Out of the Ice (23 page)

Ingerline’s diaries made no sense; I could see nothing more than a pattern of names and dates. I would have to send them to a professional translator as soon as I could.

With Georgia, I returned to the pink and blue house, where I had seen the ghost of Ingerline in the mirror. The lounge room looked exactly the same, the convex mirror reflecting light on a shining day, but with no ghost in sight. We searched thoroughly around the floors and walls for an entrance into the ice. Had Ingerline been sending me a sign?

There was nothing. Fredelighavn was making me feel claustrophobic.

I took Georgia up to the Adélie rookery. The birds were happy on their nests, and no chicks had yet hatched. As Georgia walked through, she was attacked and was forced back quickly.

‘What have they done down here?’ she asked, ashen-faced.

•  •  •

After five days in the field our food supplies were running low, but between our two teams we had covered most of the village. We had found no underground entrance nor further signs of recent human habitation. And the seals were still reclining in the cinema, letting no one in.

I wanted to stay but Georgia ordered me back to base; she wouldn’t leave anyone down here alone. As my skidoo sped over the blue–white ice, fresh from the recent blizzard, the wind was bitter. It was strange that I now knew so much of the history of Fredelighavn, while its secrets remained buried deep, with the possibility of awful acts going on somewhere under the ice.

I couldn’t get my mind off Travis. Did he know what was happening? Could he be involved? Try as I might, I couldn’t picture him hurting a young boy. My very worst fear was that there might be a paedophile ring operating at Fredelighavn. I couldn’t imagine Travis having anything to do with that. But was I being naïve?

Travis had hinted at something the last time I saw him, the night before Georgia arrived. I wanted to interrogate him, to make him aware it was no longer a game. The stakes were high. If he was on my side, he needed to tell me everything.

Alliance came into view, luminous and perfectly formed. What atrocities was it hiding?

•  •  •

Sweet, skinny Guy greeted me warmly as Kate and I walked into the mess hall. ‘We’ve all missed you.’ He winked. ‘Especially Snow. He’s been asking after you.’

‘Really?’ Georgia mustn’t have updated them regarding how long we’d be down at Fredelighavn. Cop behaviour. I was glad she was here. And I was ridiculously pleased that Snow had been asking after me.

I sat down and ate hungrily. Kate wasn’t talking, furious to not be going back to her penguins – which gave me time to think.

Snow was older. Not as old as my father, but in that direction. Was that drawing me to him? Or was I impressed with his scientific achievements? There was no doubt I found him fascinating, and his body of research was more significant than that of anyone I’d worked with at my university.

I didn’t want to accept Georgia’s reasoning that Snow was involved in whatever bad things were happening down here. If he wasn’t in league with Connaught, Snow would be the perfect ally. At that moment he walked into the room and looked around. His fair hair shone, and his powder-blue jacket matched his eyes. When he saw me he made a beeline across.

‘You’re back.’ He pulled up a chair and straddled it. ‘What have you been up to?’ He sat so close his aftershave wafted over – it was a different one, lemony and fresh with a tang of salt. My heart skipped, and I glanced to see if he was wearing a wedding ring. He wasn’t.

Kate stopped eating and stared across sullenly. Snow was so focused on me he didn’t seem to notice she was there. I looked into his sparkling eyes and tried to imagine him leading something terrible – but it just didn’t gel. Connaught, absolutely. But Snow was a very different man. Vibrant, attractive, glitteringly bright. There seemed no darkness within him.

‘I’ve been documenting Fredelighavn,’ I said. ‘Well, we all have. Do you know the buildings?’

‘Wish I did, but no. I’m not
that
ancient, Laura.’ He laughed and his face lit up, making him look years younger. ‘It was an Exclusion Zone long before I started coming here. So what’s it like? Do you have photos?’

‘I do but I can’t show them to you.’

‘Yet,’ he said. ‘Once your report’s in hopefully you can. I’d love to see the place. Tell me about the wildlife? It’s meant to be extraordinary. That’s the whole point, isn’t it, of no one going in?’

Kate’s eyes flickered, warning me to say nothing. Georgia sat down with us, busily texting on her phone. Images of her son and daughter were flashing up and she was smiling happily, a world away.

‘My lips are sealed,’ I said to Snow. I felt someone staring and glanced across to see Travis watching jealously.

‘Can I join you all for dinner?’ asked Snow.

