Chapter 15

As my GPS indicator flashed on and off twice, I tapped the screen on my digital recorder. I was nearing the exact point of coordinates, and it was time to have a closer look at this ice covered island. Setting my sights directly at the red dot on my GPS screen, I went into a dive that brought me within a hundred feet of the ice and snow covered wasteland.

Just as I slowed to twenty knots, I noticed two, very tall, white antennae to my right. Next to them was a large, white dish antenna – none of which were visible until I was on a level with them. From here, I could see the flat, ice-covered helipad. Immediately adjoining the helipad, I saw the entrance to the underground base.

Now to take them out – after disabling their communications.

Using the laser on the forefinger of my right hand, I took down both hundred-foot antenna, then totally wiped out the dish in one sweep. As I held my thumb pressed against the side of my forefinger, I saw something odd happening – something I had not experienced before. My laser was coming out in a broken – dotted line. The laser resembled tracers, fired from a fully automatic, high powered weapon.

I let off the pressure of my thumb, and there was the solid, straight beam again. I kind of like that machine-gun, chatter-effect, and pressed my thumb against my forefinger. The damage was instant and devastating. There was nothing left of the above ground communication transmitters.

Backing off a half mile before beginning my assault on the concrete bunker ... I started with the entrance which was made of concrete. I knew they would have built it to withstand a direct hit from a missile or a bomb and I wanted to stay back in case they had it rigged to self-destruct on the surface in the event of a ground, or low-level aerial attack.

When I hit that bunker with the full force from both hands, I was glad I had backed off. There was an explosion which created a bomb crater two hundred foot wide and over a hundred foot deep into the surface of the frozen icepack on the island. I saw black smoke ... then I saw fire and steam belching out.

Instantly, the thought hit me that they would surely have an escape route in place. Turning slowly in a complete circle, scanning the area ... I saw a stream of pressurized vapor spewing from a small mound in the otherwise flat, frozen landscape. This was it, and there had to be damage below, with heat and moisture escaping into the frigid, subzero air.

I was above the mound by fifty feet and back away from it a hundred yards when I swiped the area with a concentrated strafing of my lasers. Immediately, there was an implosion underground which shook the air around me as debris and smoke plumed into the atmosphere over three hundred feet. I must have hit their water supply, as much ice and snow that formed as the water spewed into the frigid atmosphere – before falling back to fill the crater in the form of frozen precipitation.

When the debris settled, I turned to hover over the crater where the main entrance had once been.

I could see deep into the darkened hole of the underground base. There was no way I was going to leave without checking to make sure the remainder of this base was completely destroyed. There was no sign of life and no sign of bodies as I drifted slowly down through the small opening which led to a large underground cavern. The structural damage was massive. The shattered concrete walls had been three and four foot thick, with I-beams and steel supports now bent, melted and twisted. There were doorways opening off the main cavern and each of them were open with the rooms vacant. I entered the room nearest me and saw what had once been a command post, much like the one I’ve seen on TV, of Space Center Houston, as a space capsule was being launched. There were wires, monitors, keyboards, and circuit boards lying strewn and tangled in every direction. There were chairs overturned, desks and tables destroyed and upturned, all around the large room. Still, there were no bodies and I knew there had to be at least one more escape route ... or possibly an emergency shelter of some kind.

I wasn’t keen on killing in cold-blood, but I had already prepared myself for the fact that if necessary, I would rid America of another threat to our national security – if the opportunity presented itself.

In the next offshoot room I entered, I heard voices. Distant – muffled voices. They’re in a soundproof shelter of some sort, and now I had to find it. I left that room and went into the room next door. The sounds were more evident – I knew I was getting closer.

I went into the next room and the sounds were muffled. Returning to the previous room, I hovered above the floor in an effort to keep from tripping or stumbling over the debris, and alerting those in the shelter. I found the place where the sounds were clearer and loudest. There was a louvered panel on the wall, which must have been added to resemble a return-air opening for the underground ventilation system. Listening closely near the grate, I could hear voices clearly as they whispered in muffled tones. I could sense the fear in some, and commanding authority in others as they scolded the weaker among them. No need to drag this out ... I was ready to get out of here in case there was a Doomsday Device planted in this cavern to take out anyone who tried to capture those hidden in the secured shelter ... or shelters.

With my back against the opposite wall, I concentrated all the power of my lasers on the grate opening. If this was indeed the entrance and exit to their shelter, it would be sealed forever. I unleashed my full power and felt the room shake and tremble under the force. I heard rumblings from overhead and gave the opening one last super-blast. That blast not only caved in the opening, it melted the concrete into crystallized glass and molten sand.

There were more rumblings overhead and even more, coming from deep below. Launching myself toward the opening through which I had first entered the cavern, I saw light, just as there was an explosion beneath the earth like a volcano erupting. I made it to open daylight barely ahead of the plume of black and gray smoke, which was filled with debris – and body parts.

When I turned to look back, I was three miles above the crater I’d just made of the underground, SSTA, (Specnaz-Siberian-Techni-Assassins). I saw snow and ice sliding back into the deep, funnel-shaped opening from around the perimeter, and decided to add a little insurance and camouflage to their destroyed base. I swept the area for miles in all directions with my fingers spread, causing snow and ice to melt, pouring water in to fill the crater. In a matter of minutes, the crater was filled, with over a hundred foot of solid ice, and hopefully invisible from above.

