Calamity

by Gail McCormick

  Owen had gotten off his phone and saw Kyle watching Camellia. “Making a point, I see,” he said.

  “I’m from the very deepest, poorest South,” she retorted.

  He handed her his napkin. “I think you’ve already made that clear enough.”

  Kyle had overheard most of what Camellia said to Robert and Owen but hadn’t joined in. He ran a hand through his hair. I don’t seem to be able to figure her out, he thought. When they’d finished their meal he stood up and said, “We’ll only be in Siberia two days, possibly three if we run into problems, so we’ll want to accomplish as much as we can in a very short time.” He glanced at Camellia. “Let’s get as much sleep as possible.” With that he nodded to the group. “We can catch a cab to the airport.” Barbara joined him, and they headed out of the dining room together.

  In the hallway she said, “Camellia collects men like children collect fireflies. She scooped up Anish and Robert in a hurry.”

  “Seems to me they were trying to scoop her up,” Kyle replied. “Moths to a flame.” They arrived at the entrance and Kyle hailed a taxi as the others caught up with them. Senator Trotford pushed his way into the first cab that stopped. Kyle and Barbara joined him. The other scientists got into a second taxi.

  “We’ll catch the next one,” Owen said.

  The first two took off, and Camellia breathed a sigh of relief. “I’ll be glad when this is over.” Little did she know.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  NEXT DAY

  PLANE TRIP TO SIBERIA

  SECOND LEG

  THERE WAS A FLASH OF LIGHT AND A LOUD NOISE AS LIGHTNING STUCK THE PLANE. The passengers were startled but settled back when nothing untoward happened. They were stuck on the tarmac since a heavy downpour was delaying the flight. Fierce gusts of wind rattled the small plane’s windows.

  It would take three hours to fly from Moscow to Salekhard. The plane seats were arranged with two on one side of the aisle and one on the other. It was so old the seat covers had rips, and cabin walls had deep scratches. Some tray tables wouldn’t stay clipped up against the seats. Occupants of the bathroom found the door so jammed they had to kick it to get back out. Fortunately the seat belt buckles held together. There were very few passengers.

  Camellia had taken a seat next to Owen toward the front of the plane. When she looked around, she was distressed to see just how small the plane was. I can do it, she told herself, taking a deep breath. Breathe, yes, that’s how to handle this idiotic fear of being trapped. What she wanted to do more than anything was to dash down the aisle, force the door open, and jump off the plane. With any luck, two more deep breaths would help her manage to remain seated, but she started to shudder. Owen knew about her phobia. He put an arm around her shoulders, leaned in and, with his mouth near her ear so that no one could hear him, whispered, “You can handle it.” He knew that when she was seven years old a neighboring bully had locked her in his windowless basement in the dark. She had caught a glimpse of rats running across the damp floor. He waited five hours before letting her out. She still had nightmares about it.

  Camellia noted that Kyle was standing at the head of the aisle, watching them.

  The parka and long pants she was wearing totally covered her body. Her feet were planted in sturdy flat-heeled boots. “Passable outfit?” she asked, focusing on something other than her feeling of dread.

  He looked Camellia over from head to toe and nodded but didn’t reply. Snuggling up with an apparent lover on the plane seemed inappropriate. At least he figured that was why he was irritated. He found her just as enticing covered up as in her minimal clothing.

  “Gee, thanks for the reassurance. Goodness gracious, such a vote of confidence makes me happy as a pig in mud.” I am not letting my feelings be hurt, she told herself. The way he looked me up and down made me feel like he thinks I’m a slut.

  Kyle ignored Camellia’s caustic comment and addressed her as well as Owen and Senator Trotford. “You’ve gotten to know the rest of this team now. So okay people, listen up.”

  Dudley had finagled a seat across from Camellia and had been trying to talk to her while reaching over to clasp her arm. As Kyle frowned at them, she quickly pushed his hand away.

