22nd May
There was something about Angela Rikard that made me trust her very quickly.
It was true that she held very simplistic, fundamentalist beliefs about religious matters, but she was not a bad person.
She was also not a stupid person, although the conviction of her beliefs completely swamped the kind of scepticism that I tended to adopt towards any theory that did not have good supporting evidence.
She genuinely believed that arcane, supernatural phenomenon existed that could be harnessed for good or evil, and she believed that it was vital for such secrets to be preserved by the Christian Church.
She was able, however, to see the funny side of the misunderstanding about the Great Lord Morrison – once she had understood the sequence of events that had contributed to it.
I think she disapproved of the games that Helen and I played, but was tactful enough not to comment.
It felt slightly odd that she had recently tried to kill me at Adrian Holland’s vicarage, but once again, she had earnestly believed that I stood in the way of saving the Earth.
We seemed to have covered a lot of ground in the hours after she had turned on the lights in the cavern.
It appeared that this warren of underground passageways and rooms had been constructed at the same time as the over-ground complex – around 10,000 BCE.
Angela had been using part of the caverns for accommodation, so she had food and other supplies available that allowed us to be well provided for as we got to know each other.
She explained that Sam Collins had discovered the caverns but had thought it best to keep them secret in case they could be used to extend the MI6 listening post at some point in the future. With that in mind, he had installed electric lighting, linked to the generators that supplied the main underground listening station, half a mile away.
As we explored the caverns, Angela had explained to me about WAR and its intention to disrupt any attempt to deflect the asteroid. WAR believed that the natural course of events should not be subverted. They thought God may have planned for the asteroid to be the bringer of Judgement Day.
Angela had also confessed her lack of knowledge about the methods Harris, Rider, Hartnell and Butler had used to obtain arcane secrets – including gaining details of the Ark and its contents from Waterside, Cornerway and Rio.
I had believed her.
I had asked Angela how she had come to be Arkangel.
It appeared that the role of Arkangel had been undertaken by women since the time of its inception in 1532. The responsibility had been passed in an unbroken line from mother to daughter. This had been kept secret from the historical Masters of ARK due to the attitudes of the Church towards women.
Such prejudice had recently showed signs of change, and Angela thought that the true identity of Arkangel could finally be revealed to those with a need to know.
Due to the impending asteroid, she had believed this to be the right time to individually reveal herself to each of the Masters of ARK. This explained her planned meetings with each.
The link between Angela and Sam Collins was straightforward and led me to understand why Sam had not revealed to MI5 that he knew her:
Angela’s mother, Sarah, had personally wished to monitor discoveries at Gobekli Tepe for ARK and she had done so by working on the dig. She had worked very closely with Sam Collins. Their relationship ultimately became so close that she had told him about ARK.
The relationship had also been so close that Angela was Sam’s daughter.
Angela explained that Sam had been very concerned about the possibility of a WAR operative having infiltrated MI5 and thus had not informed Joan about his relationship with Angela – or about Betelgeuse.
It was clear, however, that Sam had also misinformed Angela on some matters – he had led her to believe that he really had discovered ancient texts that allowed the prediction of the future and conferred other supernatural powers.
Angela concluded that his subterfuge probably also related to a concern about WAR operatives – this time within ARK. Angela really believed that the powers existed, so she could not accidently reveal to anyone that they were a fiction.
She speculated that Sam may have hoped that any WAR infiltrator within ARK would be concerned about his powers of prediction being used to disrupt the plans of WAR. As a result, that person might make an attempt to eliminate Sam and, in doing so, reveal him or herself.
I also wondered if Sam had wanted Angela to be unsure of his abilities in order to ensure that she would think twice before making any unagreed changes to the plans of ARK.
On the other hand, perhaps it was just a mischievous practical joke on Sam’s part. That would have been in character. The reality now was that we would never fully know Sam’s reasoning.
Because Arkangel had believed in the powers, it had subsequently seemed credible to her and to the Masters of ARK that I had knowledge of arcane texts that could lead to prediction of the future – also that MI5 was working with me in a plan to disrupt an attempt to deflect the asteroid.
The activities of Helen at Meadowcote church had reinforced this belief.
In addition to discovering the caverns, Sam and Sarah had investigated and serviced the ingenious gravity and sand powered mechanisms that opened and closed trap doors on the site. These raised and lowered platforms linking the caverns to the over-ground complex.
Angela understood these mechanisms well – although not so well that she avoided accidently open a trap door underneath herself at the same time as she opened one beneath me.
When Angela realised that I and MI5 were trying to facilitate the missile launch, and were not supporting WAR in frustrating it, she rapidly concluded that she needed to work with us.
When she learned about the destruction of the UK launch base at Meadowcote, this became for her even more imperative because it made it clear that Sam had been perfectly correct – there could be WAR infiltrators in any group or agency. She realised that she needed to collaborate with any relevant group who had been proven not to be working with WAR.
Perhaps the most surprising revelation that had come from my hours of conversation with Angela had been about the relationship between Helen and Angela. …
~*~*~*~*~
Helen, Angela and I sat on the ground at the Gobekli Tepe site as dawn broke on the twenty-second of May. We were awaiting whatever sign Sam Collins had predicted. About twenty yards away sat Duck, Jenny, Etienne and Julian Summerland.
‘I knew that I recognised your face,’ said Helen to Angela.
