ANTARCTIC FIRE: A Harry Crook Thriller - Conspiracy in the Antarctic

by Chris Geater

  “Why don’t we turn away from that bloody ship?” I shouted to Len.

  He moved some joystick and the turret turned to the left, in my eyepieces I could see the problem. A large crack several feet across ran parallel to our course disappearing into the distance, we couldn't turn away which left us at the mercy of a large ship-borne gun, our only hope that the operators were poorly practised. Another close explosion which rocked the tank like a toy. The driver, Boris I think Len called him, corrected the tank preventing us disappearing into the large crevasse. My view spun towards the retreating convoy of vehicles as they backed off allowing the Xue Long to continue its bombardment without fear of hitting their own boys. The tank lurched again sending another vehicle rolling across the ice. Then turret spinning, Len sent a shell towards the Xue Long but we didn't have the necessary range and it fell short. Boris zigzagged the thirty ton behemoth causing us to spin and slide our way west, the erratic motion making it difficult for the Xue Long’s gunners to catch a break. Catch a break they did however and with a bang that sent us spinning on one track we ground to a halt, silent and immobile. Boris wound the engine over but to no avail so we felt it prudent to abandon our contraband and flee on foot.

  Just as we opened the hatch another timely explosion from the ship filled the cabin with ice, a second or two later and we would have been splattered all over the camouflaged side of the armoured vehicle. Our thermal clothing slowed our disembarkation but we made it to the ice in good time and raced towards the ice crack. The noise of several diesel vehicles came to us as the reticent convoy accelerated toward our position, good news really as the Xue Long held fire while their mobile troops moved up.

  Len pulled the odd shaped backpack from his shoulders. Inside sat an aluminium box with a lid clamped shut by long stainless clips.

  “I hope you have some sort of helicopter in there Len,” I gasped. “Company will soon be upon us.”

  A malicious grin on his face. “Something better than helicopter.”

  He opened the box, quickly pulled out a tube about the size of a beverage mug and threw it into the crevasse next to where we stood.

  “We must not trifle with this stuff Hurry, sword with two edges as you say.”

  He then raced off along the crack so Boris and I followed, the vehicles rapidly closing.

  I shouted after him. “What’s the plan Len, we have time for scientific experiments? Should I take notes?”

  “Keep up Hurry,” Len said over his shoulder. “You do not want to be near our old friend when he gets warm.”

  Looking behind I could see what he meant. Loud explosions came from the crevasse where his tubes landed, we could feel the vibration in our feet. The familiar sounds of indigenous organisms protesting a warm environment. Clouds of steam vented and shot up a hundred metres into the atmosphere, much of which provided us with cover, good thinking Len.

  Further along a small ice bridge had formed allowing us to cross over. Looking down it was not that deep, maybe twenty metres, I expected some sort of bottomless abyss. Len opened his box and threw another tube down the hole as our friendly neighbours opened fire blindly through the cloud. We hit the ice and sent our own fire towards them, Len ignored the fight and continued along the divide throwing his tubes as he went. We leapt up and followed taking advantage of our invisibility which increased with each tube. Finally Len started to make his way perpendicular to the crack allowing some distance to be placed between us and our antagonists.

  The small ice bridge was not of sufficient strength to allow vehicles to cross and we picked off any scouts on foot who appeared through the artificial steam clouds. Sounds of idling vehicles reached us, some angry shouting, then a strange noise, almost like a subway train approaching along a tunnel. The ground beneath us, or ice, began to shake but we couldn't see anything beyond the ice crack due to the steam. Much urgent shouting could be heard, more urgent than usual with this lot. Their vehicle engines revved up and sounded like they were receding. Cracks appeared spreading out from their direction and we scurried like rabbits away as the many fractures reached towards us. I had never been so terrified nor run so fast even encumbered by my many layers of clothing.

