Legends of Amacia: Mysteries of Tiamat
The 8th Wonder of the Ancient World: Tiamat

Sixteen hours later, Hannibalknocked on Harry’s door. Dressed in jeans and a T-shirt with his hair a tangledmess, Harry opened the door, still a bit groggy. He rubbed the sleep out of hiseyes, seeing Hannibal, Nathanael, and Selina standing there. “Oh…come on in. Wejust got up,” Harry invited, stepping aside to let them in. Hannibal,Nathanael, and Selina came in to see the lights up, and some soft musicplaying. Mary stood in the kitchen preparing some bacon, eggs, and grits forthem. Dennis sat on the sofa, drawing.

“Did you sleep all right?”Hannibal asked.

“As amatter of fact, I did,” Harry answered. “This place is very restful.”

“Would you like anything to eat?” Mary calledout from the kitchen.

“No thanks.We’ve already eaten at the cafeteria this morning,” Hannibal answered. “I justwanted to check on you. I’ve been by a couple of time this morning and got noanswer.”

“What timeis it anyway?” Harry asked as he plopped down in the recliner.

“It’squarter of ten in morning,” Nathanael answered as Selina went to the kitchen tohelp Mary with the cooking.

“Really?”Harry returned. “I guess I got my time all mixed up with the move.”

“Ithappens,” Hannibal replied. “It’s happened to me too. You should have seen whatthe time change did to Nathanael and Selina when they first came here.”

Nathanaellaughed. “Yeah,” he admitted. “It took us almost a month to get used to yourtime. We were all screwed up.”

Harrylooked into the kitchen and saw Selina smirk about what Nathanael had said.“Indeed,” Selina added as she and Mary put the breakfast on the table justbehind the sofa. “We weren’t much good for anything during that adjustment.Besides, we were still recuperating from the injuries we received on theInterceptor when the blue sun exploded.”

“You’re sureyou don’t want anything?” Mary asked as she sat at the table with Harry andDennis.

“No, we’reokay,” Nathanael replied, sitting down on the sofa. Selina sat beside him andHannibal plopped down on one of the recliners.

“So what’rewe doing today?” Harry asked as he ate.

After amomentary pause, Hannibal said, “I’m going to introduce you to everyone andwe’re going to see more of the Temple. Hopefully, we’ll get you familiar enoughwith the Temple so you don’t need an escort.”

Harryrubbed the side of his face and then took a swallow of his drink. “Is that so,”he mused.

“Yes, sir,”Hannibal answered. “We’ll also try to get some form of routine going for you,Mary, and Dennis. This place can be a bit boring if you’re not doing somethingand it’ll help you keep track of time. Time has a tendency to vanish in thisplace if you don’t have a routine.”

“Well,that’ll be good,” Mary said enthusiastically. “I wouldn’t feel right if Icouldn’t help out in some manner.”

Within tenminutes, Harry, Mary, and Dennis finished their breakfast and were ready to seethe wonders of the Temple. “Follow me,” Hannibal said as they went out into thecorridor. He led them to the central hub of the barracks where the golf cartssat waiting. They piled onto one of the larger golf carts and Hannibalproceeded to drive. “First, we’ll go meet the research team,” he stated whiledriving. Within a couple of minutes, they arrived at the cafeteria. Harryimmediately noticed a crowd of over eighty-five people waiting as they arrived.Hannibal parked the cart and led them over to the tables where everyone wasgathered. The crowd consisted of men, women, and children of all races andnationalities. Hannibal whistled and the crowd grew quiet as they gave himtheir attention.

“You allhave heard about the misfortune that befell my friend Harry and his family,”Hannibal began. “Well, this is Harry Clint, his wife Mary, and his son Dennis.They’re now part of our family here. Treat them as such. We all have given upmuch to be part of this. Harry and his family have also lost everything to themasters of the universe. Harry and his family are now considered terrorists bythem, just as I am and everyone else here. We’re all in the same boat so let’swelcome Harry and his family and help them to adjust to their new life herewith us.” Hannibal stood back with Selina and Nathanael at his side andannounced, “Harry, Mary, Dennis: this is my research team. They’re my familyand now you are too. Welcome.” He stood silently as the research team thronged aroundHarry and his family, greeting them warmly. Harry soon realized entire familieswere staying at the Temple. Dan came up and greeted Harry and his family,officially welcoming them. It took about ten minutes for everyone to greetHarry and his family. As the last people filed through greeting Harry, Hannibalpulled Dan aside and said, “See if we can’t come up with a routine for Mary andDennis to keep them busy.”

