The Mammoth Book of Locked-Room Mysteries And Impossible Crimes

ICE ELATION by Susanna Gregory

Susanna Gregory (b.1958) is the author of the historical mystery novels about Matthew Bartholomew, a teacher in medicine at Michaelhouse in Cambridge, in the fourteenth century. The series began with A Plague on Both Your Houses (1996). Previously she had worked in a coroner’s office, which gave invaluable insight into criminal behaviour. By profession she is a biologist with a special interest in Antarctic research, spending every winter (or summer in the southern hemisphere) in the Antarctic. And what better place for an impossible mystery, than a scientific station with no one else for miles around. Miss Gregory provides her own background to the story.

The point on the Antarctic Continent that is farthest from the coast in all directions is called the Pole of Inaccessibility. Since 1957, a Russian base has operated from near this remote spot, where scientists have been drilling through the 3,700 metre-thick ice – partly to reach the bedrock that lies below, and partly because the gasses contained in the compacted layers of ice that are excavated provide valuable information about past climate.

In 1995, a startling discovery was made. The ice does not lie directly on top of the bedrock at Vostok; instead, surveys have detected a body of water about the size of Lake Ontario, which has been sealed between ice and rock for at least half a million years, and possibly a lot longer. The scientists were faced with a dilemma: should they stop drilling, so that this “sterile” lake remains uncontaminated, or should they continue to dig and risk damaging a unique environment – and possibly risk it harming us? In September 1999, the decision was made to continue, using the Russian base and funds from American sources.

It will be some time before we know the secrets of Lake Vostok, and until then we can only speculate about what has laid undisturbed for aeons. This story does just that, and starts on one short, bleak day in late autumn, just as a team of eight scientists are about to break into the lake with a drill that is on its last legs…

“Hurry up,” ordered Paxton, shivering in the sharp wind that gusted across the ice cap. “I’m freezing.”

“I’m trying,” replied Hall, tugging furiously at the door to the drill-house. “But something’s jamming this closed.”

Paxton sighed, stamping his feet and rubbing his hands together in a futile attempt to keep warm in the sub-zero temperatures. Even in the dim daylight of a late-autumn morning, Vostok Station was a frigid place: the coldest temperature ever recorded on Earth had been at Vostok.

In all directions, he could see nothing but ice. It was hard, flat, and featureless, except for the occasional ridge or trough where the wind had shaped it. For hundreds of miles, from the Pole of Inaccessibility to the sea, the ice lay across the Antarctic Continent like a thick blanket. Under the immense pressure of its own weight, it inched towards to the coast, where it formed floating shelves that eventually shattered into flat-topped icebergs the size of countries.

Vostok Station was a ramshackle collection of buildings; a deep layer of snow covered the roofs, so heavy that they buckled in places. The largest hut contained the cramped cubicles that comprised the scientists’ sleeping quarters; the smallest was the kitchen. There were also two labs – one for examining the ice samples that the drill produced, and the other filled with meteorological equipment. And finally, there was the drill-house.

Because the storms that regularly screamed through the base destroyed anything that stood in their way, the drill that ate through the ice towards Lake Vostok had to be protected. It stood in a hangar, twenty feet high, and was a hissing, rattling, roaring machine that provided the focus of all activity at the station. Seven of the team of eight scientists, who had been detailed to remain at Vostok until the drill reached the lake, stood outside the drill-house now, waiting for Hall to open the door and let them in.

“Tanya must’ve locked it,” said Hall, still hauling on the handle. “She was on drill duty this afternoon.”

“Why would she do that?” asked Paxton. He gestured at the empty expanse that surrounded them. “It’s not like we need to worry about burglars.”

Paxton had three Americans, three Russians, and a fellow Britisher under his command. Of them all, he found the bellicose Texan, Hall the most difficult to like.

Hall shrugged. “We’ve almost reached the lake. Maybe Tanya wants to be alone when the drill reaches it – claim the glory for herself. After all, who knows what might be down there?”

“Our readings say we won’t break through ‘til tomorrow,” said Paxton, forcing himself to ignore Hall’s unpleasant snipe at the affable Russian.

“If we break through,” mumbled the morose Russian Pavel Senko gloomily. “The drill’s just about had it and we’re lucky to have got this far.”

“But the drill isn’t running,” said Hall truculently, although none of his colleagues needed him to point that out. The sudden and ominous silence as the drill had stopped was what had brought them from their work in the first place. “We won’t break through tomorrow unless we drill today, and Tanya’s switched the thing off.”

