The Land Rover sped smoothly down the highway as the grade in the road began to increase. Sam guided the vehicle around the hair pin turns with ease and turned to the others with a cheerful smile.
"And we haven't even reached the dirt track, yet!"
Mycroft groaned, wishing desperately for his beloved helicopter back home.
Joanne patted his knee affectionately. "It's ok, Mycroft. Sam's a good driver, and knows these roads."
"It's not the roads that my brother is thinking of. He's just annoyed that it is not he who is in control," Sherlock smirked.
Looking at Mycroft's expression through the lens of that uncanny assessment, Joanne had to admit he was right. The elder Holmes's brow was furrowed in frustration, his lips pressed together in what she could only define a as a pout. "I think you're right," she grinned, giving Sherlock a wink. She sat between the two as they gazed out the windows, memorizing every side road and hilly feature they passed. Julian sat up front with Sam, who also studied the scenery. He seemed unusually preoccupied. Joanne knew better than to interrupt him when he was thinking.
A foreboding sign appeared on the left of the road as they approached Pine Gap.
"Well that's a bit ominous," Joanne quipped, half hoping that they would take the sign's advice and turn around
"Well that's a bit ominous," Joanne quipped, half hoping that they would take the sign's advice and turn around. Instead they sped past, slowing only slightly.
"It's around here somewhere, about half a mile from the sign." Sam's eyes were sharp and on the lookout for something. "Here."
A lone prickly shrub marked a barely visible side road and overgrown with weeds that were slightly flattened. Only someone looking closely would have noticed it. The Land Rover quickly turned off onto it and sped up, the tires sending a plume red dust behind them. The men quickly checked the main road in all directions for any signs of traffic. So far, so good.
Sam pointed to the various clumps of vegetation growing along the track. "You can see the slightly bent grass where Marguerite and I went over it in our truck a few weeks ago. Looks like a few storms rolled through here and further flattened things. Good job, considering!"
Fifteen minutes later, he switched into 3rd gear and began the ascent up the foothills outside of Pine Gap.
Unbeknownst to those in the Land Rover, a lone figure on an adjacent hill stood silent as he watched them disappear out of sight in a cloud of dust. Raising a radio to his lips, Govran Stojanovićs poke in rapid Serbian, giving the coordinates of the side road as well as the time the Holmes party began down it. Hooded eyes surveyed their path as it disappeared into the mountains. He turned toward his partner who sat in a truck nearby. "She will meet us in ten minutes," Govran said, dropping into the seat beside him. "According to our map, the track ends at the mine; there are no others connecting to it." He smiled, the dark eyes cold. "They will be trapped."
Andrena had spent the rest of the night in turmoil. Until now, her plan had been to wait until Mycroft and the others came out near the base. Knowing the Holmes's, a different route would be taken and her uncle's work would be lost to her, forever. No, it was best to stick as close to them as possible, with no way of escape. Not satisfied to wait, Andrena had telephoned her a few local contacts. These were mercenaries who could arrive to such a remote location quickly, and on short notice. It always paid to have a handful of them in nearly every country.
Her lacquered nails tapped the steering wheel of the BMW as it neared the pickup where the two men waited. She had called Govran up from her list of most trusted (and lethal) contacts. Both he and Andrena were originally from Serbia. There were few people she could trust with her life; besides the late Winslow Granville, this man was one of them. The others waited nearby in separate vehicles for orders from Govran.
Brief greetings were dispensed upon her arrival and the three set off, making sure to keep a good distance behind the Holmes's. "The dust makes us more visible, unfortunately," the driver explained.
Andrena smiled. "There's no hurry, Roman. I know exactly where they are going." She turned to Govran. "Once they are inside the lab, have the men set the oscillators around the mine. If they value their lives, they will hand over the canister and anything else they may find. Mycroft and Julian are a pair of sentimental old fools, though I'm not too sure about the younger Holmes. Still, the former will do anything to keep both that woman and Sherlock alive. There is no way for them to wriggle out of it this time!"
"What if they refuse?"
No answer came as Andrena looked out the window, her expression inscrutable. When she looked back at him, her eyes had taken on a calm yet disturbing intensity. He knew he was not going to like her answer.
"If they refuse my demands, they all die - my uncle's secrets with them."
Govan tilted his head in curiosity. "And who is going into the mountain on this suicide mission to fetch these things?"
Andrena's eyes blazed with a quiet psychopathic fury, her voice soft and dangerous. "I am."
