Ice Station ss-1

by Matthew Reilly

  Kirsty. Kirsty.

  Where were they keeping her? Schofield didn't know. He presumed somewhere on B-deck, but only because that was where the living quarters were.

  He entered the circular outer tunnel of B-deck just in time to see two SAS commandos racing toward him. They raised their machine guns just as Schofield brought both of his guns up and fired them simultaneously. The two SAS men went down in an instant. Schofield didn't miss a step as he strode over their bodies.

  He moved swiftly round the circular corridor, looking left, looking right.

  Suddenly a door to his left opened and another SAS commando emerged, gun up. He managed to get a shot off before Schofield's guns blasted to life and sent the commando flying back into the room from whence he had come.

  Schofield entered the room after him. It was the common room.

  He saw Kirsty instantly. He also saw two more SAS commandos who were in the process of shoving the little girl toward the door.

  Schofield entered the common room warily, with both of his guns up.

  When Kirsty saw Schofield step inside the common room with his two guns raised, she thought she had seen a ghost.

  He looked awful.

  He was soaked to the skin; his nose was broken; his face was bruised, and his body armor was battered all over.

  One of the SAS soldiers behind Kirsty stopped dead in his tracks when he saw Schofield step into the room. He held Kirsty out in front of him, put a gun to her head, used her as a shield.

  "I'll kill her, mate," the commando said calmly. "I swear to fucking Christ, I'll paint the walls of this room with her brains."

  "Kirsty," Schofield said as he calmly leveled his pistol at the SAS man's forehead while at the same time aiming his MP-5 at the other SAS commando's brain.

  "Yeah," Kirsty said meekly.

  Schofield said evenly, "Shut your eyes, honey."

  Kirsty shut her eyes and the world went black.

  And then suddenly she heard the double boom! boom! of guns being fired and she didn't know whose guns had fired and then she was falling backward, still in the grip of the SAS man who had grabbed hold of her to use as a shield. They hit the floor hard and Kirsty felt the SAS commando's grip loosen.

  She opened her eyes.

  The two British soldiers were lying on the floor beside her. She saw their feet, their waists, their chests?

  "Don't look at them, honey," Schofield said, moving to her. "You don't want to see that."

  Kirsty turned around and looked up at Schofield. He picked her up and held her in his arms. Then Kirsty buried her head in his shoulder plate and cried.

  "Come on. It's time to get out of here," Schofleld said gently.

  He quickly reloaded his weapons and grabbed Kirsty's hand, and the two of them left the common room.

  They raced around the curved outer tunnel, heading for the east passageway. They turned the corner.

  And suddenly Schofield stopped.

  Mounted on the wall to his left he saw a large rectangular black compartment. Written across it were the words: fuse box.

  The fuse box, he thought. This must have been where the French cut the lights earlier....

  Schofield got an idea.

  He spun where he stood and saw the door leading to the Biotoxin Lab behind him. Next to it he saw a door marked:

  STORAGE CLOSET.

  Yes.

  Schofield wrenched open the door to the storage closet. Inside it, he saw mops and buckets and old wooden shelves loaded with cleaning agents. He quickly reached up and grabbed a plastic bottle of ammonia from one of the shelves.

  Schofield emerged from the closet and hurried over to the fuse box. He yanked open the door and saw a series of wires, wheels, and power units inside.

  Kirsty was standing farther down the east tunnel, looking out into the central shaft of the station.

  "Hurry up," she whispered. "They're coming!"

  Schofield heard voices over his newly acquired headset:

  "?Hopkins, report?"

  "?going after the girl?"

  "?perimeter team, return to the station at once. We have a problem here?"

  At the fuse box, Schofield quickly found the wire he was looking for. He pulled back the sheath, exposed the copper wire. Then he punched a hole in the plastic ammonia bottle with the butt of his gun and positioned it above the exposed strand of wire. A small trickle of ammonia fluid began to drip slowly out of the bottle, down onto the exposed wire.

