Hard Line

by Clare, Pamela

  “Weren’t you afraid?”

  “I was too out of my mind with grief and anger to be afraid.” Thor told her how they’d taken out six armed men to get into the compound and then made their way through a courtyard into the main structure, killing every fighting-age male. “Some were teenagers—just kids. Others were the real deal—AQ combatants. We killed every last one of them in front of screaming women and crying children.”

  “Oh, Thor.”

  Thor couldn’t meet her gaze. “It wasn’t war. Warfighting is supposed to be controlled, targeted. It was a rage-fueled massacre. I had become a Berserker, a monster. All I wanted to do was kill and kill and kill.”

  “Did you kill the women, too?”

  “No women or small children.”

  “Thank God.” Samantha whispered the words, but Thor heard them.

  “We found al Harzi hiding in the back. He let all of his men die for him and then hid behind women. We killed him, dragged his body back to our vehicle, stripped him naked, and dumped him in the crater left by that IED. We wanted all of the AQ forces in the area to know who had killed him—and why. Then we drove back to base, parked the vehicle, and snuck back into our beds. I didn’t sleep at all that night.”

  “You could have been killed.”

  Thor nodded. “In the morning, word got around that US forces had found al Harzi’s body in the exact spot where our men had died. Our commanding officer called us into his office, asked if there was anything we’d like to tell him. We shook our heads. He let us go. And that was the end of it.”

  “But it wasn’t the end.” She reached up, touched Thor’s face. “You carry this with you still. I can see it in your eyes.”

  “I thought I had let it go while I was in Greenland, but I had a nightmare about it a couple of nights ago. You were there. You watched me kill a man. You looked at me with horror on your face, and you screamed.”

  “I’m not screaming, Thor. You haven’t scared me away. I can’t judge you for what you did that night. Besides, you’ve already judged yourself.”

  He looked into her eyes, saw only compassion. “I turned into a monster, Samantha. Do you understand? That beast still lives inside me. Tonight, when I thought you were dead, I felt that same rage, that same bloodlust. I wanted to kill Hardin. I wanted to rip him to pieces.”

  Samantha sat up, took his hand. “That doesn’t make you a monster, Thor. That makes you human.”

  Her gaze shifted to his shoulder, and her eyes went wide. “You’re hurt.”

  “Yeah. Hardin shot me with my own damned pistol.”

  “He shot you?”

  Thor realized she had no idea what had happened, so he told her what the bastard had done. How he’d used her to get Thor into his office. How Thor had seen her lying motionless on the ice on Hardin’s webcam and had given Hardin everything he wanted without a fight. How Thor had found her, untied the ropes, and carried her here.

  She glanced around their Mylar tent. “Where are we?”

  “The café out in Summer Camp. We were both hypothermic and have early frostbite. You were drugged, too, and in a lot worse shape than I was.”

  She was staring at him. “You carried me all the way out here with no cold-weather gear and a freaking bullet in your shoulder?”

  He slid his fingers into her hair, his fingertips still tingling from frostbite. “I wasn’t going to let you die.”

  “Malik said you’re the toughest man he knows.”

  “Jones talks too much.” Then Thor kissed her.

  * * *

  Samantha savored Thor’s kiss, the warm brush of his lips against hers proof that they were both still alive. “I can’t believe I’m not dead. You could have shot him. You could have killed him. But instead, you came for me.”

  He cupped her cheek in his palm. “Of course, I did.”

  What he’d suffered was written on his body. Lines of pain and exhaustion on his face. Patches of red skin on his cheeks, forehead, nose, chin, and ears from frostbite. The bloody bandage covering the bullet wound in his shoulder.

  “And now he’s got the Golden Horde components?”

  “Yeah. I’m not sure what he’s planning to do next. He’s stuck here just like everyone else.”

  Then it came to her. “Where are the others?”

  “Locked in the life pod. Hardin has the station locked down.”

  “That bastard!”