Dan noddedand smiled. “I think we can come up with something they’ll like,” he replied.The crowd slowly dissipated, the people returning to their various appointedtasks.

After thecrowd had gone, Hannibal told Dan, “I’m going to show them some more of theTemple. If you need me, just call.” Dan nodded and left. “Come. Let me show yousome more of the marvels we found here,” Hannibal said, leading them to thegolf cart and getting on it with Harry and his family.

“We’regoing to get to work, too,” Nathanael said. “We have much to do.”

“Go rightahead. Selina, could you accompany us?” Hannibal asked.

“Absolutely,”Selina answered, climbing on the cart with them.

“I’ll seeyou later, Nathanael,” Hannibal said. Nathanael saluted him and left on anothercart. Hannibal started into the tunnels, announcing “Our first stop…theLibrary.” He drove into the main tunnel and turned right. He went a littleways, and then turned left into what appeared to be an empty room and stopped.A stone door slid shut, sealing the room and Harry looked at him as if to ask‘what’s going on.’ The room suddenly felt like it was moving upward as they satthere, a soft rumble echoing around them.

“This is anelevator, isn’t it?” Harry asked.

Hannibalnodded. “Yeah; they’re mainly confined to the machine area,” he replied,“though we have encountered some different kinds of elevators in the othersections of the Temple.” The motion suddenly ceased and a door opened oppositeof the one they came in. Hannibal drove on as Selina explained some of thethings they were seeing. They moved on for three more minutes, and then thetunnel suddenly turned from metal into granite. “We’ve just left the machinearea. We’re now in the area that I told you about the other night,” Hannibalinformed. A couple of minutes later, they reached the Library and Hannibal tookthem in, showing them around. They gazed in wonder at the size of the chamber,and at the fact it was lit like the portal chamber. “Come and look at this,”Hannibal said as he reached into one of the open sarcophagi, removing one ofthe books. “Now you don’t have to just take my word for it.” He handed the bookto Harry, who carefully accepted it. His eyes sparkled as he gingerly opened itand examined the metal pages. Dennis stood next to him, looking like he wantedto touch it but not sure whether he should.

“Go aheadand touch it, Dennis,” Hannibal ordered. “You can’t hurt it. The oils in yourskin will not damage these plates. They’re practically indestructible.” Denniscarefully touched the pages. They were perfectly smooth, except for the writingetched on it. His face lit up with fascination.

“This isincredible. It’s so light,” Harry said, handing the book back to Hannibal, whopromptly put it back. They looked into the sarcophagus and Harry and Marywondered at the volume of information stored in there.

“Come, letme show you more,” Hannibal invited, leading them out the Library to the golfcart, which they promptly got on. Hannibal then took them all over the securedtemple areas. He and Selina explained the various chambers and things they saw.After three hours of touring, they ended up back in the portal chamber. It wasdeserted and Hannibal drove right to the platform. “Now for one of the mostawesome sites you’ll ever see,” he informed as he went to the control console.He pushed a button, retrieved the earpiece from the console, and put it in hisear. Everyone gathered around the console as it lit up. The hologram suddenlysprang to life and showed right outside the front of the Temple. Hannibalquickly scanned through the jungle around the Temple using the hologram,showing no activity. “You remember the pictures of the draken colossus?” heasked. Harry nodded yes and then Hannibal returned, “Well, now it’s time to seeit for real. Prepare yourself for the shock of your life.” The portal machinerysprang to life and within a few seconds, the portal lay open.

