A moment later the yellow door opened and two men walked through. One of them average height with a solid build. The other, the height and size of a giant. Both wore thick snow jackets and goggles.
The first man stepped forward and removed his snow goggles, revealing startling deep blue eyes. “Good morning, my name’s Sam Reilly.” He smiled kindly, revealing perfect white teeth. Natural creases formed on his cheeks where he appeared to have a big, perpetual smile. “Some crazy weather we’ve been having, hey?”
Chapter Eleven
Sam looked at the beautiful woman in front of him. The first survivor he’d found since boarding the cruise ship. She had dark brown, curly hair and pale skin which looked at odds to her otherwise Mediterranean ancestry. Freckles covered her cheeks where dimples formed at the edge of a nervous smile, which turned to genuine joy as recognition dawned on her that he wasn’t there to cause harm. Her white teeth and intelligent green eyes portrayed an image of confidence and innocence at the same time, making him want nothing more than to take her in his arms and reassure her. She had obviously been through a horrible ordeal and was only just now releasing the tension.
In her hands she gripped the wooden hilt of a double headed fire axe so hard her knuckles turned white. Sam didn’t know whether to laugh or cry for the pitiful creature in front of him who held the axe close to her chest, more like a teddy bear than as a useful weapon.
“Whoa, we’re on your side,” he said. “We’re here to offer our assistance, that’s all.”
She studied him as though searching for a reason to doubt, and then visibly relaxed. “Christ, am I glad to see you Mr. Reilly.” She offered her hand. “My name’s Alexis.”
He accepted it. She had a relatively strong grip and looked him in his eyes. Like a woman who’d grown up with a heavy minded father or worked in a male dominated industry. He looked past her at the empty grand staircase. “This is my friend Tom Bower.”
She smiled at them both. Dimples formed at her cheeks, surrounded by light freckles. “Nice to meet you both.”
Sam looked at the vacant promenade. “Where is everyone?”
“I have no idea. I was kind of hoping you might be able to tell me?”
“You mean you don’t know?” he asked.
“Not a clue. I just woke up and found myself all on my own.”
“Really?” Sam asked. He crossed his arms and wondered if she had a reason to lie. “You went to bed one night and woke up by yourself?”
“That’s pretty much what happened,” she paused, as though she’d only just heard how crazy the statement sounded. “Well, not quite like that.”
“So, how did it happen?” he asked.
“I had been confined to my stateroom with severe seasickness. One of the Doctors aboard gave me an antiemetic which he told me occasionally had the side effect of quite severe drowsiness. I must have fallen into that category, because I slept solid for forty eight hours. When I woke up I tried room service. I had no luck and went out to grab someone’s attention. Pretty soon I realized I was all on my own.”
He wondered if she had any reason to lie. She had a beautiful and innocent face, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t responsible for whatever happened. He let her keep talking. “How long ago was that?”
“Four days. I’ve searched the ship – there’s no one else on board.”
“Are the lifeboats missing?” Sam asked.
“No.”
“Any obvious sign of a near disaster. Something that would suggest why an entire passenger list and crew would willingly abandon the ship?”
“No. Everything appears to be working normally. There aren’t even any lifejackets missing. It’s more like everyone just simply vanished.”
“You’re certain?” Sam asked. “Is there anywhere else they could be trapped?”
She gritted her teeth. “The crew quarters on the lower decks. You can only access them by elevators which require crew or entertainer’s ID cards.”
“It’s a possibility.” Sam depressed the transmitter on the portable radio. “Elise. When you find the security room, see if you can get us access to the crew and entertainer’s decks.”
“Veyron and I are on it,” Elise replied over the radio. “We’ll let you know when we have access.”
“Elise?” Alexis asked.
“She works with us. Kind of a computer geek. Lovely, but nerdy. You know the type?” Sam looked at Alexis, trying to work out whether she too fit into that description of people. “She’ll break the code and access the lower compartments fast and then we might find some answers.”
Alexis nodded her head as though she knew the type very well. “Do you know where the security room is? There are security cameras all over the ship, but I haven’t been able to find where their data is monitored and stored.”
“Yes. We contacted the owners of the Antarctic Solace before we came and got them to send us a digital copy of the ship’s schematics. Its three levels below us. We should be able to access it from where we came.”
“The other side of the yellow door?”
“Yeah, why?” he asked.
“That would explain why someone went to great lengths to build a solid door, where a fire escape previously existed.”
“Which means someone was intentionally responsible for whatever happened here.”
“I think so.” She looked at him, almost as though she was examining him – trying to decide if he could be trusted or not. “Where have you come from?”
“Ellsworth Land, Antarctica. We were on a mission to rescue some scientists whose ship had been trapped by the frozen ice.”
“Did you find them?”
“No. We’re still looking though. That crazy weather put a hold on our search for the past three days.”
“Three days?” She looked confused. “I timed the storm, expecting to die at any moment. It lasted just fifty five minutes!”
“No. You’re definitely mistaken,” Sam said. “I was stuck less than five miles inland in an abandoned ice station while a vicious Antarctic blizzard demolished the coast.”
