Thirst

by L. A. Larkin

  The generator spluttered.

  ‘Come on,’ he urged.

  Luke kept shovelling ice until the generator shuddered to a stop. The camp was plunged into the dawn’s muted light. Now he had a chance of escape, and so might Maddie and Vitaly.

  He heard rapid gunfire and saw the sway of head torches moving in his direction. He dared not switch on his own, but there was enough daylight to see. He bolted up the mountain slope. It was hard work running on ice, but Luke was used to it. He guessed his pursuers weren’t. His strong legs pumped like pistons and his crampons gripped the glassy slope well. He heard a snowmobile engine start up and disappear into the distance. Could that be Maddie or Vitaly escaping?

  Despite his breathlessness, Luke shook his head. What a disaster! They’d achieved nothing except endangering themselves and Maddie. They should have listened to Alrek. Luke looked downhill and saw numerous head torches bobbing in the opposite direction. He was safe for now. When he finally got back to their tent, there was no Vitaly and no Alrek. And no sign of a struggle. Had Alrek gone to their rescue? He patted his chest, looking for his radio, but it was gone, lost in the fight. Without it, he couldn’t contact them or call for help from the Basov.

  He set off to find their abandoned snowmobile and the spare radio inside the seat compartment. He got a good pace going, almost jogging. The sun had brought with it a murky grey light, and from his high vantage point he could see Pine Island Bay and the Professor Basov, which was surrounded by a patchwork quilt of sea ice.

  He reached the snowmobile and opened the seat. He turned on the radio and was about to switch to the marine voice distress frequency when he heard a voice he didn’t recognise.

  ‘Commander Scott to Luke Searle. Are you receiving? Respond immediately. Your friends’ lives depend on it.’

  Luke lifted the radio close to his mouth. ‘Luke Searle receiving you loud and clear. Who the hell are you?’

  ‘Make your way back to our camp where your friends are waiting. And do not, repeat, do not contact the Professor Basov. We are monitoring all VHF and HF frequencies. Do you understand? You have something of mine I want back. If you don’t return it in the next fifteen minutes, Madeline will be executed.’

  T MINUS 4 HOURS, 3 MINUTES

  10 March, 7:57 am (UTC-07)

  Breathless and alone, Luke peered down at his enemy. He had raced back to behind the boulders to get a view of the man calling himself Commander Scott. Looking through the binoculars, he saw Maddie, Alrek and Vitaly kneeling in a line, their hands tied. A soldier was standing behind each hostage with a rifle aimed at his captive.

  The leader paced in front of them with an arrogant strut. Unlike the other soldiers, he had his hood down and wore sunglasses, rather than the soldiers’ standard-issue snow-goggles. Even from where Luke hid, he could see a thick mass of black hair, perfectly neat. This man didn’t resemble the photograph Luke had seen of General Zhao: late fifties, bushy grey eyebrows, shaved head, puffy face. This was not the General.

  He checked his watch – it was eight minutes since he’d received the call. Seven minutes left. He looked at his radio. He needed help, but the man calling himself Commander Scott had anticipated his next move. Luke dared not risk contacting the Basov.

  ‘Luke Searle calling Commander Scott.’ The name stuck in his throat. What kind of prick would assume such a code name? ‘What do you want from me?’ Luke asked.

  ‘You have the master controller,’ the man replied. ‘I want it back. You have six minutes and forty seconds before this beautiful woman’s face is blown off.’

  ‘Master controller of what? A detonation?’

  ‘Don’t treat me like a fool. Where is my laptop?’

  ‘I don’t have your laptop. I didn’t even know you were using explosives.’ He’d guessed a detonation had caused the avalanche, but a master controller suggested they were using a lot of explosives. ‘We came for Maddie. That’s all. Let her and the others go and we’ll leave you in peace.’

  Luke didn’t need the radio to hear the leader’s laughter echo up the mountain slope. ‘Really, Luke, I expected better of you,’ the man chided. ‘Winner of the Seligman Crystal Award! Six minutes and counting before Madeline’s blood decorates the ice.’ The man waited for a response.

  ‘I can’t give you what I don’t have,’ said Luke. ‘But I can give myself in place of Maddie. Let her go and I’ll give myself up.’

  ‘Go ahead.’

  ‘I want to see her released first.’

