Ice Station - Matthew Reilly [34]
The women’s shower block was situated in between the outer tunnel and the central shaft, in the north-eastern corner of B-deck. It had three doors: one leading to the north tunnel, one leading to the outer tunnel and one leading to the men’s shower room next door.
More sounds echoed out from the men’s shower room.
The sounds of French soldiers kicking open cubicle doors, looking for anyone who had attempted to hide in the cubicles.
Sarah pulled Kirsty toward the door that led to the north tunnel. ‘Come on, honey, keep moving.’
Sarah looked back over her shoulder.
Beyond the row of six shower recesses, she could see the top quarter of the door that led to the men’s shower room.
It was still closed.
The French soldiers would be coming through that door any second now.
Sarah reached the door leading out to the north tunnel and grabbed the handle.
She hesitated. There was no way of knowing what lay on the other side.
‘Sarah! What are you doing? Come on,’ Warren Conlon said in a desperate, hissing whisper. Tall and thin, he was a timid man, nervous at the best of times. Now he was positively terrified.
‘Okay, okay,’ Sarah said. She began to turn the handle.
There was a loud bang as the door to the men’s shower room suddenly burst open behind them.
‘Go!’ Conlon yelled.
Sarah threw open the door and, pulling Kirsty with her, charged out into the north tunnel.
She hadn’t gone more than a couple of steps when she stopped dead in her tracks –
– and found herself looking into the eyes of a man with a gun pointed right at her head.
The man cocked his head to one side and shook his head. ‘Jesus.’ He lowered his gun.
‘It’s okay, it’s okay,’ Buck Riley said as he ran up to Sarah and Kirsty. ‘You scared the shit out of me, but it’s okay.’
Abby Sinclair and Warren Conlon joined them out in the tunnel, slamming the door shut behind them.
‘They in there?’ Riley asked, nodding at the women’s shower block.
‘Yeah,’ Sarah said.
‘Are the others okay?’ Warren Conlon asked stupidly.
‘I don’t think they’ll be leaving their rooms again in a hurry,’ Riley said as he scanned the tunnel behind him. Automatic gunfire echoed out from the outer tunnel. As Riley looked behind him, Sarah noticed a thin line of blood trickling out from a large cut on his right ear. Riley himself didn’t seem to notice it. The earpiece that he had in that ear had a jagged sliver of metal lodged in it.
‘We may have a slight problem,’ Riley said, as his eyes searched the tunnel around them. ‘I’ve lost contact with the rest of my team. My radio gear got hit by some ricocheting fragments before, so I’m off the air. I can’t hear the others and they can’t hear me.’
Riley snapped round and looked the other way, out over Sarah’s head, toward that end of the tunnel that led to the catwalks and the massive shaft in the centre of the station.
‘Come with me,’ was all he said as he brushed past Sarah and led the way toward the central well of Wilkes Ice Station.
‘Book!’ Schofield whispered into his helmet mike, as he kept his eyes locked on the western tunnel of B-deck. ‘Book! Where are you? God damn it.’
‘No Book?’ Gant asked.
‘Not yet,’ Schofield said. He and Gant were still crouched in their alcove on C-deck, on the eastern side of the station. They were waiting tensely for Rebound, Mother and Legs to come out from the western tunnel of B-deck.
Rebound emerged first. Quickly but cautiously, gun up, eyes looking down his gunsights, sweeping his MP-5 in a brisk 180-degree arc, searching for any sign of trouble.
As soon as he saw Rebound emerge, Schofield immediately opened fire on A-deck, forcing whoever was up there to take cover. Gant came up five seconds later and did the same.
Schofield pulled back behind the alcove’s wall to reload. As he did so, he watched as Gant fired off three short bursts.
It was then that he saw something strange happen.
The yellow tongue of fire that flashed out from the