Jon Merz - Prey

Havel wandered in drinking coffee. “I made another pot. I thought perhaps people would want some.”

“I could use some sleep,” said Mick.

Julia looked at him. “I think that’s the first time I’ve heard you admit you might be human like the rest of us.”

He smiled. “We’ll need a lot more sleep to take care of what we’ll have to do later today.”

“And what’s that?”

Mick looked back up at the roof. “Find out where that thing is coming from.”

By noon, Mick had woken up and rejoined the rest of the team. Julia felt a measure of relief flood her when he walked into the galley area and asked for coffee. Nung handed him a cup and Mick drank it down straight, without even pausing to let it cool.

“Good sleep?” Julia asked.

He looked at her and grinned. “Are you serious?”

“I was.”

“Nice of you to ask,” said Mick. “But it was a pretty hard deep sleep without much in the way of good dreams.” He turned to Wilkins. “Do we have an extensive map of the area we’re in?”

“Sure. I’ll get it.”

Mick waited for him to return and then cleared a space on the main table and watched Wilkins spread the map out. He leaned in close and took his time examining the contour lines.

Wilkins pointed. “We’re here.”

Mick nodded. “The rest of this area seems pretty barren. Just level plain,” his voice trailed off, “until we get to here.” His jabbed at the spot with his thumb. “What’s the deal with these?”

“The mountains?” Julia shrugged. “Supposedly the team here before us was supposed to do some exploring in them. We don’t know, of course, if they were successful or not.”

Mick frowned. “I wonder if…”

“What?” Kendall appeared out of nowhere.

Mick eyed him. “I wonder if the team that explored the mountains maybe woke something up.”

“Are you nuts?”

“I’m open to other possibilities,” said Mick.

Kendall ducked back out of the room shaking his head. Julia watched him go and the turned back to the others. “I suppose we have to consider the possibility.”

“There’s no other place this thing could be coming from,” said Mick. “Unless it can burrow under fifty feet of snow and ice at will, the mountains are the only hope it has of good shelter.”

“Those mountains are fifty miles away, though,” said Wilkins. “You think the creature can travel that distance easily enough to keep coming back here?”

Mick sighed. “I don’t know. It really depends on what the creature is doing with the people it has.”

“What do you mean?”

Mick shrugged. “Well, at the risk of being blunt, how far would you travel to eat if the only restaurant in town was fifty miles away?”

Julia swallowed. Her throat felt thick. “Fifty miles.”

Mick nodded. “Exactly.”

“So what now?”

“We’ve got the two Snowcats still, right?”

“Sure, all gassed up and ready to rock and roll.” Wilkins turned to Nung. “You and Darren go and get them warmed up. We’ll be taking off soon.”

“The weather’s good for it,” said Nung. He slipped out of the room.

Julia squeezed Mick’s arm. “Are you sure this is such a wise idea?”

“Hell no.” He laughed. “But I’m not the type of guy who likes to sit back and wait for the bad guys to come to me. There’s a lot to be said for being proactive.”

“But we don’t have any weapons.”

Another smile crept out along Mick’s face. “I’m not too concerned about that.”

“You’re not?”

“It’s easily fixed.”

Wilkins shook his head. “How so? You planning on doing a Macgyver or something?”

Mick leaned back over the map. “If we leave the station and follow this line east, we should pass by this point here. Beyond that, it’ll be another two hours to get to the mountains.”

“And what’s at that point?” asked Julia.

“Weapons,” said Mick without looking up.

She could feel the Snowcat grinding up the ice and snow with its caterpillar treads. The engine purred, while warm air poured out of the vents. She, Mick, and Havel rode while Darren drove. In the other cat, Nung drove with Wilkins and Kendall.

“What’s the story with these weapons?” Julia glanced at Mick who hadn’t offered up much of an explanation since dropping the bombshell earlier.

“Would you believe me if I told you it’s classified?”

“No. In fact, it would probably annoy the hell out of me.”

Mick smiled. “Can’t have that.” He glanced out of the window. “There were precautions taken that I knew about when I was back in the service.”

“What sort of precautions?”

“Antarctica is supposed to be a neutral zone, politically speaking. Any country is welcome to come down here and research meteorology, geology, that sort of thing. Military outposts were forbidden.”

“Exactly.”

“Back during the Cold War, however, some of the people in charge didn’t see it that way. In fact, both sides did their part to militarize — albeit in a small way — the continent.”

Julia frowned. Hearing about guns and weapons down in the unspoiled beauty of this place shocked and disgusted her. She shouldn’t have been surprised, but she was. “Wonderful.”

“Sure,” said Mick. “We’re guilty of it. But so were the Soviets. We had intel that they’d moved a large cache of weapons down here. Small arms, mostly. A few mortars, but not much more. I think the weapons were primarily intended for a garrison of troops to protect the Soviet science stations, nothing more.”

“And we responded.”

Mick nodded. “Yeah. But we only got as far as placing the cache down here. We never actually moved any troops in. Neither did the Soviets. But the weapons stayed.”

“Wouldn’t the weather have affected them? Made ’em inoperable?” Darren looked at Mick.

Mick shook his head. “The American cache has a solar-powered generator that keeps the interior of the storage trunk warm enough so the workings don’t freeze. They’ve also been packed in grease, which would help cut down on corrosion and environmental bugaboos getting into the works and screwing things up.”

Julia sighed. “Sure is lucky you know about this thing, Mick.”

He looked at her. She turned away. “Just trying to help. And we’ll need every ounce we can get if that thing comes back.”

Darren grinned. “If we’ve got the weapons, we ought to go and kill the sumbitch before it can come back to the station and finish us off.”

Mick nodded. “Agreed. Let’s see what the weapons are like and then we’ll go from there.”

Everyone stayed silent for a moment and then Havel spoke up. “How long are we going to be at the cache?”

“Shouldn’t take too long. No more than thirty minutes. We’ll dig up the container and test fire a few of the guns. Then we’re on our way.”

“What about at the mountains themselves?”

“We could be there longer,” said Julia. “What’s on your mind?”

“Just concerned about our timings is all,” said Havel. “Personally, I’m not all that keen on spending the night in a Snowcat. It seems like an awfully vulnerable position to be in to me.”

Darren nodded. “Good point.”

Mick held up his hand. “Guys, relax. We’ve got plenty of time to get the weapons, do some initial exploration and then get back to the station by nightfall. We’ll batten down the hatches again, post guards, but this time, we’ll be ready for the creature if it comes back.”

Julia looked at Mick. Was he really that confident about things or was he simply trying to bolster Havel and Darren? She certainly appreciated his effort. She felt a little better for his effort.