Dieter knew that with so many weapons on board, the chances of taking over the ship had dropped immensely. So far, he could get away with acting innocent. “I agree with Alex. We need to keep moving.” He looked at Harrison. “Use the thrusters to move us from side to side. We may lose some speed, but we will be harder to hit.”
Harrison twisted the joystick and suddenly the Mystic was sliding sideways through the water. The next roar from the cannon was louder as the black ship drew closer to the stern, but the round hit the water two-hundred-feet ahead and slightly off the port side.
Suddenly, they heard a whine from the engine room as the turbines came online. Harrison quickly switched the joystick from thrusters to engines and engaged the jet pumps. He shoved the throttle to full power, and the Mystic lurched forward with incredible power as she got up on the pontoons and sliced through the surface of the water. Everyone stared through the rear window as the black ship quickly fell away in the distance.
Now that the engines were running, Alex wanted answers. “Stop us here, Harrison.”
Mike was surprised by the order and looked at him. “What are you doing, Alex?”
“We’re out of range and can stay that way, but we still need to get to the arctic. Let’s find out what happened to the engines before we try it again.” He looked up at Joshua. “Mind staying up here with Harrison?”
Bett slung her shotgun over one shoulder and leaned back against the rear window. “I can handle it, Alex.”
“All right, let’s find Rita.”
Okana was waiting in the walkway, just inside the doors out to the stern, and watched Bartram coming up the stairs from below and into the lounge. He moved from the doors, to the bottom of the stairs, to the bridge, and stared at Bartram.
Alex walked down the stairs and into the lounge, and Joshua, Mike, and Dieter followed.
Okana swung his shotgun onto his right shoulder, and continued to stare at Bartram as he stepped out of Alex’s way. “Rita’s still down in the engine room, Alex.”
Mike stepped around Dieter. “I’ll get her.”
*
Rita was looking around the engine room, wondering if something else just went wrong with the turbines. She looked up when Mike walked in. “Are we still under attack?”
“No, we’re fine for now. Everyone is waiting for you in the lounge.”
She tossed the pliers onto the workbench. “Good. This was intentional.”
Rita followed Mike up the stairs and stood next to Okana. “Someone sabotaged the fuel system in a way that was not easy to fix. They cut the wires in the connection box, so I couldn’t splice them together and I had to run a new wire to get them working again.”
Okana noticed a faint grin from Bartram. “What were you doing, Leroy? This is the first time I’ve seen you since we left port.”
“I was in my cabin, reading and sleeping.”
“And you didn’t notice the cannon fire?”
“I looked in the hallway and saw Bett and Joshua with shotguns, so I just stayed in my cabin until it was over.”
Alex realized it might be difficult to discover the culprit right away, and they had to continue to the Arctic. He looked at Rita. “Are the engines able to operate safely?”
“They’re fine for now. I’ll do a permanent job at our next port, when I get some wire. Someone must have thrown my roll of wire overboard. Oh, and you’re going to be without a reading light for a while, Alex.”
Alex gave her a nod. “Okay. For now, we take another route through the islands and continue to our destination. We’ll play the blame game underway.”
* * *
Chapter 22
DISCOVERY:
Henry pressed the end button on the telephone keypad and looked around the table. “Yesterday, Alex mentioned the Mystic used an ultrasound frequency to locate the methane. Do you have such a device on this ship, Captain?”
“We have one of the prototypes on a rover.”
Janice shook her head. “No, you cannot use that again. That’s what activated the device in the first place.”
The fax machine beeped and Jordon stood and walked over to get the report. He looked at the rows of numbers and gave it to Janice. “It’s Greek to me.”
Janice quickly read the report and then looked up at Jordon. “Do you have a specialist for the rover on the ship?”
“We have a couple of people that can operate it.”
“No, I mean an electronic engineer.”
Jordon shook his head. “Not specifically for that transmitter. He takes care of the ship’s systems. What’s on your mind?”
“It’s a good thing I’m here. If I can recalibrate the transmitter to send only this frequency, we may be able to separate the methane from the clear ice.”
“You know how to do that?”
“It’s a hobby of mine. I’ll need all the engineering specifications and drawings, and a place to open the rover and make the changes.”
Jordon sat down and slid the phone closer so he could enter a number. “I’ll have everything you need faxed from the main office in Seattle.”
Henry gently put his hand on Janice’s forearm. “Both your skills are needed. How do you know when the device activates?”
Janice could see the concern in his eyes. “They had a submarine near the methane, two of the times. Why?”
“It should have activated again. Do you have a submarine down there all the time?”
“No, Celeas stays onboard unless we need her to do something.”
“So we do not know if it actually activated when we assumed it would.”
“You’re right.”
“Alex was working with someone on the mainland who recorded the effect. I should try to contact him right away and find out if he noticed any new seismic activity.” He reached into his shirt pocket and brought out a notebook. “Alex gave me his number when he came to see me in Nevada.”
“A notebook, Henry? Don’t you have an I-phone with the numbers?”
He lightly shook his head. “We do not have cellphone service for security reasons, so I did not see the need to have one.”
