Chapter 1
Deep in the Yukon
The arctic fox did not move when the aircraft narrowly cleared the tree line and crossed the open field. The animal was caught in the open, far from the protection of the tall pines and spruce, paralyzed by fear and sickness. His nearly pure-white fur blended perfectly into the blinding sunlit snow of the Yukon. The air had a sting in it from the subzero cold. His breath caused the faintest vapor cloud to form as he panted, his white-frothed tongue hanging from his mouth. The exhaustion had overtaken him. He was dying.
In a daze, the animal tracked the airborne object above, head canting left and right as if he were drunk. As the engine’s throaty sound grew louder, he jumped and fell back into the snow. He tried again to run, but at a tilt, stumbling as if his internal gyroscope were off. He recovered his balance and made a desperate break for the protection of the trees.
The DHC-3 Otter’s pilot circled the field, lining up what had once been an Army runway, putting his flaps down, and landing softly on the single strip buried under the snow. The sleds of the aircraft barreled through the drifts as the aircraft’s propeller churned the dry, powder-like snow into a cloud of white that followed the bright yellow Otter to the end of the runway.
A lone person waited next to the runway with a backpack and a rectangular object next to her feet. The shape of her parka gave a clear impression that this was a woman, petite, not nearly tall enough to reach up and touch the aircraft’s wing. She held up an arm to shield her face from the blast of icy air from the propeller. A black, canvas-covered rectangular object near her feet shook as the aircraft approached, seeming to wobble on its own. Something alive inside moved the covered cage.
The aircraft stopped at the end of the runway near the passenger and her cargo. The old Otter had black oil streaks across its yellow engine cowling. The tall propeller blades came to a stop and the engine silenced. With the motor halted, the sudden silence of the outback weighed heavily until movement in the airplane broke the quiet. The sound of metal echoed as the door handle was turned. The pilot’s door swung open and a man climbed down. Tall and built firmly, he jumped down from the cockpit with a subtle air of confidence. It didn’t seem to be his first trip to the backcountry.
“Did you see that fox?” Will Parker glanced toward the other end of the runway.
“Did it have two tipped black ears?” the woman asked, carrying her backpack to the airplane.
“Yeah.” He leaned against the cargo door. “Didn’t think he was going to move.”
“Surprised he moved at all. That’s George.” She took off her mitten and pulled the strings on her backpack at her feet to ensure it was closed.
“Another infected one?” He had already seen a few types of animal in the area infected with the rapidly spreading rabies virus. Mostly, the small varmints were the targets of the dreaded disease.
She nodded.
What a way to go, he thought. As a Marine who had served in special operations in some of the most dangerous places in the world, William Parker knew all about “ways to go.” Having spent much of his time in the arctic prior to leaving the Marines, he also knew that rabies was rare in such cold climates. Will had been a member of a small band of experts that instructed Marines in how to survive above the Arctic Circle. He knew what eighty-below could do to the human body. But brutal cold was an old and well-known threat up in the north. The rabies epidemic, on the other hand, was new. And growing.
To pick up his cargo, Will had flown to this remote, abandoned airfield in Snag, Canada, deep in the Yukon and well east of the Alaskan border. Snag was an abandoned outpost of the Royal Canadian Air Force from World War II and it no longer hosted regular visitors, instead becoming a backcountry ghost town.
Perfect for my Otter, Will thought as he walked around his aircraft, performing a post flight check. The Otter aircraft was designed to get down fast and land hard in a very short space. But flying in the arctic required much of a bush pilot. Something as simple as a slightly damaged strut could, in extreme, subzero temperatures, easily snap off as the airplane landed. Yet the unusual demands of flying in the bush were what had brought Will here. He’d long ago passed the ultimate challenge for a bush pilot: landing a Super Cub on a riverbank no wider than the wheels of the aircraft. But winter was something else again. Regardless of season, though, Will had found no place on earth that had flying like the Yukon.
He had also come for the cargo.
Dr. Karen Stewart visited Snag on a regular basis. Lying to the east of the Saint Elias Mountains, the flatlands ranging north and south drew a variety of wildlife to the local habitat. Karen had left Médecins Sans Frontières to take a position with the CDC’s unit in Alaska, monitoring zoonotic infections. Zoonotic diseases followed the movement of animals, and the most dangerous of the zoonotic illnesses was rabies. Alaska and the northwest had gradually become warmer each year and, as they did, the rate of rabies had increased. The rabies virus burned through the brain and progressed relatively quickly. But as winters became milder, the sick animals were able to move farther north before dying, thus interacting with more animals and continuing the rapid spread of the fatal disease. In joining the CDC, Karen Stewart had followed in her father’s footsteps, but by studying the spread of viruses among the animals of the extreme north, she’d blazed her own trail in this relatively new field.
