Ice Station - Matthew Reilly [148]
Schofield jumped down off the diving bell and landed with a loud clang on E-deck. He breathed a hidden sigh of relief when the SAS commandos released the diving bell and let it float back out into the centre of the pool. They hadn’t seen Renshaw.
Then two big SAS commandos grabbed Schofield roughly, pinned his arms behind his back and slapped a pair of handcuffs around his wrists. Another SAS soldier frisked Schofield thoroughly and pulled the nitrogen charge out of his pocket. He also took Schofield’s Maghook.
Trevor Barnaby came over. ‘So, Scarecrow. At last we meet. It’s good to see you again.’
Schofield said nothing. He noticed that Barnaby was wearing a black thermal wetsuit.
He’s planning on sending another team down to the cave, Schofield thought, with himself included.
‘You’ve been watching us from the diving bell, haven’t you,’ Barnaby said, grinning. ‘But so, too, have we been watching you.’ Barnaby smiled as he indicated a small grey unit mounted on the edge of the pool. It looked like a camera of some sort, pointed down into the water.
‘One never leaves any flank unguarded,’ Barnaby said. ‘You of all people should know that.’
Schofield said nothing.
Barnaby began to pace. ‘You know, when I was told that you were leading the American protective force on this mission, I’d hoped that we might get a chance to meet. But then, when I arrived, you flew the coop.’ Barnaby stopped his pacing. ‘And then I heard that you were last seen flying off a cliff in a hovercraft and suddenly I was sure we wouldn’t be meeting.’
Schofield said nothing.
‘But now, well,’ Barnaby shook his head, ‘I’m so glad I was wrong. What a pleasure it is to see you again. It’s really quite a shame that we have to meet in these circumstances.’
‘Why is that?’ Schofield said, speaking for the first time.
‘Because it means that one of us has to die.’
‘My sympathies to your family,’ Schofield said.
‘Aha!’ Barnaby said. ‘Some fight. I like that. That’s what I always liked about you, Scarecrow. You’ve got fight in you. You may not be the greatest strategic commander in the world, but you’re a damned determined son of a bitch. If you don’t pick up something right away, you knuckle down and learn it. And if you find yourself on the back foot, you never give up. You can’t buy that sort of courage these days.’
Schofield said nothing.
‘Take heart, Scarecrow. Truth be told, you never could have won this crusade. You were hobbled from the start. Your own men weren’t even loyal to you.’
Barnaby turned to look at Snake Kaplan on the far side of the pool. Schofield turned to look, too.
‘You’d like to kill him, wouldn’t you,’ Barnaby said, staring at Snake.
Schofield said nothing.
Barnaby turned, his eyes narrowing. ‘You would, wouldn’t you?’
Schofield remained silent.
Barnaby seemed to think about something for a moment. When he turned back to face Schofield, he had a glint in his eye.
‘You know what,’ he said. ‘I’m going to give you the chance to do exactly that. A sporting chance, of course, but a chance nonetheless.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Well, since I’m going to kill you both anyway, I figure I might as well leave it up to the two of you to decide who gets fed to the lions and who dies on his feet.’
Schofield frowned for a second, not understanding, and then he looked back at the pool. He saw the high black dorsal fin of one of the killer whales cut through the water toward him.
The killers were back.
‘Unlock him,’ Barnaby called to the SAS soldiers guarding Snake. ‘Gentlemen, to the drilling room.’
With his hands cuffed firmly behind his back, Schofield was led down the southern tunnel of E-deck. As he walked past the storeroom, he stole a quick glance inside it.
The storeroom was empty.
Mother was gone.
But Barnaby hadn’t said anything about Mother before. . .
They hadn’t found her.
The SAS men marched Schofield down the long narrow corridor and shoved him into the drilling room. Schofield stumbled inside and spun around.
Snake was shoved into the drilling room a couple of seconds later.