of the earth's surface and surrounding airspace. On the screen the dot representing Bouncer Three sud-
Most of the data was simply stored on tape in the Warning denly darted to the right just north of Salt Lake City. The
Center, unless, of course, the computer detected a missile smaller dot just as quickly followed. A quick series of
launch, or, as in this case, an authorized agency requested zigzags didn't faze the bogey.
a direct line and keyed in a specific target area to be for- "Should I order an abort, sir?" Quinn asked.
warded on a real-time basis. "No," Gullick said. "Let's ride this out. Get Aurora on
"Is it a Fast Walker?" Gullick asked, referring to the alert. I want to be on top of this bogey." He keyed the
code name for unidentified valid IR sources that the sys- radio. "Three, this is Six. Forget about it. Just continue the
tem occasionally picked up and could not be explained. mission. I'll take care of the situation from this end. Out."
"It's definitely a bogey, sir. It doesn't match anything on Quinn's worry showed through and it irritated Gullick.
record. It's too small to be even a jet aircraft." "Should I inform Nightscape Six?"
The unspoken question was, what was that small yet fast "Negative, Major. Let these people do their job and let
enough to stay on the tail of Bouncer Three, which was me worry about the bogey. You let me do the thinking and
moving at over thirty-five hundred miles an hour toward informing around here. You got that?" Gullick glared at
Nebraska? the junior officer.
"Put it on up front," Gullick ordered, turning his seat "Yes, sir!"
back to the main screen. He briefly touched the right side
of his skull, then looked at the hand as he pulled it away. It
was shaking slightly. Gullick gripped the edge of his chair VICINITY BLOOMFIELD, NEBRASKA
to stop that. T - 1 1 8 HOURS, 15 MINUTES
Quinn transferred the information to the large screen in
the front of the room. There was a small glowing dot just "We have multiple heat signatures to the left," the pilot of
behind the larger dot indicating Bouncer Three. the AH-6 announced, immediately swooping in that direc-
"How far behind Three is it?" tion.
"Hard to tell, sir. Probably about ten miles or so." "Go get 'em, cowboy," Prague yelled into the intercom
"Have you told Three?" as he flipped up his goggles. He reached into the backseat,
"Yes, sir." across Turcotte's lap, and grabbed a rifle that had been
106 ROBERT DOHERTY 107
AREA 51
strapped down there. Hooking his arm into the sling, turbing. No one can explain it so no one really looks into it
Prague leaned out of the helicopter, his safety harness too hard, but it serves its purpose."
keeping him from falling out to the ground below. Turcotte Which is what? Turcotte wondered. He had heard about
leaned forward and watched the same scene that Prague cattle mutilations. It was in the paper every so often. Why
was following--cattle scattering in all directions from the was such a sophisticated operation being run just to do
sound of the helicopters. this? Was this why Duncan had sent him out here? To find
Prague put the rifle to his shoulder and looked through out that the government people at Area 51 were behind
the night scope mounted on top. He fired twice and two of cattle mutilations?
the cows collapsed immediately. "Nerve agent," he said, The Blackhawk had moved away while the men worked.
glancing over his shoulder at Turcotte. "Knocks 'em down, Now it came back in, letting down two harnesses on
but leaves no trace. We recover the dart." winches--one on either side. The first two men were up
The AH-6 pulled up and assumed a stationary position a with their gory load in thirty seconds. Then the next two.
hundred meters away from the two animals. The UH-60 "Initiate phase two," Prague ordered and they were
Blackhawk came to a hover directly over the two bodies heading farther to the southwest.
and Turcotte watched as ropes were thrown out of the
Blackhawk and four men with rucksacks fast-roped down. "You hear that?" Billy Peters asked.
The four men gathered around the bodies and there was "Huh?" Susie replied, her mind on other matters--in
an occasional flash of light as they worked on the cows. this case Billy's arm around her shoulders and her head on
"Time hack?" Prague asked. his broad chest. She could hear his heart beating, that was
"Six minutes, thirty seconds until Bouncer Three is on for sure.
station." "Sounds like helicopters or something," Billy muttered.
"Okay," Prague said. "We're all right." He reached out with his free hand and wiped some of the
"What are they doing?" Turcotte finally asked. fog off the front windshield of his '77 Ford pickup and tried
Prague turned to the rear, looking like a mechanical de- to look out. They'd been parked here for a long time--
mon with a wide grin beneath the protruding bulk of his since just before it had gotten dark, but there'd been a lot
night vision goggles. "They're getting some prime filet to say. Susie was leaving her folks and Billy was on the
down there. You like heart? Or maybe eyeballs? How spot, not quite sure whether to go for it and invite her to
about cow ovaries? We come back with all sorts of good live in his trailer down in Columbus or punt and go along
stuff. with her plan to move to her sister's in Omaha.
"They have top-of-the-line surgical lasers to make clean He'd picked this spot because he was sure there'd be no
one to interrupt them, but now he was almost glad there
cuts. They also have suction to clean the blood up. What might be an interruption because he sure couldn't make his
the locals are left with is a couple of dead cows with spe- mind up tonight, not with her pushing up against him like
cific body parts surgically removed, yet no sign of vehicle she was: how was a man supposed to think clearly under
traffic in the area. Also no blood, which is kind of dis- those circumstances?
