I went down more stairs with another wooden door at the bottom. I guessed I was a good forty feet underground now. It was conveniently open. I was in a large chamber with a low ceiling. There were sockets for light bulbs, but obviously none had survived the years. I went to the end of the chamber where there was a heavy wooden door. This opened easier and I moved into what appeared to be a bunkroom. The bare frames of twenty double tiers of steel tubular bunks lined the chamber, ten on each side with an aisle down the middle. The doorways at the end led to a washroom and toilets. Something scurried across the debris-strewn floor, a rat, I guessed.
That was it.
I retraced my steps but found no other doors or hatches.
Returning to the toilets, I noted a pipe was dripping. That meant that water still passed through here. It was in the end toilet cubicle I found what I was looking for. There was a small hatch in the sidewall.
It was made of wood and crumbled under my boot.
Sticking my head, with night vision eyepieces, into the space, I found it was an access hatch for the plumbing, but yet it seemed more, somehow. There were several pipes of different sizes running along the tunnel. There were also conduits probably carrying cables, of either power or communications. These weren’t 1940’s vintage, but much more recent.
I squeezed into the hatch and started down the narrow passageway. Cobwebs almost smothered my face and things scuttled around the floor as I walked hunched over down this long tunnel.
Looking at my compass, I worked out that I must be under the compound now, almost to the main building.
I kept going.
The first thing I became aware of was the vibration. The air was humming so that if I placed my teeth lightly together, they vibrated.
It was still dark and musty, but the cobwebs suddenly stopped.
I came to a wall, into which the pipes all disappeared. I attempted to prise my fingers into the plaster between the pipes, but it wasn’t plaster, but concrete. They’d done a thorough job here.
The whole wall was made of solid concrete, so I guessed it was the facility. There was nothing to my left and the tunnel seemed to continue to my right. I followed it.
The wall curved slightly as I followed it round. I then smelled fresh air and noted a very faint light source. Taking off my goggles, I looked at the source of the light. It wasn’t much, just a rectangular grille vent.
As I lay on the floor and peered through the hole, I couldn’t see anything. I examined the grille, which was attached by four screws into a metal frame. The screws were self-tightening, so no nuts were needed, as they threaded straight into the frame.
Using a mini-drill, I simply attached the ends of the screws to the chuck and reversed them out as far as I could. Leaving the bottom right screw loose, I undid the others and kicked them out. The grille simply swung down on the remaining screw.
I looked into the room.
It was in partial darkness, some ambient light came from a computer screen that was on screen saver mode. It was a switching room, containing the mainframe of the computer network, the telephone network exchange and numerous electrical boxes. I’d hit the mother lode!
I eased myself through the hole in the wall and stood up. I located the screws and replaced the grille. I then went to the computer.
I’d researched as much as I could about the professor, so when I hit a logon screen, I typed Hugh Standing and then Jonathon as a password. Jonathon was his twenty-year old son, currently at Dundee University studying Computer Games Design and IT. He had a fifteen-year old daughter, Holly and another son, William, who was twelve.
It worked.
I wonder how many people use their children’s names as passwords.
There was a huge file under the professor’s name. I simply downloaded it all through the USB port onto my 2 Gig memory sticks. I had three, which was just as well, for it took all three.
That was the data secure, but how the hell I was meant to know whether it was the right material, I’ll never know. I placed the sticks into a sealed waterproof container and then wondered how I could get it to the Colonel.
I took out my phone and, much to my surprise - not, found I had no signal. I squeezed up through the grill and went back along the tunnel to the shelter. Only when I was in the open again, did my phone pick up a signal. I rang his number. It went straight to answer-phone.
“Boss, it’s me. I’m in. I’ve down loaded the files and have them on three memory sticks. I’m placing the sticks in a container on the outside of a grille of the computer mainframe room inside the facility. It can be accessed through the old air raid shelter in the woods. Go right down and through the end toilet wall. Check the plans in my Range Rover. I parked it three clicks to the south on an industrial estate. The keys are under the first road sign on the left, once you turn right out of the industrial estate.
“This place is weird, so if I don’t get out, you know where the goodies are. No sign of anyone yet, apart from a security patrol in the woods.”
I returned to the shelter, back down the tunnel, again, and ended up by the grille. I placed the container in the corridor and replaced the grille.
Now I was ready to have a look around.
The door was locked, but it only took me eleven seconds to open it. I sneaked a look out.
I stared down a deserted, but a well-lit corridor with MOD green lino on the floor, while the walls were painted in that muddy yellow colour that looked as if it always needed decorating. As I was underground, I guessed I was in a basement. I could see three doors leading off the corridor on my right before it turned a corner to the left. On the left, there was one larger double door at the end, some twelve yards away. A large sign on the door told me it was the ‘Research Chamber No 1’ and that there was another saying, ‘Danger’, should I be foolish enough to enter.
Hearing nothing, I eased out into the corridor and made for the double doors. They were locked and the complex numeric pad lock on the wall told me that I wasn’t going to pick this one. I heard an elevator door open, so I dashed back to the room I’d just left.
Two white-coated men walked past the door. I could hear them talking.
“We’re so nearly there, Roger, I’m positive the new frequencies are the key!”
“Maybe, Hugh, but I still feel uncomfortable running these tests without letting the MOD know.”
They arrived at the door and I noted the key code was 44653 as the man called Roger keyed it in.
“Nonsense, where’s the harm? The MOD are shortly going to want their pound of flesh, so what better way to give it to them with a working prototype?”
“But what happens if it doesn’t work?”
The men closed the door behind them, so I missed the end of the conversation.
Hugh must have been Professor Hugh Standing. I looked at my watch. It was only 03:24. What they hell were they doing at this time of day?
Whatever it was didn’t take them long, for they were back out within a few minutes. I gave them another five to get clear, then ventured forth once more. I keyed in 44653 and the door clicked open.
I entered.
A manikin dummy in full military gear, including personal weapon, flack jacket and Kevlar helmet was in the centre of the room. A small grey box was strapped to his chest with wires leading out of it and into the console some twelve feet away.
I then saw a small steel drum. The wires leading into the top reminded me of a homemade bomb manufactured by the IRA during the troubles. I began to get a bad feeling about this.
I took out my phone and started to retreat. The air started humming and there was a high-pitched whistle that threatened to pierce my eardrums.