I flew back up to twenty thousand feet for a look down at my target. Already, ice was covering the crater, and from here, no one would ever recognize that there had ever been a cavern underneath this icecap.

As I left there with my GPS now locked on Moscow, I flipped the small rocker-switch and called Eagle Nest.

Boyd ... We were getting worried. Did you have any problems locating the underground bunker – General Langston answered immediately.

I knew I could get in and out of Moscow without much risk of being spotted – yet once I was on the ground I would stick out like an escaped convict – wearing a black and white striped suit.

I had no choice but to fly down into a concealed courtyard where there were clothes hanging on a line. In a matter of seconds I was dressed in jeans and a button-up casual shirt. The shirt was a little wrinkled, and the jeans a little tight, but this had to suffice. With my flight-suit on my back – rolled, zipped and folded into a backpack – I strolled down the street toward the Nagatinsky Canalization District of the Moskva River.

I remembered seeing in the news a year or so back, about an oil spill on the Moscow River south of downtown Moscow. The blame was placed on the Moscow Oil Refinery, located just upriver from the spill ... the oil spill later mysteriously caught fire and burned on the river’s surface until extinguished.

I was prepared to use the oil spill scenario again if necessary, to cause enough disruption in the area for me to do my job and get the hell out of here.

According to the coordinates I was given, this base of operations is located in an underground bunker off a sewer main, which crosses underneath the river near downtown Moscow. Once I secured the exact location of the underground base with my handheld GPS, I scouted the area for manholes and utility workers’ access to the mains. I made note of my entry and exit points, then went over my plans again.

My plan was to enter across the river, two blocks east from the Moskva River.

As I sat on a park bench, on the west side of the river, casually taking note of my surroundings, eight young men and two women approached a manhole near me, then stood in a tight group. They were dressed identically in blue coveralls with the Moskva Natural Gas Utilities logo on their shoulders. Without hesitation, the man in the center of the group lifted the manhole cover and laid it back. He was the last to enter, and as he looked around the park before entering, his eyes met mine. I nodded and he did too, just before he pulled the cover over the manhole, as he dropped out of sight.

So ... they do their business right here under the nose of the citizens and the authorities. I had a hunch that the authorities were willingly turning their backs under orders of high ranking members in the city government.

Now – my exit plans are in place. If at all possible, I will now exit through this very manhole on the west side of the river, wearing blue coveralls over my flight-suit.

I stood and casually walked north along the park path to a crosswalk over the river. Crossing over to the east side of the river, I scanned the area, before returning to a point directly across the river from the park. From there, I walked east, away from the river for two blocks. I wished at that moment, I had a pair of those blue coveralls, but I’d just have to risk entering this manhole I’d chosen earlier, without one.

I know it couldn’t have taken me more than ten seconds to lift the cover, step down and quietly pull the lid back in place behind me. But, for that length of time, I was at the mercy of anyone who may have been below me in the storm drain.

In the dark, I dropped the last three steps to the bottom. Once inside the large sewer, I dropped my stolen clothes and donned my flight-suit. Then, flipping my visor down, I was able to see with the aid of the built-in night vision of my visor. Just for good measure, to be sure I captured everything on video, I activated my recorder and night vision cameras.

There was a narrow, shallow flow of water running through the storm drain, but I was able to walk along the side of the large pipe, at the edge the water, as I hurried back west, in the direction of the river.

I came to a north-south, cross-pipe that’s smaller than the main pipe I was in. I knew this one had to run parallel to the river, underneath the street, on the east side of the river. Glancing to my left into the darkness of this smaller pipe, I saw a faint glow of light. I knew it had to be a cigarette when I saw it flip in an arc, into the stream of water, maybe a hundred feet from where I stood. Could this be the entrance to their base? This pipe runs parallel to the river and they could have entered the storm drain in the park, on the opposite side of the river to make it appear as if they were working over there.

I waited until I was sure there was no one in the pipe where I’d seen the cigarette hit the water. As I eased along the pipe, I saw an opening to my right. This one was built square, but welded to the side of the round pipe. I risked a look around the corner and saw a door, possibly fifty feet from where I stood – just about where the east side of the river would be. As I started easing toward the door, I thought of the escape route I’d discovered back at the first underground base on Komsomolets Island.

Backing out of this entry point, I walked further down past the first opening for close to a hundred and fifty feet – There it is – I decided to use this door to force an entry, since the other one was where they’d entered. More than likely the first entry point was rigged with an alarm – and possibly this one too. I had to risk entering one or the other, so I chose this smaller one. The door was locked and I turned the handle slowly until I felt it give. The handle and bolt assembly came completely out of the steel door. I laid it on the floor at the entrance, then eased the door open slowly, listening for any sound of an alarm. Hearing none, I slipped inside the room, closed the door and looked around.

This appeared to be a storage room, with boxes and crates stacked neatly around the walls. There was another door across the room, through the passageway between two storage racks which reached the ceiling. I scanned the walls, ceiling and racks for motion detecting devices and-or cameras. Seeing none, I made my way across to the other door. This door was also metal but not as heavily built as the first one. I tried the knob and it was not locked. Easing the door open just enough to have a peek, I saw what the first underground base must have looked like before it was destroyed.

There were at least fifty young men and women sitting at computers lined up in four rows which curved, allowing all of them a forward view of a giant, curved-screen monitor on the wall in front of them. On the screen at this very moment, was a life-size image of a house in a suburb.

Instantly – I recognized the house ... I was in that house just this week. This was Adam and Andrea’s home in Stillwater...