Chapter 51

"Good morning, I hope the flight here was not too bad," I said the group of people standing around Antonia and me after getting off the helicopters, I chartered for their flight in from Athens.

For nearly a week, Sarah worked on getting what she called the right people to Greece as a few assumed they were being punked. At first Sarah had told them very little about what I wanted and as a group they refused to come, only after Sarah told them they would be breaking a code as well as a computer language the likes of which they had never seen before did we get some interest. The discussion of a million dollars apiece as payment for the successful completion of the assignment did the interest level increase.

What finally got the eight men and ten women on board the planes and in some cases ships to come here was the mention of an even more secret and lucrative project and payment when the first project was successful completed.

Looking at the men and women standing before me, I was wondering if I was the one being punked. Most of them had enough jewelry perforating their bodies to set off any metal detector down to the ones that kids used finding coins on the beach.

"My name is Brian Faulk; my PA Sarah has stated each one of you is very good at working with computers. At this time, I am accepting her recommendation you are what she says you are. The reason you have been invited here is for a project I am working on and if you are agreeable, the end of contract payment is acceptable, I would invite you all to a meeting, where I will go over what I am looking for.

"If you do not wish to work for me on this you may board either helicopter and the pilot will take you back to Athens where you can return home. For the rest of you, you may leave your gear here and my staff will take everything to where you will be staying. Any questions before I take you down to see the project you will be working on?"

There were a couple of questions about whom I was and was I the guy on all the videos on the Internet. I answered I was but the project they were working on had nothing to do with me. After the few questions I took them on down and gave them the tour of the harbor, which Antonia gave a short presentation about as she was working there with the sea door up letting in the morning light. There were a couple more questions and she answered what she could but after a few minutes, everyone wanted to move on. We did so and the next issue was where we were heading as we passed my guards who were still manning the checkpoint and a few more expressed reservations about having men with guns around them. I let them know they were there to keep people out, not to keep them in.

Once we got to the conference room there were more questions until I was ready to show them the control room they would be working on modifying and possibly changing not only breaking the code but also if possible reprogramming the computers. Showing everyone the control room had even more questions including what was under the tarps down in the chamber. All I told them of what was under the tarp would be revealed once they had finished with the first task I gave them.

Moving back to the conference room we talked some more where I learned more about the people I was hiring. Sarah was not wrong when she gave me the list of people she knew who would be interested in the work I had, as their skills were as varied as their ages. The youngest invitee being only fifteen and a close friend of Sarah, she was not the one who talked getting her into trouble. That former friend's family was having all sorts of financial troubles the government were working very hard to identify. The oldest was a gentleman who was old enough to have been friends with Brodie.

Finally, with everyone somewhat comfortable with each other, I gave them their challenge, which was simple on paper. I wanted them to break not only a new language as well as a new programming language converting everything to English using the computers of the base to make the base operational. Payment would be a million dollars each. Adding the second project would only be offered once they were successful with the first assignment. Payment for the success of the second project would be four million each bringing each of their paychecks to a total of five million. All of them wanted to know the second part which I told them would only be revealed once the first had been successfully completed.

Asking if anyone wanted to leave, no one did and I turned the meeting over to Antonia. Ordering the computers, equipment and parts needed to link into the computers took longer than the actual breaking and rewriting of the code as the aliens or whoever they had been had never considered computer security for their systems.

Receiving all the ordered components took six days, five days after the last crate arrived, I was invited back to the meeting room along with the suggestion that my checkbook should be included in the meeting to save on possible delays. Entering the conference room, I could see they thought they had finished as there were smiles all around and after a short introduction, I was led to the control room where I was shown the various screens and control pads controlling environmental controls, power levels coming from geothermal power plant located down at the bottom of the elevator.

I was surprised but pleased about their knowledge since no one I was aware of let them know we had our own power plant. If that was not enough of a surprise, mine increased as they presented me with reams of paper they stated were reports and manuals, as well as base logs and personal journals of individuals who were at the base. No one knew any of the names or the appropriate time frames but everything that had been on the computers they said was now on the table in English. If I had not been so determined to have everything in English, things might have gone even faster, now it did not matter as I had what I wanted and I did not have to learn a new language.

I was pleased and had no problem writing out the ten checks I had promised, though Sarah protested because I was already paying her salary. I stated since she was part of the team and she worked on the project just as everyone else had that she was entitled to her share. There were a couple of comments about how I could just spend nearly twenty million dollars. I laughed saying as I wrote out the checks, if they were up to the challenge I was willing to write out nearly another hundred million dollars. Their laughter suddenly ended and the room got quiet as I asked if they were up to the challenge.

The hike down to the hanger this time was different from the couple of times they had been allowed down there as they always had an escort taking them to wherever they had to go. At first, all of them complained about the need to have an escort but after the first time they entered the chamber and the large tarp covered object sitting there they ceased complaining.

Taking my position in front of everyone putting the ship under the tarp as my backdrop, I started out by saying, "Okay, all of you impressed me by how quickly you unscrambled their computer. Now as I promised you before I have a new challenge for all of you and as I said before I will pay each of you four million dollars. Now before I show you your next challenge, I want to emphasize, part of that money you all are earning to complete your work is to never again speak about what you are about to see.

