For more information on the myths and theories regarding this legendary beast, Google “Nandi Bear.” Warning: these “bears” are not of the cuddly variety.
Mission Designation: “Kowalski’s in Love”
Duration: Dates unknown. Sometime before TJS.
Location: Off the coast of Brazil.
A boating accident strands vacationing seaman Joe Kowalski on a remote jungle island, where he encounters Sigma agent Shay Rosauro—and a pack of rabid, man-eating baboons. Seems all the vegetation on the island has been aerial sprayed with a transgenic rhabdovirus that, once ingested, heightens a subject’s senses, but also triggers manic rages. The virus is the work of a certain Dr. Salazar, funded by a shadowy organization of terrorist cells. Sigma has apprehended Salazar, but not before he infected an entire Indian village outside of Manaus, Brazil, including an international children’s relief hospital. Now Shay (and Kowalski) have only twenty-seven minutes to recover the antidote from Salazar’s secluded laboratory—before the Brazilian Navy firebombs the island down to its bedrock in order to eradicate all trace of the virus.
Assessment:
Kowalski had never heard of Sigma Force before this incident, but he is taken on as muscle afterwards. This grisly adventure leaves him with a lasting dislike of apes, monkeys, and simians in general. Shay Rosauro would find herself working with Kowalski again on a later Sigma operation [TLO].
The shadowy organization funding Salazar’s work is presumed to be the Guild.
Σ
A Boy and his Gun.
Shay provides Kowalski with a Variable Kinetic (VK) rifle capable of firing one-inch razor-disks. The high-tech weapon can be set for single shot or automatic strafe and carries two hundred shots per magazine.
Needless to say, it’s love at first sight.
Mission Designation: The Judas Strain
Duration: July 1-August 11. A year after B0.
Key Locations: Indian Ocean, Italy, Indonesia, Turkey, Iran, Cambodia.
A cloud of toxic bacteria rising from the Indian Ocean leads to an outbreak of death and disease in the vicinity of Christmas Island. Monk Kokkalis and Lisa Cummings join a team of scientists and physicians from the World Health Organization to investigate and assist in the medical crisis, using a commandeered cruise ship, the Mistress of the Seas, as a base of operations. But their mission of mercy takes a dangerous turn when the Guild, assisted by a band of bloodthirsty Indonesian pirates, hijack the vessel and force Lisa and the other doctors to aid them in finding a cure to the root of the outbreak: an ancient virus, dubbed “The Judas Strain,” which can turn benign, everyday bacteria into a variety of lethal plagues. Unleashed into the world, the virus could be a biological disaster of extinction-level proportions.
Back in America, a second front is opened when Seichan turns up at Gray Pierce’s doorstop, fleeing her former employers, the Guild. She is in possession of a stolen Egyptian obelisk inscribed with a cryptic script believed by some to be the primordial language of the angels themselves. Pursued by the Guild, who are determined to reclaim the obelisk and its secrets, Gray and Seichan go on the run, dragging along bodyguard Joe Kowalski and Gray’s aging parents, Jack and Harriet Pierce, who are now in danger as well. Despite Gray’s best efforts to protect his mom and dad, they are soon captured and held hostage by the Guild, forcing Gray to bargain for their safety with Amen Nasser, a vicious Guild assassin known as “The Butcher of Calcutta.” Amen is also a rival (and former lover) of Seichan.
In Indonesia, the Mistress of the Seas is diverted to the Isle of Pusat, a pirate hideaway that is also home to cannibals and a secluded lagoon full of predatory [REDACTED]. Lisa’s studies zero in on Susan Tunis, an infected marine biologist whom is being uniquely transformed by a variant form of the Judas Strain. Although the virus, and the killer bacteria it engenders, usually lead to death, cannibalism, and madness, Susan begins to change [REDACTED] instead, making it vital that Lisa and Monk get her out of the hands of the Guild.