“It’s true,” Tom said. “I had to come rescue his ass before he froze to death.”
“But that’s insane!” She looked both confused and angry, as though he and Tom were trying intentionally to obscure her memory. “I made breakfast two hours ago and ate it on the deck in perfect sunshine before the storm erupted!”
Sam looked at Alexis, trying to judge her response. “That’s impossible. There hasn’t been sunshine for three days. Instead there have been 140 knot winds raging. It only ceased an hour ago.”
Chapter Twelve
Alexis took a large sip from her strong coffee. She insisted on having a drink before explaining to the two strangers how she ended up in her current predicament. It felt like an interrogation the way they pummeled her with questions and queried the veracity of her answers.
“Do you want something to eat?” she asked.
“No thank you, ma'am,” Sam said. “I just want to get to the bottom of what’s happened here.”
Tom smiled like he figured he was done getting any answers from her. “I’m going to meet up with Elise and see if we can find the Security Hub. That way we’ll gain access to the crew and entertainer’s decks and hopefully she’ll find the security footage which will show us exactly what happened here.”
“Okay, be careful,” Sam said. “Let me know the second you find anything.”
Tom nodded and disappeared through the broken yellow door. Alexis finished her story about how she’d been seasick and then woke up to find herself as the only person aboard the ship in the middle of the ocean.
Sam stared at her. “And since then you’ve been making the most of it?”
“Yes. I’ve been exercising, trying to keep fit. Mostly biding my time waiting for someone to rescue me, from wherever I am.”
“You don’t know where you are?” he asked.
“Not a clue. How could I?” She gritted he
r teeth. “I left port in Argentina eight days ago. I became sea sick four hours into the journey and spent the next three days confined to my stateroom. So I have no idea where I am.”
“You’re in the Weddell Sea, Antarctica.”
“The Waddell Sea. Are you kidding me?” she asked. “The waters have been perfectly still. I thought it was renowned for having dangerous, large swells?”
“It is. Of course, I’ve already told you this entire area had thirty foot swells for the past three days, but we’ve already agreed to disagree on that account, so you can make your own judgment.”
She stared at him. Her emerald eyes locked in a determined challenge. “You look like you already have.”
“Have what?” he asked.
“Made your judgments,” she said. “You think I’m crazy, don’t you?”
“I haven’t decided whether you’re crazy or not. In fact, I haven’t ruled out that you orchestrated the entire event.”
She spilled her coffee. “You think I abducted all these people?”
“I have no idea what happened to everyone on board. I’m simply saying you’re the only person we’ve found on board a perfectly sound cruise ship off the coast of Antarctica – and you weren’t exactly trying to find help, were you?”
“Are you kidding me?” She swore. “We’re in the middle of the Southern Ocean! What the hell was I supposed to do?”
“You could have called for help.” His tone came across harsh and he quickly made a smile. It looked kind and warm, and practiced – he wanted her to feel that he was on her side and simply frustrated because he couldn’t find answers.
“Well, it’s not like we get a lot of cell phone coverage out here.”
He laughed. “I didn’t mean by phone. You could have gone to the bridge. They’d have a satellite connection, GPS, radio. Something that could have told you where you were and how to get help.”
“I did. Only it didn’t provide me with any answers. Only more questions.”
“You woke up and found yourself on a deserted cruise ship in the middle of the Southern Ocean, and the bridge only gives you more questions?”
“Yeah. None of the instruments were working.”
“Are you sure you just couldn’t work out how to use them?” he asked.
“Certain.”
“Do you sail?” he persisted.
“No. But I’m a reasonably intelligent person. I can usually work things out. And this was different. The GPS failed to locate any satellites, the digital logbook had been deleted, and the radio…” she took a deep breath in, sighed and then continued. “The radio provided nothing but static. Behind which, was the most eerie, and yet mesmerizing tune I’ve ever heard.”
Sam started to tap his fingers on the side of the doorframe. Slow at first, then fast, and then evenly.
Her eyes widened at the sound. “You heard it, too?”
“Yes.”
She looked somewhere between frightened and curious. Like the child stuck at home alone for the first time listening to a strange sound in an empty room, and terrified to open the door to investigate in case it should turn out to be an evil clown. “What was it?”
He squirmed as though unsure how much to say. “It took me two days’ worth of frustration to recall where I’d heard it before. I had to write down the musical score before it hit me.”
“You rewrote the musical score to the sound behind the static?”
“I was stuck in an ice station. I had the time to waste. It turned out I’d studied the song in high school music – that’s why it felt so familiar to me.”
“You studied music?” she laughed.
“It was one of my fun subjects. I mainly took sciences, but I liked piano and thought a music subject would even it out. As it was, it came in useful to me this time.”
“And what was the song?”
“It was composed by a Hungarian pianist named Rezső Seress while living in Paris in 1933. He titled the work, Vége a Világnak – Does the name mean anything to you?”
“Not a thing.” She smiled. It was coquettish and endearing, but practiced rather than real. She wanted him to become endeared to her. “I like music but never had a good ear for it. It sounded so melancholy yet beautiful. Do you know what the song was about?”
