The Dying of the Light (Book 2): Interval

by Jason Kristopher

  “Thank you, sir. No, sir, I’m fine now. I’ve asked Sergeant Myers here to keep my name out of the report to McMurdo, if that’s all right with you, sir.” He went through all the reasons again for Anderson.

  “Sounds reasonable to me, son. I was hoping to do this before we left, but I’ll just have to do it now. Major William Shaw, you are hereby granted a field promotion to Lieutenant Colonel, and are now in operational command of Rescue Two.”

  I could see Shaw was surprised, but he recovered quickly. “Yes, sir. Thank you, sir.”

  “Not at all. You’re long overdue, in my book. Go ahead and have Myers get in touch with the station, per your instructions. We don’t want to show up without warning and not have a place to land. Oh, and I’d like for you to take the lead position, Colonel. Seems only right that your bird come back home before we land ours. “

  “Thank you, sir. I’ll let you know what they have to say.”

  “Roger that. Rescue One, out.”

  Shaw looked at me. “I got the impression you were in command, sir.” Even though I still didn’t have any rank or insignia, the men on this mission kept deferring to me anyway—something another military man would pick up on automatically.

  I shook my head. “Nope. Strictly a civilian, just along for the ride. The bird’s all yours, Colonel.”

  Shaw turned to Myers. “All right, time to wake those folks up. And remember, don’t mention me or the mission. You never found this bird.”

  Myers nodded. “Yes, sir,” he said, setting up the link.

  “Now to figure out how to deal with Warner,” Shaw said. I’ve seen more dangerous looks on men—Henry Gardner sprang to mind—but for all that, I was pretty damned sure that Jack Warner, whoever he was, was about to have one helluva bad day.

  Chapter Fifteen

  McMurdo Station

  Jim Atkins looked at the hard drives in front of him on the narrow bed in his quarters. These small devices held the data which, if the AEGIS people were correct, in turn held the potential salvation of the human race. How precious these few scraps of metal and plastic were, and how vulnerable. He’d managed to hide them all these months, safe from the prying of both Jack Warner and Tatiana Zavrazhny—even from Sabrina Tanner. Fortunately, he’d been able to convince Warner that the communications expert was much more useful alive, even as a security risk. He’d also managed to impress upon her the necessity for secrecy, and as much as she found what they were doing as distasteful as he did, she couldn’t find a way out, either. The fact that she now slept a few inches away from him every night made that a little easier to bear.

  And what a surprise that had been, he thought. I never would’ve expected—

  His reverie was interrupted when the base communications alarm went off, again. He hurriedly stuffed the drives, safe in their protective cases, into his slim pack and snugged the straps down tight around his shoulders as he put it on. No way was he letting these out of his sight now, especially not when the AEGIS people were on their way.

  He pulled his sweater on over the pack and grabbed his jacket from the chair. Once he put that on, only someone who did some close-up investigating would even know he was wearing it. And that’s just the way he wanted it.

  Atkins ran into Warner as they arrived at the Shack’s door, and both men smiled fake smiles as they entered the building. Sabrina was at the controls and looked up as the men entered. Her face betrayed her dislike for Warner, but only for a moment as Atkins came through the door behind him. That smile of hers still knocked him for a metaphorical loop, and he found himself grinning like an idiot in return, until Warner spoke. “I’m sure we’re all very happy, but what’s going on?”

  “They’re coming!” Sabrina said. “The AEGIS people! They’re—”

  “Repeat, AEGIS Rescue Two to McMurdo Station,” came the transmission from the room’s speakers. “Come in, McMurdo Station.”

  Warner grabbed the microphone from Sabrina before she could hand it to him, thrusting it at Atkins. “They’re used to talking to you,” he said. “Find out how long we have. There are… preparations to make.”

  Atkins sighed and took the mic as Warner left the building. Preparations, indeed.

  “AEGIS Rescue Two, this is Dr. Atkins. Go ahead,” he said, wondering at the name. Two? What happened to the first one? Do I even want to know?

