In Cold Pursuit vw-1

by Sarah Andrews

  “Call me paranoid, but I’m going to stick only with those people who I know well to trust with my life.” He opened the upper door and strode into the room.

  “But you don’t know me,” said Valena, “and—”

  “I know you better than you might suppose,” he replied. “You had the guts to argue with me.”

  “Does that make me trustworthy?”

  “It’ll have to do.” He sat back down on the couch. “Okay, what have we got?”

  “I like the program you laid out before Cal and Cupcake joined us,” said Bill.

  Valena remained standing. Turning toward her, Skehan explained, “We’re each going to request through our universities that NSF make a formal inquiry into what has happened to one of our most distinguished scientists. He’s been treated like a thug, whisked off the ice like some support staffer who’s gotten into a fight in a bar. And we’re each doing what we can here, and we need your help. Valena, you’re the most flexible, being at loose ends, as it were, and NSF will hardly notice what a graduate student is up to. That is, if you keep your head down. You can do that, can’t you?”

  “It would have to be what help I can provide from New Zealand or the US,” Valena said cautiously. “If the weather holds, I’m on my way to an early morning departure.”

  Skehan tossed one hand to the side in a dismissive gesture. “We’ve already taken care of that. Your stay has been extended.”

  “It has?” A shock ran through Valena. For the first time, she was not so certain that she wanted to stay.

  “The strings weren’t all that difficult to pull. Kathy asked for your assistance over the next week because one of her people is down with the crud, I said I needed you the week after that, Bill said he might need you as well, and about then Bellamy caved and just told us to get back to him when we didn’t need you anymore. So that’s taken care of. Now, don’t thank us,” he said. “You have not yet begun to comprehend the long hours we work down here.”

  He grabbed at the beeper mounted on his belt, which was again summoning him. He read the instrument and then leaned toward the phone on the coffee table and dialed. “Skehan,” he said into the instrument. “Yes, she’s here.” He passed the phone to Valena.

  Valena gripped the receiver, wondering who would know to contact Skehan in order to reach her. “Hello?” she said.

  “Hi, Valena? This is Lulu over in Mac Ops. I have a message for you from the guys out on Cape Royds.”

  “Who?”

  “Nat the penguin guy, and there are some Kiwi archaeologists working out there at Shackleton’s hut. They’re nice enough guys, but they were hitting the sauce, and something about someone stealing artifacts and penguin eggs. If that’s true, I suppose they were getting stinko because wow, that would really bother them, you know? Anyway, the message is that you’re supposed to come visit if you like.” She giggled. “But I’d watch out if I were you, because…well, it sounded like they thought you were pretty cute.”

  “Yeah. Okay. Thanks for the message. And for the heads-up.”

  “Hey, we gotta stick together! Southern girls rule!”

  “You got that one, sister,” said Valena, and added, “Over.”

  “Mac Ops clear!” sang Lulu.

  The connection ended. Valena took her time hanging up the phone. It was one thing to burn off her disappointment at Emmett’s colossal change in plans by thinking that she could clear him, but she was over that now, convinced that sticking her neck out was not such a good idea. And here was a group of PIs—full-scale grantees—who wanted to use her as a probe or a decoy, and they had her staying right here where things didn’t seem safe. She need time to think, to figure out how to protect herself.

  “Who was that?” asked Skehan.

  “Lulu in Mac Ops,” said Valena. “She said I’m invited out to Cape Royds and that someone’s stealing artifacts and penguin eggs.”

  “Someone’s what?” asked Kathy. “That’s not only theft, it’s against treaty protocols!”

  “They’ve got to be hallucinating,” said Bill. “How could anyone get out there without anyone knowing it?”

  Skehan said, “How indeed? Anything out of the ordinary around here is grist for this mill.”

  Ken Phelps said, “I agree. Kathy, you’re headed out there tomorrow, aren’t you?”

  “Yes. I could take Valena along, and it would fit inside our cover that she’s working for me. You have a tent and sleep kit, don’t you, Valena?”

