by Chris Angus
Ricci cleared his throat. “What His Holiness would like to know is why the volcanoes are threatening his subjects. We have prayed on this without success. Do you truly believe there is another power involved here? One that threatens the Holy See?”
“There can be no power greater than that of the Holy See,” said Wormer quickly.
“Heartwarming to hear it,” said Ricci. “Perhaps you can tell us, then, precisely what we are dealing with.”
This is not going well, Wormer thought.
“Your Holiness, there is an interesting history, as I said. The ancient Vikings believed Laki was a god, one that seemed to have the ability to prolong human life. The Third Reich followed up on this and experienced many unusual phenomena during their time in Iceland. The German Catholic church felt it was in our—excuse me—in your Holiness’s interest to try to determine if there was any truth to the claims of longevity, since it was felt this could prove to be a challenge to the authority of the church.”
Ricci exchanged looks with the Pope. “Good of you to try to protect the church under your own auspices,” he said. “Save us the undo worry.”
Wormer didn’t care for the way the papal Secretariat appeared to have taken over the job of questioning him.
“Evidence is sketchy. It has been so for decades,” Wormer said. “However, it certainly seems that Laki’s reach has recently been extended. It was my intention to request a meeting with His Holiness at his earliest convenience to discuss new developments. Unfortunately, events overtook us, and I am here now at the request of His Holiness.”
“No one can question the ultimate authority of the church,” said the pontiff. “Yet clearly, something of note is occurring in Iceland, something that is affecting the entire world. Press coverage of events has been extensive, and many have speculated on the connection between Laki and recent volcanic upheavals around the globe. Perhaps it is purely geological in nature. We are not without our own scientists. They tell us that the volcano Laki may have an underground magma chamber that could connect with a magma vault, if you will, that encircles the entire earth.”
“Yes, Your Holiness, I have heard this as well.”
“More concerning is this question of extended life. Here we are entering the purview of our Lord God. He alone controls the allotted three score years and ten. We are of the mind that such a claim must be nipped in the bud.”
“Perhaps, Your Holiness, Laki will do this for us. I understand massive lava flows have begun. If this continues, they could blanket the volcano, covering and burying whatever may be causing the longevity effect. It could, after all, simply be something of a scientific nature, a plant, perhaps, or a mixture of volcanic gases that may have some slight effect on the human immune system. Blown out of proportion by those eager to believe there may be a Holy Grail.”
The pontiff smiled. “We’re inclined to agree with this interpretation. Nevertheless, we are concerned for our people living in proximity around the globe to these volcanic incidents. We have decided to send a delegation of cardinals to Laki to pray on the matter . . . in close proximity to the problem.”
Ricci said, “By sending cardinals, we show the seriousness with which we take the issue. This will be done in the open, with full knowledge of the world press. So that our congregants can see that their pontiff is concerned and willing to take on any false gods.”
“A most worthy approach,” Wormer said, breathing a sigh of relief that he was evidently not going to be taken to account or even demoted for keeping the existence of his group a secret.
“We have selected you,” the pontiff added, “to lead this delegation.”
Wormer nearly choked. “You . . . your Holiness . . . I’ve been following accounts in the press. Iceland is a dangerous place right now and the volcano even more so. It would be a very risky undertaking.”
“All the more reason to show the power of our prayer, I’m sure you agree,” said Ricci. “Everything is arranged. His Holiness’s personal plane has been put at your disposal and is prepared to leave at once. Ten cardinals have been selected from among those who happened to be visiting the Vatican. They await only your expertise, Cardinal Wormer.”
***
“You can’t do this! It’s too dangerous.” Senator Graham spoke more forcefully than he had since his meeting with Amma. Indeed, the thought of danger to Sam seemed to have brought him back to reality. “I won’t allow it.”
Sam sighed and took her father’s hand. “I have to go. Don’t you see it’s our only chance? I know this place better than anyone.”
