One week later
Saturday
We entered the seemingly dilapidated commercial structure and walked towards the rear of the building, stepping around discarded crap, some of which looked to be of military origin. The place was obviously abandoned and hadn't been occupied for quite some time!
At the rear of the dilapidated building, Mindy pressed the down button, on an equally dilapidated looking elevator, but nothing happened except that a small keypad had appeared beside the button. Mindy punched in an eight-digit code and the elevator doors slid open surprisingly noiselessly. In contrast to the exterior of the elevator, the inside was spotless and looked very modern. Dave pushed us both forwards and into the elevator, following Mindy. Then Dave, smirking, hit the 'F' button.
That in itself was strange, as the elevator only had two buttons; both letters: 'X' at the top, with 'F' at the bottom! The elevator dropped and I mean dropped! It went down fast, but stopped smoothly after about twenty seconds. Nothing happened until Mindy had placed her hand on a flat, glass panel that was only revealed when the elevator had stopped. The panel appeared beside the elevator door opposite to that which we had entered by.
Beyond the elevator doors was darkness. As we stepped out of the elevator, lights started to snap on, illuminating a short 'L' shaped corridor that angled to the left and led to another door, which was obviously heavily armoured. Mindy placed her hand onto another panel, beside the door and we entered a small room. More lights clicked on and we found ourselves in a box of steel and armoured glass; it was a kill zone. Mindy pressed a button and the armoured door behind us closed and Dave placed his hand on the biometric palm scanner which was located by another armoured door which then slid open.
We could hear a humming noise that sounded like it was coming from computers and air-conditioning. Suddenly, the lights came on, in banks, starting above us and continuing almost one hundred and forty feet. The ceiling was twenty feet or so above our heads. We entered the enormous room; although cavern might have been a better word!
..._...
"Cool, it's a Hit…" Josh started.
"I know what you're about to say and if you say it, I'll slap you stupid!" Mindy interrupted, grinning.
"Don't slap me... You know I can't help myself… It's a Hit-Cave!" Josh said quickly, then laughed and ducked away from Mindy, as she swung for him.
"It is not, will not and won't ever be, called a Hit-Cave!" Mindy growled, as Josh laughed, still avoiding her fist.
I gazed around us.
At the far end of the cavern, by a large vehicle-sized steel door were Beast, the Fat Boy and the Ducati Panigale. They were parked behind an eight-foot tall armoured glass shield that ran across the available width of the forty-foot wide cavern and had a large six-foot tall figure '1' on it. The top of the shield was angled over at forty-five degrees, to prevent anybody climbing the structure from the far side. The floor of the 'cavern' was ribbed steel and concrete.
Immediately to the right was a glass enclosed room that housed computer equipment and large flat screens. It was obviously Marty's new Command Centre and had a biometric palm scanner, similar to those that we had already seen Dave and Mindy use, beside the door. Immediately beside the Command Centre was an external steel staircase.
The staircase provided access to a walkway which ran around the central section of the cavern and provided access to a number of rooms on the second level. There was another steel staircase that came down on the left from the same walkway, at the far end of the facility. The walkway was about ten feet off the ground and ringed with a steel and glass barrier that rose to a level of three and a half feet and the walkway itself was made of steel, but had a foam rubber covering. There were various doors, visible, that led off the walkway into rooms, with unknown purposes. The ceiling and some of the walls had foam rubber sections that reduced the echo in the cavernous room.
..._...
To the left was a passageway that led to what looked like bathrooms. Further along from the passageway was an armoured door, with another biometric palm scanner that led into...
"Damn, a fucking firing range!" I exclaimed.
"Four sound-proofed, lanes, with electronic target retrieval!" Mindy announced happily.
Opposite the range was another door, this one was lightly armoured, but still secure. I looked at the biometric palm scanner and then at Mindy, who nodded. I placed my hand on the scanner and the door slid open and bright lights snapped on. It was the armoury, which Mindy had obviously already filled! There were obvious reserved spaces for our combat suits and other equipment that was still at the other Safehouse.
