“What’s up now?”
“I received permission to lead a news team to Antarctica to do a story on Eternity Base. The only problem is that I still don’t have any idea where it is.”
“You’re going down there? That was quick work. What do you need from me?”
Conner spun her chair away from the computer screen. “I’ve got to find Eternity Base and I’m having no luck. I’ve called all four people on that list you gave me and they won’t say a thing. Freely won’t even come to the phone to talk to me. He threatened to contact the FBI if I called again. Is there anything, anything at all you can think of that might help?”
“To be honest, no. There’s no other record of Eternity Base here that I could find. The 67th Engineer’s unit history had just those photos in it, no paperwork that might have had a location listed on it. You could try the enlisted personnel in the company, but from what Freely said, nobody in the unit really knew where they were or why they were building what they were building.
“Besides, I’ve got to put that file back in the box first thing tomorrow morning. The load’s getting picked up and taken to Washington.”
Conner sighed. “Can you think of anything I can do?”
“The only thing I haven’t done yet is access the restricted database and the vault. That’s the classified area of the Records Center. But if I do that and you break the story, people are going to know right away that I was in on it. Plus, accessing the computer may alert someone that we’re onto the base — I’m sure that d-base is monitored.”
“I really need your help,” Conner pleaded.
Sammy’s voice was cautious. ‘Tell you what I’ll do. I’ll do some runs on the computer. See how it goes.”
“All right. Thanks for the help.”
“Sure.”
“Right, bye.” Conner hung up. She rummaged through the piles of paper on her desk until she found the stick-em note with the phone number of the Our Earth office in Australia. She dialed the international code and then the number. Devlin made it to the phone more quickly this time.
“Devlin, it’s Conner.”
“What’s up?”
“I’m coming to Antarctica with a team.”
His reaction was more positive than her sister’s. “Great!”
Conner gave a quick synopsis of her meeting with Parker.
Devlin immediately got to the heart of the matter. “So you need help finding this place, right?”
“Right.”
“Well, there’s not much I can do for you right now. You really have nothing except that it’s a little less than two hours out from McMurdo by C-130. I mean, we don’t even know if it’s south, east, or west. Most likely south or east, though.”
Conner typed that into her computer. “Why do you say that?”
“If the U.S. Army built this thing and wanted to keep it a secret, as you’ve said, then they’d probably want it to be far away from any other countries’ stations. The Russians had a base in 1971, Leningradskaya, about five hundred miles to the west of McMurdo, and the French had one farther along the coast in that direction.
“South from McMurdo there’s nothing until you hit the South Pole itself. So that would seem like a good place to hide a base. Maybe in the Transantarctic Mountains.
“East from McMurdo is Marie Byrd Land, and there was nothing permanent out there for almost two thousand miles in ‘71, although in ‘73 the Russians put in a base, called Russkaya, right on the coast to the east. But if it was 1971 and I was going to build some sort of secret base, that might be a direction I’d go.”
Conner made notes of all that. “Anything else you can think of that might help?”
“When are you arriving in New Zealand?”
“I don’t know yet. I should get my itinerary tomorrow. Probably this weekend sometime.”
“Give me a call and let me know when you’ll be landing. I’ll meet you there and have things ready to go.”
Conner decided to test the waters a little. “It’ll be good to see you.”
Devlin laughed. “I haven’t heard from you in over a year, but, yes, I’ll be glad to see you, too. I enjoyed our night together. I’ve thought of it a lot. It’s not often I meet someone I can talk to so openly. I won’t ask why you never tried to get in touch with me again.”
Devlin’s voice shifted gears. “Anyway, that’s the past. I’m interested in this story of yours. It has the potential to make people think about Antarctica, and we certainly need that. A large part of our environmental legacy as a race may depend on how we deal with the last untouched frontier on the seventh continent.”
Conner wasn’t sure herself why she’d never gotten back in contact with Devlin, but the reverse was also true, and he was offering no explanations. “All right, but remember I have to be objective.”
“I know. Listen, I’ve got to get back to work. Call with your flight info. If I’m not here, leave a message and I’ll be there to meet you. All right?”
“All right.”
“Great. Bye.”
“Bye.” Conner slowly put down the phone. She realized there was one more important thing she needed.
The flashing light on the secure phone drew the old man’s attention from the picture postcard view of the Rocky Mountains outside his window. Despite his years there was still a bounce to his step as he walked over to his desk. He was tall with a stomach flat as a board. His silver hair framed a distinguished face that attracted women a third his age and made the men around him choose their words with care. A long finger reached out and hit the speaker button. A brief whine and a green light on the phone indicated the line was secure from eavesdroppers.
“Peter here.”
“This is Andrew. I am calling you as per instructions, sir.”
Peter looked down at the caller ID — it was scrambled. He recognized the code name though; it belonged to one of many people in the government and other organizations whom he kept on his payroll to funnel information to him. Peter had long ago learned that information was much more valuable than money, and it was getting more valuable as the electronic net encompassing the people of the world grew. “Go ahead.”
“My people have detected an inquiry into the secure database that you have coded for alert.”
Peter’s slate gray eyes focused on the phone as he bent forward slightly, the muscles in his forearms rippling as he leaned on his desk. “Subject?”
“Eternity Base.”
The old man’s eyes closed briefly and then opened. “Source?”
“National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis.”
“Who is inquiring?”
“A Samantha Pintella,” Andrew replied. “My records indicate she’s a section chief there with a Q clearance.”
“A sanctioned search?”
“No, sir. It looks more like she’s just fishing on her own.”
“Anything more?”
“Negative.”
“Thank you.”
“Do I need to be concerned?” Andrew asked.
“I will take care of it.” Peter hit the off button and flicked a switch on the desktop before walking over to one of several exercise machines set up near the windows. As he sat down and began a set of arm pullovers, the door on the far side of the room opened. A stocky man with an expressionless face distinguished only by bright blue eyes walked up to Peter, halting a respectful five feet away, silently awaiting his instructions.
After the tenth repetition, Peter smoothly let the weight slide to a resting position and looked up. “My dear friend Lazarus. How are you today?” “Fine, sir.”
“Good. I need you to make a trip to clear up some old business.”
Chapter 5