“But it was you.”
He realized that, when she smiled, and now that she’d gotten a bit more color in her face, the Russian girl was much prettier than he remembered. Those blue eyes and bright, perfect smile contrasted with her black hair and pale skin for a stunning impact.
He smiled at her. “Let’s make a deal. You can accompany me to dinner when we’re back in Buenos Aires and there are no giant lizards or guys in black around to kill us.”
Breen broke in. “Why do you think the guys in black are here to kill us?”
“They shot our pilot.”
“Are you sure?” His face went very hard.
“Of course I’m sure. You don’t get to be an army colonel if that kind of thing confuses you.”
“Right. Sorry.” Breen thought for a minute. “That does put a different slant on things. We’ll have to be careful. What were you planning to do?”
“We saw what happened to the Irizar, so we were trying to get back to the base. There’s a concrete structure there that should be strong enough to hold out against the lizard we saw, if we can reinforce the door. Well, against the small one, at least.”
“Hop on. I’ll take you as close as I’m going.”
There was a spot on the back of the snowmobile seat so, seeing that Clark and Anna were trying to accommodate themselves on the trailer, Javier took that one. He soon grew very conscious of Natasha sitting in front of him. He tried to avoid any contact with her by keeping his legs spread wide, but he had nowhere to hold on to; when the snowmobile jerked into motion, he almost fell off the back.
Instinctively, he grabbed onto the nearest available object, which happened to be Natasha’s waist, just above her hips.
“I’m sorry,” he said, thankful that she couldn’t turn around to see that his face, by the heat he felt, must have turned scarlet.
“Don’t worry about it,” she replied. “I’m just glad you didn’t grab my arm… I’m pretty sure that would have hurt like hell.”
And then, she actually moved back and snuggled against him. She was likely just trying to get into a more comfortable position, but it was extremely distracting.
Luckily, the American chose that moment to accelerate again and Javier forgot all about Natasha as he held on for dear life.
The distance that had taken what seemed like hours to cross disappeared in a couple of minutes, and they were soon back at the point where the sea ice met land. The snowmobile’s speed allowed it to follow the ridges and valleys in the ice instead of cutting across like they had when they were on foot. Breen appeared to have some kind of sixth sense for the uneven Antarctic terrain. Every time Javier was certain that the American had misjudged a curve and that they would be plunged into a sinkhole, the man would make a tiny adjustment which kept them from dying.
Breen drove right up to the spot where the ice ended and the water began. Then he pulled out a pair of binoculars and studied the terrain.
“I think the way back to the base is clear,” he said, handing the glasses to Javier.
Breen was right. There were no monsters and, perhaps more importantly, no men in balaclavas between their position and the station. He returned the binoculars.
The snowmobile moved again, along the coast, slowly. After a couple of hundred meters, Javier was going to ask whether they were going to turn towards the base.
He never got a chance.
A colossal roar tore across the frozen landscape. Javier, who’d only heard it from afar, couldn’t believe the volume. He looked around in confusion, not knowing what to expect.
What he saw was the monster, the big one that had been mauling the Irizar only moments before, towering above them as it dragged itself out of the water. Two steps later, it was between them and the base.
Breen didn’t hesitate. He gunned the motor and drove along the coast away from the abomination. He wove around snowbanks he could avoid… and over others he couldn’t. This run made the earlier mad rush seem like a walk in a meadow. Javier hung on for dear life.
Clark and Anna screamed behind him, but he didn’t dare turn his head to look. They’d just have to hold on as best they could. To his own shame, he realized that he was much more concerned about the missile launcher than he was about the scientists.
Then he realized where they were going. “That’s the way the guys in black went,” he shouted.
“I know,” Breen replied. “But we don’t have a hell of a lot of choices here. The thing’s coming this way.”
Javier half-turned. It was true.
He looked forward again. “Watch out!”
His warning was too late. Breen, still glancing behind them, didn’t see the crevice, a white hole against the white background of snow. The front right ski went over the side of the snowmobile and, before the American could correct, they had gone over the side.
As the nose of the snowmobile hit the bottom, it stuck firm. The impact threw Javier and Natasha off. He hit the ground with bone-jarring force.
The snowmobile didn’t stop there, however. It cartwheeled down the narrow opening, throwing snow, equipment and pieces of black bodywork everywhere. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw it slam into a wall and disappear around a bend.
Javier lay stunned for a few moments, taking stock of how he felt. His left shoulder was numb, and he had to gasp for breath. A hand shook his arm, someone behind him.
“Are you all right?”
It was a woman’s voice, English with a slight accent. Natasha.
“I… I think so. I took a big hit.” He turned to look at her.
“I think I owe you another thank you. It’s starting to get to be a habit. I landed on something soft. Now I think I know what it was… you.”
He couldn’t imagine how that was possible. She’d been ahead of him on the snowmobile. By rights, she should have hit the snow before him. But he couldn’t argue because his memory of the event coincided with hers: he’d hit the ground first, and then something had landed on his chest and shoulder.
He laughed. “I’m glad I was there. There’s no way I could have set your arm for you if you’d re-broken it.”
