The Winter Fortress by Neal Bascomb

Author:Neal Bascomb [Bascomb, Neal]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781784977030
Publisher: Head of Zeus

18

Sabotage

RØNNEBERG RECHECKED THE plant’s basement and first-floor doors himself. Kayser stayed with him, searching the shadows for any sign of an approaching patrol. Strømsheim and Idland looked for another way in. They knew they had only so much time before a guard crossed their path or ran into the covering party. Growing desperate, Rønneberg was struck by the thought of the cable tunnel on the northern wall. Racing down the steps, he waved for Kayser to follow him.

At Brickendonbury Hall, they had discussed alternative entry points into the plant, and Tronstad had told them about a narrow tunnel filled with pipes and cables, which ran between the basement ceiling and first floor and out a small access hole in the exterior wall facing the gorge. Rønneberg thought that if the tunnel had not been blocked during the recent security upgrade, it might provide an access point.

He hurried around the building and searched through the snowbank along the outside wall for the ladder he had been told led up to the tunnel. After a couple of minutes, his hands came across a rung. “Here it is,” he said to Kayser. The two climbed the slippery steel, Rønneberg first. Fifteen feet up, he found the tunnel entrance, half-filled with snow. It was unbarred. He swept the snow out of the opening, then crawled inside. There was barely enough room for his body, and he had to drag the rucksack of explosives behind him. Kayser squirreled into the tunnel after him.

They made their way on their bellies over the cables and pipes for several yards. Rønneberg tried to turn his head to see if the others had come in after them, but the space was too cramped. Kayser confirmed that Strømsheim and Idland were not in the rear. The only direction in which they could go was forward. They would have to execute the sabotage alone.

Rønneberg kept crawling. After a few minutes, he saw some water pipes that bent through a hole to his left into the ceiling. Through the hole, he could just make out some of the plant’s high-concentration cells. They were close.

They continued to worm their way forward. Suddenly Rønneberg heard the sharp ping of metal. He went still. Behind him, Kayser had slipped, and his Colt .45 had fallen out of its shoulder holster. Although attached by a string to his body, the pistol had dropped far enough to hit a pipe. For a long spell, the two remained completely motionless, worried that the sound might have given them away. But the longer they waited, the more certain they were that the reverberating drum of Vemork’s machines had masked the noise. Kayser returned the pistol to its holster, and they continued ahead.

Twenty yards into the maze of pipes, Rønneberg arrived at a larger opening in the floor. He looked through it into a cavernous hall. After making sure there were no guards in the room, he slipped through the opening and dropped the fifteen feet to the floor. Remembering his parachute training, he collapsed into a roll to blunt the fall.

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