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  There were no more tears to bring forth. His eyes were red and bloodshot. He leaned his head back. The garden. He'd have to spray it to keep the deer from eating Marie's flowers. It had been one of the biggest sources of irritation when they'd moved in years ago. The deer ate everything and it had taken Marie two years to come up with a solution to keep them away: eggs mixed with water, sprayed all over the yard. Another ritual she had performed every evening before they went to bed.

  There were no more rituals. The jagged reality of that was settling into Dalton's chest like a cold fist surrounding his heart and squeezing tight.

  Headlights coming down the street cut into his despair. His quarters were the last on a cul-de-sac, so someone driving on the street this late was unusual. The car turned in behind his Jeep, silhouetting him.

  Dalton always kept his pistol in a clip holster attached to the inner side of the seat when driving. He removed it and slid it into the holster in the small of his back as he got out shielding his eyes against the glare with his left hand.

  The headlights went out and he could hear a door opening. He blinked, eyes adjusting. A man in uniform was all he could make out.

  "Sergeant Major Dalton?" The voice was deep, one used to command.

  "Yes?"

  "I've been waiting for you. I was just down the street all evening." The figure came forward, a hand extended in greeting. "General Eichen."

  Dalton stiffened and began to salute. "At ease," Eichen said, waving a half-salute in the dark. "We need to talk"

  Dalton had never heard of Eichen, but in the moonlight he could just make out the three black stars sewn on the general's fatigue collar. A lieutenant general approaching in the dark; Dalton assumed that this strange visit had something to do with Psychic Warrior and the mission he had accomplished in Russia.

  "This way, sir." Dalton led him to the house and opened the door.

  "Leave the lights off," Eichen said as Dalton reached for the switch.

  Surprised, Dalton did as ordered. Eichen went over to the chair next to the front window and turned it so that it angled between the room and window, then he sat down. Dalton sat on the couch and waited.

  "I work for INSCOM," Eichen began.

  Dalton knew the acronym. Intelligence Support Command.

  "Technically speaking at least," Eichen continued. "In reality I work directly for a special branch of the National Security Council. Which works directly for the President It's a very small group that goes by the code name Nexus."

  Dalton was now certain this had to have something to do with the mission into Russia. The government had tried to keep the events under wraps, but all the world knew that a nuclear weapon had detonated in Moscow. However, the existence of Russia Special Department Eight (SD-8)-- their equivalent of Bright Gate-- and of Feteror/Chyort, the Russian avatar, was something the Russian government was keeping highly classified, a decision the present American administration had agreed with wholeheartedly. The nuclear explosion was being blamed on dissident right-wing terrorists, which also allowed the Russian president to crack down on his rivals, another thing which the administration agreed to.

  "Did you know that the President was not aware of the existence of Bright Gate and the Psychic Warrior program up until five days ago?" Eichen asked.

  Dalton stiffened. "No, sir, I didn't."

  "Did you know that the President did not sanction the Psychic Warrior mission to stop the Russian Mafia from trying to steal the nuclear weapons?"

  Dalton felt a twinge of pain in his shoulder from the recent wound. "Sir, we were told we had authorization from the National Command Authority to conduct the mission."

  Eichen's hand fluttered in the dark. "Don't worry, I'm not accusing you of anything. I'm informing you of the facts. Hell, if the President had known of Psychic Warrior and the pending interception of those nukes by the Russian Mafia, I'm sure he would have authorized the mission. The problem is that someone did authorize the mission without his sanction. Someone's been running Bright Gate without his knowledge. The real problem is, Sergeant Major, who the hell is behind Bright Gate?"

  Dalton was at a loss. He'd had his orders and he'd done as they indicated. The entire operation at Bright Gate had appeared to be legitimate. The orders and calls his battalion commander had received from the Pentagon sending Dalton and the team to the secret base to train as Psychic Warriors had also seemed quite valid. Before leaving for Russia, he'd been assured they had National Command Authority sanction for the mission.