Senko’s compatriot, an affable bear of a man called Ivan Bannikov, dismissed Hall’s concerns. “Tomorrow we’ll break new grounds in science,” he said with a grin, taking a hip-flask from his pocket and grimacing as he swallowed some of its fiery contents. “We’ll take samples from a lake that’s been sealed from the rest of the world for hundreds of thousands of years. What’ll we find, d’you think?”

“Microscopic creatures, plants, and perhaps even fish that’ve evolved in complete isolation,” replied Senko immediately. It was not the first time the scientists had aired this debate, and all had their own ideas about what was waiting for them. “We’ll discover new species that no one’s ever seen before.”

“Right,” agreed British-born Julie Franklin, her blue eyes gleaming with excitement. “But we’ll have to be careful – they may be toxic to us. Who knows whether their environment and ours are still compatible?”

“I think we’ll just find water,” said Paxton, sceptical of their fanciful hopes for exotic discoveries. “We won’t find any life.”

“I hope you’re wrong,” said Hall fervently. “I want to take home something a bit more exciting than a bottle of water – assuming Tanya hasn’t stolen the results for herself, that is.”

Senko glared at him. “If you’re accusing us Russians-”

“No one’s accusing anyone of anything,” interrupted Paxton hastily, not wanting the Russian and the American to argue. He hammered on the door. “Tanya? Are you in there? Open the door.”

“Of course she’s in there,” snapped Hall. “She’s not in her room, the labs, or the kitchen. The only place she can be is here.”

“She may be ill,” said Julie, frowning anxiously. She liked the quiet, intelligent Tanya.

Paxton elbowed Hall out of the way and hit the door with his shoulder as hard as he could. With a sharp, splintering sound of tearing wood, it flew inwards.

“She isn’t here,” said Senko, when a quick glance around the single-roomed building revealed that it was empty. “It wasn’t her who locked the door.”

Paxton studied the door in puzzlement. “Well, someone did; it was locked from the inside. You can see where the bolt’s still in place.”

Hall leaned down to inspect it. “No wonder I couldn’t get it open. Tanya must’ve done it.”

“But she isn’t here,” repeated Senko. “This building’s nothing but four walls, a roof, and a floor that’s four kilometres of solid ice. There’s nowhere to hide; she isn’t here.”

“But the door was locked from the inside,” insisted Hall. “That means someone in here locked it. And since the rest of us were together in the labs, and we know there isn’t another living soul within nine hundred miles of us, Tanya’s the only one who could’ve done it.”

“This is really odd,” said Julie nervously. “The only place Tanya could be is here, but we can all see she isn’t. So where is she?”

An exhaustive search of the camp did not reveal the whereabouts of Tanya. She had last been seen at lunch time, when the others had teased her because it was her turn to do “drill duty”. The drill was temperamental, and needed constant attention while it ran. Monitoring it in the frigid drill-house, to ensure its pumps were clear and that it was well lubricated, was not popular with the scientists, who would rather be in the heated labs doing their own work.

Tanya had dressed in her warmest clothes, and the team had heard the drill start up. And no one had seen her since. There was a limited number of places anyone could be at Vostok: she was not under the beds, in the tiny cupboards in which belongings were stored, or among the stacks of supply crates. The only possible explanation for her absence was that she had gone for a walk.

“She wouldn’t do that,” objected Senko. “There’s nowhere to go, and she’d never abandon the drill.”

Paxton knew that was true. Tanya, like all of them, was reliable and conscientious. She would never shirk her duties, especially given that they were so close to reaching the lake.

“We should look for her,” said Julie, worried. “She may’ve fallen and hurt herself.”

“The drill-house is the tallest building,” said Paxton. “We can climb on its roof and see if we can spot her.”

“I’ll go,” offered Julie. “The weight of the snow’s already made it buckle, and I’m lighter than the rest of you. We don’t want it to collapse and damage the drill – not now.”

She quickly scaled a ladder, and then stepped cautiously onto the snow-laden roof. Taking a pair of powerful binoculars, she scanned the expanse of ice slowly and carefully. But there was nothing to see. When her fingers began to ache from the cold, and the tears from her watering eyes froze on her cheeks, she descended again.

“The weather’s clear today,” she said. “I could see thirty miles easy. If Tanya were out there, I’d have spotted her. You know how colour stands out on the ice.”

“We saw her less than three hours ago, anyway,” said Senko. “She couldn’t have walked that far.”

“So, she isn’t on the ice and she isn’t in the base,” said Hall, puzzled. “Where is she?”

No one could answer him.

“We could look for footprints,” suggested Wilkes, a soft-spoken Virginian who always sported a cowboy-like necktie as part of his cold-weather clothing. “They’d lead us to her.”

