The Ice Chasm (Harvey Bennet Thrillers Book 3) Page 11

  They’re looking for us, and they’re armed.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  Reggie

  “HENDRICKS, LET’S SET UP A perimeter.”

  Reggie had no idea if the older man serving as their leader would be interested in input from his subordinates, but he tried anyway. At the very least it would force Hendricks to respond, one way or another.

  “No, if we spread out and surround them, we might be forced to engage. Any stray shots could be friendly fire.”

  Reggie realized he was right. “But we’re going to have to engage either way. As Colson said, there are two ways out of here, and they just came out of one and will be watching the other.”

  Colson nodded near Hendricks, underlining Reggie’s statement. “They’re probably the two that brought me here, plus two additional guards. That alarm must have gone off when you opened the cabinet.”

  Hendricks paused. “Right, so the best move is stealth. We’re outgunned, but not outmanned. I counted four, I think, so let’s get around them and ambush them from the side. A few of you will stay back in case one or two get away; we can hunt them down once they’re split up.”

  “Love it. Dibs on being one of the hunters.”

  “We’re all in this together now,” Hendricks said. “My team’s up there, dead out on the ice, remember?” He paused. “Red, Bennett, and Richardson, you get around the right side over there. Spread out a bit, but keep each other in sight. Red, you lead out from that flank and take out one or two if you can.”

  Hendricks turned to Mrs. E and Joshua. “You two with me, down this left side of the room we’re on. We’ll hit them head-on, so keep your gun up and your eyes straight. Kyle, center aisle. You need to move past them without being seen, then slip in around the back. Colson, you’re at my side. You leave it, I shoot you. Got it?”

  Colson confirmed that he got it.

  “Charge orders?” Reggie asked.

  “On Kyle. He’s covering the most distance.”

  The men approaching from the elevator had stopped communicating verbally, but they could hear their heavy footsteps every few seconds. The volume of the steps was growing, but Reggie determined they were still a few hundred feet away, moving slowly and operating in the dark. If they had night-vision goggles, they would have already seen Reggie’s group, so he was confident they were safe for another minute. Everyone double-checked their magazines, Reggie helping Ben and Julie with their pistols. When they were ready, Hendricks pointed a finger and Reggie took off.

  He could hear Ben’s breathing behind him, keeping up but moving silently with Julie in tow. They passed the center aisle, reached the corner of the room near where they’d entered, and turned left, the expanse of the hallway alongside the longest edge of the room stretching out before him. Only a fraction of it was visible, the remainder covered in darkness. He pushed forward, trying to guess where the four guards were located in relation to their position.

  He stepped past three rows of tall shelves, each housing hundreds of metal doors with cabinets behind them, and wondered what was in all of them.

  Surely they’re not all full of bodies?

  The impossibility of it all weighed on Reggie as he marched his team of three forward. The logistics alone would be a nightmare, he realized. Thousands of tons of steel and concrete would be required. And there’s no way to connect it all to a central power source that’s strong enough…

  As he considered the infrastructure challenges, one nagging idea dawned on him.

  We’re already walking through it. They’ve already done it. It doesn’t matter how impossible this all is, he thought. They figured it out, somehow.

  He stepped past the fifth row and knew at that moment they’d walked into more than they could handle. Whomever had built this place had been able to build a station on the most uninhabitable continent on the planet, staying out of sight from even McMurdo station, situated a relative stone’s throw away. They had shipped in the structural components, carving the bulk of the station out of ice, and somehow snuck in the personnel to run it all.

  Reggie was amazed, but again the suspicion crept in.

  What is it all for? He wondered. What does Mr. E really want from it?

  If Draconis Industries was truly pulling the strings here, then Mr. E — and his wife — wanted something more than just compensation for the use of his satellite technology. There were mechanisms in motion already, and Mr. E was a part of it all. He needed someone on the ground, to find and secure whatever it was Draconis had hiding here, but Reggie didn’t think for a moment that Mr. E would remain cordial if there was something at this station he wanted.

