“Help me pull these cabinets away.” The two women struggled but slid the cabinets away. Crutch leaned down and picked up the papers along with three photographs. She looked at them and smiled.
“Well Tosser, you can fuck me sideways, these will do nicely.” She placed them in a sample bag. They spent another hour collecting samples and more documents from what must have been an office near the rear of the room. Crutch looked to her companion.
“Let’s do a walk through and take anything of interest.” They spent time carefully checking the rooms. Anupa was chilled to the bone. It was time to leave, they’d picked up anything of use and the instruments would record the radiation levels.
“Let’s go outside, we’ll walk a little further along the bay. Take a look for any further installations.” The two of them left and walked into the howling icy wind along the shoreline. It seemed they’d walked many hundreds of yards along the shore. There was nothing man-made or unusual. Anupa thought about their next move, it would be either set up the tent and wait until morning or try to make their way out now. Up there on the ice field where they’d been dropped off, it would be dark soon. But tomorrow it would be a whiteout or low cloud, either way very low visibility. She decided to go for it. She took out the handheld radio.
“Montrose Air from Crutch come in over.” Nothing. She waited and tried again. “Montrose Air from Crutch come in over.”
“Crutch from Montrose Air provide sitrep over.”
“Montrose Air we are both ok. Request exfil over.”
“Copy Crutch. Wait one.” A few minutes later the radio sparked into life with a burst of static.
“Crutch, we confirm your exfil. Can you make WP1? Over.”
“We will make our way to WP1. I can’t tell you when, over.”
“Copy Crutch. Contact us when at exfil position.”
“Copy Montrose. We are on our way.” The two of them took off the NBC suits gloves and overboots; they were placed in a bag in Tosser’s backpack.
“Ok, let’s be off out of here. The two of them walked back to around the place they’d descended to the shoreline and replaced their skis and climbed the banking. The two of them climbed up and onto the snowfield. The wind was cutting, wild and fierce. Anupa took out her portable GPS, she noted the direction to WP1 and set off.
“Wait Crutch.” Tosser had taken out her buddy line, she clipped on to her colleague and together now roped up they made their way through the raging whiteout. The two walked onwards their skis herringbone style to walk up the incline to the crest of the ice field. Crutch checked the GPS from time to time, onward, onward through the blasting white wind. It was lean left, push. Lean right, push. Lean left, push. Lean right, push. She was cold now, very cold and exhausted, she knew that Tosser would be the same. It seemed forever that they’d been walking now. Crutch checked the GPS a quarter of a mile to go. Every yard was now an effort, the two of them were cold and exhausted. Lean left, push. Lean right, push. Lean left, push. Lean right, push. Anupa knew they just couldn’t keep this up. She took out her radio. “Montrose Air from Crutch come in over.” Nothing. “Montrose Air from Crutch come in over.” Crutch waited several minutes. “Montrose Air from Crutch come in over.” What the hell was going on. She looked at the small LCD screen and pressed diagnostic. The small screen told her to wait. It then read ERR. Oh no, she thought. She tried again. ERR.
“Montrose Air from Crutch come in over.” Nothing. She really didn’t want to do this, but they’d have to wait it out. It was against her nature, she wanted to press on and try. As much as she wanted to press on, she knew there was only so much you could do.
“The radio’s buggered. I’m setting the tent up. They pulled out the tent from her backpack and started to set it up. The wind fought them hard. The tent flapped hard in the wind. It tried it’s best to rip itself from their grasp. Eventually they had it set up, it was a poor attempt at shelter, but it would provide some protection. The two of them climbed into the tent and got fully clothed into their bivvy bags. Crutch and Tosser were both now exhausted. Anupa pulled the bag around herself as best she could. They’d have to wait until the morning. She knew they were in deep trouble but all they could do was wait. If this is the end, what a place to be. Why this? Why had it come to this? To die in a frozen hell.
THE CAPTAIN WAS OUT doing his rounds of the ship. Leon caught him on the hanger deck.
“Sir, we haven’t heard anything from them. They must be well up onto the snowfield by now. The temperature and wind speed are a nightmare. They’ve got hours on there, that’s all.”
“You may be right about their location Lieutenant Commander Leon. It must be awful out on there,” said Captain Jacques.
“You’ve tried radio I assume?”
“Yes Sir, we got nothing. Either they’re in worse shape than we think or the radio’s down. With your permission, I’d like to attempt a rescue.”
“What did you have in mind?”
The Captain listened, he had reservations, but he knew the two of them would be in bad shape.
His mission was to infil the two SIS operators. He knew that his first consideration was the welfare of his ship and her crew. Montrose was HMS Montrose, and that meant Her Majesty’s Ship. Her Majesty’s government had tasked her with the infil and the exfil of the two operators.
It was a tough choice. It would be very risky. his own crew would be in peril.
Chapter 4
CRUTCH SHIVERED, SHE could feel Tosser doing the same, she snuggled up closer. She knew they were in real trouble now. She was falling asleep, or was it sleep? Was this what it was like to freeze to death. Through the tent wall, she caught sight of a flash. Yes, this was it, a frozen death. She’d heard that your brain played tricks on you with light as you neared the end. There it was again another flash, this one lingered. Your brain shutting down, lights, it’s an odd experience. She heard a noise, a rhythmic beat, getting louder. That’s it. She knew what it was.
“Tosser. Get out of your bag now,”
“What? Why?” Crutch got out and opened her breast pocket, she took out her flares. She could hear it now passing overhead, a helicopter. She pulled the tab and threw the flare. It landed burned and hissed. A flare from up above landed twenty yards away. She threw two more. Tosser joined in and threw two of hers. The sound of a helicopter filled their ears and the whiteout swirled intensely.
Soon a man approached in a survival suit and helmet. She heard the smile in his voice.
“Crutch and Tosser I assume? We picked up your tent’s EPIRB beacon. Would you two ladies like a lift back to the ship?”
“Thank God,” said Tosser.
“Yes, we would,” said Crutch, “I could do with a brew.”
“THANKS.” ANUPA SLID the grilled chicken wings towards her. She was with a few colleagues from work. They’d chosen Kolapata in Whitechapel for the evening meal.
The waiter smiled at her.
“Apani ekhane kachakachi basa na?” Anupa shook her head at him.
“Ami banlaya katha na.”
“What was all that about?” asked Silk Purse.
“He was trying it on. Wanted to know if I live around here.”
“He’s not bad actually.”