“The ice is too hard for footprints,” said Paxton. “And even if we did find some, they won’t necessarily be hers. We all wander outside the camp from time to time.”

For the rest of the day, until it became too dark and too cold, they inspected every crack and crevice at the station, and scoured the featureless ice outside. Julie reported Tanya’s disappearance to the American base at McMurdo, and when Paxton stumbled into the kitchen late that night, cold and weary after his fruitless search, she told him that McMurdo was fog-bound, and that no plane would be available to help them for several days.

“We’ve got to do something,” said Senko, as members of the team gathered to discuss what to do next. “Tanya’s missing. We can’t go about our business like nothing’s happened.”

“What d’you suggest?” asked Hall tiredly. “We’ve looked everywhere. What else can we do?”

Senko shook his head helplessly. “There must be something. Perhaps she climbed inside an empty fuel can.”

“We checked them,” said Julie. “And every empty crate. She isn’t here.”

“I can think of one solution to this,” said Hall quietly. “The stress of not knowing whether the drill will make it to Lake Vostok became too much for her. So she walked out onto the ice, dug a hole, and buried herself.”

“The ice is too hard,” said Senko, dismissive of the American he did not like. “And how could she’ve done it with none of us seeing? Even if she walked ten miles – unlikely in three hours – she’d still be visible from here.”

“And she wasn’t suicidal at lunch time,” added Paxton. “Normally, she hated drill duty, but she was okay today, because we’re so close to breaking through.”

“But she shut the thing down, and we’ve wasted the whole day searching for her,” said Hall bitterly. “Now we might never reach the lake.”

“We will,” said Paxton. “I’m on first watch tomorrow – I’ll start early, and we’ll continue ‘til we reach it; then we’ll tell McMurdo to evacuate us. We’ve been here six months, and by tomorrow, we’ll have done all we came to do.”

“I only hope the drill lasts,” said Julie anxiously.

“All we need is one sample,” said Hall. “More would be better, obviously, but one sample will at least tell us whether there’s life down there.”

“Where are Wilkes and Bannikov?” asked Senko, noting that two of the remaining seven were missing. “Still searching?”

Paxton shook his head. “I saw Bannikov ten minutes ago. He said they’ll join us when they’ve changed.”

The words were barely out of his mouth when Bannikov burst into the room, bringing with him a flurry of tiny flakes, more like ice dust than snow.

“I can’t find Wilkes,” he said breathlessly. “I’ve looked everywhere. He’s not in the camp.”

Stomach churning, Paxton raced outside to look in the huts and the labs, ignoring the burly Russian’s protestations that he’d already checked them. Bannikov was right: Wilkes was not on the base.

“What happened?” Paxton demanded, while the others clustered around in alarm. “You said both of you were back.”

“We were both back,” insisted Bannikov, his usually florid face pale. He took the hip-flask from his pocket and raised it to his lips with unsteady hands. “He wanted to look in the drill-house one last time before giving up for the night; I went to change. After a few minutes, I went to the drill-house to make sure he was alright. I couldn’t find him.”

“That makes two,” said Hall, glancing around him fearfully. “What’s happening here?”

“More to the point,” said Senko in a nervous whisper. “Who’s going to be next?”

A more thorough search of the base revealed nothing: there was no sign of Wilkes, just as there had been no sign of Tanya. The two scientists seemed to have disappeared into thin air. Paxton found the cowboy-style necktie, twisted and frozen, in the drill-house, but it gave no clue as to what had happened to its owner.

“This is impossible,” he said, gazing down at the material. “People don’t just disappear.”

Hall turned to Senko. “The Russians didn’t put secret tunnels here, did they? This base was built during the Cold War, and so it’s possible they did something like that. Wilkes and Tanya may’ve fallen down one.”

Senko shook his head. “They only built what you can see – no hidden rooms or passages. And even if there were, they’d have collapsed under the weight of the snow by now.”

“Then maybe someone else is here,” said Hall. He gave Senko and Bannikov an unpleasant look. “We announce our progress every night on the radio, and so the whole of Antarctica knows we’re on the verge of tapping into Lake Vostok. Maybe not everyone wants us to be successful.”

“We’re at the Pole of Inaccessibility,” Paxton pointed out, determined that the Texan should not start to blame the Russians. “A rival band of scientists can’t simply fly in, snatch our samples, and leave.”

“Why not?” demanded Hall.

Paxton sighed. “First, only specially adapted planes can land here; and second, any unauthorized craft would be detected on radar and stopped. Plus there’s the fact that we’d have heard the engines.”

