by Bob Mayer
Pak directed them to the left, along the edge of a massive wall of ice that shot up into the sky, where the polar ice cap had ruptured itself against rock. He hoped they could continue bypassing such formations and make it to the coast on schedule. They’d already lost quite a bit of time hauling the sled.
“Let’s move,” he ordered. The five men staggered to their feet and placed themselves in the harness.
AIRSPACE, PACIFIC OCEAN
“I’m awfully thirsty down here, big brother.”
“Roger. I’ve got what you need.”
The Stratotanker KC-10 dwarfed the MC-130 Combat Talon as it jockeyed into position, closing in less than forty feet above and to the front of the smaller aircraft. In the rear of the tanker, seated in a glass bubble, the boom operator toyed with his controls, directing the drogue boom toward the refuel probe on the nose of the Combat Talon. As the cup fit, he flicked a button on his yoke, locking the seal.
“We’re in,” he spoke into his mike, verbally confirming what the pilot 120 feet in front in the cockpit could already see on his control panel. “Pumping.”
The two planes were at 25,000 feet, cruising at 350 miles per hour yet maintaining their relative positions with less than a two-foot variance at any moment. Jet fuel surged through the hose, filling up the almost dry tanks of the Combat Talon. The umbilical cord stayed in place for two minutes.
“I’m full down here, big brother.”
“Roger. That’ll be fourteen ninety-five.” The drogue separated and the KC-10 started gaining altitude, pulling away.
“Roger. Do you take checks?”
The Stratotanker banked hard right, turning back toward home. “Your credit is good. Good luck and good hunting.”
FORD MOUNTAIN RANGE, ANTARCTICA
Riley worked the bolt of the Ml6, making sure it moved freely. He pushed the magazine release and caught the aluminum box as it fell out. He pushed down on the top bullet, making sure the spring was still functioning correctly, then he replaced the magazine and loaded a round into the chamber. Looking up, he noticed Sammy watching him, her eyes framed by the frosted edge of her hood.
“Do you think we’ll catch them?” she asked. He could see that she was shivering. That was bad—he thought he’d planned enough rests for them to make up for the loss of heat. It was hard for him to factor in the others’ needs with his desire to catch the Koreans.
Riley glanced over to where Devlin and Conner were wrapped together in a sleeping bag, trying to conserve their warmth, then he returned Sammy’s gaze. “Not unless we get lucky.”
“Then why do you want to go after them?” The words came out in puffs.
Riley laid the rifle across his knees. His face hurt from the cold and the skin on his cheeks felt like crinkled parchment as he spoke. “Several reasons. I didn’t see much sense in doing anything before. I figured we’d get out alive if we did nothing, and I also figured these guys would get caught. I was wrong on both counts: we’re lucky to be alive, and these people are getting away. That’s two mistakes, and I don’t want to go for number three.”
“But what can we do if we catch them?”
“I’ll figure that out when we get there,” Riley replied. He didn’t like to admit this, but it was the truth. He had no plan. “We have to catch them first,” he said, getting to his feet. “All right. Let’s move out.”
“We’re never going to catch them,” Devlin said, peering out from his bag. “I say we stay still—we’re losing too much energy walking.”
Riley held back his anger. “Listen. If you want to, you can head back to Eternity Base and camp out in the reactor room. Or you can head for the Russian base. Or you can stay here. I don’t care. You do whatever you want to.” He picked up his pack. ‘Time to move out.” Sammy stood and started putting her gear in her backpack.
Conner slid out of the sleeping bag, then spoke to Devlin. “We can’t split up now. It would be too dangerous. Come on, Devlin, let’s go. Please.”
“We should have gone after them at the base like I wanted to,” Devlin complained. “We’ll never catch them here. We need a break. We’ve been moving for over eight hours now.”
Riley started walking along the track, and Sammy moved with him. After twenty yards he looked over his shoulder. Conner was talking to Devlin, her head bent close to him. Riley went another twenty yards and looked again. They were following.
