‘OK,’ Daley announced. ‘We’ll go ahead with phase one of the plan at fifteen hundred — extraction of the body. We’ll get it into one of the pressurized refrigeration units on board the first Chinook and then we’ll all extract by twenty-two hundred tonight.’
‘What?’ asked Lynn, shocked. ‘We’re all extracting? What about our mission?’
Daley disregarded her concerns completely. ‘You’re now part of a major scientific find, Dr Edwards,’ he said charmingly. ‘Your mission has changed.’
True to his word, Daley ensured his team had the body out and loaded by that evening.
His men were so efficient, Lynn couldn’t help but be impressed. They extracted the body with an almost loving care. Lynn and Devane watched fascinated as more and more of the ancient corpse was revealed. The strange clothing continued downwards, ending in some sort of cold-weather boots. And then there was something else, something metal buried next to the body.
Lynn moved forward to have a closer look but was gestured back. ‘I’m sorry, Dr Edwards,’ Daley said with gruff impatience. ‘These extraction tools we’re using are dangerous. Please remain in the safety zone.’
Disappointed but not surprised, Lynn moved back. Daley hadn’t wanted her there at all but she had argued her case thoughtfully. The army guys, no matter how experienced they claimed to be at such work, were unfamiliar with the unique conditions on the Pine Island Glacier, and Lynn told him clearly that they would need expert advice if they wanted to ensure no harm was done. Seismic anomalies, sudden moves in the ice, changes in air current — any could precipitate dangerous ice falls, or worse.
Daley had capitulated but only wanted a maximum of two people to help. Lynn was happy she would be able to observe the extraction but regretted that the majority of her team would be unable to share in the excitement.
It was clear that there was no excitement of discovery for Major Daley and his team. They approached the job professionally, no more and no less. And by ten o’clock that night, the body was on board the first helicopter as promised, the army engineers along with it; whilst on the second aircraft, Lynn sat with her NASA team, watching the small Matrix base as it disappeared into the swirling mist beneath them.
5
Lynn looked out of the window, down at the dark, near freezing waters of the Drake Passage, the small area of ocean between the Southern and Atlantic Oceans that separated Antarctica from South America.
They seemed to be flying very low, and she found herself wondering where they would be landing for refuelling. The Chinook’s range couldn’t be much more than a thousand miles, which would put them over Chile or Argentina. Were there any US military airfields in either of those two countries? Or perhaps, given the sensitive nature of their cargo, they were going to refuel in mid-air, negating the need to land anywhere before re-entering the United States.
Her reverie was interrupted by Harry ‘Truman’ Travers, the lead seismographer for the now-abandoned mission. ‘At least we’ll get to see our families sooner than we thought,’ he said with feigned enthusiasm.
The rest of the team murmured agreement, including Lynn, although she was acutely aware that she had no real family to return to. She was an only child, her parents having died in a car crash not long after she was born. She had been raised by her grandmother but this wonderful woman had also been taken tragically, just two years ago from cancer. Without a husband or children of her own, there was no one.
She was glad when Sally Johnson changed the subject. ‘So what do you think will happen to us?’
Horssen grunted, his intelligence background giving him an insight into such situations. ‘Simple really,’ he said. ‘They’re either going to put us on parade, wheel us out in front of the world media and put the spotlight on us in a big way.’ He paused.
‘Or?’ Devane finally asked for all of them.
‘Or we’ll be quarantined, kept out of sight. Depends on how sensitive the government decide the finding of the body is. Because this is exactly the sort of thing the government would cover up.’
The man who had been posing as Major Marcus Daley looked across the dark sky at the tail lights of the second helicopter, flying low across the waves.
There were some aspects of his job he liked, and others he didn’t. As it happened, this was one he liked. Many men would have baulked at what he was about to do, but he never considered any other option. It was cold-blooded, of course, but he simply didn’t care. His actions would benefit and protect the organization. And the dream.
He pulled the small metal box out of his cargo pocket, checking the flashing light.
He looked once more across the ocean to the second Chinook, his finger on the button, waiting for the right time.
‘It’d be nice to know where we were going at least,’ Devane announced, stretching his body out in the small, cramped seat.
He had read Lynn’s mind, as she stared again out to sea, wondering exactly the same thing. Screw it. ‘I’ll go and ask the pilot,’ she announced, unbuckling her belt and rising from her own cramped seat. It was something to do on the long flight, at least.
Grabbing her backpack, she moved down the small aisle, bumping knees with her teammates. ‘You can leave that here, you know,’ Otis Burns joked. ‘We’re not going to steal it.’
Lynn blushed, knowing Burns was right. And yet she felt strangely protective of the backpack’s contents, especially now that all the other evidence was with the US Army.
‘What can I say?’ she joked back. ‘I’ve got trust issues.’
She turned back down the aisle and was at the cockpit door in just two more steps. She knocked once, then again. There was no answer.
‘Hello?’ she said, knocking louder. She shouted and knocked again, louder and louder. Still no reply.
She felt for the handle, turned it. The door opened slowly, and Lynn stepped forward into the cabin.
Her eyes went wide, and the breath caught in her throat at the sight that greeted her.
Commander Flynn Eldridge — who had given the false name of Daley to the scientists — adjusted his position, straining to see the second helicopter just five hundred metres off the starboard side, its lights tiny specks in the distance.
He checked the time on his watch, then double-checked the navigation coordinates.
He looked to the aircraft’s navigator. ‘Here?’ he asked for confirmation.
The navigator nodded. ‘Here.’
Eldridge nodded back, and pressed the button.
‘There’s nobody flying the helicopter!’ Lynn yelled in terror.
Upon entering the cabin, Lynn had been greeted not by the sight of pilot and navigator as expected but by a completely empty space, except for a single, flashing green light on the control board.