Ice Storm (29 page)

"No." He shook his head. "I would never do that."

"Maybe not. But your subconscious would."

"But what about this grotto? What about all this stuff?"

"The grotto is natural for the most part." I nodded at the old vehicles. "The Nazis came here a few decades ago. They probably blasted it out to make a little more space. Then they used the extra rock to build the gate."

"The Nazis?"

"They called this place
Werwolfsschanze
."

"Yeah? Well, there's a door over there. Looks like it leads to a tunnel." He jabbed his thumb at the east wall. "How do you explain that?"

"It's just another fracture," I replied. "The Nazis might've shaped it and widened it out. But still, just a fracture."

His eyes cleared. A look of horror came across his visage.

"Face it." I grinned wickedly. "You thought you were on the verge of a great discovery. But when this goes public—and it will go public—you'll be remembered as one of the biggest jokes in history."

Roy grimaced. He lifted his gun.

I dove to the ground. Grabbed my pistol. But even as it filled my hand, I knew the effort was futile.

I turned to face him, to face death.

A gunshot rang out. It reverberated in the grotto.

I waited a second. Then I felt my head and chest. I didn't feel any wounds.

Slowly, Roy sank to the ground. I didn't have to see his lifeless eyes or the gaping hole in the side of his head to know what had happened.

Roy Savala had taken his own life.

Chapter 81

"Do you hear that?" Baxter's voice rumbled through the grotto. "Sounds like engines."

I raced to the gate. Through the crack, I saw a Sno-Cat stop just short of the mountain. Moments later, two trucks pulled up next to it.

"Well, that explains the tire marks near the
Desolation
." I glanced at Beverly. "Aaron's got friends. Lots of friends."

"Terrific," she replied.

I pushed the gate, trying to close it. But it withstood my efforts. "I hope one of you has an idea."

"We could shoot it out," Graham hurried to my side. "Or maybe not. Jesus Christ, they've got almost as many vehicles as we've got people."

"I'll hold them off." Beverly checked her ammunition. "I should be able to buy you a few minutes."

"I'll help out," Baxter said.

"Where are we going to go?" I asked.

She tilted her head toward the east wall. "Didn't that dead guy say something about a tunnel?"

"If we go any deeper into this place, we might not come out again."

"Would you rather stay here?" She moved to the crack. Bullets spat out of her gun. Angry shouts filled the air.

"No thanks." I stowed my pistol and grabbed my flashlight out of my satchel. Then I darted across the grotto. The area around me acted as a sort of echo chamber. My footsteps crashed against the ground. Soft breaths hissed out of my lips. Wads of snow dripped down my parka, splashing noisily against the rock floor.

The sheer size of the grotto amazed me. Brief glimpses showed signs of its former inhabitants. Blankets hung limply from sturdy cords, separating the space into individual sections. Each section contained cots and pieces of furniture. Oddly enough, the space looked orderly. Sort of like the Nazis might arrive at any minute to reclaim it.

By the time I reached the east wall, the gunfire sounded distant. Swiftly, I cast my beam at it. "Look at that." My words came out in one quick breath. "They stacked the furniture."

"I guess that settles it," Graham remarked. "We might as well add interior decorating to the long list of Nazi failures."

I studied the furniture. There were two piles of it, one in front of the other. Each pile was carefully balanced and gathered in a tight space.

I pointed my beam at the smooth rock floor. It looked clean. There was no garbage or debris. However, I noticed something else. "The ground is marked up. They didn't even bother to carry the furniture. They just dragged it."

"Maybe they went stir crazy." Graham added his beam to mine. "I'd lose my mind too if I had to live here."

Numbness came over me as I strode to the furniture. I took off my glove and weaved my hand between some chairs and a cabinet. My fingers touched metal. Oddly enough, it felt slightly warmer than the rest of the room. "There's definitely a door back here."

"So, they barricaded their own door?"

"It sure looks that way."

He gave me a look of disbelief. "And you want to open it?"

"I don't think we have a choice."

Chapter 82

The sound of gunfire swept over the grotto. I ducked my head and scrambled toward the furniture pile.