Gray, Seichan, and Kowalski rendezvous with Monsignor Vigor Verona in Istanbul, where they deduce that Marco Polo may have discovered a cure for the Judas Strain during an untold chapter of his famous travels—and that the secret might be found by following a series of historical clues left behind centuries later. The clues are inscribed in angelic script on three golden passports (paitzus) given to Polo, his father, and his uncle by the Mongol emperor Kublai Khan for the Polos’ return voyage back to Europe around 1293 A.D. The hidden passports are accompanied by silken scrolls holding fragments of Polo’s own first-person account of his harrowing discovery of a lost “City of the Dead” ravaged by a plague that bears an ominous resemblance to the Judas Strain.
Seichan reveals that the Guild has two separate teams in play: one investigating the present-day outbreak, which may have been ignited by the recovery of infected timbers from a sunken shipwreck, and another searching for the historical roots of the virus. The Guild’s ultimate goal: to harness the Judas Strain to create an inexhaustible supply of horrific bio-weapons—for which only they possess the cure.
While Monk and Lisa struggle to survive in Indonesia, and Painter Crowe races to rescue Jack and Harriet Pierce from their captors, Gray and his team retrace Marco Polo’s steps from Istanbul to the Island of Hormuz to the abandoned Cambodian ruins of Angkor Wat, where a long-buried [REDACTED] holds the origins of the Judas Strain, even as a legion of pestilences begins to spread across the globe . . . and Sigma Force suffers a tragic loss.
Assessment:
After merely crossing paths with Sigma during the case of the Magi’s bones [MOB], and sitting out a subsequent opportunity entirely [BO], the Guild escalates matters this time around, pulling out all the stops to battle Sigma on multiple fronts around the globe—and threatening the entire ecosystem in their ruthless pursuit of a way to control the Judas Strain. The conflict between Sigma and the Guild gets personal, too, as sadistic Guild assassins threaten Gray’s parents with death and torture. The crisis in Indonesia also leads to the apparent death of Monk, although no body is recovered at the time.
Looking backwards, Gray discovers to his chagrin that the Guild’s pursuit of Marco Polo’s secrets began with a mistake he made two years previously while teaming with Seichan against the Dragon Court [MOB]. It seems that while Sigma was wrapping up the loose ends of that affair, the Guild (and Seichan) swooped in to raid the Dragon Court’s extensive library of ancient historical documents, which had included a one-of-a-kind edition of Marco Polo’s book (stolen from the Vatican’s Secret Archives) that contained a partial account of his forgotten encounter with the Judas Strain. Oops.
New recruits prove their value during this operation. Although not officially a member of Sigma at this time, Lisa Cummings jumps at the chance to put her medical expertise to work in the field. Her experiences in Indonesia also reaffirm her commitment to her relationship with Painter. Joe Kowalski also endures a baptism of fire on this case, surviving his first major mission as a member of Sigma Force.
As for Seichan . . . well, she claims the Guild’s plans for the Judas Strain were too horrific even for her, hence her defection from their ranks, but, as ever, her true motives are a mystery even to Gray.
Σ
Marco Polo, Marco Polo . . . .
Marco Polo (1254-1324) was only seventeen years old when he left Venice with his father Niccolo and uncle Maffeo on an epic journey to the east. Their travels along the fabled Silk Road brought them to Turkey, Persia, Afghanistan, and eventually the court of the Emperor Kublai Khan in distant “Cathay,” better known to us today as China. The Polos spent seventeen years in China, exploring the country in the service of the emperor, before the Khan permitted them to escort a teenage Mongol princess to Persia for an arranged marriage. The Polos then traveled home to Venice by way of Sumatra, Sri Lanka, India, and Constantinople.
That final journey was a harrowing one. Out of some six hundred souls traveling with the fleet, only a handful (including the Polos)
survived the two-year-long voyage. Marco was approximately forty-one years old when he finally returned to Venice, nearly a quarter-century after he left the city as a teenager. He never visited China again.
Caught up in a war between Venice and Genoa, Marco spent a year in prison where he met a fellow prisoner, Rustichello de Pisa, who helped him set down the story of his travels in a book, variously known as Il Millione (“The Million”), Le divasment dou monde (“The Description of the World”) and, in English, The Travels of Marco Polo. Tremendously popular, the book was widely circulated, translated, copied, and recopied by hand, so that a number of variant editions now exist. (Only the copy in the Vatican’s Secret Archives, however, contained the full story of Marco’s horrifying journey home.)
