Black Ice (20 page)

‘The most important thing,' Lauren continued, ‘is that I want all of you to feel a part of the Capricorn team. I know you never asked to be here, I know there's been tension, and a bit of conflict here and there. But I want everyone to put that behind them and concentrate on making the next hundred days as positive and productive as we can. We're halfway through, guys, and it's all downhill from here. So let's raise our glasses and drink to Capricorn!'

‘And the sun!' Frank added. ‘Wherever the hell it's gone!'

‘To the sun!' The team raised their glasses and downed their champagne.

Then Julian Fitzgerald stood.

‘I wanted to add a brief word,' he told them, ‘more in the way of an announcement, I suppose. I've been thinking about the way that my trans-Antarctic expedition failed, and I've realised that the potential is still there to finish off what Carl and I started. I've decided I'm going to give it another try. At the end of the winter. Go back to the place where I was forced to postpone the expedition, and set off—solo this time—to try and reach the edge of the continent. That way, the enterprise can still be successful, and I will still become the man to have crossed the Antarctic continent at its widest point!'

Fitzgerald raised his champagne glass.

‘To adventure!' he exclaimed and sat back in his seat as a muted ripple of applause went round the table.

‘I think that's very courageous indeed!' Richard called out. ‘And may I be the first to wish you the best of luck!'

Cigars were circulated, and the base's single bottle of vintage port breached and distributed. Then it was over to the dartboard for a tournament which was destined to last into the early hours.

Lauren stayed at the table, and so did Fitzgerald.

‘I don't want to pour cold water on your plans, Julian,' she told him, ‘but how are you planning to get back to where you left off on the trek?'

Fitzgerald puffed on his cigar.

‘Snowmobile, of course. Simply drive back down to the Blackmore.'

‘And if I can't spare a snowmobile?'

‘You've got four, haven't you? I'll pay you back when we all get back to Europe.'

Lauren was furious.

‘Those snowcats cost eight thousand pounds.'

Fitzgerald shrugged.

‘I'll talk to my sponsors,' he told her. ‘That type of money's a drop in the ocean to them.'

‘Don't you think it would have been courteous to
ask
me first? You're talking about using the base's resources as if they're your own. Well, they're not, and they're in limited supply.'

‘You can spare a couple of kilos of food.'

‘Maybe, but that's not all you'll need. You'll be asking for navigation aids, drugs, camping equipment, skis and boots, a sledge … stuff that's irreplaceable out here and which we might need.'

‘It's to the greater good,' Fitzgerald told her. ‘I'm surprised you can't see the merit in the idea.'

‘There's another thing,' Lauren continued. ‘We've already put massive resources into one rescue; how do I know you won't screw up again and call us out for a second time?'

Fitzgerald's face puckered up with anger.

‘That's one step short of slander,' he hissed. ‘It was Carl that decided to quit.'

‘That's not what he says.'

‘Oh yes?' Fitzgerald leaned towards her, his eyes glittering. ‘What does he say exactly?'

‘Maybe you should read his book.'

Lauren regretted the words as soon as they had left her mouth.

Fitzgerald's eyes narrowed.

‘So that
is
what he's doing in that sick bay all day? He
is
writing a book?'

‘He's transcribing his diary. I gave him a laptop to get him interested in something. When I said a book, I mean he's copying his diary down … nothing more as far as I know.'

‘As far as you know…'

For a while they sat in silence at the table, watching the darts tournament as it began to get heated. Then Fitzgerald broke the pause.

‘I know about you and Sean,' he told her. ‘You thought you'd kept that one quiet, didn't you?'

Lauren felt the blood drain from her face. ‘What are you talking about?'

‘I've seen enough. Very romantic … but not terribly professional to embark on a sexual relationship with one of your crew. Just the sort of blunder that causes friction, don't you think? I do hope the others don't find out.'

Fitzgerald blew a smoke ring, the rich blue circle drifting perfectly for a few seconds before breaking onto the back of an overturned bottle.

41

‘Lauren, can we talk?'

