April's eyes were like the holes of open graves. "Untie me and try that," she said.

The harsh bark of Jaz's laugh echoed off the ice chamber's walls. "You're good, I'll admit that. But not as good as me."

Then she took a heavy step forward and smashed her rifle b.u.t.t against April's jaw. The blow flung her backwards. She hit the ice floor with a sickening thud, unconscious.

Jaz looked down at her. "And don't ever threaten me again."

Skarda glared daggers, but she just grinned at him. "Take it easy, handsome. It was just a love tap." She jerked her rifle at one of her men. "Okay, pick her up and let's get to the ship."

___.

The wind slashed at Skarda's exposed face and icy spray stung him like flying stone chips each time the Zodiac banged down in a trough of choppy water. Beside him, Flinders sat shivering uncontrollably, her face and lips drained of blood. April lay in the bottom of the inflatable, still out, the wind whipping her hair across her face. Skarda shifted his position, trying his best to block the spray from reaching the women.

They were in a second inflatable, sitting surrounded by armed men whose hard eyes never wavered. Up ahead, Jaz's Zodiac threaded a path through the dark water in a spreading wake, avoiding the great chunks of drift ice. In the near distance Skarda could see the gigantic silhouette of a stranded icebreaker, immense and black against the horizon and the perpetual twilight. Off to his left, through a shroud of mist, he could make out the dark hump of a submarine's conning tower.

Within minutes they reached the hull of the big ship. Jaz scrambled up the ladder.

A rifle barrel jabbed Skarda's back. "Move!" a man with a German accent ordered.

___.

Two men carried April down a narrow pa.s.sageway lined with closed hatches. In front of her, Skarda moved with jerky steps, the German commando driving him on with sharp jabs of his rifle, his free hand aiming a halogen torch to guide their way. They'd crossed over an icy deck, devoid of any lights, then followed a narrow staircase to a corridor that opened onto a computer room, wet and dry labs, and a hydrographic laboratory. Skarda concluded they'd boarded an oceanographic research ship.

But why?

They moved into another pa.s.sageway. Jaz halted the group in front of a closed bulkhead door. Rotating the dog wheel, she yanked it open. A cacophany of angry shouts. .h.i.t Skarda's ears. Jerking up her gun barrel, she squeezed off a quick burst at the ceiling, clearly not caring if the ricocheting shots found a target. A woman cried out. The voices changed from anger to terror.

With a grin, she played a light over the crowd of frightened faces: the crew and scientists of the Polar Circle. "Play nice, now."

Rough hands shoved Skarda, his wrists still shackled, into the knot of captives. April followed, her wrists and legs bound. Friendly hands grabbed her before she fell face first, gently lowering her to the floor. He glanced around. The captives were packed into a triangular-shaped room dominated by gigantic twin chains wrapped around a black cylindrical barrel. The anchor windla.s.s room.

Outside in the pa.s.sageway Flinders stood hemmed in between two commandos. Terror and helpless uncertainty clenched her face.

A burly petty officer took a belligerent step toward Jaz. "Who the h.e.l.l are you people?"

She sighed in mock exasperation. "Why does everybody keep asking me that? If you must know, I'm the one who's going to lock you in here and sink the ship, big boy."

A female scientist gasped.

The petty officer leapt forward. Jaz swung her rifle, smashing the barrel against his cheekbone.

He went down in a heap.

"Like I said, everybody be nice. I'll be back in a few and we'll wrap this party up." She turned to a stocky commando. "Lock the door and stay here until I get back."

He nodded. Then, with an evil grin, she grabbed Flinders by the bicep and hauled her down the pa.s.sageway.

A yelp broke from Flinder's lips. "Where are you taking me?"

Jaz didn't answer. Leaning back, Flinders dug her feet into the steel plating, stumbling as she was dragged along.

"Where are you taking me?" she asked again. It was almost a shriek.

Whirling around in a blur of speed, Jaz snapped her forearm around Flinders' throat. She pressed her lips against her ear and ran her tongue sensually along the inner grooves. "Just shut up and enjoy the ride, cutie."

