Hayes’ stomach dropped as the nose of the helicopter dipped and dove for the ground. He reached for his seatbelt and pulled it extra tight. Around him, Karpov’s students looked too tired to care what was happening to them.
“Jeremy, look,” said Karpov, pointing out the small window on the side of the helicopter.
Hayes turned his head. The chopper was coming in to land in the dark shadow of a tall, tree-covered mountain. A long-abandoned village came into view. A shiver ran down Hayes’ spine. Far from a superstitious man, Hayes lived his life finding his answers in science. But something about where they were landing made him feel ill at ease.
Both helicopters landed smoothly in a grass field two hundred meters from the closest rundown building. The rear doors swung open, and Zudina’s men secured the area before leading the students away from the choppers to set up camp.
Hayes walked off the helicopter, carrying his pack over his shoulder. He saw the students with their heads down, shuffling their feet through the grass. Hayes’ patience had come to an abrupt end. He clenched his jaw, ripped the pack from his back, and yelled, “I’ve had enough of this crap! Before I take another step, someone’s going to show me a map, or a satellite image, or a goddamned blueprint of this place. And then I want to know precisely why we are here. I’m tired of being lied to. I want the truth, and I want it now.”
“Easy does it, Jeremy,” whispered Karpov. “You don’t want to get shot, do you?”
“I’m fed up, Gennadi. I want answers.”
A loud whistle pierced the air.
Hayes looked over and saw Zudina waving to him.
“I guess my tantrum worked,” said Hayes under his breath.
Hayes and Karpov followed Zudina inside the remains of a wooden house. Most of the roof had collapsed inside, and thick patches of green moss covered the outside walls. Zudina placed his pistol down on a dust-covered table.
“Okay, Englishman, if it will keep you quiet, what do you want to know?” said Zudina.
“Everything you know about what we’re doing here, and don’t hold a bloody thing back,” replied Hayes.
Zudina unzipped a pocket and laid an old map on the table. He pointed at a settlement. “This is where we are. At one time, several hundred people lived here, when the base was operational.”
“You said before that you didn’t know what the base was used for,” said Hayes. “Or was that a lie?”
“I wasn’t lying. Mister Nazarov told me only what I needed to know, and nothing more. You’re not the only person being deliberately kept in the dark.”
“Didn’t you ask your boss what we’re looking for?” asked Karpov.
“I knew better than to waste my time,” replied Zudina. “I’ve been in Mister Nazarov’s employment for over three years now, and know when to ask questions, and when not to.”
“This is crazy,” said Hayes. “How can we find what we’re looking for if we don’t know what it is or where to begin our search? Is it in the town or the ruins of a phantom base that isn’t even on the map?”
“It’s not in the village. Of that I’m positive. When I last spoke with Mister Nazarov, he kept going on about a secret base that was sealed up after the war.”
Hayes turned the map so he could see it better. “If there was a base around here, Nazarov’s satellites would have detected it using LIDAR. The base has to be elsewhere.”
“These are the coordinates I was given,” said Zudina. “It has to be around here somewhere.”
“It is,” Hayes replied, tapping his finger on the map. “It’s in the mountain right in front of us.”
Karpov smiled. “That would make a lot of sense. During the war, dozens of secret camps were established throughout Russia. Some were set up as factories, while others were command posts to be used in the event Moscow fell to the Nazis.”
“If the base was up and running in the 1940s, the main mode of transport in and out of here would have been by train,” said Hayes. “Find the old tracks, or what’s left of them, and they’ll lead us right to the base.”
“Jeremy, when you’re good, you’re really good,” said Karpov.
Hayes fixed his gaze on Zudina. “Once we find whatever we’re looking for, then what’s going to happen?”
“My orders are to return you to Saint Petersburg, where you will all be made to sign non-disclosure agreements before any of you are allowed to go home,” explained Zudina.
“So, you’re not going to kill us when this is over?” sheepishly asked Karpov.
Zudina scrunched his face up in disgust. “What do you take me for? I’m a Russian patriot, not a cold-blooded murderer.”
“Then why did you take away our phones and electronics?” asked Hayes.
“To prevent a person from leaking to the press what we’re doing out here in the Urals. You may think that I’m being unduly harsh on all of you, but I can assure you that my methods never fail to achieve the desired results.”