“Then maybe they came by land,” pressed Hall. “It wouldn’t be easy, but it’s not impossible.”

“It is,” said Julie. “You can’t cross Antarctica with a backpack, you know. It’d be a huge undertaking, needing a lot of logistical support. Such an expedition would be detected in no time.”

“And we’d have seen anyone approaching on foot,” added Paxton.

“Even if someone did come by land, it doesn’t explain why Tanya and Wilkes are missing,” said Bannikov reasonably. “We’ve searched all around the base. If someone else were here, we’d have found evidence of it – and we didn’t.”

“So, what’re we going to do?” asked Hall, fear stark in his eyes. “Do we wait here until we disappear, one by one?”

“There are six of us: we’ll stay in pairs,” said Paxton, not liking the way Hall’s panic was beginning to spread to the others. “And we’ll radio McMurdo for an immediate evacuation.”

“Maybe it’s something to do with the lake,” said Julie, casting a nervous glance towards the drill-house. “Tanya went missing when she was supposed to be drilling, and Wilkes disappeared when he went there to look for her.”

“Such as what?” asked Paxton incredulously. “D’you think a monster from the untapped deep has wriggled its way up the drill shaft and is doing away with our friends?”

Julie’s expression indicated that she did not consider his mocking suggestion so improbable. “I always said we’d find something dangerous down there. I assumed it’d be a microbe that might cause some deadly disease, but maybe there’s something bigger.”

“Are you serious?” demanded Paxton, scarcely believing his ears. “You’re a scientist, Julie! All we’ll find down there is water.”

“Perhaps she’s right,” said Hall, swallowing hard. “We don’t know what might’ve happened in a body of water that’s been sealed for thousands of years.”

That Hall was willing to believe some mysterious creature had slithered up the drill shaft was not a surprise to Paxton – the Texan watched a lot of science fiction videos, and his gullibility had provided the Russians with a good deal of entertainment during the long Antarctic evenings – but Paxton was astonished that such an idea should have come from the practical, rational Julie Franklin.

“We should contact McMurdo,” he said, pushing the idiotic notion from his mind and heading for the radio in the kitchen. “Tell them about Wilkes.”

“We should tell them about the lake, too,” said Julie, running to catch up with him. “We should warn them.”

“Warn them about what?” asked Paxton. “You’ve no evidence that whatever happened to Tanya and Wilkes has anything to do with the lake. There’ll be some perfectly rational explanation-”

“But there isn’t, is there?” demanded Julie angrily. “Two people’ve disappeared without trace from a place that – quite literally – has no way out. There isn’t a rational explanation.”

“Maybe we shouldn’t tell them what we think,” said Hall, following them into the kitchen. “If my government think we’ve unearthed some weird creature, they’ll put us in quarantine and we’ll never get out of here.”

Bannikov and Senko exchanged an amused glance with the shy American called Morris who was their radio expert. Paxton was relieved to see that at least three of his team had not taken leave of their senses, even if Julie and Hall had.

“It’s not funny!” snapped Julie, angered by their smiles. She glowered at them until they left, and then turned to Paxton. “Tell McMurdo now.”

“I’ll do no such thing,” said Paxton firmly. “They’ll think we’ve gone stark raving mad. I’ll report Wilkes’ disappearance and that’s it.”

The sleepy voice of the radio operator at McMurdo snapped into wakefulness when Paxton informed him that a second member of the expedition was missing. Just as Paxton was about to break the connection, Hall made a lunge for the transmitter and snatched it from his hand. Paxton tried to grab it back again before Hall made a total fool of himself, but tiredness made him slow, and the Texan had informed the startled operator about Julie’s theory and signed off before Paxton could stop him.

“You’ve been watching too many movies,” Paxton said in disgust. “I’m going to bed.”

“I’m coming with you,” said Hall, following him outside to where Morris, Bannikov and Senko stood in an uncertain group in the darkness, reluctant to leave the halo of light thrown out by the kitchen. “I’m not walking alone around here.”

“Good thinking,” said Bannikov. He retrieved his hip-flask from his pocket and took a swig. “I’ll take one last look in the labs and the drill-house, and then I’m turning in, too. Morris can come with me. Julie should stay with Senko.”

Senko slapped Hall on the back and gave him a wicked grin. “Watch out for gigantic ice worms.”

Julie glared at him. “Laugh all you like. You’ll see.”

Paxton slept badly that night, and was awake well before dawn the following morning. He walked to the kitchen, and found Julie, Hall, and Senko already there, drinking coffee from oversized plastic mugs. He accepted the cup Julie offered him, then struggled into his thick outdoors clothing in preparation for a chilly spell in the drill-house.

