Ice Station

'What's going on?' a voice called out from the other side of the deck. Snake. 'Trouble, Lieutenant?'

Schofield approached the handcuffed soldier. He saw the two French scientists kneeling on the deck on either side of him. They just stared resignedly at the deck.

'You made a mistake,' Schofield said to Snake. 'You started killing your own men too soon. You should have waited until you were sure we had this station secured. Now we've got twenty British hovercrafts speeding toward us and no reinforcements in sight. They're going to be here in twenty-three minutes.'

Snake's face remained impassive, cold.

'And you know what?' Schofield said. 'You're gonna be here when they arrive.' He began to walk away.

'You're going to leave me here?' Snake said in disbelief.

'Yes.'

'You can't do that. You need me,' Snake said.

Schofield looked at his watch as he walked.

Twenty-two minutes until the SAS arrived.

'Snake, you had your chance and you blew it. Now, you'd better pray that we break through their line and get to McMurdo. Because if we don't, this whole station?and whatever's buried down in the ice beneath it?is gonna be lost forever.'

Schofield stopped by the entrance to the south tunnel and turned around. 'And in the meantime, you can take your chances with Trevor Barnaby.'

With that, Schofield turned away from Snake and entered the south tunnel. He immediately swung right and entered Mother's storeroom. Mother was seated on the floor by the wall again. She looked up when Schofield came in.

'Trouble?' she said.

'As always,' Schofield said. 'Can you move?'

'What's happening?'

'Our favorite ally just sent their best troops in to take this station.'

'What do you mean?'

'The SAS are on their way and they don't sound friendly.'

'How many?'

'Twenty hovercrafts.'

'Shit,' Mother said.

'That's what I thought. Can you move?' Schofield was already probing around behind Mother's chair, to see if he could gather together all of her fluid bags and intravenous drips.

'How long till they get here?' Mother asked.

Schofield looked quickly at his watch. 'Twenty minutes.'

'Twenty minutes,' Mother said.

Behind her, Schofield quickly grabbed two fluid lines.

'Scarecrow...,' she said.

'Just a second.'

'Scarecrow.'

 Schofield stopped what he was doing and looked up at Mother.

'Stop,' Mother said gently.

Schofield looked at her.

Mother said, 'Scarecrow. Get out of here. Get out of here now. Even if we had a full squad of twelve swordsmen, we'd never be able to hold off an entire platoon of SAS commandos.' Swordsman was Mother's term for a Marine, a reference to the sword of honor that every Marine wore when in full dress uniform.

'Mother...'

'Scarecrow, the SAS, they aren't regular troops like we are. They are killers, trained killers. They are trained to go into a hostile zone and kill everyone in sight. They don't take prisoners. They don't ask questions. They kill.' Mother paused. 'You have to evacuate the station.'

'I know.'

'And you can't do that with a one-legged old hag like me weighing you down. If you're gonna run that blockade, you're gonna need people who can move, people who can move fast.'

'I'm not going to leave you here?'

'Scarecrow. You have to get to McMurdo. You have to get reinforcements.'

'And then what?'

'And then what? And then you can come back here with a fucking battalion of swordsmen, you nuke these British sons of bitches, you rescue the girl, and you save the fucking day. That's what.'

Schofield just stared at Mother. She returned his gaze, looked him squarely in the eye.

'Go,' she said softly. 'Go now. I'll be all right.'

Schofield didn't say anything; he just continued to stare at her.

Mother shrugged nonchalantly. 'I mean, hey, like I've said before, it's nothing one good kiss from a fine- looking man like you wouldn't?'

At that moment, without warning, Schofield leaned forward and kissed Mother quickly on the lips. It was only a short kiss?an innocent peck?but Mother's eyes went as wide as saucers.

Schofield stood up. Mother took a deep breath.

'Whoa, mama,' she said.

'Find a place to hide and stay there,' Schofield said. 'I'll be back. I promise.'

And then he left the room.

The hovercraft's engine roared to life.

In the driver's seat, Rebound floored the accelerator. The needle on the tachometer bounced up to 6000 rpms.

At that moment, the second Marine hovercraft came gliding across the hard-packed snow. Its engine revved loudly as it slid to a halt alongside Rebound's hovercraft.

Buck Riley's voice came over Rebound's radio. 'Fifteen minutes to go, Rebound. Let's get 'em over to the main building and load 'em up.'

Schofield looked at his watch as he strode quickly round the outer tunnel of B-deck.

Fifteen minutes to go.

'Fox. Can you hear me?' he said into his helmet mike as he walked. While he waited for a reply, he quickly put his hand over the microphone.

'Let's go, people!' he yelled.

The remaining residents of Wilkes?Abby and the three male scientists, Llewellyn, Harris, and Robinson?were hurrying in and out of their respective rooms.

Llewellyn and Robinson ran past Schofield. They were dressed in thick black windbreakers. They hurried off toward the central shaft of the station.

Suddenly Gant's voice came over Schofield's earpiece. 'Scarecrow, this is Fox. I read you. You're not gonna believe what's down here.'

'Yeah, well, you're not gonna believe what's up here,' Schofield said. 'Sorry, Fox, but you're gonna have to tell me about it later. We're in big trouble up here. We've got a whole platoon of SAS commandos heading toward this station and they're gonna be here in about fourteen minutes.'

'Jesus. What are you going to do?'

 'We're gonna pull out. We have to. There's just too many of them. Our only chance is to get back to McMurdo and bring back the cavalry.'

'What should we do down here?'

 'Just stay where you are. Point your guns at that pool and shoot the first thing that pokes its head out of the water.'