  Boris did the Proletariat proud as he overtook Len and myself with an Olympian sprint and us not far behind. The ice vibrated and lifted throwing us off our feet, a rumble that shook our bones began, rising to a deafening roar. Large shards of ice came hurtling towards us at high speed, we lay prone and trembling hoping to avoid decapitation. Through all of this we could hear a ships horn blowing continuously adding to the confusion and horror, I think Boris screamed by the look on his face but no sound reached me over the cacophony. Incredulously the vibration and roaring increased, visions of Natalie and I sitting on a sandy beach, hand in hand, cocktails in the other flashed into my mind, I think I was losing it. We bounced on the ice our bodies protected somewhat by our many layers otherwise we would have broken ribs and other assorted bones. Wind blew from different directions all at once, ice particles sliced into our faces as blood ran, the pain immaterial, terror paramount. Finally our bruised and bleeding bodies came to rest, the ice ceased moving and apart from the sound of rushing water at some distance a silence settled over us.

  We stood and stared at the ocean, a kilometre closer to us than it was a dozen minutes ago, our friendly crevasse a thing of the past. The ice, the Xue Long, Chinese troops, all vanished, my mind didn't seem to be able to comprehend. Huge icebergs floated just off the shore, some of them a kilometre or more across, ugly shapes and contours, bright blue, drifting away.

  Len looked over at me shaking his head. “These extreme organisms Hurry, I am not comfortable with them anymore. I think we let Australian scientists have them all.”

  I shook my head in an attempt to clear it.

  “Let me get this straight Len. You brought along a bunch of extremophiles to make steam in the unlikely event that we needed to escape and they chewed off a section of the Antarctic continent?”

  “You see why I am not comfortable with these things anymore, very precarious, could cause disturbance if they not controlled.”

  “Yes Len, I think it’s fair to say that’s what they’ve caused, a disturbance.”

  Half the southern ocean just separated from the Antarctic taking a ship and goodness knows what else with it just from a few tubes of our indigenous micro friends, yes, a disturbance.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  Len, Boris and myself tramped over the ice towards Progress, a circuitous route as we avoided the many cracks and newly formed crevasses resulting from our inadvertent landscaping. The sun shone bright reflecting off the bright blue enormous icebergs bobbing around the southern ocean in their new found freedom. We didn't speak of the horror our Chinese foes must have experienced as their entire surrounds, ice-wharf and all upended sending them to the bottom of an icy grave. In terms of the operation it was a roaring success. Militarisation of the Antarctic just took a major hit from which the Chinese will take some time to recover. I can only imagine the international repercussions once details reach the hungry ears of our global media.

  As far as rules of engagement go I think it can safely be said that we may be portrayed as the antagonists or at the very least accused of escalating the tensions. Difficult for the Chinese to declare war when all of their enemy’s leaders in the conflict were civilians. The Alpha lads were caught up in the most part carrying out self defence and it would be difficult to establish that they were Russian army personnel. Both Russian and Australian Governments will enthusiastically deny any knowledge and declare us all criminals, probably award us medals in secret though.

  Our arrival at Progress met with cheers and shouts, especially from the assembled Alpha lads who made it back in one piece. Apparently the sickbay was even more stretched than before. The span of icy land that separated Progress from Zhongshan still lay under the watchful eyes of Russian lookouts, the chance of Chinese vengeance very real if they were able to recove
r from their shock.

  The cafe buzzed with excitement as the various station members furnished an account of the operation as it unfolded before their very eyes through the large panoramic windows of the accommodation.

  Apparently behind the huge cloud which formed as a result of angry extremophiles a scene emerged straight from a science fiction horror movie. Almost the entire ice sheet broke away with a roar that made the building tremble and shake, much like an earthquake. The noise made a mockery of the insulated windows and many of the onlookers ears still rang, I knew how they felt. As the ant-like vehicles sped away from the enlarging crack the horizon began to change. The side of the ice nearest the point of separation slowly lifted while the edge to which the ship was attached sank into the ocean. Said ship listed dangerously over until the mooring lines snapped sending it reeling the opposite way. Impressively alert on the bridge, black smoke billowed from the funnel as the vessel quickly moved astern pulling away from their unstable jetty.

