"You never know," I said in a distracted voice. "People are pretty resilient."
"You're optimistic. I like that." Roy nodded in approval. "Let me ask you a question. Have you ever wondered about past civilizations?"
"Who hasn't?"
"I don't mean the ancient Greeks or Mayas. I mean truly lost civilizations. Places like Atlantis."
I could've spoken for hours on the subject. But I had to remind myself I was still playing the part of a geomorphologist. "Atlantis is a myth."
"Not necessarily."
"Aren't you a geologist?"
He nodded.
"Then you should know plate tectonics rules out any possibility of lost continents."
"I'm not talking about lost continents. I'm talking about lost civilizations. Take Thule for instance. The ancient Greeks and Romans wrote about it. Ptolemy even mapped it. For years, historians and geographers thought it was a myth. After all, how could an ancient continent just disappear? Turns out it didn't. If you converted the old coordinates to modern ones, you'd see that Thule matches the location of a Norwegian island."
I nodded, still unsure of where he was taking the conversation.
"Ever heard of the Piri Reis map?"
Heard of it? I'd managed to wrangle a private showing of it while passing through Istanbul. "Nope, can't say that I have."
"It's a world map, drawn up in 1513 by an Ottoman admiral named Piri Reis. It shows a large landmass to the south, right about where this continent is located."
"Unfortunately, it looks nothing like Antarctica." Baxter strode out of the Residential hallway. His face looked haggard, exhausted. "It's just that theoretical continent. What's it called again? Oh yeah. Terra Australis."
Roy glared at him. "The Piri Reis map is incredibly accurate. You just have to ignore Antarctica's ice and focus on the actual land beneath it. I really think it's possible an ancient civilization — maybe the Egyptians — sailed here many centuries ago."
"It's easy to make baseless statements. Any traces of an ancient expedition would be long gone by now and you know it."
As Baxter strode to the center of the room, Roy's eyes narrowed to slits. His voice lowered to a barely-audible whisper. "Don't be too sure about that."
Chapter 42
"Hello everyone." Baxter spoke in a funeral-ready tone. "May I please have your attention?"
The voices in the room ceased talking. Other than the blowing wind, the common room was completely quiet.
Baxter examined the various faces. "Three people are still missing. It's been over forty-eight hours since our last contact with Beverly Ginger and Jeff Morin. Jim Peterson, from what I understand, arrived at Kirby last night with some of our new folks. He hasn't been seen since that time."
I exchanged glances with Graham. I didn't like where this was going, especially after my encounter with Fenrir.
Holly raised her hand. "We should get a chopper out here."
"Ordinarily, I'd agree with you. But wind currents are far too strong and visibility is less than fifty feet out there." Baxter hesitated. "Speaking of the storm, does anyone have a signal?"
The room rustled as the residents pulled out their satellite phones. Screens were examined. Numbers were dialed. Phones were raised to ears.
A few seconds passed. Then frowns appeared. One by one, the phones were returned to pockets.
"I was afraid of that," Baxter said. "It appears the storm has knocked out our satellite reception. And unfortunately, the last report I received said the weather was going to get worse."
"How about the main line?" Rupert asked.
"It's down too. The wires run through the power plant. Once the storm lets up a bit, I'll see if I can figure out what happened."
"What about the missing people?" Holly asked. "We can't just leave them out there."
Soft murmurs filled the air. Baxter raised his hands, urging everyone to be quiet. "No one is getting abandoned. But we can't run blindly into the storm either. It's important to keep a level head about this. Jim is well trained in cold-weather survival tactics. Beverly is with Jeff and he knows more about this continent than anyone on the planet. They should be fine."
"I hate to bring this up." Rupert leaned back in his seat. "But I warned you months ago. I told you we needed to harden our systems. But no, you wouldn't listen."
Baxter's face turned bright pink. "There will be plenty of time for blame later. Right now, safety is our top concern. Until further notice, I'm instituting a travel ban. No one is to enter or exit Kirby Station without my express permission. Is that understood?"
No one said a word.
"In the meantime, hunker down and be ready for anything. Once the weather clears a bit, we're going to conduct an orderly evacuation to Fitzgerald."
The room exploded into furious whispers.
"Why?" Holly called out above the ruckus.
"As your husband pointed out, our systems need to be hardened," Baxter replied. "Kirby won't be safe until that process is complete."
"Is this really about the storm?" Roy jumped out of his seat. "Or is it about Fenrir?"
Baxter's right eye twitched. "It's about the storm."
"Fenrir attacks Cy and you call for an evacuation. That's a big coincidence, wouldn't you say?"
"No bigger than that of a once-in-a-century storm."
"We've had big storms in the past. And you've never shut Kirby's doors."
"This storm is bigger."
"And Fenrir is real."
Baxter waited for the chatter to die down a bit. "Okay, I wasn't going to talk about this but I can see it's unavoidable. As some of you may have heard, an incident occurred several hours ago."
Heads swiveled toward me. The room was utterly silent.
"Something scratched up Cy's chest." He paused. "We didn't get a good look at it. Honestly, it could've been anything."
Loud conversations erupted around the room.
"Regardless, the incident took place nearly twenty miles from here." Baxter raised his voice, fighting to be heard above the crowd. "So, we should have nothing to worry about as long as we stay put."
"What if it comes here?" Holly asked.
"I've got my pistol and plenty of ammunition. But I really don't think it'll come to that."
I cupped my hands around my mouth. "Are there any other guns in the building?"
"No," he replied. "Anyway you don't need one."
"I will if I'm going to go outside."
"Didn't you hear what I just said? You can't leave."
"I heard what you said. I just don't care."
"Why not?"
My eyes narrowed. "Because Beverly's still out there."
Chapter 43
"I don't get it." I watched as Baxter and Roy engaged in a shouting match over Fenrir. "He was there. He saw Fenrir. Why would he deny it now?"
"Maybe he's trying to avoid a panic," Graham said.
"Maybe. By the way, did you notice his right eye? It twitches every time someone mentions Fenrir. For a skeptic, he seems pretty damn nervous about it."
"More like obsessed. He reminds me of Captain Ahab. I wonder …"
"Wonder what?"
"If he's seen Fenrir before. Captain Ahab had Moby Dick. Maybe Pat Baxter's got his own beast."
"As I recall, it didn't end well for Ahab."
"Or his crew."
I walked to the main entrance and donned my boots. Then I cracked the door and looked outside. The falling snow continued to blot out the sun. "We don't need him."
"Pat knows this area better than anyone else," Graham said. "If anyone can find Beverly, it's him."
"Then talk to him. But one way or another, I'm leaving in five minutes."
I put on my torn parka and stepped outside. A biting wind rose up, slashing at my cheeks. I wrapped a scarf around my face and walked toward the vehicle shed.