“You could have simply asked us to go along with your rigid security measures, rather than making us all feel like your prisoners,” said Karpov.
“Professor, I doubt that you would have willingly gone along with such a request. Besides, how well do you know your students?”
“Fairly well, I suppose. Most of them have been with me for close to two years now.”
“One of your students—Toshin, I believe is his name—has been stealing artifacts from you ever since he became one of your grad students.”
“I don’t believe you. You made that up. Toshin is a good, young man with a bright future in front of him.”
“As a security expert, it took me less than ten minutes to crack all the passwords and safeguards he’d placed in his laptop. I was able to access a spreadsheet detailing when, where, and what he’d managed to take right from under your nose. His main buyer is an American living in the Cayman Islands.”
“I can’t believe this,” said Karpov.
“I’ll show you, if you like. The rest of your people, however, are on the level and are only interested in their studies.” Zudina glanced at Hayes. “As for your colleague, he has more encryption software on his laptop than the Kremlin. I’m not sure what his motives are.”
Karpov raised a hand. “He’s my friend, and he’s here to help me. He’s not a spy, if that’s what you’re intimating.”
“If you say so.”
“I do.”
“Since I’d rather not spend any more time here than I have to,” said Hayes, “I’m going to look for those rail lines.” With that, he left the dilapidated building and walked out into the open. He turned and looked up at the mountain. Hayes tried to imagine how everything would have looked when the base was open. He doubted the railway tracks would have gone through the center of the town, so he walked away from the buildings until he came to a stretch of tall grass that led in a straight line toward the rocky base of the mountain. Hayes got down on his haunches and parted the grass. A smile emerged on his face.
“Gennadi, over here!” yelled Hayes, waving his arms over his head.
“What is it?” said Karpov, huffing and puffing as he ran.
“You have to give the Soviets credit,” said Hayes. “When they tear something down, they take everything, including the kitchen sink.”
“I’m sorry, Jeremy, I’m not following you.”
Hayes placed a hand on his colleague’s shoulder. “Gennadi, when whoever was here closed up shop, they took everything with them, including the train tracks. However, if you look at the ground at our feet, you will see gravel in a straight line. When they left, they took the steel rails, along with the wood sleepers the track rested on. The one thing they left behind was the crushed rock, known as ballast, that the rail line itself sat on.”
Karpov got on one knee, pushed the grass aside, and grinned. “My God, you’re right. How do you know so much about trains?”
“I had a miniature train set as a child that ran around the length of my bedroom. When I wasn’t at home studying, I was at the local train museum, crawling over the old trains.”
“Thank goodness for your childhood hobby.”
“The thing is, my friend, Nazarov can fool Zudina. He’s just hired muscle. We, on the hand, are not. Nazarov’s satellites would have easily detected these straight lines from space. He must have known we’d figure this out in relatively short order. I wonder what else he knows and isn’t sharing with us.”
“Let’s not dwell on that right now. Shall we see where these tracks lead?”
“Sure, why not? What else do we have to do today?”
Hayes and Karpov stopped at the base of the mountain to catch their breath. Hayes wiped the sweat from his brow with his handkerchief and glanced up. The tall, wooded peak looked like it could touch the sky.
“How much farther do you think we’ll have to walk?” asked Karpov.
Hayes looked down at his feet and followed the line of gravel. It carried on for another hundred meters, and then vanished from sight. “The line seems to end in that grove of pine trees.”
“My feet are killing me,” griped Karpov. “I should have brought better boots with me.”
“Don’t feel too bad; mine hurt, too. Neither of us really expected to be walking this much.” Hayes squeezed his colleague’s arm. “Come on, Gennadi, let’s see where the line goes.”
They walked in silence until they came to a line of trees.
“What’s odd about these trees?” Hayes asked his partner.
Karpov looked from one of the pines to the other and shrugged.
“Nature doesn’t plant trees in a straight line,” said Hayes “There’s something hidden behind them.”
Hayes reached out and pushed a branch aside. With anticipation building in his stomach, he worked his way through the trees and stopped.
“Good lord,” said Karpov when he caught up.
A massive pile of rocks, some the size of a car, blocked their way.
“How high would you say that is?” asked Hayes.
Karpov stepped back to get a better look. “I’d say it’s at least twenty meters high and maybe thirty across.”
