Eternity Base

by Bob Mayer

  He crawled the distance to the first hatch and pounded on it. “It’s me, Riley.” The wheel slowly turned and the door opened. Riley slid through, pushing past Sammy. “Shut it.”

  “Where’s Lallo?”

  “Dead.” Riley slumped against the corrugated steel tubing that made up the wall. “Secure it.”

  Sammy flipped over the latch, locking the handle.

  Riley looked around the tunnel and pulled off one of the green bags he had draped over his shoulders.

  “What are you doing?”

  “They blew in the door to the shaft, so they can probably blow this one too. I want to leave them a little surprise.”

  AIRSPACE, COASTLINE, ANTARCTICA

  Captain Lim craned his neck, looking out the window. They had just cleared the last mountains and broken into an intermittent cloud cover, leaving the storm behind. The sea of ice that surrounded Antarctica was spread out below as far as he could see to the north. There was no way he could land on that.

  “We must turn back and try landing on the ice cap!” he pleaded with the impassive Sergeant Chong. “We are almost out of fuel.”

  Chong fingered his slung AK-47 and took a deep breath, held it, and pulled the trigger. The first round blew the copilot’s brains against the right windshield, smearing it with red globules.

  “What are you doing?!” Lim screamed, twisting in his seat, his eyes growing wide as the gaping muzzle of the AK-47 turned toward him. “If you kill me there will be no one to fly the plane!”

  Chong’s finger increased pressure on the trigger.

  “Please!” Lim begged.

  Chong shot him through the chest three times, the third round blowing the pilot out of the seat. Without hands on the controls, the plane continued to glide forward smoothly. Chong reached over Lim’s body and pushed down on the yoke. The nose of the plane turned downward.

  When the angle got too steep, the plane plummeted out of control toward the ice-covered water. The nose hit first. The rest of the plane crumpled and compressed as it punched through the ice into the freezing saltwater below.

  In five minutes a black smear on the ice was all that was left to mark the grave of the IL-18.

  ETERNITY BASE, ANTARCTICA

  Pak looked at the unprimed C-4 lying in front of the untouched safe and frowned. Someone in the news party had been very smart but not quick enough.

  “Open that safe, but make sure you don’t destroy the contents,” Pak instructed Lieutenant Kim.

  Kim slid off his backpack and pulled out his explosives, molding the plastique with his fingers, shaping the charge.

  Sergeant Jae stuck his head in the door. “They are down a tunnel that is blocked by a steel door, sir!”

  Pak nodded. “Blow the door and kill them.” Jae turned and sprinted away.

  Pak checked his watch. Chong was most likely dead by now, along with Lim and his copilot. Song’s body was in the shaft. Nam had been killed in the first burst when they’d crossed the intersection, and Ho had been wounded, although not severely. Yong had a broken arm and Lee had sprained his knee. That left three wounded and four healthy men. Not good.

  “Clear!” Kim yelled as he finished priming his charge.

  He unraveled his det cord as they exited the unit. “Firing!” Kim pulled the igniter, and a soft burp of explosion echoed out the door. Pak walked in and checked the results. The door of the safe was off its hinges, the contents untouched. Pak pulled out the papers and leafed through until he found what he needed. Kim gathered his supplies. “I will assist Sergeant Jae.”

  Pak nodded his concurrence, engrossed in translating the documents.

  *****

  “What are you doing?” Devlin asked. They had secured the second door and now Riley was lining the tunnel ten feet in from the door with small white packages linked together with green cord.

  “If they get through the first door and then get through this one, I’m going to blow the tunnel. That ought to stop them.”

  “We’ll be trapped then!” Devlin exclaimed.

  “If we don’t do it, we’ll be dead.”

  A deep explosion sounded, reverberating down the tunnel. “That’s the first door,” Riley said grimly. He halted and waited, listening. A second, sharper explosion sounded, followed immediately by screams, faintly heard through the thick steel of the door. “That’s the Claymore. That’ll make them think twice about taking out this door.”

