The House of Grey- Volume 4 (25 page)

“You would certainly bring in the ratings. Now shut up or we’ll be here all night.”

He resettled himself
.
“You
’
re correct that Hitler was looking for power in any conceivable form
,
w
hether it
was
natural, demonic or divine
.
H
e had his people research every folk tale, ghost story
,
and myth in the hopes that he could find something to turn the tides. What they found was this.”

Grayson picked up a large leather
-
bound book with a huge rune on
its
cover. The book seemed quite old but it hardly
appeared to
contain the mysteries of the world.  Monson, though he tried not to look it,
felt
more than a little dissatisfied.

“A book
?  W
hat were they going to do to the Allies
,
paper
-
cut them to death?”

“Oh ye of little faith. Just look
.
”

Monson pulled the thick book closer to him
, studying
the massive rune on the cover and then letting his gaze drop to the word
‘
Journal
’
right below it. 

T
he rune was of a curious nature, almost alien
,
a structure or rendition that he could not even begin to describe. It reminded him of a combination of all those old rune
-
based languages
ancient Egyptian jumping out to the forefront
. Fascinated, Monson flipped open the volume to reveal, as far as he could tell, an old but
scrapbook like
journal. Written mostly in German, it contained all kinds of
drawings
and photograph
s
, spammed together and marked with indiscernible text and symbols. He examined the book with enthusiasm until he came to a drawing of what appeared to be a chain
mail glove. Next to this rather detailed drawing
,
he saw a glossy
photograph
of the exact same glove. The glove looked normal enough
,
though Monson could tell the artisanship was excellent. 
Its
most prominent feature was a strong metal plate
attached
to
the
top
over the back of the hand.
A
lmost like a guard
,
the
plate
appeared
to be
something that could be used
to
block a blow from a sword or
other
weapon.
T
here was an indention
or void
on
the
plate like
there some sort of decoration
missing.

“What I am looking at?”  He ran
an
unsure finger over the picture of the glove.

“
That book is
the record of one of the information officers
from
a
s
pecialty unit of the German Army
based out of
T
he Ahnenerbe
Institute
,” answered Grayson
.
“
M
y grandfather’s
,
actually
both the unit and the journal. The unit was charged with several missions under orders from
Heinrich Himmler
to discover archeological relics that could turn the tide of the war.
”

“
OK,
what about the weird
gibberish writing
and
the
glove?”

“Again
,
we don’t know
for sure. There is some indication that it was some kind of weapon.
” Grayson reached over
,
fingering some of the pages. “This journal documents an exhibition in the Alps where some
researchers at the Institute
heard
a
tale of some kind of ancient reception hall deep within the mountain range. This hall supposedly contained everything from the
F
ountain of Youth to a
l
egion of
a
rc
hangels
. They aren’t really even sure of the path they took, but after a series of weird events
,
t
hey somehow found the entrance to the cave
,
and with a lot of sacrifice
,
made their way to this.”

Grayson turned
to
one of the very last pages of the book. It was a drawing of a massive
hall
,
one
Monson
would expect to see in some made
-
up world
,
complete
with enormous
, oddly carved
pillars dozens of
meters
in diameter.  Ascertaining much more information than that was unlikely
,
as the drawing was of limited dimension.
But it
did make one thing clear
from the way the room was constructed
.
Th
is large underground cutout had a purpose and that purpose seemed to lie at the end of
a
hallway.  Before Monson could ask
any
question
s,
Grayson flipped the page
.
Monson studied the next picture
, recognizing that it was
a continuation of the
previous drawing
.

In the very center of the hall
loomed
a
mountain-sized building looking
structure
, which was
covered with
a mosaic
of
symbols and drawings. There was no way of knowing its true dimensions but Monson’s gut
told him
this thing was incredibly large and equally important. 
Continuing to flip
page
s
, Grayson showed Monson a half
-
dozen other drawings of
various mystical looking items most of which Monson didn’t recognize.
Monson
turn
ed the page only to find a
sort of master guide.

