Stop embarrassing yourself, Zahra.
“Where to?” he asked.
“Where else?” Yana asked. “Back to the LC-130.”
Zahra agreed, but not just yet. “Make a stop at the Russian camp.”
Yana peeked around her arm again and looked at her. Zahra turned and smiled. “I want more guns first.” She winked. “Just in case.” They had lost their rifles, pistols, chest rigs, and ammo down in the hangar.
Yana ginned. “That’s my girl.”
“But in the meantime,” Zahra continued, “I need to call the office.” She snorted. “Well, shit.”
“What’s wrong?” Hammet asked.
Zahra closed her eyes and laid her head back. “We don’t have our sat phones.” She chuckled again. “They were in our packs.”
Yana sighed. “Which are now somewhere in the center of the earth by now.”
Hammet floored the Sno-Cat. “Let’s hope the Russians had a spare.”
Chapter 75
Zahra
Thankfully, the Russians did, in fact, have a spare satellite phone. There were several to choose from, actually. It took a couple of tries over the span of an hour, but Zahra was finally able to connect with TAC HQ. She was stunned when Solomon Raegor answered the phone instead of Eddy, though the other woman did announce her presence somewhere offscreen.
“Wow, that’s something,” he said. “I’m sorry I got you into this mess.”
Zahra laughed. “I’m not. You should have seen it, sir. Words don’t do it justice.”
“I’m sure they don’t. It’s not every day that one of my agents confirms the existence of extraterrestrial life.”
Zahra’s enthusiasm quickly deteriorated. “But it happens… some days?”
There was a pause. “Okay, this was a first.”
“Then why don’t you sound excited about it?”
“Because, Zahra, things like this tend to eventually bring about more problems. The Sixth Seal bothers me more than the, uh, aliens. Secret Nazi groups aren’t a new thing, mind you, but ones with these kinds of connections are.” He grumbled. “The fact that no one could pick up on Kyle Ford being a spy proves that much.” He sighed. “Looks like we have some digging to do on our end.”
“Careful digging,” Eddy added. “This is big, sir.”
“That it is. That it is…”
“What about the site, Zahra?” Eddy asked.
“Wiped clean,” she replied. “There’s currently a mountain sitting on top of it.”
“You sure?”
“Yep. The ship is gone too, though I have no idea where it went.”
Raegor softly chuckled. “Hopefully, very far away from Earth.”
Zahra couldn’t agree more. She didn’t care who the beings really were or why they were here. All that mattered was that they were now gone.
“How’s your fuel, Zahra?” Raegor asked.
“Fine. We raided the Russian camp and stocked up. We shouldn’t have any problems unless our transportation dies.”
“Good. That’s good to hear. Think you can do a little recon before we bring you home?”
Zahra glanced at Hammet and Yana. “Sure. We were already planning to, anyway. ”
“I wouldn’t be asking you this if I had other people down there, but the fact is that I don’t.”
“No, it’s fine. We rearmed ourselves at the camp. We can do it.”
“I’m not asking you to get into a firefight, Zahra. Just head for the LC-130 and take a look. That’s it. If it’s still there, hunker down inside and call Palmer for emergency extract.”
“What do I tell them?”
“The truth: That outside forces ambushed you and have suffered casualties. Leave everything else off the table. Copy that?”
“Yes, sir. Talk again soon.”
They had planned to roll up slowly and investigate the state of the LC-130 Skibird from afar, but as soon as they crested the next rise, they quickly saw that it wasn’t necessary.
The plane was gone.
“I was afraid of this, Zahra.”
“So was I, sir.” She looked around at the LZ, counting eight extra bodies. They’d searched the freshest corpses shortly after arriving. “Henri Vogel escaped.” She cleared her throat. “So, about our extract…”
Raegor let out a long breath. “I’m sorry, Zahra, but I can’t get anyone there until morning.”
“Morning? When’s that? The sun never sets here this time of year.”
“You know what I mean, Zahra. You’ll have to wait it out in the Sno-Cat until then.”
Zahra took in her present company and the scenery, minus the dead bodies. At least she and the others would have a lot to talk about.
“No problem, sir. It could be a hell of a lot worse.”
Chapter 76
Zahra
Until further notice, Zahra, Yana, and Hammet were unable to fly back into Punta Arenas, Chile. Her close call there with the hotel assassin and the events in Antarctica warranted Raegor’s decision to ground them.
But that didn’t mean they were stuck in Palmer Station.
The sea air was crisp, and the sun was bright. If it weren’t still so cold, Zahra would have slipped into a bathing suit and caught some rays. Raegor had arranged for them to take a cargo ship back to South America. The vessel was manned by a skeleton screw, and the only passengers were Zahra, Yana, and Hammet.
“This is nice,” Yana said, leaning on the bow rail next to Zahra. “Cold, but nice.”
The pair were bundled up in fresh winter clothes. Zahra was comfortable. Her face stung a little, and she was pretty sure she had to pee. Other than that, she was great.
Heavy footfalls approached from behind. Hammet leaned forward on the other side of Zahra. He was also in warm clothing.
“Here,” he said, handing Zahra and Yana small mugs of coffee. “Made it fresh.”
Zahra melted. “God bless you, Hammet Braun.”
Yana was likewise thrilled to see the coffee, though her reaction was nonverbal. She silently nodded her thanks, sipped it, and was instantly transported to another place.
“How’s the head?” Zahra asked.
She shrugged. “Better than a couple of days ago. Still have a small headache. I can handle it.”
“Never said you couldn’t.” Zahra looked up at Hammet. “How ’bout you?”
He took a sip from his mug. “Back is tight, and my knees are sore. Other than that, I’m fine.”
“You got off easy,” Yana jabbed. She put her arm around Zahra. “Proves that we gals did all the heavy lifting, yes?”
The two women smiled and clicked mugs.
Hammet could only shake his head and look back out to sea. Four dark lumps crested the surface further out.
“Look,” Hammet said, pointing. “Humpbacks.”
Yana pulled out her binoculars. “Looks like there’s a juvenile, too.” She brought them down. “Very majestic creatures.”
Zahra’s jacket pocket chimed. She dug the satellite phone out and answered the call. “This is Zahra.”
“Hello, Zahra,” Raegor said. “You three healing up okay?”
“Yes, sir. We are.” She glanced at Yana. “Some slower than others.” Yana gave her the middle finger while whale-watching through her binoculars. “To what do we owe the pleasure?”