‘Of course,’ I replied. ‘I’m having seconds.’ I scraped my plate clean. ‘Never thought I’d miss this food but I did.’ As we walked together to the servery I felt eyes following us. Snow’s attention was not going unnoticed and I couldn’t help but be pleased. If I could grow close he might reveal useful things about Connaught. They had, after all, spent many seasons down here together. And I longed to learn more about Snow’s work.

‘Do you know my father, Professor Michael Green from Sydney?’ I asked, surprising myself. Snow frowned as he slopped meat and gravy onto his plate.

‘Green?’

‘Yeah. I have my Mum’s surname. My Dad’s Mike Green. He’s a biomedical researcher.’

‘Hmm. Doesn’t ring a bell, but then my memory’s not what it used to be.’ He turned. ‘I’ll give it some thought. Your dad, eh? Then I’d like to know him.’

I blushed. It was ridiculous of me to even raise it – but I was also taken aback. My father was well known. Sure, predominantly in the Asia-Pacific region, but still.

‘I guess you’ve heard of him?’

Snow held my gaze with his blue eyes. ‘Should I?’

‘He’s just . . . a bit of a leader in his field. He’s a microbiologist – and he researches in virology too, like you.’

Snow smiled warmly. ‘You must be proud of him.’

My cheeks blazed. The abandoned child boasting about a father she hadn’t seen in years. What had Fredelighavn done to me?

‘I’m more interested in
you
, though,’ said Snow as we walked back to the table with our meals. ‘Your research. I know you can’t talk about the whaling station, but you can talk about whales, surely?’

Sitting down, I found myself launching into great detail about Lev, the humpbacks’ songs, and all the whales I’d observed in Antarctica over the years. Snow was a good listener.

‘You talk about them like they’re your friends,’ he said. Kate watched silently. Georgia was still absorbed in her texting.

‘I guess they are. Like family.’ I shrugged.

He grinned and looked at me so directly I melted.

‘It must be a bit boring going through old houses,’ he said.

‘Not at all. Different sorts of family. Well, families once lived there. Not on the right side when it comes to whales, but it’s fascinating to see how they managed. And that’s all I can say.’ My tone was light, but underneath I was starting to feel a nagging unease. It was peculiar he hadn’t heard of my father – although Americans could be insular.

‘Nothing more appealing than a secret,’ said Snow.

‘Speaking of which – I’d love to see your lab. Is there any way you could bend the rules?’

Georgia glanced up.

‘Not if I don’t want to be arrested,’ said Snow. ‘Wish I could. But sadly it’s impossible.’ He pushed his plate away. ‘Dessert?’ he said.

‘Not for me, thanks.’

‘I hope you’re not watching your weight, you don’t need to.’

I could feel the scarlet creeping up my face again.

‘We could always work out at the gym. Do you do that?’ he asked amiably.

Kate’s eyes widened. Georgia focused on her text conversation with her kids, but I knew she was listening.

‘It’s been a long day,’ I said self-consciously. ‘Another time?’ I stood.

‘Good seeing you,’ said Snow.

‘You too,’ I said, bidding goodnight to him and Georgia. Kate came with me.

As soon as we were out in the street, Kate groaned and stuck a gloved finger down her throat. ‘That was absolutely nauseating. What on earth were you trying to do?’

‘Get close. We have no other leads.’

‘He’s old enough to be your father.’

I didn’t point out that might be part of the attraction. ‘He’s nowhere near that old!’ I dissembled. ‘Anyway, I asked him if he knew my dad and he didn’t recognise the name. Don’t you think that’s strange, when they’re both big figures in a similar field?’

Kate mulled it over. ‘I guess one’s in Australia and one’s in America – they’re a long way away.’

In our room, Kate fell into bed and was quickly asleep as usual, but I stayed up, thinking about Snow. His strong limbs, warm smile. Height; I liked that he was tall, and there was something reassuring about his maturity. Worried about the boy, I yearned for physical comfort, especially if it helped me bond with a crucial ally. It would be so good to be held by a masculine body, to let go. I’d been on my own for three long years, and I felt the urge for an ice-relationship. Nothing permanent, one that stayed here. Snow was the best-looking man at Alliance – if I excluded Travis, who was fast receding into the background. And I liked that Snow was a leader.

