Where Did All These Gods Come From?

By Steven Reider

This book is a story of archaeologist Jake Steiner who discovers the origin of the gods of mythology whether Greek, Roman, Norse, or even the gods of Egypt. He also discovers the love of his life, and through a series of events he uncovers a plot to create super-soldiers using the DNA of the skeleton of a Nephilim.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Balboa Press
• Release date: Aug 11, 2017
• ISBN: 9781504385336

Steven Reider

Steven Reider is a retired letter carrier and currently working as a school bus driver with Klein ISD. He is a native Texan and has an associates degree. He is the assistant worship leader of his church and has taught small groups. He is a good story teller.

Book preview

CHAPTER 1

GUSEN

T he flight was smooth as the five-foot, ten-inch man reclined in the plush seat of the corporate jet. He finally relaxed when he realized the plane was over international waters. He knew it would be several hours before they landed, so he pulled his hat over his eyes and tried to sleep. It was dusk when the flight landed at Easterwood Airport near College Station, Texas. The G-5 went to a private hangar. Tired from the long flight from Austria, archeologist Dr. Jake Steiner loaded his bags and gear in his truck and headed home through the Hill Country just outside of College Station. During the drive, he wondered what he would find in the notebook he had discovered upon closer inspection along with the other artifacts, but that would have to wait until tomorrow. Tonight’s agenda was just to unpack, put the artifacts in the safe, and go to bed. However, he couldn’t sleep because of the thoughts that kept racing through his mind. I don’t like doing side jobs for the CIA because almost everything I find becomes classified or top secret, and I can’t share them with my students, he thought. I guess I’ll have to look a little closer at the nondisclosure agreement in the morning and see if there’s a loophole I can take advantag e of.

The next day, as he was leaving to go to work at Texas A&M University, he saw the familiar car of his cleaning lady, Maria. Jake had hired her on the recommendation of his colleague and assistant, Frank Logan. She was a single mom desperately trying to put her oldest child through school. Several of the professors had hired her and tried to help her daughter get any scholarship or grant that would offset the expense of going to A&M. She waved as he drove off.

Frank was waiting in the parking lot as Jake pulled up. You been here long? Jake asked.

Nah, I had just parked when I saw you, so I waited, Frank said. By the way, did you get a chance to get a closer look at those artifacts and the notebook yet?

Nope. I’ve got a staff meeting, but I’m gonna go home right after the meeting and get to it.

Frank looked more like Jake’s bodyguard than his assistant. He was a stockily built, six-foot three-inch former Golden Glove boxer with a master of education degree in history who was working with Jake to get his PhD in archaeology. He taught history to undergrads and tutored athletes. Some of the athletes called him Big Hoss because of his physique, but none of them dared tease him about being prematurely bald.

The mention of the notebook flooded Jake’s mind with images of their little excursion. It was one of Frank’s friends, who was also part of the CIA presence at A&M, who had gotten the two involved in the site in Austria. They had received a tip that there was an underground laboratory in a mountain just outside Gusen, Austria, that was a relic from World War II. This lab was suspected of having developed an atomic bomb. Of course, the CIA couldn’t ask a foreign government to grant them access to this place. The problem was that the Austrian government had restricted access to the known entrance to the tunnel system that led to the lab. Besides, the radiation in the tunnel was at a level high enough to cause serious health issues after only a couple of hours. However, the lead they were following was that an individual had discovered an uncharted tunnel that had a side tunnel with elevated radiation levels in it. So, he offered Jake and Frank the best technology in radiation suits and asked them to find the source of the radioactivity.

The entrance tunnel that Hans Ingersol had found was discovered after a storm had caused a small landslide. Although this tunnel was big enough for three men to walk side by side, it was dangerous because it had been dug in pure sandstone without reinforcement. Hans had thought he was guiding two professors and a small group of students into the labyrinth of a base called Bergkrystall. Frank had thought, Man, this guy would freak if he knew he was guiding two professors and three CIA operatives. He had found contractor’s receipts and other memos that suggested that the five known miles of tunnels were actually twenty-five miles. What they found was a multilevel facility that had been developing advanced jet aircraft, bombs, and an ion propulsion system. Next to the main lab was a small room with lab equipment that seemed to have been abandoned quickly. The CIA wasn’t interested in this room because it was dedicated to antiquities, so they allowed Jake to take items from it for further analysis.

Jake told Frank, Okay, this stuff makes this trip worth the danger!

Yeah, but why is there an antiquities lab in a military facility? And why is it right next to where they were working on nuke stuff? Frank asked.

I don’t know, and I’m not gonna ask ’em! Get the things that you can carry. Don’t worry about the rest, Jake said.

Hey, Jake, what’s this metal container? The stuff in it ain’t radioactive!

Jake was preoccupied with an open journal near an extremely large bone. Okay, seal it in a bag. I have a friend I’ll send it to for analysis. Since this isn’t nuclear, let’s keep it between us until I can find out what it is, okay?

He could barely keep his focus during the staff meeting. Another thing vying for his attention was the formal debriefing from the CIA director on campus. They were good acquaintances; the director had even sat in and monitored several of Jake’s lectures on ancient Mesopotamia. The staff meeting took only about thirty minutes, but it felt more like three hours to Jake.

Okay, one down and one to go, he thought as he walked across campus to the George Bush Presidential Library. Two young men in suits were stationed near the elevator.

Good morning, Dr. Steiner, one of the men said. The director is expecting you.

