It took close to three hours of steady downhill walking to get to the far end of the excavation. Every few feet Jack, Carl, and Sebastian, and even the Vietnamese Tram, looked down and saw expended shell casings and more detonator cap covers for the German grenades. During one rest stop they compared notes. There were several differing calibers of the expended rounds. Everything from 7.62 to 5.56 millimeter casings were found. They had all come to the conclusion that sometime in the forties there had been one hell of a firefight in the excavation.
As the unnatural breeze inside picked up, they began to hear a wailing sound. The noise was unnerving to all in the group. Jack knew it to be air being pushed through a small opening in the rear wall that they were fast approaching, but the eerie sound made him edgy nonetheless.
“It seems we would have learned our lesson by now about places like this,” Everett said, slowing to allow Niles, Alice, and the senator to catch up. Bringing up the rear of the group were Sebastian and Tram. Wedged in between were the four scientists, who continually scanned the surrounding rock strata and the support beams of steel that had been installed by the Germans.
“You would think,” Jack said, as he examined the dead end of solid stone ahead. “But what do you expect out of a couple of stupid lifers?”
“I hear that,” Carl said, as he used the butt of his M-16 to hammer the rock he was leaning against. “Well, that wind is coming from somewhere,” he said, “but it’s not here.”
“Jack, you may want to take a look at this,” Niles called out as he eased the senator down once more. The old man was looking like he was pretty near the end and Jack was concerned for him, but knew better than to call an extended halt.
Collins and Everett nimbly hopped from the perch they had taken a quarter of the way up the large wall of rock.
“You know,” Everett said, looking back at the spot where they had just been, “the more I look at that, the more I think that was a cave-in or a rock slide of some kind.”
“I was thinking the same thing, swabby,” Jack said as they approached Niles.
“What is it, Doc? We’ve hit a dead end here.”
“It’s back here,” Compton said as he turned and entered a small cove of raised stone.
As Jack and Everett followed, Pete, Ellenshaw, Appleby, and the MIT engineer, Dubois, sat next to Alice and Lee. All of them took long pulls of water from clear bottles they had brought with them. The lighting allowed Jack to see that they were all growing tired. As Collins waited for Tram and Sebastian to join them, he remembered to use his radio to check in. So far, every hour on the hour, he had reported to the guard command watching the mine entrance.
“Charlie One actual calling CQ, come in, over.”
“Charlie One actual, this is CQ. Captain Mark-Patton, over.”
“Roger, radio check,” Jack said, barely able to hear the British officer from two and half miles below the surface of the mountain.
“Signal has slipped down to thirty percent, but clear at the moment,” Mark-Patton said.
“Roger, talk again in an hour,” Jack said, “Charlie One actual out.”
Collins placed the radio back on his belt. He came to a complete stop, as did the others. The vibration came upon them out of the ground. It felt mechanical at first, but then they all could feel it in their inner ears and knew it to be sound. The sound and vibration stopped as Jack looked up. The sixty-five-foot electrical cords holding the lamps were swaying-not much, but they were moving. So far the breeze that had them chilled had not been enough to move the thick, rotting wiring of the lighting system installed in the thirties and forties. Collins looked back and saw that the others, Lee included, had felt it too. The whole event lasted the duration of Jack’s radio check, and ceased just as he terminated the call.
“That was interesting,” Everett said, looking up at the swaying lights.
“Not as interesting as this,” Niles said as he gestured to a flat area fronted by a large rock wall. There, lined up in neat rows stretching for a quarter mile to the right and left, and unseen if you stayed on the trail leading to the dead end, were what looked like graves. Each one had a marker, some larger than others.
Collins and Sebastian reached for their large flashlights and shone them on the first few markers. The lighting here was far dimmer than the rest of the excavation, being blocked by a large lava wall created many millions of years before.
“Unknown Soldier.” Sebastian read the German words from the first marker. “Waffen SS, 12 December 1944.”
Jack shone his light down the first row until it became too weak to carry further.
“Jesus, from what I can see, they were all buried within three days of each other,” Everett said, moving further down the line.
“What do you think, Mr. Director? Cave-in?” Jack asked Niles.
“From the looks of that wall of rock, that seems like a safe bet,” Niles said. He turned to face Collins. “At least so you would think. Then again, if you’re like me and the senator and have been picking up all these expended rounds on the cave floor, you might want to reevaluate that guess.”
“So you were looking too,” Sebastian said while he scanned more of the grave markers.
“Pretty hard to miss, Major,” Niles answered, brushing some of the dust off the stone markers. “They took the time to use machines to etch their service branch and date of death, but no names.”
“I estimate over a thousand graves. Four rows,” Everett said as he returned to the group. “The markers go all the way to the cave-in, or whatever it is.”
Collins walked with Niles toward the dead end of rock and dirt. He reached down and brought one of the fist-sized stones to his face and shone the flashlight on it.
“What is it, Jack?” Niles asked. He raised his head and looked around.
“This isn’t rock,” he said. He looked up at the massive fall. “It’s concrete. And look here-there’s a larger piece.” Jack kicked at a one-foot-by-two-foot chunk of white concrete.
“Maybe it was just landfill that the Germans threw in here.”
“Or maybe this was an entrance to another gallery. The sign back there said we had entered gallery number one, but we haven’t come across any others.”
“Good point, Jack,” Niles said, turning to reevaluate the mass of rock and concrete before him.
“Maybe this will shed some light on your speculation, Colonel Collins,” a voice said from behind them.
Jack and Niles turned to see the Vietnamese sniper, Tram, holding a large sample of stone out for them to see. The rock was ancient lava that had darker markings on it. Jack took the sample and turned the light on it.
“Maybe burn marks from the original lava flow,” Niles said.
Jack rubbed his thumb over the scorch marks and rubbed the soot between his thumb and fingers. He brought the mixture to his nose. Then he held his fingers out to Tram.
“Smell familiar, Private?” he asked.
Tram sniffed and raised his brows.
“Semtex, or something like it-maybe some sort of dry explosive. Not any kind of plastique.”
“Possibly something the German army or Waffen SS would use?”
“I’m not that familiar with World War II explosives, Colonel, so I will rely on your historical expertise,” Tram said.
“Handy little fella to have around, isn’t he?” Niles said as he watched the Vietnamese soldier head for the opening that led back to the trail.
Jack smiled; “You don’t know the half of it, Niles,” he answered, tossing the rock toward Carl. “What do you make of that?”
Everett smelled it, then actually tasted it. He looked at Jack.
“Cordite, some kind of explosive,” Everett said. He looked up at the blockage. “I guess we know now that the Germans brought this down to block the entrance to something.”
“Let’s see if we can get in there. Niles. Could you go back and get the senator and Alice to rest as best they can? I’ll get a detail down here with food and water and sleeping equipment. Maybe a medic to keep a closer eye on the… well, we may need a medic here anyway,” Jack said. He turned to face Everett and Sebastian. “Hopefully our Polish friends or SEALs brought some explosives along with them.” He looked at his watch. He frowned when he saw that he was past his self-imposed deadline.