EXOSKELETON II: Tympanum (21 page)

8

Friday, 22 May (1:19 a.m. EST – Antarctica)

McHenry reclined in his bunk and pondered the new discovery. The structure the divers had reported turned out to be iron beams and rebar, and about 50 rusted pipes, 10 inches in diameter and of lengths that ranged from 10 to 20 meters.

The tubes added to the mystery. How had they gotten there? They couldn’t fit into a German U-boat.

The
North Dakota
was moving forward cautiously, and was safe for the moment. But for the first time in his life, McHenry sensed the world collapsing in on him. He’d been under the polar ice caps and slept on the bottom of harbors. Now they were more than 75 kilometers into the Antarctic continent. If they bumped the walls, they might trigger a collapse, or rip a hole in the hull. There would be no escape.

The only thing he could conclude from the discovery of the tubes was that there had been construction of some sort, possibly further up the tunnel. Perhaps the Germans built a submarine base. But that would be strange: it would be more than inconvenient for a sub base, and much more dangerous for WWII-era subs than for the
North Dakota
.

McHenry’s eyelids closed and his brain coasted to a halt. Sleep.

9

Friday, 22 May (12:59 a.m. CST – Baton Rouge)

Cho downed the last of his Cognac and breathed in heavily. The vapors penetrated his sinuses and made his nose tingle. He smiled and puffed on a soggy Cuban cigar as the smoke swirled around the balcony before heading out into the night. Things were progressing.

The late Agent Jennings had provided him with information and entertainment. Regarding the former, Cho was now aware of two things. First, a group of Red Box survivors were planning an attack on Syncorp. He was already on top of that problem. Second, another Red Box inmate was in Baton Rouge independent of the others: it was William Thompson – Inmate 523. Cho’s Chinese Intelligence overlords would be pleased, and he wouldn’t have to shut down Red Dragon. In fact, Thompson would be its newest acquisition.

Cho held back on that thought. The Ministry of State Security wanted the man, and it seemed urgent. Maybe he wouldn’t get the chance to work with him.

Regarding the entertainment, Cho got to practice dentistry for the first time. He recalled how Jennings had screamed for mercy as he removed the teeth from the lower right quarter of his jaw with a large beak-like pincer. He chuckled. It wasn’t easy pulling teeth: maybe he should have researched the technique beforehand. Most of them had cracked off at the base, but their roots were left intact – and he enjoying drilling them out. It reminded him of a root canal he’d had once, back in China.

Jennings was dead, Adler was loyal to Syncorp, and the other FBI agent, Natalie Tate, was turned. In her case it only took money. Now she and Adler would reel in Thompson, and Cho could make his delivery.

He savored another puff of the Cuban. Why did the MSS need Thompson, and why didn’t they explain it to him? He was confident that he was the only expert China had on Red Wraith. Why else would they charge him with the construction of the Red Dragon program? Maybe the MSS was going let him in on the plan once Thompson was in custody. He shook his head. That had to be it. It would mean abandoning operations at Syncorp – at least temporarily.

He shivered and walked from the balcony into the apartment. Whatever was going on, it had to be big.

1

Friday, 22 May (11:40 a.m. EST – Washington)

After explaining his encounter with the Israeli to Thackett, Daniel passed a polygraph test, was debriefed, and cleared.

The storage device Avi had given him was passed along to CIA specialists to search for viruses and spyware: the Israelis were our allies, but it was impossible to determine whether the man Daniel had encountered was legit. More alarming was the fact that the man had found him and had knowledge of his work. Thackett speculated that Daniel’s identity had been compromised during the trip to Chicago. If that were true, Sylvia might also be at risk.

His meeting with the Israeli raised the danger level for everyone. If someone were able to follow them home, then they were at risk of being kidnapped or killed. Now the only place Daniel felt safe was where he was now – in the Space Systems building.

Daniel was pleased, as were Thackett and Horace, that they now had a lead on the identity of Red Box inmate 523. It still had to be confirmed, but he hoped McDougal might help with that, and also help to located the man.