  "Sir, we were training in 10th Group on the precursor to Psychic Warrior, in a program called Trojan Warrior, two years ago. How can something have been hidden that long? Or not come to someone's attention?"

  "I'm sure Trojan Warrior was legitimate. And the orders for Bright Gate were legitimate in that they came down the chain of command," Eichen said. "But where those started in the chain of command is another issue. This sort of thing has been going on a lot longer than two years.

  "Let me give you what little background we do know. Bright Gate was the brainchild of a scientist named Professor Souris. She worked at a facility called the High-Energy Research and Technology Facility. HERTF is located at Kirtland Air Force Base. That we did know about. It was built to test directed-energy weapons, particle beam technology, and radio and microwave frequency potentials for combat.

  "I've been there. The facility is located in a canyon in the Manzano Mountains. The walls were built four feet thick to contain the results of what they are working on. We budgeted eighty million dollars to build the place and quite a bit more to keep it running. And then we staffed it with the brightest minds we could find, Souris among them.

  "Apparently, as near as we can piece together now, Souris began doing some speculative work on her own. Trying to cross the boundary from the real into the virtual plane. That she succeeded we now know, given the events of the last couple of weeks and the existence of Bright Gate."

  "Then how did Bright Gate get established?" Dalton asked.

  In the dim light reflected through the windows, Eichen appeared old and worn. "Let me give you the big-picture background and you'll have to bear with me, Sergeant Major, as some of what I'm going to tell you is going to sound quite fantastic, but I assure you, it’s the truth. I had a hard time accepting it all when I was first approached to be part of Nexus, but as the years have gone by, I've learned more and more and my belief has grown to be absolute.

  "Nexus was founded by General Eisenhower when he was President. After a couple of years in office, Eisenhower realized that things were not as they appeared to be, that there were actions going on that he wasn't being briefed on.

  “And it appeared that key members of his administration, especially in the military and intelligence agencies, along with leading members of industry, were working with a different agenda. What that agenda was, he had no idea. He tried to make it as public as he could; I'm sure you know about his warning in his farewell speech to the country regarding the military-industrial complex, but it was much darker than that. And he was threatened."

  Dalton stirred uncomfortably. "The President threatened?"

  "Eisenhower took the threat quite seriously," Eichen said. "Kennedy didn't."

  There was a long period of silence as Eichen let the implications of that last sentence sink in. Dalton didn't know what to say or think, so he remained quiet until Eichen continued. "Eisenhower didn't roll over though. He formed a group to watch these people and to figure out what they were up to. The group was called Nexus. He kept it very small and limited to people he absolutely trusted. Over the years, that trust has been handed on to each successive member. It's more than forty years later and we've learned little."

  Eichen fell silent and Dalton waited.

  "What do we know?" It was as if Eichen were really asking himself that question. "We know that there is some sort of international group that manipulates governments, industry, religion, the media-hell, damn near every aspect of our life.
Who they are, we don't know yet, although we do know they have been called the Priory. How many members, what their objectives are, where they're located; those are still all uncertain. They've always used other organizations as fronts for their work.

  "Using the work she developed at HERTF and our own government's secret infrastructure, Souris founded Bright Gate with the blessing of the Priory. I'm sure you can imagine how easy it is using compartmentalization and security classifications to keep something secret inside our own government's bureaucracy.

  "We think Bright Gate didn't turn out as well as she- or more accurately, the Priory-had hoped. We're not exactly sure what happened, but after a year at Bright Gate, she left and founded another secret base in Alaska called HAARP. I'm going to Alaska shortly to find out what the hell is going on there. You've been ordered to report back to Bright Gate, haven't you?" Eichen asked.

  "Yes, sir." Dalton was still trying to assimilate everything he'd just been told.

  Eichen reached into his breast pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper. He handed it across the coffee table to Dalton. "Read it. You can turn on the light."

