The Alignment Ingress Read Online Free PDF Page B

set. He had to look carefully to find the blood drops amid the ground cover, while at the same time trying to maintain what was called “total sensory awareness.” He wasn’t good at it. Under any other circumstances, he shouldn’t be out here.
    But these weren’t other circumstances.
    He had the feeling that he was being watched. He felt a tingling. An energy. He’d felt it before, and not only back at the Niantic Labs at CERN or on the field of battle in Afghanistan. Years ago he experienced the same thing at the Cahokia pyramids in the States, even in Manhattan and L.A. He just hadn’t known what it was until the Niantic Project.
    I’m close to a transdimensional XM portal.
    Hank didn’t know where it was, and he didn’t want to take a chance of lighting it up until the time was right, but that’s what it was.
    And he heard the sound. A low hum. Fuzzy.
    He looked around and saw a strange, amorphous shape drifting toward him. More like a shadow or a dissipating waft of smoke than solid matter. He turned to face it, and it stopped. That in itself gave him a jolt. The thing was aware of him, and now he was aware of it. Now he knew exactly what killed the watcher.
    Why doesn’t it kill me too?
    He remained silent, motionless, waiting.
    This thing was not an enemy. He had long suspected the presence of portal guardians, but this seemed to be guarding him. No, it didn’t
seem.
It
was.
But why? And from what?
    And then it simply vanished.
    Hank stood there for a moment, not sure what to do, and then saw the trail of blood again. As he tracked it, the blood soon turned to a trail of bones and metal bits that ended at a crack in the earth that looked like it might lead to a predator’s den. In an hour there would be no trace of the poor bastard who’d been dragged down to hell. The flesh that hadn’t been devoured by whatever killed the guy would soon be picked clean by the minor mammals, flies and insects.
    This rainforest is a full-service recycler.
    At least the dead Chinese guy’s gun was still there. So was his phone. Whether he’d been using it as a camera or a GPS, or texting to others, Hank knew there would be a treasure trove of information inside. If he could get into it. Better yet, he’d turn it over to Montgomery for analysis.
    He retraced his steps and snagged the drone from the pissed-off spider, which was the size of his hand, then headed back to the trailer. Once inside, he pinged Montgomery and told him to pick up the phone. An hour later, another drone showed up on site, this one designed for autonomous transport. Hank dropped the phone in the payload bay, and it shot up and disappeared over the horizon.
    Pretty soon he might have to call on Conrad Yeats too.
    For there be monsters here.
    NIANTIC LINKS
    Niantic protection
    Jungle scream
    Hank Johnson thesis paper

CHAPTER 5
    Meroe
    M ore than forty queens and kings were buried in the South Cemetery, the oldest of the Nubian pyramid sites in Meroe. Because the most honored and visible position in an ancient cemetery was occupied first, with succeeding burials arranged farther and farther away, Conrad Yeats could effectively drive his jeep back through time to the pyramid of King Arkamani-qo, the first ruler on record to be buried at Meroe.
    The record, of course, was wrong.
    Long before these royals rose and died, one legend said that the Queen of Sheba had built her palace here after her torrid affair with the great King Solomon in Jerusalem. Of course, he and Hank disagreed over whether there was ever any physical relationship between the two royals, let alone a torrid one at that. The Bible said only that she and the Lion of Israel discussed affairs of estate, with the Queen of Sheba gifting Solomon more than four tons of gold in exchange for his great wisdom. But what with all of Solomon’s foreign brides and concubines—documented into the hundreds—Conrad felt comfortable in his speculations about the nature of their relationship. And if