Linc moved in, stripping away the weapon and crashing a boot into the man’s knee. The man went down, with Cabrillo staying on top of him to smother his cries. Juan didn’t hesitate. The stakes were too high. He got his hand over the guard’s nose and mouth and held them closed as the man struggled to free himself. It lasted less than a minute.

“Damn. I didn’t want to have to do that,” he panted, and stood. His hands were bloody.

“What do we do with him? If we take him with us, it might look suspicious. This isn’t the kind of place you desert from.”

Juan pulled back the guard’s parka hood and stripped off a woolen balaclava. He then smeared the man’s blood on a nearby bollard and positioned the body so it looked as though he had tripped, knocking himself unconscious and loosening his head protection. Ten minutes in such an exposed position was all it would take for the cold temperature to kill.

“Problem solved. Let’s go home.”

THE FOLLOWING MORNING Cabrillo was awakened by the sound of a telephone. The mound of blankets over his bed weighed a ton, and he’d slept in sweats. Still, he felt cold. It reminded him of those frosty Kazak mornings when he had infiltrated the Baikonur Cosmodrome back in his CIA days. He snaked a hand out from under the covers and grabbed the headset from his bedside table.

“Hello.” It was a quarter past eight. He’d overslept.

“Where are you?” It was Overholt at Langley.

“In bed, actually.”

“Are you anywhere near Antarctica?” The tone was sharp, accusatory. Whatever pressure Langston was under, he was making sure Juan felt it, too.

“We’re halfway to Cape Town for the Emir of Kuwait’s visit,” Cabrillo said so smoothly he half believed it himself.

“You sure?”

“Lang, I’ve got a couple million dollars’ worth of navigational gear crammed into the Oregon. I think I know where we are. Mind telling me what has your tighty-whities in a twist?”

“You know that sub the Chinese sent down to protect the Argentines?”

“I recall you mentioning they were headed that way.”

“The People’s Liberation Army Navy has lost contact with her after she was ordered to investigate a ship wandering into their exclusionary zone. That was thirty-six hours ago.”

“I promise you, we were east of the Falklands by then, halfway to St. Helena Island.”

“Thank God.”

Juan had never heard his friend so despondent. “What’s going on?”