Page 95 of Smoky Lake

“No problem. I figure we’re probably going to be seeing a lot of each other. Those women are close.”

“Yes, they are.”

Shots rang out from the eastern edge of the glacier, where scrubby brush and a few cottonwoods grew. Gil grabbed Lachlan and hit the ice, throwing his own body over his brother’s. He went up on his knees and drew his weapon. The corporal did the same.

“The helo’s drawing their fire,” said Walters. “We gotta get off this ice. We’re completely exposed here if they spot us.”

“Follow me,” said Lachlan, still face-down on the ice. “If my brother wouldn’t mind letting me up.”

With gunfire still ringing in their ears, they crawled across the glacier. It seemed to take forever as they hauled their bodies across the cold and gravelly surface. Occasionally, more shots would ring out. Every time, Gil would curse the fact that Ani was in the line of fire, not him.

Finally, after what seemed like hours but was probably twenty minutes or so, they reached a crevasse, a jagged gap in the thick ice.

“Just drop in, I swear it won’t collapse,” Lachlan reassured them.

“I’ll go first.” Gil didn’t wait for agreement, just slid his body into the opening and dropped onto the gravelly surface about ten feet below.

The tunnel led to a wider opening under an overhang that seemed to be more mountainside than glacier, although it could be hard to tell because the glacier was covered with so much dirt and scree.

“There’s another tunnel like this in Fairbanks,” Lachlan explained in a whisper once they were all safely inside. “The Army Corps of Engineers drilled it to study the permafrost, but they decided Fairbanks was a better location, so they abandoned this one. You can actually see old mammoth bones further down. But my guess is they’re staying close to the surface.”

Gil loved that Lachlan’s knowledge of the ice around Korch Glacier had possibly saved their lives.

Up ahead, voices echoed, and in the distance, more gunfire rang out. “They’re trying to chase away the helo, but now that they know they’ve been located, what’ll they do next? Cut their losses? Make a stand?” Gil turned to Nyx. “Nyx, any insights?”

“All they want is Victor’s research. The kids are just leverage. We should get them out if we can.”

Big “if.” Would the mercs let their only leverage just walk away? Or would they get what they wanted from Victor and disappear with a powerful bioweapon? They must have transport stashed away somewhere close by.

“We need more intel. Stay here,” the corporal told them. “I’ll scope out the situation.”

When he came back, loping at a crouch to avoid dislodging dirt and rocks from the overhang, he filled them in.

“There’s a kind of ice cave up ahead, behind those rocks. Twelve minors being held. Three adults standing guard. Probably four more above ground. They have a generator in there, and some equipment.”

“Is Victor Canseco there?” Gil whispered.

“Didn’t see him. I’m calling in reinforcements.”

He got on his comms to contact the mission commander, using the sound of gunfire as cover.

It bothered Gil that Victor was nowhere to be seen. What was he up to? He claimed to want to rescue the kids, but right now, the man was completely unpredictable.

45

In the helicopter, Ani’s eyes burned from staring down at the icy whiteness below.

Gil would be fine. He had to be. Ani hadn’t nursed him back to health just for him to get caught by mercenaries on a glacier. Gil was the most capable man she knew. He’d probably figured out some brilliant, creative way to handle those evil assholes. She just had to have faith.

Sergeant Thomson gestured for her to lean close, so she could hear the chatter over the headphones. “We’re sending in reinforcements. Our guy has visual confirmation of a group of twelve minors. We have one asset on the scene, with some civilian backup. Adversaries are armed. Seven confirmed so far, potentially more. Sending three aircraft.”

“They found the kids!” Ani could hardly breathe from stress. “Thank God.”

She stared down at the lake, the glacier, the wisps of mist between her and the ground. The shining thread of a creek caught her eye. It traced a meandering path through boulders and ice until it disappeared into the forest.

The virus was waterborne, she remembered, and those cases were the most severe.

If those mercs had any of the virus stashed here, they could have released small amounts into the watershed, resulting in only a few people getting sick enough to hallucinate. Only four, that she knew about.

---