The Icarus Project (18 page)

Something far away moved, but I didn’t trust my own eyesight anymore.

The wind settled. The weather quieted down, and a silence fell over the world. It was like the start of a movie, when the lights are turned low. Then, at the very edge of my vision, something lifted up off the ground, as if a trapdoor in a stage had opened.

As I watched, a beautiful creature floated out. A gauzy, sparkly form of a woman with feathery wings of light flew upward into the black sky, then tumbled to the ground and leaped back into the air again. Light poured out of her skin. It was a greenish color that reminded me of the flicker of light I had seen glowing inside Charlie’s ice block.

I closed my eyes and released the breath I had been holding tightly in my lungs. I was imagining it. She wasn’t real. Just like the voice wasn’t real. And Randal wasn’t real.

But when I opened my eyes, the figure was still there, still moving, floating, flying across the snow-swept ground. I couldn’t look away.

Was she human? Was she a ghost? A beautiful snow ghost?

At the bottom of one of her loops, the being seemed to catch my eye—though I wasn’t even sure that she had
eyes. The dark orbs where eyes should have been looked at me. But how could they? I was hidden completely under the tarp. There was no way that the figure saw me. Maybe, like an animal, she sensed me or smelled me.

The snow ghost hovered near my hiding place. Shivers ran up my back. The figure was greenish-white smoke in the darkness, a sheet of cloud cover, a night bird cut free from whatever storybook she flew out of. And she was coming closer.

She was almost close enough to touch me. Maybe I was dreaming that I was awake under the tarp, under the spell of the Arctic, under the magnetic pull of the earth. I didn’t know what was real anymore.

Then West’s harsh and frantic voice cut through the silence and boomed across the compound like the roar of a bear. Startled, I turned back to the station to see where the sound was coming from. He called my name over and over. His voice ricocheted off the darkness. Peering through the canvas tarp, this time I was sure it was really West coming to find me.

I scrambled, suddenly afraid that West had already left. I needed him to see me, to help me back inside. I stumbled out from under the tarp and waved my arms as if I were stranded on a deserted island and a plane was circling overhead.

I yelled, “Over here! I’m over here.”

West turned and leaned into the wind, which was again
blowing hard, and made his way to the tarp. The wind, the snow, and the cold Arctic were no match for West. Not tonight.

I looked back out into the darkness, but the beautiful creature had disappeared. I had to have been seeing things, the same way that people trapped in the desert saw mirages of palm trees and pools of cool water when they were dying of thirst. An oasis. I was probably just seeing mirages of snow and wind and turning them into beautiful snowy creatures in my mind. Ghosts aren’t real, whether they’re made of snow or not.

I heard a buzzing in my ear.

The camera! The camera was seeing all this, too. If there was something out there that wasn’t an illusion, then it would be recorded in digital form. Maybe that was why the camera was there. Maybe Jake was looking for the snow ghost, too.

West finally reached me. Without a word, he picked me up like a sack of flour, threw me over his shoulder, and trudged back to the station. He carried me all the way to the medical center. I tried to tell him that I was fine and that I could walk, but he didn’t listen. He flung me onto a gurney. Dr. Kernel was there and waiting and immediately went to work.

She examined every inch of me, uncurling my fingers and checking my pulse, my temperature, my breathing, and my heart rate. I never had to wiggle my toes more in
my life. I was covered in blankets that oozed electric heat. I felt myself starting to sweat.

Dr. Kernel’s hair was back in a tight twist, pulling her eyes back. Her focus was like a laser.

I cleared my throat. “Do you think I’m crazy?” I asked. “I mean is there any logical, scientific reason for what just happened to me?” The blanket was heavy on my chest.

“Well, medically speaking, a person in your condition could be suffering from dementia, hallucinations, or simple madness,” she said with a straight face.

“Is that what you think happened?” I asked, thinking to myself,
What kind of doctor says that?

She smiled. “Gotcha. Come on, Maya. Look at it this way. You’ve never been in this kind of environment. You’re young and curious—maybe a little
too
curious.” She tweaked my nose. “But honestly, I think you’re healthy. As for what you saw, I don’t know. I only take care of the insides. I’ll leave the outsides to Randal and his guys.”

“Thanks,” I replied, feeling a little better.

There was a lot of whispering out in the hallway. Now that I had been diagnosed as healthy, I wondered just how much trouble I was in. Could I be punished for trying to save a man’s life? Yes. Oh, yes. Good intentions rarely got a person a get-out-of-jail-free card.

Finally, Dad was let in to see me. His hair was poking up all over his head and his eyes were bloodshot. He had been rubbing them too much—worried about me, I knew.
I felt a painful twinge in my chest that had nothing to do with the cold. I was the stress causer. He walked up to my bedside. “Maya, what happened tonight?”

I didn’t know what to say, so I just blurted out the truth. “I woke up and heard something. Someone was calling my name. So I got out of bed. I didn’t know what was going on. I just felt like I had to go—I had to get up.”

“You should have gotten me,” Dad said. “What happened next? How did you get outside?”

“I was looking around the station, and I wandered to the back door. I heard someone calling me from outside, and when I looked out the window, I thought I saw Randal collapsed on the snow. I was going to get you, Dad, but I was afraid it would take too long, and he would be dead by then of hypothermia or something. I didn’t think.” I clutched at the edge of my blanket, pulling it up to my face. A single hot tear rolled down my cheek. I felt so stupid. I had thought I was a hero, but I’d just caused trouble.

“So I grabbed a coat and ran out into the compound to try and rescue Randal. Only, when I reached him, it wasn’t Randal at all. It was a tarp.”

“I could have prevented this. Next time, come and get me,” Dad said.

“I’m sorry. I promise,” I said, sniffling.

