Ice Station, page 46
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 Bahía 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 as far as he was concerned, it was just another ghost story that the old women told to frighten small children.
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 downwards. 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.
José 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.
Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright Page
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Prologue
First Incursion
Second Incursion
Third Incursion
Fourth Incursion
Fifth Incursion
Sixth Incursion
Seventh Incursion
Epilogue
Matthew Reilly, Ice Station