Hall helped him start the engine – always a tricky business after a cold night – while Senko and Julie watched. They held their breath as the machine chugged reluctantly into life. With a screech of metal, and a furious hiss of water, the drill began to revolve, faster and faster until the noise of it filled the small room, and its choking fumes made the scientists cough.

Perhaps because the engine had been shut down earlier than usual the previous day, the drill sounded different that morning. It ran more smoothly, and the labouring, wheezing noises usually associated with its early starts were absent. They exchanged hopeful glances: perhaps they’d be successful after all.

The drill was like a giant mosquito, sending a long probe of diamond-hard teeth through the ice, although at a depth nearing four kilometres it was becoming unreliable. However, after a while, the cylinder that carried the ice-cores to the surface began to emerge.

“That’s not ice!” yelled Senko suddenly, making everyone jump. “That’s water! We’re through!”

Paxton saw the Russian was right, and they all clustered around to inspect the container, where tell-tale bubbles indicated that water, not ice, was being sampled.

“Lake Vostok,” said Hall in an awed voice. He tapped the cylinder with his forefinger. “No one’s ever set eyes on this before. We’ve done it!”

Senko gave a whoop of delight, and then grabbed Hall in a bear hug that had the American gasping for breath. Julie joined them, dancing around the chilly hut like an excited child. Paxton watched them, smiling.

“Put your masks on,” he instructed, when their euphoria was spent. “We need to be careful.”

“Why?” asked Julie immediately. “D’you agree that there might be something dangerous down there?”

“No,” said Paxton shortly. “It’s because I don’t want the sample contaminated by our breath.”

Carefully, he began to transfer the water into a screw-topped sterile container that would be shipped home for study. After all the waiting and anticipation, the brownish liquid that the drill produced was an anticlimax. It wasn’t even clear, although Paxton knew that the drill’s lubricants were largely responsible for that. Later, the contaminants would be removed, and the water studied in its clean state.

While he worked, the others fired up the drill again. There was a tearing, screeching sound, and the engine revved furiously. Paxton ducked instinctively as a sharp crack like a gunshot indicated that the probe had sheared. White smoke filled the drill-house, and the engine spluttered into silence.

“That was it,” said Senko, crouching to examine it. “Ice pressure’s finally distorted the borehole to the point where the drill can’t work. We were just in time.”

Hall nodded at the canister that held the murky water. “That’ll be enough. In a few years, someone’ll sink another hole and get more, but until then, this’ll do.”

Senko shook his head over the drill. “I’ll fetch a new bit and try again, but I doubt it’ll work.”

When he had gone, Julie edged towards Paxton, leaning over his shoulder and speaking in a low whisper so that Hall would not hear.

“The drill sounded different from the moment it started this morning. Did you notice?”

Paxton nodded absently, concentrating on his work. “It ran more smoothly than normal.”

“Quite. You know what that means, don’t you?”

Paxton gazed at her when the implications dawned on him. He cursed himself for not being more alert. He had listened to the drill chewing its way through ice for six months and should have realized that the difference in sound that day was significant.

“The drill wasn’t cutting ice,” he said. “It was already in the water when we started it.”

Julie nodded. “The lake must’ve been tapped yesterday, while Tanya was working on it. Perhaps the ice is less dense near the water, and she made better time than our instruments said she would. But it seems Tanya reached the lake first.”

Paxton nodded. “We’ll credit her with its discovery in our reports.”

Julie sighed irritably. “That’s not what I meant. My point is that Tanya broke into the lake and then went missing. Wilkes came here to look for her, and he’s missing, too.”

“Not this again,” began Paxton tiredly. “I don’t-”

He was interrupted by Senko, who burst into the drill-house so abruptly that he almost ripped the damaged door from its hinges.

“They’ve gone! Both of them!” he gasped. “I’ve checked the kitchen and the labs. They’re not here; they’ve gone the same way as Tanya and Wilkes.”

“Who?” asked Hall stupidly, an expression of puzzlement on his heavy features. “What are you talking about?”

“Morris and Bannikov!” yelled Senko in exasperation. “I went to tell them that we’d broken through. They’re not here. They’ve gone!”

Julie regarded Paxton steadily. “And where did they say they were going, before they went to bed last night?” she asked quietly.

“To check the labs,” said Hall. He swallowed hard. “And the drill-house.”

“Yes,” said Julie softly. “The drill-house.”

Paxton remained convinced that Julie’s explanation was impossible, but was unable to provide her with an alternative one. He radioed McMurdo, and was too disheartened to object when Hall took the microphone to add that the disappearances of Tanya, Wilkes, Morris, and Bannikov were somehow connected to drilling into the lake. Julie nodded agreement, while Senko sighed and indicated with a forefinger tapping his temple that he thought they were both insane.

