‘And how long after Pearl launches the seed do you expect to see any results?’
‘We’re not sure, but soon. We already have an independent boat in place that should be able to spot the environmental damage almost immediately.’
‘That’s something I wanted to clear up with you. How bad do you anticipate it will be? What are we talking about here?’
‘Modest damage to the coastline. Nothing too extravagant,’ Eleanor said, with a slight shrug. ‘But it will be enough to trigger an emergency session of the permanent members of the Antarctic Treaty. From that point on, our boats will have the green light to go in and clean it up.’
Bates nodded. ‘And have you considered that, after all this, Pearl’s seed might actually work?’
Eleanor didn’t reply for a moment, only watching as the driver slowed the car before pulling into the private jet airfield of Northolt. A Falcon 900EX jet stood on the tarmac just beyond the fence line, its engines already turning over.
‘In its original form, the seed had a chance,’ she conceded. ‘But something that unknown has the potential to change everything. Imagine it – carbon reduction on a global scale? It could disrupt the entire US energy strategy, and the bottom line is we’re not prepared to take that risk.’
‘You mean, you’ve tampered with the seed?’
Eleanor gave him a chiding look. ‘Why don’t you concentrate on finding me that woman instead?’
‘And what happens when I find her?’ asked Bates, stepping out of the car.
‘Full rendition protocol. And do make sure you get the flashcard. Find that and the wheels keep spinning.’
She nodded to the driver and the car pulled off, leaving Bates staring at the bruised winter sky. As the sound of the plane’s jet engines gradually rose in pitch, he stood motionless. Perhaps being sent to Cape Town was a blessing after all. With her acquisition of the flashcard Bear had become central to the whole operation. If he were able to take charge of the manhunt personally, then at least he could try and shield her from the worst of the Americans.
He had not meant this to be anything more than a minor betrayal of his old friend. Luca would never have discovered the real reason why he had been sent to Antarctica. Instead, he would have taken the money and gone back to his normal life. But Bear had changed all that, and the situation was fast turning ugly. If she were pulled into the American rendition programme, there would be no going back.
When he had first started all this, Kieran Bates had not intended for anyone to get hurt. But now there was a very real prospect of that happening, unless he could find Bear and somehow broker a deal with the Americans.
Turning towards the open door of the plane, he climbed on board. Eight minutes later they were airborne and heading south for Cape Town.
Chapter 19
LUCA WOKE. HIS eyelids flickered, then again, before finally pulling open to reveal a murky light filtering down from the skylights. He lay on the rough wooden floor of the deserted base, a half-empty rucksack under his head to serve as a makeshift pillow. He tried to move, but a stabbing pain lanced through his temples.
Raising his right hand, Luca brushed his fingertips across the side of his face. The butt of the rifle had smashed hard into his cheek and temple, creating a nasty swelling and turning the skin a deep purple, laced with yellow. The bruising felt puffy and unfamiliar, as if he were somehow touching another person’s face.
For a moment Luca let his eyes drift. He was dimly aware that he had been searching for something, though the whole notion felt abstract and unimportant.
‘Bear,’ he called out, but his voice was nothing more than a dry croak.
There was a banging noise a little way off, the thump, thump of metal striking against wood. The reverberations seemed to penetrate right through his skull and Luca winced as the noise continued, over and over again. Each thump echoed just long enough to be replaced by the next, magnifying the pain in his head.
‘Bear!’ he cried out.
The banging stopped.
‘He’s awake! Katz, quickly.’
A moment later Joel’s face swam into view. He was close, his long, hawk-like nose only inches from Luca’s.
‘Shit, mate, you were out a long time,’ he breathed, then the concern gave way to a broad smile. He’d started to help Luca into a sitting position when Katz’s voice rang out.
‘Move him slowly,’ he warned. ‘Otherwise he’ll pass out again.’
A moment later, Luca was slumped against the pile of drill pipes with Katz and Joel crouched in front of him.
‘So? What happened to you?’ Katz demanded.
‘Water,’ Luca gasped. Joel moved his hands across to a saucepan sitting on the floor nearby. He moved with almost exaggerated care, fingers feeling across the rough flooring. After watching him for a moment, Katz cut in.
‘For Christ’s sake,’ he muttered. ‘I’ll do it.’
Taking the saucepan from his grasp, Katz raised the cold metal rim to Luca’s chapped lips. He poured in a tiny trickle of water, careful not to let any spill.
‘More.’
Katz hesitated, but Joel urged him on. Reluctantly, he raised the saucepan once again, draining the last of it.
‘You’ve been out for nearly four hours,’ Joel said. ‘We woke up and found you like this. How are you feeling? You must have one hell of a headache.’
Luca didn’t get a chance to respond. Katz had other priorities.
‘First things first,’ he said. ‘You tell us what’s going on. And I mean now.’
‘There was a man . . .’ Luca managed ‘. . . standing right here. He was just standing . . . then everything went black.’
He glanced away, remembering that monstrous silhouette with its broad neck and hair cropped so short as to be little more than stubble. But it was the eyes that came back to him now; the grey, spent eyes. The man had moved as silently as a ghost, managing to get within a couple of inches of Luca without so much as a sound.
