Alex turned away. “Ready the equipment; we’re leaving.”
“We’re going,” she said defiantly.
“Ain’t happening,” Sam said in a growl and followed Alex.
“Yeah, how are you going to do that, Paul Bunyan, tie us up?” She folded her arms.
“Works for me,” Casey said and turned to Alex. “Want me to get the zip-cuffs?”
Morag scoffed. “Sure, you could do that, and smash our gear as well. But then you’d have to shut up the locals. We made a few friends here.” She waved to a few people who had come out of some flat-topped houses to watch the group. Her mouth curled into a smile. “All you’d do is slow us down a little, but confirm there’s a real story to chase. In a few hours, we’d have a press chopper here before you even made it to the top.”
She turned and started to nod to her cameraman. “You know what? Go ahead. You’d make this a bigger story than it might be. Make my news day; I might even win an award.” She grinned at Russell. “I’ll make NASA famous again.”
“We can’t have this leaking out; not until we’re ready,” Russell blurted out.
“It won’t,” Casey leered. “We have facilities where we can keep these two nice and quiet, until we’re done.”
“Oh, fuck off,” Morag snarled at the female HAWC. “What, are you North Korean now?”
Casey had her hands on her hips. “Say the word, boss, and they won’t be talking to anyone, ever.”
Morag kicked some gravel at her. “Try it.”
Russell grabbed Alex’s upper arm and tried to turn him, but found it impossible. Instead, he moved in front of him.
“Captain, this mission is the highest-level security and secrecy. We cannot have these people loose, but also I will not see them harmed or incarcerated.” He looked at his wristwatch. “Fact is I can probably use them. We take them with us, control them; that’s my recommendation, no, my order.”
Alex groaned as he listened.
“Here’s the plan,” Casey said. “We throw them out of the chopper. Accidents happen.” She looked like she was enjoying herself.
Renner audibly gulped and backed up, but the female journalist was unbowed. “We’re experienced climbers, and set to go, right here, right now. And if we do go, at least you can keep a lid on whatever it is going on up there… for now.” She came closer to Russell, staying out of Casey and Alex’s reach. “We can certainly help you… be happy to. Just tell me how.”
Russell shrugged. “I need this documented.”
“Can do that,” Morag agreed.
“But the footage stays with us,” he added.
“Ah.” Morag pinched her lip for a moment, and then tilted her head. “We share it.”
“No can do, until it’s cleared by NASA.” He folded his arms. “Last chance.”
Morag’s eyes became crafty. “You strike a hard bargain, sir. But I accept.” She turned to smile sweetly at Casey.
Alex knew that the woman would try to secrete the footage somehow. There was no way any journalist worth their salt would wait for a government agency to release sensitive and unique footage to them. He also knew that there was no way he would let them leave with anything that contained any recordings — images, sound, or data — of a HAWC mission.
“Then we’ve got a deal,” said Russell.
“Not until the boss says so.” Casey remained stone-faced.
Alex rubbed a hand up through freezing hair and felt every one of his HAWCs watching him. He walked a few paces and stopped, looking up at the granite peaks where they needed to be in the next few hours. It looked freezing, inhospitable, and deadly as all hell.
He snorted. What the fuck do I care if these guys want to commit suicide? He turned slowly. “You have no idea what you’re asking for.”
“Yes, I do; we’ll be fine.” Morag stepped forward.
Alex stared for a moment more, and then smiled grimly. “If you’re slow, we will leave you. If you ask for help, we will ignore you. And if you fall, then it will be into your graves. Got it?”
“Very dramatic.” She nodded with mock conviction. She turned momentarily to Renner and raised her eyebrows. “We’re in.”
Alex turned to Russell Burrows. “You wanted this; they’re your problem. You own it.” He went to turn away but paused. “One more thing; have you got breathing equipment?”
Morag tilted her head. “Sort of; we’ve got oxygen masks for the altitude.”
Casey chuckled. “You’re dead.”
Anne walked forward. “We brought a couple of spare suits.”
Scott McIntyre glowered. “Hey, hang on, they’re for us if we need them.”
Anne frowned. “Scott, you know it’s very unlikely we’ll need them. Be civil please.”
“And what if we do need them?” He growled as he stormed away.
Anne turned back to Morag and hiked her shoulders. “Of course you can have them.”
“Thank you.” Morag held out her hand. “It’s Morag.”
“Anne, Anne Peterson.” Anne shook her hand.
“NASA, right?” Morag smiled as the woman nodded.
Alex grunted. “Once we enter the crater; you’ll need those suits.” He then clapped once, the sound like a rifle shot. “Okay, let’s load ’em up, we’re out of here.”
Morag turned to Renner and made a small circling motion in the air. Renner lifted a small handheld action camera that fit in his palm and started to film the HAWCs.
Alex spun. “Hey!” His voice froze the man to the spot, and his eyes became round. In two strides, Alex was up in the man’s face, and ripped the small tube from Renner’s hand. He held it up.
“If you film any one of my team, we will destroy every piece of equipment you have, understood?” Alex made a fist, and the metal casing on the camera crushed. He dropped the shards to the ground.
Renner watched it fall with wide eyes. He nodded once, mouthed okay, with no actual words coming. Morag O’Sullivan folded her arms, her mouth tight.
Alex glared a moment longer and then turned to the NASA crew. “Let’s go.”
Sam yelled instructions, and in another two minutes the chopper was in the air.
CHAPTER 14
Ivan Zlatan was first over the rim of the mountaintop and stared down into the massive crater formation.
It had taken them an entire day to climb to the peak, without a single break, and it had not been without cost. He had started with five Kurgan, five of the top engineered combat soldiers in all of Russia, and perhaps the world. But he had lost one good man. Divinov had been big, strong, and unlucky. The shelf of rock he had clung to had simply fallen away like the skin of an onion. He dropped around 500 feet to the first rock shelf where he had bounced once then vanished from sight. No one would bother going looking for his body, and Zlatan only cared about his team’s reduced strike capability.
Like his remaining comrades, Zlatan’s fingers were near frozen, and his muscles ached and joints screamed, but they would mend with the rapid healing their metabolisms would undertake in the next few hours.
He had received his last update from Moscow just minutes before. A large helicopter was on its way to the plains spread out before the mountains — good. It meant the Americans had not yet arrived on the mountain, and his team was first in.
It didn’t matter. Even if the Americans were already here, and had retrieved the camera data, his orders were to bring it back it to the Motherland at all costs. The Americans would hand it over, or he’d take it from their cold, dead hands. It didn’t matter if they had Special Forces assets — in fact he hoped for it. Zlatan smiled grimly. He wanted them to put up a fight as he would like nothing more than to test his Kurgan against the best America had to throw at them.