Time Stand Still

Page One Hundred And Twenty-Four

2010-05-19T21:49:00.000-07:00

Day 125 -

It’s hard to believe that it has only been four months since we began filming with Basil’s crew. It feels like several years have gone by since he arrived.

We started packing for our first full filming expedition since moving to the safe house over the last two nights. I am going to carry everything in a pack as close as I can get to the compound. I will need to launch our version of the EMP burst and then launch our camera and hope for the best. By this time tomorrow we will finally have the footage we have been hoping for.

Against my better judgement, I finally opened up to Sophie and Danielle in regards to the man I saw in the room and on the footage. I had no plans to do so until Danielle brought up that she was feeling as if someone was watching her. Even more so than when we knew about the cameras in the other house. Sophie agreed and said she was having dreams of being chased by someone just outside of her vision.

I showed them the tapes, pointing out how it was impossible for the man to be looking directly at all three cameras at the same time. Danielle seemed to find special significance to this saying that this confirms her suspicions.

I will try and describe her theory the best I can, even though I must admit I do not fully understand all of it.

Danielle always seems to start these lectures by drawing a two dimensional man on her white board. She then went on to explain again that in his world there is only height and width and that we being three dimensional creatures are able to observe everything about his world. Most importantly aspects of the two dimensional world that even it’s inhabitants can not.

The question she put to us is what would we look like to the two dimensional people being we are from a different dimension? To answer this she covered her fingertips with ink and touched the board leaving five dots where here fingers were pressed.

She explained that the five separate dots would be how we would appear if we touched the dimension below. It is the only way we could in that dimension. Therefor someone from the 4th dimension would appear as three dimensional, like a man, but it’s very possibly the different men could be connected in the fourth dimension to a much larger entity. Just like her fingers appear separate in the two dimension even though they are all connected to her hand in the third.

She thinks that this man I saw in the bedroom and on the film is just certain aspects of something much bigger in the fourth dimension.If that is true then Danielle thinks that the alpha event is when more of the being from the other dimension will be seen.

Sophie seemed a little offended thinking that the man we have been seeing is God, because after all God was the one who is supposed to break up the Tower and separate all of it’s inhabitants.

No one had a response to that. Although I do find it curious that God, according to most religious text,s is described as a trinity. Three in one. If what Danielle said is true, then that kind of phrasing sounds like what we have been experiencing. A being who is three separate beings in our dimension, but only one being in the next.

Danielle does not believe this man to be God, just simply another existence different than ours. She said that mathematicians have shown that there could be up to eleven different dimensions, so at best, we are only scratching the surface.

From all of the discussions that took place while we talked I have started to think of it as childbirth. In the womb, the child is content for a time even though all that it knows is so small. Eventually that child must leave the protective nature of his mother and enter the real world. I think we are about to get a glimpse of what the real world looks like.

I do not think it is going to provide us any more answers, just layers upon layers of more questions.

Page One Hundred And Twenty-Three

2010-05-19T21:47:00.003-07:00

Day 125 -

It’s hard to believe that it has only been four months since we began filming with Basil’s crew. It feels like several years have gone by since he arrived.

We started packing for our first full filming expedition, since moving to the safe house, over the last two nights. I am going to carry everything in a pack as close as I can get to the compound. I will need to launch our version of the EMP burst and then launch our camera and hope for the best. By this time tomorrow we will finally have the footage we have been hoping for.

I will try and describe her theory the best I can, even though I must admit I do not fully understand all of it.

Danielle always seems to start these lectures by drawing a two dimensional man on her white board. She then went on to explain again that in his world there is only height and width and that we, being three dimensional creatures, are able to observe everything about his world. Most importantly, aspects of the two dimensional world that even it’s inhabitants can not.

The question she put to us is, what would we look like to the two dimensional people being we are from a different dimension? To answer this she covered her fingertips with ink and touched the board leaving five dots where her fingers were pressed.

She explained that the five separate dots would be how we would appear if we touched the dimension below. It is the only way we could in that dimension. Therefore someone from the 4th dimension would appear as three dimensional, like a man, but it’s very possible the different men could be connected in the fourth dimension to a much larger entity. Just like her fingers appear separate in the two dimension even though they are all connected to her hand in the third.

She thinks that this man I saw in the bedroom and on the film is just certain aspects of something much bigger in the fourth dimension.If that is true, then Danielle thinks that the alpha event is when more of the being from the other dimension will be seen.

Sophie seemed a little offended, thinking that the man we have been seeing is God, because after all God was the one who is supposed to break up the Tower and separate all of it’s inhabitants.

No one had a response to that. Although, I do find it curious that God, according to most religious texts, is described as a trinity. Three in one. If what Danielle said is true, then that kind of phrasing sounds like what we have been experiencing. A being who is three separate beings in our dimension, but only one being in the next.

From all of the discussions that took place while we talked, I have started to think of it as childbirth. In the womb, the child is content for a time even though all that it knows is so small. Eventually that child must leave the protective nature of his mother and enter the real world. I think we are about to get a glimpse of what the real world looks like.

I do not think it is going to provide us any more answers, just layers upon layers of more questions.

Page One Hundred And Twenty-Two

2010-05-18T21:59:00.000-07:00

Day 123 -

I can’t help feeling as if I never woke up.

Since the night that the man stood at the end of the bed, everything about... well, everything has changed. It was as if there was a really low pitched tone sounding off at all times. Because of the daily activities the tone is ignored, forgotten even though it is a part of everything. Yet, something small happens and suddenly you become aware of it, and then you can not ever, not hear it.

That is how I feel about the presence of the men.. man.. or whatever it was. It does not matter if I am outside or inside, his presence can be felt. It’s always there in the background, just out my peripheral vision. Since encountering it I cannot, not feel it.

It’s more than that though.

I have been reviewing the footage from the initial explosion at the base of the Tower. In the bottom right hand corner of the frame is the same man I saw in my dream, or whatever that was, standing looking directly into the camera. I never noticed him amidst all the destruction, but in three separate angles from three separate cameras, he is looking directly at all of the cameras from the exact same place.

What makes this impossible is at the exact time of the explosion, the three cameras that captured him were on opposite sides of the explosion. If he was watching one camera (which is impossible to begin with) then the back of his head should have been captured by the other and the side of him captured by the third.

Yet, I have pulled the footage and synced the timecode of all three shots and watched frame by frame, each camera was being watched by him. By the front of him.

This makes me wonder about the feeling that he was standing at the foot of my bed and at the computer at the same time. Could it be that, whatever this is has the ability to be in two places at the same time, or even in the same place but in three different ways?

Needless to say, I am confused by the entire situation. I am nervous about bringing it up to Sophie or Danielle because with everything going on, it may be too much right now.

Tonight I am going out to the compound to try the EMP on the other cameras and see if I can get some new footage shot. It will be the first footage we have shot in a long time. It will feel good too for all of to see something new after being stuck in this small apartment for so long.

I think Basil may be in some sort of trouble. Last night I was watching the compound and an Iraqi soldier was yelling at some of the men from our team. Even from a distance, the frustration can be felt. I think I know why.

My best guess is that when the Iraqi’s moved in, they assumed we were close to the final discovery. After finding the aftermath of the city, it should have been only a matter of time before they found the alpha event. Once the event was discovered then the Iraqi government would be able to take credit for the discovery and there would be no international incident. I would not be surprised at all to find that Rene was behind the entire incident.

Yet, what should have been only a matter of days, maybe weeks, seems to be stretching on and on. Clearly the soldiers are frustrated that the alpha event has not been captured yet. The only way this could be happening is if Basil and his team were somehow getting in the way, or providing false data and therefore throwing the entire schedule off course.

If my theory is correct, then we may need to get them out of there sooner rather than later.

Page One Hundred And Twenty-One

2010-05-17T22:23:00.001-07:00

Day 120 -

It’s early in the morning, I am guessing about 2 to 3 am. I just had the most vivid dream and thought that it might be best if I try to write it down while I still remember it clearly.

He was in the room.

I woke up to find him standing at the foot of the bed, or was it by the computer? What I am having trouble understanding is the feeling that he was actually in both places. Not separately, but at the same time in two different places in the bedroom.

He did not have any clothes on, but even though he was in the form of a human, he could not have been human. He was staring at me like he was trying to understand something. Now that I think about it, the second version by the computer was not looking at me at all, he was focused more on the computer.

