It was one of those removable hoods that could be connected to the collar of the parka whenever the wearer so desired. It was only attached to Kirsty's parka by six clasplike buttons.
The popping sound that he had heard had been the sound of one of those buttons unclasping.
Riley began to feel sick.
"Oh, that's not fair. That's not fucking fair," he said.
Pop!
Another button unclasped.
Kirsty dropped another inch.
Riley was at a loss. He didn't know what to do. There was nothing he could do. He was already hanging from the lowest point on the railing, so he couldn't lower himself any further. And Kirsty was hanging from his other hand, so he couldn't reach any farther either.
Pop! Pop!
Two more buttons unclasped and Kirsty screamed in horror as she dropped sharply and then jolted to a sudden stop.
The pink hood began to stretch. Only two buttons held it to the parka's collar now.
Riley thought about swinging Kirsty in toward the C-deck catwalk below them, about four yards away. But he quickly dispelled the thought. The wool-lined hood was now only tenuously connected to the parka. Any movement would almost certainly unclasp the remaining two buttons.
"God damn it!" he yelled. "Can't anybody help me!"
"Hold on!" another voice yelled from somewhere nearby. "I'm coming!"
Riley turned his head and saw Schofield on the far side of the C-deck catwalk, inside a small alcove of some sort. Next to him was Fox. Schofield seemed to be directing her to go down the nearest rung-ladder and head for the pool deck while he took care of Riley and Kirsty.
Pop!
One of the last two buttons snapped open, and Riley turned his attention back to Kirsty. Grimacing, he held tight and looked down at her. The little girl was scared out of her mind. Her eves were red. filled with tears. She stared into his eves and spoke through teary sniffles: "I don't want to die. Oh, my God, I don't want to die."
One button left.
The hood was stretched taut, straining under Kirsty's weight.
It wasn't going to hold....
A second before it happened, Buck Riley felt the weight of the little girl pull on the hood and he said softly, "I'm sorry."
With a sudden pop, the final button snapped open and Riley watched helplessly as Kirsty fell away from him in a kind of nightmarish slow motion. Her wide eyes looked right into his as she fell, her face the picture of pure, unspeakable terror. Those wide eyes became smaller and smaller, and Buck Riley felt sick to his stomach as he saw the little girl splash into the icy pool fifty feet below.
The pool at the base of Wilkes Ice Station had become a slaughterhouse. From his alcove on C-deck, Shane Schofield looked down at it in horror.
Blood had so clouded the icy water that nearly half of the enormous pool was now no more than a maroon haze. Even the massive killer whales disappeared when they swam through the murky patches.
Schofield surveyed the scene.
On one side of the pool were the French. They had suffered the worst. They had already lost two men to the killers.
On the other side of the pool were the two remaining Marines?Rebound and Mother?and the three scientists from Wilkes who had been with Book when B-deck had given way. All five of them were swimming desperately for the metal deck that surrounded the pool.
It was into this that Schofield saw the tiny pink-clad figure of Kirsty drop with an ugly splash. She landed back-first and immediately went under. Her high-pitched scream had followed her all the way down.
Schofield snapped around to look over at Book Riley, hanging from the downturned B-deck railing.
Their eyes met for an instant. Book looked beaten, dejected, exhausted. His eyes said it all. He couldn't do any more. He had done all he could.
Schofield hadn't.
He pursed his lips, took in the situation.
Kirsty was on the far side of the pool, on the other side of the diving bell, out in the open. Everybody else was near edges of the pool, trying to get out. In their own efforts to escape, none of them had seen her land in the pool. As he looked down at the pool, Schofield could hear Montana's voice on the intercom yelling at Snake and Santa Cruz in their gunless battle with the French soldiers still up on A-deck.
"?Keep 'em moving round south?"
"?Can't use their guns either?"
Schofield spun around where he stood, looking for something he could use.
