by James Phelan
What if I just need to slow down? Hmm.
He wiped ice and snow from his goggles.
I ditch the sail.
And what if the wind changes—and I have to alter course?
I ditch the sail.
Sam relaxed as much as he could, watching the endless snow flash past him. Every now and then he’d hit a bump where the snow had formed a ridge or the ice had shifted, and the craft took flight. Sometimes it stayed airborne like that for a few seconds, flying forward, before coming back down to the ground, the jarring return to earth unkind to Sam’s body.
Ow. Where’s the cushioning in this thing?
He checked his compass, pulling more on the left-hand rope. He glanced across at the blue mountains that rose up to the east.
There is surely no place more empty and barren … a desert, maybe.
But this is a frozen desert, just as harsh, and probably even more dangerous.
Even without a superstorm, if the cold here didn’t get you with frostbite or hypothermia, the terrain would. Sam’s greatest fear was that by the time he might spot a huge crevasse and cut the lines to stop—it would be too late.
The momentum would carry me on. Newton’s law, right? I’d be swallowed up and never seen or heard from again.
He was really travelling with the wind now, the drum barely touching the ground. Then the wind shifted ever so slightly. Ice kicked up from the front of the craft and covered Sam’s goggles. He wiped them clear. The dance of blowing snow started to overtake him as the wind grew in strength.
Is Alex out there? Has he found the Gear yet?
He hit a jagged peak of a ridge—and shot into the air. But this was no ordinary ridge like those he’d hit before. This was a shift in the ice shelf and the plateau ahead was lower.
A lot lower.
Oh boy …
Sam could see ahead as the nose of the drum started to drop. Then the wind in the sail picked up and pulled—and he shot upward, a few metres clear of the ground.
And now I’m flying.
Then Sam saw the land ahead. It wasn’t another flat, smooth ice run.
It’s a field of crevasses!
Sam ditched the sail.
29
EVA
“Hold on!” Pete yelled as the snow plough in front of them smashed through the wooden wall of the shed, debris catapulting in all directions as the plough roared out into the snow.
Peeking above the rim of the window, Eva spotted Briony flat on her back, blown over by the force of Bob’s “bomb.”
But no sooner were they racing out of the smashed wall at full throttle than Eva heard gunshots and the sound of bullets hitting the side of the vehicle.
“Everyone down!” yelled Pete, his foot to the floor as he crouched behind the wheel.
Eva clung to Arianna and Gabriella as they flattened themselves on the floor of the snowcat, bouncing madly as they made their escape.
A few moments later, Eva dared to lift her head—they were clear of the base, away from Stella’s Agents, only whiteness ahead of them. She spun around to look out the back door. The other snowcat was not far behind them.
Thank goodness we got everyone out of there.
Now we have to find Sam and Alex before those guys find us again.
She went up to sit next to Pete. “You OK?” she asked. “Are you hurt?” She panicked at the sight of blood on his face.
“Just a scratch,” he said. “Banged my head as we were hotfooting it out of there. I’ll get us there soon, don’t worry.”
“Lora?” Eva said. She couldn’t believe her eyes. They had driven into the Chinese base and seen a group of figures arriving on foot. It was Lora, with a Guardian and an Agent.
Eva jumped down and ran over to Lora to hug her. “Stella’s Agents took over Crawley Station,” she said. “They were all pretending to be the crew to find out what we knew. How did you get away from the rest of them? Hang on, where’s Sam? And Jabari and the other guys who were with you?”
“I know about Stella,” Lora said. “They turned on us out there, but our guys got the jump on them. Not all of them made it.” She looked gratefully at the Guardian and Agent standing protectively nearby. “I was knocked out for a while and by the time I came to, we were halfway here.”
Eva silently thanked the universe again for the courageous Guardians and loyal Agents who had done so much for them in the race.
“And Jabari and Sam?”
“Jabari had already gotten out to track Alex but we’ve lost communication with him too. And Sam …” She sighed heavily. “Now I’ve lost Jabari, Alex and Sam.”
“No,” Eva said, “it’s not your fault. I’m sure we’ll find him.”
They turned when the door of the station opened. A man in an orange snowsuit emerged and rushed to them. Over the wind they could not hear him—but he was pointing at the station, where another crew member stood by the door and waved them inside.
“You’re sure there’s no sign of Sam?” Lora asked Jedi over the communications link. This one was perfectly clear, unlike the radio and satellite phones that they had brought.
“Sorry, no,” Jedi said. “The storm is skirting your location, going out to sea, but it’s still enough to wreak havoc on any kind of search.”
Eva looked to Gabriella and Arianna, who appeared as worried as she felt.
“But I have plotted where Alex may be,” Jedi said.
“You have?” Lora asked, hope in her voice.
“Yes,” he said.
“Tell us, we’ll head there,” Eva said.
“It’s OK,” Jedi replied. “Someone else is on the way to help him. You sit tight and wait for news on Sam. Don’t worry—I will find him. I’ll contact you again soon.”
“What did Jedi mean, someone else?” Eva asked anxiously.
