"Maybe things will be different this time. Safer. More secure. There's always the chance the government learned from their mistakes."

Jerry laughed. "Yeah. Right. They do that all the time."

Sun reached for Andy's hand, held it tight. "Well, whatever happens, we're married, we're together. How bad can it be?"

Andy stared out of the window as the city of San Diego gave way to lonely countryside. Sagebrush and tumbleweeds dotted the landscape and the Laguna Mountains loomed in the distance.

"It could be as bad as last time," Andy said. "That's how bad it could be."

"Nothing can be as bad as last time."

Andy pressed his forehead against the window and closed his eyes. "We'll see."

Chapter Three.

The chopper followed along the coastline but headed inland after about two hours. Andy didn't know this part of the country too well, but he considered that they might be heading over palm valley towards Constitution 1857 National Park in Baja, Mexico.

Last time it was the desert, this time it's the wilderness.

The chopper began its descent and Agent Williams, sitting up front with the pilot, muttered something into the mic attached to his headset. Obviously somebody down below was expecting them.

Sun's hand tightened around Andy's. He squeezed back.

Andy stared out the window at the approaching treetops and thought about the events of the last few years. It was likely that they would soon be adding more unwanted experiences to their mental resumes. Andy had known this time would eventually come. He and Sun being summoned like this had been inevitable from the moment they'd walked away from Samhain. They were involved in something that was not yet over.

Perhaps it never would be.

The helicopter touched down in a clearing between a circle of Jeffrey pines. The steel skids struck rocky ground and the cockpit bounced briefly before settling down and coming to rest.

Agent Williams twisted in his chair and nodded at Sun and Andy. "Get out and somebody will meet you."

"This is so cool," Jerry said.

Andy glanced at him. "Trust us, it's not cool. It's probably going to end with all of us running for our lives."

"That is so cool," Jerry said.

Andy shoved Jerry out of the door and then turned around to help his wife make the three foot drop to the rocky landing pad.

The clearing was baked, the ground hard and parched. Shadows covered one side of the area while the sun beat down ferociously on the other. There was no wildlife nearby; no birds, no squirrels. Andy craned his neck and looked around. Three hundred and sixty degrees of woodland, not a building nor soul in sight.

One of the agents dropped their bags, then the chopper quickly jumped back up into the air. It tilted left and then headed right, clearing the treetops by mere inches. Within seconds it was out of sight, the distant humming of its propellers the only evidence that it had ever been there.

"Whoa!" said Jerry, looking up at the sky. "Did they just leave us here?"

"Just wait," said Andy. "We're not alone. Someone is going to pop out of somewhere."

"Mr. and Mrs. Dennison-Jones, I presume?"

Andy spun around. Behind them stood an older gentleman in military uniform. From the amount of ribbons on the man's chest, both his rank and experience were distinguished.

Andy walked to meet the figure, aware of the drill after having been through a similar situation before. He held out a hand to shake the man's hand. "It's Dennison-Jones."

"Isn't that what I said?"

Andy realized it was. He'd been so used to correcting people that he hadn't caught it.

"I suppose you did. I take it you're the head honcho?"

"I'm General Austin Kane. Welcome to Project Monstrum, facility 26. Or, as we here call it, the Spiral."

Monstrum. Great.

Kane offered a bony hand, which Andy shook firmly. It felt like clutching a wispy tree branch.

"And this must be Mrs. Dennison-Jones."

"Ms." Sun said, taking his hand.

Andy explained, "We're married, so we combined our last names, but we don't feel the English honorific should change just because of how many X chromosomes you have."

"Whipped!" Jerry said. "If I ever get married-"

"Don't bet on it," Sun said, staring him down.

Jerry shut up.

"And this must be the extra baggage I was informed about. Jerry Preston. Tell me, son, what compelled you to steal from-"

"Nice to meet you, General," Jerry offered his hand. "I'm happy to help out in any way I can."

"Yes, well, if you don't, you'll be sent to a black site, and then we'll go after everyone you care about."

"Wha?"

"Kidding, of course." The General raised his eyebrows. "Or am I? Now let's get everyone inside for a quick briefing. I'll send someone up for your bags."

Sun and Andy looked at one another. Then Andy nodded to the General. "Lead the way."

Andy, Sun, and Jerry followed Kane over to a large pile of logs between two leaning pine trees. Close inspection revealed that they were fake, made of thick, painted plastic and secured to a large metal plate. The plate slid aside automatically as they approached, revealing a murky stairwell leading into the earth. It was Samhain all over again.

"The Spiral has recently been upgraded," Kane told them. "But I'm afraid the entrance has seen better days. Mind your step on the way down as some of the steps have decayed after so long underground."

Everybody headed down the staircase. The large metal plate slid closed above them and a line of naked bulbs on the ceiling switched on. Many of the bulbs had blown-out or were flickering.

After a few hundred harsh, concrete steps, the staircase ended at a set of modern aluminium doors. The doors slid apart as the group got closer, revealing the shiny interior of a burnished steel elevator vestibule big enough to hold an SUV.

"The refurbishments start here," said Kane. "After the Samhain incident, a majority of our facilities were revamped and retrofitted with new security protocols. Each room and hallway has an alarm." He pointed to the wall, at a red square with a lever on it. "Pull it, and the entire complex goes on lockdown. We also have a small contingent of armed security staff, so please don't be alarmed by the sight of weaponry."

Andy felt simultaneously better and worse. It was good that the facility was more protected than Samhain had been, but bad that it was yet another facility that needed to be guarded in the first place.

