She reached out and patted his cheek. “My hero.” Hammet winced. The right side of his face was red like he’d been punched. That’s when Zahra remembered that she had kicked Hammet in the face while climbing up inside the conning tower.
“Sorry,” she said, cringing. She looked back down at the water. “Next round’s on me.”
The corner of his face curled upward. “I’ll remember you said that.” He flicked his eyes up. “After you.”
Zahra shook her head. “No, you go. I… I need a minute.”
Hammet nodded and started his ascent, leaving the winded archaeologist alone with her thoughts, her fried nerves, and the frigid, though refreshing, Southern Ocean breeze.
Two sets of hands greeted Zahra when she reached the clifftop. Yana and Hammet almost greedily pulled her up and away from it. They each looked her over before relaxing. Everyone had survived wholly unscathed, minus Hammet’s quickly developing shiner.
“What happened to you?” Kyle asked, joining them. He was studying the German’s face.
“She kicked me,” Hammet replied, tipping his chin toward Zahra.
“You kicked him in the face?” Kyle asked. Yana snickered, and no one explained. Kyle shrugged, letting it go. “Find anything?”
“Yeah, we did,” Zahra replied.
“Care to divulge?” Kyle asked, folding his arms across his chest.
Zahra looked past him, finding multiple sets of eyes from the research team watching them. “Not in front of mixed company, no.”
Kyle led them further away from the others. “What did you find?” he asked, keeping his voice low.
“This,” Zahra replied. She dug into her coat pocket and produced the Sixth Seal communique. “It’s not good.”
“That’s putting it lightly,” Yana added. Even the stoic Russian looked outwardly disturbed by the presence of the paper.
Kyle glanced at Hammet. He gave the American pilot a simple nod.
Kyle didn’t accept the evidence. “Keep it. Let’s wait until we’re back in the Sno-Cat. I have a feeling we’ll have a lot to talk about on our drive back to the plane.”
Zahra and Kyle gazed back toward the coastline from outside their parked Sno-Cat. They had just returned to the LC-130. Kyle had debriefed her, Yana, and Hammet the entire time. No stone had been left unturned. He now knew as much as they did.
During the return trip, they had also gone over what to do next and what all of this could mean on a grander scale.
“There’s a lot to digest, huh?” Kyle asked.
Zahra nodded. “For sure. Do you think these guys really are still active?”
Kyle turned away from the pristine landscape and faced her. “Based on what you found in the sub and what happened to you in Chile, it sure sounds like it.”
“I was afraid of that.” Zahra still couldn’t believe it. “A secret society pulling the strings from both sides during World War Two. I—”
“Don’t believe it?”
Zahra scratched her head through her stocking hat. “Oh, no, I do, and that’s what scares me the most.”
Kyle placed a hand on her shoulder. “Come on. Let’s get on board and out of the cold. Then we can figure out the next move.”
Zahra nodded. She followed the Skibird’s captain up the loading ramp and glanced south, looking out toward the mass of Antarctica. She was amazed by it — the fact that she was even here was a treat. How many people can say they’ve been here before?
She turned away but paused.
Zahra stepped south, seeing something odd. A foursome of snowy rooster tails kicked up in the distance … and each one of them was headed straight for them.
Zahra continued up the ramp and slipped. The incidental change in her gait saved her life. The telltale sound of a bullet whizzing by her head caused her to dive to the ramp; then she rolled off it. Now, the entire plane was buffeted by gunfire.
“Get to cover!” Kyle shouted.
There were still people outside, gathering gear. Hammet was helping Ethan unload the second Sno-Cat. Both men were a good thirty feet from the base of the ramp, and there was nothing to hide behind between them and the plane. As soon as Zahra hit the ground, she rolled backward into cover behind the LC-130’s rear landing ski.
Technically, Zahra was unarmed.
But not for long.
Zahra shrugged out of her pack and quickly unzipped it. She dove inside and pulled out her most trusted survival tool. It was also something she’d used as a weapon several times.
A few years back, an old friend, a former DARPA engineer, designed a custom grappling hook for her. Zahra’s was spring-loaded and could hold her weight. After, the clawed head would release and collapse. It helped mightily with the retrieval process. Most hooks were of the one-and-done variety. But not hers.
She buckled it to her belt and left the backpack behind. Zahra checked her immediate surroundings. Then she spied Hammet and Ethan. The two men were gone. But where? She was certain they hadn’t made a mad dash for the plane. She would have heard them. Her only guess was that they had taken refuge inside the Sno-Cat.