  Luke watched as Maddie’s hands were untied and a soldier pulled her to her feet. She no longer wore the yellow freezer suit but was in their white uniform. She placed most of her weight on her strong leg but she didn’t appear to be in great pain. Despite his terror, Luke felt a brief moment of joy. Maddie took a few steps away from the hostage line and then stopped.

  ‘That’s as far as she goes, Luke,’ the voice continued. ‘Your turn. Come down, and as you do, think very hard about my laptop. My patience is wearing thin.’

  Luke shoved the Baikal-442 down the back of his boot and covered it with his leggings and waterproofs. He left the radio behind. He glanced at his ice axe, longing to take it with him. But there was no point; they would take it. He was terrifyingly vulnerable.

  He stepped over the ridge with his arms raised above his head. Two soldiers jogged towards him and then frisked him. They found the pistol and removed it, bound his hands and escorted him to their camp.

  As Luke drew close, Maddie mouthed, ‘No,’ but her eyes smiled in gratitude. Vitaly had a livid cut to a swollen lip. His eyes darted around as he looked for a means of escape. Alrek was crouched forward on his knees, trembling; he didn’t look up.

  Luke finally faced the man who had turned his world upside down. The man who had blackened his name, murdered his friends, and tried to kill him.

  Smooth-skinned, slim, of Chinese origin, in his mid to late thirties, the man politely stretched out his right hand to shake Luke’s. It was as if they were about to start a business meeting. Luke noticed a very expensive watch on his wrist, just visible between his glove and his cuff. He clearly wasn’t from the military.

  ‘May I introduce myself? I am Robert Zhao Sheng.’

  ‘Son of General Zhao?’ Luke guessed.

  Robert raised a thin eyebrow. ‘Indeed. What else do you know?’

  Robert was dwarfed by Luke: the top of his perfectly parted hair only came up to Luke’s chin. Luke took a step forward and blocked out the low morning sun, casting a long shadow over the man in front of him. To anyone less certain of himself, Luke would have been intimidating.

  ‘Forget the games,’ Luke said. ‘Release Maddie now, as we agreed.’

  ‘Answer my question first.’

  With barely controlled fury, Luke replied. ‘You are working with Dragon Resources and you have murdered six Australians. Whatever you are doing here is in breach of the Antarctic Treaty and your own country’s laws. You must stop this. Now.’

  Robert smiled. ‘I knew you’d be a worthy opponent. I’m delighted to meet you at last. I must correct you, however. Firstly, I own Dragon Resources. Secondly, the Antarctic Treaty isn’t worth the paper it’s written on. Thirdly, I haven’t broken any law. We are merely conducting scientific research here and had to defend ourselves from attack.’

  Luke lost control. ‘Liar!’ He lowered his head and charged into Robert, who fell backwards, winded. Luke was struck by a rifle butt to his shoulder, the impact excruciating. A soldier gave a sharp kick to the back of his knees and Luke collapsed to the ground.

  Robert brushed himself down and stood, apparently unfazed by the attack. ‘Sadly, your interference is impacting my schedule. My explosives expert is dead, thanks to this brute.’ He eyed Vitaly. ‘My glaciologist has disappeared, and the master controller is missing. I am a patient man, but enough is enough.’

  Explosives expert – so that was who Vitaly had killed. Their glaciologist must have left on the snowmobile Luke had heard
earlier. But where would he go? Li Bai? He’d never make it.

  ‘I have a deadline,’ Robert continued. ‘Tell me where my laptop is or she dies.’

  The soldier next to Maddie forced her to kneel. She screamed as he yanked her head back by her hair. The stocky soldier Luke had fought with earlier glowered at him, as he drew a pistol from his holster and held the muzzle to Maddie’s forehead.

  ‘You’ve met Captain Wei, I think?’ said Robert, tilting his head dismissively in the man’s direction. ‘He’s very mad at you. It’s humiliating for him to be overcome by a mere civilian.’

  Wei kept his focus on his prisoner.

  ‘You have ten seconds,’ Robert said, pulling back his parka sleeve to better see his watch.

  ‘I don’t know – I’ve never seen it,’ Luke shouted. He couldn’t believe this was happening.

  ‘We do not have this laptop,’ growled Vitaly. ‘You are a man of honour? Then free the woman. You made a promise.’

  Maddie spoke, her voice high-pitched with fright. ‘Luke, there are two detonations – one for ice, the other for rare earths.’

