It took less than half an hour then to reach the Pegasus station. Sam slowed the hovercraft. Out front of the Antarctic station an orange Japanese-built Ohara Snow Tractor faced back towards them. Parked out front of the station and covered in snow, it looked like a once proud and now forlorn pet, forced to brave the elements while its owners stayed warm inside. Two flags stood proudly next to it – one French and one Swiss.
Sam looked at the Snow Tractor as he shut down the hovercraft’s engines. “It looks like someone’s still here.”
Alexis reached for the Glock he’d given her. “Yeah, I just hope it’s my guys.”
Chapter Forty-Eight
Sam checked his Uzi, the smaller of the two weapons he’d taken with him, but much easier to use in a confined space. He removed the 32 round magazine, took it apart and pulled the trigger. The firing mechanism worked smoothly. Confident the icy conditions hadn’t affected the weapon, he reassembled it and stepped out of the hovercraft.
Pegasus was a portable, dome shaped igloo with internal insulation. From the outside it stood four feet above the ice, but Alexis had explained to him earlier that the scientists had dug out the main living space and the dome was just the protective shield, made out of aluminum, it reflected the cold.
Sam opened the unlocked door of the Ohara Snow Tractor. “I’m Sam Reilly. I’m here to help. Anyone inside?”
No response.
He signaled to Alexis. “Keep an eye on the door to Pegasus.”
Alexis drew the Glock he’d given her. “Go. I’ve got it covered.”
Sam quietly entered the large snow machine, built specifically for the harsh environment of Antarctica. It was cold inside, and he immediately doubted anyone had been inside recently. Even so, his basic training kicked in and told him not to leave himself exposed from two directions.
He flicked the lights on and carefully searched the Snow Tractor, which was capable of carrying up to twenty people inside. There were four individual compartments. Each one consisted of a range of scientific equipment for researching ice tunnels. Radar screens, seismographs, and ground penetrating sonar lined the walls. Sam opened each one individually until he reached the back of the machine.
Confident it was empty he climbed the steps at the front. Alexis looked at him. “It was empty. Any movement on your end?”
“No. Shall we knock on the door?”
“Sure.”
Sam approached the entrance to the science station. The steps descending into the Pegasus were clear of snow, as though they’d been shoveled free of ice earlier today. He pointed to them. “Someone’s definitely been home recently.”
She shook her head. “Those steps have heating elements inside to avoid snow build up from blocking them inside.”
“What are their names?” Sam asked.
“The scientists?”
“Yeah.”
“Auben, Pier, Jean, Hugo, and Dominique,” she replied.
Sam nodded. “Okay.” He stepped down to the door and banged loudly. “Anyone in there? My name’s Sam Reilly. I’ve come to help.”
No response.
He opened the door slightly and banged louder. “Auben. Pier. Jean. Hugo. Dominque. Any of you in there?”
Still no response.
“They must be inside,” Alexis said. “The snow tractor’s the only means they have of getting out of here. If it’s still here, so are they.”
Sam nodded. He understood what she was saying. He opened the door slightly and stepped inside. The place looked disheveled. Tables were on their sides, beds were torn, and food scattered. Sam glanced at the aluminum insulated ceiling – it was riddled with bullet holes.
He stepped out again.
“What is it?” Alexis asked quietly. The urgency turning her calm voice sharp. “What did you see?”
Sam looked at her; his piercing blue eyes, cold and hard. His jaw rigid and taut. “They’re all dead – every one of them.”
Chapter Forty-Nine
Alexis stared at his face for a moment. She didn’t need to ask what had happened. He had already told her everything she needed to know – they’d been murdered and it was her fault. She pushed through Sam’s arms and tried to see inside.
“Wait!” He grabbed her.
She shook her head. “No. I have to see what I have done.”
“You didn’t do anything. It’s not your fault.”
“Of course it is! You said so yourself. The coincidences are too much. Someone wanted me dead because of my research, but I can’t even imagine why.”
Sam held her tight and stopped her from pushing through. Alexis tried to wriggle free but he held her with too much strength and she finally relented, relaxing into his comforting grip. “We’ll find out why, and we’ll fix this – I promise.”
“Fix this?” She buried her head in his strong chest. “You can’t fix this! No one can. Those people are already dead and there’s nothing we can do about it.”
“You’re right. We can’t. But we must now ensure they didn’t die in vain. Someone must have had a pretty compelling reason to murder them and we need to find out what that was.”
“Why?” Alexis asked. “Why did they do this? There’s no reason. Why would anyone want to kill scientists who were simply looking for a place to build a particle accelerator?”
Sam shrugged. “Maybe it was what they were looking to make?”
“The Boson Higg’s particles?” She shook her head. “No, that’s not possible. No one knew about the project. Not even the scientists working here. All they knew was I’d heard about these ice tunnels and wanted to know the feasibility of building a particle accelerator inside.”
She felt Sam’s arms wrap warmly around her. Ordinarily she would have found it comforting, but right now, she wanted to feel the pain. Somehow she felt she deserved to suffer. “Maybe someone was upset about even the suggestion of building in Antarctica?”