I remember sitting up in bed and asking who they were.

When he spoke his voice was amplified, even though he did not speak in anything more than a whisper.

***you can not understand. there is no reference***

It was after I sat up, I realized that the man’s eyes were pure white. He did not look around the room in a manner that seemed to be connected to his senses. Where he seemed to be looking around the room his presence could be felt everywhere, it was overwhelming.

I asked what they wanted and they stared at me with their heads cocked like a dog, trying to understand his master's command.

***there is no reference. must provide reference point. and then understanding***

The next few minutes proved to be terrifying. When the men moved... that is the wrong word “move” it does not explain it properly. When they went from place to place around the room it was as if they were traveling in water, and leaving a wake behind them in the air. The wake itself can only be described as light, something close to the aurora borealis on a small scale, and only for a moment.

When they moved they also did not move one step at a time. They simply moved without moving at all, it is confusing but it is the best way I can describe it.

One of the men approached Sophie as she lay asleep next to me and seemed to be confused by my blocking him from getting too close.

Here is the part that terrified me. As soon as I blocked his path to get to Sophie I found myself in the hallway out side of the room. When I opened the door they looked at me in surprise.

***this one has been touched. this one has existed**

I don’t remember waking up. I found myself in bed afterwards, but it did not feel as if I was waking up from a dream. Everything is exactly as it was in the dream.

I can’t help shake the feeling that they are still here.

Page One Hundred And Twenty

2010-05-16T22:21:00.000-07:00

Day 119 -

Sophie is brilliant. There is just no other way of looking at it.

We have been exploring options to get beyond the compound perimeter without calling attention to ourselves in either the launching or filming stage. We have improved battery power and installed updated GPS software in each of the devices, but it is not going to be enough. It comes down to not having the launching capabilities needed to reach heights above the team within the compound. I have been observing the filming at the compound from a distance and it looks as if they have improved on my launching mechinism. Much like a paintball gun, they have started using air compression as a method for launching. It has proven to be an elegant and effective solution.

There are several teams, and even more cameras being launched than ever before. Since we do not know the trajectory of their cameras it is impossible to know when or where we can launch. No matter when we launch, we will most likely run into one of their cameras creating a problem for us in the present, and the past.

Additionally, since we know the alpha event is going to take place in a six week period, it is a safe bet that they will have objects 24/7 in the window we need to launch into.

This is where Sophie being an absolute genius comes in.

The recording process takes place in three stages. The projecting of the object into the past. Essentially, the harmonizing of the strings (the fundamental building blocks of all things) of an object in the past that literally changes that object into a mirror object of our present day camera. Second, the transmission of the data leading into the third stage, the destruction of the object in the past. The destruction is done by simply changing the object in the past strings to match that of oxygen. The object in the past disappears with no trace. It is the destruction of the camera in the past that is the most important. As soon as the data is transferred, the command to revert is sent.

Sophie came up with the idea of initially launching an object that did not record, but simply acted as a sort of EMP burst to all the shielded cameras in the area. In the present it would seem as if the cameras quit recording, since the cameras are being handled by different team members and the raw footage edited en mass, it is likely to go unnoticed by the team at the compound. If done right, this would give us an 8 to 10 hour window for our cameras to have a look around without any interference.

Even so, the trick is still getting close enough to the compound without being discovered.

For the last couple of days, I have watched the goings on at the compound from a distance. Several members of our team are now helping the Iraqi soldiers, but I have not seen Basil yet. That is unlike him. He was always one to be in the center of the action. There is a cement block building being built quickly in the center of the fenced off area. Surrounding the construction are large camouflage tents, I am betting that is where he might be. Sophie still believes he would not betray us, I hope she is right.

Being the remote nature of the site, I am beginning to wonder if the fences and security are not to keep people out, but to keep our team in. I can not help thinking that we are going to need to break in and get Basil and the team out before this is all over.

Page One Hundred And Nineteen

2010-05-15T22:22:00.001-07:00

Day 117 -

Yesterday I was able to get a look at the area surrounding where we have been shooting for the last few months, and we have all been deceived.

I was able to get within few hundred yards in the desert only to find that many of our crew are working with the Iraqi government. Most concerning is that clearly the men who were working for Basil are now continuing the work without us, as I am sure, is Basil.

With the support of the government, they have put up fences around the area and have made it almost impossible for me to see anything other than trucks coming and going by the front entrance. I dare not try to enter through the main gate but I would love to see what is going on inside. I am beginning to think that we have served our purpose and that we have essentially been benched.

I have an idea though that might get some of our cameras into the new compound, but it will require making more adjustments to the cameras we have. We will have to be careful this time, as there will not be any to replacements for the ones we damage.

I think I know how we might be able to reprogram some of the memory to help improve the flight distance. The actual recording time would be decreased to only a hour or so, but the extra GPS data I have been working on should make that short amount of time count.

My real concern is, if the operation that has taken over is as big as it seems, then I will have no way of knowing where other shielded cameras might be. We could launch and then crash into one of their cameras and alert someone of our presence.

These are all small problems when it gets down to it, and I am not that concerned. What is important is to capture the alpha event, everything else is just problems that need to be solved. I need to see the event not only to understand the destruction we witnessed, but there is something about this that I can not let go. I see it in Sophie’s and Danielle's eyes. We no longer want to see the event, we need to.

I think if we can just simply get higher than the other cameras, we can focus on the top of the tower and wait for the event to take place, but if we can only record for an hour at a time, we have our work cut out for us. I think we will start with shooting only one week at a time until we can narrow the alpha event to within a few hours. At that point we will have to figure out how to get within the compound and launch with a full 16 hours of recording. How we are going to do that, I don’t know, I’ll worry about it when the time arrives.

Of course, Sophie and Danielle are up for all of this. Sophie refuses to believe that Basil is working against us. She thinks that he must be doing something right or we would have been discovered long ago. Our little upper room has not been bugged and there are no shielded devices, so at least we have out privacy. So, if he did bring us here to get us out of the way, he did a great job, but we can’t quit when we are so close.

The trick is going to be to come and go without raising suspicion. The excuse for building the compound where we have been filming is that a large weapons cache has been found and there is an excavation taking place. Anyone approaching the roads needs to have proper clearance. I will try and map out a route that gets us within three miles of the site and hopefully set up a temporary camp to shoot for a few days without being discovered.

Page One Hundred And Eighteen

2010-05-13T22:11:00.000-07:00

Day 102 -

We have been on the run for the last two weeks.

An Iraqi soldier caught one of our team launching cameras in the desert. Somehow, the soldier knew exactly where and when to be, and caught us red handed. Fortunately, Basil was able to make it back to the house and get Sophie, Danielle, and myself away before the authorities arrived. We took everything that we could fit into the Land-Rover, including most of the footage that we have shot over the last few weeks. At least all of our work will not be lost.

Basil has not checked in with us for the last five days and we are beginning to get worried. Luckily, a safe house was prepared ahead of time in case of such an emergency. Sophie, Danielle and I are safe for the time being, but we are all anxious to get back to work.

Day 110 -

Still no word from Basil or the crew. There are rumors that foreigners were caught gathering old ammunitions from the desert. Therumors say that those caught have been executed. I hope that it was not anyone from our team.

We remain in hiding, but we are going to need to venture out soon for supplies.

We are all going stir crazy. We have reviewed the footage several times now. Even Danielle, who normally does not want anything to do with the computer, has taken it upon herself to learn the system. Although I am happy she is learning, I don’t know what to do with myself while she is on it.

I hope my frustrations are not becoming too apparent. All the work we did in finding the Tower and then documenting the culture will mean nothing if we are not able to capture the alpha event. To have been so close to the answers, only be swept away into isolation is maddening.

If things do not change soon, I am going to try and sneak out and see what is happening at our last shooting location. If things are clear, I will try and launch another camera. As dangerous as the undertaking may be right now, I know that Sophie will be behind me one hundred percent.

I’ll give Basil one more week.

Day 116 -

I spoke with Sophie and Danielle and told them what I had in mind. They were more relieved than worried. It is good to know that I am not the only one obsessed with finding the answers to what we have uncovered.

Danielle is going to try and find a car so I won’t have to go out on foot into the desert. I still have the map I created when it was just me.

I will make my first run tonight. I told Sophie what to do if I am not back by sunrise. She agreed they would both drive towards Kuwait and try to make it over the border. I know she was lying, but it was nice of her to try and convince me she would leave all of this behind.

