Ancients

'Damn,' Everett said as he looked at the waters surrounding Crete.

'All we have currently in the Med is the Tarawa-class Assault Ship Nassau and the Wasp-class USS Iwo Jima. The beach assault will comprise the Iwo's eighteen hundred marines, supported by the Nassau's eighteen hundred in a follow-up second wave. The two assault ships, plus whatever we can get through Italian airspace, from Aviano, will supply air support. We're just too damn low on assets in the area.'

'My team is en route to Aviano as we speak. The navy has pulled SEAL Team Six out of Afghanistan and the survivors of SEAL Team Four from San Diego. The backdoor force will be supplemented with men from our Group and by a company of marines from the two attack carriers. We'll be going in light and fast.'

'Right, get me your final plans as soon as you have studied the intel from Space Command more closely, and then I'll brief the president.'

'Yes, sir.'

Jack switched off the intercom and looked at his three men. 'A lot of people aren't coming back from this one. I want you to know that you don't have to--'

'This speech really gets boring, Jack,' Everett said; Mendenhall and Ryan looked at Collins as if he had insulted their mothers.

Collins just nodded.

As they looked at the map, Sarah McIntire walked into the room and saluted Jack.

'My team is ready, Colonel,' she said.

Jack nodded. 'Will, you and your protection team of ten men will accompany the lieutenant and her geology and paleolithic team to the Valley of the Kings. The president has called in a favor from the Egyptian president to get the team into the valley to find that back door. You will have no other backup, and I expect you and her to get in and get out safely and report. After you've located the subterranean gateway, we move in.'

'Yes, sir.'

Collins looked back down at the map and avoided Sarah's eyes. She wanted him to look at her again with something more than a military bearing, but she could see that he was forcing himself not to.

'Good luck, Lieutenant. Your transport is waiting.'

She saluted again, but when Collins did not look up, she turned and left. Everett, Ryan, and Mendenhall turned to face Jack.

'Little cold with her, weren't you, Jack?'

Collins just closed his eyes and said nothing. Then he straightened from the map and looked at Mendenhall with his piercing eyes. The look alone said it all. His orders were clear.

'I'll watch her, Colonel.'

Jack just nodded, not trusting his voice because of the fear he felt.

CRETE COALITION SITE 1

Tomlinson stared down the long shaft, the sides of which were shiny from the equipment used to widen it from its original series of stone arches. The rebar used to shore the downward-spiraling tunnel made it seem like a thirty-five-foot-diameter spiderweb. Tramcars sat at the entrance ready to transport the final troops and Wave equipment down into the city, of which 2.2 square miles was indeed dry, as they had hoped. All thought of the missing Dahlia was now far from his mind.

This was the pivotal moment in the history of the Juliai. Whole nations would be placed under the umbrella of the Coalition, which would dictate to the world the Ancients' laws of a demanding new society, a model of which had once been the city and civilization right beneath his feet.

Tomlinson shivered in the wind as he saw the shaft that would lead to his lost city. From there all things would be righted.

THE WHITE HOUSE WASHINGTON, D.C.

'Your people really came through, Mr. Director, I want you to know that,' the president said as he looked through the window at the protesters out on Pennsylvania Avenue.

'Don't get all mushy on me. I still want my budget.'

The president shook his head, then turned and sat in his chair.

'So, even if Colonel Collins finds this back door, what if the tunnel has collapsed in the thousands of years since it's been used?'

'Good question. It's all just best-guess, Mr. President--that's all historical science ever is. But if there's a way in, Jack will find it.'

Niles yawned and cleaned his glasses. 'What bothers me is the fact that we had a group of citizens in this country and in other free nations who knew about this Juliai Coalition for almost two thousand years and didn't do anything to stop them. As much as they have helped, I can't excuse the arrogance of these ... Ancients.'

'What should we do with them?'

'Nothing. They're old and the last of their kind. They just need to go away.'

'Niles, you know that if Colonel Collins can't find a way down, those marines are going to have a tough time of it on Crete.'

'I know it,' Niles answered. He knew that the president was fishing for reassurance that Collins was as good as advertised.

The intercom buzzed and the president quickly picked it up. 'Yes, put him on.'

Niles heard the change in the president's tone of voice and sat up.

'When and what is the force?'

Compton watched his friend place his free hand on his forehead and then hang up the phone. He looked at Niles and then stood and walked to the window once more.

'The North Koreans have come across the border with a small force. The details are sketchy and they don't know in what strength yet. The original assault is by a three-pronged group of armor we hope is just a probe, or something to elicit a response. Now there are indications that other units of the People's Fifteenth has started massing north of the DMZ.'

Niles knew that the worst-case scenario was happening and there wasn't a damn thing the president could do but fight back.

'Come on, Jack,' he whispered to himself.

THE VALLEY OF THE KINGS LUXOR, EGYPT

The only difference in the ancient valley since the time of Howard Carter, who discovered of King Tutankhamen's tomb in 1922, was that there was a literal traffic jam of people with permits issued by the Egyptian government seeking the archaeological riches of the valley.

Sarah, Will Mendenhall, and twenty Event Group security men and women were being escorted through the valley by Professor Anis Arturi, the director of information for the city of Luxor. He was not a willing partner in their endeavor to find the gateway to Atlantis. He knew only that the president of Egypt himself had ordered him to watch the Americans and indulge them in their search for a tomb of some significance to the desert government.

They had been on station for four hours, but the coordinates of the Atlantis plate map did not match with what they had hoped to find. Instead of the longitude and latitude being in the valley where the tombs were located, they found themselves on a flat piece of sand-swept desert with not so much as a date tree for a hundred miles.

'Not exactly Times Square here, is it?' Will said as he checked his global positioning link on his laptop. The eight other Land Rovers were idling behind them as he and Sarah got their bearings.

'There isn't one landmark for miles around.'

'I can now see why this doorway to the underworld has never been discovered.'

The headlights started to pick up the sand as it blew across the desert. The wind was increasing in velocity and the guide and the Egyptian professor started squirming in the backseat.

'We should be heading back; these windstorms can be quite dangerous in the valley.'

Sarah turned and looked the man in the eyes. 'We haven't found what we came to find and we won't be leaving until that happens.' Sarah had a momentary flash of Jack and the rest waiting on the USS Iwo Jima for their report. If they did not find the doorway, Jack would be going on the assault of Crete with the marines. There was no way she would stop looking.