The Power of Five Oblivion

go. You can see to it, Greyson.”
    “Yes, sir.”
    The commander turned back to Matt and although he still wasn’t smiling, at least he seemed to have become a little more friendly. He extended a hand. “It’s very good to meet you, Matthew. Mr Cole has told me a lot about you. You too, Mr Lohan. I guess you and I wouldn’t normally have much to say to each other but that’s the way it is. My name is David Cain, commanding officer on the US Pole Star , and the way things have worked out I’m pretty much in command of the World Army too. We have a lot to talk about, but I imagine you people would like to be together for a while. We were just wrapping up this meeting anyhow.”
    He looked at his watch, a chunk of stainless steel on an oversized wrist.
    “It’s fifteen hundred hours, almost time for dinner. We don’t eat together but we make sure there’s enough food to go round. And we go to bed early here. It’s hard enough to get any sleep with this permanent daylight. Have you arranged the patrol, Lieutenant?”
    “Yes, sir,” Greyson snapped back.
    “Right. I suggest we get together for the morning briefing at zero six hundred hours. Obviously, the fact that you’re here changes things – and I have to say, it couldn’t be better timing. My men will escort you back to the Airbus while we check out the Legacy. Does that sound all right to you?”
    “Whatever you say,” Matt said. He wasn’t sure whether to add “sir” or not but decided against it.
    “I’m glad you’ve come,” Cain said.
    He turned away, walked back to the table and began to examine the documents he had been reading when Matt arrived. The other officers and staff were reluctant to leave Matt, but eventually went back and joined him. Lieutenant Greyson and his men waited to one side.
    “Let’s go,” Richard muttered.
    They went.
    Richard and Scarlett had agreed to share the Airbus, giving over the whole lower floor to people who had found it too cramped and the sea too rough on the boats. There were about a hundred of them, sleeping on camp beds that had been set out the entire length of the fuselage. They were mainly Europeans – French, German and Italian – and all ages. As Cain had said, there were even some very young children. The plane was already covered in snow but that helped insulate it and someone had set up a heating system using the aviation fuel that remained. A pyramid of packed ice led up to the main door and steps had been hacked into it to stop people slipping. The door itself was kept open much of the time, although with a thick curtain to keep out the cold.
    Matt was glad to get inside. Walking here from the commander’s tent, he had been unable to keep his eyes away from the fortress of the Old Ones at the far end of the ice shelf. He could feel the muscles in his chest tightening. He knew that Chaos was somewhere inside. He was waiting for him. And Chaos would know that he had arrived. The end, the final reckoning between the two of them, was very close.
    The people on the plane were already preparing their evening meal, cooking tins of food over Primus stoves. Condensation was running down the windows and the air was warm and fuggy, smelling of tinned soup.
    “We’re upstairs,” Richard said, taking Matt through the galley and up the spiral staircase that led to the first class cabin. Like the rest of the plane, most of the seats had been taken out and replaced with camp beds. There was also a table and four chairs. Two men, fair-haired and dressed in pilot uniforms, were sitting there, playing cards with a battered deck. They looked round slowly as Matt and Lohan came in.
    “Matt, this is Larry and Zack,” Richard said. “They flew us here.”
    “You’re Matt Freeman?” Larry asked. He set down his cards. “I’m glad you’ve arrived, mate. Richard here hasn’t stopped going on about you. So maybe you can do whatever it is you’re supposed to do and get us the hell out of here.”
    Matt shook hands with the two Australians. They nodded at him, then promptly went back to their game, as if it was the only thing that mattered in the world. They hadn’t been exactly welcoming but they were so laid-back that he couldn’t help liking them. A few minutes later they finished, Zack spreading out a hand of aces, then they made their excuses and went downstairs. Maybe they realized that Matt and Richard needed time together.
    Matt, Richard, Scarlett and Lohan sat at the table. Richard