Operation Orion - Kevin Dockery [57]
“I’ve already booked my cruise out of here, sir,” Harris replied with a grin. “I’m thinking Aruba or Barbados.”
The levity overlooked the fact, still at the forefront of Jackson’s mind, that they had two disabled drop boats and no way to get a signal through the electronic clutter to let the crew of the Pegasus know that they were alive, much less what their position or situation was. He saw that the men were ready, standing around at ease. The officer knew that even in their climate-controlled pressure suits, they would need to find some sort of shelter before long, preferably an installation that would give them a chance to send a message out of there. There was no point wasting time.
“All right, Team. Move out, standard file. Everybody keep your eyes open. We want to find wherever it is these…” He searched his mind, seeking the right word, and finally settled on Teal’s suggestion. “Yetis call home.”
“A yeti,” Sanders repeated with an appreciative whistle. “Aye, aye, sir. We finally discovered the Abominable Snowman, and he’s armed and dangerous.”
Once again the two scouts went first, Marannis preceding Sanchez for a time. The rest of the men fell into single file, taking advantage of the trough in the snow created by the passage of the leader.
All the men stayed alert, weapon safeties off, fingers on or near the triggers. The five sailors alternated pulling Zimmer’s body along like a makeshift sled, two at a time bearing the load. Harris, as usual, acted as rear guard. Leaving the immediate foreground to the point men, the trailing SEALS scoured the heights to either side, continually looking for any anomalous marring of the snow or other indication of unfriendly observers.
Not that the environment wasn’t unfriendly enough. Jackson studied the pillars of rock, the two prominences that flanked their forward path. They were so steep that snow couldn’t collect on the precipitous faces. Instead, he saw surfaces of rock so dark that they were almost black. The pale light from the distant star illuminated enough that he could make out numerous shelves of vaguely luminous ice draped like beards from ledges and cracks in the irregular surface. Some of the gaps were chimneys extending hundreds of feet up the cliff; others were dark and menacing, suggesting anything from shallow niches to caves extending deep into the icebound rock.
Mindful of the need to conserve his battery power, he nevertheless flipped on the IR detector for a few minutes. The environment immediately darkened, but he carefully scanned first the right and then the left cliff, seeking any sign of warmth, anything that didn’t belong in the frigid icescape. He was only moderately relieved when he couldn’t pick up any sign—he remembered how thoroughly the yetis had concealed themselves before springing the ambush.
Switching off the IR screen, he saw the gray-filtered landscape as it really was, watching as the Team moved through the gap without incident. Beyond, the slope dropped steeply away into the deepest valley they had encountered on this ice-encrusted moon. The far side was a virtual wall of cliff formed by the same black rock as the two pillars they had just traversed. Even in the dim light he could see several klicks to the right and left, and in neither direction did he see any sign of possible egress if they continued straight ahead.
Not that that was the most important thing. Looking down the slope before him, he saw that Marannis already was curling to the left, still on the tracks of the fleeing yetis. The SEALS was glissading on his sturdy boots, using them almost like skis to move through the deep powder, kicking up a plume that swiftly was swept away by the scouring wind. Sanchez remained a hundred meters behind the point man, his G15 held at the ready, keen eyes searching the surroundings for any sign of danger.
A few seconds later Marannis dropped into the snow to take up the watch position. His ghillie cloak blended with the snow so perfectly that if Jackson had not seen where he had stopped,