Cate noticed Mironov ease back in his chair, his eyes narrowed as his vision seemed to have turned inward.

“Does that mean we can’t get home?” Abby’s chin wobbled. “Are we trapped?”

There was silence for many minutes, before Dmitry leaned towards Cate. “We need to find out what happened. Every minute is important.”

“Dmitry is right. And we can’t stay here.” Cate looked across to Jack. “How far did you say it was until we hit that first communication buoy?”

“Fifteen miles,” Jack responded slowly.

Cate saw the worry in his eyes. She also felt the knot of panic in her gut, and a thousand questions tumbled over each other in her head. But she knew that voicing them now was less than useless, and might just panic the team.

“We have no choice now; we go forward – head to the next communication buoy. Find out what happened, and work on a plan to get ourselves out of here.” She looked along their faces; only Jack met her eyes. She smiled back. “And I guess, in the meantime, we get to do the job we were sent down here to do – nothing has changed in that regard.”

“Whether we like it or not – that’s just freakin great,” Greg said sourly.

Cate rounded on him. “Listen, buster; you got an alternative to just sitting there worrying about your ass? And maybe becoming so poisoned from the radiation, your eyes start to bleed?”

Greg held up a hand. “Easy there, Cate. I’m sorry, but I’m just a little nervous, is all. Remember we came back so we can get ourselves better protection from those placasaurs.”

“Placoderms,” Jack corrected, softly.

“Yeah, whatever, and now we’ve got to cross its front yard again… without extra shielding.” He hiked his shoulders. “That’s all.”

Cate stared at the floor, feeling exhaustion drag on her bones. “And my response is the same; what’s the alternative?” She exhaled, lifting her head. “Look, this is a shitty outcome, and I’m betting it was a lot shittier for those poor guys who just got blown away. We could have been topside, or even underneath the explosion and been crushed. Fact is, we’re alive, and we have a plan. So as far as I’m concerned, it’s been our lucky day.”

Greg nodded, but Cate saw his eyes were still evasive. She didn’t want to fight with him or anyone else right now. She turned slowly to Jack. “Can you get us to the communication buoy via a different route?”

“Sure, no problem,”’ Jack said, his mouth set in a tight line.

She looked to Mironov, who nodded and sat back. She saw no more questions behind anyone’s eyes, so just pointed forward.

“Then let’s do it.”

CHAPTER 12

CHAPTER 12

Brogidan Yusoff stubbed out his thick cigarette, and grinned into the receiver as he listened to Uli Stroyev, his ministerial aide, relay their progress.