Leaving the technician tied up and unconscious, the three close the door behind themselves and sit in the empty crew quarters to discuss their options.

"Maybe it's just a knee-jerk reaction," Kristen begins, "but my initial response to the fact that we've got a prisoner is that if or after we interrogate him, I think he's gonna have to find a nice, deep, cold hole in the snow to rest in for a few thousand years.

"Hell, carry him out a hundred yards or two, and the odds of the enemy finding the body approach zero in this weather/climate.

"Yeah, I know, it's a little harsh, but it strikes me that 'Hey, one of our people is missing. What's going on?' is a better bad-guy reaction for us than 'Hey, there's commandos in the base who tied our guy up. He says there's at least three of them.'

"It's still not an ideal situation, but 'missing guy' is still the lesser of two evils. It's also probably better than 'Hey, look, one of our guys is dead on the floor...."

"I'm afraid that I have to agree," replies Tim. "This person must be interrogated. The problem for me will arise if he's cooperative and helpful. What will we do with him then? Around civilization, tie him up, make a call or two and have him picked up. Here, the guy's dead. Unfortunately for him."

Sue is all for pumping him for information, then dropping him off outside. She suggests the other two check out the remaining room or rooms in the structure while she works him over.

Kristen and Tim pair off and head beyond the hydraulic machinery, while Sue hauls the knocked-out tech on to a cot and goes about reviving him.

Circling the loud hydraulics, the two spot the three turbine casings and two alternators Sue pointed out earlier. Against the back wall, by where the team entered the building, is a valve control which feeds the raw steam to the electrical turbines. In this corner, a stack of equipment or perhaps spare parts sit as if in storage. Against the right wall on this side of the machine, several stairs lead up to an interior door in the middle of the wall. This door has no window, and is a bit more solid than the office doors.

Beyond the door, the room is humming and crackling with static electricity. Three large transformers abut the back wall. A third exterior door takes up the majority of the left wall. Overly stuffed storage shelving lines the right wall.

Heading back to check on Sue, the pair are surprised by Sue's unorthodox method of torturing. The revived tech is on his back, ankles bound and knees spread, wrists bound behind his back. Sue is sitting cross-legged on his crotch, with her hands on his ribs near his armpits. The technician Zeke's face is a mixture of pain from contortion, pleasure, and fear.

Sue has been asking Zeke questions in an even, professional tone. When she does not get the response she's fishing for, well placed thumbnails on pressure points cause the man to arch and grit his teeth. Hearing the others approach, she waves them inside.

"Zeke here is the 24 hour guard for the hydraulics shack. By day he is accompanied by Cora, the base's hydraulic engineer.

"Zeke has been so kind as to supply other information. The project name for the Atlantis II effort is Fall. In 1959, twelve countries proclaimed a treaty that prevents any territorial claims in Antarctica from being settled for 40 years. At the moment, no country owns land in Antarctica. In 1999, CON hopes to claim part, if not all, of the continent.

"Hand in hand with the Fall project, is Wind. First, it is necessary to CON's survival to provided its members with the necessities of life in case they are cut off from the rest of the world. This could occur from if outside countries form a blockade against CON or if a world war does break out and there is nowhere left to obtain supplies. Windfall is CON's attempt to make Atlantis II self-sufficient."

Sue notices Kristen's wayward glances. Turning back to Zeke, who seems to be enjoying himself, she removes her right hand and inserts two fingernails into his neck, just above his adam's apple. Pleasure is now the farthest from his mind as his jaw tenses and his eyes roll up into his head.

"And most interestingly," Sue continues, "Project Snowbank. This is the code name for quieting all who visit Atlantis II. All unwelcome visitors are silenced after leaving so they can't tell anyone what they have seen. The SCAR investigation team was the victim of a Snowbank operation. Small holes were punched in their plane's fuel tanks so they would run low on gas and either have to return or crash."

Standing, Sue leaves the other limp on the cot. Sue believes Zeke is out of answers, so the three talk about the alternatives. They decide to drag him along and ditch him away from the runway, as they approach the airport structures. Based on his watches, Tim is confident you can finish tonight's primary and secondary recon targets before anyone is the wiser.

Sue hefts Zeke over her shoulder, Tim packs up the tarp, and the three head out toward the airport.

*******

The airport is clear on the opposite side of the complex. Team One skirts the primary complex of dome and huts, and uses one of the runways to approach the airport. Before reaching the airport structures, Sue ditches the miserable Zeke behind a particularly icy ridge. Kristen unpacks her specialized sensor detector goggles, scans the four structures and finds nothing.

The Atlantis II airport consists of two hangars and two sheet metal structures. All four buildings are heated by steam pipes. Barrels of aviation fuel and gasoline surround the buildings.

Stopping at the first sheet metal building, Kristen picks the padlock easily. Upon opening the door, the foul scent alerts you that this was the wrong door to open. As the sound of the blizzard and exterior cold hits the dogs, they begin a cacophony of barking.

Immediately, the three flatten against the exterior walls of the building. The sound would never be loud enough to carry back to the base proper, but people in the other nearby buildings may have heard. The three fan out, keeping against the walls or low to the ground.

Kristen and Sue make it to the first hanger. Kristen picks the lock to the personnel entrance and the pair slip inside. Tim scans the area, before intending to follow. In the distance, he spots an eight foot tall giant of a man heading toward the huskies' kennel, with an automatic trained at the ready.

Rather than risking discovery (and remembering Zeke's hand-held radio), Tim withdraws his silenced pistol from the warmth of his body, waits for the right moment, and takes a crack at him. The other's head jerks back and arms go wide as if in surprise, before he topples backwards. Rather than going inside, Tim shimmies against the other airport buildings looking for anyone else who may have been alerted. Finding none, he takes up position within sight of hangar one's personnel entrance and the fallen guard.

The remainder of the airport is unoccupied.

Each hangar contains a helicopter, a cargo plane, and a Sno-cat, all fueled and ready to operate. The Sno-Cats seem to be outfitted for use for maneuvering aircraft, emergency vehicles, and transports from the airport to the main complex.

After talking with Tim, the three make a thorough search of the remaining airport buildings.

The first sheet metal building contains a kennel housing twelve Alaskan huskies, two dogsleds with six harnesses each, and a locker of raw frozen meat. The second sheet metal building contains the quarters of the dead guard, complete with intercom.