Beneath the Ice (35 page)

“What do you think is up with Larimore?”
Gleason asked. “Do you think he’s the one who did in the
generators?”

“I don’t know,” Jack said. “He’s missing. It
doesn’t make sense. Why would he do that? What does he stand to
gain?”

“Beats me,” Gleason said. “But I have some
serious questions for him.”

“If Enkian lets him live,” Jack replied. “If
he lets any of us live.”

Jeter sat to the left of the
president, who was leaning over his end of the long conference
table that dominated the situation room.
To the president’s right was Admiral Dwayne Kelly. He was
seat
ed in the chair normally occupied by
General McDivett. Around the table were key advisors from the State
Department, the military, the
CIA, and
more.

“Mr. President,” Admiral Kelly said. “This
is a little hard to believe.”

“I agree,” President
Calvert said. “It is nonetheless true.” He looked around the room.
“You’ll notice some familiar faces are
gone. That’s how much influence this group has. They’ve
infiltrat
ed not just our administration
but
every
one,
going back many years. Maybe to
the founding of our country.”

Jeter saw the unbelieving
stares. That had been the devious beau
ty
of the generations-long operation—it was
incomprehensible.

“But, Mr. President,” the secretary of
defense said, “if what you say is true, then how do you know that
one or more of us are not part of the group?”

“I don’t. Not completely.
You are all being investigated, so expect a visit from the FBI.
We’ve already done deeper and more specific background checks on
all of you and everyone else in the West Wing.
I’m sorry for the intrusion, but it can’t be helped. To
preserve na-tion
al security, I’d have my
own grandmother grilled. And so we’re clear on this, if you’re
involved with this nameless group, you had better speak up now.
Treason is still a capital offense.”

Jeter bit his lip. No one moved or
spoke.

“Very well,” the president said. “You’ve
been briefed. I want suggestions, and I want them fast. How do we
deal with the mess in Antarctica?”

“That’s a tough one,” the admiral said.
“Antarctica is a military-free area. No nation is allowed a
military base on the continent. The Coast Guard runs icebreaking
operations down there, but they’re not equipped for an assault
operation. And you said that misinformation had been dispensed
about the C-5 crash to throw off the search. The integrity of the
operations down there may be compromised.”

“It makes sense,” Calvert said. “It seems
Antarctica is the goal. That’s where you’d want operatives. So who
do we trust?”

“I can think of one man,” Jeter said. The
president looked at him. It was a different gaze than he had grown
accustomed to. Jeter now saw suspicion in his boss’s eyes, despite
Jeter’s honesty about the matter. That was the problem with
conspiracies. One never knew who to trust.

“Who might that be?” Calvert asked.

“The Coast Guard captain that raised a stink
about the search, the one whose radio transmissions NSA picked up.
From the logs of his transmissions, he seems untainted.”

“But what can the captain of an icebreaker
do?”

“I don’t know,” Jeter admitted. “But he’s
close.”

Jack seized the line the moment Perry’s helmet
emerged from the ice shaft and pulled. “Order the plane to stop!”
Gleason did, and two seconds later the cable stopped moving. Jack
heaved with all the strength he could manage. His damaged ribs
ignited with pain, and the wound on his arm ripped open again. Jack
ignored it all; his attention was on the man in the dive suit. He
pulled until half of Perry’s body lay on the ice.

Gleason was by his side. “Let me disconnect
him.” A moment later, the umbilical that had towed Perry to the
surface hung limply over the hole.

Jack dragged his friend to the side, away
from the hole, the gantry, and the other equipment. Before he had
the helmet off, Gwen was at his side. Jack worked the releases and
gently pulled the helmet away. Perry’s face was light blue.

“Move,” Gwen snapped.

Jack was rooted in place.

“I said, move!”

Jack yielded.

Gwen removed the glove of her right hand and
touched Perry’s neck, positioning her fingers over his carotid
artery. She didn’t move. She didn’t speak.

“Gwen—” Gleason began.

“Hush!”

Jack’s stomach dropped like a meteor when he
saw her lower her head.

