The Haigerloch Project

Quickly they examined the steel hatch. It was a couple of inches thick, swung on a series of massive hinges. There were two heavy locks set into it about two feet apart. Sig worked them. They would lock automatically if the doors were slammed. At once they pushed it shut. Hard. The locks sprang home with a single metallic click.

Dirk ran to the stretcher. He tore the blankets aside. Beneath them lay the dynamite charges. The cans of borax. The Panzerfaust warheads. The tools.

“Get going!” Dirk said. “You've got five minutes!”

At once Sig and Oskar grabbed the borax cans, a blanket and the tools. They raced down the corridor toward the heavy-water storage room.

Dirk picked up the five-stick charge. “Gisela,” he said hurriedly. “Take the two small charges. Place them in the lab. Just inside the door. One on each side. Where they can be easily reached.” He was already running for the steel door.

Gisela snapped up the two charges and ran for the door to the laboratory….

Sig stopped just inside the storage cave. In a glance he absorbed the layout. The huge heavy-water storage tank stood about three feet off the cave floor on a sturdy wood-and-steel platform. A maze of pipes with a variety of diameters ran along the walls and to the tank itself. Some were studded with meters and gauges and valves. Sig was certain he could identify some of the equipment. The access-port cover on top of the tank was firmly bolted in place, as he had known it would be. A pipe from what seemed to be a liquid-air or nitrogen cold trap led to the top of the tank above them, controlled by a valve set close to the tank wall. A second pipe also entered the top portion of the storage tank. A dry-air source? It, too, had a valve on it. At the bottom of the tank a heavy pipe ran toward a small opening in the wall, where it disappeared. There was a valve at the tank itself, and another a couple of feet from the wall. The pipe slanted downward. It was the pipe through which the heavy water would flow to the reactor in the floor pit in the adjoining cave.

He made his decision. He pointed to the valve on the pipe between the storage tank and the cold trap.

“We'll use that one. Up there,” he said. “We can dismantle it without screwing things up. The pipe slants into the tank, and the borax powder will roll directly down into the heavy water. It'll have plenty of time to dissolve before the test.”

He looked around. He spied a tall A-ladder on rollers. He ran for it.

Oskar was already spreading the blanket on the floor under the valve above. Any borax spillage would have to be caught. They must leave no trace.

Sig positioned the ladder and at once they climbed up. The valve was easy to reach.

Quickly Oskar began to dismantle it. He loosened the bonnet screws and lifted out the stem and gate. Below was an opening in the pipe about two inches in diameter.

Sig had opened the cans of borax crystals. He suddenly swore.

“Shit! How the hell do we pour the damned stuff into the hole in the pipe down through the valve housing? Some of it is bound to be caught in the body. We'll never clean it out completely!”

“They may not discover it,” Oskar said.

“They will. Once they run into trouble, they'll check everything. Dammit — we should have brought a funnel!”

“A funnel?” Oskar frowned.

“We've got to have something to pour the borax through. Make it out of paper. A thin sheet of metal”. He swore angrily. “Dammit! There goes the time!” He started down the ladder. “I'll take a look around. There's got to be something….”

“Wait!” Oskar said eagerly. “This will work.”

Balancing himself precariously on the ladder, he took off his right shoe. He peeled off his sock. With his knife he sliced off the foot and dropped it to the blanket below. He held up the tubelike sock.

“Here,” he said, a wide grin on his face. “We can pour the borax through this!”

Sig grabbed the sock from him. He stuffed it through the valve body into the hole in the pipe. With the screwdriver, he spread out the fabric so that an opening was formed. He held the top open.

“Pour it in!” he said.

* * *

Dirk worked rapidly. Quietly. He wanted to place the charge at the door where it would do the most damage. It had to look good.

Suddenly a gruff voice shattered the silence.

“What are you doing there?”

Dirk whirled at the voice.

At the checkpoint desk stood an SS man. One of the guards from the bunker entrance. He glared suspiciously, his Schmeisser machine pistol trained unwaveringly at Dirk's gut.

Dirk felt his heart stop. Then pound in his ears.

It could not end like this!

Instinctively his hand twitched toward the Luger in his belt. He checked himself at once. He could not risk a shot.

He did not stand up. He turned back to the charge at the heavy door.

“Am I glad you showed up!” he exclaimed fervently, without looking back at the SS man. “I found it! The explosive! I think I can defuse it. Quickly! Give me a hand!”