“You said you were a technician,” started Dane.
“What kind of technician?”
The two folded their arms and sat without saying a word.
They were acting like indignant children.
Dane was getting impatient.
“Listen to me very closely.
This is not a game.
If you talk, you will be released unharmed.
If you do not talk, well, one of you will be on the receiving side of some pressure and the other will talk.
Do you understand me?”
The two sat there.
“Okay,” said Dane shouldering his weapon.
“I’ll let ‘Hugo the Butcher’ go to work.”
The two looked at each other and looked back at Dane.
Hugo, listening to the conversation, stepped out of his lair and walked over to the two captives and pulled his combat knife from a scabbard strapped to his lower right leg.
He took his thumb and ran it across the razor-sharp edge.
He looked at Dane.
“I’ll start with the bitch,” his voice menacing.
He reached over and grabbed the girl by the hair and pulled her up.
The cook almost fainted as Hugo ran the backside of the knife over her cheek.
“Wait; no, please, wait,” he cried.
The young girl was scared to death and sobbing. The cold steel stung her face slightly.
She thought Hugo had sliced her face.
She waited for the flow of warm blood.
Hugo stopped and Dane looked at them.
“Talk or she gets sliced up,” hissed Dane.
“Last chance.”
“Okay, okay, please stop.
Please let her go.
I’ll tell you anything,” cried the cook.
“Don’t hurt her.”
Hugo dropped the girl down on a flour sack.
She immediately crawled over to the cook, checking for blood on her face, sobbing all the while.
“Now talk,” demanded Dane, “or we’ll cut her to ribbons.”
Hugo stood behind Dane trying to keep from laughing.
These kids were scared to death.
And even Dane knew they weren’t going to slice anybody up.
He hoped they didn’t call his bluff.
Dane began asking questions and the answers flowed like a river.
The questioning continued for twenty minutes.
Dane and Hugo learned there were thousands of personnel in the complex and the prime objective was research with various elemental transformations.
The girl worked with one of the groups responsible for generating power for the transformations.
That is what interested Dane the most.
They also learned the complex was huge.
It was completely underground except for a hangar level that housed several helicopters and other land-based vehicles.
Ninety percent of the personnel at the site were born and raised in this complex.
They were well trained in their particular occupations and educated in at least two other occupations.
The cook was trained as a lab technician as well as a horticulturist.
As a lab technician he had knowledge of some of the core alchemy work being done.
“So,” continued Dane, addressing the cook, “what exactly did you do as a lab technician?”
The cook, still scared, fidgeted in his seat.
“I worked in the gold lab,” he said.
“I worked with the gold transformations.”
Dane was puzzled.
Gold transformations?
“What kind of gold transformations?” he asked.
“Transformations into what?”
The cook looked at Dane as if he were stupid.
“Not to what.
From lead to gold,” he answered calmly.
The girl nodded in agreement.
Dane sat back.
From lead to gold?
What the hell were these idiots talking about, alchemy?
That was impossible.
Dane pressed him more. ”You mean changing lead to gold?
Is that what you are saying?”
He looked at Hugo, who was as surprised at what he had heard as Dane.
“Yes,” answered the cook.
These folks were turning lead into gold! And they had succeeded, according to the two captives.
So that is the big secret with all the gold, thought Dane.
Things were definitely getting clearer.
“Bullshit!” said Dane, trying to get a reaction.
“That’s impossible.
People have been trying to do that for centuries.”
“Yes, I know,” said the cook, now feeling a bit more comfortable.
“Dr. Swingler and Dr. Koch made the discovery in the late 1940’s after the war.
They brought all of their research teams to Brazil along with the German gold.
They used the captured gold to build this complex and carry on the research for all of these years.”
Dane was listening intently.
“Okay.
So you guys brought the stolen World War II gold here and used it to build this place?
Do I understand this correctly?”
The cook and the girl both nodded in agreement.
“But that was before we were born, of course,” added the girl.
“How did they get the gold here?” asked Dane.
“They brought it over on submarines as the war was ending.
The Führer was supposed to come but he could not get out of Berlin in time,” the cook explained.
“So you ‘make’ gold here; is that right?” Dane asked again still in disbelief.
“Yes, we do,” the girl stated, stepping into the conversation.
She seemed very sure of herself.
“And you work in the power station that runs all this?” Dane asked the girl.