  Whatever it was, Reggie knew they were willing to kill for it.

  He passed the seventh row of cabinets and one of the security guards opened fire.

  “Get down!” he shouted. He didn’t wait or turn around to see if Ben and Julie had followed the order. He dove headfirst past the row and fell into a roll. He somersaulted once, springing up on his feet and pointing his gun back in the direction the shots had come from.

  You missed, Reggie thought. That’s your first mistake.

  The guard was already there, pointing his rifle at Reggie. “You are in a restricted area. Put the weapon down and come here.”

  Talking in the middle of a firefight? That’s your last mistake.

  He was fewer than five paces away, so he barely had to try to aim. He fired two quick shots, but it proved to be twice as many as he needed. The guard fell, his rifle clattering to the floor near him.

  Reggie didn’t hesitate, and ran forward to scoop up the man’s weapons and ammunition. He saw Ben and Julie crouching just around the edge of the next row of shelves.

  “Here, Bennett,” he said as he handed the rifle to the large man. “Try this on. Shoots better than that dinky 9mm you were using back at the range, and it makes you look tough, too.”

  Julie stepped forward. “What about me? I’m supposed to just walk around with a pistol?”

  “No, we’ll shop around. There are three more —“

  A gunshot rang out from the other side of the rectangular room.

  “— Two more guards down here.”

  “They’re not putting up much of a fight,” Julie said. “But they’re packing some heat.”

  Reggie looked at the gun he’d given Ben. “AK-47, obviously black market. Cheap, and easy to get. You’ll want to pop a few extra rounds each time to make sure one of them flies straight, but it’s a hardy tool. Shouldn’t have much trouble.”

  Ben nodded, checking out the gun and testing its weight in his hands. “Sounds easy enough,” he said. “But answer this: why in the world are there AK-weilding, poorly trained security guards dancing around the bottom of an Antarctic research station?”

  Two more shots reached their ears.

  Reggie chuckled. “Beats me. They’re putting up as much of a fight as the gals in the bar back home after I booze them up a bit.”

  “Charmer,” Julie said.

  Reggie laughed, then continued. “As for why they’re here, that’s the real question. Why do they need guards at all? What are they hiding?”

  “You mean besides the bodies?” Julie looked around at the lines of black cabinet doors.

  “Yeah,” Reggie said, following her gaze. “Besides the bodies.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  Ben

  THEY REGROUPED AT THE CENTER of the room, in the wide aisle that split the rectangular room into two halves, and filled each other in. Ben listened to the explanations given, led off by Hendricks.

  “Kyle eliminated one, and Joshua and I dropped the last two,” Hendricks said. “Too easy.”

  “I noticed that as well,” Reggie said. “I was lucky — he opened fire on me first, but missed. Then he tried to reason with me. Actually stopped, looked at me, and spoke. While I was pointing a gun at his head. Where’d they find these guys? Guarding a Starbucks?”

  Kyle and Hendricks shook their heads
as he told the story. “They’re either training to be stormtroopers or they really need to up the rent-a-cop budget around here.”

  “I’m not complaining,” Julie said.

  “No, I’m not either. But it’s only going to work in our favor for a bit,” Hendricks said. “If the Chinese get here anytime soon, they’ll be in for another treat. That army up there will do a number on the security force if the rest of them are anything like what we saw down here.”

  Hendricks handed Julie one of the weapons he had taken off one of the fallen guards. Like Ben’s acquired weapon, it was an aftermarket AK-47, modified heavily. Hendricks showed her how to work the rifle, and how to remove the magazine.

  “We’ll need to see if there are any more magazines on these guys, since we won’t last long without some on hand. Also wish they didn’t have this ridiculous red-dot sight on them.”