  *****

  Pak looked at the mangled remains of Sergeant Jae. The corrugated steel tunnel had intensified the effects of the antipersonnel mine, channeling the thousands of ball bearings in a devastating tornado of death. Jae’s body had absorbed the majority of the impact, but some of the quarter-inch steel balls had gotten by him, and Yong’s right arm and leg were perforated. Sun had given Yong a shot of morphine and the screaming had stopped.

  Kim came crawling back through the blood. “I can still blow the second door, sir.”

  “I know.” Pak rubbed his chin. Someone in the news party certainly knew what he was doing. Pak had not expected such a fight. In fact, he had not expected any fight. He had been so concerned with simply getting here that he had not sufficiently war-gamed possible events upon arrival. Now was the time to cut his losses.

  “Leave the door,” Pak announced.

  Kim looked up at his team leader in surprise. “But they are still alive in there. Our orders are to leave no trace.”

  Pak nodded grimly. “I know.”

  Chapter 22

  ISA HEADQUARTERS, SOUTHWEST OF WASHINGTON, D.C.

  “General Woodson has been uncooperative, sir.”

  Hodges scowled. “I want to know what they did down there! I gave you priority one for Glaston, and you have it for Woodson too.”

  “Yes, sir.” The man turned and left.

  Hodges aimed his black gaze at Weaver. “Anything from Falcon?”

  “No, sir. There was another message forty-five minutes ago from Antarctica, but that was also eyes only for Parker.”

  “Falcon has no idea why this Young woman is doing that?”

  “No, sir.”

  “Tell him to find out.”

  ETERNITY BASE, ANTARCTICA

  “What the hell is going on?” Conner asked of no one in particular. She was slumped in a chair in the reactor room next to Devlin.

  Riley was seated on the floor with his rifle near the tunnel entrance to the reactor. He held a fuse initiator in his hand. Sammy sat beside him, a pistol in her lap.

  Swenson leaned against the thick glass separating them from the reactor core. “Well, we’re in a mess now,” he said.

  “I’m surprised they haven’t blown the second door yet,” Riley remarked.

  “Maybe they just wanted the bombs, and they’ve taken them and left,” Devlin offered hopefully.

  “But how did they know the bombs were down here?” Conner wondered aloud. She was trying very hard not to think about the fact that Vickers, Kerns, and Lallo were dead. Since she hadn’t seen their bodies, it didn’t seem quite real.

  “You must have a leak at SNN.” Riley’s words were spoken flatly.

  Conner shook her head. “My messages about the bombs were encoded, and Parker is the only one who could have decoded them. You said these people spoke Korean. How could the Koreans have found out about this?”

  “That really doesn’t matter now,” Devlin cut in. “We need to decide what we’re going to do.”

  “Do?” Riley laughed bitterly. “There’s nothing we can do.”

  “If they’re stealing the bombs, we need to stop them,” Devlin said, getting out of his chair.

  Riley stood up and walked over. He thrust out the Ml6. “Here. You take this and go stop them. Of course, they’ve probably rigged that door on the other side just like I rigged it on this side. But, hey, I’m not going to stop you, if that’s what you want to do.”

  Devlin didn’t take the weapon. “What do you suggest?”

  “I suggest we
sit tight for now.” Riley pointed at the three bags piled in the corner. “There’s food in those. Enough to last us a week or so. We also have three sleeping bags. Even if they turn off the power and we lose the heat, we’ll be able to survive until someone notices that you aren’t making contact on the radio and they come to see why. Or your support news team arrives.”

  “Why did you put food and sleeping bags in here?” Conner asked. She’d noticed them when they’d first entered and had wondered about that.

  “Just earning my money,” Riley replied. “Once you found those bombs and sent word back to Atlanta, I figured there was a chance we might get some visitors. I get paid to ‘what-if and ‘worst-case’ things. Except I didn’t expect our visitors would come in shooting. I was thinking more in terms of spooks from our own government. Your sister figured this room would be a good place to hole up until your support team got here and we could scare off the bad guys with publicity.