Graham grabbed a chair and tossed it to one side of the room. I grabbed a second chair and hurled it in the opposite direction. For the next two minutes, we attacked the pile. Slowly, the outer layer began to thin. We cleared the rest of it away and then shifted our attention to the inner layer.

A series of loud popping noises penetrated my ears.

"Did you hear that?" Graham cocked his head. "They can't hold out much longer."

"Then we'd better pick up the pace."

I grabbed one end of a desk. He grabbed the other end and we hauled it to the side. He hurried back to the pile and picked up another chair. I waited for him to clear out of the way. Then I grabbed a giant cabinet and rocked it away from the wall. Just behind it, I saw a metal door.

I grabbed the knob. It turned easily enough but when I tried to pull it, the door held fast.

"There's a deadbolt." Graham crouched. "Actually, there are two of them."

I pointed my beam at the metal surface. "There's a third one up here. Why would the Nazis put deadbolts in the middle of nowhere?"

I didn't wait for an answer. Instead, I pushed the top deadbolt. Metal screeched against metal as it slid open.

The sound of crackling gunfire intensified.

Graham released the other two deadbolts. I yanked the knob again. The door opened. Stale air swept into my lungs.

"Beverly," I shouted as I pushed Graham through the gap. "Pat. Come on."

Footsteps pounded against rock. The gunfire grew louder.

I darted through the door. The temperature climbed a couple of degrees. A sweet scent wafted into my nostrils.

I shifted my beam. I saw Beverly and Baxter sprinting toward the door. Behind them, I noticed figures squeezing through the rock gate's small opening. "Hurry up," I whispered frantically.

They ran faster and darted past me. I swung the door shut. Graham swept his flashlight beam over the frame. Then he bent down and slid two bolts into place. I found another bolt at the top of the door and forced it into position.

I could hear footsteps in the adjoining room. They paused. Whispers rang out. Then the footsteps started again, albeit at a much slower pace. They crisscrossed the grotto. Furniture creaked. Sheets were tossed to the ground.

"Come on," Beverly said. "We can't stay here."

"Hang on a moment." Graham pointed his beam at the door. "Check that out."

The metal looked bruised as if someone had attempted to batter it open. Long scratches and dents were etched into its surface.

"The Nazis must've kept their prisoners here," Graham remarked. "They probably revolted. That explains the piled furniture."

"No. I've seen scratches like this before." Baxter knelt down. Slowly, he traced them with his finger. "I'll never forget them."

"You mean …?"

"Prisoners didn't make them." He exhaled. "Fenrir did."

Chapter 83

"Damn, it's warm." Graham wiped his brow. "What's down there anyway? Some kind of volcano?"

"God, I hope not." Beverly swept her flashlight in a circle. The tunnel was wide and sloped deep into the ground. "Well, it doesn't look like a lava tube."

Graham unzipped his parka. "How much do you know about this place?"

"Enough."

"Why'd the Nazis choose to build it here?"

"Secrecy and privacy, I suppose."

"There's no food source." His frown deepened. "And maybe this place gave them privacy. But it also isolated them. How could they possibly spread the Great Dying from this lifeless hunk of ice?"

Beverly didn't answer.

"Another door." Beads of sweat dripped down my forehead and I brushed them away. "Looks like it took a pounding too. But it wasn't bolted like the other one so it didn't stay shut."

Beverly gave it a gentle shove. Metal screeched and it swung open.

I pointed my flashlight into the void. I saw a massive cavern. A dull white light illuminated a small section of it.

"Where the hell is that light coming from?" Graham asked.

I glanced up. "There's a small aperture in the ceiling. A little bit of sunlight is shining through it."

Water dripped from the ceiling. I followed it downward. My eyes settled on the center of the room. Puzzle pieces clicked into place. "I know why it's so warm in here."

Graham cocked his head. "Well, let's hear it."

"Because of that lake." I pointed at a large pool of water in the middle of the cavern. "It's not a typical lake. It's a geothermal lake."

Chapter 84

My eyes bulged as I walked into the cavern. The lake was roughly the size of a professional basketball court. Fungi covered the rocks along its shoreline. I noticed a few green plants as well. It was beautiful in a way, a veritable underground paradise surrounded by miles of endless snow.

