Daniel Ganninger - Icarus Investigations 03 - Snow Cone (5 page)

-Chapter 8-

Joe agreed to our request and convinced his superiors to give him time off to go to
Greenland.  We figured a week would leave plenty of time for us to investigate. 

He had us sign a few papers to get us the necessary credentials as his research assistants.  This would allow him to pay us from his research grants.

Traveling to Greenland was going to be a tedious affair.  We would have to take a flight to Reykjavik, Iceland, and then to Kulusuk, Greenland.  From there we would take a short flight over the mainland to Nuuk, before flying up the western coast to the town of Upernavik.  I was beginning to cause myself seizures trying to say the names of the towns in Greenland.

Greenland
was such an unknown to me, and I was excited about the opportunity.  The Kingdom of Denmark continues to maintain foreign affairs, defense, and monetary policies for the country, but in recent years the people of Greenland voted on having more autonomous control.

Even though
Greenland’s chief export is fishing and fish products, a new, burgeoning mineral industry had begun to develop.  Gold, rubies, iron, uranium, and a list of other minerals are mined in the country.  This has opened Greenland up to more economic development.  It has also made Greenland a new player in the business of mineral exports.

I was intrigued when I found out about this last bit of information.  I had no idea
Greenland was a forthcoming hotbed of mineral production—especially rubies.  I figured the people were all seafaring folk and disconnected from the rest of the world.  Things were changing fast in the least densely populated country in the world.

Where there were minerals and money to be made, there were companies to take advantage of the money-making opportunity.  It occurred to me that this could be the first clue in who these men were that had harassed Joe—our meek, little geology professor.  If anything, it was a point to build on.

We met with Professor Joe in his cluttered office once more before our impending departure.  He excitedly instructed us on what to wear, what to expect, and more importantly, where we would be going.

Galveston
‘s slight trepidation about going to Greenland subsided as Joe laid out our plan.  I think Galveston didn’t really want to go because he viewed it as just a boring place of snow and ice with a bunch of smelly tourists running around looking at fish. 

We heard a knock on the door just as Joe was finishing explaining how brutally cold it can get in the country.

“Probably a student,” Joe answered quickly as he got up to open the door.

“Tony,” Joe remarked with surprise.  “What in the world are you doing here?”

Galveston and I couldn’t see who Joe was talking to and strained to hear the conversation.

“Hello, Joe.  I had to get down here.  I had to talk to you in person after you told me you were going back to
Greenland,” Tony answered.

“Well, I’m meeting with the men I told you about.  Please, come in.  I would like you to share your concerns with them.”

I didn’t hear a response from Tony, but I saw his face appear around the door.  On a first impression I felt he had a look of shock and nervousness.  It struck me as odd, and I reminded myself to file it into my mental bank so I could tell Galveston later.

Joe motioned for Tony to follow him, and the man did—cautiously.  He didn’t speak and appeared timid with a serious look on his face.

“Tony, these are the investigators that are going with me—Roger Murphy and Dan Galveston.  Gentlemen, this is Tony Salono.”

Galveston
and I stood up and shook Tony’s hand.  He shook my hand loosely and it was sweaty.  “Did he just run from his car, or something?” I thought to myself.  He didn’t offer his name or where he was from.

Galveston
was already observing the man’s behavior, and I could tell he didn’t like what he saw.  This man was acting strange, but maybe his reason for seeing Joe would help clear things up.

“What did you need to say to me, Tony?  If it’s about going to Greenland, then they need to be in on the conversation,” Joe said while motioning toward
Galveston and me.

“Joe, in all honesty, I don’t think it’s a good idea that you go back to
Greenland.  I just don’t want you to get hurt,” Tony said to his friend, ignoring us.

“We’re going to get to the bottom of this, Tony, and these men are going to help me get my research back on track.”

Tony just shook his head.  “No, it’s not a good idea.  That area is becoming too hot, and there are some heavy players moving in.”

The conversation was beginning to go in circles before
Galveston jumped in.

“What is your connection to Professor Stanwick, Tony,”
Galveston asked bluntly.

“Oh, sorry,” Joe interrupted.  “Tony here is a friend and a fellow geologist.  He works for a company in
New York called Terrain Scape.”

“What do they do?” I asked the pair, since Tony seemed unable to answer and only gawked at us.

“Mineral exploration; gold, aluminum, copper, that sort of thing,” Joe answered.

“Yeah, that’s right,” Tony managed to say.

“What did you need to tell Joe?  We can leave if you like.” I gave Tony the opportunity to get us out of the room.

“No, that’s alright.  I’m very worried.  I really don’t think he should go back,” Tony finally said to us.

“But why?  What is going on that would make you feel this way?” Galveston inquired, becoming slightly annoyed at Tony’s ineptness at giving answers.

