Eternity Base (6 page)

"I moved over to SNN."

There was a light whistle. "So you've made the big time. Congratulations."

"Well, actually I'm on the periphery of the big time." Conner shifted to the task at hand. "That's what I'm calling you about. I remember you talked about having been to Antarctica several times."

"Yes. Four times. I also wintered over at the Our Earth base there three years ago. Why? What's up?"

"I received information about something, and I was wondering if you could give me some help."

"What's the information?"

"I've been told that the army built a secret installation, called Eternity Base, in Antarctica in 1971."

"What kind of secret base?"

"I don't know."

"Where exactly was the place built in Antarctica?"

"I don't know. That's why they call it a secret, Devlin."

"Well, I've been down there and I've also talked to a lot of people stationed down there, especially at McMurdo, and I've never heard anything about a place called Eternity Base. It would be pretty difficult to cover up something like that, although '71 was a long time ago."

Conner was interested in impact first, details later. "What I want to know is—if this Eternity Base did exist, and no one knew about it, how big a story would that be?"

Devlin whistled. "It'd be big, Conner. First, it would have broken the '59 treaty. Any base that is built down there, even if it is temporary, has to be open for inspection by any of the other signees of the treaty. If a base is hidden, well then it certainly isn't open for inspection.

"Second, if the army built it, then it's probably some sort of military base. If it still exists, that would be a gross violation of not only the letter of the current 1991 accord governing things in Antarctica but also the spirit of the accord. Our Earth has really been upping the pressure there, and we have a few things planned in the next couple of months. Discovering something like this Eternity Base would be great publicity."

Conner backtracked a little. "Well, other than a few nebulous records, I have no real proof of anything. I just wanted to find out if this was worth pursuing."

"It's definitely worth pursuing. If you need any help, don't hesitate to call me." Devlin laughed. "Even if it is after midnight. I remember the last time we talked after midnight."

Conner didn't want to discuss that right now. "I'll do some more checking, and I'll get back to you if I come up with something."

"All right. I'll be at this number for at least another two days. After that, I'm not sure where I'll be."

"Bye." Conner slowly put down the phone. She'd never even asked Devlin what he was doing in Australia. She shrugged. There'd be time for that if she talked to him again.

Damn Sammy. Conner swung her bulky purse up on the desk and started rummaging through, looking for her personal address book. She thought she had Sammy's work number in there but she wasn't sure. There it was—under S. Conner punched in the number with her pencil.

"Records Center. Samantha Pintella."

"All right, I'm sorry. I've had a rough day."

There was no trace of anger in Sammy's voice. "It's OK. I shouldn't have called you anyway."

"No. I think it's an interesting story. Will you get in trouble if we do something on it?"

Sammy's voice was tentative. "Well ... I was thinking that you wouldn't have to say you got it from me. You could probably talk to one of those men in the engineer unit who built the place and maybe they would tell you something about it. You wouldn't have to tell them that you first heard about Eternity Base from records in the Center."

Conner got a clear screen on the computer and hit the speaker button on her phone. "All right, give me the names and addresses. I'll see what they have to say."

After Sammy was finished relaying the information on the four officers, she added: "Let me know what you find out, all right? I'm interested in this thing. The tie-in with MACV-SOG is kind of strange."

"Sure. I'll get back in touch. Bye." Conner hung up. She was right about Sammy's special interest in this case. Sammy just couldn't give up on the possibility that her father might still be alive. She was always reading anything to do with the MIA issue or Special Forces operations in Vietnam.

Conner felt a moment's guilt for suspecting Sammy of a hidden agenda. This story could help her career—Sammy was right about that. In this business one tended to be paranoid. There was always someone right behind you on the ladder waiting for you to screw it all up so they could stomp over your shattered career to take your place.

Conner shook thoughts of Sammy's fixation out of her head. I have my own fixation, she thought, smiling. She immediately called information and started working on the first name on her list. Using his last known address, she tracked down Captain Townsend's number.

The phone was answered by a woman who told her to hold on and she'd get her husband. At last the phone was picked up. She wondered if the man was in a wheelchair, it had taken him so long.

"Hello?" said a man's voice, tremulous with old age.

"Is this Louis Townsend?"

"Yes."

"This is Conner Young. I'm with SNN News and I'm doing some research on army installations. I'm particularly interested in something your unit was involved with in 1971."

"The army? '71?" There was a pause. "I was in Vietnam in '71. What project are you talking about? We did a lot of work shutting things down there that year."

"I'm not talking about Vietnam, Mister Townsend. I have some information that your company was sent on temporary duty to Antarctica for four months near the end of the year. Could you shed any light on what you were building in Antarctica?"

There was a long pause, then Townsend's voice came back, sounding very distant. "I'm sorry, ma'am, but you've received bad information. We were in Vietnam from June of '71 through May of '72. A man doesn't forget something like that even if he's as old as I am."

"I know that's what your unit is listed officially as doing, Mister Townsend, but I do have some evidence indicating that—"

"Ma'am, I really have nothing else to tell you. I have to go now."

The phone went dead. Conner felt a lot better about this hang-up than she had about her sister's. There was a story here. She could feel it. Old soldiers loved to tell war stories, yet this guy had hung up on her.

She quickly tracked down the second name on the list, but there was no answer. She moved on to the third. Conner checked the map on the wall as she called—the area code was in New Jersey. The phone was picked up on the third ring by a woman.

"Hello?"