The digital documents Avi had provided him numbered near 10,000 pages. They were mostly transcripts of Israeli interrogations of Nazi war criminals, although there were a few supporting documents. Daniel and Sylvia divided them: he started with the earliest, and she in the middle. They’d meet every few hours to compare notes.

He pushed his way through the questioning of concentration camp guards, engineers, and other minor players. Most of the men and women had been carrying out orders –
heinous
orders – but had no knowledge of the big picture. It was after reading more than 100 interrogation transcripts of seemingly irrelevant Nazi fugitives when he’d found one that seemed significant.

Untersturmführer
– Lieutenant – Hans Demler, had been a low-level SS officer acting as a courier, and was in charge of selecting and transporting Auschwitz prisoners for treatment at a psychiatric facility called Kraken fifty kilometers west. The man denied that prisoners had been subjected to anything more than psychiatric evaluations. That was until the interrogator had informed him that mass graves had been discovered in a densely wooded area a half-kilometer behind the facility:

INTERROGATOR: Most had severed limbs. Why?

DEMLER: I do not know – I am not a doctor. I only transported people to Kraken –

INTERROGATOR: No – you also selected them. And, as you said, you are not a doctor. So how were you selecting them? What were the criteria?

DEMLER: I was instructed to choose those who were well-educated, but also in good physical health.

INTERROGATOR: How often did you do this? How many people did you transport?

DEMLER: Between 10 and 15 every week. We picked them on Sunday evenings.

INTERROGATOR: Every week? For how long?

DEMLER: Over a year.

INTERROGATOR: So, as an estimate, you selected between 500 and 750 people during that time.

silence

INTERROGATOR: You must speak. Nodding cannot be recorded.

DEMLER: Yes, approximately.

INTERROGATOR: Had anyone else been involved in selecting and transporting?

DEMLER: Only low-ranking guards to assist during transport. Different men every week. No one else was to know about the routine.

INTERROGATOR: Only you? No one else?

DEMLER: There was also the doctor.

INTERROGATOR: Who?

DEMLER: Dr. Mengele.

INTERROGATOR: Josef Mengele?

DEMLER: Yes. He was the leader of the project.

INTERROGATOR: What project?

(Demler does not answer).

INTERROGATOR: It is clear that you are complicit in nearly 700 murders – that is the number of bodies found behind Kraken. And they had been tortured. Your only hope to avoid being hanged is to tell us everything and hope that you give us something useful.

DEMLER: Okay. I was not supposed to know anything about this. Mengele would tell me things during our trips between Auschwitz and Kraken. He’d ride with me in the front of the truck on Sunday evenings to the asylum with the load of prisoners. And then I’d chauffer him back to the Auschwitz camp sometime in the middle of the week.

INTERROGATOR: What did he tell you about the project?

DEMLER: He said he was doing experiments with prisoners at Auschwitz to test procedures for his research at Kraken.

INTERROGATOR: What kinds of experiments – at Auschwitz I mean?

DEMLER: Medical experiments. Testing theories he had about pain, and tolerance to cold, pressure, drugs.

(Note to analyst: Demler’s testimony regarding Mengele’s medical experiments at Auschwitz has been verified. See reports AU518 and AU519).

INTERROGATOR: And what did he say about Kraken?

DEMLER: He did not give me details. However, he said they were making great advances in understanding pain. I never asked questions – I didn’t want to know too much to be a liability. But I did ask him once about the purpose of such research. They did not sound like medical experiments to me.

INTERROGATOR: What was his answer?

DEMLER: I will never forget the smile that came to the doctor’s face when I asked that question. I regretted it immediately. He told me, ”We are embarking on a new facet of humanity, or perhaps we will transcend it.” I did not want to learn more.

INTERROGATOR: Did you?

DEMLER: Yes. He said Germany had discovered something that would put the Aryan race in its rightful place in the world. But first there were puzzles they would have to solve.

INTERROGATOR: Puzzles? Like what?

