Richter shrugged. “We did not bring them for nothing, Lieutenant. You'll find that my methods can be quite effective when used properly.”
Harald nodded, beginning to see something very frightening, very unreachable in his new commander. He had never met anyone quite like him in the regular army.
“Lower! Lower, you sonofabitch,” Richter said, kicking one of the prisoners in the ass. “You should get some sleep, Lieutenant. You look tired, and the next few days will be busy. Meet with the men, then have Sergeant Metzger see you to your quarters. I expect full productivity by the end of the week. We should talk about the command structure when you get a chance.”
“Very good, sir.”
Harald continued to stare at the rope. It wasn't moving any more.
“What do you see down there?” Richter called. “I say, what do you see down there?” After a few moments, he turned to the lieutenant. “That's all for now.”
Though he was being dismissed, Harald lingered a moment longer. His eyes were still glued to the rope, still watching it sway down in the dark of the crater. The commander called out several more times, all to no avail. Finally, Richter said, “Bring him up.”
And of course, when the four prisoners lifted the rope, there was nothing on the end. The man had disappeared into the darkness.
As quickly as he could, Harald turned and began walking towards the base. He heard a thump and a cry as Richter kicked another prisoner into the dirt, then hurried along even faster when he heard the caw of the genuine laughter that followed.
4
The fate of Captain Smit, as it turned out, would be discovered by the new prisoners long before the good lieutenant.
As Harald made his way back to the base, Dominik and Ari stood outside of the door to the science laboratory. The term laboratory seemed rather generous considering it looked like every other block of concrete at the base, but that's what they had been told. The two of them had been escorted to the lab by a pair of soldiers they did not recognize, and then the soldiers had walked off as if they were no longer needed. It felt exceedingly odd, though Dominik knew they were not alone. From where they stood, he could see the snipers in the towers, the guard at the gate, the engineers in the vehicle depot.
“You think we should knock?” Ari asked.
“Maybe we should just go in.”
“Wait! Do you hear that?”
Dominik grabbed the door and pulled it open. There was no one on the other side. “You're hearing things, Ari.”
“I'm not.”
“Still expecting that cup of tea then?”
“At this point, I'd settle for a friendly hello. It's awfully dark in there.”
“Do you want to go back?”
“Don't you?”
“We're supposed to go in. They wouldn't have brought us out here otherwise. I thought you were an optimist, Ari?”
The other man scoffed, but he stepped past Dominik into the hall ahead. They were going, like it or not. Dominik, however, wasn't worried. They were off the ship, and he had seen the bunker where the lot of them would sleep. Their room had been unadorned save for two beds, but this in and of itself was a miracle. They had blankets. They had space and food. They had access to a dry toilet, a sight which had made Lucja weep. They would still be under lock and key, but they would not be given so much just to have it stripped. Of course, Dominik was not immune to how manipulative this was, how he felt more servile now than he had during the entire journey. But he had his wits, and he knew he had to keep them if they were going to survive.
“Are you coming?” Ari asked.
Dominik grunted and stepped after him.
Like the other bunkers, the hall in front of them was narrow and anfractuous. Unlike the others, however, it ended in a narrow stairway leading down beneath the ground. Dominik imagined the earth just over them, imagined he and Ari had already walked over this very spot when they had been above. It did much to explain why the vehicles in the compound were limited to the depot near the gate; the ceiling over such a place could not be very sturdy.
They stepped into the room at the bottom like children in a dark wood. Dominik observed the menagerie of items with something like awe. There were tables, tools, instruments and generators, a collection of metallic odds and ends so bizarre Dominik didn't know what purpose they served. At the end of the room, he could see glass terrariums — almost like prison cells — full of the same bizarre tentacles they had seen on the way in. These were smaller, but of the same origin, he had no doubt. They were wrapped around various objects: small trees, metal framework, and in several cases, animal bones. They seemed to pulse in the dim light, their slimy shapes coiled around their perches like serpents.
“Dominik!” Ari said, pointing. “Look at that!”
He turned to find himself face to face with cylindrical machine in the corner. It had a wide metal base with a device in the center that looked almost like an engine. Like a Hamburg steak sandwich, Dominik thought.
“Is that what I think it is?”
Dominik nodded. “Well, we don't know if it works, but it looks a lot like Lawrence's cyclotron to me.”
“Good God. Here? You think they built it?”
“Well, I don't think they stole one, if that's what you're asking.”
“I wouldn't be so sure,” Ari said. “You've seen what else they've stolen.”
“Even if they did, they would have had to disassemble it and reassemble it, and that means somebody knows what they're doing. I don't think they would have gone all the way to Berkeley, do you? No, somebody built this one.”
Dominik stepped away from the machine, both drawn and repulsed by what else the lab might contain. That was when he saw the body.
Atop a table near one of the glass cages, he saw the outline of what looked like a human corpse. He froze, wondering if the sight would ever cease to startle. He'd seen enough of the faceless and the dying during the last four years in the gutters of his own neighborhood, to be sure, and yet he still found himself in shock.
“What's wrong with him?” Ari asked.
The skin was blotchy, veins standing out in strange spiderweb patterns, the eyes bulging beneath closed lids as if they had exploded in their sockets. Strange grass-like hairs grew from the nose and ears. The body itself was secured to the table with two leather straps, one over the shoulders, and one over the thighs. Had they done this to him while he was still alive?
Fingers of dread began to creep into Dominik's mind. He heard a voice, but it sounded like it had come from inside a drum. “What?” he asked, realizing it was Ari talking.
“I said, 'Are you all right?' It's terrible, Dominik, but you're acting like… like, I don't know.”
“This must be what they want us to do, Ari,” he croaked. “They must want us create some kind of poison. Have you seen his skin? It's like he's been drowned in some kind of… some kind of—”
“Let's get you out of here.”
Ari threw his arm around his companion and turned them towards the stairwell from whence they'd come. But standing in their path, blocking the light, was a man. Dominik noted with no surprise at all that it was one of the ugliest men he had ever seen.
The figure raised a hand, and with it, the barrel of a pistol. It was pointed straight at them, its metallic glint unmistakable.
A snapping sound came from behind them, and with it, a roar so terrible that it split the two men apart. The thing on the table was alive! It snapped through one of its leather restraints, bolting upwards and clawing. Dominik could hear it hissing and spitting in its blind rage, its mouth chomping and its teeth clacking.