Arctic Fire (44 page)

Standing up, he peered around the corner. The
guard was facing the other way, out toward the ocean, smoking a
cigarette and the dog was sitting patiently next to him. Pike took
a cleansing breath to clear his mind then stepped out into the
open. Immediately the dog saw him and Pike held up the ball for him
to see. The dog now stood to its feet, his ears up and head cocked
to one side. With a quick prayer, Pike wound up and threw the
ball.

The ball flew straight and true, up over the
head of the guard. The dog watched the ball sail over head as it
bounced in the VIP courtyard. As the ball landed, the dog barked
and took off after his new toy. The guard was spun around and was
nearly yanked to the ground as the leash was ripped from his hand
by the bounding dog. He started chasing the German Shepherd,
yelling at him to stop.

Pike half ran, have shuffled across the ice in a
mad dash toward the
Clipper
. He felt like a penguin waddling
across the ice but it was the best he could do without falling flat
on his face. Close to the launch platform he slipped and fell and
started sliding. He reached out to grab the corner but missed and
kept on sliding. He looked between his feet and was horrified to
see the railing coming up fast with the waiting ocean thirty feet
below.

As he was sliding across the ice to his doom,
Pike was thinking how ironic it would be, to be done in by a simple
fall and not by Cain’s master plan. Sliding on his back like a
hockey puck, Pike raised his feet and managed to catch the bottom
cable of the railing. The force of the impact bent his knees up to
his chest. He heard his knees pop but at least he had stopped.

Wasting no time, he flipped over onto his
stomach and wiggled his way back to the cover of the launcher. He
lay still, listening for shouts of his discovery and hoped his
pounding heart didn’t send shockwaves that would crack the ice. He
peered around the corner and saw the roof was still empty and the
guard was still in the VIP courtyard, yanking on the German
Shepherd’s collar, who was barking adamantly at the railing where
the ball had gone over the side. With the coast clear, he knew it
was now or never.

Pike scramble to his feet and had just put his
left foot onto the launch platform to climb into the cockpit when
he caught a flash of movement out of the corner of his eye. He had
seen the reflection of the sliding glass door open as three men,
who he knew weren’t pool attendants, come out.

He quickly dropped to the ice like a dead man,
which he knew he would be, if they came his way. He watched as they
paused and turned their backs on him and for a brief moment he
thought his luck would hold, but that thought was shattered as he
realized they were just adjusting their coats against the cold and
they turned back around and started walking toward him. Panic shot
through him like a bolt of electricity; what was he going to do? He
couldn’t take on all three men, plus the forth guard and Rin Tin
Tin.

Frantically he looked around for a place to hide
but his options were severely limited to say the least. When he
glanced at the hole he had burned through the ice, he had the
oddest thought; he remembered watching Bugs Bunny cartoons as a kid
and whenever Bugs was trapped by Elmer Fudd, he would simply
disappeared down his hole. If it worked for Bugs?

Remaining on his hands and knees, he scampered
to the hole then lay down on his stomach and spun around, lowering
himself down, feet first. He was halfway down with just his head
sticking out of the hole when he lost his grip and fell. Staring
into the abyss, he expected to fall forever but in reality he only
dropped about a foot. He knew that when they were draining the pool
to fill the hole, they had run out of water, leaving a two foot gap
between the ice and the ceiling of the anchor room.

He dropped to his knees and was plunged into
near total darkness as he started crawling toward the back. He
moved cautiously with his hands in front of him, not wanting to
smack into the wall, face first. When he reached the wall, he
flipped over and leaned against it, trying to get comfortable. His
plan was simple; wait until things blew over then come out and
radio for help, but as he sat there, a heavy weariness pressed down
on him and drove him into a fitful sleep.

Pike awoke to his teeth chattering like
castanets at a samba contest. Even though he had his work parka on,
it wasn’t designed to keep a person warm when he was wedged between
two giant slabs of ice.