  Dalton switched on the small lamp next to the couch and unfolded the paper. The letterhead at the top read White House with the presidential crest below it. The note was handwritten:

  TO: Sergeant Major James Dalton

  FROM: The President of the United States

  You are reassigned effective receipt of this letter to work directly for Lieutenant General Eichen, who works directly for my office. You are to share information of this reassignment with no one.

  Dalton noted the signature and the imprinted seal at the bottom of the page.

  "Turn off the light," Eichen ordered. He reached out. "I need that back"

  Dalton handed him the note, and in exchange, Eichen gave him what appeared to be a compact cell phone.

  "That's a SATPhone with a direct link to me," Eichen explained. "You flip it open and punch in number two and my phone will ring. I always have mine with me and you will always have that with you. I want to know what's going on at Bright Gate."

  Dalton took the phone and slid it into a pocket. "Anybody could write that General," he said, indicating the pocket Eichen had the note in.

  "True," Eichen acknowledged.

  Dalton was tired. He leaned back on the couch. "And, sir, the last orders I followed like that were obviously illegal. What's different now?"

  Eichen's teeth shone briefly in the dark as he smiled. "It's good you're starting to get paranoid."

  "Sir, I’ve been paranoid my entire career. That's why I'm still around."

  "You weren't paranoid enough when you were assigned to Bright Gate," Eichen noted.

  "I was paranoid, but I received a legitimate order from my chain of command to report there." Dalton was stung by the implied criticism

  "What can I do to prove to you this order is legitimate?" Eichen asked.

  "Tell me what's going on, General. I'm tired of people withholding information from me, thinking I'm too stupid to understand. Why was Bright Gate developed? What is the goal of this Priory group you mentioned? What's the goal of Nexus?"

  "’What's going on'?" Eichen repeated. He sighed and leaned back in the chair. "That's what we're trying to find out. All I can tell you is that the Priory has been manipulating our government, and others, for a long time. How long, we don't know, but-" Eichen paused, searching for the right words. "Let me put it this way. As near as we can tell, as long as there has been recorded history, the Priory has been in the shadows. We've discovered little snippets of information here and there that indicate that.

  "How powerful they are, we don't know, but we do have evidence they are very powerful but also very small. They use others to work for them. Bright Gate and Psychic Warrior are just one area they’ve manipulated. There are many others; how many I'm almost afraid to find out.

  "We think SD-8 in Russia was the same thing: a research facility that was founded by the Priory, and that those in Moscow never really had a clear picture of what was going on there either."

  Dalton considered that. "If the Priory has such power to start with, why did it need SD-8 and Bright Gate?"

  "That's a very good question," Eichen said, "which we don't know the answer to."

  "Is Dr. Hammond working for the Priory?"

  "Not that we know."

  Something clicked then for Dalton, an unresolved issue he had puzzled over. "The first Psychic Warrior team that was lost Raisor's sister was your agent, wasn't she?"

  Eichen nodded. "We got her in there after Souris left and the Priory's attention had shifted to HAARP. We wanted her to use Bright Gate to check out HAARP and gather more information on it. Apparently someone didn't want her to. Hammond's predecessor, Dr. Jenkins, pulled the plug on her team. Jonathan Raisor pulled the plug, so to speak, on Jenkins."

  "Did Raisor know his sister was your agent?"

  "No."

  "But Jenkins worked for the Priory?"

  "We’re not certain. He was Souris's replacement. The one who took her theoretical work and made it practical in the form of Psychic Warriors. When he was killed, we managed to get Hammond into the slot there before the Priory could send someone they had corrupted. It's like playing a chess game in the dark each side trying to take control of a square before the other can."

  "And sometimes pawns have to be sacrificed, right?"

  "You're a soldier. You know how it is."

  Dalton had no doubt about his status as a piece on the board. "So the Priory doesn't have control of Bright Gate right now?"

