As Sam listened to the wistful old man, he felt a familiar prickle of guilt creeping down his spine. He still did not know whether Admiral Whitsun recognized him, or whether he would feel that Sam was responsible for the death of his son. Watching him seeking an answer to his father's fate, Sam could only assume that family was important to him, that he had probably taken the loss of his only child hard. Despite the fact that he had done nothing but bring an arms dealer to justice, Sam wanted to apologize. He longed to explain to the admiral that he had only wanted to make things better, that he himself had suffered a major loss, and that if he could go back and prevent himself from getting involved, he would. The two of them stood silently, each lost in their reverie.
"Nina!" Alexandr called out, making Sam jump. He looked around to see where their guide's voice was coming from, but he could not see him.
"Yes?" Nina yelled back. "What is it? Where are you?"
"Here!" Suddenly Alexandr's head appeared through a small hatch in the floor, barely visible in a dingy corner where the hole almost blended in to the rocks. "I found another room. Now I need you to translate something for me."
From the corner where he and Jefferson Daniels had been chatting in low voices, Professor Matlock immediately piped up. "Excuse me, Mr. Arichenkov — you may not be aware of this, but I am Dr. Gould's superior within the department. Should you require linguistic or historical expertise, your first port of call should really be me. I outrank her."
Alexandr looked Professor Matlock up and down. The expression on his face was impossible to read. For a split-second he looked as if he might explode at Matlock, then that look crystallized into something darker and harder, which was then replaced by a burst of laughter and a twinkling, mirthful look that was completely at odds with his expression of a moment before. "You can come too," he shrugged. "I like Nina. I trust her. She is the one I choose to help me, but I suppose two heads are better than one, are they not? This way."
He disappeared into the dark hole, followed first by Nina, then by Matlock. There was quiet for a few moments, just the sound of muffled voices coming from the new room, then the sound of Nina swearing and walking back toward the ladder.
"You ok?" Fatima asked, as Nina climbed back into the dock room.
"Yes, I'm fine," Nina rolled her eyes. "Just exasperated. We found a switch in there and Alexandr and Professor Matlock are both in favor of just flipping it to see what happens. I said I don't think we should, but they're determined. So I said we need to put it to a vote."
"It's clearly nothing harmful." Professor Matlock was next to appear. "Nina here is just being hysterical. Being surrounded by all of this is evidently a little too much for you, Dr. Gould — but then, I keep forgetting how few sites like this you've been on. It can be somewhat overwhelming until experience breeds level-headedness."
Nina gritted her teeth. "At risk of destroying my already tattered career prospects," she said with as much composure as she could muster, "Don't talk to me like that. It's not hysteria, it's common sense. We're in a building we don't know much about, we find a switch marked "power supply" even though we've already found and activated the power source, and you want to just flip this switch? Frankly, Professor Matlock, that's insane."
"Watch your tongue, Dr. Gould!" Matlock snapped. "I know a great deal more about this kind of setup than you, and our Antarctic expert agrees with me — don't you, Mr. Arichenkov?"
"Yes, Professor Matlock, I do," Alexander said, stepping off the ladder. "But not for the reasons you think. I believe that we should throw the switch precisely because we don't know what it does. It is the simplest way to find out. We know that it controls the power supply to something — let us find out what!"
"Yes, that's a great idea!" Nina threw up her hands in rage. "Let's all pile into the tiny, cramped underground room where we have no way of summoning help because we can't get a signal on the satellite phone, then we'll start pushing buttons! Am I really the only one who thinks that might go even slightly wrong?" She shook her head and grappled her temper back under control.
"Look, Alexandr, I take your point about it being the quickest way. But I'm really concerned that it might control the flood gate for one of these pens, or even some kind of emergency mechanism to flood the whole level. It's too much of a risk. Look, even if you're completely hell-bent on the idea, can't we put it to a vote? Please? At least give everyone a chance to have their say before they—"
She stopped dead as a dazzlingly bright light suddenly glared out from the hatch and the sound of clanking gears and grinding metal filled the room. Sam saw the horrified expression on her face and knew that she had immediately realized what was going on, but he had not. He stared wildly around at the rest of the group, hoping for a clue, but all he saw was face after face wearing a confused expression to match his own. The only person not looking confused was Purdue — because Purdue was not there. A moment later, neither was Nina. She lunged forward and raced down the ladder into the newly lit room. It only took seconds for the others to follow Nina's lead.
The clanking and grinding were coming from a circular metal door at the far end of the room, which was slowly opening. Purdue was standing beside the switch, a look of manic glee on his face. She's going to wipe that smile off his face, poor bastard, Sam thought as he saw Nina storming across the floor toward Purdue. The noise from the mechanism was deafeningly loud, making it impossible for him to hear what Nina was yelling at Purdue, but their host did not look in the least disturbed. In fact he appeared to be laughing at her, which was just infuriating her all the more.
"— get us all killed, you fucking lunatic!" Nina concluded as the mechanism completed its process and the room went silent once more. They all stared at the open door.
"Well?" Nina fumed. "Since you're the one who's so determined to find out what's in there, aren't you going to lead the way?"
"Why, certainly!" The delight in Purdue's voice was clear. Either he was certain that what lay beyond the door would impress Nina to the point where she would cease to be angry with him, or he was simply incredibly sanguine about her wrath — Sam could not quite decide which he thought was the case. One way or the other, Purdue was clearly excited and champing at the bit to explore. With Ziv Blomstein at his shoulder, he strode into the tunnel. Despite the misgivings she had expressed, Nina was not far behind, and Sam decided that he had little to lose by following along with his camera.
What they saw was another rock structure, this one clearly manmade, because it lacked the watered smoothness of the main chamber. It formed a short tunnel, at the end of which was another circular metal door. It put Sam in mind of the doors you would find on a safe or a vault, complete with a dial waiting for a combination. However, it seemed that the combination was not the only thing required to unlock it. The handle itself was locked into a recess in the door, only to be released by means of a key — but clearly not an ordinary key. The object required to fit the keyhole would, it seemed, be something circular, but with bulbous teeth at the top. The shape seemed familiar, yet Sam could not place it…
"It might take a short while," Purdue was saying, still bickering with Nina, "but I could crack this combination. I doubt it would be more than a day."
"You know, if it keeps you occupied while the rest of us explore this place, leaving you here to fiddle with the lock probably isn't a bad idea. Perhaps that's what this room is — a crèche for dangerous idiots!" Nina stomped off to the other end of the room — a gesture that would have been much more powerful in a larger space. Sam and Fatima both went after her, leaving the rest of the group to gather around Purdue as he began talking them through the possible workings of the lock.