  “If I’d known something like this was going to happen, I would have destroyed those PAL codes and instructions when we first found them. But I didn’t, and now we’re in here and they’re out there, and there isn’t a damn thing we can do about it.”

  Riley pointed up. “There’s a hatch in the ceiling that probably opens onto an access tunnel to the surface, but there’s nothing up there for us either.”

  “You said they spoke Korean,” Sammy said. “You mean they’re from North Korea?”

  Riley’s answer surprised her. “I don’t know. Both North and South speak Han Gul. I’ve been to South Korea several times so I recognize the language. But those might be South Korean troops out there for all I know. There are a lot of people in the world who’d like to get their hands on a U.S.-made nuclear bomb and wouldn’t be too concerned about who they’d have to kill to do it.”

  “But they’ll never get away with it!” Conner said. “I mean, how can they cover this up?”

  Riley shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t even know how they got here. They couldn’t have landed a plane in that weather. Maybe they jumped, but if they did in those winds they’re better men than I. How they plan on getting away is something else I don’t know. But I can tell you one thing: whoever is in charge has thought of answers to those questions or those men wouldn’t be out there.”

  “Do you think they’ll steal our plane?” Devlin asked.

  Swenson laughed. “Hell, they can steal it, but they sure aren’t going to take it anywhere. You can’t get off the ice in this weather.”

  Riley agreed. “I doubt they’ll steal it. They could try to walk out. For all I know they came here on some sort of oversnow vehicle and are going to use that to leave. They’re hard soldiers, and they’re used to operating in cold weather. They’ve already taken several casualties, but I don’t think they expected any opposition. From here on out they’ll be ready for us if we make a move. So I say we sit tight-”

  Conner was at a loss for words. She felt as though they ought to be doing something, but Riley’s cold logic made sense.

  “So you say we just let them walk away with two nuclear weapons?” Devlin demanded.

  Riley looked over at Conner and their eyes met. “Like our boss here said—we didn’t put those bombs down here, so they’re really not our problem, are they? In fact, since these men are most likely here because of a leak at SNN, and since Vickers was the one who killed Kerns and tried sabotaging this whole mission, I would say you two have the greatest sense of responsibility for this mess.”

  Riley’s words were met with silence.

  *****

  The MK/B 61 nuclear bomb weighs 772 pounds. Using the same small tractor that Sammy had used to clear the way to the armory, Pak’s men pulled the first bomb along the hallway to the east ice storage tunnel. There they placed it on a large sled and secured it with ropes.

  Corporal Sun had started the large bulldozer and was up on the steel grating ramp, cutting away at the ice with the blade, aiming for the surface. As soon as Sun cut through, they would take the large SUSV tractor and head out. The SUSV consisted of a large engine section on treads, which could seat three men up front, and a second section on tracks, which was pulled along and could fit ten men and all their supplies. Pak watched his soldiers’ efforts for a few minutes and then went back to the armory.

  SNN HEADQUARTERS, ATLANTA, GEORGIA

  AS soon as Falcon turned on his computer and accessed the message log, he noted that a second message had been sent directly from Antarctica to Parker more than an hour ago. The reply from ISA headquarters urgently requesting more information spurred him to action.

  He went down to the computer center in the basement. The graveyard shift workers were eyeing the clock, ready for relief. The supervisor’s office was dark, and Falcon used his master access card to electronically unlock the door. He sat down behind the desk and booted up the main computer. He knew this was the one terminal in the entire building that had open access to all information in the data banks, regardless of coding. It was necessary to allow the computer supervisor to do her job.

  Falcon’s fingers flew over the keyboard as he ran through directories, looking for the correct file. In less than a minute he had it. He opened up the first “eyes only” message for J. Russell Parker from Conner Young. He glanced down the screen as he ingested the decoded message. Halfway through he froze, his stomach executing a backward somersault.

