Checkmate (2006) by Tom - Splinter Cell 03 Clancy

Author:Tom - Splinter Cell 03 Clancy [Clancy, Tom - Splinter Cell 03]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2011-03-17T20:23:50+00:00

Chapter 31.

ELENA drove for another few minutes, then, as Fisher had asked, pulled over again. "The checkpoint is one kilometer," she said. "You remember where you're going?"

Fisher grabbed his rucksack from the backseat and got out. "I remember. I'll meet you there in fifteen minutes."

"Fifteen minutes."

He shut the door, patted the car's roof, and she drove away. Her headlights disappeared into the mist. He shouldered the rucksack and walked down the embankment into the marsh. He pulled out the OPSAT, double-checked his map, then settled his trident goggles into place, switched to NV, and started jogging.

HE and Elena would face two checkpoints. The first one, placed at the outer edge of the thirty-kilometer Exclusion Zone, was manned by guards drawn from the Ukrainian Army; every soldier was required to spend six weeks guarding the zone.

No car was allowed to enter the Zone, lest it be contaminated. Outsiders were required to park their clean vehicles in the checkpoint parking lot, then walk through, where they were logged in and assigned a "dirty" vehicle from the motor pool.

The Inner Ring, eleven kilometers from Reactor Number Four, was guarded by a second checkpoint, where visitors were again required to trade cars--dirty for even dirtier--and change clothes. Civilian clothes, which would be decontaminated, sealed in plastic bags, then returned to the first checkpoint to await the wearer's return, were exchanged for dark blue coveralls, plastic boots, gloves, and white surgical masks.

According to PRIA, the use of the zone cars was not hazardous to humans, but their introduction to the world outside the zone might have "unforeseen ecological consequences."

TEN minutes after setting out, Fisher came to a line of scrub pines and stopped. A gust of wind whistled through the trees, causing the branches to creak. He pulled his collar up against the chill.

Whether by chance or by choice Fisher didn't know, but at least at this entrance, the tree line represented the outer ring. Irrational as it was, he wondered if things would look and feel different inside the zone. Was the grass rougher, more brittle? Were the leaves on the trees withered, trapped in in some endless radioactive autumn? Did the water smell different? He knew better, but such was the nature of radiation--an invisible rain of poison that left nothing untouched. Including the imagination.

He forced his mind back on track.

A half mile to his west was the first checkpoint. He slowed his breathing and listened. In the marshes sound traveled well, and after a few seconds he heard the distant chunk of a car door slamming, then voices speaking in Ukrainian. Another visitor coming or going, Fisher thought. Probably the latter. By now, Elena would already be through the checkpoint and waiting at the motor pool.

He stood up and started picking his way through the pines.

After a few hundred yards, the trees began to thin and he could see gray light filtering through the branches. He reached the edge and stopped. Ahead lay a gravel parking lot filled with dozens of cars and trucks.

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