“You’re all I have left,” Graham said.
“Sam is right, Senator,” said Ryan. “I don’t like the idea of her going down there anymore than you do. But she could be crucial to our finding Rashid’s device. If she stays here and we fail, we’re all going to die anyway.”
Carlisle appeared with one of his youngest looking scientists. “This is Andy Pryne. He’s the most knowledgeable man I have with regard to nuclear technology. He’s volunteered to go with you to help defuse the weapon if you find it.”
“We have to find it,” Ryan said. “And there’s no more time to waste. We’ve less than three hours. Your men have shown me the new vent opening they think will lead more or less directly to where Rashid left the thing.”
“I will go too,” said Hauptmann.
Sam looked at him. “There’s no need, Ernst. What can you do?”
“I wish to meet Amma,” he replied simply. “There is much I want to ask her . . . about the sagas and what happened to her clan.”
“There won’t be time for that,” said Sam.
“There will be time after the bomb has been defused. If we fail in that, then . . . nothing really matters does it?”
“I might as well come along too,” said Dagursson. “My men gave their lives down there. I want to know why.”
They moved quickly to the new vent entrance. Carlisle handed Ryan a computer printout showing the supposed location of the bomb and the new passageway they hoped would lead to it. Andy Pryne had a backpack filled with specialized tools. Each of them carried a powerful flashlight, drinking water and, as an afterthought, food. Even if they were successful, the changing conditions underground could block their retreat. They could become lost underground once again.
Sam led the way into the new opening.
“Be careful what you touch,” she said. “The sides are still warm. There could be hot spots anywhere.”
“Are we likely to encounter a new lava flow?” asked Dagursson.
“I’d say we’re likely to encounter just about anything. I’ve given up trying to predict what Laki will do next.”
As if to reinforce her point, the decibel level seemed to ratchet up as they moved lower. Small quakes rattled the ground beneath their feet and their nerves as well. The smell of sulfur in the air was strong. Every few minutes they heard what could only be interpreted as the collapse of distant ventholes.
“It’ll be a bloody miracle if we manage to find our way back through this same tunnel,” said Ryan. “You were right, Sam, when you said this place is like a Swiss cheese. If we get a big enough quake, the entire subsurface might just pancake like the Trade Center on 9/11.”
She nodded grimly. “Hard to imagine what might happen if Rashid’s device detonates. I suppose it could even open up the hole we saw, or magma chamber or whatever it is. All of Southern Iceland—hell, the entire country might disintegrate in a catastrophic eruption. Only consolation is, we’ll never know if it happens.”
Hauptmann puffed along beside them. He was not in the best of shape, but he was driven by his fierce intellectual desire to know what Amma knew.
To Sam he said, “You have no doubt? Amma believes Laki is a god?”
“Yes, or maybe one of many gods. The Vikings had quite a few, as you know, Odin, Baldur, Asgard, Thor. It’s a long list. I don’t know exactly what Amma thinks, but my impression was that she considered Laki perhaps the most impo
rtant of them all. All powerful.”
“She knew about the hole at the center of the earth,” said Hauptmann. “It was in the sagas. Did she say anything about that?”
“No. My sense was she was there to tell us that Laki wished to be left alone. That her god wanted nothing to do with us.”
He stared at her. “So Amma is the voice of God?”
She raised and lowered her shoulders. “It struck me that something was speaking through her. But I could have been wrong. I was pretty damn paranoid the whole time. Speaking to that apparition glued to the wall in that black passageway would have made anyone paranoid.”
The smell of sulfur continued to grow stronger and seemed to be wafting toward them on an increasingly strong breeze.
Ryan said, “This breeze must mean we’re getting closer to the hole.” He pondered the computer printout Carlisle had given him, then looked at his watch. “We can’t get distracted,” he said. “We’ve less than two hours.”
Pryne stopped and shook his pack off. He consulted a radiation detector.