I hope everything goes smoothly.

Page One Hundred And Seventeen

2010-05-12T21:37:00.000-07:00

Day 83 -

It’s worse than I could have possibly imagined.

We received the footage from the cameras sent six months in advance of the time we have been observing. The destruction to the city, and the tower is overwhelming, but the loss of human life, that is just... sickening. Clearly it has been a few months since the alpha event took place. The walls of the city have been breached in several places, the desert is beginning to bury the city and take back it’s own.

There is no one left alive. The city blocks remain silent and only the echoes of the thousands upon thousands that once lived within remain. It reminds me of a movie I saw when I was a child of the sole survivor of the human race living by himself in New York City. It’s haunting and almost impossible to wrap my head around.

I let the crew watch the footage and a darkness has descended over everyone like a raincloud. Sophie lays beside me at night shaking in fear, and crying. There’s lots of crying now, by everyone.

Even though she did not want anything to do with the project at it’s inception, Sophie has grown very fond of the people we have been observing over the last few months. Her experience as an anthropologist has been invaluable. She is devastated by the loss of the city and her people.

A few hours ago, I think she described what we are all feeling best. She said it was as if we were studying Japan, and somehow zoomed forward to find Hiroshima after the bombing, without knowing what happened.

I have been up for the last 48 hours reviewing footage, trying to make sense of the troubling patterns I keep finding in the destruction.

The body count is enormous, and it does not look to be the result of another culture invading. There is no indication of any foreign disruption at all. In a few locations it looks as if there were mass suicides. Bodies lay in neat orderly rows as if they had planned for the event. The order surrounding the locations of the suicides is the polar opposite of the chaos everywhere else in the city.

All over the walls, and in the desert outside, there are several people that died by the result of fighting. The only conclusion I have been able to come to, is that there was a mass exodus as the bulk of the population within the city panicked to get out. The path of their destruction can be traced into the city as the bodies of those that were trampled litter the streets.

The greatest source of damage is to the top third of the tower itself. It’s impossible to tell what happened to the tower, because it is no longer there. There is no rubble, or remains scattered over the desert floor as there should be. The top of the tower is simply no longer there, and what remains of the base is now tilting. It is only a matter of time until it falls apart completely.

What happened is a question that no one is wants to ask yet, but I know as the shock of what has happened begins to wear off we are going to have to start asking the hard questions. Did God do this? We are about to know the truth behind a multi-millennium secret, and I am terrified by what we might learn.

I have asked that all cameras return back to the original time, six months prior. What ever happened I need to personally understand it, and I can not do that watching the event in reverse.

Something’s happening outside...

Page One Hundred And Sixteen

2010-05-11T22:01:00.001-07:00

Day 81 -

Three more incidents this last week. All of the explosions have taken place at the base of the Tower and only among those that are praying. The victims of the explosions are thrown into the middle of stationary objects without affecting the stationary object itself. This is especially troubling as the bricks at the bottom of the temple can not be moved or altered so the parts, human limbs mostly, are simply cut away from the stone leaving the rest of the victim inside.

The priests feel that incidents are a positive sign and have doubled the amount of those that are praying. There are so many now they are no longer just surrounding the base, but on both sides of the pathway halfway up the giant structure also.

Several members of our team have expressed concern that the explosions might have something to do with our cameras. Although I do not think this is the case, I think the priests are right. I think they are getting close.

I keep thinking back to the example Danielle showed us regarding the difference between a two dimensional being and a three dimensional being. In her example, she showed us that a pair of two dimensional beings could literally be face to face with each other without knowing the other is there, simply because in two dimensions there is no depth.

I keep running that example through my mind and believe I understand what is happening around the tower. We believe that the people here are trying to break into the heavens, not space, but the dimension beyond. So I began thinking about how the two dimensional men would view us only being in the dimension beyond, what would it be like from their perspective. That was when it hit me.

If I touch the world the two dimensional man lives within, it would appear to him as of there were five separate entities. Essentially a circle for each finger. In the third dimension we know it is only part of a larger creature, but to the two dimensional being it is five completely different entities.

I think these explosions are the same thing. I think they are breaking down the barrier and what ever is on the other side is beginning connect with them.

That act also made me think of the two dimensional man. If he was forced into the a three dimensional world, then in order to survive he would have to change who he was on a very fundamental level. How much will we as humans have to change in order to interact with the fourth dimension, I wonder?

I have asked that tonight, cameras be sent forward six months from the time we have been filming. If my suspicions are correct, we will find the Tower partly destroyed and the city that surrounds it abandoned. I think the moment we have been waiting for is only a matter of a few days away now.

Page One Hundred And Fifteen

2010-05-10T22:17:00.001-07:00

Day 73 -

Subject 17 was killed today. From the gravitational signature and the astronomical placement of the camera, it is my impression that subject 17 died approximately three years after we began following him. Of course in our time frame, it has been no more than a few weeks.

As I have made notes in this journal before, we started following specific people in the community to document a more comprehensive overview of life within the city and how it related to the tower. Subject 17 was approximately 30-40 years old, male with two children. Like everyone else in the city, he rotated throughout each of the shifts on a regular basis. Since we know approximately when and where each subject will go during the day, we have been able launch a camera that follows at a distance for 12 hours. I think we have approximately 15 to 30 cameras floating above the city at any given time now. The computers we have tracking the devices resemble something I once saw the US government using to track satellite trajectories. So far we have not had any incidents, but I am keeping my fingers crossed.

The death of subject 17 is disturbing to us all because after watching the incident on 7 of the cameras that picked it up, we can find no explanation for it. Please keep in mind that even though several others were killed and hurt in the incident, the event seemed centered around subject 17.

Basil has expressed his concern to me in private. Even though he has proven to be a tough as nails task master to the team Rene sent, he still confides in Sophie on a regular basis. He believes that even though the incident was tragic in its destruction and loss of life, it was the beginning of the end. He believes they saw a brief moment of connection with the next dimension.

I don’t understand the theory completely and Danielle has been as patient as always with me, but the physics of what happened today seem to make sense to her. It goes something like this, but please excuse my lack of mathematical proof, I am sure Danielle will provide that if asked.

As she explains it, out of all the building blocks of the universe, electromagnetism, the strong and weak nuclear forces and so on, gravity is the weakest. We see this everyday because everything is made up of atoms that are held together my electromagnetism. If we jump out of a tree, we don’t fall through the ground and shoot down to the center of the earth, the atoms of another object stop us, showing how weak gravity is when compared to the other building blocks.

Yet the theory, as Danielle explains it, is that the reason why the other forces are so strong his that they are connected to this dimension while gravity flows in and out of it like water. I know, it does not make any sense to me either, but the more I watch the video the more I see why she believes this to be true.

Subject 17 was in his prayer rotation when the incident happened. He had just finished his support rotation a week before and taken his place in the giant mass of people focusing their energy on the tower.

He was initially lifted off the ground, or floated. He was moving for approximately ten seconds in a manner that reminded me of the ancient footage of the men on the moon. His robes floated up and his long hair looked as if he was under water. Those around him looked on in awe and wonder, then the explosion happened.

The remains of the people flew out in a full 100 yard radius. What is troublesome is that the bodies are partly in the stone blocks of the Tower, and partly out. Somehow the bodies phased half way into the buildings around them without moving anything. Men with their legs and other body parts stuck within stone without changing the stone in anyway. Others were not so lucky. Several people literally phased into one another creating deformed men with arms, legs, and heads where there should not be. In watching the footage slowly, we can see a bubble form around subject 17 a few milliseconds before the explosion. The explosion was nothing more than the bubble expanding and changing the electromagnetic make up of everything in its path until it lost the power to do so.

Needless to say, the team is beginning to grow worried as to what the alpha event we are working towards will look like.

Page One Hundred And Fourteen

2010-05-09T21:17:00.000-07:00

DAY 28 -

They say that the greatest mathematician is the laziest one. The one who is not interested in spending weeks or months working on a single theorem, but the one who is looking for an answer today. In this kind of circumstance the solution is usually simple, elegant, and brilliant.

They also say that the greatest breakthroughs in math are accomplished by the young. Old mathematicians are so buried in struggling to create something great after decades of trying, they usually can tell you why most thing can not work, rather than seeing why they can. A young mathematician simply does not know any better and simply goes for it, often stumbling into greatness accidentally. Unfortunately, these early discoveries are often met with a lifetime of trying to figure out what exactly they have stumbled into.

