Ice Hunt (57 page)

She could not keep the joy and amazement from her voice. “It’s Matt!” A sob of relief followed.

The general channel was still open. Craig heard her. “Jen, are you sure?”

Delta One spoke up from across the cabin. “Sir, there’s a boy with him.”

Now brought to her attention, she saw the child clinging to Matt’s leg. He kept one arm around the boy; the other held a pole with a scrap of white parka waving from it.

“Land!” Craig ordered.

The Seahawk began its descent.

Delta One urged caution. “Perhaps we should remain airborne until the matter is cleared up.”

“He’s been sent out as an envoy. We may be able to use this to our advantage.”

Fear wormed through Jenny’s relief. Since the beginning, she and Matt had been pawns in this game between superpowers. It seemed their duty was not over yet.

The skids settled onto the ice. Snow swirled and eddied around the craft. The rotors slowed.

Delta One passed on an order to the pilot. “I want this engine kept hot.”

“Yes, Commander.”

Craig squeezed back from the cockpit into the main cabin. “We’ll leave the journals here.” He pointed at Delta One. “They’re going to be your responsibility to guard.”

“What are you going to do?” he asked.

“I’m going to meet that man out there. He’s pulled my butt out of the fire often enough. Let’s see if he can do it again.” He turned to Jenny. “I’d prefer you to stay put.”

“Like hell I will.” She unbuckled her seat harness. They’d have to shoot her to keep her here.

Craig watched her a moment, plainly judging her sincerity, then shrugged. He probably preferred all his targets together anyway.

The pair climbed out of the Seahawk and onto the ice. They ducked under the rotors and were met by a trio of Delta Force team members, who were moving forward under an armed escort.

Jenny barely noticed these others. Her eyes were on the figure standing thirty yards from the station opening. Matt! She had to restrain herself from running toward him. She feared such a sudden action would get them both shot.

So she kept to the group, flanked and led by the soldiers. They crossed the ice, passing beyond the circle of defense and out into neutral territory.

Matt was down on one knee, sheltering the boy, his attention on the child. The little guy hugged Matt. He was swaddled from head to toe in someone’s parka, wearing it like a full-length greatcoat. The sleeves hung to the ground. In Matt’s arms, he wiggled around to stare wide-eyed at the approaching party.

Jenny saw the boy’s face clearly for the first time: the black hair, the large brown eyes, the tiny features. She tripped, her legs going suddenly weak. “Tyler!”

8:07 P.M.
OUT ON THE ICE…

Matt had his hands full with the boy. As soon as they had stepped out of the tunnel and into the wind, Maki had clung to him like an eel. The explosions and roar of the gunship’s 50mm weapons had already spooked the kid. And now out in the open, he acted agoraphobic, panicking at the wind and snow. Matt could guess why. He had probably spent all his young years isolated below, possibly even limited to Level Four. Here in the open, with the entire world spread out around him, he came unhinged.

He needed something to cling to, an anchor—and that was Matt.

Matt hardly noted the approach of the others. He had spotted Craig among the soldiers, then had to keep Maki from bolting back toward the station.

“Tyler!”

The familiar cry tore him around.

From out of the group of soldiers, Jenny shoved free. Her eyes were wild, but she quickly collected herself as she stepped out. She recognized her mistake as soon as she uttered it. Pure reflex, Matt understood.

“His…his name’s Maki,” Matt gasped out as he stood. The child clung to his knee, but Matt didn’t object this time. His legs weak from the relief of seeing Jenny alive, he needed the boy’s support now.

She rushed at him.

Matt didn’t know what to expect, cringing slightly at her approach.

Then she was in his arms, pulling tight to him, her own arms around his neck. It came so naturally that it surprised Matt. She fit to him, as if she always belonged there. It was as if no time had passed between them at all. Drawing Jenny even tighter to him to make sure it wasn’t all a dream, he smelled her hair, the nape of her neck. She was real…she was in his arms.

She sobbed in his ear. “Back at the base…Papa…”

Matt stiffened. John wasn’t with her, or on the helicopter. Her father had been left back at Omega. From Jenny’s reaction, Petkov’s earlier report had not been a lie. The place
had
been blown up.

