David Golemon - Ripper

“This is over a hundred years old,” Everett said. “We have so many in our vaults at the Group that I would recognize them anywhere.”

Down below Jack watched as Mendenhall limped off toward the south. He knew it wasn’t prudent to start shouting in the enclosed space, so he would have to be patient while the lieutenant did his job — one that he was very good at. It only took a few minutes for Will to return — the longest few minutes of Jack’s life. Mendenhall looked up at the two officers as they waited for his word.

“You’re not going to believe this one, Colonel. We have a large door down here. It’s half buried, but damn, it’s a door to somewhere.”

Jack shook his head and then without hesitation made the jump down to join Mendenhall. Everett quickly followed. When Collins examined the tunnel he saw that it was well worn and expertly constructed. Every few feet there were old timbers supporting the roof and walls of the excavation. Every ten feet or so there was another oil lantern half dug into the dirt wall. He used his flashlight to examine the door Mendenhall had found. It was buried almost to the top with a small cave-in that happened many years before their arrival on site. Jack tossed his light to Will and then started scraping dirt away. Everett joined him while Mendenhall kept the light on them both. Using the stock of his weapon, Carl made more headway than Jack and they soon had the old, wooden door uncovered.

“The lady or the tiger?” Everett quipped as he tried the old and rusty latch.

“I’m betting on the lady,” Jack said hoping beyond hope it was a secret way into Perdition.

Carl tugged on the door, but it refused to budge. He gripped the old steel handle with both gloved hands and tried again. This time the door opened so suddenly that it caught Everett unawares. The cascade of sand and dirt almost covered him before Jack could pull him free of the avalanche of debris from the opposite side of the wooden door.

Mendenhall stepped forward and his eyes widened. In the greenish hue of the ambient-light goggles a secret underground world opened up beyond the door. He raised his goggles and brought his flashlight up and shined it around. The dust was thick, but that didn’t stop Will from seeing an amazing site. It looked like an ancient, underground laboratory. He recognized items used in the labs back at the Group and many more things that were just as unfamiliar to him. Jack and Everett added their light to the strange scene in front of them.

“What in the hell did we just open up?” Will asked as his light played over tables, glassware, and in one corner of the concrete-lined room, barrels upon barrels of something staked three high.

Collins stepped into the room over the large mound of dirt and sand that had buried the door on both sides. He quickly shut down his flashlight and then gestured for Everett and Mendenhall to do the same. He placed his hand with fingers curled inward as an order to cease all movement. He was looking up at the high ceiling above their heads. He looked back at the two men who had frozen just inside the door. Above them there was light filtering through small cracks in the wooden planks directly over their heads. Jack tapped his right ear and pointed, and that’s when Carl and Will heard it. It was the sound of women weeping.

Before Jack could turn and say anything, he flipped on his light once more when his hackles rose. He played the light around the large laboratory, and then the beam slicing through the swirling dust struck upon an even more eerie sight. There a few feet farther into the room was another cave-in. And at the edges of the pile of dirt, sand, and concrete were the remains of khaki-colored leggings. They were old; possibly turn-of-the-century old. The boots were time worn and brown, and that made Collins aware that they had stumbled into something that the drug kingpin didn’t know about his house south of the border: a secret and long-buried site that had once been a laboratory for an American scientist named Professor Lawrence Jackson Ambrose.

Above their heads they heard more cries and whimpers from many, many women.

“I have a feeling that we have both, the lady, or ladies,” and as he heard the steps of heavy boots walk directly over their heads, Jack added, “and the tiger.”

“Well,” Everett said easing back the charging handle of his automatic weapon, “I didn’t put on my best suit to stand here looking stupid.”

Jack nodded his head and then started screwing a suppressor onto his nine millimeter.

“Let’s see what kind of quality help the Anaconda has at his disposal.”

After searching the collapsed areas, a space Everett had dubbed Mr. Wizard’s laboratory, Jack became convinced there may be no way up through the flooring except to blow their way through, which wouldn’t be too stealthy at all. He lowered his suppressed Beretta, raised the ambient-light goggles, and then wiped the sweat from his brow. He heard Will in the far corner digging at the area where the body lay covered by debris from the one-hundred-year-old collapse of the floor above them.

“Jack, whoever repaired the floor above this one never realized anything was down here. That’s my best guess. They must have covered up any access to this area during their repairs. Look up there. Half the flooring is wood, and the half closest to the walls is concrete.” Carl swiped at the sweat he had built up in the search.

“Jesus Christ!” Mendenhall hissed as he stumbled backward from where he had been digging out the body.

Jack flinched at the loudness of Mendenhall’s frightened voice.

Will realized his mistake by crying out, but made no apologies as he straightened up and then placed his hands on his knees. Everett and Collins joined him and then looked around to make sure any extra lighting they put on the scene would not be seen through the cracks in the flooring over their heads. Satisfied, both men added their flashlights to the one Mendenhall had shining on the collapse.

“You tell me just what in the hell that is?” Will said shining his light on a large lump next to the skeletal remains of the uniformed soldier he had pulled free. He was taking deep breaths in an attempt to get his fear under control. The white coat was in tatters and through the swirling dust they could see a skull that was horribly malformed. The teeth in the grinning skull were long and crooked. But what had frightened Will so much were the thick, long, and beastly looking arm bones that were exposed through the torn and aged white coat. The eye sockets of the remains were overly large and the mouth that held the long, sharp teeth was the same.

“Whoa,” Everett said, conscious to the fact of keeping his voice low. He held his light on the scene as Collins bent low to inspect Will’s find.

Jack could make out the remains of a beard, the course hair of which was lying next to the skull. There were bits and pieces of it still clinging to the lower jaw line of the remains. All in all Collins had only seen something like this a few other times and that was because they had remains such as these in the vaults deep inside the Event Group compound in Nevada. They were nearly matching the skeletal remains of what is known as Neanderthal Man. Only this skeleton was much larger than the small specimens the Group had inside the vaults. He moved his light to the remains of the uniformed skeleton.

“Jack, are you seeing what I see?” Everett said as Will stepped up and joined them, adding his light to theirs.

Indeed Jack was seeing the large teeth marks on the remains of the much smaller skeleton. Through the ragged and aged blouse of the soldier, both arms had been snapped in two and the teeth marks upon the bone were evident.