The Ice Fortress (Frozen World Book 2) Read online

  “We’ll deliver them to McMurdo, and you can pick them up from here,” Lindholm said. “You will not set foot at AN-85 again. Is that clear?”

  Grudgingly, Pechersky nodded. “You are like all the rest of them. You don’t care.”

  Lindholm ignored this. “I just want to know,” he said instead, “what it is that you had planned to do with the hatchlings? Why would you want to steal them?”

  “There are people in the world who would pay dearly to have them. Enough to gain resources that would help us fight for the lives of our people. Enough to help us get protection for ourselves.”

  “It was a moronic idea,” Scott said bluntly.

  Douglas nodded vigorously. “And rest assured that this incident will be reported to the Antarctic Committee, which, I am certain, will view it with outrage. Russia’s position in Antarctica will be jeopardized, and I’m very much mistaken if the Siyanie station will be allowed to continue to operate,” he concluded in a huff.

  Pechersky didn’t answer. He climbed up into the helicopter, and they heard him bark directions at the pilot. In a few moments, the helicopter was off.

  “Poor bastards,” Scott murmured, lifting his eyes up above and following the progress of the chopper against the clear sky. “I wish there was something we could do for them.”

  “There might be,” Lindholm said, surprising him, “but Pechersky ought to learn some humility, don’t you think?”

  They walked back to the reptile compound, where Annette was busy getting the Antarctosaurus hatchlings safely back in their brooder. They still made agitated squeaks from time to time, and one of them was cradled in Annette’s arms, nestling close to her chest. To Scott’s vast surprise, he saw another of the hatchlings wrapped around the massive arm of Ne Tarveg, who knelt on the floor, handling the creature with a wondrous look in his eyes.

  “You saved the day out there, Tarveg,” Omrek, who was standing nearby, said appreciatively.

  Annette looked up from the brooder and stared at Ne Tarveg’s face. Her eyes were shining. “Yes,” she said quietly, “you did. I don’t want to think how this might have ended if it weren’t for you.”

  It was not in Ne Tarveg’s nature to blush, but he looked embarrassed and pleased at the same time.

  “Still,” Annette went on, “it was a risky move. And I know you don’t… well… you don’t exactly like the hatchlings. So why not let Pechersky take them?”

  For a few seconds, Ne Tarveg remained silent, obviously struggling to find the right words. “I first think, raise these is not wise,” he said, lightly touching the reptile that had wrapped its tail around his arm. “I… I think you not…” he tapped a finger against his forehead, and Chris stifled a laugh.

  “I can understand that,” Adam said, fighting to keep a straight face. Annette gave him a murderous look.

  “But you think, they important,” Ne Tarveg went on. “You think, raise them will help. Help understand. Help keep us all safe. You work hard, raise them. They are yours. So I don’t let them get away.”

  He got up on his feet and, with surprising gentleness, placed the young reptile in the brooder. The hatchling was reluctant to let go, but stepped off the protective arm eventually and went to huddle next to its siblings. Likewise, Annette put the hatchling she was holding in the brooder, took a few steps in Ne Tarveg’s direction, and placed a hand on his arm.

  “Thank you,” she said. Her eyes lingered on the fierce, roughly hewn face with an expression of something quite new.

  Ray Douglas cleared his throat. “All’s well that ends well, but what are we going to do about Pechersky?”

