Free Area 51: The Grail-5 by Robert Doherty

Burton and his wife, Isabel, a woman of bravery."
    Turcotte put the glass to his lips and took a deep drink. He slammed the glass back on the conference

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    table, as silence reigned for a while, each lost in their thoughts about what they had just read.
    "We have to go back to Giza and rescue Duncan," Turcotte finally said.
    "That's our number one priority right now." He pointed at Quinn. "I want all the intelligence you can get on the plateau. And replacements for the men we lost." Then to Mualama, "I want you to write up a detailed report on how you got to the Black Sphinx—the route you took. And everything you can remember about Al-Iblis and his forces."
    "What about the manuscript?" Mualama asked.
    "What do you want to do with it?" Che Lu asked.
    'Translate it," Mualama said.
    Turcotte frowned. "I thought it was in an ancient Ian-gauge that no one knew?"
    "Hakkadian," Mualama said. "I have studied it."
    "Why?" Yakov asked.
    "I knew Burton had studied it," Mualama said.
    "Why didn't you say something before?" Turcotte asked. He could have sworn that Mualama had told them he couldn't read the manuscript earlier.
    "I wasn't certain I could translate it," Mualama said. "But looking through this," he tapped the manuscript, "I think I can do a good job on it."
    "You think you can do a good job?" Turcotte rubbed the left side of his head where a headache was pounding. Lisa Duncan lost in Giza, the aborted assault, Easter Island, having had to give up the spear to The Ones Who Wait. There was too much going on at once and too many conflicting signals.
    Turcotte looked around the table at the group before him: Mualama, his hand on the Burton manuscript; Che Lu, her face guarded; Yakov, who met his glance and raised his eyebrows; Major Quinn, looking earnest as 65
    usual, and Kincaid with his pictures of Mars. He missed Lisa.
    Turcotte needed some time to sort things out. He didn't see how translating the manuscript could hurt, but he was determined to keep a closer eye on the African archaeologist.
    "Write up your report on Giza first," Turcotte said. He slapped his palm on the conference table. "We are going back to Giza. And we are rescuing Lisa Duncan."

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CHAPTER 4
EASTER ISLAND
    The largest weapon system ever made by man, a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, the USS Washington, lay beached, bow inland, on the north shore of the island.
    Moai statues gazed down on the ship, which dwarfed even the largest of them, weighing over two hundred tons.
    The statues appeared to be the only thing not involved in the bustle of activity taking place on board the carrier and all over the island. Small pools of black were spread out on various places aboard the ship—nanomachines, each one built at the molecular level— working on the carrier, putting it back together, in many cases making improvements over the original man-made design.
    The Easter Island guardian was using nanotechnol-ogy to transform both the machines and people it had captured. Nanotechnology was molecular manufacturing. With it, the guardian could break down machinery at the smallest level and reconstitute it. It had also developed a nanovirus that could get inside the brains and bodies of humans and control them.
    Along the airfield in the center of the island, men and women slaved at their tasks. Their movements were smoother now, almost natural as the current version of the nanovirus designed by the guardian computer shunted their conscious will into blind obedience to the orders broadcast by the alien machine.
    The guardian used the humans to perfect the
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    nanovirus. Those who did not serve the experiment well were buried, to prevent disease from hurting the ranks of the slaves.
    Deep under Rapa Karu volcano, Kelly Reynolds was still pressed up against the side of the guardian. The ten-foot-high golden pyramid was now the center of all activity on the island, along with propagating the opaque shield that guarded the island from the humans and their weapons