The Antarctic Forgery

by Kevin Tumlinson

  Dan Kotler stepped out with his hands raised.

  He was holding … something.

  Her people raised their weapons with a series of clacks and ratcheting sounds. Following this was a silence that settled over everything.

  The sight of Dan Kotler, a bit bedraggled and filthy, standing at the entrance to the sub was somehow odd enough to make everyone pause.

  It was the object in his hand that did it.

  Held high above his head was something that they could somehow see but not see. It glimmered, in a way—or perhaps rippled was a better word. Kotler was slowly turning it so that it would catch light from various directions, and that light appeared on the sub behind him, on the walls and ceiling of the cavern, even on the mercenaries themselves. Everywhere and anywhere, except on the fuel tank.

  That’s what it was. The fuel pod that her grandfather had told her about. The test piece the Nazis had used to try out the element, to experiment with coating it and cloaking it.

  The result was a bit crude compared to the talisman she carried with her. The Nazis hadn’t worked out the best approach. They’d been in the early stages. But it was still effective. Out in the open air, in the skies over their enemies, the Nazis could be invisible Valkyries, strafing cities into ruin, conquering the world.

  Even this clumsy application of the element was enough, Gail realized, and her heart started pounding.

  But something was wrong.

  Kotler was holding the tank aloft with one hand, and in his other was some object that he’d kept hidden until the last moment. He raised this now, showing it to everyone.

  It looked like a detonator.

  “Hi Gail,” Kotler said. He smiled lightly, as if greeting an old friend. His voice was calm—acknowledging, impossibly, that he had the upper hand.

  Gail felt her face flush slightly. Anger, she reassured herself. No other emotion. Seeing Kotler stirred nothing else in her besides the anger she felt over his arrogance. He might just be the most arrogant man she’d ever known. More so than Van Burren, even.

  “Dan,” Gail said, adding steel to her voice. “What clever thing are you planning?”

  Kotler smiled. “I’ve taken the element out of play, Gail. This detonator will take the sub to the bottom of this river. It might even be enough to bring this cavern in on all of us.”

  Gail didn't bother accusing him of bluffing. She knew Kotler intimately. He'd gladly sacrifice himself and his partner if he thought the world depended on it. If he felt there were no options left for finding a way out. His self-aggrandizement certainly extended into self-deluded altruism. He would end this with a grand display and go out in a literal blaze of glory.

  She pointed her weapon at Denzel’s head.

  “Are you willing to end Agent Denzel, here and now?” she asked.

  Kotler looked from her to his friend, an expression of sadness coming to his features. “I am,” he said. “I’m sorry Roland. This is the only way.”

  Gail felt a chill deeper than she’d felt outside, in the harsh, desolate winter landscape of Antarctica.

  He meant it. Dan Kotler meant to keep her from her prize even if it meant killing them all and dying with them.

  “This ends here, Gail,” Kotler said.

  “Yes, it does,” Gail replied, quiet but loud enough for Kotler to hear. The room was silent. Her voice carried. It made this about the two of them, one to one.

  “There’s one option, and only one,” Kotler said. “Put Denzel in that mini-sub, and clear a path for me to join him, and I will leave you to the Abigail.”

  “So, you can blow us up as you skulk away underwater?” Gail asked, smiling.

  “You have my word that I won’t,” Kotler said.

  "Noble," Gail said, nodding. "But you'll forgive me for not taking your word at face value. We both know you're not above lying if you think it's the only way."

  “That’s true. Am I lying now? Is this the only way?”

  Gail thought for a moment.

  Reggie edged up next to her and whispered, “We have a shot. One of our people on the sub can take his hand off.”

  “That could trigger the detonator,” she replied. “We can’t risk it.”

  Reggie nodded and stepped back.

  Was that the real reason? Was she trying to protect the element, or was she protecting Kotler?

  Gail considered her options.

  “What’s your plan, Dan? What exactly are you offering?”

