Chapter 1: The Project

"Power tends to corrupt. Absolute power corrupt absolutely." - Lord Acton.

I saw her again across the campus. Her graceful body moved easily, as she trailed me. I had been terminated from the project for over two weeks, but I figured my former employers felt the need to continue the surveillance. My shadow was simply beautiful, like all of the women at the project I had been associated with. However, she never got close enough to me to make out her face. I assumed it was perfect; they were all so perfect - the women on the project.

I was still rather pissed at their sudden firing of me. I should have expected as much. The project was so bizarre from the beginning, a cross between TV's Stargate and the Twilight Zone. It all started six months ago, I was a struggling graduate student working on my PhD in ancient languages. My pre doctoral thesis on ancient languages had gained me some notice in the academic community. It was probably this academic recognition that landed me the job with the "Project". It was strange from the beginning, but the pay was exceptional for an ancient languages student outside of the university. I was rather desperate for money and was not about to refuse.

I was initially approached by Ms. Cheryl Jade. She was not the kind of women you would expect to offer you a job translating a previously unknown language. The oriental woman was far too beautiful and glamorous to be in academics. Dressed in a tight fitting green dress, she looked more like an actress auditioning for a part as the dragon lady. She had impressively large breasts, as well as impressive credential with the National Security Agency. She was the first one tell me of project "Ancient Truth". For the most part, the details were on a need to know basis. However, I initially knew I was going to be hired as a translator of an ancient pre Egyptian text. I was screened and given security clearance and found myself working near a suburb of Washington in a secret facility in an industrial park.

The mystery of why the NSA would be interested in ancient languages was only compounded when I realized that the director of the project was not a military general or a renowned archeologist. The director was Sarah Welsh, an outspoken, controversial and well-known feminist power broker in public policy. And Ms. Welsh, like the assistant NSA Director, Ms Jade, was also young and painfully gorgeous. On my first day, I was introduced to my direct supervisor, Ms. Stone, a Dr. of ancient languages from a mid western university. I never learned her first name. Again, she was a picture perfect red head with a killer body. While I was allowed only very limited access to the facilities, I quickly learned three things. First, every member of the project, excluding me, was a woman. Secondly, I realized they were all incredibly attractive. Third, they were ruthlessly as cold as ice.

For example on the day I met Ms. Stone, I carried myself as the consummate professional introducing myself to her. I attempted to break the ice with some light conversation, and she verbal slapped me with a vengeance. She turned to me and said in the coldest tone, "Mr. Hunter, I do not like you, I do not like men whatsoever, and I find them weak and impotent. You are here for one reason, because of your back ground in ancient languages. If I had my way, I would have chosen a better qualified female, however the decision was not mine. All I expect of you is do your job, and follow my commands. Do you understand?" I was flabbergasted by her suddenness and rudeness. I was so shock that I merely stood there nodding my head in agreement like an idiot. Needless to say, after that I avoid her as much as possible.

I learned that my job at the project was to translate an ancient text. I was quickly introduced to the photocopies of the mysterious writings; however I never permitted to inspect the originals. The texts bore some resemblance to Egyptian symbols, but include thousands of new and unknown symbols. For six months I worked under both the mystery of the text and the project itself. As time passed, I slowly started to undercover the secrets of the projects. While security at the facility was tight, Ms. Stone turned out to be incredibly relaxed in her attention to security protocol. Consequently, I would come across several memos marked "Top Secret."

The text I was researching was found at the ruins of Metites, an ancient lost city in Upper Egypt near Sudan. The discovered ruins were purported in the memo to be quite vast and very old. Of course, I never heard of Metites nor had anyone else, because the whole discovery was an official secret. The project leaders believed that Metites was nearly 20,000 years old, four times older than any other ancient civilization. While all this was quite fascinating, it shed little light on the connection between the strange triangle of government involvement, official secrecy, and feminist leaders.