Inglorious Exchange

Chapter 24 : Underground

The SUV took a sharp turn down the road towards a road leading to an underground network and we saw guards stationed at the entrance with assault rifles which a guard post was erected along with an automatic sliding gate and a fence. Saying nothing Uncle Roland held up his credentials and plastered it against his window for the guard who approached the vehicle. The guard tilted his neck towards the second guard standing to his far left and the gate slid aside, granting us access. "This is one of my ancestor's bunker." he said plainly but I already know that. 

"So you're the descendant of the famous Winston Churchill sir?"

"I thought you knew." he replied.

"I've heard the Vice President mention before but I not entirely sure."

"Not all people believed it." I added. The vehicle drove into a lit tunnel, along the road for two to three minutes and Uncle Roland turned left, stopping in front of a metal door. 

"We'll head straight to the infirmary first." Uncle Roland said, disembarking from the vehicle and pulled the door open. "As you both have dived out of a window and managing to survive a 200 ft drop we might as well perform medical examinations to avoid any hidden injuries." he explained as we went through the zigzag walkways. Entering a spacious room Uncle William was already waiting at the bottom of the staircase connecting our location to the floor below. The bunker is spacious, with sleeping bunkers and training room on the first floor while the floor below contains an infirmary, forensic lab, tech room with tables and chairs in the center of the floor. "With our locations compromised this will be our hiding point from now on." 

Uncle William gave the Secret Service agent a friendly nod and led him into the infirmary first. Ten minutes later he came out, with a visible stitch on his shoulder. "That looks painful, you okay?"

"I'll live." he said. "Your turn." I nodded and entered the infirmary. The infirmary is the same size as the forensic lab next door, which is large enough to accommodate two hospital beds and other necessary medical equipment. Sitting on the examination table I removed my jacket and placed it beside me. Uncle William came forward, holding up the same device I used earlier in the investigation to scan through my body. He then projected the scans on a holographic screen and looked at the results. Besides being the director of Swiss Intelligence Uncle William also obtained a medical degree, making him a doctor as well. 

"Well, you're lucky. The sudden stop of the fall when you fired the gun has caused a cramp in your right arm muscle and... did you fell on top of a car?"

"Uh... yeah."

"That explains the cuts on your epidermic layer which is now showing blood when you removed the jacket of yours."

"Stitch me up then doc." I said. He said nothing at first but slowly moved towards the small table to my far left with stitching equipment on display. Injecting anaesthetic on the wounded arm and disinfecting the wound he threaded the needle and started working on my arm. 

"Roland said he's here." 

"I know, because he saved me from a far more fatal fall."

"If he even made it here we might have to..."

"He wouldn't be that dumb. Someone still doesn't know his other side."

"I see." he said, finishing the fifth and final stitch. "If you're asking the lab next door is ready, I've got your lab coat hanging on the door."

"Thanks uncle."

"Always." he replied. "Remember the climb we agreed upon."

"I won't miss it by the day." I replied. "I need to get the autopsy ready."

"I might as well help you." he offered. 

"Sure, if you're okay with looking at corpses, you're a surgeon, not a coroner if I can recall."

"I've seen and operated on people whom had a metal rod impaled in his torso, car crash victims and the 9/11 attacks." he brushed me off.

"Might as well take a shot." I said. Exiting the infirmary we entered the forensic lab and threw on our lab coats respectively. Placing the briefcase against the empty table I opened it and Uncle William took a look at the samples. 

"I didn't count on this." he said.

"Leave it to the professionals then." I sighed. Placing the sandwich on a sterilized tray I looked closely for clues and noticed saliva on the part where one of the two agents have bitten on. Extracting it with a dropper and placing it on the microscope slide I placed on the cover slip, clamping it to the microscope's stage. "It's definitely saliva." I told Uncle William.

"I've installed three DNA machines."

"Why would you call it a forensic lab if you don't have any equipment of it's namesake?" I smiled. Placing the slide into the machine I then proceeded to look at the steak and cup. Finding no trace of saliva on the steak but coffee stains on the cup I dumped them both into separate DNA machines. "We have ten minutes for the saliva, fifteen for the steak and twelve for the stain on the cup." I said. 

"The bullet and the blood?"

"I'll need a scanner to accomplish this."

"We can look at it together." he said. He directed me to a device with a screen installed above the said device. Depositing the bullet on the metal tray the machine whirred to life, a laser light scanning across the bullet. On the screen the bullet is magnified and on display. "Strange, no fingerprints."

"Maybe the killer is wearing gloves." I guessed.

"And without ID. The killer knows what he or she is doing."

"A ghost bullet."

"The material's steel. Standard for-" before he can finish two screens installed opposite our direction gently hummed. "Standard for armor-piercing bullets." he promptly finished. 

"What was that?"

"I've installed these screens for videoconferencing. Roland said the tech here before the renovation are outdated." Flashing him an icy look I kept quiet while Roland proceeded to connect the calls. The first and currently active screen showed the President's meeting room onboard Air Force One and the man himself facing the camera.