Chapter 70
After making contact with Langley, Kasey had retrieved the antenna and lay down on the floor of the shed next to Chen. She had wanted just a moment to close her eyes, to catch her breath. At least that’s what she had told herself an hour earlier.
She was sleeping so soundly, she never heard the door of the shed creak open. Never felt the burst of frigid air sweep inside. At first she didn’t even feel the hand on her shoulder.
Then the hand shook her and she bolted upright.
A stranger in winter camo looked back at her.
He was down on a knee, and there was ice on his bearded face.
His goggles were pulled up over military headgear.
He was wearing a large ruck and had a battle rifle slung across his chest. A similarly geared-up African American man stood behind him at the open door of the shed.
Both had American flag patches on their uniforms.
“Kasey Sheridan, I presume?” the man said.
She nodded guardedly.
“I’m Lieutenant Peter Drake, United States Navy.”
Regaining her equilibrium, Kasey studied the two men more closely. She had spent enough time downrange to recognize a special operator when she saw one. The top-end gear, the focused gaze, the slack grooming standard. “You guys part of our exfil team?”
“We’re exactly half of it. Petty Officer Williams and I are instructors at the SEAL Cold Weather Detachment in Kodiak. Outside are two good friends, Raine and Juri. They’re counterparts of ours from Finland.”
“Finland?”
“Long story. We were sort of the only cops in the neighborhood.”
“Well… I’m very glad you’re here.”
Sharpe, who had been sleeping deeply, began to stir. Chen was laid out on the stretcher between them and remained motionless.
“Sounds like you’ve had a tough couple of days,” Drake said.
“We have.”
The SEAL regarded Chen. “And this would be Dr. Chen Li?”
“Yes.” She then introduced Sharpe, adding, “He was the first officer on our airliner.”
“Okay, all good to know,” Drake said, rising off his knee. “We can exchange our life stories over tea and biscuits later. Right now we are in a shit-serious hurry.”
Kasey stood, but a bit too quickly as aches in her legs reminded her of what she’d endured to get this far. “Why are we in a hurry? I checked in with Langley about an hour ago, right before I dozed off. They said there was a C-130 on skis coming to fly us out.”
“Yeah, an LC-130. And that’s still the basic plan. But a lot has changed during your nap.” He told her about the inbound Chinese special ops unit, and the airborne force right behind it.
Kasey wasn’t even surprised. That was how this mission had been going. One minute she was relaxing in a luxury airliner, the next she was stranded in the Arctic. Each time she topped some seemingly insurmountable obstacle, another would take its place. “How soon until they get here?”
“That’s the big question. As of twenty minutes ago, the Chinese transport was just barely behind our own ride. And this storm is a problem. If the Herc can’t land due to the weather, things are going to get dicey.”
“What can we do to make the landing happen?”
Ever so slightly, Drake straightened. “I like that attitude, Kasey.” He looked around and his eyes settled on Sky Fire. “Is that the black case everyone is so fired up about?”
“That’s the one.”
The lieutenant regarded it for a silent moment, obviously wondering what secrets it must hold. Then he refocused and nodded toward the Winchester, which was leaning against the wall in a corner. “Where did that come from?”
“We found it in the cargo hold of our aircraft,” Sharpe said.
Kasey added, “It’s actually come in handy.” She explained about the polar bear.
“Yeah, there’s a lot of them up here, and they can be a nuisance. How much ammo?”
“One box, minus a few rounds.”
“Good. Bring it.” He diverted to the door and started issuing orders to the men outside.
Kasey and Sharpe exchanged a long look.
“Looks like we’re not quite out of harm’s way,” he said.
“He’s just being cautious,” she replied.
But Kasey knew otherwise. She heard it in Drake’s clipped tone. Saw it in the team’s professional but rushed movement. These guys were concerned.
And in her experience, when professionals like this were worried, it meant all hell was about to break loose.
ONCE AGAIN, THERE was a shift in authority, and Kasey had no problem with it. She watched Drake and his team organize the exfiltration with skilled proficiency.