  “We’ll be walking on treacherous ground that could give way at any point. Stick close behind Barbara and me. We’ll test it a step at a time. There’s no telling what we might encounter. A few years ago, anthrax killed a 12-year-old boy not far from where we’ll be. Fortunately, twenty of the nomadic herders did survive. The herders were evacuated, and the immediate area was quarantined,” Kyle continued. “The doctors thought it was connected to a reindeer infected with anthrax over 75 years ago, one that emerged from thawing permafrost. It seemed likely the corpse released infectious anthrax spores into nearby water and soil, and then into the food supply. More than 2,000 reindeer grazing nearby became infected. Their carcasses were burned.”

  “Wow!” Owen exclaimed.

  “Yes. Thawing permafrost. That’s where we’re going and what you’re going to see.”

  He looked at Senator Trotford and Camellia. “For god’s sake don’t touch anything. Let me deal with whatever we find.”

  Barbara was seated at the front of the plane. She turned to face the others and softened his admonition. “Permafrost’s really good at preserving bacteria and viruses. Biologists like me think pathogenic microbes capable of infecting humans might be preserved in old permafrost layers.”

  Kyle focused on Camellia and Senator Trotford again. “I assume you know pathogenic means disease-causing.”

  Camellia’s response was mocking. “Aww, shucks, really?”

  Senator Trotford ignored the comment and took his phone out of his pocket.

  “Smallpox and bubonic plague are probably under the tundra,” Kyle said. “No one knows whether bodies buried during those epidemics could become lethal when they’re exposed. Some from the 1918 flu pandemic have already emerged.”

  Dudley was about to turn his phone on but paused and looked at Kyle.

  “Nothing other than the death from anthrax has happened yet,” Kyle continued, “but there was an odd case of seal finger infection. Hunters pick it up from handling seal body parts. A teacher was helping archaeologists with an excavation on Alaska’s northern coast. Seal hunters used the spot for centuries, so it wasn’t surprising to discover 70 year old decaying corpses as permafrost thawed. After kneeling in the gunk, the teacher wound up with a bacterial infection covering his knee. It wasn’t tested for seal finger infection, but it responded to the usual antibiotic treatment for it. The only seals he’d handled were ones frozen all those years.” He paused to let that sink in. “You might wonder why I’ve gone on about this, but you need to know just how serious it could be.” They were all paying rapt attention.

  Dudley was incredulous. “That’s ridiculous! They haven’t proved anything and nothing else has happened. One dead 12-year old boy hardly matters.”

  Barbara shook her head. “NASA scientists successfully revived bacteria encased in a frozen Alaskan pond for something like 30,000 years. When the ice melted, the microbes started swimming around, and when they were revived, they became infectious.”

  “Dang,” Camellia said. “That’s the days of woolly mammoths and saber-toothed cats.”

  Kyle raised his eyebrows. He was surprised that she knew when those creatures roamed the Earth.

  “Scientists are discovering new ‘giant viruses’ in the carcasses of woolly mammoths in the thawing permafrost. Those are hardier than normal viruses, which likely helped them stay intact for thousands of years,” Barbara added.

  “While it’s true the bacteria from the pond hasn’t become a problem, we simply don’t know what the upshot might be if others are exposed,” Kyle added. “There may be microbes in creatures so ancient that modern humans have never encountered them. That could mean no immunity to possible diseases and no known cure.”

  Senator Trotf
ord had stopped paying attention. He was focused on sending a text.

  “Enough of the science. Suffice it to say we all need to be especially careful,” Kyle added as he headed for his seat next to Barbara. “We’re here to do an important job, not babysit.” He was tempted to add politicians and newscasters. Instead he said, “One last word of warning, the ground has collapsed 280 feet deep in some parts of Siberia.”

  When the pilot started the engines there was a rumbling noise, and the plane shook.

  “Good god!” Trotford exclaimed. “Will this thing get off the ground?”

  “We’re about to find out,” Kyle said as he sat down and fastened his seatbelt.