"Lots of space," Graham eyed the lake. "And free swimming too."

My gaze locked onto the nearest wall. I saw streaks of blood as well as bits of rotten gore. A light breeze touched my face, carrying with it the faint odors of feces and raw meat. The area didn't smell like an untouched lake. It smelled like a slaughterhouse.

So much for paradise.

"It's not so bad," I replied. "If you can get past the stench of death."

A smooth rock floor stretched around the lake. At the northern end, I saw a long passage. I thought I saw a door at the end of it, but it was too far away to be certain. A door, large and circular, stood on the far side of the lake. It looked like the door to a bank vault and was cracked open a couple of feet.

Baxter knelt down next to the water. He held his hand out over the surface. "How does it stay so warm?"

"It's being heated by the Earth," I replied. "The water must extend deep into the crust, all the way to the mantle. It mixes with hot rocks and flows back up here."

"In other words, it's one big pool of thermal energy. Too bad this isn't closer to Kirby."

"It looks like the Nazis made good use of it." I pointed to a series of long pipes. They entered the lake on the south side and quickly vanished underwater. "They built some kind of primitive geothermal pump to extract heat from the lake. They must've used it to generate electricity."

"Do you think it still works?"

I held up a finger, cutting him off. I listened hard for a few seconds, trying to distinguish sounds from the howling winds high above us.

Graham frowned. "Hear something?"

"Yes," I replied. "It was like a strange skittering sound. But I don't—”

"Look." Graham stabbed his finger toward the opposite side of the lake. "Over there."

I squinted. "Where?"

"I …" Graham craned his neck. "I could've sworn I saw something."

I frowned. "Fenrir?"

"Maybe."

I studied the opposite shore. "What is Fenrir?" I asked Baxter.

"I don't know," he replied. "But it's definitely not of this world."

I arched an eyebrow. "What makes you say that?"

"Look at the evidence. This place was abandoned decades ago. What kind of animal survives that long? And where does it get food? A beast of its size can't live off fungi alone."

The sound of banging metal brought me back to reality. Turning around, I stared uneasily at the sloping tunnel. "That door won't hold them forever."

Beverly hurried back to the lower door. She swung it shut and bolted it. "It looks like we've got two choices. The vault or the tunnel."

"We can't keep running," I said. "Sooner or later, we're going to run out of room."

"Maybe not. You saw the barricade up there. Fenrir never broke through it. And yet, it still managed to get outside."

I nodded slowly. "You're right. There must be another exit."

I directed my beam to the side. Iron cages of all shapes and sizes were stacked against the near wall. Some of their gates hung from broken hinges. Other gates lay on the ground. Still others had been ripped into multiple pieces.

Beverly swallowed. "Animal testing?"

"Sure looks that way," I replied. "The Nazis must've used them as extra test subjects."

"So, it wasn't just Fenrir that escaped." Graham stroked his jaw. "The Nazis fled. The animals gave chase. At least one of the Nazis escaped. He ran to the grotto and bolted the door. Then he stacked up the furniture to keep the animals from breaking it down."

"I wonder what happened to him."

"I'm betting he's the dead soldier we found at the gas chamber," Graham said. "Fenrir escaped via the back route and tracked him down. Killed him and all the others too."

I glanced at Baxter. "You know, this might explain the food question. After the animals escaped, they took up residence here. They formed their own ecosystem."

"Maybe," he said. "But that still doesn't explain Fenrir's size and strength. I'm telling you it's not like other animals."

Metal smashed against metal. The sound echoed through the cavern.

"Come on," I said. "This way."

I turned toward the long passage. Then I stopped.

Those eyes …

The red eyes emerged from the darkness. A cloak of mist surrounded its face but I could make out other details. I saw its silhouette. Its slinky body. Its long, powerful muscles. Its thick matted hair. It was Fenrir.

And it was hungry.

Chapter 85

The massive beast coiled up its body and bared its teeth. Drool dripped from its jaw. Foam bubbled up at the corners of its mouth.