The dirt track to through the hills was long and rough. Julian had shouted at Sam to slow down on a few of the nearly ninety degree turns. Joanne noted his white knuckled hand gripping the seat's arm rest. Even Mycroft had paled, glancing only once out the window: The road barely wide enough for one vehicle, dropping away in a sheer cliff and extending down vertically hundreds of feet.
Only Sherlock remained unfazed and snickered at his brother. "You've been in much higher altitudes than this, brother mine, and in riskier circumstances."
"I was the one driving," he bit out tersely.
"You see?" Sherlock gave Joanne a knowing look. "Control."
Nothing else was said until they reached the mine. From the outside, the place looked dilapidated from nearly a century of neglect. As Sam had pointed out earlier, the eroding mountainside set the face of the mine that much closer to the sheer drop off below.
"Not the best kind of stone to drill a mine in," Joanne breathed, taking a rock in her hand and easily dashing it to pieces against the ground.
"Red sandstone," Julian smiled. "The lure of gold was stronger than the worry over safety in those days."
A set of rusty railroad tracks began at the entrance, stretching back into the darkness. From the outside, the place appeared to be nothing but an old abandoned mine. Joanne looked up with uncertainty at the weathered beams and timbers holding up this part of the mountain. Like rotting ribs, they lined the top and sides in a vertical parallel of the tracks below, disappearing into the inky blackness.
Like rotting ribs, they lined the top and sides in a vertical parallel of the tracks below, disappearing into the inky blackness
Sam was already rustling around the back of the Land Rover for the gear. "Torches, everyone!"
Lights were passed around along with spare batteries. Back packs were also issued, fully stocked. The usual exploration paraphernalia were included along with snacks and a large coil of rope. Joanne wasn't too sure about the last. "What's the rope for?" She noted the shiny metal clips, buckles and hooks. "I didn't know we were doing any climbing!"
Sherlock smiled tightly. "You never know."
The Holmes's went about assessing the potential of collapse and began making alternative plans in the event of a cave in. Julian had procured an old facsimile of the mine's interiors and lab schematics from when it had been constructed, noting the red dust as it filtered down sporadically from the ceiling at the entrance. "It's possible there could already be a cave in or two in there somewhere," Julian mused.
While they deliberated over the map and walked inside the mouth of the tunnel to check the strength and position of the wood girders, Sam drove the Land Rover back down the road a few feet, turning off into some bushes to hide it. Walking back to the entrance, he carefully erased all traces of the vehicle being there, the idea being it would appear the previous tire marks disappeared into nowhere.
Julian looked up from the map as he approached. "All ready then, Samuel?" Nodding an affirmative, the group started down the tracks.
Mycroft was already heading further down the tunnel. "Let's have a look, shall we?"
A soft laugh echoed off the walls as Sherlock flashed the torch this way and that. "Didn't take him long to seize the reigns of leadership!"
After many twists and turns, they came to a crossroads. The main line branched into two separate ones. "Best to stay together," Julian intoned.
"Agreed," nodded Mycroft. "It's too dangerous to send two parties down them both."
Sam, who had been there before with Marguerite and could have told them, lagged behind out of earshot quietly erasing their foot prints.
"So, which way? Left or right?" Joanne figured these brilliant men would find some clue, some indication as to which way led to the lab. She wasn't disappointed.
"See these marks on the tracks here, here and here? Also the deep grooves in the wall where it looks as though something heavy was brought through and scraped along the side? Most likely the lab was built down the right corridor." Sherlock examined the marks along it and the ground.
Mycroft shined the torch back and forth along the top of the tunnel. "The lighting system is newer than that on the left, as well. Note the mid 19th century castings that were used to secure individual sconce lights. They did not use the overhead type until at least forty years later."
Joanne leaned down, examining one of the railroad sidings. "The metal is newer, too. Look, barely any rust compared to what we've seen so far.
"Right it is, then!" Julian announced as Sam rejoined them and began erasing the new prints. "I think only a few more yards will do, Samuel; just enough to throw off any potential followers."
A soft vanilla sounding voice spoke to her from the left. "We will have you working with MI5 yet!" whispered Mycroft.
"Well, once Sherlock pointed out the scarring on the walls, I figured there must be other things, though I had no idea you knew about light fixtures from the 1800's! Really, is there anything you don't know?" She could sense him smiling in the dark, pleased at the compliment.