Williams and Raine were sent ahead to mark the landing zone.
The location, which was based on a satellite survey of the ice conditions performed by the Hercules pilots, was half a mile from the shed.
Williams and Raine would fine-tune the location, looking for the smoothest section of ice available.
Drake and Juri remained behind to prepare Chen for transport.
They elected to leave him on the stretcher and wrapped him in Mylar survival blankets they’d brought.
This would both keep him warm and hold him in place.
The jostling seemed to stir Chen, and his alertness ratcheted up, which Kasey took as a good sign.
It didn’t last long, and soon his eyes closed again.
Kasey realized his state of relative incoherence took a weapon off the table—it was possible that Sky Fire could be leveraged to help them avoid the oncoming Chinese platoons, but with Chen in his current state that wasn’t going to happen.
Drake put Kasey in charge of Sky Fire, and Sharpe would carry the Winchester.
Anything nonessential was to be left in the shed.
The SEAL commander was wearing earbuds and kept in continuous contact with JSOC.
For all that could still go wrong, they now at least had the backing of America’s defense and intelligence networks.
The LC-130 was near, but the first Chinese aircraft was close behind.
Drake and Juri grabbed the stretcher’s handles and they set out to the south, their skis strapped to their backs.
Over the short distance, they hauled it in the normal manner, making far better time than Kasey and Sharpe had when they’d been forced to drag Chen for miles.
The wind persisted, giving Kasey the usual slaps in the face, but it somehow didn’t bother her.
She felt invigorated as they crossed to the LZ.
Perhaps it was the hourlong rest, or having an interval of relative warmth.
More likely, she suspected, was that she was buoyed by the prospect of rescue.
Of getting out of this frigid prison and delivering Chen and Sky Fire to safety.
Whatever the source, she felt fresh and alert as they hurried across the ice.
She saw the landing zone long before they arrived.
Williams and Raine had it lit up like a carnival.
Two rows of highly candescent white lights bordered the best landing surface, and a third smaller segment at one end, these red, signified the landing threshold.
There was also an electronic beacon of some kind at the end—she presumed something the pilots could home in on.
As they neared the LZ, Kasey found herself scanning the sky.
The conditions were vacillating wildly. At the moment, the clouds looked devastatingly thick, and she wondered if the LC-130 could get beneath them to land.
Sections of the surrounding horizon were particularly dark, and snow continued to whip past in flurries.
But not all of that was bad. She had never gone through jump qualification, but she knew a little about airborne assault.
Conditions like this were every bit as dangerous for paratroopers as they were for aircraft.
If the Hercules could make it in, the turbid sky would also provide cover in those minutes when they were most vulnerable.
Four sets of footsteps crunched over the ice, quick and determined. They reached the LZ to find Raine and Williams fine-tuning their work.
“All set?” Drake asked as they put down the stretcher.
“All good. Beacon is activated and the lights are on. I skied out for a full half mile and saw no serious issues with the surface.”
“Did you send a report on that?”
“Yeah, JSOC forwarded it to the pilots. They’ll be arriving any minute.”
On Drake’s orders, everyone continued another quarter mile ahead, remaining roughly a hundred yards to one side of the LZ.
“All right,” he said, “this should work for a staging area. As soon as the Herc stops, we wait for an all-clear from the crew on the comm net. The loadmaster will open the forward boarding door. Engines are going to be running, so stay clear of the props. Sharpe and Williams, you’re on the stretcher.
Raine and I will bring up the rear to watch for threats.
Everyone else board up fast. We should be able to do this and be out of here in less than five minutes.
There were nods all around. No questions. The world was once again encompassed by the sound of the storm.
Less than a minute later, Kasey heard a faint new sound on the wind. It was the one she wanted to hear. She saw the SEALs exchanging glances.
“That’s not a jet,” Kasey said. “Those are turboprops.”
“You are correct,” agreed Drake.
All of them looked skyward with a shared realization. The next ten minutes would determine the course of their lives.
It was now or never.