2041 Sanctuary (Dark Descent) (63 page)

They’d been walking for a couple of hours and Jessica’s tired limbs vied with a thirst for water to see which could exact on her the most discomfort. After cresting a ridge and dropping down into a valley, Jessica thought she glimpsed lights in the distance through the trees, lots and lots of lights.

A deep rumbling noise built in the skies overhead, getting louder and louder until a deafening roar shot past, disturbing the snow-clad treetops. Another high-speed Sabre fighter followed in its wake, both heading down the valley at frightening speed.

‘Air patrols,’ Franz said over his shoulder, dislodged snow falling around them in the torchlight, ‘regular as clockwork, nothing moves down here without them knowing about it.’

‘What about us?’ Jessica asked, ‘they know we’re here?’

‘Of course, I should know, it’s part of my job; I work in the security centre.’

‘Security centre for what?’

‘You’ll see.’

Jessica stifled an angry retort. Franz, while amiable, was certainly not forthcoming about what he was taking her to see, putting her off with ambiguities which seemed to amuse his penchant for the dramatic.

With the trees thinning, the slope bottomed out to a gravel and slate laden basin. Encircling this massive clearing stood a chain of mighty floodlights, higher than the trees that encircled them. At the far end of the valley a monstrous wall stretched across like an enormous uncoiled snake that had been turned to glistening, grey stone, its petrified carcass serving others in its death.

A resonating hum made Jessica turn to see five tandem coaxial rotor helicopters skimming in low over the trees before crossing the large open expanse and moving on towards the distant monolithic wall. Each of these black aircraft bore the gleaming white logo of her nemesis, the power hungry and out of control behemoth, the GMRC.

Further along, after walking around a tiny portion of the basin’s edge, which resembled the shallow pit of an open mine, they reached a small white building. Next to this stood an open-top vehicle, a kind of dune buggy with massive oversized wheels and a transparent shell. They climbed into the front seats, the edges of the low profile tyres now higher than their heads, and a bright blue head-up-display blazed to life on the front windscreen. Pressing a touch button, Franz started the electric engine and drove them towards the activity around the wall.

He passed her a red, hard hat. ‘Put this on,’ he said, still speaking in German.

She put on the helmet and he followed suit, his own helmet white.

‘And you’ll need this.’ He dangled a metallic badge on a chain before her, the cold wind whipping at it through the open vehicle.

Accepting the proffered lanyard, Jessica inspected the curious design of the accompanying card. The GMRC logo was engraved in the top right-hand corner and on the left was her facial image and her pseudonym, Eliza Sterling, the name her deceased friend and colleague, Martin, had given her prior to her leaving England. Putting the chain around her neck, Jessica felt a certain amount of trepidation as the wall grew nearer. The astounding structure must have been over a hundred foot high and bristled with lights all along its formidable length. She could see now that it wasn’t a barrier, but an enclosure, the sides at each end curving round and out of sight.

Bouncing along in the buggy, they skimmed along next to the wall; armed soldiers could be seen patrolling high above, on top. The sentries wore white balaclavas and identical clothing to the men who had escorted her to the meeting with Franz.

An entrance through the wall came into view and Franz turned to her. ‘When we get inside, let me do all the talking; you’re a security inspector from another facility and are there to observe only.’

‘What facility?’ she said, alarmed by the lack of detail to her cover story.

‘They won’t ask.’ He slowed the vehicle. ‘They’re not allowed to know.’

‘Convenient,’ she said.

He flashed her a smile that looked more like a grimace. ‘That card is all you need.
Da Muss Ich
and I have ensured your entry will go unnoticed; as long as we keep to the plan nothing will go wrong.’

‘I’ve heard that before,’ Jessica muttered under her breath.

‘Act natural,’ he said, the vehicle stopping on a flat piece of concrete, ‘here we go.’

Here we go where?
Jessica thought. The imposing gates in front of them still stood tightly closed with no sign of opening. The futuristic buggy rocked as the ground beneath them shifted. Slabs of concrete reared up all around and they sank into the earth, their descent giving the impression that the wall rose higher above them.

The platform shuddered to a halt, revealing a road ahead blocked off by a substantial metal barrier that protruded from its tarmac surface. On either side, a team of grey garbed men and women emerged from glass partitioned offices built into the super-sophisticated underground security checkpoint. Some scanned the exterior and interior of the vehicle, while others ran Franz’s and Jessica’s identity badges through a handheld computer, even stopping to take DNA and hair samples from each of them. Jessica hoped Franz and Bic had done a good job at gaining her access; she could see herself locked up permanently if her deception was exposed. The security personnel were apparently satisfied with their checks and Franz rolled the car forwards and onto another platform. A large rectangular scanner rose out of the floor, its metal frame zipping up and down and around them at a frenetic pace, a plethora of crystal blue laser-like lights covering every inch of the buggy and its passengers with their pervasive fan-shaped beams.

‘Put this on.’ Franz handed her a small face mask, the two small discs on the front marking it as a piece of breathing apparatus. Jessica did so just before a white light above shone down on them and jets of warm mist blasted over every inch of the vehicle like some out of control, ultra high-tech car wash. Once this process had subsided, the buggy and their bright orange outfits glistened with a fine film of residue. A loud buzzer blared out and the metal barrier sank into the floor, allowing Franz to drive over it and down a long, brightly lit tunnel.

When they emerged from below ground onto a raised, single-lane road Jessica caught her breath; the panorama before her was awe-inspiring to behold. Above, a transparent covering stretched away in all directions. Travelling further in, Jessica could tell that this massive see-through dish, if viewed outside from the air, would resemble a funnel; similar to the end of a wind instrument like a tuba, but with the hole in the middle being much smaller and the curve shallower.