“The English translation meant, The World is Ending.” He paused to let the words sink in and then continued. “Written during the Great Depression and rise of Fascism in his native Hungary, Seress used it to emphasize the despair of the people and ended in a quiet prayer about people's sins. Incidentally, a poet by the name of László Jávor later wrote his own lyrics to the song, titled Szomorú Vasárnap, or Sad Sunday in which the protagonist wants to commit suicide following his lover's death.”
Her sweet smile contorted at the new information. “So why was it playing in the background?”
“I don’t have a clue. The Aurora Australis which are common this far south cause high altitude ionization and wreak havoc on electrical and radio waves. For some reason, the frequency of that sound appears to render it undistorted.”
“But why would anyone on an Antarctic research station want to listen to such gloomy music on repeat?”
Sam laughed. “Funny you should mention that.”
“Why?”
“During the Second World War an Urban Legend developed that people would listen to the song and then commit suicide. In Great Britain, the BBC became so concerned the song would affect the morale of the people during the war effort that the song became banned.”
“So, people listened to the song and then killed themselves?”
“Yeah, most of them just jumped to their deaths. Of course, it was during one of humanity’s darker hours, so perhaps there was always going to be a higher than average statistic of suicides. They just coincided with the release of such a dreary song.” Sam shrugged his shoulders and then looked at the ship’s railing. “Still. You can’t help deny it’s a hell of a coincidence, isn’t it?”
She shook her head. “You think everyone jumped ship because they listened to a stupid song?”
“No.” Sam laughed and opened the door to the deck. “I have no idea where everyone’s gone, but I intend to find out.”
“Where are you going?”
“To the bridge of course – to get some answers.”
Chapter Thirteen
Sam walked into the bridge of the Antarctic Solace. He noticed the broken door lock splintered in pieces on the floor. Otherwise the inside appeared perfectly normal. He looked at Alexis. She had a slight grin on her face – so she had broken in to get answers.
At the main navigation station he found the compass pointed correctly to the north. He switched on the Navionics computer. An image of the Antarctic Solace superimposed in the calm waters of the Weddell Sea appeared a moment later.
“There you go,” he said.
She stared blankly at it. “I don’t know what to say.”
“It wasn’t there a few days ago, was it?” he asked.
“No, it definitely wasn’t.”
Sam pressed the icon for the ship’s log. It came up instantly. The ship had left Argentina ten days ago. It traveled at an average speed of fifteen knots for the first two of those days. Then the ship and any information about it disappeared from the log until it reappeared in the system at 0830 – the same time he noted the storm had passed.
“That’s strange. It appears the ship’s log shares your apparent amnesia.”
She smiled. It was genuine. No longer coquettish or practiced. It took him by surprise – it made her even more beautiful than he’d first thought. “I told you I wasn’t crazy! Now do you believe me?”
“Sure, but I still don’t have any idea what’s going on here.” He turned the marine radio on and switched to channel 16. “Maria Helena, this is Sam Reilly aboard the Antarctic Solace. How do you read me?”
“Loud and clear.” He recognized Matthew’s voice over the clear radio. “Did you find out w
hat’s happened?”
“No. It would appear the crew and passengers have all disappeared.”
“Everyone?”
“All except for one passenger. I’ll bring her across shortly and we’ll work out our next move.”
Sam placed the radio’s microphone back in its cradle and walked towards the broken door.
“I don’t know, maybe you were right with your first theory.”
“What theory was that?”
“That everyone on board listened to Rezső Seress’s stupid Hungarian suicide song and simultaneously decided to jump ship.”
She laughed. “You can’t possibly believe…”
“I’m kidding. There’ll be a perfectly reasonable explanation soon enough. Elise will get the CCTV results and it will all make sense.”
He walked through the door.
“Where are you going?” she asked.
“To see if Elise can tell me where you’ve been for the past eight days.”
Chapter Fourteen
Alexis followed Sam through the door. She could hear the soft sound of feet on steel stairs where a young woman was running to meet them. Sam stopped in front of her at the top step and let the person come to him.
The woman stopped five short of the top step. She had an exquisitely beautiful face, framed by a plain gray beanie with the intricate plaits of her dark hair only just visible hanging through its edges, and a pair of impenetrable aviator sunglasses. Her complexion was golden and she guessed came from a mixed ancestry, most likely somewhere between the Mediterranean and Asia. She wore a light blue turtleneck that showed the muscular curves of her lithe and athletic figure and dark blue denim pants that rested over black zip-up military boots. She either didn’t feel the cold or hadn’t bothered to put her ski jacket on before leaving the warmth of the internal section of the cruise ship.
Sam had described her as nerdy!
Alexis felt an instant pang of guilt at her jealousy of the younger woman who was already in Sam’s life. It was irrational and she found herself hoping the woman was too young for him. Alexis had always detested the emotion. It was the worst of them all and poorly placed given her present situation – the last thing she needed or wanted in her life was another man.
The Sam Reilly Collection Volume 2 Page 32