by Greg Cox
Who knew if the Alaskan Resistance could survive such a daring raid?
He contemplated the man sitting across from him. Ivanov was pushing forty-five now, but had retained much of his youthful good looks. Long hours on the sub’s treadmill had resisted any hint of a middle-aged spread. His face bore a habitually dour expression. Although he no longer seemed on the verge of exploding at any minute, he had never truly recovered from the loss of his family. The ambitious young officer Losenko had once mentored was long gone, replaced by a joyless submariner driven only by duty.
As a matter of principle, Ivanov had carefully maintained his original Russian Navy uniform, shunning the ragtag garments of the Resistance. Months had passed before he’d grudgingly slipped a red armband onto his sleeve.
An idea occurred to Losenko.
“You looked tired, Alexei. When was the last time you took a leave?”
Ivanov shot him a puzzled look.
“What do you mean?” he asked warily. “I feel fine.”
“No, Alexei,” Losenko insisted. “I can see it in your eyes. You need to get away from here. Breathe some fresh air.” He looked pointedly at the other man. “Perhaps somewhere near Alaska?”
The junior officer stiffened. His eyes widened in understanding.
We cannot pin all our hopes on the elusive code, the senior officer thought, no matter how promising. Other matters demand our attention. Just as loyal soldiers deserve our support.
“On second thought,” Ivanov said, “perhaps you are right. I believe I am in need of a brief leave. My nerves are shot.”
Losenko smiled, glad that he did not have to spell it out. That made him feel slightly less guilty about circumventing Ashdown’s orders.
“I will arrange for a Chinook to ferry you to a base in Canada, just across the border. There’s a good airfield there. Perhaps you can get in some flight training, while you are recovering from your fatigue.”
Tiring of the claustrophobic life of a submariner, Ivanov had in recent years begun training as a fighter pilot. The Resistance encouraged its members to be versatile, especially considering the high casualty rate. Losenko had approved of Ivanov expanding his skill-set. Never more so than at this minute.
“I think I would enjoy that, sir.” A rare smirk lightened his saturnine expression. “Perhaps I’ll take in some of the local scenery.”
“Yes,” Losenko agreed. “Keep your eye on things.”
Just in case you’re needed.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
It was a cold, clear night. The icy surface of the glacier gleamed blue beneath the shimmering colors of the aurora borealis. The frozen river of ice flowed slowly downhill between two jagged snow-capped ridges.
Geir Svenson took comfort from the bluish tint of the glacier; it meant the compacted ice was deep and firm. A whiter color would have indicated that the ice was riddled with tiny air bubbles, compromising its stability.
Blue ice made a better runway.
10:30 PM. Time to go.
He fired up Thunderbird. The single-engine, low wing fighter plane, a restored P-51 Mustang, roared to life. Its thirty-seven-foot wingspan was painted white for camouflage. A spinning propeller sliced up the crisp night air. Skis replaced the pontoons he used for water landings. M2 Browning machineguns were mounted on its wings. The Mustang’s landing lights illuminated the glacier.
Bundled up in the cockpit in front of the flight controls and instruments, he had the single-seat plane to himself. Molly had pried the antique World War II fighter out of Command a few years back. This wasn’t one of the charter flights he and his bush-pilot dad used to run back before Judgment Day, ferrying hunting parties, fishermen, and sightseers from place to place. Lars Svenson had been in Anchorage, trying to get a bank loan to buy a new floatplane when the bombs fell.
Geir still missed him.
Goggles and a visorless flight helmet protected his face. A fraying wool scarf was wrapped around his neck. He felt like a flying ace from an old black-and-white war movie.
Watch out, Red Baron.
He opened up the throttle. Thunderbird skied across the icy tongue of the glacier. The surface appeared smooth enough, but Geir kept his eye out for any newly formed crevasses. Picking up speed, the plane was nearing the debris field at the edge of the glacier’s terminal moraine when Geir pulled back on the stick, taking to the air. Thunderbird lifted off with nary a bump. Within seconds, it was soaring above the snowy ravine that lay below the glacier.
