Tom held the page about a foot away from the camera on his head. Soon he heard Mr. Park’s voice.
“This looks like some kind of document referencing a ship that was being chartered. A cargo ship of some kind.”
Anderson quickly said, “That’s unsettling. But it doesn’t have anything to do with nuclear technology?”
“No,” Mr. Park said definitively.
Tom asked the one question that was itching his mind, “What do you think that 39 means at the top?”
“Could it be the 39th ship they were hiring?” This time Sara spoke.
“I don’t know,” Tom said. “I’m looking at all of these pieces of paper and each one has a 39 at the top or somewhere on it. The notebooks all have a 39 on the front too. Even the computer has a sticker on it that says 39. Mr. Park, does 39 mean anything?” As Tom looked around, he saw a 39 on everything.
Tom heard Mr. Park’s voice slowly respond to him. “It could.” Then he paused. “I think it would be a good idea to go take a look at that warehouse.” Tom thought Mr. Park sounded like he had understood something, but was not sure. Tom put the piece of paper down. He walked out of the office and shut the door behind him. He turned right and started walking towards the large entrance to a massive open, dark space. He walked slowly past the other offices. He tried to see what was past the threshold ahead. He could not make it out, but as he came closer, it looked like aisles of shelves.
When he arrived at the entrance to the warehouse he stopped. He listened again for any sound. Again he heard absolute silence. He tried to gauge the size of the underground warehouse stretching out in front of him. It looked like an airplane hanger.
“This warehouse looks to be around 3 football fields long and about two football fields wide” Tom said after looking around.
Anderson’s voice came on, “Got it. Wow. Do you want to take a look at those shelves ahead of you? What’s that stuff sitting on them?”
“Roger.”
Tom walked ten feet to the aisle in front of him. It stood about seven feet tall and seemed to have about seven shelves. It was difficult to make it out even with the night vision, so Tom flipped up the goggles and turned on a small flashlight on his helmet. He shined it on the shelves.
All the voices in the Command Room burst out. “Oh my God. Is that — what kind of base is this?”
Tom started at it in silence. In front of him on all of the shelves were bags. They looked like bricks, filled with a white powder. They were stacked up on each shelf. Tom saw that there was a sign above the shelf.
“That sign says ‘heroin,’” Mr. Park said back in the Command Room. Tom looked down the aisle of shelves to his right. He saw bag after bag of white powder, or heroin as it was now identified.
“What is this place? Is there anything else here?” Anderson said.
Tom started walking down the aisle. He looked at the shelves of heroin, making sure his helmet camera had a good view. When he got to the end of the aisle, Tom realized that he had just walked by millions of dollars worth of heroin. At the end of the aisle, he could see the warehouse better. He saw that there were many rows of these shelves. At roughly the center of the warehouse, there was more open space.
“Tom, can you walk through another one of these aisles?” Anderson asked.
“Roger”
Tom walked past a few and then turned into the fifth or sixth aisle. He aimed his head at the shelves as he walked through it, again so the Command Room had a good view.
“Is that — ?” Sara began. “I think that’s —.“ Tom grabbed one of the bags off the shelf. Instead of a white powder, he saw what looked like a pile of crystals.”
Mr. Park declared, “This sign says Methamphetamine.”
“Crystal Meth? They aren’t kidding around.” Anderson replied. Tom continued walking down the aisle.
“This entire row looks like it’s shelves of meth,” Tom said as he reached he middle of the aisle. He sped up to get to the end of the aisle. It was a long walk however.
“Is all this here meth too?” Sara asked.
“Roger, this is still meth.” Tom walked by and looked at shelves stocked full of these bags of crystals. He looked up and saw the top shelves piled with at least ten bags. The other shelves had fewer, but were so full Tom could barely stick his hand through when he tried to grab another bag to check it. Tom continued walking and after a few minutes reached the end of the aisle.
“Tom, can you see what that open space in the middle of this warehouse is?” Sara asked.
“Roger.” Tom walked past the other aisles. As he walked past each one he glanced down to see what was there. At this point, Tom was not surprised.
“Guys, I don’t know if it’s coming across clearly on the helmet cam, but each of these aisles I’m walking past is stocked full of drugs as well.”
“Roger. We see it.”
Tom kept walking past what seemed like endless aisles of drugs. He spotted more bags of powder and crystals but also tablets. After finally walking past the last aisle he saw a vast open space in front of him, free of aisles. Within the vast space, two large glass rooms sat alone. They looked like large, clear boxes resting on the ground. Tom realized he was looking at laboratories, enclosed so that the chemicals they were mixing did not get into the warehouse. He could see right inside. There were several long rectangular tables. They were outfitted with Bunsen burners, beakers, trays, tubes and sinks. By the entrance to the glass rooms, he saw coatracks that hosted several hanging lab coats. There were tables next to them with masks and gloves. Tom walked up to the glass rooms. He noticed a pipe coming out of the top and going straight to the roof of the warehouse.
“Those are ventilation shafts coming out of those rooms. Those are meth labs,” Sara said.
Tom walked up to one of the rooms and stared inside. The lab looked clean but it also looked used. Test tubes had residue. The Bunsen burners looked burned around the edges.
“These look like they are in active use,” he said on his radio. Tom looked further back into the warehouse and saw that there was something past the glass labs. He walked over to take a look. He aimed his helmet light up high to illuminate more space.
“That looks like an assembly line, a production space.” Sara said back in the Command Room. In front of Tom there were at least ten long tables that stretched out at least thirty feet. Stools sat on either side. It looked like a typical setup in a manufacturing facility. But as Tom walked closer he saw empty bags stacked up in piles. They looked like empty versions of the bags holding the drugs in the shelves he saw earlier. Tom looked at the wall behind the tables and saw several large elevator doors. He assumed these went to other entrances in the forest and were probably used to load and unload the drugs.
“So this is basically a big drug-making factory,” Anderson finally said. “We have yet to see any sign of any nuclear research.”
Tom at this point noticed a desk that sat by itself against the side wall. It looked like a floor manager’s desk. He walked towards it. As he got closer, his flashlight revealed that it had a lot of papers and folders piled up. When Tom reached it, he grabbed one of the folders at the top of the pile and looked at it. It also had some writing and then a “39” written on the front.