“It’s possible, but unlikely.”
“Why?” he persisted.
“Because gaining approval would require a unanimous positive vote. If one party wasn’t happy, they didn’t need to go to the extreme lengths of killing everyone here simply to stop the research.”
“Okay, so if they weren’t killed because of what they knew when they arrived here, they must have been killed because of what they found.”
Alexis took a deep breath. “You think they found something here which got them killed?”
“It’s the only explanation I’m left with.”
“But Antarctica’s a giant landmass covered in ice.” Alexis shook her head in disbelief. “There’s nothing here of any real value. There’s no oil, no precious stones, nothing. Why else do you think the countries of the world were so willing to sign the Antarctic Treaty System, accepting no country owns Antarctica?”
Sam looked at her. “I think it’s time I go inside and see if I can find out.”
“I’ll come with you,” she said.
“Are you sure?” He stared at her. “They were killed from the air and left where they died.”
“I have to.”
“Okay.”
Sam opened the door fully and stepped to the side so she could choose how much she wanted to see. It was one of the things she’d already learned to love about Sam. He was infinitely protective of her, but at the same time capable of letting her make her own decisions and not mollycoddling her. It was a terrible sight, but one she needed to see.
She stepped past him and entered. Pegasus was one large dome shaped room, with everything from food preparation, study, entertainment, through to sleeping arrangements being shared. A separate lavatory was built outside with its own enclosed space. Immediately, she could take everything in at a glance. The insulated ceiling had been peppered by hundreds of bullet holes. Everything inside was shredded. The dead scientists remained in the positions they had been in when they were killed. Alexis placed her hand over her mouth and said nothing.
Pier was the first one sh
e saw. A recent Doctorial graduate in Physics, she had been impressed by his confronting thesis which challenged some of the accepted norms of particle physics. In the end he’d proved many of his own theories wrong. She had been impressed by the strength of his conviction despite multiple attacks from professors around the world; experts who didn’t like to have their established theories challenged. In the end, she offered him a job at CERN.
And now he was dead.
Slumped back in his chair, his breakfast porridge looked like it had just been boiled. A spoon rested half out of the bowl, as though he’d been in the process of taking another bite when the bullets stopped him. Three bullet holes pierced his chest. Otherwise he looked no different from the last time she’d seen him nearly eight months earlier. His long, dark brown hair almost covered his eyes with large waves. His mouth was open, in aghast shock and misunderstanding – as though he couldn’t comprehend how his life had so suddenly been taken from him. His unseeing eyes stared vacantly at her in accusation.
“I’m so sorry, Pier.” She stepped past him and kept walking. “What the hell happened here, Sam?”
“At a guess, I’d say someone flew overhead and machine-gunned the entire place. The aluminum insulation was strong enough to protect them from the elements but did nothing against large caliber machinegun bullets. By the looks of things, they made several passes just to make sure they got everyone.”
“You mean they might not have died immediately?” She put her hand back over her mouth. “They must have cowered somewhere only to realize they had nowhere to hide?”
“No. By the look of it, I’d say they all died on the first pass. Whoever’s responsible flew by a few more times just to be certain.”
“That’s terrible.”
She watched as Sam rifled through a series of paper notes. Next he switched on three laptop computers sitting on the main dining table, which also doubled up as a work station. None of them started.
He picked up the one closest to him and examined the six bullet holes. He poked his finger in the first one and then looked up at her. “Fifty calibers – they never stood a chance.”
Alexis barely heard him as she concentrated on walking to the far end of the dome where five hammocks hung on a rack. She pulled each of them out and ran her hands along the sides of them where a zipper held some minor personal effects from each individual scientist.
Sam looked at her as she opened the third zipper. “What are you looking for?”
“Their personal effects.”
“Why?”
“In a world made unsecure by digital thieves, most of these people kept their most private discoveries in paper journals.”
Sam grinned. “Any luck?”
“Not yet.”
Sam gathered the laptops. “If you don’t get lucky, we’ll take these back to the Maria Helena. Elise might still be able to access the hard drives for us.”
Alexis started to flick through Pier’s journal. She stopped after a few minutes, feeling guilty, like she was somehow intruding on the dead man’s most private thoughts. She dismissed the guilt and continued reading – if there were clues about what they had found that brought this entire disaster it would be worth prying.
She picked a section two thirds of the way through and started skimming. The date at the top of the page was nearly a year old and she was about to skip further when something caught her attention.
*
What does Professor Alexis Schultz see in her fiancé? There’s something I don’t like about him. He’s intelligent enough – nowhere near as bright as she is, but definitely smart enough to work at CERN without her recommendations.
So then, what is it that I don’t like? Because his IQ, which must range somewhere above the top percentile is the only good thing he shares with her. The guy’s a loser. He’s slimy and unctuous and although I can’t put my finger on why, I know he’s just plain wrong for her. She deserves much better.