That was the easy part.
He checked his watch by the light of the instrument panel. 10:35. He and Molly had synchronized their timepieces before they’d gone their separate ways. Timing was going to be crucial here. There was little margin for error.
He banked south toward the bridge. As he did so, he couldn’t resist scanning the wilderness below, hoping for a glimpse of Molly and her team moving into position. The nocturnal woodlands, with their dense cover and murky shadows, made it a real long shot—which was, he reminded himself, a good thing. The Resistance needed to move like phantoms tonight, unseen and unheard until the moment came.
He patted his chest. The grenade ring was safely tucked inside the front pocket of his flannel shirt, underneath his sweater and jacket. One of these days he’d get Molly to wear it.
See you soon, chief.
He spotted the Hunter-Killer’s floodlights first. The Skynet Express was right on time, barreling through the mountains toward the bridge several miles ahead. He gulped at the sight of the formidable armored juggernaut, as well as its aerial escorts. He wasn’t looking forward to the wild goose chase that lay ahead—especially since he was supposed to be the goose.
Here goes nothing.
An Aerostat spotted him. Zipping back to investigate, the levitating drone buzzed past his cockpit, scanning him with its lasers. Geir rolled down the side window and drove it off with a blast from a Smith & Wesson pistol. The pesky machine darted out of the line of fire.
“That should get the HK’s attention,” he muttered. Cold air invaded the cockpit. “Lucky me.”
Sure enough, the Hunter-Killer banked away from the tracks below, leaving the train unescorted. Its powerful impellers tilted as it rotated to face its quarry. Larger and more heavily armored than the antique fighter plane, it was like a condor turning to confront a sparrow. Its floodlights searched the heavens, almost blinding Geir.
He opened fire with his machineguns, more for form’s sake than anything else. The heavy-caliber fire would barely dent the HK’s reinforced-steel fuselage. He’d need a well-aimed rocket to bring this sucker down.
Too bad he didn’t have any.
Having baited the HK, Thunderbird fled for its life. Geir leaned on the stick, and the plane made a tight 180-degree turn, heading back the way it had come. Away from the bridge. He switched off his nav lights to make himself less visible, and poured on the speed. His mission now was a tricky one. He had to stay out of range of the HK and its plasma cannons, while not getting so far ahead that the Hunter-Killer would give up on the chase. The last thing he wanted was for the HK to reverse course and head back toward the train.
And Molly.
As he hit the gas the sudden burst of acceleration shoved him into the back of his seat. He gritted his teeth. Glancing back over his shoulder, he saw the HK gaining on him. Floodlights and targeting lasers swept the air behind him, competing with the colorful spectacle of the aurora above.
Whose crazy idea was it to volunteer for this suicide run?
He smiled ruefully.
Oh, yeah. Mine.
Evasive tactics were his only hope. He pulled back on the stick, climbing steeply toward a higher altitude at nearly a thousand feet per minute. Pushing Thunderbird to her limits. Way past its prime, the obsolete fighter was too old for this kind of barnstorming stunt. Geir offered up a silent prayer for the throbbing Rolls-Royce engine. Here was where all his nonstop maintenance and fussing would pay off... hopefully.
40,000
feet was as high as the Mustang could safely fly. He kept one eye on the altimeter and the other on the HK that was soaring after him. It was sticking to him like glue.
Scary, armored glue.
35,000 feet. Thunderbird’s nose was pointed toward the heavens, at so steep an angle that Geir found himself staring straight up into the prismatic splendor of the northern lights, some thirty miles above his head. Rippling green curtains glowed against the night sky. Faint yellow pinwheels spun hypnotically. The celestial light show was caused by the collision of solar winds, drawn by the magnetic lure of the North Pole, with gas particles high in the ionosphere. Even though the aurora occurred at an altitude far beyond Thunderbird’s capabilities, Geir could practically feel the charged particles suffusing the air.
Hairs rose along his arms and at the back of his neck. There was a peculiar crackling in his ears. Ozone tickled his nostrils. The awe-inspiring sight, as it filled up the view in front of him, imbued him with hope.