  Lindholm snapped into action. “Oh, have I got plans for him. Don’t worry, Ray, I will make sure that the Antarctic Committee steps into action at once. But these people… I want to know the truth about them. Whoever they really are, it seems they have suffered under the Russian dictatorship. I’m going to make this my own personal campaign. Yes, I’m going to help Pechersky and his people… but I’m not going to tell them about it until it’s done. A little anxiety won’t harm them.”

  ~~~

  The Russians retreated to Siyanie and, at least for a while, life assumed a semblance of normalcy. Nothing was heard from Pechersky, but Ray Douglas decided that McMurdo needs an extra line of defense, and set up watches under the charge of Petri Karhu. There were more than enough able-bodied men at the station, but somehow, despite the Russians’ assault, few took the threat seriously, and Petri often had to assemble the watch from grumbling men whom he fished from all over the station, glowering and muttering curses in Finnish.

  “They just wanted to steal the freaky flying lizards,” Michael O’Brian, a medical technician at the station hospital, said when dragged away from the pub. “And to be honest, it wouldn’t be such a terrible…”

  “That’s not the point, Mike. If McMurdo can be penetrated, it’s unsafe. Do you trust the Russians? I don’t.”

  “You’re taking it far too seriously, Pete. But OK, fine, I’ll do my watch.”

  Scott pulled a few shifts during his times at McMurdo, too, but those were few and far between, now that the season of darkness was fast approaching its close, and life at the valley was as busy as ever. The Anai threw themselves into building, repairing, leatherwork, storing food, brewing, salting, pottery, and all the other tasks that kept life smoothly humming along. To everyone’s relief, no adult Antarctosaurus was sighted near the village again, though one was seen from a distance at the bay, and some tracks were noticed as well. This diminished presence worried Annette to no end.

  “The colony was small and fragile to begin with,” she said anxiously. “I just hope that our interventions, and taking away the hatchlings, did not hamper its viability.”

  Scott barely suppressed a snort. The word ‘fragile’, in his opinion, was not quite the right one to be used in connection to the vicious beasts. “I’m sure they’ll be fine, Annette. And anyway, the hatchlings are thriving, right?”

  “They are,” she beamed like a proud parent. “Their wings are getting stronger, and they’re trying to take their first short flights. It’s so exciting to watch.”

  “I’d like to come and see.”

  “You are most welcome to stop by. Bring Tahan, too, next time you visit the station. I’m sure she’ll find it interesting. Omrek and Tarveg, too.”

  A corner of Scott’s mouth twitched. “I don’t presume to call him Tarveg. That’s much too familiar for our formidable captain of guard.”

  “Really? That’s funny. That’s what he told me to call him.”

  Why am I not surprised? Ne Tarveg’s growing attraction to the foreign woman was becoming more and more obvious, though nobody would dare to allude to it if they valued their life. He visited McMurdo and spent ridiculously long spells of time at the reptile compound, though he still professed disbelief in Annette’s project of bringing up the Antarctosaurus young. And when Annette, Adam and Chris flew to AN-85 again and took a trek to the bay to look for the colony, Ne Tarveg served as their guide.

  “He even took me to the hot springs,” Annette told. “I brought my bathing suit and had a fantastic time.”

  “Really? Did you go to the women’s spring, or to the men’s?” Scott asked, his curiosity piqued.

  Annette looked confused. “I had no idea there was a men’s spring and a women’s spring.”

  “Perhaps Ne Tarveg’s English wasn’t good enough to explain that,” Scott said, not quite able to suppress his urge to smirk. He was pretty sure that Annette in a bathing suit was a strong enough attraction to keep her admirer near the women’s spring in defiance of the custom.

  Scott had more pressing matters, however, than following the possible developments of the unlikely attraction between the burly Anai warrior and the researcher from Wellington. The very next day, a flight from New Zealand had brought down the Basque research team, and Scott found himself shaking hands with a tall, auburn-haired man wearing metal-rimmed glasses.


  “Dr. Jose Elizondo,” he introduced himself. “You are Mr. Buckley, yes? I’m thrilled to meet you in person, and can’t wait to dig into the matter at hand.”

  He spoke very good English with barely perceptible accent, and his handshake was unusually firm.

  “You made some preliminary linguistic analysis, didn’t you, Dr. Elizondo?”

  “Yes, and some leads look very promising, but it isn’t quite like studying a living language directly from its speakers. I can’t wait – the enigma of the Anai has made linguists all over the world stop and stumble, and if it turns out it can be resolved in connection with the Basque enigma… it would be an enormous discovery. We must not let ourselves get carried away by our imagination, though. As scientists, we are committed to fact, yes? I have two geneticists with me. We will collect blood samples as soon as possible… you have assured me the Anai would cooperate, right?”

  “They will. Most of the Anai people are as excited as you are about possibly discovering their origins. My wife and brother-in-law want to be the first to give samples. The children might be a little reluctant, of course, but if it is necessary…”

  “No, no, not at all,” Jose Elizondo hastened to reassure him. “The important thing is to perform a large enough genetic cross-sampling among the population. The Anai people, due to their isolation and small number, must have great genetic uniformity, which makes our task easier.”

  “Yes. There had been no dilution of Anai blood until the birth of my daughter,” Scott permitted himself a smile. “Say…” he went on, struck by a sudden idea. “What would you say to the possibility of an extra study, on top of the project you have come to do?”

  “An extra study?” Dr. Elizondo repeated. “What do you have in mind?”

  “Have you ever heard of a people calling themselves Mece, or Meci?”

  Elizondo looked puzzled. “No, never. Is that… is that an Asian ethno-linguistic group?”

  “Not exactly,” Scott proceeded to tell him of his encounter with Sergey Pechersky, and the latter’s extraordinary claim. As he spoke, Elizondo’s eyebrows traveled higher and higher up.

  “This is a claim worth investigating, though I might not be the right person to do that. You see, my expertise is Basque history, genetics and language… however… several of my colleagues around the world would be intrigued by looking into this. If I take samples and send to them… please let me consider this for a day or two, Mr. Buckley. I will send a few emails.”

  “Of course,” said Scott, coming back to his senses. “You must be famished and exhausted after your journey. I apologize for springing this on you all at once.”

  “Not at all, not at all… the ship was extremely comfortable, and on our way here, we did little more than eat, sleep and take photographs. We’re quite eager to get to work.”