“Come,”Hannibal invited, heading toward the portal. Harry, Mary, Dennis, and Selinafollowed him through the portal into the edge of the jungle in front of thedraken colossus. They stood at the outer periphery of an immense stone platformmore than three hundred feet in radius. The late afternoon sun slowly sankbehind the jungle peaks to the west. A light breeze blew out of the west andhigh cirrus clouds draped across the sky’s blue vault. Shadows from the settingsun danced on the colossus. Harry, Mary, and Dennis stood there in utterstupefaction as their gaze followed the colossal legs up to the body, and thento the heads. The entrance between the legs was collapsed, showing signs ofexplosives and a gun battle. Hannibal grinned and Selina smiled pleasantly asthey watched their friend’s reaction.

“My god,”Harry whispered in awe. “It’s beyond enormous. You were right. Those picturesdon’t do it justice. I feel like an ant next to an elephant.”

Dennisstood there, gawking at the sheer size of it. “Wow!” he breathed after a coupleof minutes.

Mary stoodthere in complete awe, feeling completely insignificant. She suddenly becamelight-headed and almost fainted. Selina caught her and asked, “Are you allright?”

“Yeah…Ithink so,” Mary replied, shaking her head. “I just got a little overwhelmed byit.”

“It hasthat effect on some people,” Hannibal stated, smiling warmly.

Harry couldnot tear his gaze away from the terrible image. Hannibal put his hand onHarry’s shoulder. “You know... I can’t even fathom how no one knew this washere before you found it,” Harry said softly. “Wait a second, I just rememberedthe story you told us about the prospector. Did you replace the pile of skulls heclaimed was here?”

Hannibalsighed deeply and pointed to the collapsed entrance. “We sure did,” he repliedgrimly. “When we first got here, there were fifty skulls showing varying stagesof decomposition sitting scattered between the legs in the entrance. One was afreshly-hewn head less than a couple of weeks old that I surmised must havebelonged to the prospector’s friend, Carlos. Just over there on the east sideof the platform is a deep ravine that was filled with the bones of the apparentsacrifices. We gathered the skulls and carefully put them in the ravine beforeburying them after getting photographic evidence of the mass grave. I insistedon placing a marker over the mass grave to honor the dead so they wouldn’t beforgotten. That was just the first gruesome discovery we encountered when wefirst came here.”

Harry,Mary, and Dennis followed Hannibal and Selina across the platform. Hannibalbriefly stopped at a bloodstained toenail of the colossus. “Apparently, this iswhere the sacrifices were done,” Hannibal reported. “The blood we found herewas less than two weeks old when we first came here, probably that of Carlos.”

Hanniballed them to the edge of the platform where a simple marker made of a smalldiorite boulder sat. The rock stood four feet high by five feet across with oneside flattened and polished like a tombstone. An epitaph lay carved on thepolished side of the boulder, reading, “To the fifty unknown souls who perishedhere as sacrifices to the great Tiamat: Rest in Peace.”

A solemnsilence followed as they observed the marker. “Just down there, covered by tenfeet of dirt and a cap of stone lie those poor souls taken by the evil thatused to infest this place,” Hannibal reported, pointing to a field of stonefifty feet wide and one hundred feet long. “It took us two weeks to documentthe grave and seal it. I just pray that by us taking control of this place theycan finally rest in peace.”

“I thinkthey just might,” Mary murmured. “By giving them a proper burial and memorial,you have acknowledged their existence and avenged them by driving the evil youspoke of from this place. That has to account for something.”

“I justwish I could have known who they were so I could have been more specific withthe epitaph,” Hannibal replied. “They deserve more than this.”

“It’s anhonorable thing you did for the victims killed here,” Harry admitted, “so don’tbelittle what you did for them. I’m still amazed that no one on the outside everknew of this place. The colossus is so large and beautiful that it can’t beignored. I’ve never seen a sculpture this large done in such painstakingdetail.”

“I agree,”Hannibal declared. “This place is unique because of the draken colossus. Butthere’s more here than just the draken statue if you look around.” He gesturedto the jungle and added, “Even in this place, life abounds, counteracting theevil that used to infest this place.”

They lookedaround at the jungle. “It’s so beautiful,” Mary observed, smiling.

Suddenly aflying fox flew over their heads, heading toward the draken colossus. Dennissaw it and pointed, asking, “What’s that? It looks like a big bat.”