I feel as if I have stumbled into something that I can not fully understand or appreciate. Each day we are learning more about the city around the tower. Each day we see something from the footage that makes us feel as if we are cavemen looking into the future, rather than “modern man” looking into the past.

The city is simple and it exists for one purpose only. To build the tower. Where we had expected slaves and a sub-class of workers to be doing the construction we have found proof that it is the effort of the entire community to work, and to pray before the construction.

Their society is made up of three shifts, as we are calling them. Either you are working on the construction of the tower in the sense that you are carrying stones, making bricks, or doing miscellaneous labor. The second shift are those who support the construction shift. This means supplying food and water, or whatever is needed to keep the first shift moving forward.

The third shift are the one who are praying. By far, the most grueling of the three shifts. Those that pray sit around the entire circumference of the tower, without moving and without eating for a least 3 days at a time, with no time off.

They are provided water twice a day, but the meditative state of this third group is hardly ever broken. They sit quietly and simply close their eyes and pray for 72 hours straight. In all the videos we have seen to date, we have never witnessed a single man woman or child who is praying fall asleep, or even fall out of line. It is clearly their most sacred task.

I keep going back to something Danielle said when we were first exploring the idea of the Tower. She theorized that the tower was nothing more than a way for this society to focus on something tangible while trying to reach the intangible. After watching hours of footage of the events of this society I think she had been right on the money. The work on the tower only seems to be a break from the work of those praying, as if they understand that they need to keep their bodies strong so that their minds will remain sharp.

It makes me think that in our modern age, we have become the old mathematician. We walk around with so many cluttered ideas of what is right and wrong, that we hardly ever question the fact that many of our ideas are in direct conflict with one another. When we are faced with something spiritual, our only response is to pass on our own internal conflict.

What I see on the face of these people is the utter lack of conflict. The complete faith of a child. I see it on the face of each one of the thousands upon thousands we film everyday. It scares me to realize how powerful they just might be.

Page One Hundred And Thirteen

2010-05-08T22:18:00.001-07:00

He stood up from the chair and felt the familiar pain in his back. He walked over and turned off the phonograph, and began his nightly walk upstairs to go to sleep. The old man never got past the fact that his home was always so silent at night. After he rose from his chair, he walked up the 14 stairs finding it harder and harder to make it to the second story of his house each night. Even though his mind was as sharp has it had been in his entire life, his body was beginning it’s slow decline to the grave.
Each step brought him closer to his mortality. He felt winded and tired. Once he made it down the stairs, he never went back up again until the end of the day, a task he began to hate more and more each night.
Tonight was worse than normal because most nights he just needed to focus on the task of moving one foot at a time to the next step. He would eventually make it to the top and fall into the bed he had not shared with his wife for decades, yet he still slept on his side.
He had made a mistake tonight, but he could not think of what it might have been. He knew that the trigger had been pulled and that the animals were about to be let out of their cage, enraged and seeking blood. Yet, it was not his moral dilemma with using terrorism as a blunt tool that was bothering him. It was something else. Something that was beginning to grow on the peripheral of everything else. It was something that was so small that it was almost untraceable. That was exactly the problem, a small amount of poison in his plan could destroy everything.
He had gone over all the pieces in the puzzle until he was exhausted. He was exhausted in his mind, body, and spirit as he wrestled with the dilemma. The old man finally decided that sleep was what he needed, and that was when he began the long trek upstairs.

He reached his bed and sat down on the side of it listening to the familiar creak. He slowly removed his shoes and laid down in the grove he had created over the last several decades. He could almost feel his wife's body sleeping silently next to him.
He laid down and closed his eyes hoping that he could trick himself into believing she was still alive, still in bed with him. Just the thought made him happier and more relaxed. As he began to drop off to sleep, the realization of the fly in the ointment hit him hard, forcing him to open his eyes and stare in fear around his dark room.
For the first time in a long time, he was afraid. They could stop him. They could destroy everything, and there was nothing he could do about it.

Page One Hundred And Twelve

2010-05-07T21:20:00.000-07:00

For the first time in his life the old man had become indecisive. The single concept he had been working toward had all but consumed him for almost his entire life, even more so since his wife had passed away. This world simply held nothing else for him.

The old man thought of something Nietzsche had written:

I want to learn more and more to see as beautiful what is necessary in things; then I shall be one of those who make things beautiful. Amor fati: let that be my love henceforth! I do not want to wage war against what is ugly. I do not want to accuse; I do not even want to accuse those who accuse. Looking away shall be my only negation. And all in all and on the whole: some day I wish to be only a Yes-sayer.

Amor fati.

The old man pondered the idea of being in love with one's fate. He had to admit that the words were beautiful. Part of him longed to see only what was beautiful in the world again. It wished he could turn away from the ugliness of the human race and simply exist. Beautiful words. Incredibly ignorant, but beautiful.

The old man had achieved at least a small part of what Neitzsche had hoped for in his own life. He was no longer an accuser, he was a hammer. Accusations allowed others to respond, to justify. He no longer accused anyone of anything, he simply roved them if they slowed him down. No talking, no accusation, no excuses.

Yet, as he sat in his living room long after the darkness had overtaken the city and the weak street lights invaded his home through front windows, he knew that he would never be able to simply look away. Where do you look when the grotesque is all around you? When the world is burning where does one find clean air to breathe?

Yet with all that he had witnessed, and all that he knew to be true, he still hesitated in lighting the fuse.

He did not understand why. Was it his conscience? With all the events and death he had orchestrated, could it be that there was something small within him that was telling him that this time he was going to go to far?

Or maybe it was something more. Maybe it was one of those rare occasions that he was missing something that would affect the outcome.

He went over the connections and strings in his head and followed the logical progression he knew how to play so well. All the pieces were in place and waiting for him to make his move. Yet, he continued to sit alone in the dark without being able to simply put his final attack into motion.

When he did make the call, he did it without thinking. He simply did it without thinking about it. The deed was done and the fuse was lit before he could stop himself. He hung up the receiver next to his chair in the silence knowing that the world had just changed, and no one knew about it.

For the first time in his life he felt as if he had done something very, very wrong.

Page One Hundred And Eleven

2010-05-06T20:32:00.001-07:00

Chapter 19

• • •

Mozart's Requiem echoed throughout the living room. The plan had reached a crucial point. The old man pondered the potential outcome of tweaking at least a dozen strings, and thousands of potential outcomes. He had always known that this day would come, but he was not prepared for how he would feel when it arrived.

He had been a young man in Israel, nothing more than a boy really, when he witnessed first hand, the effects of a terrorist bombing. He had been standing in a bakery in Eliat. Whatever he had been thinking about would be forgotten for the rest of his long life. What he would remember, was the heat on his left side and the brief moment of weightlessness before slamming into the wall. Other customers slammed into him afterwards and ultimately protected him from the shrapnel and the brunt of the blast.

He remembered laying on the floor looking out toward the street through the front wall of the bakery that had been blown apart. He remembered the silence of the the next two days, and only being able to hear the single high pitched tone, the only thing he would hear for the next two days. He remembered looking at the woman laying on top of his on his legs, who would never move again.

He would never forget the crying, the pain, the smoke, the dust, the hundreds of small pieces of paper on fire that slowly floated down in the middle of all the confusion.

As the music floated all around him, he could still hear the echoes from his childhood as if they were in the room with him.

He served his years, decades, in the military doing whatever he could to seek revenge for that day. He trained hard, fought and killed anyone he was told to kill. He dug in deep within the intelligence communities worldwide learning how the world worked. Not the pretty pictures the governments of the world painted, but the underlying tide pool of secrets and compromises.

He moved out of the military and into the world stage. Never more than a whisper, and only available to the darkest hidden halls of the intelligence communities. He understood the cesspool that the human race had evolved into. He understood that it did not matter how many people died, the evil ones that would kill for money, sex, drugs, power would always come back in another form. Just like the legendary Hydra, as soon as one head was cut off, three more would replaced it. It was a loosing battle.

The human race was not getting more efficient or improving with age, it was only getting more cumbersome, bulky and weighed down with its own greed and lust.