“The doctor says there isn’t much chance of that. He told me he screwed a plate in there. His exact words were ‘if you get hit by a nuclear blast, there won’t be anything left of you except for that bone. Nothing will ever break that bone again’.”
“Yeah, that does sound like him.” Javier smiled. The doctor was a prick, but he was a competent prick and Javier was glad of it for Natasha’s sake. If the man said that the arm would be fine… the arm would be fine.
He sat on the snow, too dazed to move or even to make the effort of remembering how they’d gotten there.
And then the monster roared again.
Javier jumped to his feet, or at least he tried to. He slipped on the solid ice below him and ended up stumbling to his feet. They walked to the kink in the crevice where the snowmobile and their companions had disappeared.
Natasha gasped. “Oh my God.”
Anna lay in front of them, and there was no doubt that she was dead. Her head was bent at an unnatural angle, and her bright eyes were open wide, staring into infinity. A jagged piece of the snowmobile had lodged itself between her ribs, and blood had soaked her jacket around it. Whether she had died of the wound or of a broken neck was impossible to tell. All he knew was that Anna was dead.
Javier checked her pulse anyway, and then he shook his head and took Natasha’s arm. “Let’s go.”
Pieces of snowmobile were strewn everywhere and they found Breen and Carl lying in a field of debris. Carl was just beginning to stir, groaning in pain. Breen was alive but unconscious. Ahead of them, the crevice opened up onto a wide rocky beach below an accumulation of snow, the bottom of which had been eroded by the water to form a wide ice cavern tall enough for a man to walk through without bumping his head. From where they stood, they could only see part of the cave—the rest was blocked by the crevice walls.
&nbs
p; Javier went down on one knee and began to slap Breen’s face. He knew it wasn’t the best way to revive an unconscious man, but he couldn’t think of anything else. Breen needed to come to now… and they could only hope that his injuries weren’t bad enough that they would stop him from walking. If they were, they might have to hole up where they were or drag the man to the cave. Either option would offer a bit of defense against the wind, which was beginning to pick up.
“Where’s Anna?” Carl’s voice was weak.
Natasha hugged him, even though she’d only known him briefly. “I’m sorry,” she said.
The Australian was stunned. “Are you sure?”
“Yes. Trust us on this.”
“What am I going to tell Ingrid?”
“It wasn’t your fault.”
Javier stayed silent. He’d always been bad at that kind of thing. From where he was standing, it appeared that Natasha was a natural. He also would have preferred that the girl not hug the good-looking geologist quite as warmly as she was… but he stomped on the feeling. What kind of guy thinks that way in light of a tragedy like this one?
He was relieved when she let go of the Australian and returned to his side, pausing only to grab a handful of snow in her good hand. She pressed the cold wet mess against the unconscious man’s neck.
Breen made a noise and shuddered. “Can you hear me?” Javier asked.
Before the man could respond, the sound of shooting, echoing against the walls appeared to reach them from everywhere at once.
Breen opened his eyes.
“Can you walk?” Javier shouted.
“How the hell should I know?”
Though he probably had a concussion, there was no time to let him recover. Javier pulled him to his feet, and left him standing, swaying slightly, while he went for Carl.
The Australian made it to his feet without much help, but stood looking dumb. He was obviously in shock.
“Listen. Someone’s shooting, and I think it’s probably the guys in the black suits firing at the creature we were running from. We need to get somewhere we’re safe from both.”
“What about the small ones?” Natasha said.
“Small ones? I only saw one of those.”
“There are several, possibly even twenty. I tried to get a count on the ship—the ship I was on originally, not the Irizar—but it was too dark to get an accurate number.”
“How fun. Well, we can’t worry about those now. Unless someone has a better idea, I suggest laying low in that cave over there and letting our friends in black deal with any monsters that might pop up. What do you think?”
No one answered, so he took Clark’s arm, and led him to where Breen was slowly pulling himself together. “You with us?”
Breen nodded, then shook his head as if to clear it. “Got my bell pretty thoroughly rung. Good thing I’m not an NFL player… they wouldn’t let me back in the game.”
“Can you move?”
“Sure, but we’d better get the gun. I had a rifle with me at some point. A rocket launcher, too.”
Javier raised an eyebrow, deciding against speaking. There wasn’t really much to say. He found the FAL almost immediately. It looked essentially intact and, when he dismounted the clip, it slid back easily. He’d trained for countless hours on this rifle—it was, after all, the basic weapon of Argentine infantrymen. He’d strip it down and clean it later.
The missile launcher was a complete loss. It had been bent nearly in half by the impact. Javier knew it was the only weapon they had that might have proved effective against the big bastard and mourned it.
He half-led, half dragged them towards the mouth of the crevice and the safety of the cave. About three-quarters of the way across the beach that fronted it, he realized his mistake. The men in black were standing on one side of the cave entrance. They’d been hidden by the walls of the passage. Luckily for their little group, the Russians—Javier was convinced that they were Russians now; what else could they be?—had their hands full. They’d been spotted and were firing upward at the large reptile.
