38

Nothing happened.

Hawk exhaled in a rush. “Tony, check the clock.”

“It’s stopped.”

Annja stepped away from the bomb. “Did we do it?”

Hawk nodded. “Sure looks that way.”

Don pointed. “Holy shit, was that close. Look at the clock.”

Annja peered at the digital readout display and saw that there were eight seconds left on the countdown. “Oh, my God,” she said weakly.

Hawk smiled. “Better early than late, I guess.” He looked at Annja. “Thanks for your help. And I’m sorry that no one believed you earlier about killing Colonel Thomson.”

“Forget it. I’m just glad that we were able to stop the detonation.” Annja pointed at the piles of explosives. “But what happens now? Is it safe to just leave this stuff here?”

Hawk frowned. “I didn’t even think about that. I mean, I suppose we could stay—”

“No, you can’t. They stole the generator. That’s what this whole thing was about. There’s no power left in camp. No lights, no heat. You’d never survive out here,” Annja said.

Hawk frowned. “I thought this whole mission was to uncover relics that might have been from another planet.”

“That’s what we all thought,” Annja said. “But it was all a setup to get their hands on the latest technology from the government and then sell it on the black market to anyone with the right amount of cash.”

“And there’d be plenty of people willing to play a lot of money for that, as well,” Tony said. “Non-nuclear powers in particular. Cripes, can you imagine what that would do? They’d have the ability to make more of them and become a nuclear power.”

Annja nodded. “We know they’re on their way back to McMurdo. Major Braden is tracking them and we hope to stop them before they get away with it.”

Hawk stood. “In that case, we’d better get going. I don’t think there’s much chance of someone coming by and stumbling on a huge cache of explosives, especially since the generator is gone.”

Annja led the way. “There’s one Sno-Cat left. It won’t be comfortable, but it will get us all back to McMurdo.”

Hawk nodded. “Well, let’s get back on the hunt for those guys. I don’t want to hear about some place like the Sudan getting their hands on a nuclear generator just because we were too busy defusing a bomb.”

Annja led them out of the cavern and back up the tunnel. “You sure the explosives will be okay?”

Hawk nodded. “As soon as we can get another team mounted, we’ll come back and retrieve them. That way, there won’t be any danger to anyone. But for now, I think the priority is getting back to McMurdo.”

They walked back up the tunnel and out of the shelter. Annja pointed at the Sno-Cat sitting by the parking area. Its engine was already idling and the wipers kept the snow from collecting on the windshield.

Garin must have left it running, Annja thought. That was optimistic.

Hawk and his men climbed in and then Annja climbed into the shotgun seat. As soon as she got the door closed, Hawk put the gear into Drive and the Sno-Cat ground its way out of the parking area. In no time, they were leaving the camp behind.

Annja keyed the radio. “Major Braden, come in, please.”

She heard nothing but static. Outside, the wind was blowing even harder, kicking up fearsome snow squalls and drifting snow.

Hawk pointed. “Look at that storm. You may not get any kind of transmission right now.”

“You think the other Sno-Cats are okay?” she asked.

He nodded. “The GPS units will work regardless. They should be fine with finding their way back to McMurdo. It’s just a question of how long it will take us to get there. These things max out at about twenty-five miles per hour. And you can bet the bad guys are pushing the pedal to the metal right now.”

“But,” Annja said, “they’re weighed down with the generator. There’s a chance we might overtake them. Or rather, Major Braden might overtake them.”

“Possibly,” Hawk said. “I wouldn’t count on it, though. I think the best thing to do is get back and try to catch them before they leave McMurdo.”

Snow pounded the windshield, and Hawk switched the wipers on to full force. “We’re driving right into the brunt of the storm now,” he said. “It’s going to be tough going from here on out.”

Annja glanced back at Tony and Don. “Did you guys happen to bring any weapons with you?”

Tony smiled. “What, like maybe large broadswords?”

Annja frowned. “Funny.”

Tony smiled. “We have pistols. That’s it.”

“It’ll have to be enough,” Annja said. “You’re going to need them because these guys we’re going after are not going to play nice when we catch up with them.”

“There’s something else,” Hawk said.

“What?”

“They may not be alone, either. They might have a whole bunch of friends there just waiting to help them smuggle that generator off the continent.”

No one said anything for a moment.

And then Annja cleared her throat. “We’ll have to take it as it comes. And if there are other people, we’ll have to deal with them, too.”