  “Dr. Atkins, this is Sergeant Myers. We’re about four hundred miles out, and we’ll be ready for landing in about an hour or so. Are you folks ready down there? We tried to reach you when we were at Christchurch, but got nothing.”

  Atkins glanced over at Sabrina, but she shrugged. “Nothing’s come in, Jim. Not that I’ve seen.”

  Atkins remembered Warner’s comment just before leaving, and suddenly had a sneaking suspicion. He spoke to Sabrina quickly without activating the mic. “Can you check the logs? See if anyone’s done anything that would prevent us from seeing their transmissions.”

  He could tell she was pissed as she followed his line of reasoning, and she began swearing under her breath as she moved to comply with his request. He blinked at a couple of her chosen expressions, never having thought of her as a particularly foul-mouthed person, and grinned. Looks like I have a lot to learn. I mean, I knew Aussies could swear, but wow.

  “Are you there, McMurdo?”

  “Yes, sorry, Rescue Two. We’re looking into the problem with our equipment now, it could be that it’s just old and outdated.”

  There was a snort from Sabrina on the other side of the room.

  Atkins went on, “We’re ready for you here. The Ice Runway is done and waiting.” He gave the coordinates and other landing information and glanced her way as Sabrina caught his eye, pointing at a computer monitor. She mouthed the words ‘found it,’ and he sighed. He’d been hoping it wasn’t the case, but he was hardly surprised.

  “Great, McMurdo. Have your people standing by. We’ve got a bit of a surprise for you. Rescue Two, out.”

  A surprise? Just what I need, he thought, moving over to Sabrina’s side. Though he heard it, he paid no attention to the announcement about the imminent arrival of the plane over the PA system. “What have you got?”

  “I’m still cleaning it up a bit. Give me a hand, will you?” She pointed to the chair at the next station, then began giving him rapid instructions.

  Meanwhile, Warner unlocked a shed some distance from the Hub, throwing the doors wide and motioning for Duncan to back up the truck. He’d disabled the backup sensor, so there weren’t any loud beeps for any Nosy Nellies to hear. Not that anyone ever came to this side of the station anymore. No reason to, he thought. All filled with spare parts and equipment we can’t spare the power to run—not that any of it works anymore, anyway.

  Or, at least, that’s what everyone had been told.

  Duncan turned off the engine as the truck settled into place, stepping out of the cab and adjusting his gloves and jacket. It might be bright sunshine, but that just meant you’d freeze with a nice view. It was still damned cold.

  The men turned and began dragging bodies out of the shed, throwing them haphazardly into the bed of the truck, until they began to run out of room, at which point Warner climbed inside and began stacking them. He tried not to look at the faces, their frozen-solid stares mocking and accusing him. Finally, Duncan brought out the last one—only a partial corpse. The saw marks from their most recent trip last week still looked fresh, though he couldn’t stomach looking at it too closely.

  As Warner jumped down and began pulling a tarp over the bed, Duncan threw in the saw and other implements necessary to their work.

  It was easiest to use a saw when cutting a slice off a frozen body, they’d found.

  Duncan helped him tie down the tarp and shut the shed door as Warner got behind the wheel, starting up the rumbling engine. Neither man said a word as they drove out onto the ice of Winter Quarters Bay, stopping at a sheltered nook in the ice crags.

  “Here’s good,” said Warner. />
  They stepped out of the truck.

  Duncan said nothing as he began untying the tarp from his side, then climbed inside to start pushing the bodies out.

  Warner reached for the first as Duncan pushed the frozen man his way, and he had a moment’s pause as he recognized Dr. Jackson Monroe, one of the first of what the others had melodramatically started calling the Lost.

  “Problem, Doc?” asked Duncan as the other man paused as well.

  His eyes, thought Warner. It’s like he can see me, like he can see straight into me… He coughed and shook his head. “No, no. Just got… distracted… for a moment there.”

  “All right,” Duncan said, pushing the dead communications specialist once more. “We’d better hurry. Wouldn’t want to be late.”

