Temple of the Gods - Andy McDermott [96]
Kern started to make introductions. ‘This is Dr Nina Wilde from the International Heritage Agency, and Captain Tyler—’
‘Yes, I know, I know,’ said Ogleby dismissively. ‘I read the email.’ Beady eyes scrutinised Nina. ‘Waste of time and money your coming here in person. The material you want may be Eyes Only, but we could still have couriered it to you in New York.’
‘Really? We were told we could only view it here,’ said Nina, concealing her sudden nervousness. Dalton had been very specific that they would have to travel to Silent Peak to see the file.
‘Not for something of that classification. You were obviously misinformed.’ He turned his grouchy gaze to Kern. ‘Something else I can help you with, Colonel?’
Kern was evidently well used to Ogleby’s attitude. ‘Apparently not. Well, Dr Wilde, Captain, when you’re finished here I’ll arrange for someone to bring you back to the surface.’
‘Thank you,’ said Nina. Kern exited, leaving her and Eddie alone with the sour-faced librarian. ‘So, Dr Ogleby, this is a remarkable archive you have here.’
He didn’t even respond well to a compliment. ‘It would be if they gave me the staff and money to run it properly. Right, let’s see your papers, then.’
The pair produced their documents. Ogleby read them, then went to a computer to double-check their details. ‘No need for you to come here at all,’ he muttered as he pecked at the keyboard with one finger, logging the new arrivals into the system.
‘I’m curious about that myself,’ said Nina. ‘I mean, what we’re here to see is of historical importance, but it’s hardly a national security matter. Why keep it so highly classified?’
‘It’s not the material itself, it’s where it came from,’ Ogleby replied, still tapping away at the computer. ‘In this case, the Nazis.’
‘Nazis?’ said Eddie, in his surprise using his normal accent before hurriedly correcting himself. ‘Uh, I mean, Nat-zees.’
Fortunately, Ogleby didn’t pick up on it. ‘It was part of a scientific archive seized by US forces at the end of the war, some of which had been stolen from Greece during the German occupation there. A lot of the other material concerned what you might call “ethically questionable” Nazi experiments –’ he gave them a decidedly ghoulish smile – ‘so the whole collection was classified, including the material you want to see.’
‘Why?’ Nina asked. ‘It couldn’t possibly be connected to anything the Nazis did.’
‘It was connected just by association,’ said Ogleby in a patronising tone. ‘The Nazis were very good at filing. You release one file, people want to know where the others are, and what’s in them. It’s simpler just to classify everything so only people with a need to know can see it. That way, we still have the information without bleeding hearts bleating about our benefiting from “immoral knowledge”. There’s no such thing.’ He finished typing. ‘We can’t put the genie back in the bottle, but at least we can stop people from whining that someone removed the cork.’
Nina agreed with him in principle that knowledge itself could not be immoral – as far as she was concerned, the cliché that ‘there are some things man was not meant to know’ was an anti-intellectual crock – but that hadn’t stopped her from quickly developing a dislike for the librarian. ‘Well, we’re in the need-to-know club now, so if we could see it?’ she said spikily.
Ogleby’s nod was distinctly disapproving, but he signalled impatiently towards one of the cubicles. ‘Go on, in there. You can get a good view of the system at work.’
As well as a well-lit reading desk, the cubicle contained something that reminded Nina of a smaller-scale version of an airport’s baggage carousel. A large flap set into the cabin’s outer wall opened on to a set of steel rollers that would channel anything coming down it into a flat collection area; another set of rollers at the opposite end led back through a second flap. A window looked out into the hangar and its miles of shelves. ‘Your material is on its way,’ said Ogleby. ‘The shuttle should be here in a minute.’
Eddie and Nina moved closer to the window.