Ice Station - Matthew Reilly [22]
Schofield’s eyes widened when he saw it and he opened his mouth to shout, but it was too late.
In the dining room, Petard dived for the two white containers, just as Latissier – who hadn’t been patted down since he had been at the station when the Marines had arrived – threw open his parka, revealing a short-barrelled, French-made FA-MAS assault rifle. At the same time, the one named Cuvier pulled both of his hands free of his pockets, revealing two models of the same weapon that Gant now had in her hand. Cuvier immediately fired one of them at Gant just as she turned to face him and Schofield saw her head snap backwards with the impact as she fell to the floor.
Deafening gunfire exploded through the silence as Latissier jammed his finger down on the trigger of his assault rifle and sprayed the dining room with a blanket of suppressing fire. His arc of gunfire cut through the air like a scythe, and it practically ripped Augustine Lau in two.
Latissier didn’t let go for a full ten seconds and the sustained burst of machine-gun fire caused everybody else to hit the deck.
Wilkes Ice Station had become a battlefield.
And everything went to hell.
SECOND INCURSION
16 June 0930 hours
‘This is Scarecrow! This is Scarecrow!’ Schofield yelled into his helmet mike as he ducked into a doorway amid the cacophony of gunfire. ‘I count eight hostiles! I repeat, eight hostile objects! I call it as six military, two civilians. Civilians are probably concealing weapons for use by the commandos. Marines, do not show prejudice!’
Chunks of ice rained down all around him as Latissier’s stream of bullets impacted against the ice wall above him.
It was the sight of the crossbow that did it.
Each of the elite military units of the world has its own characteristic weapon. For the United States Navy SEALs, experts in close-quarter combat, it is the Ruger pump-action, 12-gauge shotgun. For the British Special Air Service – the famous SAS – nitrogen charges are the signature weapon. For US Marine Force Reconnaissance Units – the elite of the regular United States Marine Corps – it is the Armalite MH-12 Maghook, a grappling hook which also contains a high-powered magnet for adhesion to sheer, metallic surfaces.
Only one elite force, however, is known for carrying crossbows.
The Premier Régiment Parachutiste d’Infanterie de Marine, the crack French commando unit – known in English as the First Marine Parachute Regiment. It is the French equivalent of the SAS or the SEALs.
Which is to say that it is not a regular force like, for example, the Marines. It is one step higher. It is an offensive unit, an attack team, an elite, covert force that exists for one reason and one reason only: to go in first, and to go in fast, and to kill everything in sight.
Which was why, when Schofield saw Gant lift the small, hand-held crossbow from inside the food can, he knew that these men were not scientists from d’Urville. They were soldiers. Elite soldiers.
Cleverly, they had anticipated that he would know the names of all the scientists at d’Urville, so they had appropriated their names. To add to the illusion, they had also brought with them two actual scientists from the French research station – Luc Champion and Henri Rae – people whom the residents of Wilkes would know personally.
The final touch was probably the best touch of all: they had allowed Luc Champion, one of the civilians, to take the lead when the Marines had arrived at Wilkes Ice Station, bolstering the illusion that they were all merely scientists, following the lead of their superior.
That the French had taken five of the residents of Wilkes Ice Station – innocent civilians – out on a hovercraft under the pretence that they were being taken back to safety, and then executed them in the middle of the snow plains, made Schofield furious. In a detached