A welcome much nicer than Isabelle had expected. "Wow, thank you," she responded. Despite the fact that an enormous threat was pursuing her, Isabelle found encouragement in the fact that she continued to run into people who were on her side. She felt the sincerity in the man's compliment and extended her hand, which he shook in greeting.
"The name is Ralf Müller. It's a pleasure to meet you in person, Ms. de Fleur."
A friendly handshake in the middle of nowhere was a welcome gesture for Isabelle on her quest for the truth.
"Isabelle. The pleasure is all mine, Ralf."
"What brings you out here into the cold? You working on one of your stories?" Ralf was still perplexed why someone would chose to come to this island that offered little besides freezing-cold wind.
Streaks of fog formed from Isabelle's breath as she gave her answer. "In a way. I seem to have gotten myself stuck here, though."
Ralf asked, "Where's your ride?"
Isabelle pointed to Lars' icebreaker as it steamed away.
"I see," he said, then paused to think of a possible scenario that could explain Isabelle's situation before he continued. "I think I...regardless, I would love nothing more than to give a ride to the woman who probably saved more rail workers' lives than anyone. I have one stop to make, drop these crates and then I'm off to Berlin. You're welcome to ride, if you don't mind waiting. Where are you going?"
"Berlin."
The two walked towards the train's engine.
Ralf added, "We need to hurry a bit. Our track opens to regular traffic in twenty minutes."
He motioned towards the engine's cab. Isabelle climbed the ladder of the bright yellow locomotive. She pulled the door's latch and entered an engine whose cockpit rivaled that of any modern airplane. Isabelle walked to the engineer's station and pushed a button that raised the train's pantograph against the overhead power lines. The cab's main illumination came on and a whining sound indicated the transformer's cooling fans spinning up to their operating speed. The air smelled like electricity, a bit like the back of Lionel's old tube radio. Ralf entered the cab. This was a day of surprises for him.
Isabelle looked at him with a grin across her face and remarked, "You said we should hurry."
Ralf knew from Isabelle's exposé on the sub-standard safety of the American railroad that she was proficient in the operation of trains. He had enjoyed seeing her show how simple it was for a train to run a red signal on one of her late-night feeds to the network.
Isabelle continued, "I had to get certified for my report. I am licensed on diesel and high-speed electric."
Ralf was speechless for a moment. Just as he was reminiscing about Isabelle’s news reports, he heard the same woman tell him she was licensed to operate his train. He found something tremendously sexy about Isabelle's abilities, many of which she had demonstrated in her news shows. She combined intelligence and brawns in a way he had never seen in a person. Most women in his past had managed to get by on their looks alone and made little effort to contribute positive energy to the universe. Ralf saw Isabelle's beauty simply as the appropriate package for a brilliant spirit. He felt a strong attraction to this woman who had just powered up his locomotive. He felt like he could have trusted her with anything. Isabelle's sincerity was that obvious. Ralf could see in her eyes how much she wanted to pilot the train. Isabelle had no idea how much he wanted to see that.
"Would you like to take us out of the freight yard?"
Isabelle's face lit up. She placed her hand over the only lever in the otherwise touch-screen controlled cockpit. It was the throttle. Isabelle pushed it to maneuvering speed and the train departed the rail-yard. A switch guided it onto the westbound track, which was closed just long enough to allow Ralf to make his delivery and depart. Isabelle passed a flashing green signal, she pushed the throttle to half speed. Ralf watched, standing beside Isabelle as she skillfully brought his train into the tunnel ahead.
The tunnel followed a steep grade from the surface of the sea to its bed several hundred meters below. After a speedy descent, the track leveled off and curved slightly to the right across the bay. Isabelle remembered reading press releases when the structure had originally opened. Officials touted the bridge-tunnel as an engineering marvel and boasted its arched design to be impervious to the strongest ocean currents. Isabelle recalled when the story came over the wire very well. The day she read it was the day the banks demanded their loans for her father's television network paid in full. A day later it had been all over.
