The American soldier sighed. “Your unwarranted paranoia is noted.”
“Oh, it’s not my paranoia. It’s my training.” Zahra grinned. “I’m good at sniffing out bullshit.”
“Same,” Yana said. “I always expect the worst and hope to be pleasantly surprised.”
“Couldn’t have said it better myself,” Zahra said.
Hammet nodded. “Nor could I.”
Kyle could see that he was defeated. “I hope I can prove you wrong when we leave for the sub. But that doesn’t change my stance on weapons.” He looked at Yana. “Which means you’ll get nothing. Am I clear?”
“Da,” Yana replied, meeting his glare with one of her own.
“Good.” He turned. “Now, follow me to your rooms. We have an early morning ahead of us.”
Zahra desperately needed sleep, but she already knew that little would come. The jetlag was running full steam ahead through her system, and the lack of nightfall wasn’t going to help. She figured her room would be outfitted with blackout curtains, same as on an Alaskan cruise. She’d taken one as a kid and had been shocked to find out that the sun only set for four hours at a time during the peak summer months.
Antarctica was experiencing something similar but on a more drastic level.
She didn’t even bother to look at her watch. At this point, there was no reason to wear one. Time was irrelevant here.
Cheer up, Zahra. You’ve gone without sleep before. Just not after thousands of miles of travel and two brawls. First, Sicily. Then, Chile.
She prayed there wouldn’t be another. Three fistfights on three continents, all within the span of a few days, would have to be some kind of record.
Chapter 15
Yana
The others gladly hit the sack, but not Yana. She couldn’t sleep, though she was happy that Zahra had gone down quickly. She needed it much more than Yana did. Yana could go days without proper rest. She only ever needed a couple of hours. Sometimes less than that.
But what Yana needed more than sleep… was a weapon.
She had no plans of using it against anyone here. Yana just really wanted one — anything. So far, since they had arrived in Antarctica, no one had proved themselves to be a threat to her life, even Hammet. The German, knowing Yana’s identity, both unnerved her and intrigued her.
The dorms where the others had crashed were positioned directly above the bar on the second floor of the GWR Building. Yana and Zahra were bunked together, which was nice. Having someone sleeping below you that you could trust when the shit hit the fan was a bonus. She had waited for Zahra to start snoring before heading back downstairs.
Palmer Station operated on a twenty-hour-a-day schedule. That meant the people here did, too. There would always be someone around. That was both good and bad, depending on what exactly you had planned.
For Yana, it was a positive. It would be infinitely harder to steal a weapon from someone if there was no one around to steal from. She headed back to the bar and found a lone soul sitting at it. He wasn’t entirely alone, however. Two of his cohorts were watching a movie. She didn’t know which one, and she didn’t care.
I’m sure Zahra would know.
Yana gave him some room, studying his wears as she drew nearer. Sadly, the security officer wasn’t outfitted with a firearm, but he did have a knife strapped to his belt.
Good enough.
Yana zeroed in on him, not the blade. She had an idea, one an attractive woman like herself had used on countless men over the years. This would be easier than most, too. This guy was young and guaranteed to be lonely.
She sat down next to him and spun to face him. “What’s a lady have to do to get a drink around here?”
Yana laid her accent on heavier than usual. She knew from experience that men loved it. One guy even went as far as to say it made her come off as a Bond villain, which was apparently a turn-on to him.
Men…
The officer met eyes with her, unable to say much of anything. Yana locked her jaw, refraining from screaming at the boy to get off his ass and get her a beverage.
He finally got the hint.
“Uh, what would you like?”
Good boy.
“Vodka, no ice. Mister?”
He stood and sauntered around to the back of the bar. “M — Mitch.” Yana eyed his sheathed knife. She needed to loosen him up a little. He was rigid and looked mightily unhappy about being here.
“Why the long face, Mitch?” she asked.
He grabbed a bottle of the cheapest mixing vodka and sloppily sloshed some into a glass meant for water. Yana gritted her teeth but accepted the economic alcohol. She sniffed it. The perfuming booze curled her lips and flared her nostrils.
“Something wrong?” he asked.
Being the professional that she was, Yana knocked back the entire pour with little more than a held breath.
“Not at all.”
He stared.
She smiled.
“Another?” he asked.
Gotcha.
“Da, please.” This time, he made it to the back of the bar in record time. “So, why does a handsome individual, such as yourself, look so — what do you call it — oh, yes, down in the dumps?”
He snorted. “Have you seen this place? Palmer is a shitheap. I hate it here.”
Mitch gave her an even heavier pour this time. Yana winced internally but, nevertheless, accepted the drink. This time, she didn’t wait for Mitch to sit back down. Yana steeled herself and downed the pour.
Mitch’s eyes went wide. “I guess it’s true what they say about Russian women, huh?”
Oh, this should be good.
“And what is that?”
“That you love the cold and your vodka.”
She smiled. He wasn’t that far off. “Did you know we also love a man in uniform?”
Mitch gazed down at his clothes. As he did, Yana leaned forward and slipped off the front of her barstool. He caught her, wrapping his arms around her back to support her dead weight. Yana got her feet underneath herself and stood, rubbing her chest against his.
She also slid her right hand down to his left hip, popped the sheath’s retention strap, and slid free his knife. Yana kept her eyes glued to his, then flicked them to the right.
“Who is that?”
Mitch turned to look. As he did, Yana carefully slid the blade into the back of her pants and covered it with her shirt. Her movements needed to be precise now. If not, she would have two splits in her lower back.
“There’s no one there.” When Mitch turned around, Yana was already standing. “Where ya goin’?”
Yana leaned in and kissed his cheek. “You have helped more than you know. Dasvidaniya, Mitch. Good luck to you.”
“Uh, thanks?”
Yana headed for the hallway. At its rear was the stairway that led back up to the dorms. She walked slow and stiff, taking care not to slice the top of her ass to ribbons. Once she was out of sight, she removed the blade from the back of her pants and slid it into the sleeve of her sweatshirt. Then, she quickened her steps and headed for her room.
Yana felt much better about her situation now.
Could still use a gun, though.
Chapter 16
Zahra
Kyle led everyone out to the frozen tarmac. Calling it a tarmac was a bit of an exaggeration in Zahra’s eyes. The landing zone was really just a blank sheet of white marked off by poles with flashing red lights. Zahra had no idea if there was even concrete or asphalt beneath the layer of white. Even if there was, she didn’t think it would matter.