  "I'll toss this tank to your team," he replied. "I'll hold on to the detonator if you don't mind. Denzel and I get into that mini-sub, and as soon as we're underwater, the detonator won't have the range to reach into the Abigail anymore. You can have the U-boat and everything on her. We'll leave. Everything resets to zero. Except you can build your own invisible jet, Wonder Woman."

  Gail laughed in spite of herself. Jokes. Now. This was Kotler. And it meant he was serious.

  She looked at Reggie. “Have someone hand off their weapon and move to get that tank,” she said.

  “You’re sure about this?” Reggie asked.

  “Get someone to help agent Denzel into the ASDS, too,” she replied sternly.

  Reggie nodded and started giving quiet orders. Her people kept their sights on Kotler through all of it, and she herself pressed the muzzle of her weapon to Denzel’s temple before Reggie and another mercenary helped him to his feet.

  He was awake now, a bit foggy but otherwise conscious. "Driver's seat," he muttered as they lowered him in. He winced but immediately started working the controls of the ASDS, spinning it up.

  “Denzel is safe in the sub,” Gail called to Kotler.

  He had moved down to the edge of the gangplank and was handing the fuel pod over. He then began walking, slowly, the hand holding the detonator tucked close to his chest, keeping anyone from grabbing for it.

  "Let him pass," Gail said. She was moving forward herself now and met him as he stepped onto the pier.

  They looked at each other for a long moment, like two ex-lovers encountering each other at a party. Under any other circumstances, Gail mused, they might have awkwardly embraced, maybe even kissed each other's cheeks.

  “Gail,” Kotler said, looking deep into her eyes.

  “Dan,” she replied, a small smirk on her lips. She sighed. “I just keep letting you slip away, don’t I?”

  “You take your toll,” he replied. There was no smile on his lips, but there was a sort of softness in his eyes.

  Regret? That's what it felt like. As if Kotler was reluctant to leave her here, to sink into the waters of this river and possibly never see her again. It was touching, in its way.

  She laughed lightly. “It’s been a rough journey, I know. It was always coming here, though. This was always the last stop.” She paused, and suddenly felt a real and almost overpowering emotion. It welled up within her. A sense of loss, of grief. “Dan,” she said quietly, earnestly, “come with me.”

  To his credit, he didn't laugh in her face. His eyes hardened, but she could see that he was listening, considering maybe. "It could never work," he said to her. "You and I both know that. I can never be a part of what you're doing. You know me."

  She did know him. She knew him better than anyone in his life, even his bromance FBI partner. She knew that he could no sooner join her clandestine organization than she could walk away and resume a normal life of her own. Though he would be glorious at it. He would be a resource like no other. Her second in command, a partner in ruling the empire. Together they’d rule the world.

  But he wasn’t lying. He wasn’t hesitating. He would never join her.

  But he would always be hers.

  They both knew it. She was letting him leave, but she would never let him go. Once she got the element out of here and put it to work, she’d be back. She’d come for him. He had to know it.

  Dan Kotler belonged to her, and he always would.

  He walked past her, past the armed men and women of her team, and
climbed through the hatch and into the passenger seat of the ASDS.

  The radio in Gail’s hand crackled, and Kotler’s voice came through strong and clear. “Once we’re underwater the signal won’t be able to reach the U-Boat,” he said. “If you close the door, it’ll be even harder. But I have one request.”

  She chuckled. “Sure, Dan. You know I’m here to serve.”

  "Our pilot. Vicente. He's from Villa las Estrellas, on King George Island. He deserves more than to be dumped at sea. Would you make sure his body is sent home?"

  Gail shook her head. It was unbelievable, how much Dan thought he could ask for in situations like this. But she considered it and nodded to Reggie, who had people enter the sub to retrieve the body. "Consider it done," she said. "We're pulling him out now. We'll improvise a casket for him and ship him home. Any other favors? They stack up you know."

