Chapter 63
They picked a spot where the gap was narrow, and where the ice shelf on both sides looked stable. Sharpe and Kasey each took one side of the stretcher and gently lowered it into place. It barely reached to the far side, only a few inches of the handle having purchase on each frozen edge.
Sharpe was the first across, and he took his time.
Kasey and Chen held the handles to keep their makeshift ramp from moving.
Thankfully the stretcher was built for combat and not comfort.
The thick canvas was mounted tautly on its frame, providing a solid platform.
He got down on his hands and knees, and moved deliberately.
He reached the far side and said, “It’s more stable with your hands in the center.”
Chen was next, but before he mounted the ramp, Kasey carefully tossed her backpack across the divide. Sharpe caught it without incident. She wouldn’t, however, take that risk with Sky Fire. With only the black case and the rifle, she felt far lighter.
Kasey and Sharpe stabilized the stretcher’s handles, one of them on each side of the divide.
Chen lowered himself and began crawling across.
He started out smoothly, but when he was a yard short of the end, the icy edge on the opposite side fractured beneath one of the handles.
Sharpe couldn’t hold it in place and Chen lost his balance, tumbling into the icy water.
He didn’t fall in completely, his belly landing squarely on the stretcher, but from the waist down he splattered into the glacial sea.
Sharpe dropped immediately to his belly, and reaching out one of his long arms, he snagged a handful of Chen’s jacket.
As he dragged him closer, Kasey kept a death grip on the stretcher, knowing she couldn’t let it sink.
She watched Sharpe wrestle him back onto the ice.
Thankfully, he also had the presence of mind to grab one of the stretcher’s sinking handles.
He pulled it up and set both handles on what looked like firmer ice.
Chen lay writhing. He was shocked by the cold and gasping for breath.
“Come on,” Sharpe said. “I’ve got it on a thicker edge. We need to get you across so we can tend to Chen.”
“Okay,” Kasey said, trying to force what she’d just seen from her mind.
She checked that the handles on her side were on stable ice, then lowered herself onto hands and knees.
She adjusted the rifle and Sky Fire to keep them from shifting.
Sharpe was concentrating intently on steadying his end.
Kasey kept her weight as central as she could, moving inch by inch.
It was like walking a high wire without a net, except that a fall wouldn’t kill you directly.
The cold would do it far more agonizingly.
On reaching the far side she felt a wave of relief.
Sharpe hauled in the sodden stretcher.
Kasey immediately went to Chen’s side. His entire body was shivering. “Are you all right?” she asked. “Any injuries?”
“I… I don’t think so,” he said through chattering teeth. “At least, nothing new.”
“Okay, we have to get you dry.”
For ten minutes they did their best to warm Chen, although they had little to work with.
Sharpe removed the sweatshirt he was wearing as an outer layer, and they used it as a towel.
Once they had Chen’s legs and feet somewhat dry, Kasey put the last pair of dry socks on his feet, then doubled up with the ones on his hands.
It helped, but only marginally. Prompted by Kasey, Chen tried to stand. His legs buckled instantly, and he fell into a sitting position.
To this point, the scientist had surprised her with his strength and resilience. But now, for the first time, Kasey saw defeat in his eyes. She bent down and put a hand on his shoulder. “Don’t worry, we’ll figure this out.”
Chen’s breathing was shallow and choppy, the cold and adrenaline fusing ominously. “I can’t go on,” he said through quivering lips. “You should leave me here. Sky Fire is more important.”
“Not gonna happen,” she said with certainty. Yet when she looked at Sharpe, and saw his dire expression, her own confidence wavered. Kasey stood up, ostensibly to retrieve the rifle, which was well back from the water. She gave Sharpe a subtle nod, and he followed her.
“Now what?” he asked in a hushed voice. “There’s no way he can walk four more miles.”
“I know.”
“What if you booted up your system and explained to Langley what’s happened? Could they come get us?”
“I could try, but it’s doubtful. Whoever is coming to fetch us, they’re still hours away. The idea was for us to head to this weather station so we’d have protection from the cold while we wait.”
“Yeah, well… the cold for Chen just got a whole lot worse.” He looked all around, and finally his eyes settled on the stretcher. “I think that’s our only option.”
She followed his gaze. “What, put him on it and carry him?”
“I don’t think you and I could manage that. But maybe we could use it more like a sled. I’ve already hauled it this far. The stretcher itself isn’t too heavy, and I saw that you brought some extra line from the life raft. There’s enough that I could attach a pull loop to each of the handles.”
“Both of us drag him?”
He nodded.
Kasey thought about it for a moment. “I don’t have any better ideas. Let’s give it a try.”
They explained their plan to Chen, who reluctantly agreed.
“But if it doesn’t work,” he insisted, “you must continue without me.”
“It’ll work,” Kasey said, not yielding to his ultimatum. And if it doesn’t work, she thought, we’ll find another way.
She turned to Sharpe and said, “Before we try this, we need to send a report to Langley. It’s going to take longer for us to reach the weather station now. And they need to know you’ve joined up with us.”
“Both good points,” he agreed.
She began setting up Sky Fire, the shivering Chen unable to do little more than offer advice.
As the system spun up, Kasey was struck by a subtle change in their power dynamic.
Out of necessity, it had been Sharpe’s duty to take command at the crash site.
But now, somewhere in the intervening hours and miles, she had assumed the position of leadership.
It was a shift steeped in practicality, since she was better versed in the procedures and operations, in her world better known as tradecraft, that would get them safe.
All the same, she was very happy to have Sharpe as a sounding board.
Once the connection had been established, Kasey fired off a SITREP. Langley acknowledged their transmission and said the extraction plan would be updated to include Sharpe. Before shutting down, she carefully noted their position.
“Looks like we’re more or less on track. Four miles to go, maybe a little correction to the right. If we don’t hit any more leads, and if the sledding’s not too tough, we should get there in a couple of hours.”
“Let’s hope,” replied Sharpe.
Together they helped Chen lay on the stretcher and made sure he was secure. Then they set out for a trial run. The resistance with Chen’s extra weight was significant, but they quickly discovered that faster was better. They paused to work through the logistics.
Sharpe said, “When we get up to a fast walk, the drag really lessens.”
“Yeah. Problem is, I don’t think either of us can maintain that.”
They experimented as they went, and found that five minutes of hard pulling, followed by two minutes of rest, was optimum. Kasey felt like she was running wind sprints on her old track team. Only here, the cold seared her lungs and her feet continuously slipped on the ice.
Pausing again after five cycles, with both of them panting for air, Sharpe said, “Well? You still up for this?”
Not wanting to waste a single breath, Kasey simply nodded.
They went through the sequence again, and they would keep doing it with every remaining reserve of their strength and willpower. Because if they couldn’t find shelter soon, Dr. Chen was going to die.