She and Will Parker had some history—he had saved her from a kidnapping by Al-Shabaab in the western frontier of Somalia. The purpose behind the raid on the Doctors Without Borders camp had been simple: Capture those whose families could pay the ransom. Like her father before her, Karen had worked with Doctors Without Borders in the meningitis-stricken Horn of Africa until it and terrorism caught up to her. After her close call in Africa, she’d taken the CDC job and been posted to Alaska. That’s when her father had called in a favor from Will Parker.
“Just keep an eye on her,” was all Dr. Paul Stewart had asked after hearing that Will was flying as a bush pilot out of Anchorage.
Will had agreed gladly. He owed the man who had saved his life.
“Did you get one?” He hefted Karen’s backpack and fitted it into the Otter’s cargo space.
“Yeah.”
He walked to the canvas-covered cage, slipping on his leather gloves. “This one have a name?”
“Juliet.”
“She going to make it?” He managed to fit the cage in the rear seat of the cabin.
“No.”
Karen had been in the backcountry for several days already. Parker had wanted to join her, but she’d refused. She was fiercely independent and he respected that about her. Having been a prisoner of a terrorist group in Somalia and living face-to-face with death every day, Karen had plenty of reasons to take a nine-to-five in Atlanta. But, like Will, she’d had enough of being walled in by an office.
“We need to get out of here.” Will glanced west at the Saint Elias Mountains and the darkening skies above. “A bad one’s coming.”
She nodded, hauled herself up into the copilot’s seat, and pulled back her parka hood. Her short, shaggy haircut and well-tanned face made for an attractive, athletic woman who could live in the outback with no makeup and look no worse for the wear.
He climbed into the pilot’s seat, buckled in, and started running through his preflight checklist. “You know, that’s a good name,” he said as he worked.
“What?”
“Juliet.”
She gave him a false frown.
“Dr. Juliet.” Will smiled, knowing it was her middle name.
The Otter’s engine roared with a throaty growl. Will spun up the turboprop to a deafening roar, turned the aircraft into the wind, and sped along the runway until the sleds started to leave the surface. As the plane lifted, he banked to the southeast, heading away from Anchorage.
“Why this way?” she asked through her mike.
She had donned earphones to hear Will above the guttural sound of the engine. The radial Pratt & Whitney engine on the Otter was as old as the 1967 aircraft, but more than once it had been taken apart piece-by-piece and rebuilt. An engine like this was meant to be overhauled. Its parts were made of heavy castings for repeated use until it ended up in a graveyard or short of a runway in a bad crash. No matter how it died, the Otter’s body would be cannibalized for its knobs, handles, and gauges like a transplant donor. In that way, it would keep on living for decades. But for now, it had thousands of landings to go and many years of flying to come.
“We need to skirt the storm.” He pointed to a dark line that crowded the tops of the peaks that stood between them and Anchorage. “There’s a valley to the south that we can pass through.” Some of the mountains in the Saint Elias Range topped out at 19,000 feet. Will’s Otter was not made for such high altitudes.
Suddenly, the cockpit’s electronics panel shuddered. At the same time, the aircraft’s engine sputtered.
“What?” Karen’s voice betrayed her fear.
“We’re okay.”
Will knew immediately what had occurred: A solar flare. The weather report that morning on takeoff had mentioned a risk of the flare’s arrival. The sun had unleashed a magnetic shockwave that had traveled millions of miles through space until it collided with the earth and overloaded the electronics of the airplane. Like being knocked down by a wave, the avionics on the cockpit’s panel sputtered, then went black.
It shouldn’t have affected the engine, Will thought as he loosened his grip. A nervous pilot only made matters worse. He kept the yoke steady and the wings level, going through the mental checklist that an experienced pilot would use to check each system quickly. He looked at the fuel gauge, then tried to turn the engine over, but the big radial simply coughed and went silent again.
Probably some bad fuel. Will scanned the panel again. He had landed at a small airport to refuel after crossing the mountain range. It didn’t take much water in the fuel to cause havoc, especially when combined with an electrical failure.
Will Parker knew one thing about the Otter: It was made to land in any condition and on any surface.
Give me the space between home plate and first base…that’s all I need. Ninety feet and he could put the airplane safely on the ground.
