“I know you won’t. But you’ve got the USS Texas in your front yard, and they’ve got a squad of SEALs onboard. Just try not to start a war until I get back.” Alex grinned, and then looked to the figures on the snow. “Good luck, Sergeant Monroe.”
Alex grabbed his kit bag and leapt free before the chopper had settled on the ground. He jogged to the figures sheltering from the swirling snow. One of them, slightly shorter than the rest, stuck out a hand.
“Mr. Hawk?” The voice was authoritative and female.
Alex grabbed the hand and shook it. “That’s right. And you must be Professor Cate Canning.”
She nodded and waved him towards one of the small shacks. Inside it was warm, but the floor was wet. Cate and the men started to peel off clothing and boots. One by one they stopped and stared at Alex.
He wore his armored caving suit that would also be his diving gear. It was compression fitted over his frame, from fingertips to feet, the Kevlar thread worked through a polychloroprene material. There were also thin molded sheets of a mottled biological looking material over the biceps, thighs, and chest plate. It made him look like a cross between an assembled robot, and some type of superhero. It also had shielding over the hands and knuckles, and tight against his back was a flattened air tank that contained compressed oxygen.
“That’s some suit you got there. You planning on diving or bloody cage fighting?” said one of the youngest bearded men, brows raised.
“That’s enough, Sulley.” Cate Canning smiled tightly, and then pointed at each of the assembled men in turn. “Doctors Bentley, Timms, Schmidt, and the one with the sense of humor is Sulley.” Each nodded, their bearded faces far from humorous. Alex guessed none were happy to see him.
That was fine, he didn’t expect a welcoming committee, and in fact was already expecting some sort of passive resistance. He didn’t blame them; no one likes to have a huge boot stuck right into the middle of their project, especially one that the scientists had been working on for five years, that he could potentially sabotage. Hammerson would have had to pull a helluva lot of strings, and fast.
Cate walked down a small hallway in the shack and into a larger room, where one entire wall was covered in banks of equipment. “Sulley, get the kettle on. You’re on tea duty.” She turned. “Or is it coffee for our American friend?”
“Neither.” Alex could feel the tension in the room. “Just a briefing, and then I’m ready to go. Time is extremely short.”
Cate stared for a moment, her jaws clenching.
“This is crazy,” Bentley said, pulling at his long thin nose and then folding his arms. “Even though this position has the thinnest ice coverage for fifty miles, it’s still a mile-and-a-half thick layer of super compressed ice, over a skin of solid granite.” He turned to Cate, his palms up. “We know, we know, there’s a gap between the ceiling and the water below, but what we don’t know is just how big a gap. The drill will end up falling into space, and the impact on soft tissue alone could…”
“Flipper made it. Orca will too,” Cate said, clicking her fingers and pointing Sulley to the kettle.
“Damnit, Cate, that’s just it. Flipper was in a titanium and steel armored sleeve. We designed the shielding to protect the submersible and its electronics — not flesh and blood.” He thumbed at Alex. “He wants to hitch a ride? Fine, but he’ll be dead even before Orca is launched.” Bentley’s face was growing red. “This is crazy. Crazy!”
“Might be possible for someone to survive. Orca’s gyros will stabilize it, and it’s padded to kingdom come,” Timms said, looking to Bentley who now glared at him and shook his head. He grinned. “I mean not someone like you, Bent. You’re basically ninety percent tea and crumpet, but look at this guy.” He thumbed towards Alex. “He looks like he’s made of iron.”
Sulley snorted. “Nah, the cold, the heat, the pressure; it’ll be suicide.” He handed Cate a small mug of steaming tea. “But Yanks love that sort of stuff, right?” He shrugged. “His body will give Orca some more padding.”
“Happy to assist,” Alex said without humor.
Cate looked from her team to Alex. He noticed her features were attractive but severe, and her eyes were like shards of diamond. Alex could tell she was weighing something up in her mind.
Bentley exhaled through clenched teeth. “If he damages the probe, we’ll end up with nothing. This is a one-off, one-way deal. We can’t even recover the probe to repair it, and it’s supposed to explore the lake for the full ten months of its powerpack life. If he buggers it up, it’s over, and we’ll never get more funding for another try.”
“Arkson.” Cate smiled at Bentley. “I’ve devoted my life to this glimpse of another world, I think…”
“Yes, you do need to think. If he damages Orca, it’ll be a forty million dollar piece of junk sitting on the bottom of a sunken sea.” The nostrils of his long nose flared, looking like tiny wings. “Cate, you know what’s at stake here.”
Cate bared her gritted teeth. ‘Don’t get all self-righteous with me, Arkson. The project’s funders basically ordered us to assist. They could shut us down a lot quicker than this guy.” She jerked a thumb over her shoulder at Alex.
Bentley straightened. “Unlikely. Cate, I know there’s more at stake than…”
Alex had heard enough. “You know what’s at stake? I know what’s at stake; it’s you people who don’t.”
The room quietened as if a switch had been thrown. Alex looked at each of their faces. “You don’t know a lot.” He tried to keep the menace out of his voice, but knew his stare was already making some of the men ease back. “I’m not here to ask or to apologize. But you need to know a few things, fast.”
The group waited, and Cate nodded at him to continue. Alex placed his hands on his hips. “Did you know the Chinese have lost contact with their Xuě Lóng Base? Did you know we have a Chinese warship off the coast because they probably think we had something to do with it? Right now, there’s an American sub keeping it at bay. But soon there’ll be more ships, and then one false move, and there could be a nuclear war. I can potentially stop it, but I need to be down below the ice, fast.”
“Did you?” Bentley asked, lifting his gaze to Alex’s face. “Did you have something to do with them losing contact?”
“No,” Alex said.
“Would you tell us if you had?” Sulley asked from behind Bentley.
“What’s down there that’s so interesting to you?” Cate asked, tilting her head.
“That’s classified,” Alex responded.
“Of course it is.” Bentley snorted his disdain.
“Something else I don’t understand,” Cate said. “Since when did your relationship with the Chinese government get so bad? When did you stop talking and start deploying warships?” She frowned. “Something’s not right here.”
Alex felt his frustration start to coil inside him. “Look, there are… other factors in play. I’m not authorized to tell you, and you’re not authorized to know.”
“Not helpful.” Sulley’s voice rose again from behind Bentley.
Alex exhaled, looking from Cate to the scientists. “I know, to you, your project is important. But we are nearing a conflict tipping point, and I’m sure you don’t want World War Three starting on your doorstep.” He stared hard at Arkson Bentley, and the man held his gaze. “I’m sorry, but in relation to that, your work is to be temporarily commandeered.”