pulled it out and smoothed it against the notebook’s cover. It was a printout. Easier to read, but that was no help understanding it. Just a string of numbers, no spaces, zeros and ones and twos in an apparently random order:
1100121101012 …
Some sort of data set, I supposed.
A gust of wind lifted the paper. I snatched for it, but my fingers were clumsy with cold. It blew out of the notebook and fluttered across the glacier, white against white. In a split second, I could hardly see it.
I wasn’t going to lose it before I knew what it meant. I scrambled out of the pit and ran after it, floundering through the snow, skidding where the wind had scoured out patches of ice. Behind me, Annabel was shouting something, but with my hood up and the wind roaring around me, I didn’t make out the words.
The paper blew up against a rocky outcrop and stopped. I grabbed it, but my fingers wouldn’t move. I clapped it between my hands to lift it, then just about managed to stuff it into my coat pocket. I had to get my mittens back on.
Annabel was still shouting. I looked around to see what she wanted, and realised how far I’d come. Well beyond the safe area. Perhaps that’s what she was trying to tell me.
‘I’m coming,’ I called, and stepped forward.
Something cracked. The ground gave way under me. I felt a sickening emptiness as I fell. I remember thinking,
This is how a snowflake feels
.
Snow lands soft as a feather. I didn’t. I hit my head, and the white world went black.
Eleven
USCGC
Terra Nova
The vibrating pager skittered across the tabletop like a beetle. The captain’s hand trapped it right before it went over the edge. He read the screen and stood.
‘Give me a minute.’
Anderson, half buried under the pink blanket, gave a lean smile. ‘I just reached the most exciting part.’
‘Yeah. But the helicopter’s coming in.’
The smile vanished. ‘Any survivors?’
‘That’s what I’m going to find out.’
Franklin closed the door behind him. Santiago was waiting in the corridor.
‘You get anything, boss?’
‘Long story. What’s the word from the boarding party?’
‘ETA five minutes. They said to have a couple of stretchers ready. And to open up the cold locker.’
They climbed the stairs towards the wheelhouse. There were ten decks on the
Terra Nova
, and wherever you happened to be, the chances were that what you wanted would be on a different deck. A floating StairMaster. The crew were the fittest in the Coast Guard.
Santiago’s voice dropped. ‘We’ve been doing some checking up on this guy. There’s a few wrinkles.’
‘Like?’ They went past the wipe board where the science schedule was written up. Sailing in the Arctic, things changed so often the geeks called it the Board of Lies.
‘For starters, he doesn’t have a PhD like he claimed. He got kicked out of school before he finished – some big scandal. An experiment went wrong, he’d faked the paperwork, they cut him loose.’
‘You figure all that out yourself, Ops?’
Santiago grinned. ‘I got one of the geeks to help me out.’
They came out on the bridge. Franklin crossed to the rear windows and looked down on the flight deck. Snow was blowing over the side, covering the deck as quickly as the crew could sweep it back. He scanned for the helicopter. Couldn’t even find the sky.
‘There, sir.’
Santiago pointed. A dim light had appeared, blinking in the fog like a distant lighthouse. It grew brighter. Rotor blades chopped a hole in the fog.
‘“At length did cross an Albatross,”’ Franklin murmured. ‘“Through the fog it came.”’
‘What’s that, sir?’
‘Poetry, Commander. You wouldn’t like it.’
‘Is it gonna be on the test?’
The helicopter swam out of the fog and towards the deck. In the Navy, they’d drop a wire to the deck and winch the helicopter in. But everyone knew the Navy were pussies. The Coast Guard liked to keep their birds free-range. As it passed the
1100121101012 …
Some sort of data set, I supposed.
A gust of wind lifted the paper. I snatched for it, but my fingers were clumsy with cold. It blew out of the notebook and fluttered across the glacier, white against white. In a split second, I could hardly see it.
I wasn’t going to lose it before I knew what it meant. I scrambled out of the pit and ran after it, floundering through the snow, skidding where the wind had scoured out patches of ice. Behind me, Annabel was shouting something, but with my hood up and the wind roaring around me, I didn’t make out the words.
The paper blew up against a rocky outcrop and stopped. I grabbed it, but my fingers wouldn’t move. I clapped it between my hands to lift it, then just about managed to stuff it into my coat pocket. I had to get my mittens back on.
Annabel was still shouting. I looked around to see what she wanted, and realised how far I’d come. Well beyond the safe area. Perhaps that’s what she was trying to tell me.
‘I’m coming,’ I called, and stepped forward.
Something cracked. The ground gave way under me. I felt a sickening emptiness as I fell. I remember thinking,
This is how a snowflake feels
.
Snow lands soft as a feather. I didn’t. I hit my head, and the white world went black.
Eleven
USCGC
Terra Nova
The vibrating pager skittered across the tabletop like a beetle. The captain’s hand trapped it right before it went over the edge. He read the screen and stood.
‘Give me a minute.’
Anderson, half buried under the pink blanket, gave a lean smile. ‘I just reached the most exciting part.’
‘Yeah. But the helicopter’s coming in.’
The smile vanished. ‘Any survivors?’
‘That’s what I’m going to find out.’
Franklin closed the door behind him. Santiago was waiting in the corridor.
‘You get anything, boss?’
‘Long story. What’s the word from the boarding party?’
‘ETA five minutes. They said to have a couple of stretchers ready. And to open up the cold locker.’
They climbed the stairs towards the wheelhouse. There were ten decks on the
Terra Nova
, and wherever you happened to be, the chances were that what you wanted would be on a different deck. A floating StairMaster. The crew were the fittest in the Coast Guard.
Santiago’s voice dropped. ‘We’ve been doing some checking up on this guy. There’s a few wrinkles.’
‘Like?’ They went past the wipe board where the science schedule was written up. Sailing in the Arctic, things changed so often the geeks called it the Board of Lies.
‘For starters, he doesn’t have a PhD like he claimed. He got kicked out of school before he finished – some big scandal. An experiment went wrong, he’d faked the paperwork, they cut him loose.’
‘You figure all that out yourself, Ops?’
Santiago grinned. ‘I got one of the geeks to help me out.’
They came out on the bridge. Franklin crossed to the rear windows and looked down on the flight deck. Snow was blowing over the side, covering the deck as quickly as the crew could sweep it back. He scanned for the helicopter. Couldn’t even find the sky.
‘There, sir.’
Santiago pointed. A dim light had appeared, blinking in the fog like a distant lighthouse. It grew brighter. Rotor blades chopped a hole in the fog.
‘“At length did cross an Albatross,”’ Franklin murmured. ‘“Through the fog it came.”’
‘What’s that, sir?’
‘Poetry, Commander. You wouldn’t like it.’
‘Is it gonna be on the test?’
The helicopter swam out of the fog and towards the deck. In the Navy, they’d drop a wire to the deck and winch the helicopter in. But everyone knew the Navy were pussies. The Coast Guard liked to keep their birds free-range. As it passed the
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