“Jenny, I’m so sorry.” Even to him, the words sounded lame. All he could do was offer her his strength, his shoulder, his arms.

She shook in his grip. Words reached up to him, whispered, meant for his ears only. “It was Craig. Don’t trust him.”

Matt’s fingers clutched her parka. He stared past Jenny to the figure in the familiar blue parka. He kept his face stoic, pretending he hadn’t heard the words whispered in warning.

It was all true. Everything.

He slowly peeled himself from Jenny, but he kept one arm around her.

Craig stepped forward. “Matt, it’s good to see you alive. But what’s going on? What are you doing out here?”

Matt fought back the urge to punch the man square in the face. But such an action would only get him killed. To survive from here on out, it would take an artful game of half-truths and lies.

So first, a
lie
. “God, it’s good to see you all here.”

Craig’s tentative grin firmed up.

“The Russian admiral remains in control down there, but he sent me up here. He figures if you all were going to shoot blindly and ask questions later, then it might as well be one of us Americans that gets killed.”

“Why did he send anyone?”

“To parley a truce. To quote the admiral, both sides have half the key to the miracle here. You have the technical notes. He controls the samples. Either is useless without the other.”

Craig stepped closer. “Is he telling the truth?”

Matt stepped aside and pushed little Maki between his and Jenny’s legs. The boy kept tight to Matt’s thighs. “Here’s the proof I was sent up with.”

Craig frowned and bent down to stare closer at the boy. “I don’t understand.”

Matt shouldn’t have been surprised. Craig had been trained to be single-minded, to tunnel-vision toward the goal and ignore all the rest. Especially the bodies left by the wayside.

“It’s the boy from the tank,” he explained. “The ice tank that Dr. Ogden activated.”

Craig’s gaze flicked up to him. “My God, that’s the boy? He resuscitated? It actually works?”

Matt kept himself composed. He couldn’t let the man know that he understood the deadly intent of the Delta Force team. “It worked, but the only surviving samples of the elixir are secured in a hidden vault down below. I’ve seen the place myself. But Admiral Petkov has wired the base to explode. He’ll destroy it all.”

Craig’s gaze darkened. “What does he want?”

“A truce. A parley between the two of you. On Level One. He’ll pull his men down below. You can come in with five of your men, armed as you like. But if any harm comes to the admiral, his men have orders to shoot the prisoners and explode the vault. I don’t see that you have much choice. It’s either lose everything or make a pact with this devil.”

Matt waited, unsure if he had overplayed his hand.

Craig snorted and turned away. He raised the collar of his jacket and spoke into it, then pulled his hood’s drawstring and held it to his ear. A hidden radio, Matt realized.

Jenny sidled closer to him. “He’s consulting with the Delta Force commander. The stolen journals are in the helicopter with the man. But what about this parley? Is there anyone we can trust?”

“The only person I trust is standing next to me.”

She squeezed his hand. “If we get out of this—”

“When,” he corrected her. “When we get out of this.”

“Matt…”

He leaned in and gently pressed his lips to hers. It wasn’t so much a kiss as a promise of more to come. A promise he intended to keep. He tasted the salt of her tears on her mouth. They would survive this.

Craig turned to him as more men gathered around him. They readied weapons. “You’re right. It looks like we have no choice but to meet with the bastard.”

Matt counted Craig’s team.
Five
. “You have one too many,” he said, nodding to the soldiers.

Craig crinkled his brow. “What do you mean? You said five.”

Matt gestured toward Jenny. “She’s coming in with us. You’ll need to get her a sidearm.”

“But—”

“Either she comes or I don’t go back. And if I don’t return as ordered, Petkov will blow the vault.”

Shaking his head, Craig waved off one of the men. “Fine, but she’s safer out here.”

Matt didn’t respond. For better or worse, they were sticking together. Jenny gave his hand a final squeeze and held out an open palm for a pistol.

One of the soldiers passed her his sidearm. Matt had to guide Jenny’s hand to her holster. As angry as she was, she might just shoot Craig where he stood.

Once ready, they set off toward the station. Matt pulled the boy up in his arms. Maki stared over at Jenny, his small eyes haunted. They trudged through the blasted opening and down the tunnel again. The warmth of the station breathed out at them.

