pulled in last night, and when you and I were out for 244 ROBERT DOHERTY AREA 51 245 our little walk I did a sweep of the area and didn't spot any scrambled and deciphered by the machines. "Out here." surveillance. I think they only came on the scene this morn- The radio went dead. ing. Which makes me think they got around to checking The major pushed the ceiling mike out of the way and the good professor's answering service." looked at the other men. "We wait until the other target Von Seeckt nodded. "Yes. They would do that. I made a links up at the apartment. They have to be taken alive. All mistake, did I not?" of them." "Yes. And by the way, next time, you tell me what you're "It'll be daylight by the time the other guy gets here," doing before you do it." Turcotte reached inside his coat. one of the men said in protest. He pulled out a pistol, pulled out the magazine, checked it, "I know that," the major said in a tone that was not put it back, and pushed the slide back, chambering a conducive to discussion. "I'll clear it with the locals and round. keep them out of the way." He lifted a sophisticated-look- "What's the plan?" Kelly asked. ing gunlike object. "Remember--they are all to be taken "You ever read the book Killer Angels'?" Turcotte asked, alive, so use your stunners only." shifting over and looking back out the thin crack. "What about Turcotte?" one of the men asked. "He's "About the Battle of Gettysburg?" Kelly asked. going to be trouble." Turcotte spared a glance back at her. "Very good. Do "He's the priority target when we go in the door. The you remember what Chamberlain of the Twentieth Maine others will be easy," the major said. did when he was on the far left of the Union line and about "I don't think Turcotte's going to worry about keeping us out of ammunition after continuous attacks by the Confed- alive," one of the men muttered. erates?" "He ordered a charge," Kelly said. Despite a long night with an extended layover at Dallas- "Right." Fort Worth International, Professor Nabinger felt thor- "So we're going to charge?" oughly alive and alert as the taxi turned the corner and the Turcotte smiled. "Just when they do. They'll be overcon- apartment building appeared. There was just the slightest fident and think they have the initiative. Timing is every- hint of dawn in the air in the east. thing." After removing his bags Nabinger paid the driver. He left the suitcase on the curb and tucked his leather case "Ah, fuck," the major muttered to the other men crowded with the photos Slader had given him under his arm as he into the van. He glared at the sophisticated communica- searched for the appropriate apartment. He knocked on tions rig bolted to the left rear wall of the van, then keyed the door and waited. It swung open, but no one was there. the mike hanging from the ceiling. "Roger that, sir. Any- "Hello?" Nabinger called out. thing else? Over." "Step in," a woman's voice came from inside the dark "Don't screw it up." General Gullick's voice was unmis- room. takable, even after being digitized and scrambled, then un- Nabinger took a step forward and a man's arm reached 246 ROBERT DOHERTY AREA 51 247 around the door and grabbed his collar, pulling him into The major pulled open the side door and stepped out the room. The door slammed shut behind him. into the street, a silenced submachine gun at the ready. "What is going--" Nabinger started. "Quiet," Turcotte said. "We're going to be attacked in a Turcotte froze, the other three members of his group stack- few seconds. Go with her." He had one of the flash-bang ing up behind him. The officer with the submachine gun grenades he'd kept from the Nightscape mission in his was joined by a man from the front seat, both pointing hand. He pulled the pin and leaned against the door, lis- their weapons directly at Turcotte. tening. "Don't move an inch!" the officer ordered. Kelly took Nabinger's arm and led him to the far corner "What're you going to do? Shoot me?" Turcotte said, of the room, where Von Seeckt also waited. She handed hefting the stun gun. "Then why'd you use these? You're him a strip of dark cloth cut from the curtain. "Hold this supposed to take us alive, aren't you?" He took another over your eyes." step toward the two men. "Those are your orders, aren't "What for?" Nabinger asked. they?" "Just do it!" Kelly said. "Freeze right where you are." The officer settled the The door exploded in under the impact of a hand-held stock of the gun into his shoulder. battering ram and men tumbled in, their eyes searching for "General Gullick will be mighty pissed if you put holes targets. They were greeted with a bright bang and flash of in us," Turcotte said. white light, immediately blinding all of them. "He might be pissed, but you'll be dead," the major re- Turcotte dropped the dark cloth he'd held to protect his turned, centering his sights on Turcotte's chest. "I'll make vision and stepped among the four men, his arms moving damn--' The major's mouth froze in midsentence and a in a flurry of strikes, sending two of them down uncon- surprised look ran across his features. scious in less than a second. He scooped up one of the stun Turcotte fired at the driver and the stun round caught guns from an inert hand and finished off the other two with the man in the chest, and he collapsed next to his leader. it as they tried to regain their senses. Turcotte glanced over his shoulder. Kelly slowly lowered "Let's move!" Turcotte yelled. the stun gun she'd picked up on the way out. "Took you Kelly grabbed hold of Nabinger and they headed out the long enough," he said, gesturing for them to get into the van. door. 