Polar Quest

She could almost feel the cold.

And somewhere below her, Zach Guilfoyle and his desperate need for her assistance waited.

The plane touched down with a bump and then a skip, followed by another bump and then it was nose down into a screaming, skidding slide that seemed to last utterly forever while Annja kept her eyes closed and her mind focused on her breathing.

And then, everything was still.

“You okay?”

Annja opened her eyes and saw the crewman with the coffee tumbler standing over her.

Annja released her hand rests. “Yeah. I think so.”

He nodded. “Great. Well, we’re here.”

“We are?”

“Yep. Welcome to Antarctica, Miss Creed.”

2

As Annja stepped off the plane, she took in the vast scene before her. She saw snow and ice everywhere, but also the look of an entire town some distance away.

“That’s McMurdo,” the pilot said. “Most of the folks who come down here stop by there first. Last chance at a decent watering hole, too.”

“It’s big,” Annja said. “Much larger than I expected any of the outposts down here to be.”

“During the Antarctic summer, there are between eleven hundred and fifteen hundred people at the station. With over one hundred and fifty buildings, they’ve pretty much got something for everyone,” he said.

“What about now?”

The pilot pointed overhead, where a distinct lack of sun sent howling winds across the barren ice runway. “When it gets dark like this? Maybe two hundred altogether.”

“Cozy,” Annja said.

The pilot laughed over a gale. “We don’t usually fly this time of year.”

“How come you did this time?”

He looked at her. “Orders, Miss Creed. Our orders were to get you down here whatever the risk.”

Annja frowned. “I appreciate the chance you and your crew took on me. I don’t know what the big deal is, but I’ll try not to let you guys down.”

He shook her hand and then headed off to oversee the refueling procedure. Annja knew that once the plane’s tanks were topped off, they’d be flying back to New Zealand.

She felt remarkably warm despite the frigid temperatures outside. The extreme-cold-weather gear she wore had certainly proved itself capable of keeping the harsh conditions at bay, but she wondered how long it might last in a survival situation. She shuddered at the thought of freezing to death out here, but her thoughts were broken by the sound of a vehicle approaching.

Across the ice, she spotted what looked like a Sno-Cat. The tracked vehicle slowly chewed its way through the snow and ice. A flashing red light atop the cab helped mark its position while the bright red paint made it stand out in contrast to its surroundings.

Annja hefted her duffel bag and stood on the leeward side of the plane, trying to shield herself from the wind as much as possible. At last, the Sno-Cat trundled to a halt almost right in front of her and the cab door opened.

“Annja Creed?”

“That’s me.”

“Climb on in—weather’s getting worse. I want to get you back to town before it gets any nastier out here.”

Annja hustled over to the Sno-Cat and heaved her duffel bag into the open door before climbing up on part of the tracks and sliding into the passenger compartment herself.

As soon as she did, she felt a bellows of heat pumping up between her legs. The interior windows were coated with condensation. The driver next to her held out his hand.

“Dave Rasmudsen. Geology.”

Annja shook his hand. “Annja Creed. I have no idea why I’m here.”

He laughed. “I’m sure you’ll find out soon enough.” He pointed at the vents. “Too warm in here? Myself, I like to keep it toasty in the cat. But some folks like it a bit more temperate.”

“As long as I don’t show up all sweaty, I think I’ll be fine for the trip back. How long does it take?”

“About a half hour,” Dave said.

“That long?” Annja asked.

Dave patted the dashboard. “This thing doesn’t do sixty, so we have to settle for a snail’s crawl. But she does the job she was designed to do, which is to say she gets us where we need to go and does it without complaining. So, that said, I can’t complain if she takes a little bit of time to do so.”

“Fair enough.”

“Where you hailing from?”

“New York,” Annja said.

Dave nodded. “I’m outside Anchorage, myself.”

Annja smiled. “So this kind of weather doesn’t really bother you, huh?”

He grinned. “Well, that depends. Now, it’s true Alaska has herself some of the nastiest weather around, especially out on the Bering Sea, but Antarctica can give her a run for her money if she wants. I’ve been here before in storms that would make you get down and hide under your bed. Winds howling and screaming outside—you wonder if the station is going to hold or if you’ll be buried in snow.”

“Sounds delightful,” Annja said.

He laughed. “It’s not bad. I gotta be honest with you, I love her. I mean, where else can you get access to the kind of rocks and soil I can study here? We’ve got projects going on right now that can tell us mounds of info about what happened millions of years ago. It’s tremendous stuff.”

“Or you could be a truck driver.”

Dave grinned. “Exactly. You know what I’m talking about. We only get one shot—we have to live her the best way we know how.”

“You married, Dave?” Annja asked.

He looked surprised. “Me? No, no chance of that. I’m afraid I place my career ahead of everything else. Too much to study and not enough time to devote to a family. I dunno. Maybe that’ll change one day, but not anytime soon. I’ve just got too much to do.”