The Persona Protocol - By Andy McDermott Page 0,102
‘This is it – they’re going to collect the RTG.’
He was about to ask Holly Jo if she had tapped into the call when Zykov suddenly waved to the driver, who leaned out of the cab. ‘Put these in!’ Zykov called out in Russian. ‘Sixty-four! Twenty-five! Thirty-three, north! One-seven-three! Four! Thirty-seven, west!’ The driver typed each number in turn into a unit on his dashboard.
A GPS. He was entering the coordinates for the rendezvous with Sevnik.
Adam hurriedly relayed the figures. ‘Where is that?’
‘It’s about four and a half miles due east of your current position, up in the hills,’ Tony replied. ‘That’s as the crow flies – it’s a lot further going round the inlet.’
Adam glanced around the container. The desolate snow-covered hills rose steeply and uninvitingly on the fjord’s far side. He guessed the summits to be well over a thousand feet high. ‘What’s there?’
‘Nothing, as far as I can tell. Looks like a glaciated valley.’
Zykov concluded his call, then returned to the Vityaz and climbed into the cab. The driver revved the engine, a plume of dirty exhaust smoke spouting skywards. Wherever they were going, Adam knew he had to follow. But the borrowed Lada would not get far off the road, while the articulated Vityaz could negotiate almost any terrain. So how . . .
Only one way. He hurried back to the car, pulling Bianca’s door open. She looked up at him in surprise. ‘Come on. Bring the PERSONA – quick!’
She had not seen the terrorists leave the ship. ‘What’s happened?’
‘Come on, now! They’re moving out.’
Still bewildered, she scrambled from the car. ‘Who’s moving? Zykov?’
‘Yes – and al-Rais.’
‘He’s here?’
‘Yes, but not for long. Hurry up!’ They retrieved the PERSONA’s cases, taking one each, then ran along the row of containers. Adam cautiously checked the road. The Vityaz was performing its caterpillar trick again, bending at the middle to drastically tighten its turning circle. Snow and gravel spitting up from its tracks, it ground back the way it had come.
Adam waited for the driver’s mirrors to be blocked by the trailer, then broke into a run after it. ‘Move, quick!’
Bianca followed, confused. ‘What are we doing?’
‘We’ve got to get aboard!’ Adam quickly caught up with the crawler. The trailer’s rear entrance was a wide bottom-hinged tailgate with only a canvas flap above it to shield the interior from the elements. He pulled the canvas away and swung the case inside, then clambered in after it. ‘Come on!’
Bianca was some way behind, weighed down with the second case, the medical kit and the Geiger counter. ‘Wait, wait!’
‘I can’t, I’m not driving!’ He held out his arms. ‘Give me the case, then take my hand!’
She strained to lift the weighty case up high enough for him to get hold of it. He swept it into the trailer, then reached back to grab her hand. ‘All right, jump in!’
He pulled her up as she leapt at the tailgate, hooking her free arm over it. For a moment she wobbled, then Adam tugged harder and she rolled into the trailer. ‘Ow! Bloody hell!’ she cried.
‘Are you okay?’
She clutched her arms protectively across her chest, grimacing in pain. ‘No, that really bloody hurt when you dragged me over that thing!’
‘Sorry. But I needed you to come with me.’
‘Why?’
‘That’s a very good question,’ Tony said in Adam’s ear. ‘What the hell are you doing? The UAV can follow Zykov – it’s tracking you right now.’
‘Sevnik isn’t just going to hand the RTG over then and there,’ Adam replied. ‘It’s a rendezvous, but I doubt it’s the end of the journey. If Sevnik was bringing the RTG in by helicopter or in another ATV, he could have delivered it straight to the airport. No, it’s stashed somewhere – somewhere protected from the weather, and where some random hunter won’t trip over it.’
‘Okay, we’ll see where this takes us,’ said Tony, though doubt was clear in his voice. ‘Not that we’ve got much choice, now that you’ve jumped in the back of Zykov’s truck!’
‘It’ll take us to the RTG. I’m sure of it.’ Adam pulled the canvas flap back down, then surveyed the trailer’s interior. It was as bare as the landscape beyond the town, plain metal benches running the length of each side and a small mound of dirty tarpaulins and sheets piled at the far end. He gestured to one of the benches. ‘You might as well sit down,’ he said to Bianca. ‘This could be a long ride.’