Game of Shadows (20 page)

San Sebastián, Argentina

Sean hurried down the narrow corridor, past a line of hanging bunks and into the engine room. He spied several knobs, levers, gauges, and wheels, uncertain which one he was looking for. What little knowledge he had about this particular U-boat was that it ran on diesel fuel, which meant it worked on compression combustion. Essentially, even with seventy-year-old fuel, he might be able to get a little power out of it if there was still any left in the tanks.

A cap in the middle of one of the motor chambers came off with a little effort, and Sean stuck his nose over the hole to smell the inside. A stringent whiff of diesel fumes escaped. He screwed the cap back on and turned his head to the control area. He read some of the tags and plates that were attached to various mechanisms and found the one that signaled it was the ignition. He turned the switch, but nothing happened. The batteries were dead. Of course they would be. They'd not been used in seven decades.

Machines like this always had a backup, though. Again, his eyes scoured the area until he found German words for
manual ignition
on a black placard next to a wheel with a handle attached.

He stepped over to the mechanism and started turning it. For the first few turns, nothing happened. Pistons and cams turned inside the big engines, but there was no ignition. Around the fifteen-second mark, however, the motors caught, struggled, and began to rumble, albeit in an inconsistent manner.

Sean took a step back and surveyed the instruments again, finding the one that adjusted the throttle. He waited a few seconds to make sure the engine would keep running. Knowing he hadn't much time, he took the chance and eased the lever back toward the reverse position, just above idle.

The submarine lurched a few inches, straining against the moorings outside. He turned around and sprinted back down to the other end of the ship, past the bunks and control room, and into the torpedo room. He spun the wheel on the port-side torpedo tube and opened the hatch. Luckily, the Nazis had left one in the chamber, ready to fire. He hoped the explosives inside it were still live.

Sean hurriedly closed the hatch and ran back down the gangway to the control room. He stared up through the chute at the ceiling to gauge whether or not the sub was moving. The roof of the cavern remained still, though there was a great deal of yelling going on outside from the dock.

He darted back to the aft of the ship and ticked the lever a little farther to give the propellers more power. Suddenly, the boat jerked backward again as the mooring ropes snapped under the strain. He pushed the lever back to its previous setting and ran back down the length of the sub. At the bridge once again, Sean looked up, this time seeing that the cavern's ceiling was creeping by.

Reminding himself that there was no way this plan could work, Sean hurried into the torpedo room and found the fire button. It was the biggest button he'd ever seen, and marked clearly in red. He yanked down on the lever that flooded the tube then braced himself and waited.
Give it a second,
he thought.
Wait for it. Wait for it.

After ten seconds that seemed more like a thousand, he mashed the button and sprinted as hard as he could back to the bridge. He heard the torpedo launch with a swoosh as he ran to the ladder. He grabbed a hold of it and crouched low, uncertain of what would happen next.

An extraordinary explosion outside interrupted the momentary pause. The submarine shuddered violently and tipped sideways from the concussion. The ship stayed upright, though, continuing backward. Sean knew that he couldn't guide it through the tunnel alone, and if he allowed it to keep going, it could potentially block his only way out. He rushed back into the engine room and set the lever back to a forward position. Gears clunked deep inside the motors, and the submarine's progress slowed and reversed to the other direction.

Sean's breathing was coming in heavy gasps now from all the running, but he hurried back to the ladder and climbed up. As he reached the top of the hatch, he could see pieces of the cavern ceiling breaking free and falling into the harbor in massive chunks, causing huge splashes that shot up twenty feet in the air.

He crested the lip of the chute and pushed himself onto the tower deck. Black smoke filled the enormous cavern. The catwalk that had been at the front of the sub was completely obliterated, as was one end of the dock. Die Glocke had been completely blown apart by the blast. Now, the U-boat was gliding toward the remaining part of the dock and the catwalk over it. The two men atop it were scrambling onto their feet. Sean could see McClain and Ott lying facedown on the dock's floor, barely moving.

No time to finish them off. He had to get out before the whole cavern collapsed. Just as the thought raced through is mind, another fragment of the ceiling broke free and fell to the gun deck, smashing the heavy armament's barrel and bending it in half.