With the others in tow, Paxton went to inspect Morris and Wilkes’ sleeping quarters. Neither were neat in their habits, and it was difficult to say whether they had slept in their beds the previous night. Therefore, it was not possible to prove or disprove Julie’s suspicion that the last thing they had done was visit the drill-house for one final look for their missing colleagues.

“Their rooms are the two nearest the exit,” said Paxton, frowning. “I never hear them coming or going anyway, because the heating makes too much noise.”

“I think I heard Morris,” said Senko, whose room was next door. “I didn’t sleep well last night, and I heard him moving about, moaning.”

“What do you mean, ‘moaning’?” demanded Paxton. “Why didn’t you mention this before?”

“Because I assumed he was distressed over Tanya and Wilkes, and it didn’t seem right to tell you about it. But I may be wrong: the heaters mask sounds, as you just said yourself.”

Julie stared at her feet. “Tanya and I were good friends and I was upset last night. It was probably me you heard.”

“It may’ve been,” said Senko, shrugging. “I tried not to listen.”

Paxton sighed. “Well, there’s a rational explanation for these disappearances, and I’m going to find out what it is. People simply don’t vanish.”

Hall backed away from him. “Count me out. I’m not going anywhere near that drill-house.”

“Good,” said Paxton. “All of you can stay here. There’s safety in numbers.”

“There wasn’t for Morris and Bannikov,” Senko pointed out. “They were together, but they still went.”

“Stay here anyway,” said Paxton. “You can keep an eye on each other.”

“What do you mean?” demanded Julie, regarding him warily.

“I mean that it’s possible one of us is responsible. If the three of you are together, then nothing untoward’s going to happen.”

“Unless the culprit’s you,” said Julie softly.

“In that case, you’ll be safe with Hall and Senko,” said Paxton shortly. “I’m going to look around the drill-house, since that’s where people go missing. I’ll find out what’s going on if I have to tear it apart plank by plank.”

“Wait,” said Julie, running after him. “I’m coming with you. You said we should we stay in pairs, and you’re right. Hall can stay with Senko.”

They reached the drill-house, and Paxton dropped to his hands and knees to begin an intricate inspection of the floor. Julie watched.

“What are you looking for?”

Paxton shrugged. “I’ll know when I find it. Four people don’t disappear and leave no trace. Maybe I’ll find a spot of blood, or something that suggests foul play.”

Julie looked unconvinced, but knelt next to him and poked about with the sturdy penknife she always carried. It was cold, miserable work, and after about an hour, she stood, closing the knife with a snap.

“This is hopeless. There’s nothing here. I’m going back to the others.”

Paxton did not blame her. As the door closed, he moved to a new area, beginning to feel that she was right and that he was wasting his time. He was stiff from kneeling on the ice, and the prospect of a hot drink in the kitchen was an attractive proposition. He was about to give in to it, when a spot of colour caught his eye. It was a fragment of wood, and attached to it were a few hairs – long, dark hairs, like Tanya’s.

He studied them thoughtfully. He had found what seemed to be a clue, but had no idea what its significance could be. Had the hairs been in the drill-house for some time – before Tanya had disappeared – or had they been pulled from her head during some kind of struggle? He realized that there was no way to know.

Placing his find in a sample bag, he began to walk towards the kitchen. He was tired from tension and lack of sleep, and walked unsteadily over the slick ice. He stumbled over a carelessly placed wire, and grabbed at a high stack of crates in an attempt to steady himself. Without warning, they began to totter, and he hurled himself to one side just as the whole pile came crashing down, narrowly missing him. They were heavy, filled with canned food, and smashed open as they hit the ice, spilling tins that rolled in every direction.

He scrambled to his feet and gazed at the crates in bewilderment, not understanding why they should suddenly become unstable, but knowing he would have been killed had they landed on him. He gazed around wildly, but there was nothing to see. The door to the kitchen burst open and Julie rushed out, Hall and Senko on her heels. She gaped at the scattered cans in horror.

“What’ve you done? Surely you didn’t expect to find one of your clues among those?”

“They fell,” said Paxton lamely. “I’m getting paranoid. I was beginning to wonder whether someone tried to push them on top of me.”

“Who?” demanded Hall. “We were in the kitchen, and the others’ve gone, remember? No one pushed them. You are paranoid!”

Julie went to the broken crates and inspected them carefully. “Someone put an empty box on the bottom that made the stack top-heavy. It was only a matter of time before it went.”

