Arctic Series (Book 1): Arctic Cold

by Jason Keizer

  Oliver looks over at Henry. With a big smile on his face, Henry yells, “Aww hell yeah! Let's blow this mofo up. WOOO!” He starts to jump up and down a little bit in his seat with excitement.

  Over the radio, James says, “Well, let's make some noise.”

  The team meets up behind Henry's vehicle. They open up one of the compartments and pull out a crate of C4. James looks at the C4, turns to Henry and asks, “Since you are the demo expert, how you want to do this?”

  Henry grabs three bricks of C4, wrapped in a film that says M112, and three remote charges and answers, “We put these on one side of the car. One in the center and the other two a little more than halfway to the edge of it. Flip the damn thing and blow it up before any get to escape.”

  James bends to the side and looks at the rail car. He says, “Ok. I'll flip it and then run. As soon as you think I am far enough away, blow it up.”

  Henry quickly asks, “Can I press the button?”

  James puts the box of remaining C4 away and closes up the cabinet. As he walks past the men, towards the rail car he says, “No. You got to test that cool bullet yesterday, Oliver gets to press the button.”

  Oliver fist pumps the air as he says, “Aww yeah to me!”

  Henry gives a short laugh and says, “That was possibly the nerdiest thing I have ever seen you do Dexter’s Lab.”

  James turns around and tosses a detonator to Oliver. “Drive the trucks in front of this before we do this. We don't need to drive over broken rails and metal after this thing goes off.”

  Oliver replies, “Sure thing. You want one of us to help place the charges?”

  James shakes his head. “No, I got it. Besides, I’m the fastest of us if anything happens, in which case it would be good for you two to man the trucks.”

  Henry and Oliver each hop in a truck, derail them, and move around the train car. Henry drives off about 100 meters as Oliver stays just in front of the rail car. Oliver steps out of his cab and grabs the flip-set from the back. By the time he brings it to James, the charges are set.

  “Just make sure you don't blow me up with them,” James says as he grabs the flip-set from Oliver.

  Oliver runs back to the truck and drives forward. By the time he gets behind Henry and hops in his gunner chair, James has the flip-set in position and starts to pump.

  Over the headset, James says, “Ok, this thing is about ready. So take your positions in your turrets.”

  Oliver and Henry both do as ordered. Henry, facing to the front in case anyone or thing comes towards them, Oliver swings to the railcar, making sure if the door opens early he can take out any that get out.

  Oliver and Henry both say, “All set.” James uses the lever on the jack a couple of more times. When he sees the car is at its tipping point, he starts running towards the trucks.

  The car slowly topples over, creating a large cloud of dust as it gives a small bounce and settles down. James stops and looks at the rail car, but nothing seems to be happening.

  He says, “I really hope that wasn’t a waste of good C4.” With a loud snap, the door flies open.

  James turns back to the trucks and starts running.

  As a head pops up from the door of the car, a bunch of loud screeches echo down the tracks. James picks up his speed from a run to a lightning-quick sprint. Arms reach up and Arctics pull themselves out of the car. One pulls itself up from the doorway and jumps onto the side of the car.

  “Now,” James yells as he slides into the back of the truck.

  Oliver let's go of the turret and grabs the detonator from next to his weapon. He flips up a red cover and hits the switch as he says, “Fire in the hole.”

  BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

  The rail car explodes. A ball of fire quickly flares up. Just as quickly, it collapses in as a red mist forms around the rail car. A small breeze gently pushes the cloud over towards the tree line. As it engulfs the trees, branches quickly freeze white and shatter. As the dust settles, metal and chunks of arctic hit the ground and bounce around a little bit.

  “WOOO!” Henry yells.

  Oliver slips out of the truck and walks to the back with a large smile on his face as James gets up from the ground. “You good?” Oliver asks him.

