“Nothing, but I don’t see what other choice you have. If I let you go with a weapon like that you’re bound to kill me. So we’re at an impasse.”
Elise shrugged. “Or I let you pierce my carotid and I turn and kill you instantly with the Uzi.”
“That’s another option too!” Christine’s voice betrayed her doubt. “But you’ll have to choose fast – I don’t feel thrilled by the idea of meeting a bunch of Navy SEALs.”
“There’s a third option, you haven’t thought about.”
“Yeah, what’s that?” Christine asked.
“Mark!” Elise said. “He’s the big guy whimpering like a baby by the way. He might snap his cable ties and take his chances that you won’t sever my carotid when he tackles you. Perhaps he figures we’re both going to die anyway, at least this way he’ll get to live”
“Never. You’d die before he even got out of his chair and then I’d take your Uzi and finish Mark and the rest of them – now I’m finished with them.”
“Maybe.” Elise watched as Mark broke all the cable ties and stood up. “But I’d say it’s our only chance of surviving. You’re a big guy, Mark. I trust you.”
“All right, no more games –”
Christine’s voice was stopped short by the motion of Mark throwing his full three hundred pounds of bodyweight into her. The knife brushed along the side of Elise’s neck but didn’t have the force to damage her carotid artery.
Elise ducked and pivoted round to the right bringing the Uzi up straight towards Mark and Christine who were both on the floor. Christine was much faster than Mark to regain control and had already brought her small pen knife to rest in Mark’s throat.
“Stand up!” Christine yelled. “Now.”
“I’m so sorry,” Mark said as he stood up.
Elise smiled kindly. “It’s all right, Mark. You did great.”
For a small woman, Christine had managed to pull Mark back so her arm could wrap around his neck. Only a little under half of her face was visible. “So, we’re back where we started,” Christine said. “Only now I have a hostage and a shield.”
Elise grinned. “Not exactly.” She then squeezed the trigger and put a grouping of three 9 mm parabellum bullets through Christine’s right eye.
The Secretary of Defense stepped into the room, followed by two teams of Navy SEALs. Christine’s lifeless body dropped to the floor with a thud and Mark backed away immediately.
“My dear, Elise!” Margaret smiled like a proud mother. “I’m so glad to see all that time we spent training you in the CIA didn’t go to complete waste – you can still shoot like a professional.”
Chapter Fifty-Five
The hovercraft sped along the Taylor Valley at eighty miles per hour. Sam had worked hard to convince Alexis to wait until they had made it back to the Maria Helena and Antarctic Solace for reinforcements before heading to the Massive Hadron Collider. Somewhere inside they would find answers to what happened to the passengers of the Antarctic Solace and why the scientists of the Pegasus were now dead. He wanted those answers as much as she did, but there was no way he was going to let her get killed on a fool’s errand hell bent on revenge. They would have their revenge, but they would do it on their terms, with a lot more firepower.
Alexis remained quiet in a solemn trance for most of the trip. Sam didn’t try to press her. She’d just found out that five of her friends were now dead because she’d sent them here to investigate ice tunnels.
Next to him, Alexis stopped reading a passage from Pier which she’d read at least ten times before and closed the journal. “What’s Genevieve and Tom’s story?”
“What story?” Sam asked.
“Why did their love work?” She sighed. “How did they get their balance right? I was Pier’s mentor and advisor for his physics doctoral thesis. He was younger than me, and quite attractive with boyish good looks. I was attracted to him and he made me laugh, but I never would have dated him let alone marry him, because we were in different places in life and no amount of time would have brought us together.”
Sam paused. Unsure if she was somehow comparing her non-relationship with Pier and what happened in the ice cavern. Sam wasn’t sure if she saw him as a fun break in her normally conservative life, or wanted more. Then he heard the names Alexis had spoken. “Did you say Genevieve and Tom?”
“Yeah.”
“Why do you want to know about them?”
Alexis smiled. It was coy and quickly replaced with genuine surprise. “Don’t you see the similarities?”