  The drops of ammonia smacked rhythmically against the wire.

  Smack-smack. Smack-smack.

  At that moment, in time with the rhythm of the ammonia drops hitting the exposed wire, every light in the tunnel? indeed, every light in the whole station?began to flicker on and off, like a strobe. On. Off. On. Off.

  In the flickering light of the tunnel, Schofield grabbed Kir-sty's hand and took off toward the central shaft. Once they got to the catwalk, they hurried up the nearest rung-ladder to A-deck.

  Schofield strode around the A-deck catwalk, heading toward the main entrance to the station. The station around him nickered black and white. Darkness, light, darkness, light.

  If he could just get to the British hovercrafts, he thought, he might be able to get away and get back to McMurdo.

  There was movement everywhere. Shouts echoed through the station as the shadows of SAS commandos raced around the catwalks in the flickering light, searching for Schofield.

  Schofield saw that some of the British commandos had tried to put on night-vision goggles.

  But night vision would be useless now. With the station's lights flickering on and off, anyone wearing night-vision goggles would be blinded every time the lights came on?which was every couple of seconds.

  They reached the main entrance passageway, just as an SAS soldier came bursting out of it onto the catwalk. The SAS man collided with Schofield, and Schofield was almost bowled over the catwalk's railing.

  The SAS man hit the deck, rose to his knees, raised his gun to fire, but Schofield let fly with a powerful kick that connected with the soldier's jaw and sent him crashing down to the catwalk.

  Schofield was about to step over the downed soldier's body when suddenly he saw a large black satchel stretched over the man's shoulder. He grabbed it, opened it.

  He saw two silver canisters inside the satchel. Two silver canisters with green bands painted around them.

  Tritonal 80/20 charges.

  Schofield frowned.

  He had wondered earlier why the British would bring Tritonal charges to Wilkes Ice Station. Tritonal was an extremely powerful explosive, usually used for demolition purposes. Why would Barnaby have it here?

  Schofield grabbed the satchel off the unconscious man's shoulder.

  As he did so, however, he heard shouts coming from inside the entrance passageway. Then he heard footsteps, and the click of safeties being removed from MP-5s.

  The SAS commandos outside, the perimeter team...

  They were coming back inside!

  "Kirsty! Get down!" he yelled. He spun quickly and brought both of his guns up just as the first SAS commando charged in through the main entrance of Wilkes Ice Station.

  The first man went down in a hail of blood and bullets.

  The second and the third learned from his error, and they entered the station firing.

  "Back inside!" Schofield yelled to Kirsty. "We can't go this way!"

  Schofield slid down the nearest rung-ladder with Kirsty on his back.

  They hit B-deck. A bullet pinged off the steel ladder next to Schofield's eyes.

  Schofield heard more voices over his British headset:

  "?the fuck did he go?"

  "?took the girl! Killed Maurice, Hoddle, and Hopkins?"

  "?saw him on A-deck?"

  And then Schofield heard Barnaby's voice. "Nero! The lights! Either get them on or get them off! Find that fucking fuse box!"

  The station was in chaos, absolute chaos. There was no steady lig
ht, just the terrible incessant flickering.

  Schofield saw shadows on the other side of B-deck.

  Can't go there.

  He looked out over the central shaft, and in a flickering instant, his eyes fell on the retractable bridge on C-deck.

  The bridge on C-deck....

  Schofield quickly checked his inventory.

  One Glock pistol. One MP-5. Neither of which would be enough to take out twenty SAS commandos.

  Schofield still had the satchel he had stolen from the SAS man who had come in from outside. Two Tritonal charges were in the satchel. He also had the two nitrogen charges he had liberated from the very first SAS commando he had killed after flying up out of the water on the Maghook.

  "All right," he said, looking down at the narrow retractable bridge on the deck beneath him. "It's time to end this."

  In the ghostly flickering light of the station, Schofield and Kirsty stepped out onto the retractable bridge on C-deck.

