“Veyron and I are on it,” Elise replied over the radio. “We’ll let you know when we have access.”
“Elise?” Alexis asked.
“She works with us. Kind of a computer geek. Lovely, but nerdy. You know the type?” Sam looked at Alexis, trying to work out whether she too fit into that description of people. “She’ll break the code and access the lower compartments fast and then we might find some answers.”
Alexis nodded her head as though she knew the type very well. “Do you know where the security room is? There are security cameras all over the ship, but I haven’t been able to find where their data is monitored and stored.”
“Yes. We contacted the owners of the Antarctic Solace before we came and got them to send us a digital copy of the ship’s schematics. Its three levels below us. We should be able to access it from where we came.”
“The other side of the yellow door?”
“Yeah, why?” he asked.
“That would explain why someone went to great lengths to build a solid door, where a fire escape previously existed.”
“Which means someone was intentionally responsible for whatever happened here.”
“I think so.” She looked at him, almost as though she was examining him — trying to decide if he could be trusted or not. “Where have you come from?”
“Ellsworth Land, Antarctica. We were on a mission to rescue some scientists whose ship had been trapped by the frozen ice.”
“Did you find them?”
“No. We’re still looking though. That crazy weather put a hold on our search for the past three days.”
“Three days?” She looked confused. “I timed the storm, expecting to die at any moment. It lasted just fifty five minutes!”
“No. You’re definitely mistaken,” Sam said. “I was stuck less than five miles inland in an abandoned ice station while a vicious Antarctic blizzard demolished the coast.”
“It’s true,” Tom said. “I had to come rescue his ass before he froze to death.”
“But that’s insane!” She looked both confused and angry, as though he and Tom were trying intentionally to obscure her memory. “I made breakfast two hours ago and ate it on the deck in perfect sunshine before the storm erupted!”
Sam looked at Alexis, trying to judge her response. “That’s impossible. There hasn’t been sunshine for three days. Instead there have been 140 knot winds raging. It only ceased an hour ago.”
Chapter Twelve
Alexis took a large sip from her strong coffee. She insisted on having a drink before explaining to the two strangers how she ended up in her current predicament. It felt like an interrogation the way they pummeled her with questions and queried the veracity of her answers.
“Do you want something to eat?” she asked.
“No thank you, ma'am,” Sam said. “I just want to get to the bottom of what’s happened here.”
Tom smiled like he figured he was done getting any answers from her. “I’m going to meet up with Elise and see if we can find the Security Hub. That way we’ll gain access to the crew and entertainer’s decks and hopefully she’ll find the security footage which will show us exactly what happened here.”
“Okay, be careful,” Sam said. “Let me know the second you find anything.”
Tom nodded and disappeared through the broken yellow door. Alexis finished her story about how she’d been seasick and then woke up to find herself as the only person aboard the ship in the middle of the ocean.
Sam stared at her. “And since then you’ve been making the most of it?”
“Yes. I’ve been exercising, trying to keep fit. Mostly biding my time waiting for someone to rescue me, from wherever I am.”
“You don’t know where you are?” he asked.
“Not a clue. How could I?” She gritted her teeth. “I left port in Argentina eight days ago. I became sea sick four hours into the journey and spent the next three days confined to my stateroom. So I have no idea where I am.”
“You’re in the Weddell Sea, Antarctica.”
“The Waddell Sea. Are you kidding me?” she asked. “The waters have been perfectly still. I thought it was renowned for having dangerous, large swells?”
“It is. Of course, I’ve already told you this entire area had thirty foot swells for the past three days, but we’ve already agreed to disagree on that account, so you can make your own judgment.”
She stared at him. Her emerald eyes locked in a determined challenge. “You look like you already have.”
“Have what?” he asked.
“Made your judgments,” she said. “You think I’m crazy, don’t you?”
“I haven’t decided whether you’re crazy or not. In fact, I haven’t ruled out that you orchestrated the entire event.”
She spilled her coffee. “You think I abducted all these people?”
“I have no idea what happened to everyone on board. I’m simply saying you’re the only person we’ve found on board a perfectly sound cruise ship off the coast of Antarctica — and you weren’t exactly trying to find help, were you?”
“Are you kidding me?” She swore. “We’re in the middle of the Southern Ocean! What the hell was I supposed to do?”
“You could have called for help.” His tone came across harsh and he quickly made a smile. It looked kind and warm, and practiced — he wanted her to feel that he was on her side and simply frustrated because he couldn’t find answers.
“Well, it’s not like we get a lot of cell phone coverage out here.”
He laughed. “I didn’t mean by phone. You could have gone to the bridge. They’d have a satellite connection, GPS, radio. Something that could have told you where you were and how to get help.”
“I did. Only it didn’t provide me with any answers. Only more questions.”
“You woke up and found yourself on a deserted cruise ship in the middle of the Southern Ocean, and the bridge only gives you more questions?”
“Yeah. None of the instruments were working.”
“Are you sure you just couldn’t work out how to use them?” he asked.
“Certain.”
“Do you sail?” he persisted.
“No. But I’m a reasonably intelligent person. I can usually work things out. And this was different. The GPS failed to locate any satellites, the digital logbook had been deleted, and the radio…” she took a deep breath in, sighed and then continued. “The radio provided nothing but static. Behind which, was the most eerie, and yet mesmerizing tune I’ve ever heard.”
Sam started to tap his fingers on the side of the doorframe. Slow at first, then fast, and then evenly.
Her eyes widened at the sound. “You heard it, too?”
“Yes.”
She looked somewhere between frightened and curious. Like the child stuck at home alone for the first time listening to a strange sound in an empty room, and terrified to open the door to investigate in case it should turn out to be an evil clown. “What was it?”
He squirmed as though unsure how much to say. “It took me two days’ worth of frustration to recall where I’d heard it before. I had to write down the musical score before it hit me.”
“You rewrote the musical score to the sound behind the static?”
“I was stuck in an ice station. I had the time to waste. It turned out I’d studied the song in high school music — that’s why it felt so familiar to me.”
“You studied music?” she laughed.
“It was one of my fun subjects. I mainly took sciences, but I liked piano and thought a music subject would even it out. As it was, it came in useful to me this time.”
“And what was the song?”
“It was composed by a Hungarian pianist named Rezső Seress while living in Paris in 1933. He titled the work, Vége a Világnak — Does the name mean anything to you?”