Yedemsky had been pummeled by huge blows, one arm clearly and loudly broken by the onslaught. Unfortunately, he had still been alive when Kuvayev decided it was time to use his teeth and began to feed in a violent frenzy of torn flesh, clothing, and spurting blood. The screams were unlike anything Barinov had ever heard.
But the shock he felt had to be overcome by the realization that an opportunity was being presented. By now, Kuvayev was completely engrossed in his attack and never gave any indication that he even remembered that Barinov was there. So, he began to walk slowly but steadily toward the open door.
He stepped through the doorway. One last fleeting looked indicated that he had gone completely unnoticed. Barinov turned toward the idling Cat and literally walked head-on into the waiting teeth of Pechkin.
His shrieks were muffled as they travelled along the snowy ground and caused no one any consternation. He, unfortunately, had to live through the worst nightmare anyone could imagine. And this was going to take some time.
“What is it? Tell me!”
“Latitude and longitude.”
She spun around and looked at the chart.
“My God, you may be right. Do you have the numbers on you?”
He pulled a piece of paper out of his pants pocket.
“Recite them to me.”
He did as directed.
“7846392001068375300.”
“Okay.” She had scratched them down on a piece of paper.
“Now we separate them like this.”
Hamlin looked down at the paper. It was a subtle change.
784639200-1068375300
“That’s not as impressive as you seem to think it is.”
She smiled. “Watch this.” She wrote them down again. Hamlin saw the transformation.
78°57’39200” 106°83’75300”
“Son of a bitch. So where exactly is that?”
She picked up the paper and looked at the chart.
“It is here. Or at least very close to here.” She was pointing at the station.
Hamlin was amazed that he had solved it. “Awesome. So what does it mean in practical terms?”
“I have an idea. When the repair crew returns, you and I will go out. We will say we are hunting. We’ll program in these coordinates in the GPS and drive out to see where and what it is. Then, hopefully, the mystery will be solved.”
Hamlin nodded. “I like it. Good plan. Hopefully those guys won’t be too long. Now I’m kind of excited.”
“You were kind of excited five minutes ago. Don’t you have some cleaning up to do anyway?”
“True enough. You run some sort of diversion and I’ll sneak through.”
She patted him on his shoulder. “Sorry, my good doctor. I have done enough for you. You are now on your own.”
“Fine. What the hell. It’s hard to get mad at you when you do things like this. I’ll just walk right through like I own the place.”
“Good luck. I’ll follow from a safe distance to see if you make it or not.”
An hour went by before anyone vocalized concerns about the repair crew. At that point, the worry was nothing more than that they could be having trouble making the repairs. But the lights were still on so the fears were small. How bad could it be?
As time ticked by, the stress level rose proportionately. People began to cast furtive glances toward the door. The old clock on the wall became a popular target for wandering eyes. Small groups formed and words were now whispered rather than spoken out loud.
All seven crew members congregated in the common area. Francis decided that seven people had never looked like so few. The room was noticeably empty.
Lena and Zoya had grouped together and had an extended but unrevealed conversation. Francis decided to join them. Lena had shown the most aptitude toward leadership of them all since Sokolov left them so abruptly.
“Hi.” It wasn’t much of an introductory remark, but Hamlin was running intellectually low.
“Hello Dr. Hamlin.” Lena’s face was neutral. Dr. Grekov was noticeably stressed.
He decided to cut through the preliminaries.
“Look, I’m not mechanic, but isn’t it safe to say that this is a very long time for a repair of this nature?”
“We don’t know what the extent of the repairs are,” Lena said.
“Five hours is a long time,” Zoya interjected.
Hamlin nodded. “That’s what I thought. In that instance, is there anything we can do?”
Both of them stared openly at Dr. Sayanski.
“Are you asking me if it is time to panic? Because the answer to that, I believe, is no.”
Francis was disappointed with her response. He felt like some sort of action was now required.
“Fine. I suppose that’s what I was asking. It just feels like we should do something. Sitting around and speculating just isn’t healthy down here.”
Lena stared at a scratch in the surface of the table, and then traced it with her finger.
“For clarification purposes, we could run out there and check on them, I suppose. It is a waste of time and resources, in reality. But we could bring an end to this unproductive conjecture, if nothing else.”
Now they were getting somewhere.
“Does that old Cat still run?”
There was a bulky, old Cat sitting off to the side of the barracks connected to an equally bulky old trailer. Hamlin had never seen it run, but had heard some of the crew members mention it before.
She shrugged. “I don’t know any more than you do. I suspect it does. We can try to start it. It moves rather slowly if I remember correctly, but it will get us there; if it will run.”
“You and me?” Hamlin figured it was his idea.
Zoya leaned in toward Lena. “What about me? Can I come too?”
Lena shook her head as if in rebellion against the decision making powers being given to her, then waved her hand.
“Fine. What do I care? Let’s load up the entire crew.”
Hamlin stood. “Seating is limited, I’m afraid.”
Lena stood as well. She turned toward the two tables that held all the remaining crew members.
“Dr. Hamlin is concerned about the repair crew,” she announced. “We’re going to start the old Cat and see if there is anything we can do to help them along. We shouldn’t be long.”
The others simply sat and stared in response. No optimism was generated by the announcement. Nothing had been working out very well of late.
They gathered by the door and left as a group. Hamlin was surprised when Dr. Grekov climbed in the driver’s seat. Lena carried two rifles with her. She handed one to Francis without any ado, and then directed him to sit in the middle.
“I want easy access if a shot presents itself. I do not want to miss any opportunity to put an end to this shit, once and for all.”
Francis slid in, careful to keep the gun pointed away from them.
“Here we go,” Zoya said.
The engine turned over freely and started immediately. That was a relief. Lena disconnected the cord for the electric block heater before she jumped in.
“All right, Dr. Grekov. Let’s go find out what is taking them so long.”
The machine was louder and slower than the other Cat, but it moved and they weren’t out in the cold.
Francis had a thought come to him out of the blue.
“Hey, if we have both rifles and security at the barracks has one handgun…does that mean the repair crew has the other handgun?”
Lena looked grim. “I checked. They didn’t take any guns with them. They are unarmed.”
Hamlin decided not to comment further until he had decided if that was a bad thing or no big deal.
“Was that intentional,” Zoya asked as she drove along, “or did they just forget?”