Her head snapped up. “I have a pulse. Get
the FAWS.” She slapped Perry lightly on the side of the face. “Come
on, Perry, come on.” She slapped him again. “Perry, can you hear
me? Come back to us. Come back.”

Perry coughed. “Hands are . . .
c–c–cold.”

She turned to Jack. “Get this suit off
him.”

“Hold it,” a voice said. “Stand back.”

Jack watched Tia and
Enkian approach, a handgun in the man’s
grip.

“He needs help,” Gwen said.

Enkian raised the gun and pointed it at
Gwen’s head. “Stand back.”

Gwen did.

“Watch them,” Enkian ordered Tia. She raised
her weapon.

Enkian bent over Perry then reached for the
dark plastic bag attached to his waist. He tucked his pistol in his
parka and gently opened the bag. He removed the brick Perry had
retrieved, turned it over, and ran his fingers along the letters
pressed into its wide surface. “Marduk,” he muttered. He looked at
Tia and smiled; then he stood and caught the gaze of his small
army. He raised the brick over his head.

The Chamber filled with cheers.

Jack had had enough. He knelt beside his
friend and unlatched the torso portion of the suit from the legs.
It was time to get Perry out.

The light from the Chamber seemed wrong to Perry, but
he couldn’t figure it out. He wasn’t thinking clearly. All he knew
was that he had opened his eyes to the face of Gwen James and it
was a pretty face. A second later he drifted off, his mind muddled
with disjointed and confusing thoughts. He wondered how the little
fish was doing.

“
Give me some privacy, gentlemen,” Captain
Thomas Mahoney ordered as he entered the communications room. The
place emptied in a moment. Remaining behind was the senior
communications officer. “You said you had an eyes-only for
me.”

“Yes, sir. Over there.” He
nodded to a computer monitor. Ma-honey sat down and saw an e-mail
with his name on it. He knew it was encrypted. He clicked on
open
, and a password
request

window appeared. He entered a code known
only to him. When the message decoded, he read it and felt a wave
of confusion that was replaced immediately by resolve. He deleted
the message. “Thank you. Carry on.”

Mahoney marched to the bridge and saw Ray
Seager standing at his post. “XO,” he said sharply, “you’re with
me.”

“Aye, sir.”

He turned and strode down the companionway
toward his quarters. Behind him came the fast steps of his
executive officer.

Once in the privacy of the captain’s
quarters, Mahoney filled in his officer.

“Begging the captain’s pardon,” Seager said
with dismay, “but this is impossible to do.”

“That’s true,” Mahoney agreed. “That’s why
they called on the Coast Guard.”

Chapter
31

Perry awoke
slowly
, blinked, and tried to order his
thoughts. His whole body ached, and his headache remained. But his
lungs felt good, filled with air that was cold but sweet. He tried
to move but couldn’t. He was paralyzed.

“Take it easy, buddy,” Jack said. Perry
turned to see his friend sitting in a chair next to him. Since he
had to look up, he realized that he must be lying on the ice.
“We’ve got you tied down.”

“Tied down?” His voice sounded weak to his
ears. Things were becoming clearer.

Gwen appeared. “We have you in the
FAWS.”

Perry was puzzled. “My brain has been a
little oxygen deprived. FAWS?”

“Forced Air Warming Suit,” Gwen explained.
“Remember?”

Perry did. He had ordered several such suits
for the mission. “It’s coming back. My hands and feet are still
cold.” He shifted his weight in the sleeping bag-like device. He
could barely move.

“They’re supposed to be,” Gwen said. “The
suit warms the torso first. That’s where the important organs are.
If we warmed the hands and feet first, then your blood would rush
to your extremities before we wanted it to.”

“That’s what she says,” Jack joked. “I think
she’s just afraid you’ll disrupt the party.”

“My invitation must have been lost in the
mail,” Perry said.

“Yeah, go with that,” Jack said, then he
softened his tone. “You had us scared, buddy. I’m glad you’re
back.”

