“You okay?” Jonah asked. “ ’Cause you seem, well, clenched.”
“Can’t help myself,” Cara said. “I’m worried that Ian will do something stupid. Like blow himself up.”
“Ian’s too smart to be stupid,” Jonah said.
“He’s an egomaniac. He takes too many chances. Thinks he’s smarter than everybody else.”
“Word. But that doesn’t make him stupid,” Jonah said. He thought a minute. “Usually.”
“He doesn’t know how to relate to ordinary people. He can be unbelievably dense. And condescending!”
“He’s got some issues,” Jonah agreed. “Got some faults, no question. He’s a bro, though. Don’t tell him I said that.”
“I wish he wasn’t such an idiot!”
Jonah gave the deep chuckle that Film Today magazine referred to as “maple syrup for the ears.” “You and Ian have to work this out, because it’s painful watching the two of you. You need to get honest and get together, if you don’t mind my saying.”
Cara lifted her chin. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“Right.”
His phone buzzed in his hand.
“Anything?” Cara jumped up.
“Sammy.”
She hurried to read the texts over his shoulder.
TRAPPED.
Jonah hunched over the phone. Waiting.
CHENS COULD BE IN LEAGUE W/OUTCAST.
BIOFUEL TO BLOW UP SHIP.
THERE’S ONE CHANCE THAT COULD WORK.
GOT IT. Jonah hit the keys, his stomach clenching.
SUSPECTS: ROLLO. ALSO A SCIENTIST J.E.T.
“Rollo,” Jonah said to Cara. “That’s the guy next door with the Do Not Disturb sign, right? The one who missed the boat?”
COMBUSTIBILITY BUILDUP AS OXYGEN ENTERS TANK. AS FUEL DECREASES O2 INCREASES. BUILDS UP PRESSURE. CHAIN REACTION POSSIBLE.
“Ask him what they can do!” Cara sputtered, but Jonah’s fingers were already tapping out the same question.
THINKING.
“Think faster,” Jonah murmured.
NOISES IN THE HOUSE
OVER AND OUT FOR NOW
They waited.
And waited.
Jonah exchanged a glance with Cara. Friends on a ship rigged to explode, friends trapped in an enemy’s house. And he was sitting here miles away, with no way to get to them. He had to do something!
Cara’s fingers flew on her tablet. “I’m forwarding the texts to Ian.”
She looked up, her face pale. “He says that the Outcast has given them a time limit. The ship is going to blow at six P.M.!”
Jonah slammed his hand down on the desk. “We’ve got to do something! Rollo!” Jonah suddenly bolted from the desk. “He’ll have some answers.”
He’d heard the maid tapping at the guy’s door, asking if he wanted service. No answer for a day. Jonah knocked on the door, but there was no answer, not even a “Go away.”
“Rollo, it’s Jonah Wizard, bro. Time to join the living! No more of this Do Not Disturb. I am disturbing you!”
No answer.
“I’m going in,” Jonah said.
The doors used old-fashioned keys. Cara lifted a bobby pin from her ponytail. “Try this.”
Jonah inserted the pin and wiggled it. No luck. “It always works in the movies. Back up.”
“No, Jonah! Wait!”
Too late. Jonah collided with the door shoulder-first, and bounced off.
Cara leaned over him. “Life doesn’t come with stunt doubles, bro.”
Jonah grabbed his shoulder. “Ow.”
“What I was about to say was, our balconies are right next door to each other. We can climb over and see if the balcony door is open.”
“Right. I knew that.”
They hurried through their hotel room and onto the balcony. Jonah climbed over the railing and stepped across the distance onto the next balcony. He balanced, then pulled himself up and over. He tried the knob and it turned. He looked back at Cara.
“Stay there. I’ll be right back.”
“Are you kidding me? I’m coming.” Cara executed the same maneuver and crowded in behind him.
The room was dark and stuffy. Jonah blinked, trying to adjust after the bright sunlight outside.
Then he saw a shape on the floor.
“Cara, wait outside.”
