Area 51: The Grail-5 Read Online Free PDF

tail, dropped down. Lexina, followed by her companions, walked on board.
    "The spirits have passed on." Elek nodded to the other two—the recently cloned and reborn bodies of Gergor and Coridan, two members of The Ones Who Wait. The previous Gergor and Coridan had received a fatal dose of radiation in the process of destroying the Russian Area 51 on Novaya Zemlya Island.
    "The spirits have passed on," Lexina echoed as she took a seat to the side of his. "Now let us make sure that Artad's true spirit has not passed on." She extended a long, thin hand. "Back to China."
    THE GREAT SAND SEA, WESTERN EGYPT
    Turcotte's arms were ready to give out as the bouncer finally slowed and descended toward the desert floor. As soon as his feet hit the soft sand, he let go of Mualama, who promptly collapsed onto his back, eyelids rapidly blinking over unseeing eyes.
    "You'll get your sight back when the effect of the flash-bangs wears off,"
    Turcotte told him as the bouncer settled down next to them. He could see the body hanging in the cargo netting, a stream of blood down the smooth side of the bouncer.
    "Where are we?" Mualama sat up.
    "In the desert," Turcotte said. "Where's Duncan?"
    "In the Black Sphinx, underneath the stone one. She's with the Ark. She is safe for the time being inside—Al-Iblis cannot get to her there."
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    The hatch swung open and Yakov appeared, followed by Captain Billam. They went to the body, untangling it from the webbing.
    Turcotte got to his feet and took Mualama's arm, helping him up. "We need to get on board." He could sense Yakov's eyes upon him, but he avoided meeting the Russian's gaze as he guided Mualama up the side of the bouncer and inside.
    "I lost three men at the Sphinx and we left two bodies behind," Captain Billam informed Turcotte.
    "I saw," Turcotte said.
    "Where to, sir?" the pilot of the bouncer asked.
    "Duncan is underneath the Sphinx." Turcotte was checking the function on his MP-5. "If—"
    "We cannot go back there," Yakov said flatly.
    "They're disorganized now," Turcotte said.
    "No, there's more of them now," Yakov disagreed.
    "We can't abandon her."
    "We can't get to her," Yakov said.
    "She is safe for now," Mualama interjected. "She is with the Ark, and it does not allow anyone not wearing the proper attire close to it."
    Turcotte had no idea what Mualama was babbling about.
    "We need to go back to Area 51," Yakov said.
    Turcotte glanced at Captain Billam. His team had lost almost half its strength.
    "I don't see what we can do," Billam said. "We don't have a plan. We don't know exactly where this place is that Doctor Duncan's being held."
    "Sergeant Boltz has lost a lot of blood," the team medic informed him from where he was working on the NCO wounded in the assault at the Kremlin.
    Reluctantly, Turcotte removed the magazine, pulled
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    the bolt back to eject the chambered round, and put the MP-5 down. "Head for Area 51."
    THE GIZA PLATEAU, EGYPT
    Duncan heard a noise, the slightest of movements. Her senses were running on super-alert, every input magnified. She reluctantly put the Grail back in the Ark's cradle and turned. The four sphinx heads mounted on the poles that held up the white veil surrounding the Ark had all turned toward the chamber's entrance. Their ruby eyes were glittering, as if they were alive.
    Duncan was a slight woman, her slender body weighted down with the garments she had on. She wore the robes of the ancient one who had tended to the Ark.
    The costume was elaborate and precisely layered. First, a white linen robe; over it a sleeveless blue shirt that Mualama had called the meeir, then the ephod, a coat of many colors fastened by two stones at the shoulders; the essen, a breastplate encrusted with a dozen precious jewels of various colors; and over her short black hair a crown, made of three metal bands. Each band represented two things, according to Mualama: the three worlds of existence, heaven, hell, and the Earth, and the three divisions of man,