"Let's hope he doesn't have Alzheimer's," Vaughn said as he opened his car door.
They walked down the sidewalk and came up on MacIntosh, one on either side. He didn't notice their presence until he turned for the walkway to his small house.
"Who the hell are you?" he demanded as Vaughn blocked his path. Then he noticed Tai and his demeanor changed. "And who are you?" he added with a smile.
Tai shot Vaughn a look, and he knew what she was thinking.
"We have some questions, Colonel MacIntosh," Tai said.
He looked her up and down. "You still haven't said who you are."
"I'm a reporter with CNN," she replied.
"And him?" MacIntosh jerked his head at Vaughn.
"My assistant," Tai said. Vaughn rolled his eyes but didn't say anything.
"And why would a beautiful young woman like you want to talk to me?" MacIntosh asked. "Not that I object," he hastily added.
Tai smiled. "It has to do with when you were in the Army."
"I assumed that when you called me 'Colonel,'" MacIntosh said. "And to be precise, I retired as a lieutenant colonel." He nodded toward his bungalow. "Why don't you come inside and sit down."
They followed him in. Vaughn glanced at Tai as MacIntosh pulled a bottle of vodka out of the plastic bag. He made no attempt to hide it, indeed, he offered some to them. "A glass?"
Both Tai and Vaughn politely declined. MacIntosh poured himself a glassful over the rocks and then lowered himself into a chair around an old wooden kitchen table. Tai and Vaughn flanked him, Tai pulling out an iPod with an iTalk recorder on top. "Do you mind if I record this?"
MacIntosh shrugged. "I'm not supposed to talk about what I did in the military. Secrets and all that good horseshit. But, hell, I retired a long time ago. And I'm dying." He said it matter-of-factly. He held up the glass. "Yeah, I drink all the time. Why the hell not? Doc said I got about six months. Fuck it. Nothing's been worth it since Meg died." He took a drink. "So what do you want to know?"
Tai leaned forward. "We've learned that the Army built a secret installation, called Citadel, in Antarctica in 1948-49."
MacIntosh frowned. "What kind of secret base?"
"We don't know," Tai said. "That's why we're asking you."
MacIntosh gave a sly smile. "Why are you asking me specifically?"
Vaughn pulled out the black and white photo and laid it on the table. "Because you took this picture. And others."
The smile was gone from MacIntosh's face as he looked at the picture. "Yeah, I took that." His voice sharpened. "Listen, we were told everything about that place was classified. I mean, it was a long time ago and all that, but still, a guy can get in trouble."
Tai leaned forward in her seat once more and flipped the picture over. "They have your name on the back."
There was a long pause, and finally MacIntosh spoke, his voice resigned. "Yeah, I took those damn pictures. At first I didn't see what the big deal about the whole thing was anyway. It was an additional duty I was assigned: battalion historian. But they told us not to talk about it-national security and all that."
"Who are 'they'?" Tai asked.
"The big shots. High-ranking officers. Except I could tell they didn't know shit either."
Tai leaned back. "What about the air crews that flew you in there? Do you know where they were from?"
"There was only one air crew that did all the flights. I think they were home-based out of here- Hawaii. They sure didn't like the cold. Flew a big-ass seaplane that had been modified to land on ice." His eyes got a distant look. "No one liked the cold."
"You were with the 48th Engineers," Vaughn said.
"Yes."
"A company?" Vaughn added.
MacIntosh shook his head. "No. I was with Battalion staff. If I'd been with A Company, then…" His voice trailed off.
"Then what?" Tai pressed.
"Then I wouldn't be here. They all died."
"How?"
"Plane went down on the way back," MacIntosh said. "No survivors. Hell, they never found the plane or the bodies. Went down in the ocean. And it was a damn floatplane, so it had to have crashed, not made an emergency landing."
Vaughn glanced at Tai. He knew she was thinking the same thing he was-very convenient. And exactly the way Lansale had died.
"Why weren't you on the plane?" Tai asked.
"I should have been," MacIntosh said. "But I got evacuated during one of the supply runs. Actually, the last supply run before they pulled the company out. And since I wasn't on the company roster, I guess no one missed me on the last flight." He held up his left hand. "Frostbite. From taking those damn pictures. I got careless. You'd think I'd have known better after three months, but-anyway, I got the bite bad and needed to be medevacked. I hopped a ride on that plane. Never got listed on the manifest.
"From there they sent me on back here to Hawaii. One plane early. If I hadn't been medevacked…" MacIntosh fell silent.
"Where was the Citadel?" Tai asked.
"I don't know."
Tai frowned. "What do you mean you don't know? You didn't know where you were?"
MacIntosh tried to explain. "I mean, I knew we were in Antarctica, but I couldn't tell you where. We weren't allowed any maps. When we flew, they blacked out the windows in the hold of the MARS. No one in that company knew where the hell they were the entire time they were there."
"You had to have some idea," Tai pressed. "What direction from High Jump Station?"
"You ever been to Antarctica?" MacIntosh didn't wait for an answer. "The goddamn place is one big jumbled-up mass of ice and mountains. North or south?" MacIntosh laughed. "Compasses don't work too well down there. Do you know that the magnetic pole is farther north of the true South Pole than where they had High Jump Station? In fact, magnetic south from High Jump Station, which is now where McMurdo Station is located, is actually west if you look at a map. That was the most screwed-up place I've ever been. All I know is that the site was a little less than a four-hour flight by MARS seaplane from High Jump Station. You look at the pictures and you got as good an idea of where that place was as I do."
"What did the engineers build there?" Tai asked.
"They didn't really 'build' anything per se," MacIntosh said. "They put together a Tinkertoy set. It was all prefab," he explained. "They flew this thing in by sections, and the MARS was the only plane big enough to fit them inside of. Someone with a lot more brains than we had in our outfit designed that thing. Each piece could just fit inside the plane, yet when they put it all together it was surprisingly big. Of course, there was a shitload of cargo coming in. Hell, they spent almost an entire week just bringing in fuel bladders. That plane flew every moment the weather allowed. Must have made over a hundred trips at least. That I know of. And I heard whispers that other stuff was brought in over land by those big snow cats they-huge tractors with treads."
"Whispers from who?" Vaughn asked.
"Some of the guys," MacIntosh said vaguely. "We weren't supposed to talk about anything. But you know how the Army is."
"Yeah," Vaughn agreed.
MacIntosh smiled. "You had the look. Can't ever get rid of it." He looked at Tai. "You too. You were military, weren't you?"
Tai nodded. "Yes. I was." She tapped the photo. "What was it that A Company put together?"
"They put it under the ice." MacIntosh shrugged. "My best guess is that it was some sort of C and C structure-Command and Control. They blasted out deep holes in the ice, then used 'dozers to clear it. Then just put the buildings together in the holes. Then the bulldozers and weather would cover them up fast. Ice would seal in around the walls. Before we were even done, they brought in other guys to put in other stuff. I remember a lot of commo equipment. They sealed off sections of the place as we finished, so I really couldn't tell you what it looked like on the inside when it was completed. None of the other specialists they brought in had a clue where the hell they were or what they were working on.