'The conversation was interesting," Kelly said. "So very In the van the major tore the headset off and bounced it macho." They helped Von Seeckt and a thoroughly con- off the wall, his ears still ringing from the transmission of fused Nabinger into the back of the van. The street was still deserted. the flash-bang grenade going off in the apartment across the street. 'You drive," Turcotte said, standing in the opening be- "They're coming out!" the lookout man in the front seat tween the two front seats. "I want to play with the toys in the back." of the van yelled. 248 ROBERT DOHERTY AREA 51 249 "Next stop, Dulce," Kelly said, throwing the van in gear played. "I want to know where they're heading. We've got and pulling away with a squeal of tires. to prevent them from going to the media. Alert Mr. Ken- nedy to have his domestic people monitor the wires. We get a peep that Von Seeckt has gone to anyone, I want THE CUBE Nightscape there." Gullick's eyes flickered across the map. "Tell those in Phoenix to stay there. I also want Tucson and "Sir, the team leader in Arizona reports that they've lost Albuquerque covered. They'll stay away from the airports, the targets." Quinn carefully kept his eyes down, looking at so we have them on the ground. The longer they're out his computer screen. there the bigger the circle grows." Three hours of sleep were all that General Gullick Quinn plunged on. "There's something else, sir." seemed to need to operate on. He wore a freshly pressed "Yes?" uniform and the starched edge of the light blue shirt under "The Abraham Lincoln task force is reporting negative his dark blue coat pressed into his neck as he turned his on any sign of the foo fighters. They've scanned the ocean attention from reading reports on the mothership. "Lost?" bottom for a twenty-kilometer circle around where the first "Professor Nabinger showed up and the Nightscape one went down and they've found nothing. The minisub off team moved in to secure all the targets." Quinn recited the the USS Pigeon has combed the bottom and--" facts in a monotone. "Apparently, Turcotte was prepared. "They stay there and they keep looking," Gullick or- He used a flash-bang grenade to disorient the entry team. dered. Then, using the stun guns from the entry team, he and the "Yes, sir." Quinn shut the lid on his laptop computer, others subdued the van team and took off, driving the then nervously flipped it open again. "Sir, uh . . ." He van." licked his lips. "They have the van?" General Gullick leaned back in his "What?" Gullick growled. chair. "Can we trace it?" "Sir, it's my duty to, uh, well . . ." Quinn rubbed his Quinn closed his eyes briefly. This day was starting out hands together, feeling the knob of his West Point ring on very badly and it wasn't going to get better as the new his right hand. The questions had been building for too information scrolling up on his screen told him. "No, sir." long. His voice became firmer. "Sir, this mission is going in "You mean we don't have a tracer on our own vehicles?" a direction that I don't understand. Our job is to work on Gullick asked. the alien equipment. I don't see how Nightscape and--" "No, sir." General Gullick slammed his fist into the tabletop. "Ma- "Why not?" Gullick raised his hand. "Forget it. We'll jor Quinn!" deal with that later. Put out a 'sight and report only' to the Quinn swallowed. "Yes, sir?" local authorities. Give them a description of the van and Gulhck stood. "I'm going to get some breakfast and then the people." I have to attend a meeting. I want you to relay a message to He looked up at the large display at the front of the all our people in the field and everyone working for us." room. An outline of the United States was currently dis- Gullick leaned over the table and put his face a foot away 250 ROBERT DOHERTY from Quinn's. "We have three goddamn days before we fly 23 the mothership. I'm tired of being told of failures and mis- takes and fuckups. I want answers and I want results. I've dedicated my life and my career to this project. I will not see it be tarnished or destroyed by the incompetence of others. You don't ask questions of me. No one asks ques- tions of me. Is that clear?" "Yes, sir." FORT APACHE INDIAN RESERVATION, ARIZONA T-87 HOURS, 15 MINUTES "I think I'll just stay here," Nabinger said. They were stopped at a small rest area off Highway 60 on the Natanes Plateau. There was a brisk wind blowing out of the north- west and Turcotte was making instant cups of coffee for all of them, using the microwave inside the van and supplies he'd found in a cabinet there. They were seated in the captain's chairs inside with the side door open. "We can't let you do that," Turcotte said. "This is a free country!" Nabinger said. "I can do what- ever I want. I didn't plan on being in the middle of a fight." "We didn't plan it either," Kelly said. "But we're stuck. There's more going on