“But, Robie, he asked to take a tour of Lambert’s silo,” Reel pointed out. “Not this one.”
“He may not have known at which place they were being held. But if it were Lambert’s there would have to be a lot of people in on it, and that sort of widespread conspiracy just becomes too unrealistic. But that’s not the case with this Atlas site.”
“And it could be that if he was brought here the other missing people were, too,” added Reel.
Bender glanced in the direction of the door. “So what do we do? Get a warrant and search the place?”
Robie shook his head. “That’ll take too long, and tongues seem to wag here, so word might get out and the prisoners, if they are in there, might get moved. Besides, I don’t even know if we have enough probable cause to get a warrant. What do you think, Bender?”
The deputy looked uncertain. “Well, I’ve found judges around here aren’t too fond of the Fourth Amendment. They like people to be able to keep their property free from unnecessary searches. And I saw all the NO TRESPASSING signs when I was coming up here. That’s technically what we’re doing, trespassing.”
“Well, that answers that,” said Reel.
“Can you open that door?” asked Bender.
Robie looked at Reel. She patted the duffel she had taken from the truck and said, “I brought some stuff that will handle it. The question is are we prepared for what might be on the other side of that door?”
“We’re going to have to be,” said Robie. “Because the only other way in is through a blast door, and I don’t think you have anything in your duffel that will crack that one.”
She looked at him. “So what about not liking bull runs?”
“I think time is running out for Blue Man.”
“Who?” said Bender.
“Never mind,” said Reel, keeping her gaze on Robie.
He held out his hand for the duffel and added, “And sometimes people are worth dying for.”
Reel and Robie held gazes for a moment longer before she broke it off and handed him the duffel.
“So let’s run with the bulls,” she said with finality.
CHAPTER
64
Robie held point.
Bender had his right flank.
Reel covered them both with her long gun as they approached the door.
Robie knelt in front of the lock and took out a small bag. He inserted the squirt end of a bottle into the lock and squeezed the plastic. Some liquid from the bottle was injected into the lock. He next ran a length of fuse into the lock and unspooled it onto the ground. He struck a match, lit the twine, and moved back as the fire moved along the fuse toward the lock. When it reached the lock, there was a flash of fire and a puff of bright, white light. A smoldering smell reached their noses.
Robie crept forward, waited about sixty seconds, and, being careful not to touch the doorknob, inserted a tool into the lock and cranked it to the right. The doorknob turned easily.
Bender joined him. “What was that stuff?”
“A mixture of magnesium and some other elements. It burns at such a high heat, over five thousand degrees, that it’s melted the inner workings of the lock.”
“Damn. You guys have lots of tricks like that, I would imagine.”
“I think we might need a few extra tonight.”
Robie opened the door fully and shined his light inside, while keeping his gun trained in front of him.
Bender did the same.
Reel moved up to within a dozen yards of them, her gun making sweeps left and right.
Robie and Bender stepped into the room and peered around.
Bender had pulled out a powerful mag light and was making sweeps with it, too.
The space was full of stuff, old boxes, crates, and rusted tools.
“Looks like it did when I was a kid,” said Bender. “Are you sure you’re on the right track here?”
“Keeping it the same here is intentional. It dissuades anybody with enough balls to breach that lock from thinking that anything has really changed. But they couldn’t hide the fact of the new door and the fancy lock. Nobody would go to that trouble to keep this crap secure.”
“Down that way,” Bender said. “The room continues.”
They made their way down a long, dark corridor. Unlike the room, this space was clear of debris.
The walls were stone and had been smoothed out by whoever and whatever had managed to dig this tunnel.
Reel had followed them in and was using her optics to see past the area of light.
“There’s a door down there,” she said. “At the end. Rest of the way is clear.”
They picked up their pace and reached it about ten seconds later.
“It’s got mag locks,” said Robie, studying the metal door’s exterior. “I don’t see any surveillance cameras. I’m not sure why not. If I’d gone to the trouble of securing this tunnel like they had, I’d have some type of monitoring in place so I’d know if the place had been breached or not.”
Bender looked around and said quietly, “Do you think there’s something else they’re using? Trip beams, maybe? We could have already triggered one of them.”
“We could have,” said Robie. “Which means they may already know that we’re here. So let’s keep moving forward.”
“Use the magnesium,” said Reel. “To breach the door. The magnesium solution should work.”
Robie pulled out the squirt bottle, matches, and a length of fuse. He used the same process as before, then stepped back as the fire wound its way into the lock.
The puff of brilliant white smoke occurred a few moments later.
Robie used the same tool to open the door. A long, darkened tunnel confronted them.
“It’s running right towards the missile site,” observed Robie.
“You think it connects up?” said Bender.
“I’m about to bet my life that it does,” replied Robie. He looked back toward Reel. “Things are probably going to start getting dicey at this point.”
She nodded. “I expect they will.”
The three of them started to move forward. The tunnel began to narrow substantially so that they had to walk single file along it.
“Stay alert,” he whispered to Bender. He didn’t feel the need to tell Reel that.
Bender nodded and gripped his pistol more tightly.
They had traveled what seemed to Robie to be about a quarter mile when they came to yet another door.
“Shit,” muttered Robie.
There was no doorknob, only an electronic pad.
“It’s a biometric reader,” he observed. “Like the one that Lambert uses to access his silo.”
Reel drew closer and looked at it as Bender took a step back so he was behind the both of them.
“Our magnesium brew won’t work on that,” noted Reel.
“No, it won’t.” Robie felt the door. “Solid metal. I’m guessing three or four inches thick, steel hinges set right into the rock. We’d need an RPG round to make a dent.”
“We’ve got one back in the truck,” said Reel.
She looked back at Bender, who was staring at her, his gun pointed in front of him.
“No!” screamed Reel, when she saw the red dot flicking around him. She launched herself but it was too late.
The round slammed into the back of Bender’s head and stayed there.
He stood there teetering in his boots for a second before toppling forward face-first, his pistol dropping from his dead hand.
The door they were going to break into swung open, and ten guns were pointed at them along with blinding lights.
Dolph emerged from behind the armed men.
He smoothed down his uniform jacket and said, “I think this is where you lay your weapons down. Or we’d be perfectly fine with shooting you right here.”
Robie and Reel laid their weapons on the ground.