Eternity Base

Chapter 4

“You have fifteen minutes, Conner,” Stu Fernandez whispered in her ear as they entered the conference room. “Make it good.”

J. Russell Parker presided at the end of the table. Only forty-eight years old, he had made SNN the leading news network after outlasting and out covering all the competition during the Gulf War. With a prematurely balding forehead, set off by large bushy eyebrows, he looked more like a friendly uncle than a CEO. He disarmed his competitors by his amiable appearance, but the mind behind that face was razor sharp.

Parker was flanked on either side by his primary assistants, John Cordon and Louise Legere. The latter was generally hated by all the reporters even if she was good at her job as special features editor. Legere was as strong as Conner in the ambition department but was less graceful, stepping on toes as she pursued her goals. Cordon, the executive vice president of operations, was considered more a flunky than an executive. He seldom spoke, but for some reason, when he did speak he had the boss’s ear.

Conner took her position at the other end of the table facing Parker. Stu sat in the middle of the three chairs on the flank, next to Cordon. Conner noted that careful choice of position: Stu wasn’t throwing himself totally in her camp until he saw which way the wind blew.

Parker greeted her, starting the clock. “Ms. Young, Stu tells me you’ve dug up something interesting and that you think it’s worthy of more investigation.”

“Yes, sir, I have.” Without further ado, she presented her information, laying it out concisely and in what she hoped was an intriguing manner. The three let her speak for five minutes without an interruption.

Done, she leaned back in her chair and waited. No one spoke, waiting for some indication of how Parker felt. The man in question rubbed his chin and then smiled. “Very interesting. Sounds dark and mysterious. I like that. But.” He pronounced the last word very clearly. “But, we really don’t have anything solid to run with. You say your sister does not wish to be used either as a source or even as an anonymous conduit of hard copy information.”

‘They check people going in and out of the Records Center,” Conner explained. “Even if she was able to sneak out the photos, if we used them in a story, it wouldn’t be hard for the government to find out where they came from and backtrack that to Samantha.”

“What about one of these engineer fellows?” Cordon asked.

Legere cut in, not allowing Conner to answer. “No good. We’re talking about something that’s twenty-five years old. People aren’t interested in some old fart standing in front of a camera recounting a story about a mysterious base in Antarctica.

“However,” Legere beamed a frosty smile down the table toward Conner, “if we did have something solid — a document, say, or especially these photos — I think it might make a good five-minute spot. We might be able to stir up enough reaction to justify further digging by one of my people. Antarctica is an interesting topic as far as audience reaction goes. The last frontier sort of thing.”

Conner pressed her case. She wanted more than a five-minute spot, and it was her story. If Legere got her way it would basically mean that Conner had wasted everyone’s time here, and she was sure Parker would remember that in a negative light. “I think we might be able to work the treaty violation angle.”

Parker was tapping a finger against his upper lip. “My big question is: what did they build down there? We’re talking 1971. Nixon is president. Vietnam is going down the tubes. The country is in bad shape and we have something secret being built in Antarctica. Maybe some sort of radar setup?” Parker roused himself from his musings. “Oh, well. It doesn’t matter. We don’t have enough to go with, I’m afraid. You really don’t have any hard evidence, Ms. Young. Nice—”

Conner took the plunge and cut in. “The tail number of an air force plane that was reported missing in action on 21 December 1971 in Vietnam is the same tail number of a plane that filed a flight plan out of McMurdo on 21 December 1971.” Conner knew she was speaking too quickly and tried to slow down. “I checked FAA records. Those men were the only people who knew where Eternity Base was, and all five are currently listed as MIA in Vietnam.” Conner had the room’s undivided attention. “Whatever they were doing was important enough to cover up the loss of five men. And those men did not disappear in Vietnam.” Conner looked Parker in the eye. “What if I find out what was built there?”

Legere swiveled her gaze at the reporter. “How?”

Conner played her last card. “I go there.”

“What!” exclaimed Legere.

“We send some people down there and find the place.”

“That’s if it still exists,” Legere countered.

“I believe it does,” Conner said.

“Huh? You believe!” Legere shook her head. “Young lady, do you know how much it would cost to mount a team to go to Antarctica? It’s the end of the world, for God’s sake.”

“We could get logistical support from Our Earth.” Conner had just finished talking to Devlin and he’d promised his help. But she knew that these people would be as leery as Stu about getting mixed up with Our Earth.

Parker raised his bushy eyebrows. “Our Earth? How are they involved?”

