Read V Plague (Book 11): Merciless for Free Online Page B

one else had noticed.
    “One moment, sir.”
    Jessica’s fingers flew across her keyboard.  Views on her monitor rapidly changed, then cycled through several spectrums of light.  She zoomed on a large blob, only a few hundred miles off the northern coast of Greenland.
    “Ship, sir,” she pointed. 
    “Best guess?”  Packard asked.
    “I saw something about the Russians running some of their new helicopter carriers out of Murmansk.  That’s not that far away.  Whatever the ship is, that aircraft is definitely a helo.  Too low and slow for anything else that could be launched at sea.”
    Jessica tapped the screen with a fingernail where a bright red blob was moving on a direct course for Ellesmere Island.
    “Show me the Major.  Or who we think might be him.”
    Packard waived his aide over while Jessica adjusted the view.  In moments, the man was standing next to the Admiral.
    “See that helo inbound to where we think Major Chase is?  See if we’ve got any assets that can intercept it before it arrives.”
    “Yes, sir,” the man snapped, turning and dashing away.
    “Right here, sir,” Jessica said when she had tightened the view in on a single, red blob lost in an expanse of cold blue.  “If it’s him, he got lucky.”
    “What do you mean?”  Packard asked as she worked the keyboard.
    As Jessica worked, a new layer was overlaid on the view.  It was a shot of the large island taken without clouds obscuring the terrain. 
    “He came down here, about three miles from the Nares Strait, which separates the island from Greenland.  Five miles either north or south and he’d be on a glacier.  Three miles farther east and he’d have come down in the water.”
    Packard stood staring at the monitor for a long beat.  His aide returned while he was surveying the image.
    “Sir, the flight of F-18s departed the area after determining there was a survivor on the ground.  They are inbound to Alaska, and we can’t turn them around until they refuel.  Their tanker has developed engine problems and had to head for Alaska.  It’s flying slow and they’ll catch up, but it will be over six hours before they’re back at the target location.”
    “Sir.  Look at this,” Jessica said.
    Packard turned back to her monitor and leaned in.  Something was on the extreme northeastern point of the island, about twenty miles from the red blob representing the survivor.  Not visible due to the cloud cover, what she had found was clear to see on the overlaid image. 
    “Are those buildings?”  The Admiral asked.
    “Yes, sir.  And this is a runway scraped into the ice,” Jessica said excitedly.
    “Weather station?”
    Jessica opened a couple of new windows on her terminal and began searching.  She quickly found what she was looking for.
    “Canadian Military, sir!  It’s named Station Alert!  Hold on,” she said, manipulating the image.  “And those buildings are warm, sir!  Maybe they’re automatic, but I’ll bet there’re people in there!”
    “Commander, find out everything you can about this station.  See if we have any way to contact them.  And have the Lincoln launch a fixed wing aircraft.  They can put down on that runway.  They should have some SEALs on board.  If so, I want them on that aircraft!”
     

6
     
    After finding the knife, I tried to wipe it clean on the dead Russian’s uniform, but the blood was already frozen to the steel blade.  The wind felt like it was picking up and my hands were numb, barely able to function. 
    I was still dressed warmly from being in the winter weather in Idaho, but was nowhere near prepared to be in what I was certain was a polar environment.  It only made sense, as that was the quickest route to Russia.  Up and over Canada, following the northern curve of the Earth to come down to Moscow.  It was just a guess, but I suspected I was in Greenland.
    It took some effort, but I finally relieved the dead pilot of his flight jacket, but dismissed