  "There isn't much left there," Eichen noted. "But I have no doubt that a new Psychic Warrior team will be reconstituted. And it's very likely someone on that team will be working for the Priory."

  "Geez," Dalton muttered. "What a mess. We're fighting ourselves."

  "Not just us," Eichen said. "This is worldwide. We have members in Nexus from other countries. It turns out Eisenhower wasn't the only world leader threatened by the Priory. Most go along, but some, men and women in positions of power who see the threat from the shadows, are putting everything they have on the line."

  "But you don't even know exactly what the threat is or what the Priory's goal is," Dalton noted. "For all you know, the Priory might have a good reason for doing what it does."

  "I doubt that," Eichen said.

  "Why, sir?"

  "Why hide if their motives are good?" Eichen asked in turn. "Trust me on this. The Priory is our enemy. I've looked at your service record, Jimmy," Eichen said. "You’re a good soldier. You've served your country a long time, and now we're asking you to serve once again."

  Dalton didn't take the bait. "You know more than you just told me."

  "Not much more. And you're going to be out there, exposed. What I have told you won't compromise much of our organization. The Priory knows Nexus exists, as we know it exists. I'm your cut out"

  Dalton knew what the general was saying: If he was compromised, he could only give up the little he knew, which was basically his cut out or intermediary-the general who was his only link to Nexus. The rest of the organization would be safe.

  "What is Nexus's agenda?"

  "We fight the Priory, try to stop it from taking actions that harm our country."

  Dalton thought that overly defensive and reactive, but kept that opinion to himself "What do you want me to do, sir?"

  Eichen stood. "Go back to Bright Gate. I want you to see if you can find out what Eileen Raisor discovered before she was cut off."

  "How will I do that?"

  "Use the master computer there—Sybyl. There should be some sort of record of Ms. Raisor's mission. There might be nothing. I don't know. But I'd like to know as much as possible before I go to Alaska. Then try to find out who was running things there; who was behind Jenkins and Souris before him. Find their cut out if you can. Maybe we can work our way up their organization. Anything you find out you report back to me."

 
"What happened to Souris?" Dalton asked. "Is she still at HAARP?"

  "That's another strange thing," Eichen said. "She disappeared two years ago. We haven't been able to find her since."

  "Killed?"

  "Perhaps. Or maybe she's working on something else for the Priory now. We don't know."

  Dalton had worked in the gray world of covert operations for most of his career, but this was the most bizarre thing he’d ever heard.

  "Are you with us, Sergeant Major?"

  Dalton didn't ask the question that popped into his mind: what would Nexus do to him if he said no? "Yes, sir. If you don’t mind me asking, who is number one on the speed dial?”

  Eichen grimaced. “Let’s hope you never have to use that. Because if you do, that means I’m dead.” He turned for the door, but paused, hand on the knob. "I am sorry about your wife. I know this is a difficult time to ask this of you."

  The door swung shut behind the general. Dalton saw the headlights go on and the car drove away, leaving Dalton once more alone in the dark in the house filled with memories.

  *****

  Henry Kissinger had once stated that power was an aphrodisiac, but Deputy Director of the National Security Agency Linda McFairn thought that too narrow and foolish a definition. She cared little about bedding younger, good-looking men, unlike the majority of her male colleagues high in the echelons of government, who spent much of their free time pursuing young, nubile women, or, in many case, young men. To McFairn, power was a lever that could be used to produce desired results. Sex, unless it served a specific purpose, was a waste of energy and, in a town where slander was thrown about with ease, a potentially damaging act, more so for a woman than a man, naturally.

  She'd learned that over thirty-eight years ago when she started as a Russian linguist at the National Security Agency. She spent twenty years working her way in various slots in the Operations Directorate then got her big break as Executive Assistant to the Deputy Director. It took another eighteen years of more assignments and a lot of politicking for her to make it from the outer office to the inner office.