by Shawn Davis
“How’s it going, Peter?” Burke asked the guard on the left.
“Fine. And you, Mr. Burke?”
“Very good,” Burke said, walking past the guards without meeting their eyes.
Rayne and Brenton followed him through the checkpoint. Peter nodded at the guard who Burke had addressed as “Peter.” They walked another fifty feet down the corridor until they reached a steel door. Burke swiped his wrist through the ubiquitous scanner and punched in his complex number code. Unlike all the other doors they had encountered so far, the thick metal door opened slowly. Rayne glanced at the door as they passed and realized it was more than a foot thick.
They entered a short, narrow corridor with transparent walls. On the other side of the walls, blue-suited security technicians sat at control panels monitoring their progress.
Rayne noticed a familiar row of blinking green lights lined up on a long steel beam running along the base of the transparent wall. It was a body scanner similar to the one in the corridor leading to the President’s conference room. They walked through an opening at the end of the transparent hallway into a completely different atmosphere.
The tour group entered a spacious, intersecting hallway brimming with activity. The area reminded Rayne of an underground subway station. An anti-grav transport hovered above a deep groove in the floor beyond the large platform they stood on.
The transport was about twenty-five feet long and looked as if it could seat ten people. It was completely automated and reminded Rayne of the floating platforms with seats, which served as public transportation in Virtual-world. Rayne watched two passengers board the empty transport. It waited several seconds and rushed out of sight down a tunnel.
“This place must be huge if you need transports to cart people around,” Rayne observed, watching another transport arrive at the loading platform from the opposite tunnel. No one boarded this one, so it sat empty for several seconds and took off automatically.
“It must be,” Nicole agreed.
“It is,” Burke said, winking at them. “Why do you think they call it the Underworld? We’re going this way. Follow me.”
Burke veered left down the corridor. They passed numerous fast-walking personnel wearing white technician uniforms, blue security uniforms, or the gleaming blue armor of the Federal Police. Occasionally, they passed a man or woman wearing a suit.
The spacious corridor appeared to be endless. Rayne gazed ahead, watching the large hallway disappearing into a distant linear perspective. People walked the corridor for as far as he could see. They approached another transport platform on the left.
Another floating box with seats emerged from a tunnel, moving in the opposite direction. Rayne glanced over his shoulder and saw the personnel corridor running endlessly behind them. Numerous branching corridors veered off to the left and right. Technicians and security personnel were continuously emerging from, or entering, these side corridors. Occasionally, the tour group would walk by a closed metal door. Rayne saw some of the closed doors rush open when people swiped their wrists across the scanners.
“Tom, this place is incredible. It looks as if this hallway runs for miles,” Nicole commented.
“1.4 miles to be exact,” Tom said, grinning proudly as if he had personally constructed the massive complex. “As you have probably realized, this is the main personnel tunnel. It is connected to every important area in the Underworld. If you follow the tunnel straight in the opposite direction,” Tom said, turning and pointing behind them. “You will eventually reach the underground nuclear power plant. From there, you can travel beneath Virtual-world. The plant supplies power to the capitol city, the underground complex, and Virtual-world. This island was built to be completely autonomous from the outside world in case of attack. There are enough fuel rods stored in underground vaults to keep this place running for a hundred years.”
This is all starting to make sense. The elite customers who have need of the Body Bank’s services can gain access to it from the capitol city, using this tunnel as a junction point.
Approaching another transport platform on the right, they saw a group of technicians exit a car. The tour group continued for another fifty feet and encountered the transport’s counterpart on the left running in the opposite direction. An empty car waited several seconds and sped away. As they traveled further down the personnel tunnel, pedestrian traffic became sparser. Occasionally, a white-coated technician or blue-armored security guard passed them.
“We’re approaching the National Defense Control Center,” Burke said.
They took a right at an intersecting corridor and traveled a hundred feet until they reached a thick steel door.
“This control center connects every major military base nationwide. From here, we can communicate instantaneously with any base in the country,” Burke explained, swiping his wrist across the door scanner.
The two-foot thick steel door opened slowly and they stepped onto a balcony overlooking a colossal open area that reminded Rayne of the many-tiered control center in the Prehistoric World attraction. They were standing at the top tier looking down at descending tiers. Each tier was occupied by rows of technicians sitting in front of control panels.
The towering wall opposite the tiers contained a movie theatre-sized viewing screen, which showed multiple split-screen depictions of various geographic areas in the country. Tom Burke surveyed the control room as if he owned all the hardware and personnel in the chamber.
“The United States has reached an unprecedented era in its national defense,” Burke said, gesturing to the multiple-tiered control center. “For the first time in history, the U.S. must rely solely on itself for national defense. As you both know, our allies in NATO abandoned us during the Columbian War. Since then, we have broken off diplomatic relations with all European countries, with the exception of Great Britain. Since we can no longer rely on our allies, we must have the most sophisticated and integrated defense system on the planet. This is the control center.”
“Are you saying you can control all national defenses from this one room?” Brenton asked, surprised.
Burke paused for a moment before replying.