SAFE HOUSE, VICINITY FREDERICKSBURG, VIRGINIA
The two men walked down the underground corridor, the squeak of their shoes echoing off the cinder block walls. “I got everything out of Glaston,” the short man remarked. “He put the bomb on the C-130.”
“Why?”
“To keep the location secret, and for five hundred thousand dollars. His rationalization was that they were losing over fifty thousand men in Vietnam for no reason, so five more wouldn’t make much difference. He also killed the courier who accompanied the bombs down there—some SF guy who worked OPCON to Combat Control South, MACV-SOG. He says the SF guy didn’t know what was in the crates, but he couldn’t take a chance.”
“Shit,” was the tall man’s only comment. “Nothing more on Peter?”
“No.”
“Let’s do the old man again.” They stopped at a thick steel door.
“He’s a tough old bird. But if we give him another shot, he’ll be gone,” the short man warned. “His heart can’t handle it.”
The tall man’s face didn’t show the slightest sign of emotion. “We’ve had a nuclear detonation. We need the name. Give him another shot.” He opened the door and they walked in. General Woodson was seated in the same wheelchair they’d used to take him out of the hospital. His eyes peered up, unfocused, trying to see who had come in.
The short man shrugged—it wasn’t his responsibility. He walked over to the table and charged the needle.
MCMURDO STATION, ROSS ICE SHELF, ANTARCTICA
The twin-engine plane skidded to a halt and the tractor rumbled up to it. The side door opened and a skinny man with long hair poking from beneath his parka hood hopped out and ran over to the driver of the tractor. The SNN support team had finally arrived.
“Hear anything from Atlanta?”
“Yeah. They say sit still.”
The man was incredulous. “We bust ass to get here and they want us to sit on our butts! What the fuck is going on?”
The driver of the tractor was just the messenger. “Damned if I know. Get your stuff on the wagon and I’ll get you all settled in.”
Chapter 27
FORD MOUNTAIN RANGE, ANTARCTICA
Walking along with her head bowed, eyes following the trail, Sammy almost tripped over the tread. She looked up and saw the circle of debris from the tractor twenty yards ahead.
“What happened?” Conner asked. “Did they have an accident?”
“Looks like they threw a track,” Riley answered. “They must have destroyed the tractor. So they’re on foot now, pulling the bomb.”
“We might catch them then,” Sammy said, feeling a surge of adrenaline.
“Yes.” Riley didn’t even bother to look at the others. He walked past the wreckage and on the other side found footprints and the furrow formed by the sled that carried the bomb. He set out at an even quicker pace.
EIGHTH ARMY HEADQUARTERS
YONGSAN, SOUTH KOREA
The staff was assembled for the daily 1000 briefing. The mood in the war room was deadly serious as the speaker approached the podium. General Patterson sat in the first row, facing the front. The G-2 was the lead briefer as always, and today he had a rapt audience.
“Sir, unless there is a drastic change in data trends, we are currently less than two hours from going to a level three threat. Our intelligence indicates the entire People’s Korean Army is mobilizing. There are also unconfirmed reports that first- and second-stage reserves are being given their mobilization orders. The South Korean 4th Infantry Division destroyed one infiltration tunnel when the exit was ope
ned. Their sector of the DMZ is north of Kumsong.” The G-2’s pointer slapped the map. “No report on ROK or PKA losses.”
Patterson ran a hand through his thinning gray hair. Since taking command of the Eighth Army a year ago, he’d known he was in the most volatile military theater in the world. The two countries were still technically at war, more than forty years after most people thought the Korean War had ended. In those forty years, thousands of people—Korean and American—had died in what the politicians liked to term incidents. But what was brewing now was no incident.
The accord that the two countries had signed in 1991 promised better relations, but it had barely been worth the paper it was printed on. As long as Kim II Sung’s son ruled, then only united Korea would be under his direction.
