Ice Station Wolfenstein

Chapter 15

"I thought there would be penguins," Sam mused idly. He was tagging along at the end of the column, where Professor Matlock and Jefferson Daniels were bringing up the rear. Mixed in with the soft whistle of the wind and crunch of their shoes, Sam heard the satisfying sound of Matlock's jaw grinding.

"For the last time," Matlock said, barely containing his annoyance, "we are inland. We are hundreds of miles inland, at the foot of a mountain range. Why on earth, Mr. Cleave, would there be penguins here?"

Sam scuffed his feet along the ground, or at least gave an approximation of doing so. Winding up Professor Matlock made him feel like he was fourteen years old again and getting a rise out of his teacher. "Dunno," he said. "Don't penguins like mountains?"

"They eat fish, you fool! How do you suppose they would feed themselves so far from the sea?"

"They could eat us," Sam suggested. "I'd do that if I were a penguin. Never mind eating fish, I'd be hiding out in the foothills eating lost expeditions."

"We're not lost."

"Then where are we?"

Just as Matlock was on the point of losing his cool completely, Jefferson stepped in and laid a hand on his shoulder. "Simmer down, Frank," he said. "I think Cleave's just trying to get a reaction. We all know we're not lost. We're not even that far from the campsite. I could still get us back there without even having to use a compass." He flashed his tombstone smile, evidently picturing himself as a movie star.

Sam waited until Matlock had finished grumbling and Jefferson was congratulating himself on a mediation job well done, then dropped in one last facetious remark. "I bet there's polar bears around here."

The explosion Sam was anticipating never came, though. It was averted by Alexandr calling the group together. They gathered into a rough circle, but as they shuffled into place Purdue hauled Alexandr aside and the two men began an intense conversation in heated undertones. Sam took the opportunity to chat to Nina, who had been up at the head of the party since they left the base camp. She was carrying one of the three metal detectors that they had brought, with Blomstein and Alexandr wielding the other two.

"How are you getting on with that thing?" Sam asked, pointing to it. "Found any buried treasure yet?"

Nina rolled her eyes. "Not yet, no. I don't know how far we're going to get with these things. We might be looking for a needle in a haystack here."

"How's that? I thought we were looking for an ice station? How do you miss that? Come to think of it, how come we're trying to find it with tiny wee metal detectors?"

"From Kruger's notes, I wouldn't expect to find it up here. There should be an entrance somewhere around here, but it's concealed. The ice station itself would be underneath us, built into the tunnels."

"So we're looking for a door?"

"Not quite. Well, kind of. If that's what we find, then that would be great. But no, the reason we're using these is that we're looking for the markers that the Nazis left here to claim the land. You know how you're meant to claim territory by sticking a flag in it, right? Well, that wasn't incredibly practical here — it would have meant getting people onto the land and faffing around with poles and suchlike. So instead, they did a flyover and dropped a whole lot of iron swastikas in lieu of a flag. Apparently we'll find the entrance wherever we find the iron swastikas. But I don't even know what size they are, or how many were dropped, or even whether they were definitely iron. So basically, I have no clue. But we're in the right place, so if there's anything to find—"

She was interrupted by Alexandr turning back to the group, waving them toward him while Purdue stormed off, closely followed by Blomstein.

"Mr. Purdue and I, we are in the middle of a slight disagreement," Alexandr announced. "I am of the opinion that the storm that kept us trapped for so many days is not finished with us yet. I look at the sky, I feel the quality and taste of the air and I believe that there will be more snow within hours, so we must make our way back toward base camp and be prepared to set up a temporary camp if necessary. Mr. Purdue, however, does not believe this. He wishes to continue. So he and Mr. Blomstein have elected to continue their hunt a little longer and find their own way back. As for the rest of us, we shall head for shelter and resume our search when the storm clears again. This way!"

Sam looked in the direction Purdue had gone. He and Blomstein had vanished into the snowdrifts, and Sam could see nothing but their footprints. If the crazy Russian guy wants to turn back, it must be pretty dangerous, he thought. I hope Purdue will be ok. He's a mad bastard too, but I wouldn't like to think of him freezing to death out here. Then he turned around and shuffled off in the same direction as the rest of the group, covering the ground slowly, restricted by the pace of the group's slowest member, Admiral Whitsun. The old man was coping well with the strenuous hike over the frozen territory. He was evidently in excellent shape for his age, but there was no denying that his exertions were taking a lot out of him. Getting him back to the safety of the base camp before he ran out of energy seemed like a very good idea.

"WAIT!"

They spun around to see Purdue lurching across the ice with his clumsy, gangling gait, arms flailing. Once again, Alexandr was first to reach him, but this time their conversation was short and characterized by considerable amounts of wild gesticulation. Then Purdue propelled himself forward, into the thick of the group, and ripped off his goggles to reveal his flushed, exhilarated face.

"It's over there," he yelled, waving madly. "We found the iron swastika! And I think there's a door, we can see it through the ice — come on! We've going to need help getting through this!"

He was clearly expecting the whole group to follow him at once, but no one did. They stood and exchanged confused glances.

"Dave," Nina said. "Are you being serious? You actually found an iron swastika?"

"Yes!" Purdue cried. "You could see it for yourself if you would only follow me!" He grabbed her hand and pulled her along behind him, and the rest of the expedition began to follow. Sam took up his usual position toward the rear. It was only now that Purdue claimed to have found something that Sam realized that he had never expected their search to lead to anything other than frostbite and frustration. Yet when they rounded the snowdrift, there was Ziv Blomstein holding a titanium shovel — and next to him, half-buried in the frost, was a large, crooked iron cross.

Within seconds, barely even aware of what he was doing, Sam had flung his pack to the ground, hauled out and assembled his own shovel, and rushed over to Blomstein's side to help him dig. Moments later he was aware of Nina beside him, thrusting her shovel downward with all her strength to break through the ice. Sure enough, beneath the thick layer of ice and frost and snow, they could see something that looked remarkably like a circular metal door.