As much as the idea of using terrorism as a weapon disgusted him to his core, he knew it would be the end result the minute he pulled the proverbial trigger. A wave of bombings, attacks, and what ever the lowest and most violent of us all could conceive of would be unleashed across the globe. It was a wild animal that once unleashed, would never be stopped or even contained. There would be no mercy, there would be no hope of survival, at least in this reality.

It was a decision he could not make lightly, but he knew it was the tipping point of all the plans he had been working on his whole life. This was the moment that would decide the fate of millions, and it was in solely in his hands.

Page One Hundred And Ten

2010-05-03T17:23:00.000-07:00

“Since I left the church, I actively sought Rene out and gained his confidence that I was looking at a way to get back at the church. Over the last few months, I have been invaluable to him and now I am in charge of babysitting you.”

“How did Sophie know to call you then?” Paul said, spinning around in his chair.

“That was just good fortune. I had been concerned as to what Ms. De-Umbria would think when I arrived up on your doorstep with Rene’s men. Her being proactive afforded us this little meeting, which I am sure is coming to an end soon. When my men get here, you will understand if we get right on restoring the cameras and the equipment.” Basil said with a pleasant smile.

Basil began to walk out of the room when they noticed Danielle standing in the doorway for the first time.

“So, you are a double agent? Is that what you're saying?” Danielle said.

“Something like that, I suppose.” Basil said.

“Then answer me this, why the Tower Of Babel? We have been wondering, of all the biblically historic sites, why Babel?” Danielle said, folding her arms.

“Two reasons really. One, it was supposed to be an impossible task. The odds of Mr. Anderson actually accomplishing it were astronomical. Yet, Rene was convinced Paul could do it. So on one hand, it was a way to convince Rene’s partners that Paul was the man for a much bigger job.” Basil said. “More importantly though, is now that you have succeeded in finding the location, both the Iraqi and Israeli governments are willing to overlook the restriction in hopes that you will be able to shoot footage that will be able to bring pride to the Iraqi people, but also prove that a very significant event in the Torah actually took place. By doing so, Rene is setting himself up to be very good friends with the same people that would love to see the Vatican punished for what has been happening in Jerusalem. Do you see?”

Sophie rubbed her eyes. “It reinforces the validity of Judaism and it will be worth billions of dollars for the Iraqi people. When the footage we shoot is made public there will be a pilgrimage to Iraq from all over the world.”

“Making the middle east nations substantially more trustworthy of Rene and his “fight” against the Vatican. Essentially, we are seeing the downfall of the Roman Catholic Church, maybe even the Christian church as we know it”

“So?” Danielle said. “Religions come and go.”

“This is different. Over 1 billion people on the planet consider themselves devout Catholics. Double that consider themselves Christians not associated with the Catholic church. If you remove the faith of billions of people in a single stroke, it would be devastating to the entire planet. This is not some simple cult, we are talking about the foundation of the entire western hemisphere.” Basil said, showing his frustration.

“That’s not what he wants.” Paul said. “Rene does not care about any of that. All of this is a distraction.”

Everyone looked at him.

“Danielle, you said it the other day. Rene cares about one thing and one thing only: Time. It seems to me that he is pitting the most powerful forces on the planet against each other, but some holy war is not his goal. His goal is to alter a single point in time that changes everything. If he can do that, then all of this fighting won’t matter because none of it will have ever existed. We are nothing but a diversion.”

“A diversion to what?” Basil said.

“That was my question.” Danielle said, before turning around and leaving as the sounds of cars pulling up outside filled the room.

Page One Hundred And Nine

2010-05-02T21:44:00.001-07:00

“Paul, Basil explained this to me when I came home to Paris.” Sophie said, turning to Paul. “With everything that has happened I did not think about it until the other day. Paul, Basil here is fighting against the same people we are. I called him hoping he would be able to help.” Sophie said.

“That’s great, but I am sorry Basil, I guess I don’t know how.” Paul said, looking at the two of them.

“In order to help with this situation, I had to give up... well pretty much everything. As I said, I am no longer a bishop, priest, or anything.”

Sophie looked at him with horror. “I am so sorry.”

“The cover story is essentially that I was excommunicated in disgrace. I am a disgruntled worker, as you Americans would say, looking for a place to hang my hat. What you may not know about me, is that I am currently one of the foremost church historians alive. I would like to be part of your team so that we can keep close tabs on everything that is happening. Any support you may need will be provided by the church, including, when the time comes, a way out.” Basil said.

“I want you to take Sophie away right away then. She has no business here, she is not well.” Paul said, feeling a sense of relief.

“I’m not going anywhere.” Sophie said indignantly. “I’m going to see this through, that’s what we just agreed on this morning, remember?”

“No, what we agreed on is that I will continue to work for these madmen as long as there is no way out. If he can really get you away from all of this, then I am going to take it.” Paul said.

“I’m not going!”

“One day you say you want nothing to do with this whole situation to the point I didn’t know if you were going to make a run for it each and everyday. Then when the opportunity for you to leave is presented, you decide to stay? What am I missing here?”

“If I may interject for a moment.” Basil said, standing up.

“No one can leave, at least for a few days, maybe weeks. We will already have enough problems when Rene’s men arrive and find that the cameras, as well as the Institute's system has been destroyed.”

It was Paul’s turn to stand up “You destroyed the system. It had all the footage on it!” Paul said, running into the bedroom.

Basil followed him. “It was necessary to blow the electronics in the house. We need to buy a few days so I can acclimate with your team, as well as Zur-Platton’s people. We created a rather large power surge when we ran his team off the road into the power station. Everything is going according to plan.”

Both Rene and Sophie stood behind Paul as he looked over the dead system, frustrated.

“Won’t it seem a little odd that that you are suddenly here?” Paul said. “Won’t Rene’s team spot you right away?”

“No, because I am in charge of his team.” Basil said, looking proud of himself.

Page One Hundred And Eight

2010-05-01T21:42:00.000-07:00

As soon as the door was opened, many things happened at once. Not only was a striking, good looking man in a black coat standing on the door step, but the second the door was opened, there were three explosions in the upper corners of the living room. Cameras previously shielded fell off their perches and dropped to the floor, smoking. In the same breath, the lights flickered on and off several times and the power went out in the house. Even in the morning sun, the change was noticeable.

Paul looked around, sparks seemed to flying everywhere one second and then silence the next. The man in the black overcoat stood in the doorway with a knowing smile, and waited for Paul to recover.

It was Sophie who was the first to welcome the stranger in with a simple, “Thank you for coming, Your Eminence.”

It was then that Basil Hinsley walked across the threshold of the house.

“You're welcome Ms. De-Umbria, however, it is just Basil now.” the man with a strong english accent said shaking, Sophie’s hand.

“Anyone care to...” Paul said, looking at the two of them.

“I’m so sorry, my name is Basil Hinsley, formerly of Westminster England. I am now, for lack of a better term, undercover for the Holy Church.“ Basil said. “If it is not too bold to say, I am a friend of Ms. De-Umbria and an invited guest.”

Danielle came out in a hurry. “What the hell is going on? The power is off, our equipment fried, and there are tiny cameras exploding...”

Seeing the man standing in the entryway of the house, Danielle stopped, blushed, and walked quickly back into her room while trying to cover her pajamas up with her robe, without saying another word.

Sophie welcomed Basil in once again and offered him something to drink, while Paul looked outside and saw that Danielle was right. Up and down the streets there were no lights on, while others stood on their doorsteps looking around in wonder. If it had been, night the darkness would have been absolute.

“Thank God for small miracles.” Paul thought.

Shutting the door, Paul walked back inside.”

“Mr. Anderson, you will have to excuse my rather dramatic entrance. It seems there are several people on their way over here in a hurry and my people needed to cause a distraction. It seems our plan to run them into the local power station has worked. It should give us at least a half hour before they arrive to... discuss our situation.”

Paul still did not know what was happening, but took a seat after seeing the attention, and respect, Sophie was paying to the stranger.

“Paul, several months ago, it came to the attention of the Vatican that Rene Zur-Platton was funding several projects attempting to film many holy sites in not only Jerusalem, but throughout Israel and Saudi Arabia. We have also learned that many of our own were helping him accomplish these goals.”

“You mean Priests?” Paul said, taking a cup of tea that was offered to him by Sophie, who then sat down next to him.