Polo died in 1324, a wealthy man. On his deathbed, he famously declared “I have only told the half of what I saw!”
Σ
The language of the Angels?
The “angelic script” found on both the Egyptian obelisk and inscribed on the floor of the Vatican archives was originally developed by Johannes Trithemius (1462-1516), a German abbot and scholar who claimed that the language, which is derived from ancient Hebrew, could be used to communicate with angels. Trithemius, who lived over a century after Marco Polo, is also known for his skill with codes, ciphers, and secret messages. His Stenganographia (roughly, “hidden writing”) was composed near the end of the 15th century and) was long believed to be a book of magic and occultism, but it’s actually, to quote Vigor Verona, “a complex mix of angelology and code breaking.” Small wonder that unknown parties in the Vatican used this “Celestial Alphabet” to hide the hellish secret of the Judas Strain sometime in the early 1600’s.
Note: Trimethius’s angelic script is not to be confused with the Theban alphabet (sometimes called “the Witches’ Alphabet”) which can be also be found in Trimethius’s writings and which is still employed by modern-day Wiccans and occultists.
Σ
You’ve been slimed.
The toxic bacteria and slime that arise from the sea to devastate Christmas Island are hardly unique, and such incidents are becoming less so every day. Pollution, deforestation, overfishing, and climate change are all spurring the growth and resurgence of primitive organisms such as bacteria, algae, and jellyfish—with harmful effects on fish, coral, marine mammals, birds, and even human beings. The oceans are going back to way they were a half-billion years ago, when only slimes ruled the seas. Worse yet, many of these organisms are highly toxic. As recently as April 2011, algal blooms off the coast of Santa Monica caused several sea lions to wash up on the shore, experiencing seizures, paralysis, and foaming at the mouth. Dolphins and pelicans were similarly affected. The culprit: a neurotoxin produced by the algae, which is then consumed by small fish and shellfish before moving up the food chain to birds and mammals. In humans, the toxin attacks the brain, causing disorientation, loss of memory, and even hallucinations.
Nor is the danger confined to the sea. Only a few months later, in July of 2011, toxic algae were blamed for the deaths of several wild boars along the coast of Brittany, forcing beach closures at the height of the tourist season.
Thankfully, such outbreaks have yet to spawn anything as lethal as the Judas Strain, but, with global warming expected make both the sea and fresh water more susceptible to toxic algae and bacteria, the rise of the slime may have only just begun.
Mission Designation: The Last Oracle
Duration: September 5-September 22. Two months after TJS.
Key Locations: Ukraine, Russia, India.
An assassination on the National Mall in Washington D.C., practically at Sigma Command’s front door, puts the team on high alert, especially when the murdered man turns out to be Dr. Archibald Polk, a distinguished neurologist who played a key role in Sigma’s formation--and whose body is found to be highly radioactive. A radiation trail leads to the Smithsonian’s Natural History Museum and Polk’s estranged daughter, Elizabeth, who has been engaged in studying the fabled Oracle of Delphi of ancient Greece. A child-sized skull containing a cybernetic implant is found hidden inside an artifact at the museum—and attracts a raid by armed gunmen working for the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), a rival intelligence organization led by John Mapplethorpe, a ruthless super-patriot with ghastly secrets to hide.
After escaping the mercenaries with Gray Pierce and Joe Kowalski, Liz Polk reveals that her father, who was obsessed with understanding human intuition and extrasensory perceptions, had spent the last several years in India, studying mystics and yogis. Shortly thereafter a group of Gypsies (Romani) deliver a very special child to Sigma. Sasha is an autistic savant whose clairvoyant abilities have been enhanced by an implant that has been surgically linked to her brain. It is revealed that Sasha is just one of several gifted children who have been created by a now-rogue Russian scientific operation that stole some precious Romani children back in 1959. The Gypsies have liberated Sasha, who is now being sought out by both the DIA and her original Russian caretaker, Major Yuri Raev, even as medical complications caused by her implant bring Sasha close to death. Dr. Lisa Cummings and Kat Bryant both fight to save the girl, whose cryptic drawings hint that Monk Kokkalis might still be alive.