..._...
Next, Mindy took us past an enormous training mat and up the steel staircase on the left side of the cavern at the top of which was a large six-foot tall figure '2' on the wall and showed us a small, but well-equipped, restaurant quality kitchen with a seating area for about twelve people. Next to the kitchen was a large store room and then came a large open area with comfortable couches and a large screen television which would double as a briefing room. The ceiling of this room was the bare stone, which was actually quite cool! We followed the walkway around and found two bedrooms either side of a shared bathroom. The bedrooms each had a pair of sturdy bunk beds, to sleep four people in each room. The third bedroom seemed to have lost its bunk beds and instead had a large king-size bed and was obviously for Mindy and Dave, as the room had been painted purple! That room also had an en-suite bathroom that had a large bath and a shower big enough for two!
"How come you get a bed to share? What about me and Josh?" I asked indignantly.
"Fusion is about protecting Chicago, not getting vigilantes pregnant!" Mindy replied, with an evil smirk.
Back downstairs and after walking across the mat that was beside Marty's Command Centre we found a couple more store rooms, one of which was only accessible from the vehicle area. The vehicle area was accessed via a secure armoured glass door.
"What's down there?" Josh asked tentatively.
There was another steel staircase going down, near the staircase that went up beside the kitchen. Mindy waved Josh towards the staircase and we followed. It was another level, in this case level zero according to the large six-foot tall '0' on the wall. To the left of the staircase seemed to be just empty store rooms, although one store room seemed to hold enough dried food, water and other survival equipment to allow us to stay self-contained for years! A large store room, near the back of the level contained an enormous electrical generator and electrics panel.
"Currently we are connected to the City for electricity, but can be self-contained if necessary," Mindy explained.
Opposite the store rooms was a large, glass fronted, exercise room that was equipped with weights and running machines plus a lot of other training equipment.
Finally there was accommodation for another four people and a rather forbidding room that had a simple sign on the door: 'Holding'. Inside was a jail cell, with two bunks and a segregated area that would be used for interrogation.
Finally, we all went back upstairs to the briefing room and sat down and I looked questioningly at Mindy.
Mindy laughed.
"This place used to belong to the government. It was originally built as a Command Post for the Navy in case of a nuclear war. It was maintained and upgraded till about 2010 and then abandoned. It would have originally housed about twenty personnel. Your Dad, Chloe, arranged it for us. He came across the facility in some paperwork and found that it was available for purchase at a rock-bottom price. So, Commander Bennett pulled quite a few strings and I kinda got the keys last September. I had it updated a bit, but the elevator and biometric security are original, but upgraded and changed the locks, so to speak and Marty did his bit, too," Mindy explained.
"There are four different personnel entrances, one of which you have just seen. Another comes out in the Fusion warehouse, Safehouse D, which was why Mindy leased it in the first place. It had been covered up, but we uncovered it, hence the new building at the warehouse! There are two vehicle entrances which meet beyond that large steel door. We'll show you that later, when we get the motorcycles. This place is totally secure; it does not appear on any maps, as the Navy kept it black," Dave finished.
"It was only finished a couple of weeks ago. I was gonna unveil it in another week or two, but we need it now. This is a Safehouse in every sense of the word. Daddy once dreamed about having a place like this and often fantasised about it having a hidden entrance that was accessed using a bust of Shakespeare and poles down to a cave! Anyway, Daddy was a little nuts, but the cave idea seemed like a good idea," Mindy finished.
"Fucking awesome!" A very excited Josh, exclaimed.
"How far down are we?" I asked.
"You mean: will anybody hear you two fucking?" Mindy growled, with an evil smirk. "Our nearest neighbours are over sixty feet away, through solid rock! Not to mention that most of the Safehouse is under the railway."