Matt shifted to one elbow. He stared at his new wife, sunlight streaming through the window, bathing her. He was the luckiest man in the whole damn world.
Childish giggles again drifted to them.
Jenny smiled at the sound. There was not even a hint of old sorrow. Like her, he knew how good it was to hear laughter again in the cabin, if even for only a short time.
Together, they slipped into pajamas and robes, then crossed to the bedroom door. Matt opened the way for her, then followed her out.
Maki was in the middle of the room, playing with Bane. The large wolf mix lay sprawled on his back, his belly exposed to be petted. The boy would scratch it, but when he reached the sweet spot, Bane’s back leg would twitch and scratch reflexively. This triggered another peal of laughter.
Matt smiled at the simple pleasure. A boy and a dog.
“You’re up!” a voice spoke from the kitchen. It was Belinda Haydon.
“Where’s your husband?” he asked.
“Bennie and Jen’s dad headed out with their poles an hour ago.”
Maki climbed to his feet. He crossed to the kitchen. “Mama,” he said in Inuit. “Can I have a Pop-Tart?” This last was in English. He was learning the language quickly.
“After you have your cereal, honey,” Belinda answered firmly.
Maki stuck out his lower lip and headed back to Bane.
Matt followed him with his eyes. After the ordeal a year ago, he and Jenny had considered adopting the boy, but they had too much to heal between themselves first. It was not a time for them to raise such a traumatized child.
Instead, the perfect family had been found for the boy: Bennie and Belinda. Jenny had told Matt about the couple’s miscarriage and infertility. The pair had enough love for ten children. If any two people could help the boy recover and grow, this was the couple.
Matt found himself staring at Jenny. And they could always have more children themselves. It was something they had already tentatively discussed, whispered in the night, sharing their hopes under the covers.
There was still time for all of them.
“Uncle Matt,” Maki called over to him, “Bane wants a Pop-Tart, too.”
Matt laughed.
Jenny smiled at him, at both of them.
He met her bright eyes.
He truly was the luckiest man in the world.
The tank rested on the ocean floor, full of water, crushed and cracked. The lone occupant was a frozen lump of bone and hardened tissue. There was no light. No sound.
None could hear the screaming inside the man’s head.
The cryoprotectant had worked, preserving and protecting him. But there was a side effect he had not anticipated. A horrible, monstrous side effect. The figure now understood the years the Russian scientists had spent researching sedatives and soporifics. Sleep drugs. The research was not ancillary, but critical to the suspended animation.
For the state created by the elixir was not sleep.
Consciousness remained — frozen, too, but intact.
Sleep was denied him.
He screamed and screamed, but even he heard nothing.
Deaf, dumb, blind.
Yet his body remained, preserved for all time. Deep in the black depths of the Arctic Ocean, one thought persisted as madness ate at what was left of him.
How long? How long is eternity?
Author’s Note
Over the past years, I have been asked many times about where the line lies between truth and fiction in my stories. So here at the end of Ice Hunt, I thought it might be interesting to share some of those details.
Let’s start at the beginning. The novel opens with a fictitious newspaper article detailing the disappearance of an Inuit village on Lake Anjikuni. The details of the tribe’s sudden and mysterious disappearance are based on fact. The fate of the poor people is, of course, of my own imagining. The same could be said for the story and fate of the unfortunate sailors aboard the Jeannette back in 1881. The tragedy was real; the fate of the crew of the lone missing lifeboat is pure fiction.
As to the threat posed by the Polaris Array, this scenario is based on scientific theory, but the practical application of the star-shaped harmonic device was my own invention. The stated effect of such an annihilation of the northern polar cap — the creation of a new ice age — is also based on projections by leading Arctic researchers.
Now, as to the derivation of the “grendels,” the species is a blend of fact and fiction, too. The species Ambulocetus natans, known as the walking whale, has been documented in the fossil record. Additionally, the biological oddity of the Arctic wood frog is factual. These strange frogs do indeed freeze solid for months at a time, then revive upon thawing. Ken Storey of Carleton University has been researching the mechanism for this miraculous adaptation. The role of simple sugar in this “suspended animation” process is also factual, as is the singular and surprising fact about its genetic mechanism: that all vertebrate species carry these genes. I then mixed these facts and species to create the grendels.
Lastly, a comment on the one detail I thought would be the hardest for folks to believe: Could the United States, along with Russia, be involved with something as heinous as secret human experimentation? In the novel, Admiral Petkov states his case based on historical facts, but even he barely scratches the surface of the truth. So, as a cautionary note, let me end this book by documenting a partial list of historical abuses collated and copyrighted by the Health News Network (www.healthnewsnet.com):
1932 The Tuskegee Syphilis Study begins. Two hundred black men diagnosed with syphilis are never told of their illness, are denied treatment, and instead are used as human guinea pigs. They all subsequently die from syphilis.
1935 The Pellagra Incident. After millions of individuals die from pellagra over a span of two decades, the U.S. Public Health Service finally acts to stem the disease. The director of the agency admits it had known for at least twenty years that pellagra is caused by a niacin deficiency but failed to act since most of the deaths occurred within poverty-stricken black populations.
1940 Four hundred prisoners in Chicago are infected with malaria in order to study the effects of new and experimental drugs to combat the disease. Nazi doctors later on trial at Nuremberg cite this American study to defend themselves.
1945 Project Paperclip is initiated. The U.S. State Department, Army intelligence, and the CIA recruit Nazi scientists and offer them immunity and secret identities in exchange for work on top-secret government projects.
1947 The CIA begins its study of LSD as a potential weapon. Human subjects (both civilian and military) are used with and without their knowledge.
1950 In an experiment to determine how susceptible an American city would be to biological attack, the U.S. Navy sprays a cloud of bacteria from ships over San Francisco. Many residents become ill with pneumonialike symptoms.
1956 The U.S. military releases mosquitoes infected with yellow fever over Savannah, Georgia, and Avon Park, Florida. Following each test, Army agents posing as public health officials test victims for effects.
1965 Prisoners at the Holmesburg State Prison in Philadelphia are subjected to dioxin, the highly toxic chemical component of Agent Orange used in Vietnam. The men are later studied for development of cancer.
1966 U.S. Army dispenses Bacillus subtilis variant niger throughout the New York City subway system. More than a million civilians are exposed when Army scientists drop lightbulbs filled with the bacteria onto ventilation grates.