And while weOre on the subject of food… Randi leaned forward across the table. When we came into this hut, we found the half-eaten meal Mr. Kropodkin had left on the table. That corned beef sandwich and tea, hot tea.

  Hate glittered in the look Kropodkin aimed up at her. It was not mine! he spat.

  Oh, yes, it was. RandiOs voice was almost hypnotic. There was something a little bit different about the way that tea had been served. You see, it was in a glass. Now, we had a group of Anglo-Saxons, a couple of Asians, and one Slav on this island. When someone of Anglo-Saxon or Asian cultural descent makes hot tea, he or she drinks it from a cup or a mug, automatically, as a cultural norm. Only an Arab or a Slav would drink hot tea from a glass… The barrel of the submachine gun swung across the table and lightly tapped the rim of the steaming glass at KropodkinOs side, producing a clear ringing ting . And there arenOt any Arabs on this island.

  Kropodkin grabbed for the inviting gun barrel. Randi, who had been expecting and waiting for the desperation move, yanked the submachine gun back, then smashed the muzzle full into KropodkinOs face, hurling him backward off the bench.

  Screaming a curse, Kropodkin scrambled to his feet, but Randi had already rolled over the tabletop, confronting him before he could recover. To a flabbergasted Dr. Trowbridge, she moved in a golden-haired blur. Three blows were landed with the submachine gun within two seconds; a two-handed horizontal strike across the forehead with the receiver, another savage punch in the groin with the muzzle, and a final butt stroke across the back of the neck as Kropodkin folded over in agony. Randi was careful to pull the finishing blow so it would not quite fracture the spine.

  Kropodkin dropped like a dynamited bridge.

  Dropping to her knees beside the Slovakian, Randi first checked his breathing, then yanked his arms behind his back, applying a fresh set of disposacuffs.

  Help me get him back onto the bunk, please, Doctor.

  Trowbridge just stared down at her and at the graduate student, sprawled bloody-faced on the floor.

  I canOt believe it, he mumbled. I canOt believe that anyone could kill so many people so casually.

  There are more of them around than you might expect, Doctor. Randi rubbed her eyes, suddenly very tired. YouOve been sitting in a room with two of them.

  E

  The Misha Crash Site

  Gradually Jon Smith became aware of dawn growing beyond the overhead astrodome. He also became aware of an imbalance in the warmth surrounding him, a comfortable emphasis favoring his left side. Then came a very definite snuggle.

  The congealed frost of his breath rasped on the cover of his Jaeger sleeping bag as Smith lifted his head to look around the radar-observer cabin. A second occupied Jaeger bag was nestled firmly against his. Valentina Metrace, in her catlike connoisseurship of comfort, had burrowed close in the night.

  Smith couldnOt help but cock an eyebrow. Randi had been right. Where there was a will, there was most certainly a way.

  Female companionship had not been a major factor in SmithOs life for some time. At first, in the direct aftermath of SophiaOs death, the concept had been too painful, too much a breaking of a faith. Then, afterward, emotional relationships had seemed an added complication in an already overly complex life. But now this particular female seemed to be making it clear in a hundred subtle and not so subtle ways that she intended to make herself a factor.

  Exactly why was beyond SmithOs comprehension. He had always viewed himself as a fairly prosaic individual. Any romance that might cling to him was only a reflection of his careers, and likely a misunderstood one at that. He had always felt very fortunate to have gained the love of one beautiful and intelligent woman. To have this second bold, enigmatic and decidedly attractive female move deliberately into his orbit was an unexpected phenomenon.

  He felt ValentinaOs head lift, and she shook free of her sleeping bagOs hood and face flap, peering into his face from a range of a few inches. I would cheerfully and without a momentOs hesitation kill, she murmured, for a long, hot soak in a bathtub, and a change of lingerie.

  I could loan you a spare disinfectant towelette, he replied.

  Your counteroffers are growing steadily more pathetic, but I suppose IOm stuck with it.