  James takes a couple of deep breaths and then slaps Oliver on the back and says, “Yeah, guess I don’t know my own speed. Man, that was awesome.” He turns and faces the destruction they just caused, continuing, “Pretty easy way of taking them out too.”

  Oliver hands over the detonator to James and asks, “I would guess that there was another box in that car. Maybe next time we should find a way to recover it. Seeing as how we always thought they were deaf, it could prove essential in learning more about them.”

  James opens up a compartment on the back of the truck and sets the detonator in it. As he closes the door, he says, “No idea, but it does give us the chance on killing a good bunch of them at a time. Now, let's get going. We are losing daylight.” The men get into their trucks and head out once again.

  After a few more hours, the team stops on a bridge over a river. The sign before the bridge reads, “Clark Fork.” The bridge is pretty short and narrow. Just wide enough to fit a train with a foot or two on each side. The river sits about twenty feet below them. A little way to the right there is a small highway bridge. Three cars sit on it, doors wide open from being scavenged. To the left, it's just a drop into the river. Forest lines both sides of the river as far as the horizon will take them, showing the slowly darkening pink sky.

  Oliver taps his headset and says, “This is a good spot to camp for the night. Should be easy to keep secure without the possibility to be flanked.”

  “Sounds good. We will each do 2-hour watch shifts. Who wants the first one?” No one answers. Henry and Oliver step out of their truck. James does the same. They all meet up in between the trucks.

  “Well, let's relax, get settled in, and in a little bit we can get some rest,” James says.

  Oliver looks at the cars on the other bridge and says, “I will take the first shift. I'm not very tired right now anyways.” He walks over to the edge of the bridge, facing the other bridge, and takes a seat. Henry and James follow and sit next to him.

  With their feet dangling over the edge, Henry asks, “James, did you come through here on your way to Serra City?”

  James looks up to the cars and tells them, “Yes I did. My group even dug through those cars for supplies. There wasn't much of anything in them. A few bottles of water and some snacks. We were gonna use them since they had gas, but they didn't start. Some of my group thought about taking a little bit of time to see if we could track the owners of them down, but we didn't. I figured they were dead or ran off somewhere. It was probably a few months since anyone was in them anyways.

  “Besides, back then we just wanted to push through to the walled city as fast as we could. With all the shit going on from the bombings and whatnot, kind of had to move on as fast as we could. A week or so later, the Skullniks attacked, and I was captured.”

  He puts his head back down to the river. “I tried so hard to get everyone there safe. A couple died on the trails from injuries and infections. After I was captured, almost half the rest died from what I hear. I haven't seen any of the others since I was rescued and brought to the capital. I did get a couple letters and cards telling me they all decided to move and help with expanding the border down south, near Onett. Good for them though. I am glad they decided to do something helpful and not just shut themselves in like most of the people in the city did.”

  Oliver grabs a small rock from next to him and tosses it off the bridge. He looks over to James and says, “Yeah, I met a couple of them when you were in the hospital. They were nothing but grateful for you sheltering them for so long and leading them to the city. They all called you a hero for leading the Skullniks away from them as well. A couple of them tried to see you, but because of your situation, Inara and a few of us made sure no one knew you were there
and turned them away.”

  Henry stands up, “I see why you moved out here after getting out. It is so beautiful. I like living in the city and all, but sometimes I do miss seeing the beauty of pure nature. Maybe staying in the wilderness with you would have saved Grammy.”

  Oliver joins Henry in standing and says, “Hey, we all miss Grammy. She was the best. She took us in as her own family. Nothing would have changed what happened to her or anyone else. And yes, the wilderness is beautiful. But the problem with beauty is that as you stare in awe of it as a whole, you miss the small details of what can also make it ugly. Out there, in the serenity of the trees and past the banks of the river, there are monsters just waiting to kill us.”

  Henry tilts his head a little as he turns to Oliver. He gives a small smirk and says, “Hey bro, I was trying to have myself a moment. Don’t be fucking it up.”