___.

Dragging Flinders into the captain's cabin, Jaz yanked the hatch closed and threw her on the bed.

"Leave me alone!" she screamed. She landed on her back, twisting, trying to snake away, but Jaz jumped on her, straddling her and pinning her in place with both thighs.

Shrugging her shoulders out of the bulky immersion suit, Jaz reached in a pocket and took out a hypodermic and vial, drawing yellow steroid fluid into the hypo.

Flinders struggled, thinking the hypo was for her. Her legs kicked frantically. Her hands hammered against Jaz's swollen muscles.

With an expression of exquisite pleasure, Jaz jammed the needle into her bicep, squeezing the plunger down with her thumb. When the liquid had disappeared, she flung the hypo across the cabin. It hit the bulkhead and shattered.

"G.o.d, I love it!" she said, rising up and arching her back, shuddering as the drug hit her system.

Flinders' face twisted with revulsion. "You're sick."

l.u.s.t tightened the blonde woman's face. She stared down at the captive squirming between her thighs. "The problem with this stuff is, it turns you into a man." She jerked her body forward, lowering her face until it was an inch away from Flinders'. Her tongue snaked out, probing, licking. "See what I mean?"

Flailing her arms, Flinders kicked out in wild gyrations. "Let me go!"

Jaz straightened her back and yanked off her shirt. Coa.r.s.e black hairs sprouted from her shrunken b.r.e.a.s.t.s and climbed up her sternum to her throat.

She reached out and slapped Flinders hard across the cheek. Blood welled up, trickling from her mouth.

"Oh, we're going to have a good time," she said.

Flinders screamed.

FORTY-TWO.

IN the darkness of the windla.s.s room one of the research scientists bent behind Skarda's back, trying to spring the handcuffs with a pair of manicure scissors. Over his shoulder another man aimed a solar-powered laser pointer to give him light. Not powered by batteries, it had escaped the effects of the EMP blast.

The sound of footsteps filtered through the door.

"Put it out!" Skarda whispered.

The man doused the beam, plunging them into absolute darkness.

Then the door burst open, revealing Jaz and Flinders. The blonde woman shoved her inside.

Stumbling into the knot of captives, Flinders kept her eyes lowered to the floor, her body rigid, as if her muscles had turned to stone. Bright red blood still trickled from her mouth. Ugly welts discolored the flesh on her face.

Skarda sprang to her side. "Are you okay?"

She didn't look at him. "No." The single word came out hard and flat and cold.

He took a closer step toward her, but she recoiled.

"She enjoyed herself," Jaz said, beaming. The ba.s.s notes in her voice seemed to have deepened. "I'd like to keep her around as my pet, but time...you know how it is."

Inch by inch Flinders lifted her eyes. Their dark blue was glacier-cold. "I'm going to kill you, b.i.t.c.h."

Throwing her head back, Jaz brayed out a loud laugh. "Sure you are, cutie."

Flinders' face colored red. For a long moment she stared at the blonde woman. Then tears welled up in her eyes and she sank to the floor, head down.

Skarda eyed her coldly. "If she doesn't do it, I will."

Again Jaz laughed, then stepped back into the pa.s.sageway, pushing the door closed. When it was half-ajar she stuck her head back into the room. "And now," she announced, "I'm going to leave you on your own." With a flourish, she tossed an LED lamp at the nearest scientist. "Just so you can watch each other die." The thought caused a shudder of pleasure to quiver through her. "When we blow the bottom, the rest of the ship will be flooded, but this room is sealed off, watertight. So when you get down to a certain pressure...whap!" She clapped her hands together. "It'll be like someone stepping on a pop can!"

Skarda watched her body shake with something like an o.r.g.a.s.m. He eyed her coldly. "There's some kind of bomb on this ship, isn't there? You're going to try to melt the ice."

Jaz smiled. "Ding! Ding! Ding! You win, handsome! You figured it out!"