  CHAPTER SIX

  NEXT DAY

  SALEKHARD

  SIBERIA

  THE VAN HIT SUCH A DEEP CRATER IN THE ROAD THAT DUDLEY WAS THROWN OFF HIS SEAT. He hadn’t bothered with a seatbelt when they left the airport. “Damn!” he said as he picked himself up. The others were slammed into their seat belts and shaken but unharmed. They were jet-lagged and half asleep. The impact woke them up.

  “That’s new pothole,” the driver said.

  “It should only be a few more miles to the hotel,” Kyle reassured them. The building proved to be two stories tall and painted half yellow, half a deep rose. A huge sign in Russian with the hotel name was attached to the roof above the entrance. There was one minor crack in the wall at the right corner of the building.

  Camellia and Owen took rooms as far away from everyone else as possible. The smell of cigarette and cigar smoke was pervasive but the rooms were clean otherwise. Although tired, Camellia wanted to check out the city, so she and Owen took off by themselves and wandered around Salekhard. Kyle worked on renting the 4Runners and figuring out exactly where they would be going and how to get there. When they got back, they found Trotford in the hotel lounge, seated next to a small table with a drink propped on it and his phone in his hand. Camellia decided to get him on camera. She sat down across from him, and Owen set up his equipment.

  “Would you like to tell viewers more about why you wanted to make this trip? She asked.

  He hesitated for a minute then shrugged. “Thought I might as well find out what all the fuss is about warming in the Arctic.” His phone pinged, and he glanced at the text. “I need to respond to this,” he said, dismissing them.

  Owen and Camellia went up to her room where she ordered golubtsy delivered for dinner. The meat stuffed cabbage leaves were recommended by hotel staff, and she figured she’d like to try out a Russian dish. “It’s hard to know why NIP was willing to send us with Trotford to Siberia, considering his vague reason for coming, but the station does love him, and he’s a friend of the owner, so maybe that’s it,” Camellia mused.

  “Well, he is one of their favorites,” Owen said. With that, they dropped the subject and looked over the footage he’d gotten.

  The next morning at 7:00 they all gathered in the dining room for breakfast. “Everyone sleep well?” Kyle asked as he surveyed the group, his gaze stopping when it reached Camellia. She nodded as did everyone but Trotford.

  “Beds are too lumpy,” he complained.

  Kyle noticed Camellia’s frown. That seems to be disgust, he thought. Maybe Owen had kept her out of Trotford’s bed. He was sitting next to Barbara who diverted his attention by asking him a question. When they’d finished eating, Kyle addressed the group. “Take a bathroom break before we leave. There won’t be facilities where we’re going. We’ll leave in fifteen minutes.” He was eager to get started. There was no way he could have guessed just how eventful the day would be.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  NEXT MORNING

  ON THE TUNDRA AND

  IN SALEKHARD

  SIBERIA

  “WE’LL HAVE TO TAKE OUR CHANCES WITH HUNGRY BEARS until Robert gets here,” Kyle said as he studied the Arctic scene. Looks like a good day for us. Much too warm for this time of year but that’s the new normal for now. Stick close.”

  The first group had parked its Toyota 4Runner and gathered on a rough path surrounded by flat tundra extending in all directions as far as the eye could see. A vicious swarm of mosquitoes attacked them the minute they stepped out of the four-wheel drive vehicle. With the soaring temperature, they’d left their parkas in their rooms and applied mosquito repellent before heading out. Camellia covered her head with a scarf to deter some of the insects. The others would arrive a little later since Robert had taken time to try to find a rifle or shotgun and assemble their gear.

  They proceeded to walk along single file with Owen filming the remarkable scenery. Occasional peculiar round lumps of ground rising above the grassy terrain were interspersed with a few sinkholes of varying sizes. A wild bird soared and swooped in the distance.

  Kyle spotted a small grassy mound and stopped. The others gathered around him, slightly off the path.

  “Wow, could you feel that?” Barbara exclaimed. “The ground here actually wobbled right under my feet!”

  Owen moved closer to the mound. “Yes, I felt it too.”

  The others edged in.

