“Dr. Andrews?”
Leah turned to find one of the flight crew standing behind her.
“You’re needed in the hangar.”
Leah nodded, and then turned toward the huge doors that had been shut once the transfer of the Native Americans had been complete. The containers of alien hardware were being unloaded to another building next to the hangar.
Fischer’s heavily armed crew was still present. Now they stood in a perimeter around the aircraft, weapons at the ready. Not that it was likely they’d meet any resistance out here.
She put her head down against the breeze and walked toward the hangar. A guard standing with legs spread and weapon at the ready in front of the door gave no ground.
“Are you gonna let me in?”
The guard stepped aside and opened the normal-sized door located near the huge hangar doors.
When Leah entered the hangar, she couldn’t have been any more surprised. The interior of the hangar had been transformed from a dusty relic to a modern looking hospital with ten-foot-tall partitions. Huge electric heaters blew warm air from several locations and rows of standing klieg lamps had been set up. The only things missing were the hundreds of people you’d expect to see in a field hospital of this size.
A few moments later, one of Fischer’s scientists walked around the partition. Leah remembered seeing him on the C-130. He was balding with skin so pale and soft Leah had wondered if he’d ever seen sunlight.
“We’re conducting some medical tests,” he told her without any formal greeting. ”An hour or two, we’ll need you.”
“Where’s Fischer?”
He blinked several times before answering. “In conference with the President.”
“The President is here?”
“Teleconference. The President’s aboard the Airborne Command Center.”
Leah’s eyes narrowed. “You have a name?”
The man nervously adjusted his black-rim glasses. He seemed to realize he’d told her more than he should have. “Dr. Gordon.”
“Look, Gordo. I’m not an expert, but even I know that if the President’s in the Airborne Command Center, something bad’s happened.”
Dr. Gordon, to his credit, didn’t react, although his face paled significantly, something a few minutes ago Leah wouldn’t have thought possible.
CHAPTER 120
“How was your flight?” Paulson asked. His face was creased with fatigue, but his eyes shone bright with anticipation.
“I’ve had better,” Jack replied. “Since you’re here, I’m assuming you didn’t have any trouble.”
The billionaire nodded and took a sip of hot coffee. “With the entire military tracking one Chilean C-130 Hercules, no one bothered to keep an eye on my unimportant corporate jet.” He glanced up at the sky. “How much time do we have?”
“A few minutes,” Jack replied. “I’m sure they tracked us on radar overflying Holloman. So… did the old man agree to do it?”
Paulson nodded. “He said after years of regret, he was happy to do some good.” He shook his head. “Goddamn crazy as hell, but still sharp. He scared the crap out of me and Garrett dropping down into those canyons. Damn if he doesn’t know every inch of that desert. He landed the Cessna down in a canyon so narrow I thought we’d scrape the paint off the wings.”
“Where are Garrett and Marko?”
Paulson pointed back toward the hangar. “They are securing the old boy’s Cessna. Ridley and Lyon are swapping war stories inside the FBO.” The billionaire suddenly grimaced and nodded toward the coal-black liquid staining his Styrofoam coffee cup. “Damn if the old coot doesn’t make the worst coffee I’ve ever tasted.”
The corners of Jack’s mouth turned up in a faint smile. “How’d the pictures turn out?”
“Excellent, we even had time to pose for a group photo.” He winked. “Let’s get that poker game you were talking about started.”
Teresa approached them from behind, hands on her hips. An icy glare shifted from Jack Hobson to the billionaire and back. “You guys mind filling me in on just what the hell is going on here?”
“I’d love to Ms. Simpson, but right now I believe we’re a little short on time,” Jack said.
“Look,” she said, “if you’re up to something, I think I should be—”
The sound of helicopter blades chopping through the thin New Mexico night air cut Teresa off in mid-sentence.
Jack recognized it as an Army Blackhawk helicopter sweeping in low over the runway. The chopper dropped to the tarmac, and soldiers jumped out and spread out toward the C-130 and the hangars. Two more helicopters swooped down and at least twenty more soldiers flooded the tarmac, all using what looked to Jack like night-vision equipment and carrying what he assumed were military assault rifles.
After the soldiers flooded out of the last helicopter, one man wearing civilian clothes dropped to the tarmac. He looked over the operation as the soldiers gathered up Garrett and Marko from the hangar and Ridley, Lyon, Perez, and a stooped but proud Luke Derringer from inside the Quonset hut.
“I would suggest that you don’t move,” Jack told Teresa Simpson. “Just raise your hands slowly.”
CHAPTER 121
Dr. Gordon led Leah through a maze of medical equipment, some of it set up, much of it still packaged from transport. Whatever thought had been given to the disposition of the Native Americans, it had clearly been done in a rush.
Given the ad hoc nature of this endeavor, Leah kept a sharp eye out for a stray cell phone or other communication device — not that she’d have any good options if she did find an opportunity to make a call.
She shook her head at the entire situation, which might never have come about if not for her own rash decisions and stubborn determination. Jumping into situations without thinking through the consequences had gotten Leah in trouble before, but nothing on this scale.
In retrospect, she supposed she could have announced the dwelling discovery anonymously from a pay phone and been done with it. They government archeologists wouldn’t have had the balls (or probably the smarts) to reach the Antarctica conclusion. It all would have remained another undiscovered mystery.
How ironic was it that poor Juan had suggested that very solution?
Suddenly, she had a taste of what Jack must have been feeling all these years about her dad… the deep endless guilt.
“Jesus what an ass I’ve been,” she whispered. How many times had she held her dad’s death over Jack’s head? Now, she was going to pay the price for that in some karmic way. Her smart-ass comments weren’t to be taken literally — most of the time, anyway. But now she’d have no chance to tell it to Jack.
Well, if they did somehow manage to get out of this mess alive, her relationship with Jack was headed a whole new direction. If he wanted to climb mountains with Paulson, so be it. All the time and energy she’d spent trying to keep him alive, and in the end, she’d likely been the one to kill him.
“This way,” the doctor said, pointing through a curtain.
Leah peeked inside, shocked to find the Native American girl lying unconscious on a steel gurney, covered in a thermal blanket and with two IV’s running under the blanket.
She stepped back and whispered, “These people have been in suspended animation for 800 years. Bad breath might be enough to kill them, never mind all the modern diseases they were never exposed to. There’s no way I’m going in there without a mask, gloves, and surgical gown.”
Dr. Gordon nodded. “Our first thoughts, of course. However, the results of the initial blood work have been stunning. Their immune systems are hyperactive, possibly a result of the cryonic procedure itself. We believe it’s safe to continue.”