Ice Station ss-1

by Matthew Reilly

  The SEAL commander said, "Thank you, Blue Leader. All units, be aware. SEAL team is switching over to closed-circuit channels for the assault on the station."

  He clicked off his radio, turned to his men.

  "All right, people. Let's go fuck somebody up."

  Out over the Southern Ocean, the F-22 squadron leader continued to look out through his canopy at the remains of the British E-2000. Thin orange firetrails descended slowly down to earth like cheap fireworks.

  Consumed as he was with this sight, the squadron leader didn't notice a new, smaller blip appear on his radar screen? a blip heading south, toward Antarctica?until almost thirty seconds later.

  "What the hell is that?" he said.

  "Oh, Jesus," someone else said. "It must have got a missile off before it was hit!"

  The squadron leader tried to raise the SEAL team again, but this time he couldn't get through. They'd already switched over to closed-circuit channels for their assault on Wilkes Ice Station.

  The main doors to the station exploded inward and the SEAL team stormed inside with their guns blazing.

  It was a textbook-perfect entrance. The only problem was, the station was empty.

  Schofield looked at his depth gauge: 1470 feet.

  He pushed on and a few minutes later, he emerged from the narrow shortcut tunnel and found himself inside a wider, ice-wafted tunnel.

  He knew where he was instantly, even though he had never been here before.

  On the far side of the underwater ice tunnel he saw a series of round ten-foot holes carved into the tunnel walls. Sarah Hensleigh had told him about them before. And Gant had mentioned them as well, when she had approached the cave. The elephant seals' caves. He was inside the underwater ice tunnel that led up to the spacecraft's cavern.

  Schofield breathed a sigh of relief. Yes!

  They swam out into the underwater ice tunnel. Beside him, Schofield saw Kirsty let go of Wendy's harness, saw the little seal dart off toward the surface. Schofield, Kirsty, and Renshaw followed, swimming quickly upward, eying the holes in the ice walls around them nervously.

  Although the sight of the holes in the walls made him uneasy, Schofield felt fairly certain that the elephant seals would not attack them. He had a theory about that. So far, the only group of divers to have approached the underwater ice cave unharmed had been Gant's group?and they had all been wearing LABA tanks, low-audibility breathing gear. The other groups to have gone down?the scientists from Wilkes and the British?hadn't. And they had been attacked. The way Schofield figured it, the elephant seals hadn't been able to hear Gant and her team when they had approached the cavern. And so they hadn't been attacked.

  At that moment, Schofield caught sight of the surface and his thoughts about the elephant seals were forgotten.

  He looked at his depth gauge: 1490 feet.

  Then he looked at his watch. It had taken them all of eighteen minutes to get here. Very quick time.

  And then suddenly a low whistle cut through the water.

  Schofield heard it, tensed.

  He saw Wendy hovering in the water above him, saw her body whip around suddenly. She had sensed it, too.

  Suddenly a second whistle answered the first and Schofield felt his heart sink.

  The seals knew they were there....

  "Go!" Schofield said to Renshaw and Kirsty. "Go!"

  Schofield and Renshaw broke out into swift strokes, heading for the surface. Renshaw was closest to Kirsty, so he just pushed up against her LABA tanks, pushing her up through the water, forcing her to swim faster.

  Schofield looked at the surface above him. It looked beautiful, glassy, calm. Like a smooth glass lens.

  The whistles around them became more intense, and then suddenly he heard a hoarse bark cut across the underwater spectrum.

  Schofield spun in the water, looked about himself, then snapped up to look at the lens-like surface again.

  And at that moment, the lens shattered.

  Elephant seals plunged into the water from every side. Others roared out of the submerged holes in the walls and charged at Schofield and the others. Their shrieks and barks and whistles filled the water.

  Kirsty and Renshaw broke the surface first, right near the edge of the pool. Renshaw?still in the water?pushed hard against the underside of Kirsty's tanks, forcing her out of the water.

  Kirsty stumbled frantically up onto dry land, slipped and fell, flat onto her face, and turned just in time to see Renshaw get one arm out of the water and begin to haul himself out when?yank?Renshaw was suddenly wrenched violently under the churning surface.

