ATLANTIS

MILSTARS Satellite System

The next installment of Atlantis by NY Times Bestselling Author, West Point Graduate and former Green Beret Bob Mayer. For more information on the atlantis series, visit: http://coolgus.com

CHAPTER ELEVEN 

“Hook up!” Freed yelled, curling his forefingers and gesturing up and down. 

Dane slipped his static line hook over the cable, snapped it in place, then ran the thin safety wire through the small hole, locking the hook in place. It had been thirty years since Dane had had a parachute on his back, but the routine and feelings that he had first experienced at Fort Benning during his basic airborne training came rushing back. He was getting ready to jump out of a perfectly good airplane. Unlike that first training jump, Dane felt no apprehension about the jump itself. This time he feared the ground. 

He was wearing protective gear, designed for rough terrain jumping: braces on his arms and legs, a helmet with a protective grill over his face, a thick, padded vest covering his torso. A 200 foot length of rope was tied off on the outside of his rucksack, to be used to lower himself to the ground if he got stuck in a tree. The M-16, mines, ammunition and other gear, were broken down inside the ruck. 

In front of him, Beasley was fumbling with his snap hook. Dane took it out of his hands and hooked it up. Beasley didn’t thank him. 

“Don’t sweat it,” Dane said. 

Beasley just moaned. 

Dane twisted his head. Chelsea was with Sin Fen, looking none too happy. He sent an image of Chelsea to the woman, curled up on her pillow at home 

I’ll take care of her. Sin Fin’s mental projection echoed in his brain. 

Dane leaned over and yelled so that she could hear him above the noise inside the plane. “Foreman sent you to be the link, didn’t he?” Dane asked. “He thinks you and I can communicate once I go into this place.” 

“Yes.” 

“How far away can you communicate with me?” 

“I don’t know.” 

“Great.” 

“Foreman also thinks you are capable of much more than just communicating with me,” Sin Fen added. 

“A clue about that would be helpful.” 

“It is for you to discover because it is beyond what we know.” 

“Great,” Dane repeated. “Any idea what this place is?” 

“You know more than we do, since you’ve been in there. But we must know if the MILSTARS satellite system is being used by the force inside the Angkor Gate.” 

“Used for what?” Dane asked. He was surprised as an image of the entire planet came into his mind, overlaid with various colored lines. There were several glowing spots along those lines. He could also see a spy satellite directly over where they were going and Dane knew, without knowing how, that the satellite was blind; that nothing could see into the Gate. 

“That’s the power being propagated by a source inside the Angkor Gate,” Sin Fen said. “The dots are MILSTARS satellites. The building force will rise to dangerous, lethal, levels in less than day. We have to stop it.” 

“What does Foreman want me to do?” 

“Find out what is causing this to happen. And stop it.” 

“Sure. I’ll be back in time for lunch.” 

“This is very dangerous, more dangerous than you know. These areas are expanding and they could destroy the world.”