He expected to find a mountain of twisted and broken aluminum like he’d seen at other remote mountain crash sites.
Instead, the beam reflected off a small rectangular compartment. The only recognizable feature was another doorway leading further into the structure. The door was sealed tight and appeared to be made of the same smooth, silvery metallic substance. The door featured a triangle-shaped depression directly in its center, about six inches long on each side.
Jack shoved his way back out. “It’s not a commercial jet airliner. This looks more like an airlock than something you’d see on an aircraft.
“What then?” Leah asked.
“I don’t know. There’s an undamaged compartment inside, with another doorway, although it looks sealed. The floor is covered with water and something is generating heat, enough heat to melt snow and carve out this deep crevasse.”
He glanced up toward the surface. “I’m headed topside to call Paulson. He’s the expert on plane crashes.”
“What do you want us to do?” Marko asked.
“It’ll take energy to jumar up the ice wall,” Jack said. “You two sit tight.” He stared at Leah. “Stay away from that until I get back.”
Jack disappeared over the lip of the crevasse; Leah dropped to her knees. “Come on, Marko, let’s go inside.”
CHAPTER 58
Jack pulled himself over the lip of the crevasse and crawled to solid ground before standing. He zipped up his parka against the cold and searched the pockets for his handheld radio. He checked to make sure the Motorola communicator was tuned to the proper channel.
“Las Tortugas base, do you copy?”
Paulson’s voice bellowed through the radio’s speaker. “Go ahead, Jack.”
“We found something at the bottom of the ice. It could be aircraft wreckage.”
“What kind of wreck? Military?”
“I was only able to gain access to a small section of the fuselage, or whatever it is
“Jesus, did you find any bodies?”
“That’s the strange part; I don’t see much damage.” Jack paused. “I know you guys are working on the Las Tortugas, but—”
“Stand by….”
Jack paced the ice, stomping his feet to warm his toes.
“Okay, here’s what we’re gonna do,” Paulson said. “I’m coming over with Garrett since Ridley says it’ll be a cold day in hell before he climbs down into a hole in the ice.”
“I’ve got Leah and Marko standing at the bottom of the crevasse. How soon will you be here?”
“Twenty minutes tops on the snow machine,” Paulson replied. “A much shorter trip than you had pulling those sleds.”
CHAPTER 59
“Come on, Marko,” Leah said from her prone position on the ice. “Don’t be such a baby.”
Marko paced the slushy ice floor of the crevasse. “I’m waiting for Jack. He told us not to poke around inside until he returned.” He backed away from the doorway. “You go on ahead.”
“Have it your way.” Leah picked up the flashlight and slid under the lip of the entry. “I’m standing up in here.”
A moment later, the young climber forced his way after her through the narrow opening.
“There are a couple inches of water, so watch out.” She grinned. “See, no boogieman.” Leah pulled off her glove and felt around the inner door’s seal. “I wonder how we open this.”
“Sure you want to? Jack said that could be an airlock.”
“You’re nervous as a cat, and you’re making me jumpy. Nothing’s gonna bite you in here… I’m pretty sure.” She placed her palm against the wall and pulled it away. “This wall feels warm.”
Marko took two steps back and added, “Whatever you say.”
Leah let her fingers trace along the line marking the triangular indentation in the doorway. “There’s got to be an opening mechanism of some kind.”
Leah jerked her hand away. “I got a little shock right here in the middle of this triangle.” She tugged at his arm. “Maybe this is how you gain entry; some kind of identification system, fingerprints or something.”
“Obviously you don’t know the right code. So it sent you a warning.”
“Only the military would think up this kind of draconian security system,” Leah said. “I wonder if this is some kind of CIA base, designed to spy on the Russians or something.”
“Watch out, Leah…that wall already bit you once.”
“Hold the light so I can see what I’m doing.”
She opened her hand and placed it against the wall, sliding her palm around in an attempt to relocate the sensitive spot inside the triangle. She spread her palm as wide as she could and leaned against the door.
Without warning, the door slid open vertically, disappearing into the wall. Replacing the smooth surface was a cavernous blackness.
Leah fell more than stepped through the opening. As Marko rushed forward to pull her back, the door slammed down at lightning speed, trapping her inside.
CHAPTER 60
“Leah, can you hear me?” Marko beat the door with his fists, then kicked at it in frustration. He felt around the center of the entry with his hand and got no response. “I’ve got to find Jack,” he said to himself in desperation. He started crawling through the partially open entryway, only to have his face sprayed with ice crystals.
It was Jack, rappelling down the wall at high speed.
“She wouldn’t wait,” Marko said breathlessly. “She started messing with the doorway, and somehow it opened and sucked her inside.”
Jack landed heavily on the ice floor. “Relax and tell me as best you can exactly what happened.”
“We crawled under the door,” Marko paused. “Then she starts feeling around the center of the inner door. There’s a mark on the middle of the door. It gave her a shock.”
“A shock?” Jack dropped down on his stomach, preparing to pull himself under the doorway.
“An electric shock, that’s what she said anyway — like taking clothes out of the dryer. She wasn’t hurt, so—”
“She decided to give it one more test.”
“That’s when the door opened.” Marko shook his head in disbelief. “I swear to God, it sucked her inside and slammed shut.”
Jack pushed his way through the gap, and Marko followed.
“Show me exactly where she touched the door.”
“Right here.” The beam of the flashlight shook as Marko tried to hold it steady.
Jack reached out and let his fingertips brush against the entry. “You said she felt some kind of shock.”
“She jerked her hand back real fast. It scared the crap out of me.”
Jack allowed his fingers to roam over the center of the triangle shape. Every time he moved his hand, Marko flinched. “I’m not feeling anything at all. You sure it was in this area?”
“Right there.”
Jack stood and stared at the doorway for several minutes, his jaw clenching tight as he analyzed the problem. “Stay here. If you hear or see anything, give a good shout.”
Forty minutes later, Paulson and Garrett rolled up to the crevasse and shut down the snow machine. Jack glanced at his watch. “What took you guys?”
“We got about ten minutes out of camp and Garrett’s radio caught fire, in his hand. Looks like something overloaded it to such a degree that the lithium battery literally cooked off. We went back to camp to get another one but it turns out every handheld radio we had turned on at the time fried. Better check yours. If you had it on, it’s likely in the same condition.”
“I had mine off to save battery,” Jack said, checking the radio after pulling it from his parka. He switched it on, and the LED screen lit up. “I’m good here. What do you think caused it?”