___.

On the forecastle deck, Jaz watched the pivot boom of a manual crane lower a two-by-six-foot, six-inch-thick t.i.tanium case into an open cargo hold, while a man in an immersion suit stood braced against a stanchion, videotaping the installation. Down below, she knew, her men were packing the bulkheads of the bow, the rudder room, and the boiler room amidships with M112 block demolition charges. The explosions would cut through the armor plate of the icebreaker's hull like a knife, separating it, allowing the ship to sink evenly on the bottom.

Inside the hold, men helped to swing the case in place, securing it with lashing rods. Jaz ordered them to open it. Nestled inside were twenty ten-inch-long bars, arranged in patterns of four by five, that looked like they were made of silver-gray s.h.a.ggy carpet. Even in the darkness they seemed to emit a reddish glow.

The isomer bars.

The videographer bent over the edge of the open hold, aiming his camera.

"Make sure you get the whole thing," Jaz yelled. "I want them to be able to count the bars."

When the videographer had finished, she signaled for the case to be closed. The men swung the lid shut and bolted it in place.

Then, with the wind howling around her, she clambered down the ladder to the Zodiac.

___.

April stirred.

Dropping to his knees beside her, Skarda called out her name. In the diffused light of the LED he could see the ugly bruise on her jaw where Jaz had struck her. Again he called out.

Her eyes snapped open and consciousness returned with full force.

In rapid sentences, he filled her in.

"All right," she said. "Let's get these cuffs off."

The scientist with the scissors snipped the tape on her legs. Rolling to her knees, she twisted around while he placed the tool in her manacled hands. Then she scuttled backwards until she could press her back against Skarda's, her fingers searching out the slick metal surface of his cuffs. Using the scissors as a shim, she worked the point into the locking mechanism.

Thirty seconds later he was free. Grabbing the scissors, he freed her hands.

April climbed to her feet, addressing the captives. "When the charges go off, we'll have fifteen, maybe twenty minutes, until the top deck goes under, and after that, we're done for." She looked into the crowd of fear-stricken faces. "So we're going to need a way out of here, fast." She indicated the bulkhead hatch. "Is there any way to get through this door?"

The petty officer had regained consciouness. Now he struggled to his feet, his face a ma.s.s of bruised tissue. He winced. "There's a latch system to keep these hatches watertight. Once the hatches are dogged, n.o.body's getting in...or out."

"Okay," she said. "Any ideas?"

Her only answer was the labored rasp of terrified breathing in the darkness.

___.

Driven snow stung Jaz's exposed face as the Zodiac jounced over the black water toward the sub. She turned to look at the dwindling hulk of the Polar Circle's stern. Then, with a grin, she thumbed down the b.u.t.ton on a remote detonator.

A second later three loud whumps echoed over the ice, followed by the grating scream of metal being torn apart. Beneath the hull water spouted up in gouts like depth charge explosions. Already foam was churning as thousands of gallons of salt water flooded the ruptured hull.

The image of the doomed crew flashed into her mind, their mouths torn open in terrified screams, their fists beating uselessly against quarter-inch steel plating as they sunk to the bottom of the Arctic Ocean in a metal crypt.

The thought sent a shiver rippling up her spinal column.

___.

As the simultaneous explosions ripped through the big ship, the floor of the windla.s.s room seemed to lift up under their feet.

A woman whimpered. A small man rushed at the bulkhead door, tugging frantically on the spokes of the dog wheel.

Useless.

But Flinders got to her feet and said, "I've got an idea."

Skarda turned to her. The scientist holding the LED flashed the light in her direction. Her face was set in rigid planes, her eyes devoid of emotion, but her voice had taken on a more controlled quality, as if she'd found the strength to pull herself together now that Jaz had left.

"What?" Skarda asked her.

Pulling the metal case from her pocket, she opened it, taking out the chunk of orichalc.u.m covered in emerald. She held it out in her palm so that it caught the light.

"What is it?" the scientist asked. He frowned in skepticism, his eyes attracted by the green casing.

"An isomer explosive."

His eyes shot up and locked with hers.

Racing to her side, April took the hunk of rock and ran to the bulkhead door. "We only need one or two grains, I think." With the scissors, she sc.r.a.ped off a miniscule amount of the reddish-gray metal, leaving the scissors in place to mark the spot where it fell.