Chapter 11
Chapter Eleven
I woke as Noah extricated his body from mine.
“Where are you going?” I mumbled, rubbing my face against the pillow before turning a bleary gaze on him.
“Work,” he stated, stepping into his pants.
“Can’t we stay in bed?” I grumbled as he pulled on his shirt. It annoyed to see his perfect body disappearing under layers of clothes.
“Technically, I’m on duty. Plus, I need to prepare my chopper for a certain demanding guest wanting to see a landmark.”
“Demanding?” I arched a brow.
“Wasn’t it you saying, ‘give it to me harder’?”
“Faster, too,” was my impish reply.
“I’m thinking I might have to hit the gym more often if I’m going to keep up.”
“Can I watch?” It would be a pure delight to see those toned muscles of his slick with sweat.
He growled. “Woman, stop looking at me like that.”
“Or what?”
“Later, you insatiable wench.” He wagged a finger before winking. “Grab some breakfast. You’ll need that energy. See you soon.” With one final smile, which softened him adorably, he left, the door shutting quietly behind him.
I rolled to my back, arm under my head, and grinned. What a fun and satisfying night. The captain might often appear grim of countenance, but his touch was lava. Hot and melting. Already I ached for more.
When the door opened abruptly, I expected to see Noah back for some morning fun, only it turned out to be Joslyn wearing a smirk.
“Well, well,” she sang. “If it isn’t Miss ‘No Banging The Captain.’”
My cheeks heated. “Guess I deserve that. Sorry. I don’t know what got into me.”
Joslyn giggled. “I’d say the hunky captain did, and by the looks of you, he got into you good.”
“Joslyn!” I exclaimed, my face just about bursting into flames.
She laughed harder. “Oh, don’t be a prude. Nothing wrong with enjoying a good shag. Honestly, good on you. You don’t have fun often enough.”
“I have fun,” I grumbled, sitting up while holding the sheet to my chest.
“You know what I mean. The kind of fun that leaves you sparkling and glowing.”
“Oh gawd, is it that noticeable what I did?”
“Only to me, because I know you.”
And Vernon, as it turned out, because soon as I walked over to the table he’d commandeered, he whistled. “I see someone finally got laid.”
I sat down hard, my tray slapping the table and sloshing my coffee. “It’s not a big deal. You’ve been getting some since we got here.”
“Yes, because I, for one, don’t deprive myself of pleasure. Glad to see you finally let loose, too.”
“Am I really that uptight?” I poured sugar into my coffee, followed by some powdered creamer.
“Yes!” both my coworkers chimed.
“Jerks,” I muttered, cradling my mug, but my annoyance didn’t last. How could it when the captain entered the galley and headed in our direction?
Joslyn nudged Vernon, who glanced at me, then the captain. He grinned wide enough to almost swallow my embarrassment.
“Morning,” Noah said, his gaze flicking to me then the smirking idiots I called friends.
“Morning to you, too, Captain. I trust you slept well,” Joslyn purred.
“Busy night. Barely slept a wink,” he said with a straight face, which sent Joslyn and Vernon into fits of laughter.
I glared at Noah, who looked utterly unrepentant. He’d pay for it later, likely with his tongue.
“I’ll need you both ready to go after breakfast, full equipment and winter gear,” I announced as Noah wandered off to grab his own plate of food.
“Where are we going?” Joslyn asked before tearing into her toast.
“Blood Falls.”
“Ooh. Really? I’m surprised.”
“Why?”
“People have begun packing their things. Word is we might be evacuating later today.” Joslyn leaned close and whispered, “A bunch of the station folk woke today convinced the volcano is about to blow.”
“Because of that big quake?”
Joslyn shook her head. “A bunch of them had a dream, including Vernon.”
I glanced at my sound guy. “I didn’t know you’d been having the contagious dreams.”
His shoulders rolled. “Kind of hard not to, given that’s all most folks keep talking about.”
“Have the volcanologists come out with an actual warning?”
“Nope. But they’re also nowhere to be seen.”
Likely they monitored the situation.
Noah headed over with his tray, and I had to ask, “Did you hear the rumor?”
“That people think Erebus is about to blow its top? Yup.” He sat down and began shoveling food.
“And?”
“And what?”
“You still think we should go see the Falls?”
“I don’t see why not, since nothing official has been decided. Besides, the C17 isn’t slated to arrive until this afternoon. We’ll be back well before then, assuming we leave shortly.”
Joslyn popped to her feet. “In that case, I should go to grab my stuff. Behave while I’m gone.”
“Behave?” I queried with an arched brow.
“Or not. I know I wouldn’t if I knew time was running out for one last hurrah,” Joslyn quipped before she quick marched from the galley. Vernon almost tripped racing to catch her.
