barred military expedition to Antarctica, where he said he had found a young Conrad frozen in the ice. That Conrad, in fact, was an Atlantean, and the U.S. government had the DNA to prove it: Whereas the DNA strand of every indigenous species on earth spiraled to the right, Conrad's spiraled to the left.
Ergo, he was not of this earth.
Conrad almost bought the story, except for the reality that in every other way, his DNA and life were extraordinarily ordinary. Outside of Conrad being of interest to the Alignment types, and the mystery of his alleged Atlantean roots, Uncle Sam really had little use for him beyond his expertise in megalithic monuments, astronomical alignments, and ancient mysteries.
Conrad took another look around the kaiser's study and said, 'The Bilderbergers let you do this-go off and have closed-door meetings away from everybody else?'
'Hell, Yeats, that's all we do at these things. Wake up,' Packard said, and got down to business. 'You need to find out where the hell that Flammenschwert went and what the Alignment wants to do with it.'
How on earth did Packard know about the Flammenschwert or that Midas had it? Conrad wondered. But it took only a second for him to come up with the answer. 'So Andros gave me up?'
Packard nodded. 'Your boy's family goes way back with us in Greece. He knows who your true friends are, even if you don't.'
Conrad said, 'Did Andros also tell you he thinks Midas might want to use the Flammenschwert to set the Persian Gulf on fire?'
'Hell, I'm worried the Alignment is going to use it in the Caspian Sea and destroy Russia's ability to ship oil,' Packard said. 'That's twelve trillion dollars' worth of oil right there. Trillion! It's the only thing keeping the collapsed Russian economy going. They lose that, and they won't bother with their Arab proxies. Their tanks will sweep into the Middle East, and we'll respond, and then we've got nuclear Armageddon.'
It was a hellish scenario, to be sure. 'So you're sure the Alignment is behind Midas?'
'They made him,' Packard said. 'And since you helped us smash their network in the U.S., they're using the EU as their cover and base of operation. What do you think this bullshit European summit about the fate of Jerusalem next week on Rhodes is all about? You really think European bureaucrats are ever going to agree on anything remotely resembling a 'coordinated, comprehensive peace plan' for the Middle East? It's all a cover. While the French and German presidents preen for peace, the Alignment will be conducting business as usual. They bankrupted the Russians in the nineties. Now they've bankrupted the United States. All that's left for them is to get our armies to knock each other out so they can unite the rest of the world.'
Conrad had heard it all before from his father. 'How is one man like me going to change any of that?'
'Maybe seeing you tonight will shake Midas up, knowing that you're on to him. Maybe he'll make another mistake.'
'Another?'
'You survived your first encounter with him, didn't you? How did you do that?'
'Atlantean blood, remember?'
Packard gave him a funny look, as if he half believed it. These guys at DARPA, Conrad thought, always looking for any way to create the perfect soldier. 'You do realize that I don't work for you anymore, Packard, don't you? I'm under no contract to the Pentagon or anybody else.'
'Only your pledge of allegiance to the United States of America, Yeats. And that's worth more to me than all the promises of a U.S. senator. They can be bought, or at least rented. Not you. Now, tell me how you found the Nausicaa.'
Packard seemed genuinely interested, so Conrad obliged.
'Same way I helped the Greeks here fix April 15, 1178 B.C., as the date of King Odysseus's return from the Trojan War and his slaughter of his wife's many suitors,' Conrad said. 'I aligned clues about star and sun positions from Homer's ancient Greek epic poem The Odyssey and contemporary German and British captain's logs to pinpoint the location of the Nausicaa when it sank.'
Packard frowned. 'The same astrological mumbo-jumbo the Alignment swears by?'
'Not quite,' Conrad said. 'According to Homer, the goddess Calypso had bidden Odysseus 'to keep the Bear on his left-hand side' until he reached this island of Corfu. I let Ursa Major be my guide.'
Packard, satisfied yet again that Conrad was the right man for this job, said, 'So you knew the Flammenschwert was on board the sub?'
Conrad shook his head. 'All I knew was that the sub was returning from Antarctica. I was hoping it was carrying some relic from Atlantis.'
'From the pit of hell, for all it matters,' Packard said. 'This Flammenschwert is a game-changer. The world is seventy-five percent water. Whoever rules the waves rules the world. You've got to stop Midas from using this thing or, worse, figuring out how to make more of them.'
'How do I do that?'
'Just throw yourself in his face,' Packard said. 'I told you. Midas thinks you're dead. Maybe the sight of you will prompt him to double-check something with regard to the Flammenschwert. Now that we're monitoring him with every conceivable electronic surveillance on sea, land, and sky, we might catch him before it's too late.'
'And what do I get?' Conrad demanded. 'Just because I can't be bought doesn't mean I wouldn't enjoy some spoils of war.'
'You didn't get enough from Uncle Sam for those two Masonic globes you dug up under the monuments in D.C.?'
Packard was referring to Conrad's last adventure with Serena Serghetti, which began at his father's funeral in Arlington Cemetery. Conrad had discovered that his father's tombstone was encoded with Masonic symbols and astrological data. It was yet another riddle wrapped in an enigma for Conrad to solve and Packard to go ballistic over. That tombstone turned out to be the key to a centuries-old warning built in to the very design of Washington, D.C. In the deadly race to decode that warning, Conrad and Serena had discovered two Templar globes of murky origins that America's first president, George Washington, had buried beneath the capital city-one terrestrial and one celestial.
It was the document inside the terrestrial globe that exposed the Alignment's plot to destroy the American republic and ultimately led Serena to steal that globe and take it with her to Rome, leaving the Americans with only one of the Templar globes. Meanwhile, the suspicion at the Pentagon that the globes worked together in some mysterious way probably explained the glare now coming from Packard and his cigar.
Conrad said, 'The almighty American dollar isn't what it used to be. I used up my reward from the globes to find the Nausicaa. So, again, what do I get?'
'How about answers to all your questions?' Packard said. 'Atlantis. Your father. Your birth. Hell, maybe we'll even get to the bottom of those globes.'
'I've been to the bottom and back,' Conrad said. 'I know more about those two globes than anybody.'
'Enough to explain how you let one of them slip away to the Vatican with your old girlfriend?' Packard said, lifting his eyebrows and his glass of brandy.
'I'm beginning to hate you as much as I did the Griffter, Packard.'
'Then we're all good.' Packard got up and ushered him to the door.
Conrad said, 'That's it?'
'Text me when you find something,' Packard said. 'You've got my number. Just say the word and I'll send in the Marines.'
'Last time the Marines tried to kill me.'
'For all our differences, Yeats, you and I are on the same side. We don't buy any of this 'post-American world' bullshit the One-Worlders are here to propagate. Power and evil abhor a vacuum. We can't let the Alignment fill it.'
Packard opened the door, and they walked into the reception hall, where a few late arrivals were making their way upstairs to the terrace.
'Just be yourself,' Packard said softly as they started up the grand staircase. 'Midas, like you, is a fringe player here-you by virtue of specialized knowledge and him by virtue of his oil billions. He wants to make a good impression on his Alignment masters, whoever they may be. Just seeing you walking around will rob him of that confidence.'
They paused at the reception chamber at the top of the steps, in front of the Triumph of Achilles fresco.
