by Gary Gibson
It took a full twenty minutes before we finally reached the bottom of the shaft and the first enormous door, designed to seal the city within from the harsh environment without. Someone had used nukes to blow through those doors – the Americans, perhaps, or the Russians, or possibly even some other faction within the multilateral navy whose ships were still moored in the frozen sea off the coast.
This hadn’t worked out well for the invaders, or the people they were invading. From the presence of their tanks, armoured cars and other weapons of war, it was clear that this army of nations had succeeded in taking the caverns from the native Icelanders, killing a substantial portion of their population in the process. Then, so far as anyone could tell, they had set about killing each other. In the process, they had done sufficient damage to the Retreat to ensure that no one was going to survive the big freeze.
We trundled on down the sloping floor of a long tunnel. The twin cones of light from our headlights were sharp edged in the vacuum. Soon the tunnel widened into an enormous cavern, its walls and roof invisible beyond the beams of light. I knew that the buildings and living spaces all through the vaults were filled with frozen corpses in their tens of thousands, and the thought of so many dead – and so many ghosts – made my skin prickle with horror.
I peered nervously into the darkness beyond the reach of the headlights. ‘So what is it particularly the Authority were looking for on this alternate?’ I asked. ‘Did they tell you?’
‘Officially,’ she said, ‘all I know is that they’re looking for scientific data of some kind.’
I looked at her. ‘“Officially”?’
She gave me a sly grin. ‘I’ll get to that. See, back when they started building their underground Retreat, the Icelanders on this alternate had the bright idea of inviting a bunch of really smart people from other parts of the world to come live in it with them. After Shiva showed up in their telescopes, a lot of people around the world decided to blame the scientists, as if they’d somehow caused it. Most of the very people who just might have been able to figure some way out of the mess they were all in wound up being hanged or burned alive on the grounds of universities.’
‘Delightful.’
‘Anyway, among these scientist refugees was a guy by name of Hilbert Lake, who had led a research team involved in some kind of really cutting-edge physics research. He and his team all upped and came to Iceland when they got the invite, except they ended up getting killed during the invasion.’
‘Ernest Schultner never told me any of this during my last briefing,’ I said.
‘That’s because I’m not supposed to know any of this.’
‘So how . . . ?’
‘Well,’ she said in a faux-conspiratorial whisper, ‘I heard something from Winnie, who heard it from a guy called Wallace.’
‘Winnie? You mean Winifred Quaker?’ Winifred was one of the Pathfinders I had met, although I was still to meet a few who were off on various long-term missions. They had been absent from the island base since before my arrival.
Nadia nodded, and it occurred to me that the headlights were now doing a better job of illuminating the cavern than they had just moments before. ‘Wallace is another Pathfinder. It seems he was in the base compound back on Easter Island, helping them sort out some computer network problem. He overheard your man Ernest Schultner talking to Kip Mayer . . .’
‘And Mayer is . . . ?’
‘Second-in-Command to Mort Bramnik. Bramnik’s the man in charge of the whole Easter Island Forward Base.’ Another I hadn’t yet encountered. ‘Anyway,’ she continued, ‘from what Wallace overheard, it sounded like Lake and his team had been working on a prototype transfer stage.’
‘You mean they were building something they could use to escape to a parallel universe?’
‘Yep.’
I frowned. ‘That’s incredible,’ I said. ‘But the Authority already have transfer stages. They can already travel to parallel realities. Why would they need someone else’s research?’
She shrugged. ‘Just do me a favour and don’t ask Schultner, or we’re all in big trouble.’
‘But—’
‘Just remember what Yuichi and I explained back at the start – play your part, don’t complain too much, and especially don’t ask too many questions and one day we all get to retire to somewhere nice and safe.’ She frowned. ‘Is it just me, or is it getting brighter in here?’
After taking me on their grand tour of the multiverse, Nadia and Yuichi had ushered me into the Hotel du Mauna Loa, back on Easter Island – the place from which Yuichi had shot me with a tranquillizer dart a second time as I tried to evade capture. Here, they explained to me what retirement was.