“There have been shootings and people are getting aggressive.  They have warned you twice already, Joe.  What do you think they’re going to do next?” Tony said, looking at Joe seriously.  “Companies there are taking measures to make sure no one impedes on their progress.  I’ve seen it firsthand.  Please, reconsider this trip.  Let the Dutch authorities handle it.  I’ve already contacted them, and they assure me they’ll take care of it.  At least give it a few more months.”

I immediately found Tony’s lecture to be a classic case of scare tactics.  I had researched Greenland and the mineral industry and found nothing of this sort of thing going on.  I was beginning to think Tony was giving us a full pantload of nonsense, aimed at scaring us away.  I could understand if he was concerned for his friend, but the way he went about it made me uneasy.

I looked at
Galveston who gave me a nod of his head.  It was his indication to go along with whatever filth was about to spew from his mouth.  I nodded my head back to him in understanding and sat back for the show.

“Hmm,” he started.  “Tony may have a point, Joe.  This isn’t information we knew about.  I think we need to rethink this thing a bit.” 
Galveston moved toward Tony.  “Thanks for giving us this information, Tony.  I think we need to talk to Joe alone for a second.  Do you mind waiting outside?”

“No, no.  I don’t mind,” Tony stammered.  He seemed to be surprised his little speech worked so well.

Joe was noticeably dejected at Galveston’s statement and tried to get out some words to bolster his case, but Galveston was already escorting Tony to the door.

“Give us ten minutes, Tony.  Joe won’t be going on this trip,”
Galveston whispered to the man.

Tony gave him a weak, nervous smile and went into the hall as
Galveston closed the door behind him.

“What do you mean we’re not going?  I have the trip arranged and…” Joe attempted to say but was cut off by
Galveston.

“No, we’re going, Joe.  Don’t worry, we’re going.”

Joe’s worry instantly turned to relief.  “That’s good, but why did you tell him we weren’t going?”

“Just to get him off your back.  His tall tales were a little too much,”
Galveston informed him.  I realized Galveston had done his homework on Greenland too.  “When we’re done we’ll tell Tony you agreed not to go.  You have to make him believe it, though.  He’ll never quit hounding you if you don’t.”

“I will.  He has been a good friend, and he’s been helping me with my latest research.” 

I was suspicious, however.  I wasn’t so sure how good a friend Tony was to Joe.  My skepticism was rearing its ugly head, and there was something odd in his overall behavior.  We needed to know more about Tony.

-Chapter 9-

Joe acted sullen and depressed just as we had coached him.  Tony bought the act in full and left the building with an air of contentment.  Little did he know that none of his warnings would be heeded.

The whole Tony situation continued to strike me as odd.  Why did Joe’s friend need to travel from New York for something he could have easily done over the phone?  I realized I had a new job for Alex, and a job he could handle with ease this time.

I made a quick call to Alex and gave him the particulars on our situation.  I instructed him to retrieve all the available information about Tony Salono and his company, Terrain Scape.  Alex accepted the offer with glee knowing this was his opportunity to redeem himself.

Galveston and I retreated back to the hotel.  When things settled down, we would decide where we would live, but for now our case was finally starting to heat up—at least a little. 

We spent the next few hours deciding what we should take to
Greenland.  We discovered we had none of the materials needed to not freeze to death.  A trip to the local adventure and outdoor store would have to be a prerequisite to our trip.

After blowing a large wad of our hard earned money on parkas, foot warmers, and those little bags of dehydrated food, we were ready for the journey.  The nice salesman from the store informed us that
Greenland was cold—damn cold—and this wasn’t even the winter.  We thanked him for his overly observant statement.

Our flight to
New York from Nashville was in two days.  From there we would have a day layover in Iceland.  We were trying to focus on being prepared for a situation where we were going in blind.  It was not a good feeling.

In the mean time, Jane informed us she had found us an office in “The Gulch”, an area of swanky shops near downtown
Nashville.  We gave her the go-ahead to make the purchase for the lease and to set up the office as she saw fit.  It was an order that should have come with more guidelines.  When we arrived at the new office the next day, I discovered she not only had gotten the lease in an incredible amount of time, but she also had furnished it with all the latest amenities. 

I began to realize this would have been an impossible task in the amount of time we gave her, and that it was another behind the back ploy by her and
Galveston.  They had found the office weeks before, and Jane had completed the decorating touches with a designer in Nashville.  It was another tactic by the pair to force me into our new location.  I should have been upset, but I hated making design decisions and was secretly grateful they had taken it upon themselves to get it done.  I would never let them know that, however.

As we became acquainted with our new office and the new coffee machine that loaded those little pods of tea or coffee, we gave our new office its indoctrination—a cheap champagne toast and a sign that read “Icarus Investigations–Nashville”.  It gave me warm fuzzies.  We now had a real office that didn’t have a yellow couch and a coffee machine that was growing eight million types of bacteria.

After basking in the glow of our newest venture in the investigatory world, we settled back at the hotel to get a good night’s sleep before our flight the next morning.