"How is the news business in Alaska?"
Ralf's question strangely enough had brought her daydream into reality. "I work in Los Angeles now."
The pain of her father's ruin was in her eyes. Isabelle did not want to elaborate on the fact that she took work from Gene after he destroyed Lionel’s livelihood. This conflict had overshadowed all her decisions since it began. Had Isabelle given heed to her father's advice and killed her story, his network would still be in existence. She had remained steadfast behind the principles of journalistic integrity that after all, she had learned from her father. Isabelle noticed the train turning off its main track at a switch and soon it slowed down on its own behalf. Ralf who would have liked to talk to Isabelle more about her history saw the questioning look. After all, the tunnel was officially just a connection between the artificial island and Copenhagen.
"We're almost there. This is the stop I have to make. You know, I'm not supposed to bring anyone in here. I'm not even allowed to talk about the fact that this place even exists."
Isabelle gave Ralf a grateful look. She knew he was taking a great risk. "Thanks, it'll be our little secret."
Ralf didn't seem worried, he was taken by Isabelle's presence. The train slowed to a stop. It appeared the short side-track had ended. "Better hide from the scanner," she heard Ralf say as he pointed towards the windows by her face.
Isabelle ducked quickly. Ralf leaned over her so his face would reach the biometrics reader outside. The smell of burning Bakelite yielded to the sensuous aroma of lavender. Ralf's attention was drawn in by Isabelle. The cab of his engine never quite smelled this pleasant before. Isabelle couldn't help but notice his well proportioned body while she waited for the scanner to finish. Isabelle was cognizant of the attraction Ralf felt for her and she was taken with him. She found the selfless act of risking his livelihood to be Ralf’s most attractive quality, not to mention the fact that he let her drive his train. Isabelle pulled her thoughts back to her mission, which had to take precedence over personal desires. Not a moment too soon, the green light from the signal was shining into the train's cab. Isabelle re-emerged from below. She saw that the wall of the tunnel tube's dead-end was actually a door. The enormous concrete disk rolled aside into a utility room just off to the right.
"Go ahead, quarter speed," said Ralf.
Isabelle moved the throttle to the slow mark with her right hand. The train moved forward and down a second decline. Isabelle and Ralf failed to notice a night-vision camera that was hidden in the dark of the secret entrance. Isabelle's image was captured automatically and checked against the list of Apophis' undesired individuals. She had moved to the top of the list. This meant that images captured globally were checked against her biometrics before anyone else.
Gene and Tasha had the ability to instantly identify Isabelle when she would show up on any of the world's networked cameras.
26 THE DRAGON SLAYER AND THE SERPENT BEAST
Gene and Tasha, however, weren't the only ones interested in finding Isabelle. While the defender of truth was busy deep below the ocean floor, Ryan was speeding towards Berlin high above the clouds. The new day's sunrise bathed the luxury airliner's cabin in an eerie red light. Ryan was doing his best to blend in with board members and lawmakers on the upstairs lounge deck. A buffet comprised of meat from endangered species and 50 year-old champagne was popular with many of the travelers. When Ryan realized the buffet served gorilla-steak and leopard, he struggled to conta
in his outrage. As wrong comment could have landed him on the least desired list, not a good place to be at 30,000 feet. Ryan's mind was clambering to comprehend the atrocities Apophis was committing on a steady basis when his train of thought took a turn. He was wearing liquid-crystal video glasses so he could monitor his global search for Isabelle discretely. Ryan was startled when his field of view was filled with a night-vision image of Isabelle at the biometrics scanner. He mumbled to himself, "What are you, some sort of super-hero?" Ryan hadn't noticed Senator Yubellow standing by his side who had overheard him.
The crooked politician turned to Ryan. "Super-hero is a bit much, but thank you. You can still call me Senator. I didn't make the virus, just the law."