But what if Georgia was right that Snow was involved in whatever was happening at Fredelighavn? Another voice nagged, too – his not knowing my father was odd. My heart started to race at the thought that perhaps I could phone Dad. Ask him if he knew Snow. A background check might smoke out something, one way or another. I felt woozy with anticipation at the idea of having contact with my father.

I picked up my phone and dialled Dad’s number. I’d left a few messages over the years, and occasionally he had called back, but he always managed to miss me and just leave another message.

My blood pounded as I heard my father’s deep, well-spoken voice. ‘This is Mike Green. I’m currently overseas, so please leave your number only if it’s urgent, and I’ll get back to you as soon as possible.’ Beep. Disappointed, but not surprised, I asked him to call, knowing it was likely to be a long wait.

•  •  •

There was hysteria in the air. The feverish activity had gone into warp speed.

‘What’s going on?’ I asked Georgia as I sat beside her with my porridge.

‘No idea,’ she said. ‘But I want us to go back to the whaling station and search through everything again. If there
is
an entrance into the ice, we’ll find it. I’ll be treating it like any crime scene. We’ll go over and over the evidence.’

I nodded, but my attention was on what was causing the base to wind up to explosion level.

Travis came bustling in and sat with us. ‘Hi Georgia, how are you?’

‘Fine,’ she replied.

He tried to subtly signal for me to join him elsewhere, but he didn’t fool Georgia.

‘Whatever you have to say, Travis,’ she said, ‘you can do it here. Laura will just tell me anyway.’

He looked crestfallen, clearly wanting the intimacy of having me alone.

‘Snow’s leaving,’ he said, lowering his voice and leaning in. ‘He’s never done this before. Come so early and left so quickly.’

‘Where’s he going?’ I asked, shocked.

‘Back to Harvard.’

‘Ooh, that’s Boston.’ On the other side of the world in Massachusetts –
and right near Nantucket
. My mind started to move at the same pace as the base, but Travis merely looked perplexed.

‘I wonder if I could hitch a ride,’ I said. ‘I need to get to Nantucket to research the whaling museum. It would be the perfect opportunity.’
To spend time with Snow.
The boy in the ice cave flashed before me and my stomach lurched.
But I’d be leaving him – in order to find him.

Georgia tensed but said nothing. Travis turned white.

‘Would that mean you wouldn’t come back?’ he said.

‘Not at all. We haven’t finished down here, have we, Georgia?’

‘Most certainly not.’ She glared at me like a cloud about to drop a month’s worth of rain. My mother had the same expression when I was a teenager.

‘But if I could go with Snow – maybe he’s coming back later and I could catch two rides with him,’ I said, looking at Georgia imploringly. She stared at me, deep in thought. Travis watched.

‘You could ask,’ said Georgia suddenly, coming around to my side. I paused to take in what was happening.

‘It might be very opportune,’ she continued. ‘The report does have a tight deadline, and we can keep in touch by email.’

‘Does that mean I can go back to my penguins?’ said Kate. I was surprised to find her standing behind me.

‘How long have you been there?’ I asked.

‘Long enough to know you’re leaving me. Georgia, please?’ She sat down close to her. ‘Summer’s short and I really do need to get back to my Adélies. It’s what I’ve been funded to do.’

‘I’ll think about it,’ said Georgia. ‘We’ll see.’ Poor Kate.
We’ll see
. Georgia clearly wasn’t about to let her go. But she was letting me. That’s if Snow said yes.

I’d shocked myself at how quickly I’d formed my plan. But I knew that I was completely out of ideas about how to find the boy at Fredelighavn, and Snow felt like my best chance. Officially he wasn’t going to say anything, but intimately, a little voice kept telling me, he just might. It was the only shot I had. As a scientist, I knew the long shot, the calculated risk, was often the path that found a way forward.

It was an experiment I had to undertake. More days searching fruitlessly through the whaling station held little appeal, and in any event, Georgia was fully covering that. I grew certain my way could be faster in discovering where the boy was, and who he was. And that was the most crucial thing of all.

Snow’s sudden exit was fascinating. Had he found something going on of which he disapproved? That he couldn’t be involved with or it would sully his outstanding reputation?

If he and I had a romantic liaison, I could get him to trust me. If there was something bad happening, I sensed that Snow would want it fixed. Maybe he couldn’t do it himself. Maybe he needed me. In Antarctica, anything can change at any second. If Snow said yes to my accompanying him, what would that reveal?