Max’s eyebrow lifted as soon as he heard the words. “The tip of the iceberg, so to speak,” he said.
Simon had been listening very carefully. “So there is a central command?” he said.
Lucas nodded. “That’s where the whole operation is controlled. Down on Shelf 3. Deep. So deep even the air is thin.”
Simon hunched his shoulders inside his suit to try and trap just a fraction more heat. Max wrapped his arms around his torso and squeezed. They both knew no matter how good the exo-suits were, it was cold in these tunnels. And the topic of discussion was chilling them in an entirely different way.
“I can’t believe they’ve kept it a secret all this time,” Simon said, still trying to get his mind around the idea.
“That’s the biggest miracle of all, isn’t it?” Lucas said. “But it’s all about the control of information. Vector5 has been monitoring activity on and around the continent for three decades, making sure that no radar would discover their tunnels, especially the obscure entrances to Fissure 9. That’s why your submarine started malfunctioning as it approached; they can manipulate sound waves, radio waves, even light. Makes you wonder what the theories around the Bermuda Triangle were all about, eh?”
They were moving again, heading downhill toward an almost perfectly circular side tunnel lined with ice and permafrost. Simon thought he could detect the slightest hint of light glowing deep inside it.
“They control information, too,” Lucas continued. “No messages can enter or leave this land mass without Vector5’s watchful eye. You cannot send information to anyone outside the surface of the ice. Even the vehicles that Vector5 uses are designed to escape radar detection by some accidental fly-over or rogue intel-gatherer who happens to try a deep scan.”
“You mean, this whole continent has been under Vector5’s surveillance and control for over twenty years?”
“Longer,” replied Lucas. “But I’m afraid it goes further than that. Information around the world has been controlled to allow this operation to take place. It’s the only way they could have remained secret for so long. I’m positive that high-level members of all the most powerful nations are part of it. How could they not be? And they are benefiting from the steady flow of energy resources, strategic metals, and innovation out of this place.” He clapped his hands together and suppressed a shudder as he trudged forward. The cold was starting to get to him, too. “I hate to admit it, but I’m sure some of the scientists that have been working on the surface are connected in some way as well.”
Lucas continued, struggling to breathe and still speaking through the thick mask covering his face.
“We’ve been trying for years-years-to transmit information to the outside world, but our efforts have been futile. It wasn’t until a few weeks ago that eighteen scientists including myself escaped the Dragger Station, approximately two thousand feet below where we’re standing.” They were inside the branching tunnel now, traveling over a sheet of ice so hard they left no footprints at all. “Frankly, it was a miracle that we escaped at all. It took literally months of planning-stealing supplies, hiding and even building weapons. There were forty-eight scientists, researchers, and support staff all together. Eighteen of us got out. The rest…dead. And we’ve been surviving on stolen tech and leftovers ever since.”
He sighed heavily and shook his head. “I never imagined I could be capable of cold-blooded murder,” he said quietly, not looking at either of them. “But I had no choice. None of us did. All we wanted was to get out of this icy hell! That’s all we wanted.” He paused to contemplate what he had done for a moment and then continued, “Anyway, it’s done. We seized an opportunity and capitalized on it. Since then, we’ve been on the run. Luckily, we found an old repair station that was connected to one of the utility tunnels. Thank god, with the group of scientists and engineers that we had, we were able to re-activate some of the old vehicles that had been abandoned. We are only traveling in adjacent tunnels at the moment, the ones that were used for ventilation and removal of ice during the coring process years ago. Vector5 can’t reach us-at least not at the moment. It’s not worth their time. But if and when they really want to dig us out, believe me, they can. And that will happen sooner than later, I’m afraid. Unless we can finally find a way to escape Antarctica completely.”
“So these aren’t the main tunnels?” Max said, looking up into the endless dark, remembering the massive domes, the high arches all around, the incredibly complex map they had seen in the Spector. “These are the utility tunnels?”
“Max,” he said with a wicked smile, “Believe me, you wouldn’t stand a chance against the machinery that travels through the main tunnels.”
Simon pushed it away. It was too much, just…too much. But he still had only one question; he still wanted only one answer. “Where, exactly, is my father, Lucas? How do I get to him?”
Lucas slowed down for a second and hunched over, putting his hands on his tired knees as he tried to catch his breath. Then he said in a very different voice-one far older, far wearier than the one that had begun his story.
“Simon,” he said, “there are a few hundred scientists that are held captive. I’m not positive exactly how many. But those that are finished with their task are terminated very rapidly and without remorse, or a sense of humanity, or even the remotest inkling of guilt. No one down here is certain if they will live from one day to the next. I can’t tell you if your dad is still alive, but I’ll tell you something for certain: entering this world is suicide. Suicide. And I, for one, will not face Vector5 again!”
He straightened up and looked forward-at the tiny, glowing light that was the scientists’ current refuge.
It was a robot graveyard. There were wheels, legs, pistons, printed circuit boards, hydraulics-all the left over pieces of two generations of technology, from vehicles to computers to discarded AIs. They filled the narrowing cave from side to side, a tangle of metal and wire and fiber-optics that would never be untangled. A set of inflatable tents, luminous domes, cones and ziggurats was attached to the ice as the floor curved up into a wall-living quarters for the renegade scientists.
They had nearly reached their destination. Lucas was nearly home.
“We are almost out of this hell,” he said. “And whether we make it the rest of the way or die right here, I don’t care, you are not dragging me or any of my people down there.”
He risked a glance at Simon only when he had finished. All he saw there was grim determination. No fear, no weariness, no fatigue, just resolve.
Simon gave Lucas the hardest look he’d ever seen. “Fair enough,” Simon told him. “You’ve made yourself clear. Now you listen to me.” His head lowered. His eyes seemed to burn with a fire all their own. “I don’t give a fuck who is here, or how dangerous they think they are. I will find my father even if I have to climb all the way to the bottom of this hellhole myself. And all you have to do is tell me how to get to Central Command.”
Lucas’ chin came up defiantly as if he was about to challenge Simon’s demand. Max saw the worst possible outcome. He put a hand on his best friend’s shoulder and squeezed, very gently, ready to counter an angry, reflexive blow. He knew that Simon could kill this man with a single blow if he wanted to. But Simon didn’t move. His shoulder felt like solid stone inside his suit.
“Simon,” Lucas said in a surprisingly measured tone, “I don’t care what the hell you do. But don’t count me in. I’ll tell you how to get there. I have no reason not to. You haven’t got a clue where you are, and I’ll make sure you couldn’t lead Vector5 back here even if you tried. So you’ll get your intel and all the supplies you need, and that’s where we part ways.” He turned away from him and crossed the last few steps toward the encampment.
“This is your hell now, not mine.” Lucas said. “I would rather die of hunger and hypothermia than to go down there again.”