108 1O9
ROBERT DOHERTY AREA 51
"Something's coming this way," Billy said, looking out up into the air and accelerated w h i l e climbing at a seventy-
the window into the night sky. degree angle, swiftly turning toward the northeast and dis-
appearing from the screen.
THE CUBE, AREA 51
T-118 HOURS, 4 MINUTES VICINITY BLOOMFIELD, NEBRASKA
Gullick was watching the large map. The bogey was still Turcotte's AH-6 was holding at two hundred feet while the
behind Three. Both dots were currently near the conjunc- Blackhawk passed them by and came to its own hover over
tion of the Wyoming, Colorado, and Nebraska borders. a cornfield in front of Turcotte and to his left. The other
"Aurora's status?" Gullick asked. AH-6 slid over and took up security four hundred meters
"On the runway, ready to take off." in the opposite direction. The Blackhawk slowly lowered
"Give her the go." until it was about eighty feet above the ground, just above
"Yes, sir." the point where the rotor wash would permanently disturb
"TOT for phase two?" the stalks of corn.
"Eighty-six seconds," Quinn answered. A bright light flashed out of the cargo bay of the
Gullick flicked a switch on the console in front of him Blackhawk, the beam angling to a terminus in the field
and watched the video feed from the control tower on the below, cutting through the corn and burning into the
surface. A curiously shaped plane began rolling forward. ground.
Shaped like a rounded manta ray, the most significant fea- "The laser's computer aimed," Prague explained
tures of the two-man reconnaissance plane were its huge through the intercom, proud of his men and their toys.
intakes under the front cockpit and large exhausts behind "Makes a perfect circle. Confuses the shit out of those
the engines. Capable of Mach 7, over five thousand miles eggheads who come and scratch their heads over it in day-
an hour, or almost a mile and a half a second at maximum light. Dumb fucks. They figure it's related to the dead cows
speed, it could get to a target in a hurry. in the next field, which it is," he said with a laugh, "but they
The successor to the famous SR-71 Blackbird, Aurora don't know how and they'll never figure it out."
had made its maiden flight in 1986. At a billion dollars a And? Turcotte thought. Why did Prague want to confuse
plane there were only five in the inventory, and they were people?
used only when all other systems were exhausted. To the "Nightscape Six, this is Bouncer Three. ETA forty-five
public that had financed it, the plane didn't exist. It was seconds. Over."
one of the most closely guarded secrets in the Air Force "Roger. Out." Prague turned to Turcotte. "You're going
and Gullick had one at his disposal around the clock, an to love the last act of this play. Watch to the south."
indication of the importance of this project to the Air Turcotte checked the Calico one more time. This was all
Force. so strange, but the thing that disturbed him the most was
W i t h sufficient thrust built up, Aurora suddenly bounded the way Prague was showing him everything now, but
110 ROBERT DOHERTY AREA 51 111
hadn't explained it before. What did Prague know about on, it was clear to Turcotte that it wasn't going according to
him? Turcotte wondered. Prague's plan.
"Jesus, Susie, you see that!" Billy furiously wiped the wind-
shield as the beam of light played down a quarter mile to
their left into the field. THE CUBE, AREA 51
"What is it?" Susie asked, her living problems forgotten "Pass complete. Three's coming home," Quinn announced.
for the moment. All eyes were on the screen. The bogey was still behind
"I don't know, but I'm getting the hell out of here." He Three. It continued that way for about a minute, then sud-
turned the key and the Ford's engine started up. denly the second dot broke away, heading back to the
northeast, where it had just come from.
"I've got a heat source in the trees to the southwest!" the "Get Aurora on that bogey!" Gullick ordered.
pilot of the other AH-6 announced. "It's a car engine!"
"Shit!" Prague exclaimed.
A bright glow came flying in from the south, low on the VICINITY BLOOMFIELD, NEBRASKA
horizon, moving faster than anything Turcotte had ever
seen. It swept by silently, followed closely by another, "We've got to get these people," Prague ordered as the
smaller glowing dot. helicopter banked toward the rapidly fleeing pickup truck.
"What was behind Bouncer Three?" Prague asked out "They're civilians," Turcotte protested, leaning through
loud, his composure cracking for the first time since the door and checking out the truck.
Turcotte had met him. Turcotte was surprised by both craft "They saw too much. We can't have them talking about
that sped by. This whole scenario was getting weirder by seeing helicopters here. Fire across the front of the truck,"
the second. Prague ordered the pilot, who expertly sideslipped his heli-
Turcotte watched as the large disk that Prague had called copter so that they were now flying sideways, with the nose
Bouncer Three made an abrupt jump move to the right, of the aircraft--and the chain gun hung off the skid-
changed directions just short of 180 degrees in a split sec- pointed toward the pickup. A stream of tracers arced out,
ond, and did a pass over the small town of Bloomfield on right across the headlights of the pickup, and the brake-
the horizon before heading back toward the southwest. lights flared.
