The Valkyrie Project (9 page)

"Out here
, Ana?" Rani’s eyes bore the same condescension obvious in her tone. "In this?" She gestured to the snow flying around them. "Really?"

Ana accepted the odds were on Rani's side on that one. It was probably just the lingering phantom of Jrue she'd seen that tugged at her sympathies.

The corpse was already half-submerged in the snow that fell constantly all around them. They pulled it free and a cursory search revealed no weapons. No possessions at all, actually, and no obvious form of identification.

"So," Ana said, "an unarmed Continuum agent was out in a blizzard by themselves with no protection? This outfit isn't even enough to protect them from the elements."

"So I just saved them some time, then," Rani said. "Better safe than dead."

"Sure."

Ana could not argue with the fact that shooting first was protocol in this situation, especially not with the team lead on the mission, and even less so with Rani. Still, she couldn't help but think they'd just killed a possibly innocent person. Yet there was nothing to be done at this point. The person, whoever they were, whatever they'd been doing, was dead. The Valkyries decided who lived and so they trudged on.

--

Ana noticed the change first. The snow around them seemed to get brighter. It started to glow as though thousands of fireflies danced around them before she realized there was a light source ahead.

"We're getting close," she said. "It's getting lighter."

"Be on your guard," Rani hissed.

They drew their pistols and slid into a triangle formation.

The snow grew sparser as they got closer to the light. Anything giving off that much light must generate enough heat to melt the snow around it. The three of them crested a ridge and saw snowflakes evaporate under the power of spotlights illuminating what might have been a giant radar buried in the snow.

The three Valkyries dropped into the soft snow and each took a moment to assess the situation.

They were looking onto an alabaster basin at least fifty meters across, with a dark hole puncturing the vast white floor that surrounded it. The spotlights stood around the hole at regular intervals, but, despite their size, provided precious little illumination past the brown and black rim that dove deep into the ground. There was a line of people going into and out of the hole like ants taking food to their queen. All of them were dressed identically to the man Rani had killed en route, but burdened with three or four black canisters..

"That man was a worker here," Ana said as quietly as she could, but with conviction that was not lost on her fellow Valkyries.

"Yes," Rani said, "he probably was." As cold as the snow that enveloped them as they lay bellied up to the ground. "Now, what are they carrying out of there? They've got canisters of some sort."

Ana looked at her, stunned. She'd known Rani was a hard woman to crack, but she was bordering on psychosis with this behavior.

"That may be some sort of fuel. Perhaps for a weapon that Continuum has. Clearly they're harvesting it from that hole," Freya said, drawing Ana's focus back to the objective.

Ana moved her thoughts about Rani to another compartment in her brain. They were on a mission, and while a psychotic teammate could jeopardize them, her lack of focus could as well.
She'd talk when they were back in the office. And if the talk didn't go well, she could raise an issue with Malcolm.

"They're loading them up over there
." Ana pointed, keeping her arm low. "There doesn't seem to be security anywhere except by the snowmobiles."

"Why would they need it?" Freya said. "Who's going to come in here? And who's going to try to leave?"

Ana thought of the man behind them, swallowed up by the snow no doubt. Had he been trying to leave? Or had he just wandered off and gotten lost?

"So," Rani said, "
we get in there, get a sample from one of those canisters, and then get out of here."

"And we just leave all these people here? Look at them; they're all wearing those paper
-thin jumpsuits. Look at their posture. Does it look to you like they want to be here?"

"What do you want to do, Ana? There are at least a hundred people down there, not counting the security. Our transport holds four."

"Ana," Freya broke in. "We'll get a sample of that stuff, and then we can send in a rescue team. That's as good as we can do."

Ana bit her lip and nodded her assent.

"Okay," Rani said, "we'll circle the ridge here until we get to the fourth spotlight. We can use that for cover to get close. There are a couple snowmobiles that aren't being watched, there, at the back. Should be easy enough."

--

After it was over, Freya would compare them to snow leopards, but while they circled around the three giant generator-powered lights, Ana felt like an elephant. Okay, maybe more like a grizzly bear, but certainly something that stuck out against the snow and the bright light.

Lucky for them, though, the guards that littered the basin were more concerned with making sure no one got out than guarding against intruders coming in. Under the cover of the roaring generators that powered the twenty
-plus lights as bright as burning balls of gas, the trio was able to slip behind the fourth spotlight in the arc unnoticed.

No more than fifty meters in front of the spotlight sat some sort of sled, outfitted with skis and a large power burner on the back, clearly designed to make transport over the snowy terrain easier. The worker bees were bringing the canisters to the sleds spaced around the site to empty them via a powerful suction process. Ana counted less than one sled per spotlight, but enough were in use so that after a worker emptied their canister, the sleds sat alone for a decent amount of time.

Freya started forward with Rani and Ana covering her, their weapons trained on the two nearest armed guards. As Ana followed her target, she saw he was not just armed, but heavily armed. Aside from the large rifle he carried with both hands, a smaller firearm glinted in the light from his chest as well as another shining strapped to his leg. Hot and hostile indeed.

Freya attached a small blood
-sampling device, the best they could do given the situation, to the large barrel, and it quickly filled with dark liquid. The guard on Ana's side was screened by the sled and its cargo, but the one on Freya's side would spot her with just a turn of his head. Freya crouched, like a snow leopard waiting for prey, and detached the device. The guard began to turn, but then crumpled to the ground. Freya bounded back to where her fellow Valkyries waited. Ana had just enough time to glance over and see Rani's finger release the trigger of her gun. That made two she'd taken down. At least that one had been a bad guy.