Retracing Archibald Polk’s steps, Painter Crowe dispatches a team including Gray, Kowalski, and Liz to India to find out what Polk learned that so many people are willing kill for. Their investigation leads them on a bloody chase from the Taj Mahal to the teeming streets of New Delhi to a remote village of “untouchables” in the Punjab to a hidden temple where an ancient bloodline of psychics and oracles is traced back to [REDACTED].
But as Gray and his team delve back into the prophetic mists of history, Sigma’s headquarters comes under attack by the Mapplethorpe and his allies, and Painter Crowe must go to desperate lengths to protect both Sasha and Sigma itself, even as the covert invasion costs the life of Painter’s boss and mentor, Sean McKnight.
The crisis escalates as world leaders (including the President of the United States) gather in Ukraine to watch the nuclear ruins at Chernobyl be sealed beneath a massive steel hanger. On hand is Nicholas Solokov, an ambitious Russian politician who plots to [REDACTED] so that he can create a new Russian Empire with himself as its leader, guided by his own private circle of oracles. Nicholas himself is the product of a decades-long breeding program carried out in secret in Chelyabinsk 88, an underground mining complex in Russia’s Southern Ural Mountains, where his allies plan to change the world by unleashing [REDACTED] upon the environment.
But their apocalyptic plans are complicated by Monk, who wakes with amnesia in the subterranean Warren, not knowing who he is or how he got there. Escaping the complex with three gifted children and an elderly chimpanzee named Marta, Monk finds himself hunted by Russian soldiers, wolves, and fierce Siberian tigers through a hostile, radioactive wilderness.
All roads converge on Chernobyl as an ancient Delphic prophecy unfolds . . .
Assessment:
Internecine quarrels and turf wars with other government agencies are nothing new to Painter Crowe; there’s reason he goes through all those antacids. But never before has Sigma headquarters endured an armed attack by a rival agency, let alone one ostensibly on the same side. Sigma’s headquarters is damaged during the assault, requiring future repairs and renovations [TDK]. Meanwhile, the tragic death of Sean McKnight results in a major change of leadership at DARPA as Painter loses both his friend and his immediate superior.
Balancing things out, Monk turns out to have survived his apparent death in Indonesia [TJS], albeit hardly unscathed. Having earlier lost his hand [MOB], he has now lost a portion of his brain and memory as well. Still, Sigma and Kat are happy to have him back, no matter how long and hard his recovery might be.
Improbably, romance blossoms between Kowalski and Liz Polk. The hulking jarhead and the petite anthropologist make an unlikely couple, but are still dating at present.
The Guild plays no part in this operati
on, but they are hardly forgotten. Little Sasha delivers an ominous prophecy to Gray. “You’re going to die,” she warns him—after handing him a drawing of Seichan’s trademark dragon pendant. “You have to be careful of that! That’s why I drew it!”
Σ
America’s brain trust.
JASON, of which the late Archibald Polk was a member, was founded in 1960 to advise the U.S. Military on matters scientific and technological. Composed of an elite group of civilian scientists, it meets for six weeks every summer to brainstorm ideas and prepare reports on everything from cyber-security to global warming. It also reviews and assesses various Defense Department plans and initiatives. The name of the group was inspired by Jason, the legendary Greek hero who sought the Golden Fleece, although an old joke states that it actually stands for “July August September October November,” which can be how long it takes to get all the reports done.
For most of its existence, JASON was sponsored by DARPA, but DARPA withdrew its support in 2002 after a dispute over the selection process for new members. JASON is now funded by the office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Research and Engineering), formerly known as the Director, Defense Research & Engineering.
Much of JASON’S work is classified, but recent research topics have included the impact of severe space weather on the nation’s electrical grid, the national security implications of high-frequency gravitational waves (none to speak of, apparently), and the effects on society of widespread DNA sequencing. JASON has also advised President Obama on how to extend the lives of America’s aging nuclear warheads.
JASON’S role in the creation of Sigma Force remains a closely-guarded secret.