Chapter 66
Kasey scrambled back on her knees and dusted snow off the aberration that had snagged her attention. She had actually tripped over some kind of metal anchor, and beneath it was a cable of some kind.
“Look at this,” she said to Sharpe. Kasey wiped snow from a wider segment of the insulated line.
“Any idea what it is?” he asked.
“Mid-gauge UF cable.”
“A what?”
“Underground feeder. Hot and neutral wires, plus a copper ground, all wrapped in a heavy plastic sheath. It’s what you use underground and outdoors to connect to a power supply.”
He looked at her curiously. “You’re also an expert on wires?”
“It’s a practical skill for somebody like me. Wires, antennae, plumbing, cameras. You can gain a lot of intel with a working knowledge of things like that.”
He leaned down and began uncovering another section with his gloved hand. “Well, all I can tell you is that it’s the first man-made thing I’ve seen in hours.”
“And that’s no accident.” She looked left and right, following the conduit’s path. It disappeared into the icy fog in both directions.
She looked at Sharpe. “The station has got to be nearby. I’ll go right and you go left, but not too far. Turn around if you lose sight of the cable—we can’t afford to get split up.”
They set out, and within a minute Kasey encountered a tiny forest of vertical poles and antennae.
Atop one of the poles was a device she had seen before, although she couldn’t remember what it was called.
It measured wind, and at the moment it was weathervaning with the gusts, the spinner on top whirling like a helicopter rotor.
She called out to Sharpe, “This way!”
He shouted back that he was reversing.
Kasey saw two other poles supporting instruments, one of which she recognized as a small parabolic satellite antenna.
She kept going, still following the cable, and a bulky shadow emerged out of the mist. It looked like a standard garden shed, and the cable ran beneath one wall and disappeared inside.
She bypassed the structure, but there was nothing else on the far side.
Kasey turned back as Sharpe appeared out of the murk.
“That’s it?” he asked, looking at the shed.
“Langley warned us not to expect much.”
“The cable runs to a wind-powered generator in the other direction.”
“That makes sense. Solar wouldn’t be much use up here.”
She regarded the shed more closely. It was roughly eight feet by twelve, and it looked flimsy, its corrugated walls rattling with every gust. Anchors at the base corkscrewed into the ice.
“Well, it’s not much,” Sharpe said. “But it’s probably been here since before winter, so it ought to last one more day.”
Kasey shuffled toward the only access point, a flimsy door with a single handle.
She sank the handle, which took some effort as the frozen mechanism unseated bolts both above and below.
She pushed the door inward, stepped inside, and felt immediate relief from the wind.
The interior was dark. Kasey pulled a flashlight from her backpack and flicked it on.
Sharpe followed her inside, and together they stared at the muddled scene.
There was barely room to move amid what looked like a tiny junkyard.
Crates and boxes, many empty, were stacked against the back wall to the ceiling.
Two empty plastic buckets appeared frozen, their edges rimmed in ice.
There were discarded oil cans, unused hardware, and an ice axe with a broken handle.
Metal stakes and poles leaned on the wall, and remnants of wire lay strewn on the plywood floor.
The cable from outside ran to a row of three batteries that were linked in a series.
The air was laced in a chemical tang, as if one of the batteries had leaked acid.
“Hallelujah!” Sharpe said. He pointed to a small camping heater that was screwed onto a quart-sized propane bottle. He picked it up, shook the bottle, and his smile collapsed. “It’s almost empty. See any more bottles?”
She scanned across the scattering of junk. “No. But we can dig around later. Right now, we need to throw anything we can’t use outside to make room for Chen.”
They both began chucking boxes and debris through the open door.
There was little that seemed to have any practical value in their survival situation.
Kasey kicked a pile of food wrappers and construction debris from one corner, sending it out the door.
A half-gallon plastic Buc-ee’s cup caught the wind and disappeared.
Sharpe threw out every empty box and stacked the full boxes against one wall. Soon they had half the floor clear.
“Okay, close enough,” she said. “We need to get Chen in here now.”
AFTER SO MANY grueling miles, so much pain and cold, moving Chen the last few feet was like a victory lap.
They carried him inside on the stretcher, which barely fit through the door.
As soon as they set him down, Kasey returned to the door and shut it securely.
Chen was fading in and out of consciousness, but he seemed to realize that their surroundings had taken a turn for the better.
Sharpe found a wand-type butane lighter and immediately went to work on the camping heater.
When he got it running, the small blue flame looked laughably feeble, but Kasey could feel a tinge of warmth.
It also provided enough light that she could turn off her flashlight to conserve battery power.
She moved the heater closer to Chen while Sharpe ransacked the boxes for more fuel bottles.
She realized the shed’s small size was actually a blessing.
What little heat they were generating with their bodies, plus the few BTUs generated by the sputtering heater, would be contained in the tight confines of its four thin walls.
Kasey was utterly exhausted. She needed to fire up Sky Fire soon to tell Langley they had arrived at the rendezvous point, but the idea of going outside, even for a few moments, to deploy the antenna was daunting.
She decided it wouldn’t hurt to thaw out for a minute.
She lay down next to Chen, hoping her body would give him just a bit more warmth. His eyes were closed and his breathing remained irregular.
“I can’t find any more propane,” Sharpe said.
“I’m not surprised. Let’s hope that one lasts a while.”
He sat down on the opposite side of Chen. “I can’t remember ever being this tired.”
“Hopefully this rescue team will arrive soon.”
“What’s your guess on how they’ll get us out of here?”
“The message said they were coming from the Cheyenne, so I’d guess that’s our ticket home.”
He closed his eyes. “I hope it’s not too far away—for Chen’s sake.”
She looked at the scientist with concern. “I agree. He can’t take another hike like the one we just had.”
Minutes later the blue flame flickered. Then it disappeared completely. The interior of the shed went pitch black. The walls rattled like they were possessed.
“Now what?” Sharpe asked.
Kasey searched blindly until she found the black case. She extracted the laptop and turned it on; its dim backlighting instantly filled the void. “Now we contact Langley.” She picked up the antenna and cable, willing herself to go outside.
He looked up at her from the wooden floor. “Do you ever rest?” he asked, his voice sleepy.
“Whenever I can. But right now, keeping us all alive is more important.”