“Apparently, as near as we can piece together now, Souris began doing some speculative work on her own. Work 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.”

“How did Bright Gate get established then?” Dalton asked.

In the dim light reflected through the windows, Eichen appeared old and worn. “Let me give you the bigpicture 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 is 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 a 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 HE RTF 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 one 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 slid the note into.

“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?”

“You can call the President on the phone I just gave you.”

“And have someone imitate his voice.”

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 said. He 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, who you work for?”

“ ‘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 indeed but also very small. They use others to work for them. Bright Gate and Psychic Warrior are just one area they have 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.”

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 ever since finding out about it. “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. Apparently someone else 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?”

“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.”