When we finally got to the mine, Barker was sitting outside the entrance waiting for us. I walked over to him and scratched him behind his ears. He wagged his tail and licked my face obviously happy to see me. The others looked at him with surprise.
“How’d he know we were coming Nicky?” asked Marshal.
“Barker has more secrets than any of us I think,” I said.
“That he does,” said Cornelius.
I made sure that we brought a lantern and I lit it as we entered the mine and its maze of tunnels. Barker led the way and kept looking back to make sure we were all there. When we finally made it to the clock room, the others looked just as confused as I was the first time I came here. After coming up empty again in the radio room we went on to the lab and, sure enough, that’s where he was, sitting at the table and staring into the microscope. He didn’t appear to notice our presence.
“Colonel Al?” I asked. He never looked up. “Colonel Al? I’ve brought my friends to meet you.” Still, he kept his eyes on the microscope, not even nodding his head to acknowledge that we were there.
“Sir? Nicole has told us about your research...” Robert stepped forward.
“Nicole?” Colonel Al lifted his head and looked at us. “Why do you get to call her Nicole when the rest of us refer to her as Nicky?”
“Sir?” Robert was surprised by this question. It wasn’t the greeting he had expected.
“It’s okay colonel,” I jumped in. I really didn’t want our first encounter with everyone present to start with a stupid argument. “Robert can call me Nicole. We had this discussion a long time ago.”
“Really?” He returned his gaze to the microscope, silent once again. The others looked at me as if it was my fault the colonel was being rude. I rolled my eyes and shrugged my shoulders. Then, all of a sudden, Colonel Al stood up and walked over to where we were standing. “Nice to meet everyone. Robert, Marshal, Cornelius, Emma Lee, Billy and Kitten.” He nodded and shook their hands as he said each name. They looked stunned that he knew who each one of them were. “Max, I’ve been told, is off to find blood people. I’m sorry I’m not able to meet him right now.”
“Colonel?” I said. “I’ve told my friends about your mission and they said they’d be willing to help.”
“Is that right?” he smiled and folded his hands behind his back. “Actually, I was just studying a bit of what I thought was coal under my microscope when you came in. It’s quite fascinating and a little confusing. You see, coal is supposed to burn at a high temperature, causing water to boil into steam, which can power a turbine, therefor creating electricity which is really what I’m after here. If I had power, I could finally make my instruments work but every sample I’ve analyzed has proved useless.”
“What’s wrong with it?” asked Billy, his ten-year-old mind full of questions.
“Well, Billy,” he leaned down so he could speak directly to the boy, “every sample I’ve analyzed is not what it appears to be.”
“What is it?” asked Billy.
“I don’t know,” said the colonel. “It’s some kind of rock that I’ve never seen before. The Private keeps bringing me samples, insisting that I study it but I haven’t been able to figure out exactly what it is.”
“An unknown substance?” It was Marshal, now and I looked at him. Did he know about this? He didn’t look like someone who knew about rocks and minerals. “That’s weird, weird, weird.”
“No weirder than your need to repeat yourself,” Colonel Al laughed and turned back to his microscope. Marshal looked down, embarrassed that his habit of talking in threes was spoken out loud. I didn’t know why Marshal did that, I’d never asked him and I certainly would never chastise him for it or call him out on it, which is what I felt the colonel just did.
“Don’t be such an ass!” I scolded him. “He only made an observation.”
“Did he?” He pulled his army cap down and took in a deep breath. “My apologies.”
“It’s okay,” said Marshal. “It’s strange, though, that there should be an unknown rock here don’t you think? I know that the mountains around here are mostly shale and limestone. If there’s a foreign substance, that would be something new.”
“Yes, yes that’s what I thought too,” Colonel Al seemed excited that Marshal knew about the rock that made up the mountains. I, too, was surprised that the crazy red head knew so much. “Come, look here.” He urged Marshal to the microscope to take a look. “This is sample number 11, 376. See if you can make out what it is. I took this from rock I dug up two weeks ago just north of here. It was really the Private that started digging it up but I thought it was a good idea to analyze it with all my other samples.”
“North? How far north?” Marshal sat at the table and peered through the microscope. “Oh my, this is not right.”
“I know, I know,” exclaimed Colonel Al.
“Careful,” said Marshal. “You’re repeating yourself.”
“Hah! You caught me.” The two of them became immersed in talk of rocks and minerals. I was lost and by the looks of everyone else, so were they. Then Colonel Al looked over to us and smiled. “Nicky, why don’t you show them the clocks. I’m sure that might interest them.”
“We’ve seen the clocks,” I said. “It isn’t really that interesting. I thought, maybe, you could...”
“Nicole, I don’t think we should interfere with them right now,” said Robert and I looked at him confused. “We can go look at the clocks. I’d actually like to have a closer look at them.”
“Really?” There must be another reason I thought. “Okay, then. Marshal? Are you going to be okay in here?” They were back at the microscope and Marshal was looking over notes that Colonel Al had taken.
