About a quarter mile down there was another huge double door, with a smaller, man-sized one inset into one side. They opened these too, with less difficulty since it hadn’t been exposed to the elements at all. They drove through, into a vast open space the size of an indoor sports stadium, perhaps two hundred yards across and a hundred high. Huge girders braced the roof, and more steel mesh. There were only a few rock falls that had broken through, along with a trickle of water that was forming limestone riffles and tiny stalactites along the rising, sloping wall-ceiling.
Rows of vehicles stood covered in dull green canvas tarpaulins – five-ton and deuce-and-a-half trucks, vintage jeeps, and construction vehicles, things Daniel didn’t recognize that could be some kind of mining and cutting equipment. He saw a row of dusty glass windows along one side, and several doors. Two truck-sized tunnel openings led even deeper.
They got out and turned off the vehicles, but left the truck lights on. Ten people shuffled around the four modern vehicles in the eerie silence, punctuated by dripping water and the sound of engines cooling.
“Cold in here.” Elise rubbed her arms, then pulled someone’s jacket out from behind a seat and put it on.
Daniel suppressed a flash of jealousy as he saw it wasn’t his. He should have thought of that. She had nothing but the clothes she was wearing. He resolved to fix that situation. He resolved to give her whatever she needed.
“What is this place?” asked Roger, peering nearsightedly around through his thick glasses. It appeared the question was somewhat rhetorical, for he started to answer it himself. “Some kind of government bunker, built back in World War Two…but that backhoe is a 1950s model.”
“Right,” answered Zeke. “The Sosthenes bunker was commissioned in 1940 during the Battle of Britain, when they thought there would eventually be a chance of air raids on the East Coast by the Third Reich. The Germans had some super-bombers in development that never panned out. Then as that threat waned, the US kept building because of the possibility of the Nazis getting the A-bomb – and because they’d already paid for it. Never underestimate the inertia of a government contract and jobs in a Senator’s home state. It was to be a place for continuity of governance, where the President, Congress and the Supreme Court could maintain function. It was kept active into the cold war, through the changeover to the better known Greenbrier bunker, code named ‘Greek Island,’ in 1961.”
Arthur crossed his arms. “There is no way this kind of construction could withstand a nuclear attack. The whole thing would probably collapse. Glass in the windows? Pathetic!”
Zeke responded, “They had no idea until the first test how powerful an atomic blast would be. It even surprised the scientists working on it. That’s why they built the Greenbrier bunker, after they knew what it would take. Remember, we were stretched to the limit in the Big One. Once it ended, we breathed a big sigh of relief – for about four years. The Soviet Union detonated its first atomic bomb in 1949 and immediately started to turn the screws with the Berlin blockade. So the US geared up for the Cold War. The government initiated Project Greek Island in the 1950s and once they had that super-bunker, this place got mothballed. Fortunately for us, over the next fifty or sixty years, it got forgotten about too.”
“How do you know they won’t dig up the information on its existence, pardon the pun?” Elise asked.
“Because I searched every database I could access and deleted all references to it. I buried the only hardcopy file I could find in the basement of the Pentagon, and I took the keys out. It’s in the wrong box on the wrong shelf in the wrong vault, in a section that has already been digitized. But the Sosthenes file never was digitized. It was intended to be secret. So barring incredible luck or a tipped-off search taking thousands of man-hours, no one knows about this.”
“Except that mining official.”
“Sure, but all he knows is he ran into some unknown government property bounded by a fence. He never got in. Once I took a look I knew I couldn’t let anyone in on this. I told him it was hazardous waste storage, and if their mining operations got too close they could release toxic materials. And…I kinda let slip something about nerve gas and national security.”
Several of them chuckled. Elise said, “So he thought you were giving him a cover story and it was really old chemical weapons.”
“Yup,” Zeke replied. “So unless all hell breaks loose and the government actually comes out into the open to find us, enlists the public, it’s very unlikely anyone will connect the dots. If they do…at least we have our Alamo.”
“They all died at the Alamo, boss,” muttered Larry.
“Okay, bad metaphor. It’s our Cheyenne Mountain, how’s that.”
“That’s good, that’s an Air Force Base,” Daniel chimed in.
“Smartass blue-suiter. How about I show you the best part.”
“I hope it involves food, because we only got enough for a couple days,” Larry complained.
Zeke’s ever-present grin got wider. “Oh, baby, you have no idea. There’s enough in here for years. Come on, let’s run a jump.” He drove the Land Rover over to a diesel generator sitting by the wall, then hooked up his jumper cables. A moment later he had the machine started, and a faint orange glow started above their heads from dozens of sodium lamps. Not all of them worked, but there were enough. They turned off the car lights to conserve their batteries.
Elise wondered about the diesel emissions until she noticed its exhaust pipe ran up to a hole in the wall. The air in the cavern seemed fairly fresh, too. There must be some natural ventilation, like in those “breathing caves” found here and there.
Zeke walked over to the door at the end of the long row of windows. Vinny went with him. He turned on the lights inside, which were faint and flickering fluorescents. They looked like they wouldn’t last much longer. If they were going to refurbish and use this place, light bulbs were only the first of many things they would need.
“Oh man, this is a trip!” Vinny blurted, looking at the half-century old equipment.
“Yep, and not a computer in sight. Just good old dials, knobs and switches.” Zeke flipped some of the switches and the lights came on in the two big tunnels, stretching deeper down into the mountain. The generator coughed and strained under the increased load. He flipped another two switches and two-thirds of the sodium lamps above their heads went off. There was still plenty of light.
“What happens when we run out of diesel?” Daniel asked him.
“That’s just for temporary use. Let’s go down and get this place running again. Larry, Roger, Vinny, you come with me. We’ll get the hydroelectric plant going. You guys look around up here. There shouldn’t be anything more dangerous than falling rocks. That reminds me – I suggest everyone wear a helmet. If you don’t have one, there are hard hats in there,” he said, pointing to a storage-room door.
It took about four hours but eventually the tone of the generator changed, and a plethora of ancillary lights came on – exit lights over doors, secondary lights in the rooms behind the windows, and the sodium lamps got brighter. They also felt the soughing of a ventilation fan, apparently to supplement the natural air. That would help if they had to run any vehicles. Spooky took it upon himself to turn off the diesel generator, and nothing bad happened. It looked like the hydroelectric power was sufficient.
They’d been keeping busy exploring the cavern and the installations around it. There were locker rooms with showers and toilets, and after a lot of running, the water from the pipes cleared. The hot water faucets even ran fairly warm. There must be a hot spring or something like that.