  He slaps Henry on the shoulder and gives a small chuckle and adds, “But to all of them, I wonder if we are the monsters. Would that make whoever wins this be the better monster, or the worse monster?”

  James stands up and starts walking to his truck. He opens the door to his cab and grabs three small glasses and a bottle from the center console. He walks back over to the front of his truck and sets the cups down. He opens the bottle of whiskey and pours a shot into each of the glasses. The other two walk over and each picks up a glass.

  James says, “I guess it doesn’t matter either way. The winner will always tell it as them being better, not worse.”

  They raise up their glasses and in the same way they always toast, they say, “To another day down, another ahead. We drink for the living, and we tap for the dead.” The men touch their glasses together and tap them down on the hood of the truck before drinking their shot.

  As James collects the glasses from the other men, he says, “Sleep well tonight brothers. Tomorrow around noon we should hopefully reach our destination. Oliver, your shift starts in five. So, could you please set the claymores and wake me up in about two hours.”

  James gets in his truck and closes the door. Inside, he puts his whiskey and glasses back into the center console. He grabs a blanket from the back seat and reclines his chair back. He grabs the sat phone from the passenger chair and tries to call to Serra. Nothing.

  He rolls down his window and says, “Sat phone still down. Guess it's just us for a little bit longer. Oh yeah, make sure you charge your headsets throughout the night.”

  Henry looks over to Oliver and says, “I'll help you out. Cause that's what partners do, just like in Lethal Weapon.”

  The two of them turn and walk a couple steps to get to the back of their truck. Oliver opens a compartment and pulls out four directional claymore mines and a couple rolls of thin wire. Oliver says, “You know I can do this myself, like John McClane.”

  He hands two of the mines and one roll to Henry. Henry grabs them and says, “You do know, he had some sort of partner in the last three movies.”

  “Yeah, but like me, for the fourth movie, it was some idiot he had no choice with.”

  “That may be true, but you are happy to be stuck with a dope like me.”

  Oliver walks to just past the edge of the bridge. He unrolls some of the wire and ties it to a small stick and then wraps it around one of the rails. Slowly, he rolls more wire across the tracks, over the rails, and wraps it around another tie. He plants one of the claymores on the right side of the tracks facing out.

  Carefully, he attaches the wire to the claymore. He does the same to the second one, but places it on the left side of the tracks. Henry does the same to the front of the trucks, ahead of the bridge. This way if something comes up on them, the claymore will send steel balls right through anything standing in front of it.

  The two men meet up by their truck and hop in. Oliver slides up into the gunner seat and looks out onto the tracks. Henry leans his seat back and covers up with a blanket. He closes his eyes, and before he falls to sleep, tells Oliver, “Lethal Weapon was so much better bro.”

  Oliver gives out a small laugh and says, “You wish.”

  He looks up to the sky and is grateful that there are few clouds. The moonlight will allow him to see most things that come up towards them.

  THIRTEEN

  After the lunch is over, Mercy goes back to Serra Tower. She hops on the elevator and hits floor 18. As it takes her up, she pulls out a small sheet of paper and a pen from her purse and writes a short note. Once she gets to the top, she walks out on the communications floor. She walks past a row of desks, turns right, and walks past a few more. Mercy stops at a desk where a thin man with long dark hair is hunched over in his chair, staring at a computer screen. She puts a hand on his left shoulder and leans in towards him.

  “Hey Bob, how's the sat checks going?” she asks.

  He starts to type on his keyboard and a small window pops up on his screen. A bunch of numbers and filenames run across the window as a bar slowly moves at the top. In a thick Canadian accent, he says, “Oh, we are at aboat eighty percent now. Should be done in a little bit, eh.”

  She pats him on the shoulder a couple of times and says, “Good. Let me know as soon as everything is done. I would like to be the first person you call if that is fine.”

  He turns his head from the computer over to Mercy and says, “Ah, no problem Mercy. As soon as I know, you will know.”

