Icequake: A Prophetic Survival Thriller by Crawford Kilian

Author:Crawford Kilian [Kilian, Crawford]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Publisher: Venture Press
Published: 2017-11-12T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter 9 – Pressure

It was dark by the time they reached the centre of the Shelf, but the TACAN signal was fairly clear. Al even made voice contact with Roger Wykstra, and told him that all was well but that the Russians would need immediate medical attention.

“Okay, Papa Al, I’ll tell Kate. We’ll start sending up a flare every three minutes until you start your approach. And the ski-way will be marked by fires. Anything else? Over.”

“Boy, all the comforts of home. Ah, tell Terry to throw some steaks on the fire, and no nonsense about rationing. We’re all starved. Over.”

“Will do. Mind your step, now. Over and out.”

A few minutes later they saw the first flare sparkling like a star over the dim blue surface far ahead.

“Bang on course,” Will said. “What a bloody navigator!”

“Nothing to it,” Al grinned. “I just followed the smell of my own fear.”

“Your fear? I’ve been pissing my pants all day.”

A second flare went off, much closer now, and then two lines of orange light appeared: the ski-way. Al circled, dropped and landed with scarcely a bump.

Floodlights glared into the flight compartment as the Otter taxied up to the hangar, but Al and Will could just make out a group of dark figures milling about on the snow. The hangar doors drew open, and someone ran out with the winch cable. Two minutes later they were inside and the doors boomed shut.

Al got up and went in the passenger compartment. The Russians looked exhausted. He patted Ivan’s shoulder, and then went to open the door. He saw Katerina walking steadily and carefully, picking her way over the greasy duckboards. Despite her bulky anorak and trousers, Al thought she looked very small.

“Hey, Katerina!” he bellowed, his voice echoing off the hangar roof. “Come and say hello to your husband.”

“He is pretty tough, that one,” she said. “I thought he would be okay.” She climbed the four-step ladder into the cabin, her smile bright.

“Katya — ”

She caught her breath when she saw him in the dim light.

“Ah, Vanya — Vanya!” She fell to her knees beside his seat, gripping his arms and kissing his cracked and blackened lips.

*

Much later that evening Katerina left the infirmary and went for a walk in Tunnel D. The walls glittered with frost. From the huts in Tunnel C came laughter and Max Wilhelm’s uncertain tenor rendition of ‘Your Cheating Heart’. The welcome-back party had moved from the lounge to the geophysics lab after Katerina had insisted on quiet in the infirmary. She was glad she hadn’t dampened the celebration.

She turned back and went into Tunnel B, avoiding the cold porch nearest to Hugh’s room; no need to disturb him — or his attendant — any further tonight. At the next door she went in and walked down the bunkhouse corridor until she came to the room shared by Max and Ben Whitcumb. She knocked gently.

“Come in,” Ben snapped. When he saw who it was, his expression softened.

“Hi, Katerina. Good to see you.

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