“That’s what I thought. I guess they must have brought part of the mountain down to stop anyone from entering the base.”
“Some of those rocks look really heavy.”
Hayes chuckled. “There’s no way we’re moving any of those rocks out of the way without the use of heavy machinery and explosives. For us, the game is over.”
“My feet may be killing me, but I can’t wait to walk back to camp and see the look on Zudina’s face when we tell him what we’ve discovered.”
“I doubt he’ll be very amused.”
“Are you sure there’s not another way in?” demanded Zudina, pacing back and forth in front of his tent like a caged animal.
“If there is, which I doubt, it will be buried as well,” replied Hayes. “Professor Karpov’s motley band of unenthused students aren’t going to be able to dig their way inside in a hundred years. I’m sorry, but it’s over. Mister Nazarov needs to call in the professionals now.”
“I’ll give him a call and see what he has to say. In the meantime, set up your tent and get some rest. I doubt anything else will happen today.”
“Why stay at all?” said Karpov. “You heard Professor Hayes; it’s over. Let’s pack up and go home.”
Zudina shook his head. “Get some rest, gentlemen. We’ll talk later.”
“Make sure you impress upon Mister Nazarov that it’s going to take professional miners to move those rocks,” stressed Hayes. “Simply giving us some equipment and telling us to carry on isn’t going to work.”
“I got it.” Zudina raised a hand. “Now go and get some rest.”
Hayes and Karpov turned and slowly walked away. Neither man said a word. To their surprise, their tent was already up. A couple of bags of freshly cooked rations sat there, waiting for them.
“Thanks,” said Karpov, waving to his students.
“It was nothing,” replied one of the men.
Hayes recognized the student as Toshin, the man Zudina had accused of stealing. Before he could say a word, Karpov took the young man by the arm and led him away from the rest of the group. Hayes watched for a moment. He expected Karpov to go ballistic on the young man. Instead, it looked more like a father-son talk. To each his own, thought Hayes as he bent down to pick up a ration pack. He turned his nose up when he saw it was cabbage rolls. Hayes checked the other meal. He immediately switched the cabbage rolls for the lamb stew.
Less than a minute later, Karpov rejoined Hayes. Both men sat in collapsible chairs, watching the sun dip behind the mountain while they ate their meals.
“What did Toshin say to you about his extracurricular activities?” Hayes asked.
“He admitted that he had been stealing from me for the past year and was sorry,” replied Karpov.
“That’s it, sorry?”
“No, he told me that he had several pieces from the last dig at his apartment and would hand them over to me as soon as we get back to Saint Petersburg.”
“Are you going to hand him over to the police?”
Karpov shook his head. “What is the point? A criminal record won’t do the man any good. He’ll pay me back by working for me on a new dig I expect to begin in Siberia next summer.”
“I’m not so sure I’d be as understanding as you are.”
“That’s because, my friend, you live in a wealthy country. Things are different in Russia. Money and good jobs are hard to come by. I’ll let him redeem himself. If he lets me down again, then I’m a fool for trusting in him, and the police can have him.”
Hayes spotted Zudina walking toward them. In his hand was a satellite phone.
“Professor Karpov, Mister Nazarov wishes to speak with you,” announced Zudina, handing over the phone.
Karpov took the phone and stood as if he were speaking face-to-face with Nazarov.
Hayes sat forward in his chair, trying to catch snippets of the conversation. He stopped counting the number of times Karpov said ‘yes, sir’ after twenty. His friend’s body language changed the longer the conversation continued. Karpov went from being stiff to almost being relaxed and smiling.
When the call ended, Karpov tossed the phone to Zudina and let out a loud cheer.
“What’s up?” asked Hayes.
“Mister Nazarov agrees with you that professionals need to be brought in to finish the job,” explained Karpov. “So, tomorrow morning, my students are free to go home. He’d like you and I to stick around for another two days to show the incoming team what we’ve found, and then we’re on our way back to Saint Petersburg.”
“Two days and not a second more?”
“That’s what he said, and I’m inclined to believe him.”
Hayes raised an eyebrow. His personal suspicions of Nazarov’s intentions ran deep. “I suppose I can live with this.”
“Good. I’m going to tell my students the good news.”
Hayes watched Karpov run over to pass on the word. Something in Hayes’ stomach warned him to tread carefully. It was going to be a long forty-eight hours.