  Wei smashed the side of his pistol into her left cheekbone, knocking her to the ice. Luke lunged forward in fury. He was kicked in the kidney and doubled over in pain.

  Maddie cupped her bleeding cheek as she yelled, ‘Today! At ten and midday. All along the Fitzy. They’re blasting a twenty-kilometre shipping channel.’

  ‘No, you mustn’t!’ spluttered Luke, struggling to sit up.

  Robert began counting down to Maddie’s execution. ‘Four, three, two …’

  ‘Someone tell him where the laptop is!’ cried Luke.

  T MINUS 3 HOURS, 48 MINUTES

  10 March, 8:12 am (UTC-07)

  ‘Stop!’ Maddie shouted. Everyone looked at her. ‘I have it.’

  Luke was stunned; was this a bluff to buy time?

  Robert approached and leaned over her. ‘Where?’

  ‘I hid it. When Li ran away, he untied me. I took it then.’

  ‘Show me,’ he ordered.

  She was hauled to her feet. ‘Now!’ he shouted.

  Wei and Robert escorted Maddie to the nearest in a long line of the camouflaged canopies, beneath which a metal walk-in storage container was hidden. She had tucked the laptop between the canopy and the outer wall of the container. She was marched back to her colleagues and made to kneel.

  Luke watched as Robert took it and wiped some loose snow from the lid. ‘You’d better hope it still works. You!’ He beckoned a soldier. ‘Change the battery. The cold will have drained it.’

  The soldier disappeared into the third Weatherhaven.

  Now that Robert had his laptop, Luke had no leverage. Perhaps he could reason with the man?

  ‘Robert, please.’ Luke cleared his throat. His mouth was dry, as if his saliva had retreated down his throat. ‘Let the others go. You’ll need someone who knows explosives. I know explosives. I’ll help you, but the others must go free.’ He was determined not to look at Vitaly, who was way more experienced than he was.

  ‘Nice try, Luke. But I’ve read your file. You’ll fight me all the way.’

  ‘Hear me out.’ He chose his words carefully. ‘Harvesting water from ice. It’s brilliant …’ Yes, he’d suck up to the little prick – whatever it took. ‘But …’

  Robert folded his arms, suspicious at the compliment. ‘I don’t have time for a debate. You will—’

  Luke cut in. ‘No! Please listen, before you make a terrible mistake. I’m a glaciologist. I live and breathe ice. I know this glacier better than anyone. You remember when the Larsen B Ice Shelf disintegrated in 2002? The Pine Island Glacier is just like Larsen B, but three times its size and more important. It’s on the brink. So is its sister glacier, the Thwaites. Together, they hold back the West Antarctic Ice Sheet.’

  ‘Don’t bore me with—’

  ‘You don’t understand!’ Luke yelled. How could he get through to this man? ‘Your explosives could destroy the grounding line. The PIG’s bedrock is below sea level. So if the grounding line is damaged, there’s nothing to stop the warmer seawater gushing in, lubricating the underside of the glacier. All of the glacier, not just your shipping lane! And if the West Antarctic Ice Sheet shifts and starts breaking up, the rising sea levels will flood Shanghai, Guangzhou, Tianjin, Shenzen – as well as all your low-lying coastal farmland. It will be a disaster for China, and irreversible. Millions will die and millions more will be made homeless.’

  Luke saw Captain Wei stare at him and frown. Wei understood English, he thought.

  Robert shook his head. ‘Our scientists disagree.’

  ‘Do they? Why did your glaciologist run away?’

  Robert flicked his gloved hand in the air to dismiss the comment.

  Luke had nothing to lose. ‘A small explosion at the glacier tip – that probably wouldn’t do much harm. But blasting twenty kilometres? That’s madness. You’ll unglue the glacier from the mountain walls. With the friction gone, it’ll accelerate towards the sea and break up.’ Luke tried to press his argument, but he was blocked by a soldier.

  ‘Robert,’ Luke persevered. ‘If the PIG and the Thwaites collapse, we’re talking a rise in sea levels of one and a half metres. That’s enough to flood most of Bangladesh. Then there’s India, Vietnam, the Netherlands, Florida, the Maldives. And the list goes on. But if the West Antarctic Ice Sheet melts, that’s a rise of five metres. Five! Think about it. That’s catastrophic.’

  ‘This is scare-mongering, just like those climate change fanatics. Our modelling shows that the glacier will stay intact.’

