‘We’ll move on at first light.’
‘Did you find anything?’
Jane picked up one of the calorie bars and turned it in her hand.
‘No. There’s nothing here.’
‘You could tow us. Rope your boat to a raft and tow us.’
The guy from Raven sounded tired and desperate.
‘A zodiac could make it. It would take a couple of days, but it could make the trip.’
Rawlins thought it over. Nikki sat at the back of the observation bubble and watched him deliberate.
‘No. Sorry, but no. If you were in my position you’d say the same thing. It would take more than a couple of days. The motor would burn out. And that little boat is the only sea-going vessel we have.’
Raven was a drilling platform seven hundred miles north on the other side of the Kasker oil field. Seven men running out of fuel. They were crowded in a single room, wearing survival suits for warmth.
‘We can keep the lights on another couple of weeks. Basic power. After that, we’ll freeze for real.’
‘I can’t do it, Ray. I’m responsible for the men on this rig. I can’t risk them, and I can’t risk the boat.’
‘So you’re going to let us die? Is that what you’re going to do? Wash your hands?’
‘You’re not going to die, Ray. Just chill the fuck out. Give me twenty-four hours, okay? I’ll talk to some of the lads. We’ll put our heads together. We’ll thrash out a workable plan, all right? Let us think it through.’
Rawlins signed off. He sat back and rubbed his eyes.
‘Must be tough,’ said Sian. ‘Being boss in a situation like this.’
‘I nearly threw myself down the stairs yesterday. Stood at the top of the steps outside my room and leaned forward. Just wanted to break my arm or my ankle or something. Then someone else would have to take charge.’
‘I can’t speak for anyone else,’ said Sian, ‘but I’m glad you are at the helm.’
‘I haven’t got a fucking clue how to help these guys. Better fetch Ghost. Maybe he can come up with something.’
Ghost wasn’t in the canteen. He wasn’t in his room.
Nikki put on a parka and descended to the pump hall at the bottom of the rig. She found Ghost rolling an empty oil drum across the floor.
‘We have a contact. Seven guys on a drilling platform north of here.’
‘Raven?’
‘Yeah.’
‘Jesus. I thought they would be choppered out for winter.’ ‘Marooned like us. We’ve been talking to a guy called Ray.’
‘I know him. I met him.’
‘It doesn’t sound good. Very little fuel. They can’t hold out much longer. Rawlins wants you to come up with a rescue plan.’
‘Why me?’
‘Because you’ve pulled three rotations out here. You understand this environment better than anyone.’
‘Seven more mouths to feed.’
Nikki looked around.
‘They say you spend a lot of time down here,’ she said.
‘I’m looking for anything useful.’
Nikki gestured to the oil drum.
‘I’ll make you a deal. Be honest with me, and I won’t tell anyone you are building a boat.’
‘I’m just doing a little housekeeping.’
‘You think it’s time to bail out. And you’re right. There are too many of us to ferry across the North Atlantic. But you can’t do it on your own either. I could help.’
Nikki was restless. She sat in the canteen sipping tap water from a mug. Nail and his gang had turned the corner of the canteen into a gymnasium. Nail stood alone pumping dumbbells.
‘So how about you?’ asked Nikki. ‘You and your friends. What’s going on in your heads these days?’
‘Ever found yourself in a jail cell?’
‘I take it you have.’
‘It’s a waiting game. You have to get a little Zen and do your fucking time, otherwise the confinement will drive you batshit. We’re not going anywhere until spring, so Rawlins and his buddies better dredge up a little mental fortitude. All their frantic activity and scheming hasn’t got us an inch closer to home. It’s all just wasted energy.’
‘And come spring? What will you do then?’
‘Endure. Survive. Prevail.’
‘Yeah,’ said Nikki. ‘I don’t doubt you will.’
Jane and Punch walked four miles inland.
McClure. Three weatherboard huts on stilts. Empty fuel drums and a little latrine hut.
There was a Snowcat and trailer parked outside.
‘Looks like we caught a ride,’ said Punch.
They climbed the steps of the main hut and pounded the door. No reply. The door was unlocked.
‘Hello? Anyone?’
They explored, room by room. Nobody home.
A dormitory. A cramped recreation space with a dartboard and TV. A couple of laboratories jammed with rock samples, ice cores and microscopes.
‘Looks like they left in a hurry,’ said Jane. ‘Personal possessions are gone. Wouldn’t expect them to abandon all this lab equipment, though.’
‘Probably got an airlift at short notice. Jumped in an Otter. Hand luggage only.’
Punch checked cupboards.
‘Maybe they left food.’
‘And if they did?’ asked Jane. ‘Share it with everyone or hide it in your secret den?’
‘If we were smart we would go back and tell them this place was levelled by a storm and we found nothing. If we bring back a Snowcat, you can bet we will wake up one morning and find it gone.’
‘I’ve been fat all my life, all right? You don’t have to tell me people are shit. But I’m not going to sell out at the first tiny provocation, and neither are you. We’re better than that.’
They searched the base.
‘Toothpaste,’ said Jane. ‘That’s all I found. Plenty of esoteric lab gear but nothing worth hauling back.’
They checked the Snowcat. A yellow van with caterpillar tracks. Jane checked the trailer. Punch tried the ignition. The Cat wouldn’t start. He lifted the hood.
‘It’s fucked. They vandalised the engine. Stop anyone stealing it, I guess.’
‘Fixable?’ shouted Jane.
‘Not without parts.’
‘Come and take a look at this.’
Jane had opened the trailer tailgate and pulled a tarpaulin from a stack of wooden crates.
‘Seismologists. Tools of the trade, I suppose.’
Punch levered a lid.
‘Whoa. Blasting caps. Thermite grenades. A shit-load of C4. If you want to shift ice in a hurry this stuff is pure gold.’
They found a plastic cargo sled. They stacked the crates and dragged them back to the zodiac. Jane did most of the pulling.
They loaded the boxes into the zodiac. It sank low in the water.
‘Let’s go find that meteor,’ said Punch.
They set off. He steered the boat. Jane tried the radio.
‘Shore team to Rampart, over.’
She got nothing but the strange tocking signal.
‘It could be military, I suppose. Some kind of interference. You can bet there were a bunch of nuclear subs at sea when this shit kicked off. Maybe they are cruising beneath the ice, ignoring our calls.’
Punch headed for the coast. He jumped ashore and slammed an ice axe into the snow. He tethered the boat to the axe.
‘There’s not much daylight left. Twenty-five minutes from now we turn around and head back to the boat no matter what, all right?’
They trudged inland. Unearthly desolation. The landscape was so featureless it was like walking on a treadmilclass="underline" each stride seemed to take them nowhere. The ice was so hard Jane’s boots barely left an impression. She checked her watch. Ten minutes gone.