Ivanov takes a moment before going on. His gaze seems to sink, while evoking memories from a distant past. “I trust you, Mr. Ironside, may God enlighten us all.”
Ivanov takes a deep breath, then he starts to tell his story. “It all began in the spring of 1983. At that time I was involved in research and development of biological weapons. I was the director of a secret lab in Antarctica, a structure buried in the ice, disguised as a common meteorological research station. One of our helicopters, during a reconnaissance flight, located a vehicle. It was half-buried in snow. We found a woman inside. She was American and had died by freezing during the previous winter. On her womb she was clinging a small booklet. A Norwegian maintenance booklet of the vehicle she was moving in. She had probably found it right there in the vehicle. She had written something in the free space in the borders of the pages. Her story was so implausible that we initially attributed all to the hallucinations due to her freezing to death.”
“Wait”, says Macready. “You said that the woman was American, but the vehicle you found was Norwegian?”
“Yes, it came from a Norwegian research outpost located about eighty kilometers from our base. The woman had tried to reach us, but she was lost and ran out of fuel about half way. Having no way to communicate with the outside world, her fate was sealed.”
“Have you found a document, a badge, or anything useful to identify her?”, asks Ironside.
“No, she had no documents with her. We knew her name because she herself had written it in the pages of the maintenance booklet. Later, when we inspected the Norwegian outpost, or at least what was left of it, we couldn’t find much material to let us confirm her last words. For reasons that you will soon understand, I decided to hide everything that could be tied to the story of the woman. We got rid of any additional evidence, although not much was left anyway.”
Macready’s gaze hardens, hearing his last words. His speech is cold and sharp as he turns to the Russian. “In 1982 strange disappearances occurred in Antarctica. Two entire outposts, one Norwegian and one American, got destroyed in a matter of days, perhaps even hours. The Antarctic winter did not allow sending rescue teams until next spring. When they got there, there was nothing left, absolutely nothing. Those people disappeared without leaving a trace, they couldn’t even find a corpse. The case stirred a sensation at that time.”
“One moment, Major”, intervenes Ironside, noticing how upset the military is. “Let’s focus on Dr. Ivanov’s report. Then, to the Russian: “Please, go on with what that woman had written.”
“Like I said, her story was incredible. She was an American paleontologist, gone to Antarctica with a Norwegian expedition that had come across something really exceptional.”
At this point Ivanov appears reluctant to go on, for a few seconds the Russian appears torn between choosing whether to reveal it all, freeing himself from a heavy weight, or keeping some information secret.
Ironside is aware of the dilemma in the mind of the scientist. His voice is calm and somehow reassuring, as he urges him to continue. “I understand your uncertainty, Dr. Ivanov, and your position is undoubtedly inconvenient. I ask you again to trust me, not only as a representative of the Government of the United States of America, but as a man. I don’t know what you have seen or experienced, but your eyes tell us all how it has been terrible for you. Nobody in the world has the power to change the past, but perhaps, here in this room, we have the opportunity to work to shape a better future…”
An awkward silence follows his last words. Moore leans forward on the table, resting almost involuntarily her hand on that of Ivanov. The contact has the effect of bringing the Russian back to the present.
“What have you found that is so important?”, she asks.
Ivanov withdraws his hand, slowly enough not to appear rude, then he swallows. “Okay”, he exclaims. “According to the report of the paleontologist, the Norwegian research team had found a wrecked ship… and a creature.”
All are visibly surprised hearing the affirmation of Ivanov.
“What kind of creature?”, Moore urges him.
The Russian keeps telling his story. His eyes show the tension caused by recalling those far events. “According to the woman, the wreck was an extraterrestrial aircraft, buried in a layer of ice that the Norwegian scientists had examined. Their analysis reported that it was very old, about a hundred thousand years. The ship was almost intact and the woman believed that one of the occupants had managed to go outside after the crash, only to end up frozen a few tens of meters away. Our further research in Antarctica led us to believe that the events occurred probably differently, but this is something outside our current problem. We will discuss it in due course, and when my… guarantees will be on paper. In short, the Norwegians took the creature inside their outpost with the intention of studying it. For unspecified reasons it returned to life, or rather, its metabolism – which until then had regressed to a latent state to allow it to survive in a kind of lethargy – was reactivated. It spread through the entire crew and killed all the expedition members within hours. Unfortunately, in the report of the woman there was no indication or coordinates of the wreck. The polar winter and the many storms have certainly buried the excavation. After all, the paleontologist had hinted that it was at a certain depth. In the days after the discovery of the unfortunate woman we proceeded to the exploration of the Norwegian camp, but we couldn’t find traces of their crew, except for the corpse of a man who had committed suicide. In an act of desperation he had cut his wrists and throat with a razor. We could find just a few documents. Everything was destroyed, with clear signs of struggle and collective hysteria.
Fires and devastation made it impossible to find more items, not in the short time available to us before the arrival of their rescue team. My team found an analogous scenario when we reached the American camp. But… in that case the destruction was even deeper.”
“Wait”, Macready interrupts him again. “Why did you go out to the American camp?”
“Because during the winter, one of our operators caught a message from that outpost. The quality was poor, but the voice seemed agitated, and it was clearly an SOS. The adverse conditions prevented us from intervening until the following spring. As I was saying, we found the outpost completely destroyed, much worse than the Norwegian one. However, we found two bodies. Two men frozen and half-buried in the snow. We freed them from the ice, to take them with us to our base. They were set in special isolation chambers, waiting for them to defrost, so we could proceed with the autopsies.”
“Did you find any information about the names of these men, Dr. Ivanov?”, Macready’s voice is very sharp, while his icy eyes seem to pierce the Russian on the spot.
“Unfortunately, no. We didn’t find any document on them, I can only make a brief description, according to what I remember. It’s been too many years…”
“I would be grateful”, Macready’s answer.
“One of the men was black, he was of considerable height and muscular build, an athletic body. His skull was smooth and completely bald. I remember he was still cradling a flamethrower when we found him. He was pointing it at the man in front of him. The other was a white man, long bearded and long haired. His eyes were clear, more or less like yours, Major. He was clinging to a bottle of liquor, don’t ask me the brand, and he was aiming a gun at the other man.”
Ironside notices a strange light in the look of Macready and notices his hands clenched into fists, the knuckles whitened with tension. “Let me understand”, he exclaims. “Were they threatening each other?”