here than any of us know." "I just wanted some answers," Nabinger said. "You'll get them," Kelly said. "But if you want them, you have to stick with us." Nabinger had not reacted too badly to being basically kidnapped and taken away in the van. But Kelly knew his type, as she'd interviewed scientists just like him. Many times the quest for knowledge became more important than everything else around them, includ- ing their own personal safety. This is all so incredible," Nabinger said. He looked at 252 ROBERT DOHERTY 253 AREA 51 Von Seeckt. "So you believe this message refers to the over the way the war to end all wars had ended. Do you mothership?" know that at the end of the First World War no foreign Von Seeckt nodded. "I believe it is a warning that we troops had yet set foot on German soil? That we were still must not fly the mothership. I believe the chariot obviously occupying French soil when the government surrendered?" refers to the mothership and I would take very seriously "Spare us the history lesson," Turcotte said. He had the never again and death to all living things writings." picked up the dagger and was looking at the symbols "If this is true," Nabinger said, "it means that the an- carved into the handle. He knew about the SS. "We've cient humans were influenced by the aliens that left these heard it all before." craft behind. It would help explain so many of the com- "But you asked," Von Seeckt said. "As I said, in the monalities in mythology and archeology." twenties we were poor and angry. In the thirties everyone "Let's hold on here a second," Kelly said. "If these writ- was crazy from having been poor and angry for so long. As ings in the Great Pyramid in Egypt refer to the mother- Captain Turcotte says, you all know what happened. I was ship--which was abandoned on this continent--then it had in the university in Munich studying physics when Czecho- to have been flying once upon a time." slovakia fell. I was young then and I had that--ah, what are "Of course it flew at one time," Von Seeckt said. "The the words--myopic, self-centered vision that the young real question is: Why did they stop flying it? What is the have. It was more important to me that I pass my compre- threat?" hensive exams and be awarded my degree than that the "I've got a better question for right now." Turcotte world was unraveling around me. handed a mug of steaming coffee to Von Seeckt. "You told "While I was at the university, I did not know that I was me on the plane out of Area 51 that you were recruited by being watched. The SS had established early on a special the U.S. military during the Second World War. Yet Profes- section to oversee scientific matters. Their commander re- sor Nabinger tells us that you were with the Nazis in the ported directly to Himmler. They put together a list of pyramid. I'd like an explanation. Now." scientists and technicians that could be of use to the party, "I second that," Kelly said. and my name was on the list. "I do not think-- ' Von Seeckt paused as Nabinger "They approached me in the summer of 1941. There was reached into his backpack and pulled out a dagger. special work being done, they told me, and I must help." "I was given this by the Arab who guided you into the For the first time Von Seeckt brought his gaze out of the pyramid back then." desert. He looked at each person in turn. "One of the Von Seeckt took the dagger and grimaced, then placed it advantages of being an old man who is dying is that I can down on the table. He cradled his wrinkled hands around tell the truth. I will not pretend and whine as so many of the mug and looked out over the bleak terrain of the In- my colleagues did at the end of the war that I worked dian reservation. "I was born in Freiburg in 1918. It is a against my will. Germany was my country and we were at town in southwest Germany, not far from the border with war. I did what I considered my duty to my country and I France. The times I grew up in were not good years in worked willingly. Germany. In the twenties everyone was poor and angry "The question that is always asked is 'What about the I 254 ROBERT DOHERTY AREA 51 255 camps?'" Von Seeckt shrugged. "The first truth is that I him," she added, thrusting her chin toward Von Seeckt's did not really know about them. The higher truth is that I back. "My father was with the OSS, and he was there at did not care to know. There were rumors, but I did not Dora. He was sent in to find information on what had hap- care to pursue rumors. Again my focus was with myself and pened to some OSS and SOE people who had tried to my work. That does not excuse what happened or my role infiltrate Peenemunde during the war to stop the produc- in the war effort. It is simply what happened. tion of the V-2's. "I was working near Peenemunde. The top men--they "He told me what it was like at the camp and the way the were working on the rockets. I was with another group, Allies acted when they arrived--the intelligence people doing theoretical work that we hoped would have future and the war-crimes people showing up and fighting over application. Some of it touched on the potential of an the German prisoners and how some of the worst were atomic weapon. You can find out what you need to know scooped up by the