He scanned the terrain ahead for that much room, keeping the nose of the aircraft tilted down to maintain his airspeed. Without power, some airplanes can glide for miles as long as a calm hand can keep the nose down.
“Hand me that radio.” Will pointed to a small handheld in a storage pocket next to her seat. The battery-powered radio was a must for flying in the bush. It could serve as a most important backup.
He radioed air traffic control. “Anchorage Control, this is November one-one-two.” He hesitated to use the word mayday. A quick landing, with an equally quick passing of the solar interference, did not qualify for a mayday.
The SP-400 radio only crackled.
“We can land this…no problem.” His voice was intended to calm his passenger—and himself. He looked straight ahead for a likely landing spot, as a turn would only cause the plane to lose critical airspeed. Air slowing down as it passed over the wing meant the loss of lift.
Easy, Will thought as he relaxed his hands again. It never helped to fight an airplane, even in a situation like this. He scanned his panel to make sure that something obvious was not missing. Engine failure in the arctic didn’t happen every day, but this was not Will Parker’s first.
Nothing.
He looked across the horizon. A ridge stood in front of the nose. There was no telling what was on the other side. It didn’t matter. Their situation required commitment without hesitation. He steered the plane steadily, holding on to as much altitude as possible and for as long as possible.
“Altitude is our friend.” He spoke the words unconsciously, forgetting for a moment that he had a passenger. It was an old pilot’s saying that went back to the most basic instructions and first flight lessons.
“What?” Karen was turning pale.
The Otter’s sleds brushed the top of the trees at the crown of the ridge.
“There you go.” He pointed to a small, ice-covered pothole lake just to the left of the nose. The pothole lakes of the Yukon were Mother Nature’s version of the same small, deep holes found in the Yukon’s road surfaces. These were filled with ice and water. If he could hold on to a gentle turn, they had a chance. The Otter slowly slid down the hill as it lost altitude. The crown of a pine tree brushed the strut. Lower, lower, finally reaching the lake.
The aircraft slammed down on the ice and snow, the banking turn having caused the airplane to lose all of its remaining lift. The speed rapidly bled off as the skids scraped across the frozen lake until Will saw a log sticking up out of the ice.
“Hold on!”
The crunch of metal echoed through the woods and all movement stopped. The right skid had been sheared off, and the remaining sharp point of the landing gear had gotten stuck in the ice. At least the airplane had come to a stop.
“Let’s get out of here.” Will pointed to the door on his side. The aircraft was tilted with her starboard side angled down, causing the cargo to slide to the right. He pulled Karen across his seat and helped her down onto the ice, which seemed more than adequate to hold their weight.
“You okay?” Will was still holding her on the ice. She’d felt so small and light in her parka as he’d helped her out. He’d forgotten what the woman he’d saved in Africa felt like.
“Yeah.” Her face remained ash-gray, but she seemed steady enough on her feet. Suddenly, she jumped at a noise from behind.
The cargo door on the other side had popped open; they heard another sound.
“Watch out.” Karen shielded him with an arm and backed away from the wrecked aircraft.
Will saw motion on the other side as a white form crawled out of the wreckage and scurried away across the ice and into the woods on the far side of the lake.
Juliet had escaped.
“This storm isn’t going to be pretty.” He looked back to the Saint Elias Mountains. “We need shelter.”
He knew that the clouds would bring a blizzard; after that, the temperature would drop precipitously. The clear Siberian air that followed a major front could be deadly. He pointed to a space in the timberline on the other side of the aircraft across the lake. The gap in the trees made an oddly straight line from the edge of the lake deep into the woods. In the center of the timber cut was what appeared to be a rock formation covered in deep snow.
Will pointed at the outcropping. “Let’s go there. We need to get out of this wind.”
A cold breeze swept across the lake. The tail of the Otter squeaked as the rudder was pushed from side to side by the wind. It was the only sound.
“Whitehorse is south.” He pointed in the same direction as the swath of broken trees. “But no one will come.” He calculated the process. The airplane would not be missing for some time, and air traffic control was likely overwhelmed with others affected by the solar flare.
“Even though we crashed?” She looked up at him with eyes that seemed larger than normal.
“Not a crash.” He smiled. “A landing.” He looked back at the storm coming in. “Anything you walk away from is a landing.”
“Great.” Karen gave him a sarcastic smile like the teenager told about a curfew. But at least he got a smile.