He was still in the alcove, alone. Moments earlier, he'd sent Gant down to the pool deck, while he'd intended to go over and help Book. But before he'd even had a chance to get over there, the little girl had fallen. And now she was down in the pool.
Schofield saw the array of buttons on the console behind Mm, saw some words underneath a lever: DIVING BELL?WINCH.
No, that was no help.
But then he saw another, large rectangular button, on which was written a single word: BRIDGE.
Schofield stared at the button for a moment, perplexed. And then he remembered. The retractable bridge. This must have been the control switch for the retractable bridge that Hensleigh had told him about earlier, the bridge that extended out from C-deck, out across the open space in the center of the station.
Without even thinking, Schofield hit the long rectangular button and immediately heard a loud, clanking noise from somewhere beneath his feet.
An engine somewhere within the wall next to him suddenly hummed to life and Schofield watched as a narrow, elongated platform began to extend out over the enormous empty space in the middle of the station.
On the far side of the shaft Schofield saw another, identical, platform begin to extend out from underneath the catwalk. Presumably, the two platforms would meet in the middle and form one bridge spanning the width of the station.
Schofield didn't miss a beat. He charged onto the bridge as it extended out over the center of the station. It extended quite quickly, in a telescopelike motion, smaller extensions being born out of larger ones, and fast enough so that it stayed ahead of him as he ran. It wasn't very wide, only about two feet, and it had no hand railing.
Schofield ran across the extending bridge as it grew forward in front of him. And then just as his platform was about to join with its twin from the other side, he took a deep breath, increased his speed, and leaped diagonally off the bridge.
Riley watched in amazement as Schofield sailed through the air, over the massive diving bell, and arced down toward the icy pool.
He fell fast. But as he did so, Schofield did a strange thing. He raised his right hand and unholstered something from behind his shoulder.
When he hit the water, his feet entered first?with both legs splayed wide so that he wouldn't go far underwater? while both of his hands held the object he had pulled from behind his back.
Kirsty instinctively turned away as the water next to her exploded.
At first she thought it was one of the killer whales bursting out from beneath the surface to take her under, but as the water fell back down on top of her and she was able to see again, all she saw was a man hovering in the water next to her.
It was one of the Marines. In fact, it was the one she had met before, the nice one, the leader. The one who wore the cool reflective silver sunglasses. She tried to remember his name. Seinfeld, she thought, or something like that.
"You OK?" he said.
She nodded dumbly.
His silver glasses hung askew from his nose, dislodged by his landing in the water. He swiped them off quickly and for a brief second Kirsty saw his eyes and she gasped.
Suddenly one of the killers whooshed past them and Kirsty didn't care about Schofield's eyes anymore.
The towering black dorsal fin sailed right past both of their eyes and then slowly, very slowly, lowered itself into the water until finally the tip of the massive fin dipped below the surface and disappeared.
Kirsty began to breathe very fast.
Beside her, Schofield imm
ediately started to look down into the water beneath them. They were treading water in one of the sections of the pool that hadn't yet been contaminated with blood. The water beneath them was crystal clear.
Kirsty followed his gaze and looked down into the water beneath her?
?just in time to see the wide open mouth of the killer whale rushing up at her feet!
Kirsty screamed like a banshee, but beside her, Schofield saved calm. He quickly lowered his Maghook beneath the surface and for a terrifying half-second, waited until the killer was right up close ...
And then he fired.
The grappling hook, with its bulbous magnetic head, thundered out of its launcher into the water and slammed into the killer whale's snout, stopping the massive creature dead in its racks.
Four thousand pounds pet square inch of thrust had launched the grappling hook. Whether or not it had truly been enough to stun a full-grown seven-ton killer whale wasn't entirely clear to Schofield. Hell, the whale was probably just shocked that something had dared to fight back.
Schofield quickly pressed down twice on the trigger of the launcher and the grappling hook immediately began to reel itself in.
He turned to face Kirsty again. "You still in one piece? Got all your fingers and toes?"
Kirsty just stared at him, saw those eyes again, nodded dumbly.
