Elise looked at Tom. “Told you there was a perfectly logical explanation why everyone happily jumped ship.”
“Sure, but where did they go?”
Elise watched as the deck on the sixth level filled with orderly rows of people preparing to disembark. Minutes later a ship arrived and docked alongside the Antarctic Solace. Elise pressed pause on the video so she could read the name on the side of the vessel. “Frozen magic — that’s what we’re after. Find that ship and we find the missing people.”
She pressed play again and watched each row of passengers confidently jump over the railing onto a cushioned landing on the deck of the Frozen Magic.
Elise stopped the tape. “Well that answers it! They slowly removed each staff member until the ship was filled with passengers only. No one to tell them they hadn’t hit an iceberg. Then, they made the simple ruse and convinced everyone to happily leave the ship. At that stage Alexis was still feeling the sedative effect of the antiemetic given to her the day before and consequently slept through the entire event.”
“Okay,” Tom said. “The question now is where did the Frozen Magic take them, and why?”
Elise typed the name into her computer and pressed search. It came back with zero tour companies in Antarctica with a ship named Frozen Magic. She opened the search to any ship large enough to accommodate two hundred people within the Antarctic waters. This time the results showed a medium to large icebreaker employed in Antarctica over the past five years. But there were no notes about who employed its services. The vessel was privately owned by a resident of St. Kitts in the Caribbean.
“That’s interesting,” Elise said.
“What?”
“St. Kitts is notorious for selling citizenship at a high price to people who want a second passport as a backup or want to set up a business without the U.S. being involved.”
“I’m sure it’s perfectly legal.”
“And I’m sure there’s a reason an icebreaker is owned by a resident of St. Kitts.”
Tom stared at the vessel. “So where is it now?”
Elise searched for an IAS international ship tracking beacon. It came up empty. “That’s strange, a vessel that large must be displaying an IAS response under international shipping law.”
“Can you find it some other way?”
“Sure. Let’s check some satellite images.” Elise typed several queries into a database of current and recent satellite photographs taken over Antarctica. The search finished within seconds and showed the image of a single ice breaker in McMurdo Sound. Next to it was the Maria Helena. Elise swallowed. “Get me Sam on the radio!”
Tom looked at her face. “Why, what’s wrong?”
“Sam and Alexis are heading straight into a trap!”
Chapter Forty-Seven
Sam stopped the hovercraft at the highest point of the Taylor Glacier before descending into East Antarctica. He switched the engines off and climbed out as the machine sank onto hard ice. He looked ahead where leveled ice and snow drifted as far as he could see until it blurred with the horizon.
“East Antarctica!” Alexis said. “The most vacant land on earth.”
“Can we see it from here?”
“I should be able to.” Alexis scanned the horizon using a pair of military grade binoculars. She stopped after about forty seconds and handed him the binoculars. “Found it — Pegasus.”
He took them and looked through. Still thirty miles away, the science station looked like no more than a small rabbit mound covered in snow. “You’re certain?”
“Absolutely.”
He picked up the radio. “Maria Helena — we’re approaching the location. There’s no cloud cover. Can we please get satellite confirmation there are no hostiles in the area?”
No response.
Sam increased the volume and frequency; then tried again. This time the only response was static and an almost inaudible white noise. He lifted the speaker right to his ear and then grinned. “It’s that fucking song again — Gloomy Sunday!”
“What do you want to do about it?”
“Not much we can,” Sam said. “We have a small window if we’re to rescue them. All we can do is be careful and go quickly.”
“So we’ll keep going?”
Sam shrugged. “I didn’t come all this way to stop because the radios are still being jammed by some stupid song.”
With the decision made to carry on, Sam and Alexis climbed back inside the hovercraft. Within minutes Sam began descending the glacier. It was slow and tedious work, dangerously navigating the labyrinth of glacial fissures, ice troughs, and unstable snow. Seracs, often as tall as fifty feet sometimes overhung their path like giant axes.
Sam chose his route carefully to minimize the risk, but it was slow work. By midafternoon they reached the ice plains of East Antarctica. Sam opened up the throttle and the main propellers reached their maximum speed, sending the hovercraft gliding across the near perfectly flat ice surface at a rate of eighty miles per hour.
It took less than half an hour then to reach the Pegasus station. Sam slowed the hovercraft. Out front of the Antarctic station an orange Japanese-built Ohara Snow Tractor faced back towards them. Parked out front of the station and covered in snow, it looked like a once proud and now forlorn pet, forced to brave the elements while its owners stayed warm inside. Two flags stood proudly next to it — one French and one Swiss.
Sam looked at the Snow Tractor as he shut down the hovercraft’s engines. “It looks like someone’s still here.”
Alexis reached for the Glock he’d given her. “Yeah, I just hope it’s my guys.”
Chapter Forty-Eight
Sam checked his Uzi, the smaller of the two weapons he’d taken with him, but much easier to use in a confined space. He removed the 32 round magazine, took it apart and pulled the trigger. The firing mechanism worked smoothly. Confident the icy conditions hadn’t affected the weapon, he reassembled it and stepped out of the hovercraft.
Pegasus was a portable, dome shaped igloo with internal insulation. From the outside it stood four feet above the ice, but Alexis had explained to him earlier that the scientists had dug out the main living space and the dome was just the protective shield, made out of aluminum, it reflected the cold.
Sam opened the unlocked door of the Ohara Snow Tractor. “I’m Sam Reilly. I’m here to help. Anyone inside?”
No response.
He signaled to Alexis. “Keep an eye on the door to Pegasus.”
Alexis drew the Glock he’d given her. “Go. I’ve got it covered.”
Sam quietly entered the large snow machine, built specifically for the harsh environment of Antarctica. It was cold inside, and he immediately doubted anyone had been inside recently. Even so, his basic training kicked in and told him not to leave himself exposed from two directions.
He flicked the lights on and carefully searched the Snow Tractor, which was capable of carrying up to twenty people inside. There were four individual compartments. Each one consisted of a range of scientific equipment for researching ice tunnels. Radar screens, seismographs, and ground penetrating sonar lined the walls. Sam opened each one individually until he reached the back of the machine.
Confident it was empty he climbed the steps at the front. Alexis looked at him. “It was empty. Any movement on your end?”
“No. Shall we knock on the door?”