‘But the base is empty, abandoned,’ Hannah replied. ‘There’s nothing here except what the Nazis left behind before the end of the war.’
Ethan frowned as he walked around the control center and looked at the maps protected behind acrylic cases.
‘The Nazis went to a lot of trouble to build this place and to maintain its secrecy even after the war had ended,’ he said. ‘It’s not like they suddenly revealed to our government what had been done down here or we’d have found this base long ago.’
Hannah looked about her and began to wonder along with Riggs whether something else might be concealed right under their noses.
‘Maybe they used this base as a location to store secret papers, or money, or even their technology after the German surrender,’ she suggested. ‘The hardcore Nazis like the SS would have done anything to preserve something of the Third Reich in the hopes that one day they could resurrect their dream of an Aryan master race.’
‘How would Veer’s men know anything about any of this?’ Del Toro asked, gesturing around him at the base. ‘If our own government didn’t suspect the existence of this base how could they have figured out it was here at all, let alone contains something of importance? I thought Black Knight was what got us all out here?’
‘It was,’ Hannah agreed, ‘but Majestic Twelve goes back a long way. The DIA believe it was formed within a couple of years after World War Two ended, which would mean they would have had access to a great deal of what the Germans were doing in the late stages of the war. Maybe one or two of them did know about this base, or at least what might be inside it.’
Riggs turned to Del Toro.
‘Maintain the watch, but I want two men to scout through the facility again. Leave no stone unturned. Whatever might be hidden here will likely be well concealed if the Nazis were forced to leave in a hurry.’
Del Toro moved off immediately as Riggs looked at his watch.
‘We don’t have much ammunition left and there’s still no communication from our support team. We can’t hold this position forever.’
Right on cue, they heard a voice boom across the docks from outside.
‘It’s only a matter of time!’
Hannah listened to the voice echo through the darkness. Riggs shook his head to forbid anybody from replying.
‘The more silence he hears, the more angry he’ll get,’ Ethan whispered to her. ‘It might force his hand and cause him to make a mistake.’
A long silence enveloped the chamber as they waited for the big man outside to shout again. His voice, when it came, was laced with rage.
‘One way or the other, we’re comin’ through that door and there’s nothing you can do to stop us! We’ve got ammunition, food, water, supplies and reinforcements. You’ve got nothing!’
Veer’s voice echoed around the chamber, chasing around as though searching for them before trailing off into the distance.
‘We’re comin’ for you! We’ll get in there eventually!’ Veer bellowed from somewhere beyond the thick clouds of smoke billowing across the docks.
Riggs, bored already, grabbed his rifle and was about to head back to the rear dock when he looked at the smoke clouds filling the cavern outside. He turned to Saunders, who was still manning his position, the sniper’s rifle aimed down at the tunnel entrance where bursts of machine gun fire sporadically raked the walls of the base.
‘Anything?’ Riggs asked above the rattle of gunfire.
‘They’re up to something,’ Saunders replied, ‘but I ain’t sure what. If I were them I’d create a smoke screen and get under the walls then blow the doors, but maybe they ain’t as bright as us.’
Riggs didn’t buy that either as he peered out across the docks. He was surprised by the fact that Veer had not yet attempted to assault the base. The only explanation for their reluctance was that they had a better plan, and that made Riggs nervous. Veer had more men, more equipment, more weapons and an active although tenuous line of supply back to the surface, whereas his team had been specifically designed to infiltrate the base without support and hold their position until reinforcements arrived.
‘Anything on night vision?’
Saunders shook his head slowly, his gaze directed permanently down the barrel of his rifle.
‘The ice is too thick to get a good look at what they’re doing in there,’ he said. ‘Best guess?’
‘Go for it.’
‘They’re setting up a mortar to fire into this command center, forcing us out and letting them cross the dock. Once that happens, it’s only a matter of time.’
Riggs nodded. Veer’s team must possess heavier weapons than just small arms and rifles, and it suddenly struck him that they could have used rocket propelled grenades to attack the command center from afar rather than mortar units. Easily portable and quite accurate, they would be sufficient to cover a fire team’s ingress to the blast door. Sure, Veer might be concerned about explosions bringing down the cavern around them, but the blasts would be contained by the base itself if their aim was good. There seemed no good reason not to attempt it, unless they had a better route in figured out and…
Rigg’s eyes drifted down to the dock itself and the black water shimmering there. The gradual flow of water through the docks was joined by the flow from the fissure in the cavern wall to his left, and it flowed away both under the glacial ice and into the tunnel where Veer and his men were hiding.
‘You said that the channel runs right underneath the base?’ he asked Ethan.
‘Yeah, both ways.’
Hannah saw a sudden realization hit Riggs hard.
‘They’ll come in underwater!’ he snapped.
XLVI
Andrei Veer slid into the black water of the submarine pen as his men maintained a steady barrage of fire and a smoke screen against the upper levels of the base overlooking the dock. The water slid over him and the sound of gunfire became muted, distant flashes of light like distant lightning in heavy clouds shimmering overhead.
The bitter cold of the water bit through even the thick thermal lining of his suit as he descended into the deep, his men visible ahead as they swam. All of them had descended at least twenty feet beneath the waves: contrary to popular myth, bullets were rapidly slowed by water, especially cold water, and were useless for hitting targets below that depth. That, and the absolute blackness, was enough to conceal Veer and his men as they moved silently through the darkness toward the rear of the Nazi base.
Veer was not much one for interest in history, but he was none the less amazed at how the Nazis had been able to create such an extraordinary base in the vast natural cavern beneath the glacier. He could just make out the huge stanchions that were buried deep into the ice either side of the cavern, suspending the base above the murky, chill depths beneath it. Veer kept a close eye open for any sign of the leopard seals that patrolled the waters, his rifle held in his gloved hands. Again, contrary to movie myth, getting water into a rifle was pretty much enough to render it useless: most soldiers pulled balloons or condoms over the barrels of their rifles when entering the water to seal the interior.
Veer swam in pursuit of his men, passing through a deep channel beneath the base where vertical stanchions reached down into the water, enormous buoyancy aids welded to their legs helping the base remain in position. Veer knew that such stanchions could not have been attached to the surface of Antarctica far below, as the glacier’s constant movement would have torn them free within even a year of being built.
Something moved to his right, and through the gloom he saw a large, long black object drifting through the darkness. Veer felt a twist of anxiety wrench his innards as he thought about the scientist he had tossed into the docks that had been chewed up by something living in the water. He saw his own men giving the massive form a wide berth and watched it as it passed by on the very edge of his visibility, cruising south and away from the pens. Veer kicked off again as soon as he lost sight of the black creature, keen to get as far away from it as possible.