Daniel Ganninger - Icarus Investigations 03 - Snow Cone (6 page)

-Chapter 11-

It was going to be a tough six-hour flight to
Reykjavik.  My head swirled at the possible information Alex could have.  I actually was afraid of his reaction to not calling him back.  Alex sometimes had the idea he was the most important person in the world.

I held back in telling
Galveston about Alex’s call, because I didn’t want to hear the endless conspiracy theories he would express to me.  For once, I would keep him in the dark.

The flight went smoothly, and I noticed
Galveston performing an act of fake sleeping so he wouldn’t have to talk to Sally sitting in the seat in front of him.  I was completely restless, however, and wished I had someone to take my mind off things.

I read everything I had in my possession, until I saw the sun beginning to stream in through our window.  The country of
Iceland began to appear and gleamed in the distance, but I realized we still had another flight to go, and I hadn’t gotten any sleep.

As the Icelandair flight touched down, I reached for my phone and quickly turned it on.  Unbeknownst to me, my cellular plan didn’t cover the country, and I was going to have to use another way to communicate with Alex.  The satellite phone was buried in my overly stuffed backpack, and I wouldn’t have access to it until we reached
Greenland.  I gave Galveston a shove, waking him from his slumber. 

“Get up, man.  We’re here,” I said with a disgruntled tone.

“Already?  Wow, I slept like a baby,” he responded, stretching his arms over his head.

“Oh, shut up,” I said quietly, under my breath.

“What was that?” he asked.

“Nothing, nothing,” I responded quickly.  “I need to find a phone and call Alex.”

“What for?”

I decided it was okay to tell
Galveston the message now.  He wouldn’t have time to bother me with his theories.

“Alex sent me a message to call.  He had some important information.”

“About our guy, Tony?” Galveston asked in a whisper.

“I think so, or he’s found out something else,” I whispered back to him.

“Well, go then,” Galveston said, pushing me from the seat.

“Alright, alright,” I answered with a bit of annoyance and got up into the aisle.

“You didn’t sleep at all, did you,” Galveston scolded.

“No I didn’t, now leave me alone,” I snapped, jealous that
Galveston had.

“How are you guys doing?” Sally asked as her head popped up from the seat in front of us.

“Great,” I answered quickly.  “Galveston here has been waiting for you to wake up.  He was just telling me how much he wants to get to know how you became Joe’s assistant.”

“Super!” Sally said with glee.  “I would love to tell you!”

I smiled at Galveston, who in return shot me a piercing look of death.  As I pushed my way to the front of the plane, I turned and saw Sally already going into a breathless discussion of her past life.  It was always nice to help a friend.

By the time I made it to a phone, my nerves were fried.  “Alex better have some great information,” I thought, “because if he didn’t, the next time I saw him I was going to kill him.”

I made the call, and Alex answered immediately.  I hadn’t even got one word out before he ripped into me for neglecting him.  I let him rant a bit before asking what information he had.

“You’re done, right?” I asked.

“I suppose,” Alex answered.

“Then tell me what you got, and it better be good,” I demanded.

“Okay.  I did a little more snooping…”

“You mean spying, right?” I interrupted.

“Okay, yes, spying, if that makes you feel better.  I did a little more spying on your guy, Tony.  I didn’t find anything else about him.  He’s clean as much as I can see.”

“That better not be it.”

“No, of course not,” Alex replied.  “The company he works for, Terrain Scape, do you know what they do?”

“Yes, I think they do geological surveys and mapping.”

“True, but I found out they do mineral exploration.  Greenland is a hotbed for this type of thing right now; rubies, gold, all that sort of stuff.  There are companies trying to find these things.”

“So what?” I asked, becoming annoyed again.  It was information I already knew.

“They just finished a huge project in Greenland, around three or four months ago.  They mapped and surveyed the entire eastern part of the country around a U.S. Air Force base.”

“We have an Air Force base in
Greenland?” I asked with surprise.

“Yes,
Thule Air Base.  They mapped the surrounding area.  And do you know who ran the project?”

“No, do tell,” I answered.

“Your guy, Tony, was the one who set up the operation.”

“You found this from their computer systems?” I quizzed him, always amazed Alex could come up with seemingly secret information.

“Not really.  I just called there and asked a colleague of his about him.  This guy was great.  He really had diarrhea of the mouth.  He told me all sorts of things about their company.”

“I’m impressed,” and I was also a little embarrassed that
Galveston and I hadn’t achieved the same results.

“Do you think your geologist friend, Joe, knows this?”

