She stared it. “Really, Francis? A freezer down here? That makes no sense.” She continued to stare. “Do you notice anything strange about this ‘freezer’?”
There was something that he couldn’t immediately put his finger on.
“Oh, wait. There’s no handles on the outside. How would you open it?” There was a seam down the middle and hinges on the sides. Clearly there were two doors that would give access. But how?
Lena glanced back toward where they came in. The door was still securely shut. She set the rifle down carefully and then started to pull off her gloves.
“I see something. Look here.”
There appeared to be an outline of a small rectangular seam in the front of the right side door. She touched it gently. It didn’t budge. Next she tried to get her nails under the seam for leverage to pull it open. Again no results.
“Strange. Tell me, Doctor Hamlin, what is your big American brain telling you about getting this open? You must have a better idea than what I’ve come up with so far.”
“I’m surprised you aren’t thinking about trying to shoot it open.”
She smiled a bit. “Who says I’m not?”
“Try this first. Push in on the panel.”
She frowned. “That seems counter-productive. I want it to swing open, not to get jammed in any tighter than it already is.”
“Just try.”
She complied. To her surprise, the small panel depressed about half an inch with virtually no resistance. It clicked softly, and when she released the pressure on it, the left side popped open. She grabbed it and swung it wide open. Inside was an illuminated keypad with the digits zero through nine displayed in a simple grid pattern.
“I can’t believe it,” she said.
“You see. I’m a genius.”
“I’ll believe that when you figure out what the code is.”
That put out his fire very quickly.
“It could be anything.”
Lena shook her head. “If it is a random number, we will never get in. There may even be a security program that will disable the keypad after so many incorrect attempts.”
Hamlin sighed, creating another impressive plume. “You’re a veritable fount of good news. So what you’re saying is, if we’re not confident that we know what the code is, we shouldn’t even try to open it.”
“Correct.”
Hamlin was stumped.
“Maybe it’s in Sokolov’s room somewhere.”
She filtered that thought.
“Maybe. He did lead us here. He must have thought that we could figure out the code somehow. Before we give up or freeze trying, let’s just think this through. What possible number could be used as the code?”
Hamlin’s brain was tired. They had just gone through a similar process to figure out what the numbers that made up the coordinates for this building meant.
“Hey, wait a minute.”
“What is it?” Lena asked.
“The coordinates for the building. I don’t suppose there’s any way that could be the combination.”
“Well, that would explain why he thought we could figure it out. But it is such a large number. I doubt this thing would accept that many digits.”
“Surely it won’t lock after one failed attempt. I say try it. Either that, or we go back empty handed and admit that this could take some time to figure out.”
She dug in her pocket and came up with the paper.
“Here, read them off to me slowly and I will enter them. We’ll try it once.”
He took it in his gloved hand.
“Tell me when you’re ready.”
She positioned herself carefully. “I’m ready. Do this before my hand is frozen.”
“Here we go. Seven, eight, four, six, three, nine, two, zero, zero, one…”
“Wait!” The doors clicked and swung partially open, hissing when they did so. The interior was lit up softly be several rows of small LED lights. Lena swung the doors wide open and revealed the contents.
“Oh my Lord.”
It was a cache. There were all sorts of exotic looking weapons hanging on the back of the container. They all appeared to be both new and modern. Hamlin didn’t know much about weapons but identified what he was certain was a rocket launcher.
“Awesome,” he gasped. “Now if we get bored, we can start World War Three just for fun.”
Lena didn’t reply and when he looked at her expression, he was surprised how grim and even confused she looked.
“Francis, these are all American weapons.”
Was that really important?
“Really? Are you sure?”
“Yes.” She spoke like she was in a dream.
“So, does that change things somehow?”
“I’m not sure. Why would they be here? Why would Sokolov know about them?”
Hamlin saw something that caught his eye. He reached out for it. Lena grabbed his arm and stopped his momentum.
“Wait! This could have some sort of defense system built into it. Don’t try to take anything out.”
“But there’s my old handgun!”
She saw it and nodded. “A Beretta 9mm semi-automatic, Model 92, I believe. This is a beautiful gun, but I don’t think it is safe or even wise to take any of these out of here. At least not yet.”
“You sure know a lot about weapons. Isn’t the Beretta Italian made?”
She shook her head. “They are made in Europe, but also in the U.S.A. I’m sure that is where this one originated.”
Hamlin really wanted to put that gun in his hands.
“Are you certain that we can’t take some of these? I think Sokolov wanted us to have them.”
“Francis, if we came upon a space ship sitting on the ice, would you immediately want to go inside of it and take it for a ride?”
“Well, no.”
“And why not?”
“Too many unknown variables.”
“My point exactly. This is the same thing. How did this get here? Who are these for? Why are they here? Are they safe or booby-trapped? Do they even function? And I’m just getting started.”
“I get it. I’d sure feel safer carrying that thing around. But it if you want to think this over first, I guess I could live with that. I suppose we don’t want the rest to know about this.”
“Absolutely. They’d all want to have that rocket launcher in their hands. We’d end up killing ourselves before anything else.”
A loud bang made both of them jump. They whirled around to see the door hanging open and Kuvayev blocking their exit. He was huge and creepy.
Lena slowly started to bring her rifle up to firing position.
“Francis,” she said in a soft voice, “don’t move. Just stand right where you are.”
Hamlin was terrified. He knew what the huge, sick man was capable of doing. He had seen the aftermath. In retrospect, he didn’t think he could move if he wanted to.
Kuvayev was gasping for breath or something. He was making noises that almost sounded like he was trying to talk.
Lena now held the gun steadily in firing position.
“Big mistake, mother fucker. We’re armed. Let’s see how you like a fair fight.”
She fired a single shot and Francis could see Kuvayev’s head snap back. She fired three more times in rapid succession and the big man fell over onto the ground.
“That’s all you got?” she hissed through clenched teeth. She seemed disappointed.
“Is he dead?” Hamlin still wasn’t ready to approach him.
She walked toward the door. “Let’s find out.”
He sure looked dead. After several kicks and prods with no response, she was ready to make it official.
“He’s dead, all right. About fucking time.”
“Do you know what this means?” Hamlin felt a weight lift from his shoulders. “It’s over. Nobody is left that’s infected. No more ambushes, no more posting guards, no more guessing what every strange noise at night is.”