He exhaled deeply, trying to blot out the image. It didn’t feel real and if it weren’t for the swelling on his face, he might have doubted it had even happened. But then he remembered what he had been searching for – the satellite phone. He had been on the sat phone to Bear.
He tried to recall the details of their conversation but all he could remember was the desperation in her voice. Then it became clear to him. She had been in danger, and for some reason had decided to hide that fact from him.
‘The sat phone,’ he whispered. ‘Give it to me.’
‘It’s gone,’ Joel replied flatly.
‘There’s another that Dedov gave me. In the top of my rucksack.’
‘Gone too. We’ve checked through everything. Whoever your man was, he took the lot; sat phones, the cooking stove, everything.’
‘The son of a bitch!’ Katz roared, slamming his fist down on the stack of piping.
‘Must have done it while we slept,’ Joel added, shaking his head slowly. In the silence that followed, he raised his right hand, rubbing the skin under his eyes where his glasses would have been. He had woken earlier to find them smashed on the floor beside him. Now, anything further away than a couple of metres was a blur. He blinked, a flicker of doubt passing across his face.
‘Look, I need to speak to . . .’ Luca began, trying to pull himself a little higher, but Katz pressed him backwards.
‘Didn’t you hear what he said? The sat phones are gone. And if you’re going to do any talking, then you talk to us. I want to know what the hell is going on around here.’
Katz drew closer, his pale blue eyes sharp and venomous.
‘We’re trapped,’ he said. ‘You realise that, don’t you? We woke up to find the main entrance has been deliberately sealed off from the outside. Do you hear me? Someone has deliberately trapped us in here!’
Luca stared at him blankly, trying to keep up.
‘And whoever it was, he’s made damn sure we aren’t getting out. Everything’s been st
ripped from this place – no tools, no ropes.’ Katz paused, his eyes turning down to the empty saucepan at Luca’s feet. ‘And we’ve only got half a litre of water left in my bottle. That’s it. Without the stoves, we can’t melt any more snow. So, you tell me, Luca, what the fuck is going on?’
Joel turned towards Katz. ‘Come on, mate, give him a minute. He’s only just woken up.’
‘A minute? What the hell do you mean, a minute? Without water, we’ll be dead in two days!’
As he spoke, he looked down at the hundreds of packets of dehydrated food stacked just beside them.
‘Shit!’ he screamed, kicking the one nearest to him. ‘Even the food hasn’t got any damn water in it.’
They all watched the packet skid across the floor, before coming to rest against a sidewall. Directly above was a pathetic collection of dents and scratches running in a vague semi-circle. They were the sum total of three hours’ hard work during which he and Joel had been trying to break through the wall using the aluminium drill casings. Despite the base’s derelict exterior, someone had taken great pains to reinforce the interior and all they had to show for their efforts were superficial marks. If breaking through the sidewall was going to be their means of escape, it would take a lot longer than two days.
‘Listen,’ Luca said, raising a hand to try and calm him. ‘This base is old and broken-down. There must be a way out.’
‘There isn’t,’ Joel replied flatly, eyes tilting up towards Katz for affirmation. ‘We’ve been through every part of this module and there’s only one way in and out. The rest was sealed off long ago. And the really creepy bit is that whoever did it was living alone here.’
A couple of hours earlier they had come across a bizarre enclave tucked away from the main part of the room, where a single bed had been bolted to the wall. Around it were hundreds of little images drawn with the point of a compass. They were of simple things, like rain and trees, flames and an open hearth, but they told of an absolute removal from normal life. There was something haunting about them, each image wracked by the desperate desire to remember, a human being trying to crystallise and hold on to memories of a life outside Antarctica.
Enshrined by them all was a single photograph. It was fixed dead centre and showed a man with slicked back red hair, now greying from age, and a square, wholesome jaw. The rest was difficult to discern because someone had repeatedly jabbed the point of a compass or knife into the man’s eyes, perforating the photographic paper until only two gaping holes remained. They stared out blindly from the image, imparting a lingering sense of disquiet, as if he were still somehow observing their every move. Joel looked up. ‘I mean, who the hell are we dealing with here, Luca? Who would want to trap us inside this place?’
‘I don’t know,’ he replied. ‘The guy came out of nowhere and didn’t utter a word.’
As he desperately tried to make sense of the situation, Luca’s gaze turned towards the skylights. He pictured Bates sitting in an armchair on the oil rig, then Dedov with his vodka-laced smile and underlying hint of menace. Finally, an image of Bear came to him and his eyes narrowed in concentration as he tried to piece together the fragments of their last conversation. Raising a hand to his temples, he pressed down on them in an effort to shut out the constant pounding. The pain was unbearable.
‘He said . . .’ Katz began.
‘Shut up,’ Luca breathed. ‘Just shut up.’ He closed his eyes momentarily, mustering his strength. ‘I don’t know much. But while you were sleeping I spoke to GARI, telling them we were holed up in here during the storm. Then I got through to a contact of mine on the outside.’