He wasn’t just enjoying the colored lights. He was staking his life on them.
The aurora borealis produced over a trillion watts of electricity with a million amp current. With any luck, the massive electromagnetic fluctuations would interfere with the HK’s targeting systems. It was ironic, in a way. He was praying that the ionized stream of plasma would save him from the HK’s fearsome plasma cannons.
Nature versus technology, he thought. That’s this war in a nutshell.
A warning light flashed on his instrument panel, which Doc Rathbone had upgraded with salvaged military electronics. An alarm sounded.
The HK had a lock on him!
Geir considered bailing out, but he was too high up— it would mean certain death. Besides, he still needed to keep the HK occupied and away from the train. So he crossed his fingers and hoped for the best.
That uranium had better be worth it!
The HK’s plasma cannons, which were mounted on its undercarriage, flared like supernovae. A sizzling blast of superheated hydrogen ions shot upward toward Thunderbird, missing it by less than twenty yards!
Geir gasped in relief. The aurora had done the trick, screwing up the HK’s aim just when it counted. He wanted to kiss the incandescent haloes above him.
“Thank you, you beautiful colors!”
But he knew he couldn’t count on the aurora to keep on saving him. The HK’s fiendishly clever neural network was doubtless already adapting to the charged atmosphere, recalibrating its sensors to compensate for the troublesome electromagnetic interference. Geir would have to pull another trick out of his hat if he wanted to prolong this one-sided dogfight.
Time for another evasive maneuver. He shoved the control stick to the far right, throwing Thunderbird into an inverted roll. Then, before the HK could react to his changed orientation, he pulled back on the stick. The nose of the plane dipped toward the ground and Thunderbird went into a high-speed dive. Geir’s stomach climbed up his throat. The Alaskan wilderness came rushing up way faster than he would have liked. Towering pines and jagged peaks waited to impale him.
All right, he dared the HK. Come and get me!
Another blast of plasma fried the empty air the Mustang had occupied only heartbeats before. Geir banked hard to the left and tugged on the stick, leveling out only a thousand feet above the forest canopy. Wings parallel to the earth, he headed north toward a range of nearby mountains, enticing the HK even further away from the train it was supposed to be guarding. As the indefatigable Hunter-Killer swooped after him, he climbed once again toward the upper heights.
The sudden peaks and valleys took their toll on his nerves. He felt like he was riding a roller-coaster, only without the tracks. His head spun. Blood sloshed in his ears. Yet he doubted that the HK was feeling nearly so jangled.
Too bad machines can’t get vertigo!
At 36,000 feet, he took another hard roll to the right, just like he had before. The idea was to make the HK think that he was about to make another upside-down dive. A quick glance behind him confirmed that the HK had taken the bait; it rolled to dive after him.
Sorry, he thought viciously. Us crazy humans aren’t nearly that predictable.
At the last second, right before he fell into the dive, he pushed forward on the stick and kept on climbing. Caught off-guard by its prey’s abrupt change in direction, the HK plunged into a spin. A misdirected plasma blast ignited the treetops below.
“Sucker!” Geir took an instant to savor his survival. He leveled off at 37,500 feet, dangerously close to the Mustang’s operational ceiling, then dived back down to just above the rugged landscape. Hugging the treetops, navigating by the nap of the earth, he tried to put a little more distance between him and the disoriented HK, which was already recovering from its spin. A glacial valley, protected by sheer white walls, offered a few moment’s shelter from the machine’s weaponry.
Geir opened up the throttle and zoomed into the valley.
A glance at his wristwatch gave him the time. 10:45. Molly would be going into action any minute now. He mentally blew her a kiss. The unorthodox engagement ring remained snug in his pocket, next to his heart.
Don’t get yourself killed, chief. I’m still working on my next proposal....
The Hunter-Killer kept after him.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Screw Command, Molly thought. We don’t need their help.
