She made it halfway around the structure, and turned to retrace her steps so that her wire wouldn't get caught. As she turned, she glanced upwards towards the edge of the crater. Something looked different, but she couldn't quite figure out what.
“Keep moving, it's cold out there.” Gus's voice interrupted her thoughts.
“Okay, okay.” She turned to retrace her steps.
After a few minutes, she reached the entrance. If not for the small tongue of ice leading inwards, she probably would have missed it entirely. Hefting her staff, she probed inwards, slowly. The tip disappeared into the darkness, more rapidly than she would have normally expected.
“I'm going in.”
Before Gus could say anything, Vic pulled out her flashlight and stepped across the threshold into a small chamber. It was only about a dozen feet across, and there was a dip in the middle of the floor that matched the curve in the ceiling. Beyond that, the chamber was empty, with no sign of either Doc or Kehla.
Vic caught a movement in the corner of her eye and whirled to see a door rolling across the entrance. It moved smoothly until it hit her communication wire, and then bounced and rolled back into the wall.
“Gus?”
“What's happening Vic?” His voice buzzed in her earphones.
“I think I know what happened to Doc.” She paced the chamber as she talked. “I'd been in here less than a minute when the door tried to close behind me. It bounced off the wire, and then returned to the wall. I figure if I disconnect the wire it will take me wherever they are.”
“Don't you even think it! Get out of there before I come out and drag you!” Gus yelled in her ears. “If I don't see you coming out in the next minute I'll tell Ming on you.”
“Okay, okay.” Vic grabbed the wire and headed for the doorway. “I'm coming out. There was no need to play dirty.” She stepped through the entrance, muttering under her breath. “Tell Ming, I'll tell Ming him.”
“Can you repeat that? I couldn't hear you.”
“Nothing, Gus. Don't worry about it.” Vic trudged out onto the ice. It was nowhere near as cold as the open ice above them, but the air was just as biting. The inside of the crater was actually quite impressive, the ice glistening like stained glass under the airship's lights. She turned around slowly, looking for the steps they had come down.
It was about half-way around the crater from where she was standing, so she took a moment to look around. The steps caught the floodlights, bouncing the beams back and upwards. Vic squinted against the reflections and let her eyes follow the steps up towards the rim where it curved outwards in a gentle overhang.
An overhang? Vic did a double-take, and looked again. Where the steps had been, there was now an overhanging lip. It would be impossible to climb out now, or to climb down from the icecap.
“Uh, Gus?” Vic swung her gaze around the rim, looking for the overhang. “We have a problem. I think the crater is closing in.”
“What?”
“There's an overhang where we came down.”
“Just get back here and we can take another look.”
“Alright, I'm coming.”
A few minutes later, she had made it up the ramp and into the changing room to find Ming waiting for her.
“So how bad was the cold?” Ming started undoing Vic's coat the moment the outer door was shut. It was all Vic could do to take her boots off.
“You need to take care of yourself,” Ming went on, as her fingers danced over Vic's coat. “You may be Russian, but it doesn't give you any special protection against the weather.”
Ming kept going, hanging up Vic's outer coat and then moving to undo her heavy snow pants. “Now that you're in here, you need to get these off as fast as possible.”
Vic dropped a hand to stroke Ming's hair. “I know,” she said softly. “I'm alright.”
She stepped out of her snow pants and then helped the smaller woman to her feet. “And how're you doing with that twisted ankle. You're the doctor, you should know better.”
“It's fine, I strapped it up,” Ming snapped. Still she accepted Vic's help as the taller woman led the way towards the cockpit.
Gus was sitting at the engineer's station, the chair swiveled around to face the hatch. He was worrying at the knot of his sling with his free hand.
“Took you two long enough,” he growled, barely hiding a smile.
“She was concerned for my health.” Vic grinned. “Besides, she's walking slowly these days.”
Ming glared at Vic, though a twinkle in her eye gave her true feelings away. Still, she wasted no time in finding somewhere to sit.
Vic quickly went through the details of what she had seen in the structure, and how the door had tried to close but stopped when it reached her communications wire. “I think that if Doc and Kehla were trailing a wire, they'd still be up here.”
Gus nodded. “I think you're right. The good news is that we figured out what happened to them; the bad news is that we don't know how to get them out. It seems pretty clear the chamber only comes back up when it's empty.”
Vic leaned against the window frame. “That's not our only problem. It looks like the crater may be closing us in. If we can't find them soon, we'll be trapped ourselves.”
Suddenly the warm cockpit felt just a little bit colder.
#
After the first rush, Doc managed to maneuver so he and Kehla were back to back. There were at least a dozen attackers on each side of them. Water glistened on black rubbery skins as the creatures shuffled forwards. They were unarmed, but the sheer numbers were enough to guarantee that neither of the defenders had a chance. The only thing that gave Doc any hope was that none of their attackers seemed in a hurry to close after Kehla's shot had decapitated one. Instead, they seemed to have turned on the fallen.
“How many rounds do you have?” Doc asked over one shoulder.