  Mercy puts her hand on Bob's desk and puts the note next to his keyboard. “Thank you, Bob. I know I can always count on you,” she says as she walks off.

  Mercy gets on the elevator and pulls out her phone. She sends a message to a number under the name of S.W. The text reads, “Got a job for you.”

  Before the elevator gets to the ground level, a response comes back. “5m in alley N of tower.”

  Making her way through the lobby, she runs into Inara. “Dr. Stone, communications is checking through the satellites right now and we should have results shortly. I have an appointment real quick that I can’t miss, but if you need anything let me know,” she says.

  “Sounds good. I will be in my office on the phone with the other sectors. Let me know how your appointment goes.”

  Mercy starts walking towards the doors. “Will do.”

  She steps out of the tower and turns left. She walks three blocks and turns into a narrow alley where a car is waiting. She walks to the car and gets in on the passenger side. Sitting behind the wheel is a man with a long beard. He looks like a giant, sitting in such a small car. His seat is all the way back, and even though he is hunched over, his head still touches the roof. “Hi Mercy,” he says as he puts the car in drive and they start moving. He turns right out of the alley.

  “Where are we going?” asks Mercy.

  Without taking his eyes off the road, he replies, “Just for a drive while we talk. Just gonna circle around a bit. I will bring you back when we are done. Now, what can I help you with?”

  “First, how are you driving? You need a pass to drive, and that’s given to only government personnel, construction workers, and truckers for the most part.”

  He smiles and says, “No worries. I made myself a driving pass as soon as the system was up.

  Probably got mine before you did.”

  “Still up to your old tricks I see. Well, since you are already in our stuff, I need to you see if you can find anything about the Hanford site. Any sat feeds, files, you know, anything not how it should be.”

  “Well, I’m not in there that far yet. Still trying to push it in, but things are tight.”

  Mercy swings her hand up and gives him a slap on the back of his hunched over head.

  “Hey, I’m driving here.” He rubs the back of his head. “I know where and what it is. I hear rumors you have a team going there. Guessing you want to know what happened to the last one that went there as well?”

  “Yup. Something just doesn’t sit right with this whole situation. The sat feeds in that area and a few others have been very spotty at best since this last team
went out. Not sure if it is a sat issue or something else.”

  “Yeah, shouldn’t be a problem for the most part. I can easily get a live feed. Getting saved pics or vids might be harder with what I have. Depends on where they are saved. If they even are saved somewhere.”

  He looks over to Mercy with a sly grin. “It is nice to be working with you again, but I don't think your boss will be happy if she finds out about this.”

  “Who do you think is giving me the orders to do this? We think something is up with the Defense Department and want to know what.”

  “Well shit, if that's the case, count me in sweet cheeks. I can probably get my way in and show you some images from the last team and will set up a raw live feed of the site in case they try to show you an alternate one.”

  “Alternate one?”

  “Yeah. There is a delay of live feeds, due to the time it takes to send, receive, process, all that good stuff. If someone gets that feed first, they can alter it a bit or put it on a loop, and no one would really notice since there isn’t much going on in most parts anyways.”

  “Well, make sure you get the raw feed then.” She pauses for a second. “And thank you. We will be at Flynn's later if you come up with anything today. I will send you your normal payment. If you can get the live feed done today, I will make it something special.”

  “Finally gonna take me up on that date, huh? I will see you tonight then.” Sam laughs.

  “Thanks Sam, but you sure as hell aren’t getting a date. We tried that once before. But you can let me out here. I can walk the rest of the way.”

  Sam pulls the car over a block from the tower and Mercy gets out. While walking back to the tower, she pulls out her phone and writes a message to Inara. “Appointment went well. Be back in a few.”

  When Mercy gets back to the tower, she goes straight to Inara's office. When she walks in Inara puts a finger to her lips and points at the phone that is on speaker with the other hand. Mercy takes a seat in one of the chairs as Inara finishes talking with the other sectors.