Before long, they came to the solid metal door. Julian reached into his pack and brought out an odd device Joanne had never seen. "A magnet," he explained. On the box was a dial and frequency display. The needle was currently set at zero. "I happened upon the idea when Samuel was describing the door the other night. No handles, key locks or any visible way to open the door? Considering what the scientists were working with, I presumed the door to have some kind of magnet involved, opening only at a certain frequency. The question is, where is the panel to direct the magnetic wave to?"
Everyone hunted nearby, looking at every crevasse and stone around the door. Mycroft's sharp eyes were the first to work out its location. "Of course. The panel was meant only for the scientists, to further protect the entrance to the lab. If I am correct, the position is located where any normal handle would be: either to the left or right side of the door."
There were no visible clues as to where it could be, nor what frequency was to be used. Slowly, Julian dialed up the numbers, switching first to the left, then the right. Suddenly, there was a violent tremble from the wall on the right as the heavy metal gave way, sliding slowly into the rock on metal runners.
Sherlock looked impressed. "Ingenious, cousin. Of course - everything here is to do with magnets."
Julian made a mental note of the working frequency. It would be needed again upon their exit.
Blackness yawned before them, the tunnel around them now changed from old red sandstone to heavy iron. Except for the floor, the entire passage was metal. Joanne could tell no one had been inside for decades, everything the same as the scientists had left it. Just around the corner lay the laboratory itself. She felt a sense of foreboding as the tunnel narrowed, before finally opening into a large, cavernous room. The men now brought out the oversized headlamps, illuminating the entire space of the abandoned lab.
It was amazing. Even the Holmes men were quiet with awe as they took in the various contraptions and equipment that lined the walls and sat on work tables. In the center of the large vaulted room was a kind of scaffold on which was attached heavy cables and something like satellite dishes. The lines ran in pairs to hook up at couplings along both sides of the gigantic space. Suspended above all this was a large Tesla coil where a few of the cables attached, and below it a metal dome made of large metal sheets. The entire area was set on a metal platforms and catwalks, below which yawned the belly of the mountain that appeared to descend for miles. A set of metal stairs off the right led to an observatory area. Large air vents were placed into the ceiling around the metal, no doubt leading to the outside. These were not plated in metal, but left bare. "Why didn't they reinforce the air stacks?" Joanne wondered.
Mycroft looked at the cables snaking across the floor. Some hooked into the large machines along the walls, while others ran directly up the vents. "Any plating would have probably interfered in the magnetic experiments."
Joanne spread her arms, indicating the entirety of the room. "Wouldn't all the metal inside here do that?"
Julian shook his head. "That depends on which way the frequency was directed. From what we know of their experiments in the Antarctic, the magnetic waves were sent to and from the atmosphere - upwards only." He padded across to a couplings along the wall where the cables connected on each side of the room. "I see. Grounding cables."
Still, the equipment here was unlike any in the canister's diagrams, which Sherlock now set down on a nearby desk. Laying out each schematic, he compared them with what was seen here. "We need the blue prints for these... ah!" Spotting a small bookcase nearly dwarfed by one of the large machines, he found a single binder inside. On the outside was written "WPS". Sherlock eagerly brought it to the table under the lamp where they all gathered to have a look.
Joanne was shocked to read the name of the two large models that sat inside this room. Typed across the front page in large black letters was the title "WORLD POWER SYSTEM." She sucked in a breath, knowing exactly what these were. "Tesla's free energy for the world. The one invention that turned the leaders of corporations, the banks and Thomas Edison against him."
Next to her, Mycroft was already memorizing everything in the binder, both the notes and details of every diagram. "Fascinating," he murmured. "This is it. Nikola Tesla's final, and most important invention: Free energy for all. Wireless power."
The details of the notes were far beyond Joanne's understanding. Using these machines, a continual magnetic charge was used that transferred the energy of the earth's magnetic field through the cables. Once in these machines, it was converted to raw energy and power, to be dispersed through the floor and into and through the earth via a type of magnetic grid. "Like solar power, but using the earths own energy," Joanne surmised.
Mycroft hummed. "Quite so." Glancing up at the large box like structures on the tables, he turned to their corresponding notes. "Those are the batteries used to store it, for those not living close to a..." He paused, wondering what such a thing could be called. "A power site, for lack of a better term. Hence the wireless power aspect of it."
"So, magnetic power batteries?"
"Apparently so, and lasting much longer than a regular battery. An infinite power supply. Look here." Pointing to another, smaller model, Mycroft showed how in theory at least, the two could be connected, thanks to the earths negative energy beneath the ground. "It would function as a kind of water tap, one that would be turned on constantly. A portable device like this, in every home, would connect via the underground electric current of the earth to the grid. These main machines would be in every major city, supplying the grid with power from the upper atmosphere."
