Hunt Beyond the Frozen Fire

Chapter 28

When he regained consciousness, he was in a cramped chamber along with Rue, Millie, the two dozen women, and two bearded scientists who kept looking around them with incredulous expressions.

“You mind telling us who the hell you-all are?” the older of the two scientists asked, his voice laced with a tawny Tarheel accent.

Gabriel tried to sit up on the army cot on which he’d been laid out. He gave up after a few attempts.

“That a Nazi plane you were flying?” the younger one said.

“Yes,” Gabriel said, his voice hoarse. “It’s a long story.”

“Well, that’s fine with us,” the older scientist said. “We’ve got all the time in the world, don’t we?” And the younger one chuckled and nodded, as though at an inside joke.

“What are you talking about? Where are we?” Gabriel turned his head painfully to look out the frost-coated window on his left and saw just a razor sliver of orange sun hovering above the distant horizon.

“You’re at the South Pole, son,” the older scientist said. “Pole Station. We saw the fire from your engines and went out to haul you in. You know, we don’t normally get a lot of visitors dropping in out here. Specially not lovely young women dressed in scraps of fur and nothing else.”

“In a Nazi plane,” the younger one muttered. It seemed to be the point he was fixated on.

“Although if we did,” the older one went on, “we might not have such a problem getting staff to sign up for winter-over.”

“Winter-over?” Rue said, suddenly alert. “When’s the last flight out?”

“About two and a half hours ago,” the older scientist said. “There won’t be another flight in or out of here for six months.”

Everyone fell silent.

“So, you see,” the older one said, “we have plenty of time to listen to a long story.”

“What the hell are we supposed to do up here for six months?” Millie said, then checked himself. Gabriel saw him looking at the crowd of women around him. “You think they’ll still expect me to…?”

“To do your duty by them,” Gabriel said. “I don’t see why not.”

Rue caught Gabriel’s gaze and shook her head slowly. “Just so long as you remember where your duty lies,” she said. “You and me, we’ve got a little matter of a death wish to explore.”

“Excuse me?” the younger scientist said.

Gabriel closed his eyes.

It was going to be an interesting six months.