Zahra and Yana both felt sheepish.
“Uh, yeah,” Zahra said, looking at her feet. “Sorry.”
“Same,” Yana said.
Hammet smiled. “I understand why you two use humor in situations like this. I, for one, could never laugh when surrounded by so much death.”
“It’s easy,” Yana said. “All you have to do is stare at a body and force it out. Eventually, you go crazy and start to believe that death is humorous.”
Zahra turned and gawked at her. “Or… you are just born with a screw loose?” Yana pushed through them and headed for the workstation. “Now, how do we bring this place down?”
“What about the engines?” Zahra asked. Yana looked up from the papers. “What? Didn’t you just tell us to put our sci-fi thinking caps on?” The Russian and German shared skeptical glances. “Go with it for a second. If this thing does have a bridge, then maybe we can overload something or whatever. I mean, we have power, right? Obviously geothermal or hydropower — enough to power the ship and the Underworld.”
Hammet pushed away from the tabletop. “Say we try this bridge, if it exists… how do we find it?”
Zahra raised her right hand and snapped her fingers. “The Sixth Seal already showed us how.” Yana and Hammet gave her twin blank stares. “The cables! They headed right. We went left. I bet they connect to the bridge or maybe even the engine room.”
“Very smart,” Yana said.
Zahra gave her a wink. “I have my moments.”
“What about all of this?” Hammet asked, motioning to the scattered papers.
“Doesn’t matter,” Zahra replied. “All that matters is that we bury this place.”
“Yes,” Yana agreed, “and preferably without us in it.”
Chapter 55
Henri
Henri’s men finally broke through the extra-large hatch. It took three of them to push it aside before it clunked to the floor. Henri stood back and watched, staring through the red dot mounted atop his rifle. He’d shoot the first person he saw on the other side.
But there was no one.
“Another elevator?” Emil asked. “Commander?”
Henri was confused, too. Nothing around him now was supposed to have existed, or at least it shouldn’t have been possible. That there was yet another level beneath the hangar was astonishing. He and the lieutenant led everyone inside the next space. Bolted to the wall beside the empty lift shaft was a call button. Henri didn’t skip a beat. He slammed the base of his fist down on it and stepped back.
Everyone did.
They formed a semi-circle around the opening and waited for their transportation, and possibly their prey, to arrive. After what seemed like an eternity, the grind of gears increased in volume.
Henri didn’t like his men’s positioning.
“Down,” he said softly.
The seven-man team knelt seconds before the elevator rose to meet them. The half-prone soldiers were ready for anything.
But the elevator was empty.
Henri stood. His men followed his lead and continued onto the lift. There was one man left. Henri held out his hand, stopping him.
“Not you.” The soldier looked deflated. “You are needed here in case they slip past us.”
The important assignment seemed to pick up the young Chief Petty Officer’s spirits a bit. He stepped back and gave his commander a nod. Henri reached for the button but collected himself before pressing it.
He had no idea what to expect below, but they needed to be ready for anything.
Henri pressed the button, the elevator engaged, and they descended. None of the men spoke. They just stood in silence and waited.
The platform moved as slowly as Henri figured it would. But he was a patient man. He’d wait as long as he had to.
A quarter of the way into their descent, the stone elevator shaft morphed into one constructed entirely out of steel beams. Henri turned around and stepped forward. His men parted and allowed him through. The area around them was covered in ice except for the back wall, which was still made of rock. They had just entered a glistening subterranean cavern. The framework supporting the elevator track made it impossible to see the bottom.
Again, he was forced to wait.
Then it was revealed.
The platform clunked into place on the edge of a stone clifftop. In between the ice on the other side of the chasm and the Sixth Seal strike team was an abyss of nothingness, save for a reinforced bridge stretching across it. And within the ice wall at the bridge’s end was a massive black shape.
Henri nearly dropped his rifle. He staggered off the platform and came to a stop a foot in front of the overpass. Emil and Luka appeared on either side of him. They were equally shocked at what lay before him.
“It can’t be…” Henri muttered.
“What is it, sir?” Emil asked.
Luka glanced at him. “A bunker… beneath a hangar… beneath a bunker?”
Henri swallowed. He’d heard of what the Sixth Seal had called their ‘Holy Grail,’ but he’d never been told what exactly it was. The object had a name that resonated through the organizational hierarchy.
“The Reliquary. This is it.” He didn’t care who was around to hear what he had to say. Present company deserved the knowledge.
Two of the sharpshooters whispered to one another. This time, Henri didn’t berate them.
“The Reliquary?” Emil asked.
Henri hadn’t spoken the name aloud in nearly twenty years. “A few years after I joined, I began looking into the Nazis’ Antarctic expeditions. I was curious and wanted to know more about what really happened here. So, I asked some questions and was told of an object the founders had revered above all others. It was said that if Himmler and Krause could have, they would have gladly given up the Holy Grail, the Ark of the Covenant, and the Spear of Destiny for the Reliquary in a trade if they’d been offered it.”
He stepped closer. “I said that, surely, two men of such esteem couldn’t be so foolish. Nothing could be worth what the other three are worth. The answer I was given changed my outlook on what we sought. It was quite simple, actually. I was told that worth was not the same as value. While the Jewish relics may be priceless to some, the Reliquary was infinitely more valuable in regard to the Sixth Seal. This is the pinnacle for us.”
“Do you know what it is?” Emil asked.
“Truthfully, no, I do not,” Henri replied, “though I have my suspicions.”
“Sir, if we may know,” Emil said. “Who told you this?”
Henri turned his head and stared into the eyes of his faithful lieutenant. “Ulrich Krause.”
“Herr Krause’s own son divulged such information willfully?” Luka asked. That was the first question he had asked since laying eyes on the fabled item of Himmler’s heart.
“He did. Truth be told, he never fully believed in his father’s secrecy. He said it made his people feel unwanted — like they didn’t matter — like they were merely tools. Though, there were some things that he did not tell even me. However, I suspect that it was for safety rather than secrecy.”
“We do it for the Sixth Seal, Commander,” Luka said. “That should be enough.”
Henri faced the idealistic boy. “Talk to me in twenty years, Master Chief. Time can whittle your resolve down to nothing. Sometimes, a soldier wants nothing more than to just understand.” He adjusted his gaze and burned holes into the Reliquary’s doorway. “I know I do.”