Tunnels 04, Closer

lives. And, most importantly, you helped save my sister's life. That's something I will never forget."
    He nodded again, then indicated that she and the Limiter General should go toward the entrance in the nearest leg of the arch. As she peered all the way up to the top of the massive structure, she could see row upon row of dark-tinted windows in its many stories. She began to move toward it, then stopped.
    "What is this place?" she asked the officer.
    " Das Kanzleramt ... I think in English you would call it the Chancellery," he replied.
    "Right," she said.
    Once Rebecca Two and the Limiter General had entered through a set of rotating doors made of glass and solid brass, they were ushered along a marble hall to a lift. Their military escort remained behind as the two Styx ascended some thirty floors by themselves. They were met at the top by a woman in a dark suit. Rebecca Two wrinkled her nose at the woman's overpowering perfume. Although she was young, her make-up was heavily applied, and her platinum blonde hair was so rigid it could have been varnished.
    "Welcome," the woman announced in a friendly voice, then wheeled toward Rebecca Two. "And don't you look so pretty in that lovely dress?" she simpered. The manner of the woman was such that she could have been complimenting the daughter of some visiting dignitary. But she certainly didn't get the response she was expecting.
    "It's gross," Rebecca Two snarled, shifting her shoulders uncomfortably under the light cotton. "First chance I get, I'm going to rip it to shreds and burn it."
    "Oh!" the woman exclaimed, her eyes widening. "Th--... This way if you please," she stuttered, and led them through another hallway, walking a little too quickly as her high heels clicked on the polished stone floor. She studiously avoided looking at Rebecca Two as she knocked on a pair of large wooden doors, then pushed them open.
    "Do come in," a voice called.
    With the Limiter General several paces behind her, Rebecca Two walked into the room. Her gaze fell on a long table of highly lacquered dark wood, around which were numerous chairs. The centerpiece of the table was a large, fierce-looking eagle emerging from a shattered bronze globe, which on closer inspection, Rebecca Two saw was meant to represent the world.
    "Hello." A man had risen from the far end of the table and now approached them. As Rebecca Two tried to avoid staring at his rather small moustache, she couldn't tell his age but estimated him to be in his late fifties. He was corpulent, and breathed heavily as he walked. His black hair was slicked back, and he wore a beige-colored uniform with epaulettes striped with gold braid.
    "I'm Herr Friedrich, Chancellor of New Germania," he introduced himself. His voice was warm, and but for a slight accent, he spoke impeccable English. Extending a soft palm, he shook hands with Rebecca Two and the Limiter General, then gestured toward the end of the table where he'd been sitting. But Rebecca Two slowed as she came to a long window. From their elevated position, the view over the metropolis was breathtaking, and she and the Limiter General stopped to take it in.
    "Quite something, isn't it?" the Chancellor said proudly. He pointed to a black-and-white photograph mounted on the wall beside the window. "When we arrived in this new world a little over sixty years ago, that's all there was -- a strip of land between the sea and the mountains, with only trees and a few ruins on it." The photograph showed an area of the jungle in the process of being cleared -- work gangs of men stripped to the waist were wielding axes and moving felled trees, while around them any fires were burning. Rebecca spotted tents in the background, beside which were some of the unusual helicopters.
    "Sixty years," Rebecca Two repeated, as she returned her gaze to the metropolis through the window.
    "It all began in the thirties when Himmler sent expeditions to the far corners of the world, to Tibet and both Poles. He was in search of ancient knowledge that would assist the Nazi Party in its pursuit of power. Amongst other things, Himmler was a believer in the Hollow Earth theory. The fact we are standing here in a city with a population of nearly five hundred thousand is because Hitler wanted to ensure that the Third Reich endured the thousand years he promised our nation. New Germania was to be his refuge, his last outpost, in case he lost the war."
    "But he never made it down here," Rebecca Two said.