intelligence people and never came to about that from other sources. trial. The intelligence people treated the German scientists "The problem was that our work was mainly theoretical, better than they did the survivors of the camps, because of laying the groundwork, and those in command did not the knowledge those men possessed. They just stepped have much patience. Germany was fighting a war on two over the bodies, I guess." fronts and the feeling was that the war had better be over As Kelly paused to catch her breath, Von Seeckt spoke. sooner rather than later, and we needed weapons now, not "I know now what happened at Dora. But I did not know theory." then. I left Peenemunde in spring of 1942. That was be- "You say you worked at Peenemunde?" Kelly cut in. Her fore"--his voice broke--"before it got bad." voice was harsh. He held up a hand, forestalling Kelly, who had begun to "Yes." speak. "But over the years I have asked myself the ques- "But you also say you didn't try to find out about the tion: What if I had not been ordered away? What would I camps?" have done?" Von Seeckt remained quiet. He turned back to the other three. "I would like to be- "Don't bullshit us," Kelly said. "What about the Dora lieve I would have acted differently than the majority of my concentration camp?" colleagues. But I spoke earlier of the honesty an old man The wind blew in the door from the desert floor, chilling should have. The honesty to come to peace with oneself the group. and one's God--if one believes in a God. And the honest "What was Dora?" Turcotte asked. answer I came up with after many years was no, I would "A camp that supplied workers to Peenemunde," Kelly not have acted differently. I would not have stood up and said. "The inmates were treated as terribly as the people at spoken out against the evil. the other, better-known camps. When the American "I know that for certain because I did not do so here, in liberated it--the day before Roosevelt died, as a matter this country, when I saw things happen out at Area 51. fact--they found over six thousand dead. The survivors When I heard rumors of what was going on at Dulce." weren't far from dead. And they worked for people like Von Seeckt slapped his palm on the tabletop. "But now I 256 ROBERT DOHERTY 257 AREA 51 am trying to make my peace and be honest. That is why I did not share with me. There was no mistaking the serious- am here." ness with which they set out to pursue the mission." "We're all trying to make our own peace," Turcotte said. Von Seeckt smiled. "I myself got very serious when I "Go on with your story. You say you left Peenemumde in found out where our mission was taking us: Cairo, behind the spring of 1942?" enemy lines. All I was told was to be prepared to find and Von Seeckt nodded. "Spring 1942 I remember it well. It secure something that might be radioactive. was the last spring I spent in Germany. My section chief "We traveled by train south to Italy. Then we were taken came to me with orders, reassigning me. I was a very junior by submarine across the Mediterranean to Tobruk, where member of the research staff and would not be missed. we were put on trucks and given local guides. The British That is why I was selected. When I asked my chief what I Eighth Army was in disarray and in retreat so it was not as would be doing and where I would be going, he laughed difficult as I had feared for us to infiltrate their lines and and said I was going wherever the Black Jesuit's vision make it to Cairo, although there were a few adventures said." along the way." Seeing the uncomprehending looks, Von Seeckt ex- Turcotte took a sip of his now cold coffee. The story was plained. "That is what those on the inside called Himmler: interesting but he didn't see how it helped them much with the Black Jesuit." He paused and closed his eyes. "The SS their present situation. And he could tell Kelly was very was very much a religious order. They had their own cere- disturbed by Von Seeckt's revelations about his past. monies and secret rites and sayings. If I was asked by an SS Turcotte himself wasn't happy about the SS connection. officer why I obeyed, my verbatim answer must be: 'From Von Seeckt could admit whatever he wanted, but that inner conviction, from my belief in Germany, the Fuhrer, didn't make it clean as far as Turcotte was concerned. Con- the Movement, and in the SS." That was our catechism. fession didn't make the crime go away. "There was much whispered talk of Himmler and the "A Major Klein was in charge," Von Seeckt continued. others at the top. Of how they believed in things most did "He did not share his information with us. We went to the not believe in. Did you know that in the winter of 1941 our west bank of the Nile and then I saw our destination: the troops were sent into Russia without an adequate supply of Great Pyramid. I was very much confused as I carried my cold weather equipment? But not because we didn't have radioactivity detector into the tunnel in the side of the pyr- cold weather gear sitting in supply depots in Germany, but amid in the dead of night. Why were we here? rather because a seer told Hitler that the winter would be "We went down, and Klein kept turning to a man who very mild and he believed that. It turned out to be one of had a piece of paper he consulted. The man pointed and the most brutal on record, so tens of thousands of soldiers Klein ordered his men, a squad of SS storm troopers, to froze and died because of a vision. break through a wall. We went through the opening into "So my colleagues in the scientific community saw a ri- another tunnel that sloped down. We went through two diculous task and they sent the junior man. Ah, but the more walls before we entered a room." men I linked up with to carry out this mission, they did not "The bottom chamber," Nabinger said. "Where I found think it a ridiculous task. They had information that they the words." 