“He must mean other Guardians or loyal Agents, such as we have left,” Lora said. “I get the impression he didn’t want to say on an open line.”
“Maybe Jabari!” Arianna said. “Maybe he spoke to Jedi?”
“It would be great to get news of Jabari, I’m very worried about him,” Lora replied. “He’s a tough man, but this is not exactly his usual terrain.”
“And where did you last see Sam?” Eva asked.
“Out there, near the mountains. He was in the snowcat with, I now assume, Stella.”
What little colour Eva had in her cheeks drained completely.
“Think he’s OK?” Gabriella asked carefully.
Lora looked like she was going to cry, but then her cheeks flushed and she stood, angry.
“Lora, it’s OK—he’ll be OK,” Eva said. “He has to be.”
“He’s tough,” Arianna said. “Right now, he is probably at some other research outpost.”
“Or heading for where Jedi tracked Hans to,” Eva said.
“Where is that?” Arianna asked.
“Forty kilometres northeast of here,” Lora said. “The other side of the mountains, toward the coast.”
“We can’t get there in this weather, can we?” Gabriella said.
“Well, we can’t just stay here,” Eva said.
“Then we have no choice,” Lora said.
30
SAM
Sam gave up on the GPS. It wasn’t working at all. He followed the compass instead, trusting that it would lead him in the right direction and that he’d come to the Chilean station if he stayed on that heading.
The mountains were visible to his left. Behind them, a wall of grey clouds gathered as the storm started to come back around.
Sam moved as fast as he could on foot. The wind was at his back and helped—a lot.
Sometimes too much.
The crevasses were so large that they were easy to spot. There was no way he could cross one, so he followed the ridges to where they came close together and jumped over the narrowest gaps, which sounded easier than it was. Twice in the first ten minutes, Sam tripped and fell, stopping just in time to avoid rolli
ng down a bottomless crack in the ice. He paced slowly across the uneven ground until he came to a gap that was small enough to leap over, then he would get his bearings again and keep going.
Three kilometres. Maybe an hour’s trek in this weather and with these obstacles.
Sam didn’t have time to think more about the journey ahead because at that very moment, the world disappeared.
“Arghh!” Sam leaned back and pulled out his ice axe, spearing it into the ground in one fluid movement. The axe punched through the snow-covered ice and buried itself with a dull sound.
“Arghhhhh!” Sam held on tight as he slipped down the crevasse, slowing, but not fast enough. His gloved grip slipped from the axe.
“No!” he yelled, but he didn’t fall far—the thin rope around his wrist that tied him to the ice axe held him as he dangled in the cold air.
Man, that was close.
He was not looking forward to the climb back out.
A long, hard hour later, Sam stumbled into the Chilean station, quite literally. He face-planted against the side wall of a building that he couldn’t even see for the snow that had drifted against it.
It was empty.
Worse—it had been burned, almost to the ground. Black smoke drifted in the strong wind. He could no longer see the mountains as the weather had swallowed them up.
Who did this …?
“I have an idea who,” Sam said to himself, thinking of Solaris. He instinctively looked around, as though he might appear right there, a tall dark figure emerging from the white gloom, but there was nothing but the remains of the base.
He looked back at his footprints and saw shiny bullet casings at his feet. A gunfight had raged here. He looked closer at a burned hut. It was crude, and the fire was not the result of a flame weapon but explosives that had blasted a hole in the wall.
This wasn’t Solaris. This was someone else …
He walked around, using his ice axe as an anchor in the wind, searching for signs of where they’d cut through the ice.
Find it—and find the way through. Wherever those ruins are, I’m going to bet that’s where Hans and Alex are.
Sam stepped forward once more and fell feet first into a hole in the ground.
And fell.
And fell.
As he frantically threw out his arms to slow his descent, he made his Stealth Suit expand, feeling it inflate inside his snowsuit as he plummeted down and down …
31
XAVIER
“What is it?” Maria asked, looking up at the ceiling that seemed as large as the night sky and filled with as many stars.
“It’s the rock,” Dr. Dark said.
“Granite,” Phoebe said. “The weight above us is squeezing the quartz crystals in it, creating immense pressure and the result is this glow.”
“Like glow worms, or fireflies,” Rapha said.
“The earth is a magical place,” Poh said with wonder.
“Yeah, I think you’re right,” Cody muttered, staring at the ceiling.
“This is very like what I saw with Sam,” Issey said, “in Japan. A room that glowed. The crystals somehow conducted the electricity—and there was a chair, when Sam sat in it, he completed the circuit.”
The others nodded, remembering Issey and Sam’s story from their adventure in Tokyo and on Ghost Island.
“There are things about this planet,” Dr. Dark said to them all, “that we have no idea about. Not because we don’t know it. But because we’ve forgotten it and it’s been hidden from us.”
“Dad?” Xavier said. “What about the map? Will the map show us where we need to go?”
Dr. Dark smiled. “There’s only one way to find out.”
Xavier followed his father through the large water tunnel they now found themselves in. This one certainly pre-dated the Romans—there was no smooth lining on the walls and ceiling, and it was big enough for a bus to drive through. The water was ankle deep in spots. There were stains on the walls that showed at times, long ago, it had been filled to the roof with fast-flowing water.
