A security plan?
“What about the …package?” She used their term for the Golden Horde components. “We don’t have much security here—no surveillance, no keycard entry systems. Most doors aren’t even locked. There might be a safe in Steve’s office.”
His lips curved in a grin that made her pulse quicken. “We’ll keep it secure. Don’t worry about that.”
She waited for him to explain, but he didn’t. “Right.”
He reached for the doorknob. “Do you want to join me for supper?”
Warmth rushed into her cheeks.
What the hell was wrong with her? Was she so sexually deprived that attention from a good-looking man made her blush and messed with her head?
You’re smarter than that.
“I’m going to get some coffee and then check on the telescope. I’ve missed an entire day of work.” Yes, she was turning him down cold—until the moment she didn’t. “But, yeah, I’ll meet you there. Six?”
What had she just done?
“Sounds good. Thanks again. You might have saved millions of lives today.” He opened the door, turned back. “You should get a medic to look at that cut.”
Then he was gone, leaving Samantha to stare at the closed door.
* * *
Thor metin private with Tower, Jones, and Segal for a quick debriefing, sharing in detail all that had happened so far.
Tower stared at him from the computer screen. “The Russian team isthere? At Amundsen-Scott?”
Segal leaned in so Tower could see him. “I believe they were telling the truth, sir. We didn’t have the time to run over to their plane to see whether it was functional. They were terrified—and willing to turn over their rifles. If they were telling the truth and we had left them to die, we’d be on the world’s shit list right now.”
“Understood.” Tower’s face was fixed in a frown. “Is the package intact?”
“No. The only way to remove it in the time available was to gut the unit.”
Tower nodded. “What’s your plan for keeping the contents secure?”
Thor had put some thought into this. “I gave the site manager my locked carry-on bag full of Legos and scrap metal from recycling to store in his office safe.”
Segal and Jones chuckled, shook their heads.
“Legos?”
“They had some at the station shop. Legos are Danish, you know.”
Tower ignored that last bit. “So, the carry-on is a decoy.”
“Yes.” Thor ignored Segal and Jones, who found the Lego thing funny. “I had to revise our original plan to take the Russian presence here into account. Our rooms, Dr. Park’s room, and Hardin’s office seem like the places they’ll try to search first.”
“Where is the package?”
“It’s locked in the steel case, which is hidden in the ceiling of one of the empty berths across the corridor from ours. Segal used his lockpicking skills to gain entry. No one has any reason to enter, and no one knows the package is there apart from us. We installed motion-activated cameras there, as well as in our rooms. If anyone breaks in, the three of us will be notified on our phones and get an image of the intruder. Hardin placed the Russians in a different berthing area.”
“What about Dr. Park’s safety?”
“I’ve cautioned her against being alone with any members of the Russian party. She spends most of her time at the Dark Sector Lab, a kilometer away from the station. Her research partner died suddenly a few days before we arrived, so she’s alone out there whenever she’s working. I think one of us should be with her.”
“Agreed. If our Russian friends are there to snatch this technology, she could be a target. That’s true for all of you.”