“I’m not dealing with them,” I said, “except with a gun pointed at their collective heads.”

  Qiang waved a gloved hand to indicate the vast ice field. “Right now, we’re sitting in the open. In attempting this, in wanting to slip into the secret base, we’ve exposed far too many of us. Yes, we still have many hidden around Earth. They’re holding the Krekelens and the others at bay, to a degree. But there are still too many of us here. Perhaps now is the time to go back and fight, to finish the secret war against the Krekelens while the Earth is in an uproar. You did make one good point. McPherson slew many and important Krekelens.”

  “Now you’re talking,” I said. “Yes, take maybe…half the caravan and go back. We’ll take the other half and keep heading up to the base.”

  Qiang stared at me. She stared some more and I knew calculations were taking place in her cunning mind.

  “Very well,” Qiang said at last. “I will agree to this. If anyone wishes to continue with you, he can go. The rest will go with me. Would you shake on it, Jake Bayard?”

  I suspected a trick. I wasn’t going to let her touch me. She had given me a roofie once already. I wasn’t going to risk another.

  “No, Qiang, your word is good enough for me.”

  I started to back away, stumbling against Livi. That could have ruined everything. Fortunately, Livi was nothing if not nimble. She stayed on her feet and kept her weapon trained on Qiang

  Together, the two of us backed away out of range of Qiang and her bullyboys.

  This wasn’t good. Things were in an uproar in the rest of the world. But we still had a chance to make this work, at least that was what I thought at the moment.

  -3-

  We made our split with Qiang.

  Livi, eighteen other people and I wanted to try for the secret, subterranean base.

  I negotiated with one of Qiang’s representatives. I didn’t want to speak to her face to face again, nor did I trust her. Therefore, Livi, several others I trusted, and I kept watch at all times as we divvied up the caravan.

  We took a third of the 206s and most of the supplies and special equipment. They took the majority of vehicles and people, leaving soon thereafter.

  We headed up, or down toward the South Pole, if that suits you better. We continued using the same route and kept watch vigilantly.

  Night—I was going to say night and what passed for day, but the truth was it was day all the time, although the Sun rode along the horizon at what would have been night.

  The continued venture was hard on us as we scanned the skies like crazy. We used much of the special equipment to help keep watch.

  Did satellites glare down at us from high above in orbital space? We had no idea. None of us saw any more cargo planes, military jets or even special helicopters. Neither did we spot anybody trailing us on the ground or on the ice, I suppose.

  This hellishly icy region mandated careful winterization or polarization of equipment, which included aircraft.

  Here’s a note about no one trailing us on the ground, the reason I mentioned it. Livi was certain Qiang had sent somebody to follow us or would send a drone soon to take us out.

  “I don’t get it,” I said to Livi two days after the split. We’d driven together in the cab, leading the way. “It’s thirty days to the coast if Qiang goes by the 206s.”

  “Maybe someone will come to give her an aerial lift home,” Livi said.

  I thought about that, nodding shortly.

  Livi’s nostrils flared. “I don’t think you understand. This is a bad situation for your planet. I haven’t talked to you much about mine.”

  I perked up.

  “We had a nuclear war,” Livi said. “It happened long ago, but I learned in history class that it was a dreadful time, causing vast destruction and massive depopulation.”

  Livi stared at me earnestly.

  “That bad, huh,” I said.

  “Aren’t you listening? Your planet is on the brink of a nuclear exchange. If that happens, it will throw you back centuries. Perhaps a tiny group will keep technological civilization, but that’s difficult to do with few numbers and without all the mining and technologies needed to keep a civilization running.”

  “You been listening to the news?” I asked.

  “I don’t have to. I know how this usually starts.”

  I frowned.

  “We’re a miniscule number on Vega,” Livi said. “Our society is still recovering to what happened hundreds of years ago. That’s why we’re so careful as we send out Travelers here and there. We don’t have the numbers and resources like you do on Earth.”

  “How many Travelers does Vega have?”

  Livi shook her head. Even though she was my girl, she wouldn’t tell me.

  “Do you think there are more Travelers on Earth than just me?” I asked.

  “Potential Travelers, at least,” she said.

  I raised my eyebrows.

  “If your leaders knew about Travelers,” Livi said, “they’d start searching for those with the needed genes. They should put the whole Earth under a medical scan so they could go about it methodically.”

  “How many Travelers do you think live on Earth?”

  “Fifty,” Livi said.

  “Out of all the billions, there’s only fifty?”

  Livi shrugged. “Maybe sixty but no more than seventy-five.”

  “Huh,” I said. “We’re a super elect group.”

  “That’s an understatement. We’re the chosen. Who else can move between worlds?”

  “In the past,” I said, “were there more like us?”

  “Without a doubt,” Livi said. “Our genes have been diluted throughout the ages, weakened. Yet, for some reason…”

  I glanced at her.

  She stared at me.

  “What is it?” I said.

  “You’re part Vegan because of your father.”

  I frowned. “So Vegans are human, Homo sapiens like the rest of us on Earth?”

  Livi sighed. “I’m not going to comment on that. We Vegans are obviously enough like you that you and me…enjoy each other’s company.”