*
The next section of the journal seemed to return to a project that he was working on. Alexis quickly skimmed through the next sections to see if there was anything else Pier had written about her husband. His comments had made her curious. Why would Pier have thought Daniel was wrong for me? He was a very effective scientist – by no means naturally brilliant, but definitely good at what he did. She thought about it some more and decided it wasn’t important. Nothing more than the passing thought of a new Doctorial graduate who she’d recommended for a permanent position at CERN.
She shook her head at his comment. It was silly and ridiculous. The kid barely even knew her or Daniel – even if he’d been right, Daniel was a loser and he’d been having an affair. She continued flicking through pages of the journal. Berating herself for not moving to the end of the journal and working backwards. Naturally if they’d found anything it would be documented close to the end of the journal. Just before he died.
For some reason, she couldn’t shake her curiosity – what did Pier know about my fiancé that I didn’t? She skimmed three more pages before finding it.
*
I found Alexis’s fiancé in her office again today. He was searching for something and I interrupted him. He was quick to give an explanation that he was finding something for Alexis, but he looked guilty as all hell. It wasn’t until he left that I noticed he’d been taking photographs of her notes with his phone.
Should I tell her that her fiancé’s a schmuck?
Even if I did – would I be doing so for her, or for me? No. Better to let her make her own mistakes. Who am I to advise her what she wants? If you love someone let her go free; if she returns she loves you. If not, she was never yours to begin with.
*
Alexis flicked through several more pages without finding another note regarding her fiancé. What the hell was he looking for? There’s no reason for Daniel to be combing through my stuff. None of it made any sense. His work was completely different than hers. It was one of the reasons they worked as a couple. Most academics were possessive about ownership of research papers.
Two senior academics would never get married because they’d fight about their work. With Daniel and Alexis the two focused on entirely different areas of particle physics. Daniel studied new technologies to collide particles together, which further improved on the basic concepts of the Large Hadron Collider, while she focused specifically on new subatomic particles.
She shook her head. It was another mystery she’d never understand. She turned one more page and promised herself she’d start at the end and forget the nonsense about Daniel. Only on the next page there was another note that she should have ignored but couldn’t.
*
I accepted a job in Antarctica today. I think it’s for the best. If I stay here the situation with Professor Alexis Schultz and her fiancé will drive me crazy and I’ll be forced to tell her the truth. That her fiancé is a schmuck who doesn’t deserve to spend one minute with her, let alone a lifetime – and that I’m in love with her.
*
Alexis stopped. There were tears in her eyes.
“What is it?” Sam asked.
“Pier was in love with me – and that’s what got him killed.”
Chapter Fifty
Sam felt helpless as he watched Alexis cry. After everything she’d been through, it was only this instant that she finally let go and burst into tears. He’d tried to comfort her, but she made it abundantly clear there was nothing he could do for her or Pier, or any of them. She just needed to let herself grieve and then she could get back to work. That much he could understand. Sam had known grief when his brother died. It took time to grieve, and a certain part of it never stopped. But grieving was good – so long as you didn’t let it overcome your life.
Somehow he was confident Alexis would be strong enough to understand that. He continued searching through the debris for any clue that could be used to discover why the scientists from Pegasus were killed. He checked each of the deceased for no
tes or anything that could explain the bizarre scene.
His eyes glanced at Alexis. There were tear marks along the freckles of her cheeks, but they had stopped flowing and were now dry. Her green eyes, glossy as though the tears could start at any moment, were focused on the journal again.
“There’s one thing I don’t understand, Alexis.”
She put the journal down and looked up at him. “Really, because I’ve got at least a dozen questions with no possible answers.”
He didn’t take the bait and instead asked her directly. “Why didn’t they hide their crimes?”
“What do you mean? Hide their crimes from whom?” she asked.
“If you killed five leading scientists because of what they’d discovered, what’s the last thing you’d want to do?”
“Get caught.”
“Yeah I wouldn’t want to get caught either. But no. Instead I was thinking I wouldn’t want anyone to find out a crime had been committed because that would start people investigating – and that would lead to someone discovering what I killed to keep hidden in the first place!” Sam took a deep breath. “So then, why didn’t they bury the bodies so they were simply presumed lost?”
“You’re right. They could have easily buried them in the snow and no one would ever find the bodies. Not in a hundred years. By which time, it would be irrelevant.”
“That’s it!” Sam screamed the words.
“What is?”
“They didn’t bother because it was the end of the summer. A search for the missing scientists wouldn’t be possible until next summer, by which time their secret would be irrelevant. Whatever it is, they must be confident it will be over before next summer.” Sam looked at bodies lying where they had been killed. “You have to get back to reading. We need to find out exactly what these people discovered before it’s too late.”
Alexis dipped her head and started reading again. “Okay, okay. No more personal stuff – if there’s anything in here, I’ll find it.”
Sam picked up another journal. He skimmed through the pages and put it back down. It was mostly irrelevant. He went outside and climbed into the Snow Tractor. He turned the key and the main diesel engine fired up. Sam waited until the amp meter began showing power coming in from the alternator and then switched the GPS on.
The Sam Reilly Collection Volume 2 Page 41