  ~~~

  The Basque team, with Scott as a guide, flew to AN-85 shortly. Carrying their equipment, they made their way down the narrow trail and, in due time, reached the point from which the valley of the Anai stretched before them, green and golden in the rays of the sun. It was still high up, but would soon set for almost six months.

  Jose Elizondo, looking stunned, threw back the hood of his parka and let the warm, moist breeze caress his face. He crossed himself, muttering words Scott did not comprehend, and his eyes were full of awe.

  “This… this is incredible,” he muttered. “It was worth living just to see this.”

  “Come along. I will take you to the settlement.”

  And, followed by the foreign men, Scott strode off in pursuit of answers to the Anai mystery.

  Chapter 16

  The last reddish glimmer of sun lingered above the jagged walls bordering the valley, flickered, and was gone. The sky was darkening rapidly, and the auroras, which were largely unnoticed throughout the summer months, were coming into sharper focus.

  Ri Koer raised his arms up to the sky, and chanted a melodic and mysterious sound.

  “What is he saying?” Annette asked, intrigued. She was invited to the celebration of the Last Sunrise and, despite being extremely busy with her juvenile reptile charges, accepted.

  Scott looked at Tahan, who shifted Niri on her hip. “You can explain it much better,” he said.

  “His words mean…” Tahan began, but to her surprise, Ne Tarveg cut in:

  “He say, sun goes, but not forever. Anai will wait, and believe the sun will return. We thank for sun, and when it’s gone, we look for it by following the dancing lines of light in sky.”

  “That’s… comforting,” Annette said. “I sometimes wonder whether I’m crazy for deciding to overwinter. I couldn’t leave the hatchlings, though.”

  “Naturally,” Scott nodded, his mouth twitching.

  “They have really hit a growth spurt now. You should come and see them.”

  “I probably will. The Basque research team is leaving tomorrow, and I’m going to McMurdo to say goodbye.”

  “Oh?” A spark of interest appeared in Annette’s eyes. “Have they finished their work here, then? Any conclusions yet?”

  “Not yet. They are going to use their own laboratories back home to analyze the samples they have collected. Then they will contact us. We’ll just have to wait.”

  Upon the next morning, dark with just a faint pinkish light in the sky, Scott found himself shaking hands with Jose Elizondo, who was about to embark on a flight to New Zealand together with his team.

  “Have a good journey, and thank you for everything.”

