Hard Line - Pamela Clare Page 0,85
her that this might be hard for Thor, too. He’d almost died down there. “You never met her. If you’d rather wait here in the station, I don’t think it will take long.”
“I feel like I have a connection to her through her journal—and through you.” Thor kissed her forehead. “I won’t let you face this alone.”
“I won’t be alone.”
“You know what I mean.” He slipped into his parka.
God, she loved him.
He’d been by her side every day of the past two weeks, supporting her recovery, both physical and emotional, in any way he could. He wasn’t going to back out when she needed to go down to the ice tunnels.
Samantha picked up her mask with a gloved hand, while Thor grabbed a small box of things she’d set aside. Then the two of them walked together toward the Beer Can freight elevator, where a group was waiting for the car to return.
“Hey, Samantha, Thor. Let me carry that.” Ryan took the box from Thor. He had taken over running the station as acting winter site manager. “If either of you start feeling chilled, let us know.”
“Thanks, man.”
“We will—and thanks.” Samantha had hand warmers in her pockets and was wearing her warmest woolies. At this point, she was more concerned about her fingertips and the patches of frostbite on her face than she was about getting hypothermia again. Her skin was healing, and there hadn’t been any deep-tissue damage. Still, she couldn’t risk injuring those areas further.
A bright ding announced the arrival of the elevator, the doors sliding open, releasing a burst of frigid air. The others entered, talking with one another about their work, about the weather, about news from home.
Samantha’s pulse picked up, but she slipped the mask over her face and followed them, Thor behind her. She would be living here for the next six months. She couldn’t be afraid of this area. The bastard who had tried to kill them was dead.
Then her gaze fell on the moving blankets that were folded and stacked in the corner, the same corner where she’d tried to hide—and her pulse raced.
Thor wrapped an arm around her shoulders, turned her away. “Look at me.”
She looked up at his masked face. “I’m acting like a baby.”
“No, you’re not. You’re a badass warrior chick with scars.”
The ride down to the bottom of the Beer Can was quick. She followed the others out, trying not to see the spots where Steve and Vlad had died on the floor. Then they stepped through the door and into the LO Arch with its creepy, flickering lights.
She feared she’d be stepping into her nightmares, but the space was crowded with people she knew. More than that, it had been transformed. Someone had strung white fairy lights along the shelving to mark the occasion, the sight of it putting a lump in Samantha’s throat. Everyone knew how Patty had loved fairy lights.
“You okay, skat?”
“Yeah.”
People moved together toward the entrance to the ice tunnels.
Samantha tucked her arm through Thor’s, needing his reassurance, not just because they were walking through the ice tunnels, but because of what they were about to do. The LO Arch crew had created a shrine for Patty, carving it out of the ice walls of the tunnel. Tonight, they were dedicating it to her.
When Samantha saw it, she gasped. “Oh!”
Somehow, they’d connected a short strand of fairy lights to electricity, the lights making the ice glisten. A plaque of recycled metal was frozen into the ice above the shrine, Patty’s name, the dates of her birth and death, and the words “Daughter, Friend, and Astronomy Badass. Rest in Peace” engraved in it.
“What do you think?” Thor asked.
She blinked back tears. “It’s perfect.”
Ryan called out to everyone, box still in his hands. “Get as close as you can. Keep each other warm. It’s hard to fit fifty-one people in this space. Let Samantha and Thor through. I’ll try to speak so you can all hear me.”
Ryan talked about how much people loved Patty and shared what most people didn’t know—that she’d realized someone was trying to hack the satellite and had taken that information to Delaney. “Patty is a hero. Samantha, do you want to take over?”
Samantha scooted into his place. “A lot of Patty’s stuff is in the Skua area. Some of it will go to her parents. But I saved some things for her shrine.”
Ryan tilted the box so she could see inside.
She drew out the framed photo of the Milky Way that