“Good thinking,” said Bannikov. He retrieved his hip-flask from his pocket and took a swig. “I’ll take one last look in the labs and the drill-house, and then I’m turning in, too. Morris can come with me. Julie should stay with Senko.”
Senko slapped Hall on the back and gave him a wicked grin. “Watch out for gigantic ice worms.”
Julie glared at him. “Laugh all you like. You’ll see.”
Paxton slept badly that night, and was awake well before dawn the following morning. He walked to the kitchen, and found Julie, Hall, and Senko already there, drinking coffee from oversized plastic mugs. He accepted the cup Julie offered him, then struggled into his thick outdoors clothing in preparation for a chilly spell in the drill-house.
Hall helped him start the engine – always a tricky business after a cold night – while Senko and Julie watched. They held their breath as the machine chugged reluctantly into life. With a screech of metal, and a furious hiss of water, the drill began to revolve, faster and faster until the noise of it filled the small room, and its choking fumes made the scientists cough.
Perhaps because the engine had been shut down earlier than usual the previous day, the drill sounded different that morning. It ran more smoothly, and the labouring, wheezing noises usually associated with its early starts were absent. They exchanged hopeful glances: perhaps they’d be successful after all.
The drill was like a giant mosquito, sending a long probe of diamond-hard teeth through the ice, although at a depth nearing four kilometres it was becoming unreliable. However, after a while, the cylinder that carried the ice-cores to the surface began to emerge.
“That’s not ice!” yelled Senko suddenly, making everyone jump. “That’s water! We’re through!”
Paxton saw the Russian was right, and they all clustered around to inspect the container, where tell-tale bubbles indicated that water, not ice, was being sampled.
“Lake Vostok,” said Hall in an awed voice. He tapped the cylinder with his forefinger. “No one’s ever set eyes on this before. We’ve done it!”
Senko gave a whoop of delight, and then grabbed Hall in a bear hug that had the American gasping for breath. Julie joined them, dancing around the chilly hut like an excited child. Paxton watched them, smiling.
“Put your masks on,” he instructed, when their euphoria was spent. “We need to be careful.”
“Why?” asked Julie immediately. “D’you agree that there might be something dangerous down there?”
“No,” said Paxton shortly. “It’s because I don’t want the sample contaminated by our breath.”
Carefully, he began to transfer the water into a screw-topped sterile container that would be shipped home for study. After all the waiting and anticipation, the brownish liquid that the drill produced was an anticlimax. It wasn’t even clear, although Paxton knew that the drill’s lubricants were largely responsible for that. Later, the contaminants would be removed, and the water studied in its clean state.
While he worked, the others fired up the drill again. There was a tearing, screeching sound, and the engine revved furiously. Paxton ducked instinctively as a sharp crack like a gunshot indicated that the probe had sheared. White smoke filled the drill-house, and the engine spluttered into silence.
“That was it,” said Senko, crouching to examine it. “Ice pressure’s finally distorted the borehole to the point where the drill can’t work. We were just in time.”
Hall nodded at the canister that held the murky water. “That’ll be enough. In a few years, someone’ll sink another hole and get more, but until then, this’ll do.”
Senko shook his head over the drill. “I’ll fetch a new bit and try again, but I doubt it’ll work.”
When he had gone, Julie edged towards Paxton, leaning over his shoulder and speaking in a low whisper so that Hall would not hear.
“The drill sounded different from the moment it started this morning. Did you notice?”
Paxton nodded absently, concentrating on his work. “It ran more smoothly than normal.”
“Quite. You know what that means, don’t you?”
Paxton gazed at her when the implications dawned on him. He cursed himself for not being more alert. He had listened to the drill chewing its way through ice for six months and should have realized that the difference in sound that day was significant.
“The drill wasn’t cutting ice,” he said. “It was already in the water when we started it.”
Julie nodded. “The lake must’ve been tapped yesterday, while Tanya was working on it. Perhaps the ice is less dense near the water, and she made better time than our instruments said she would. But it seems Tanya reached the lake first.”
Paxton nodded. “We’ll credit her with its discovery in our reports.”
Julie sighed irritably. “That’s not what I meant. My point is that Tanya broke into the lake and then went missing. Wilkes came here to look for her, and he’s missing, too.”
“Not this again,” began Paxton tiredly. “I don’t-”
He was interrupted by Senko, who burst into the drill-house so abruptly that he almost ripped the damaged door from its hinges.
“They’ve gone! Both of them!” he gasped. “I’ve checked the kitchen and the labs. They’re not here; they’ve gone the same way as Tanya and Wilkes.”
“Who?” asked Hall stupidly, an expression of puzzlement on his heavy features. “What are you talking about?”
“Morris and Bannikov!” yelled Senko in exasperation. “I went to tell them that we’d broken through. They’re not here. They’ve gone!”
Julie regarded Paxton steadily. “And where did they say they were going, before they went to bed last night?” she asked quietly.
“To check the labs,” said Hall. He swallowed hard. “And the drill-house.”
“Yes,” said Julie softly. “The drill-house.”
Paxton remained convinced that Julie’s explanation was impossible, but was unable to provide her with an alternative one. He radioed McMurdo, and was too disheartened to object when Hall took the microphone to add that the disappearances of Tanya, Wilkes, Morris, and Bannikov were somehow connected to drilling into the lake. Julie nodded agreement, while Senko sighed and indicated with a forefinger tapping his temple that he thought they were both insane.
With the others in tow, Paxton went to inspect Morris and Wilkes’ sleeping quarters. Neither were neat in their habits, and it was difficult to say whether they had slept in their beds the previous night. Therefore, it was not possible to prove or disprove Julie’s suspicion that the last thing they had done was visit the drill-house for one final look for their missing colleagues.
“Their rooms are the two nearest the exit,” said Paxton, frowning. “I never hear them coming or going anyway, because the heating makes too much noise.”
“I think I heard Morris,” said Senko, whose room was next door. “I didn’t sleep well last night, and I heard him moving about, moaning.”
“What do you mean, ‘moaning’?” demanded Paxton. “Why didn’t you mention this before?”
“Because I assumed he was distressed over Tanya and Wilkes, and it didn’t seem right to tell you about it. But I may be wrong: the heaters mask sounds, as you just said yourself.”
Julie stared at her feet. “Tanya and I were good friends and I was upset last night. It was probably me you heard.”
“It may’ve been,” said Senko, shrugging. “I tried not to listen.”
Paxton sighed. “Well, there’s a rational explanation for these disappearances, and I’m going to find out what it is. People simply don’t vanish.”
Hall backed away from him. “Count me out. I’m not going anywhere near that drill-house.”