Identifyingwhat Dennis asked about, Hannibal stated, “That is a flying fox, Dennis. It’sone of the largest bats on the planet. We have lots of them around here.”

“A flyingfox?” Dennis asked with some confusion.

Hannibalnoticed the confusion. “They’re commonly known as the giant vampire bat,” heexplained. “There are several varieties of vampire bats around the world thatdo drink blood, but you don’t have to worry about these bats sucking blood.They eat fruit and the occasional fish. The technical name for them around hereis Pteropus Vampyrus.”

“Vampirebats? Oh, cool. What else does the jungle have?” Dennis asked.

As heasked, Hannibal saw something out of the corner of his eye and turned to seewhat it was. “Shhh,” he warned. “We have tigers. Look there.” He pointed downinto the jungle about fifty yards. Everyone turned and saw the tiger looking atthem with some curiosity. Dennis’ eyes lit up with cautious excitement. Marylatched on to Harry’s arm as Harry stood behind Hannibal.

Selinastepped forward a few steps in a very deliberate manner with an intense look onher face. Hannibal watched carefully as she squatted down on her haunches,leaning forward slightly with one hand on the ground propping herself up as shemade eye contact with the great cat. They stood still as statues, watchingSelina and the tiger interact. She purred aloud and the tiger growled. Shereturned the growl with an added purr. The tiger bobbed his head up and downand slowly advanced toward her. “Selina…you know what you’re doing, don’t you?”Hannibal asked with concern in his voice.

She wavedher free arm in a restraining manner without saying anything. She slowly inchedforward a few more steps and met the great cat at the edge of the platform. Sheand the tiger looked at each other for a minute and it grimaced with a growl.She responded with a low, guttural purr, lowering her head below the tiger’shead and canting her head to one side slightly. Everyone watched in amazement,as she seemed to communicate with the great cat. It moaned, and purred, turningits head toward those with Hannibal. It bobbed its head up and down and walkedby Selina, moving toward Hannibal. Fear began to rise in them. Selina rose andfollowed the huge tiger over to them, saying, “It’s all right. He’s justcurious.” The tiger stopped in front of Hannibal and looked up at him. Selinastood next to the tiger and stroked its back. Harry, Mary, and Dennis watchedin fear and awe as Hannibal stifled his fear, kneeling down to look the greatcat in the face. It looked him square in the eye as Hannibal slowly extendedhis hand so the tiger could smell it.

“No,don’t!” Mary moaned fearfully, latching onto Harry’s arm. Dennis held ontoHarry’s other arm while he watched.

The tigerslowly sniffed Hannibal’s hand, and then licked it. Hannibal looked at Selinawith utter amazement. He reached out and touched the side of the tiger’s face,gently stroking his fur. The tiger uttered a short purr and looked at Dennis.Primal fear rose in Dennis’ heart. Selina said, “Come…He wants to meet all ofyou.” The tiger turned and walked a couple of paces, stopping in front ofDennis. It moaned and purred, shaking its head in a non-threatening manner.“Come on; don’t be afraid,” Selina reassured. Dennis looked at his dad withfear in his eyes. Dennis’ hand slowly came out and the tiger lurched forwardgently, putting his head under Dennis’ hand. It looked Dennis in the eye andall of Dennis’ fear evaporated. It let Dennis stroke its head a few times thenturned to Harry and Mary, who by this time had realized that this great catmeant them no harm. Both of them slowly reached out so the tiger could acquiretheir scent. It sniffed their hands just as it did with Hannibal, and thenmoaned, licking their hands. It then looked up at Selina and growled. Sheresponded with a deep rumbling purr and the great cat walked away, turning tolook at them just before disappearing into the jungle.

They allstood there in shock for a few seconds. Selina patted Hannibal on the shoulderas she smiled at him. “Well done, my friend…very well done,” she congratulated.

“Can youbelieve that? How’d you do that?” Hannibal asked Selina with great admiration.

“It’s justa little thing I do,” Selina answered with a purr. “Animals communicate withmore than just sound. Every little gesture and movement has meaning. I justknow how to understand them. I guess it’s a Lynxian thing.”

“I had noidea that you could do that,” Hannibal said. “You never cease to surprise me.”