"Needless to say," Kane said, "but everything you are about to see must be kept in absolute secrecy. You all know what will happen if you don't. Now, please, step into the elevator."

The group stepped inside the vaulted cabin. There were no controls on the wall. Kane simply said, 'Spiral, Level 2'.

The elevator began to descend.

"It automatically detects my security card." Kane produced a credit card sized piece of plastic from his pocket and showed it to them. "Without one of these cards or a visitor's access fob the elevators will not work. Only a few key people have full access, and even if they have the card they also need specific codes to do certain things, like open cell doors. Just one of our many security features."

"I feel like I'm on an episode of Fringe," said Jerry.

"Believe me," Andy said. "The awe wears off quickly."

"Let's try to stay positive, honey." Sun took his hand. "We don't know anything yet."

"I am positive," Andy said. "I'm positive it's going to be awful."

"Don't be overly concerned, Mr. Dennison-Jones," Kane said. "We've got a good team here, and a good facility. There hasn't been an accident at the Spiral for eight years."

"Let me guess why I'm here. Did you get some new addition? Something that looks like a demon from hell?" Andy folded his arms. "If so, your eight year safety streak is about to end."

"We have a lot more here than demons, Mr. Dennison-Jones. You'll find it is nothing like Samhain."

The elevator shuddered to a stop and the doors immediately opened. What greeted them was like nothing they had ever seen before.

It was not at all like what Andy had been expecting. General Kane had been right.

It was nothing like Samhain.

Chapter Four.

Sun was concerned about her husband. She knew that beneath his veneer of calm, Andy was terrified. How could he not be? After what had happened the last time they'd been underground courtesy of the US government, it was a wonder he'd managed to remain sane. The same was true of her, of course. Despite the contentment she had found in Andy's arms, and the outright joy that her engagement and recent marriage had brought, she was still deeply damaged. She often lay awake in bed, knowing that Andy, too, was probably feigning sleep beside her. She would think about the terrors they had seen together and knew that if sleep eventually did find her it would be draped in a shroud of nightmares.

And now it seemed as though her nightmares were about to receive a follow-up booster shot.

When the elevator doors opened, Sun's apprehension was alleviated somewhat. Samhain had been a technological kluge beneath the desert, much of it older than anyone working there. But what she was looking at now was an entirely different ball game.

"Welcome to Spiral level 2," said General Kane. He stepped out in front of them and gestured like a magician revealing some great illusion. "Or as we like to call this area, the Nucleus. We're fifty meters down. But there's far more than just this."

Sun stepped out of the elevator and glanced around, tilting her head in all directions. The vaulted ceilings were a hundred-feet high above an area the size of a football field. Glass partitions separated numerous banks of blinking computers and expensive modern desks. There were so many people milling about the area that it could have passed for the call center of some mundane corporation.

"This is where 80% of the facility's staff operates," said Kane. "From here we can control security, communication, and all other aspects of the day-to-day running of the site. Our entire network is powered by one of the world's most powerful super computers and protected by the most sophisticated firewalls in existence."

"I bet you get some killer frame rates on Call of Duty," Jerry said.

"With a computer like that, why do you need a translator?" Andy asked. "With all this power you could translate the Voynich manuscript."

"We did that already," Kane said. "Interesting stuff." Apparently they'd deciphered one of history's most perplexing riddles. But before Andy could follow-up, Kane added, "Tell me, Mr. Dennison-Jones, do you know Manx?"

Andy nodded. "A Goidelic language, a dead branch of Celtic that was once popular on the Isle of Man."

"In the Irish Sea?" Jerry asked.

Sun frowned. "Please tell me you're just holding a leprechaun, and need my husband to learn where he buried his pot of gold."

"Unfortunately, no, Ms. Dennison-Jones. But we've got some things that make leprechauns seem positively normal. Follow me."

The group re-entered the elevator and this time Kane gave a different command: "Subbasement 1."

The elevator began to descend.

"We're heading another hundred meters down," said Kane. "It will take a few minutes. In the meantime let me explain why this facility is not like one you may have seen before. Samhain was built in 1906 by President Roosevelt and was designed to contain a single subject. This facility is far older and grander in its purposes."

"How much older?" Sun asked.

"The site's footprint has changed dozens of times since its initial construction. It has expanded, been dug down deeper, reinforced. The very first facility here was above ground and much smaller. To answer your question, this site has been in operation in some form or another since 1812."

"Bullshit!" Jerry said.

"Not at all. The facility was commissioned by the founding fathers themselves, including Thomas Jefferson, John Jay, and James Madison, along with Joseph-Napoleon Bonaparte, who was king of Spain at the time. This area was New Spain back then, and the facility was built by the Masons and the Catholic Church."

"Okay," Sun held up a hand. "You're starting to get Dan Brown on us now. You expect us to believe that there's some sort of conspiracy dating back almost all the way to the birth of our nation?"

Kane laughed. "A conspiracy? I don't know if I'd describe it like that. But it was for the greater good, most certainly. As for it dating back to the birth of our nation, things go back much further than that."

Sun frowned. She rubbed at her arms and felt goose bumps. The air in the elevator chilled as they cut deeper into the earth. "How much further back?" she asked.

The elevator stopped. The doors opened.

"We're here," said Kane, stepping out into the corridor and gesturing to a huge painting on the wall in front of them. The focus of the picture was a saintly figure in wonderful, golden robes.

Kane smiled at them like a monkey who'd been taught how to smoke. He told them, "Our project was created by St. Clement the first. In the year 94."