"Most of you at one time or another may have seen the movie, 'Fight Club'. In there they had the rules, which the first rule is that you do not talk about fight club. The second rule is the same as the first with an emphasis on not talking about fight club. The rules to work on this project is the same as those rules in that you do not talk about anything you see, hear, touch, or anything else you may experience here, if you obey those rules then I will allow you to work on my project. If you think that you want to leave now I have no problem with you saying this is too much for you and departing. I would ask you not talk about anything here but if you do that is fine but you will never work for me in the future.

"If after I reveal what is under this tarp you talk then we will have a serious disagreement with the various videos circulating out on the Internet having nothing on what I will do to you if you break your word not to talk. Now if anyone is thinking that maybe they might not be able to maintain their silence I suggest you leave now and there will be no hard feelings and I can promise there will be no disagreements between us in the future."

No one moved, a few looked back and forth but everyone stayed. Speaking up again, I said, "In the last couple of weeks a few of you have been guessing what could be under this tarp important enough for me to post armed guards around it. Well none of you need to guess anymore!"

When I had the tarp put on the ship, I had asked for a way to take it off again and Thor came through with a pattern of stitches allowing someone to pull the rope allowing the stitching to come free along with the two halves to fall to the side. Pulling on the rope myself I will admit the plan was good. What was not good was how much rope was needed to make up the stitching and instead of a single pull for dramatic effect I had to pull several times to get the rope to pull free.

While I may have failed to impress the hackers, the ship did not fail to impress all by itself, as I heard several of them gasp as well as offer other comments about the ship. For the next couple of minutes I said nothing as the hacking team walked around the ship commenting on the various parts of the ship they could see. When they rejoined Antonia and me waiting for them at the bow of the ship, they had more questions, which I answered. Watching for their reaction I opened the loading bay door and smiled as a couple of them took a step away from the ship, before I added, "This is your next project, just as you broke the code and reprogrammed the base computers, I want all of you to do the same for this ship. I want all of you to replace the programming the same way as well as extract any journals, logs and records. If it is possible I want to be able to fly this ship out of here!"

There were lots of questions after I finished my statement. Most of the questions had nothing to do with the job I was asking them to do but instead centered on the ship and if I really thought the ship could fly out of here. I told them how we had found the ship and how it was still water tight when we got inside, which they found unbelievable.

Sitting down to diner, I discovered I had more than few science fiction fans who were willing to pay for a ride provided they could reprogram the computers on the ship as well as if I could learn how to pilot the ship. We would have to see. Right now the plan was to rent one of the big ocean going transports similar to the ship that returned the USS Stark to the United States after terrorists attempted to sink it up in the Middle East. Only five people knew that detail and no one actually knew the date we were going to close the doors and flood the chamber to float her out to the waiting transport

The reprogramming turned out to be easier and harder at the same time. The easy part was the computer language used on the ship was the same as the base meaning all my team did not need to crack a language again, only use what they had. The challenge was the five computers on the ship and how they were linked to work together. Reprogramming one at a time did not work because as soon as the programming was changed the other computers would overwrite their work, thereby resetting the malfunctioning computer. Adding to the problem was the wiring of instead of hacking into one computer to do all the work, the team had to do all five computers simultaneously because if they left even one unmodified it would put the other computers back to their initial condition.

Ordering the additional equipment reminded everyone we were being watched as the island delivery service, I had hired, stated that after the deliveries I had already paid for were done they would not be stop at Atokos again. Asking why I was told certain government entities were showing too much interest in them and other parties they dealt with were getting nervous. As they had been making deliveries for them longer than their contract with me, my contract was being terminated. Even offering to pay them more did not change their position.

What Sven, Thor, and I found interesting was no more than a week after the delivery company told me they could no longer make deliveries, a company outside of Greece called suggesting they would be willing to make the deliveries I wanted. How they knew I might be looking for a new delivery company they never said and Sven let them know we would be in contact if we needed their services. Thankfully we would not need a new company as what we had ordered including the replacement panels for the control room were scheduled for delivery.

If those developments were not enough to make me want to get out of there to the safety of Israel, the arrival of a pair of warships, a pair of destroyers Sven identified as belonging to the United States made an appearance not once but multiple times. Watching them pass by everyone on the hilltop could see extra people up on the superstructure when they passed by. Even with their curiosity, they respected the zone I had insisted upon with the Greek government.

For a couple of days things were looking doubtful as there were more attempts to interfere with what I was looking to purchase. Things were bad enough my hacking crew got to spend a couple of days on the beach with all of them receiving sunburns as none of them had seen the sky in a long time. All I could do was laugh at the results of them being exposed to the sun as even the Gothic members were burned requiring all of them to spend more time inside and under the ground.

Their subterranean life continued for a couple of days until the shipment with their parts arrived and then they were back to working on the ship. Antonia and I were both busy as we were planning on taking everything not nailed down while we were living in Israel. For Antonia that meant she needed to package and box up everything we discovered with the priority being the precious materials from the storage rooms. Once those were on the plane other material followed including the pottery and skeletons.

Along with everyone else, I had my part to play, being tasked to assist with moving the replacement glass sections. Thankfully the panels were light enough I did not have to do more than anyone else and both panels only took the twenty of us one day to install them.

Four days after the computer crew got their parts, I was called down to another meeting this time aboard the ship up in what was being called the passenger lounge. Entering the room, everyone was there ahead of me including Antonia, Sven, Thor and Sarah as well as what I was calling my hacking team. Chairs had been brought in and everyone had one including one they had left for me, in the middle of the room on the table were stacks of papers, what I assumed were more manuals, reports, logs as well as journals of the various crew members.