  Kotler replied, "Oh, I know. I owe you, Gail. I'll make sure to repay you. Soon"

  With that, the ASDS sank below the surface of the river, and Gail watched it go with a bit of sadness mingled with bemusement. Letting Kotler go was becoming a habit. It would come back to bite her one day. But not today.

  Today she had won.

  Chapter 22

  “Can you still blow that sub?” Denzel asked, gritting his teeth as he took them deeper into the river.

  Kotler shook his head. “It was a bluff. I don’t have any explosives on the U-boat.”

  Denzel sighed, wincing at the wound in his side. “At least they won’t get their hands on the element.”

  “They’ll probably get some divers into the river, once they figure out what I did.”

  Denzel coughed a bit. “Kotler, you’re taking all the victory out of this escape.”

  Kotler smiled. “It’s ok, Roland. We still have the detonator.”

  “But you said there were no charges on the sub?”

  "There aren't," Kotler said. "I found the trigger and a couple of blocks of C-4 with a remote detonator. Maybe not enough to take the sub down, really. But enough."

  “Enough for what?” Denzel asked.

  In answer, Kotler raised the remote. He felt a sudden wave of intense sadness and regret press over him. He wanted to vomit. But he inhaled …

  … and pressed the button.

  There was a muffled sound as if someone might have dropped something heavy in another room.

  “What did you just do?” Denzel asked.

  “Ended this,” Kotler said. “Take us out of here.”

  The ASDS surfaced less than a mile from the coastline, near enough to the base that they could signal for help. In a short time, a boat came to guide them in. Denzel followed with the ASDS on the surface, and as they beached, he and Kotler were helped out by base personnel. They were rushed into the infirmary, where Denzel was treated for his wounds and Kotler was debriefed.

  When the Cat had become unresponsive, the base had called for military reinforcements. As a result, there was already a US contingent on its way to the site. Now, operating with Kotler and Denzel's intel, and with most of the mercenaries incapacitated by the explosives Kotler had hidden in the fuel pod, the incursion went almost without resistance. Within a couple of hours of sighting the hidden base, the US military had it under control. The U-boat, the cache of weapons and supplies, the entire Nazi network under the mountain—all were under US control now.

  Kotler had waited for hours for confirmation of something he dreaded, and the word finally came.

  Gail McCarthy was dead. She’d been at the epicenter of the explosion—the detonation of a couple of bricks of C-4 jammed into the hollow casing of an antique fuel tank. Remnants of the tank were recovered from the scene, and it had been charred and twisted almost beyond recognition. There was no word of any unusual properties. The explosion must have rendered the element inert, Kotler mused.

  Also recovered from the scene were the body of Vicente and a cache of stolen artwork and weapons. All of it was expected. Nothing was out of the ordinary, beyond the Nazi base itself.

  Kotler and Denzel convalesced in the sick bay of the base, and when they had a moment of privacy Denzel leaned from his bed and whispered, “Do they know about the element?”

  Kotler glanced around and then shook his head. "Every trace of it is at the bottom of that river. I let everyone believe that Gail was after the art and the base."

  Denzel thought about this for a moment, then shook his head. “Honestly, I never saw any element. How could I say they were after anything other than the artwork? It was a smuggling operation, after all.”

  Kotler nodded, somberly. It was a silent agreement, then. They would never speak of the element. They would never let anyone pick up that line of research. It was too dangerous.

  The reports kept coming in, and Kotler and Denzel were both updated regularly. The Abigail had been secured. The base was thoroughly searched. A massive cache of artwork, weapons, and scientific research was discovered in the base itself. Documents from WWII—primarily intercepted Allied intelligence—were found in bales in one large room. The base was a profound discovery, with immense historical implications. Kotler would have very much wanted to be a part of the exploration of it all, if not for his experience there. Maybe later, after the smoke and the memories cleared a little, he'd ask to be part of the team. Or perhaps he'd leave it to others for once. His role there had tainted any intrigue he might have felt about the place.

  Time. He needed time.

  For now, he wanted nothing to do with any of it. He was sick of Nazis, of Antarctic bases, and of Gail McCarthy’s network.