After Jake went down to the second basement level, the doors opened onto a small lobby with Central Intelligence Agency in bold print on the far wall. To the right was a small desk and an attractive middle-aged woman, who made a quick phone call and politely asked Jake to have a seat.

The director will see you in a minute. May I get you some coffee while you wait?

No, thanks, Jake responded.

A minute later, a young agent appeared and walked Jake back to the director’s office. Director Joseph M. Fredrickson was the name on the nameplate on the desk—although Jake always wondered if that was his real name.

Jake, on behalf of the CIA and your country, I want to say thank you for your help and expertise in discovering what was going on in that mountain. I’ve seen some of the photos my team shot. Man, that lab was way ahead of its time. It’s a good thing the war ended when it did, or who knows what they would have developed?

He opened the folder on his desk and looked at Jake intently.

You know, I’m always amazed that a man of faith is a noted scientist! Director Fredrickson said.

You shouldn’t be, Jake said. After all, with every discovery I make, I’m proving that the events recorded in the Bible are in fact true. Besides, God is a God of science. I’m constantly being blown away by the intricacies of life and creation.

Okay, okay, I see your passion in your beliefs, the director said. You can keep the antiques you found. Just let me know if you find anything interesting, okay? Of course, this little excursion is classified, but you already know that from the other times you’ve helped us. Let me know if we can assist you in your analysis.

The director then handed Jake a set of documents for his signature. Then he was out the door and on his way home as fast as was legally possible.

Within five minutes of his arriving home, the doorbell rang. It was Frank, eager to dive into the artifacts they had recovered. Jake led him down to a room that was almost as large as the entire rest of the house. Jake had arranged the artifacts on two tables. He also had lab equipment on another table.

I didn’t think people in Texas had basements, and why don’t I have any bars on my cell phone? Frank said.

Most people don’t, but I had this one specially made, Jake responded. It’s a clean room—no phone lines and no Internet access. There is copper mesh in the ceiling, walls, and floor so that no one can see the work we do in here. This room is also protected by key access. If you don’t put the right code in after three tries, a stainless-steel barred door will close and the keypad will freeze for twenty-four hours.

Jake had become independently wealthy in the antiquities market. He had made millions selling many of the artifacts to individual collectors, as well as to museums around the world. However, that lifestyle was too fast and too dangerous; one minor slip to the wrong person could get you killed. He had learned, the hard way, that there was a dark side to the world of antiquities. The black market encouraged acquiring artifacts at any cost, thus requiring countermeasures, such as a clean room and state-of-the-art security. Jake had had three safes installed by three different contractors. One of them was in the foyer outside the clean room. He had unimportant papers and artifacts he considered junk in this safe. The second was in the clean room and protected the most valuable artifacts. The third was under the false floor of the fireplace in the main living area. It contained contracts, his will, and other legal documents.

Dude! Sounds like you’re a bit paranoid, Frank retorted.

Not really. I have experienced theft of some artifacts that took years of excavation to find. Antiquities are a booming business on the black market. Some of these guys have gone high-tech with surveillance equipment, as well as hiring the best computer hackers to see what you’ve got, Jake explained. Then when you’re out of the house, they break in and steal the most valuable things as well as the data that you’ve collected. So I made the computer here to be a stand-alone computer, and all the data is saved to a stick and put in a safe.

So, have you taken a look at the notebook yet?

Just a glance. Besides, my Austrian is a bit rusty. Why don’t you prepare a slide of the contents of the stuff in the jar you bagged? I want to see what it looks like through a microscope, Jake said.

The two men got busy cataloging the items they had found. While Frank was preparing the slide, Jake started looking through the notebook. It mainly chronicled the geographic locations where the artifacts were found. About halfway through the notebook, things got real interesting. The Austrian scientists had found the skeleton of a humanoid. Their excitement made their journal entries sloppy and difficult to translate. Jake understood why after another twenty minutes of translation: they had found a humanoid that was twenty-five feet tall. Carbon dating suggested that the bones were five to six thousand years old. Jake thought, We never saw any skeleton; I guess they took it with them. He got interrupted by Frank.

Hey, Doc. You need to check this out! It’s organic, but it has an element that I’ve never seen before. You don’t have anything to check DNA, do ya? Frank asked.

No, but I know somebody who can analyze it. Her lab isn’t associated with A&M, so I can keep it quiet until we have some answers, Jake said.

He looked at the slide. He was shocked that the substance was part animal, but he couldn’t identify any other animal tissue with this cell pattern. There was another element that was totally foreign. The shocking thing was that this stuff was acting as if it were still alive but in a dormant state. He thought, What is this stuff, and why was it in an antiquities lab? I hope Elizabeth can identify the foreign element.

Jake started thinking of all of the details from their expedition into the underground labyrinth, like finding the door in the access tunnel that was buried under a foot of sand. Entering that door was like stepping into a different world, a world that was centered on science and the pursuit of knowledge by a group of visionaries who were ahead of their time. Although he admired the sheer genius of the advancements in technology and scientific breakthroughs, he also recognized that everything done there was aimed at world domination. The moral dilemma he faced in looking at this place was that many results were achieved at the cost of thousands of human lives, not to mention the oppression and the sadistic experimentation using people as guinea pigs without their consent.

Level one was the main entrance to the facility and was where the small nuclear reactor was located. It was also where the administration offices were located, which held only a few badly decaying documents. There were five branching tunnels with rooms in each. The ends of the tunnels had been deliberately caved in to either prohibit access to