Selinasmiled and kissed him on the cheek. “There are still a few things you don’tknow about us Lynxians,” she purred. “All of the Lord’s creation is precious.You made a friend just now. He’ll watch for us.”

“You meanyou actually communicated with that tiger?” Hannibal asked with peakinginterest.

“Yes,”Selina chimed. “This is his territory and he wished to know whether we werefriend or foe. He found us as friend otherwise he would have killed us.”

“Hecertainly could have done it too,” Harry stated. “That’s the biggest tiger I’veever seen. How big do you think he was?”

“You’reright,” Hannibal said, looking at Harry. “He’s a really big tiger; and old too.I suspect that he weighed as much as seven hundred pounds or more. Do you thinkhe’ll really look out for us, Selina?”

“Yes, Ibelieve so. He, however, will not show himself again like he did here,” Selinapurred. “He’ll stay in the jungle and protect his territory as he’s alwaysdone.”

“My friendsat school would never believe this,” Dennis crowed. “I got to touch a real wildtiger. This is too cool.”

“I mustagree with you on that, Dennis,” Hannibal chimed. “That’s one of the coolestthings I’ve ever seen. You’ll have to teach me how to do that sometime,Selina.”

“Anytime,Hannibal,” Selina replied pleasantly.

They lookedwest at the setting sun as the glowing red orb slipping down behind the trees.The sky turned a strange combination of colors that gave the entire area asurreal glow. Dennis bubbled with excitement about being able to touch a realtiger as they watched the sunset. The portal glowed eerily at their side,casting a violet glow around the platform. Hannibal became lost in the sunsetfor a moment. A sudden screech of monkeys from the jungle brought him back toreality and he abruptly looked up at the colossus. “Would you look at that,”Hannibal exclaimed as he looked up.

“What isit?” Harry asked and Hannibal pointed up at the heads of the colossus. Everyonelooked up and witnessed a bizarre phenomenon occurring around the heads of thecolossus. Thirty or so strange glowing orbs of every color seemed to dancearound the heads, at times moving into position making it look like the drakenhad eyes that were watching them.

“Wow!”Dennis exclaimed. “That is so neat!”

Theywatched the orbs of light dance silently around the draken heads for nearlyfifteen minutes. Then Hannibal got a terrible feeling in the pit of his stomachas the lights slowly began descending the colossus, coming toward them. Selina,who’d been watching in fascination, suddenly got a similar feeling, as dideveryone else. “I think we’d better go,” Hannibal warned.

“I thinkthat’s a good idea,” Selina agreed.

“Yeah,”Harry stated. “Something’s not right with these lights.” They all went backthrough the portal and it snapped shut as the orbs drifted down and dancedaround the platform. They watched with the hologram as the orbs danced andweaved around the colossus and around the platform. “Have you seen this kind ofactivity before?” Harry asked.

Hannibalshook his head. “No,” he admitted. “I’ve seen ball lightning around thecolossus before but I don’t think these orbs are ball lightning. It’s somethingcompletely new to me. They look like some form of plasma energy.” They watchedwith a combination of interest and dread as the orbs continued to float anddance around like fireflies. Slowly, the orbs gathered to the middle of theplatform and seemed to combine into a large fiery orb nearly twelve feetacross. It floated motionless about six feet off the platform, casting asearing light on the jungle growth that had encroached on the platform.

“Look atthat!” Mary exclaimed as she watched jungle life near the orb wither away andburst into flames that lasted only a few seconds. The flames completelyconsumed all the organic matter. About a minute after the orbs combined, thelarge orb began to change color and pulse. Suddenly from out of a clear sky, atremendous electrical discharge struck the orb and the entire Temple rumbled.The orb suddenly quadrupled in size as it shown with the brilliance of the sun.Those watching on the hologram had to shield their eyes when the tremendouslightning strike hit the orb. The orb suddenly flared and what appeared to be ashockwave of electricity spread in every direction. Thousands of electricaldischarges touched the colossus, the platform, and the jungle. The whole arealit up in an awesome display of raw power. Power discharges arced between thedraken heads, its body, and the platform. The whole area glowed in acombination of scarlet and violet color in an unearthly manner. A strange,unearthly roar echoed through the jungle and the arcing of the power dischargesmade the draken look like it was coming to life and breathing electrical firefrom several of its mouths. Throughout the Temple, everyone briefly stoppedwhat they were doing as the Temple rumbled with the power of what was going onoutside at the colossus.