“Yes, yes, yes, Nicky,” he said with a note of excitement in his voice. “Me and the colonel will be fine. You guys go.” He went back to the notes and began talking away to the colonel again.
“All righty, Robert, let’s go.” The rest of us turned and headed for the clocks.
“This is really not where I wanted to go,” said Robert when we got there.
“That’s good,” said Cornelius, “because I don’t think I could be of any help in here. I’ve never really lived by the tick tock of a clock.”
“I don’t get it,” I said. “Why’d you want to come here then?”
“Because, I thought we could look around while they were busy talking about rocks. Maybe search for information about this mission the, uh, colonel is on,” he explained.
“Oh, I see,” I said. “Hey, does that mean that Marshal doesn’t really know anything about rocks? Was this something you guys planned?”
“On the contrary, Nicole,” said Robert. “Marshal’s knowledge comes as a complete surprise to me as well. I just saw it as an opportunity to find out more about this Colonel Albert Young.”
“Yes, he does seem a little off doesn’t he?” Cornelius pointed out.
“Maybe he’s a spy!” exclaimed Billy who, surprisingly had been quiet up until now. “That would be so cool.”
“Yeah!” added Kitten.
“Oh, I don’t think he’s that,” said Emma Lee.
“Whatever he is, let’s not waste time talking about it,” said Robert. “Let’s look around while we still can.”
We broke into two groups: Robert, Cornelius and Billy in one group; Emma Lee, Kitten and I in the other. Barker stayed with me which I didn’t mind at all. He knew these tunnels better than anyone and if we got lost he could guide us back.
I had already been to Colonel Al’s living quarters so I headed the other way. I had the lantern we came in here with and I kept an eye on the flame. I was still a little scared that the oxygen would run out if we went too far into the side of the hill. The tunnel went for a long stretch and was starting to get narrower by the time we came to another room. It had a small doorway and we ducked to get inside. It looked freshly dug out with walls of dark gray and pieces of rock strewn all over the floor. Other tha
n that, there really wasn’t anything in here and I wondered if this was where Colonel Al was getting his samples from. I picked up one of the rocks and sniffed it. It had a faint smell of sulphur like everything else in these tunnels.
“What on earth do you think this is?” asked Emma Lee and I turned to see her holding up some kind of chisel.
“I think it’s a chisel,” I said as I examined the rather large tool. “A big one at that. He must have used it to get the rock out of the wall. There’s probably a hammer around here somewhere, too. It looks like he just dug out this room not long ago.”
“I would say so,” said Emma Lee. “It’s done rather haphazardly though.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Well, when we built our town in the mining tunnels,” she said. “we made sure it was well ventilated and had supports everywhere, especially in the doorway. He hasn’t done any of that. He just seemed to have burrowed into the wall at random with no thought of collapse.” I had forgotten that she had experience with tunnels and mines. She knew what she was talking about and that’s what worried me. If she said there were no supports for this room, then we probably shouldn’t be standing in here.
“Let’s go,” I said. “I think we should just head back. There’s no way we should be wandering these tunnels without any knowledge of what’s here.”
“I agree,” she said. “Come, Kitten, hold my hand so I don’t lose you.” The little girl grabbed Emma Lee’s hand and we headed back to meet the others.
“I don’t think we learned anything, maybe the others did,” I said.
“I think we learned a little,” said Emma Lee.
“Like what?” I asked.
“Well, for one thing, Colonel Young is starting to lose his sanity,” she said.
“Why do you think that?” asked Robert as we met in the clock room once more.
“Because the room we found was hastily built,” explained Emma Lee, “with no supports or ventilation. It’s like he’s in a rush to finish his experiments.”
“Or, he’s desperate to find answers,” said Robert.
“What did you guys find?” I noticed that Robert was holding some kind of paper in his hands.
“I got this from his trunk,” he said, handing me the paper. I looked at it and tried to figure out what it was.
“What is this?” I asked.
“You tell me,” he said. “It looks like some kind of order from the American government but he’s crossed things out and added his own writing in here and there. It looks like he’s changed whatever was written there to describe what he’s doing here.” I looked at the document and noticed how much force was used to cross out some of the typewritten lines. What had been written here and why did the colonel change it? If he was sent here on a mission wouldn’t he have orders written clearly, maybe even a list of procedures he was to follow? I turned the paper over and held it up to the lantern, trying to see if I could decipher some of the typewritten words.
“Was this all you found in the trunk?” I asked.
“No,” said Cornelius, “there were more uniforms, some medals, his identification papers that say he is who he says he is; Colonel Albert Young. He has no weapons. There are a few pictures of him with some other soldiers that look much younger than him and these orders.”
“Hmm,” I said.
“Nicole?” asked Robert. “What year did he say he started this mission?”
“1967,” I answered.
“What was happening in the world in 1967, Nicole?” asked Robert.
“I don’t know,” I said. “I wasn’t even born yet. I don’t even think my mother was born yet!”
“Yes, but surely you know of the world’s events,” Robert urged. “Did you not learn about it in history? Was there a war or some other tragic event?”