‘It must be over forty years since we played together,’ Angela replied. ‘I’m sorry we didn’t meet again in later years.’
‘Our mothers never really got on,’ said Helen. ‘Yours, obviously, had very strong religious views; mine was a churchgoer but thought your mother’s beliefs went too far. Then, of course, your mother was away a lot.’
‘I think your mother and mine only met a handful of times when they were adults,’ said Angela, ‘even though they were sisters.’
‘It’s really odd that you should both end up here now,’ I said.
‘It’s not quite as unlikely as it seems,’ Helen replied. ‘My aunt Sarah owned my house in Waterford until she died. Angela says that Sarah and Sam had married in Turkey but decided to keep that secret so that ARK and Arkangel were not revealed by an MI6 vetting of Sarah. By living in nearby houses, however, they saw a lot of each other.
‘When Sarah died, the house was left to my mother, and she passed it to me. I never realised that Sam was Angela’s father.’
‘When I first saw Angela, I thought she reminded me of someone,’ I said. ‘There’s definitely a family resemblance when I look at you both, side by side. Mind you, there is one thing I don’t understand,’ I added.
‘What’s that?’ asked Angela.
‘When Helen became involved in all this, you must have realised who she was.’
‘Helen’s my middle name.’ Helen answered part of the question. ‘When Angela and I were small, I used my first name, Susan.’
‘I assumed that the property had been sold,’ said Angela, ‘It never occurred to me that Helen Hargreaves was the same person as Susan Travis.’
The sun had now risen, and I looked at the sky. ‘Have you any idea, Angela, what sign Sam had seen prophesied on those tablets.’
‘I gather the text was damaged,’ Angela replied. ‘An event was predicted that was related to the light in the sky, but it occurred on the one hundred and fifteenth day prior to the light. If the asteroid is due on the thirteenth of September, today is one hundred and fifteen days before that.’
‘I’ve sent a message to Colin Wells, our consultant astronomer and mathematician,’ Jenny said, having walked over to join us, ‘to recheck if there might be anything in the physics that could explain that timing.’
Helen’s mobile rang. ‘Hello, Amy,’ she said. ‘Explain,’ Helen said with a tone of alarm in her voice. ‘We need to take cover, now!’ Helen screamed to us all.
Angela leapt to her feet. ‘Go to that pillar!’ Angela shouted, pointing to a nearby structure. ‘We can descend to the underground chambers from there.’
She ran to the pillar, picked up a rock and struck some blows on locations at its base. The pillar began to sink into the ground.
Duck, Jenny, Etienne and Julian Summerland reached the pillar and jumped down onto the descending platform.
As Angela, Helen and I reached the hole, I saw an object in the sky, like an aeroplane, rapidly approaching us.
Helen still held her phone to her ear. ‘Shoot it down, Amy!’ she ordered decisively.
One hundred yards from the site, the desert surface bulged upwards, and I could see part of the dark shell of Starcruiser Two emerging from where it had concealed itself in the sand.
Four beams of blue light radiated from Starcruiser Two, converging on the rapidly approaching craft.
At the moment it was hit, the approaching aircraft slightly changed direction, plunging towards us. It passed over the site at a height of no more than thirty metres.
Something was ejected from the top of the craft – catapulted high into the air.
We watched as, one hundred metres beyond the site boundary, the craft hit the ground. It then skidded for around eight hundred metres, kicking up clouds of desert sand, before eventually sliding to a halt.
‘What’s happening?’ said Etienne, his head re-emerging from the underground cavern.
‘Amy reported that the second American starcruiser was approaching with cruise missiles locked-on this site,’ said Helen breathlessly. ‘She’s fired charged beams at it to disable its systems but not destroy it.’
‘Looks like the pilot is dropping in to join us,’ I said, pointing to the parachute canopy descending towards the site.
Etienne climbed from the chamber entrance and drew his gun. He and Duck jogged towards where the parachute was going to land.
Five minutes later they returned with its owner, hands tied behind his back.
‘He says he’s Colonel John Hawker from the United States Air Force,’ said Etienne, ‘and he demands to be taken to an American embassy or base.’
‘The Area 51 base commander,’ said Jenny, recalling the briefing at Bovington earlier in the month.
‘What the hell are you doing here, John?’ said Angela.
‘You know each other,’ said Etienne to Angela and Hawker.
‘He’s one of our contacts in A51H,’ Angela replied. ‘Not someone, I’d be expecting to attack ARK.’
‘I didn’t know there was anyone from ARK here,’ Hawker replied.
‘I’ll take him to the listening post bunker and contact Joan,’ said Etienne. ‘I suggest Duck and the bishop come with me. I think Jenny, Helen, Angela and Swan should take Amy to look at the crashed starcruiser and see what can be learned from it.’
‘I’m an American military officer,’ said Hawker. ‘I demand to be put in touch with US officials.’
‘Shut up,’ said Etienne. ‘We’re playing by a whole new set of rules right now.’
Helen spoke again into her phone. ‘Come and collect us, Amy, and let’s take a look at Starcruiser One.’
Starcruiser Two lifted from the sand and moved silently towards us. It stopped and hovered, four metres above us. The hatch in its base opened and steps descended.
Jenny, Helen, Angela and I ascended the steps into the craft.
‘Nice curtains,’ said Angela as we flew towards the crashed starcruiser.