“Then how will they believe we have the one bomb?”
“Once we are in position, our government will give them the PAL code that arms the bomb, along with its serial number. They will believe that.”
Kim leaned back on the rocking bench and regarded his commander. “We are going to invade the South?”
Pak nodded. “I would assume they are already mobilizing to do so.
“Do they really think we can succeed?”
“We have so far,” Pak answered evenly.
Kim shook his head. “But it is a long way from here to Hawaii. And then—”
“I know,” Pak cut off his XO. “I know all that. But it is too late to question anything. We must do as ordered.”
“What about radiation?” Conner asked. The crater that had been Eternity Base lay two hundred feet away. The edges of the crater were jagged, and Conner had no desire to get any closer.
Riley was tightening the straps on his rucksack. “We escaped the initial radiation because of the shielding of the reactor room. Residual is already up in the atmosphere and will follow the winds. We’re all right.” Finished with his pack, Riley checked the others, making sure they were ready to go.
Go where was the key question, Conner realized. She’d been so happy to make it out of that dark hole that she’d thought of little else. Now, with the wind lashing her face and the cold seeping into her bones, she wondered what the plan was.
Riley handed her a small backpack. “Let’s see if the plane might have escaped the blast.” He pointed at the white fog on the other side of the crater. “We’ll walk around.”
“But none of us can fly,” Devlin protested.
“I’m not thinking of flying,” Riley replied. “I want to see if the radio is still intact. It’s most likely the EMP has destroyed its circuits, but it’s worth taking a look.” He glanced at the three of them. “Are you ready?”
With two nods of agreement and a blank look from Devlin, they set out. It took fifteen minutes to circumnavigate the crater with a good two hundred yards of safety margin. Conner was surprised at how easy it was to walk on the ice. A thin layer of snow covered the ice cap, and she felt as though she was just sliding along, the brittle snow barely covering the toes of her boots. The problem was the wind and the snow that blew with it. She had to keep her head bowed and the hood of the parka pulled in close. She was walking like that when she bumped into Riley’s back.
“Shit,” he was saying. “They blew the goddamn plane. Either that or the bomb blast did this. Either way it doesn’t matter.”
Conner lifted the edge of her hood. There was little to indicate that a plane had been here. Scattered pieces of metal littered the ice.
“Where now?” she asked.
Riley didn’t say a word; it was Devlin who answered. ‘The nearest base is Russkaya, about seventy miles to the northeast.”
“Let’s get going, then,” Conner said.
“No.” At first Conner didn’t believe her ears. But Riley repeated himself, turning to face the three of them. “No. We go after them.”
“After who?” Devlin asked, but Conner already knew the answer.
“The Koreans.”
“But how?” Conner asked. “We don’t know which way they’ve gone.”
Riley considered that for a few seconds. Conner wondered what thoughts were running through his head. His advice and actions so far were the reason they were still alive. Whatever he was going to say, they owed it to him to listen.
“They’re heading for the coast,” Riley finally answered.
“How do you know that?” Conner asked.
“Because it’s their only option. They couldn’t have landed a plane in that storm.” He pointed at the ground. “And that’s the direction their tracks go.”
Conner turned and saw the tread marks leading off to the north.
“But they’re probably very far ahead of us,” Devlin protested. “And they’ve got a vehicle.”
Riley agreed. “They must have taken one or two of the over-snow vehicles from the storage shed. They’re certainly not pulling that bomb with manpower. They have a big head start and are moving much faster than we can on foot. Nevertheless, we need to go after them.”
“What do you mean ‘need’?” Devlin asked.
Conner found it interesting that Riley and Devlin now seemed to have switched camps. She was uncertain about her own feelings. She was so happy simply to have survived that she found it hard to focus on the future.
“They’ve already shown they are willing to use the bomb. We have to assume they have the other one. It’s up to us to stop them.” Riley was resolute.
“You didn’t want to stop them before!” Devlin shouted. “Maybe none of this would have happened if you’d listened to me.”
“We couldn’t do anything before,” Riley said. “I miscalculated — I didn’t think they’d use one of the bombs here, and I didn’t think they could get away. Now that I know they actually have a chance of getting away, I have to do everything I can to try and stop them.”
Devlin turned away. He seemed defeated. Riley looked steadily at Conner. “How do you feel? The three of you could stay here. The weather seems a little better. I’m sure there’ll be someone flying out here in the next twenty-four hours.”
Conner felt like curling up in a little ball and blocking this whole crazy week out of her life, but she knew that wasn’t possible. Reality was here in the form of a chilling wind and a gaping crater in the ice. This was not the time or place to stand around debating things. Besides, it was not in her nature to stay behind and wait.
Sammy had been listening quietly to the conversation and now she stepped to Riley’s side. “I’m with you.”
Devlin waved his arms, gesturing at the terrain around them. “It’s crazy. We could pass a quarter mile away from them and miss them. And what will we do if we find them?”
“We stop them,” Riley answered, slinging the rifle over his shoulder.
Devlin looked into Conner’s eyes. “I say we stay here. If we go wandering around on the ice cap, we might never make it out alive, whether we run into the Koreans or not. The blast had to be picked up. People will come to investigate once the weather clears.”
Riley put on his pack. “Make your decision now.”
“Conner, please stay here,” Devlin pleaded.
Conner picked up her pack. What Riley had said down in the reactor was right. She had helped cause all this. She looked at her sister, then at Devlin. “We need to try, Devlin.”
Devlin reluctantly shouldered his pack.
Riley’s voice was flat. “All right. We go after them. But you three have to listen to me and do what I say without asking questions. This is my area of expertise.”
They all nodded.
Riley pointed. “This way.” With long strides he was off into the blowing snow, Sammy at his side, Conner and Devlin falling in behind.
Chapter 26
General Morris rubbed his forehead as Hodges came into the situation room. His conversation with the president had not gone well. The secretary of defense was on his way back from the West Coast to take over the operation, but in the meantime the monkey was on Morris’s back.
“What is it?” he demanded as Hodges took a seat across from him. He was trying not to slay the bearer again, but it was difficult.
“We have the serial numbers on the two bombs, sir. They were on the aircraft carrier Enterprise in 1970. Both bombs were loaded on the wings of an A-7 Corsair, which was lost overboard during a typhoon and never recovered.”
Morris felt the pounding in his head grow stronger. “Where?”
“In the Pacific, to the east of the Philippines.”