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THE BERING SEA. MYSTIC:
Alex leans his arms against the railing outside the bridge, grateful Mike bought him the thick white winter coat he’s now wearing. When he packed for his trip to Washington, he had no idea he would be going to the arctic. The new ice sheet is already affecting the weather in the northern latitudes, and the thin jacket he brought is useless against the frigid temperatures they are now encountering.
He’s not sure what to think about Harrison’s actions on the bridge. He is definitely working with Dieter, but to what degree of loyalty is the question.
Alex walks onto the bridge and finds Okana lying back in the chair with his feet on the console. He’s guiding the Mystic slowly through the scattered ice flows, and for the moment, it’s easy. “What a cushy job you have, Okana.”
“It has its moments. You look like a man with a question.”
“Which side do you think Harrison is on? Bett told me he joined the crew after Dieter and Bartram.”
“Hard to say. I think he’s just a sailor working for whoever pays him.”
Josh suddenly comes up the stairs, dressed in a thick black winter coat and carrying a red plastic toolbox and a square fiberglass object. “Your friend David is a genius, Alex. Lisa read his report, and discovered he’s isolated a particular type of radiation emanating from the black hydrocarbons.” He holds up the fiberglass object attached to a square base with clamps on the bottom. “I modified this radar unit to detect that particular type of radiation. I’m going to mount it above and see how it works.” Josh leaves the bridge and climbs up on the roof.
Alex is curious and follows Josh outside to watch. He looks over the railing at the twenty-foot slab of clear ice gently sliding past the side of the ship. It’s the fifth one in the past two hours, even though they have not yet reached the Arctic Ocean. At this slow speed, they can see the ice with plenty of time to move out of the way, and once Josh is down from the roof of the bridge, they can increase Mystic’s speed a little more.
“Hey, Alex. I need your help up here.”
Alex turns and looks up at Josh squatting on the roof. “Be right up.”
He climbs the narrow stainless steel ladder bolted to the back corner of the bridge, and once on the roof, he kneels beside Josh. “What can I do?”
Josh reaches into his coat pocket and hands Alex a tiny glass tube. “Stand up and hold this sample of black material I got from Lisa. I need you to walk to both sides of the roof when I say. I’m going down inside to make sure that sample shows up on the radar scope.”
“All right. Tell me when to start walking.”
Josh climbs down the ladder which would have been comical to a bystander because of his size and the skinny rungs. He goes around to the left side door of the bridge, latches it open, then goes inside, and turns on the radar unit. The LCD screen shows the radiation emitted by the sample in Alex’s hand, so he leans out through the doorway. “Walk over to the starboard side, Alex.”
Josh ducks back inside the bridge and watches the flashing red dot move to the right. He sticks his head out through the doorway again. “Now move to the port side.” He ducks back inside, watches the red dot move to the other side of the screen and grins. He smiles as he heads out through the doorway and looks up at Alex. “Got it. You can come down now.”
When Alex moves to the top of the ladder, Josh is standing on the second step up from the bottom, reaching out over the roof.
“Hand me my tool box, would you Alex.”
“Sure.”
Alex slips the glass tube into the chest pocket of his coat, then grabs the red plastic box and sets it close to the edge, near the big man’s hand. When Josh steps away, he climbs down and follows him back onto the bridge.
Josh points at the red dot on the screen. “Now watch this, Alex.” He resets the gain, and the distance indicator on the screen changes from feet to miles, but there is no red dot.
“Okay, what’s your point?” He watches Josh’s smile fade away.
“Don’t you get it, Alex? I just converted a radar unit into a radiation sensor capable of detecting the source from miles away.”
Alex smiles and puts his hand on Josh’s shoulder. “Of course. That is amazing. Good job.”
Josh smiles proudly at Alex and Okana.
“Are we ready to go, Josh?” Okana asks.
“All set.”
Okana shoves the throttle forward, and Mystic’s pontoons climb out of the water and begin slicing through the slight chop on the surface.
***
Three hours later, the entire crew is standing on the deck outside the bridge, dressed in their heavy winter coats and staring at the one-hundred-foot wall of transparent ice, one-hundred-yards in front of the Mystic. When Lisa sees the dozens of gray harbor seals held captive in the frozen wall of ice, she turns away and buries her head against Alex’s chest.