  If anybody had seen them, they would have seen them walk right out onto the middle of the bridge, would then have seen him crouch down on one knee and do something to the bridge for several minutes.

  And then, when he was done, they would have seen Schofield just crouch down next to Kirsty and wait.

  A few minutes later, the British found the fuse box and the flickering stopped and the lights to the station came on again. The station glowed white under its bright fluorescent lights.

  It didn't take the SAS long to spot Schofield and Kirsty.

  Schofield stood up on the bridge as the remainder of the SAS unit?about twenty men?adopted positions on the C-deck catwalk, surrounding him. It was a strange sight?Schofield and Kirsty out in the middle of the shaft, standing in the center of the retractable bridge, while the SAS took up positions on the circular catwalk all around them.

  The SAS raised their guns ...

  ... just as Schofield held one of the Tritonal charges high above his head.

  Good strategy is like magic. Make your enemy look at one hand while you're doing something with the other....

  "Hold your fire," Barnaby's voice came over Schofield's headset. "Hold your fire."

  Schofield saw Barnaby step out onto the pool deck fifty feet below him, alone. All of the SAS platoon except for Barnaby were up on C-deck, surrounding Schofield.

  Schofield glanced at the pool next to Barnaby. The killer whales were nowhere to be seen. Good.

  "I've armed the Tritonal charge!" Schofield shouted. "And my finger is holding the arm button down! The timer is set for two seconds! If you shoot me, I'll drop the charge and we all die!"

  Schofield stood with his feet spread apart out in the middle of the retractable bridge. Kirsty was kneeling at his feet, huddled beneath him. Schofield hoped that the SAS didn't see his hands shaking. He hoped they didn't see that his shoelaces were missing.

  "And if you shoot the girl," Schofield said, seeing one of the SAS men lower his sights at Kirsty, "I'll definitely drop the charge."

  As he spoke, Schofield cast a worried glance over at the alcove on the catwalk.

  If they retracted the bridge...

  Barnaby shouted up to him, "Lieutenant, this is very unpleasant. You have killed no less than six of my men. Have no doubt, we will kill you."

  "I want safe passage out of here."

  "You're not going to get it," Barnaby said.

  "Then we all go up in flames."

  Barnaby shook his head. "Lieutenant Schofield, this is not you. You would sacrifice your own life, I know that. Because I know you. But I also know that you could never sacrifice the girl."

  Schofield felt his blood chill.

  Barnaby was right. Schofield could never kill Kirsty. Bar- naby was calling his bluff. Schofield glanced again at the alcove over on the catwalk. The alcove that housed the bridge controls.

  Nero caught him looking.

  Schofield watched intently as Nero looked from Schofield to the alcove and then back at Schofield again.

  "This is Nero," Schofield heard Nero's voice whisper over the headset. "Subject is looking at the bridge controls over here. He looks pretty nervous about it."

  Make your enemy look at one hand...

  Bamaby's voice: "The bridge. He doesn't want us to open the bridge. Mr. Nero. Retract the bridge."

  "Yes, sir."

  Schofield then saw Nero walk slowly toward the alcove and reach for the button that retracted the bridge. He made a point of watching Nero all the way?for this to work he needed the British to think that he was worried about their retracting the bridge....

  "Watson," Barnaby's voice said.

  "Yes, sir."

  "When the bridge opens, kill him. Take him out with a head shot."

  "Yes, sir."

  "Houghton. Take the girl."

  "Yes, sir."

  Schofield felt his knees begin to shake. This was going to be close. Very, very close.

  .. .while you're doing something with the other....

  "Are you ready?" Schofield said to Kirsty.

  "Uh-huh."

  In the alcove, Nero hit the large rectangular button marked

  BRIDGE.

  There came a loud mechanical clanking sound from somewhere within the walls of the alcove and then suddenly the bridge underneath Schofield's feet jolted as it came apart at the center and began to retract.

  As soon as the bridge began to retract, two of the SAS soldiers fired at Schofield and Kirsty, but they had already dropped out of sight and the bullets whizzed over their heads.