“Yes, some, and others higher up. As misguided as they were, their hearts were in the right place. If they could prove the stories in the Bible were not just stories, then the legitimacy of the Bible... I think you get the picture.” Basil said, sipping his tea. “However, the fact that they did all of this without permission from the local authorities, gave Rene and his people a foothold into the Vatican. He essentially blackmailed the church into hiding what it’s own people had done in an attempt not to upset the Jewish and Muslim authorities in the middle east. Additionally, it seems that teams were dispatched to Saudi Arabia to try and capture Mohammed on film. The ones dispatched were killed before even milliseconds of footage could be captured. Needless to say, the Vatican's good will in the middle east and abroad is being stretch rather thin.”

Page One Hundred And Seven

2010-04-30T22:21:00.001-07:00

Paul looked at Sophie not knowing what else to say. He knew that it was too late and so did she. The system he was working on was most likely mirrored somewhere else and the fact that there were images of the Tower on his screen meant someone, somewhere, was watching with equal intensity.

Sophie rolled over in bed, but did not close her eyes. The time for debating was over. She knew within the next few hours that she would be forced to make a choice to stay and help Paul give a madman a glimpse of ultimate power, or to try and get away on her own.

She could not stomach the idea of helping Rene after what he and the Institute were responsible for doing to her, but she also knew that there was no point in trying to move on without Paul.

Sophie wondered what the point of helping Paul would be at this point. The fact that he had found the single needle in the proverbial thousand haystacks was incredible. Yet, now that they had the gravitational signature needed as well as the GPS coordinates of the event, the guessing work was over. Rene would most likely send a team within hours to support the effort from here on out. Sophie knew that before they arrived, she had better be all in, or disappear completely.

She felt Paul crawl into bed behind her and wrap his arms around her without saying a word. The warmth she could feel coming from his body was the most comforting thing she had ever felt in her whole life. She rolled over and faced him on the pillow.

“You know they are going to come now, don’t you?” she whispered. “You have given them...”

“I know.” Paul said. “It does not mean they will find the exact moment of the dimensional wall breaking down. It does not mean that even if they do, they will learn anything from it.”

“Shouldn't we be doing everything we can to stop them from finding it? I don’t understand how you can take part in this?”

“Because everything in me is telling me that, while this may be an important part of the puzzle, it is not the final piece.” He said, shifting closer to her and whispering in her ear. “If we stop now, they are going to find someone else who may give them everything they want, but not know who they really are. I promise you that I will stop them, but I am going to stop them so that they can not start again. I am going to put a end to this, once and for all.”

“How?” she said softly, touching his cheek.

“I don’t know, but I will. You are going to have to trust me, because I can not do it without you.”

Sophie looked at him, and for the first time in weeks, truly saw him. She looked into his eyes and could see the burning desire to do what was right. She knew he was not being tricked by these people, he was simply waiting for his moment. If he could find an ancient, mythical city in the middle of the desert, then he could do anything.

“Ok. I trust you.”

It was two hours later, after they were both showered and dressed, while briefing Danielle on the footage that the knock on the door came.

“Here we go.” said Paul, as he walked to open it.

Page One Hundred And Six

2010-04-29T21:57:00.001-07:00

Paul was exhausted as he slipped back into bed.

For the last week he had been hanging around the house reviewing footage during the day, making a point to spend as much time with Sophie as he could. At night, once she went to sleep, he would sneak out and jump in the Land Rover he had rented and launch fifteen to sixteen cameras until the sun started to rise and warm the Iraqi desert. He would rush home, connect his field pack with the main system and let the footage load while he tried to get in a few hours sleep.

He knew he was getting close. Each night he marked off specific sections of the desert making sure that he not only made adjustments in regards to the time he was sending the devices, but also changes in elevation and GPS placement.

He was so close he could feel it. He first laid out his grid in one mile segments, but the fire that burned every night on the horizon never seemed to be moving any closer. He changed his grid to two and then three mile segments. The city began to come into focus and each day as he reviewed the tapes, the only thing he could tell for certain was that whatever it was he was hunting, was huge.

The main reason he had to move so slowly was that the Iraqi desert was full of unexploded ammunition and land mines. After decades of war, the amount of explosives buried in the desert to either hide or prevent others from finding, was incredible.

Paul had to drive very slowly and map his way from one grid to another cautiously so he knew an exact path that would lead him, and eventually Danielle, and Sophie if she ever decided to go with them, to the best site to set up camp.

More than once, the alarms in the car went off in an explosion of light and color as Paul drove the Land Rover too close to a potential mine. He was not about to take anyone on this little journey until he could drive the path in his sleep, which he practically could in his state of exhaustion.

Tonight he had made a breakthrough. He did not how or why he felt that way, he just knew it in his bones. It was getting late and he shot off several devices when, for some reason, he just knew that he had captured something. He did not launch anything else because he knew that he did not need to. Something inside told him that he had captured what he had been looking for, so he went home.

The cool sheet and soft bed felt good and he felt the sweet symptoms of sleep begin to wash over his mind. He had no dreams, just floated in the blackness regardless of time. Even in his sleep he heard the ding of the computer indicating that the footage had been loaded up. It took him several minutes, or several hours he could not tell, to respond, but before he fully knew it, his feet were on the floor.

With the realization that the footage he was looking for was waiting for him, he looked over at Sophie sleeping, and then walked to the computer.

He sifted through the footage until he saw it. Amongst the flames that lit the entire horizon, he saw it. A giant, black, ziggurat shaped building reaching toward the heavens.

At the base of the building were small walls surrounding the city around the tower. Everywhere there were tiny pinpricks of lights that never stopped moving. Paul had expected to find thousands of workers, but after seeing the footage, he guessed it was more on the scale of millions.

Paul looked over at Sophie who was still laying in bed, but this time she was awake and staring at him.

“You found it, didn't you?” she said with no joy in her voice.

“Yeah, I think I did.”

Page One Hundred And Five

2010-04-28T21:09:00.001-07:00

Work became a game for the three of them. For two weeks straight, they did nothing but experiment with the launcher to see how high they could get the devices to fly. Danielle made improvements on the software while Paul and Sophie made improvements on the hardware.

Sophie found a crate of Aqua Net hair spray, which seemed to created the biggest explosion. They also found a T-joint in a plumbing store that allowed Paul to insert a long house lighter into an opening, avoiding blowing his fingers off.

They had been having so much fun with seeing how high they could get the device to fly, that it was not until late one night Paul realized it had been a while since he checked the dailies.

Trying his best to not wake Sophie, Paul slipped out of bed and began to review the footage.

He estimated that the tower was built around 450b.c. He checked with some of the local historians, who seem to agree. Although the consensus was that the tower had been built north of Al Basrah, everyone could agree on approximate date.

Paul worked on the time signature by first knowing the gravitational dates from events he knew. Then doubled that number, and then doubled it again, until his math lined up with the date.

He switched on his system and loaded up a random piece of footage. He watched it on fast forward and nothing popped, so he loaded up a second, and then a third bundle.

He searched and found the shots where they aimed the camera at the night sky in order to code a fix on the stars and found a couple of good shots that he would process in the morning.

The frustration of shooting in the dark was beginning to grow on Paul. He liked having Sophie back in the mix, but he knew he needed to get moving soon and to start making progress. He did not know how she would take it if they started to find what they were looking for. She was playing along for now because she knew that the odds of them finding anything by sticking a pole in the middle of the Iraqi dessert and randomly picking a time code, would generate nothing...

It was then that he saw it. The footage on the tape had been playing as Paul watched Sophie sleep, when out of the corner of his eye he saw it.

The footage he was watching had been trying to shoot the night sky. Yet, it also did a scan of the horizon, as all the cameras did. North of where they were shooting, on the horizon, was a city glowing in the night.

It was several miles off, but the lights from it could be seen reflecting off the low clouds. There would have been no way to see it during the day.

It might not be the tower, but it was a civilization where there should not be one. Tomorrow, he would have to get Danielle to re-calibrate the cameras to explore that part of the dessert. Paul made notes as far as GPS location and got ready for tomorrow.

As he crawled back into bed several hours later, he kissed Sophie on her sleeping forehead.

“I’m sorry.” was all he could think of to say.

Page One Hundred And Four

2010-04-27T21:03:00.001-07:00

“You’re joking.” Sophie said, but she could tell from the gleam in Paul’s eyes that he was completely serious.

“The problem I kept running into is that the battery power on the device is so short that once we got it to the height I need it to be, half the battery was drained.” Paul said, as they walked through the flat Iraqi dessert making sure to get far enough away from the city not be seen, but not so far they would get lost.