“No.”
“They have a love for each other but their position keeps them apart. By your words, Genevieve is a jack of all trades on board the Maria Helena, whereas Tom is a pilot and in charge of deep sea operations.”
Sam smiled. “You think Tom and Genevieve are romantically attached?”
“No, not at all.” She grinned. “I know they are.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me, right? Those two would make the least likely of couples.”
“So you haven’t noticed then. What are you, blind?”
“Trust me,” Sam said. “Genevieve is a stunning woman, but she’s not interested in men currently. I can tell you that for a fact.”
“How could you possible know what she wants?” Alexis burst out with laughter. “Christ! She rejected you, didn’t she?”
“She didn’t just reject me, she rejected everyone. She’s been through a lot and the last thing she wants or needs right now is Tom Bower.”
“Why aren’t you happy for him?” Alexis asked.
“No, I’d be happy. She’s a great catch and he’s a great guy, but that doesn’t make it true.”
“The fact she rejected you doesn’t make it untrue.”
Sam never got the chance to argue his case. Up ahead, a yellow aircraft with a single propeller came into view on the horizon. It flew towards them just above the Taylor Valley. It was flying slowly, and Sam had no way of telling what it was until it got closer.
“We’ll need to have a raincheck on the debate.” Sam looked for anywhere to hide in the barren valley. “It looks like we have company.”
Alexis looked at the plane in the distance. “Any chance it’s a rescue plane coming to look for us?”
Sam shook his head. “Not a chance. There’s a rescue team at McMurdo Base and it uses a Sea King Helicopter.”
“So we’re in trouble.”
“It would appear so. Let’s hope it just wants to make a pass first to see who we are before it gets rid of us the same way it got rid of your friends back at the Pegasus.”
The plane flew directly towards them. It was the first time Sam got a better look at its double wings. Sam pushed the throttle fully forward and tried to cajole the hovercraft to beat its maximum speed.
Alexis looked up as it approached. “Is that a biplane?”
“Yeah, a de Havilland Hornet Moth,” Sam said. “Tom and I learned to fly on one of those.”
The biplane passed them and then made a wide turn and circled back in front of them. For a moment Sam thought it was going to keep going and simply report on their position. It then circled back again, dipped to the left and descended into the Taylor Valley – and flew directly towards them.
“What the hell’s it doing here?”
Sam watched as the biplane descended to mere feet off the valley’s floor. “Beats the hell out of me, but right now it looks like its pilot wants to play a game of chicken.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me!” Alexis held on to the hovercraft’s stabilizing handles. “What will happen if that things hits us?”
“I have no idea. It’s probably light enough the damned thing will probably bounce off our inflated skirt.” Sam looked at the pilot’s eyes as he approached. The aircraft was coming in slow by modern aviation standards – probably about 75 knots at most.
“It’s not turning and there’s not a lot of room in the valley!”
“Jesus Christ!” Sam swerved th
e hovercraft to the left. A split second later the Tiger Moth increased its pitch and made a rapid climb. Sam hit the dashboard. “What the hell was that about?”
“I have no idea,” Alexis said.
Sam moved the steering wheel to return the hovercraft to its original direction, but nothing happened. He stared at the dashboard. The lights behind the instruments were no longer lit and none of the electronics worked.
He’d already seen the stone ventifact protruding from the ground ahead. There was nothing Sam could do to avoid it.
“Brace!” he yelled.
The hovercraft hit the smooth boulder at eighty-four miles an hour. Part of its skirt gripped the stone hard as it flew over the stone – sending the hovercraft rolling like a cartwheel until it came to a harsh rest in the middle of the valley.
Chapter Fifty-Six
Sam felt a small trickle of something warm running down his forehead. He smelt the acrid whiff of blood first, before tasting the salty iron on his top lip. He shoved a handful of tissues on his forehead and was relieved to feel it was only a minor laceration. Sam’s mind then turned to Alexis. He hadn’t heard a sound from her yet.
