Chapter Twenty Nine
Johnny slammed the palm of this hand against the call button again, but still nothing happened. The main shaking had left with the Angel of Death, and peace reigned in the cavern again.
The door of the control room began to open until an aftershock hit the area and it slammed shut. Bits of the ceiling and walls, again, flew around the cave and, sparking cables flowed out of a cracked conduit which ran up one wall.
After a while the shaking subsided and Johnny looked at Erin as a gurgling sound filled the test hall. Suddenly, jets of water shot out from cracks in the hewn walls.
Erin screamed as Johnny desperately pressed the call button and, at last, the doors rolled back. The Threesome ran into the elevator. A rock fragment the size of a cannonball, propelled by a big jet of water, shot across the cavern and smashed into the window of the control room.
Although water flowed into the lift, the doors closed on the chaotic scene as Erin breathed a sigh of relief. But with only centimetres of gap left between the two sides a hand grasped one of them and the doors stuttered.
“Oh my God!” Erin shouted.
Johnny recognised a ring on the small finger with a swastika engraved into it and raised a foot and stamped the hand. The fingers released their grip, and the doors closed allowing the lift to begin its upward journey.
Johnny stared at Erin as they heard shouting and pounding. “Menzel’s not happy.”
“Do you reckon there’s another way out?”
“I don’t know–probably not.”
“So we’ve condemned these men.”
“Like his grandfather did to the scientists in Germany,” said Johnny.
“What about the government people?” Michael asked.
Johnny shrugged his shoulders.
The lift suddenly came to a halt, and the lights went out.
“Shit!” Michael shouted.
“Looks like the waters got into the works,” said Johnny.
“What now?” Erin asked.
Johnny felt around the walls and then said: “Michael gives a lift. There’s bound to be a hatch in the roof.”
The young officer clasped his hands together and Johnny put his right foot in the ‘cup’. After being hoisted up he felt around until he found an indented square which pushed up to reveal the lift shaft. There were cables and pipes stretching up as far as he could see through the murky darkness and, much to his relief, a metal ladder.
“Come on!” Johnny shouted. “There’s a ladder!” He pulled Erin up through the hatch. “Start climbing,” he said, reaching for Michael.
Johnny watched Erin and then Michael climb up into the dark. “Look out for the outer doors they should be on your right!” He then stepped on to the ladder and ascended.
After a while there was a loud crack, and a bullet flew past Johnny’s head.
“Curses!” he growled as he looked down, “Menzel!”
“Another bullet flashed past him and ricocheted off the ladder causing sparks to fly through the dark.
“I’m at the doors!” Erin shouted.
Menzel was just below the lift when he stopped climbing and aimed the pistol directly up the ladder. He began to pull the trigger, but a rushing sound made him look down. Water was gushing up the lift shaft. He turned and pulled the trigger, but the gun jammed; so he just gazed at the dark figures way up on the ladder as the water engulfed him and then pressed his body into the bottom of the elevator.
“I can’t get them open!” squealed Erin as sweat ran down her forehead and stung her eyes.
Michael climbed up beside her and looked around the shaft for something to lever the doors open, but there was nothing.
“You’d better come up with something–fast!” Johnny shouted looking down at the rising water.