White Death (NUMA Files 4)

He awakened Gamay and asked her to alert the rest of the crew. He was afraid Oceanus might have called in aerial support. The sleepy-eyed captain was on deck a moment later.

"What's going on?" he said.

Paul pointed at the approaching zeppelin, which glowed as if it were on fire from the golden rays of the new sun. "We'd better get moving. I don't know whether that's a friend or enemy."

The captain was fully awake now. He ran for the bridge.

Professor Throckmorton was on deck as well. "Dear God," the professor said. "That's the biggest thing I've ever seen."

The engines growled and the boat began to move. They watched nervously as the airship cut the distance between them. It was mov- ing erratically, left and right, then its nose would go high and low. But one thing was clear, it was coming right at them. It was so low now that the lines dangling from below touched the waves.

Gamay had been focused on the control cabin. She saw heads ap- pear in the windows, then two men climbed out and slid down the ropes. She pointed them out to Paul, and a broad grin crossed his face.

The captain had returned to the deck. Paul told him to bring the boat to a stop.

"But they'll catch us."

"Exactly right, Captain, exactly right."

Mumbling to himself, the captain raced back to the bridge. Paul and Gamay grabbed some crew members and readied the vessel's inflatable outboard boat. The engines cut to an idle, and the boat plowed to a halt as the zeppelin's gigantic silhouette filled the sky. As the airship came abeam, the figures hanging from the lines dropped into the sea with two great splashes. The inflatable came alongside the heads bobbing in the waves. Paul and Gamay pulled Zavala and Austin aboard.

"Nice of you to drop in," Paul said.

"Nice of you to pick us up," Austin said.

Even as he grinned with pleasure, Austin was keeping an eye on the zeppelin. To his relief, after the airship leveled out, it steered on a course away from the sh

ip. Barker's men must have broken back into the control car. They would have made short work of the boat and everyone on it with their automatic weapons. But the Kiolya were headless now, without Toonook, their great leader.

Within minutes, friendly hands were helping Austin and the oth- ers back onto the research vessel. Austin and Zavala were taken below and provided with dry clothes. Gamay did a professional job patching up Austin's latest wound with bandages. The injury might require a few stitches, but it looked worse than it was. On the plus side, Austin consoled himself, he would have matching scars on ei- ther side of his rib cage. He and Zavala were sitting in the galley with the Trouts, enjoying strong coffee and the warmth from the stove, when the cook, a Newfoundlander, asked if they wanted breakfast.

Austin realized they hadn't eaten since the jerky they had had the previous day. From the look in Zavala's eyes, he was equally hungry.

"Anything you can rustle up," Austin said. "Just make sure there's a lot of it."

"I can give you fish cakes and eggs," the cook said.

"Fish cakes?" Zavala said.

"Sure. It's a Newfie specialty."

Austin and Zavala exchanged glances. "No, thanks," they said.

40

BEAR CAME THROUGH as promised. Therri had called the bush pilot on the radio, told him she needed to evacuate nearly fifty people and pleaded for his help. Ask- ing no questions, Bear had rallied every bush pilot within a hundred- mile radius. Floatplanes streamed in from every direction to airlift the passengers from the shore of the lake. The sick and elderly went on first, then the young. Therri stood on the beach, feeling a mix- ture of relief and sadness, and waved good-bye to her new friend Rachael.

Ryan's bloody badge of courage qualified him for a ride on one of the first planes out. With his shoulder wound patched up to stem the bleeding and prevent infection, he and the others were taken to a small but well-equipped provincial hospital. The Aguirrez brothers arranged their own transportation, calling in the EuroCopter to fly them back to the yacht with the news of their loss.

Before they left, Ben and some of the younger men in the tribe went back across the lake to see what was left of Barker's complex. On their return, they reported that nothing remained. When Therri asked about the fate of the monster fish she had seen, Ben simply smiled and said, "Barbecued."

Therri, Ben and Mercer were among the last to leave. This time, the fuzzy dice in Bear's cockpit were reassuring. As the floatplane wheeled over the vast forest, she looked down at the huge blackened area around the devastated site of Barker's incredible building.

"Looks like we had a little forest fire down there," Bear yelled over the drone of the engine. "You folks know anything about that?"

"Someone must have been careless with a match," Mercer said. Seeing the skeptical expression in Bear's eyes, Mercer grinned and said, "When we get back, I'll tell you the whole story over a beer."

It actually took quite a few beers.