Shaking away the cobwebs, he noticed a bright
shaft of light shining down through the hole. He stopped for a
moment; something was wrong. He rolled over and held his watch up
to the light. It read 12:30. He had been asleep for nearly eight
hours! He only had three, four hours tops before Cain carried out
his deadly plan.

Hurriedly, he started to crawl out of his cocoon
when he noticed a dark form lying in the far corner. Odd, he
thought, he didn’t remember leaving any tools or anything else down
here after they filled room. He slithered his way over to
investigate and when he got within arm’s length, he reached up and
grabbed the object and pulled it toward him. To his utter shock and
horror, he found himself staring into the dead eyes of Marilyn
Talbot. For a moment, he was frozen as solid as the block of ice he
was lying on.

He looked up and over her and saw another body
and guessed it could only be Tony. Poor kid, Pike though as he
shook his head. Why would Cain have had them killed? Then it came
to him, first rule of assassination: always kill the assassins. No
wonder no one had found him. Cain knew the bodies were here and
told everyone to stay clear.

As he lay there staring at Marilyn, he knew he
should feel something for her, but what? Should he hate her for
what she did? Should he feel sorry for her because she had fallen
victim to Cain’s plot and now she was dead too? He rolled her back
over and turned around and started back toward the entrance. He
felt nothing at all for her, and that’s what scared him the
most.

Pike squinted as his eyes adjusted to the
brightness, then he stuck his head into the shaft of light and
looked up and saw a circle of beautiful blue sky. He listened
intently for any sign that trouble was near. All he could hear was
the muffled sounds of a busy harbor, people going to and fro,
oblivious to the fact that their world was about to change
forever.

Reaching up, he found that he was about a foot
short of grasping the edge of the hole to pull himself up. He
ducked back down to take off his coat. As he did, he noticed
something glimmer near his feet. He bent down and found that it was
a small puddle of water reflecting the light. Thinking nothing of
it, he continued to take off his coat, then stopped dead in his
tracks.

Looking around, he saw several more puddles
formed by water dripping from the ceiling. There shouldn’t be any
pools or dripping water, everything should be frozen, unless...Cain
had already turned the juice off and was well into his plan. It was
already hitting the fan!

Pike stood in the center of the shaft, bathing
in sunlight as he looked up to the edge. As a kid in high school,
he was able to jump high enough to stuff a baseball in a basketball
hoop; now, he only hoped his old legs still had a little spring
left in them
.

On his first jump he didn’t feel like the man of
steel but more like the man of lead. His legs were sore and stiff
from the cold and he only made it half way to the top. He rubbed
his legs and jogged in place to get the blood flowing. His second
attempt was much better. His fingertips just touched the rim. When
he landed he thought he heard a small crack but considered it just
his cold joints protesting.

Third time’s the charm Pike hoped as he leaped.
His hand cleared the edge and for a moment he managed to hold on
until his hands slipped and he fell back down, landing hard on the
ice. When he hit, he heard the crack again, only this time he knew
it wasn’t from his tired body.

It was a loud snap at first, and then silence.
He stood quietly listening and was about to jump again when he
heard faint snaps and pops, almost like aftershocks to an
earthquake. At first, just one or two snaps echoed through the room
but soon the room was filled with a chorus of sounds, none of them
good.

Pike jumped for all he was worth and watched the
floor fall away beneath him, not from the height of his jump; it
just fell away. Pike hung there watching in horror as the entire
chunk of ice that had been the anchor room, including the anchor,
popped out the side of the iceberg and plunged into the harbor
below.

Looking down between his dangling legs, Pike saw
the anchor chain being dragged along by its 60 ton master. It
looked and sounded like a rushing freight train, the sound of the
clanging steel, trapped and amplified in the tiny room funneled
through the hole like a geyser. Watching the chain rumbling below
him in a blur, he knew that if he fell, the only thing left of him
would be a memory.

Then, just as suddenly as it had started, the
chain fell silent as the anchor came to rest on the harbor floor.
The sudden silence was almost as unnerving as the roaring. Still
dangling ten feet up and hanging on by a thread, Pike knew he
wasn’t out of danger yet. The chain was directly below him and
there would be no way to avoid it if he fell. The fall might not
kill him but his legs would certainly be shattered to pieces
landing on the steel links.