  “He didn’t take your radio, which is the only reason I’m in touch with them.” Thor reached for the replacement radio he’d given her.

  “He took the other one—and my phone. He didn’t know about this one.” She shivered, the horror of what the bastard had done snaking through her. “He was so cold about it. He lied to me, told me he needed help answering some questions from Patty’s parents. But when I got there, he injected me with that sedative. I tried to fight him, but the drug made it hard to think, hard to stand.”

  “There’s no way you could have fought him off, even if he hadn’t drugged you.”

  “I begged him for a parka, a hat, gloves. I was so afraid. He told me that hypothermia was a relatively painless way to die compared to … compared to methanol poisoning.” Tears filled her eyes, anguish sharp in her chest. “He told me he kept Patty in his office to make sure she couldn’t get medical help. She suffered, Thor. She suffered while that bastard sat there waiting for the methanol to incapacitate her. She must have been so afraid.”

  Thor’s jaw went tight, his blue eyes going ice cold. He drew her against him, held her close with his good arm. “I’m so sorry. He won’t get away with this. I promise.”

  “Why? Why did he do this? Why would he betray his country?”

  “I don’t know.” Thor looked into her eyes, smiled. “You need to rest and get back to huffing that oxygen. You’re still hypothermic. Lie back and let me get you tucked in with those body warmers. I’ll make more hot cocoa.”

  He got to one hand and his knees to crawl out of their little tent, his left arm tucked against his chest, a bloody bandage on his thigh.

  “Oh, Thor. He shot you in the leg, too?”

  “I’ll be fine.” He crawled out, and she heard him rummaging around at the bar.

  She went back to using the oxygen, a puff every time she inhaled, a kind of numbness settling over her. She let the numbness take her, grateful just to be alive.

  She was alive. Thor was hurt, but also alive.

  You’ll get through this.

  He returned with two cups of cocoa, one for himself and one that he insisted on holding for her. “I want you under that blanket.”

  She indulged him, letting him give her sip after sip. It did make her feel better, though she wasn’t sure she’d ever feel warm again.

  A burst of static.

  “Isaksen, this is Jones.”

  Thor reached for the radio. “Isaksen here.”

  “We’re doing all communication with you from the life pod’s command center—the computer room. We don’t want to risk someone overhearing and betraying us to Hardin. Can you update us on your medical situation?”

  “Dr. Park is conscious. Our frostbite will heal. My shoulder still has a bullet in it. What’s going on there?”

  “Lance and Charli have been working on the life pod computer system with help from Shields. They can shut down the power to the station and transfer it to the life pod, but that would cut off the power to your building and all labs around the station. All of them run off the main power grid.”

  It was all surreal to Samantha.

  Thor didn’t look happy about this news. “Okay, so that’s out. Can they lock him out of their system and prevent him from turning off the power to the life pod?”

  “Affirmative. They’ve already done that.”

  “Good. What about the doors?”

  “Lance hacked those controls. We can open the doors now, but Hardin will know it. There’s no way for us to get out of here without alerting him. When the wind dies down, we could bri
ng you one of our pistols and some medical aid, but it would likely lead him right to you.”

  “Okay, then what’s our play?”

  “Before we get into that, there are two other things.”

  “Go ahead.”

  “Steve Hardin is actually Stephen Michael Delaney. Fifteen years ago, Delaney was a researcher for Titan, the defense contractor. He did the preliminary development for the Golden Horde systems. Apparently, he had a falling out with his bosses over workplace behavior. They fired him, and then he disappeared. It turns out he created a new identity for himself. Shields thinks he wants to get back at the company.”

  Samantha stared at Thor, stunned.

  Thor didn’t seem shocked at all. “I wish she’d discovered that a few days ago. Thanks for the update. What we need now is a plan. It’s time to take back the station.”

  * * *

  Thor looked Samantha over, made sure the emergency blankets were duct-taped into place. Beneath the Mylar were body warmers taped on top of her clothes like a vest.

