I'm goin' deeper underground...

Hey everyone, happy Memorial Day for those of you in the U.S. This is later than I would have liked it to be, but still I wanted to make sure I got this up. Sorry about that, tomorrow's will be on schedule, and this one is roughly twice normal size :) I wanted to get to a beat, and I'm afraid I got a bit carried away with description!

Anyway, I hope you enjoy!

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Siege kicked through the floorboards, her steel-belted boots adding extra force to her already impressive strength. Two calculated kicks, and the floor opened to reveal a shaft with a ladder bolted to the side.

“Man... I thought the whole point of a trap door was to conceal an entrance, not seal it with a whole box of nails.”

Siege just arched a brow at her friend, before picking up cracked plank. “You’re right, ‘Omi. Someone put a lot of effort into sealing this up,” she gestured at the piles of carpet they pulled up, much to the chagrin of the shop’s owner.

After leaving Buck, they put their heads together and plotted the dates and locations of the previous hits. They seemed to be in two rough circles and the dates indicate the raids were traveling clockwise. So, hoping they were right, they did quick checks with the previous victims, and sure enough there were tunnels at each location. While Buck sent a few teams to the previous sites, He gave C.J. and Hitomi the job of scoping out the next possible site. That turned out to be an old antiques store under renovation. And while the owner didn’t mind then ripping up the basement... they wanted it done neatly. Hitomi nearly blew her top, but Siege just told the owner to bill Buck. After that, he still looked sour, but he didn’t hover any more.

So, they pulled up swaths of carpet, pounded on the floor, and finally found a likely spot. So, Siege did her magic. The only thing left was to head down.

Both women grabbed their flashlights from their belts and went down the ladder. It wasn’t very deep, but it was dark. On reaching the bottom, Siege moved her light around, looking for some kind of light switch. Not finding one, she headed down the tunnel before her. She heard Hitomi drop from the ladder, and shined her light on her friend, and indicated the tunnel. ‘Omi nodded and followed.

C.J. took point and Hitomi took the rear as they usually did. They moved as silently as they could, relying on the rapport they’ve forged in the years that they’ve been partners. Each knew what what the other would do in a given situation. As they moved down the tunnel, they found a few small rooms, long abandoned. The dust on the floor of the rooms giving evidence of it, unlike the main corridor, which was clear because of the breeze moving down the hall.

After moving down the tunnel for maybe a half-hour, the tunnel opened into a large room. They looked around cautiously, and Hitomi nudged Siege and pointed to the ceiling. Up there, with a near inaudible hum was an air conditioner.

“Well,” Siege said quietly, “that explains the breeze.”

“Yeah. Why would the A/C should be on? The rooms we passed haven’t been used in years.” Hitomi’s quiet words sounding louder than either would have liked.

C.J. shrugged and gestured for ‘Omi to take one side of the room. They moved off and gave the room a look. There were two doors on opposite sides, one heading in the rough direction of the docks that were attacked the previous day. The other, down the line towards what might be the next target after this one. Assuming they were right in their deductions.

There were no cabinets, tables or anything in the room. There were signs of previous habitation though. Much more recent than the 1940’s and ‘50’s too. Siege played her light around the walls, not really knowing what they were looking for. In fact, she almost missed it. The light flashed dully on something embedded in the wall. Frowning lightly, she moved her light back and over the spot and knelt by the wall. She touched the spot and found metal. Taking a small brush out and dusting off the area, she found it was a small latch. She blinked slowly and called Hitomi over.

“What’cha got?”

“Latch, I think.” She worked two fingers into and lightly pulled. There was some give, and she pulled harder, this time the latch sliding out of the wall on a metal rod. There was a slight rumble in the room, and they both cursed. In the center of the room, part of the floor slid away, and a large two-sided console appeared, stopping at about waist height. The two women looked at each other, not really expecting to find anything. It looked like an old computer, the screens green on black, and the keyboards the old typewriter style. One side of the large console looked like it had a line printer in it.

“Oh man... Siege. This is crazy.”

Siege nodded, “Buck would get a big kick out of this. Can you see a power switch anywhere?”

“Uh, hold on.” She fiddled around a bit until she found two large buttons. One green, the other red. “Well. Let’s see.” She pressed the green button and it clicked down and stayed there, the console rumbling to life.

C.J. nodded, “Good. Now, let’s see what’s so damned important.” It didn’t take long, as after a few button clicks, a set of schematics came up on her side. “Oh hell. Hitomi, take a look at this.”

“What?” Responding to the obvious concern in her friend’s voice, something she only heard rarely, which got her guard up immediately. When she looked at the schematics, “Oh, crap. Is that what I think it is?”

Siege nodded. The schematics were part of a nuclear bomb.