  Schofield and Kirsty let themselves fall down into the shaft.

  They fell fast.

  Down and down, until they splashed into the pool at the bottom of the station.

  It had happened so fast that the SAS men up on C-deck didn't know what was going on.

  It didn't matter.

  For it was then that the two nitrogen charges that Schofield had tied to the ends of the retractable portions of the bridge suddenly and explosively went off.

  It was the way that Schofield had tied the nitrogen charges to the bridge with his shoelaces that did it.

  He had tied them down in such a way that each nitrogen charge lay on either side of the join between the two platforms that extended out to form the bridge.

  What he had also done, however, was tie the pins of each nitrogen charge to the opposite platform, so that when the bridge parted, the retraction of the two platforms would pull both pins from their grenades. What he had needed, however, was for the SAS to retract the bridge.

  And right up until they exploded, the SAS soldiers never saw the nitrogen charges. They had been too busy looking at Schofield, first, as he held the (unarmed) Tritonal charge above his head and, second, as he and Kirsty fell down into the pool.

  Make your enemy look at one hand while you're doing something with the other.

  As he hit the freezing water, Schofield almost smiled. Trevor Barnaby had taught him that.

  The two nitrogen charges on the bridge went off.

  Supercooled liquid nitrogen blasted out in every direction on C-deck, splattering every SAS commando on the surrounding catwalk.

  The results were horrifying.

  Nitrogen charges are like no other grenade?for the simple fact that they do not have to penetrate the skin of their victims in order to kill them.

  The theory behind their effectiveness is based on the special qualities of water?water is the only naturally occurring substance on earth that expands when it is cooled. When a human body is hit by a burst of supercooled liquid nitrogen, that body becomes very cold, very fast. Blood cells freeze instantly, and being made up of approximately 70% water, they begin to expand rapidly. The result: total body hemorrhage.

  And when every single blood cell in a human body explodes it makes for a horrifying sight.

  The SAS men on C-deck had their faces exposed?and that was where the liquid nitrogen hit them. So it was in their faces that the supercooled liquid nitrogen took its most devastat
ing effect. The blood vessels under their facial skin? veins, arteries, capillaries?instantly began to rupture and then suddenly, spontaneously, they began to explode.

  Black lesions instantly appeared all over their faces as the blood vessels under their skin exploded. Their eyes filled with blood, and the soldiers could no longer see. Blood exploded out from the pores of their skin.

  The SAS commandos fell to their knees, screaming.

  But they wouldn't scream for long. Brain death would occur within the next thirty seconds as the blood vessels in their brains froze over and themselves began to hemorrhage.

  They would all be dead soon, and it would be agony every second of the way.

  From down on E-deck, Trevor Barnaby just stared up at the scene above him.

  His whole unit had just been cut down by the blast of the two nitrogen charges. In fact, nearly the whole of the interior of the station was covered in blue liquid goo. Hand railings began to crack as the nitrogen froze them. Even the cable that held up the diving bell was covered with a layer of ice?it, too, began to crack as the supercooled liquid nitrogen made it contract in on itself at an alarming rate. Even the portholes of the diving bell down in the pool were covered over with the blue poxy.

  Barnaby couldn't believe it.

  Schofield had just killed twenty of his men with one stone...

  And now he was the only one left.

  Barnaby's mind raced.

  All right. Think. What is the objective? The spacecraft is the objective. Must control the spacecraft. How do I control the spacecraft? Wait?

  I have men down there with it.

  Get to the cavern.

  Bamaby's eyes fell on the diving bell.

  Yes....

  At that moment, on the far side of the diving bell, Barnaby saw Schofield and the little girl break through the thin layer of ice that had formed on the surface of the pool when it had been hit by the spray of liquid nitrogen, saw them start swimming for the far deck.

  Barnaby ignored them. He just grabbed a scuba tank from the ground next to him and dived into the pool, heading for the diving bell.

  Schofield lifted Kirsty out of the water and up onto the deck.