“They’re not involved, sir. But they have experience in the Antarctic. They run a year-round station near McMurdo Base, and McMurdo served as the supply conduit for Eternity Base. They are the only nongovernment organization to have such a setup on the continent. They have both ship and plane capability. The only expenses we would incur would be transportation to New Zealand. Our Earth would take care of logistical support from there on out — with no professional compromise. We can do the story however we like.

“Additionally,” Conner continued, “even if we somehow don’t find Eternity Base, we still can pick up enough other stories to make the trip worthwhile. There’s the French airstrip story. The Japanese and Korean whaling fleets, which those countries claim are operated only for scientific purposes. The new treaty and its effect on research down there.” She’d been told it was best to have more than one plan when you briefed Parker. She could see him finally crack a slight smile.

“How will you find this place if no one knows where it is?” Cordon asked quietly.

“I’ll find it,” Conner answered firmly.

“But how?” Legere dug in. “We can’t send you off on some wild goose chase.”

Parker smiled fully then. “Who said it would be you, if we sent anyone, Ms. Young?” He didn’t wait for an answer. “All right. I think the cover-up on the loss of that aircraft is significant enough to make it worth our looking into. People haven’t totally forgotten the MIA issue, and that could be a good lead-in. Even if you don’t find the base, the story on the plane might be worthwhile if you can find out something more.”

The CEO turned to Legere. “Do it. One standard overseas team.” He looked into Conner’s eyes. “You can have ten days from departure to return. Get me something.” With that he stood and left the room, followed by Cordon.

Legere paused in the doorway. There was no smile on her face. “I’ll contact you first thing in the morning about your team.” Her voice dropped the temperature in the room a few degrees.

Stu was left sitting there with his newest reporter, not having said a word the entire time. Now he looked at her and shook his head. “Jesus Christ, Conner. Do you know what you just did? I mean, even if you find the damn place, who’s to say there’s anything important there now? It could be a garbage dump for all we know.”

Conner knew she’d put her entire career on the line. “You’re the one who said this was an up or out business, Stu. You can go up only if you take chances.” She gathered her files and left the conference room.

As she walked back to her cubicle she thought about what had just happened. If she didn’t find Eternity Base she’d be lucky to find a job reading the local news on a small-town cable channel. Conner shook her head. Now was the time to think positively. If — no, not if — but when — she found Eternity Base, she was determined that she would have a story, whatever it might be.

Conner was at the end of her rope. The phone had turned into an enemy for the past hour, eliciting no useful information. She picked it up one more time and dialed.

“Records Center. Samantha Pintella,” a voice drawled on the other end.

“Sammy, I need your help.”

“What’s up now?”

“I received permission to lead a news team to Antarctica to do a story on Eternity Base. The only problem is that I still don’t have any idea where it is.”

“You’re going down there? That was quick work. What do you need from me?”

Conner spun her chair away from the computer screen. “I’ve got to find Eternity Base and I’m having no luck. I’ve called all four people on that list you gave me and they won’t say a thing. Freely won’t even come to the phone to talk to me. He threatened to contact the FBI if I called again. Is there anything, anything at all you can think of that might help?”

“To be honest, no. There’s no other record of Eternity Base here that I could find. The 67th Engineer’s unit history had just those photos in it, no paperwork that might have had a location listed on it. You could try the enlisted personnel in the company, but from what Freely said, nobody in the unit really knew where they were or why they were building what they were building.

“Besides, I’ve got to put that file back in the box first thing tomorrow morning. The load’s getting picked up and taken to Washington.”

Conner sighed. “Can you think of anything I can do?”

“The only thing I haven’t done yet is access the restricted database and the vault. That’s the classified area of the Records Center. But if I do that and you break the story, people are going to know right away that I was in on it. Plus, accessing the computer may alert someone that we’re onto the base — I’m sure that d-base is monitored.”

“I really need your help,” Conner pleaded.

Sammy’s voice was cautious. ‘Tell you what I’ll do. I’ll do some runs on the computer. See how it goes.”

“All right. Thanks for the help.”

“Sure.”

“Right, bye.” Conner hung up. She rummaged through the piles of paper on her desk until she found the stick-em note with the phone number of the Our Earth office in Australia. She dialed the international code and then the number. Devlin made it to the phone more quickly this time.

“Devlin, it’s Conner.”

“What’s up?”

“I’m coming to Antarctica with a team.”