In theportal chamber, Hannibal, Selina, Harry, Mary, and Dennis watched theunbelievable display of raw planetary power in the hologram. They looked aroundas the Temple rumbled from the onslaught outside. Then as quickly as the firstdischarge struck, it was gone, leaving only a bizarre fog on the platform andaround the colossus.

Hannibalopened the portal to the platform and immediately went outside. Everyonefollowed him out onto the platform. The smell of burning ozone assaulted theirsenses. The air was full of static electricity that made their hair stand onend and their skin tingle. “Look at your hair, dad! It’s standing up!” Dennisexclaimed.

“There mustbe a residual charge left out here. Be careful out here,” Hannibal warned as hedarted around the platform with the fog sweeping around his feet. He went towhere the orb had floated and examined it closely. He waved for everyone tocome and see. “This is incredible. I never saw this before,” he stated pointingout a thirty-foot radius of strange patterns etched into the fused platform ina circular fashion that glowed eerily. In the very center, where the massiveelectrical discharge touched the platform lay a circular crater six feet acrossand four feet deep. In the bottom of the crater appeared to be something metallicthat glowed brilliantly. The crater itself seemed to be shaped like a parabolicsatellite dish. Hannibal cautiously looked over into the crater and had toshield his face from the intense heat that was emanating from the metallicbottom. “Selina, what do you think?” he asked, backing away from the crater.“There’s something big in there that’s metal and it’s still very hot.”

Selinacarefully looked into the crater for a minute and then backed away. “I don’tknow,” she replied. “This is new on me.”

As shespoke, Nathanael emerged from the portal and sprinted over to them. “What’sgoing on?” he asked. “The whole Temple rumbled and shook a couple of minutesago.”

Hannibaltold him what they had witnessed and showed him the crater. “I’ve never seensuch a violent displace of raw power on this planet before,” Hannibal stated.“This is the first time I’ve seen this kind of display since I’ve been here.”

Nathanaelgazed into the crater and rubbed his chin, pondering what Hannibal had toldhim. “You know, you said this place is affected by some kind of energy vortex.I think what you witnessed may have been one of those unexplained phenomenathat frequent those places. From the way you describe the incident, it soundslike there may have been an exchange of potentials when the Earth’s magneticfield lines were crossed up somehow. Its effects are still lingering. Look athow our hair is standing up and our nerves are tingling,” he deducted. Then ata whim, he pulled a compass out of his pocket and looked at it. “Look here,” hesaid, referring to the compass. The compass needle spun wildly. Everyonegathered around and looked at the compass needle dancing crazily. Then theneedle suddenly stopped and pointed to the south. Nathanael’s eyebrow rose ashe said, “This is interesting. The Temple faces north, does it not?”

“Yes,”Hannibal replied. “The draken faces north.”

“Then mycompass should point in the same direction but look, it points south,”Nathanael observed. Nathanael and Hannibal looked at each other without sayinganything. Then a noise came from the crater and they both looked.

“Everyoneget back!” Hannibal and Nathanael shouted simultaneously, pushing everyone awayfrom the crater. Surges of energy exploded out of the crater and within twoseconds, a blast emerged from the crater, sending a shockwave that knockedeveryone down, singeing hair, fur, skin, and clothes. The portal simplyabsorbed the energy as the shockwave made contact with it. As quickly as ithappened, the phenomenon vanished. The crater was cold with the fog blown away.The residual static charge was gone as well.

“Iseveryone all right?” Hannibal asked, getting up. His hair and his clothessmoldered.

“Yeah,we’re all right,” Harry answered as he helped Mary and Dennis up.

Selina shookher head as she got up and said, “Okay here. Just a little singed around theedges.”

Nathanaelstood up, still smoking. The compass was still in his hand and he looked at it.The needle pointed north. He scratched his head and said, “Look at this. The compassnow is pointing north.” Everyone gathered around and looked at the compass.