“Maybe we should leave them behind,” I grumbled.
“They’re just teasing.”
“You’d think I was a spinster virgin the way they carried on.”
“Definitely, not. More like an insatiable vixen,” he said in a low tone only meant for me.
My cheeks flamed again. “What can I say. The fresh air suits me.”
“Not complaining,” he murmured with a chuckle. “As a matter of fact, I’m thinking you should get lots of fresh air again today.”
“Keep talking like that, and we won’t make it outside.”
His smile almost had me dragging him back to my room.
“Like I said, insatiable.” He stood. “I’m going to head over to the helipad. Meet me there when you’re ready.”
Heading upstairs, I passed Joslyn’s room, with its door wide open. “I’m just going to get my gear on. I should only be a few minutes,” I stated in passing.
“Perfect,” she replied, head down, sorting through the pile of clothes on her floor.
Inside my room, as I put on my layers, my gaze strayed to the rumpled sheets on my bed. Would we end up leaving later today? I kind of hoped not. Not just because I’d not yet finished gathering data for the show, but because of a certain captain. One night definitely hadn’t been enough.
Joslyn poked her head inside my room. “Ready?”
“Let me just get on my boots.”
With clomping steps, we headed down, meeting a bundled Vernon by the main door.
We headed on foot over to the helipad and were soon on our way in a more compact craft just large enough for the four of us, lifting into the bright blue, sunlit sky.
No clouds or snow today, which meant I had a clear view of Mount Erebus.
“Volcano seems to be steaming more than usual,” I remarked, the microphone on my headset capturing my words despite the noise of the rotors.
“Looks like the ground is exhaling too,” Joslyn added, her camera aimed through the glass.
I frowned at the thick layer of fog at the base of Erebus and the other mounts. Hopefully nothing to worry about. After all, I hadn’t felt any new quakes since yesterday.
The helicopter headed for the mountain, slipping through a pass between peaks. The trip to the falls took about twenty minutes and was well worth it. The sight of the natural wonder had me exclaiming, “It’s stunning!”
Joslyn gagged. “Only if you like a murder scene. Holy shit, it’s like the glacier had its artery cut and is spewing blood.” An apt comparison for the liquid jetting forth emerged vividly red.
Noah’s voice came through the headset. “Let me know when you’ve got your aerial shots done, and I’ll set us down close by so you can grab samples.”
I swear Joslyn took her sweet time recording, asking Noah to do several passes over top and then across the front.
By the time the chopper landed, I already had my sample kit ready.
Tests had already shown the water to be red because of high concentrations of iron in the salt water that oxidized the moment it spewed forth from the glacier.
The rusty water proved a shocking contrast to the white all around.
It didn’t take long for me to fill a few vials with Joslyn filming me doing it for posterity. I posed in front of the falls with a microphone for a few improvised sound bites that would likely need some heavy filtering due to the rushing and crashing of the spilling water.
When I’d done my part as host, I clapped my mittened hands. “Ready to head back?”
“Not yet. I want to get some more footage.” Joslyn, with Vernon in tow, wandered off to explore and record some more. I had to bite my lip lest I yell at them to hurry up. They’d know the root of my impatience—AKA the handsome man who stood by my side staring at the crimson gush.
“It’s wildly beautiful, isn’t it?” he remarked.
“Yes, but I can see why people theorize about it being alien. The brilliant red amidst all the snow is jarring.”
“Nature can be wondrous.”
“And frightening.”
He guessed my cause for concern. “You’re worried about Erebus.”
“Aren’t you?”
“A little, to be honest. I was informed shortly before we took off that some of the monitoring sensors in and around the Terror Rift went offline.” The rift being a crack that ran from the base of Erebus under the Ross Sea to the Transantartic Mountain.
I whirled on him, mouth rounded. “Offline, as in taken out by sudden lava activity?”
“That hasn’t yet been determined.”
“What else could it be?” I sputtered.
"Equipment failure. Wireless connection issues. Sabotage.”
The last made me laugh. “By who?” Soon as I queried my mouth rounded. “If Malone jumped out before the stolen helicopter crashed, he could have tampered with the sensors.”
“It’s a possibility. After all, it hasn’t been confirmed that our imposter was in the chopper when it dove into the volcano.
But I will also add, it’s probably unlikely anyone physically tampered with the sensors, since most of them are buried in the rift and would be hard to reach.
However, that said, there’s ways of dealing with them remotely. ”
“Why bother taking them offline, though?”
“To make us think Erebus is about to blow, thus evacuating McMurdo Station, leaving it empty for the imposter or someone else to cause trouble.”