“We should be getting near it,” he said.
“Unless you’re simply detecting background radiation,” Sam suggested. “Who the hell knows what could be coming out of that hole. Your boss suggested there was some sort of cosmic radiation, right? And they didn’t know where it was coming from.”
Pryne shrugged. “Not the same thing. Elements thrown off by Kaluza-Klein particles, for instance, have a different profile. There’s no question the readings I’m getting are from the device.”
The passage they were using began to intersect with other new openings. In each instance, Pryne was able to direct them according to the strength of his readings.
“I’m surprised Rashid went down this far,” Dagursson said. “It would hardly seem necessary.”
“He’s a fanatic,” said Ryan. “He wanted to assure himself of the greatest possible effect.”
Suddenly, the walls of the vent seemed to shudder. They all stood stock still, waiting for they knew not what. Then a part of the vent collapsed, opening up yet another passageway. The wind coming from the new opening was much stronger.
Pryne said, “My readings are going off the chart. We must be very close. Take the new opening.”
Again, Sam led the way and after going less than a hundred yards, they saw it. The device sat on the passage floor. It was about four feet long and oval-shaped. As they approached, they could clearly see the timer ticking off their precious remaining seconds on a red digital counter.
Pryne went to it immediately, took off his pack, and began to examine the strange object. The others gathered around, a little in awe at being so close to a nuclear weapon.
“Guess we’re at Ground Zero,” Ryan said. “If we don’t figure this thing out, we’ll never know what hit us.”
“Can you stop it?” Sam asked Andy.
“Don’t know,” he grunted. “It’s a complicated mechanism. Could even be booby-trapped to go off if it’s tampered with. This will take a while.”
The others slumped to the ground and watched as Pryne studied the weapon.
“I’m of no use here,” said Hauptmann. “Sam, you said the breeze came from the hole. I wish to see it.”
“Why not?” she said. “I’ll go with you. We just have to follow the wind.”
“I don’t think we should split up,” said Ryan. “What if there’s another tunnel collapse? We might not be able to get back together again.”
“I have another reason for wanting to find the hole,” Sam said.
“What?”
She met his eyes, something indefinable in them, but she refused to say more and looked away.
“All right, all right. But someone should stay with Andy in case he needs an extra pair of hands.” He looked at Dagursson.
“I’m about as useful here as Hauptmann,” said the police commissioner. “And I’d like to see this so-called hole too.”
“Guess that leaves me,” Ryan said. “Be careful.”
Sam leaned over and gave him a kiss. “Don’t worry. Either we come out of this together or we don’t come out at all. If the end result is bad, we’ll never know it.”
***
President Thurman was meeting with his Joint Chiefs of Staff and with the head of Homeland Security, Alexander Pinkerton.
“We’ve got volcanoes all over North America acting up,” Pinkerton said. “Mount St. Helens, Popocatepetl in Mexico, Mount Redoubt in the Aleutians, hell, even Yellowstone is suffering an earthquake every hour. There are at least fifty active volcanoes in the United States.”
“Well what the hell are we doing about it?” demanded the President.
General Magneson said, “We’ve mobilized the Reserves in all fifty states, in the event one of these things really goes off, though most of the volcanoes are located in the Aleutians. Emergency broadcast systems have been activated, but . . .”
“What? Spit it out, General.”
“Sir, all we can really do is prepare for a catastrophe. There’s nothing we can do by way of prevention, if you see what I mean.”
The President stood up, went over to the window of the Oval Office, and stared out at Pennsylvania Avenue. He nodded at the mass of humanity just beyond the gates.
“They probably wouldn’t agree with you,” he said, staring at a sea of signs calling for prayer as a way of dealing with the challenge facing humanity. “The religious nuts are out in force. There’s even been a call to impeach the godless chief of state in order to appease the volcanoes.”
