Chapter 30 - THE SOUTHERN VECTORSix days later, the slate-gray skies of the Northern Hemisphere were a distant memory, replaced by the blinding, glacial white expanse of the Antarctic continent.
The heavy twin-engine transport plane touched down on the compressed snow runway of McMurdo Station with a deafening roar of reverse thrusters, kicking up a blinding wall of crystalline powder that settled slowly over the frozen tarmac.
My father and I sat side-by-side in the dimly lit cargo hold of the aircraft, our heavy thermal parkas zipped tight against the bone-chilling minus-forty-degree temperatures waiting outside.
Miller, whose shoulder had miraculously healed enough for field duty, sat across from us, racking the bolt of a modified heavy-caliber sniper rifle designed to operate in extreme sub-zero conditions.
"Our intelligence indicates a rogue corporate extraction team reached the underground installation three hours ahead of us," Miller said, sliding a fresh magazine into her rifle with a crisp, mechanical click. "They’re trying to salvage the biological data cores before the international treaty commission can secure the site."
I pulled the titanium drive from my pocket, sliding it securely alongside the old leather journal resting against my chest, feeling the familiar, steady rhythm of my own heartbeat matching the pulse of the mission.
The transport ramp hissed open, flooding the dark cargo hold with a blinding, razor-sharp glare of Antarctic sunlight that bounced endlessly off the frozen wasteland.
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"Let's move," I said, pulling down my thermal goggles and stepping out onto the ice.
The wind roared around us, howling across the frozen continent like a pack of wolves, but as I strode down the lowering ramp into the white abyss, I knew one thing with absolute certainty: whatever secrets were buried beneath the ice, they were about to meet the Merricks.