“You know,I think we just saw the Earth’s magnetic field jump and completely reversepolarity for a moment,” Nathanael said as he put the compass away. “When thefield lines crossed in the reversal, we got the discharges that we witnessed.That last blast must have been the polarity changing back to its usualorientation.”

“May be,”Hannibal said. “I’ll tell you one thing. We know very little about how theEarth itself actually works. I suspect this phenomenon is more common than wethink. I know that I’ve seen similar discharges when the government’s weathermachine has to discharge because of the potential energy it builds up when theymodify the weather with it; however, what we saw here dwarfs the power of thatby a least three hundred times.”

“You meanthe government controls the weather too?” Mary asked bluntly.

“I’m afraidso,” Hannibal replied as he started back toward the portal. “We’ll look intothis crater tomorrow. Unfortunately, the government has a series of machinesthat controls weather using various frequencies of electromagnetic energy. TheRussians have their version as well. They use it in conjunction with theirchem-trail Geo-engineering program to mess with the weather and upset thebalance of the Earth’s system. The more they monkey with it, the worse theweather gets.” Everyone followed Hannibal through the portal and it snappedshut as he continued, “They focus beams of electromagnetic energy on the jetstream and can push it anywhere they want. They also have the capability withthese machines to create weather on a regional level.” They listened intentlyas he turned off the portal machinery, putting the earpiece back in its placeon the console.

“This iscrazy,” Harry declared. “Don’t they know that the Earth is a closed system?When they mess with the weather in one place, the natural energy of the systemhas to compensate and reach equilibrium by changing the weather someplaceelse?”

“You’resmarter than you look, Harry,” Hannibal said with a grin. “It appears you’vebeen paying attention to what I’ve been telling you over the years. Yes, itdoes and yes, they do know it. It’s just they don’t care. Remember, they’retrying to kill six and a half billion people without us catching on. Theweather machine is black bag operations developed from a combination of Tesla’swork and alien technology acquired by our government when they made a pact withthe Reptilians and the Grays. They use it as a weapon of war despite the treatythey made with the Russians to not use it as such. Their main facility calledHAARP is in Alaska and has its own power plant to power it. Dozens of smallerfacilities are scattered around the continental US that they use in conjunctionwith the main HAARP facility to help with their Geo-engineering program. Andwhat’s worse is that they can use that thing for more than just weather wartoo. Mind control of the masses has been successfully attempted with thistechnology.”

“Mindcontrol?” Selina asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Yes, mindcontrol,” Hannibal replied. “The human brain operates on a specific range offrequencies. They have discovered that by tuning their transmitters to thatrange of frequencies, they can alter people’s behavior. For instance, theydiscovered that by tuning the machine to a certain frequency in that range andtargeting a specific area, they could agitate people or make them lethargic oreven cause confusion. They could technically target a city with that thing andif they wanted the people to riot, use it to agitate them to the point ofviolence.”

“This isunreal,” Harry breathed. “These guys are truly evil.”

“Oh, but itgets better still,” Hannibal continued. “They can also cause earthquakes andset off volcanoes with it. All they have to do is target a fault line orvolcano, set up a resonance within the rock strata along the fault or withinthe volcano with the frequency and wallah; you have an earthquake or volcaniceruption. This technology has multiple uses, from mind control, to weathermodification, or even use it as a seismic weapon. But they seldom use it as aseismic weapon because of the incredible power drain required for that purpose.They have another program devoted exclusively to seismic and volcanic activity.HAARP is truly one of their most diabolical weapons, one that can potentiallydo great harm to the planet itself.”

Nathanaelshook his head. “Your kind already has technology they can’t control,” hedeclared. “Can you imagine what they’d do if they got their claws on what we’resitting on?”

“I try not to think too much about the evil they coulddo with the technology we’ve found here,” Hannibal replied. “That’s why I’mhere and why I’m one of the most wanted terrorist in the world. They know I haveaccess to material that could propel them into absolute mastery of the planet.That’s why they have gone to such lengths to capture me. They want the ancienttechnology that will allow them to forever enslave the human species. Come; allthis talk of black bag technology the masters of the universe are using ismaking me hungry. Let’s get something to eat.”