“This page gives details
about
everything I just showed
you
,” said Grayson
,
pointing at various numbers and their corresponding script
s of description
. He
translated
the German text
:
“
C
olumns many feet in diameter h
o
ld up massive arc
hw
ays that seem to rise to the very top of the mountain. Strikingly elaborate, the central chamber is a truly magnificent edifice with fountains of sweet
-
smelling waters, troves of exotic weaponry and cultural icons, and though I can’t say for sure, it seems that there are remains from every major military power from the last
ten
thousand years. The room is like a time capsule for human history.”

“Remains?” interrupted Monson in shock
.
“
L
ike, as in bodies?”

“More or less
.
” Grayson glanced up from the book
.
“
B
odies, weapons, records
;
thousands
of years of history stored in almost perfect condition. I don’t think you get it
,
Grey. Maps of an unnamed supercontinent, detailed accounts of other humanoid
s that spanned thousands of years of history, in-depth dissertations on magic usage and rules
—
seriously
, you name it
,
t
his place had it. Perfectly categorized and organized by who knows
,
and
that’s not even getting into the more mystic
al
aspects of the central chamber.  It was truly one of the greatest historic finds of all time. My grandfather speculates that it could
have
held the mysteries of creation and that
the
hall was probably one of the oldest structures in existence.”

“So what happen
ed
?”  Monson could not believe that such a structure would be ignored
.
“
W
hy haven’t I heard about
it
? A discovery like that
would be world-renowned.”

“
That’s
just the thing
.
We
really don’t know exactly what happen
ed
,
but I
’
ll get to that.  The
unit
start
ed
exploring the central chamber and offshoots
,
only to find room after room after room of treasures, art, books, everything I just mentioned. It should have been the discovery of lifetimes to come.”

“So why wasn’t it reported?”

Grayson answer was
so
sullen it caught Monson off
-
guard
.
“
B
ecause my
g
randfather realized that it must remain hidden
;
that the fate of the world might depend on it.
”

Grayson threw up the roadblock fully anticipating Monson’s next question. “I
’
ll explain but you need to hear the rest first.”

He
wheel
ed
over to
the
refrigerator. He touched a button on his chair before he reached the appliance and then waited patiently until the refrigerator door retracted. He snagged two water bottles and tossed on
e
to Monson.

Grayson twisted
off
the top of his water. “This next part of the story gets dicey. My grandfather was adamant
,
almost obsessive about
his need to explore the large central structure with the
mosaic
that
he labeled the “Tower
.
” Grandfather was convinced that something of great importance
lay
within this Tower
,
like there was something that had to be found and understood. This is the reason that the Tower drawings are so detailed. He
obstinately
felt that someone
, somewhere had to of come into contact with this hall and structure, and perhaps
they
could relay the importance of it to him
.
”

Monson frowned
.
“I’m assuming that things didn’t go well.”

Grayson let out an ironic chuckle
.
“
N
o, no they didn’t. Grandfather looked, but couldn’t find anything that would help him to get into the inner chambers of the Tower, if there was an inner chamber at all
, for that matter
.  Not that they didn’t find anything helpful
,
but I
’
ll get to that
in a minute
.  After a couple of weeks
of being staked out in the place
, supplies started to run
low and strange things began
happening.”

“Back up a second
,
” Monson almost pleaded
.
“
W
hy was your grandfather so convinced that there was something beyond or within this Tower?”

“
From o
ne of the murals at the base of
its
lowest level
s
.” Grayson found the corresponding illustration and showed Monson.

It depicted a landscape of a huge mountain, with a path that meandered along a sparkling river and out of sight. Monson
studied
the reproduction.
He sensed that the painting was important; it gave off a surreal, even mystical quality, but if there was a message in there, it was lost on him.
“Yeah…I have no idea what that is supposed to mean.”