Independence Day: Resurgence: The Official Movie Novelization Read Free Page B

rumors, of course, knew that Area 51 held secrets to which his security clearance did not entitle him—but when he’d learned the full truth, he’d been astonished.
    Area 51 had been doing alien research since 1947.
    Incredible.
    Once he’d recovered from the surprise, Adams had applied to join the accelerated alien research projects. He’d seen some combat when the survivors from the city destroyer came boiling out in a last murderous attack, but most of his career had been, and was, dedicated to turning the aliens’ technology against them. Against whatever else might be out there among the stars.
    All enemies, foreign and domestic
, the oath said. After 1996, Adams had mentally added
extraterrestrial
.
    Now he was one of the officers in charge. Using the alien materials, science, and especially the anti-gravity propulsion systems, humankind had reached out into the solar system. There were bases on the Moon, Mars, Rhea, and others were in the planning stages. Humanity had taken a weapons lesson from the aliens, as well.
    Cannons based on the city destroyers’ main weapon were the next step in human defense. Dozens of them were lined up at one end of Area 51, in various stages of construction. Dozens of others ringed the Earth in geostationary orbits, linked to the command center here in Nevada. Still more were on the way from Earth to the space-based installations on other planets and moons. Before Adams retired, he wanted to be able to look at a map of the solar system and not find a hole through which an alien aggressor could get close to Earth—not without humanity knowing about it ahead of time and having the capacity to react.
    That would be a legacy worth leaving.
    Near the rows of cannons, next to the research complex, a large red cross painted on the roof marked out the hospital named for President Whitmore’s first lady, Marilyn, who had died during the War of ’96. Adams had met the president only once, and admired him as much as he admired any man on Earth. It was sad to hear about the mental decline Whitmore had experienced in recent years.
    The president’s daughter, Patricia, would have been a good pilot, following in her father’s footsteps, but she’d left flight school to be closer to him, back in D.C. She’d landed on her feet, though, and was an assistant of some kind to the new president, Lanford.
    Solid woman
, Adams thought.
Better than her predecessor, Bell.
    The hospital in which Marilyn Whitmore had died was now a world-class research and medical facility. Here again, alien research had given humanity new insights. The invaders were so much farther along the biotech learning curve that even after twenty years, Adams knew the human race still had a long way to go to catch up. Even so, new advances were saving lives. Most of that research was centered here, because most of it was based on classified material and couldn’t be shared with other medical facilities. Maybe someday, Adams thought, but not quite yet.
    The chopper hovered for a moment as the ground crew cleared away from its rotor wash, and General Adams wondered again what had lit a fire under the staff.
    He would find out soon.

2
    Dr. Milton Isaacs took a break from his rounds in the Marilyn Whitmore Hospital to check in on Brakish. There weren’t many patients in the hospital, since it was on the grounds of the alien research facility at Area 51, and outside of the occasional workplace accident or bout of the flu, the local population was quite healthy.
    He entered the room carrying a plant he had ordered from an orchid vendor in California.
    “Good morning, Brakish,” Isaacs said as he took the plant to the windowsill and placed it among the others already there. “I brought you a new one.” Most of them were also orchids. Brakish loved orchids. Occasionally Isaacs let himself succumb to magical thinking and imagined that reciting their scientific names would be the incantation that finally brought Brakish out of his