Even in the midst of this awesome discovery, Joanne felt more than heard Mycroft's words. Each honeyed syllable resonated in her ears, the smell of his cologne acute at such a close proximity. She leaned closer, eager to feel his warmth radiating through the suit. She could have sworn he also moved toward her, his face near hers as they studied one of the diagrams.
Nearby, Julian read another sheet from the binder, seemingly oblivious to his cousin and Joanne's proximity. "It seems they finally perfected that technique after all, without the need to be strictly located at either of the earths magnetic poles." He paused, looking up at the large overhead air vents, the lines of cable snaking up out of sight. "Note also how these two units are located directly beneath the top vents and close to those on the floor."
Sam was walking speculatively around each piece of equipment. "Do these things still work? Is there power to turn them on?"
"Assuming electrical power is needed to start them," Sherlock muttered. "I don't see any 'on' buttons, do you?" They inspected the machines for levers and power buttons, for any thing that could possibly start the things up. Mycroft searched the walls for switches. Overhead lights had been installed, but there were no levers to turn them on, either.
"If everything in here is powered by magnetics, then..." Joanne's eyes alighted on the battery boxes, also connected to the cables. Opening the casing, she discovered a set of dials and a needle pointing to various frequencies above it. "It's the batteries! Look Julian, its almost like your magnet frequency thing. I bet there's still energy stored in these! And look! An 'on/off' switch!"
Sam looked at the batteries, his eyes going from it to the large hulking machinery against the walls. "That little box would power those? Impossible!"
"Maybe not." Julian traced the cords coming from either side. One was plugged into the grounding wire, another to the machines themselves. "Observe the antennae," he said, motioning towards their tops. "Look familiar?"
"The same ones found on the atoll and Port Lockroy," Sherlock stated. "In miniature."
It was true: the same bell shaped top with the long running pole beside it sat squarely atop the units.
Mycroft spotted a metal runner beside the coils that ascended the air vents. "Not just for air, apparently."
"Indeed, based on the diagrams, the antennae were run to the outside on those," Sherlock smiled.
Joanne craned her neck, looking up into the vents. "If it runs to the outside, how come there's no light? We should be able to see at least a small circle of sunlight from here, right?"
"The vents were probably sealed up when the scientists left, and hidden beneath something to hide them from the outside world," Mycroft offered.
He had come to stand quite close behind her, his presence palpable. She turned to join Sherlock to inspect the battery packs, but not before glancing next to her and meeting Mycroft's heated gaze. Her eyes traveled to his lips, remembering how soft yet firm they were on hers that night.. He was something she could easily become addicted to, and wondered if he felt the same. Mycroft's hand ghosted momentarily over her shoulder to steady her as a sudden bout of vertigo passed over her from looking up into the overhead tunnels.
"Are you alright, Joanne?" whispered the soft, silky voice into her ear.
"Yeah, I'm not great at heights, even when I'm still on the ground." She smiled as his hand squeezed her arm gently, her thoughts in a whirl. How was this beautiful man still single?
Joanne's reverie was interrupted by his brother's rather overloud exclamation, no doubt in their direction.
"Ah! I believe this is the one," he crowed, indicating a lever on the battery's side.
"Do you believe we should?" inquired Julian anxiously. "Considering the easy penetrability of the sandstone we are surround in and the effects of high frequency magnetic waves... I think it would be best to try this back at Fairfield House."
Joanne gestured from the batteries to the machines. "How would you get a proper test without these things? It's not like we can haul those back; the batteries, yes."
He smiled, patting the device in his pocket. "Those are not the only way to measure its frequency output. We have found everything we need- the last piece of the puzzle. Let's gather the diagrams and batteries; I believe we are done here."
Before any of them could move, the door slid open on the far side of the room. Everyone turned at once in surprised shock to watch Andrena stride purposefully inside. Her expression was one of mingled excitement, hate and determination. "Correct, Julian Holmes. You are done here, and will kindly hand over everything to me."
In a flash, Mycroft and Sherlock were pointing guns at her and ready to fire.
Andrena smiled coldly, unfazed. "I would advise against that," she said, drawing an oscillator from her vest pocket. A long, elegant finger hovered over a button at the top of it. "You can shoot me if you like. But know that should you do so, the mountain around us will collapse in about, oh, ten to fifteen seconds. There are more of them near the entrance and around in various places where my men have set them. One word for me and they will finish the job." She looked at the tiny device in her hand. "He was brilliant, my uncle Nikola." Her thumb caressed the side of it as she reminisced over her uncle's work. "Nikola Tesla designed this, you know. In fact, everything here in this room. He conceived all of this, and everything inside those canisters," she went on, with a glance toward the containers on a far table. "The scientists merely finished and perfected it."
