“We will,” said Paxton. “I’m on first watch tomorrow – I’ll start early, and we’ll continue ‘til we reach it; then we’ll tell McMurdo to evacuate us. We’ve been here six months, and by tomorrow, we’ll have done all we came to do.”
“I only hope the drill lasts,” said Julie anxiously.
“All we need is one sample,” said Hall. “More would be better, obviously, but one sample will at least tell us whether there’s life down there.”
“Where are Wilkes and Bannikov?” asked Senko, noting that two of the remaining seven were missing. “Still searching?”
Paxton shook his head. “I saw Bannikov ten minutes ago. He said they’ll join us when they’ve changed.”
The words were barely out of his mouth when Bannikov burst into the room, bringing with him a flurry of tiny flakes, more like ice dust than snow.
“I can’t find Wilkes,” he said breathlessly. “I’ve looked everywhere. He’s not in the camp.”
Stomach churning, Paxton raced outside to look in the huts and the labs, ignoring the burly Russian’s protestations that he’d already checked them. Bannikov was right: Wilkes was not on the base.
“What happened?” Paxton demanded, while the others clustered around in alarm. “You said both of you were back.”
“We were both back,” insisted Bannikov, his usually florid face pale. He took the hip-flask from his pocket and raised it to his lips with unsteady hands. “He wanted to look in the drill-house one last time before giving up for the night; I went to change. After a few minutes, I went to the drill-house to make sure he was alright. I couldn’t find him.”
“That makes two,” said Hall, glancing around him fearfully. “What’s happening here?”
“More to the point,” said Senko in a nervous whisper. “Who’s going to be next?”
A more thorough search of the base revealed nothing: there was no sign of Wilkes, just as there had been no sign of Tanya. The two scientists seemed to have disappeared into thin air. Paxton found the cowboy-style necktie, twisted and frozen, in the drill-house, but it gave no clue as to what had happened to its owner.
“This is impossible,” he said, gazing down at the material. “People don’t just disappear.”
Hall turned to Senko. “The Russians didn’t put secret tunnels here, did they? This base was built during the Cold War, and so it’s possible they did something like that. Wilkes and Tanya may’ve fallen down one.”
Senko shook his head. “They only built what you can see – no hidden rooms or passages. And even if there were, they’d have collapsed under the weight of the snow by now.”
“Then maybe someone else is here,” said Hall. He gave Senko and Bannikov an unpleasant look. “We announce our progress every night on the radio, and so the whole of Antarctica knows we’re on the verge of tapping into Lake Vostok. Maybe not everyone wants us to be successful.”
“We’re at the Pole of Inaccessibility,” Paxton pointed out, determined that the Texan should not start to blame the Russians. “A rival band of scientists can’t simply fly in, snatch our samples, and leave.”
“Why not?” demanded Hall.
Paxton sighed. “First, only specially adapted planes can land here; and second, any unauthorized craft would be detected on radar and stopped. Plus there’s the fact that we’d have heard the engines.”
“Then maybe they came by land,” pressed Hall. “It wouldn’t be easy, but it’s not impossible.”
“It is,” said Julie. “You can’t cross Antarctica with a backpack, you know. It’d be a huge undertaking, needing a lot of logistical support. Such an expedition would be detected in no time.”
“And we’d have seen anyone approaching on foot,” added Paxton.
“Even if someone did come by land, it doesn’t explain why Tanya and Wilkes are missing,” said Bannikov reasonably. “We’ve searched all around the base. If someone else were here, we’d have found evidence of it – and we didn’t.”
“So, what’re we going to do?” asked Hall, fear stark in his eyes. “Do we wait here until we disappear, one by one?”
“There are six of us: we’ll stay in pairs,” said Paxton, not liking the way Hall’s panic was beginning to spread to the others. “And we’ll radio McMurdo for an immediate evacuation.”
“Maybe it’s something to do with the lake,” said Julie, casting a nervous glance towards the drill-house. “Tanya went missing when she was supposed to be drilling, and Wilkes disappeared when he went there to look for her.”
“Such as what?” asked Paxton incredulously. “D’you think a monster from the untapped deep has wriggled its way up the drill shaft and is doing away with our friends?”
Julie’s expression indicated that she did not consider his mocking suggestion so improbable. “I always said we’d find something dangerous down there. I assumed it’d be a microbe that might cause some deadly disease, but maybe there’s something bigger.”
“Are you serious?” demanded Paxton, scarcely believing his ears. “You’re a scientist, Julie! All we’ll find down there is water.”
“Perhaps she’s right,” said Hall, swallowing hard. “We don’t know what might’ve happened in a body of water that’s been sealed for thousands of years.”
That Hall was willing to believe some mysterious creature had slithered up the drill shaft was not a surprise to Paxton – the Texan watched a lot of science fiction videos, and his gullibility had provided the Russians with a good deal of entertainment during the long Antarctic evenings – but Paxton was astonished that such an idea should have come from the practical, rational Julie Franklin.
“We should contact McMurdo,” he said, pushing the idiotic notion from his mind and heading for the radio in the kitchen. “Tell them about Wilkes.”
“We should tell them about the lake, too,” said Julie, running to catch up with him. “We should warn them.”
“Warn them about what?” asked Paxton. “You’ve no evidence that whatever happened to Tanya and Wilkes has anything to do with the lake. There’ll be some perfectly rational explanation-”
“But there isn’t, is there?” demanded Julie angrily. “Two people’ve disappeared without trace from a place that – quite literally – has no way out. There isn’t a rational explanation.”
“Maybe we shouldn’t tell them what we think,” said Hall, following them into the kitchen. “If my government think we’ve unearthed some weird creature, they’ll put us in quarantine and we’ll never get out of here.”
Bannikov and Senko exchanged an amused glance with the shy American called Morris who was their radio expert. Paxton was relieved to see that at least three of his team had not taken leave of their senses, even if Julie and Hall had.
“It’s not funny!” snapped Julie, angered by their smiles. She glowered at them until they left, and then turned to Paxton. “Tell McMurdo now.”
“I’ll do no such thing,” said Paxton firmly. “They’ll think we’ve gone stark raving mad. I’ll report Wilkes’ disappearance and that’s it.”
The sleepy voice of the radio operator at McMurdo snapped into wakefulness when Paxton informed him that a second member of the expedition was missing. Just as Paxton was about to break the connection, Hall made a lunge for the transmitter and snatched it from his hand. Paxton tried to grab it back again before Hall made a total fool of himself, but tiredness made him slow, and the Texan had informed the startled operator about Julie’s theory and signed off before Paxton could stop him.
“You’ve been watching too many movies,” Paxton said in disgust. “I’m going to bed.”
“I’m coming with you,” said Hall, following him outside to where Morris, Bannikov and Senko stood in an uncertain group in the darkness, reluctant to leave the halo of light thrown out by the kitchen. “I’m not walking alone around here.”