“Why do you need it to be so high?” Sophie asked.

“The first couple of attempts, we picked a random time and just went for it. I have no idea what time we sent the device to, but all of this was not here.” Paul said, waving toward the city. “We could not see over those hills. The higher we can get the camera, the more we will be able see.”

“So essentially, you are hoping to get a glimpse of the tower on the horizon and then calculate the GPS to move toward the tower if you find it.” Sophie said, understanding.

“Exactly, by the time we got the device high enough, we barely had enough power to make a full rotation before it was sent back.” Paul said.

“But you should have enough to record at least eight hours?” Sophie said.

“In the old cameras that did not move, yes. These things not only move, but they adjust for wind and anything else. They are calibrated so finely that if they get blown off course, they will find their way back. Cool feature, but eats up battery life.” Paul said, finally stopping and looking back to the city.

“So, I got to thinking about when I was a kid. I had a friend who had this potato gun that was nothing more than a long tube that we would jam potatoes down the top and then spray WD-40 in the bottom and light it. We would shoot potatoes all over the neighborhood.” Paul said laughing.

Danielle set the projection tube on the ground and began making adjustments. Paul pulled out a folded plastic tube, clearly of his own making, and waited.

“What Danielle figured out how to do, is to put the imaging software that connects with the past on a three minute delay. So she calibrates it in the tube as always, but then she is able to remove it before we send it back. She also improved the response time so that we get the full data from the past in less than ten seconds.”

“Why do you need it so fast?” Sophie said.

“For two reasons. It only takes the device in the present a second to map the device to the past since there is nothing it needs to be attached to. It then moves forward 6 hours and compares the difference between the device in the present and the one in the past. It then maps the difference between the two and then changes it's internal memory. This way we can shoot from just about any location without fear of being discovered.” Paul said, clearly proud of himself.

“We’re ready.” Danielle said, as she handed Paul the golf ball size camera.

With a smile on his face, he dropped the ball into the thin tube he had been holding. He pulled out a can with a long thin red spout and sprayed it into the bottom of the tube.

“This is the dangerous part.” Paul said with a smile.

He pulled out a lighter, put the flame by bottom of the tube and suddenly a thuup sound was heard, and Sophie saw the small device shoot out of the tube and straight into the night sky with surprising velocity. As she followed it's rise higher and higher, there was a split second where a round cloud of white smoke shot out of the ball in all directions.

“It just projected into the past. Kind of like breaking the sound barrier, but breaking the time barrier.” Danielle said, laughing.

“I didn’t know it did that!” Sophie said.

“No one did. As far as I know, we are the first to project outside of the projection tube.”

“There is only one thing we haven't figured out yet.” Paul said, looking up, following the device as it continued to climb. “How to find it when it falls. Last time it took us an hour and it wasn’t nearly this dark.”

“There!” Sophie yelled, and began to walk forward. They saw the device, falling quickly now, about 30 yards in front of them.

“Good eyes.” Paul said, taking her hand and smiling.

It had been a while since they had been affectionate with one another and it felt good. She had forgotten how sexy he was when he was working.

“Doesn’t it hurt the device, landing like that?” Sophie asked.

“Oh yeah, sometimes it completely destroys it. That's why we started coming out here in the sand. Besides, Rene is footing the bill, I’ll destroy as many as I feel like. They can’t be worth more than 5k each!”

Page One Hundred And Three

2010-04-26T19:45:00.001-07:00

Chapter 18

* * *

The next several weeks, the tension did not die down. Paul would be up early and out the door, scouting potential locations where he could shoot without attracting too much attention. Danielle would spend hours researching everything to do with the physical nature and structure of the dimensional barrier. She would run into the living room and let everyone know of her latest discovery, and then sulk back when neither Paul or Sophie would get excited.
Sophie never left unless it was to get supplies. Most days, she just sat around and read what ever books she could find in English. The couple was polite to one another and there were no fights, just silence.
One night Danielle and Paul came into the house laughing, obviously giddy with excitement. Sophie was sitting on the couch and as soon as her eyes met Paul’s, the excitement they were feeling disappeared. Danielle and Paul wiped the smiles off their faces and walked towards their separate rooms, the mood killed.
“Goodnight.” Paul said sheepishly.
“Wait.” Sophie said, putting down her book. “What’s going on?”
“Nothing, Danielle and I have been working on making some adjustments on the cameras, that’s all.” he said, and walked into the bedroom.
Sophie could not help but feel left out. She knew that she did not want to be involved in anything that had to do with cameras, but her curiosity was getting the best of her. Frustrated with herself, she put her book down and walked into the bedroom. Paul was connecting the field pack with the Institute system for download.
“So, what did you do?” Sophie said.
"We just figured out how to launch, in a rather amazing way. Danielle redid the calculations and I adjusted the tube. This equipment Rene kept hidden from the Institute is pretty amazing.” Paul said, testing the waters.
“How so?” Sophie asked, sitting on the bed.
Paul leaned back in the chair and took a moment to look at her. “Are you really interested?”
“Yes... and bored out of my mind.” Sophie admitted.
“Well then, I’ll show you.” Paul said, jumping up and grabbing equipment in the storage locker. He ran to the door and yelled. “Danielle! Sophie wants to see it, let’s do another launch.”
“Launch?” Sophie said, curious.
Paul sat down on the side of the bed and began putting his shoes back on. Sophie stood up and slipped on her sandals.
Danielle met them at the door, almost as excited as Paul. “You are going to love this, it is so much fun.”
Paul grabbed Sophie’s hand and the three of them practically ran for the door. Once they got outside, they ran behind the small house and out into the Iraqi dessert. The clouds covered the billions of stars and the moon. Paul explained while they walked.
“In a nutshell, we have invented the most high tech potato gun in the history of man.”

Page One Hundred And Two

2010-04-25T21:42:00.003-07:00

She woke him up at 5:30 am as if they had been fighting all night.

“How dare you question my loyalty to you because I do not want to have a hand in empowering the same men who drugged me and then locked me up against my will!” Sophie barked at Paul.

Paul had not been asleep. The events of the night were weighing on him as much as anyone else. He got out of bed and walked over to Sophie and simply said. “I’m sorry.”

He reached out and pulled her close. She relaxed, relieved to know that he had finally come to his senses, although she was shocked it had been that easy. She slipped her arms under his and felt the warmth of his skin against her. He leaned in and she felt his warm breath near her ear.

“Nothing has changed, but I am not about to have a fight with you in front of cameras with God-knows-who watching. Now come to bed and we will talk about this quietly.” he whispered in her ear, as he held her tight.

He pulled away and smiled warmly at her, but she could see in his eyes he was pissed.
“Come to bed for a litte bit?” he said sweetly.

She did her best to smile back at him, but the frustration that she had been feeling all night began to rise up inside of her again, knowing she was in for a fight.

The room had no windows, so when Paul turned off the lamp the room became as dark as if it were midnight and not the early morning. Paul slipped into bed and pulled the covers over his head and Sophie joined him.

“What do you want me to do?” Paul whispered. “Do you want me to upset these people enough that they take you away again? Do you honestly think that I don’t want to take a hammer to these stupid cameras each time I see one? But, do you know why I stay and give them the illusion that they have me under control? I do it because you are not safe, and until I can figure out a way to get you away from here, then I am going to do everything I am told.”

“You can’t protect me if you give these people what they want! You said yourself that this was nothing more than a test.” Sophie whispered back, as forcefully as she could manage. “If what Danielle is saying is true and this is just a test, then what could they possibly be looking for in the long run?”

“That’s just it. The reason this is just a test is because they do not expect me to succeed. It’s nothing more than testing the leash to see if I will fight it. The odds of us filming the Tower, in any meaningful way, are astronomical. But if I do this, and I don’t bite them, then I might have enough bargaining power to get you away from all of this.”

“Paul, they are never going to let me go while you are giving them everything they want.”

“But, they are never going to let us go if we don’t! Our only option is to play along until an opportunity presents itself.” Paul whispered.

“I’m not going to be a part of this any longer. I know you think you are looking out for me, but I can’t do this.”

“Please don’t go. They will....” Paul said, looking as if she were about to rip his heart out.
Sophie rolled over and faced the other direction. One more second of looking into his eyes and she knew she would collapse and agree to just about anything.

“I’m not going anywhere.” she finally whispered. “For now.”