“You were trying to help.” Dad leaned over and kissed me on the top of my head. “You did a good deed. Or thought you were doing one.”

Karen appeared in the doorway and hurried over to my bed. Her hair was a wild mass of curls. Kyle, who was right behind her, hung back, sitting on another bed in the room.

“I’m so sorry.” Karen twisted the sleeve of her robe. Tears welled in her eyes.

“It’s not your fault, Karen,” Dad said.

“When I woke up and you weren’t there, I was so worried,” Karen said.

“You’re lucky Karen woke up and got West,” my dad said to me.

“Next time, wake me up. OK?” Karen squeezed my hand.

“I swear I heard him calling for help. I didn’t think that I had time to get you, Dad.” I realized how dumb that sounded. Why would a grown man like Randal ask
me
for help? He wouldn’t.

“She took action. I like that. I’m glad she’s got my back,” Randal said from the doorway. Jake weaseled his way into the room. His goggles were perched on his forehead, and his face was red from the cold.

“What did you do to my equipment?” he demanded. “I had cameras set up for a night shoot, and then all of a sudden West is running around yelling for you. And where do they find you? All over my stuff, that’s where.”

Randal put his hand on Jake’s shoulder. “Not now, Jake. She’s had a scare, a tough night.”

“She’s
had a tough night? What about me? My night has been ruined,” Jake said.

“I didn’t touch the camera. I didn’t move it.” I wanted to tell someone about the snow ghost, but Jake was too angry. He would just yell at me and tell me keep away from his stuff. So instead I said, “Did you see anything on the camera playback? Was anything out there?” The camera would prove that I saw something.

“I haven’t had time to go through all the footage.” He narrowed his eyes at me. “So I can’t tell yet.”

“Did you trick me?” I asked. “Did you have something set up out there? Some kind of special effects, like a film projector, flashing images on the snow?” I didn’t trust Jake. He was just the type to pull some elaborate hoax to embarrass me.

He snorted. “You’ve got to be kidding. I wouldn’t waste my time with tricks. I’m a serious filmmaker.”

“But I saw something!” I shouted.

Everyone was staring at me, and I went mute. My throat tightened.

Jake glared, like he wanted me to shut up. “Probably a lot of snow. And wind. That’s all.” He turned and left the room, but I think we both knew we shared a secret.

“Get some rest, everybody,” Randal said. “We have another big day tomorrow.” He followed his nephew out of the room.

“Did something happen outside?” Dad asked.

“I saw … lights.” I didn’t know how else to describe the beautiful woman.

West stood behind the doctor. “We’re all chasing mirages. I told Jake that there was nothing out there. But does he listen to me? Nope.”

“Mirages?” Dad asked.

“The snow plays tricks on the eyes and the mind. Plus the extreme cold causes people to see all sorts of things in the snow. It’s not real.
Some
people don’t believe it and want to keep on looking,” West said.

“Jake’s an explorer, too. He just uses a camera instead of our type of equipment,” Dad said.

“A
remote
explorer—that’s what he is. It’s not real. It’s virtual. I told him to stow his gear before someone got hurt, but I thought it was going to be him. Not one of the young ones,” West said, looking at me like I was the runt of the litter.

“I’m not hurt. I’m fine. What was Jake trying to capture on film?”

“Don’t you worry. Nothing to capture,” West said.

But I didn’t believe that. Not with what had happened the past two days. There was
a lot
to capture.

My leg rubbed against the blue nylon rope as I
trekked between buildings. My arms were loaded down with books about the Arctic, covering every subject from climate and weather conditions to indigenous species, and also the natural and anthropological history.

It was the morning following my late-night adventure. After asking Randal if he had any reference books I could look at, I was told that I could help myself to the stash of books in his
secret
library. Now I was headed back to my room to do some serious research. There had to be a logical explanation for what I had seen in the night, and I was determined to find it.

Kyle raced up beside me. His eyes widened when he saw my load. “Need some help with your homework?”

I eyed him skeptically. From everything he had said, books gave him a rash, so I was surprised he wanted to help me. But my arms were starting to crack under the weight, so I said, “Sure. If you really mean it. I have a ton of research to do, and I could use the extra pair of eyes.”

Kyle took the top four books off the pile, and I sighed
with relief. With my free hand, I reached down and grabbed the blue guideline. A devious grin spread across Kyle’s face. “We’re about to have a lesson … just not the kind you were expecting.”

I had made a huge mistake. Kyle dropped the books into the snow. They sank down, right through the crust.

“Hey! What are you doing? You’ll ruin them!” I said.

He grabbed the two books still in my hands and tossed one onto the pile and held the other one out to me.

“Is this what you want?” He mischievously wiggled the book and pulled it out of my reach when I dove for it.

“Stop it. This isn’t funny.” I regained my footing.

“No, it’s not funny. It’s ridiculous!” He examined the spine. “This book is about the Arctic.” He shook his head, mystified.

“So? I’m doing research. I like studying. I want to learn about this place and what I’ve gotten myself into.” I stood my ground.

“That’s the problem.” He took a few steps backward, still holding the book out to me like a taunt. “Look around you.
This
is the Arctic. It’s not in here,” he said, tapping the cover of the book. “You bury your head in a book so hard that you forget to look up. Look up, Maya! Look around you.” He spun around with his arms extended. “What are you scared of?”

“The Arctic doesn’t scare me.” My stomach sank when I thought about what happened the last time I let go of
the rope and wandered out into the blinding snow. “I don’t want to make the same mistake I did last night. I could have been really hurt.” My gaze drifted out over the snowy compound.

“That’s why this is so important. You can’t let what happened keep you from taking risks. Plus, trying to save ‘Randal’ was really brave. You shouldn’t be ashamed.” Kyle raised an eyebrow and held up the book. “Come and get it … brave girl.”