The Hotel du Mauna Loa was a dilapidated hotel bar that functioned as a gathering point for the Pathfinders. It also catered to a few other survivors whom the Authority had contacted on other alternates, such as Tony Nuyakpuk. The Authority staff, by contrast, tended to keep clear of the place. I had a feeling, based on what I’d heard and seen, that they were under orders not to fraternize with us. Maybe their bosses were afraid they’d let something slip about the Authority after a couple of drinks.
On that particular day, however, the bar had been deserted, apart from one man who turned out to be Tony Nuyakpuk’s cousin. Jim Nuyakpuk’s job, it seemed, was to cook and clean as well as tend the bar – although it was clear from his conversation with the other two that he sometimes went on missions himself.
‘We give the Authority ten years’ service,’ Yuichi explained as we sat down, his hands cradling an Irish coffee made for him by the Inuit barman. ‘Then they let us go retire to some nice, safe alternate – some place just like where we all came from, but whole and unharmed. That’s the other reason we’re as happy to do whatever they ask us as we are.’
‘Exactly like where we came from?’ I asked.
‘I know what you’re thinking,’ Nadia had said. ‘No, nearly the same, but not identical.’ She cocked her head at me. ‘You were married, right? Don’t get your hopes up about finding her, if that’s what you were thinking. Even if there was some version of your wife out there, chances are she’s not the same person you knew. She might be married to someone else – if not to some other version of you – or have never met you. Or maybe that version of her got killed in a car crash, or her life worked out completely differently so she’s a stranger.’ She shook her head. ‘When we retire, we don’t literally go home – that’s impossible. But some place that’s hospitable, and close enough to being like home to fit, where you don’t live in fear or have to risk your life on a daily basis.’ She shrugged. ‘That’s where you get to go.’
‘And how long have you got left before you retire?’ I asked her.
‘Four years,’ she said, without hesitation.
I looked at Yuichi. ‘Five,’ he replied.
‘And how many Pathfinders have retired so far?’
They glanced at each other. ‘Well, none, actually,’ said Yuichi. ‘None of us has been working for the Authority long enough to actually retire.’
I looked ahead. It was, indeed, getting brighter. ‘What’s causing it?’ I asked, with no little alarm.
By now we had covered most of the distance across the first vault. The ceiling rose up for perhaps fifteen metres, while all around us stood the empty ruins of buildings constructed within the vault. I had seen maps of the complex’s many levels, and the sheer audacity of the project was breathtaking. They had had room enough down here for a hundred thousand people, nearly all of whom had worked in some capacity towards the construction of the Retreat. There were farms, breeding pens for animals, schools and houses and acres of laboratories. Here, refugee scientists had set up shop so they could help the Icelanders improve and expand their shelter deep beneath the frozen ground. Some of them had been working on creating genetically engineered microscopic flora to manufacture the oxygen they needed to breathe in bulk, down here in the lightless depths.
Nadia tap
ped with one gloved hand at a dashboard screen and it sprang to life, displaying the view to the rear of our EV. It showed a torrent of white fire gushing through a rent in the wall that hadn’t been there just seconds before.
‘Oh shit,’ she said under her breath. ‘Is that lava?’
I stared at the image, my lips numb even as the glow intensified. It was bright enough now that I could make out street signs as we passed them.
‘How do we get back out?’ I asked, staring in horror at the molten rock flooding across our escape route.
‘We don’t,’ said Nadia, tight lipped and as white as a sheet. ‘Not that way, at least.’
‘But there are other exits,’ I said. ‘Aren’t there?’
‘Yeah, but it’s going to take a while longer to reach them.’
‘Just as long as we’re not trapped down here.’ The steel cage that had wrapped itself around my chest loosened slightly.
‘Go take a look at the maps of the Retreat,’ said Nadia, ‘see which of those exits is nearest. You know where they’re kept?’