  “It’s neat, though,” Julie said. “Helps me see.” She made a show of lifting the gun to her shoulder and aiming down the sights at a far-off row of cabinets. She smiled at Ben, and he couldn’t help but grin.

  “Yeah, helps the bad guys see you, too. At least the Tapco trigger’s a legitimate upgrade. Just do your best to keep the end of that thing pointed down.”

  Julie nodded, and Ben waited for the rest of the group to fall in. He was surprised at their coherence as a team, even with only a long flight and two hours on the ground under their belt. They operated well together, even if there were still dissenting opinions on who should be in charge.

  Ben flashed a glance to Joshua, who was standing closest to Hendricks. What is the guy thinking right now? Ben thought. Joshua Jefferson was a man of action — someone who wouldn’t simply stand by while someone less capable led them astray. Still, Ben knew firsthand that Joshua wasn’t a power-hungry maniac, either. He was motivated by what was right, and would work to achieve the greater good at any cost.

  Ben had watched the transformation Joshua had gone through. In the Amazon, Joshua Jefferson had led a team of mercenaries in a quest to root out and kill Ben and his entire team, including Reggie and Julie. Their first interaction in Brazil had nearly left them dead, and it had been difficult for Ben to accept Joshua’s explanation that he had simply been ‘on the wrong side.’ The man claimed he had been led astray by the company he worked for — the same company they were now looking for — and by his own father.

  Joshua Jefferson’s father was the man who had put Joshua on the company’s payroll, and the only person he had interacted with at the company besides his own men. What the company needed, Joshua was sent to retrieve. His was a team of well-trained, fast-moving men who got the job done and didn’t ask questions. Joshua believed they were the good guys, working toward whatever ultimate world-changing goal the company had in mind. So when Joshua’s father emailed him the orders to hunt Ben and Julie and retrieve whatever they were looking for in the Amazon rainforest, Joshua didn’t think twice.

  He brought his team to the region without hesitation but soon realized he had been played by the company. His brother, Rhett Jefferson, a rash and unpredictable younger kid barely out of law school, showed up, hired by the company to follow both groups into the rainforest. Their father never would have approved of sending such an untested and untrustworthy operative into the region, so he knew the orders couldn’t have come from him. He then began to understand how deeply the organization’s corruption ran — that they would pit two brothers against one another, all the while pretending it was the boys’ father who had given the orders.

  He eventually caught up with Ben’s group, explained what he knew of the situation, and convinced them to pardon him. Eventually, Rhett sabotaged Ben’s team, nearly killed them all, and Joshua shot and killed him for it, further solidifying his stance against the company.

  Ben had no choice but to start trusting the man. He had saved Julie’s life more than once, and had killed the man pursuing them. Joshua had proven his value in the rainforest, and by the end of it all he was part of their close-knit group.

  Now, deep underground in the foothills of the Transantarctic Range, hidden in the depths of a mysterious station, a Chinese army bearing down on them, Ben was again reassured by Joshua’s presence. He had been angry as well when Hendricks had changed the previously agreed upon hierarchy of leadership, but Hendricks had proven himself effective, and Ben knew it was no time to shake things up. Joshua seemed placated, for the moment, satisfied with Hendricks bearing the burden of responsibility.

  For his part, Ben would play his role as well. He would keep Julie safe, help the others in whatever way he could, and accomplish their mission. They were looking for something for Mr. E, and he would do whatever he could to find it. Thinking about their objective, Ben addressed Colson.

  “Colson,” he said. “We’re trying to find something down here. We don’t quite know what we’re looking for, but anything you might know would be helpful.”

  Colson frowned at Ben when he first spoke, as if seeing the man for the first time. “Uh, right, well, that explains why you’re here.” He paused. “Actually, it doesn’t. How did you get here? How did you find a way in?”

  “Mission Impossible-style,” Reggie said. “Through the air vents. Places really should consider making those half the size, or at least guarding them a little better.”