  As the ice field lifted it broke into many parts all of which continued the upending motion. At this stage any sign of vehicles or men were long gone leaving only the rearing mountains and the ship, tiny in comparison desperately moving away from the horrifying scene, doomed from the start. One large iceberg came crashing down onto the retreating ship and in a blink it disappeared into the icy depths. Various newly formed bergs continued to roll and move crashing into each other making sounds like artillery. A small tsunami washed up over the remaining ice and onto the shore damaging the Russian timber jetty and associated structures. We were fortunate to be far enough away from the wave as we lay terrified on the ice otherwise the story would have a very different ending. Some of the large icebergs continued rolling and ended up the way they started but some remained inverted creating tall mountain ranges of blue ice.

  A couple of days later Len and I sat looking out the windows at the totally changed landscape and marvelled at the power of those micro organisms when removed from their natural habitat.

  “What made you bring those terrible things along Len? What were you thinking?”

  “Genius hit me Hurry. I reached for bag of hand grenades then thought, ‘what can small bangs do for us? I need more, something to make more mischief, upset our neighbours’. You know Hurry, as you say when you pull cannon out of your pocket, ‘just in case’.”

  “Did you have any idea of the result?”

  “I expect much from our little friends but result much greater than expectations. I thought this is end for my old friend Hurry and me as we bounce around ice.”

  We returned to staring at the new scenery, astounded by the change, the cause, the effect.

  An approaching helo broke our reflective silence and announced itself by thumping its way down to the helo pad conveniently in view of the cafe windows. Two of my favourite people on the planet disembarked, Natalie and Smurf along with a couple of unknowns all stepping onto the icy ground, Natalie showing some excitement.

  Silence returned as the engine wound down and the visitors made their way out of view towards the accommodation entrance. We met them in the cold porch to assist with their tedious disrobing.

  Nobody spoke, what was there to say?

  Natalie winked at me. “Well done boys.” She turned to Len, “Cats and pigeons eh Vasily?”

  He nodded, “Cats and pigeons.”

  Len grinned, I grinned, Smurf chuckled, we would be lying to deny that the whole episode lay right up our alley.

  Once seated around a comfortable table coffee in hand, one of the unknowns introduced himself. “I represent the Australian Antarctic Division Mr Crook, my name is not important.”

  I ignored him and said to Smurf, “Results eh Charles, just what the Doctor ordered.”

  Unimportant-name piped up, “You do realise what you have done, have you any idea of the magnitude? You are mass murderers, you've killed hundreds if not thousands of innocent people, irreparable damage to the ice. You sunk a ship for crying out loud!”

  “Look on the bright side mate,” I replied. “Imagine if it was a Russian ice breaker, they’re nuclear, what an environmental disaster that would have been.”

  Violence shone in his eyes, I sensed animosity.

  “I wonder if you could excuse us Timothy,” Smurf said. So unknown had a name after all. “We need to discuss some security issues and unfortunately you are not cleared for the information.”

  Timothy sulked his way to another table.

  The friendly unknown glanced at Len who went to stand up.

  “No Vasily, please, sit down and join us,” Smurf said to him then turned to the remaining unknown. “Vasily has been our ally in a number of delicate situations, he has knowledge, one might say intimate knowledge of our intelligence operations.”

  Smurf then introduced the friendly.

  “Harris, this is Mr Crimshaw. He ….”

  “Lane, please call me Lane.” He extended his hand by way of interrupting Smurf.

  Smurf continued. “Mr Crimshaw, Lane, comes from the people who are responsible for your brief, although I am sure their brief didn't quite include most of what occurred here recently.”

  “I must admit Harris, when we discussed with Charles whether you might take the initiative and whether or not you are prone to escalation, I have to say we really had no idea.”

  Natalie and Len chuckled at the word escalation.

  “You don’t ask Hurry to poke bear unless you are hungry and want bear steaks for meal.”

  “Yes, Harry tends to go from benign to ridiculous in 9.2 seconds,” Natalie said. “I really don’t think there is anything in between. He’s either completely indifferent or he’s in Armageddon mode.”