  She rested her head on his shoulder, and for a few moments they lay together in the bizarre little pocket of intimacy they had found on the ice-slickened deck of the ancient bomber. The wind outside had subsided to only the faintest intermittent whisper. In the crewOs cabin aft, they could hear Gregori Smyslov snoring softly in his bunk.

  The night before, Smith had been careful in the way he had arranged their gear to make sleeping room on the deck. HeOd propped his loaded packframe in the hatchway between the compartments, stacking his snowshoes atop them, rendering a silent access to the radar-observer space impossible. The necessity of that action and the angular feel of his sidearm under the wadded bulk of his parka pillow pushed his momentary nonprofessional musing about Valentina Metrace into abeyance.

  What is it, Val? he said under his breath. What are the Russians hiding? You have some ideas, donOt you?

  She hesitated; then he felt the shake of her head, her soft hair brushing his chin. Not that IOm prepared to say, Jon. The historian in me is appalled by the concept of providing poor history, and the spy, of giving poor intelligence. But weOve got to find the survival camp. If there are any absolute answers to be found, weOll find them there.

  I can understand that. But thatOs only one set of answers. The Russians are only one factor of what IOm coming to see as a three-point equation. The other two points are who is on the island now and who may be coming for the anthrax. I left Randi hanging back there as bait for whoever may be here now.

  ShouldnOt worry, Jon. Anyone who endeavors to gulp down our Ms. Russell is going to find himself gagging on her…and I mean that in the best of possible connotations.

  I know. She can take care of herself.

  But youOll still blame yourself if anything happens to her. As you still do for the deaths of her sister and her fiancZ.

  Smith scowled down at the top of her head. How the hell did you know about that?

  Randi and I discussed you rather intensively one evening, Valentina replied. A species of girl talk. IOve also studied you for a bit, and IOve come to certain conclusions of my own. YouOre one of those poor bastards stuck in the middleNtough enough to make the blood decisions, but with enough humanity left for it to gnaw at you. ItOs a difficult balance to maintain. That makes you rare and worth keeping. ThatOs why, in due course, weOre going to become lovers.

  Smith couldnOt prevent the soft bark of laughter that escaped him. He had wondered, and he had been given an answer. I see. DonOt I have any say in the matter?

  Valentina nestled contentedly again, tucking her head in under his chin. No, not really. DonOt bother yourself about it now, Jon. IOll handle all the details.

  She had to be joking in her usual quirky manner. But there was something about the calm womanOs surety in her voice that didnOt seem to apply to that scenario. He couldnOt help but recall the last lingering warmth of her lips on his yesterday, and he had a sudden urge to experience that warmth again.

  Then the muzzy grumble and stirring of Major Smyslov in the next compartment broke the fragile bubble and returned them to the bleak reality of Wednesday Island.

  It was a pale gray world atop the saddleback glacier. The dully luminous cloud cover hid the tops of the peaks and faded the horizons to the north and south into a vague nonvisibility. The surface snow and ice had been infected by the grayness as well, losing their luster. Only the dark exposed rock of the mountain flanks stood out, extruding from the dingy-paper whiteness with an exaggerated three-dimensionality. The immediate visibility around the downed bomber and the three human flyspecks standing beside it was good, yet it was difficult to truly see. Amid the blanched contrasts it was hard to gauge sizes and distances, and something akin to vertigo intermittently tugged at the consciousness.

  Jon Smith felt the effect as he panned his binoculars in their instinctive slow circle, seeing nothing either desired or unwanted.

  All right, lady and gentleman, where are they? he asked. Where did they go after the crash?

  I would say down the coast, Colonel, Smyslov replied swiftly. They would need food, and there is nothing to be had here. Along the coast there would be seals and bears. There would also be better opportunities for shelter. The weather up here on the glacier would be too bad.

  Valentina shook her hooded head. No, I disagree, Gregori. They made their survival camp up here, probably within sight of this aircraft.