Yeah, definitely time to leave.

Sean stepped over the side of the tower railing and pushed off the top rail with his left foot. He flew through the air in a dramatic swan dive and plunged into the water. He pulled himself through with a breaststroke, kicking his feet hard to drive faster toward his scuba gear. He floated to the surface and paddled hard with his arms, using a freestyle technique. It seemed like minutes, but he reached the cavern's far side in less than forty seconds.

Another rumble came from deep within the island's bowels as more pieces of the roof crumbled and fell into the harbor.

He grabbed the scooter and his dive mask. No time to get the tank. He'd have to hold his breath on the other side of the tunnel's entrance.

Just as he slipped the mask over his face, another loud crash reverberated from the dock. The U-boat smashed into what remained, driving its nose through the platform. The catwalk above creaked and collapsed, dropping the two mercenaries atop it to the splintering floor below.

The lights on the far wall flickered, and Sean grabbed the scooter, hefting it back into the water. In an instant, the room went pitch black as the generator powering the lights fell into the water. Sean switched on the scooter's LEDs and slipped into frigid liquid.

He mashed the accelerator and pushed off the rock ledge with his feet, propelling him forward. He zoomed through the water, keeping his eyes on the tunnel entrance. The rock formation shook violently as the submarine on the other side of the room drove hard into the wall. A chunk of the tunnel archway collapsed into the water with a splash, just to the left of where Sean was headed. He put his head down and guided the scooter forward and into the passage. Behind him, the roof continued to collapse, sending wave after wave of water into the corridor. He looked back as the sections of rock began falling more frequently, but he couldn't see what was going on.

Keep your eyes ahead,
he told himself.

Sean reached the end of the cave's passage where he would have to go under to get out. He pumped his lungs full with quick, successive breaths, and then took one long one before tilting the scooter downward. He raced along the top edge of the cave entrance and within a few seconds was out in the open sea again. His lungs started to burn as he angled the scooter up toward the surface, pushing the machine to its utmost capacity.

He swallowed, fighting off the ever-growing urge to inhale. Sean had never been great at holding his breath. He could do forty-five seconds, maybe sixty if he pushed it; right now he felt like he was capable of half that.

His eyes winced, and he almost gave in when the front of the scooter broke through the surface and burst into the freezing air. He gasped, taking in huge gulps of air, his lungs finally relieved. He pulled back the dive mask and looked around. The Mark V still sat in the water, bobbing back and forth in the waves. In the chaos, he'd managed to put Irena's .22 back in his belt.

Sean switched off the scooter's lights and turned it toward the navy boat. It was time to go home.

Atlanta, Georgia

Sean walked across the black marble floor, through the cavernous lobby of Axis HQ, to the first of three security checkpoints. Two armed guards holding Heckler & Koch submachine guns stood on either side of the metal detector. Sean held up his badge at the check in table and handed over his sidearm before passing through.

The next station required a retina scan, and he leaned forward into the wall panel to allow the machine to confirm his identity.

Since moving Axis headquarters from Washington, D.C. to Atlanta, security measures had been greatly increased. The upgrades were things that Emily had been calling for over the course of the last few years, and finally, funding was made available.

Sean arrived at the last checkpoint and put his finger onto a scanner that reconfirmed his identity. A light within a steel panel flashed green, and the heavy metal door in front of him swung open. On the other side, the corridor narrowed into a long hallway with a twenty-foot ceiling. Elevators on either side provided six options for ascending the building. He chose the first one on the left and pressed the button.

The doors opened instantly and revealed a tall man in a black suit.

"Welcome back, Agent Zero," the man said with a straight face.

"Thank you, James. Good to be back, I think." He nodded at the man.

"Emily's office?"

"Yes, sir."

The man reached out and pressed the button for the twentieth floor, and the doors closed.

