James Rollins - Ice Hunt

“What are you saying?” Kowalski grumped.

“We’ll have to seek our way in the dark.” Jenny pocketed the gun and groped out for Kowalski. “Join hands.”

Kowalski took her palm in his. She fumbled and found Tom’s hand.

“Heel, Bane,” she whispered as they set off, Kowalski in the lead.

Like three blind mice, they crept down the tunnel, making the next turn that headed toward the light source. It was slow going. Jenny felt an odd tension in her jaw, as if she were clenching it, a minute vibration deep behind her molars. It had been with them ever since they entered the tunnels. Perhaps it was a vibration from whatever generators or motors powered the station above them.

But she wasn’t convinced. If they were far from the station, why did it seem to be growing stronger?

They made a few more turns, zeroing toward the light.

“It feels like we’re heading deeper again,” Kowalski said.

In the pitch dark, it was hard to tell if the seaman was correct.

“We have to be well off that marked trail we were following,” Tom said. “We could just be getting ourselves lost.”

“The light’s stronger,” Jenny said, though she wasn’t sure. Maybe it was just her eyes growing accustomed to the darkness. The inside of her head itched. What was that?

“This reminds me of my grandfather’s stories of Sedna,” Tom whispered.

“Sedna?” Kowalski asked.

“One of our gods,” Jenny answered. She knew they probably shouldn’t be talking so much, but in the darkness, it was a comfort to hear another’s voice. “An Inuit spirit. Like a siren. She is said to lure fisherman into the sea, chasing after her glowing figure until they drowned.”

“First monsters, now ghosts…I really hate the Arctic.” Kowalski squeezed her fingers tighter.

They continued on, sinking into their own thoughts and fears.

Jenny heard Bane padding and panting at her side.

After a full minute, they rounded a curve in the tunnel and the source of the light appeared. It came from an ice cave ahead — or rather from a crumbled section of the back wall. The ice glowed with a sapphire brilliance, piercing after so much darkness.

They let go of one another and edged forward.

Kowalski entered the cave first, searching around. “A dead end.”

Tom and Jenny joined him, studying the shattered section of wall. “Where’s the light coming from?” Jenny asked.

She was heard.

A voice called out from ahead. “Hello!” It was a female voice.

Bane barked in response.

“Tell me that’s not Sedna?” Kowalski hissed.

“Not unless she’s learned English,” Tom replied.

Jenny shushed Bane and returned the shout. “Hello!”

“Who’s out there?” another voice called, a man this time.

Jenny reacted with shock as she recognized the voice. “Craig?”

A pause. “Jenny?”

She hurried forward. The shattered section of wall revealed a vertical crack in the surface. The light streamed out toward them. Through a crack, only two inches wide, faces peered back at her. They were only a yard away. Tears rose in her eyes.

If Craig was here, then surely Matt…

“How…What are you doing here?” Craig asked.

Before she could answer, Bane began to bark again. Jenny turned to quiet him, but the wolf faced back toward the passage from which they’d come.

At the tunnel mouth, red eyes stared out at them, reflecting the feeble light.

“Shit,” Kowalski said.

The creature hunkered into the cavern, wary and snorting, coming toward them. This beast was the largest they’d seen yet.

Jenny yanked out her flare gun, aimed, and fired. A trail of fire arced across the ice cavern and burst between the forefeet of the beast. The exploding flare blinded them all with its flash.

Against the glare, the beast reared up, then slammed down. It backpedaled its bulk down the passage, away from the fiery display.

Tom and Kowalski edged closer. “We can’t trust that thing will stay gone for long,” the seaman said.

Jenny clenched her gun. “I only have one more flare.” She turned to the crack in the wall. “Then we have nothing to chase them off with.”

Craig heard her. “They’re grendels. They’ve been hibernating down here for thousands of years.”

Jenny pushed such matters aside for now and asked the other question utmost in her mind. “Where’s Matt?”

Craig sighed. He took a moment too long in answering. “We got separated. He’s somewhere in the station, but I don’t know where.”

Jenny sensed something unspoken behind his words, but now wasn’t the time to question him. “We need to find another way out of here,” she continued. “Our flashlight is out, and we’re down to one flare to defend ourselves.”

“How did you get down here?” he asked.

Jenny waved vaguely behind her. “Through a ventilation shaft back there. It goes to the surface.”

“Well, it’s not safe anywhere out there. We’ve some metal tools in here. Maybe we could hack the crack wider. Get you through to us.” His voice was full of doubt.

The ice was a yard thick. They’d never make it.

Another voice spoke from behind Craig. A woman, the same one who had called out earlier. “What about the fuel drums for the sea-gate motors? Maybe we could create a gigantic Molotov cocktail. Blow a way through.”

Craig’s face moved away from the crack. “Hang on, Jen.”

She heard muffled words, arguing, as the group beyond sought some solution or consensus. She heard something about the noise alerting the Russians. She glanced over to the flare as it began to fade. She would rather take her chances with the Russians.

Craig again appeared at the crack. “We’re going to try something. You’d better stand back.”

Something was shoved into the crack. It looked like a hose nozzle. It smelled of kerosene and oil.

Jenny scooted back from the wall. Tom and Kowalski continued to guard the tunnel with Bane at their side.

A flicker of flame dazzled in the crack, then a whoosh of fire blasted toward Jenny. She fell backward as a ball of flame rolled past her face. The heat singed her eyebrows.

“Are you okay?” Kowalski asked, stepping toward her.

She waved him back, pushing up. “I don’t think I need to worry any longer about that bit of frost nip on my nose.”

“You’re lucky you still have a nose.”

In the crack, a blazing inferno glowed. Flames lapped out into the cavern. Steam sizzled and billowed, instantly precipitating and wetting walls, floors, and bodies. Runnels of fiery oil seeped into their cavern.

It was surreal to see flames dancing atop ice.

“They’re trying to melt a path through for us,” Jenny realized.

The fiery channels traced across the floor toward them, driving them back.

Kowalski frowned. “Let’s hope they don’t set us on fire first.”

Amanda held the hose nozzle while one of the biology students, Zane, manned the manual pump. “Keep the pressure up,” she ordered, yanking the release lever and spraying more fuel onto the fire in the crack, careful not to let the flames leap to the hose. She had to be careful. Strong outward pressure had to be maintained. It was like trying to add lighter fuel to an already burning barbecue.

Craig was on the other side of the crack, shielding his face with his hand. Steam roiled out, along with smoky billows. Underfoot, channels of water ran into the room as the ice blockage melted. Floating oil burned in several patches, washed out with the meltwater. The biology team smothered them with fire blankets found among the supplies on the shelves.

Craig turned to her. “We’re about halfway through.”