“Coincidence,” said Senko, patting Paxton on the shoulder. “Come inside. The last thing we need to do is start getting suspicious of each other.”

“Right,” agreed Hall. “We’ve got the Lake Vostok monster to contend with.”

“Did you find anything?” asked Senko, ignoring Hall’s comment as he followed Paxton into the kitchen. “Any clues as to what happened to the others?”

Paxton shook his head, not wanting to mention the hairs. Although he was convinced they were somehow important, he also thought that speculation would do them no good. Julie started to make some coffee.

“We’re out of condensed milk,” she said, waving an empty tin.

“Already?” asked Hall. “I opened a new can yesterday.”

“I’ll get another,” offered Senko. “I saw one in the crates Paxton tipped over. I won’t be a minute.”

He left, closing the door behind him. Paxton watched him through the window. The Russian crouched down, and began poking among the spilled cans on the ground. Then there was a sudden loud pop that made Paxton almost leap out of his skin. Julie gave an apologetic grin.

“Sorry. It’s the gas on the cooker. It does that sometimes.”

“Not to me,” said Hall, taking the matches from her and lighting the flame. “It only does that when you light it.”

Paxton smiled, and then turned to look out of the window again. Senko was not there. With a growing fear, Paxton raced outside, his feet skidding on the slick ice. But the Russian, like the others, had disappeared.

“I was watching him!” Paxton yelled in angry frustration. “I saw him kneeling here, looking through the cans. How can he have disappeared?”

Julie glanced around her. “Perhaps there’s something here that’ll tell us what happened to him – drag marks or something.”

“Drag marks?” asked Hall in a squeak. “What do you think’s going on around here?”

“I don’t know,” snapped Julie. She took a deep breath to calm herself. “We thought everyone disappeared from inside the drill-house, but we were wrong – Paxton virtually saw Senko go, and he was out here.”

Hall gazed about him fearfully, as if he imagined something might come barrelling out of the snow and bear him away to its air, while Paxton wondered what to do next. Absently, he picked up a tin and tossed it from hand to hand as he watched Hall and Julie prod among the spilled crates. Hall was using a pencil and Julie had her penknife. Paxton glanced at the can he held. It was the milk Senko had been searching for. He gazed down at it, wondering why the Russian hadn’t found it immediately, when it had been lying on top of the pile. Then he inspected it more closely. The rim was damaged, as though something had hit it very hard, and a fibre of red wool clung to it. Senko had been wearing a red hat. Had he banged his head on the can as he had fallen? Or had someone hit him with it? If Senko had fallen, then he had done so very hard, because the dent was a deep one.

“I’m going back to the drill-house,” he said, not knowing what else to do. “I think we’ll find answers there, not here.”

“I’m not going in there,” whined Hall. “It’s too dangerous.”

“We’d better stay together,” said Julie nervously. “And we should finish searching here first.”

“I’ll leave the door open,” said Paxton. “We’ll be able to see each other.”

Hall and Julie exchanged a glance that suggested visual contact was not especially reassuring, given what had just happened to Senko. Paxton propped open the door to the drill-house and walked inside, crossing the ice floor to examine the drill itself.

He leaned his head against the cold metal, wondering what was happening to the team that had rubbed along so well for six months. They were all dedicated scientists, almost fanatical about the work they did, and there was a degree of rivalry. But it was usually friendly, and Senko and Hall were the only ones who ever had any serious arguments. Paxton glanced across at the American. Was he responsible for the mysterious disappearances? Paxton did not think so, and would have laid his money on the infinitely more cunning Senko as being the culprit.

He was about to resume his search, when he glimpsed a glitter of metal half buried in the snow at the foot of the drill. He reached down and picked it up, startled to find himself holding Bannikov’s hip-flask. He inspected it carefully. It was dented, which it certainly had not been when in Bannikov’s care. He unscrewed the top and sniffed at the contents. Whisky. His thick gloves made him clumsy, and the flask slipped out of his fingers. Swearing under his breath, he stopped to retrieve it – and then froze when he saw that the liquid that seeped from the flask was bright orange. It was, without doubt, the cadmium compound they used for lubricating the drill-bit.

Paxton was horrified. Is that what had given the contents of the hip-flask the bite that each of them had experienced once and would never try again? If so, it was a dangerous thing for Bannikov to do, because cadmium was a serious poison – even if its taste and smell could be masked by whisky. He recalled the last time the Russian had produced his flask – just before his disappearance, when he had gone with Morris to inspect the drill-house for a last look for Tanya.