  Luke noticed Robert looked down the valley when he spoke, avoiding Luke’s eye contact.

  ‘It didn’t, did it?’ Luke pressed. ‘What was the probability of collapse? Thirty, thirty-five per cent? More?’

  Once again, Wei glanced at Robert.

  ‘Less than twenty per cent,’ Robert said. ‘Barely material. And the rewards vastly outweigh the risk.’

  Luke couldn’t hide the contempt in his voice. ‘Your money won’t protect you, Robert. Food shortages. Rioting. Wars. Market chaos.’

  ‘This is wrong, Robert,’ said Maddie.

  Robert flinched, stung by her words. Then he recovered. ‘Wrong? You think what you in the West do is right?’ He began to pace around. ‘You pollute the planet and then you expect developing countries like mine to pay the price. You wail about Tiananmen Square and Tibet, yet you torture anyone you call a terrorist. What about Guantanamo? You invade and occupy, you meddle in the affairs of other countries and turn a blind eye to slaughter if it suits you. All the while, your thirst for oil funds the jihadi lunatics trying to kill you. What I am doing is no different from what you did in Iraq. But instead of oil, we need water. We took back Tibet to access their glaciers. And now we will take our share of Antarctica.’

  ‘That’s bullshit!’ Luke shouted. ‘Rare earths have nothing to do with that. They’re used for military technology. For war. This is about your wealth and power. And everyone else be damned.’

  ‘Enough. Now, I have one last thing you must do for me.’

  Luke was about to tell him where to shove his request, then changed his mind. Perhaps it would give him some leverage. ‘And what is that?’

  ‘You’ll call off the SAS. Tell Winchester you’ve found Maddie. Everyone is safe and our camp is deserted. The threat is over.’

  ‘How you know the SAS, they come?’ demanded Vitaly.

  Alrek stared at Robert, open-mouthed, with despair in his eyes. He’d been relying on the SAS to save them.

  ‘Webcam conversations are so easy to hack.’

  Luke took a deep breath. ‘I will not call off the SAS.’

  ‘Then your friends will die, one by one.’

  Luke looked into the eyes of each one. ‘I can’t let him do this. I can’t … Once the glacier collapses, there’s nothing we can do to stop catastrophe. Millions will lose their homes.’

  ‘I understand,’ said Madd
ie.

  Vitaly bowed his head once.

  ‘No, do what he says!’ screamed Alrek. ‘I don’t want to die. Please!’

  ‘I will not,’ said Luke.

  ‘I’ll do it!’ Alrek’s voice was high-pitched and shaky. ‘I’m the expedition leader. Andrew trusts me.’

  ‘Alrek, it will collapse,’ Luke said. ‘Don’t do this.’

  ‘You don’t know that!’ he yelled.

  In two angry steps, Robert was alongside Alrek. He drew a gun from his pocket and placed it in the middle of Alrek’s forehead. He fired, and blood splattered over Maddie who was nearest. She screamed, her coat and face speckled crimson.

  Robert stepped aside as Alrek fell forward, a gaping hole in the front and back of his skull. ‘I hate cowards,’ he said matter-of-factly.

  ‘Oh my God! Oh my God!’ Maddie rocked backwards and forwards.

  ‘You!’ growled Vitaly. ‘You are a coward. You kill a man who cannot fight back.’ Vitaly spat in Robert’s direction.

  ‘My first direct kill,’ Robert said, as if to confirm he had actually done it.

  ‘I will not make that call.’

  Robert turned to him. ‘I think your son may have something to say about that.’

  Luke’s eyes hardened to granite. His muscles contracted and he was ready to attack. ‘Leave my son out of it,’ he warned.

  ‘I’m afraid it’s too late for that.’

  T MINUS 3 HOURS, 38 MINUTES

  10 March, 8:22 am (UTC-07)

  The prisoners kneeled on the floor of the Weatherhaven that housed Robert’s IT and comms equipment. Luke and Maddie in front, Vitaly behind. Their hands were bound behind their backs. Facing them was a large monitor.

  Robert sat behind his desk. ‘Luke, I think you should watch this,’ he said. ‘A live feed.’

  On the screen was a suburban street, in the middle of the night – or so Luke assumed. The sky was black and the streetlights illuminated pools of detail: cars and four-wheel drives, wooden fences, low-hanging branches of a gum tree, wheelie bins ready for collection. The camera bounced to a rhythm as the camera man walked.