Matthew Reilly: Ice Station

But when they had got to the dockyard at Pearl, Trent had seen Chuck Kozlowski standing next to a navy blue Buick, waiting for the Wasp to dock.

Trent had felt a sudden chill. Why was Kozlowski here? Had the ICG won?as it had in Peru?and was Kozlowski here to congratulate the traitors? Or was he here for some other reason? For if Schofield had survived , then the ICG would almost certainly want to eliminate him.

And so Trent and the two reporters had just watched and waited. And then, when they saw Schofield emerge from the ship and get escorted to Kozlowski's Buick, Trent had called the only person he could think of who could?and would? pull rank on Chuck Kozlowski.

Jack Walsh.

"Who'd have thought it?" Walsh said, coming over. "There I am, on the bridge of my wrecked boat, minding my own business, when my comtech comes running in and says he's got some guy on the external switch who says he has to talk to me. Says it's an emergency regarding Lieutenant Schofield. Says his name is Andrew Trent ." Walsh smiled. "I figured I oughta take the call."

Schofield just shook his head, amazed.

"You've been through a lot," Trent said, putting his arm around Schofield's shoulder.

"You should talk," Schofield said. "I'd like to hear about Peru sometime."

"You will, Shane, you will. But first, I have a proposition for you. How would you like to be on the front page of the Washington Post ?"

Schofield just smiled.

On June 23?two days after Schofield and the Wasp docked at Pearl?the Washington Post ran a front-page story containing a photo of Shane Schofield and Andrew Trent holding a copy of the previous day's Post between them. Beneath the photo were displayed copies of their official United States Marine Corps death certificates. Schofield's death certificate was several days old. Trent's was over a year old. The headline read:

ACCORDING TO THE U.S. MILITARY, THESE TWO MEN ARE OFFICIALLY DEAD.

The accompanying story about the events that transpired at Wilkes Ice Station?a feature that ran for three pages? was written by Peter and Alison Cameron.

Later stories that ran about the events at Wilkes Ice Station told of the ICG and the systematic infiltration by it of elite military units, universities, and private corporations. Flashbulbs popped across the country for the next six weeks as ICG moles were expunged from various regiments, institutions, and companies and charged under various statutes with espionage.

No mention, however, was made in any of the newspaper and TV reports about the presence of French and British troops at Wilkes Ice Station.

Rumors abounded in the tabloids about which other countries had sent troops to Wilkes Ice Station. Iraq. China. Even Brazil had rated a mention.

It was claimed in some quarters that the Washington Post knew exactly who else had been down there. One rival newspaper even went so far as to say that the President himself had paid a surprise visit to Katharine Graham?the legendary owner of the Post ?and asked her, in the name of America's diplomatic relations, not to publish the names of the countries that had a presence at Wilkes Ice Station. This rumor was never confirmed.

The Post , however, never mentioned Britain or France.

It reported that a battle had taken place down in Antarctica, but it steadfastly maintained that it did not know the identity of the opposing force or forces. Every article that appeared in the Post simply said that the conflict had been against "enemies unknown,"

In any case, the Wilkes Ice Station story ran for six whole weeks before it was forgotten.

A few days after the Wasp returned, the NATO conference in Washington, D.C. concluded.

Every TV and newspaper article on the event showed the smiling faces of the American, British, and French delegates standing on the steps of the Capitol Building, shaking hands in front of their interwoven flags, smiling for the cameras, and proclaiming that the NATO alliance would continue for another twenty years.

The French representative, Monsieur Pierre Dufresne, was quoted as saying, "This is the strongest treaty on earth." When asked where this strength emanated from, Dufresne said, "Our genuine friendship is our bond."

In a private room at the Naval Hospital at Pearl Harbor, Libby Gant lay in a bed with her eyes closed. A soft beam of sunlight filtered in through the room's window and draped itself across her bed. Gant was still in a coma.

"Libby? Libby?" a woman's voice said, invading her consciousness.

Slowly, Gant's eyes opened, and she saw her sister, Denise, standing above her.

Denise smiled. "Well, hey there, sleepyhead."

Gant struggled to open her eyes. When she did, she just said, "Hey."

Denise offered Gant a crooked smile. "You have a visitor."

"What?" Gant said.

Denise cocked her head to the left. Gant looked over that way and saw Schofield, slumped in the guest's chair by the window, fast asleep.

He had a pair of silver Oakley sunglasses perched on top of his head. His eyes?and the two scars that cut down across them?were there for all the world to see.

Denise whispered, "He's been here ever since they fixed his rib. Wouldn't leave until you woke up. He gave one interview to the Washington Post and told the rest of them to come back after you woke up."

Gant just looked at Schofield, asleep under the window. And she smiled.

EPILOGUE

Near Isla Santa Ines, Chile

30 November

It was a small island, one of the many hundreds to the south of the Straits of Magellan, at the bottom of Chile, at the bottom of South America, at the bottom of the world.

Barely five hundred miles south of the island lay the South Shetland Islands and Antarctica. This small island was the closest one got to Antarctica without actually being there.

The boy's name was José and he lived in a small fishing village on the west coast of the island. The village lay on the edge of the bay that the old women called La Bahia de la Aguila Plata, "the Bay of the Silver Eagle."

Local lore said that many years ago, a great big silver bird, with a tail of fire trailing behind it, flew into the sea just outside the bay. The bird, the women said, had offended God with its speed and its beauty, and so God had set it alight and cast it into the sea.

José didn't believe such stories. He was ten now, and he knew better. For instance, he knew that the great silver bird that the women spoke of was in all likelihood an airplane of some sort that had crashed into the sea.

In any case, today was diving day and José planned to dive for oysters and hopefully sell them to his father for pocket money.

The small boy dived into the sea and swam downward. At this time of the afternoon, the ocean currents were coming in toward the island. José hoped they would bring the oysters with them.

He came to the bottom and quickly found his first oyster of the day, but he also found something else.

A small piece of plastic.

Jose grabbed the piece of plastic and headed back up to the surface. When he broke the surface, he peered at the strange object in his hand. It was rectangular in shape and quite small. It was heavily faded, but José could read the name engraved on it:

NIEMEYER.

José frowned at the name badge. Then he threw the worthless piece of plastic away and resumed his search for oysters.

The End