"Get me to that heat source!" Prague ordered. The pilot "Goddamn!" Turcotte yelled. "Are you crazy?"
of the AH-6 complied, pointing the nose toward the stand "Put us down on the road in front of them," Prague
of trees. "You other guys, head for the MSS," he added. ordered, ignoring Turcotte.
Slayden, Ferrel, and Cruise. The car immediately started cavern were also smooth, and the floor totally flat.
up and they were whisked into a brightly lit tunnel. They walked alongside the struts, dwarfed by the sheer
Underbill continued to play tour guide. "It's a little over mass of the ship above them. Underhill pointed at the cen-
four miles to Hangar Two, where we found the mothership. ter as they passed it. "We call it the mothership not just
In fact, that's the reason this base is here. Most people because of its size, but also because there's space in the
think we picked this site because of the isolation, but that center hold to contain all the bouncers and about a dozen
was simply an added benefit. more. There are cradles in there that are the exact dimen-
"This part of Nevada was originally being looked over to sions to hold every bouncer. We believe this is the way the
90 ROBERT DOHERTY AREA 51 91
bouncers got here to Earth, as they are not capable of
small doorway in a concrete wall. A metal hatch closed
leaving the atmosphere on their own power."
behind them and they were inside a blast bunker. "We have
"But we still can't even open the external cargo bay
two men on board in the control room. They are simply
doors." Von Seeckt spoke for the first time. "And you want
going to turn on the engine, leave it on for ten seconds,
to start the engine," he added accusingly, glaring at Un-
and turn it off. They are not going to engage the drive. It's
derbill.
sort of like starting a car engine but leaving the transmis-
"Now, Werner, we've been through all that before," Un-
sion in neutral."
derhill said.
"We hope," Von Seeckt muttered.
"It took us forty-five years to simply get in," Von Seeckt
"FIVE MINUTES."
said. "I was here for all forty-five of those years. Now in the
"You are witnessing history," Underbill said to Duncan.
space of a few months, you want to try and fly this!"
"We have every possible monitoring device set up here,"
"What are you so worried about?" Duncan asked. She'd
Ferrel added. "This should give us what we need to under-
read the file on Von Seeckt and personally, given the man's
stand the engine."
background, she did not much care for him. His constant
Duncan glanced over at Von Seeckt, who was sitting in
complaining did little to ameliorate that impression.
one of the folding chairs along the back wall of the bunker.
"If I knew what I was worried about, I'd be even more
He seemed uninterested in what was going on.
worried," Von Seeckt answered. "We don't understand at
"ONE MINUTE."
all how this ship works." He stopped to catch his breath
The countdown now started by the second, reminding
and the other members of the party paused also, over three
Duncan of the space shots she had watched as a youngster.
quarters of the way to the nose.
"TEN.
Von Seeckt continued. "I believe part of the propulsion
"NINE.
system of this craft works using gravity. In this case it
"EIGHT.
would be the gravity of our planet. Who knows what it
"SEVEN.
would do if it got turned on? Do you want to be responsi-
"SIX.
ble for affecting our gravity?"
"FIVE.
"That's my area of expertise," Ferrel said, "and I can
"FOUR.
assure you there are no problems."
"THREE.
"I feel so much better," Von Seeckt snapped back.
"TWO.
A voice on a sound system echoed through the cavern:
"ONE.
"TEN MINUTES UNTIL INITIATION. ALL PERSON-
"INITIATION."
NEL ARE TO BE INSIDE PROTECTION. TEN MIN-
Duncan felt a wave of nausea sweep through her. She
UTES."
staggered, then leaned over, feeling the contents of her
"Gentlemen, enough," Underbill ordered. They were at
breakfast in Las Vegas come up. She fell to her knees and
the base of the scaffolding. "We can see the inside later,
vomited on the concrete floor. Then, just as quickly, it was
but for now, let's go over here." He led the way toward a
over.
92 ROBERT DOHERTY
"ALL CLEAR. ALL CLEAR. PERSONNEL MAY 6
LEAVE PROTECTION."
Duncan stood, feeling the taste of acid in the back of her
mouth. The men all looked pale and shaken also, but none
of them had thrown up.
"What happened?" Duncan asked.
"Nothing happened," Ferrel replied.
"Goddammit," Duncan snapped. "I felt it. Something
happened."
"The engine was turned on and then off," Ferrel said.
"As far as what the effect we felt was, we'll have to analyze The data was being read before it was fully cognizant. The
our data." He pointed at a television screen. "You can see signal came from the northeast. The power reading was not
from the replay that nothing happened." And indeed, on accurate enough to give distance to the disturbance. A
the screen, the mothership sat completely still as the digital quick time check showed that it had not been long since
readout in the lower right hand corner went through the the last time it had been awakened.
countdown. This time, though, it knew what had caused the distur-
Duncan wiped a hand across her mouth and looked back bance. The data from the sensors matched information in
at Von Seeckt, who was still in his seat. She felt embar- its memory. The nature of the signal was clear and it knew
rassed to have thrown up, but Ferrel's response to her brief the source.
illness seemed a bit nonchalant. For the first time she won- Action had to be taken. Valuable energy would have to
dered if the old man might not be as crazy as he sounded. be expended. As quickly as the decision had been made,
execution was begun. The order was given. The next time
In the conference room Gullick and the inner circle of this occurred, it would be ready and have forces in place.