  Lane looked at Smurf who looked decidedly sheepish. “What did you expect Lane? You know Harris’ reputation, surely you didn't think he would merely gain a little intelligence and hurt their feelings without causing some chaos? With Harris old chap it's one or the other.”

  I reminded them all that I was still sitting at the table.

  “Harris, informally you and your associates,” Lane looked at Len as he said associates, “have turned the tables on the Chinese, making it very difficult for them to continue their antagonistic move on the Antarctic. We are very grateful. Formally you and your associates, unfortunately mostly your good self, are now very much wanted fugitives. I believe the UN has you placed as the most wanted man on the planet. Even more unfortunate is the fact that everybody knows exactly where you are at this very minute.”

  “Why mostly me? I’m a mere pawn in this game, I’ve been played, you have taken advantage of my natural curiosity.” I turned to Smurf. “You’ve sacrificed me Charles, a valuable yet vulnerable employee. As for you Dr Walker….”

  “This word vulnerable, in English means defenceless, weak, yes?” Len smiled when Natalie confirmed his definition. “Any person who has the misfortune of coming in contact with you Hurry, vulnerable is not a word used for them to describe you. Extremely dangerous, ten megaton, run-away from this man, many descriptions, not vulnerable.”

  “But you are right Harris, valuable employee indeed.” Smurf said.

  “Thank you Charles, for once you are right, I am your best and smartest, I’m glad you see it that way.”

  “Oh no Harris, I didn't mean that at all. You are literally my most valuable employee, not necessarily my best.”

  “You seem to be speaking in administrative riddles Charles?”

  “What Charles is referring to,” Lane said, “is that the Chinese have placed a ten million US dollar reward to anyone who delivers you alive, even if a little broken, to the Chinese Republic.”

  “Is this true Charles?”

  He nodded, “I'm afraid so Harris, you are a valuable man like I said.”

  “But surely they know that I couldn't carry out the operation by myself?”

  “Of course, but the whole operation has your well recognised signature all over it old boy, complete lack of discretion and
all that sort of thing.”

  Len nods with a large grin, “He is right Hurry, much fire power, chaos and carnage, maximum effect. That is you Hurry, to a ‘V’.

  “‘T’ Len. It’s to a ‘T’.”

  Len shrugged and shook his head. “They come for you my friend, you are popular man, celebrity! I find remote village in Siberia for you to hide, maybe large Babushka to keep you warm, cook seal blubber soup for you, very healthy life they tell me.”

  “So Charles, what am I to do? Please tell me you have a back up plan that doesn't include a Babushka.”

  “Hurry! Very honourable our Babushkas, Mother Russia built on the backs of Babushka. Strong women, strong hands, strong legs, strong hips, very loyal, good for your soul my friend. Much worse women in Russia than these solid workers.” He winked at Natalie who seemed to be enjoying the repartee a lot more than she should.

  “You need to talk to Natalie old man,” Smurf chipped in. “Apparently she has a plan to save your bacon. How you impressed her to this extent I have no idea but there you go.”

  “Your in luck Harry,” Natalie said still smirking at the picture of Harry Crook in the embrace of Mother Russia’s mother. “My Uncle Ray owns a sailing boat, arriving at a little quiet place called Morse Bay near Strahan in Tasmania in a couple of days. He’s heading to some remote island in the vicinity of Tahiti and I'm going along. Fortunately for you, you’re invited.”

  “A sailing boat? All the way to Tahiti? Seems a long way in a sailing boat. It's not one of those small plastic things those madman sail down to Hobart on Boxing Day is it?”

  “If you must know it's a seventy foot Swan, one of the best.”

  “An Airbus 319 lands at Davis tomorrow mid morning,” Smurf said. “I suggest you hop onboard and make your way from Hobart to Strahan at your earliest convenience.”

  Natalie pulled some documents from a bag next to her seat as she spoke.

  “Heres your passport and drivers license etc compliments of your old employer, a very off-the-record production, I can tell you.”