  “We look like Antarctic mummies or something.” Her words and her laugh were muffled by the dish towel that covered her nose, cheeks, and mouth like a mask.

  Thor appreciated her spirit, but she was still hypothermic—they both were—and they were heading back outside. As plans went, this one sucked. But it was their best chance.

  Thor, Jones, and Segal had gone over every possible scenario, trying to find the one with the highest probability of success. No one could get out of the life pod without Hardin knowing. They couldn’t cut off the heat and let him freeze to death without also cutting off the heat to Summer Camp. As long as Thor and Samantha stayed here, they would get no medical help, and Thor would be without a firearm—a real liability if Hardin showed up.

  But there was another consideration, one Thor hadn’t shared with anyone. He was running a fever, and the bullet wound had begun to bleed again, more heavily this time. He’d changed the bandages several times. He was pretty sure the bullet, or a fragment of it, had nicked an artery. Either way, his strength was fading.

  If he didn’t get Samantha back to the safety of the station soon...

  “We move as efficiently as we can to the emergency hatch. I’ll shovel the snow away and lift the cover. Then we head down the ladder to the ice tunnels and warm up in the machine shop before heading into the station.”

  “It’s minus sixty in those tunnels.”

  “That’s better than minus a hundred and ten.” He handed her the dish towel for his face and sat. “Can you help with this? My shoulder … I don’t think—”

  “Of course.” She took the duct tape, fastened it into place. “I think you’re good.”

  Then she helped him cover his head with Mylar and taped that on, too.

  He could see in her eyes that she was smiling. Yeah, okay, so they looked ridiculous. “We move quickly to the hatch and down the ladder. The longer we’re on the ladder and in the tunnels, the worse the hypothermia will be.”

  “I understand.”

  Ryan, who knew the station well, had suggested using the ice tunnel emergency hatches to gain entrance to the station. Intended for emergency use from the inside or outside, the hatches were marked with green flags. They were covered only by heavy steel lids that didn’t lock. Most of the time, the lids stayed covered with snow. The ice tunnels led into the unheated service arches, and the service arches were connected by several flights of stairs through the Beer Can to the warmth of the station.

  The only thing this plan had going for it was that Hardin believed they were dead. He wouldn’t see them coming. Once inside, Thor would get their rifles from their rooms and head with Samantha to the life pod. Then the staff inside would force open the doors. Samantha would stay with Kristi and the doctor and get care, while he, Jones, and Segal went after Hardin—or whatever his name was.

  “Remember to keep your hands as close to your body as you can.”

  “Right.”

  Thor grabbed a shovel that stood inside the door, handing her the flashlight. “Put that somewhere safe so you don’t drop it.”

  She tucked it into the back of her jeans. “Ready.”

  Thor opened the door, icy wind hitting him in the face. “Let’s move!”

  Samantha hurried along beside him. “Shit, it’s cold!”

  “Keep going. Don’t run.”

  The wind had died down enough that he could see the lights of the station. He veered to his right, watching for the flags that marked the lids to the escape hatches. Ryan had said it was only fifty yards from the door of the café but in this darkness…

  “There!” Samantha saw it first.

  A dark flag fluttered in the wind.

  Thor gritted his teeth against the pain in his shoulder and walked faster, wanting to get out of this wind as soon as possible. He began shoveling, moving snow as fast as he could with one arm.

  “Give me the shovel!” Samantha took it from him and went to work, cussing the whole time. “Damn it! Fuck!”

  Then the shovel hit steel.

  Samantha stepped back, tossed the shovel, reached down, but struggled to remove the heavy lid. Thor took over, shifting it to the side to reveal a dark, square hole with a wooden ladder leading into the depths of the ice, a faint light shining at the bottom.

  He fought back a wave of dizziness. “I’ll help you down and then follow.”

  She looked over the edge, teeth chattering. “O-okay.”

  He gripped her hand with his good arm as she dropped down, turned around, and felt with her foot for the first rung of the ladder.

  “It’s such a long way.” She started down.