  “No, thank you. Thank you for opening the valley to us, for introducing us to the Anai people… we’ll be in touch very soon.”

  Omrek, too, stepped over to shake hands, and looked wistfully after the Basque team as they boarded the airplane. The airplane took off, and became smaller and smaller until, finally, it was gone.

  “I wonder how flying in one of these things feels,” Omrek said. “Is it very different from being in a helicopter?”

  “Oh yes, very,” Scott assured him. “It’s smoother and more regulated and… and it feels a lot safer.”

  “Really?” Omrek brightened. “That’s good to know.”

  “That was probably the last flight from McMurdo until the next light season,” Scott said. The Russians from Siyanie had left about a week and a half previously. Their blood samples, collected by the Basque team, were flown to Wellington, and the local research team went haywire upon seeing them. Neanderthal or not, one thing was clear: the Mece people were not Homo Sapiens. Neither of the individuals that participated in the sampling had more than 25% of Homo Sapiens genome. The remaining community was offered temporary refuge in an underpopulated area of Tierra Del Fuego, where they had sailed on the last ship of the season bound for Argentina.

  “I hope we’re going to have a quiet winter,” Scott made a wish.

  ~~~

  The piercing shriek tore through the air. Scott didn’t understand at first why his heart gave a huge jolt, then seemed to jump up into his throat and beat there violently. Then there was another shriek and a rush of wings, and he realized what it was.

  “They are back!” he called out. “Omrek, run for cover! Now!”

  The dark winged shapes looked ominous against the starry darkness interspersed with dancing auroras. There were no less than six or seven, and they called out to each other as they circled above the station, preparing to land. The loud buzz of an alarm sounded, and people ran amok in all directions, screaming, crying and calling for help. Any of them could be easy prey.

  “Don’t you have your gun?” Omrek panted as they ran.

  “No, damn it,” Scott wheezed in return. “It’s in my quarters… I have stopped carrying it lately… come on, we’ve got to get to a shelter… where’s Ne Tarveg?”

  “I have no idea. O Spirit, why didn’t I bring my bow?” One of the monsters swooped down, but a gunshot reverberated through the air and it sped up again. The reptiles continued to circle above the station like a horribly grotesque flock
of carrion crows.

  “The reptile house – it’s nearest – quick,” Scott panted. “Then we can speak to Douglas… goddamn it, this is a disaster…”

  They hammered on the door, which was wrenched open to let them in, then shut behind them at top speed. Adam bolted it and leaned against it with his back. His face was pale and sweaty, and he was breathing heavily.

  “They are back,” he whispered. “What are we going to do, Scott?”

  Chris was busy making sure the windows were all locked. Annette was hovering near the brooder, an anxious look on her face. Ne Tarveg stood with his legs slightly apart, his teeth bared, and his sharp flint knife at the ready.

  “I should never have agreed to come without my spear,” he said in Anai.

  Scott whipped out his phone and made an internet call. There was no answer, and he cursed quietly under his breath. “Come on, Douglas, where are you?”

  “They should tell people to get under cover and wait it out,” Chris said. “It’s better not to attempt anything. They will go away eventually once they see they can’t get at anyone.” Outside, the alarm buzz sounded even louder and more urgent.

  “The hatchlings can sense something,” Annette said, taking one of the young reptiles out of the brooder and stroking its scaly back. The little Antarctosaurus stretched out its neck and swiveled it around, as if looking for something. “See? They are definitely agitated.”

  Another terrifying shriek sounded from outside, and the little reptile responded in a high-pitched, prolonged sound.

  “It’s trying to speak!” Adam said. “Maybe it thinks Mommy has come to get it…”

  “That’s nonsense, Adam, we have raised them from day one, they are imprinted on us.”

  “Yeah, but it’s their kind. There’s no escaping that.”

  Another call from outside – but there was something different about it this time. There was a rhythm, a rumble, something less vicious and more… communicative. This time there was a chorus of responses from the brooder.

  All blood drained from Annette’s face, and a look of awe appeared in her eyes. “Yes,” she whispered, “yes, they are trying to speak… and I think we should let them.”