  Just in case I didn’t get it, she put a warm hand on top of one of my big Marine paws.

  That gave me goosebumps.

  I might have taken it farther, but there was a squawk on the radio. “Yes?” I asked, clicking a switch.

  “Some jets are heading for us,” Hank said. “Maybe they’re going to try to fly over us.”

  “Got it,” I said. “Let’s use…Plan B.”

  As I said that, I braked and brought our 206 to a halt.

  The others stopped, too, and climbed out. We’d separated ourselves, although we had visual of each 206.

  I put on my special Philip glasses and got the phasor ready. Once Hank pinpointed the location, I scanned in that direction, using extreme magnification.

  There, at the very edge of visibility, I saw what looked like…

  “It’s an EW plane,” I told Livi. I meant Electronic Warfare.

  “Shoot it down.” Livi stood beside me in the snow.

  “Could be one of ours—the Terrans.”

  “I doubt it. But if it is, give them a warning shot.”

  I took off the special glasses and turned to Livi. “Shoot it down,” I said, “even if it’s on our side?”

  Livi put her gloved hands on my free arm. “Darling, don’t you get it? Qiang is pulling a fast one. She means to use you and most likely me in her greater schemes. I’m beginning to doubt she ever planned to let us get to the subterranean base. I don’t think Qiang wants to set up shop there.”

  “Then why did she agree to join in the first place?”

  Livi shook her head. “I cannot answer that. Perhaps she thought it was a good idea before McPherson destroyed the Krekelen base. I suspect and wonder, though, if the Krekelens put the thought into McPherson’s mind.”

  “To destroy their own base?” I asked, incredulously.

  “Not their base,” Livi said, “But to use nuclear weapons. Maybe the Krekelens thought they could reap extra power during the chaos.”

  “Huh,” I said, beginning to see it. “As people become frightened they want greater security so such things can’t happen again. Fear is a powerful motivator.”

  “Yes.”

  I put my special glasses on and realized the EW plane was no longer there.

  I contacted Hank on my console radio.

  “Do you see anything else?”

  “Negative,” he said.

  “All right, let’s mount up then. Let’s keep going.”

  Soon, we continued the journey toward the secret base.

  As we drove and the rubber-coated tracks churned over ice and snow, I thought about what Livi had told me. I thought about all the things Qiang had done throughout the years against me. Was it years already? Everything happened so fast, didn’t it? I heard the passage of time only gets worse as you get older.

  I shook my head. That wasn’t the point. Qiang making a deal with the Krekelens was the point. Did she jockey for higher rank among the Terrans? One thing was sure. Qiang hated me, and yet she must have understood my usefulness. I mean, who else among the Terrans could Travel to different planets?

  I sighed. There were so many other threats out there. The Institute seemed like one of the more dangerous, along with the Zero Stones, if they should ever pop up or find a way to Earth again. There were plenty of alien threats. We didn’t need to fight among ourselves. Why couldn’t we join and have true unity? Unity was so much more effective than all this bickering and splintering.

  It was funny that me, a regular old Marine, a ground pounder, saw the utility of unity.

  That wasn’t the way of things, though. Power was like gold, money. People were like the mythical dwarves, greedy for more and more and more. How much power was enough? Maybe to the same extent as money.

  They once asked a guy, how much money was enough? He was a rich man. You know what he said. “Just a little more.” And that was how I think it worked with power: just a little more power.

  I made a decision.

  We wouldn’t go straight to the locale I’d initially used to reach the obelisk, the subterranean place. We’d go to where the Draconians had lifted off in their flying saucer. It was longer underground to get to the obelisk from there, but I had a sixth sense, a feeling that maybe that would be the safer way to go this time.

  I told the others and made another decision as I did. It was time to book it with everything we had.

  Therefore, we put our 206s into high gear. We drove them mercilessly and took shifts driving. When one 206 broke down, we took what was important and left the rest with the broken-down vehicle. We wanted to make it there fast and we wanted to do it now.

  Things were brewing that once they became hot might stymie our success. Of that, I was sure. Therefore, Livi was right. We needed to strike, as they say, while the iron was hot. That was my goal.

  If only I’d known what was going to happen next, I could have done things so much differently.

  -4-

  Half a day later, the vast Antarctic ice sprawled before us, an unforgiving and merciless landscape. It seemed greater than before because we were fewer in number and vehicles. Maybe worse, we didn’t even know if the others would aid us if we needed help or if they’d work against us.

  Livi sat beside me and navigated as I drove, firmly gripping the steering wheel of our 206. Our eyes, along with those of the sixteen others, remained locked on the seemingly infinite white horizon as we journeyed across the frozen wasteland.

  Above us, the sky was a stark, piercing blue, almost blinding in its vibrancy. The sun’s rays reflected off the ice, casting an ethereal luminescence on the vast expanse that enveloped us.

  This place and the mission must have been getting to me, as I’d turned verbose like this. Even here in the heated cab, I could hear the howling wind tearing through the air, a biting reminder of the unseen dangers lurking in the frosty landscape. The relentless cold and the pitiless terrain were our unyielding companions, a constant reminder of our vulnerability in this desolate environment.

