“Sure.”
Sam approached the entrance to the science station. The steps descending into the Pegasus were clear of snow, as though they’d been shoveled free of ice earlier today. He pointed to them. “Someone’s definitely been home recently.”
She shook her head. “Those steps have heating elements inside to avoid snow build up from blocking them inside.”
“What are their names?” Sam asked.
“The scientists?”
“Yeah.”
“Auben, Pier, Jean, Hugo, and Dominique,” she replied.
Sam nodded. “Okay.” He stepped down to the door and banged loudly. “Anyone in there? My name’s Sam Reilly. I’ve come to help.”
No response.
He opened the door slightly and banged louder. “Auben. Pier. Jean. Hugo. Dominque. Any of you in there?”
Still no response.
“They must be inside,” Alexis said. “The snow tractor’s the only means they have of getting out of here. If it’s still here, so are they.”
Sam nodded. He understood what she was saying. He opened the door slightly and stepped inside. The place looked disheveled. Tables were on their sides, beds were torn, and food scattered. Sam glanced at the aluminum insulated ceiling — it was riddled with bullet holes.
He stepped out again.
“What is it?” Alexis asked quietly. The urgency turning her calm voice sharp. “What did you see?”
Sam looked at her; his piercing blue eyes, cold and hard. His jaw rigid and taut. “They’re all dead — every one of them.”
Chapter Forty-Nine
Alexis stared at his face for a moment. She didn’t need to ask what had happened. He had already told her everything she needed to know — they’d been murdered and it was her fault. She pushed through Sam’s arms and tried to see inside.
“Wait!” He grabbed her.
She shook her head. “No. I have to see what I have done.”
“You didn’t do anything. It’s not your fault.”
“Of course it is! You said so yourself. The coincidences are too much. Someone wanted me dead because of my research, but I can’t even imagine why.”
Sam held her tight and stopped her from pushing through. Alexis tried to wriggle free but he held her with too much strength and she finally relented, relaxing into his comforting grip. “We’ll find out why, and we’ll fix this — I promise.”
“Fix this?” She buried her head in his strong chest. “You can’t fix this! No one can. Those people are already dead and there’s nothing we can do about it.”
“You’re right. We can’t. But we must now ensure they didn’t die in vain. Someone must have had a pretty compelling reason to murder them and we need to find out what that was.”
“Why?” Alexis asked. “Why did they do this? There’s no reason. Why would anyone want to kill scientists who were simply looking for a place to build a particle accelerator?”
Sam shrugged. “Maybe it was what they were looking to make?”
“The Boson Higg’s particles?” She shook her head. “No, that’s not possible. No one knew about the project. Not even the scientists working here. All they knew was I’d heard about these ice tunnels and wanted to know the feasibility of building a particle accelerator inside.”
She felt Sam’s arms wrap warmly around her. Ordinarily she would have found it comforting, but right now, she wanted to feel the pain. Somehow she felt she deserved to suffer. “Maybe someone was upset about even the suggestion of building in Antarctica?”
“It’s possible, but unlikely.”
“Why?” he persisted.
“Because gaining approval would require a unanimous positive vote. If one party wasn’t happy, they didn’t need to go to the extreme lengths of killing everyone here simply to stop the research.”
“Okay, so if they weren’t killed because of what they knew when they arrived here, they must have been killed because of what they found.”
Alexis took a deep breath. “You think they found something here which got them killed?”
“It’s the only explanation I’m left with.”
“But Antarctica’s a giant landmass covered in ice.” Alexis shook her head in disbelief. “There’s nothing here of any real value. There’s no oil, no precious stones, nothing. Why else do you think the countries of the world were so willing to sign the Antarctic Treaty System, accepting no country owns Antarctica?”
Sam looked at her. “I think it’s time I go inside and see if I can find out.”
“I’ll come with you,” she said.
“Are you sure?” He stared at her. “They were killed from the air and left where they died.”
“I have to.”
“Okay.”
Sam opened the door fully and stepped to the side so she could choose how much she wanted to see. It was one of the things she’d already learned to love about Sam. He was infinitely protective of her, but at the same time capable of letting her make her own decisions and not mollycoddling her. It was a terrible sight, but one she needed to see.
She stepped past him and entered. Pegasus was one large dome shaped room, with everything from food preparation, study, entertainment, through to sleeping arrangements being shared. A separate lavatory was built outside with its own enclosed space. Immediately, she could take everything in at a glance. The insulated ceiling had been peppered by hundreds of bullet holes. Everything inside was shredded. The dead scientists remained in the positions they had been in when they were killed. Alexis placed her hand over her mouth and said nothing.
Pier was the first one she saw. A recent Doctorial graduate in Physics, she had been impressed by his confronting thesis which challenged some of the accepted norms of particle physics. In the end he’d proved many of his own theories wrong. She had been impressed by the strength of his conviction despite multiple attacks from professors around the world; experts who didn’t like to have their established theories challenged. In the end, she offered him a job at CERN.
And now he was dead.
Slumped back in his chair, his breakfast porridge looked like it had just been boiled. A spoon rested half out of the bowl, as though he’d been in the process of taking another bite when the bullets stopped him. Three bullet holes pierced his chest. Otherwise he looked no different from the last time she’d seen him nearly eight months earlier. His long, dark brown hair almost covered his eyes with large waves. His mouth was open, in aghast shock and misunderstanding — as though he couldn’t comprehend how his life had so suddenly been taken from him. His unseeing eyes stared vacantly at her in accusation.
“I’m so sorry, Pier.” She stepped past him and kept walking. “What the hell happened here, Sam?”
“At a guess, I’d say someone flew overhead and machine-gunned the entire place. The aluminum insulation was strong enough to protect them from the elements but did nothing against large caliber machinegun bullets. By the looks of things, they made several passes just to make sure they got everyone.”
“You mean they might not have died immediately?” She put her hand back over her mouth. “They must have cowered somewhere only to realize they had nowhere to hide?”
“No. By the look of it, I’d say they all died on the first pass. Whoever’s responsible flew by a few more times just to be certain.”
“That’s terrible.”
She watched as Sam rifled through a series of paper notes. Next he switched on three laptop computers sitting on the main dining table, which also doubled up as a work station. None of them started.
He picked up the one closest to him and examined the six bullet holes. He poked his finger in the first one and then looked up at her. “Fifty calibers — they never stood a chance.”
Alexis barely heard him as she concentrated on walking to the far end of the dome where five hammocks hung on a rack. She pulled each of them out and ran her hands along the sides of them where a zipper held some minor personal effects from each individual scientist.