  Kirsty screamed but cut herself off when she saw an enormous shape rise up out of the water in front of her.

  She dived away from the water's edge just as one of the elephant seals launched itself out of the water and crashed down onto the ice in front of her. Kirsty staggered and stumbled away from the edge, turned, and saw that the giant seal was loping across the flat floor of the cavern, chasing her!

  Kirsty clawed at the icy ground, lost her footing, slipped, and fell.

  The elephant seal charged. Kirsty lay sprawled on the floor of the cavern, totally exposed, staring up at the gigantic demon bearing on her and?

  And then suddenly boom! the elephant seal's face exploded in a fountain of blood and the big seal went crashing headfirst to the ground.

  Kirsty stared in awe as the elephant seal dropped to the floor, revealing behind it: Schofield, hovering in the pool thirty feet away, with his pistol extended.

  He had just shot the seal through the back of the head!

  Kirsty almost fainted.

  Under the surface, James Renshaw was absolutely panic-stricken.

  One of the seals had pulled him under and now it had him, had his foot in its mouth!

  Renshaw looked down in desperation, and then suddenly he frowned. The seal that had him looked smaller than the others, and it had those distinctive lower fangs that he had seen on the larger male before.

  A juvenile male? Renshaw thought.

  And then another thought hit him.

  If it's young, you might have a chance to get out of this.

  So, with his spare foot, Renshaw kicked the small seal hard in the snout.

  The seal instantly squealed with pain and released his foot, and Renshaw bolted for the surface.

  He burst up out of the water a second later and saw the edge of the pool right in front of him. Then he grabbed the nearest rock and hauled himself out of the water just as another, much larger seal, probably the juvenile's mother, swept through the water behind him and narrowly missed biting his feet clean off.

  Schofield was swimming madly for the edge of the pool.

  As he swam, he caught fleeting glimpses of the cave around him?he saw Kirsty over on one side of the pool, saw Renshaw over on the other. And then he saw the the ship, the big black ship, standing like an enormous, silent bird of prey in the middle of the massive subterranean cavern.

  And then suddenly his view of the big black ship was obliterated by the sight of the big bull seal rising up out of the water right in front of him!

  The big seal was already moving fast and it plowed into Schofield at phenomenal speed and Schofield gasped as he felt the wind get knocked out of him and he went under.

  The bull seal had rammed into his chest with its long lower fangs. Ordinarily, Schofield guessed, this would have been enough to kill any would-be victim, since the big seal's fangs would pierce the victim's chest

  But not with Schofield.

  He was still wearing his body armor, and the bull seal's fangs had lodged in his Kevlar breastplate.

  The elephant seal drove him downward, pushing against his chest. Schofield struggled, but it was no use. By virtue of his breastplate he was practically impaled on the big animal's fangs.

  The seal took Schofield down. Down and down, on the end of its nose. Bubbles shot out from its heaving mouth as it expelled vast quantities of air in its exertion.
r />   Schofield had to do something.

  He reached into his pocket, searched for whatever lay in there.

  He pulled out a British nitrogen charge, looked at it for a second.

  Oh, what the hell, he thought

  Schofield quickly pulled the pin on the nitrogen charge and ammed the live grenade into the open jaws of the big elephant seal.

  Then he pushed himself off the big animal's fangs and the seal shot past him in the water. It quickly realized that it had lost Schofield, and when it did, the big seal began to turn around.

  It was then that the nitrogen charge went off.

  The bull seal's head exploded. Then it imploded. And then most shocking thing of all happened. A wave of ice shot out from the dead seal's body. At first Schofield didn't know what it was, and then suddenly he realized.

  It was the liquid nitrogen from the charge, expanding through the water, freezing the water as it went! Shit. He hadn't counted on that! The wall of ice shot through the water toward Schofield, constantly expanding, like a living, breathing ice formation growing through the water.

  Schofield watched it with wide eyes. If it enveloped him, he would be dead in an instant.

  Get out of here!

  And then suddenly Schofield felt something nudge against his shoulder and he turned.

