“Heads up, people, going down,” Alex addressed the group.
The HAWCs sat forward, immediately alert, and started to run through a final weapons check. The NASA team looked wide-eyed, with Scott McIntyre suddenly going a few shades paler.
“Captain.” Russell Burrows leaned forward. “Uh, how long until we get to the actual mountaintop?”
Alex shrugged. “Getting to the mountain, maybe only three to four hours. But getting to the cusp where the Orlando went down might all depend on you. I’m not going to sugarcoat it; it’s gonna be tough.”
As if in response, the pilot turned down the cabin heating to acclimatize the group. Russ Burrows pulled his collar up. “We’ll keep up.”
Alex nodded. “Good, because my primary mission is retrieval; your safety is secondary.”
Burrows snorted. “Well, that’s great; to protect and serve, huh?”
Casey Franks leaned forward. “Nah, that’s the other guys.”
Burrows muttered something as he sat back.
“Captain Hunter, just how close can they get us… to the cusp, I mean?” Anne Petersen’s brow creased as she stared up into his face.
“Unfortunately, we might not be able to drop at the mountaintop or into it. The visibility is now down to zero due to irregular fog formations up there. Also, the prevailing winds this time of year blast down from the northwest, so we’ll be coming in on the sheltered, eastern side. As a backup plan, we have identified a shelf of stone a few hundred feet from the rim that’s about twenty feet wide that our pilot could drop us onto… with luck.”
Alex saw her mouth tighten with anxiety. It didn’t matter; they all needed to be ready. “I expect it to be a fast and hard drop.” He smiled grimly. “As a medic, you may have some work to do.”
Her jaw set as she collected herself. “Okay, then what?”
Good for her. “Then, doctor, we have to scale a few hundred feet to the peak and drop into the cusp.”
Steve Knight whooped. “Straight up a sheer rock face, in subzero temperatures, with swirling wind. Hell yeah.”
Casey Franks winked at Anne. “Walk in the park, lady.”
“For us, she means,” Max Dunsen brayed, and Drake Monroe high-fived Casey.
“We’ll all be fine,” Alex said. “In fact, to make sure of that, Franks and Dunsen just volunteered to be your shock absorbers on the way down.”
Casey shook her head, mumbling: “Well, that’s just fuc—”
“What, soldier?” Alex glared.
Casey jerked upright. “Nothing, sir, just saying, that’s just fine. Looking forward to it, boss.”
Sam Reid looked up and grinned momentarily before reading more information from a small computer screen strapped to his inner forearm. He leaned in closer to Alex.
“There’s no further intel on our Russian gatecrashers. Is it too much to hope they fell into a chasm?”
Alex grunted. “We’re never that lucky. They’re ahead of us so we assume they’re already on the ground, somewhere, waiting.” He looked up. “Soon as we set down, I want a perimeter.”
“You got it.” Sam leaned back to relay instructions to the HAWCs, who listened intently. The HAWCs concentrated, their eyes focused and intense, looking like a pack of hungry wolves waiting to be unleashed.
Alex felt his own wrist computer vibrate. It was Hammerson with an update on their landing site. They were in radio silence, except for secured send-and-receive. They also used the non-vocal communications when civilians were in earshot.
Sabers still has zero visuals on drop zone.
Alex entered his response. Thermals?
Nada; everything is warm down there. Go to backup plan. Hammerson out.
Alex sighed; always the hard way. He sat back, looking across at the NASA crew. The windchill up that high in Alaska could drive temperatures down to a hundred degrees below. However, today he only expected around forty to fifty below. And then, once they entered the crater, it’d rise to around fifty above — still cool, but nearly a one hundred-degree swing. Their suits and bodies would have to work overtime to adapt.
Then there was the melt runoff. All that heat would melt snow and ice. The rock faces would be slippery as hell and might still be running with water, sending rivers down on top of them, especially if the heat bloom was spreading.
Hammerson had said the gases emanating from inside the crater were staying over the basin, a little like a blister. Whatever was down there was keeping the strange air close and not letting it escape. Weird. The winds up there tended to scream over the mountaintops and should have scraped out and dispersed any gases long ago.
Maybe a good thing. Given the possibility of the gases being toxic, having them contained was probably a gift.
The airplane started to descend and he noticed Anne Peterson looking at him again. Her face was pale. He nodded to her, and she returned the gesture. That was all he had for her.
She came and sat next to him. “Captain, I meant to ask you…” She pressed her lips together for a moment before going on. “Do you think they, the astronauts, could still be alive?”
“No.”
She looked taken aback. “Uh, wow, thanks for that.”
He continued to watch her face for another few seconds. “I wish I thought different, but I don’t. Though it’s warm in the crater, if anyone survived the impact, our scientists tell us that there are toxic gases in there.”
“But I thought they detected movement, that might have been…” She slumped.
“Unlikely.” He kept watching her. “Someone on that craft means something to you, right?”
Anne stared at the ground for a moment before looking up at him. “Commander Mitchell Granger. Mitch.” She gave him a watery smile. “We talked about getting married after this mission.” Her eyes glistened.
“You shouldn’t be here; emotions lead to mistakes.” Alex felt the air density shift, as they got closer to the ground. He looked over his shoulder out the porthole window and saw the long dirt track coming up.
Anne bristled. “Hey, listen—”
“We’re just here to do our jobs, Doctor Peterson. If not, people die.” He turned and nodded to Sam.
Sam swung to the HAWCs. “Immediate perimeter deployment as soon as that damn door opens. Clear?”
“HUA!”
The wheels bounced and they swung sideways a few degrees before the Twin Otter settled on the runway. Sam was already standing in the center of the plane holding onto some overhead rails, his huge frame like the Colossus of Rhodes.
They rolled to a stop, and Sam pulled open the door. Casey Franks went through it first, followed by the other soldiers, with the group immediately fanning out.
Sam then jumped down, looked one way, then the other, before pointing at several buildings, causing the HAWCs to sprint toward them. He then lifted a scope to his eye, turning slowly as he scanned the far perimeter, Alex knew, looking for snipers.
“Let’s go, people.” Alex waved the NASA crew out. They needed to get the Twin Otter up and gone quickly so their chopper had a clean landing pad.
Behind them a few locals came out to stare. Sam Reid lifted his hand to them, but the other HAWCs scrutinized the gawpers closely. Sam then grabbed the NASA gear and dumped it on the ground as the three technicians leaped down.
“Over there.” Alex yelled the words loud enough to be heard over the still spinning propellers and pointed to a place beside the runway.
He checked his watch — time was good, and everything on schedule. He leaned into the plane and gave the pilot a thumbs-up before he shut the door. In another few moments, the Twin Otter was leaping down the track, gathering speed before bouncing once and then lifting off.