-Chapter 10-

Joe met us at the airport the next morning at 7:00 A.M.  He looked refreshed and carried a well-worn climber’s backpack.  He also had two small, plastic bins that contained his research materials. 

Joe looked us over, and in a thoughtful tone said, “I think we may need to go through your gear when we get to Iceland.”

I wondered why until I looked at
Galveston.  His backpack was so incredibly huge that it ran the risk of not fitting in the cargo hold of the plane.  I saw myself in the reflection of the window at the terminal entrance and knew that I also looked ridiculous.  The packs were so large and heavy that we teetered from side-to-side, and the items we shoved on top of the backpack stuck out over our heads. 

As
Galveston and I laughed and pointed at each other over our ridiculousness, Joe waved his arm to a person walking toward us.  We both turned and saw a twenty-something woman bounding down the long terminal hall with a smile on her face.

“Is that his girlfriend or something?”
Galveston asked me as the woman approached us wearing a normal sized backpack.

“I think he’s married.  I hope we haven’t gotten ourselves in the middle of some type of student love affair.”  I meant the statement as a joke, but by the look of the embrace between Joe and the woman, my thoughts didn’t appear to be that far off.

“I’m so glad you made it, Sally.  Sorry for the short notice.”

“No problem, Joe.  I didn’t have anything else going on.”

“I bet,” I thought, as I flashed Galveston an uncomfortable look.

“Guys, this is my niece, Sally.  She’s also my research assistant I told you about,” Joe said as he squeezed Sally’s shoulder.

“Your niece,” Galveston and I said in unison, feeling guilty about our previous assumption.

“You guys didn’t think something else, did you?” Joe said with a smile.

“Of course not, Joe.  We knew it was your assistant, just not your niece,” Galveston lied.

“Nice to meet you both.  Joe’s told me everything about you,” Sally said with a bubbly voice.

“You too,” I answered.  “I’m Roger, this is Dan, and we’re here to help resolve this thing for your Uncle.”  The words came out like I was talking to a little kid.

“Great,” Sally replied quickly.  “Let’s get going then.”  She turned and made for the security gate.  She was pure spunk, and I wasn’t sure I could handle this much saccharin so early in the morning.

We checked our baggage with the airline agent, and she strained to get the awkward packs onto the belt that would take it to our plane.  After stopping for some much needed coffee, we boarded our flight to New York where we would catch our connection to Iceland.

Galveston
and I still didn’t know what we would find when we got to Greenland.  It was unsettling to go into a situation so vastly unprepared.  At least Alex was going to contact us in New York with new intelligence about Joe’s friend, Tony.  I was hoping he had some juicy information.

I passed the time on the flight perusing the SkyMall magazine and contemplated buying a remote control helicopter or a robotic vacuum for my home. 
Galveston, on the other hand, jammed himself against the airplane window and fell asleep.

I noticed Sally busily discussing a vast array of topics with her Uncle Joe.  She was clearly excited about the trip.  It was just another long plane ride for me.

We arrived to New York City and an overcast sky that unfortunately obscured the impressive skyline of Manhattan.  I checked my phone as soon as the airplane arrived at the gate.  A voice message from Alex was waiting.

I listened to it intently hoping for something exciting, but instead I heard a dejected Alex say that he found nothing out of the ordinary on Joe’s friend, Tony.  He was a project leader for Terrain Scape and was in charge of coordinating
survey expeditions for the company.  He had been in Greenland a few months prior but for nothing special.  Even though Alex found nothing of interest, I still had a gnawing feeling in my stomach that something wasn’t right about the guy.  It was either that, or the muffin I ate earlier didn’t contain real blueberries.

We had a short layover before the flight to
Reykjavik, Iceland, so I settled in a less than comfy chair and listened to Sally trying to engage Galveston in conversation.  It was uncomfortable to watch.  Sally was a pretty girl but obviously too young and immature for such a sophisticate like Galveston.  I laughed at my own thought.

Sally wore a pair of black glasses and had her brown hair in a tight ponytail.  She smiled constantly, which I’m sure made
Galveston cringe even more. Galveston looked up at the ceiling and nodded his head with a blank look on his face.  I could tell he was ready to scream, but I wasn’t going to get him out of the situation—it was just too much fun to watch him squirm. 

Finally, our flight to
Reykjavik was called, relieving Galveston of further torment from the nice girl.  We settled in our seats as Galveston propped himself against the window again.  I don’t think we had said one word to each other through the beginning of the entire trip. Sally had done enough talking for both of us.

Just as the plane was beginning its takeoff role, I heard a beep come from my phone.  I was horrified that I had forgotten to turn it off and surprised that I hadn’t been chastised from the flight attendant.  I saw that it was a text message from Alex, and it read: Call me immediately.  I have some important info.

I put my head down below the seat back in front of me and attempted to dial, but it was too late.  I had no signal.  Whatever it was, it would have to wait.