Ryan realized what the senator was saying. Monkey flu had been created as a weapon. Ryan was adjusting his belief system to the awful information that had streamed in his direction on the flight alone. He pushed his glasses up as he watched Yubellow speechlessly. The dark senator reached for an hors d'oeuvre. With a sinister grin, Yubellow bit the head off his appetizer. This was too much for the young man’s stomach.
With a green face, Ryan excused himself and returned downstairs to his seat where he made friends with his airsickness bag.
27 AN OCTOPUS' GARDEN
The train was taking Ralf and Isabelle deep below the ocean. The two had descended several hundred meters when they reached an underground loading dock. The area resembled a subway station. The platform was occupied by several pieces of heavy equipment. Among them were a cargo crane and futuristic-looking transporter with room for several cargo crates. Isabelle stopped the train in front of the red signal at the end of the platform. The secret underground facility had sparked her curiosity. The cargo crane began its process of lifting crates off the train and onto the vehicle on the platform.
"The transporter moves them into the facility after the train has cleared the platform."
Her new friend's statement didn't give Isabelle much information. She climbed off the train. Ralf had always stayed in his cab in accordance with company regulations during the unloading process. Since Isabelle was looking around, he felt compelled to follow. Both walked past the enormous transporter. The automated loading process of its cars continued. Ahead of the large cargo mover was the facility's main entrance. It resembled the door of a large bank vault and was made entirely out of tungsten, a tremendously rare and expensive metal. A golden door would have cost far less to manufacture. There was no visible gap between the door and the rock into which its opening was carved. The installation showed no lock or biometrics panel.
What Isabelle didn't know was that Ryan was about to help her on her mission. He had come to the realization Apophis' intentions were far from honorable. Ryan had let go of his airsickness bag and was holding a digital tablet on his lap. Several data and video streams filled the screen that was about the size of a magazine. A web-crawler was deleting files that showed any recently captured images of Isabelle. This was reducing the success rate of Tasha's global search. Another portion displayed an image from a security camera on the loading dock below the ocean floor. Ryan saw Ralf and Isabelle standing in front of the vault-like door. An icon shaped like a padlock was superimposed across the door's center. A title on the top identified the location of the camera.
Öresund Landing Dock - Level 13 Clearance Required.
Ryan held down several of the pads soft-keys for a moment. The message Maintenance Mode appeared on the edge. Ryan pushed the lock icon to the side. A new message appeared in place of the security warning.
Main Entrance - Maintenance Access
Isabelle and Ralf heard the hissing of hydraulic cylinders. A mechanism retracted the giant cylindrical latches that extended from the circular door into the rock like the rays of the sun. Ralf jumped back. He felt the need to warn Isabelle, although he must have realized she would have heard the same noise. With a smile, Isabelle stepped back and together with Ralf, she watched the enormous silvery door swing open as if someone was inviting them in. At least that's how Isabelle took it when she saw the lights come on inside. She walked through the impressive doorway that would have been big enough for a truck to pull through unhindered. She briefly turned back to Ralf.
"C'mon."
He had frozen in his tracks. The Apophis Corporation had made itself a name for dealing brutally with suspected spies through their data gathering subsidiary AGC. Ralf had diligently followed protocol in the past, but what kind of a man would he have been, had he not followed Isabelle, a woman, through the door. Ralf ran a few steps to catch up with Isabelle. His jaw dropped in amazement as he stepped beyond the armored doorway. Isabelle and her new-found friend were standing in a brightly lit atrium, several stories in height. The walls, floor and ceiling of the enormous hall consisted of polished marble. There wasn't a single seam, it appeared the entire structure had been carved into an underground marble deposit. The precision and megalithic proportions of this construction were only rivaled by the Bosnian pyramid complex.