They received a satellite image from NASA, showing the extent of the expanding ice sheet, and compared it to a previous photo showing the normal size of the ice in summer. The new ice cap is shaped like a gigantic egg, with the large round end reaching from the Arctic Ocean into the Beaufort Sea. One hundred-miles inland from the bottom edge of the ice sheet, the picture shows concentrically smaller teardrop-shapes of dark material, forming a target on the vast expanse of the ice sheet.
According to Josh’s radiation detector, the device should be at the center of the target north of their current position, but that is his best estimate, due to a strange anomaly appearing on the radar screen. Josh thinks it might be a much larger deposit of the dark material causing the anomaly.
Alex hears his satellite phone ring, slips it out of his coat pocket, and recognizes the ID. “Hi, Sonja. I was going to call you later.”
“We have a major problem in the Atlantic Ocean, Alex. The salinity of the water flowing down from the north has increased significantly. The water is so laden with salt it is sinking, and flowing south into the Atlantic Ocean much faster than normal, and it is affecting the North Atlantic Ocean currents. It is driving warm water from the Gulf north at a much faster rate and the atmospheric conditions over the north Atlantic are changing. This is a very dangerous condition, Alex. It will affect the northern weather conditions and Western Europe will suffer the most damage. Crops will be lost and the storms will be massive.”
“We may have located the device near the southern end of the ice cap. I’m about to leave to discover what I’m up against. I’ll call when I know something.”
“I know you are doing your best. Call me with good news. Bye, love.”
Okana notices Alex’s grim expression. “Not good?”
Alex explains the call. “With a little luck, we’ll find the device.”
“I’ll make sure the ship is still here when you return.”
Everyone turns around and looks down at the stern when they hear the engines from the helicopter rising in pitch. Alex, Mike, and Lisa walk down the steps to the aircraft, and Alex climbs in front with Bett, while Mike and Lisa climb onto the rear seat, facing forward. There is enough room for two more people, but Alex and Mike agreed not to leave the ship vulnerable to a hostile takeover, and left Rita, Josh, and Okana behind to guard the Mystic.
When the blades begin to rotate, the others move into the bridge to avoid the downwash as the helicopter leaps into the air.
As Bett gains altitude up over the wall, everyone stares in rapt fascination at the scene, something they could never have imagined. Fifty-miles ahead, a narrower wall of ice stands above the vast expanse, and twenty-miles farther, another narrower wall of ice is stacked on that one, and another beyond it, creating a teardrop-shaped pyramid of transparent ice.
Mike leans forward between Bett and Alex. “Those walls of ice might be the dark areas we saw in the photograph. The device must be in the top layer of the pyramid. I hope.”
Bett increases their elevation as the ice races past beneath them and the top of the pyramid slowly increases in size. Alex doubts the device will be above the water level, but in any case, the pyramid is a spectacular sight and he wants a closer look.
When they are within five-hundred-feet from the top, the angle of the sun is such that the ice acts like a prism, sending small beams of rainbow-colored lights bouncing around inside the top layer of the pyramid.
No one speaks while they admire the light show, then Lisa moves forward next to Mike for a better view. “Oh, my, that is fantastic.” She holds her smart-phone out at arm’s length and begins recording. “Everyone’s going to want to see this when we get back.”
Bett drops the helicopter down on the flat surface and sets the engine speed to idle. Lisa opens the side door and leaps out onto the ice, but her feet slide out from beneath her and she plops down on her butt. She puts her hands down to push herself up and abruptly stops when she looks down. “I see it!”
The others carefully climb out from the helicopter and kneel beside her. Deep beneath the surface, the device is visible, looking small and innocent in the fantastically clear ice sheet.
Alex looks at the others. “We won’t be able to retrieve it from up here. Now we know its exact location, so we can remove it from below with the submarine.” He stands and reaches down to help Lisa up.
Lisa takes his hand and gets up. “Just imagine what this recording will be like on the cover of National Geographic Magazine.” She pulls her phone from her coat pocket and records as she turns in a circle.
Once Mike and Bett are standing, everyone climbs back into the helicopter for the return trip to the Mystic.
Bett touches the button on her headset. “Mystic, this is Bett. Come in.” No one answers, and she tries again with no response. She notices Alex listening. “It must be because of the interference Josh mentioned. I’ll try again when we get closer to the Mystic.”