"Come on then," Schofield said as he pulled her through the water.
Sarah Hensleigh reached the edge of the pool and clambered up onto the deck as fast as she could. She turned back and saw Conlon and Abby splashing through the water toward her.
"Hurry up!" Sarah yelled. "Hurry up!"
Abby got there first. Sarah grabbed her hand and yanked her up onto the deck.
Conlon was still two yards away, swimming hard.
"Come on, Warren!"
Conlon swam for all he was worth.
One yard away.
He looked up desperately at Sarah, and she dropped to her knees at the edge of the deck.
He got there. Slammed into the metal rim of the deck like a Olympic swimmer hitting the wall at the end of a race. He reached up, grabbed Sarah's outstretched hand. Sarah was just beginning to haul him up onto the deck when suddenly the water behind him parted and one of the killer whales burst up out of it. The big whale opened its mouth wide and enveloped Conlon's body from foot to chest.
Conlon went bug-eyed as the killer clamped down hard on his chest and Sarah tried desperately to hold onto his hand, but the killer was too strong. When it dropped back down into the water it yanked so hard on Cordon's body that Sarah felt the terrified scientist's fingernails scratch her skin and draw blood, and then suddenly his hand was out of her grasp and she fell to the deck and watched in horror as Warren Conlon disappeared under the water right in front of her eyes.
A few yards away, Mother and Rebound were also approaching the deck.
Rebound swam hard as Mother turned in the water and fired her MP-5 under the surface. One of the first things they teach you at Parris Island, the legendary training camp of the United States Marine Corps, is the resistance that water offers against gunfire. Indeed, the average bullet will lose nearly all of its velocity in less man two meters of water. After that it will just slow to a halt and sink to the bottom.
Such physical laws, however, didn't seem to be bothering Mother right now. She just waited until the killers got close and then she fired hard. The bullets appeared to penetrate the outer skin, but they didn't seem to do much damage. Mother fired and hit, and the killers momentarily darted away, but they always seemed to come back, unhurt, undeterred.
Rebound hit the deck and was about to climb up onto it when he turned and saw Mother behind him.
She was looking down to her left, her gun arm jolting repeatedly as she fired at something under the water. And then suddenly her gun arm stopped its jolting movement and Mother looked confused. Her gun wasn't firing anymore.
Frozen ammo.
Rebound watched as Mother shook her MP-5 in disgust, as if shaking it would somehow make it work again.
It was then that Rebound saw an ominous dark shadow slithering upward underneath the surface, silently approaching Mother from her right.
"Mother! Check right!"
Mother heard him and spun instantly and saw the killer whale rising beneath her. Her gun now useless, Mother just pivoted in the water and lifted her legs up sharply and the killer barreled past her, missing her feet by inches.
But then, just when Rebound thought it had passed her by, the killer whale abruptly changed course and broke the surface of the water and wrapped its jaws around Mother's gun hand.
Mother yelled in pain and released her MP-5, yanking her hand free just as the whale bit down on the gun.
A gash of red appeared instantly above her wrist. Blood slicked her entire forearm.
But her hand was still there.
Mother didn't care. Now gunless, she just swam like hell for the water's edge.
Rebound hoisted himself onto the deck and turned and urged Mother on.
"Move it, Mother! Pick it up, baby!"
Mother swam.
Rebound knelt at the edge of the deck.
Black shadows cut back and forth behind Mother's frantically swimming frame.
Black shapes everywhere. Too many of them. And then, suddenly, it dawned on Rebound.
Mother wasn't going to get to the deck in time.
Then, as if right on cue, a massive black silhouette appeared in the water right behind Mother's frantically kicking legs.
It closed in slowly, through the rippling translucent water, and Rebound saw a pink slit appear across its enormous black-and-white jawline.
Its mouth was opening.
Teeth appeared and Rebound felt his blood run cold.
Through the crystalline water he saw the black shadow slowly rise and rise behind Mother until it overtook her legs and allowed them to kick inside its wide open mouth.