258 ROBERT DOHERTY 259 AREA 51 "Where you found the words," Von Seeckt repeated as a out a grenade, but he must have been shot before he could tractor trailer loaded with cattle roared past. "What did you find in the chamber?" Nabinger asked. throw it because he dropped it and it fell next to me. I "We went down and broke through the final walls into pushed it away--out of the back onto the sand, where it the chamber. There was a sarcophagus there--intact. Klein exploded. Then there were British Tommies everywhere. indicated for me to use my machine. I did and was sur- Klein was still alive. He tried to fight, but they shot him prised to see a high level of radiation in the chamber. Not many times. They took me and they took the box." dangerous to humans, but still, it should not have been Turcotte interrupted. "Klein didn't drop that grenade." there. It was much higher than what would be normal "Excuse me?" Von Seeckt was out of his story momen- background radiation. Klein didn't hesitate. He took a pick tarily. and levered off the lid. Turcotte was looking out the door down the road, where "I was stunned when I looked over his shoulder. There the cattle truck was a disappearing spot on the horizon. was a black metal box in there. I could tell the metal had "Klein was under orders to kill you and destroy the box." been carefully tooled and was not the work of ancient "How do you know that?" Von Seeckt asked. Egyptians. How, then, could this have gotten in here? I "It might have been fifty years ago, but many things asked myself. don't change. If they couldn't get the box home safely, then "I had no time to think on it. Klein ordered me to take they most certainly didn't want the other side to get it or up the box and I did, putting it in a backpack. It was bulky the knowledge you possessed. That's the way any mission but not overly heavy. Perhaps forty pounds. I was much like yours would have worked. The British did the same stronger in those days. thing when they sent specialists over to look at German "We left the pyramid the same way we had come in. We radar sites along the French Coast during the war. Their linked up with our two trucks and headed west while we security men had orders to kill the specialists rather than still had darkness to cover our movement. At daylight we allow them to be captured because of their knowledge of hid in the dunes. We had the two Arab guides that had British radar systems." stayed with the trucks to show us the way and they took us Von Seeckt nodded. "After all these years, do you know, west. that never occurred to me? It should have, after all I have "On the third night they led us right into an ambush." seen since." Von Seeckt shrugged. "I do not know if it was deliberate. "All that is fine and well," Nabinger said impatiently, The Arabs--they always worked for whoever would pay "but not important right now. What is important is--what them the most. It was not uncommon for the same guides was in the box?" to be working for both sides. It does not really matter. 'The box was sealed when we found it and Klein refused "The lead truck took a direct hit from a British tank. to allow me to open it. As my friend Captain Turcotte so There were bullets tearing through the canvas sides of the aptly has noted, Klein was a stickler for following orders. truckbed I was in. I dived down next to the box. That was The British took me, and the box, and I was hustled my job--protect the box. Klein was next to me. He pulled away. First back to Cairo. Then on a plane. . . ." Von 260 ROBERT DOHERTY 261 AREA 51 Seeckt paused. "Suffice it to say I eventually ended up in "There was a small nuclear weapon in the box," Von England in the hands of the SOE." Seeckt said. "SOE?" Nabinger asked. "Oh fuck," Turcotte said. "What have we gotten into "Special Operations Executive," Kelly said. here?" Von Seeckt nodded. "Quite correct, as the English Nabinger slowly sat back in his seat. "Buried under the would say. They interrogated me, and I told them what I Great Pyramid for ten thousand years?" knew. Which wasn't much. They also checked the box for "Buried under the pyramid for approximately ten thou- radioactivity. And got a positive reading." He looked at sand years," Von Seeckt confirmed. "Of course, we only Kelly, sensing her change in mood. "You know something guessed in the beginning that that was what it was. The of the SOE?" Americans were just at the start of the Manhattan Project "As I said earlier, my father was in the OSS. The Ameri- at the time, so our knowledge was rather primitive by to- can counterpart to the SOE." day's standards. Ten years earlier