“Yes,” she answered proudly.
Now Dane understood the secrecy.
He understood the men in black and the security.
This was much, much bigger than he even dreamed.
This explains why Dana and Randall disappeared.
Or did it?
“Do you know about any captives taken in the last few days?” Dane asked the two.
“I heard about some people brought here after they came too close to the complex, but in the past those people were disposed of immediately.
Why do you ask?” the girl queried.
“Not your concern,” said Dane, now very worried that Dana and Randall were disposed of.
“Where are captives held in the complex?
Are they near here?”
“There are visitors’ quarters on Level Six.
That’s where most guests are housed.
But captives?
I’m not sure where they might be.
There are some sublevels that are off limits to most of us.
Only security and power technicians are allowed down there.
If they are down there, it would be impossible to get down to them.
Even I cannot go down there,” the cook explained.
“Have you seen anything?” he asked his girlfriend.
“I heard that several people were brought down to the security area sublevels several days ago.
One of the new girls in Security told me at lunch, but I didn’t see them.
They could have been complex personnel that got into trouble.
That’s where the jail is located,” she said.
Dane was afraid she was right.
His only hope was Dana and Randall were on Level Six.
If they were in the jail area, that would not bode well for them.
“These Level Six guest quarters, are they near here?” asked Dane.
“We are on Level Two very near the middle of the complex,” said the cook.
“You would have to go down four levels and find the room they are in.”
“What else is on that level?” asked Dane pointedly.
He wanted to know all he could if they were going to try to get to Level Six.
“On one end is housing for families, dining halls, recreation areas and some offices.
On the other end are offices, a library and several other areas, mostly areas for the people who live here.”
“So there are a lot of people moving about Level Six?” Dane asked.
“Yes.
Levels Six, Five and Seven are primarily housing levels.
There are hundreds of people on those levels all the time,” said the cook, now hoping to dissuade these two men from trying to get onto Level Six.
Dane considered the cook’s answers but did not outwardly show any reaction.
Hugo was standing near the door, listening.
“I have to go,” said the cook.
“I am long overdue.
My supervisor will be looking for me.”
“Me too,” said the girl.
“I am late.”
“He may have to look long and hard for you, my friends,” said Dane, “because you are coming with us.”
The girl looked at the cook.
The cook’s eyes got huge.
He was terrified.
“We cannot leave this place,” he said fearfully.
“They will kill us.”
Dane looked the cook in the eyes.
“Only if they catch us.
Remember that.
You two cooperate and you have a good chance to live.
If not, I assure you that you will die.”
Dane turned to Hugo.
“Hugo, we are leaving.”
“Ready, Boss,” answered Hugo, checking the door.
Dane brought the cook and girl forward.
“You do exactly as I say or I will kill you immediately.
I can tie your hands or keep them free…my choice.
Do you both understand?”
“Yes, I understand,” answered the cook.
“Yes,” answered the girl.
She clasped the cook’s hand.
“One slip and one of you dies, right then and there,” said Dane in a serious tone.
The cook and technician nodded their understanding.
Hugo opened the door, checked the hallway and away they went.
They backtracked to the same small access room where they came in.
Hugo climbed the short ladder and popped open the hatch.
He checked the area and all four were out and away within a few seconds.
But, as before, the flashing security light was noticed by the guards.
“Security reporting another open hatch alarm at Hatch 0-122 at 1054 hours.
Request visual check, immediately!”
The guard’s report this time drew a flurry of actions.
The first incident was written off as an alarm anomaly.
This was a second alarm at the same location.
The security officer in charge did not wait for normal guard rounds.
She dispatched a guard unit immediately.
Within two minutes the small room was filled with guards poring over the hatch.
Two guards were sent outside to look for any indications of intruders.
Nothing was found.
Again the guards were puzzled.
There were two incidents in about a few hours at the same entrance.
Something was afoul.
The security officer in charge stood in the small room trying to figure out what was going on.
“Have maintenance report here immediately,” ordered the officer in charge.
“I want this hatch checked out and the sensors replaced.
Until that is done, I want a pair of guards here all the time.
Do you understand?” she asked.
“Yes, ma’am,” affirmed the lead guard as he stood at attention.
The officer in charge whirled around and left the room.
She was concerned.
Something was going on and she was going to get to the bottom of it.