Majic-12 had watched the test on video, although there had
been nothing to really see. The mothership had simply sat
there, but the data links indicated that the power had in-
deed been turned on and the ship seemed to function
properly.
Gullick smiled, momentarily erasing all the stress lines
on his face and scalp. "Gentlemen, the countdown contin-
ues as planned."
AREA 51 95
"What do you want to know?" Jarvis asked as he fin-
7 ished off the drink he had in front of him in one gulp.
"Area 51," Kelly said.
Jarvis laughed again. "And? There's a whole lot going
on out there. Anything in specific?"
"Why don't you just start and I'll get specific as you go
along," Kelly replied.
Jarvis nodded. "Okay. The usual, then. First, of course,
you want to know how I know anything about Area 51,
right?" He didn't wait for an answer. "I worked there from
May 1991 to March 1992. I was a contract employee hired
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA
by the NRO, the National Reconnaissance Office. I
T-121 HOURS worked on propulsion systems, trying to reverse-engi-
"Steve Jarvis?" neer . . ." He paused. "Well, let me back up slightly. You
The bartender grimaced and pointed toward a booth at know what they have out at Groom Lake, right?"
the rear. As Kelly walked toward it, she studied the man "Why don't you tell me?"
sitting there. She hated to admit it, but he didn't look like "Nine alien spacecraft," Jarvis said. "They're in a hangar
cut into the side of the mountain. The government can fly
the flake she had expected. Jarvis had straight black hair
some of them, but they don't know how the engines work.
and wore wire-rim glasses. He was well dressed in a sport
Thus they can't replicate them. That's why I was called in."
coat and tie. Not at all what she had expected from both
"Where'd the government get these craft?" Kelly asked.
the subject matter and the discussion on the phone. He was
Jarvis shrugged. "Got me. I don't know. Some say we
eyeing her as she approached and she could see his disap-
traded for them, kind of like an interstellar used-car lot,
pointment. He must have had hopes for someone taller
but I don't believe that. Maybe we just found them. Maybe
and with more curves, she assumed.
they crashed, but the ones I saw seemed intact and showed
He stood. "You have the money?" no sign of having crashed."
So much for second impressions, Kelly thought. She "Why'd they bring you in?"
pulled out an envelope and handed it to him. Johnny really "To figure out the engines. I did my dissertation at MIT
owed her now, she thought. Jarvis looked in the envelope, on the possibility of magnetic propulsion. We already use
thumbed through the bills, and then sat back down, signal- magnets on things such as high-speed trains, and the mili-
ing for the waitress. "Would you like a drink?" tary has been working on a magnetic gun for a long time.
"My tab or yours?" Kelly responded. But all those systems generate a magnetic field of their
Jarvis laughed. "Yours, of course." own, which requires a lot of energy. My theory was that
"11 have a Coke," she told the waitress while Jarvis or- since the planet already has a magnetic field, if there was
dered his "usual." some way we could manipulate and control that field with
96 ROBERT DOHERTY AREA 51 97
an engine we would have an unlimited source of energy for "Every workday. It's an unmarked 737 with a red stripe
an atmospheric craft." down the side."
"So the government just hired you out of the blue and "Get back to Area 51," Kelly said, flipping a page.
took you to a top-secret installation?" "What was it like?"
"No, they didn't hire me out of the blue. I had worked "Like I said, tight security. Everything out of sight. The
for the government before down at White Sands. A joint saucers were inside a big hangar. They had three of them
contract with JPL working on the possibility of using a partially disassembled. Those are the ones I got to work
long, sloping magnetic track on a mountainside to launch on.
satellites into orbit." "They were about thirty feet in diameter. Silver metal
"Not many mountainsides at White Sands," Kelly said. for skin. Flat bottom. About ten feet in from the edges on
Jarvis smiled, but it didn't quite reach his eyes. "Are you top the saucer becomes hemispherical to a flat semicircle
trying to test my credibility?" top, about five to eight feet around."