  “What are you doing, Mr. Cordon?” Miss Suwon stood in the doorway, hands on her hips, her diminutive form blocking the exit.

  The words barely registered on SNN’s executive vice president of operations. He hit the command and exit keys, sending the screen back to the opening prompt. “I had to check on something for Mr. Parker,” he muttered absentmindedly as he stood.

  “No one is to have access to my computer without proper authorization,” Miss Suwon warned as she strode across the room and claimed her seat. “What file were you in?”

  “I had authorization.” Cordon simply turned and walked out. Miss Suwon, even an irate Miss Suwon, was very low on his priority list. He took the elevator up to the main lobby and strode out into the street. The rising sun was battling with the night’s chill, but Cordon didn’t notice. He walked to the closest pay phone. When he picked up the receiver there was no dial tone. Broken.

  Cordon dashed across the busy street to the 7-Eleven and checked the pay phone on the building’s wall. This one functioned, and he quickly punched in an 800 number.

  The other end was picked up on the second ring. A mechanical voice answered. “Yes?”

  “Falcon. One three six eight.”

  “Verifying.” There was a short pause as both his code name and number were checked and his voice pattern was run through the analyzer. The echoing machine voice came back. “Go.”

  “Priority one message. Reference file Falcon Seven Three. News team has found two U.S.-manufactured nuclear weapons at Eternity Base. I repeat, two U.S.-manufactured nuclear weapons at Eternity Base. PAL codes and instructions are also present at base. That is all I have for now. Will try to find out more. Verify.”

  “Message received.” The machine affirmed that his message had been copied.

  “Out.” Cordon hung up the phone and leaned against the store’s wall.

  ETERNITY BASE, ANTARCTICA, 30 NOVEMBER 1996

  The way was clear, and Sergeant Sun had managed to drive the SUSV up the uneven ramp to the surface, where it sat rumbling on the ice cap, the sled hitched behind it. Major Pak walked back down the ramp and across the base to the armory where Sergeant Yong was propped up, back against the wall, his weapon on his knees. His wounded arm and leg were swathed in bandages. The bodies of Jae, Song, and Nam were laid out in the hallway under ponchos.

  Pak couldn’t find the right words to say good-bye to his soldier, so he simply stood in front of him and saluted. Yong looked up and returned the gesture with his non-wounded arm. Before he had second thoughts, Pak turned and swiftly walked back to the east ice storage
room. He climbed up the ramp and crunched across the ice to the SUSV. He got into the cab and nodded at Sun. The medic threw the vehicle in gear, and the treads slowly started turning. At a crawl of ten miles an hour they headed away from the base. Pak directed the driver to their one last stop before heading for the mountains lining the coast. The sled bobbed along in its wake, with cargo securely tied down.

  PENTAGON, ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA

  General Hodges didn’t like the role reversal. The hastily assembled officers and senior administration officials were bombarding him with questions, and Hodges, unfortunately, didn’t have many answers. Being the bearer of bad news had a historically poor rating.

  The ranking officer in the room, the army chief of staff, General Morris, listened to the confused questioning for five minutes before he cut to the heart of the matter. “Gentlemen, we have to accept the fact that SNN knows about these two bombs, and there is nothing we can presently do to make that knowledge disappear. Given that, there are two courses of action we have to pursue.

  “Our primary concern must be to secure the bombs. I say that is primary because of the potential physical threat they represent. Our secondary concern is to find out where these bombs came from and how they ended up at this base. Attached to that second concern is to find out why and how this Eternity Base was built.”

  Morris looked around the room to make sure everyone, particularly the president’s national security adviser, was following him. With the chairman of the Joint Chiefs in the Middle East, this problem was his problem. “In line with the first, I am going to have certain military forces alerted and deployed to the Antarctic to secure the weapons and remove them.”

  “Won’t that violate the Antarctic accord?” an air force general asked.

  Morris bit off a sarcastic reply. “The accord has already been violated. It is now time for damage control, and we have to get those bombs out of there.