Heiser-The-Facade - Sparkling Eyes

"Well, such as it is, I'm troubled by the fact that our areas of expertise appear tobe underutilized. I mean, if all they needed to keep people from losing their minds oversome space mites were your views on the validity of Christianity and extraterrestrial lifethey could just have gotten copies of your article.""Oh yeah, my infamous article," Brian shook his head wistfully. "I still can barelyprocess the fuss it caused. It isn't like anyone in conservative religious circles had evergiven much thought to how we would deal with actual ET contact.""Were your detractors offended that you considered contact possible?""Noit was more my criticisms of the traditional view of the image of God.""Yes, you were quite disparagingbut justifiably so. At any rate, as I said—whybring you on board when they could just access your position at a library?"Brian chewed thoughtfully, listening to the priest's impressions. "I see yourpoint," he said after a moment. "It does seem that our specialties—and especially yours—are hardly being tapped in relation to the extreme measures used to get us here. And Ithink you're right about the paper. My now infamous article contains everything I reallythink on the subject. I don't know about everyone else, but my week will be pretty easy. Idon't know what to tell you, Andrew. Do you have any idea why you're here?""I wasn't exactly apprehended like yourself and the others. I was sent here; I justdon't know why yet.""What? Sent by whom?""John Paul.""Are you feeling okay, Andrew?""This is serious!" he whispered harshly. "I can allow Dr. Bradley his flippancies,but not you.""All right—I'm sorry," Brian apologized, completely taken aback by the old man'sscolding."Perhaps I should clarify a bit," the cleric's voice returned to its customary calm."It might perhaps be more accurate to say I was put in a position by the former Pope to beselected. John Paul directed me to move to Tucson, as the Colonel informed the teammembers this morning. Once I got there the Pope had already contacted the dean of theuniversity—a very loyal Catholic—and made arrangements for me to teach a few classesas an adjunct, but that isn't the real reason I was moved.""What was the reason, then? And what does a Pope have to do with Americanmilitary projects, or `the Group' for that matter?""One question at a time," Andrew noted without diverting his attention from theorange he was peeling. "John Paul had nothing to do with this mysterious Group. Thesame goes for any direct involvement with the U.S. Military—obviously. He does,however, have friends within that community and the intelligence world as well. I don'tknow who, mind you, but I know this is true.""That seems very odd.""Not at all. I'm sure you're well aware that the papacy has always been politicallyinvolved remember, the Vatican is a political entity in its own right. It isn't at all unusualthat the Holy See would form friendships over the years with people in these arenas.""So how did you get here? Do you know where we are?""As I said, I was put into a place of opportunity. The American Southwest is fullof air bases and other military installations. If there was a project that entailed some61