Smaller creatures flocked around the big one, but they appeared reticent to engage the men with guns, prompting Javier to suspect they might be smarter than they looked. One of the monsters was on the ground.
It was too late to stop now. Hoping the men wouldn’t spot them, Javier led his companions into the overhang and as deep within the cave as he could. The big one couldn’t see them there… but the small ones would have no trouble rooting them out. Hopefully, the FAL would be as effective as whatever ordnance the commandos outside were using.
Though the big creature’s head was out of sight, the men fighting it were all in view. They’d spread out in a rough diamond with about ten meters between them. Only three were firing, Javier now realized. The fourth, standing behind the other three was carrying something big in his arms. A large sack of some sort… black, of course.
The soldiers were retreating in what Javier, unless he’d gotten turned around by the mad dash and subsequent accident, believed was the general direction of the plane, gradually moving away from the cave and backing up a slope. The foremost shouted a command, and all three fired a long burst before running upwards out of Javier’s sight.
All except the man on the right. He was farthest from the slope, and he never made it. Before he was halfway to where the others had disappeared, the monster’s foot caught him midstride.
He saw it coming and dodged, almost managing to avoid the blow completely, and causing the impact to be a glancing strike. But even that was enough to tear a jagged hole in his side and rip off one of his arms. The man pirouetted and fell in a spray of crimson. Javier never saw where the missing arm ended up, but the man himself was most likely dead before his body hit the ground.
Then, the big creature walked past. It was clearly in pursuit, but didn’t appear able to move too quickly on land. That seemed to Javier to be the only good news he’d received since the helicopter had landed.
Once the long tail disappeared from view, Javier motioned to his companions to remain where they were and advanced to the mouth of the cave. He didn’t dare leave the cover of the overhanging ice, but in the distance, he could hear the sound of occasional gunfire punctuated by the roars of the monster. They seemed to be getting more and more distant.
Emboldened by this, he climbed up the hill, carefully concealing himself from view until, finally, he saw the monster far away. It was facing the other way, so Javier took another step.
The firefight was now nearly three hundred meters from the cave. Whoever those soldiers were, they were admirably disciplined. They kept moving slowly, using the same patterns as they’d done initially and giving ground towards the plane with the monsters following behind. Javier knew that the last few meters would necessarily need to be a mad dash, since the plane would get shredded by the largest of the creatures if it came to that, but the men appeared to be in no hurry. He supposed it was only natural: for men such as these, fighting something that couldn’t shoot back had to be much easier than what they were used to.
At one point, the soldiers concentrated their fire on the group of smaller reptiles who’d been creeping towards them. The creatures scattered and ran towards the red buildings of the base. Javier’s heart sank.
The battle wouldn’t last forever. He needed to get back to his companions and discuss what their next move would be. The clock in his head had started ticking, for some reason, he supposed that the monsters would return to the cave once the interlopers were gone.
He was also frightened that night would fall at any moment and he didn’t want to face the creatures in the dark. Not even the small ones. Especially not the small ones.
He knew it was ridiculous, knew that night might not fall for another week or two, but the human animal is not a purely intellectual one. The urgency drove him on.
Just as he was about to enter the cave, Natasha ran out, crying hysterically.
She fell to her knees on
the snow and vomited. It didn’t stop until she’d been dry heaving for nearly a minute with nothing more left in her stomach.
Chapter 12
The air inside their refuge was thick with the smell of fear. Though there were only four of them inside and the temperature had been low to start with, it still felt stuffy. Sweat from under her arms ran down Camila’s sides.
She gasped. It was her turn to man the lookout post, the chink in the concrete wall. “They’re coming!” she yelled back at her three companions.
What she saw was a huge colossus advancing towards them, flanked by smaller versions of itself. It took Camila a few moments to realize that the miniatures were actually large reptiles of the same kind that had already terrorized them once. The big one… the big one was like something from a monster movie.
“What do you mean, they?”
“Lizard things. Lots of them and also… something huge.”
“What?”
“I think you’d better see for yourself. You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” Camila said, moving aside.
One by one, the others took turns staring through the hole. None of them said anything; the most demonstrative was Anderson, who, when his turn was over sat heavily in the corner furthest from the spyhole.
Camila turned to Ingrid. “What are they?”
“They’re not anything. At least not anything alive today. Some kind of dinosaur, I’d say, if that wasn’t ridiculous.”
“And the big one?”
“Nothing like that has ever existed. Not even the biggest dinosaurs were that size.” Her face hardened. “I think this is probably some kind of genetic experiment. If you ask me, that’s why the American was with us. He probably came to oversee this operation.”
“That guy? He wouldn’t know a cell wall from a cell phone.”
Ingrid looked grim, but said nothing more.
Camila wondered if she might actually be on to something. This was, after all, the kind of thing the American government loved to do. That didn’t account for the plane with Cyrillic lettering, though. Could the Russians be working alongside the United States on this one? She wouldn’t be surprised. Oligarchic, paternalistic and imperialist regimes tended to stick together.
Ice Station Death Page 12