Manifold had intentionally greased the ventilation shafts as a security procedure. When the security override was initiated, a second grate extended from the vertical walls and latched into place. It was like a manhole sewer cover grate that you could see though—the kind with bars. Designed not to impede the flow of air into and out of the facility. But this grate’s bars weren’t flat like those on a manhole cover. They tapered upward into razor sharp blades.
White Two’s body slammed into the death trap at close to forty miles an hour. His clothing, skin and the skeleton beneath it were all no match for the steel razor-grill. One hundred and sixty pounds of human being and military equipment were diced into small chunks and soupy muck by the razor-grill, then crashed into the actual grate that was set into the ceiling of the hangar of Central. If anyone had been in the hangar at that moment, they would have seen the grate on the ceiling explode open and a red and brown burst of human debris splatter through the air and onto the concrete floor fifty feet below. If White Two had made it successfully into Central, he would have seen the similar remains of White Three on top of a pallet of cardboard boxes, thirty feet across the hangar.
7.
Lake Winnipesaukee, White Mountains, NH
Well, I’m in the shit now.
White Four, a short broad-shouldered New York Italian, looked down into the massive cistern and frowned. It was probably twenty feet tall and about five feet in diameter, and the bottom third of it was filled with liquid sewage, a few chunky fecal bits floating on top. The smell was strong enough to make his eyes water.
White Four, known as Gino Ravenelli until his transfer from 10th Mountain to Chess Team’s Security Force, was peering down at the heady brew of human waste from an access tunnel near the top of the cistern, where a rusted ladder led down the wall and submerged into the slime. He now realized that the access tunnel wasn’t strictly for the purpose of access, but rather was primarily intended as an overflow tunnel. If the cistern filled to its top with sewage, the tunnel would direct the overflowing waste out of the cistern and directly in the lake. Gino was outraged.
“That bastard,” he said aloud, the sound echoing around the mostly empty chamber.
Richard Ridley had been nothing if not extravagant with regard to his own comforts while cutting corners in every other area that he deemed nonessential. The man had apparently saved money on costly sewage treatment or removal by simply choosing to contaminate the local environment.
Gino had arrived at the edge of Lake Winnipesaukee on his HDT dirt bike just about twenty minutes after White One had dispatched him here from the outside of the hangar door. The road at the north of the lake led to a small, seemingly abandoned cabin, which Deep Blue had discovered was owned by Manifold through several dummy companies. The cabin was strictly camouflage though. Gino had entered it and attempted to gain access to the underground section of the Alpha base known now as Dock, but the door at the top of the stairs down to the huge dock with the massive submarine was covered by a thick steel security door, which was usually retracted and hidden inside the wall like a pocket door. Gino knew how thick the door was, and he reasoned that he didn’t have enough explosives on him to get through it. He had expected the door though. If all the security doors at the base had slammed shut like the hangar door had, he knew he’d have a challenge ahead of him in getting into the Dock. But the stair inside the abandoned cabin made the most sense to check first. It was the easiest possible way in.
Next, he had gone back to his HDT and opened a small equipment case that was attached to the rear. It contained all kinds of useful items such as a small blowtorch, a small fire extinguisher, MREs and the items he had retrieved—a diving mask and small pony bottle of oxygen that could be used in a pinch, as a SCUBA tank. Not bothering to remove his BDUs or his boots, Gino had taken the pony bottle with him and dived into the lake, not yet using it to breathe.