DEMLER: They had deciphered some ancient document that revealed a special place on Earth – a place that, if accessed, would allow them to change the world.

INTERROGATOR: What document?

DEMLER: He called it
weißen Stein
.

INTERROGATOR: White stone?

DEMLER: Yes, white stone. There was an inscription of some sort. He didn’t tell me what it meant.

INTERROGATOR: Where is it?

DEMLER: I don’t know.

INTERROGATOR: You mentioned that you were a courier. Did you carry documents?

DEMLER: Yes.

INTERROGATOR: Did you see any classified documents?

DEMLER: Yes, on occasion.

INTERROGATOR: Explain.

DEMLER: Mengele was generally careless with files – he’d read them in the truck, and often set them on the seat between us. I only caught a few words here and there.

INTERROGATOR: What did you see?

DEMLER: The most unusual were those that had the words “Top-Secret” and “Red Falcon” printed on their covers. An emblem of a falcon carrying a strange symbol was usually positioned in the center. It was strange because official documents usually had an eagle with a swastika on them.

INTERROGATOR: You said Mengele mentioned a “special place on Earth?" Where is it?

DEMLER: He didn’t give specifics, but he said it was in an uninhabitable place. It was cold there.

(Note: Subsequent interrogations of
Untersturmführer
Hans Demler provided no new information, but were consistent.)

A handwritten annotation indicated that Demler had died in prison in 1962.

Daniel bristled at the mention of the “special place on earth,” and that it was cold there. It would have made no sense if he hadn’t already known about the beacon.

The next file was the official transcript of Demler’s interrogation – the one that would be found in the normal classified records. Every mention of Red Falcon
,
and Demler’s testimony regarding a special place on earth, had been redacted. To have the complete and redacted versions of the files side-by-side was revealing. If Demler had been deemed crazy, or just fabricating information to save his own skin, there would have been no need to hide any of his testimony.

Subsequent transcripts indicated that, indeed, Israeli interrogators had initially concluded that Demler made up the story in order to give the appearance that he was cooperating. After all, he’d been fighting for his life. Demler was fortunate, however, that there had been other Nazis who had corroborated details of his story. The Israelis had really needed to find Dr. Josef Mengele, but, as was well known, it was not to be. However, it seemed that they’d gotten a break when the Israeli Mossad captured the Nazi fugitive,
Obersturmbannführer
Adolf Eichmann, in 1960.

Daniel leaned back on his couch and read.

2

Friday, 22 May (1:10 p.m. EST – Antarctica)

McHenry leaned over Finley’s shoulder and studied the computer monitor. “How wide does it get?” he asked.

“Over 200 meters,” Finley replied. “It looks like we’re entering the mouth of a large chamber.”

After days of weaving the
North Dakota
through the narrow tunnel, McHenry felt a sigh of relief. It was as if he’d fallen down a dark well and finally climbed out and lay flat on the surface with the sun beating down on his face. His moment of release was quickly squelched by the reality of their situation. They had no means of communicating with the outside, and would still have to navigate their way back through the treacherous tunnel.

“Orders?” Finely asked.

“Forward, keep center,” McHenry said. “Map all surfaces as we go.”

“We looking for something in particular?”

McHenry thought they should be looking for something related to the beacon. On the other hand, there were dead subs at the mouth of the tunnel, and other manmade debris further in, so they should be ready for anything.

“Anything resembling the beacon – or any unnatural structure,” McHenry finally replied. Something else occurred to him. “Also look for side-chambers, or tunnels. And there could be mines.”

Finley nodded, and then gave instructions to navigation and sonar personnel on the consuls around him.

McHenry went to his quarters. He put his head on a pillow, took a deep breath, and exhaled. It was a sigh of relief and exhaustion. After what seemed like just a minute, he sat up stiffly. His communicator buzzed. It was Finley.

“Sir, I think you need to come back,” Finley said. “I recommend an
all stop
.”

McHenry rubbed his eyes. He hadn’t been off the conn for 20 minutes. “I’ll be right there,” he said, and then communicated the all-stop
order.
What the hell had they found?