Free Black Ice by Matt Dickinson Page A

ten-hour flight back to Ushuaia without sharing another word.

19
    Lauren summoned the team to the mess room.
    â€˜All right,’ she told them. ‘This rescue has to happen, so let’s make it good. Every day Sean and I are away from base is a day of drilling lost, so I want this to be as fast and painless as possible.’
    She referred to a clipboard in her lap.
    â€˜I’ve split the logistics down into five categories: communications, transport, provisions, medical and special equipment. Frank, what can you do for us on comms?’
    â€˜I’m going to pack you up with two Argos hand-held transmitters running on one-eighteen-point-five megahertz. I’ll give you plenty of back-up batteries and a lead so you can run them off the twelve-volt cigarette socket on the snowmobiles if you need.’
    â€˜Should we take an aerial? We’ll be six thousand feet lower once we get down on to the Blackmore.’
    Frank nodded. ‘Those Argoses are pretty punchy; you should be OK. But, fair enough, I’ll throw in a five-metre aerial and an extension pole.’
    Lauren turned to Sean. ‘What do we need for the snowcats, Sean?’
    â€˜How many miles are we talking about?’
    â€˜Six hundred and ten, give or take.’
    Sean scribbled some figures down on a scrap of paper.
    â€˜Well, assuming we’ve got a full load in both directions, I’d estimate even in the worst case those Yamahas are going to be averaging at least five miles to the litre. That’s roughly one hundred and twenty litres of petrol. If we throw in a contingency for deviations, getting lost and so on, we should be packing one hundred and fifty litres. Per machine. Minimum.’
    â€˜Very well. I want you to sort that out as soon as you can please. Now, Murdo, how about provisions?’
    â€˜How many days? How many people?’ he asked.
    Lauren thought quickly.
    â€˜Sean and myself for six days max. Plus a maximum of five more on the return trip if by some miracle the pilots and the journalist are still alive. That’s an extra fifteen man-days.’
    â€˜How many are you expecting ?’
    â€˜From the plane crash? I doubt there will be any survivors. My guess is we’ll be coming back with Fitzgerald and his partner and no one else.’
    Murdo sucked on his pipe. ‘No problem. I’ll pack you up with four gas stoves and the coleman pans and cutlery. I’ll give you fifty man-days of high-energy rations plus a ten per cent contingency. That way you’ve got enough whatever happens.’
    â€˜Thank you. Moving on to medical. What can you spare, Mel?’
    Mel read from her list. ‘I’m not expecting that you can do much more than the basics out there in the field, so the whole operation is geared to keeping the victims alive and as free from pain as possible until you can get them back here to the base. We’re talking broad-spectrum antibiotics, saline drips, sterile swabs and assorted bandages, excision kit with syringes and gloves, iodine, painkillers, morphine and pethidine for oral and intravenous application, four stretchers with fastenings for the sledges, inflatable splints to cover fractures to the arms and legs, neck braces, one back brace for spinal injury … we’ve only got the one here, unfortunately. Finally, medical oxygen. You might be dealing with someone in a coma.’
    â€˜Anything for burns?’ Lauren asked. ‘There might have been a fire involved.’
    â€˜Good point.’ Mel added a few items to her list.
    â€˜To what extent are we depleting our own medical supplies?’ Lauren asked. ‘Let’s not lose sight of the fact that we are all going to be locked into this camp for the winter. I don’t want to get into a situation where we have another medical emergency further down the line and we don’t have the drugs to deal with it.’
    Mel nodded her head. ‘Obviously, we haven’t