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ALEX CIRCLED WHAT WAS left of the old building and used binoculars to study it. He could see it was built into the side of the hill, apparently a shelter for livestock.
The building blocks were caved inward filling in what looked to be an opening.
He would have liked to see it closer, but if his theory was correct, this whole area surrounding the building could be booby-trapped. He moved further away from the building walking towards the ocean around a hill to a clearing among the trees. From there he could see the bay below and confirm it was the same area where Kolya and the hookers were at anchor.
He scanned the boats with his binoculars and found the Vladimir further from where it had been during his underwater surveillance the other night. “It could be he went out to pick up the priest. I need to do some boating, but first, let's make sure this craft is empty.” He sat down next to a tree and watched to see if there was any movement aboard. While waiting, he scanned the shoreline below and picked out a man-made object protruding from the natural rock formations. “I’ll be damned, an old German bunker.” Alex new Hitler expected an Allied invasion along the western edge of Europe and built what was know as the Atlanta wall that consisted of a series of fortifications to house troops and cannons. It started in the Netherlands and continued all the way to Spain. It wasn't unusual to see one in Italy. Since the war, they were used to store farm animals. However, this one looked abandoned and perhaps, it was a coincidence that it was close to where the Vladimir was anchored. This peaked Alex's curiosity and he decided to go down to the shoreline for a closer look.
Alex was walking along the rocky beach keeping watch for movements on the Vladimir boat while approaching the bunker when he saw a man waving at him to stop. He did and waited patiently for the man to approach him. He could see it was hard walking on the stones, especially if you were naked.
“Buon Giorgio, have you come to join us? If so you can leave your clothing over there,” He said, pointing at the bunker.
“Grazie, where are the others?” Alex said assuming he stumbled into a nudist colony. Which was surprising considering how cool it was outside.
“You will find us further down the beach,” Mr. All-Natural Said, pointing past the domed fortification where a group of nudes enjoyed the cold sea air.
“Sì, Grazie, I will join you soon.” Alex felt overdressed wearing slacks, shirt and a Jantzen pullover sweater that concealed his revolver.
Walking towards the structure, he noticed how well it blended in with the rock wall.
This was a perfect opportunity to see the inside. Since it was being used as a locker room for the bathers, there was little chance it was still mined.
The inside was surprisingly well lighted by the one hundred and eighty-degree opening that used to house a swivel gun.
It also provided an excellent view of the nude girls running into the cold sea and quickly jumping out!
He reluctantly walked into the next room to look around and found a small hole, a storage area, or a larder for cooling food he thought.
He took out a pen size flashlight he always carried and crouch down to see in. He could feel cold air coming from the right side of the small room. Alex squeezed through the opening moving to his right, and almost plunged through rotting boards into a hole in the floor before catching himself but dropping his light.
“Damn,” he said looking down at the light a few feet below!
Pulling on the broken boards, he discovered a trap door.
Space was narrow, but he managed to drop down to fetch his light in time to turn it off and listen. When Alex stood up his head was above the hole, and he could hear Mr. All-Natural talking saying, “Ciao, Hello!”
Alex could hear the patter of two sets of bare feet walking into the back room.
“He is not here, perhaps he too saw the rain clouds and decided not to go. We must hurry!”
Alex was standing quietly while others came to the front room laughing while dressing. One female voice stated it was foolish to dress for the rain.
Alex, silently nodded his head in agreement, in a short time, the voices were gone. He couldn't hear the rain. He knew some of these bunkers had walls that were nine feet thick.
Bending again, he shined his light and noticed the floor sloped downward, and the opening widened.
He crouched, moved forward and then straightened up to his height with six or eight inches of clearance, and much wider than he anticipated.
He aimed the light back the way he came and noticed the opening he had almost fallen into was framed in wood. After closer inspection, he found the whole floor of the larder was wood. From above it looked like a dirt floor.
Turning to the tunnel, he could see it was hard rock shored up with horizontal and vertical cross beams. The floor was rock hopefully to hard to place mines in.
Well, let's go exploring Huck, maybe we will find Tom and Becky? He whispered after carefully closing the broken trap door.