“This is probably stuff that Room 39 imports with the cash it makes from drug sales,” Tom said.
“Roger,” Anderson replied.
As Tom was looking around, he noticed something else in the room. At the far side of the room was a large circular hemisphere that stuck out of the wall. Tom approached it. As he got closer he could make out some of the details. It was made out of a shiny dark metal and had what looked like a steering wheel on it. It looked like a large submarine hatch on a wall. He stopped a few feet from it. It was a door.
“I wonder what they keep in here,” he said into his radio.
“It must be more valuable than the drugs in the rest of the warehouse or the money in that other room,” Anderson replied. “Can you try to open it?”
Tom reached for the steering wheel. He started turning it. It required effort, but he was able to rotate it. As he rotated it, he could feel the door unseal.
“I think I unlocked it,” Tom said.
He grabbed a handle on the door and began pulling. The massive disk swung out of the wall. Tom could feel the warm air from the other side of the door.
“Tom, before you go in, give us a moment to get the Director on the phone.”
Tom waited outside the door. He could not make out much beyond the threshold. What he was about to see was probably vital information for the agency, he thought. Anderson told him before the mission that the Director might update the President as the mission was progressing.
“We are ready. Go ahead.”
“Roger.” Tom stepped past the threshold. He came to a landing. He was at the top of another staircase, except he could now see a large room open before him. To his right an industrial set of metal stairs descended about 20 feet from the landing to the floor below. The room looked like another warehouse within the larger warehouse. To his left was an open-air elevator made out of large metal beams. Tom guessed it was for heavy loads.
The space below was completely empty except for several objects on the floor. Tom could not see what they were.
“Yankee Main, do you see the objects below?”
Tom waited several seconds but no response came. That was odd, he thought.
“Yankee Main, come in, over.”
He waited again. No response came. Tom turned around and looked at the door. He did not realize at first, but now he saw that the walls were made of thick concrete and had layers of either steel or iron. Tom wondered if his signal to the booster became too weak. He stepped back outside the door.
“Yankee Main, come in, over.”
“Yankee Actual. We lost you for a few seconds. Over.”
“I think this room behind the vault door is a bunker. My signal is not getting through. Over.”
“What’s in the bunker?”
“It’s another warehouse. The door opens to a landing at the top of a staircase. I can see several objects on the floor of the warehouse, but otherwise it’s completely empty.”
Now Sara’s voice came through. “Tom, can you go in there and see what those objects are. Take a few pictures with your helmet camera. Once you get back out to where you are now, they will be sent to use automatically and we will be able to see what’s inside.”
Tom knew this was why he liked having Sara on his missions. “Roger that.”
Tom ran back through the doorway. Once on the landing he immediately went to the stairs. He climbed down the metal stairs as fast as he could, even though the steps were shaking. Soon he was on the floor of the room. He ran towards the objects he had spotted. As he came closer he could see the two objects better. They were the size of refrigerators and each had a sheet covering it. They looked almost like cars in a garage with a cover on. He slowed down once he got within several feet. He knew what he had to do. He grabbed a piece of each sheet in his hands and pulled them off.
Tom stared for a moment, trying to comprehend what sat in front of him. There were two platforms. Each held what looked like a giant ten-foot football that had fins sticking out of the back. Tom realized he was looking at two bombs. Tom walked up to one. He knew that there was a nuclear weapons expert sitting in the Command Room. He had probably been waiting patiently to see something he could provide insight on. Tom reached for his helmet camera and started pressing the button on the side to take pictures. He took picture after picture of each bomb and then came closer and took several more. He looked around the room. There was nothing else. These were the only two objects in the entire space. There was not even a desk or a chair anywhere. It was barren.
Tom quickly turned around and ran back to the stairs. As he climbed the squeaky steps, he imagined what he had seen. He wondered if these were nuclear weapons or just conventional bombs. If these were nuclear bombs, what were they doing sitting by themselves? There was no equipment around and certainly no research facility in this building.
Soon Tom was at the top of the steps again. He ran back out of the vaulted doorway. He could hear the Command Room come back on the radio.
“OK, Tom, we are getting your pictures now,” said Anderson calmly.
Tom waited for a few moments, and as he heard silence, he just let out what he saw.
“There are two bombs down there. I took pictures of them. But there is nothing else. Just two bombs sitting by themselves.” Tom heard several gasps in the room. He guessed that nuclear weapons analyst probably felt a mixture of excitement and terror upon seeing the helmet camera images and hearing what Tom said. Tom heard his voice immediately.
“These look like older munitions. The metal casing looks like the material bombs were made from in the ‘60s. I do not see anything that would indicate a guidance system or any computer technology on board. This looks like a dumb bomb.”
“But is it a nuclear bomb?” Anderson asked.
“Yes. Tom, you just saw two nuclear bombs.”
There was a pause.
“But where’s the research facility? Tom do you see any research equipment?” Anderson asked.
“No. This room is completely empty, except for those bombs. I did not see any nuclear research space in the warehouse either. These are the only side rooms here besides the offices in front.”
“I wonder how they produced these. Does anyone have any ideas? Does this mean Officer 1414 should have sent the message ‘red jewels’?”
The nuclear analyst’s voice came back, “John, I don’t think they made these. These are old Soviet or Chinese designs from the early years of the Cold War. At the end of the Cold War we were worried that a few of their bombs would slip through the cracks and end up in the wrong hands. That was always the ultimate fear. Now it seems that it came true.”
Sara had put several more pieces of the puzzle together. “So these weapons are in this facility, which also stores the drugs that Room 39 makes to sell internationally. These are old bombs made by another country. Does this mean that the North Korean regime is just buying bombs on the black market from the cash made from drug sales?”