  If they did, itOs pretty well hidden. Smith returned his binoculars to their case. And the major makes a pretty good case about the food. What brings you to your conclusion, Val?

  A number of things, she replied. For one, the stripped state of the aircraft. It would take a lot of work and a lot of trips to move all of that material out of the wreck. They wouldnOt have carried it far. For another, they wouldnOt be immediately concerned about food. They would have had emergency rations for at least a couple of weeks, and they werenOt planning to stay around for that long.

  Would they have had much choice?

  They thought so, Jon. These people were not planning on setting up housekeeping. They intended to go home. Remember how they pulled the radio and radar systems out of the plane, as well as the auxiliary power unit? They had all of the components and expertise they needed to build one hellaciously powerful radio transmitter, one that could reach halfway around the world, and certainly back to Russia. ThatOs another reason theyOd want to stay up here. The higher elevation would increase their broadcast and reception range.

  Then why didnOt they use it? Smith asked.

  I donOt know. Smith could feel the words the historian didnOt want to speak aloud. He turned toward Smyslov. What do you think, Major?

  The Russian shook his head. I must disagree, Colonel. If they had built such a radio, they would have called for rescue. Obviously they did not.

  Whoever had chosen Gregori Smyslov had made one critical error with the man. He could lie well with his mouth, but not with his eyes or body language. The RussianOs words only emphasized a subtle change that had crept into the teamOs dynamics overnight. Once more it had become an us-versus-them scenario, with Smyslov standing alone.

  And yet, Smith pondered, if it was an us-versus-them, why hadnOt Smyslov simply allowed him to suffocate in the bomb bay the previous afternoon? HeOd had a blank check to kill.

  WeOve got to find out which one of you is right, and fast, Smith continued. We know the anthrax is in the wreck. We know that someone else positively knows about it. We must assume these individuals are en route to collect it. Given that the hostiles have gone active on the island, we must also assume that we may have only hours before their main body arrives.

  Smyslov spoke up sharply. Colonel, given the situation, should not we immediately return to the base camp? Our priority must be to resume contact with our superiors.

  There could be no doubt about it. Smyslov wanted not to find that survival camp as urgently as Valentina wanted to locate it, and probably for the same reason.

  A valid point, Major, but we will still make a sweep up here for the aircrewOs survival camp. Smith extended his hand and swept it from north to south, covering the eastern edge of the glacier. Granted that Professor Metrace is correct, the crewOs best bet for finding shelter should be along there, the base of East Peak.

  The camp may have been well drifted over during the last fifty years, Valentina added, slinging the model 70 over her shoulder. So IOd suggest watching for shapes, especially straight linear ones, under the surface of the snow.

  Got it. Any other questions? Okay, letOs move out. Smith kept his own rifle cradled in his arms as they started the trudge across the ice.

  Smith worked to the north, angling across the saddleback to the point where the glacier broke into a wicked blocky tumble of shattered ice, a miniature Beardmore that slumped down the front face of the island to the narrow coastal strip. From that point, according to the plan, they swept back across the gap. Advancing line abreast at twenty-yard intervals, they scouted the broken stone and ice interface along the base of the eastern peak.

  Valentina kept to the inside slot, ranging along the bottom of the slope with the eager intensity of a hunting bird dog. Smith took the center point in the line while Smyslov stayed on the outer flank. In addition to watching the glacial surface, Smith found himself covering Val as she worked and eyeing the mountain slopes above for a variety of potential threats: snow cornices, avalanche chutes, and the possibility of camouflaged observers.

  He also found himself intermittently watching Gregori Smyslov out of the corner of his eye. Was the Russian looking for something else beyond the remains of the lost aircrew? Who was he waiting for, and what would be the key that would trigger him into action? And what would that action be?

  They passed the crash site and climbed the last hundred gently sloping yards to the central ridge of the saddleback. Smith paused for a moment in his trudging advance to survey the greater world.

