Robie knelt in front of the lock and took out a small bag. He inserted the squirt end of a bottle into the lock and squeezed the plastic. Some liquid from the bottle was injected into the lock. He next ran a length of fuse into the lock and unspooled it onto the ground. He struck a match, lit the twine, and moved back as the fire moved along the fuse toward the lock. When it reached the lock, there was a flash of fire and a puff of bright, white light. A smoldering smell reached their noses.
Robie crept forward, waited about sixty seconds, and, being careful not to touch the doorknob, inserted a tool into the lock and cranked it to the right. The doorknob turned easily.
Bender joined him. “What was that stuff?”
“A mixture of magnesium and some other elements. It burns at such a high heat, over five thousand degrees, that it’s melted the inner workings of the lock.”
“Damn. You guys have lots of tricks like that, I would imagine.”
“I think we might need a few extra tonight.”
Robie opened the door fully and shined his light inside, while keeping his gun trained in front of him.
Bender did the same.
Reel moved up to within a dozen yards of them, her gun making sweeps left and right.
Robie and Bender stepped into the room and peered around.
Bender had pulled out a powerful mag light and was making sweeps with it, too.
The space was full of stuff, old boxes, crates, and rusted tools.
“Looks like it did when I was a kid,” said Bender. “Are you sure you’re on the right track here?”
“Keeping it the same here is intentional. It dissuades anybody with enough balls to breach that lock from thinking that anything has really changed. But they couldn’t hide the fact of the new door and the fancy lock. Nobody would go to that trouble to keep this crap secure.”
“Down that way,” Bender said. “The room continues.”
They made their way down a long, dark corridor. Unlike the room, this space was clear of debris.
The walls were stone and had been smoothed out by whoever and whatever had managed to dig this tunnel.
Reel had followed them in and was using her optics to see past the area of light.
“There’s a door down there,” she said. “At the end. Rest of the way is clear.”
They picked up their pace and reached it about ten seconds later.
“It’s got mag locks,” said Robie, studying the metal door’s exterior. “I don’t see any surveillance cameras. I’m not sure why not. If I’d gone to the trouble of securing this tunnel like they had, I’d have some type of monitoring in place so I’d know if the place had been breached or not.”
Bender looked around and said quietly, “Do you think there’s something else they’re using? Trip beams, maybe? We could have already triggered one of them.”
“We could have,” said Robie. “Which means they may already know that we’re here. So let’s keep moving forward.”
“Use the magnesium,” said Reel. “To breach the door. The magnesium solution should work.”
Robie pulled out the squirt bottle, matches, and a length of fuse. He used the same process as before, then stepped back as the fire wound its way into the lock.
The puff of brilliant white smoke occurred a few moments later.
Robie used the same tool to open the door. A long, darkened tunnel confronted them.
“It’s running right towards the missile site,” observed Robie.
“You think it connects up?” said Bender.
“I’m about to bet my life that it does,” replied Robie. He looked back toward Reel. “Things are probably going to start getting dicey at this point.”
She nodded. “I expect they will.”
The three of them started to move forward. The tunnel began to narrow substantially so that they had to walk single file along it.
“Stay alert,” he whispered to Bender. He didn’t feel the need to tell Reel that.
Bender nodded and gripped his pistol more tightly.
They had traveled what seemed to Robie to be about a quarter mile when they came to yet another door.
“Shit,” muttered Robie.
There was no doorknob, only an electronic pad.
“It’s a biometric reader,” he observed. “Like the one that Lambert uses to access his silo.”
Reel drew closer and looked at it as Bender took a step back so he was behind the both of them.
“Our magnesium brew won’t work on that,” noted Reel.
“No, it won’t.” Robie felt the door. “Solid metal. I’m guessing three or four inches thick, steel hinges set right into the rock. We’d need an RPG round to make a dent.”
“We’ve got one back in the truck,” said Reel.
She looked back at Bender, who was staring at her, his gun pointed in front of him.
“No!” screamed Reel, when she saw the red dot flicking around him. She launched herself but it was too late.
The round slammed into the back of Bender’s head and stayed there.
He stood there teetering in his boots for a second before toppling forward face-first, his pistol dropping from his dead hand.
The door they were going to break into swung open, and ten guns were pointed at them along with blinding lights.
Dolph emerged from behind the armed men.
He smoothed down his uniform jacket and said, “I think this is where you lay your weapons down. Or we’d be perfectly fine with shooting you right here.”
Robie and Reel laid their weapons on the ground.
From down the tunnel they heard footsteps approaching.
Out of the darkness a silhouette appeared.
And then it emerged into a fuller, more solid form.
Yet it was only when the person used a flashlight to illuminate her features that she became recognizable. The rifle with the laser scope and heated barrel from the just-fired round was held in her other hand. It had been the red dot from the scope that Reel had seen.
Reel gasped, “You just killed your brother.”
Patti Bender looked down at the body and said, “Actually, my half brother. So it really doesn’t count, does it?”
CHAPTER
65
The air was stale and warm, with a chemical odor permeating throughout.
Robie and Reel sat in a small concrete block room behind a barred door. They had been stripped down to their underclothes, searched, and shackled. Their phones and weapons had been confiscated.
“I’m sorry, Robie.”
Robie glanced at her. “For what?”
“I didn’t secure our rear flank.”
“Well, considering we had about a dozen guns on our forward flank, I don’t think it mattered. If it’s anyone’s fault it’s mine. I did a bull run and screwed us.”
“You didn’t have much choice.”
“People always have choices. I made the wrong one. And now Bender is dead.”
“I didn’t see Patti being in on this.”
“Neither did I. But maybe it’s starting to make sense.”
“How so?”
Before he could answer, someone appeared at the doorway. It was Dolph.
Robie looked up at him.
Dolph said, “Well, there is justice after all, even for people like me. I had you as prisoners before and I do again. This time the result will be very different. There will be no Apostles to aid you.”
Reel said, “So what’s the game, Dolph? Hiding out in an abandoned missile silo? Afraid to come to the surface and fight it out mano a mano? Going for the angle of the cowardly Nazi?”
Dolph pursed his lips. “I don’t think you’ve quite grasped the enormity of what’s going on here.”
“So enlighten us,” interjected Robie.
“I’ll be right back,” said Dolph. “Don’t go anywhere,” he added with a smirk.
A few minutes later someone approached the cell door once more. It was a man neither of them recognized. He was in his thirties and skinny with thick bushy hair.
“Who the hell are you?” demanded Reel.
“My real name is Arthur Fitzsimmons.” When he next spoke his voice was one that they both instantly recognized. “But you might also know me as Dolph.”
Both Robie and Reel gaped.
“God, that feels so good,” Fitzsimmons said, running a hand through his hair. “That latex head mask is a real bitch to wear. And the fat suit! Well, even in the cool weather it’s a bitch. Now I can understand what actors feel like.”