***
Okana is sitting in a chair on the bridge with only the radio for company. He volunteered to stand watch over the thrusters to occupy his time, but the computer is keeping the Mystic stationary in the field of ice slabs, so he has nothing to do but think. Dieter informed him the disk will stay in his pocket for the duration of the trip, and now his curiosity is driving him crazy. What could be so important? Trying to take over the Mystic was a stupid idea in the first place. Why is he still being so secretive about it?
“Mystic, this is Bett.”
Okana grabs the microphone from its overhead bracket. “Hey, Bett. Okana here. Any luck?”
“In a matter of speaking, I suppose. We’re going to need the sub ready when we get back.”
“How long do I have?”
“We’ll be there in forty-five minutes.”
“I’ll be ready.”
Okana snaps the microphone back into its bracket, then grabs the microphone for the intercom system. “I just got a call from the helicopter. They’re on the way back and we need to start prepping the sub and have it ready to go in forty-five minutes.” He replaces the microphone, and a moment later, Rita comes up the steps onto the bridge and leans against the control console to face him.
***
Dieter waits inside the doors to the stern and stops Bartram before he goes out to start on the sub. “Okana does not trust you. Just do it quickly.” The two of them go out to help Harrison.
***
“Did they tell you what they discovered?” Rita asks.
“Not exactly. They think it’s underneath the ice.”
“One of these days, you’ll have to take me down with you.”
“I think you would enjoy it. It’s a different world down there. According to the sonar, the ice ends three-hundred-feet below the surface and is vertical like that wall in front of us. That should make for an easy dive. Could you take over for me up here? I don’t trust Bartram or Harrison to prep the sub. I would hate to get under the ice and have something go wrong.”
“I don’t think you have to worry about Harrison. He was on the bridge with Alex when the engines stopped. My money is on Bartram.”
“Maybe.” He stands from the chair. “I’ll see you on deck later.” He doesn’t tell her the only person he trusts right now is Alex.
Okana turns and steps out through the starboard side door and goes down the stairs to face Dieter. “Last-minute instructions?”
Dieter looks over at Harrison and Bartram releasing the tie down straps on the sub. “Do not worry, Okana. I would never sabotage your precious submarine.”
Okana continues across to the sub. Now why would Dieter refer to the sub as precious?
***
Alex stares through the window as Bett brings the helicopter over the stern, and Okana, Rita, Josh, and Dieter are waiting up in the bridge. The helicopter sets down lightly and everyone climbs out while Harrison and Bartram move the blades back and move it forward and out of the way, before securing it to the deck.
Lisa runs past Bett, Alex, and Mike, and hurries up the stairs. “You guys have to see this.” She holds her phone out for everyone to watch her recording, and everyone crowds together to see the small screen.
Okana is the closest, and a few moments later, he looks up. “You recorded snow?”
Lisa stops smiling. “No, a rainbow.” She brings the phone back and stares at the screen. “That’s not right. Let me rewind it.”
Josh sees her frustration. “It might be because of that anomalous reading on my radiation sensor. I still don’t know what’s causing it.”
Lisa’s shoulders sag as she slips the phone into her coat pocket. “It was this beautiful glass pyramid. When we were close to the top, the light was shining into the ice, creating this beautiful rainbow inside.” She turns when Alex steps up beside her. “It’s all gone, Alex. The recording is just snow.”
“At least you have the memory.” He looks over at Okana. “Are we ready to go?”
“I’m all set, Alex.”
Lisa reaches into her coat pocket and holds out a folded piece of paper. “You’re going to need this. It’s the direction and approximate distance to the device. I figured it out on the way back.”
“Thank you.” He takes the paper, then turns and goes with Okana down the stairs to the sub. “We could barely see the device down through the ice, but it’s definitely at the bottom.”
“I wish Lisa’s recording would have survived. It sounds interesting.”
Alex follows Okana up the ladder and down into the sub, then secures the hatch while Okana slides into the front seat and informs Harrison they are ready. Alex looks over Okana’s shoulder, through the front window as the sub slowly spins around. He sees the rest of the crew standing behind the bridge, watching the launch. “I forgot to ask how deep we’re going.”
“Three-hundred-feet to the bottom edge of the ice, so add another ten for good measure.”
“That shouldn’t be too hard. What attachment did you bring?”
“One circular saw and a pincher-spreader combination tool. It shouldn’t take too long.”
The sub continues to swing around until they are facing the sea, then slowly drops into the water. Okana turns on the lights and engages the thrusters.