Jordon hung up the phone and stood. “The information is on its way, so let’s get you set up in the electronics laboratory, Janice. My crew is getting one of the rovers down from the storage rack as we speak.”
Henry remained seated when the others stood and left the conference room. He entered Wesley’s number and waited for the connection.
“Hello.”
“Mister Patterson, I am a friend of Alex Cave. My name is Henry Heinz.”
“I remember hearing your name. What can I do for you?”
“I was wondering if you had detected another event in the past twenty-four hours.”
“Nothing that affected me. Why?”
“I had reason to expect the device to activate twenty-four hours after the last event. This is good news. It seems the device is no longer activating on its own.”
“I hope you’re right. Any news from Alex?”
“Yes. Apparently he had a few problems, but they are still sailing to the Arctic Ocean.”
“Is this a good number to reach you?”
“Yes, while I am on this ship.”
“Ship? I thought you lived in Nevada.”
“I am temporarily onboard a ship named Discovery, near Vancouver Island, in Canada. I am trying to recover that device in the Pacific Ocean. It is a daunting task. We cannot tell if the device will activate while onboard this ship. Could you call me if another event should occur?”
“I will. Good luck.”
“Thank you.” He stood from the table. One less issue to worry about, he thought as he left the conference room and entered the hallway. He looked in both directions, but had no idea where everyone had gone. He turned and walked toward the stern, looking through every open doorway to find his friends.
* * *
Chapter 23
MOUNT BAKER:
Wesley stopped his Hum
mer in the parking lot of the Ranger Station, shut off the engine, then climbed down and walked around his trailer and the yellow snow cat. He turned around when he heard the front door of the station close and saw Jamie smiling as she came over and stared up at the snow cat.
“Is this yours, Wesley?”
“That’s right.”
“I saw it through the window. So, why did you bring it up here?”
“I found a fumarole and another new hot spring. I’m going up to inspect the glaciers, and just wanted to let you folks know where I’m going. If I’m not back in four hours, you might want to send someone to look for me.”
“I’ve never been in a snow cat. Can I go with you?”
“You’re in uniform, so you must be working right now.” He could see the disappointment in her eyes. “I’ll take you for a ride when we get some snow.” Suddenly, she smiled and grabbed his arm, pulling him toward the station. “What are you doing, Jamie?”
“You’ll see. You need a permit, right?”
“No, I don’t.”
“I know they always let you slide because this is your mountain, but there are rules.”
“Why are you calling it my mountain?”
“On my first day, Larry thought that since I was new to the park service I needed to learn how this park was operated. I think that, since I’m only thirty-four, I wouldn’t know what I’m doing yet, so he gave me a list to memorize. Fourth item on the list of do’s and don’ts. This mountain belongs to Wesley Patterson, so leave him alone.”
Wesley didn’t know what to say until she smiled. “I get it. You’re pulling my leg, right?”
“We need to talk to Larry.”
He followed her into the building and past the front wooden counter, then through the open doorway into the office of his friend, Larry Cobb, the park supervisor. He reached out and shook his hand. “How you doing, Larry?”
“Good. Jamie showed me the hot spring at the campground. What’s going on?”
Wesley explained what he knew. “I’m on my way up to check the damage to the glaciers. This ranger lady says I need a permit.”
Larry looked at Jamie. “Rule four, remember?”
“I know, but I was thinking that if he doesn’t have a permit, I have to go with him as a representative for the park.”
“What?”
“Come on, Larry. I really want to go with Wesley. This way I’m still doing my job.”
Larry shrugged his shoulders and looked at Wesley. “Are you sure you want her along?”
Wesley hesitated and looked at her. “I didn’t invite her in the first place.” He watched her mouth open slightly as she stared at him. “Get you hiking gear, Miss Park Representative.”
Jamie smiled “I need to go to my locker. Be right back.”
Wesley looked at Larry. “You should start moving people out of the park.”
“Is it that bad?”
“It’s not an emergency yet, but, if the melting continues, they need to go home before the streams rise and the roads wash out. I’ll have a better timeframe once I see how bad glaciers are melting.” He turned when Lisa stepped into the office, wearing jeans and her ranger shirt and carrying a light blue backpack.
Jamie smiled. “I’m all set. Let’s go.” She spun around and walked out of the office.
Wesley looked at Larry. “I’ll bring her back and let you know what we find.”
Wesley left the building to see Jamie climbing onto the trailer and up to the snow cat.
Jamie opened the side door and tossed her backpack inside, then jumped down onto the asphalt and smiled at Wesley. “Ready when you are.”
“Jump in and I’ll show you my mountain.” Once they were in the Hummer, he drove out of the parking lot.
He pulled the trailer along the old logging roads for nearly two hours before he was forced to stop. A swollen stream had washed out the road across the bottom of a canyon and there was no other road up to the glaciers. If he didn’t have the trailer he could have driven through the water, but they would need the snow cat on the glaciers.
Jamie stared through the front window at the water. “Are you going to be able to turn around?”
“I’m afraid not. Let’s find out how deep it is.”
They climbed out of the Hummer and walked to the edge of the rushing water. “Is this because of the melting glaciers, Wesley?”
“That’s right.”