  It was Wendy!

  Schofield grabbed her harness and Wendy took off immediately.

  The wall of ice behind them gave chase, expanding through the water at phenomenal speed, building upon itself at an exponential rate.

  Wendy swam hard, pulling Schofield with her. She was small, but she hauled Schofield through the water at incredible speed.

  The ice wall closed in on them.

  Another elephant seal swung in behind them, spying an easy meal, but the ice wall caught the big seal, enveloped it within its expanding mass, and swallowed it whole, froze it within its icy belly.

  Wendy swam, toward the surface, deftly avoiding any elephant seals that tried to cut across her path.

  She saw the surface, pulled Schofield toward it.

  Behind them, the wall of ice had lost its momentum. The nitrogen from the charge had ceased expanding. The ice wall fell away behind them.

  With Schofield clutching onto her harness, Wendy made her run for the surface. Elephant seals came at them from every side. It was like a roller-coaster ride as Wendy ducked and weaved and banked and turned to avoid the biting teeth of the elephant seals charging at her and Schofield from every side.

  And then suddenly Wendy spotted a gap and caught a glimpse of the surface.

  She went for it.

  Elephant seals lunged and snapped at them from every side, but Wendy was too quick. She hit the surface at full speed and exploded out of the water.

  Wendy shot out from the water, with Schofield holding onto her harness. They both hit the icy floor of the cavern with a clumsy thud, and Schofield found himself lying on his belly. He quickly rolled over onto his back?

  ?only to see an elephant seal leap high out of the water behind him and come rushing down toward him!

  Schofield rolled. The elephant seal slammed down onto the ground right next to him. Schofield leaped to his feet, spun around, looked for the others.

  "Lieutenant! Over here! Over here!" Sarah Hensleigh's voice yelled.

  Schofield snapped around and saw Hensleigh waving from inside a small horizontal hole in the wall about fifty yards away.

  Renshaw, Kirsty?and Wendy, too?were already moving toward the horizontal fissure. Schofield took off after them. As he ran across the cavern, he saw Kirsty roll in through the horizontal hole; then he saw Wendy go in after her, then Renshaw.

  Suddenly a wash of static cut across his consciousness and a voice yelled loudly in his ear.

  "?you out there? Scarecrow, are you out there? Please respond!" It was Romeo.

  "What is it, Romeo?"

  "Jesus! Where have you been? I've been trying to get you for the last ten minutes."

  "I've been busy. What is it?"

  "Get out of the station. Get out of the station now."

  "I can't do that now, Romeo," Schofield said as he ran.

  "Scarecrow, you don't understand. Air Force just called us. A group of F-22s just shot down a British fighter about 250 nautical miles out, but the bogey got a shot off before it was hit." Romeo paused. "Scarecrow, it's heading right for Wilkes Ice Station. Satellite scans of radiation emissions from the missile indicate that it is nuclear."

  Schofield felt a chill run down his spine as he ran. He came to the fissure in the wall and dropped to the ground, baseball-style, and slid through the horizontal fissure.

  "How long?" he asked when he landed inside the small tunnel. He ignored the others standing around him.

  "Two hundred and forty-three miles at 400 miles per hour. That gives you thirty-seven minutes until detonation. But that was nine minutes ago, Scarecrow. I've been trying to get through to you, but you haven't been responding. You have twenty-eight minutes until a live nuke hits that ice station. Twenty-eight minutes."

  "Swell," Schofield said, looking at his watch.

  "Scarecrow. I'm sorry, but I can't stay here. I've got to get my men to a safe distance. I'm sorry, but you 're on your own now, buddy."

  Schofield looked at his watch.

  It was 10:32 p.m.

  Twenty-eight minutes. The nuclear missile would hit Wilkes Ice Station at 11:00 P.M.

  He looked up at the group around him. Sarah Hensleigh, Renshaw, Kirsty, and Wendy. And Gant. It was only then that Schofield realized that Gant was in the tunnel, too, sitting down on the icy floor. He saw the ugly red stain in her side and rushed over to her.

  "Montana?" he said.

  She nodded.

