The Apocalypse Calendar (14 page)

Miller fumbled for the phone beside
his bed; he had been in a deep sleep. Gary was on the other end of the line. In a surly voice, Miller said, “Damn it, man! Do you know what time it is?”

Gary said in a calm, almost fatherly voice, “It’s four in the morning. Sorry to wake you, Frank, but I have some important news. I couldn’t sleep, so I decided to watch TV. There was a major news bulletin about a large volcanic eruption and a cluster of magnitude-8.0-plus earthquakes in Yellowstone National Park. A huge volcano formed in the area of Mount Washburn. Fortunately, no one is around to speak of at this time of year; the Park Service normally just has a skeleton crew present. I don’t know whether we can blame this new Yellowstone event on our friend, the Apocalypse Calendar. The huge lava dome under much of the park has been in a state of unrest for years. However, it’s worth noting that from December 2008 into January 2009, five hundred earthquakes were detected under the northwest end of Yellowstone Lake in a seven-day period. The most recent swarm started in January 2010 after the Haitian earthquake and before the Chile earthquake. This was the second-largest swarm of earthquakes in the history of the Yellowstone Caldera.”

“Gary, I’m afraid that what you just said does incriminate the Calendar! The earthquake swarm after the Haitian earthquake and before the Chilean earthquake ties in with the time that Alfred twisted the knob on the Calendar. We’re in big trouble! Some experts predict that an eruption of the Yellowstone Supervolcano will inject two billion tons of sulfuric acid aerosols into the atmosphere. In two to three weeks, this aerosol would cover the earth. The devastating effects of this aerosol cover coupled with the tremendous amount of volcanic dust in the atmosphere would result in a ten-degree drop in global temperature. Some scientists predict that the monsoon cycle would fail in the southern hemisphere and draughts would cause mass starvation in Southeast Asia. This Yellowstone eruption is going to cause major problems! We have to hope that it stops. We’ve already had major volcanic eruptions in February at Mount Etna in Sicily and the Sakurajima volcano in Japan. In addition, in May there were major volcanic eruptions of the Santa Maria Volcano, in Guatemala; Popocatépetl, near Mexico City; Fuego in Guatemala; the Batu Tara Dukonoi volcanoes in Indonesia; and Shiveluch, Central Kamchatka in Russia. At any rate, I guess we need to get ahold of Stanley at NORAD.”

“I’ll leave that call to you. We are scheduled to meet with Stanley and President Renzle on Thursday.”

Miller said, “When you have your meeting, be sure that you and Stanley mention the warning system that we decided to set up for the North Atlantic basin. It is important that President Renzle understands that if there is a cluster of earthquakes anywhere in or around the North Atlantic, he should evacuate all major cities along the East Coast. I am inclined to think that this is the right time to notify the press.”

Gary asked, “Are you going to let the press take photos of the Apocalypse Calendar?”

“I think not. The press shouldn’t view the Calendar. Photos might prove dangerous. The flashes might set off the alien device even more. We have enough to deal with as it is. I also need to ask Stanley whether the tempo of light flashes has increased since the Yellowstone Supervolcano event started. I bet it has. Gary, I’ll get back to you later in the morning.”

Like Miller, General Stanley Maxwell wasn’t too happy to be awakened in the early morning hours. Actually, he had just gotten off of night duty and had only been asleep for about an hour and a half. General Maxwell said, “Frank, you are a sadist. I just went to bed not too long ago! Well, with the phone making such a racket, I’m halfway awake, and I’m sure you are about to awaken me for good! What’s up?”

Miller said, laughing, “Gary just woke me a bit earlier. Apparently, there has been a magnitude-8.0 earthquake and a major volcanic eruption in the old Yellowstone Caldera. As I’m sure you are aware, most volcanologists believe that an eruption of the Yellowstone Supervolcano would be disastrous to mankind. Everybody today is so fixated on global warming that they forget that global cooling could also easily occur almost instantly due to volcanic eruptions. The injection of enormous amounts of sulphuric acid, aerosols, and volcanic dust into the atmosphere will quickly lower global temperature by as much as ten degrees. Some experts suggest that this sort of cooling could trigger another period of continental glaciation.