  Now you’re talking, thought Valena. I can go out to Cape Royds and mind my own business, stay out of trouble, not have to wonder who my friends are and who is my enemy… She said, “George Bellamy had the people at Berg Field Center retrieve all the field gear out of Emmett’s office.”

  Ken Phelps said, “No problem, have BFC put a replacement set on my account.”

  “Get that gear and meet me here ten o’clock tomorrow morning,” said Kathy. “You’ll need a tent, too. Make sure to ask for a mountain dome. Those other ones take too long to set up, and they make a lot more noise in the wind.”

  “I’ll be here,” said Valena. “And I’ll be ready.”

  “Okay, getting her to Royds is taken care of,” said Skehan. “Now, how about getting her out to the Dry Valleys to talk to Dan Lindemann. Anyone?”

  The Dry Valleys? thought Valena. I’m going to the Dry Valleys?

  Julia Rosserman said, “I’ll get a message to Naomi. She’s in charge of their project. I could have Helo Ops pick Valena up at Royds and continue across to their camp on Clark Glacier, drop her off there. I’ll let Naomi know she’s coming—tell her it’s part of my transect or something—and get Helo Ops to add her to the manifest under my account.”

  “That’s great,” said Skehan. “How and when are we getting her back?”

  Bill Williams said, “Naomi is bringing up a lot of core. I’ll bet they’ll have a helo coming back every couple days to pick up a load, and they can pull Valena out as accessory pax when they do that.”

  In spite of her newfound caution, Valena began to tremble with excitement. I’m going to a penguin colony and the Dry Valleys, just like that! How life can change!

  Skehan shook his head. “That’s too open. If there’s a problem there, she needs to be able to make a pullout on her own. And we’ll need a signal to send through Mac Ops.”

  Julia said, “Hey, I’m not made of helo hours! I don’t know about you, but NSF really put the limits on my flight time this year. I’m stretching it to pick her up at Royds and drop her at Clark.”

  Ken said, “I’ll supply the backup. I’m not flush, either, but it’s the least I can do. If Emmett goes down, we can all kiss the freedom to do science in an honest, straightforward manner good-bye. It’s the camel’s nose under the hem of the tent: don’t like the results a scientist is getting? Attack him in the press, drag his butt before Congress, and then, if he still doesn’t get the message, accuse him of murder!” He shook his head with fury.

  “Congress?” said Valena.

  “There’s more to the story,” said Kathy. She glanced at Ken, who was calming himself, and artfully changed the subject. “So what did you learn from Sheila while you were up at Black Island?”

  “That she can play the cards even closer to her vest than you can, Jim.”

  One corner of Skehan’s mouth almost curled into a smile, but he caught it. “Just as I thought. Okay,” he said. “I think we all have our tasks well in mind. Now, from here, let’s all wander off separately, or in groups no larger than two or three. This meeting never happened, are we clear on that?” He stood up and looked at his watch. “We can still make it to dinner.”

  “Absolutely,” said Ken. He stood up and headed for the door without further discussion.

  “You don’t have to tell me twice,” said Kathy. “I like coming down here.” She was twiddling her pencil now, batting it nervously against her clipboard. “You know, the NSF is in a bad situation here. I can understand why Bellamy has tried
to put a lid on this.”

  “You understand this how?” asked Skehan. “Our colleague has been arrested like a common criminal. You’re telling me you can understand that?”

  Kathy said, “I don’t think Emmett hurt anybody any more than you do! But everybody wants to hang this on the middle manager, or on management in general. You know the old adage, ‘Shit from above, shit from below.’ George is out here at the end of a very long chain of command, assigned to keep a town full of rebels in line while serving a raft of scientists, all of whom think that their work is the most important work in the world.”

  Skehan gave her a wry smile. “I happen to think that whether the climate is going to heat up so far that we get intense species die-off is important, yes.”

  Kathy went on. “And of course George Bellamy can’t know what we’re doing, or he would be required to try to stop us, but I think that in this case what he doesn’t know would rather please him.”

  “You might be right,” said Skehan. “Let’s leave our egos at the door and presume that he would be a member of this team if he could. Okay, we’re done here.”