“You know, I don’t think so, but I’m going to ask as soon as we’re done.  Do you think Tony’s people have something to do with stopping Joe from doing his research?” I asked, actually interested in Alex’s thought on the subject.

“I bet.  Sounds like the people at Terrain Scape were on to something and didn’t want anyone, not even a geologist, to get in their way.”

“It’s the best lead we’ve had yet.  We’re going to have to push Joe for some information about Tony and what he’s found during his research.  I’m just speculating, but if he’s found some gold or rubies during his research, and then he tells Tony about it—that may be our smoking gun.”

“Sounds plausible to me.  This is big money, real big money.  I found a dozen companies scouring the country doing the same thing.  It’s an expensive endeavor, so any leg up on the competition is like gold.”

“Good work, Alex.  I think you may have redeemed yourself.”

“Well, if I actually cared what you and
Galveston thought about me that would mean something, but thanks anyway,” Alex responded sarcastically.

“You always have to be a smart ass, don’t you,” I replied with a chuckle.

“That’s why you guys love me,” he shot back.

“I’ll call you if we come up with anything more.”

“I’ll be here.  Good luck.”

“Thanks,” I answered and hung up the phone.

My fatigue over the lack of sleep receded after hearing the newly acquired information.  This was the break we needed.  I loved it when things were wrapped up in a neat little package.  As long as Joe didn’t know that Tony was doing this behind his back, then we had motive and our case was soon to be solved.  I never thought we would be traveling down the wrong path entirely.

-Chapter 12-

I reunited with
Galveston, Joe, and Sally before our next departure.  I was relieved when I learned the flight was leaving soon for Greenland. 

I was ready to get on with the mission but was completely unsure of what we were going to do when we got there.  The case was still so vague.  What were we going to do if we ran into these armed men—throw snowballs at them and tell them to stop?  I was beginning to think the whole trip was going to be nothing but a fruitless effort; that is until Joe and I had a little chat.

Joe was sitting across from Galveston and Sally looking through a notebook quietly.  Galveston, on the other hand, sat slumped next to Sally with his head resting on his hand that covered one eye.  He looked as if he had a massive migraine.  I knew he was just enjoying Sally’s lively 7:00 A.M. newscast.

“Joe, can I speak to you?  In private?”

I startled him from a deep thought.  “Sure, sure, Roger.  Let me just write one more thing.  I don’t want to forget it,” he told me as he scribbled a few more lines of text on the notebook.  He looked up after finishing and put his hands on his knees.  “Where to?” he stated, rather pleased that I wanted to talk to him.

“Right over here.  I don’t want to interrupt their important conversation,” I said, motioning t
o our other travel companions.

Galveston
now had his head between his knees and was making a strange gurgling sound.  I knew from his body language he was coming up with a crazy excuse to rid himself of the perky young lady.

As soon as Joe and I were out of earshot, I began my questioning of him.

“Joe, I need a little clarification.  Have you found anything of interest during your research trips?”

Joe flashed me a confused look.  “What do you mean?”

“Have you found anything of value, other than your research, I mean.”  Joe still wasn’t grasping my question.  “Have you run across any gold or gems?” I asked directly.

“Why, no, nothing like that.  I’ve heard of companies doing some exploration for those sort of things.  But the country is so huge, and the movement of the glaciers make it difficult to drill or map.”

I decided to change my line of questioning for the time being.  “What do you know about Terrain Scape?”

“Oh, they just do mapping, surveys, that kind of thing, mostly for companies interested in mineral exploration,” he said stroking his chin.

“And that’s how you met Tony?”

“Yes.  I met him about six months ago.  He want
ed my input on a job they had in Canada.  We quickly became friends.  He is a trained geologist, so we had ample opportunity to talk shop.”

“I understand.  And you guys kept in touch these last few months?”

“Yes, for the most part.  We met again at a few conferences and discussed the latest news in our world.  It also gave me the chance to discuss my research with him.”

“So he knew what you were studying,” I stated, reaffirming his previous answer.

“Oh, yes.  He helped me with logistical things in Greenland, you know, what may be the best place to look next.  That sort of thing.”

“Does he do any work there now,” I asked, delving further into what Joe really knew about his friend’s activities.

“No.  His expertise is in mapping.  He’s never even accompanied me to Greenland, even though he has told me he would like to.”

“I have some unsettling news then, Joe.”  I paused before revealing that Tony had possibly been using him this whole time.  No one ever wanted to hear that they had been duped, and Joe was the perfect target—naive and unaware of the motivations of the corporate world.  “I have credible information that Tony has been doing work in
Greenland.  He’s been in charge of an operation that has been mapping areas for companies involved in mineral exploration.”