“Oh, yeah,” I said, remembering some of the movies my dad watched about it. “Vietnam happened in the ‘60’s. Vietnam and lots and lots of hippies.”
“Vietnam? Do you mean French Indo-China?” asked Robert.
“I don’t know,” I had never heard it called that before. “I just know there was a war in Vietnam in the ‘60’s. I think Russia was involved and so were the States.”
“A war?” asked Robert.
“Yeah, but the States didn’t do so good,” I said, trying to recall any information I had stored in my memory about the Vietnam war. “I think they lost.”
“Lost?” asked Emma Lee and I could see the disappointment on her face for her country.
“Yeah,” I said, “but it’s not like the Vietnamese conquered the States or anything. I think Vietnam’s divided into north and south and the Americans were over there helping the south and they lost so all the soldiers came home.”
“How long did this war take?” asked Robert.
“I don’t know,” I said. I felt kind of dumb but American history was not a big priority in school. We spent most of our time on First Nations, the economy and World War I and II in Social Studies. “I think it wasn’t over until the mid ‘70’s.”
“So, in 1967, the United States was at war in Vietnam and they chose to send a colonel down here instead of to a war they were losing?” Robert asked no one in particular.
“It makes no sense,” said Cornelius. “Why would they send such a high ranking officer down here?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “but there are lots of conspiracy theories about things the American government is involved in.”
“Like what?” asked Robert.
“Like hiding aliens, selling weapons, creating diseases. Some people even think they shot their own president,” I said.
“Aliens?” said Billy, suddenly excited. “Like UFO’s and Roswell?”
“Yeah,” I said, surprised that he new about Roswell. “How’d you know about all that?”
“My dad told me,” he said. “He said that there was a flying saucer that crashed in the States and that they had these aliens and they were trying to cut them up and do experiments on them!”
“That’s right,” I said. “Roswell happened around the same time as you lived up there.”
“You mean there are actual living things from the sky here?” Emma Lee seemed scared by this.
“It makes sense that the stars and planets have creatures on them,” said Cornelius. “The universe is so vast it would be a shame if we were alone in it.”
“This still doesn’t help us with Colonel Al,” I said. “Is he really here to get us out or is he just another person who fell down here and is trying to make sense of it?”
“We could just ask him.” We all stopped talking and looked at the little girl who, until now, barely ever spoke and never gave an opinion on anything.
“Kitten’s right,” I said. “That would be our best bet. No more questions or assumptions; we’ll just ask him.”
“Well, you should ask him,” said Emma Lee. “He knows you best.”
“She’s right, Nicole,” said Robert, “you should ask him and the sooner the better. We’ll go get Marshal and go back. You stay here and talk to the colonel and try to get some answers.”
“Me?” I asked and they all nodded. I felt my stomach flip with the thought of questioning Colonel Al. He didn’t exactly have a stable personality. “Okay, whatever, I’ll talk to him but I don’t know how much information I’ll get. He doesn’t seem very open to sharing secrets.” Barker came to my side and licked my hand. “Are going to stay with me?” I looked down into the brown eyes of my dog. He licked my hand again and gave out a whimper. I guess he wanted me to talk to the colonel too.
Chapter 7
I sat at the small table in Colonel Al’s living quarters, staring into the cup of coffee he had just made me. The others made up excuses and left over half an hour ago. I helped clean up the lab and tried to show some enthusiasm as the colonel rambled on about the rock samples. Barker stayed by my side and was now lying at my feet. I think he realized that I needed his support. Now, if I could ju
st find the courage to ask Colonel Al about Vietnam and why he was here instead of there.
“I have a feeling you have something on your mind,” he said before I could ask him anything. I guess I should just plow ahead with the interrogation. Either he would welcome the chance to answer my questions or he would get angry and throw me out. “What is it?”
“I-or, rather, we wanted to ask you some questions,” I started, turning my cup around and around.
“We?”
“Yeah, me and the others,” I said. “Well they asked me to ask you.”
“Go ahead,” he urged me. “You know, you were right about them; it was a good idea I met them and enlisted their help. Take Marshal, for instance. I had no idea the young man knew so much about rocks and minerals.”
“Yeah, Marshal kind of amazes me with a lot of things,” I said.
“So, ask your question,” he urged me. “I don’t mind.”
“Okay, I-uh-I wanted to, uh, we wanted to know...” I took another drink of coffee.
“Spit it out!” He was starting to lose his patience. I should just go ahead and ask.
“Tell me about Vietnam,” I said, looking him straight in the eye. He let out a long breath and got up from the cot. He walked over to the kettle and started making himself another coffee.
“What do you want to know?” he asked. “Vietnam is a country in Asia and we, we being the United States of America, are involved in their civil war, trying to keep freedom from being destroyed.”
“And...” I prompted.
“And...what?” He returned to the cot and calmly sat down.
“And, did you fight in this war?” I asked.
“Of course I did,” he said. “I’m a colonel and I commanded my men proudly.”
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