Below the elevated highway, Jessica could see that this gargantuan, shielded, indoor area, a few miles across, had indeed been built over an open mine. The huge pit descended in great steps of rock hewn from the earth’s crust; down and down they went, each level supporting a whole host of pipework and cabling ranging in diameter from the size of a person’s arm to the width of a large house. All around, a web of interconnecting turbines powered the facility, their giant, bulging shells arranged in a series of systems so complex it boggled the mind just to look at.

Throughout this structure, people could be seen carrying out their duties, all wearing the appropriate hard hats and various coloured coveralls, perhaps denoting their specific department or team. At the epicentre of this mass of activity a towering structure thrust up from deep underground, creating the supporting hub for the vast, translucent, inverted funnel-dome around it. The top of this central tower also extended above the dome itself, cutting a path to the air outside. From her vantage point inside the buggy, Jessica saw that numerous circular platforms sprouted from the sides of the building, many of them occupied by the large black helicopters she’d seen only a short while before.

‘Is it safe to speak in here?’ Jessica asked as the road spiralled in towards the centre.

Franz glanced at her. ‘Yes, while we are in the car, anyway.’

‘What is this place for? It’s huge, all these people, equipment, machines.’

‘This is not huge, just wait, you’ll see. Look, we are almost there.’

Jessica looked to her right as they neared the tower. During their drive inside they had gradually been descending. The surface now lay hundreds of feet above them, the wall that stretched around the outside so far away it looked small when viewed through the transparent funnel overhead.

Franz slowed the vehicle, directing it inside one of many small external carports built onto the side of the structure. Powering down the car, they both got out onto a smooth metal floor and walked into the building through a wide open arch.

‘Good morning, Franz Veber, Eliza Sterling,’ an automated female voice said as they passed inside, a red laser scanning them both while on the move. ‘Welcome.’

Ensuring she kept her thoughts to herself now they were inside, Jessica looked around the interior. Wide, oval-shaped corridors fanned out in every direction, comprising frosted glass floors and thick, durable gloss-white, composite wall-mouldings; it was a pleasing fusion of aesthetic design and functional austerity.

Continuing down one of these passageways, Franz and Jessica, still wearing their respective hard hats, found themselves engulfed in a hive of activity as they cut through a bustling control room. Controlling what, Jessica wasn’t quite sure, but wallscreens and complicated projections adorned every surface. Franz stopped soon after to converse at length with a man holding a clipboard, his grey uniform embroidered with a black version of the GMRC’s logo. Nearby, Jessica stood trying to look inconspicuous. Apparently satisfied with whatever Franz had told him, the official walked away, giving Jessica a nod in passing, which she returned, along with a smile that felt more like a rictus grin than a friendly gesture.

Setting off again, Franz led her through a series of turns culminating in a breath-taking circular atrium, the centre dominated by a huge open shaft as wide as a football pitch and containing a single, equally monstrous, multi-floored platform surrounded by an abundance of complex machinery.

‘Is that what I think it is?’ Jessica said, keeping her voice low.

‘It is okay to speak freely again,’ Franz told her, ‘but if you’re thinking it’s a subterranean lift shaft and accompanying elevation transport module, then yes, that is exactly what it is.’

‘But it’s so—’

‘Big?’

‘Yes.’

‘It’s a matter of logistics.’ Franz ushered her to a far smaller human sized lift at the atrium’s edge. Entering it, he pressed a button. ‘If you have a lot of material to move, you need something big to move it with.’

A high-pitched whine indicated the elevator moved down at speed, Jessica spying on an interior panel the words,
vacuum lift
. The sound stopped and the doors opened to reveal an astounding sight.

‘Now that is big,’ Franz said, moving out into by far the largest indoor area Jessica had ever seen.

They stood on a metal gangway, suspended high up on the side of an outer wall. The huge lift shaft they had seen above cut through this section and continued its way down unhindered, destination unknown. What so amazed her, however, was that it wasn’t the only shaft in sight. Miles apart, separated by the mother of all loading bays, other lift shafts could be seen in the far distance. On this great floor, huge vehicles, themselves dwarfed by the warehouse in which they operated, loaded and unloaded all manner of containers.  

‘This is incredible.’ Jessica was awestruck.

Franz nodded. ‘The structure you saw on the surface is one of many; they all meet here underground and then continue on down to the main complex below.’

Jessica stood there for some moments, taking it all in. ‘I’m sorry, what?’ she said, realising what he’d just said. ‘This isn’t the main complex?’

Franz grinned at her. ‘This?’ He gestured with a hand at the immense area before them. ‘No. This is just a staging area. It’s small in comparison to what lies beneath.’

‘Small?’ Jessica said.

‘Yes. Look here.’ He guided her to a schematic attached to a nearby wall. ‘This is one of the surface structures, where we entered.’ He pointed at a small disc shape near the top of the diagram. ‘Here,’ he said, indicating a larger area below, ‘is where we are now, and this,’ he continued, his finger drawing her eyes further down to the bulk of the diagram, ‘is the main facility.’

Jessica looked at it, finding it hard to comprehend the sheer scale of it. ‘But what is it? What’s it for?’

‘That,’ Franz said, looking proud, ‘is EUSB Deutschland.’

Chapter Forty One

‘EUSB?’ Jessica noticed a curious emblem in the bottom right hand corner of the wall diagram:

‘European Union Subterranean Base,’ Franz said, before a beeping alarm alerted him to his computer phone. ‘Time’s up, we need to go.’

 ‘But I need to see more.’ Reluctant, Jessica followed him back to the vacuum lift.

‘That’s all I can show you. I don’t have clearance to go down into the main structure. Not yet anyway.’

‘But you will?’