“You!”
“The very same,” he said. He pulled out a Sig Sauer and pointed it at Lea. “I was sent down to get Baumann, but instead I find you as free as a kite. How did you get away from him?”
“I burned him alive, and I’d do the same to you given half a chance.”
“Unfortunately I have at least double the IQ of poor Heinrich, and I don’t give out chances, half or full. Get moving.” Grobel waved the gun at the end of the corridor. “Herr Zaugg doesn’t like loose ends.”
Lea Donovan watched in horror as the elevator doors slid open to reveal a vast complex deep inside the mountain. Dozens of men and women were hurrying about, completing tasks in preparation for something big. Some were checking inventories and loading crates onto a monorail whose rail twisted way into a darkened tunnel. Others were examining what looked like an air-conditioning system on the rock wall at the back. They all wore black boiler suits with a white Z on the back.
“Bring the girl with us,” Zaugg said. He was holding in his hands Poseidon’s trident — heavy, gold, but smaller than she had imagined it would be.
Grobel acknowledged the command by pushing Lea out of the elevator with a hefty nudge in the small of her back, almost causing her to fall over. Lea turned and gave him a look that would freeze mercury, but she knew there was nothing she could do to help herself — yet.
At Grobel’s gunpoint, Lea followed Zaugg down the galvanized steel staircase which connected the elevators to the main loading bays. It was like any other industrial space, and reminded Lea of Victoria Bus Station with its smells of oil and machinery and the sound of heavy vehicles turning on the polished concrete floors.
“What the hell is this place?” she asked, simultaneously amazed and terrified.
“This is the future, Miss Donovan,” said Zaugg, proudly assessing his work and presenting it to Lea with a generous sweep of his hand. “This is the Ark. Built two thousand feet under the mountain and able to withstand a fifty megaton nuclear blast. This is the safest place on earth in the event of a catastrophe… Now, if you please…”
Zaugg pushed a button on the door of the monorail carriage and it swooshed silently open. “Ladies first.”
He tipped his head to one side and smirked grimly as Grobel pushed Lea into the carriage, keeping the muzzle of his Sig Sauer firmly aimed in her direction.
When Zaugg was safely inside, the monorail began to slide gently forward and a few moments later the bright lights of the loading bay were gone, replaced with the subdued underlighting of the freshly carved transit tunnel. Lea felt the temperature drop once again, and was sure they were traveling deeper down in to the mountain, as well as towards the center of it.
“You impressed me a great deal with the way you dealt with Baumann,” Zaugg said. “By the way, what happened to him?”
Grobel replied: “She electrocuted him in a puddle of Coche-Dury les Perrieres.”
Zaugg was unperturbed. “And what’s the damage?”
“He’s dead.”
“I meant to my wine.”
“Oh…”
“Anyway, Miss Donovan — where was I?” Ah yes! Of course — the future. You see, the trident has yet undiscovered powers, but our reading of the ancient texts is that it is a weapon of such awesome power it would have been quite remiss of me not to make preparations for its use, as I am sure you will agree.”
Lea was horrified. “You can’t possibly know the extent of its power, Zaugg. You would be insane to try and use it.”
Zaugg was placid. “As ancient megaweapons go, Poseidon’s trident is the mother of them all. It is true we are not aware of its true power — not yet — but I cannot risk my life’s work, or my destiny. This is why we built the Ark — to keep us safe while the trident — how shall I put it — cleans up the world. After that, the way is clear for me to enjoy my immortality.”
“But without the map, you have no idea where the source of eternal life is.”
“Touché once again, Miss Donovan, but I fail to see how using the trident could make the search for the map anything but far easier. Once your puny rescue force has been eradicated, I will show you the first use of the trident in centuries — perhaps millions of years!”
They stepped off the carriage and walked to Zaugg’s private office in the Ark, but no sooner had they arrived when a man rushed into the plush room.
“Sir, our forces are being overwhelmed! It’s time to evacuate!”
“What are you talking about?” Zaugg said contemptously.
“The enemy forces have taken control of the main compound. Your men are deserting you.”
Zaugg’s face collapsed into a mask of rage and bitterness.
“Just give up, Zaugg!” Lea pleaded.
“Never!”
“There’s no escape now.”
Zaugg laughed. “You think I would leave myself vulnerable to that possiblity?” He grabbed Lea by the arm and pulled her roughly across the room. On a bookshelf was a single statue of Poseidon. Zaugg pulled it forward and the entire shelf began to slide to the right.
“We’re going for a ride.”
He turned to Grobel, nervously waiting in the office and yelled more orders at him: “Initiate the self-destruct sequence.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
The entire compound had now ceased to be Hugo Zaugg’s peaceful refuge in the mountains and instead an atmosphere of total pandemonium pervaded every corner of the place.
Previously loyal servants to Zaugg were now stealing anything they could get their hands on as Hawke and his forces swept through the rooms and corridors, the gym and the swimming pool, clearing them with their guns and grenades.
Only his most committed followers kept up the fight, firing back with machine guns and leaving booby-traps where they could in order to slow Hawke as he expedited the assault and closed in on Zaugg and Lea.
Now, in Zaugg’s private quarters, the resistance was even fiercer. Hawke ducked low and sprinted down a corridor lined with plush carpet and black and white pictures of Nazi rallies.
“Who the hell is this guy?” he said to himself as he ducked to dodge a hail of bullets fired over his head from a room at the side. He spun around and threw in a grenade, diving for cover as it exploded and fired shards of splintered desk and door and pieces of burned carpet back out in the hall.
“You talking to me?” said a voice in his ear. It was Nightingale.
“Sorry, no, N. Just enjoying Zaugg’s taste in interior décor. He has quite a nifty style of neo-Nazi gothic combined with postmodern whimsy.”
“Well, if you want to talk to him about it his office is a right turn then dead ahead.”
“Thanks.”
Hawke turned into the corridor to see two men with shaved heads standing outside a large oak door. They were armed with Heckler & Kochs and Hawke guessed they weren’t guarding the drinks cabinet.
“Got it, N — thanks for your help.”
The men began firing at him, tearing up the wall over his head and shattering a giant Chinese vase into a thousand pieces.
“Always a pleasure, she replied. “Don’t get your head blown off, please.”
She disconnected as Hawke launched his final assault, dropping to his stomach and firing the machine gun at the men who were, for all their firepower, sitting ducks at the end of a corridor. They returned fire but he made short work of them, and then headed towards Zaugg’s study.
In his panic and rage, Zaugg pulled a Luger from his desk and dragged Lea from his office in the Ark into the hidden passageway behind the bookcase. They stepped into another elevator and moments later the shiny steel doors opened to reveal they were standing on a windy platform jutting out of the mountainside. Lea watched the snow race past them as Zaugg pushed her out into the cold. She saw a single cable-car blowing gently in the wind.