Jarvis finished his drink and ordered another before con-
"I paid you five hundred dollars," Kelly said. "I get to tinuing. "The bitch of working on the engines was that
ask the questions." there really weren't any. That really threw the military guys
"Okay, you're right," Jarvis agreed. "There aren't any for a loop. You know how a jet fighter is designed: basically
mountainsides at White Sands. We were simply working on a large engine with a small place for the pilot to sit. Well,
the theory on a small scale. Best we ever got up to was a the disks were mostly empty on the inside. There were
one-to-thirty model. You can do that using a sand dune." these sort of man-sized depressions in the center. I guess
"So they brought you up to Area 51," Kelly prompted, where the crew sat.
making a notation in a small notebook. "Anyway. Getting back to the engines that weren't. I
"Yeah. It was weird. I reported to McCarren Field here told you my theory: magnetic propulsion working off a field
in Vegas and they put us on this 737 and flew us out there. of energy that is already there. Most conventional engines
I had a Q clearance already from my previous work, so that take up a lot of space because they have to produce energy.
was okay. But, boy, they had the tightest security I've ever The disk engines simply had to redirect energy. There were
seen. You couldn't fart without someone looking over your coils around the edge of the disk, built into the edge and
shoulder. Those security people were scary, walking the floor." Jarvis smiled. "That also explains why they are
around in these black windbreakers, wearing shades and saucer or disk shaped. The coils are circular and need to be
carrying submachine guns." in order to be able to redirect the energy in any direction."
"Did you stay out there at Area 51?" Kelly found herself falling under Jarvis's spell. His words
"No. They shuttled us back and forth every day on the made sense, which was her second surprise of the day. She
737. The only people who live out there are the military had to remind herself what she had learned on her last
people, as far as I could tell. All the scientific people and phone call earlier today before heading to the airport.
the worker bees--they were on that plane." "The setup of the coils was relatively simple. The prob-
"That plane flies every day?" lem was that we couldn't replicate; hell, we couldn't even
AREA 51 99
98 ROBERT DOHERTY
more valid. But they have blackballed me. I can't get a
describe the metal that made up the coils. It actually wasn't research job anywhere, so I make my living as best I can."
a metal. It was more of a . . ." Jarvis paused. "Suffice it to "I thought it might simply be because you never gradu-
say it was different and the best minds we had there ated from MIT," Kelly said.
couldn't figure it out." Jarvis carefully put his drink down. "Our hour is almost
"Why did they terminate your contract?" Kelly asked. up."
"Like I just said, we couldn't figure it out so there was no Kelly looked at her watch. "Not even close. You did
need to keep us around. I assume they brought other peo- work at White Sands, but the records show it was on the
ple in." basic construction of a new research facility, not in the
"What do you know about a man named Mike Frank- facility itself. In fact, there is no record of you receiving a
lin?" degree any higher than a BS from the State University of
"The nut who lives up in Rachel?" New York at Albany in 1978."
"He's dead," Kelly said, watching Jarvis carefully. "If you have any more questions you'd better ask them
"Took them long enough" was his only reply as he took before your time is up," Jarvis said.
another drink. "Did you talk to a man named Johnny Simmons?"
"Took who long enough?" Kelly asked. "I don't recognize the name."
"The government." Jarvis leaned forward. "From what I Kelly described Johnny, but Jarvis maintained ignorance.
heard Franklin was a jerk. He led people up there on She decided to go back on the attack.
White Sides Mountain to look down at the Groom Lake "I checked with Lori Turner, who interviewed you last
complex. They would catch him and tell him not to come year for cable TV. She says most of your background
back but he kept coming back. What did he expect?" doesn't check out. That makes me doubt your story. That
"You don't seem very interested in how he died," Kelly means either you're a liar or a plant to feed false informa-
said. "You just seem to assume it was the government that tion. In either case it tells me your story about Area 51 is
killed him." bullshit."
"Maybe he had a heart attack." Jarvis shrugged. "I don't Jarvis stood. "Time's up. Been a pleasure." He turned
really give a shit." and walked out of the bar.
"Aren't you worried about the government coming after "Great," Kelly muttered to herself. She needed a way
you? You seem to be more of a threat than Franklin was." into Area 51 and Jarvis obviously was not the way. She'd
"That's why I'm talking to you," Jarvis replied. "That's just pissed away five hundred dollars and gotten nowhere.
why I went on that talk show last year. That's why I keep Her hope had been that Johnny had contacted Jarvis.
myself in the public eye." She looked down at the notes she had made during the
"I thought it was the five hundred dollars," Kelly replied interview. What would her dad do in this situation? He'd
dryly. always said the best way to overcome an obstacle was to
"Yeah, the money helps. But I really do it to keep the approach it in a manner that was least expected. He'd also
spooks off my ass. The government won't kill me because it said that in the case of getting into a place that was
would raise too many questions and actually make my story
100 ROBERT DOHERTY
guarded, approach it not at the weakest place, but at the 8
strongest because that was the least-expected avenue.
What was the strongest thing about Area 51, from what
Jarvis and the research said? "Security," Kelly muttered to
herself, still looking at her notes. They had to have people
employed to do their security. Driving out to the Groom
Lake area would certainly bring her into contact with the
security people, but Johnny had done that and he was
gone.
She circled 757 on her pad. That was it. Tomorrow morn-
ing she would go out to the airfield and see if anyone got DEVIL'S NEST, NEBRASKA
off the plane. If they did, she'd follow them and see what
T-119 HOURS
she could turn up. And if tomorrow morning didn't work,
then there was always tomorrow evening. "We're green," Prague announced to the men gathered
around him in the dark. "Our eye in the sky says the objec-
tive is clear. I want all three birds airborne in two mikes.