He dropped the tissues and tried to find her within the dust filled cabin of the hovercraft. Sam reached down and felt her hand grip his. “Alexis! You alive?”
She squeezed his hand. “I’m alive. You?”
“I’ll live.” Sam climbed to the bedding compartment behind the driver’s seat which was now upside down. He felt around and found his sniper rifle. “Let’s get out of this thing before that biplane comes around for a second look.”
Sam used the butt of the sniper rifle to break the glass panel in the side of the hovercraft and then climb out. Alexis followed a moment behind. Sam could already see the tiger moth approaching for a second fly over. It had circled around and was now descending into the Taylor Valley once more.
Alexis crouched behind the smooth boulder. “Will this thing protect us from whatever it is he’s shooting at us?”
Sam removed the casing of his M40A5 sniper rifle. He opened the bipod and mounted the rifle before attaching the magnified scope. With his right eye he stared at the approaching yellow aircraft until a clear view of the pilot came into its crosshairs. “Well that depends.”
“On what?”
Sam settled into a comfortable firing position. “On what they’re firing.”
Almost in response to his question, the pilot began spraying the hovercraft with a barrage of bullets from a hand held machinegun, which fell short by sixty or more feet. The distance was decreasing rapidly as the biplane approached. Sam breathed in and then slowly exhaled. Halfway through the process he paused, neither breathing in or out.
He squeezed the trigger.
Before the loud report from the sniper rifle was heard, Sam watched the pilot’s head obliterate into a spray of blood and bone. The tiger moth dipped and descended to the ground in a steep and uncontrolled dive past them. Ten feet off the ground its elevator changed position and the aircraft naturally tried to climb, failed, and then crashed into the ground fifty feet behind them. It slid along the rough surface of the valley’s floor before coming to rest with its wooden propeller being split into kindling as it struck the valley’s wall. There was no explosion and the entire thing remained eerily silent.
“Now what?” Alexis asked.
Sam shrugged. “Now we shoot a flare into the sky and hope to hell that Genevieve can still fly the Sikorsky Night Hawk.”
Chapter Fifty-Seven
It took an hour for Genevieve to reach them with the Sikorsky Night Hawk and another two days for the Maria Helena to reach the Antarctic Solace inside the Weddell Sea. Sam had told Matthew that he didn’t care if it destroyed the 44,000 horse power twin diesels he wanted to reach the Antarctic Solace as soon as physically possible.
When the Antarctic Solace came into view, Sam noticed a pitch black battleship moored alongside. Large plumes of dark smoke permeated the horizon where three boiler towers from the battleship released pressure. At that distance, he couldn’t see a flag and hoped to hell it was one of his and not the enemy’s. He used the binoculars to get a better view of the Antarctic Solace. Mounted machineguns were now manned at several locations along her upper decks. Sam studied the men on watch. They wore the desert uniforms of the US Marine Corps. On their right shoulders a small image of the American flag proudly identified them as U.S. soldiers.
Sam looked at Matthew. “Well, I have no idea who thought to bring the old smoking battleship, but it looks like the Secretary of Defense came through with the promised reinforcements.”
“So it does,” Matthew said. “Looking at the number of reinforcements it kinda makes you question what this is all about that makes it important to bring so many uniformed men all the way down here?”
“Bring us alongside the Antarctic Solace and let’s find out,” Sam said.
Matthew nodded and over the next ten minutes slowed the Maria Helena to a stop alongside the Antarctic Solace. Sam and Genevieve quickly ran the mooring lines and Sam stepped aboard.
A uniformed Marine shook his hand. “If you come with me Mr. Reilly, she’s waiting for you on the bridge of the USS Texas.”
Sam grinned. “The USS Texas? What the hell’s a national monument doing down here?”
“She’s hunting, sir.”
“Hasn’t she provided enough service to her country?”
The marine smiled, pleased Sam knew her history. “That she has, sir. But I’ll let Madam Secretary explain why she was needed.”
“The Secretary of Defense is here?” Sam asked.
“Yes, sir.”