They were several miles from Snag and a massive, thickly forested hill deep in snow stood between them and the airfield. Although the pilot-training strip had closed decades ago, pilots still recognized the name Snag. It had a distinction in Canada that Will didn’t choose to share with Karen. Gasoline froze at forty below, but Snag was known for temperatures that turned oil into fudge. Metal would break off in your hand when the mercury hit seventy or eighty below zero, like stale icing falling off of a leftover cake.
“Follow me,” he said, taking her arm. “We need some shelter, Dr. Juliet.”
Chapter 2
Area 41, Camp Pendleton, California
“Sixteen-hundred!”
Lance Corporal Gordon Todd Newton hit the button to close down both of his computers. One was his work PC, provided by his employer, the United States Marine Corps, and the other a supercharged Alienware laptop loaded with everything he could afford on junior enlisted pay. But it was also his special baby, used for the recreational hacking he did on breaks and weekends, as well as the competitive online gaming he still enjoyed in his remaining free time.
“It’s Friday,” Todd said, stretching his arms and rubbing his eyes. “And I’m outta here.”
No one heard him, as he was the sole occupant of the small, dark computer room. He packed up his Alienware in his backpack and slung the strap over his shoulder. His orders mandated that he not bring his personal computer into a room full of computers containing access to classified networks, but Todd took a flexible approach to the rule. Inside, he still had a little of the errant student who had once accessed his high school’s computer network to tweak his friends’ grades. He liked to push authority.
He also loved his job as a temp. On special TAD (temporary additional duty) to the 1st Raider Battalion, he felt slightly out of step with his command. He was as 180-degrees different from the super-Marines of the Marine Raider Battalion as a computer geek could be. The critical skill operators, or CSOs, would go out for twenty-mile runs while Newton spent eighteen-hour days in front of a little green screen. When the Raiders were out drinking, Todd would play around with John the Ripper or THC Hydra, hacker programs, and try to break into nonmilitary computer systems — not to do harm, only to see if it could be done. Normally, Todd’s duty station was MarForCyBer, Marine Corps Forces Cyberspace Command at Fort Meade, Maryland, the home of the 0651s: the military’s cyber network operators. But the chance to be in California’s Camp Pendleton for a few weeks had worked well for several reasons.
For one, Todd thought as he hurried to the barracks to change out of his Marine camouflaged utilities, Area 41 at Pendleton wasn’t far from the beach. Stretching north and south for twenty-one miles, the landscape—aside from Interstate 5—was practically untouched. Todd also had a car, which meant he could spend weekends in San Diego, where the weather was always warm and he could be left alone. Not that the Raiders bothered him much. Most knew little or nothing about his 0651 specialty, but they knew that they needed him. Like cable television, when computers shut down due to a glitch, things got frustrating very quickly.
The assignment also meant something. The Marine Raider unit was working with the integration of tablets wirelessly connected through encrypted networks. Combat patrols and missions would have access to everything the networks could provide. Satellite feeds of enemy locations, for instance, came up instantaneously. A call for close air support or artillery fire could be made by tablet. The stealthy F-35B fighter jets overhead could be called in for air support like a pack of dogs hungry for a target. And a Marine on the battlefield with a tablet knew exactly where he was. GPS not only gave him a location, but also helped the troops avoid friendly-fire mistakes.
Finally, Todd’s temporary duty at Pendleton was a trip to his own past. Newton had lived in San Clemente as a kid when his father was stationed for a couple of years at Marine Corps Air Station El Toro to the north. His dad had flown F/A 18s when they first came out. The Hornet topped out at 1100 miles an hour with its pilot strapped to two General Electric F404 turbofan jet engines. A Hornet pilot didn’t make any mistakes. If he did, it was only one. At 1100 miles per hour, a sneeze could put a man into the side of a mountain. Of course, it took a special kind of person to fly a machine that didn’t allow for the slightest error. Such people tended to be…unforgiving. Todd’s dad’s flying years came right before the divorce, which hadn’t been a big surprise. His father and mother were total opposites. Dad ran over people. Mom tended to get lost in her books and vodka.
Normal would have been nice, Todd thought.
Back when his folks had still been together, the three of them had lived in an apartment on Avenida Montalvo looking out over the Pacific. That’s also when Todd’s high school had produced a small gang of hackers. The San Clemente Tritons’ computer science club started with just a few, but almost doubled before Todd had graduated.
The term hacker, while unavoidable, had never been his favorite word. Hacking sounded violent and malicious, but it had never been about committing crimes for Todd. Instead, it offered the irresistible challenge of solving puzzles.
In the end, Todd was his mother’s child: Less of a straight arrow and more of a p. . .
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