“Is that a throw switch?” she asked.
“I believe so, yes,” Hammet replied. “Looks straight out of Frankenstein.”
“It’s Frankensteen,” Zahra corrected, going straight to the Brooskian version.
That got a grin out of Yana. “Well, throw it.”
Hammet looked at Zahra for confirmation. She nodded. “Do it. And step back… just in case.”
The KSK commando threw the switch.
Chapter 38
Zahra
The throw switch lever snapped into place, releasing a hum of electricity. It flowed all around the three operatives. Hammet rejoined the two women, and they watched as lights slowly winked to life above and below them. Some of the bulbs burst as they ignited after being dormant for decades.
Zahra took in the upper level as it came into full view. She extinguished her flashlight and saw that the entire room was one giant circle roughly two hundred feet across. A twenty-foot-wide catwalk ringed around the perimeter of the space, though only half of that was walkable space. The catwalk also showed off dozens of cut-and-paste doors. Each door paired with a room of some kind. The ceiling held several enormous pulley systems and monstrous platforms. This was how the workers would have moved heavy machinery in and out of the Underworld.
“The cave-in — the poisonous gas—” Hammet started.
“A lie,” Zahra finished. “I think we may have had some help with that…”
Hammet eyed her but figured it out. “The American on the U-boat?”
She shot the man with a playful finger gun. “Bingo.”
“He saved everyone,” Yana said. “A single act prevented all of this from coming to light. He potentially saved millions of lives. Maybe even billions.”
The gravity of the statement really hit Zahra hard. One special agent took down this entire operation with little more than deception. But then he had gotten stuck in the ice as well. Even then, he did what he knew was right and killed everyone involved, knowing that he was also destined to die.
“Kinda reminds you of the end of Rouge One, huh?” Zahra said, staring off into nothing. “A rebel team saved the lives of others, knowing full well that they were about to die.”
“For the greater good,” Hammet said. “We owe that man a lot.”
“Yes, we do,” Yana said, leaving Zahra’s side. She went off and inspected the closest room. She tried the handle and found it unlocked. When it opened, she stepped back.
“What is it?” Zahra asked.
Yana looked at her. “It’s a bedroom,” Zahra and Hammet glanced at one another, “and it’s occupied.”
They gathered around the now open door. Yana entered and knelt beside a bed holding a decomposed body. She brushed a layer of grime away from the person’s breast pocket.
“Golubev,” she read. “Another Russian.” She straightened his sleeve to get a better look at a sewn patch. “A colonel, from what I can see.” She stood. “I wonder what happened to him?”
“Probably starved,” Hammet suggested.
“How do you know?” Yana asked.
“Well, there are no physical signs of foul play. No gunshot wounds, knife wounds, broken vertebrae…”
“He could have been poisoned,” Zahra suggested.
“Possibly, but in this environment, and without aid… I bet once the Sixth Seal closed up shop, and after the U-boat got stuck in the ice, the people still here were left to fend for themselves and starved. They may have had enough rations to hold out for a little while, but without care packages coming in regularly…”
“That’s terrible.” Yana and Hammet gazed at Zahra. “Oh, I’m not saying these bastards didn’t deserve it. Still, what a way to go. Left behind in Antarctica to starve to death because of a lie too.”
“I’d rather take my own life than die this way,” Yana said, exiting the quaint crypt.
Zahra didn’t outwardly agree or disagree. Honestly, she had no idea how she would respond if she’d been left in a situation like this.
The three explorers regrouped at the railing and watched as level after level was revealed by the cascading flow of electricity. Hundreds of lights ignited section by section. After six stories of such activity, the lights stopped at a large circular floor with a split running north to south across it.
Is there something beneath this place?
“Is it a silo?” Yana asked.
Zahra looked up. “Not unless the mountain opens, too.”
Yana let out a nervous laugh. “At this point, I’ll believe anything.”
“It’s a factory.” Hammet had not joined in their hypothecation. He had continued to study the floors beneath their feet. “I can see what looks like advanced aeronautic engineering equipment. Well, advanced for the time.”
Something clawed at Zahra’s spine. She turned and looked back the way they’d come. It hit her.
“The other doorways. The one’s back with the Sixth Seal eagle…”
Yana joined her. “You think there’s more of these rooms?”
“I think it’s pretty obvious that there are.”
Yana could only shrug. No one could be sure of anything until they poked around some more.
“Ladies?” They faced Hammet. “I think we should focus here first, ja?”
Neither Zahra nor Yana voiced an opinion. They just stepped back over to the railing and to Hammet and stood in silence.
“There’s no way this place was built during the war,” Zahra said, speaking to no one in particular. “This must have been here before that.”
“Long before that,” Hammet added.
“How long, though?” Yana asked.
“Hmmm,” Hammet muttered, thinking, “Best guess, based on Himmler’s career timeline, is that they started construction in the early thirties.”
“Okay,” Zahra said. “I can get on board with that, at least until we find something saying otherwise.”
“If that’s true,” Yana added, “then that means the Underworld was operational for nearly thirty years. Remember the date on the communique?”
“Yeah.” Zahra sighed. “1960.”
No one spoke for a minute.
“Can you image what this must have cost,” Yana said.
“Even back then, it was possible with countries like the United States, Germany, and the Soviet Union financing it,” Hammet explained. “I bet they all had private donors involved.”
“I wouldn’t doubt it,” Zahra said.
“Um,” Yana started, “how do we get down to the lower levels?”
Zahra scanned the upper level, stopping on the wall opposite their position. There was an opening, and even from here, she could tell it was cut by man — not nature.
“Over there.” She pointed at it. “That could be a way down.”
Yana and Hammet fell in line behind her, and they headed to the right. Unlike the U-boat, all the doors here were shut. Occasionally, Yana would veer off and open one out of curiosity. She didn’t verbally confirm what she saw, which to Zahra meant they were, indeed, bedrooms.
“If the other two doorways lead to spaces like this,” Yana said, voice low, “then there must have been hundreds of people working here at one time. This was a full-fledged community, not just a covert military installation.”
Hammet stopped. “I think you’re right.” The rooms paused for a span to reveal a passageway cut directly through the rock. Hammet stepped closer, clicked on his flashlight, and pointed it into the corridor. The beam ended in inky darkness. “I believe there’s another room like this one to the west. Which means…”