Alexis nodded.
The hovercraft made a loud crunching sound as its inertia allowed it to scrape through the remnants of ancient glacial ice that would have otherwise prevented them from entering.
The loud clamor from outside dulled to a gentle roar. Sam switched on the headlights. The cavern opened up to an area large enough to drive a semitrailer. The walls glowed with the deep blue of the dense glacial ice that was both mesmerizing and terrifying in its beauty.
“I think we’re safe,” Sam said.
Alexis smiled. The joy of coming close with death only to discover she’d survived, radiated from her face. Sam noticed it served to somehow make her face even more beautiful.
“We’re good, Sam.” She gripped his hand in her own and squeezed it. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” Sam switched off the engines and the hovercraft settled onto the icy cavern floor. “How long do you expect this wind and sand storm to carry on?”
“Not long,” she replied. “They’re normally short lived, localized weather events. Should blow over within the hour.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Four hours later, the light no longer reached the Taylor Valley and still the wind storm had not decreased its force – if anything it worsened.
“We may as well get comfortable,” Sam said. “We may be here a while. Tell me about the Pegasus science station.”
Alexis shuffled in her seat. “What do you want to know?”
“Why it’s so important someone might have gone to the length to abduct an entire cruise ship to somehow reach it?”
“I have no idea. Their research is important, but only in the long term, not in the present. Not for decades. It’s research that has to be done, but nothing that someone's going to kill for.”
“What exactly were they researching?”
“Glacial tunnels.”
“Lava tubes?”
“No. Glacial tunnels,” Alexis said. “In 2014 a team of British scientists discovered an 820 foot high tunnel stretching hundreds of miles, hidden in the base of Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf in West Antarctica. They were most likely formed by meltwater – the water released from melting ice that then flowed underneath the ice sheet, overland, and into the ocean.”
“What did you want to study with it?”
“Nothing. There’s a lot more ice in East Antarctica. If there were ice tunnels in West Antarctica, there were definitely some in East Antarctica.” Alexis shuffled in her seat. “Then, in 2015 researchers using ground penetrating radar while flying over East Antarctica found two seafloor channels underneath the floating ice shelf of Totten Glacier.”
“And you want to build inside one of them?” Sam asked.
“Exactly. I want to build the world’s largest particle accelerator.” She sighed. “Of course, even if I find the perfect conditions to do so, it will become a legal nightmare to gain approval to build it.”
“Because of the Antarctic Treaty System?”
“Precisely. It came about because Antarctica is the only continent without a native human population. For the purposes of the treaty system, Antarctica is defined as all of the land and ice shelves south of 60°S latitude. The treaty, entering into force in 1961 set aside Antarctica as a scientific preserve, establishes freedom of scientific investigation and bans military activity on that continent. The treaty was the first arms control agreement established during the Cold War.
“To utilize such a place for your research, all members of the treaty would have to sign.”
“Yes.”
“So you were heading to the Pegasus station to review their research?”
“No,” she was quick to respond.
“Then what were you doing aboard the Antarctic Solace?” he asked.
She shuffled uncomfortably in her seat. “It’s a long story.”
“Really?”
“Yes.”
“Why?” he persisted.
“I don’t think I’m ready to talk about it.”
“That’s okay. We might be freezing here all night. Let me know when you feel up to speaking about what got us into this mess.”
“It’s not that.”
“You could have just told me you wanted to see the killer whales.” He looked at her face, waiting for some sort of sign that she was going to fold and reply honestly.
“All right.” She crossed her arms. “If you must know, I was on my honeymoon.”
Chapter Thirty
Alexis watched Sam’s face change. His happy go lucky, and playful demeanor was replaced with a sudden seriousness. His intensely blue eyes, the same color as the glacial ice, and just as mesmerizing had now taken on a despondent light. There was something else there, too. Was he disappointed to hear I was married? She almost felt guilty for misleading him. She was still trying to work out what happened before and why she was even holding his hand. She knew she started it, but he didn’t make any effort to remove her hand from his, either.
Sam sat up, his posture suddenly rigid and uncomfortable. “I’m so sorry. You must be worried sick about your husband.”
A glint of smile crossed her lips. “Don’t be. We never got married.”
He returned her smile. “You didn’t?”
“No.”
“What happened?” he persisted.
Life had offered her some unique challenges recently. Alexis wondered how things had changed so dramatically in such a short time. This was supposed to be the best time of her life. Normally, Alexis wouldn’t have indulged herself in such wasteful thoughts of negativity. But, the last two weeks had changed so much that she couldn’t help but let her mind drift into the ridiculousness of it all. It was supposed to be her honeymoon with Daniel.
Daniel!
Her thoughts returned to the man whom she was meant to marry. The man who she’d so easily and totally forgotten about until that moment.
She gritted her teeth and began talking about some deeply private issues in her life to a man who’d been a complete stranger to her three days earlier. “His name was Daniel – and I was supposed to marry him less than two weeks ago; this trip was meant to be our honeymoon.”
“What happened?”
