Prey

Julia clawed a path out in front of the cat as well, shoving the snow as best she could out of the way. She felt like she was trying to bench press a house, but thought she'd done a pretty decent job.

At last, she climbed back into the Snowcat and started it up.

The engine turned over immediately and idled with a low growl that reminded Julia of the dinosaur with Nung's face back in the jungle. She wondered if she'd actually killed it or if it was just wounded.

No time to think, she shoved the transmission into drive. The Snowcat jerked once as the caterpillar treads bit into the soft snow, finding purchase, and at last freeing itself from the snowy coffin it had been left in.

Julia grabbed the wheel and steered the Cat around until she got it back on the proper heading for Mick's cache of weapons. She cast a wanton eye toward the horizon. The research station lay in that direction. She could just as easily go back there and ring the panic alarm for a rescue plane to come down.

But that would mean leaving Mick.

She didn't think she could stand the thought of being the sole survivor from this expedition.

She kept on her original heading.

After thirty minutes, she came to the spot where they'd first visited the cache. She shut down the Snowcat and jumped out. The snowfall here seemed less than over by the mountain range, which she was grateful for. At least she wouldn't have to push more snow out of the way.

She found the cache marker and scraped off the foot or so of new snow.

Her hands touched metal.

Steel?

She scraped some more and found the release catch next to a number pad. She punched in the code Mick had given her and she heard a soft hiss escape, like an airlock being released.

The lid slid back.

Julia peered inside.

She saw more long cases like the ones Mick had pulled out the first time for rifles. Julia pulled one out. She could see other cases clearly marked as ammunition and grenades. She took those out as well.

But it was the dull gray briefcase-sized object that drew her attention.

Some type of fancy script ran down one side of it. What language was that in?

She pulled it out.

In the bright sunshine, it seemed innocuous enough.

But the fact that it was in the weapons cache concerned her. She remembered what Wilkins had told her about. Small nuclear devices.

Was this one of them?

She'd take it with her. Maybe Mick would know how to work it.

She stopped.

Did she really want to set off a nuclear weapon on the continent? Did she really want to ruin this last piece of unspoiled real estate in the entire world?

She frowned. Did she really want to let the aliens live? The nuclear weapon could kill them all and their creatures. Wasn't that worth a little radiation here?

She looked around. The whiteness of this place seemed so virgin. So proper. So natural.

To ruin that so she could kill the aliens…

No.

She slid it back into the cache and shut the door again. If she was going to kill them, she'd have to do it with the guns and grenades. She felt certain Mick could rig some type of improvised explosive device using the grenades that could take their ship apart piece by piece.

Better that than a nuke unchecked.

Julia had already made some bad decisions on this trip. She didn't want to be the person who had nuked Antarctica. That would have finished her off for good.

She stood and pulled the long crates back to the Snowcat first. Once there, she broke the crate open and pulled out four of the rifles and checked them over the way Mick had shown them earlier.

There was no time to zero them properly. But Julia didn't feel too worried about that. It was going to be close fighting. A few inches off at four hundred yards wouldn't mean squat in the close confines of the spaceship.

She checked the grenades over. There were several different types. Julia brought all of them, tucked in behind the driver's seat of the Snowcat.

She glanced back at the weapons cache.

An idea slipped into her mind.

She walked back and reopened the cache, peering inside for a longer time now. After a few minutes searching, she came up with four survival kits filled with food and water.

She broke these open and gorged herself until she felt like she couldn't eat anything else. Somewhat restored, she threw the litter back into the cache, took a few fresh survival kits and headed back to the Snowcat.

She climbed back in and restarted the engine.

It turned over easily.

The sun still shone brightly overhead.

It was time, she decided.

Time to go back to the tunnel.

Back to the jungle.

To the spaceship.

Get Mick out alive.

And to finally dispense some serious justice to the aliens who had killed off her team.

Julia wheeled the Snowcat around, burped once, and trundled off back in the direction of the mountains.

31

By the time Julia got back to the tunnel entrance, the sun had disappeared behind a huge swath of bloated gray and white clouds moving in from the east. The first flakes fell on her as she climbed back up to the ledge and squeezed herself and all the supplies inside.