The Solomon Key Read Online Free Page A

down into the eyepiece. “Don’t worry, I didn’t cut any corners. I just didn’t feel the need to sit around for another week trying to persuade those atheist chimpanzees of its obvious spiritual implication.”
    “Chimpanzees?”
    “With an emphasis on the last two syllables.”
    She left his side and walked over to a glass case, her mind grappling with what Joe had just told her. The other “chimpanzees” were actually brought in from the recently internationalized NASA program, and they would not be happy. When they found out that Joe cut all their individual research short by finalizing their findings and sending a report without their consent or knowledge, there would be fireworks.
    She looked through the glass case, at the object she had escorted half way around the world. For some unknown reason, it seemed to be of major importance to the military. But she and Joe learned rather quickly not to ask questions, and the amount of money they were promised for both their work and their discretion made it easy to ignore the soldiers, the high-tech equipment, and this super-secret government lab beneath some building in Washington DC.
    Joe looked up from his work again. “Oh, they said the power might go out tonight.”
    Melissa looked around the lab again, the bright light glowing off all the equipment. “What do you mean?” she asked, confused.
    Joe stretched again, spoke his words through a yawn. “He just said they were doing some kind of drill or something. Said the power might go out for a little bit. Said it’s no big deal. Light a candle or something.” He winked at her.
    She rolled her eyes. “It’d take more than a candle, Joe.” But a subtle voice whispered in the back of her mind, telling her that something was off. From the time she had taken the object into her possession, she’d been escorted by a soldier. And from the time they’d arrived at this place, guards had covered their shadows with automatic weapons. Complete and total secrecy was demanded of them, every move they made watched, all their communications to the outside world strictly monitored. Every day, NAU military personnel rotated in and out of the project, supposedly protecting them — though from what they couldn’t imagine. And now, without any warning, they were just gone , at a time the power was expected to go out? “I haven’t been allowed near a phone since I’ve been back, haven’t been allowed out of their sight. And now they just disappear, leaving us completely unguarded in a power outage?”
    But he just shrugged, his mind elsewhere. “Maybe the thing isn’t what they thought. Feels nice though, not having them breathing down our necks. Gives us some privacy.” He winked at her again.
    She smiled, but it wasn’t genuine. “Don’t forget the cameras,” she said, while waving at the small dark spheres hanging from the ceiling. But despite the attempt at humor, her heart rate began to quicken, her eyes falling to the object that lay suspended within the glass case. Whether she was turning to it as a means of escape, engaging her mind on a different matter, or whether she was subconsciously drawn to it as a suspected answer to her unvoiced concerns, she didn’t know.
    And then the power went out, plunging them into total darkness.
    Joe swore out loud.
    Melissa held her breath.
    “No telling how long this drill is going to last. You wanna get comfortable?” Joe’s voice came from across the room.
    “Joe,” her voice was shaky, worried. “I don’t like this.”
    He had spent enough time with her in the past to know when she was scared, and the tone she had just used didn’t attempt to hide her fear now. “We’re fine, Melissa. No one even knows this place exists. And even if they did, they’d never be able to get down here.” But he was trying to reassure himself with his own words, his subconscious whispering warnings of its own. “It’ll probably be just a few minutes.”
    “All this high-tech