“Five, plus a couple of speed-loaders,” Kehla replied before putting another round in one, catching it right in the center of mass. The creature slumped like a puppet with its strings cut; it had barely touched the floor before its associates were all over the corpse, pulling it apart with dozens of sucker-tipped arms.
“Now four.”
Doc jabbed his staff at the closest, using the weapon like a spear. The creature dodged, taking advantage of its sinuous body, but Doc was able to swing the other end of his staff around to stave its head in. Once again, the others fell on the body, and Doc was able to take note of their appearance. Compared to those he had seen on the surface, these things were smaller and their skin was loose and wrinkled.
Three deaths seemed to have taken some of the fight out of their attackers, so Doc took advantage of the lull in the action to look around for any way out of the situation. They were in the middle of a long stretch of corridor, almost circular and about eight feet in diameter. The creatures were blocking both directions, and their numbers and tentacles made sure there was no way past them. No matter how many they put down, there were more behind them.
Doc stepped sideways to get a better position, and felt something rattle beneath his feet. A loose grate, two or three feet square, set in the stone floor. The rattle echoed downwards, and that was enough to make up his mind. The only way out was down.
“Give me your coat,” he told Kehla.
“What?”
“Give me your winter coat, I need the fuel cell.”
“Okay?” Kehla kicked her bundle back towards Doc.
He knelt down carefully, keeping an eye on the creatures facing them. For the moment, they were holding back, squabbling over their own dead. Taking a moment to look away, he pulled the fuel cells out of the back of their coats, laying them out on the stone. From the outside, they looked like innocuous cylinders topped with a valve and a couple of louvered screens. Two sets of wires came off the side. Working quickly, he ripped the lining from his coat and used it to stuff one of the louvers on each cell. That done, he twisted both valves wide open, and shorte
d the wires.
“Down!”
Without waiting for Kehla's response, he grabbed a fuel cell in each hand and tossed them in opposite directions. The one on his side bounced once, then came to rest among their attackers, hissing softly.
A moment later, there was a doubled “crump!” as the two fuel cells exploded. Bits of creature went everywhere, tentacles, legs, and even a head flying across the corridor in a spray of ichor. The remaining attackers were diving into the bodies. One had lost an arm tentacle, but that hadn't stopped it from diving in with the other three.
“Help me with this grill.” Doc dug his fingers between the bars, and began to pull.
A second later, Kehla joined him and ripped the grill out of the stone so quickly he had to let go before he lost a finger. Behind her, the creatures were beginning to recover from the explosion and the feeding frenzy that followed.
“Go!” Doc pointed down the hole.
Kehla grinned, and stuffed her pistol back in her pocket. “See you at the bottom!”
Doc gave her a moment to get clear, and then dropped into the hole himself. Using one hand to hang onto the edge, he reached out with the other hand and hooked his fingers in the grill and then started to pull it across the opening. It moved quickly, too quickly, and he barely pulled his hand free of the edge before the grill clattered into place.
His fingers burned with the cold and strain. Doc grimaced and took a deep breath, then relaxed his hand. Smooth walls flashed past him, barely visible in the gloom. He tried to slow his fall, but the stone was too slick. All he could do was relax and take the fall as it came.
The shaft bent suddenly, knocking Doc sideways. The bitter taste of blood told him he'd bit his lip. A second later, he was lying on one side careening down a stone slide into nothingness. He flipped himself over onto his back just in time to find himself flying out into a pile of rope with a semi-conscious gorilla.
The impact didn't quite knock the wind out of him, but it still took a moment for Doc to get his bearings. They were in a large stone room, with several boxes of supplies stacked neatly in one corner. A single light bulb hung from the ceiling, throwing dim yellow light everywhere. It looked like the rope had been coiled neatly before Kehla arrived and sent it flying across the floor.
“Where are we?” Kehla muttered, stirring slowly.
“Looks like a supply room.” Doc stood up, stretching his arms until they locked. “Somebody obviously made it down here recently.”
“Hansen?”
Doc nodded. “I think so.”
Kehla rolled to her feet and knuckle walked over to the nearest crate. It looked to be nailed shut, but the boards were no match for her muscles. She pulled it apart in a matter of moments, leaving the contents to spill out on the floor.
It was a diving suit. A complete standard diving dress, helmet, and a rebreather apparatus. Surprisingly, it was a German standard diving dress, complete with a Nazi eagle on the tank. Doc inhaled softly; this was a lot more than just a missing scientific expedition.
#
“Do you have any ideas yet, Gus?”
Vic paced the darkened cockpit, looking at her companions. She had turned off the floodlights to save fuel for the generator, but still wanted to keep an eye on the structure. A few lights in the cockpit were enough for conversation, but not so much that she couldn't see what was going on outside.
Gus was leaning back at the flight engineer's station, his bulk overflowing the chair as if it was built for a child. Ming was in the right seat, turned back to face the interior with her hands folded primly in her lap. The trio had spent the last few hours searching the interior of the airship for any clues Gilly might have left behind.
Vic had found the original radiofax image in the right seat, neatly folded and slipped between the cushions. Apart from that there was no evidence that Gilly had even left the cockpit the entire time he had been alone on the airship. Everything was still in his cabin, even his clothes. The galley had been untouched, too.