She sighed. “The night before our wedding day, when some stupid superstition suggests a woman shouldn’t see her betrothed I discovered the reason for such a fallacy.”
He looked at her attentively. “Why; what happened?”
Why am I telling this man my secret?
She took a deep breath and let go. After all, she could have been killed twice since that night. “I walked in to find my fiancé having sex with a stripper.”
Sam looked blankly at her with incomprehension, but remained silent.
“We all make mistakes,” Alexis said. “Perhaps it was only a onetime thing. Like on a Buck’s night after he’d gotten so drunk and carried away with his guy friends that he’d made a mistake. I probably could have forgiven him for that. Only it wasn’t his Buck’s night, and the stripper hadn’t stripped since she was a Freshman trying to pay for her college tuition fees – she was my best friend, Imogen.”
“Holy shit!” Sam swore. “What did you do when you caught them?”
“A lot less than you’d expect. I cancelled the wedding with a simple text message to the guests. I tried to keep it as short as possible. Something along the lines of, My apologies dear friends. Having discovered my betrothed in bed with a stripper tonight, I’m afraid I won’t be attending the wedding. Please enjoy the food and wine on my behalf. By the way, I thought men normally waited until they were married to start affairs?”
“And then what did you do?”
“I switched off my cell phone. I had no intention of reading the myriad of sympathetic responses, or worse still, angry and vengeful replies. Instead, I grabbed my travel bag and cruise ship tickets, and started my honeymoon a day early.”
“You must have been so angry.”
She recalled that night as though she were still ther
e. She’d boarded the Antarctic Solace. Relaxed in the Jacuzzi inside her decadent honeymoon suite, and drank overly priced cocktails that had been delivered to her door. Afterwards she lay down on the oversized bed and closed her eyes. The first image to spring to her mind was that of Daniel and Imogen naked together, on her bed.
Thank you, Imogen.
She then fell into the deepest and most relaxed sleep she’d had in years.
“Sorry, what did you ask, Sam?”
“I said, you must have been so angry.”
“No.” She grinned sheepishly. “I know that’s what I was supposed to be, but I wasn’t. Not for an instant. Outwardly, I had taken it stoically and simply said that I would take the cruise without him and that he would be the one finding a new apartment, but inwardly I was jumping for joy with relief.”
“You didn’t like Daniel?”
“No. I liked him very much. Heck I even loved him, but I would have forever been far from in love with him.”
“You nearly married a man you liked very much, but weren’t in love with?”
“It sounds so childish, doesn’t it?” She put her hand on his, without even considering why she wanted to. “I should have been happy with what I had. Daniel was a nice guy. There was nothing wrong with him. But it wasn’t the fairytale you hear of when you’re a little girl.”
Sam squeezed her hand sympathetically. “I understand. If the person you’re with isn’t the type of person you dreamed about, why are you risking everything to spend the rest of your lives together?”
“Exactly!” Somehow the man next to her seemed to understand her more after three days than Daniel had in seven years. “Do you mind if I tell you how it happened?”
“Sure.”
“We met at a conference on quantum physics. Despite its cool name, our industry has few particularly interesting people. By all means, I worked with some of the most intelligent people on the planet, but that made them no more interesting or fun to be around.”
Sam laughed. It was warm and genuine; and she liked the sound of it. “You paint a great picture for which profession to enter if I want to meet a girl.”
She continued. “Of the small group of eligible men around my age, Daniel was by far the most logical choice. He was more than averagely attractive. He respected me as his scientific superior. Despite the fact that I was one of the leading professors in an industry consumed by male egos, Daniel appeared to be the one amongst them who simply accepted me as the prodigal genius I am.”
“Aren’t you confident?”
“Have you ever met someone under the age of sixty who’d managed to reach the pinnacle of CERN’s upper echelon of academics?”
“No, but then again, you’re the first Professor I’ve met who worked at CERN.”
“With the exception of Daniel’s one or more infidelities, he had treated me well. He had similar, albeit rather boring interests, worked in the same unique industry, and certainly appeared to love me. After six years of dating he proposed, and without finding any obvious reason to object, I simply agreed; because that’s what you’re supposed to do. But as the days lead towards our wedding day, all I kept thinking was – I’m going to be married to Daniel for the rest of my life! And I kept asking, is this as good as it gets?”
“So after that you ended up here?”
“As the Antarctic Solace sailed south I felt good. Instead of being somber I reveled in the freedom and strength of my decision. The one I knew I needed to make and Daniel helped me to make it, without any risk of that future emotion of torment – regret. So I drank freely; danced, sang, and simply enjoyed my new life.” She sighed. “And then we sailed past the fortieth latitude and felt sicker than I ever have before.”
“Which is how you ended up confined to your stateroom?”
“Yes. And how I survived being taken prisoner, if that’s what’s really happened.”
Sam looked at her seriously. “I just realized something.”
“What?”
“You said your husband was very good at particle physics. Was he as good as you?”
“No. He was my subordinate.”
“But he was intelligent enough to understand what you were researching?”
“Yes. Why?”
“It might sound far-fetched given everything that’s happened, but do you think he could have been trying to take your research?”