“At any rate, now that you are awake—or perhaps falling asleep from listening to me—I need you to take a look at the Apocalypse Calendar. I would like to know whether the pulses of light from the device have increased in frequency.”

Stanley, now becoming excited, said, “I’ll run over to take a look at our friend and call you right back. Give me about fifteen minutes.”

Miller made himself a cup of coffee. By now, Jane was up. She said, “Honey, this sounds serious. We’ve just got to find a way to block this road to the Apocalypse. I can’t believe that all of this started when our grandson turned the knob on the Apocalypse Calendar.”

Miller said, “I’m afraid that Gary, Arturo, Felipe, and I are as much at fault as our grandson. We’re the ones who collected the damn thing in the first place. As Dolores indicated as well, all of the signs pointed to this thing being Moctezuma’s Treasure. So far, the device has been more of a curse than a treasure!”

Jane said with a look of apprehension, “Frank, I think I hear the phone ringing. It’s probably Stanley.”

Miller rushed around to find his cell phone. He’d misplaced the damn thing again. After thirty interminable seconds or so, he finally found the phone underneath some of his notes. On the other end of the line, Stanley said in a worried tone, “Frank, I just took a look at the Calendar. There is little question that the frequency of light pulses has increased again.”

“Stanley, I think it would be a good idea to pipe these pulses into the mainframe supercomputer at NORAD. We need every bit of information that we can get. It is possible that, now that the pulses are more rapid in nature, the computer might uncover some sort of coded message. The irregular nature of the pulses certainly suggests some sort of code. From Jane’s encounter with the alien device, we know for sure that it is trying to communicate with us.”

“Okay, I’ll see what I can come up with. We may not get any definitive results for quite a while.”

“It would be good to have some results before you and Gary meet with President Renzle.”

When Miller finished his conversation with the general, he called Gary and briefed him on the Calendar’s increase in light pulse frequency.

Gary said, “The flashes in the Calendar may represent some sort of code, but I think that their speedup in intensity is directly tied into a corresponding increase in mantle convection. The flashes themselves are like some sort of warning signal. If this hypothesis is correct, we should see a parallel increase in tectonic activity all over the world. God only knows where and when the next event will occur, but I bet it’s going to make the most recent Yellowstone event look like a midget.”

Gary and Rosita arrived at Cheyenne
Mountain around ten in the morning after a quick flight aboard an Air Force jet from Dallas. Stanley picked them up at nearby Peterson Air Force Base and drove them to the underground facility.

Gary asked, “When will President Robert Renzle arrive?”

“About one thirty p.m.”

“Frank thinks that it’s about time to tell the press something about the Apocalypse Calendar. What do you think?”

“I guess he’s right, but I wouldn’t let these guys into the chamber with the Calendar. I’m afraid that camera flashes might really irritate our alien friend.” “Curiously, Frank said exactly the same thing.”

Stanley said with a somewhat worried look, “The question is, how much do we tell the press? I suggest that we let President Renzle make that decision. When he arrives, we can hold the press in a conference room until after we meet with him.”

“Sounds good; I am sure that Frank would agree with your decision.”

President Renzle and his entourage of Secret Service and members of the press arrived at Cheyenne Mountain on time. Brigadier General Maxwell, Major General Anthony Camponelli, and Gary introduced themselves to the President and his science adviser and went directly to the chamber containing the Calendar. The press were left to twiddle their thumbs in a conference room at another level. There was no way they could get to the Apocalypse Calendar unnoticed; there were guards posted everywhere.

Robert Renzle on the surface was an intimidating figure. He was at least six foot seven in height and had the build of a football player. His intense dark blue eyes stared out of a rather narrow, elongated face with a prominent nose and stood in contrast with the dark color of his hair.

Gary briefed the President on how the Apocalypse Calendar was found and what had happened since it travelled to Dallas and Cheyenne Mountain.