  “Methane bubbles can cause wobbling,” Kyle said. Barbara handed him the narrow long-handled shovel she’d been carrying. “Back off everyone,” he cautioned as he dug into a layer of grass and soil. “This is such a small hole it shouldn’t be problematic, but you can’t be sure. It’s kind of like jello,” he observed as he continued to dig deeper into the pocket. Suddenly a thin fountain of gas erupted. A few rocks blasted out with it. Startled, everyone scrambled back onto the path.

  Handing the shovel to Barbara, he said, “It’s got to be methane or carbon dioxide. We need to analyze it to determine which and the strength of the concentration.”

  “It’ll be bad news if this is methane,” Barbara said.

  Owen was surprised. “How so?”

  “It doesn’t last anywhere near as long as carbon dioxide, but methane’s a greenhouse gas that’s about 80 times as strong over a twenty-year period.”

  “And massive quantities could be released as the permafrost thaws,” Kyle added. He turned to Barbara. “Give Robert a call and ask him to head here with our equipment as soon as he can. Forget the rifle. We can see into the distance, and there’s no sign of bears.”

  Barbara nodded as she punched his number in. “Right.”

  Senator Trotford hadn’t been paying attention. He had gone on ahead of the others and had come upon a partly exposed bony carcass with some flesh attached. As he reached down to pick up one of the bones, he exclaimed, “Get a load of this!”

  The others caught up and saw what he was talking about.

  Kyle was furious. “Don’t touch that you fool! We need to use protective gloves to deal with anything we find. I’ve told you that a decomposing reindeer wound up killing a boy. What if you were to catch something for which there’s no cure and spread it around? That’s how pandemics are started!”

  His warning came too late. Dudley had already picked up the bone and was running his hand along it, feeling the rough edges. He dropped it like a hot potato and wiped his hands on his jacket.

  “You can hope your stunt doesn’t come back to haunt you,” Kyle said. He turned to Barbara. “Tell Robert to collect the bone from this creature using his protective gloves. Best not to disturb the ground any more than necessary since we don’t know what might be uncovered.”

  She had been taking photos of the site but switched to make the call.

  They continued to walk for another hour, swatting mosquitoes as they went. Dudley lagged behind reluctantly. To their left there were more mounds and round holes partially or totally filled with water. They were able to return by a different route that was similar to the path out. By now Robert, David and Anish had caught up with them. All three carried assorted equipment. They had stopped on the way to take the measurements and collect the bone that Trotford found.

  “I need to have you check out the mounds we’re fin
ding in this area,” Kyle told Robert as Barbara handed the shovel to David. “But don’t dig into any one wider than a foot in diameter. And see what you can make of the holes around here that might have been caused by methane eruptions. You might find more exposed animals. Collect any bones you can but be really careful dealing with them. You’ll need to dispose of your gloves properly, as you know.” He faced the others. “And on the rest of our way back no one will lay a hand on anything, okay?”

  Dudley glared at him but didn’t reply.

  Kyle turned to Camellia. “You got that, right? Stay close, don’t touch anything.”

  “I don’t have even the least lick of common sense?”

  “The need for a good story could overwhelm your judgment. Just bear that in mind.”

  “What?! You think I’m an idiot too? Well, you’re dumb as a sack of rocks.” She stomped off, veering slightly off the path. Her left foot got stuck in the muck almost immediately, and she stumbled.

  Kyle moved fast enough to catch her in time to keep her from landing on the soggy ground. He held her while she reached down and managed to pull her foot out of the boot. She couldn’t wrench the boot out of the sludge and put it back on without his support, so he continued to hold her while she struggled with it. He was still holding her close when she had her two feet on solid ground again. They were both disconcerted. She pulled away quickly without a word, got back on the path and turned to slog back to the Toyota ahead of the others, stopping occasionally to shake more muddy debris off her boot.

  He stared after her as she went.

  Barbara had continued to use her cell phone to take pictures of the carcass and the area surrounding it. She put it in her pocket and joined Kyle. “She certainly has a temper.”

  Kyle scratched his head. “Feisty. I do seem to get under her skin. We got off on the wrong foot, that’s for sure.”