“All I can tell is that Gilly came in from that cabin, dropped the tractor, and then flew directly to this crater where he landed and then disembarked.” Gus shrugged. “He didn't use any extra fuel, and as far as I can tell he knew exactly where he was going.”
“But why did he leave the tractor?” Ming frowned, twisting in her seat. “It doesn't make sense if he was entirely focused on getting here. Why take the time to leave it behind?”
“That's a good question,” Gus said. “It's the only thing he did that wasn't focused on getting here as fast as possible.”
“Not quite,” Vic interrupted. “He also took the time to fold and hide the radiofax image.”
“That's not much to go on,” Ming said.
“No, it's not,” Gus grumbled. “Meanwhile my wife is stuck somewhere underneath thousands of feet of ice, and we're stuck up here unable to help her.”
He rose. “I'd better get some sleep. Maybe we can figure things out in the morning.”
Vic dropped into the left seat and let him go. She wanted to take Ming's hand, but held off until Gus was out of sight.
“He doesn't like this, does he?” Ming followed Gus with her eyes.
Vic shook her head. “No, he doesn't; the worst part is that he can't do anything out there. Neither of you can, and before you say anything; I know, I'm not much better.”
Ming gave Vic's hand a gentle squeeze.
They sat there a few moments, Vic enjoying the quiet company. This was the first time they had really taken a break since they got to Antarctica. Even with the floodlights off, the crater wall still glistened in the light of the Aurora Australis, giving them their own private light show. It was almost enough to forget the situation. Almost.
A light caught Vic's attention, and she leaned closer to the window. She pointed. “There's something up there.”
Something moved across the sky, a pair of lights blinking alternately. Vic tried to get a better look, but there wasn't enough light to make out any details. The best she could do was make out a shadowy shape passing in front of the auroras. Whatever it was, it slowly turned, circling the crater until it passed out of her field of view behind the airship.
“Is that a plane?” Ming broke the silence.
“It looks like it,” Vic muttered, “but what's a plane doing flying around down here?”
“Another expedition?”
“Who could have mounted one on short notice?”
Before Ming could reply, a string of landing flares lit the sky, illuminating a tri-motor aircraft on a landing approach.
“I guess we'll find out soon.” Vic pressed the intercom. “Gus, you might want to come up here.”
“It better be good,” he grumbled through the speakers.
“We're getting visitors.”
“Visitors?”
“There's a plane coming in to land and I thought you'd want to be in the welcoming committee.”
“Be right there.”
Vic glanced back out just in time to see the plane dipping below the crater rim as it came in for a landing. Its unpainted corrugated metal skin gleamed in the light of the flares, but what really caught her attention was the bright red tail fin; bright red except for the swastika picked out in black on white.
The pilot was pretty good, holding a very steep line into the crater.
“He's never going to get it out,” Vic muttered.
The crater was less than a quarter mile across, and there was no way anyone could get a plane that size off the ground in less than two thousand feet. Still, the pilot held a steady line and put down less than three hundred feet from the crater edge. Less than a minute later, the plane had come to a full stop half way between the airship and the structure.
The side door opened, and a bulky figure dropped onto the ice and started knuckle-walking towards them. Whoever it was, they were almost as big as Gus, clad in heavy winter gear. The coat was dark, almost black, and Vic caught sight of a rifle barrel poking over
one shoulder. Meanwhile, half a dozen others debarked from the plane and then formed a skirmish line around the airship.
CHAPTER FIVE
Nazis Beneath the Ice
That wasn't the only case that held surprises. The second held another diving dress, but this one was different: it was sized for a gorilla.
Ten minutes later, Doc and Kehla had been through the entire storage room. There were six sets of diving dress; four human-sized and two gorilla-sized. In addition, there were also a dozen spear guns, and two cases of waterproofed grenades. The remaining cases contained various supplies including normal winter clothing, and lots of canned food.
“There's enough here to start a war with Atlantis,” Kehla said, stacking the spear guns in a corner.
“Hardly,” Doc muttered.
“What was that?” Kehla cocked her head quizzically.
“Nothing.” Doc shook his head as if to clear it. “Though it is proof that someone already knew about Antarctica's subglacial lakes.”
Kehla raised an eyebrow.
“Nobody would bring all this gear unless they already knew there was a reason. Whoever brought this down here already knew what they were looking for.”
“So?” She obviously didn't understand what he was getting at.
“Before we made this trip, I was of the opinion that your husband and I were the only people on the planet who were aware there were any lakes beneath the ice caps.”
“Well, the Nazis knew.”
“So it appears.” Doc put down the spear gun he had been holding. “Ready to see what lies beyond the door?”
The door was not locked, and Doc was quick to take a look into the hallway stretching out beyond it. It was made from the same materials as the level above, but this time the green flames were supplemented by hastily strung electric lights, producing a truly unique appearance. Looking back, Doc realized the door was an afterthought, not part of the original structure. if anything, they were the work of the Nazis, or someone in league with them.
Attacked Beneath Antarctica (Doc Vandal Adventures Book 3) Page 8