Target 5 Read Online Free Page A

against the nearby cliffs. 'Shut that door, Harvey,' Conway said as he pressed his eye to the instrument. The door slammed behind him.
    'Those Russians have gone!' Sondeborg's voice was un steady, close to hysteria. 'They've got more sense than we have - they've evacuated their bloody base while there was still time. Why the hell don't we wireless for our plane? Everything's packed ...'
    'That's enough!' Conway lowered his sextant and swung round to face Sondeborg. 'Everything isn't packed yet - and you still have experiments to complete ...'
    'Damn the experiments!' Sondeborg blazed. "There's a queer feeling about this place ...'
    'You've been on Target-5 eleven months,' Conway inter jected. 'It's still the same place.'
    'It isn't in the same place,' Sondeborg rapped back. 'We're oft. the edge of Iceberg Alley ...'
    'Get back inside and make some coffee,' Conway snapped. 'We could all do with something hot to drink.' The door slammed again as Sondeborg stormed back inside the hut.
    'Better go with him, Jeff,' Conway advised, 'you know what he's like on his own. Then you can try and get through to Thule again - I want them to know our new position.'
    'I'll try.' Rickard sounded doubtful. 'There's very bad static building up. I think we're cut off. It could be a weather change coming.'
    Conway was frowning as he finished taking his star-fix. The reference to bad radio communication - or no com munication at all - worried him more than he cared to show. He finished taking his star-fix and paused before going inside while he scanned the familiar wilderness of frozen sea and endless ice. For a reason he couldn't fathom Conway felt afraid.

    There was sub-tropical heat and tension inside Dawes's office, a heat and a tension which made the three men sweat. It was Beaumont who had introduced the tension. He sat in his shirt-sleeves, his hands clasped over his large knees as he stared up at Dawes. 'All right, you've given me the picture. Now - what makes this Russian, Michael Gorov, so damned important?'
    'All you need to know is that he's important,' Adams intervened. 'The specifics are top secret.'
    Beaumont swivelled his head briefly to give the assistant a hard bleak look, then he turned back to Dawes who answered quickly. 'Michael Gorov is the Soviet Union's number one oceanographer. He personally supervised the laying of their entire Sosus and Caesar* system along the Arctic seabed. And he's bringing with him the Catherine charts - the complete blueprint of that system which guides their subs under the Arctic ice to our shores. Does that tell you anything?'
    'It suggests that Gorov is - important.'

    * Sosus and Caesar: American term for the cable and sonar buoy underwater network which guides submarines along a predetermined course at great depth below the polar pack.

    'With those charts in our hands we could set about rip ping up their whole offensive system - it could put them back ten years,' Dawes went on vehemently. 'It means even more than that - if the President goes to Moscow in May with the Catherine charts in his pocket he would be talking from a position of real strength. It's as big as that, Keith. So I need you in Greenland .. .'
    'You're going too fast - I haven't agreed to go anywhere yet.' Beaumont stood up and walked across the room to stare at the wall map. For a large man he walked with great economy of movement. 'This ship, the Elroy . . .' He pointed to a marker at the bottom of the map. 'Is she the icebreaker, the twin of the Exodus? 7
    'Yes. She's heading back for Milwaukee after a year in the Arctic.'
    'I may want you to turn her round and send her straight back up to the icefield ...'
    Adams's voice rippled with indignation. 'You seem to have forgotten that we're planning this operation, Beau mont.'
    The Englishman turned round slowly and stared. Adams found the stare uncomfortable as Beaumont took his time about replying, 'Maybe you'd like to come with me - across the rough ice?' He turned back to