When they reached their destination, Sean said goodbye to James and proceeded down the sterile, gray hallway. It was lit by brushed steel sconces imbedded in the walls near the ceiling, giving off a pale-white glow. He passed a server room surrounded by windows of four-inch-thick glass. Rumor had it that the glass was enriched with lead as an extra measure of security. At the end of the hall, he turned right and walked all the way to the end where a nondescript wooden door was half open. Two muted glass windows ran the length of the door on either side of it, blurring the view of whoever and whatever was inside.

When Sean reached the threshold, he knocked twice.

"Come in," Emily's voice carried through the doorway.

Sean pushed the door open and stepped inside the office. He'd been there only once before, and the room's minimalist design caused him to think his Axis director had done all her shopping at a certain Swedish furniture store on the other side of town. Everything in the room screamed utilitarian, which he didn't hate but thought was unimaginative. Sean was surprised to see a second familiar face sitting in one of the chairs across from Emily's desk. It was President Dawkins.

He stood up and extended a hand to Sean, which he took and shook firmly.

"Glad to have you back, Sean...I mean, Zero," he corrected himself.

"Thank you, sir. Good to be back in the saddle."

The president motioned for Sean to take a seat next to him. "Is it?" the man asked.

Sean tilted his head to the side. "Like I told Emily, the world doesn't have enough people to fight for justice. As long as I'm breathing, I'll do what I can to uphold that fight. Besides, it's what I do well."

"It most certainly is." The president stared at him for a few seconds with a look of admiration. "You know the directors of the other agencies are crawling down my back to get you to go work for them."

Sean grinned. "I don't trust them." He cast a wry glance Emily's way and winked at her, to which she blushed and shook her head.

Dawkins chuckled. "Neither do I. Which is why I wouldn't let you transfer even if you wanted to. Plus, I understand you two have a special deal worked out. You're not officially on the payroll, correct?"

"Not officially, sir."

"Well, that's fine with me." He slapped his knee. "Whatever works best for you; I'm just glad we can have you when the need arises."

Sean nodded but said nothing.

Emily entered the conversation. "Zero, can you please fill us in on the details of the mission?"

"Sure."

Sean gave a detailed yet concise summary of what had happened, from Poland to Argentina. He told them about the U-boat and the device he'd destroyed during his escape, as well as Admiral McClain's betrayal and Dr. Ott's deception. Then he relayed how he had managed to escape the cavern's collapse, take out the last SEAL on the Mark V with a .22-caliber handgun, and then drive the boat back to the crescent harbor in the city. He deliberately left out the part regarding Dothan. There was the possibility he would need the man's services again in the future, and the less anyone else knew about him, the better. Not to mention Sean felt like he owed the pilot that courtesy.

"It's a shame about Admiral McClain," the president commented. "He was so close to retirement."

"Greed makes people do irrational things, sir," Sean said.

"Are you sure he and Dr. Ott are both dead?" Emily asked the question she'd had on her mind.

Sean shook his head. "No way to confirm, Em. I'd be surprised if anyone made it out alive. When we went back the next day, the entire cave had collapsed on itself. There was no way in or out."

Dawkins looked perplexed. "The device. It's not a threat to harm the environment or population, is it?"

"I don't believe so, sir. It's buried underneath an island where no one lives. If the bell were giving off some kind of radiation, no one would know. Although I don't think it does that anyway. It's unlikely we will ever see any effects from that device or even hear about it anymore."

"Very well. It's a shame we couldn't recover it and put it in one of our labs. Would have been an interesting study."

"Some things, sir, are best left alone."

The president smiled at Sean's last comment. He was right, of course. Some things were definitely best left alone. Based on his limited knowledge of
die Glocke
, Dawkins knew it could be potentially dangerous. He would rather it be buried than some terrorist organization get it, or worse, someone like the North Koreans.

"You are relieved for now, Zero," Emily said, "unless you have something else to add to your report."

He shook his head once. "No. I think that's all."

The president stood up and extended his hand once more. Sean shook it and gave a polite nod. "Mr. President. A pleasure as always."

"Likewise, Sean...I mean, Zero," he gave a wink.

"I'll be in touch," Emily added as Sean proceeded to the door.

"You know where to find me." That was a lie. She wouldn't know where he was, but she did know how to get in touch with him. Sean left the room and walked down the hall, back to the elevators.