“From this control center, we can communicate directly with any of our national defense bases. As a precaution, we don’t have direct control of our entire nuclear arsenal from here. However, we do have the ability to instantaneously communicate with all of our nuclear bases and theoretically we could give them orders to launch nuclear missiles. As long as we transmit the proper codes and the President transmits his codes, the bases must submit to the order. Basically, we have the power to start World War III from here.”
“So, the bottom line is that you can order a nuclear strike from here,” Rayne commented, uneasily, scanning the colossal screen on the opposite wall.
He studied the variety of landscapes represented in the numerous smaller screens within the larger one. Landscapes from every state in the country occupied the immense screen; verdant forests, wind-swept deserts, tall mountain peaks, glittering lakes, squat mesas, deep canyons.
“Yes, we can,” Burke agreed. “But we can’t do it alone. The President must also send the proper clearance codes.”
“Very efficient,” Rayne commented, pretending to like the idea.
Nicole looked bored while Peter attempted to memorize every detail of the control center.
“Now, I’ll take you somewhere I think you’ll find more interesting,” Tom said, noticing Nicole’s bored expression. “Follow me.”
They did an “about face” and returned to the main corridor. Burke led them to the closest transportation platform and they waited for the next car to arrive. Within seconds, another transport arrived. They boarded and a second later they were shooting through a narrow tunnel at a high rate of speed. Peter enjoyed the feeling of wind rushing through his hair. Nicole held his hand and smiled at him. They enjoyed the moment as if they were riding an amusement park attraction.
“I’m g
oing to take you to the other side of the complex,” Burke explained as they rocketed down the tunnel. “I think you will find it interesting.”
Burke punched a code into the car’s control panel, which caused them to veer off from the main tunnel onto a side one. The side tunnel allowed them to travel directly to the other side of the complex without stopping.
“The emergency living quarters for the country’s top leaders are located at the center of the complex,” Burke said as the anti-grav monorail car raced down the grooved track. “There are enough facilities to house more than a thousand people quite comfortably.”
“That’s amazing,” Nicole said.
“We also have an extensive barracks section for our technicians and security personnel in case of a prolonged siege.”
“Where are the barracks located?” Rayne asked, trying not to sound too interested.
“On the other side of the complex. Near the nuclear plant.”
“Isn’t there a danger of radiation contamination?”
“No, the area is shielded.”
“I’m impressed at the efficiency of the layout of this complex,” Rayne said, trying to ingratiate himself with his tour guide.
“Yes, it is,” Burke agreed. “Everything in the complex is designed for efficiency.”
“I can see that.”
Peter felt somewhat relieved when Tom turned his attention to Nicole.
“I think you’ll like the next step of the tour.”
“What are we seeing next?” she asked.
“I can’t tell you or I’ll ruin the surprise,” Tom said, smiling at her flirtatiously.
“Well, we couldn’t have that,” Nicole said, laughing like a schoolgirl.
Peter removed his hand from Nicole’s and pretended he was thinking about something important. He felt it was better to let Burke have a chance to flirt with her a little without his interference. After all, that was probably his primary motivation for conducting the tour in the first place. Burke and Brenton began reminiscing again about some of their experiences working together. Rayne was happy because it took the pressure off him.
The monorail car traveled for several minutes and eventually stopped at a platform similar to the others. They re-entered the main personnel corridor and took a right into a spacious, metal-walled chamber. Burke led them to a set of black steel doors in the back wall where a pair of guards holding machine guns stood at attention. Burke took out his wallet and flashed his ID to one of the guards. The guard nodded and Burke swiped his wrist across the door scanner. The thick steel doors rushed open and they went inside.
Rayne thought his senses were deceiving him. His eyes squinted against bright sunlight shining on his face. Nicole also appeared disoriented. They had stepped through the doors into a verdurous green forest similar to the artificial forest at the apex of the Presidential Tower.
“How can we be outside?” Nicole asked. “I thought we were still underground.”
“We are,” Tom said, grinning as if he was privy to an amusing inside joke. “Sun lamps provide the lighting for the Underworld Terrarium.”
Rayne looked up at the sky and saw the sun hovering high in a bright blue sky. Burke saw him looking up.
“Holographic effects make it look like we’re outside,” he said. The sky and sun are fake, but the forest is real. All these plants really exist. I’ll show you more.”
They traveled down a wide dirt path through a North American forest replica, gazing in wonder at the verdant trees and foliage. There were even hills and drops to make the terrain more realistic. Smaller dirt paths branched out from the main one, leading to the inner recesses of the outdoor atmosphere.
At one point they had to walk over a bridge spanning a startlingly realistic winding river complete with a section of rapids. They traveled another quarter mile until they reached a clearing where the pine and maple trees gradually dissipated into wide-open fields. Peter realized he was looking at a vast cornfield, stretching out for as far as the eye could see. Looking left, he saw another endless field of wheat.
“We have several different crops planted in the Terrarium,” Burke said. “They’re here to supplement the warehouse supplies. If there was ever an accident in one of the warehouses and some of the food was destroyed, the residents of this community could continue to grow food here. The sunlamps are powered by the nuclear plant, which has enough fuel for a hundred years. So, this garden could be maintained indefinitely.”