“You know how I like to make an entrance.”
He met his longtime friend’s eyes. The gaze said enough. “How long
have I been out?”

“Two hours or so,” Gwen said. “You deserved
a nap.”

“The brick?”

“Enkian has it,” Jack said. “Things have
gotten a little weird while you were gone, a little stranger.”

“I didn’t think that was possible.”

“Oh, it’s possible, all right.” Jack
explained about the power loss, the sabotaged generators, and the
missing Larimore. “Gleason had to rip the batteries out of the
backup suit to power the FAWS.”

“He’s still missing?” Perry said. “There
aren’t that many places to hide.”

“They found him about an hour ago,” Jack
replied. “He had slipped out to use the head. A guard went with
him. They found the guard dead, his neck broken. His gun was
missing.”

“He had a gun?”

“
Yes, but he didn’t get to use it. Tia and the others found
Larimore hiding
in a fiberglass crate in
the cargo area of Tia’s plane. Apparently he was going to wait
there until they flew out.”

Perry thought about what he was hearing.
“You think he killed the power then hid on the plane to make his
escape?”

Jack nodded. “No one can survive out here
without power. In some ways, it’s a decent plan. If Enkian and the
others wanted to stay, then someone would have to fly for parts or
maybe a whole new generator, or at best, they’d just leave, and
he’d be on the aircraft with them. Ironically, he was hiding in the
aircraft we used to pull you up. That’s when he was found.”

“Ingenious and stupid,” Perry said. “I can
see a dozen problems with that plan.”

“I think he’s rounded the
bend, if you know what I mean,” Jack
said.
“He’s in no shape to try anything like that again. They
roughed
him up pretty good.”

“The power’s on now,” Perry observed.

“Yeah, Enkian’s men got the lines spliced
and the repairs made about an hour after we brought you up.”

“I wouldn’t have lasted another hour,” Perry
said.

“True,” Jack agreed. “Larimore almost killed
you.”

“You know, I was entertaining thoughts that
he might be part of Enkian’s group.” Perry turned away from Jack
and directed his attention to the center of the Chamber. Things had
changed. “What’s going on over there?”

“That’s the weird part,” Jack said. “They’ve
been unloading rocks, of all things. Rocks! They’ve put them in a
circle. I think they’re planning some kind of ritual. It’s giving
me the creeps.”

“I’ll tell you what creeps me out,” Gwen
said. “They have Sarah and Gleason training some of their men to
use Slick. I don’t think they’re going to need us for much
longer.”

“
I envy you,” Enkian said. He had approached
Perry as Gwen was helping him out of the FAWS.

“Don’t,” Perry said. Jack handed him his
parka. He still felt cold but well enough to leave the confines of
the warming suit. He stood and swayed, his head spinning. “I’m not
in the best position here.”

“You have seen with your own eyes what I
have only seen on the monitor, what my father and his father and
his father back more generations than I can count have longed to
see. You have touched the tower.”

“I can have Gleason put the batteries back
in the other suit if you want to pay your brick mountain a
visit.”

“
Don’t be snide with me, Mr. Sachs,” Enkian said. “I am a
proud
man and have no patience. I let your
friends treat you because I owed you something for bringing me the
brick. As far as I’m concerned, my debt is paid.”

“Why are you here?” Perry pressed, too tired
and sore to care about offending.

“To reclaim what is rightfully ours,” he
said.

“You have title deed to the ziggurat?” Perry
said, his legs buckling. Jack stepped to his side.

“We are tied to it,” Enkian admitted. “Tied
in a way you cannot understand. It is the work of my people from
ages before recorded history.”

“Well, now you’ve seen it.
So what’s next? Taking up occupan
cy is
going to be difficult, with it submerged in a pressured lake under
ten thousand feet of ice. Trust me, it’s not even a nice place to
visit.”

“We’re taking our continent back,” Enkian
said. “This land was once ours. It will be ours again.”

“That seems unlikely,” Perry argued. “No one
owns Antarctica. No country and certainly no person. You may have
captured this base, but that’s a long way from taking all five
million square miles of it.”