The three
Valkyries raced back through the swirling snow to where Jrue and their transport waited. Ana worried what would happen when one of the other security guards eventually discovered the man Rani had shot.

As if reading her mind, Rani said, "Don't worry, I used ice shells. We will be back to the ship before they realize that he didn't die of some variation of exposure. If they do even figure it out."
Except for the entry wound the shell would have left no matter where it hit him.

When they made it back to the ship, Ana allowed herself to wonder if the guard would have actually turned in time to see Freya at the sled. As soon as the thought entered her mind, she knew she should not second
-guess her teammate. If it had been her watching that guard, thinking about what someone else would do might have gotten Freya—or all three of them—killed. Yet Rani's quick reaction had also led to the death of an innocent worker. One who might have been able to provide them with information about the liquid they were now taking back to the Agency, or perhaps about the Continuum itself.

Such contentious thoughts were driven away by a big bright smile from Jrue.

"Awesome work," he said as they belted in.

Ana was once again quite pleased to spend a ride back to headquarters in his company
.

--

The laboratory team secured the dark liquid in a container twenty times the size of the sample the Valkyries had managed to bring back. So, mission accomplished. Well, that mission, at least. Ana still couldn't help thinking about the people digging through hundreds of years' worth of ice practically unprotected from the sub-zero temperatures.

"Malcolm"
—she followed him into his office—"there were at least a hundred people there. Who knows what the conditions were like in the hole where they were extracting the stuff from."

"You said the lamps were very warm?" He turned to face her and leaned against his desk.

"Yes, but—"

"Yes, and this seemed like a high
-tech operation, did it not?"

"Yes, but
—"

"Ana, we don't have the resources to go chasing down there just in case people might be in danger. If they're being watched by the Continuum, then our presence there may be more of a threat than the cold."

It was much closer to rational than anything Rani had come up with, but he'd cut off two ‘yes-buts’ from Ana, and the whole thing wasn't sitting well with her. She had to push.

"Malcolm, you always tell me to decide who lives and who dies. That's what the Valkyries do. How can you sit by and let these people get worked or frozen to death?"

"Ana—I appreciate your concern. But from your observations, I can't say that those people are in any more danger than anyone else in the cases we're working on. The Project doesn't have the resources to pursue it."

"Then tell someone else, send it to another division."

"It won't get approved. If I send this to Jacobs or Soltano, they're going to read your brief and ask for more proof before they would consider even splitting the budget with me."

"Then I'll go back! I'll get proof
. I'll bring one of the workers back."

"Ana, you know I can't let you do that."

"You didn't let me go back to the warehouse, and look how that turned out." She folded her arms. Checkmate.

Malcolm sighed and shook his head at the floor.

"Ana. I already have another mission for you. A high-priority assignment came in while you were out there."

"I won't do it. I won't leave those people there to die. I will decide who lives and who dies. That's the Valkyries' work. You can't just turn it on and off whenever it suits you."

"Ana, your new mission is to intercept a deal for a viral agent. Preventing the virus from getting into the wrong hands will save lives. Briefing is scheduled in six hours. The Hotel is prepped. Marisol is already in there resting up."

"Goddamn you," Ana said, but it was wrapped in a heavy blanket of breath.

"What was that?"

"You know what that was." She turned and stalked out of his office.

Fucking Hotel. The Agency had built it so that the Valkyries could recover faster from their missions. Higher oxygen content, arrays of medical devices in every room, special food and drugs as well as natural medicine. Ana hated it. She always felt more well-fed and rested after a black bean burger with guac and fries at Murph's and a couple hours in her own bed, no matter how cramped her apartment was.

There was a light hand on her arm.

"Hey, Ana."

It was Jrue.

"Oh, hey, Jrue, good driving out there."

"Thanks."

He stood there. Waiting for something. She wasn't sure what and she wasn't in a mood to wait. But his cool blue eyes poured a little of their water on the fire in her stomach.

"So, hey," he said, "you hungry? There's a place I know that's got great comfort food. You know, warm up after that mission."

A smile spread across his face as he got the words out. Ana couldn't help noticing how nervous he was, and found it incredibly endearing. Through his timid faltering he'd managed to ask her out on a date without actually asking her out. On a professional level, that just might work. She might have to refresh her memory on the rules regarding the ability of Valkyries to eat meals with non-Valkyrie co-workers outside of mission parameters. In general, the guidelines prohibited sexual contact of any sort with anyone else working at the Agency. That pretty much also disallowed any sort of non-platonic long-term relationship. And when Ana looked at Jrue, her thoughts were anything but platonic.

The rules applied to Valkyrie Project workers as strictly as other Agency employees. But that was just the overview, re-reading the specifics could uncover a loophole. A bit of subterfuge that would allow the exchange of pleasantries over a meal after completing a mission. Especially since it had technically been a successful mission. That could mean a celebratory drink or two was in order. Yes, an intriguing proposition.

Ana realized that the wait for her response had grown a little long while she'd been caught up in her thoughts.

"Warm sounds good right now." Screw the Hotel. Comfort food was better than a science diet. "Let me just check my messages real quick." She wanted to verify that Malcolm had scheduled their briefing.