Move out." Prague headed toward one of the small AH-6
helicopters and gestured at Turcotte. "You're with me,
meat. Backseat."
Turcotte grimaced. The meat comment was getting real
old, but now was not the time to face it down. He followed
Prague and joined him in the helicopter. Prague took the
seat up front next to the pilot, while Turcotte had the entire
backseat to himself. The doors were off and the cold night
air swirled inside, making Turcotte regret he had not put
on long underwear. He wished he had been better briefed
on what was going to happen. He zipped his black Gore-
Tex jacket up tight over his coveralls and took the headset
that was hanging on the roof and placed it on, over the
small plug already in his ear for the FM radio on the team
frequency.
Because he was on the same bird as Prague--the mission
commander--Turcotte was immediately plugged into the
mission's secure satellite communications traffic as they
102 ROBERT DOHERTY 103
AREA 51
winged their way to the southwest over the fields of Ne- ground positioning receiver (GPR). Prague gave a hold sig-
braska. nal to the pilot.
"Nightscape Six, this is Cube Six. Status. Over." The "Cube Six, this is Nightscape Six. At Oscar Papa Romeo.
voice on the other end sounded familiar to Turcotte, but he Request final clearance. Over."
couldn't quite place who Cube Six was. "This is Cube Six. Eye in the sky still shows you are clear
Prague replied from the front seat. "This is Nightscape for a twelve-kilometer radius. No traffic within eighteen
Six. En route to Oscar Romeo Papa. Will hold there. klicks. Proceed. I say again, proceed. Out."
Over." "Roger. Out." Prague pointed out the windshield and
Turcotte followed the military terminology easily--ORP they were swooping across the dark sky again. "Phase one
stood for "objective rally point," the last place friendly initiated. Start the watch."
forces held before hitting an objective. Except in this case,
Turcotte still didn't have a clue what the objective was, nor
was he impressed with how friendly the forces around him THE CUBE, AREA 51
were, if Prague was to serve as the example. T - 1 1 8 HOURS, 3O MINUTES
The other, deep voice continued. "Roger, this is Cube
"Sir, we've got a shadow on Bouncer Three."
Six. Break. Bouncer Three, status? Over."
"A what?" Gullick spun around in his command chair.
A new voice came on the air. "This is Bouncer Three.
"What do you mean a shadow?"
Airborne and en route. Over."
Major Quinn pointed at the screen. "There's a bogey
"Roger. Wait for my command. Cube Six out."
right behind Three. We didn't pick it up before because it's
The pilot of the AH-6 swept even lower over the so small, but something's following Bouncer Three. I've
cornfields, the UH-60 Blackhawk following just to the rear checked the tapes and it's been there ever since Three left
and above. The other AH-6 flew trail. The corn gave way the hangar. Must have been somewhere in the vicinity
briefly to pasture with cattle breaking in all directions as when Three took off."
the helicopters came over, then the terrain turned back to "What is it?" Gullick demanded.
corn. Turcotte had never seen this many fields, even in "I don't know, sir. We were only able to catch it by track-
Germany. It seemed like all of Nebraska was one big ing satellite and infrared signature."
checkerboard of cultivation and ranching. Through his The Cube was hooked in to the U.S. Space Command's
night vision goggles he could see an occasional patch of Missile Warning Center, located inside Cheyenne Moun-
trees off in the distance, sometimes with lights peeking tain outside Colorado Springs. The Space Command was
through the trees, indicating that was where the farmers responsible for the Defense Support Program (DSP) satel-
and ranchers lived. What are we going after out here? lite system. DSP satellites blanketed the entire surface of
Turcotte wondered. the earth from an altitude of over twenty thousand miles
The pilot pulled back on the cyclic and reduced throttle. up in geosynchronous orbits. The system had originally
Turcotte could see Prague checking their location on a been developed to detect ICBM launches during the Cold
104 ROBERT DOHERTY AREA 51 105
War. During the Gulf War it had picked up every SCUD Gullick spoke into the boom mike just in front of his lips,
launch and proved so effective that the military had further keying the send button strapped to his belt. "Bouncer
refined the entire system to be effective enough to give Three, this is Cube Six. Do you have a visual on the bogey?
real-time warnings to local commanders at the tactical Over."
level--a valuable system that those in the Cube could tap "This is Three. Negative. We see nothing. Whatever it is,
into. Through the other members of Majic-12 Gullick had it's too far back. Over."
access to systems like DSP and many others. "This is Six. Give me some evasive maneuvers. Over."
Every three seconds the DSP system downloaded an in- The pilot of Three answered. "Wilco. Wait one. Over."
frared map of the earth's surface and surrounding airspace. On the screen the dot representing Bouncer Three sud-
Most of the data was simply stored on tape in the Warning denly darted to the right just north of Salt Lake City. The
Center, unless, of course, the computer detected a missile smaller dot just as quickly followed. A quick series of
launch, or, as in this case, an authorized agency requested zigzags didn't faze the bogey.
a direct line and keyed in a specific target area to be for- "Should I order an abort, sir?" Quinn asked.
warded on a real-time basis. "No," Gullick said. "Let's ride this out. Get Aurora on
"Is it a Fast Walker?" Gullick asked, referring to the alert. I want to be on top of this bogey." He keyed the
code name for unidentified valid IR sources that the sys- radio. "Three, this is Six. Forget about it. Just continue the
tem occasionally picked up and could not be explained. mission. I'll take care of the situation from this end. Out."