“Would you stop treating me like a girl? I —” Cara stopped. “Oh. Oh!” She clutched Jonah’s arm.
Jonah crossed to the body on the floor. He lay faceup, and Jonah knew immediately that Rollo was dead.
Death was so much different from the movies, Jonah thought. It hit you in a place that was deeper than you ever wanted to go.
Jonah stared down at the young man, who still wore an expression of surprise.
“We’ll catch the guy who did it, bro,” he said.
As he turned to go, his foot hit something. Jonah crouched down to examine it. It was a metal spear, not long, but with an extremely sharp point. In the center of the spear was a small ring. As though someone could slip it over a finger to rotate it, fast, faster, until it was a blur of contained energy and velocity. And then they let it fly.
Deception Island, Antarctica
Amy crouched by the Zodiac inflatable boats that were used for shore excursions. What was Dr. Jeff doing? It looked like he was taking a Zodiac by himself. That didn’t make sense. Ian had said he was being escorted to the island.
Amy pressed herself back against the ship as Dr. Jeff looked around carefully, then threw a duffel into the Zodiac.
Dan and Ham emerged from the passageway, and she frantically signaled them to join her.
“He’s taking off without an escort,” Amy murmured.
“We went to Zimmer’s cabin looking for him, but he never showed up,” Dan said.
Dr. Jeff attached a hook to a Zodiac and lowered it down into the water. Then he clambered over the side onto the ladder. Amy heard the motor start a moment later.
She opened a nearby supply closet and slipped into a parka.
“What are you doing?” Dan asked.
She shoved her feet into boots. “Following him. He’s got to be up to something. Come on.”
Dan and Hamilton quickly grabbed parkas and boots. Ham lowered the Zodiac into the gray water and they climbed in. Dr. Jeff was already a speck heading toward the island. Amy started up the motor. She kept the speed low, tracking Dr. Jeff, who didn’t look back.
“This is fun. I think my eyeballs are freezing,” Hamilton remarked.
They skimmed through the ice floes, drawing closer and closer to the island. Out on the water, the wind was stronger, sending icy particles against their skin. Now Amy could see the cheerful penguins waddling on the beach and clustered in groups on ice floes. They looked so awkward and funny on land, but as they belly flopped on the ice and slid into the water, they turned into torpedoes of power and speed.
Amy wiped snow out of her eyes. She tried not to think of the ticking minutes, tried to focus on keeping Dr. Jeff’s boat in sight. She felt in the pocket of the parka and found a wool hat. She pulled it on, down to her eyebrows. The Zodiac bumped along the water, sending freezing spray back at them as she zigzagged, keeping the cliffs and bergs between them and Dr. Jeff’s boat.
“Deception Island is an old whaling center,” Dan said over the noise of the engine. “The harbor is a caldera. You know, a collapsed volcano. Don’t worry, the volcano hasn’t erupted since the sixties. Destroyed the Chilean stations completely. And the British.”
“That’s encouraging,” Ham said.
“Once we get past that point, we’ll go through the narrows and be in a kind of horseshoe-shaped harbor.”
The rocks loomed ahead in a palette of browns and blacks, now painted with the purest white snow. As the Zodiac rounded a rock formation the bay appeared, curled around the black volcanic sand. Amy slowed the engine and hugged the rocks as she turned into the narrows. Across the churning gray water, Dr. Jeff was b
eaching the boat.
He shouldered his duffel and walked up the shore. In a few minutes, he had disappeared through the whirling snow.
“He’s probably headed up the beach toward the station,” Dan guessed.
“Let’s follow him.” Amy steered toward the beach, keeping well away from Dr. Jeff’s landing. They pulled the boat up on shore. The wind drove the wet snow against any exposed skin. It made it uncomfortable to walk, but at least the weather provided good cover.
Inquisitive penguins waddled toward them, their wings outstretched for balance.
“Chinstrap penguins,” Dan noted. “See the line on their necks? Dr. Jeff told me about them while we explored the ship. He was a nice guy. I hate it when a good guy turns into a bad guy.”