  “You’ve got it. Just keep going. Ryan said the ladder goes all the way to the bottom without a gap.”

  Shivering, Thor let her get a body-length ahead of him then followed, the wooden rungs creaking under his weight. Instantly, it was warmer, the wind chill gone. But still, he shivered almost uncontrollably.

  Down they went until it seemed they must be halfway to hell by now, but the ladder kept going, walls of ice surrounding him.

  “I’m d-down!” Samantha turned on the flashlight, flooding the space with light.

  Thor dropped to the ice beside her, pulled out his radio. “J-Jones, this is Isaksen. W-we’re inside the ice t-tunnels.”

  21

  Samantha didn’t think she’d ever feel warm again, the cold making her shiver uncontrollably. She hurried as fast as she could through the narrow ice tunnel, leading Thor to the unheated LO Arch, desperate to reach the machine shop. After that, they still had to walk to the Beer Can and then up all those stairs to reach warmth and the station.

  Not to be a baby, but Samantha wasn’t sure she’d make it.

  You have no choice.

  Shit. Shit. Shit.

  She came to a fork in the tunnels and stopped, body shaking from the cold.

  “Which w-way?” Thor was shivering, too.

  She hesitated, uncertain. If she took a wrong turn and got them lost, they would die. She shined the flashlight down both tunnels, then recognized the Buzz Aldrin shrine cut into the tunnel on her left. “Th-there.”

  She didn’t remember the ice tunnels being quite this long, but then she’d been dressed for the cold when she’d gotten her tour. She led Thor past the shrines, following large pipes that carried fuel, water, and waste leading them toward the service arches. Then ahead, she saw the exit and, beyond it, the cavernous space of the LO Arch.

  “S-stop.” Thor walked to the exit, looked up and down the length of the arch, as if checking for Hardin. “The s-stairs to the station are that way, r-right?”

  But Samantha’s gaze was fixed on the door to the machine shop. “Th-there’s the machine sh-shop. We can w-warm up th-there.”

  Thor nodded. “Hurry.”

  They crossed the corridor, the thirty-foot-high ceiling and flickering lights lending a creepy feeling to the space. Its hundreds of meters of steel shelves were covered with boxed su
pplies, giving a person so many places to hide.

  Don’t think about that.

  Samantha took the stairs as fast as she could with muscles that had begun to slow down, and then stepped into the warmth of the machine shop. Her body ached with cold, the heat barely registering. She might have sat, but Thor took her arm, kept her standing.

  He pulled down the towel that covered his face. “S-stay on your f-feet. Let’s see if th-they’ve got anything w-warm to drink here—or anything I c-can use as a w-weapon.”

  Samantha pulled down her makeshift mask, too, moving on pure adrenaline now, her mind barely registering all the equipment and tools that sat on shelves and workbenches.

  “C-coffee.” Thor motioned toward a coffee maker that sat on a nearby table.

  The machine was on a timer and set to make a fresh pot in the morning. Thor got it brewing with the push of a button, and then walked off, searching shelves and toolboxes. He picked up a hammer, tested its weight.

  “Th-that’s fitting. A h-hammer.”

  He didn’t laugh.

  Samantha stumbled after him, some thought in her head about not being helpless if she ran into Hardin again. She saw a narrow chisel, picked it up.

  Thor saw her, raised an eyebrow. “Be c-careful with that. If you’re cl-close enough to use it, he m-might take it from you. I th-think that coffee is done.”

  He poured them each a cup, handed one to her. “Don’t b-burn yourself. It’s hot.”

  Samantha sipped, the bitter liquid sliding down her throat and into her stomach. By the time she’d finished it, she had stopped shivering, some sense of warmth flowing back into her body.

  “We’ll stay for a few more minutes.” He tucked a finger beneath her chin, lifted her gaze to his. “We’re almost there. We just need to make it to the end of the arch and up four flights of stairs. That’s nothing compared to how far you’ve already come. When we get to the life pod, Kristi and Decker will take care of you.”