Polar Quest. Tom Grace

a radio message from Collins reporting that the plane landed safely – ‘

      ‘That is what I heard,’ Mati interjected.

      ‘Then,’ Kilkenny continued, ‘whoever did this is trying to maintain a fiction that nothing has happened. We have to assume that they’re monitoring communications, so if you contact McMurdo to report the downing of Skier-98, they’ll know their cover’s been blown. And that might piss them off enough to bring them here.’

      ‘How did they get a missile to LV?’ Mati asked. ‘Could they have smuggled something like that through McMurdo?’

      ‘McMurdo is not the only way into Antarctica,’ Yasha said.

      ‘The weapon they used wasn’t one of those small, shoulder-fired units,’ Kilkenny said. ‘My plane was shot down about twenty-five kilometers away from LV. To hit a target at that range requires some very serious hardware.’

      ‘Mati and I were at LV two days ago for a farewell meal with Philip and Nedra,’ Yasha said. ‘No one else was there and we saw nothing unusual. They must have flown this missile launcher in – a traverse from the coast would take too long. But why would anyone do this? LV has no strategic value, no precious metals or natural resources. It’s a scientific research station.’

      ‘It does have one thing of value – the Ice Pick probe. It’s jam-packed with exotic technology, and right now it’s all crated up and ready for the trip back to the States. This is the perfect time to steal it.’

      ‘But why did they shoot down your plane?’ Mati asked. ‘Why not just come in, take the probe, and leave?’

      Kilkenny considered the question for a moment. ‘Because they don’t want anyone to know the probe was stolen. That message you overheard was to make McMurdo think my plane arrived safely. McMurdo will probably get another message about the time we’re scheduled to take off, and that’s the last anyone will hear of Skier-98. When the plane doesn’t arrive, they’ll assume it crashed somewhere on the way back.’

      ‘And the weather is getting too cold to search for survivors,’ Yasha added. ‘We battle all winter long to keep our buildings from being swallowed by the ice. By next October, they won’t be able to find any trace of your plane’s wreckage.’

      Kilkenny envisioned the debris field left by Skier-98 on the polar plateau slowly disappearing into the ice. Had Kilkenny been aboard when the missile hit, the search teams wouldn’t know where to start to look.

      ‘What about Nedra and Philip?’ Mati asked. ‘What will happen to them?’

      ‘My guess is they’ll be killed as soon as the people who took LV Station are ready to leave.’

      ‘Those are good people,’ Mati said to Yasha. ‘We must tell McMurdo what has happened.’

      ‘You can’t,’ Kilkenny said sternly. ‘If you do, you’ll erase any usefulness Philip and Nedra may still have to their captors. And even if you could contact McMurdo quietly, there’s no time to bring in anyone to deal with this. My plane was scheduled to take off from LV in less than six hours.’

      ‘This is madness!’ Mati said angrily.

      ‘Yasha, you said that you and Mati were at LV Station two days ago. How did you get there, snowmobiles?’ Kilkenny asked.

      ‘No, those are too difficult to keep running here. Mati and I sail iceboats. We race them back in Russia. Here, we just practice. Why?’

      ‘There’s a chance we can get Philip and Nedra out of this alive, but I’ve got to get to LV Station fast.’

       7

      Yasha led the way toward one of the support buildings, followed by Kilkenny and Mati. When he grasped the lever handle and pulled, a brittle veneer of ice shattered as he opened the door.

      ‘Inside, please,’ Yasha said urgently.

      The wind slammed the door behind them, knocking Yasha back. He flipped the switches by the door and a dozen fluorescent tubes flickered on. The building housed a large machine shop used to service the station’s equipment.

      Yasha studied Kilkenny for a moment. ‘How much do you weigh? About eighty kilos?’

      Kilkenny did the math in his head. ‘About that. Why?’

      ‘The masts and planks on our iceboats are designed to bend under our weight. You and Mati are about same weight and build. You should use his boat.’

      ‘It will bring you luck,’ Mati said. ‘It’s good Estonian boat. Everybody knows best iceboaters come from Estonia.’

      Near a large overhead door, Kilkenny saw a pair of thirty-foot-long iceboats. The sleek, carbon-fiber hulls – fully enclosed with clear Plexiglas bubble canopies – looked more like F-18s than watercraft. From the stern of the iceboats, a broad plank sprang like an outrigger, ten feet to each side, at the ends of which were fixed runners. A third runner mounted on a pivot stood beneath the tapered nose of each iceboat, providing a means to steer the agile racers.

      ‘They are beautiful, no?’ Yasha said proudly as they approached the iceboats.

      ‘Very,’ Kilkenny replied. ‘I was expecting a DN boat.’

      Yasha shook his head. ‘No, it’s too cold here for open cockpit. These are Skeeter Class.’

      ‘You know about iceboats?’ Mati asked with some surprise.

      ‘A little. I helped my grandfather build a few DN boats when I was a kid, but I sailed on water.’ Kilkenny ran his hand over the hull’s glossy white surface. ‘How fast?’

      Mati grinned. ‘On smooth ice with a good wind, two-hundred-and-fifty kilometres per hour. Here, we sail on mix of rough ice and snow, so we have to use hybrid blade/ski runners. It’s not as fast as back home.’

      ‘Show me what I need to know.’

      Mati slid the canopy forward along its tracks. Then he stripped off his parks and lay down on his back inside the cockpit of his dark blue iceboat. Mati’s body filled most of the long narrow cockpit, his shoulders almost touching the sides. ‘You steer with your feet to turn the front runner at the end of the springboard.’

      ‘Push left to go right?’ Kilkenny asked.

      ‘Yes.’ Mati grabbed the joystick mounted near his right hand. ‘Instead of lines, this operates electric winches for adjusting sail and stays. Push forward to let out sail and slow boat down; pull back to trim sail and increase speed. Pushing right will loosen the stays. This will allow mast and plank to bend more – good for acceleration. Pull joystick to left to tighten the stays – it will help point closer to wind. Doing this may also cause you to hike boat up on two runners, so be careful.’

      ‘Hiking boat is fun,’ Yasha added, ‘but you run risk of capsizing. Not good thing to do on ice.’

      ‘Joystick is spring-loaded,’ Mati continued, ‘so once you make adjustment, you can let go and the sail will stay where you set it. The art of iceboating is tuning mast and sail to match the conditions. Here, on left side, is small steering wheel. You use it to steer the boat when you run alongside, pushing boat to get it moving. You can also use wheel as a backup, if the foot-pedal steering fails.’

      ‘If it handles anything like my Windrunner, I should be fine.’

      ‘Our boats are equipped with small electric heater and GPS unit.’ Mati tapped a small, flat-display panel mounted beneath the front edge of the cockpit opening. ‘Yasha and I have made trip to LV several times over summer; route is programmed into the GPS.’

      ‘You will encounter cracks in the ice – don’t try to run parallel or you risk dropping runner into crack and wrecking boat,’ Yasha advised. ‘Just sail