"It's definitely a bogey, sir. It doesn't match anything on Quinn's worry showed through and it irritated Gullick.
record. It's too small to be even a jet aircraft." "Should I inform Nightscape Six?"
The unspoken question was, what was that small yet fast "Negative, Major. Let these people do their job and let
enough to stay on the tail of Bouncer Three, which was me worry about the bogey. You let me do the thinking and
moving at over thirty-five hundred miles an hour toward informing around here. You got that?" Gullick glared at
Nebraska? the junior officer.
"Put it on up front," Gullick ordered, turning his seat "Yes, sir!"
back to the main screen. He briefly touched the right side
of his skull, then looked at the hand as he pulled it away. It
was shaking slightly. Gullick gripped the edge of his chair VICINITY BLOOMFIELD, NEBRASKA
to stop that. T - 1 1 8 HOURS, 15 MINUTES
Quinn transferred the information to the large screen in
the front of the room. There was a small glowing dot just "We have multiple heat signatures to the left," the pilot of
behind the larger dot indicating Bouncer Three. the AH-6 announced, immediately swooping in that direc-
"How far behind Three is it?" tion.
"Hard to tell, sir. Probably about ten miles or so." "Go get 'em, cowboy," Prague yelled into the intercom
"Have you told Three?" as he flipped up his goggles. He reached into the backseat,
"Yes, sir." across Turcotte's lap, and grabbed a rifle that had been
106 ROBERT DOHERTY 107
AREA 51
strapped down there. Hooking his arm into the sling, turbing. No one can explain it so no one really looks into it
Prague leaned out of the helicopter, his safety harness too hard, but it serves its purpose."
keeping him from falling out to the ground below. Turcotte Which is what? Turcotte wondered. He had heard about
leaned forward and watched the same scene that Prague cattle mutilations. It was in the paper every so often. Why
was following--cattle scattering in all directions from the was such a sophisticated operation being run just to do
sound of the helicopters. this? Was this why Duncan had sent him out here? To find
Prague put the rifle to his shoulder and looked through out that the government people at Area 51 were behind
the night scope mounted on top. He fired twice and two of cattle mutilations?
the cows collapsed immediately. "Nerve agent," he said, The Blackhawk had moved away while the men worked.
glancing over his shoulder at Turcotte. "Knocks 'em down, Now it came back in, letting down two harnesses on
but leaves no trace. We recover the dart." winches--one on either side. The first two men were up
The AH-6 pulled up and assumed a stationary position a with their gory load in thirty seconds. Then the next two.
hundred meters away from the two animals. The UH-60 "Initiate phase two," Prague ordered and they were
Blackhawk came to a hover directly over the two bodies heading farther to the southwest.
and Turcotte watched as ropes were thrown out of the
Blackhawk and four men with rucksacks fast-roped down. "You hear that?" Billy Peters asked.
The four men gathered around the bodies and there was "Huh?" Susie replied, her mind on other matters--in
an occasional flash of light as they worked on the cows. this case Billy's arm around her shoulders and her head on
"Time hack?" Prague asked. his broad chest. She could hear his heart beating, that was
"Six minutes, thirty seconds until Bouncer Three is on for sure.
station." "Sounds like helicopters or something," Billy muttered.
"Okay," Prague said. "We're all right." He reached out with his free hand and wiped some of the
"What are they doing?" Turcotte finally asked. fog off the front windshield of his '77 Ford pickup and tried
Prague turned to the rear, looking like a mechanical de- to look out. They'd been parked here for a long time--
mon with a wide grin beneath the protruding bulk of his since just before it had gotten dark, but there'd been a lot
night vision goggles. "They're getting some prime filet to say. Susie was leaving her folks and Billy was on the
down there. You like heart? Or maybe eyeballs? How spot, not quite sure whether to go for it and invite her to
about cow ovaries? We come back with all sorts of good live in his trailer down in Columbus or punt and go along
stuff. with her plan to move to her sister's in Omaha.
"They have top-of-the-line surgical lasers to make clean He'd picked this spot because he was sure there'd be no
one to interrupt them, but now he was almost glad there
cuts. They also have suction to clean the blood up. What might be an interruption because he sure couldn't make his
the locals are left with is a couple of dead cows with spe- mind up tonight, not with her pushing up against him like
cific body parts surgically removed, yet no sign of vehicle she was: how was a man supposed to think clearly under
traffic in the area. Also no blood, which is kind of dis- those circumstances?
108 1O9
ROBERT DOHERTY AREA 51
"Something's coming this way," Billy said, looking out up into the air and accelerated w h i l e climbing at a seventy-
the window into the night sky. degree angle, swiftly turning toward the northeast and dis-
appearing from the screen.