Lauren turned away from the microscope and gave Sean her attention. ‘Sure. What's up?'

‘There's something bugging me, and I wanted to run it past you.'

‘Talk.'

Sean pushed the laboratory door to and pulled a stool up to the workbench.

‘Carl showed me a section of his expedition manuscript yesterday. And there's something about it which just doesn't add up at all. He's written this really graphic chapter describing in pretty gruesome detail the pain his body was going through and the starvation he was suffering after the rescue plane crashed.'

‘And?'

‘So what about the food and drugs which were in the plane? They must have been eating pretty well after Fitzgerald found that stuff.'

Lauren shook her head. ‘I'm not getting you, Sean; which food and drugs are you talking about? As far as I remember, after you went down there our only conversation was about the state of the wreck and the conditions of the dead pilots.'

‘In the back cabin there was a whole pile of debris, the remains of a big emergency food box. It'd all been eaten. There was a medical kit too, with morphine and bandages and so on, most of that was still intact.'

‘Really? Why didn't you mention it to me?'

Sean looked a little shamefaced. ‘Why should I have done? I just assumed they'd been sharing the stuff between them and anything left down there was excess to requirements.'

Sean paused as footsteps sounded in the corridor. He waited for whoever it was to pass.

‘There's another thing,' he continued quietly. ‘You remember how strange Fitzgerald was about me going down the crevasse … how insistent he got when I said I wanted to see the plane?'

Lauren nodded. ‘You're right. He was pretty adamant about it. Why do you think that was?'

‘Maybe there was something down there he wanted to hide. Maybe that's also why he was giving me such a weird look when he saw me with a packet of biscuits I picked up at the crash site … that confirmed to him that I
had
been down to the plane … and that I knew about the food.'

‘You think he kept it all for himself,' Lauren asked, incredulous, ‘and let the others starve?'

‘Well … yeah. I don't see what else could have happened.'

A flash of fear crossed Lauren's face. ‘You didn't mention this to Carl or Richard, did you?'

‘I've got a mind to. Don't you think they deserve to know?'

‘No, I don't! If we alert Carl and Richard that something's wrong, we run the risk of a row that could go on all winter. It could blow up in our faces, and that's the last thing we need. I'll find another way to check this out.'

Ten minutes later Lauren was back, her expression even more disturbed than before.

‘I told Richard I was compiling a chart of his daily calorific intake to put on his file. He confirmed that from the moment of the crash to the time we arrived for the rescue he ate absolutely nothing whatsoever. And nor did Fitzgerald give him any medical supplies.'

Sean whistled.

‘This is starting to look really bad. How could Fitzgerald do such a thing? He deliberately let those two men starve while he set about saving his own life.'

‘Hold on,' Lauren said. ‘One thing doesn't add up … if Fitzgerald was stacking himself up with calories, how come he was so weak when we arrived? You remember how he fell onto the ice like a baby?'

Sean shrugged. ‘Maybe it was an act. Maybe he wanted us to
think
he was at death's door. I'm beginning to think he's capable of that. And he certainly wasn't
that
weak, because he'd been down to the aircraft several times, and that was pretty damn physical. Also, his recovery was astounding … he was back on his feet within a day, as right as rain.'

‘You're right. He was way stronger than the other two.'

‘We can't let him get away with this, Lauren.' Sean went to the door. ‘We have to tell them what he did. It's going to eat away at me all winter if we don't.'

Lauren stood, her voice low and insistent.

‘Please, Sean. This place is on a hair trigger as it is. There's enough bad blood between Carl and Fitzgerald without us pouring gasoline on the fire. Let it go, Sean, for the sake of the base.'

‘All right. But it's not the type of secret I relish keeping.'

Sean turned and left.

42

Mel and Lauren were peeling potatoes in the galley on the one hundred and twenty-fifth day of winter, the doctor obviously itching to get some gossip off her chest. She waited until Murdo was out of earshot.

‘You're a dark horse,' Mel told Lauren with a sly smile.

‘What do you mean?'

