Chapter 18
Day 2—246 Miles to Volkov Station—20 Days of Food Remaining
Ford had been up for an hour melting water and repacking what he could when he heard a faint buzz.
He’d spent so much of the past twenty-four hours actively listening for a sound just like this, scouring the sky for signs of aerial approach, that he was half convinced it was a false alarm. An auditory hallucination.
He squinted up, saw nothing, aside from the sun glaring down from pristine blue.
He’d just decided to wake Angel up when he heard it again, clearer this time, as if the wind had snatched the sound from the air and delivered it right here by some ventriloquist trick. Fighting a deep sense of disorientation, he spun, his eyes flicking around until he found it.
There.
When he squinted, a bright red smudge solidified in the sky, heading in the direction of Burke-Ruhe. One of the small Twin Otter airplanes that were commonly used for transport throughout the continent, he’d bet. It shouldn’t be here.
Just the sight of that colorful speck tore him in half. First, the burst of excitement—They’re here! Evacuation!—followed immediately by the deep, frightening certainty that no one was coming to save them. Those assholes had returned for the core samples.
Anyone’s guess what they’d do when they didn’t find them.
Time to get a move on.
* * *
Day 2—Burke-Ruhe Research Station, South Pole
Sampson stomped the ice from his boots and slammed the door with such gusto it shook the ancillary building. “Nothing.”
Clive blinked, working hard to keep the irritation from his face. “What do you mean, nothing?”
“If you’d come with us, Doc, you’d know exactly what I mean.”
Was this a joke? The gorilla couldn’t possibly think that Clive planned to get involved in this man’s bloodbath. He had no intention of searching for the ice core samples that Sampson and his team had misplaced. No intention of partnering with this man on anything aside from what was strictly necessary in order to carry out his trials.
“I trust you to do your job, Mr. Sampson. Which is why I did not accompany you to the supply arch.” That and the fact that he couldn’t stand being underground. Or under ice, as the case may be.
“Well, Doc, to sum it up for you, your ice cores are gone.”
“Impossible.”
“Actually, I’d say it’sentirelypossible.” Sampson flashed one absurdly incongruous dimple. “Looks like our friend Cooper took off with them.”
Clive almost laughed. “Where on earth would he go?” There was nothing for miles around. Like the Facility they’d prepared for their experiments, Burke-Ruhe was as isolated as an island in the middle of the Pacific. “You removed or destroyed all fuel sources, correct? Machinery? Communications? You can’t possibly be telling me he took off into this wilderness on his own? With just those core samples for company?”
“I think that’s exactly what he did.” The door opened again to reveal two more men, whose overlarge presences filled the room to bursting. They pulled off their ski masks and exchanged looks with Sampson, who turned back to Clive with a smirk. “And I don’t think he’s alone.”
“Who could possibly have accompanied—” Clive blinked and swallowed the burn hitting the back of his throat. Unconsciously, he reached for his roll of antacids. He had cases of them back at the Facility, but suddenly he feared those wouldn’t be nearly enough. “Oh.” The woman.
If they made it out somehow, with his virus…things would not go well. For him, or for anyone here, in fact.
Sampson’s blond brows rose and fell while he adjusted his crotch. Clive looked away.Thiswas who the director had chosen to head up logistics? The person meant to be Clive’s right-hand man? Insulting.
And a little worrisome. Because far from the precise, surgical operation Clive had hoped for, everything about this man and his cronies screamedblunt force.
“Youhavedone a thorough search.” He didn’t quite phrase it as a question, but the doubt was there.
“Yeah, Doc. No new bodies. No blood. Cores are gone, tunnel’s empty, bitch is MIA. Looks like they took a snow plow.” He popped a mint and grinned. “Guess it’s time to go hunting.”
Clive hadn’t thought he could get colder than he’d been a moment before, but of course he was proven wrong. “Hunting?” The word was barely audible.