  The sea smoke was closing in around Wednesday once more, the mists lapping at the islandOs flanks, killing the horizons and enhancing the unworldly sense of isolation. For a moment the saddleback was a literal island in the sky, sandwiched in a layer of clarity between the fog and the overcast. How long it would last was questionable.

  It didnOt really matter. Soon they must break off the search and head back for the station. And maybe just as well. If Val was right, locating the camp of the downed aircrew might be the activation point of the Russian alternate agenda. Maybe it would be wiser to eat this apple one bite at a time, keeping Smyslov as an ally. Deal with the anthrax question first; then force the confrontation.

  Smith turned and then stumbled as his right crampon snagged momentarily. Automatically he glanced down at the obstruction.

  The spiked toe of his arctic boot had kicked up and exposed a short length of wire, its black insulation crumbling with age and cold.

  Smith hesitated for one moment more. It would be easy enough to scrape a boot edge of snow over it and just keep going. But then, not knowing had been at the heart of this crisis from the beginning. Deliberately courting ignorance now simply didnOt make sense. Smith shifted his rifle to his left hand and lifted the right over his head, the fist clinched in the rally signal.

  ItOs Soviet, Smyslov confirmed, kneeling beside the exposed wire. A trailing antenna. The kind that could be streamed behind an aircraft for long-range communications.

  Laying an insulated aerial across the ice has been a communications expedient used in polar environments before, Valentina confirmed.

  But where is the radio set? Smyslov asked, getting back to his feet. Where is the camp? There is nothing, only the wire.

  The easiest way to resolve that question is to follow it. Smith pointed toward the base of east peak. Thataway.

  The antenna had melted into the frozen surface like a thread across an ice cube, but the incessant scouring of the winds had kept it buried only a few inches deep. Exposing the antenna as they went, they found that it swept in a shallow curve, having drifted with the flow of the glacier. At one point stress had snapped the thin wire, but the broken end was located only a few feet away. Surprisingly it led toward an almost sheer blank-faced wall of basalt rock, vanishing into the shoulder-high drift of hard-packed snow at its base.

  What the hell?

  Undaunted, Valentina Metrace unslung her pack and rifle and drew her belt knife. Dropping to her knees, she began to tunnel into the drift like an industrious badger. After a moment Smith and Smyslov joined her.

  It swiftly became apparent that the drifted snow was packed into an overhang in the black rock, a groove rasped into the side of the mountain by the incessant sawing drag of the glacier. And then Smith noticed the texture of the snow changing. It was growing more solid, and it was as if a pattern had been worked into it.

  These are snow blocks! Valentina exclaimed.

  It was true. Someone had used building blocks of compacted snow, igloolike, to build a wall within the overhang. Over the decades, the blocks had cold-welded together into a solid glassy mass that resisted the stabbing knife blades, but their resistance couldnOt prevent them from eventually yielding.

  Canvas! This is it! ItOs a cave!

  The snow wall and the ancient canvas windscreen behind it collapsed into darkness. And the icy dankness of long unstirred air flowed out.

  Smith retrieved the big electric lantern from his pack and played the beam into the mouth of the cavern. The tunnel was perhaps six feet wide and low enough so that even Valentina would be forced to stoop to enter. Small, jagged stalactites of black rock studded the cave roof.

  A lava tube, Smith commented.

  To be expected on a volcanic island, Valentina agreed. Look, on the floor.

  The antenna wire and what looked like a hose extended from beneath the small avalanche of snow and ice they had created, to loop around a bend in the tunnel perhaps ten feet ahead.

  This must be it, Valentina repeated. Hunching down, she started along the tunnel.

  Just a second. Smith passed the historian her rifle, then caught up his own SR-25. LetOs get the gear inside and out of sight, just in case.

  I will take care of it, Colonel, Smyslov spoke up.

  All right, weOll wait for you if we find anything interesting. Smith removed a couple of hand flares from his pack and moved into the cave after Valentina.

  Smyslov lugged the packs inside the cave, then paused for a moment outside its mouth, taking a last long look around.