"May I please speak to William Freely?"

"He's at work. May I take a message?"

"Could I get his work number, please?" "It's 654-9329."

"Thanks." Conner dialed the new number.

"Freely's Building Supply. This is Anita. How may I help you?"

"Is Mister Freely in?"

"Hold on. I think he's out back on the loading dock."

While she waited, Conner drew up a blank screen on her computer and began typing questions.

"Bill Freely here." The voice sounded slightly out of breath and very deep.

"Mister Freely, this is Conner Young from SNN news. I'm doing research on army installations and I'm particularly interested in a project your unit was involved with in 1971."

"Yeah?" The voice was not friendly. "Which project? We did a whole lot of stuff that year."

"I'm interested in what B Company, 67th Engineers, built down in Antarctica between August and December 1971."

There was a long pause. "I'm sorry, miss, but you've got your facts wrong. We were never in Antarctica. I surely would have remembered that."

"I'm sure you would have, Mister Freely, especially since you were treated for severe frostbite on two fingers on your left hand at McMurdo Station, Antarctica, on 19 November 1971. Tell me, did you get frostbite while taking those photographs of Eternity Base? The photos I have copies of?" Conner waited. The fact that he didn't hang up right away was a good sign.

Freely's voice was sharp. "Listen, lady. We were told that everything about Eternity Base was classified. I mean, it was a long time ago and all that, but still a guy can get in trouble. I forgot all about taking those pictures."

Conner leaned forward in her seat. "I have them here on my desk and they have your name on the back."

Another long pause. Finally Freely came back, his voice resigned. "Yeah, I took those damn pictures. I don't see what the big deal about the whole thing was anyway. They told us not to talk about it—national security and all that—and we were just so happy to be out of Vietnam that everyone went along with it. At least in the beginning. But after a couple of weeks down there in that hellhole, Vietnam started looking like a good deal."

Conner thought quickly. She'd learned to keep people talking by shifting subjects. They were so busy thinking about the answers that they'd forget the importance of what they were saying. "What about the aircrews that flew you in there? Do you know where they were from?"

"There was only one aircrew. I think they were home-based in Hawaii."

Conner cut back to something else that might get a reaction. "How's your hand doing?"

Freely's voice rose an octave. "That was part of the bullshit about that mission. We'd just finished off-loading the plane and it had headed back when I got hurt. I'd been working on the surface shaft doors and I got careless. You'd think I'd have known better after three months, but . . . anyway I got the bite bad and needed to be medevacked.

"Well, this major who was in charge wouldn't send another plane out to get me. I had to wait until that particular plane got back to McMurdo, set down, refueled, and came back out to pick me up. Probably wasted about three hours because of that.

"Since the whole thing was classified, they wouldn't medevac me out of Antarctica after I received my initial treatment. So I had to go back to Eternity Base with my hand like that until the entire unit was pulled out. That's what really screwed up my fingers more than anything else. And that's why I only have three fingers on my left hand. I had to have the sons of bitches amputated eight years ago. The civilian doctor who did it said it was because they'd never healed right due to the prolonged exposure. So you can take the goddamn army and its station down there and shove it. I don't want to have anything more to do with it."

"I can understand that you are somewhat bitter, Mister Freely. You spent the entire four months there in Antarctica?" Conner coaxed.

"Yeah."

"When did you leave?"

"About four or five days before Christmas."

"Where were you stationed? At McMurdo?"

"No. Like I said, we only went to McMurdo for emergencies—we didn't have a doctor with us. We were stationed right there at Eternity Base."

"Where was Eternity Base?"

"I don't know."

"What do you mean you don't know? You didn't know where you were?"

Freely's voice took on that "I'm talking to an idiot" tone that Conner hated. "I mean, I knew we were in Antarctica, but I couldn't tell you where. We weren't allowed any maps. When we flew, they blacked out the windows in the hold of the C-130. No one in the company knew where the hell we were."

"You had to have some idea. East, west, north, or south of McMurdo?"

"Lady, you ever been to Antarctica?" Freely didn't wait for an answer. "The goddamn place is one big jumbled-up mass of ice and mountains. North or south?" Freely laughed. "Compasses don't work too well down there. Do you know that the magnetic pole is farther north of the true South Pole than McMurdo? In fact, magnetic south from McMurdo is actually west if you look at a map. That was the most screwed-up place I've ever been. All I know is that the site was a little less than a two-hour flight by C-130 from McMurdo. You look at the pictures and you got as good an idea of where that place was as I do."

"What did you build there?"

"We didn't really 'build' anything. We put together a Tinkertoy set. It was all prefab," he explained. "They flew it in by sections. Someone with a lot more brains than we had in our outfit designed that thing. Each piece could fit in a 130, yet when we put it all together it was pretty big. Of course there were a shit load of 130 loads coming in. Hell, they spent almost an entire week just bringing in fuel bladders. That plane flew every moment the weather allowed."

"What was it you put together?" Conner asked quietly, hoping she could keep Freely going.

"My best guess is that it was some sort of C & C structure—Command and Control. We just put the buildings together. Before we were even done, they brought in more guys to put in other stuff. I remember a lot of commo equipment. They sealed off sections of the place as we finished, so I really couldn't tell you what it looked like on the inside when it was completed.

"We stayed in two prefab Quonset huts on the surface, and we broke those down and took them back out with us when we left. All you could see when we took that last flight out was the entry and ventilation shafts. Everything else was underground."