Chapter Forty
Eight

He raised his right arm to pull himself up but
instantly stopped as he suddenly started slipping. Pike’s ears were
ringing from the heavy pounding of his heart; despite the cold, he
could feel the sweat rolling off his forehead.

In one quick motion, Pike put the sole of his
right shoe on the ice in front of him then jammed the sole of his
left shoe behind him on the ice, holding himself up with his legs
in a very awkward position. A split second later, he summoned all
his strength and in one massive push/pull effort, he shot out of
the hole onto the ice like a penguin shooting out of the sea.

Wasting no time, he quickly scurried under the
launch platform and lay still, watching and waiting to see if he
had been discovered. He knew he had been extremely lucky so far, he
just hoped his luck held out for just a few more minutes. With no
immediate sound of rushing feet or gun fire, he pushed himself up
on his forearms and scanned the area. Despite the crashing of the
anchor through the side of the iceberg, no one seemed to be paying
much attention. He shrugged; maybe sleeping late was a blessing
after all, allowing everyone to be long gone.

Pike thought it odd: here he was in the middle
of New York harbor fighting for his life in full view of the world.
He could hear the rumbling of the traffic in the distance, honking
horns, and squealing tires. He looked up and saw several airliners
pass overhead along with a couple of police and news
helicopters.

But what concerned him most was that the harbor
was swarming with boats. Boats of all shapes and sizes were milling
around, surrounding the iceberg like a pack of kids swarming the
neighborhood ice cream truck. If they only knew the danger they
were in.

Pike scrambled from under the launch chassis,
looked around one more time, then climbed up on the wing, opened
the canopy and quickly slipped into the cockpit. Slouching down as
low as he could, he put on his helmet, flipped the master switch,
then turned on the radio. “Mayday, Mayday, this is the
Yankee
Clipper
. Do you copy? Over.”

Static.

“Mayday, Mayday, this is the
Yankee
Clipper
. Do you copy? Over.” He repeated. He tried several more
frequencies but the only answer he got was more static. How could
Cain jam his radio in the middle of New York Harbor? Someone would
have noticed…unless it was extremely localized and extremely short
range.

“Hello Gabriel.”

Pike nearly jumped out of the cockpit, hearing
Cain’s voice over the radio.

“May I ask you what you think you are
doing?”

“Hello Nigel. Thank you for your hospitality but
I really must be leaving now.”

“I must say, I really do admire your cleverness
and ingenuity.”

“I wish I could say the same.”

“Oh come now Gabriel, we can still come to an
equitable solution don’t you think?”

“Sure.” Pike said, stalling for time as he
studied the new controls for the launcher Cain had installed. “You
and Beth can just turn yourselves in, then we can talk.”

Cain laughed. “Now you know I can’t do that. But
we can talk. Seriously, tell me what you want and maybe we can come
to some sort of terms.”

“What do I want? What do I want?” Pike shouted
in anger. “What do you think I want? I want K.D. back! That’s what
I want!” Pike could feel himself going blind with rage. Cain’s
arrogance was unbelievable. He had had second thoughts about having
to kill the guard during his escape if he had to, but he would have
no such thoughts if Cain were in front of him right now.

Suddenly he caught a glimpse of motion out of
the corner of his eye. He turned to see two men with guns drawn
coming out of the spa area and another two scrambling their way
across the roof. Pike was not a swearing man but he was cursing
himself now for letting Cain distract him so his men could get the
jump on him. He didn’t recognize the first gunman but the second
one he did. He had a bandage on his nose and his face was badly
bruised; it was the guard from his cell. Orders or no, Pike knew
the guard would kill him this time.

He turned on the engine and pulled the throttle
back, letting it idle and warm up. In a military emergency, the
Sabre could go from a cold start to take-off status in three
minutes. He had never attempted to do this before, but as with many
events of the past 24 hours, he was about to learn.