His reaction was more positive than her sister’s. “Great!”

Conner gave a quick synopsis of her meeting with Parker.

Devlin immediately got to the heart of the matter. “So you need help finding this place, right?”

“Right.”

“Well, there’s not much I can do for you right now. You really have nothing except that it’s a little less than two hours out from McMurdo by C-130. I mean, we don’t even know if it’s south, east, or west. Most likely south or east, though.”

Conner typed that into her computer. “Why do you say that?”

“If the U.S. Army built this thing and wanted to keep it a secret, as you’ve said, then they’d probably want it to be far away from any other countries’ stations. The Russians had a base in 1971, Leningradskaya, about five hundred miles to the west of McMurdo, and the French had one farther along the coast in that direction.

“South from McMurdo there’s nothing until you hit the South Pole itself. So that would seem like a good place to hide a base. Maybe in the Transantarctic Mountains.

“East from McMurdo is Marie Byrd Land, and there was nothing permanent out there for almost two thousand miles in ‘71, although in ‘73 the Russians put in a base, called Russkaya, right on the coast to the east. But if it was 1971 and I was going to build some sort of secret base, that might be a direction I’d go.”

Conner made notes of all that. “Anything else you can think of that might help?”

“When are you arriving in New Zealand?”

“I don’t know yet. I should get my itinerary tomorrow. Probably this weekend sometime.”

“Give me a call and let me know when you’ll be landing. I’ll meet you there and have things ready to go.”

Conner decided to test the waters a little. “It’ll be good to see you.”

Devlin laughed. “I haven’t heard from you in over a year, but, yes, I’ll be glad to see you, too. I enjoyed our night together. I’ve thought of it a lot. It’s not often I meet someone I can talk to so openly. I won’t ask why you never tried to get in touch with me again.”

Devlin’s voice shifted gears. “Anyway, that’s the past. I’m interested in this story of yours. It has the potential to make people think about Antarctica, and we certainly need that. A large part of our environmental legacy as a race may depend on how we deal with the last untouched frontier on the seventh continent.”

Conner wasn’t sure herself why she’d never gotten back in contact with Devlin, but the reverse was also true, and he was offering no explanations. “All right, but remember I have to be objective.”

“I know. Listen, I’ve got to get back to work. Call with your flight info. If I’m not here, leave a message and I’ll be there to meet you. All right?”

“All right.”

“Great. Bye.”

“Bye.” Conner slowly put down the phone. She realized there was one more important thing she needed.

The flashing light on the secure phone drew the old man’s attention from the picture postcard view of the Rocky Mountains outside his window. Despite his years there was still a bounce to his step as he walked over to his desk. He was tall with a stomach flat as a board. His silver hair framed a distinguished face that attracted women a third his age and made the men around him choose their words with care. A long finger reached out and hit the speaker button. A brief whine and a green light on the phone indicated the line was secure from eavesdroppers.

“Peter here.”

“This is Andrew. I am calling you as per instructions, sir.”

Peter looked down at the caller ID — it was scrambled. He recognized the code name though; it belonged to one of many people in the government and other organizations whom he kept on his payroll to funnel information to him. Peter had long ago learned that information was much more valuable than money, and it was getting more valuable as the electronic net encompassing the people of the world grew. “Go ahead.”

“My people have detected an inquiry into the secure database that you have coded for alert.”

Peter’s slate gray eyes focused on the phone as he bent forward slightly, the muscles in his forearms rippling as he leaned on his desk. “Subject?”

“Eternity Base.”

The old man’s eyes closed briefly and then opened. “Source?”

“National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis.”

“Who is inquiring?”

“A Samantha Pintella,” Andrew replied. “My records indicate she’s a section chief there with a Q clearance.”

“A sanctioned search?”

“No, sir. It looks more like she’s just fishing on her own.”

“Anything more?”

“Negative.”

“Thank you.”

“Do I need to be concerned?” Andrew asked.

“I will take care of it.” Peter hit the off button and flicked a switch on the desktop before walking over to one of several exercise machines set up near the windows. As he sat down and began a set of arm pullovers, the door on the far side of the room opened. A stocky man with an expressionless face distinguished only by bright blue eyes walked up to Peter, halting a respectful five feet away, silently awaiting his instructions.

After the tenth repetition, Peter smoothly let the weight slide to a resting position and looked up. “My dear friend Lazarus. How are you today?” “Fine, sir.”

“Good. I need you to make a trip to clear up some old business.”