  I shook my head. What was wrong with me? I didn’t normally get this way. Maybe there was something to the ice sickness theory: that the desolation of Antarctica broke the human spirit.

  Was my morale slipping? I didn’t think so. Maybe I’d been staring out the window too long.

  “Oh, oh,” Livi said.

  I glanced at her. She had a slate in her hands. It was one of our advanced pieces of hardware. She tapped it with her slender fingers.

  “See something interesting?” I asked.

  “Maybe,” she said.

  I waited, driving, listening to the churn of our rubber-coated tracks on the ice.

  “I’d say those are…cargo planes,” Livi said.

  “How close to us?”

  “Beyond the range of your phasor,” she said.

  “You think they know its range?”

  Livi leaned forward, staring intently at the slate.

  “What is it now?”

  She shook her head, concentrating. “I’m not sure. Maybe they’re para-dropping…stuff.”

  “Stuff or soldiers?” I asked.

  Livi shrugged.

  I thought about that as I drove, forcing myself to loosen my grip on the steering wheel. My hands were starting to ache.

  “The planes are all leaving,” she said.

  I muttered. Maybe they’d just dumped supplies for a future mission.

  “What did you just ask?” Livi said.

  I couldn’t remember so I said nothing.

  “About your phasor,” she said.

  “Oh. Yeah. Do you think whoever pilots the cargo planes knew the range of my phasor?”

  Livi looked at me. There was worry in her eyes.

  “Is that a yes?” I asked.

  “If yes, does that mean Qiang told them?”

  That made my gut clench. “Were the cargo planes Krekelen or Terran?”

  “Does it have to be either?” Livi asked.

  I shook my head. I didn’t know, although that seemed the most likely.

  Maybe an hour passed. Nothing seemed to change on the horizon. After more than a month of this, one massive ice structure started to look like the next.

  My radio crackled, making me start. I glanced at Livi.

  She answered it for me.

  “Hank here,” a man said. “I see something far at the edge of the horizon. It isn’t the cargo planes but something on the ground.”

  “Ask him where,” I said.

  “What direction is it?” Livi asked.

  “Behind us,” Hank said.

  I motioned with my head.

  Livi craned around but couldn’t see anything because of the rear box vehicle.

  “You’d better stop so we can scan this,” she said.

  “You can’t see anything on your slate?” I asked.

  Livi shook her head.

  “I’m pulling over,” I told Hank.

  “Roger that,” he said. “I’ll pass that along.”

  I braked, brought the 206 to a halt and climbed into the biting cold. Looking back at the endlessly white horizon—

  “I can’t see a thing,” I said. Mist didn’t jet from my mouth, as I wore a facemask now.

  Livi had climbed out on her side. She raised a pair of Arctic binoculars. After a few seconds, she said, “I see something.”

  I pulled out the special glasses, feeling as if they froze to my skin when I slid them on. I had to take off the facemask. Activating them—

  “What the hell?” I said.

  Far away, a group of shadowy figures raced or slid across the ice. They leaned low, their skis kicking up the slightest bits of snow. On their backs—were those jetpacks? Did they propel themselves across the ice?

  I hurried into the cab and told Hank the news.

  “They’re skiers?” asked Hank.

  “Propelled by jetpacks,” I said.

  “Do we have anything like that in our arsenals?” asked Hank.

  “I haven’t heard of it.”

  Livi was inside the cab again. She looked more worried than before.

  “What do you think?” I asked her. “Are they a Krekelen hit ski team?”

  She nodded very slightly.

  “Livi thinks they’re Krekelen agents,” I told Hank.

  “Should we ambush them?” he asked.

  “Sure,” I said. “How do we do that? They must know exactly where we are.”

  “Maybe we ought to spread out some,” Hank said.

  “Yeah,” I said. “We’ll do that and unlimber the snipers.”

  Our 206s roared into various places, each of us keeping the other vehicles in view. A few heavily bundled men with special rifles climbed out. They tramped across the ice, soon lying down and activating their long-range scopes.

  I climbed out, too. I wore the special glasses—

  I spied them again: an enemy ski patrol, clad in white camouflage gear with their faces hidden behind goggles and balaclavas. They merged nearly seamlessly with the icy landscape, making it nearly impossible to discern their exact positions. Most of them carried what looked like heavy Javelin handheld missiles. Their malicious intent was unmistakable. They slid fast, the exhaust from the jetpacks barely visible to me.

  “Bayard!” Livi shouted.

  I turned to her. She pointed frantically. I looked in the direction she indicated. I spotted streaks in the air several feet off the ice. They sped missile-fast at us. Exhaust billowed from the back of the projectiles.

  That was all the warning I got. Two of the projectiles hissed past tracked vehicles, flying until they smashed against ice and detonated harmlessly. The last two struck 206s. The twin cabins each erupted in a fiery blaze. Those grenades or warheads were far more destructive than I’d imagined.

  I could feel the intense heat from here. Worse, four of our people lay lifeless, their bodies contorted and shattered amidst the smoldering wreckage. Four out of eighteen gone; there were only fourteen of us left.