Over the next ten minutes, he recounted as much of his conversation with Bear as he could remember. Every few seconds Katz would punctuate his narrative, firing questions at Luca about the technical composition of the seed or how Pearl was even planning on getting to Antarctica so late in the season. But Luca was steadfast, telling them what he knew and simply shrugging when he didn’t. He had soon realised that there were huge gaps in what he had been told or could figure out for himself, and made no effort to disguise the fact. Katz, however, remained convinced that Luca was holding something back. With each new question, his tone became more and more accusatory.
‘This is such bullshit!’ he shouted, stabbing his finger towards Luca. ‘I’ve met Pearl and he’s invested millions in the lake. He’s not going to wipe all that out by using it as a goddamn Petri dish.’
‘Hold on, Katz,’ Joel interjected, raising his hands in an effort to placate him. ‘Let’s just stick with what we know. Someone’s been out here for a very long time, and from all the casings we’ve seen, they’ve obviously been drilling. Whichever way you slice it, those two facts alone mean that there’s got to be some truth in what Luca said.’
There was a moment’s pause before Joel added, ‘And whatever they’re up to, it’s obviously secret. Secret enough for them to want to stop us leaving here and telling anyone about it?’
Katz shook his head, his mind plagued by doubts. ‘But why didn’t they just open up our drill site and throw the seed down there? Why go to all the effort of constructing a totally new borehole?’
Joel turned towards the drill casings. ‘Maybe it’s got something to do with the fact that those are eight-inch casings. We used five. They must need a larger-diameter borehole for some reason.’
Just as the room went quiet, there was a low electronic beep and it took Luca several seconds to realise that it was coming from his own watch. Staring down at the luminous dial, he shook his head slowly. It was set to trigger one hour before they were due to meet Dedov’s tractors at the rendezvous point. The simple fact was that time was running out for them. With each hour that passed, they were getting closer and closer to the departure of the last flight of the season.
‘Look, we need to concentrate,’ he told the others. ‘The lake, Pearl – all that is secondary. Right now, we need to figure out how the hell we are going to get out of this place and back to GARI. The last flight arrives in fourteen hours’ time. And they aren’t going to keep it waiting on the runway just for us.’
‘But they have to wait,’ Joel said, his eyes switching between the other two men. ‘It’s the last one. They’ll wait while Dedov puts together a Search and Rescue team. You said yourself, they know we’re here at the base.’
Luca slowly shook his head. ‘E.A.P.,’ he said.
‘What the hell’s that?’ Joel asked desperately.
‘Emergency Antarctic Protocol,’ Katz explained, dragging the words out as if they were somehow unholy. ‘The plane will wait a maximum of twelve hours, if the pilots think it’s safe. They can’t risk the entire plane being trapped for the winter with everyone on board. As soon as the light starts to fade, everything changes.’
‘But they can’t just fucking leave,’ Joel protested. ‘We’d be trapped.’
‘Any more than we are already?’ Katz taunted.
‘I’m serious, Katz!’ Joel countered. ‘So why doesn’t the plane fly back again? Just drop off everyone else and then come back and get us a few days later?’
‘Think about it!’ snapped Katz. ‘All the bulldozers and snow ploughs get garaged for winter, so who’s going to clear the snow from the runway? With these storms, it’d be metres deep within a couple of days.’
Joel shook his head, standing up and looking towards the door to the base. ‘We’ve got to get another message out. Tell them they have to wait for us. For Christ’s sake, all we need is a few more hours.’
Luca raised a hand to silence him. ‘A few more hours? Even if – and it’s a big if, by the way – Dedov has already put together a Search and Rescue team, they are going to have to find a way over the mountains. Then they’ll have to break through the door of this base and after that they’ll have to get us back to the runway. All that within twenty-six hours.’
There was a long pause. ‘Sorry, Joel,’ Luca continued, ‘but it ain’t going to happen. Best case, Dedov leave
s behind a wintering team which actually tries to come and get us. If we did all make it back to GARI, we’d still have to wait until the following summer to go back home.’
‘But that’s not going to happen either,’ Katz added, his top lip pulling into a foul sneer. ‘Because we’re going to run out of water long before a rescue team can get to us!’
Reaching down, he picked up the empty saucepan and flung it across the room with all his might. It struck one of the base’s internal supports before clattering to the ground. There was silence.
A full minute passed before Joel slowly slid down to sit beside Luca, a look of utter bewilderment on his face. Katz stood with hands on hips, while his jaw clenched in seething fury. His gaze switched between them as if he were unable to decide where the blame belonged.
Luca let out a long sigh and let his head fall back against the stack of drill casings. The pounding at his temples had receded a little, but already he felt thirsty. His lips were chapped and dry, the skin cracked by the sheer absence of moisture in the Antarctic air.
He let his eyes drift across the room, blankly passing from one object to the next, as the sheer futility of their situation began to sink in. Whichever way he looked at it, they were out of time. Their only chance was to try to break out of the base and make it back over the mountain, but with only half a litre of water between them, they’d die of thirst in less than a day. Just a couple more litres and maybe they’d stand a chance.
Beneath the Ice Page 20