And then, with an ominous sense of finality, the big whale's jaws closed slowly around Mother's knees.
The jolt that Mother experienced was incredible in its ferocity.
Rebound watched in horror as the killer whale yanked her under. The water around Mother started to froth and bubble and blood began to fan out, but Mother was struggling fiercely, putting up a hell of a fight.
Suddenly she broke the surface and so did the killer. Somehow, during their underwater scuffle, Mother must have managed to get one of her legs free from the killer's jaws, because now she was using it to kick down hard on the big whale's snout.
"You motherfucker!" she screamed. "I'm gonna fucking kill you!" But it had her by the other leg and it wasn't letting go.
Abruptly Mother shot forward in the water, raising a wash of white waves in front of her. The whale was pushing her forward, toward Rebound and the deck.
And then?clang!?Mother slammed down hard against the edge of the deck and, amazingly, managed to get a handhold on the metal grating.
"Fucking kill you! You son of a bitchl" Mother yelled through clenched teeth.
Rebound dived forward and grabbed her hand as she grimly held the deck and struggled with the killer whale in a tug-of-war over her own body.
Then Rebound saw Mother draw her powerful Colt automatic pistol from its holster and level it at the killer whale's head. "Oh, fuck me ...," Rebound said.
"You want to eat something, baby?" Mother said to the whale. "Eat this."
She fired.
A small blast of yellow light flared out from the muzzle of Mother's gun as the flash of her pistol ignited the gaseous air around her. Both she and Rebound were hurled a full five yards backward onto the deck by the concussion wave.
The whale wasn't so lucky. As soon as the bullet entered its brain, the killer convulsed violently backward, snapping upward. Then it just fell limply back into the water amid a cloud of its own blood, its final prize?garnered in the split second before it died?a portion of Mother's left leg. Everything from the
left knee down.
Schofield and Kirsty were still out in the middle of the pool, caught halfway between the diving bell in the center and the deck twenty-five feet away.
With their backs pressed against each other, they both looked fearfully about themselves. The water around them was ominously still. Quiet. Calm.
"Mister," Kirsty said, her voice barely a whisper. Her jaw was quivering, a combination of fear and cold.
"What?" Schofield kept his eyes trained on the water around him.
"I'm scared."
"Scared?" Schofield said, not exactly hiding his own fear very well. "I didn't think kids these days were afraid of anything. Don't they have this kind of stuff at Sea World?"
At that moment, one of the killer whales shot up out of the water right in front of Schofield. It rose out of the water and arced down fast, heading right for him and Kirsty!
"Go under!" Schofield yelled as he saw the two rows of jagged white teeth open wide in front of him.
He held his breath and ducked underwater, pulling Kirsty down with him.
The world suddenly went silent as the killer whale's immense white underbelly thundered over the top of them at incredible speed. It brushed roughly against the top of Schofield's helmet as it pounded back into the water right above their heads.
Schofield and Kirsty burst back up above the surface, gasped for air.
Schofield quickly looked left: saw Rebound and Mother on the deck. Looked right: saw Sarah and Abby, also safely up on the deck, quickly moving away from the edge.
He spun around: saw another Frenchman get yanked under. The two remaining French commandos were just reaching the edge of the pool. They'd had to swim farther than everyone else, having landed closest to the middle of the pool.
Serves them right, Schofield thought.
He looked up: and immediately saw the retractable bridge that spanned the width of the station from either side of C-deck.
Just then, a deafening explosion boomed out from the alcove on the C-deck catwalk and an unbelievably huge tongue of fire shot out over the whole of the central shaft of the station.
Schofield knew what had happened immediately?the French soldiers up on A-deck, deprived of the use of their guns, were now tossing grenades down into the shaft. Sharp thinking. A grenade detonating in this flammable atmosphere would do twice as much damage as it would normally. Their first target, Schofield noticed, had been the alcove he and Gant had been hiding in before.
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