the module, adjusting her headlamp. The GPS unit was there behind wires and internal supports. She reached into the bag for the wire-cutters and a battery-operated drill. But in these heavy gloves, her fingers weren’t nimble enough to do the job. “I have to take off my gloves.”
Thor stood beside her. “Activate those hand warmers. You’ll be able to work for only a minute or two at a time.”
She shook the hand warmers to start the chemical reaction, slipped them inside the pocket of her parka, and pulled off her gloves.
The air was so frigid it felt like plunging her hands into hot steam.
She bit back a gasp at the pain and did her best to focus, only too aware that the clock was ticking.
“Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast.” Thor’s voice was calming.
She cut through one set of wires and searched for the screws that held the GPS unit to the supports, her fingers already growing stiff.
Thor took the drill. “Take a rest. Tell me what to do.”
She shoved her hands into her pockets, the hand warmers almost unbearably hot. “See that metal box just beneath that electrical node? That’s what we came for—that and the unit just beside it.”
He looked inside, studied the situation. “Got it.”
He positioned the drill, the small device whirring as he removed the first bolt. Then Thor looked up at the dark sky. “Here they come.”
Samantha heard it, too—the sound of an approaching airplane.
5
Thor shoved his hands into his pockets to warm them and watched the plane circle overhead. “Segal, you speak Russian, right?”
“Enough to get by. Come on, Jones. We’re the welcoming committee.”
Thor didn’t need to tell them what to do. He’d worked with them for three years in many different situations. He trusted them not to allow anyone to come near Samantha or the satellite.
Samantha struggled to position the drill for the next bolt. “This battery isn’t going to last long in the cold.”
“Worry about that when it happens.”
“What if they point guns at you or start shooting?”
“They’re not going to open fire. They can’t be that stupid. They’d be proving their guilt. Besides, we have bigger problems right now. The wind is picking up. Just focus.”
The front edge of that storm system was moving closer.
Samantha removed a bolt and stuck her hands inside her pockets again. “One of the bolts is hidden beneath a twisted strut. We’re going to have to cut through.”
“I see it.” Thor replaced the blade of the saw and began cutting through the strut as the plane landed and came to a stop. He focused on the job and left the intruders to Jones and Segal. The sooner they had these components in their hands, the sooner this would be over. “That’s one done.”
But his exposed fingers couldn’t take more.
It was Samantha’s turn again.
From some distance behind them came a man’s voice in heavily accented English. “We are from Vostok Station and have come to help.”
Samantha shook her head. “Right.”
“Don’t worry about them. Just focus on that GPS unit.”
Segal chuckled. “The six of you flew out here in dangerous conditions from four hundred miles away to help—and you’re carrying weapons.”
That was Segal’s way of warning Thor that they were outnumbered—and that the Russians were armed.
“You have rifles, too, I see. You are military, yes?”
“We’re not military, no. The rifles are just to protect us from polar bears.”
“There are no polar bears in Antarctica.”
“We were misinformed.”
Segal was lying. The Russians were lying. Everyone knew it.
That was international relations in a nutshell.
Meanwhile, Samantha had stopped sawing, her hands in her pockets again. “This is taking too long.”
“We’re almost there.” Thor glanced at his watch. “We’ve got eight minutes.”
“Who is in that tent?” the Russian asked. “We are happy to help if you are having trouble. You must get back into the air soon, yes?”
“Thanks, but we’ll manage.” Segal sounded like he was enjoying this. “There’s a storm headed this way. You might want to worry about your own safety.”
“What are you saying?” The Russian sounded truly surprised.
“Didn’t you know? We’re going to be racing to get back ahead of it.”
Thor took over once again, cutting through the strut in a second place and removing it from the module. He tried to pull the GPS unit out, but it was attached to something on the other side. “It’s still bolted in somewhere, and my hands are too big to get back there. When you can feel your fingers again, see what you can do.”
Samantha drew her hands out of