  Several of the others nodded, and they all stood up.

  “Ones and twos,” repeated Skehan. He watched as the assembly sifted out of the room. When everyone else had left, he turned to Valena and said, “Well, sorry to say it, kiddo, but a lot rests on your shoulders. As grantees, we have a lot of stroke around here, but just in case you hadn’t noticed, McMurdo is not a part of the United States.”

  “Can you enlarge on that statement, please?”

  Skehan awarded her a sardonic smile. “I like you, Miss Walker. You’re smart. Really, really smart. I meant only to suggest that this little patch of humanity does not operate as a democracy.” He put a hand on her shoulder to steer her toward the doorway. “And please be careful. I’ll do everything I can to cover you, from buying wine for Cupcake to getting you around to see the people you need to see without Bellamy half noticing that it’s happening, but there are so many ways to die it doesn’t take a wizard to weigh the risks. Okay, now get going. I don’t want to be seen walking with you.”

  32

  DAVE FITZGERALD HEADED ACROSS THE ROAD TOWARD dinner in Building 155 with his hair still wet from the shower. He liked to think that the soap he had used made him smell like springtime, which was exactly how he felt. Two hours in the cab of the Challenger with Valena Walker had been quite the tonic. He was in an exceptionally good mood after his sojourn along the trail to and from Black Island, and the pleasure of a clean shirt and the possibility of bumping into Valena in the galley were like extra toppings on a sweet dessert.

  He met the Boss coming the other way. “Oh, there you are, Dave,” he said. “I left a message for you at Building 17. Did you get it?”

  “No, sir. What’s up?”

  “You asked if you could help me out if any good boondoggles came up, didn’t you?”

  Dave gave him an appreciative smile. “I just had me a perfectly fine boondoggle, but I wouldn’t turn down another. Why, do you have another one up your sleeve?”

  “Yeah, but this one’s a bit outside my jurisdiction, so it can’t be on the clock.”

  “That’s okay with me. I would have done Black Island off the clock. It was a great trip.”

  The Boss broke eye contact for a moment, a shadow sliding across his gaze. “Well, I’m glad you appreciate all that. To be candid, I’ve been dealing extra goodies your way because you work hard. And because you had one blow up on you last year, like.”

  “Oh, you mean that business up at Vanderzee’s high camp? Hell, that could have happened to anyone. Sure, it was hard being there when the guy died, and having him lying around out there in his tent froze solid until we could get him out of there, but still I appreciated the chance to see such a different part of Antarctica. I really did.”

  The Boss slapped a hand down hard on Dave’s shoulder and gripped it. “You’re a sport, Dave. Well, anyway, things are still sort of a mess around here after Steve and all, so I thought you’d like another day outside of town.”

  “Always willing. What’s the job?”

  “There’s this grantee, a biologist lady, and she needs to get out to Cape Royds. That’s a real plum of a trip. You get to go around by the Erebus Glacier Tongue and maybe see some seals, then by Cape Evans and see Scott’s hut, then Barne Glacier. You’ll need someone to ride back with you, so I asked Matt, and he said yes also. You know where to find Matt—you guys are roommates, right?—and he’ll give you the details. See you back at the shop on Saturday.”

  “Sounds great! Thanks.”

  “And if the grantee needs you to stay out there longer, well, just give me a call and say you’ll be late. You might want to take your sleep kit, just in case.”

  Dave’s smile cooled a bit. “What’s up, Boss?”

  “Maybe you’d better get your food to take out. There’s some real bullshit running around here just now.”

  “No idea what you’re talking about. What’s up?”

  The Boss waved a hand about as if trying to dispel a bad odor. “Forget it. Forget I spoke. It’s nothing.” He began to move past Dave and then stopped. “Oh, one more thing: you know anyone who borrowed one of those snow machines parked out on the line?”

  “We took two of them out to Black Island. Why?”

  “No, the day before.”

  Dave shook his head. “In that storm? Why would anyone do that? And you have to check the keys out from Science Support, don’t you?”