“You mean, is Daniel responsible for this?” She thought about it for a moment. “No way. It’s not his style. He can be Machiavellian and as deceitful as the next academic fighting to produce the next big thing in particle physics, but there’s no way he’d have the gumption to orchestrate anything like this. Why do you ask?”
Sam looked at her, reassuringly. “Because we’re looking for a criminal who’s capable of stealing your research, and you just said less than a handful of people on the planet could even understand what you’re doing let alone be capable of reproducing it.”
“We’re not looking for Daniel. That’s for sure.”
Chapter Thirty-One
Sam found himself feeling more attracted to Alexis the more she spoke. He wanted to embrace her, comfort, and love her. The thought filled him with irrational guilt, as though he wanted to cheat on Aliana. It was absurd. Aliana had recently broken up with him. They were well matched and he loved her, but their lives had been set on very different paths, which would never quite align.
Why should I feel guilty for wanting to be with this woman?
“We should get some sleep,” Sam said. He shuffled in his chair until he was relatively comfortable. “Then we’ll be ready to make a full day of it as soon as the sun comes up. You can take the single bunk behind us and I’ll sleep here.”
She looked at the narrow bunkbed that ran perpendicular to the two hovercraft seats. “Don’t be so immature, we should both sleep there. We should conserve our warmth. We’re probably going to freeze to death anyway.”
Sam laughed. Outside in the Taylor Valley, where the wind had reduced the ambient temperature to eighty degrees Fahrenheit below zero, he knew there was a possibility of the two of them freezing to death. Inside the ice cavern the temperature was a balmy ten degrees below freezing – there was no way the two would freeze to death in a single night. “No, it’s fine. You sleep there, and I’ll be comfortable enough here. I’ve slept in worse places.”
“No. I’m smaller than you, if you’re set on being so chivalrous, you take the bunk and I’ll stay in the chair.” She looked at him. Her green eyes, like a myriad of stars forming a constellation in a faraway galaxy, made him acutely aware of her hand on his. “It was nice having someone to talk to. Do you know you’re the only person who I’ve ever been honest with about Daniel?”
“I’m glad I could help.”
Sam had become so engrossed with her story he hadn’t noticed until that moment that her hand had found its way into his. By the time he felt her delicate hand squeeze his own he looked up and found her face was right next to his. Her eyes were closed. She was vulnerable and he knew he shouldn’t act on it. He meant to stop it, but he didn’t. Instead, her warm breath was on his lips. He gave in to desire and gently kissed her lips. “Everything’s going to be okay.”
She didn’t respond or say anything. Instantly, he wished he hadn’t kissed her. Alexis looked at him. Her face was a confused image of pensive guilt and deep yearning. Sam imagined her weighing up everything which had happened over the past two weeks and deciding if it was morally wrong for the first time in her life to simply do what she wanted, not what was expected of her. A moment later her body relaxed as though her naturally cautious behavior relented to desire.
Her freckled dimples closed as she opened her lips and kissed him. Gentle at first. Teasing his lips and progressively kissing him harder, until they were both passionate. Sam knew it was a mistake; he knew it was wrong given what she’d just told him. He hadn’t meant to, and yet it felt so very good he never wanted it to stop.
Sh
e pulled away, like she was unsure of herself. Sam felt instantly regretful of taking advantage of her. He stared at her beautiful face. No more than a few inches away from him. It was entirely unreadable and at the same time infinitely full of expression.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “That was inappropriate. I’ve made you uncomfortable.”
In complete silence she slipped off her thick woolen jumper. She still wore a tight fitting light blue skivvy, but it accentuated her shapely figure instead of hiding it, and flamed his need. Without saying a word, she climbed over the center console and straddled him with her thighs firm against his hips.
She stared at him; her green eyes seductively close. Her lips once more close enough he could feel the warmth of her breath on his. The hovercraft was cramped and their two bodies blended together. She smiled lasciviously as his abject desire could no longer be concealed. She paused, so close that he wanted to scream.
Her lips taunted him.
Alexis then twisted her arm behind her back, unclasped her bra and removed her skivvy. Her breasts were large and her figure voluptuous and feminine. Her cream colored skin was soft and unblemished. The little hairs on her arms stood erect and her body gave the slightest of startled shivers in complaint of the sudden loss of heat.
She wrapped her naked arms around him and whispered, “No, this would be considered inappropriate.”
Chapter Thirty-Two
Sam was the first to wake. Distinctly aware Alexis was still lying with her head cradled on his chest and in his arms, wearing only her light blue skivvy, he tried his best not to move. He was worried that he’d wake her and she’d leave his arms. Her perfume was the next thing he noticed. It was subtle and intensely feminine. Something about it brought back memories of the night before. It had been an amazing, wonderful experience, but there was something else he felt, too. It wasn’t quite guilt, but maybe loss? Why should he feel this way? Alexis was an astonishingly beautiful and intelligent woman who any man would find it hard not to adore, so why should he feel something was missing?
The Sam Reilly Collection Volume 2 Page 37