Chapter 73
But the aircraft hadn’t landed.
“What are they doing?” Kasey asked as the big aircraft climbed out again and disappeared into the clouds.
“He’ll be back,” Drake said, his eyes locked on a point behind them.
Kasey turned and noticed the other operators were also facing away from the landing area. Their eyes were fixed on the muddled horizon. Then Drake pressed a finger to one ear, in the way one did to adjust an earbud. Kasey heard him talking in a low tone on the secure comm net.
When he seemed done, Kasey asked, “Is there a problem?”
Drake didn’t answer right away, but she sensed a tension in him that hadn’t been there before. He gave a hand signal, and the two Finns moved away from the group. Spreading thirty yards to either side, they both dropped to a low crouch.
Sharpe, too, recognized the warning signs. He put both hands on the Winchester.
“Lieutenant!” Kasey said more forcefully.
Drake turned toward her. “The lead Chinese transport we were worried about is in the area. It passed directly over the weather station a few minutes ago.”
“Sky Fire,” Kasey said reflexively.
“What about it?” Sharpe asked.
“Chen mentioned something when he first turned it on. He said he couldn’t be sure the Chinese weren’t tracking it.”
“And you used it at the station,” Drake said.
“I had to tell Langley we’d arrived. Now, the fact that these transports came here, to the precise place where we last activated it—they must have found a way to do it. They know where we are.”
“The question of how they found us is history,” said Drake. “They’re here and we have to deal with it. If they’ve already dropped, we could be taking fire in a matter of minutes. It all depends on how long it takes the Ice Wolves to get their act together.”
Williams added, “We have to assume they saw what we just did. That Herc was lighting up the sky like a lighthouse. It’ll draw them in like moths.”
“The LC-130 crew have been advised that there’s a possible enemy force in the area,” Drake stated. “They know it’s now or never.”
The planner in Kasey wanted to ask what they would do if the Hercules couldn’t land. She decided it best to focus on making the existing plan work.
“What about our CAS?” Raine asked from the right flank.
“Close air support?” Sharpe queried.
Drake nodded. “JSOC launched four F-35s from Alaska a little over an hour ago. They’re en route and flying fast, but I don’t think they can get here in time. Which means if we don’t board this LC-130 soon, we’re going to come under heavy fire with no backup.”
“Do you really think the Chinese would instigate a shooting war?” Sharpe asked.
“You tell me,” Drake replied, looking at Kasey. “Is this gadget of yours that important?”
She considered Sky Fire, and also Chen. In an unexpected thought, it occurred to her that the scientist might be the bigger prize.
Sky Fire was his creation, a product that not only reflected his technical expertise, but also his determination—something that had been on prominent display in recent days.
“Yes,” she said, seeing no need to verbalize her opinion. “It is absolutely that important.”
“Then there’s your answer.”
He ordered everyone to lie down, offering the lowest visual and infrared profiles to anyone who might be searching. And also, Kasey realized, to present the smallest possible targets.
Drake, who was nearest to her, reached across the ice and offered Kasey a handgun. She recognized it as a SIG Sauer P226.
“You any good with one of these?” he asked.
She took the weapon in hand and checked to make sure a round was chambered. “Never go into a gunfight empty-handed.”
Apparently happy with her answer, he slid two full magazines toward her across the ice. Kasey snatched them up and put them in a pocket for easy access.
In the dim light everyone looked toward the weather station in the distance.
It wasn’t visible at the moment in a passing maelstrom of snow, yet that quadrant became their focus.
The four operators lay motionless in prone positions, weapons poised and scanning constantly.
In the variable conditions, they switched back and forth between their optics and the naked eye.
The distant drone of the LC-130’s engines faded, leaving only the pulsing keen of the wind sweeping over the frozen sea. It was as quiet as this place could be.
Kasey scanned for threats as well, yet she couldn’t stop snatching glances at the sky. She willed the Hercules to appear soon. To come out of the gloom with lights blazing and set down to a landing. Because if that didn’t happen immediately, the shooting would begin.