Doors along the walls on each side indicated there was much more to be found. The floor at the center of the grand hall was occupied by a solid-gold inlay in the shape of the sun. The golden disk was surrounded by a ring of rays, a slightly smaller design of Gene's helipad in Los Angeles. Near the sun towered a marker. It was made up of four carved stone tablets, which immediately sparked Isabelle's interest. She crossed to the middle of the room, Ralf remained in awe, just inside the large entrance. The tablets were covered in writings from three major civilizations long gone. Isabelle recognized the text had been written separately in Egyptian hieroglyphics, Viking runes and Sanskrit. All three languages incorporated a character that resembled the stylized depiction of an orb, as if they were telling the same story to many people. Isabelle looked back towards Ralf who was getting curious about all the closed doors. She saw him cautiously moving towards a row of the mysterious doorways.
"These people know a lot most others don't." said Isabelle and turned her attention back to the stone tablets.
Ralf's curiosity drove him to join Isabelle at the stone tablets. Somehow the writings in ancient symbols had caught her attention. Although she had never learned how to read any of these old symbols, the tablets didn't seem completely foreign to her. Something was telling her to keep looking. Rather than trying to decipher each symbol individually, Isabelle took a step back and viewed the overall design of each of the four tablets. She took in the pattern that emerged in the grouping of the symbols. Each of the four tablets was sectioned into three horizontal portions of a different language.
The marble's rosy tint and colorful swirls of green and blue gave it a very exquisite appearance. The carvings had been chiseled out at a very precise angle, much like the marks someone would leave with a V-shaped arrowhead in soft clay. Isabelle took a few steps to her left so the inside wall of each carving was obscured by the tablet's surface. She was looking at the tablets at the angle of the chisel-marks of each character. A new pattern emerged. She noticed a similar overall shape on each of the stone slabs. Within that carved shape, the colorful streaks of the marble formed incomplete elements to something greater. Isabelle thought back to her experience at the museum. Her consciousness applied the same technique when it assembled parts of the mural into what became Isabelle's vision of the rise of darkness over humanity.
Isabelle was concentrating, looking at all four tablets at the same time. Something was registering in the young woman’s mind. She could feel that something was there that she understood.
Fuji had taught Isabelle all levels of consciousness were part of her spirit. If she was just aware enough of her spirit as a whole, then she should be able to access all its levels, even those that lay buried. Isabelle let her mind go to follow the path of what laid hidden. Her consiousness accepted the four images were truly one. Suddenly the lightbearer’s consciousness allowed her to be aware of what it had already seen: The static, two-dimensional carvings of all four panes had all the ele
ments needed to unite into a three-dimensional animation. This was just like what Isabelle had experienced with the Viking painting in the museum. Ralf saw little other than writing in foreign symbols. Isabelle's eyes on the other hand, were letting her see the hidden message. Right before Isabelle's eyes the image of two ancient desert settlements appeared.
Her vision took Isabelle to a time 2,500 years earlier. Two communities, Sodom and Gomorra laid isolated in the Middle Eastern desert. Happy banter and laughter echoed through the streets and alleys of both communities. People were going about their business when a glowing orb appeared in the sky. The sphere looked a lot like the one she saw in her first vision, where it had been captured. The luminous orb was as bright as a lightning bolt. It was only about the size of a basket ball. It appeared to have a skin made of light and an orange-yellow glowing nimbus that covered its entirety. The phenomenon accelerated swiftly towards the little town of Sodom. On its way, it made a few jagged turns, like a balloon would in a windstorm. The orb passed through the window-shutters of one of the houses. Moments later, it shot out through the window on the other side of the small dwelling. The shutters lit up in flames the instant the orb passed through their solid structure. The house's door flew open and a man came running outside, the flesh burnt off to the bone on his arm and the side of his face. The orb continued its destructive path into another house. Several more spheres appeared in the sky and rained down on both towns. Destruction and suffering spread throughout. The burning cities vanished and now Isabelle stood before a depiction of ancient Rome.
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