The President said, “That’s quite a story. I’m from Missouri. I’m hard to convince. It’s hard for me to believe that your toy in the corner with the green flashing light could cause this much trouble. I did take a few courses in geology. In fact, I almost became a major in geology at the University of Missouri, so I’m not a total virgin in geologic thinking.”

General Maxwell said, “I have a PhD in geology from the University of Colorado. I’m not a virgin either. I also should add that I have studied UFOs for a number of years. Trust me; this thing is a real alien device. It may look like a toy, but we can’t even determine precisely what sort of metal it is made of. It apparently contains elements that do not occur on Earth. We can’t even scratch the damn thing with a diamond scribe or penetrate it with military-grade laser equipment.

“President Renzle, we have actually had some success communicating with the Apocalypse Calendar. Dr. Frank Miller’s wife, Jane, has powerful native ESP. She was able to communicate with the device twice. We didn’t record her first encounter with the Apocalypse Calendar. However, the second time around, we made a video of her communication with the alien device. It’s quite a show. Mind you, Jane can’t remember anything about any of this. I think the video will convince both you and your science adviser. Gary, do me a favor and turn on the projector.”

Renzle’s huge frame tensed as he watched the video. He clutched the arm of his chair so hard that Gary thought he would splinter it. Needless to say, at the end of the show, he reached the same conclusion that his predecessor did.

The President asked, “Is there any way we can stop this tectonic trip to the Apocalypse?”

Stanley said, “We feel that the Apocalypse Calendar itself is the key to shutting off intense convection in the mantle and subsequent tectonic activity in the overlying crust throughout the world. We’ve noticed that every time there is a supernova-like tectonic event, the frequency of light pulses increases. The pulses, as you can see, are not all of the same length. This leads us to believe that they may represent some sort of code. At Professor Miller’s suggestion, we are piping the pulses into the NORAD mainframe. Maybe, if we are lucky, we can break the code and find out what the aliens are trying to tell us. In addition, we plan to use another woman with great ESP ability. We’ve used her before with UFOs; she’s really super. I hope she can pick up where Jane left off. I should also add that Dr. Dolores Clark from the University of Pittsburgh rounded up the best translator of Mayan hieroglyphics in the world, Dr. Siegfried Nolf, to join our team. He has already been able to translate some of the ancient Mayan inscriptions on the stone box, which originally contained the Calendar, as well as a second set of inscriptions made by the aliens on the device itself. From his work, we know that there was a curse put on the device by a powerful Mayan witch doctor. Gary and I will fill you in on the relevance of the curse later. Professor Miller and I have compiled a detailed report on all that has transpired for you to examine. So far, all of this is top secret. Very few people know anything about the Apocalypse Calendar. All of us agree, however, that it might be time to tell the press at least something about the device. We’re going to have to say something sooner or later. The decision is yours to make. I believe that we may need the help of the press later to help warn the American people, as well as everyone else in the world. Frank and I believe the greatest danger to the United States will be on the East Coast. Many of the major cities are at very low elevations and are subject to destruction by tidal waves. Frank believes that if any cluster of earthquakes of a magnitude of 7.0 plus occurs in the North Atlantic or Caribbean, we should consider evacuating everyone on the East Coast to behind the shield of the Appalachians. All of this is discussed in detail in the report that we are giving you to read.”

President Renzle said, “I’ll take a look at it on my flight back to Washington. On the matter of the press, I suggest that we simply tell them that a definite alien device has been found. Show them some pictures of the Apocalypse Calendar with its flashing light. Don’t give them any close-ups. Later on, we’ll keep them more informed as needed. You are right; we will definitely need their help later on.”

Major General Camponelli said with a sense of urgency, “If an Armageddon-style disaster occurs, you need to bring your family and all important White House staff to Cheyenne Mountain. The Vice President and the Speaker of the House need to be moved away from the coast to high ground in between the Rockies and the Appalachians. I just hope that none of this comes to pass, but I’m convinced that these guys know what in the hell they are talking about.”

After the President left, General Maxwell briefed the press on the Apocalypse Calendar, which, of course, he referred to as the ‘alien device.’ The press seemed happy to have access to pictures of the device.