water. Rogov walked cautiously to the edge and peered down.
No gradual sloping of land into sea as there would be on a continent,
he thought. Just a sheer, dark plunge into the depths. He could see the
ice go straight down for perhaps six feet, and then it was lost in the inky
blackness of the Pacific Ocean. He stepped away from the edge, suddenly
conscious of how very tenuously a layer of solidified water overlay the
volcanic base of the island, separating them from its more liquid
counterpart. A few degrees warmer, and half of the island would melt back
into its original state.
“Sir, come on,” the Spetsnaz leader insisted. He grabbed Rogov’s arm
just above the elbow and pulled the colonel away from the edge of the ice.
“The camp’s just up ahead. This cold–it’s deceptive, Comrade Colonel.
You don’t know you’re freezing to death until it’s too late.”
Rogov ignored the man for a moment, long enough to make a point. Then
he turned and followed the five figures, almost invisible against the
island in their white Arctic suits. It was easier to track the yellow raft
they hauled behind them than to focus on the commandos directly. His feet
crunched a small layer of fresh snow that skittered across the hard-packed
ice. Ice crystals stung his eyes, driven at him by the winds now reaching
gale force. He reached into one pocket of his parka with a glove-covered
hand and withdrew a set of goggles. If the Spetsnaz commander hadn’t
suggested he put them on earlier, he would have, but it was imperative that
he show no sign of weakness in front of these men. If they knew what was
planned … he let his thoughts slide away from that and focused on the
island of yellow ahead of him.
Ten minutes later, they reached a towering mass of ice, A wooden frame
was set into it, a blank wall of timber hauled at impossible-to-estimate
cost to this deserted spot. A steel door was centered in the dark wood
wall.
He saw the Spetsnaz commander watching him carefully. He strode
forward, put one gloved hand on the wooden bar set crosswise in the two
U-shaped supports, and lifted it out. The door unbarred, he tugged it
open. The interior of the structure was pitch-black.
Rogov turned to the Spetsnaz commander. “Get some light in there.”
The man nodded, looking faintly disappointed, as though he had
expected Rogov to show some signs of fear now that they were alone on the
forsaken island. He motioned sharply to one of his subordinates, who
produced a flashlight. “We’ll get this generator started immediately,
Comrade Colonel. The batteries are probably completely drained, especially
in this weather. We need to run the generator for three hours a day to
keep the batteries charged. Unless we make some extraordinary energy
expenditures, that will be enough to keep the life support functioning.”
Rogov stepped inside the structure, following the man with the
flashlight. He gazed upward. A thick continuous sheet of heavy plastic
was bolted to the overhead, a thin layer of insulation between the
occupants of the cavern and the massive mountain of ice overhead.
“Ingenious,” he murmured. He’d studied the pictures, the mission
briefings, but the actuality of this impressive engineering accomplishment
could hardly be conveyed in the dry technical words of the science teams
who had been there before them. The world’s best insulation against
cold–ice.
The Spetsnaz commander said, “It warms up some once we get the heater
started, but not very much. We can’t risk too high a temperature. The
plastic keeps the overhead from dripping on us, but if too much of it
melts, it will cool down on the deck and start refreezing around our feet.”
“Comfort is the least of our concerns while we’re here,” Rogov said.
“There are supplies for how many days stored here?”
“Two weeks.” For the first time, the Spetsnaz commander looked at him
uncertainly. “Will it be much longer than that, do you think?”
“When you need to know, Comrade Commander, I will tell you,” Rogov
snapped. “I suggest you concentrate on getting this camp fully operational
as quickly as possible. Perhaps the memory of two weeks of rations will