Andrena was about to go on, when Sherlock made to lunge toward them. She placed herself between them. "I wouldn't advise that Sherlock, unless you and your friends want to die right now!"
Mycroft gestured for his brother to return to their small group. A message seemed to pass between them. The canisters could wait.
The dark haired woman now crossed to the batteries, noting the number at the top of them. Nearby sat the binder, with the scientist's notes. Her eyes took on a dreamlike quality as she read the title. "My uncle's final and most precious invention," she breathed. In a flash, her dark eyes cleared, and she jerked her head upward the observation room. "Let's see how it works, shall we?"
Misinterpreting everyone's sudden apprehension as an attempt to attack, her finger quickly lit on the oscillator's trigger. "I'm warning you. No more sudden moves!" Her low, quiet voice had risen an octave.
Sensing the woman was more than unbalanced, they reluctantly followed as she led them up to the small observatory. Sherlock whispered quickly to Mycroft. "If she turns on those machines, it will trigger those oscillators and set them off!"
Luckily, his voice couldn't be heard over the loud clanking of their footsteps on the metal stairs. Mycroft was rapidly turning over all of this information in his mind. "Agreed. The amount of magnetic energy will set off not only hers, but those placed outside."
They filed into the glass windowed room. The brothers spoke slow and deliberate, trying again to explain the outcome should she continue this experiment. While Sherlock spoke, Mycroft and Julian quickly sent out texts to the top command at Pine Gap. Although not wanting anyone else involved, things had escalated far beyond their grasp; reinforcement was needed, as no one had any idea how many men Andrena had waiting outside - or oscillators...
Surveying the scene below them, Andrena quickly deduced all was in place. Only the antennae needed to be launched through the air vents. Inside the small room was a console that controlled the its movements, the opening of the vents and other things. "Hand me that manual there," she ordered Joanne, who stood beside a stack of books and a Standard Operating Procedure binder. "And remember!" she warned with a wave of the oscillator.
Faced with certain death, any fear Joanne had was gone as she tried to talk some sense into this woman. "It's true. If you start all this up, the magnetic waves will cause the oscillators to go off. You won't be able to see if this power system works! You have to disable it somehow, and get your men to disable theirs-"
"QUIET! No one asked you." Andrena's eyes glinted with cold fury. "You are hardly a scientist. What do you know about it?" As she talked, her eyes flew over the instructions, looking for those regarding the air vent. Finding them, Andrena compared the notes to the dials and switches on the console. After a second check, she engaged the covers to slide back. Narrow rays of light from the outside shown down the large vents as the bell shaped antennae and corresponding poles ascended upward on their metal tracks. "Phase one, complete!" she crowed.
Julian now stepped forward, pleading with her. "Please, let Joanne and Samuel go. They are innocent in all of this. It's us you want," he stated, indicating himself and his cousins.
Andrena paused her scanning of the SOP to look up briefly at the group. "Innocent? Her? It's because of Miss Hartwell and her damn code that took me so long to find out what you were up to! No, no one is leaving." A malicious grin wreathed her face. "It's your fault she's here, Mycroft. She was a liability to you from the beginning, but you just couldn't let her go, could you? It's time to own up to your actions and face your responsibility."
The miserable look on Mycroft's face attested to the truth in her words. There was nothing they could do now. He desperately wished he had not gotten her or his brother involved in this, or at had least had found her a safe place before coming here. Selfish, he thought. My fault.
Sherlock knew at once what his brother was thinking, but there was no time to comfort Mycroft now.
Joanne moved toward him, slipping her arm through his and squeezing his hand in understanding. Sad blue eyes looked down at her in apology, his hand not moving from hers.
Andrena's free hand flickered over a lever designated "Battery 1". In the middle of the console were those to control the large machines once the batteries were activated.
Mycroft tried once more to reason with her. "This is suicide! You can't do this! Even if the power system works, it will cause the oscillators to-"
"Shut up! I know how they work, and at the moment the oscillators are off. They cannot be activated until either myself or the men outside depress the detonator at the top." Andrena waved the device beneath his nose. "You see?! A fail safe!"