“No indication of any drawback?” the G-3 asked.
“No, sir.”
Patterson wasn’t willing to wait two hours. Most of his combat troops were based less than an hour’s flight time from the border, vulnerable to a quick air strike. Although the carefully mapped intelligence plan for North Korean mobilization and preparation for war was accurate, Patterson also remembered that there had been a very good intelligence plan in 1941 in Hawaii. It hadn’t worked too well.
Patterson had authority to go to level three. Level two required presidential approval. He had been here long enough to know one thing: the North Koreans were determined to go through with this.
“All U.S. forces will go to level three. I will inform my South Korean counterpart and the Pentagon.”
FORD MOUNTAIN RANGE, ANTARCTICA
“Hold on!” Pak yelled as he felt the rope give way through his gloves. Lieutenant Kim and Sergeant Lee—at the tail end—wedged their bodies behind the sled to keep it from sliding back down the hundred-foot incline they had just laboriously negotiated.
“Pull,” Pak exhorted Sun and Ho. They tried to get a better grip on the icy rope in the front. Ho slipped, the rope burned out of Pak’s grip as the entire weight of the sled bore down on the two men in the rear.
Lee screamed as the eight-hundred-pound sled snapped the leg he’d wedged up against the lip. Kim threw himself out of the way as the sled ran over Lee’s twisted leg and rocketed to the bottom of the incline before finally turning over.
Pak slid his way down the hill to Lee. He didn’t need to probe for the injury in Lee’s thigh: white bone had pierced the many layers of clothes and was exposed to the brutal cold.
Kim joined him, and their eyes met as they looked over the injury. Lee’s face was twisted as he forced himself not to scream again.
“We can pull him on the sled,” Kim suggested weakly.
Pak was angry at his executive officer for even saying that. With five men they had barely been able to pull the sled. Now they were down to four.
Pak slowly stood and took a deep breath.
“I will take care of it, sir,” Kim said, obviously realizing the foolishness of his earlier comment.
“No.” Pak put his mittened hand on Kim’s shoulder. “I am the leader. It is my responsibility.” He looked down. “Do you wish for some time?”
Lee shook his head and closed his eyes. Pak pulled his AK-47 from where it hung across his back and slipped his index finger into the trigger finger in his mitten. He fired twice, both in the head, then turned and walked away. Behind him, Kim took two thermite grenades off his harness. He grabbed Lee’s weapon, then placed one grenade on top of Lee’s face and one on his chest. He pulled both pins and followed his commander.
They went to the bottom of the hill. The puff and glow from the thermite grenades flickered on the incline above them as they struggled to right the sled. The fire had burned out by the time they accomplished that and started the sled back up the hill, using longer traverses this time to prevent a repeat of the accident.
AIRSPACE, SOUTH PACIFIC OCEAN
Major Bellamy listened through the headset as the pilot updated him on the situation. “The weather over the target is still too rough for you all to jump in. We’re going to head to McMurdo Station and let you jump there—the winds are much lower. We’ve received word that you will load onto a platform there, and that will take you out to the target.”
“What kind of platform?” Bellamy asked.
“Unknown. That’s all I’ve got.”
“Roger.”
Bellamy put down the headset. They’d received the news about the nuclear explosion several hours ago. Bellamy hadn’t been thrilled with the idea of jumping right on top of that. As far as he knew, their job was to secure the site, but the information he was getting over the radio was confusing. The biggest unanswered question was why the bomb had gone off.
FORD MOUNTAIN RANGE, ANTARCTICA
Sammy sensed something different and halted. As she peered ahead, trying to figure out what had alerted her, she realized that it was the lack of something that had caught her attention. She turned around and looked back—Conner and Devlin were almost a hundred yards back and moving very slowly. She had no idea how long Riley and she had been pulling away from them. What had been missing was the noise of their shuffling feet on the ice as she concentrated on keeping up with Riley.
“Hold it,” she called out to Riley.
