◆ PARALLAX

That is where I wanted this to end up. Not "Cheyenne Mountain is the only real base," but "here is what a real documented facility looks like, use it as your template." The twenty-five-ton doors. The spring-mounted buildings. The granite overburden. The Congressional records. The environmental statements. The tours that used to run.

That is what you look for when you evaluate the other stories -- not the absence of proof, but the absence of the kind of evidence real projects leave behind. Money goes somewhere. Construction needs permits. Contracts get filed. When that paper does not exist, that tells you something. Build your framework around what is documented, and the rest sorts itself out.