“I’ll do my best to fill you in.”
Gray intended to explain once everyone was gathered. His team—which included Seichan, Jason, and Sister Anna—had landed on the icebreaker’s helipad two hours earlier, just after midnight. They had taken an early morning commercial flight from Moscow to the coastal city of Pevek, which sat at the edge of the East Siberian Sea. There, Painter had arranged for thePolar King’s helicopter to meet them and ferry them to the ship. It had required stopping on Wrangel Island to refuel before crossing the last four hundred miles out to sea.
It was still going to be a long night, but at least his team had time to rest as they crossed the breadth of Russia. He had napped with Seichan during the flight. She kept hold of his hand, as if ensuring he stayed in his seat. Yesterday, she had looked both relieved and furious when he had walked through the hotel room door. As waterlogged as his gear had been, he hadn’t been able to radio the others. The little jubilation of their reunion quickly died away once he told her what had happened to Yelagin and Bailey. It was also a short reunion, just the one night, as afterward their group had split up again.
Voices rose ahead of them, coming from an open door at the end of the passageway.
“Our conference room,” Kelly said with a nod. “My navigator will be down shortly with the map you requested. I’ve also asked another crewman who might be of assistance to join us.”
“Thank you, Captain Kelly.”
The pair of them passed through the doorway into a wide, shallow room. A large table was bolted in place, running down the room’s center. Across the expanse of the back wall, a bank of windows overlooked the bow of the ship.
Gray was momentarily taken aback by the sight. Dark seas spreadin an endless stretch to the horizon. Rafts of ice covered the water, reflecting the moonlight. The skies blazed with a sweep of stars, but what truly stole his breath was the shimmering veils of blues, crimsons, and green. They danced and rolled over the starscape, as if a rainbow had been melted across the sky.
Seichan stood limned against that view, looking equally captivated by the lightshow.
“Spectacular, isn’t it?” Kelly said. “You’re getting a rare display due to a solar storm from a coronal mass ejection, coupled with an X-class flare. It has been raging for the past half day. One of the strongest in a while. We almost didn’t get Byrd’s satellite call due to the geomagnetic interference.”
Kelly looked disappointed that the callhadcome through.
Gray drew his attention from the skies to those seated around the table. Jason stood up from where he had been whispering with Anna. He waved Gray to the side.
Gray excused himself while Kelly poured a cup of coffee from a steel carafe.
“What is it?” he asked Jason.
“I reached Kat in D.C. via the ship’s radio. Communication is spotty due to the solar storm. It’s probably why we haven’t heard from Monk and Kowalski directly. But they were able to phone Sigma Command. Kat relayed their message.”
Gray’s shoulders tensed. “And?”
“The others are en route to the naval base. Should be arriving in another forty minutes or so. Everything is going smoothly so far.”
“But what comes next is the hard part.”
Jason nodded, crossing his arms, looking as worried as Gray felt.
“Keep me informed if you hear any further word.”
“That’s just it. Why I wanted to talk to you. I lost that call with D.C. at the tail end of it. And as we head farther north, the interference will grow worse. The radio tech said to expect a total comms blackout. For several more hours.”
Gray sighed.
So much for trying to keep our two operations coordinated.
“We’ll have to manage as best we can.” Gray waved Jason back to the table. “First, we need to get everyone up to speed aboard thePolar King. Decide if what we’re attempting is even possible.”
As Gray headed to the table, a lanky Black man with a handlebar mustache swept into the room. He wore crisp blue coveralls with the ship’s logo on the pocket.
“Our navigator,” Kelly introduced to everyone else. “Byron Murphy.”
The man lifted a rolled map, a printout from the look of it. He nodded to Gray. “I studied that strange overlay of maps you shared up on the bridge. I was able to chart out a rough approximation of the region that you had blocked off.”
“Can you show us?”
Everyone gathered as he rolled out his work across the tabletop. Seichan joined them, stepping next to Gray.
The map showed a cross-section of the East Siberian Sea, along with the northern coast of Russia and several islands. Far out in the water, deep into the Arctic, was a hatched circle.
