by John M Grier
Time Awaits
Three days later Jack had melted his way down to his boat. Not only did he get there, but he made the hole big enough to get his hovercraft down to the boat as well. Granted, it would be awkward to get the hovercraft actually secured on the boat, but he would figure something out.
What he didn’t count on was the state of his vessel. The bubble that had shown up with him had frozen solid and now he had to deal with thawing the boat out a bit at a time to free it.
Suzie came up with the idea to just get to his engines and start them up. If they would start, they may just thaw the ice out all by themselves, at least enough to make the jump. So he began the painstaking task of freeing the deck clear of ice enough to allow the doors to open to access the decks below.
Finally, he got the doors free and made his way down to the engine room. Not knowing much about them, he was a bit apprehensive to learn that they were encased in ice. Knowing that they were powered by sea water, which was frozen at the intake, he began attempting to melt the ice around the intake. He got a significant area clear and started the engines. They acted like they didn’t want to start at first, but after a few minutes, they came to life.
Jack made his way to the master control panel and turned on the heaters. Mission accomplished for he moment, he said “Suzie, I have the feeling this is going to take quite a while to thaw completely. Do you think we will have enough time to sneak over to the original dig site and have another look around?
“I would estimate, based on the ambient temperature and the current rate of thaw, that we have somewhere between twelve and eighteen hours before the boat is free of the surrounding ice.”
“Okay then. Let’s go see what we can find. The hologram of the man said that we had to find the key to open the box that was in the briefcase. Maybe we’ll get lucky.”
They made their way over the ice in the hovercraft in a matter of minutes. With the government gone, there was just a hole in the ice with a barrier around it to keep Polar Bears from hurting themselves. Apparently, someone still had the idea that Polar Bears were endangered. Whoever it was really needed to make a trip up here sometime. The big white creatures were everywhere!
Jack parked the hovercraft near the hole and using the winch attached to the front, lowered himself down into it. Suzie met him at the bottom. They made their way through the ice tunnels to the barn and walked inside. Inside, they found it had been trashed by the government idiots that Janet instructed to gather tools for the museum. These people had absolutely no idea what archaeology was all about.
Fortunately, they had left the van alone and it seemed like they didn’t even notice the trap door to the secret room. Checking the van first, Jack found nothing. Next, he made his way through the piles of debris that not long ago were viable artifacts on an archaeological dig site. Now, it was just a bunch of trash. Thousand year-old trash, but trash nonetheless.
Jack got the trap door open and found Suzie already down there looking around. When he entered, the lights came on as before. He said “Okay, this place is set up like a church. Maybe the key will be behind the podium at the front. He carefully made his way to the pulpit, looking at everything along the way.
Stopping at the second row of folding chairs, Jack spotted something odd. Attached to the underside of the third chair in the row was another disk, similar to the one that was in the briefcase. Turning the chair over, he easily freed the disk and put it in his coat pocket. “Take a look around if you would, and see if you see anything like this under any other chairs, or anything else, for that matter.”
“Sure thing, boss” she said.
“Boss, huh? That’s a new one” Jack said with a chuckle.
The two of them found nothing else, and most notably, no key. The only thing Jack found that he did not notice before, aside from the other disk, was on the podium at the front. There were three indentations that the disks would fit into as if they were a key to something.
Assuming that the two they already had in their possession were part of the “key”, Jack came to the conclusion that there was still one disk missing. Finding nothing else in the secret room, they climbed the ladder. Well Jack did, Suzie merely met him at the top.
Jack said “I’m going to look around here and see if there is another one of these disks somewhere. Do you think you could make it over to the light house, through the ice and have a look around?”
“Sure, Jack. But, if it’s encased in ice, I won’t be able to communicate until I return.”
“Okay, if you find nothing, come back here and help me look around this mess. Otherwise, meet me here in, say, one hour” Jack said looking at his watch.
After nearly an hour of looking, Jack was under the impression that they wouldn’t find the other disk, if it in fact actually existed. About that time, Suzie popped back in and scared Jack. Jack jumped and fell on his backside. Suzie laughed and eventually Jack did too. She said “That really never does get old!” and laughed some more.
“Did you find anything?”
“Nope. Sorry Jack. Maybe when we watch the recording on the disk, it will give us a better idea.”
“You’re probably right. However, I say we go get the boat free of the ice and then follow up on our plan to free Paul. As it stands, he’s been Janet’s prisoner for a few days already.”