“How much farther until we reach them?”
“An hour’s drive, if we had a road, maybe forty five minutes if we follow this stream up the mountain.”
“All right. Let me get my backpack.”
“I saw you put it in the snow cat.”
“That’s right.”
“Help me with the ramps, so I can back it off the trailer.”
“Ah, you’re kidding, right? You’re going to cross the stream in the snow cat?”
He shook his head. “No, we’re going to drive it up the stream.”
“I can see why they call this your mountain, Wesley. I never realized you could travel in a snow cat without snow. By the way, I really want to thank you for bringing me along. I’ve seen some beautiful areas that no tourist will see.”
“My pleasure. There’s more to come, so let’s get started.”
Fifteen minutes later, Jamie’s hands tightened on the padded armrests as the front of the snow cat dipped into the water and it looked as though it would rush in through the front window. When the cat leveled out and began crawling upstream, she smiled at Wesley. “That was the most exciting thing I’ve ever done.”
“That was the easy part.”
For the next forty minutes, Jamie held tight to the armrests. It’s like being on a weird rollercoaster, she thought. At times, the rubber seal around the doors was all that stopped the water from flooding into the cab.
Wesley glanced over at Jamie as the front of the snow cat became nearly vertical climbing up over a small waterfall. Although her hands might leave permanent indentations in the padded armrests, she had never stopped grinning since they had left the Hummer.
The front of the cat flopped down over the top and crawled across a wide-open expanse of smooth round stones brought down by the glacier. Jamie pointed through the window at the wide vertical face of light blue ice one mile away. “There it is, Wesley. It’s beautiful.”
A knot formed in Wesley’s stomach when he saw how far the glacier had receded since his last visit. “Let’s go take a closer look.”
Wesley continued driving up the wide stream, across the loose gravel, and stopped fifty-feet from the face of the glacier. “Oh, crap.”
“What’s wrong?”
“Let’s get out and I’ll show you what’s going on.”
They climbed down from the cat, finding that the air outside was pleasantly warm. They walked along the wide stream of water flowing from beneath the glacier, and stopped in front of the opening into a massive ice cave, twelve-feet-tall and thirty-feet-wide.
Wesley waved his hand across the opening. “This is worse than I thought, Jamie. The glacier has been melted by heat radiating from the ground. Let’s see how far back this goes.”
“Do you think it’s safe?”
“I believe so. It’s melted, not fractured. Come on.”
She pointed up at the translucent blue ice inside the cave. “It’s raining in there. You’ve got a hat, I don’t.”
“Stay out from the center and you’ll be fine.”
“If you say so, but I’m not buying it.”
“You can stay here, if you like.”
“Are you kidding? Where you go I go. You first.”
Wesley admired her fearless attitude as he entered the ice cave.
* * *
Chapter 24
MYSTIC:
Mike and Dieter climbed the stairs to the bridge to determine a new course through the islands, and Alex and Okana moved a short distance away from the group to talk in private.
“Do you know
where everybody came from when the engines died?” Alex asked.
“Mike came from his quarters. Everyone else was below, and no one came up until you talked on the intercom.”
“I need to be sure who did this. I’ll use Mike’s Office and start with Bartram.”
They turned and walked back to the group. Alex looked at Joshua, Lisa and Rita standing together, and Bartram sitting on the edge of the table. “I need to find out what’s going on. I’ll start with you, Leroy.”
Bartram stood. “Who the hell made you chief prosecutor? You’re just a visitor on the ship. It’s up to Captain Dieter to decide what to do.”
Alex leaned forward and down, his face only inches from Bartram’s, and looked him in the eyes. “I don’t know what your problem is, but you don’t want a problem with me.”
Bartram felt intimidated by the venomous look in Cave’s eyes and looked at the others for sympathy, but no one backed him up. “Sure. Let’s go talk.”
Alex led Bartram out to the walkway, up toward the bow, and through the doorway into Mike’s office and living quarters. Alex continued around the desk and sat in the comfortable tan leather chair, and Bartram sat in a chair across the desk from him. He felt the Mystic gain speed and noticed Leroy glancing around the interior to avoid making eye contact. “What did you do before you came onboard?”
“I worked tramp ships, mostly. You know, just sailed from here to there.”
“I understand you came aboard with Dieter. Where did you meet him?”
Bartram crossed his arms and stared across the desk. “I met him at a bar in North Dakota.”
Alex realized this would not work without evidence. “Mind if Okana searches your cabin?”
The corner of Bartram’s mouth curled up in a wry smile, knowing there was nothing in his cabin to incriminate him. “Go right ahead. You’ve got nothing on me, Professor Cave.”
Alex stared back. Leroy’s attitude told him he was the saboteur, but, without evidence, there was nothing more he could do. He stood, leaned across the desk and stared into Bartram’s eyes. “You can go now, Lee-roy.”
Bartram tried to maintain a casual demeanor, but the look in Cave’s eyes gave him a chill. Cave did not act like a teacher. More like someone who knew how to kill in cold blood. He slowly stood and stepped back from the desk, then turned and quickly walked out of the office.
The Alex Cave Series. Books 1, 2, & 3.: Box set Page 44