It was about the size of a small brick and very light. Incredibly so, as if it might float out of his palm if he let go of it. It was black with a greenish shine to it almost like quartz. There was an odd pseudo-machined look to it, its surface raised with tiny bumps and interlocking ridges like it had been cut on a lathe.

He handed it back to Orr who promptly dumped it back in its box and brushed his hands against his khaki pants.

“One last thing,” he said. “The AUV did not enter the city; it was not programmed to do so. But it did map out nearly hundreds of possible access points. In a moment, I’ll show you what appear to be the best candidates to bring you to the anomaly site. Essentially, that’s it, people. Tomorrow morning, you’ll go down to the habitat and make preparations to enter the city. I can’t tell you what you’ll find, but I’m guessing you’ll see things no living man ever has, be that good or bad.”

But Bell already had a pretty good feeling on that.

There would be wonders in that city, but more so, there would be horror beyond imagination.

4
LAKE VORDOG

The dive team had been 900 feet below the surface of Lake Vordog for three days now. And for Orr sitting above in the Life Support Buoy, the LSB, it had been three long days of wondering and worrying, hoping and fretting.

A lot was riding on this.

He had helmed some pretty hairy operations in his time, but it all paled in comparison to this one. This was a Navy project, yes, but the NSF was the motivating force behind it. They had brought in ONI and ONR—Office of Naval Intelligence and Office of Naval Research, respectively—into this and through them, the massive resources of both the DSU and DSSP were placed at their command under the guise of the Special Projects Office. And that’s how Orr had been brought into it.

On paper, the job sounded reasonable enough: drill through the ice to the glacial dome above Vordog, then drop engineering buoys and platform floats onto the lake surface from which the portions of the diver’s habitat would be ferried to the bottom via cable descenders, ROVs, and submersibles. Once the dive team was in place, target the submerged city and locate the source of the magnetic anomaly.

And then? Orr didn’t know what then. He had sealed orders to be opened once the anomaly was found, but he could pretty much guess.

Just remember the sort of people that are calling the shots on this boondoggle, he reminded himself with a certain amount of anxiety. What they’re capable of and just how expendable you and the team are.

No, he didn’t want to cloud his mind with that.