  The Boss shook his head. “Looks like someone hot-wired one of them. It’s not difficult to do. They used to teach us how to do it in case we lost a key out there. Anyway, the guys at Science Support are asking around.”

  “I’ll keep an eye out.”

  “You do that, champ. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to run.”

  Thinking that he’d be whistling right now if he was any good at it, Dave continued down the hall, hung up his parka in the alcove, washed his hands at the hand-wash station, glanced at the monitors to see if anything interesting was going to be on TV that evening, then stepped into the line to get his dinner. After selecting chop suey, fried rice, egg rolls, and a big piece of chocolate cake, he scanned the dining room in the hope of spotting Valena. He didn’t see her, so he chose a table for four that had nobody else sitting at it, figuring that if she came through the line soon, she’d be more likely to sit with him if he was alone. Just to make sure that he didn’t look too hopeful, he chose a chair that put his back to the food lines.

  His plan quickly failed. “Hey, lover boy,” said Wilbur, lowering his tray onto the table across from him. “I hear you scored with that grantee with the nice ass.”

  Dave quelled an urge to push his plate into Wilbur’s face, managing to instead greet him with a serene smile.

  Joe dropped into the seat beside him. “You pork her for the Steve-o, y’hear?”

  Dave felt his breath go tight. “I miss Steve, too, boys,” he said, trying to steer them off the subject of Valena.

  “Cupcake thinks you did him,” said Joe.

  Dave was just raising a fork full of chop suey to his mouth. He set it down again carefully. “She… what!”

  “She says you knew right where to find him. You ought to hear her. Makes it sound real spooky.”

  “Or dark,” said Wilbur.

  “You guys are just messing with me.”

  “Nope. Scout’s honor. And she’s got Cal Hart talking about you, too.”

  Dave sat very still and contemplated his next move. He breathed deeply, staring at his chop suey. Deciding that finding another place to eat was in order, he gripped the edges of the tray and began to stand up.

  Cal Hart’s hand came to rest on his shoulder. “Where you going, dickhead?” he said, his voice loud enough to be heard at least three tables in any direction.

  Dave continued to stand up and turned toward him all in one move, shoving the tray in between them. “Joe and Wil
bur here were just telling me you’ve been talking about me,” said Dave. “Anything you’d care to say straight to my face?”

  “Yeah. But not in here. Come on outside.”

  Dave’s mind sped up. There was something weird about Cal’s manner, like he was reading from a script, but he said, “Suits me.” Brushing past him, he continued to the dish room, scraped his meal into the bins, and dumped his plates and silverware into the wash line. He hated to waste the food, but was too proud to leave it sitting on a table for someone else to clean up for him. He knew he would not be returning to the galley this evening. He was done eating for tonight, entirely done.

  Outside in the cold air of the driveway, he shoved his hands firmly into his jeans pockets, stared at the man who had given his foolish friends something to flap their jaws about, and waited. Joe and Wilbur had followed them outside, and others were slowing their gaits as they passed, gathering to watch. I will keep my hands firmly in my pockets, he told himself. I will not get duped into a fight and get thrown off the ice.

  Cal said, “You’re a real stud, you know that, Dave?”

  Now on top of boiling mad Dave felt a wave of nausea. “If you’re passing lies about me, stop it now. This is too small a town for that kind of—” He couldn’t think of a word strong enough.

  Joe said, “Don’t let him get you mad, Dave. You know the rule: zero tolerance for physical fighting.”

  Edging closer, Cal said, “What I want to know is this: did you kill Steve?”

  “Did I what?” Rage rose in Dave’s chest and his ears began to ring, but he fought to keep his mind rational. Joe’s right, this asshole wants me to take a swing at him. Why?

  Cal’s face now hovered inches from his own. “It just seemed so strange that you knew exactly where to find him. So call me paranoid, but I got to thinking that maybe you hit him, dumped him out there, then took Cupcake out there to make it look like you’d just sort of stumbled on him. And you were there at the high camp last year. Too much of a coincidence.”

  Dave shook his head slowly from side to side. “The Cake chose which route we’d follow. Ask her.” He turned and began to walk away.