  Warner took a deep breath and pulled Monroe’s corpse towards him, wincing as the hand he’d grabbed for leverage broke off cleanly, with a sound like a snapping twig. Duncan looked up, then shook his head. “Careful, Doc. Don’t want to leave anything behind.”

  “I know what I’m doing!” Warner replied, only a little hysterically. After all, it wasn’t every day you dropped thirty—twenty-nine and a half, he reminded himself—bodies on the ice to keep people from finding out just what was in the “dietary supplements” you’d made mandatory.

  “What I don’t get is why we’re bothering to do this at all,” said Duncan quietly as he moved the next body into place.

  “That’s because you’re not seeing the bigger picture, Mr. Duncan. What if they wanted to check the place out? What if they needed some piece of equipment we haven’t touched in five years that was out there? Better safe than sorry.”

  Duncan nodded. “I suppose so. Let’s just hope we can keep the rest of this quiet.”

  “You and me are the only ones who know. How much more quiet can it be?”

  “I think you’re forgetting Jennifer,” Duncan said.

  “Shit.” Warner stopped his work to straighten his back and sigh.

  “Exactly. And there’s no time to deal with it now.”

  “Can you take care of it, though? I have to deal with Atkins.”

  “Deal with him, or deal with him?”

  Warner glowered. “There’s no need to kill him, Harold. He doesn’t know about… about this,” he said, indicating the pile of bodies.

  “Are you sure? Absolutely sure? If he does, he’s a liability.”

  “I know that! Don’t you think I know that? I’ll take care of him, you take care of her!” Warner looked down at his radio. “Change your radio to frequency seven, just in case I need to get hold of you.”

  Duncan sighed and made the adjustment. “I’ll see what I can do,” he said.

  Atkins and Sabrina had their answer. “It’s clever,” she said, unable to keep a slight tone of admiration from her voice. “He hid his tracks really well.”

  “Yes, but what did he do?” Jim had never been particularly interested in the more esoteric details of computer security, preferring to deal with intrusion problems the old-fashioned way—by not leaving the data physically accessible. He shifted the pack on his back just to reassure himself.

  “The short version?” she asked.

  “Please.”

  “He turned off the alarm and erased the incoming messages, then erased the logs that showed he erased the messages, then got rid of those logs, too.”

  “So we did get their signal. Or, at least, he did.”

  “Yep. But why would he hide it? Because of the lottery?”

  “Either that, or he wanted to delay us finding out for some reason. Something he’s doing.” Atkins swore. “I just wish I knew what he was up to.”

  “Atkins, report to my office,” said Warner, the radio startling them both.

  Sabrina looked up at him. “You’ve been summoned.”

  He sighed. “I can’t imagine this will be very pleasant. Having to choose half my friends to die.” He glanced over at her, noticing her worried expression. “Don’t worry,” he said, smiling and kissing her on the cheek. “If they want me to go, they’re going to have to take you, too.”

  He put on his jacket and opened the door, giving her a long look before he left. As he headed over to the main building, he shivered, though it had nothing to do with the cold.

  At best, there’s a 50/50 chance that plane will make it back here. How can I possibly live with that?

  He walked into Warner’s office a few minutes later, and looked around in confusion. Warner was moving about his office, collecting papers and small items into a file box that he obviously intended to take with him.

  “I thought this was going to be a lottery drawing, Jack,” Atkins said.

  Warner nodded, not really paying attention. He sat down, rummaging through his desk drawers. “It is, it is.”

  “I don’t see any numbers. Or tickets. Or, you know, anything to do an actual drawing with. Have you hidden it somewhere?”

  Warner looked up, his expression one of surprise and fear. “What? Hidden? What have you heard?” He’d stopped rummaging, his right hand in the top drawer. The look on his face made Jim’s blood run cold.

  Whoa. Jack is stone-cold crazy. What the hell is going on? thought Atkins. I’ve never seen him so jumpy. “The lottery drawing? Where’s the stuff? Tickets, etc?”

  Warner was clearly confused for a moment, then his expression cleared. “Oh, that.”

  What the hell did he think I was talking about? “Yes, that. You know, the thing where we leave half our people to die on the ice. Kind of a big thing at the moment.”

