There were no surprises regarding the weapons. There were two handguns and two rifles, which corresponded with what Sokolov had said to Hamlin earlier. Barinov gave some indication that he would have liked to do some snooping, but Hamlin found the backbone to put a quick end to that. He ushered the slightly disgruntled driller back to the group.
The end of another long and disconcerting day was now fast approaching. A handful of the crew decided to play darts, while the rest gradually dispersed and headed for bed. Hamlin had guard duty starting at six in the morning. After that, he would catch the next hunting party and go out searching for trouble. It was more than enough to convince him that he needed to get some rest. He decided that he would meditate on the possible meaning of the numbers from the cigar case before falling asleep. It was a good plan. But as he lay down and released his mind to ponder the possibilities, sleep overtook him and all conscious thought disappeared. Dream filled slumber was the best he could do for this night.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
The alarm woke Hamlin in the morning. He didn’t feel as refreshed as he had hoped for. His body gave little sign of cooperation as he forced himself into motion. He just made it in time to start his allotted time for guard duty. Temporary control of the handgun was relinquished to him along with control of the pile of Russian magazines. He wasn’t sure which one he wanted least.
Soon people began to gradually filter in for breakfast. There wasn’t a lot of life in the group. Smells of tea, coffee, and toast soon filled the air. A good Samaritan asked Hamlin if he wanted anything and he was soon set up with a steaming mug of instant coffee and two pieces of toast with marmalade. His outlook on the day began to slowly improve. At least, that was, until the power failed.
Francis had just taken a bite of toast when the lights abruptly went out. The room was pitch black and silent except for a few mumbling complaints. The sound of drawers opening and closing gave indication that someone was searching for a source of light. Finally, the weak beam of a flashlight punched a small hole in the darkness.
“Wait, don’t move. Somebody will get hurt.” Hamlin matched the gruff voice to Barinov.
Then the lights flickered and came back on.
“Back-up generator kicked in.” Barinov added.
The room went back to normal. Hamlin took another bite of toast and washed it down with strong coffee.
“Hey, Hamlin.” Barinov had sought him out.
“What just happened?”
Barinov shrugged. “Hard to say. Probably something minor. But we absolutely cannot run on one generator. Without power, we’re in big trouble. We can’t take the risk of not having a back-up unit available all the time. I need to take a crew out to troubleshoot and make repairs.”
Hamlin nodded. “Of course.”
“I’ll take Yedemsky and Kravchuk. Hopefully it can be fixed quickly. I suggest we get ready and go now.”
“That’s fine, and thank you by the way. We’ll continue on here. Is there anything we can do to help?”
Barinov wasn’t receptive. “No. Let me round up my crew and get tools. We’ll need the Cat, so first patrol might have to wait.”
“No problem. These repairs should be the priority.”
“Good.” He nodded and turned to make arrangements. Hamlin had to admit that it felt flattering to have someone seek his approval before committing to action. His feelings would no doubt change if the crew was disgruntled rather than accommodating. Of course, none of this changed his current situation. He looked at the magazines and wished he’d brought some from home. The idea occurred to him that he could spend some time trying to figure the numbers out for Sokolov’s office. They weren’t memorized in his mind, but he could at least think of hypothetical associations for what they could mean. That would be a good starting point. The first questions was…why so many digits?
Barinov and his crew were soon ready and left for the generator shed. It was located near the drilling facility and would take a few minutes by Cat to get there. Hamlin wished them well and resumed analyzing Sokolov’s code.
It was a huge string of numbers; no doubt about that. Hamlin thought from memory that it was twelve or thirteen digits altogether. So what possible uses could it have? What could it possibly stand for? He decided to start by looking at usage of numbers in a general sense.
Numbers were commonly used in codes. But what kind of codes? If you ordered a parcel, you could track it on-line by entering the correct code. It was usually a very long string of numbers. Hamlin decided that thought was worth hanging on to. Maybe there was a parcel or package or piece of equipment somewhere here that had this number stamped on it or the box it was packaged in. He would run that past Lena later when they could be alone.
There were address codes. Zip codes, postal codes, street numbers, numbers associated with certain buildings. But how would that apply down here? And this number just seemed too large for that. So…rejected.
Stars and celestial bodies were sometimes identified by numbers. Nobody could come up with enough original names to cover them all. But again, how would that apply here? Rejected.
Licenses and government issues identifications usually had large numbers to identify them; although letters were also usually dispersed in them, like license plates on cars. Could it apply here in some way? Possibly, but it didn’t really jump out at him. Rejected.
Serial numbers were commonly long strings of numbers and/or letters. The size might be just about right. So what would it mean? Again, could it be a certain piece of equipment that was here? Perhaps. He decided to hang on to that thought as well.
Suddenly he had a brain wave. Radio frequencies. They could be identified by their unique frequencies, commonly expressed in hertz. A typical radio station signal would be measured at over ten million hertz. The numbers could be a specific signal, or perhaps multiple signals. If that was the case, however, then how would they know when or how to split the number up? Francis didn’t have an answer, but he still liked the possibility. He kept this idea filed.
There were phone numbers. Depending on the country code and area code, they could be quite long. Maybe it was a direct line to someone or something important. But phones didn’t work down here. Sokolov could only communicate by shortwave radio. Now the light went on. Maybe the numbers were a shortwave frequency that went straight to Moscow or someone else of great significance. Yes, he liked that one. He wondered if Lena or any of the other crew members knew how to operate a shortwave. One step at a time, he reasoned.
“Hey, big fella,” Lena said, trying to imitate an American accent.
Hamlin hadn’t noticed her until the last possible second. He nearly jumped when she spoke, but fought off the impulse at the last possible moment.
“Hey yourself. Nice accent.”
“I’m working on it. Speaking of which, what are you working on? It looks rather uneventful over here.”
“Looks can be deceiving. It has been very exciting in my little corner of the station. Why, just a few minutes ago, I was drinking a coffee. Since then, I have been busy daydreaming. Can you see where I am going with this? It’s just one thing after another.”
“Okay, I am convinced. I envy your life. Congratulations.”