‘Sure.’ I walked, stiff-legged with terror, through to the rear of the EV. Barnes, asshole or not, might have been right when he ordered Nadia not to come down here. I pulled open a drawer where printed maps of the entire Retreat were kept, then spread them out on a fold-down table next to the EV’s tiny kitchenette, and tried not to think about the lava slowly filling up the whole vault.
‘We found ’em!’ Nadia practically screamed from up front, just a few minutes later. ‘I got the others on the radio!’
By now, the vault was incandescently bright with lava. More and more of it came pouring in behind us, and showed absolutely no signs of abating. It had melted the frozen air that lay on every surface, filling the vault with dense clouds of gas and dust that pooled beneath the ceiling and reduced visibility to nearly zero. It took an effort to keep my focus as I studied the spread-out sheets.
I came back up beside her, but could see nothing through the windscreen – not even the far wall of the vault, although I knew we were rapidly approaching it.
‘Where are they?’ I asked, looking over at Nadia.
‘In the next vault after this one,’ Nadia replied. ‘There’s a connecting tunnel, if I remember the map. We should be able to just drive straight thr—Oh shit.’
Before I could ask her what the problem was, I looked back up and saw the fog had cleared sufficiently to reveal both the far wall and the connecting tunnel directly before us. The tunnel entrance, however, had become partly blocked by rubble – heavy girders from an adjacent construction project had collapsed across its entrance in a great pile. I knew immediately there was no way the EV was going to be able to get past such an obstruction.
‘Is there enough space we can at least walk through?’ I asked in desperation. Blocked or not, there were gaps through which I could see into the darkness of the next vault. Even if the EV couldn’t get past the wreckage, it didn’t mean we couldn’t.
‘I guess,’ said Nadia, pressing a button next to the microphone. ‘Rozalia, can you still hear me?’
‘Loud and clear, sweetheart,’ said a woman’s voice. ‘What the hell’s going on back there? There’s all that light and—’
‘Hekla’s erupting,’ said Nadia. ‘A lava flow’s flooding the first vault.’ She pulled to a halt as near the mess of collapsed girders as she dared. ‘It looks like we’re going to have to come through to your side on foot.’
‘You shouldn’t have come, Nads,’ said the woman’s voice. ‘There were some real bad tremors down here and the EV went into a ditch and we’ve been stuck here ever since.’
‘Anyone else with you?’
‘Two Authority scientists I was escorting.’
‘What about your towline?’ asked Nadia. ‘Did you try using that to get you out?’
‘We tried. We got the winch running, but it got damaged when we crashed. It’s not strong enough to pull us back out of the hole we’re in.’
I could just make out a glint of silver in the next vault that might have been the other EV.
‘Are they just on the other side of the tunnel?’ I asked Nadia. ‘I thought I could see them.’
‘Yeah, they are. Why?’
‘Maybe we can use our own towline, if it stretches that far. Our EV might be able to drag theirs back out of whatever hole it’s stuck in.’
She gave me an appraising look. ‘Smart boy,’ she said approvingly, and leaned over the microphone. ‘You hear any of that, Rozalia?’
‘I did,’ the other woman said, her voice crackling. ‘Frankly, anything’s worth a try. I can see you too, through on the other side. You’re going to have to reverse your EV first, so you can pull once the line’s attached.’
The ground shook, and I glanced at the rear-view screen in time to see a building collapse into the spreading pool of fire behind us.
Nadia tapped a button next to the microphone and leaned back.
‘Do we have enough time?’ I asked. ‘That lava’s not moving that fast, but it’ll still catch up with us before long.’
‘Well,’ said Nadia, ‘it’s either this or we all try and walk out of here.’
Nadia reversed the EV until it was facing back the way it had come – and towards the approaching lava flow. The rear end, and the winch mounted there, she moved as close to the collapsed rubble and girders as she could.