THE CUBE, AREA 51
T-118 HOURS, 4 MINUTES VICINITY BLOOMFIELD, NEBRASKA
Gullick was watching the large map. The bogey was still Turcotte's AH-6 was holding at two hundred feet while the
behind Three. Both dots were currently near the conjunc- Blackhawk passed them by and came to its own hover over
tion of the Wyoming, Colorado, and Nebraska borders. a cornfield in front of Turcotte and to his left. The other
"Aurora's status?" Gullick asked. AH-6 slid over and took up security four hundred meters
"On the runway, ready to take off." in the opposite direction. The Blackhawk slowly lowered
"Give her the go." until it was about eighty feet above the ground, just above
"Yes, sir." the point where the rotor wash would permanently disturb
"TOT for phase two?" the stalks of corn.
"Eighty-six seconds," Quinn answered. A bright light flashed out of the cargo bay of the
Gullick flicked a switch on the console in front of him Blackhawk, the beam angling to a terminus in the field
and watched the video feed from the control tower on the below, cutting through the corn and burning into the
surface. A curiously shaped plane began rolling forward. ground.
Shaped like a rounded manta ray, the most significant fea- "The laser's computer aimed," Prague explained
tures of the two-man reconnaissance plane were its huge through the intercom, proud of his men and their toys.
intakes under the front cockpit and large exhausts behind "Makes a perfect circle. Confuses the shit out of those
the engines. Capable of Mach 7, over five thousand miles eggheads who come and scratch their heads over it in day-
an hour, or almost a mile and a half a second at maximum light. Dumb fucks. They figure it's related to the dead cows
speed, it could get to a target in a hurry. in the next field, which it is," he said with a laugh, "but they
The successor to the famous SR-71 Blackbird, Aurora don't know how and they'll never figure it out."
had made its maiden flight in 1986. At a billion dollars a And? Turcotte thought. Why did Prague want to confuse
plane there were only five in the inventory, and they were people?
used only when all other systems were exhausted. To the "Nightscape Six, this is Bouncer Three. ETA forty-five
public that had financed it, the plane didn't exist. It was seconds. Over."
one of the most closely guarded secrets in the Air Force "Roger. Out." Prague turned to Turcotte. "You're going
and Gullick had one at his disposal around the clock, an to love the last act of this play. Watch to the south."
indication of the importance of this project to the Air Turcotte checked the Calico one more time. This was all
Force. so strange, but the thing that disturbed him the most was
W i t h sufficient thrust built up, Aurora suddenly bounded the way Prague was showing him everything now, but
110 ROBERT DOHERTY AREA 51 111
hadn't explained it before. What did Prague know about on, it was clear to Turcotte that it wasn't going according to
him? Turcotte wondered. Prague's plan.
"Jesus, Susie, you see that!" Billy furiously wiped the wind-
shield as the beam of light played down a quarter mile to
their left into the field. THE CUBE, AREA 51
"What is it?" Susie asked, her living problems forgotten "Pass complete. Three's coming home," Quinn announced.
for the moment. All eyes were on the screen. The bogey was still behind
"I don't know, but I'm getting the hell out of here." He Three. It continued that way for about a minute, then sud-
turned the key and the Ford's engine started up. denly the second dot broke away, heading back to the
northeast, where it had just come from.
"I've got a heat source in the trees to the southwest!" the "Get Aurora on that bogey!" Gullick ordered.
pilot of the other AH-6 announced. "It's a car engine!"
"Shit!" Prague exclaimed.
A bright glow came flying in from the south, low on the VICINITY BLOOMFIELD, NEBRASKA
horizon, moving faster than anything Turcotte had ever
seen. It swept by silently, followed closely by another, "We've got to get these people," Prague ordered as the
smaller glowing dot. helicopter banked toward the rapidly fleeing pickup truck.
"What was behind Bouncer Three?" Prague asked out "They're civilians," Turcotte protested, leaning through
loud, his composure cracking for the first time since the door and checking out the truck.
Turcotte had met him. Turcotte was surprised by both craft "They saw too much. We can't have them talking about
that sped by. This whole scenario was getting weirder by seeing helicopters here. Fire across the front of the truck,"
the second. Prague ordered the pilot, who expertly sideslipped his heli-
Turcotte watched as the large disk that Prague had called copter so that they were now flying sideways, with the nose
Bouncer Three made an abrupt jump move to the right, of the aircraft--and the chain gun hung off the skid-
changed directions just short of 180 degrees in a split sec- pointed toward the pickup. A stream of tracers arced out,
ond, and did a pass over the small town of Bloomfield on right across the headlights of the pickup, and the brake-
the horizon before heading back toward the southwest. lights flared.
"Get me to that heat source!" Prague ordered. The pilot "Goddamn!" Turcotte yelled. "Are you crazy?"
of the AH-6 complied, pointing the nose toward the stand "Put us down on the road in front of them," Prague
of trees. "You other guys, head for the MSS," he added. ordered, ignoring Turcotte.