  “Places usually aren’t covered by a mile of ice and only accessible by an around-the-world plane ride, either,” Julie said.

  “Yeah, true.”

  “Anyway,” Ben said, refocusing their conversation. “We’re here. But we’d love to not be here any longer than we need to be. We’re trying to find a company, and whatever it is they’re hiding.”

  Colson waited, so Ben took the bait.

  “We’re looking for Draconis Industries.”

  Colson seemed impressed. “Well, you found it. You’re in our state-of-the-art research facility. Welcome.”

  “Pleasure. Now, what in the world is this ‘research facility’ researching? And what are they hiding down here?”

  “What are they hiding? Christ, look around,” Colson said. “What are they not hiding?”

  The group did as Colson instructed and looked around again at the strange, ceiling high rows of cabinets.

  “Seriously, Colson,” Hendricks said. “You mean to tell me you have people inside all these boxes?”

  Colson shuddered. “I — I have no idea,” he said. “This is the first time I’ve been down here. I wasn’t even convinced this level actually existed. Look, I’m just a programmer, okay? I’m not involved with whatever these guys are —”

  “You work here, remember?”

  “I… did. I guess I don’t anymore. They put me in the box for punishment, like I said. But I have no idea what would have happened if you hadn’t…” he shuddered again. “Look, let’s get to another level. My office is upstairs, and we can talk there. I can show you what I was working on, maybe help you find whatever it is you’re looking for.”

  “Sounds good to me,” Reggie said. He had walked closer to one of the rows and was peering down at one of the black metal cabinet doors. “This place is giving me the creeps.”

  “Same here,” Hendricks said. “Let’s move out. Colson, you take point. You try to run, I shoot you. You try to call out to anyone… you get where I’m going with this, right?”

  Colson gulped and nodded, then started walking toward the elevator in the corner of the room.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  Ben

  THE ELEVATOR WAS BARELY LARGE enough to hold them all, and Ben felt the need to suck in his gut as he and Julie crammed into the back corner. He had lost almost twenty pounds since he’d met Julie, thanks to their escapades in the jungle and at Yellowstone, as well as his desire to please her.

  He had never looked extremely fit, but he had always been on the larger side, and not just in a chunky way. He had a hefty, thick body that stood taller than the average and wasn’t completely useless. He knew how to throw his wei
ght around, whether it was on the rink playing pickup hockey as a kid or captaining a wheelbarrow full of chopped wood back to his cabin. He wasn’t one to get in fights if he could help it, but Ben knew from experience that he was more than adequate at breaking up a bar fight.

  Lately he had been focusing more and more on his fitness, and had even considered setting up some sort of workout regimen he could implement at the cabin. The woods surrounding his home offered everything he needed for a decent gym, and he could aim for filling out what was missing with bodyweight exercises. He’d asked Reggie — a man Ben had always known to be obsessed with his physique and fitness — for advice, and he had agreed to help out.

  As the elevator rose, Ben did a silent inventory in his head. They were each still carrying one of the packs Hendricks had doled out earlier, and each of them were wielding an assault rifle. Hendricks, Mrs. E, Joshua, Reggie, and Kyle were carrying the assault rifles they’d either brought along or pulled from the bodies of Hendricks’ dead men, while he and Julie were carrying their modified AK-47s. The others had plenty of ammunition stashed away in their packs, but he and Julie would need to find some magazines soon if they were expected to be any help if they encountered more resistance.

  Colson was fidgety, and Ben watched as the man’s beady eyes danced around the faces on the people in the elevator, stopping only briefly enough to register their faces, then moving on to the next. He performed this dance with his eyes no less than three times before finally stopping on Ben.

  “You okay, there, Colson?” Ben asked.

  The elevator dinged as it reached the next level up, and Colson jumped.

  “I — I’m okay,” he said. “I know I haven’t thanked you for rescuing me. I’m sorry. I mean thank you. I just, this is all — “