They didn't need to use the lamps.
Bolan was not surprised. During the afternoon, hidden among rocks a quarter of a mile away, they had heard unmistakable sounds of activity within the caves. And if there was work, there might be light.
Noises carried clearly along the surface of the fjord, and the Executioner could distinguish the tapping of rock chisels, a scrape of metal, the noise of a distant compressor and even, from time to time, the swish of a concrete mixer. Once he thought he heard guttural commands.
Then whistles blew and there was silence... followed by five small but distinct explosions.
"Blasting," Bolan said. "Between the whistle and the detonation, they all take shelter someplace. It might be a good time to get in there."
Bjornstrom nodded. "And find a place to hide before they come out again and start to work?"
"Right. There has to be a physical connection between the bore they are sinking up top and those caves. If we can hear these noises, so can people from Pvera and boatmen in the fjord. So the Russians must have a plausible reason for blasting and whatever else they do at the foot of the mine shaft."
"Galleries radiating out from there?" Bjornstrom suggested.
"Yeah. But that can't be the real reason, or there'd be no need for them to try and eliminate guys like you and me. My guess is that it's the caves themselves are the target they're up to something big inside those caves that they want to keep secret and the mine shaft beyond them is just a cover, to account for the noise."
"What do you mean, 'something big'?"
"Beats me. I've been racking my brains for days trying to think up a believable reason. Now that I'm sure it's connected with the river and these caves, I'm as much in the dark as ever. Some kind of clandestine propaganda broadcasting unit? A KGB disaffection HQ? Antimissile detection? A military launchpad? None of those makes any sense at all. Not in caves. And certainly not in Iceland."
"So okay, we find out more when we go in," Bjornstrom said.
Before they started to swim, the sky darkened and rain pelted the fjord from the ocean. By the time they were halfway to the cave mouths it had changed to a sea mist a damp curtain of gray that rolled quickly across the wader, settling a thin layer of moisture on rock faces, distorting sounds and blotting out shapes on both sides of the inlet.
They surfaced thirty yards offshore and stared at the cave mouths. The top of the cliff, which rose sheer from the fjord, was hidden in the mist. The far side of the fjord was invisible; there was no conceivable place where a lookout could be posted above or beside the caves.
"We can take our time," Bjornstrom said. His In the gathering dusk a subdued radiance escaped from the largest of the three openings, which looked to be about forty feet wide and seven or eight high. One of the others was almost as far across but the roof was only just above the surface. The third was much smaller.
Bolan pushed up his mask. "That could be the safest way in for us," he said, indicating the third cave. "Providing they interconnect." He swam nearer. The rock bordering the openings was weathered, cracked and split by frost, eroded by wind and salt and then worn smooth by millennia of waves and storms and spray. "I'm going on in and check the entrance," he murmured. "You stick around here as end stop, okay?"
Bjornstrom nodded. Bolan readjusted his mask, dived beneath the surface and disappeared.
The Icelander swam around in circles for a few minutes to keep his circulation active. The remorseless pressure of the icy water numbed his fingers and toes, created an ache in the pit of his stomach. Finally, he, too, submerged and propelled himself underwater as far as the spur.
He pulled himself up onto a granite shelf and investigated the state of the rock. As far as he could see in the waning light, an experienced climber could easily hoist himself up to a height of about twenty feet and from there, along a fissure splitting the age-old face, he could cross to the cliff directly above the caves.
The quartzite there was seamed by a number of horizontal stratifications that formed narrow ledges above the openings, but whether or not there was any way of gaining the interior from these or whether that could be done unobserved he was in no position to see.
The subdued light from the main cave was not reflected in the black water of the fjord, but the channel inside must have curved, or perhaps there was some trick of the light, for he could see nothing but a pale blur beyond the arch.
An instant later he saw nothing at all. Silently from behind, a sinewy steel-hard forearm locked beneath his jaw, clamping his throat in a viselike grip. At the same time hard fingers probed the rubber helmet behind his ear, searching for the pressure point that would paralyze him.
Bjornstrom struggled wildly, clawing at the forearm, striving to shake free of the hand clasped around the base of his skull. He gagged, choking for air.
His feet scrabbled on the granite ledge; fragments of rock tore free and splashed into the water below.
The darkness threatening to engulf him turned red. He felt the strength seep from his limbs... and then suddenly the iron grasp on his throat relaxed. His head was free. He heard a choking cry as the air wheezed back into his own tortured lungs, and he fell to the ground.
Mack Bolan was standing above him, supporting the limp figure of his attacker. Bolan's knife had arrowed in between the man's teeth and penetrated the roof of his mouth, transfixing the lower part of the brain and killing him instantly.
The Executioner withdrew the flat blade and tipped the body over the ledge into the water below before the blood cascading down the guy's gray combat fatigues stained the rock.
"With luck he'll be washed clean before he's found," Bolan said quickly. "The palate wound will not register unless they're looking for it. The marks on the ledge here should indicate that he missed his footing in the fog, fell over and drowned." He pulled the Icelander to his feet and waved aside his thanks. "You weren't to know they'd post a guard out here in this kind of weather," he said. "Do you feel up to making a short recon trip? Underwater?"
"Sure," Bjornstrom croaked, massaging his bruised throat. "What did you find?"
"Well, the caves do connect. We can get to the main cavern through any of them. Also, the place is enormous inside there. Deep water, too. That main archway must go down at least forty feet below the surface. And there's a hell of a lot of work going on."
"What kind of work?"
"That's what we are going to find out," Bolan said. "Come back in with me and we'll check. We better get some idea of the geography of the place before the guard's absence is discovered."
They slid back into the water and headed for the smallest of the arches.
To Bjornstrom, an interminable time seemed to pass before Bolan signaled that it was safe to surface. They had navigated a curving channel perhaps seventy yards long and joined the main entry, where it opened out into an immense cavern.
It was from this that the light reflected in the fjord had come. Now, treading water at the outer margin of this huge chamber hollowed from the rock, they could see under a blaze of arc lights the extent of the work that had already been secretly completed.
What had once been an irregular underground basin had been widened and transformed into a rectangular dock bordered by concrete quays. Beyond this pool two giant lock gates with sluices blanked off a caisson crisscrossed with scaffolding on which an army of laborers worked. A drydock was evidently under construction.