“Yes, I heard that, Mr. President,” said Pinkerton. “It came from Jonathan Harney, ‘Hatchet’ Harney, the televangelist. No one gives a damn what that idiot says.”
Thurman turned back to the table. “I give a damn! That’s me they’re talking about. Has the whole world gone crazy? The Pope’s been calling me three times a day. Wants to know what I’m doing about the evil that lurks beneath Laki. He says he’s taking matters into his own hands, arranging a delegation to go to Iceland to pray, for Christ’s sake.”
“Probably can’t do any harm,” General Magneson muttered.
Thurman stared at the General, but before he could say anything, an aide entered the room and went round to the President.
“Sir, you have a call from your Science Advisor.”
The President picked up the phone and put it on speaker so everyone could hear. “What the hell’s going on now, Prescott?”
The voice was sketchy, bleeding in and out, then firmed up. “Mr. President, I’ve been trying to get hold of you. Our communications are not good here. We’ve got all kinds of atmospheric disturbance—cosmic particles are going through the roof, mini-tornados all around, lava flows, everything but the Second Coming.”
“Yes, yes, tell me something I don’t know, Prescott. We’ve got our own problems on this side of the world.”
“Well, here’s something you probably don’t know, sir. We have firm evidence that a nuclear device has been set to detonate beneath Laki in less than two hours.”
The silence in the Oval Office was thick.
“Why . . .” The President had trouble with the words. “Why would anyone want to do that?”
“Something to do with the Iranians, sir. Near as we’ve been able to figure from what Senator Graham has told us, they were trying to set Laki off to somehow affect the world price of oil.”
Thurman said, “Senator Graham is there with you?”
“Yes sir. He and his daughter have . . . uh . . . actually been helping us track down the perpetrators. We have two of them in custody, as a matter of fact. Main guy is called Rashid, but they aren’t being cooperative, except to tell us that in two hours we’ll all be incinerated and there’s nothing anyone can do to stop it.” There was silence on the line for a moment. “So, this may be my last communication, Mr. President. We have a team underground searching for the device. But even if they find it, it’s highly unlikely in my opinion that they’ll be able to deactiv
ate it.”
“Can’t you get out of there, Prescott?”
“No, sir. Lava flows have cut us off. In any case, there’s not enough time. I hope you’ll give commendations to all of my people, Mr. President. They’ve worked hard and put their lives on the line.”
Thurman looked completely drained. “We’ll do what we can on this end, Prescott. God be with you.”
But the line had already gone dead.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Sam led Hauptmann and Dagursson toward the source of the ever-growing wind. As they grew closer, they had to lean more and more firmly into the gale.
“I have never experienced such a thing,” said Hauptmann. “Where is it coming from?”
“You’ll see soon enough,” Sam replied. She was getting used to the incredulity of those she led to the hole. She glanced at Dagursson. “Would you say you are a religious man, Commissioner?”
He shook his head. “Never could take to it. Probably a cop’s mentality. You see enough bad stuff and you begin to question what the point of God is if he won’t do something about the mess once in a while, you know?”
She nodded. “Good. Ernst I know is a nonbeliever.”
“What difference does that make?”
“Perhaps none. But the hole seems to take hold of true believers more powerfully than others. Akbari was one who couldn’t resist. Kraus said he came close to being pulled in as well. They were both religious men. Ryan, my father, Jon, and I were not tempted, and we are all non-believers.”
Dagursson seemed startled by the information. “You talk as if this hole were intelligent . . . scheming, somehow, against us. Do you have any idea how crazy that sounds?”
She had no answer for him. When they reached the opening, the wind was once again overpowering. Everything was as it had been. The throbbing, arm-sized tentacles poured over the edge of the hole and disappeared into the depths.
Dagursson fought his way to the stone wall and peered in, his thick silver hair plastered back against his head. The others came up beside him, grasping one another against the gale, but also against the possibility that one of them might be tempted to throw himself in as Akbari had.