  He was done with Gail McCarthy.

  He felt a profound sense of loss at the thought. A feeling he had not expected but decided to welcome it. He would grieve the loss of his ex-lover, his enemy … his friend.

  As sick and twisted as it seemed, regardless of what their relationship had been on its surface, Kotler still remembered Gail as she’d been, as they’d been together. He found it impossible to believe she was so good at subterfuge and deception, so duplicitous, that she could have fooled him that completely. There had been something good in Gail. There had to be. She’d just chosen to bury it.

  And now, so would he.

  Epilogue

  Kotler left the lecture hall through a back exit. There was applause, which was nice. He had delivered a presentation that had plenty of up notes, humor, hope for the future and a passion for history. He believed all of it, smiled as he said it, and then sank back into a bit of darkness as he slipped away. He’d recover. He was determined. He just …

  Well, if he was being honest, he missed her.

  It was an appalling idea, after all she'd done to him, and after the threat she'd posed to the world. So many deaths were on her head. So many evils were perpetrated in her name. So many still were. Roland kept him updated on the systematic dismantling of her smuggling empire. With Gail gone, things were unraveling quickly. The agencies of the world had scored a big win.

  Kotler and Denzel had stayed in Antarctica for a month, allowing Roland to heal, but also attending Vicente's funeral. Kotler told Vicente's family all about his heroics, his bravery. His mother waved this off. "He was always brave," she said. "And foolish." She looked at Kotler with tears in her eyes but smiled. "My Vicente. He was a good man."

  Kotler could only agree.

  When they’d finally gotten back to the states, Kotler went through a long and grueling debriefing, as did Roland. Both had agreed they would make no mention of the element, which had forced them to fill the voids in their story with other details. Luckily, only Kotler had put eyes on the element itself, and he’d destroyed the only bit of evidence remaining. It was easy enough to let everyone assume that Gail and her people were after the treasure trove of art and resources, including the U-boat itself.

  “It would have given them a base no one could have found or approached,” the Director had said grimly, and all of the heads in the room had nodded along, including Kotler’s.


  Everything made sense. Every string had been tugged, and the story still held up. It was over. Finally over.

  With the debriefings done, and with Roland’s convalescence at an end, things seemed to return to more or less normal. Roland and Denzel had returned to their lives and their duties, with Agent Denzel stepping back into his post at the FBI and Dr. Kotler resuming his lecture tour. All normal, except for Kotler struggling with a sense of guilt and denial about Gail’s passing. Both would pass with time. He was counting on it.

  Roland had shown Kotler the map he’d recovered from some Nazi officer’s stateroom, while they were still in Antarctica. “Is it the real deal? The actual map?” he asked.

  Kotler had enough resources on hand to verify that it was. And Denzel had reached out to Agent Sobiek, who had been happy to deliver the map to Lord Stanley. "Though I think his lordship was happier with the map being fake," Denzel said later.

  “Oh?” Kotler asked.

  “He was getting so much press out of it that it was boosting interest in his collection. He’s bought and sold a lot of lucrative items since that map went missing. He’s been on major news shows in Europe and in the States. He’s become a minor celebrity, and his Abbey is doing better than ever.”

  “I imagine that having the real map, and the story behind its recovery, will just boost that even more.”

  Denzel nodded. “Maybe. But most of the details of its recovery are classified.”

  Kotler shrugged. “Even more mysterious, then.”

  They had gone on to talk about other things, cases Roland was working, books Kotler was writing. There was no talk of Kotler returning to Historic Crimes. He wasn’t leaving, he wasn’t shutting that door, but Denzel seemed to intuit that Kotler needed time. He’d be back.

  As Kotler left the lecture hall, riding in the back of an Uber to the airport, he checked email on his phone. And froze.

  There was a message from Gail McCarthy.

  No masking. No subterfuge. It was the email address she’d used when they’d been together, and it gave her name, plain as day. The subject line read “Looks like you won.”