Matt wondered if Petkov was prepared. The Russian admiral had been vague about his plans.
Get Craig inside
was his mission objective. Petkov would do the rest. But what could the admiral hope to do? The Russian contingent was outnumbered and outgunned.

Matt led the way onto Level One. The lights were back on. Someone must have found spare fuses and powered up the level. The place was too bright. The blood on the floor stood out garishly. Bodies lined one wall. The tables had been pushed away.

In the center of the room, Petkov stood by the spiral stair. The elevator had been raised from below. The Russian admiral stood with one foot on the elevated platform.

“Welcome,” he said coldly.

Petkov stepped onto the platform. He shared the space with a strange device. It was a titanium globe on a tripod. A small series of blue lights raced across the sphere’s equator. Though it was unmarked, it had
bomb
written all over it.

Matt had a sudden sinking feeling that his newfound ally in this war between superpowers had not been as forthcoming as he would have wished. What game was being played now?

Behind Matt, footsteps suddenly pounded. He swung around. Another five Delta Force soldiers raced into the room, fanning out. It seemed neither side was going to honor the truce.

Matt shouldn’t have been surprised, but he was.

Petkov remained stoic, unreadable. He continued to stand on the elevator stand. “You risk your mission,” he finally said. “On my word or death, the samples will be destroyed.”

Craig strode up beside Matt. He picked Maki out of his arms, earning a startled yelp from the boy. “This is all I need,” he said, holding the boy aloft. “An
issledovatelskiy subyekt
. A research subject. Jenny here was kind enough to read more of your father’s journal while en route here. It seems the hormone remains active in a revived specimen for a full week. Between his notes and the boy, we will distill the hormone on our own. What you hold is worthless. But I’ll still make an offer. Your life in exchange for the samples you hold. The offer will last for exactly one minute.”

“Thank you for your gracious offer,” Petkov said, “but I won’t need the minute.”

The explosion rocked the level, bucking the floor and tossing them all skyward. Smoke rolled out from behind them. Matt landed in a pile beside Jenny. He twisted around.

The exit to the surface was gone. A tumble of broken ice blocked the way, caved in, spilling out onto this level. He rolled to his feet, ears ringing. Craig and what was left of the Delta Force team picked themselves off the floor. Two men were dead, crushed by falling ice near the shaft.

Lights flickered. Smoke set everyone to coughing.

Matt searched the central staircase. Petkov was gone, having fled down the staircase. Matt glanced between Craig and the vanished Russian. He was trapped between two madmen, buried with them.

He stared across to the titanium sphere resting on the elevator platform. The blue flashing lights raced around and around the device.

This was not going to end well.

8:15 P.M.
UNDER THE ICE…

Aboard the
Polar Sentinel,
Amanda crouched beside Captain Greg Perry. Together they studied the monitor of the sub’s DeepEye sonar. Others gathered behind them, some watching the screen, others staring out the Lexan eye of the sub.

Greg rested a hand on her knee. He was clearly not letting her out of his reach…and she was fine with this arrangement.

Half an hour ago, back at Omega, she had been in full panic. She had struggled to raise the alarm among the others—about the deceit planned by the Delta Force leaders and of the nerve-jangling sonar frequency, indicating the presence of grendels. But it hadn’t been grendels. It had been the
Polar Sentinel
activating its DeepEye sonar.

Before she could even get Commander Sewell’s attention, the double doors to the barracks had popped open and Greg had rushed into the room with a small squad. He had ordered everyone to remain quiet.

Too shocked by the miracle, Amanda had flown into his arms. Ignoring decorum, he had pulled her to him, kissed her, and whispered that he loved her.

Together, they had waited until the Delta Force helicopter lifted off. Then they were all running. With Greg in the lead, they raced through the shadows to the oceanography shack. Inside, Amanda found a strange sight. Thrust up within the lab’s main research room stood the conning tower of the
Polar Sentinel
. The sub had surfaced its tower through the square hole cut in the ice. The small port was normally used by the oceanographers to raise and lower their two-man bathysphere. But now it serviced the sub’s tower, the proverbial square peg in a round hole.