‘There's a rumour going round the base that you and Sean are doing some drilling practice of your own, if you know what I mean. Not that I'd blame you, of course; he is pretty gorgeous.'

‘Who told you that?' Lauren asked, knowing the answer already.

‘Just a little bird,' Mel said coyly, ‘but a juicy titbit like that doesn't stay secret for long.'

‘The whole base knows?' Lauren was aghast.

‘So you admit it! You are shagging him! And I had you down for a number-one ice queen. So much for all your stuff about base discipline, eh?'

Lauren threw a half-peeled potato into the pail and ran to Fitzgerald's room.

‘Are you in there, Julian?' She rapped on the door. ‘I want to talk.'

She tried the handle, but the door was locked.

‘I don't appreciate your lies!' Lauren shouted through the panel. ‘You've gone a step too far. Come out here!'

But the explorer remained silent, and for forty-eight hours Lauren did not see him around the base. He remained in his room, no noise audible from within, not even emerging to take his meals.

‘You think he's still sulking in there?' Murdo asked her finally. ‘Surely he must need food by now?'

‘Leave him be,' Lauren instructed. ‘I'm sick of his pathetic games. If he thinks he can freak us out by going quiet on us, he's wrong. As far as I care, he can stay in there for the rest of the winter.'

Fitzgerald's mysterious absence resulted in a mood of uneasy calm, but a small surge of optimism ran through the team as Sean announced, day after day, the drilling progress towards the lake.

Lauren and Sean had little time to relax, every waking moment devoted to the drilling operation out in the shed. They kept the engine running twenty-four hours a day, taking it in turns to supervise the power unit which was the heart of the entire venture.

It was after one midafternoon shift that Lauren was accosted by a harassed-looking Frank as she removed her outdoor clothes in the corridor.

‘You are not going to
believe
what Fitzgerald's done now.'

‘What are you talking about?'

‘He's been talking to the press again.'

‘So?'

‘De Pierman's office just faxed through today's front page from the
Daily Mirror
.'

Frank handed Lauren the document, which revealed a huge picture of Fitzgerald and the headline ‘Prisoner!'

‘Oh, Christ.'

Lauren read on …

A dramatic clandestine radio call from explorer Julian Fitzgerald has revealed his bizarre plight at the hands of Capricorn base commander Lauren Burgess. Transmitting in secret at three a.m. Antarctic time, the eminent explorer revealed how he is now held under virtual
house arrest
at the remote base.

‘The problem started when I announced I was thinking about resuming my solo trek,' the explorer told us in the whispered conversation. ‘These scientists can't bear the thought that someone else might eclipse their own publicity. That's why they've
forbidden
me to leave the base. It's pure professional jealousy and nothing more. Now I'm a prisoner here, my ambitions thwarted by the paranoia of the base commander.'

Lauren continued to read, her lips tight with rage:

Fitzgerald also revealed that he suspects other reasons for the gagging order. ‘I know too much about their objectives,' he told our reporter. ‘They may be masquerading as scientists, but their real purpose is to find mineral wealth. Everyone knows that Antarctica is heaving with reserves of gold, oil and other minerals.'

‘De Pierman's waiting on the radio link for you now,' Frank told Lauren. ‘I think this has pushed him over the edge.'

‘Pushed
him
over the edge?' Lauren stormed. ‘What about
me
? I've had enough of this, Frank, I really have.'

They ran to the radio room, where Lauren picked up the handset.

‘Alexander, I cannot apologise enough for this … this rubbish!'

‘Give me one good reason why I shouldn't cut all my connections with Capricorn,' De Pierman demanded, ‘and my funding too. My interest in your project was in promoting the science, but I'm going to have to disassociate myself from Capricorn if this gets any worse. I can't have this type of press hanging over me, it's just not good for business.'

‘That's clear, Alexander, and I understand your concerns. But if you pull the plug now, then how can we possibly win?' Lauren told him. ‘It would be a tragedy to give up now. We're drilling twenty-four hours a day, and it's going really well.'