There are, I think fewer sights more terrifying than what I saw, looking through that windscreen at the molten rock slowly oozing towards me. A thick dark crust was constantly forming on top of the flow before breaking open, as hotter rock pushed its way out. The first vault was wide enough to contain a lot of lava. But, even considering its slow accumulation, I doubted we had more than maybe ten or fifteen minutes before it swallowed our EV.
In the meantime, the three from the other EV made their way through the connecting corridor to join us, moving ponderously in their pressure suits, and helped Nadia unspool the cable from our rear-mounted winch. I followed them as they carried it back to their vehicle, and I gazed up at the concrete cap built into the roof of the connecting corridor.
Above that cap, made of high-density concrete and steel girders, was a vertical shaft, now filled with a couple of thousand tons of rubble and sand. It was a defensive measure, or so I had learned from flicking through Schultner’s mission-briefing pack. The Icelanders had been aware of the threat of invasion by those less prepared for survival on a hostile Earth and, like the pharaohs of old, they’d filled their subterranean kingdom with booby traps. Explosive bolts in the concrete cap could blow it apart, and the steel girders that helped hold all that rock and sand were designed to give way once the bolts blew. In this way a vault could be sealed off, either keeping invaders outside, or trapping them on the inside. I saw two sets of ladders bolted to the wall on either side of the corridor, each leading up to one side of the cap. What a shame their front door hadn’t been strong enough to withstand a tactical nuke.
The ground began to shake again. But instead of fading, the shaking grew stronger.
I helped attach the cable from our EV to the rear axle of the ditched vehicle. The cable was slightly bent where it went around and between fallen girders. The stricken EV’s rear was angled upwards, its wheels hanging uselessly above the ground. The front chassis was invisible where it had slid into a huge crack in the vault’s floor.
‘Jerry!’
It was Nadia’s voice, but I couldn’t figure out which one of the suited figures around me was her. Then one of them came towards me and clapped me on the shoulder. ‘I need you to drive forward while I operate the winch,’ said Nadia. ‘Think you can do it?’
I nodded inside my helmet, beads of sweat forming on my head at the thought of what I was going to have to do. I followed her back through to the first vault regardless, and was deeply alarmed to see the lava was now just metres away from the front of our own EV. The heat at such close proximity was astonishing.
Nadia headed fo
r the winch, while I got back inside the vehicle. I didn’t bother taking my helmet off, or cycling through the vehicle’s tiny airlock. There wasn’t the time. Instead I used an emergency override to evacuate all the air from inside in a few seconds, then climbed on board. I’d already been taught how to drive an EV, and I had the engine up and running in seconds.
‘Okay,’ said Nadia over the radio. ‘Pull forward – but don’t take any chances, Jerry. Don’t hang around one second longer than you have to.’
I eased down on the accelerator and rolled the EV forwards as tentatively as I could manage.
The vehicle trundled a foot or so forward, and then the engine whined as the slack was taken up on the cable. My heart thudded at the sight of the fiery tide spreading towards me. How long before the lava reached the EV? One minute? Or less?
‘Floor it,’ Nadia yelled. ‘She’s moving, but she’s still not out of that hole.’
‘If I floor it,’ I said through gritted teeth, ‘I’ll drive straight into the fucking lava.’
‘No, you won’t,’ Nadia yelled, with what struck me as a remarkable lack of conviction.
I floored it and felt the rumble of the engine through the soles of my boots. The EV trembled around me and then, suddenly, slipped forward a couple of inches.
‘That’s it, Jerry!’ Nadia yelled, sounding as if she was on the verge of hysteria. ‘She’s moving! Keep at it!’
I half-stood in the driver’s seat, staring with clenched teeth through the windscreen at the lava. It was right in front of the EV now, and getting closer . . .
. . . Closer . . .
The EV surged forwards, and into the lava. Flames shot up around the windscreen as the tyres were instantly burned to a crisp.
Nadia was yelling something, but I wasn’t paying attention. The floor shuddered beneath me, and the whole EV listed to one side. Flames were rushing up the front of the vehicle, and I saw the glass of the windscreen blacken and crack as I ran to the rear, where the airlock door was mounted.