Joe tilted his head and gave me a laugh in response.  “No, that can’t be.  He would have told me.”

“No, unfortunately Tony has been running this operation for some time.”  I waited for the information to sink in and began to notice that Joe was coming to the realization that he had been used.

“That really makes me mad,” Joe said in a flat tone.  I determined that Joe really never got that mad.

“It could be just a coincidence, but in our business coincidences are never real.”

“I just can’t believe it,” he said, shaking his head.

“What information do you think he could be using from you?  It’s not like you found anything of worth.”  I cringed at my insensitive statement.  His research was valuable to him, but unless he found a treasure chest at the bottom of one of those holes he dug a corporation wouldn’t care.  “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it like that.  I just mean that you haven’t run across any emeralds or rubies that Tony would have been interested in.  Was there anything else that you found that would have piqued his interest?”

“I can’t think of anything.  I had some interesting core samples a few years ago and a bit of plant life that I found, but that was near the coast.”

We sat and stared at each other for a moment as Joe went through his memories of his past research missions.  I quickly turned to see how Galveston was doing with his new, personal assistant.  He now had both hands behind his head and slouched in his chair.  His face said it all—he was dying. 

“You know,” Joe startled me back to our conversation, “the only other thing I found was so weird.  I almost forgot about it.”

“Go on, I’m listening.”

“About a year ago
I had some samples that I gathered for a colleague in the biology department.  He wanted me to bring back a few samples from the coastal soil.  He was looking at biodegradable plant life, or some such thing.  A few months later he visited me at my office.  He told me they had run tests on the soil sample I had brought him and found that it had a certain amount of low-dose radiation.  We had no idea why that would be, and I conveniently forgot about it.”

My ears perked up at the statement.  “Radiation, in
Greenland?”

“Yes.  I even wrote a research article about the findings.  I’m not sure anyone even read it,” he laughed.  “I do remember talking about the paper with Tony.  He didn’t seem interested, but we tried to figure out what could be causing the radiation.  I know there are uranium deposits in the country, but they have only recently allowed its mining.”

“How did your biologist friend discover it was radioactive?  That sounds pretty scary.”

“And I was the one carrying it around,” Joe said, pointing at his chest.  “His tests weren’t coming out right.  Luckily, his work is in detecting pollutants and such things.  So he ran it through a few other machines and discovered that it had small readings of radiation.  He was shocked, and so was I.”

“I bet.  At least you didn’t glow from it,” I joked.

“Thankfully, no.  The levels were extremely low, but nevertheless, they were there.”

“How did Tony react to this?” I inquired, anxious to hear his response.

“I can’t say he reacted in any way that was peculiar.  We just discussed it a few times.  Do you think there’s something nefarious going on?”

I hadn’t heard the term “nefarious” used in casual conversation.  Joe was a nice guy, and this was a nice way of asking if his friend was playing him for the fool.

“It sure is looking that way.  I know that uranium mining is big business, and if he felt you had stumbled on some, well, let’s just say that might be enough for him to use that information.” 

I tried to put it in terms as nice as Joe’s, but I began to see the connection.  It seemed Tony took this news from Joe and used it to get Terrain Scape into the mining business.  That would explain Tony’s insistence that Joe never return to the site.

I heard a loud grunt from behind me;
Galveston’s subtle cue for me to save him from his harrowing, conversational ordeal.  I turned to relieve him as Joe caught me by the arm.

“Do you think it’s still safe to go there?”

I turned and faced him.  “Probably not,” I said, being realistic, “but we’re going to find out what’s going on anyway.”

By this time
Galveston was almost on the floor in the fetal position as Sally bounced to yet another topic.  I decided he had gone through enough.

“
Galveston, Sally, let’s head over to the gate for our flight to Greenland.  It will be taking off soon.”

“Gotcha,” Sally said with a wink and jumped up from her chair.  “It was so great to talk to you.  You are such a good listener,” she praised
Galveston and bounded toward Joe.

He managed only a weak smile.

“She put you through the wringer, huh?” I asked, offering him a hand.

“She is incessant.  I think we covered the entirety of the Encyclopedia Britannica.”

“Don’t worry, you’ll have other opportunities to talk.  We only have three days left of this operation,” I stated and smiled.

“I hope those gunmen are still there,” he said flatly.

“Why?”

“Because I might ask one of them to put me out of my misery.”

I laughed out loud.  “I don’t think you’ll need to do that.  Let me fill you in on what Joe told me.  I think I have a good idea who’s behind this thing.”