“This goes under the pyramids?” Xavier asked, walking next to his father.
“In a way,” he replied. “Eventually, I should say. Though I didn’t bring my GPS with me last time. Big mistake.”
“Wait, last time?” Xavier said. “You’ve been down here this far already, on your own?”
“I, ah …” Dr. Dark looked to his son then back at the others who were a few steps behind, the glow of their caving headlamps bobbing up and down as they walked. “The maze?” he said.
“Yeah.”
“I went there, two days ago.”
“And?”
“And—I got out, this morning.”
“Two whole days! You were lost in there for two days?” Xavier forced himself not to shout and bring the others’ attention to their conversation.
What are we doing down here?
“It’s a complicated maze,” Dr. Dark explained.
“Did you find anything?” Xavier said.
“Oh, yes, plenty.”
“But?”
“But—well, let’s say I didn’t find what I expected to find. And I can’t remember every twist and turn I took in there. My flashlight ran out of power after the first day.”
“You …” Xavier looked back at the others, then to his father and said in a low voice. “You can’t remember?”
Dr. Dark shook his head.
“And you were trapped in the dark all that time?” Xavier said.
“Yes.”
“And now you want to go in there again, and take us with you?”
“But I know where I’m going now.”
“What?!” Xavier exploded, unable to keep the volume down this time.
“Shhh, you’ll make the others nervous.”
“I’m nervous!” Xavier said quietly, looking back at those behind them. “How do you know we’re not going to get lost again?”
“Trust me, Xavier,” Dr. Dark said. He gave Xavier a long, searching look.
“Well,” Xavier mumbled. “It’s not that I don’t want to trust you, Dad, but …”
“Please, son.”
Xavier was floored to witness his father’s vulnerability.
He’s asking me for help.
For the first time ever.
“OK, I guess if you’re sure you know where you’re going.”
“I do, I promise,” Dr. Dark said. “Look! There it is!”
The water at their feet spread out to a thin film on the floor as they came to another large cavern. Not a natural cave, Xavier could see, from the uniformity of the walls and ceiling carved out of the rock and the square edges all around. Maybe it had been some kind of natural waterway once, and it had been enlarged years later.
Before them was an underground river, a stone bridge crossing it.
“Over there!” Dr. Dark called out, pointing ahead with his flashlight. “That’s the way to the maze. We’ve found it!”
32
EVA
They drove the snowcat for half an hour and stopped. The engine was on, the heater on full, the gas gauge at half full—good for another few hours at least.
“What is it?” Eva asked.
“The GPS is down,” Lora replied, tapping the screen on the dashboard.
“How can the GPS go down?” Arianna asked. “It’s a satellite system—it’s always working.”
“Not if the satellites aren’t working.” Lora looked at another GPS unit, this one handheld. “Not if they go down.”
“How can a satellite ‘go down’?” Eva asked.
“If it’s destroyed,” Lora said.
“Who can do such a thing—destroy a satellite?” Arianna asked. “Surely not Stella, not Solaris? Only a country could do that—a big military, with a missile. Right?”
“I’m not sure about that,” Lora said. “I’m not sure what anyone is capable of anymore.”
They fell silent, the four of them contemplating th
is new possibility, this new escalation. The only sounds were the rumble of the huge engine and the whir of the heater.
“Surely no country or government would do that?” Eva asked. “Imagine the international uproar if they did.”
“But if it’s only communication down here in Antarctica that’s knocked out, that might be something you could get away with—at least for a while. Who would know?”
“There are not many people here to raise an alarm,” Arianna said, looking out the window.
“I doubt it’s a nation striking against us,” Lora said, her tone changing as though something now made sense. “Since the race went public, the Director and the Enterprise have been keeping a close eye on global communication about it, and there was a disturbing amount of corporate interest.”
“So you mean big businesses want a piece of the action?” Eva asked.
“It makes sense to me,” Lora said. “Some global companies have more money, resources and power than countries. And they’re not making money for the good of mankind. They might see the potential in harnessing the Gate’s power—”
“Look!” Arianna pointed out the window.
Through the snowdrift, there was movement. Snow bikes—a dozen of them, heading toward them fast.
Lora slammed the ’cat into gear. “I don’t know who they are, but we’re not getting into a conversation with them out here.” She drove the snowcat at full speed but it was not fast enough. Eva looked out the windows and saw that the bikers were not only chasing them, they were catching up.
The snow bikes were the vehicle equivalent of wolves. Up close, they resembled dirt bikes, with big spikes on their wheels. The riders each had guns strapped to their backs, and wore white and grey camouflage.
PING! PING! PING!
Bullets hit the snowcat’s thick outer skin and ricocheted off.
“They’re trying to bully us into stopping,” Lora said, her foot flat on the accelerator. “There’s little they can do otherwise. This beast weighs a good ten tonnes and is made of thick steel.”
“Well, they’re definitely a pest,” Eva said. “And while they’re out there, we can’t stop.”