  "Where is he?" Schofield asked.

  "He's dead. The seals got him. But he killed Santa Cruz and he winged me."

  "Are you OK?"

  "No." Gant winced.

  It was then that Schofield saw the wound. It was a gut shot, to the side of Gant's stomach. The bullet must have sneaked past the clasp on the side of her body armor. It wasn't a nice wound to have?a gut shot was a slow and painful way to die.

  "Hold on," he said. "We'll get you outta here?"

  He began to move Gant, but as he did so, Gant brushed roughly against his leg and dislodged something from his ankle pocket.

  It was a silver locket.

  Sarah Hensleigh's silver locket. The locket that she had given to Schofield before she had gone down to the cave.

  The locket landed face down on the icy ground, and in a fleeting instant, Schofield saw the writing engraved on the back of it:

  To Our Daughter,

  Sarah Therese Parkes

  On Your Twenty-first Birthday.

  Schofield froze when he saw the engraving. He quickly pulled out his printed copy of Andrew Trent's e-mail. He scanned the list of ICG informers. And he found it.

  PARKES. SARAH T. USD PLNTLGST

  Schofield snapped up to look at Sarah Hensleigh. "What's your maiden name, Sarah?" he asked.

  Snick-snick.

  Schofield heard the sound of the gun cocking before he saw it emerge from behind Sarah Hensleigh's back.

  Sarah Hensleigh held the pistol out at arm's length, pointed it at Schofield's head. With her spare hand, she pulled Santa Cruz's helmet headset out from behind her and adjusted the channel dial on the belt clip. She spoke into the headset.

  "SEAL team, this is Hensleigh. Come in."

  There was no reply. Hensleigh frowned.

  "SEAL team, this is Hensleigh. Come in."

  "There's no one up there, Sarah," Schofield said, cradling Gant in his arms. "They've evacuated the station. They're gone. There's a cruise missile on its way here right now and it's nuclear, Sarah. Those SEALs are long gone. We have to get out of here, too."

  Suddenly Schofield heard a voice come over Sarah's headset. "Hensleigh, this is SEAL Commander Riggs. Report."

  Schofield cringed, looked at hi
s watch.

  10:35 p.m. Twenty-five minutes to go.

  He wasn't to know that the SEALs up in the station had switched over to a closed-circuit channel to launch their attack on Wilkes. He wasn't to know that they didn't know about the nuclear missile coming toward the station.

  Hensleigh said, "SEAL Commander. I have the Marine leader down here with me in the cavern. I have him under forced arrest."

  "We'll be down there soon, Hensleigh. You have authority to kill him if you have to. SEAL team out."

  "Sarah, what are you doing?" Renshaw said.

  "Shut up," Hensleigh said, swinging the gun round so that its cold barrel touched Renshaw's nose. "Get over there," she said, waving Renshaw and Kirsty to Schofield's side of the tunnel. Schofield noticed that Sarah Hensleigh held the gun with confidence and authority. She had used guns before.

  Schofield said, "Where are you from, Sarah? Army or Navy?"

  Sarah looked at him for a moment. Then she said, "Army."

  "What section?"

  "I was at the CDC in Atlanta for a while. Then I did some work for the Chem Weapons Division. And then, wouldn't you know it, I suddenly felt the urge to teach."

  "Were you ICG before or after you went to teach at the university?"

  "Before," Hensleigh said. "Long before. Hell, Lieutenant, the ICG sent me to teach at USC. They asked me to retire from the Army, gave me a lifetime pension, and sent me off to the university."

  "Why?"

  "They wanted to know what was going on there. In particular, they wanted to know about ice core research?they wanted to know about the chemical gases people like Brian Hensleigh were finding buried in the ice. Gases from highly toxic environments that disappeared hundreds of millions of years ago. Carbon monoxide variants, pure chlorine gas molecules. The ICG wanted to know about it?they can find uses for that sort of thing. So I got into the field, and I got to know Brian Hensleigh."

  Renshaw said, "You married him to get information out of him?"

  Over in the corner of the tunnel, Kirsty watched this conversation with almost stunned interest.