Sam took the next series of steps. “If she’s come down in person, it can’t be good news.”
“No, sir.”
Sam followed the marine on board the USS Texas. She’d changed since he’d last been on board. The deck was now cloaked in mat-black paint from her waterline to the top of the bridge. Her armaments were rebuilt and sailors manned the ubiquitous guns that surrounded her deck. Sam climbed the series of ladders to reach the bridge.
He stepped inside. The bridge was empty with one exception. The Marine closed the door and left without saying anything.
“Mr. Reilly!” Sam instantly recognized the almost permanent scowl of the only woman who ever truly owned him. “The next time I give you an order I expect you follow it explicitly.”
Sam ignored the reprimand and smiled, genuinely pleased to see her. “Good morning, Madam Secretary.”
Margret paused as though contemplating any further rebuke of his actions; then sat down having thought better of any further waste of her time. “As you can see, I’ve secured the Antarctic Solace.”
“That’s good.” Sam remained standing. “Is the Department of Defense looking at expanding its business to polar cruises?”
She smiled. Not quite a laugh, but definitely a positive reaction. “No. It appears you’ve stumbled on someone we’ve been searching for a long time.”
“Who?”
“His name’s Robert Cassidy,” she said. “He was once the most brilliant scientist the Department of Defense ever employed – until he disappeared.”
“We had a disagreement with what he was building?” Sam asked.
“Yeah, he lost interest in building what we wanted. Instead, he found a new project to work on. Something too dangerous for even us to muddy our hands with.”
“Really?” Sam didn’t believe her.
She grinned. “Okay, we were happy for him to build it. The problem was we had a disagreement over what we were going to use it for.”
“I see.”
“After a secret meeting with President Reagan he broke off all communications and disappeared completely.”
Sam sighed. “When did you lose him?”
“1983 – Sometime early in the year I’m told.”
Sam looked out past her and out into the crystal clear, icy waters of the Weddell Sea. “You lost him and his weapon
in 1983 and you still think he’s out there?”
“Who said it was a weapon?”
Sam frowned. “Why else would the DOD been interested?”
“Robert Cassidy didn’t see its benefit as a weapon. We did. He threatened to leave. We told him wherever he went we would find him.”
“So what happened?”
“We were wrong. He left and we’ve never seen him since.” The Secretary of Defense sighed. “Since then we thought he might have gotten himself killed as he continued his research. Then we prayed he’d got himself killed. And then we had an incident in 1983 which nearly led to complete nuclear Armageddon that we believe he orchestrated. We hoped that event, at the very least, had got him killed.”
“Go on.”
“Since then small events have occurred which have made us wonder if he was still alive. Each time they were small enough that on their own, they meant little. But over time, if you collected all the pieces, you made a picture that proved undoubtedly that Robert Cassidy was still alive and that he’s still working on his Project.”
“And you think he has something to do with the disappearance of the crew of the Antarctic Solace?”
Her jaw tensed. “Yes. This is the closest chance we’ve had to capturing him in thirty years, and we won’t fuck it up this time.”
“Okay,” Sam said, pleased to see some things got to her. “We’ll get him.”
“There’s something else.” She looked directly at him. “He’s taking risks he’s never taken before; he knows he’s close to getting caught and there’s only one explanation as to why he’s become so brazen.”
“He’s nearly completed the Project?”
“Exactly,” she confirmed.
“So, where do you think he is?”
“Why, he’s at the same place where all the people from the Antarctic Solace were taken.”
Sam sighed. He hated it when she played espionage games, riddled with lies and obscurities when he wanted answers. “And where do you think that is, Margaret?”
The Secretary of Defense smiled. It was wicked and tormenting. He’d never addressed her by her name out of courtesy before, despite their close relationship. She then stared directly at him; her face rigid and unwavering. “Why, Robert Cassidy’s taken them to the Island, of course.” She slightly emphasized “the Island” as if it were something special that he should already know about.
The Sam Reilly Collection Volume 2 Page 43