novelraw Chapter 193: The Handoff
Chapter 193: The Handoff
Seventy-two hours had officially passed since Noah had hung up the phone.
He stood outside in the dark, watching the horizon like he was waiting for the world to crack open.
The air was so cold it should have cut him to the bone.
It should have blackened his fingers with frostbite, frozen his breath, crawled under his coat like knives—but despite what he had told the others, the cold didn’t bother him.
His ability to control fire kept the worst of it at bay, and a slow, rolling heat rose from his skin in waves.
He stood on the ice with his collar turned up, his boots sunk just enough to grip the frozen crust.
The wind hissed across the flats. Sound traveled too far at night, too clearly in the cold.
That was why the chopper had to land miles away—no risk of engines waking the KAS team that was sleeping in the tower behind him.
It should have been impossible for something so big to be this quiet.
But then he saw it.
The shape emerged from the dark like a ghost, low and wide, the rotor blades turning without a sound he could hear over the wind. The military had come up with something new since the flood—a machine made to slip under radar and ears alike.
It drifted down on a cushion of snow and air until its skids touched the ice a hundred meters out.
The back hatch opened.
Men stepped out, one after another, moving like pieces of the same machine.
They wore white from head to toe.
Fur lined parkas. Snow pants. Gloves. Masks pulled high. Goggles black enough to eat their eyes whole. Even their rifles were wrapped in white sheeting until they looked like parts of the wind itself.
The only color on them came from the red stenciling across the crates they carried:
BIOHAZARD — PROPERTY OF COUNTRY N
The soldiers moved toward him in a line, their boots whispering against the ice.
Noah stayed where he was. He didn’t flinch when the first one stopped a few feet away and set the nearest crate on the ground.
"You’re Noah?" the man asked. His voice was flat, blurred by the mask.
"Yeah."
The soldier nodded to the crate. "Sedatives. Delivery systems inside. Enough to drop your entire team before they know what hit them."
Noah glanced down. The crate had seals on every corner, the kind that would snap loud when broken. "Dosage?"
The soldier tilted his head, listening to something in his earpiece before replying. "Each syringe calibrated for three hundred pounds. They said these men are big. Strong." A pause. "You’ll want to use two each to be sure."
"And the girl?" Noah asked, keeping his tone even.
"One will do if she is small."
Noah didn’t let his jaw tighten, didn’t let his eyes flick toward the tower behind him. "They won’t come quietly," he said.
"They don’t have to." The soldier tapped the side of the crate. "That’s what this is for."
The second man spoke up from behind his mask. "Command says you’re the one delivering it. That right?"
"Yeah."
"Good." A pause. "They want it clean. Fast. Minimal noise until the main team moves in."
"They’ll fight," Noah warned again.
"Then they’ll fight sedated." The man shrugged like it didn’t matter either way.
Another soldier knelt and opened the crate just enough for Noah to see the neat rows inside. Syringes sealed in sterile packs. Vials with labels he didn’t read. A folded set of instructions no one here needed.
"What about extraction?" Noah asked.
The first soldier straightened. "We come back when you signal. We’re not sitting on this ice longer than we have to."
"Timing?"
"Fast," the soldier said. "You tell us they’re down, we’re on you in under five minutes. Helicopters, heavy crews, restraints, everything. We move them before they wake up."
Noah studied the men in white. Their rifles. Their masks. The way they stood like the wind itself would take orders from them.
"They won’t like being caged," he said finally.
"They don’t have to like it," the soldier replied. "They just have to stay breathing."
The wind cut between them, sharp enough to steal words if they weren’t careful.
"Orders are orders," the man added after a moment. "You get them under. We take them north. After that, not our problem."
Noah bent, tested the weight of the crate, then straightened with it in his arms. Heavy. Enough drugs inside to put an army on its back.
He looked past the soldiers to the helicopter waiting in the dark. Its blades barely moved now, whispering against the snow like something alive but patient.
"You know what these men can do?" Noah asked quietly.
The nearest soldier’s goggles tilted his way. "We read the files."
"Files don’t cover it," Noah said. "Just watch your back. Don’t assume anything when it comes to them."
"Then maybe don’t miss," the soldier replied.
Noah almost smiled at that. Almost.
"Helicopters will stay south until the job’s done," the man continued. "You’ll have one hour to prepare them after dosing. If they wake up before we get here, it gets messy. Command doesn’t want messy."
"Neither do I," Noah said.
The soldier didn’t nod, didn’t shrug. Just stood there, white against white, as cold as the wind moving past them.
Another crate hit the ice beside the first. A third followed. Each one stacked neat and square like they were building something permanent.
"You sure you can get close enough?" one of the soldiers asked then. "Files say they don’t let anyone near the girl."
Noah looked toward the tower, windows faintly glowing in the distance. "They trust me."
The soldier didn’t answer that. Didn’t need to.
Instead, he touched his earpiece again. "Package delivered. Returning to base."
The others began moving back toward the waiting helicopter.
Noah stayed where he was, crates at his feet, until the hatch closed behind them and the machine lifted off the ice.
Snow blew hard under its blades. Wind swallowed its shape as it rose higher, turned, and vanished into the dark without a sound.
-----
Noah stood alone on the ice.
The crates waited at his feet like three decisions he couldn’t take back.
He bent, gripped the first one, and started walking toward the tower.
Behind him, the night closed over the landing site until it was as if the helicopter had never been there at all.
Ahead, the tower lights glowed warm against the cold. Inside, the hunters slept like the world wasn’t about to end.
Noah kept walking.
The wind swallowed the sound of his boots.
The sedatives were heavier than they should have been.
Or maybe he was just feeling his conscious for the first time.
Nah, that wasn’t possible.