Page One Hundred And One

2010-04-24T23:39:00.000-07:00

The three of stopped talking and looked at each other as the revelation of the depth of their problem still hung in the air. Even Danielle could hardly believe the truth of what they were standing on the edge of. If it were true and they were able to document the opening of the dimensional wall, it would be an epic discovery.

Paul remained seated and looked back and forth between Sophie and Danielle trying to wrap his mind around the enormity of the situation. Sophie looked scared, while Danielle was unable to stand still and could barely contain her excitement.

“This could be the single biggest discovery... in...uh...ever! This will make particle accelerators look like a children's toys.” Danielle said.

Paul tried to ignore her, seeing the look on Sophie’s face was making him assess the situation in a whole different light. If they did capture this, it would change the political and possibly spiritual nature of the entire middle east. If they could actually get a glimpse of what ever was on the other side of existence, then the area would become the new Rome. People would travel here to get in touch with whatever it was they might find. It would be worth billions and could change the balance of power worldwide.

“Seriously, particle accelerators will spend years trying to get nothing but tiny little blips on machine, but only of they are able to catch a collision at exactly the right way. A single second of footage of the dimensional wall breaking down would change everything we know about the physical structure and nature of the universe.” Danielle said, pacing around the room.

Sophie could not stop thinking about her meeting in London months earlier. The Vatican had expressed concern about the projects that were taking place under the radar in Saudi Arabia and Israel, but she seriously doubted that they had ever considered the ramifications of the Tower Of Babel.

Sophie looked at Paul and could tell by the way he was scanning the room, that he was trying to find any cameras that might be shielded and hiding in the shadows. She leaned over and whispered in his ear.

“We can’t do this.”

Paul looked back at her and frowned. He leaned over and whispered “We have no choice. We are too far in.”

Sophie was surprised at his response. “I won’t.”

“You don’t have too. I am. I am going to keep going until I know exactly what they are up to.”

“And then what?”

Paul knew he could not tell her his final purpose in this mess. He could not look at her and tell her he was going to give his life to stop them. “You said you were not going to doubt me, that you would trust me.” he whispered in her ear.

“I do, but...”

“Either you do or you don’t, which is it?”

Paul got up and went back to the room while Sophie curled herself up in the blanket and laid down on the couch.

Danielle looked up after a few minutes.

“Wait, everyone's going to bed? We are looking at the single greatest breakthrough in science and....” Danielle said to Sophie who just rolled over and closed her eyes, knowing she had an important choice to make. She knew she had promised that this time would be different. She wanted to stand by Paul no matter what happened, but how could she go along blindly when he was leading them over cliff?

Could she really trust him?

Page One Hundred

2010-04-23T15:05:00.000-07:00

“I’ve got it!” Danielle said, bursting into Paul and Sophie's bedroom many hours after everyone had gone to sleep and the night was as quiet as it was dark.

“It’s the snare drum effect. It’s so simple. If this is true, then the ramification of what they did is remarkable....” Danielle said, flipping on the light while pacing back and forth at the foot of the bed.

“Wait, slow down...”Paul said, still trying to shake off the dream he was having. Sophie simply turned over and put her pillow over her head in an attempt to block the light from burning into her sleeping eyes.

“Get up, you're going to want to see this.” Danielle said, scribbling on her personal white board.

It was at least a half hour before they walked out of the bedroom and into the small living room of the house in which they were staying in Al Basrah. Danielle had not stopped pacing as she scribbled equation after equation on her board and then quickly erased them. Sophie and Paul looked like annoyed teenagers being forced to wake up early and go to school. They knew as they dragged themselves out of bed that they were in for a night of physics and deep theoretical mathematics. Even when they were fully awake, they did not understand any of it, half asleep would just be painful.

“Let’s talk about what we know. The man who invented the means to photograph and eventually film the past wants us to document the Tower of Babel. So, just like we were talking in the car, we have to figure out what is singularly unique about the Tower of Babel. What separates it from all of history? What did they do that was so threatening to the universe that God himself felt the need to put a stop to it?”

Sophie pulled a blanket around her and fought the urge to fall back to sleep. They had already covered this in depth on the way here.

“So the question is, what pissed God off? Well, I think I found it and It was in front of us the entire time. Look at verse six, it says:

And the Lord said, Behold, the people are one, and they have all one language;

and this they begin to do; and now nothing will be restrained from them,

which they have imagined to do.”

Danielle stepped back and looked at Paul and Sophie as if the answer were obvious. They, in turn, look at her hoping that she had woken them up in the middle of the night for something more than this.

“Look, it says that God, the creator of everything, says that nothing will be restrained from them. Essentially, if they can think of it then it will happen.” Danielle said putting the Bible in Paul's lap, tapping on the page.

“Why would that upset God?” Paul said.

“Because of what were they trying to do!” Danielle said, in frustration.

“Build something that could reach heaven?” Sophie said, starting to see where Danielle was going with this. “But heaven isn't up is it?”

Danielle shouted in joy, seeing that Sophie understood. “It has nothing to do with the building! It was just a project, something to keep everyone focused, kind of like a mental lightning rod.”

“Then if that is true, they must have been successful.” Sophie said standing up and becoming equally excited. “That makes perfect sense. God would not care about a tall building, but, if they were successful then it...” Sophie stopped in mid sentence as she felt a new wave of fear and awe in what they were looking for.

“Wait, wait, I am lost. What are we talking about here?” Paul said.

“Where were they trying to reach, Paul?” Danielle said.

“Heaven?” Paul said, looking around and feeling like the dumbest kid in the class. Sophie walked into the kitchen and pulled out a glass of water. She was no longer happy and looked genuinely bothered by the discovery that still eluded Paul.

“Where is Heaven, Paul?” Danielle said.

“Up? I don’t know.”

“We know it isn’t up. There is nothing but moon and stars and a giant galaxy of Einstein physics. Heaven is nothing but a different dimension, a place that is here, but not here. Does that make any sense?” Danielle said.

“I’m sorry, but how could that possibly make sense.” Paul said, frustrated.

“We know that the first dimension is a straight line that goes up and down. We know that the second dimension is up/down and then side-to-side. We know that the third dimension is up/down and side-to-side and then depth. That is the world or dimension we live in. Do you follow me?” Danielle said, drawing out the shapes on her white board as she explained them.

“I’m with you.”

“So the question is, what happens in the next dimension? For years people thought that the fourth dimension was one of time, but that is wrong. Think of the fourth dimension as a cube within a cube. This is really interesting because where does the Bible say God lives?”

“Inside of us.” Paul said beginning to catch on.

“That little statement is right both metaphorically and, potentially on a physical level.” Danielle said. “Here is another way of thinking about it.”

She drew a stick figure on a piece of paper, and then a second figure on a second piece of paper and then handed them both to Paul.

“Pretend these are real people, they just happen to live in the two dimensional reality, up/down and side-to-side. Now, if you place one of these men on top of the other but do not allow them to touch, would they know of the others' existence?”

“No?” Paul guessed not seeing where she was going with this.

“That’s right. They would never know about the other because there is no depth in their two dimensional world. Do you see how important this is? If something can be this close...” She said, holding up her hand only a centimeter away from her face, “and we do not know they are there simply because they exist dimensionally one higher from ours, then who knows what could be all around us. The weird thing is that they can most likely see us, but we can’t see them.”

“What does this have to do with the Tower of Babel?” Paul said, sitting back down.

“We know that their goal was not to build something big to brag about, their goal was to break the dimensional barrier! To reach heaven!” Sophie said.

“But...isn’t that impossible?”

“Not if you look at how they were going about doing it. It’s all in that verse. God said they were one and they had the same language. In other words, they were unified in every thought and action. They were thinking with one thought. Once they did that, God said they could do what ever they could think of.”

“So?”

“Paul, quantum physics shows us that thoughts are real. What we think about, we bring about. If we think negative thoughts, then we literally attract negative things in the physical world. If you are focused on positive things, then the opposite happens. Where people miss this is that it takes a sustained period of focus and time to accomplish anything. What we are looking at is an entire city, and entire society of thousands of people completely focused on a single task for decades. The tower was just a way to keep them focused on the goal, year after year. God must have stepped in as they were having some success, otherwise it makes no sense.”

Sophie walked back in the room. “If they did break through the dimensional barrier, then they may have caught a glimpse of heaven, and that is what we have been sent here to capture.”