He turned. “What?”
Sammy pointed, and together they retraced their tracks.
“What’s the matter?” Sammy asked her sister when they came up to them.
She pointed at Devlin. “He says he can’t feel his feet.”
“Sit down,” Riley ordered Devlin.
Riley shrugged off his backpack and knelt down next to him. Devlin’s skin was white, and he was not fully aware of his environment. His lips were pale blue and he was shivering uncontrollably: the early symptoms of hypothermia. If allowed to progress much further, Devlin would go into true hypothermia, and Riley knew he couldn’t do anything about that—not in this environment.
“Get in your sleeping bag,” Riley ordered Conner. “Zip your bag with his and try to get him warmed up.”
Devlin looked right through him. He started walking off, back in the other direction. Riley caught up with him. “What are you doing?”
“I’m going to get help,” was the barely coherent reply.
Riley grabbed his arm and dragged him back. He took off Devlin’s backpack and pulled out the sleeping bag. “Get in this. You’re not in any shape to go looking for help.”
Riley quickly dug through Conner’s backpack and pulled out her bag and sleeping pad. He laid them out, unzipped the bag, and helped her into it. After making sure that Devlin was bundled up next to her, Riley pulled out his portable stove. Sammy crawled into her own bag to keep warm. Riley pumped up the stove, squeezed starter gel around the nozzle, and lit it. When it was running smoothly, he pulled his canteen from the vest pocket of his parka and poured water into his canteen cup.
Riley made a cup of instant soup and split it between Devlin and Conner. He forced it down Devlin’s throat, getting the warm liquid to his stomach. In the early stages of hypothermia, circulation to the hands and feet is reduced as the body tries to maintain temperature in the vital organs. Riley knew that no matter how well insulated Devlin’s extremities now were, they would not warm unless the central core of his body was warmed. He also knew that this situation was precipitated not only by the cold but by lack of fluid intake. They had to give up an hour or two of traveling to ensure that they would be able to keep going.
It was now a grim equation: using her own body warmth, Conner had to raise Devlin’s heat production higher than his heat loss. Riley could feel the cold gnawing through his joints, so he attached his bag to Sammy’s and crawled in.
“What are you doing?” Sammy mumbled as Riley pressed up against her.
Riley didn’t say anything. Wrapping his body around hers, he managed with great difficulty to get the two bags zipped together. He could feel her drawing off his warmth like a heat vampire.
“You need to stay awake for a little while,” h
e exhorted her. “At least until we get your blood circulating properly. Then you can rest. You’re not too far away from going hypothermic yourself.”
“Too tired,” she muttered.
Riley considered the situation. He’d been taught the best way to deal with someone who was going into shock or hypothermia was to talk with them and try to keep their mind involved. If the mind led, the body hopefully would follow. He’d have to make it very interesting to rouse Sammy. Riley thought for a minute and then decided.
“Hey, Sammy. Did I ever tell you about my friend Donna Giannini?”
“What?” A little spark of interest from Sammy. “You haven’t told me much about yourself or anyone in your life.”
“Donna and I were engaged. Sort of,” Riley amended with a pang of regret. They’d just accepted that they would always be together. “She got killed last month in a robbery. She was a detective in the Chicago Police Department.”
“I’m sorry,” Sammy said.
“We met under very strange circumstances,” Riley told her. He remembered flying up to Chicago, chasing after the dangerous creatures that had escaped from a lab in western Tennessee, and being greeted by Giannini, the detective assigned to the case. “Kind of like how you and I met,” he said.
‘Tell me about it,” Sammy said, her eyes now fully open.
Riley launched into the story, telling her about genetically engineered killing machines called Synbats, which he had pursued through the woods of Tennessee and into tunnels under Chicago. When he was done, Sammy was fully alert, and he felt they should get moving again. They could leave Conner and Devlin behind and move ahead on their own. Riley could feel the time clock going. How far ahead were the Koreans?