  “I already took care of it, Jim. No need to worry, either. You are, of course, on the list.” There was an odd tone to his voice, but Atkins put it down to stress at the rescue. “You and Dr. Tanner, both.”

  “You already took care of it? What are you talking about?”

  “That’s why I called you here. I figured the lottery drawing could really be done by anyone, and I thought you’d be so busy you might not have time to help. So I just went ahead and did it.” He selected a small figurine for his box, one of the few personal items Atkins had ever seen in Warner’s possession. The diminutive golfer was carefully wrapped in spare printer paper and placed in the box. After which, naturally, lots of other files and knickknacks were heaped atop it.

  “So, you held the lottery already. By yourself.”

  “Yes.”

  “Can I see the list?”

  “No need! You’re on it, as I said. As is Dr. Tanner.” Atkins noticed Warner had glanced at an otherwise inconspicuous folder on his desk, and blessed the poker he’d played in college for his ability to read faces and body language.

  “Still, better to just have a second set of eyes to double-check,” Atkins said as he snatched the file from the desk. He wasn’t prepared for Warner to nearly leap across the desk, grabbing at the file.

  “No! There’s no need, I already told you!”

  The men struggled, each pulling and twisting on the file. Just when Atkins thought it was going to rip rather than end up the sole possession of one of the two angry men, his least-favorite blonde Russian burst into the room, along with Sven.

  Tatiana Zavrazhny was still zipping up her jacket when she entered. Atkins noticed her slip a small piece of paper into her left breast pocket as she did so, though his curiosity didn’t last long when she began speaking.

  “Mudaki! Assholes!” Her voice carried quite a way, and Atkins knew others had heard it. “Haven’t you been listening to the radio?”

  Warner and Atkins glanced at each other, then down at their radios, which they’d turned off just so no one would accidentally overhear them.

  “No, we haven’t, Ms. Zavrazhny,” said Warner, still holding tight to the file, as was Atkins. “What is it?”

  “Your little plan is pointless, now,” Tatiana said, and it occurred to Atkins that her English had gotten one hell of a lot better damned quick. “Come on. The planes are landing.”

  Atkins did a double-take.
“Wait, what? Planes? As in multiple?”

  “Debil! Yes, you idiot, that’s exactly what I mean. There are two planes landing. You’d know this if you weren’t too busy playing with each other.”

  Atkins turned to Warner. “But then, that means…”

  “Da, it means you do not need to consider any longer your stupid plan to leave half of us here,” said Tatiana, causing both men to go completely silent in shock. “You did not think I knew? Your little ploy to keep secret this plan failed.”

  “How… how many…” asked Warner.

  “How many people know you tried to kill them? Only Sven and me. Is… how you say in English… insurance?” She looked over at Sven. “We wanted to be coming on the plane. Now, is pointless. Come on.”

  Mutely, the four of them went outside, where a Jeep was running, and climbed aboard, Tatiana taking the driver’s seat. They slalomed around the final curve and approached the Ice Runway. Atkins made a mental note never to ride with a crazy Russian bitch driving, and then gasped at the number of people on the runway, lined up to see the planes arrive. It had been years since everyone had gathered together in one location. Just over nine hundred people was still a lot of people, even though it felt like only a few people lived on the base anymore.

  As the Russian stopped the Jeep and they got out, Atkins looked up and could just make out a huge plane circling in the distance. The crowd began to erupt in scattered cheers.

  He saw Sabrina nearby with a pair of binoculars held to her face, the fringe on her parka fluttering in the light wind. He walked up next to her and smiled, or at least tried. They’d known each other long enough now, though, that when she glanced his way, she didn’t return it, realizing it for the false front it was. She reached down and squeezed his hand, though, passing the binoculars to him with the other.

  The plane leaped into focus, and he gasped once more as he recognized it as the same model as the one which had sat in a converted warehouse at McMurdo for nearly four years. When Sabrina tapped him on the arm and pointed, he shifted his position and saw another C-5 preparing to circle for its own landing.