Operation Ravenwing was underway. She stood along the bank of the river, in the shadow of the looming trestle bridge, as Tammi Muckerheide rigged the explosives according to Doc Rathbone’s painstaking calculations and her own demolitions training, attaching blocks of C-4 and blasting caps to key points upon the bridge’s concrete piers and timber struts.
She was sitting astride a wooden truss, about ten feet above the frothing rapids that swirled below. Unlike the shallower stream by the camp, the swiftly moving river hadn’t frozen over entirely. If Tammi slipped and fell, the current would carry her away in an instant.
“How’s it going?” Molly asked impatiently. A freezing wind whipped down the canyon, slicing at her face. She hugged herself to stay warm, and tapped her toes against the rocky shore. Her toes were going numb inside her mukluks, except for the missing one, which itched incessantly.
She peered up at Tammi.
“We’re running out of time.”
“Almost done,” the younger woman promised, double-checking a wire. A note of weary exasperation could be heard in her voice. Nimble fingers tucked the last wire into place. “There we go.”
Molly moved in closer and inspected the young widow’s work. To disguise the explosives from snoopy Aerostats, they had painted them white and coated them with imitation snow made from talcum powder, glue, and laundry soap. Except for a heaping load of dynamite, which had been stuffed into the rotting carcass of a dead grizzly bear that one of their hunting parties had found not far from their old camp. The stinking corpse was heaped at the base of the bridge’s northern abutment. Transporting the dead bear via dog sled had been a stomach-turning task, but hopefully it would fool the Aerostats. Skynet’s levitating spy-eyes were ingenious, but they weren’t equipped with chemical bomb-sniffers.
So far as we know.
Sitka poked the bear with her toe. She wrinkled her nose.
“Stinks to high heaven.” The fidgety teen was fascinated by the grossness of the carcass. An overstuffed schoolbook bag, bearing the faded logo of some forgotten heavy-metal band, rested upon her shoulders. Unkempt red hair blew in the wind. Fuzzy pink earmuffs muffled her hearing. “What d’you think happened to it? Looks like its heart got punched clean through!”
Molly didn’t know or care what had killed the grizzly.
“Leave that alone,” she admonished. Extracting handwritten notes from her own pack, she checked the placement of the explosives against Doc’s specifications. Everything seemed to be in the right place.
And not just the bombs.
Tom Jensen stood guard, shotgun in hand, watching the preparat
ions alongside her. The bearded lumberjack was tense and alert. His arm was no longer in a sling. The rest of her people were hiding in the surrounding woods and cliffs, along with every last one of their sled dogs. Lookouts were stationed in the hills, keeping their eyes peeled for machines. It was the first time the entire cell had assembled in one place since the battle at the mill, but it was hardly a happy reunion.
Everyone remembered what had happened at the pipeline expedition, and that was supposed to have been a milk run. This was unimaginably more dangerous. They knew the Skynet Express wasn’t going to go down without a fight.
We’re going to lose some people tonight, Molly realized. Maybe a lot.
In fact, she had been surprised at just how many freedom fighters had volunteered—despite Tammi’s poignant appeal in their meeting.
Guess I’m not the only idiot who’s aching to get back at Skynet, after all, she thought. So what if that asshole Ashdown turned us down? We’ll show him—and the damn machines—not to underestimate us.
Tammi scooted across the horizontal strut, then shimmied down a pole and safely onto the shore. She scurried across the beach to where Molly and others stood, one of her hands clutching the baby bump. She thrust a handheld detonator into Molly’s open palm.
“All set, chief. Just push that button and... boom!” Her eyes were hard and cold. Molly could practically feel the murderous fury radiating off her, like the exhaust from a bloody chainsaw. “I can’t wait to see that metal monster take a fall!”
“Me too,” Molly admitted. “Good work.”
She checked her watch, squinting at it in the gloom. She’d made sure to wind it the night before.
10:40.
In theory, Geir would be in the air by now. They’d embraced right before he left for the glacier, groping and pawing each other hungrily just in case it was the very last time. She started to wonder if she would ever see him again, then caught herself. She couldn’t think like that during a war. Otherwise she’d never get out of bed.
