It was going to kill him and, in his present shape, there wasn’t a damn thing he could do about it. He was going to die here, in this place, on the deck of the LSB beneath the glacier, far below the grim white cemetery of Antarctica. He could barely move now as his injured back swelled unmercifully. Had he been in better shape, he might have made it to one of the engineering floats where he could have cooked the Exosuit and its occupant with one of the acetylene torches. He might have even made it into the submersible.

He leaned there against the toolshed, out of strength, out of fight. He was a dead man.

Wait…maybe he wasn’t.

There was one chance, one extremely thin chance. As the Exosuit advanced on him, he hobbled his way around the deckhouse. It followed, never tiring, never hesitating. He had to put on the speed, but that was nearly impossible. Wracked with pain that made him feel dizzy and nauseous, he guided himself by the deck lights to the great winch on the aft deck that they used to lower and retrieve the ROV. He pushed and pushed himself beyond the limits of his endurance, but he made it.

Behind him, the Exosuit advanced, thump, thump, thump.

He would have one chance. Just the one chance.

Gritting his teeth, he climbed up into the operator’s seat. He keyed the winch into life. It was dead. Power was cut. Dammit. He activated the backup and it started up.

The Exosuit kept coming, blood-stained manipulator opening and closing, the saw revving. Now it was a matter of how smart what possessed the suit was. If it was intelligent, there were many ways to avoid what he was going to do. If not…

It kept coming, its thundering footpads making the decks shake. Using the toggle control, Orr moved the winch arm into place. At the end of its cable was a massive clamp that could easily lift up to 5,000 pounds. He opened it and waited.

The Exosuit stopped, as if its occupant was considering the situation. Its strobing lights flashed on and off. Orr had to shield his eyes from them.

C’mon, you sonofabitch, he thought. I’m right here.

The helmet turned to the left, then the right as if searching for him. Maybe it had lost him behind the steel mesh operator’s cage.

“BELL!” he shouted. “I’M OVER HERE!”