“It’s incredible,” Nicole said as she gazed out across the wheat field. “This place is even cooler than I thought.”
Rayne couldn’t tell where the actual “wheat field” ended and the holographic technology took over. The field looked like it disappeared far into the blue horizon. Like everything else the government did, it was impossible to tell reality from fiction.
They walked another hundred yards in the heat of the artificial sun lamps. Peter found that he was sweating when they reached an intersecting path traveling left and right. They turned down the left-hand path and walked for another quarter mile until they reached a small rustic farmhouse.
“You have a farmhouse in here?” Nicole asked, surprised.
“I guess you could call it that,” Tom said, smiling.
He led them across a grassy clearing to the front porch of the house. Rayne noticed the porch contained an antique hammock and a pair of wicker chairs. Burke pulled open a flimsy screen door and held it for them. He turned the knob on the inside wooden door and entered.
Their sense of space was thrown off again as they entered an immense chamber resembling an oversized hotel lobby. Rayne looked up and saw light streaming in through skylights in the hundred-foot-high ceiling. It was simulated sunlight, of course.
Rayne looked ahead and saw a wide center aisle traveling several hundred feet until it reached an elaborate twin staircase spiraling up to the left and right until it reached a fourth level balcony. To the left of the aisle, the floor descended a few steps to a sunken area containing an Olympic-size swimming pool. A patio area with comfortable beach chairs and picnic tables surrounded the pool. A large skylight was built directly above the pool, shining artificial sunlight down on the patio area.
Rayne looked to the right and saw an area that resembled an expensive hotel lobby. Luxurious furniture was scattered throughout the space. In some sections, long plush couches had been placed next to ornate coffee tables and reading lamps. In other sections, couches and recliners had been placed in front of large screen television sets. Scanning the area, Rayne counted at least twenty televisions.
“This just keeps getting better!” Nicole exclaimed, looking excitedly around the chamber like a child on her first visit to Disney World.
“This is one of the living quarters’ recreation areas,” Tom said, leading them down the center aisle.
At this point in the tour, Peter was beyond surprise. This huge “recreation area” was typical of the excesses he expected to see in the Underworld.
“You mean there are more recreation areas?” Nicole asked.
“Sure,” Burke said, grinning proudly. “If you continue straight down the walkway and go under the staircase, you’ll find the doors leading to the tennis courts and billiard halls.”
“I guess if you’re gonna get nuked, you might as well keep some of the comforts of home around,” Rayne said, flashing them a sardonic grin.
Brenton laughed and put her arm around his waist, while Burke forced a smile.
“This section of the complex is designed for comfort in case of a prolonged stay underground,” Burke said, icily, regarding Rayne with newly aroused suspicion.
“Oh, I understand completely,” Peter said, trying to sound sincere. “You don’t want the country’s leaders to go stir crazy while they’re running the country from this bunker.”
“Exactly, Mr. Getty.”
Perhaps it would be best if I kept any further comments to myself.
They followed their guide down the
walkway. Rayne was aware that Burke was stealing every opportunity to scrutinize his face as they went. Burke had a quizzical look as if he was trying to remember something important, but was blanking out.
“Mr. Getty, I can’t help feeling that I know you from somewhere,” Burke finally said as they began ascending the right hand staircase.
“You look familiar too, Tom,” Rayne lied. “I think I must have seen you at one of the President’s fundraisers.”
“No, I don’t think that was it…..” Burke said, trailing off his sentence as he narrowed his eyes and continued to stare at Rayne’s face. “There’s something so familiar about you…..as if we just met recently.”
“I think you may be mistaking me for someone else,” Rayne suggested.
“Yes, I suppose that’s possible…..” Burke muttered, unconvinced. He continued to study Rayne’s face with narrowed eyes as they ascended the curving staircase.
Peter decided it was imperative to change the subject.
“Tom, how is this place maintained? Do you have maintenance and housekeeping personnel working here with top-secret clearances?”
It might be helpful to find out how many other people are in this area with us.
“As a matter of fact, we do,” Burke said. “We have a full-time maintenance and housekeeping crew who live in the Underworld permanently.”
“Permanently?” Brenton asked, astonished. “Does that mean they never go out into the outside world?”
“Well, technically, they can still experience the outside world. They can visit the Terrarium anytime they want during their work breaks,” Burke said. “They just can’t go above ground.”
“How do you find people who are willing to stay down here permanently?” Nicole asked, perplexed, as they reached the top of the stairs.
“Believe it or not, it’s not as hard as you’d think. This country has a surplus of highly motivated undocumented workers from Mexico and other third-world countries. Many of these workers are happy just to have jobs, a place to live, and three square meals a day. Having some extra money to send home to their families is considered a luxury. It also helps that we pay them well for their troubles. As an added security measure, they are monitored by microchips surgically implanted in their skulls. Our security people can keep track of them wherever they go. If they get out of line or try to escape, we can activate an explosive self-destruct mechanism in the chips.”