Sherlock spoke up rapidly. "But you haven't read the scientist's notes inside the canisters. The force fields will-"
Before he could finish, Andrena flipped the lever of Battery 1. At once, the power units came to life, as did the gigantic Tesla coil above them. An eerie blue light issued forth from the coil, growing brighter and more luminescent with each switch she turned on. In the space of a few seconds, the entire room below was bathed in blue. Energy pulled directly from the upper atmosphere met and combined through the Tesla coil with the earth's negative energy via the grounding cables, coalescing below in the middle of the cavernous room.
Energy pulled directly from the upper atmosphere met and combined through the coil with the earth's negative energy via the grounding cables, coalescing below in the middle cavernous room
Even Andrena watched in awe as they watched the live energy and power crackle around the large suspended coil, radiating out to the machines along the cables attached to them. Joanne noted that there was no lever to turn on batteries two and three, realizing it wasn't to power the system, but to catch and save the energy inside them. A dial nearby indicated the amount of charge left: three quarters full. She realized they had held that charge all this time since the thing had last been turned on decades ago. The needle slowly inched towards the full mark. Joanne wondered what would happen once they reached their capacity. Her thoughts were interrupted by a slight tremor beneath her feet, more of a vibration really. At first, she thought it was the result from the cataclysm of energy they were witnessing in the cavernous room below. Joanne started in horror as her eyes fell on the oscillator in Andrena's hand. Mycroft saw it too and drew her into his arms to shield her from what he knew would come next.
Andrena's eyes widened in shock by the sudden vibration from the device in her hand. Although her fingers were no where near the detonator, the green light had turned on. The oscillator began to hum just as the walls around them gave a giant heave and began to shudder.
The head of security paused, raising a hand of warning towards his troops to halt. Australian and American military units had been sent from Pine Gap immediately following the emergency texts from Mycroft and Julian. The humvee's were beginning the steep grade up the mountain, when a blast of blue and violet light erupted from near the top. The caravan ground to a halt as everyone watched what looked like blue lightening mingle with a purple blue glow, seemingly coming from nowhere. The lead sergeant radioed the base inquiring of any atmospheric phenomenon or unexpected weather. Even from here though, he could see no trace of clouds. "What the hell?!"
Back at Pine Gap, Commander Patrick answered with a few questions of his own. "What the devil is going on over there? Something is jamming all of our comms, everything! Telephone, radar and all electronic communications are down. The base is on lockdown. Is this some kind of cyber attack? Our satellite equipment is dead in the water!"
"Commander, our handhelds are indicating a massive release of energy, mainly magnetic-" He broke off as additional security and officers sent from the base came running toward him with five suspicious looking men caught and handcuffed in tow.
"Sergeant Gunder! We have a serious problem. The entire mountain is in immanent danger of collapse. We need to evacuate. NOW!"
Before the man could respond, the ground began to quake, sending down a landslide of red boulders as a low, ominous rumbling began from somewhere deep inside the mountain. The men were thrown backward as the ground lurched beneath them.
Scrambling to their feet, they piled back into their vehicles and threw them into reverse. Crevasses appeared along the track as the earth began to open up, the conflicting magnetic energies tearing it apart.
One of the soldiers shouted to be heard over the engines. "Sir! What about the people trapped inside? We have to get them out!"
"We will, but not like this. I've sent for multiple choppers to land near the mine. We will have to go in from the top!"
The sounds of rotors were heard as they appeared on the horizon and skimmed along the mountain range toward them. Finally a safe distance from the hill side, Andrena's men were able to relate exactly what was going on, and how it had been set off.
Although not a scientist, Andrena had confided a little to Govran the rudimentary workings of the oscillators to avoid his men detonating from them early. Suspecting the technology inside the mountain lab also incorporated the use of magnetic energy, Andrena's dire warning to not turn on the devices until her go ahead (should they be needed) was not lost on Govran. He now turned to Commander Patrick with a grim expression, relating what she had told him and how the devices had turned on as though by themselves. "She didn't realize that the magnetic energy would wake up the oscillators and set them off. It was only a theory."
They watched as earth and dirt folded in on itself, sealing off any entrance. "I wouldn't expect to find anyone alive after this." Govran's words were confirmed as the surrounding hillside gave way and the south side of the mountain began to collapse, burying everyone within it.
The bluish purple light winked out leaving a still, deathly quiet.
Not a sentimental man by any means, Govran's dark eyes gazed sadly at what was left of the ruined mountain top, so sure his Serbian counterpart was going to succeed. "And with that, the last of Nikola Tesla's secrets are buried, forever."
Notes:
underground lab art by Giovani Maganzi