They raced up the beach. They could see Dr. Jeff’s blue parka in the distance. There were no trees to hide behind, but ahead they saw abandoned buildings and old rusting tanks dotting the landscape, some six or seven stories tall.
“Whaling station,” Dan said. “That’s where they boiled the carcasses for oil. Look, you can still see whale bones on the beach.”
“It’s creepy,” Amy said, thinking of the magnificent creatures she’d seen breaching off the ship. “It’s like we’re on Death Beach.”
“Let’s hope not,” Dan muttered.
They moved from tank to tank, trying to keep Dr. Jeff in sight. It was soon clear that he was heading to the new structure, a bright blue station that was perched on metal stilts.
They walked closer, skirting an abandoned wooden building, the timbers sunk in sand. The skeleton of a whaling boat lay splintered nearby.
Amy stopped. There was just an expanse of sand between them and the station.
“If we keep going, he’ll see us,” she said. “Do you think there are people in the station?”
“There are only summer stations on this island,” Dan said. “They could be gone. I heard the staff saying the scientists are starting to clear out for the winter.”
“Doesn’t look like there’s any activity around,” Hamilton said.
“Then what is he doing here?” Amy murmured.
“If we make a run for it, we can get underneath the station while he’s opening that door,” Hamilton suggested. “Once he’s inside, he won’t be able to see us. He’s going up the stairs. We might make it.”
As soon as he started up the stairs, they dashed toward the station. But when they were halfway across the snow, Jeff turned, as if he felt their presence.
“Okay, we blew it,” Amy said, putting on a smile and waving. “Time to bluff our way out of this.”
The three of them trudged toward the dwelling as Dr. Jeff headed down the stairs toward them.
“What are you doing here?” he asked. His welcoming smile was tight and annoyed.
“We didn’t want to miss out on anything!” Amy answered, injecting a cheerful note in her voice. She was well aware of their isolation, of the fact that no one on the ship knew where they were. Still, she had Dan and Hamilton, and she felt confident that they could overpower Dr. Jeff if they had to. “We took a Zodiac out, and we saw you on the beach.”
“You took a Zodiac out alone?” he asked, frowning. “And you couldn’t have swiped out since you’re stowaways. That could be dangerous. The weather is worsening. You took a big risk. You should go back to the ship right now. I’m just here to collect krill data. The crew has already left for the winter.”
“We’d rather hang with you,” Amy said. “Then we can go back together.”
He looked displeased, but he hitched his bag higher on his shoulder and nodded. “I’m supposed to do the final close of the station. Come on.”
He turned away, and Amy saw the stitched initials on his duffel.
J E T
She remembered the text that Nellie had sent about Sinead. Not much to go on, Nellie had written. But this:
Sinead heard P Oh say that the jet has taken off from Chicago with the package.
Jeffrey E. Tagamayer. JET.
Her legs kept moving, following him up the metal staircase. She slipped her phone out of her pocket and tugged off one glove with her teeth. No reception.
Jeff opened the door and let them pass through. It slammed shut. The solid thud of the door sounded ominous.
They were in an open space divided into living and dining areas. A long table was pushed against a wall, the chairs upended over the table. Desks were over by a rolled-up rug. Bookshelves crammed with books and DVDs lined a wall, but there were no electronics. One corner held a bright purple sofa with multicolored pillows.
“I didn’t expect it to look so homey,” Dan said. He was looking around with what seemed to be genuine interest, but Amy knew he was just as spooked as she was. The thing about Antarctica was that you felt you had been flung off the earth into some strange galaxy. Help seemed a million miles away. She sneaked a glance at her phone. They’d already spent an hour searching the ship and motoring here. One hour to go.
“Sure. The scientists are here from October to March. This is actually a new station, a prototype that they’re leaving here for the winter. There are no winter stations on this island. The generator has been drained of fuel. Solar panels disconnected. Everything’s been shut down. Feel how cold it is?”
Hamilton let out a breath of steam. “Icy.”
“What do the stilts do?” Amy asked. She was stalling, looking around. Wondering why Dr. Jeff was here. She knew it wasn’t for krill.