and we probably would Von Seeckt stroked his beard. "That is most intriguing. not have had a clue what was in the box. The SOE turned me over to the OSS. Apparently radioac- "We took the bomb apart. Very carefully." Von Seeckt tivity was the Americans' province." chuckled. "The Americans always thought I knew more "The British didn't open the box either?" Nabinger was than I knew. After all, I had been found with the damn trying very hard to control his patience. thing. But the longer I was there, the more I did know as "They couldn't open the box," Von Seeckt corrected. "So we worked. Even with today's technology, though, I do not they shipped me off to the United States. The box was on believe they are able to make a bomb as small and light- the same plane. After all, the British did have a war to fight weight and efficient as that one we worked on. It was and apparently more important things to attend to. Also, amazing. There were parts that I still don't understand. But as I was to find out, radioactivity was the province of the we were able to learn enough from it--along with the work Americans." being done in other places--to put together the bombs we "Did the box ever get opened?" Nabinger almost did use to end that war." groaned the question. "So this bomb from the pyramid--it was from the same "Yes, yes, it did," Von Seeckt said. "The Americans did people who built these disks and the mothership?" Nab- that. They kept me in a place outside of Washington, some- inger's question was rhetorical. "That raises so many ques- where out in the country. To this day I could not tell you tions and issues about the pyramid and why it was built. where it was. The box went somewhere else and I was in- Perhaps--" terrogated. Then they seemed to forget about me for sev- "Professor." Turcotte's voice cut through like the cold eral weeks. One day two men showed up at my jail cell. wind that was blowing in the door. "Those questions can One was a lieutenant colonel and the other a civilian. They wait. Right now we need to get a little farther up the road. took me to a new place." Von Seeckt pointed to the north- It's not that far to Dulce, and we have to wait until dark to east, along the road. "To Dulce." try anything, but I'd like to take a look around during day- "The box?" Nabinger's patience was exhausted. light. You can discuss this on the way." 262 ROBERT DOHERTY 263 AREA 51 As Von Seeckt and Nabinger climbed into the back of General Gullick had always thought Slayden a worthless the van, Kelly tapped Turcotte on the arm and leaned member of Majic-12, but Duncan's visit had forced him to close. "Did you ever see this mothership that Von Seeckt is search for ways to gain time. The psychologist had been the so worried about?" answer. "No. I only saw the smaller bouncers." Turcotte looked Slayden began. "There have been numerous movies and at her. "Why?" books published in the field of science fiction about the "Because we only have Von Seeckt's word that it exists. reaction of people on Earth to alien contact--either here And his story about what he admits to doing during World on Earth if the aliens come to us or in the future when we War II doesn't thrill me. What if there's more that he's not expand to the stars. There have, in fact, been several gov- telling us? He was SS, for Christ's sake." ernment work groups over the last several decades dedi- "Is there anything specific that makes you doubt his cated to projecting possible reactions to contact with story about what is going on now?" Turcotte asked. extraterrestrial life forms. "I've learned to question things, and my question is, if "While Project Blue Book was the Air Force's official the mothership doesn't exist, then maybe this whole thing watchdog for unidentified flying objects, there were classi- is a setup. And even if it does exist, maybe this whole thing fied study groups composed of social psychologists and mil- is a setup." itary representatives, whose purpose was to prepare "A setup for what?" Turcotte asked. contingency plans for alien contact. These projects fell un- "If I knew that, I'd know if it was a setup," Kelly said. der the province of DARPA--the Defense Advanced Re- A small smile crept along Turcotte's lips. "I like that. search Projects Agency. I was one of the original members Paranoid thinking. Makes me feel almost sane." of DARPA's contact committee. "Next chance we get, I'll tell you my story, and you'll "The problem we were given was initially a theoretical understand why I'm paranoid." one." Slayden smiled. "Of course, at the time, we on the committee did not know of the existence of this facility. We were also severely restricted by ethical and security consid- erations. We were working with the subject of large-group THE CUBE, AREA 51 dynamics: how the people of Earth would respond to an "General." Dr. Slayden inclined his head toward Gullick, outside entity. The ability to conduct realistic experimenta- then took in the other people in the room. "Gentlemen tion was almost nil. In fact our most valid research data and lady." base was the public reaction to the broadcast of The War of Slayden was an old man, formerly the second oldest on the Worlds by Orson Welles in 1938. the committee after Von Seeckt, now the oldest with the