Kilo-29 (Damned of the 2/19th, Book 15)

Part 9

Site Kilo-29-Entry Areas
United States of America
Winter, 1993
Day Two-Morning

"Where's the wreckage?" Kay asked, standing stock still as I moved forward to the blast absorption plug. "I saw them park that Humvee right there."

"Gone." Donaldson replied, keeping step with me.

"How far past this?" I asked him, slapping the end of the plug. Solid steel, and if its size was any basis, the whole plug probably weighed in at two hundred or more tons.

"Five, maybe 10 meters." He answered, and I nodded, looking down.

The grating for the showers terminated roughly six inches on our side of the plug, and I could see where the rust had been torn away on the leading edge. NVG's and/or flashlights showed us nothing beyond the grill. I did notice scratches in the stone where the grate met the stone of the facility on the left side and our side, with the scratches being longer on the left side of the inner lip.

"Anyone got a penny?" I asked. Kay pushed his hand into his pocket and pulled out some change. "Give me a couple." He nodded and handed me about a nickle in pennies. I check the penny against the grill and noted that they would fit if I turned them kitty-corner.

I let the penny go.

one-one thousand

two-one th

Before I could finish I heard the penny bounce on something, bounce a few more times, then come to a little copper ringing stop. That's 9.9 for the first second, and halfway through 19.8 for the second one, giving me a total of about 18-20 meters down to where it hit. Sixty feet.

I closed my eyes trying to visualize it. A sixty foot gap under the plug, a metal grate on top, scratched on the grate at the edges and on the stone. Never think small where hard sites are concerned, they were made with 1950's brute force technology and that doesn't mean that nothing could be accomplished. The Romans built aqueducts that stand to this day with nothing more than mathematics, stone, block and tackle, and brute force.

"The gate's some kind of trap door that dropped the crushed vehicle into a lower area, isn't it, Sergeant?" Donaldson asked, and I nodded.

"The springs and stuff for the trap door would have to be massive." Kay blurted.

"Think massive." I answered, moving over to the code box on the inside wall. It was flashing red letters and I lifted up the codebook and began flipping the pages, looking for the code it was telling me.

"Think about it, Kay." Donaldson was saying. "If enemy vehicles got crushed, the trapdoor would drop down, dropping the vehicle down into another room, clearing the way for the shock absorber to properly deploy."

"And letting the inhabitants of the facility use the vehicle for scrap." I added, going down through the page where the first couple digits added up. "If I could get the shock absorber to retract I'd cut a hole in the grate and rappel down there in order to bypass the security."

"This is a Kilo Site, Sergeant." Donaldson reminded me. "You keep telling me that, so I think it's probably booby trapped."

"Shit!" I kicked the wall and backed up, dropping the codebook onto the ring on my LBE.

"Sorry, Sergeant." Donaldson said, and I turned around to stare at him and Kay.

"It isn't you, kid." I shook my head. "The system's warning me that this terminal's been taken offline until further orders from the Civil Defense Control or the Military Command and Control systems. I turned around and kicked the shock absorber.

It ignored me.

"We'll have to try the military section." I told them.

"Why not the civilian area?" Kay asked as I stomped back toward them.

"It's trashed, useless." Donaldson told him, keeping up with me.

"Oh." Kay's voice sounded small as we passed the civilian motorpool door.

Just the sounds of our boots on the cement as passed the civilian motor pool and the long empty swatch between the civilian area and the military area. We passed the heavy door with the logo of "568th STRAT MSL (ICBM TITAN)" and the logo of the 548th next to it. Slowly out of the dimness the door simply labeled "NO CIVILIAN ENTRY PERMITTED WITHOUT SPECIFIC AUTH" drew closer and I stopped in front of it. I toyed with the emergency escape option, but pushed it away. We wouldn't survive an hour outside if we couldn't take our vehicles with us.

"We don't know how things are going to look on the other side of this door." I warned. "I want you two behind me. Don't pull your trigger without checking your field of fire, I don't want shot in the ass. Kay, you cover the left quadrant, Dee, you cover the right."

"Yes, Sergeant." The chorused, and I flipped up the hard plastic covering and held down the "E" key. The system sprang to life, giving me a code group, and this time I pulled out the Army code book, moving to the blue edged pages and rapidly scanning until I found the code. The code told me to skip every other letter and the first and last numbers. I let go of the "E" key and held down the "ENTER" key and the system flashed me the new code group. I took me about 30 seconds to find it, and I tapped it in as quickly as possible. The system flashed "ACCESSING" at me and I dropped the codebook to my hip.

"Get back." I warned as the small door trembled and began to pull to the side.

"WARNING! PRIMARY MILITARY ACCESS OPENING! WARNING!" sounded out, a woman's voice. I briefly wondered what long-dead Air Force soldier had recorded that message, and wondered how big her titties were.

The message repeated as I watched the door open up, the lights coming on as soon as the wedge cleared the door. One of them blinked a few times and give it up, but the other three stayed on. I could see another door on the other side of the short room that was maybe 5 or six meters deep. There were benches on the side and I nodded.

"We're about to get wet, aren't we, Sergeant?" Donaldson said it in a way that made it more of a statement than a question.

"Probably, son." I answered. The door locked back with a faint "boom" that was felt more than heard, and I moved into the room, looking up. There were nozzles above us, a grate for a floor, and large lockers on the far side. I moved over, opening one of the lockers, and noted it was about six feet deep. The insides had labels such as "NO OUTSIDE FOOD OR DRINK" and "NO EXTERIOR PLANT LIFE" as well as a yellow and red one that red "NO OUTSIDE ANIMALS" on it.

"OK, start throwing your gear into these lockers and strip down." I told them, pulling off my ruck and slinging it into the locker. "I think I know what this is."

"Are you sure, Sergeant?" Kay asked.

"Yes." I lied.

I was standing there naked with my clothing and gear in the locker before either of them had gotten their tops off. I kept my Gerber, prowling around and looking at the benches, the overhead lights, and trying to figure out what the inset steel panels in the ceiling were for. The inside door had a smaller keypad next to the bar on the right of the door, and some helpful soul had scratched 5521 next to it, but I wasn't sure if I trusted someone I'd never met.

"Hurry up, we don't have all day." I warned. Donaldson was tossing one of his boots into the locker and Kay seemed nervous about undressing. "Just pretend its Basic Training bay showers." I reassured him. That made him look more nervous and I shook my head, going back to examining the inside of our little decon room.

The placards showing a stick figure industriously scrubbing his balls, or a stick figure standing under a showerhead with his legs spread open slightly and his arms raised slightly higher than his shoulders, a female stick figure soaping her boobs, a warning to check with "DECON NCOIC" after we passed through, a bunch of stick figures sitting down with an annotation to keep one arm's length apart, and a rotating wedge display that was currently showing green.

"Ready." Donaldson said.

"Sit on the bench." I warned him, moving over next to the door and the keypad. Kay stood there, his thumbs in the bands of his boxers. "Take 'em off, they're going to get wet if you don't, and then they'll bunch up and rub you raw." I turned away and looked at the pad. "Close your eyes, God knows how long the water has been in the pipe's."

Donaldson stripped off his boxers and threw them into the locker, slamming the door shut.

I hope you're right, mystery guy...

I flipped up the plastic shield and typed in "5521" and waited. The nozzles above us began hissing and I repressed a shudder.

...gas gas gas...