“The stilts are adjustable according to weather conditions, so they left it high for possible snowfall,” Dr. Jeff said. “Take a look at the bulletin board; it’s got some cool stuff on it. I just need to grab my research. They get up to some pretty fun stuff here … horror movie nights, costume nights, Popsicle contests, you name it.”
With wary eyes on Dr. Jeff, they went to the wall and scanned the photos.
“Why Zimmer named that ship the Titanic, I don’t know. It’s cursed. Not that I want to stomp on his dreams. Everybody has crazy dreams, right? Mine is to get out of krill and into something that actually pays. You know what that is? Energy. You know who can help me do that?”
He opened the door, and the icy wind and snow swept in.
He grinned. “The Outcast. You should be able to see the boom from here.”
They sprinted for the door, but it slammed shut in their faces. They heard the locks engage.
Hamilton yanked, but it didn’t give. “That,” he said, “was a serious miscalculation on our part.”
They ran to the window. Amy heard the noise of a propeller. High in the gray sky, a helicopter was banking. They kept their eyes on it as it circled, looking for a place to land. It finally settled onto some shale. The pilot stayed on board.
It took a few minutes, but soon Dr. Jeff came from the direction of the beach, hurrying toward the copter.
Amy beat on the windows, even though she knew it was useless.
In just minutes, Dr. Jeff had climbed in the copter and flown away.
The snow was now a whirling mass of white. It had taken no time at all for the three of them to feel extremely cold. Jumping jacks helped, but they couldn’t keep it up forever. Well, Dan thought, maybe Ham could.
“Ian will know we came ashore,” Amy declared. “He’ll find us.”
Nobody said what they were all thinking. The ship was scheduled to depart. Ian could assume they were still on board. He would be looking for them even as the ship sailed on. Even as the explosion happened.
They searched the pod, but it was cleared out of anything they could use as a battering ram against the door. The windows were unbreakable. There were no blankets or survival gear. There was no food. Ham picked up a chair and smashed it against the door. The structure didn’t even shake.
“This place is built to withstand high winds, blizzards, and snow accumulation,” Dan said. “I don’t think it will break, even for a Tomas.”
They gathered couch cushions and piled them in a corner, hu
ddling together for warmth. Dan tried to remember the symptoms of hypothermia.
Shivering. Check.
Clumsiness. I just dropped binoculars on my foot.
Slurred speech. Not yet. But then again, I haven’t said anything in five minutes.
Ham stood and began to run in place. “We’re going to get out of here, okay? Let’s just keep our blood moving. There’s no such thing as ‘can’t’ in the Holt universe!”
Amy began to jump up and down, beating her arms against her sides.
“You two look like nerds,” Dan said. “Let me join you.” He jumped up and down, beating his hands against his legs. His fingers felt cold inside his gloves. “Too bad we can’t shake this place down to the ground.”
“Wait a minute.” Amy stopped jumping. “Didn’t Jeff say that the stilts are adjustable?”
“Yes, so that they can accommodate snow accumulation,” Dan said.
Hamilton stopped running. “That means hydraulics, right?”
“I guess. Why?”
“Because there will be controls inside the pod, that’s why.” Hamilton started to roam around the space, searching frantically. “Here’s a control panel,” he called. “It’s got lift controls for the stilts. It will work without electricity! Gravity is on our side.”
“But what good will that do?” Dan asked. “We’ll just be closer to the ground and still won’t be able to get out.”
Ham glanced around the room. “Not if we torque it.”
“What do you mean?”
“If we pile the cushions in a corner … and barricade ourselves … and do three legs at once….”
“Exactly,” Amy said, totally in tune with Ham’s thinking. “We collapse three legs so the whole thing crashes down and torques at the same time. The stress on the corners …”
“Might snap it.”
“But what about us?” Dan asked. “It would be like being in an elevator falling five stories. Not to mention when it cracks apart like an egg!”
“Do you have a better idea?” Amy asked. “We’ve got to get back to that ship!”