Clive Cussler - Fast Ice

“What would happen when the ice melted?” Joe asked.

“It would have taken years for an iceberg of any size to melt down completely,” Perlmutter said. “By then, the war would be over. One way or another.”

“It’s bold,” Kurt said, “I’ll give them that. But how does the former Lufthansa pilot fit into all this? He wasn’t a submarine commander or part of the German Navy. He was barely even a Nazi, by the sound of things.”

“We’re not sure,” Perlmutter said. “There’s no reference to him in the diary. But there is a cryptic note in the commander’s final entry before the U-boats were released from the project. It reads, ‘ Will this ludicrous dream never end? Now we’re told of a new plan—to freeze Murmansk solid by use of a “magic liquid” from under the glacier. Save us from these fools and let us go fight properly, as men of the Kriegsmarine are supposed to .’”

“Magic liquid?” Joe said.

“That’s the translation,” Perlmutter replied. “There is nothing more about it.”

Paul offered a knowing look. “Sounds a lot like Yvonne Lloyd’s theory suggesting there’s living material under the glaciers that would cause the Earth to freeze over.”

“And Jurgenson’s explanation of his crash,” Gamay added. “The report said it was caused by rapid icing on the aircraft due to an agent in the lake water.”

Rudi saw the connection as well. It lined up perfectly. “It’s possible he crashed because the aircraft and the lake had become covered with this magic liquid that made the water freeze more quickly.”

Gamay nodded. “That would explain why the SS snatched him out of retirement, promoted him to major and sent him north to study the glaciers. They wanted him to look for lakes like the one he’d landed on in hopes of finding a similar catalyst that would allow them to freeze the Russian ports the way it froze his plane.”

Rudi nodded. He and Perlmutter had come to that same conclusion before the conference began. He was encouraged that his team was reaching the same answer. He summed up the idea. “The way I see it,” he said, “Cora and Yvonne must have discovered the German records from the Bremerhaven expedition while they were searching for proof of this Snowball Earth Theory. Recognizing that the rapid icing of Jurgenson’s plane was a clue pointing directly at what they were looking for, they ran off to Antarctica, following in Jurgenson’s footsteps and drilling their own ice cores.

“After finding something promising, Cora sent her message, telling us she’d made a discovery that would change the world. They made their way back to the Grishka and that’s when Ryland attacked them. Taking the ship, the computers and the ice cores to stop them from sharing what they’d discovered.”

“Adversaries to the end,” Gamay suggested of Ryland and Yvonne. “One trying to melt the Antarctic, the other trying to keep it frozen.”

Rudi nodded, looking at his team in all their high-definition glory. Paul and Gamay were convinced and content. Joe wore his regular grin, enhanced by having answers to some of the questions they’d been asking. Only Kurt’s appearance struck Rudi as suspicious.

Kurt’s eyes had a thousand-mile stare. As if he were looking right through Rudi, on through the wall and all the way off to infinity. Rudi had seen that look before. It meant Kurt was considering the question from a different angle than everyone else. Flipping it around in his head, looking at it sideways, backward and forward, upside down. Laser-focused on some detail the rest of them had missed.

Rudi saw the color return to Kurt’s face, watched his clenched jawline relax. And even saw him nod slightly. Kurt had found what he was looking for.

“You’re absolutely right,” Kurt said, firmly back in the here and now. “And completely wrong.”

32

I assure you, Kurt,” Perlmutter said, “we’ve gone through the data from top to bottom and back again. Odd as it might be, this is the only conclusion that makes any logical sense.”

Kurt stood up, accepting the challenge. “I have no doubts about your research, St. Julien. In fact, I’d just as soon question the firmness of the Earth as I would question your knowledge of obscure nautical history. I also accept the fact that Jurgenson found something on the ice when he crash-landed down there. And the idea of a Nazi plan to seal the Russians in their icehouse of a country by freezing the ports solid seems par for the course when talking about that particular regime.”

“If you agree with me,” St. Julien said, “how can I also be wrong?”

“Not you,” Kurt said. “Rudi.”

“Well,” Perlmutter said, grinning. “In that case, go on.”

Perlmutter might have been happy, but Rudi was less so. He folded his arms across his chest. “What, exactly, have I gotten wrong?”

“Not much,” Kurt said. “You have most of it correct. Cora’s movements, her connection with Yvonne, the two of them becoming friends and fellow idealists and traveling to Helsinki and Berlin and then to Antarctica together. And your conclusion that Cora found what she was looking for on the glacier is the epitome of hitting the nail on the head. It’s the final piece of the puzzle that you’ve placed wrong.”

It sounded to Rudi as if Kurt was playing games. “I thought Cora’s discovery was the final piece of the puzzle.”

“No,” Kurt said. “The final piece is what happened afterward. That is, Ryland attacking the Grishka , taking the ice cores and kidnapping his sister.”

“I hate to remind you,” Rudi said. “But that’s the only thing we’re sure of.”

“We may be sure of it, but that doesn’t mean we’re right,” Kurt replied. “Look at it this way. If Ryland wanted to prevent Yvonne and Cora from thwarting his plan to melt the ice, then he should have blown the Grishka to scrap metal or sent her to the bottom.”

“He did send her to the bottom,” Rudi noted.

“Only after he took everything off the ship,” Kurt pointed out. “Including his sister, whom he supposedly has a blood feud with.”

Rudi uncrossed his arms. He sensed his Special Projects Director was onto something. “Keep going.”

“Ryland tells the world he wants the ice to melt. That he wants to open the seas to navigation and unfreeze the permafrost for farming and mining. His official and oft repeated line is that it’s going to happen anyway, so we might as well get on with it. That’s the very scheme he’s been selling to his partners. The entire thrust of the climate progression movement. But he doesn’t need Yvonne and Cora for that. He doesn’t need their data, or the ice cores, or the ‘magic liquid’ hidden in the glacial lake. In fact, the continued existence of those things threatens his entire plan. It’s literally the one thing that might overturn his dream. And yet instead of destroying the data and the ice cores, he took possession of all those things, keeping them safe, even though they might destroy him. Does anyone really buy that?”

Rudi glanced at St. Julien, who raised his brows.

“You make a good point,” Rudi said. “But we know he did take the materials. And you’re the one who convinced us he took Yvonne. I assume you’re about to tell us why.”

“Because he’s not who he claims to be,” Kurt said.

Rudi leaned back. “Surely you’re not suggesting an impersonator.”

“I am,” Kurt said boldly. “Ryland is impersonating himself. He’s playing the part of Ryland the industrialist. The man who doesn’t give a damn about the planet and puts profit before anything. I’m telling you, it’s an act. It’s a put-on.”

“But he wanted to drill in the Antarctic,” Rudi pointed out.