Paxton was still staring at it when there was an agonized scream, full of fear and pain. Hall! He raced outside to see Julie running from the opposite direction. She grabbed Paxton’s arm and gazed around her.

“Did you hear that?” she gasped. “It sounded like Hall.”

“It was Hall,” said Paxton. “Where is he?”

“I went to turn off the gas in the kitchen,” said Julie. “We left it on when we rushed outside to look for Senko. I didn’t want a burned camp to add to our problems, so I went to see to it.”

“Hall would never let you leave him alone,” said Paxton, snatching his arm away. “You saw how terrified he was. He’d have gone with you.”

“Well, he didn’t,” said Julie angrily. “He stayed here, looking through the cans for the clues you seem so sure we’ll find.”

“I’ve got all the clues I need,” said Paxton harshly. “It was you.”

“Me?” asked Julie, startled. “What was me?”

Paxton pointed to a spray of tiny red spots that stained the cuff of her coat. “You’ve just done something dreadful to Hall. You’ve got a knife – I’ve seen it. Hall would never’ve allowed you to leave him alone while you went to the kitchen. You killed him. Where’s his body?”

“This is nonsense,” said Julie, starting to laugh uncertainly. “You’ve gone mad! The stress has finally got to you and you’re losing your reason.”

“No,” said Paxton. “You killed Bannikov and Morris by poisoning them – there was cadmium in Bannikov’s flask, and he doubtless offered a nip to Morris when they walked together to have one final look for Tanya in the drill-house.”

Julie shook his head. “You’re insane. How d’you imagine I could dispose of six bodies? And I was with you when Senko disappeared. How am I supposed to have killed him, when I was with you?”

Paxton gave a humourless smile. “Tanya’s been helping you.”

A soft footfall in the snow made Paxton spin around quickly. Tanya stood behind him, wearing her heavy outdoor gear. She was holding the plastic sample container filled with Lake Vostok water, cradling it carefully in both hands. Paxton gazed at her, wondering where she had been hiding when they had searched everywhere.

“You caught us,” she said ruefully. “Not that it matters, since you’re the last one.”

“You killed them,” said Paxton slowly. “You killed Senko with the can of milk he was looking for. I saw it on top of the pile, so he should’ve found it immediately, yet he spent some time rummaging for it. You’d moved it.”

Julie and Tanya exchanged a glance that told him he was right. He continued.

“You hit him over the head with it – a strand of his hat caught in the rim. I was looking out of the window at the time, so Julie pulled that trick with the popping stove to distract me.”

Julie nodded. “We had to take you one by one or you’d have been able to overpower us. After Tanya brained Senko, I stabbed Hall.”

“But you managed Morris and Bannikov at the same time.”

“Morris was a stroke of luck,” said Tanya. “He took a swig from Bannikov’s flask to give him courage when they went into the drill-house. The compound’s got no taste or smell, so they only knew it was poisoned when it was too late.”

“Senko heard Morris moaning,” recalled Paxton. “Julie told us it was her.”

“Bannikov died quickly,” elaborated Tanya. “But Morris drank less and took longer. We tried to quieten him, but Senko heard anyway.”

“Senko’s death was carefully arranged, though,” Paxton went on. “Julie claimed there was no milk, so he’d fetch some. But there was plenty of milk. Hall opened a new can yesterday.”

Julie nodded. “If any of you’d had the sense to look in the can that Hall knew was virtually full, I’d have been caught in a lie.”

“And Wilkes was strangled,” said Paxton. “I found his necktie, twisted like it had been used as a garrotte.”

“He was easy,” said Julie. “He came alone to the drill-house, and I distracted him while Tanya slipped up behind.”

“But why?” asked Paxton, bewildered. “I thought we were friends.”

“We were,” said Julie. “And a more congenial and pleasant team we couldn’t have hoped for. But whoever analyzes that sample from Vostok will have a reputation for life. Why should we share? Hall was always boasting about how much money Americans have for science, and Bannikov and Senko have the backing of their government. Tanya and I wouldn’t have stood a chance.”

“But we will now,” said Tanya. She glanced down at the container she held. “And we were lucky we did put our plan into action, given that you lot only managed to retrieve this one bottle. There isn’t enough here for eight people to share.”

“You killed five people just to promote your careers?” asked Paxton, aghast.

Julie nodded, unabashed. “There’s a lot at stake here. Whoever publishes first will be famous.”

“There may even be a Nobel Prize,” suggested Tanya hopefully.

“But how can you expect to get away with this?” asked Paxton, horrified. “When the plane comes, you’ll have to explain why all your colleagues are dead.”

“That won’t be a problem,” said Julie smugly.

“Hall’s radio messages,” said Paxton, suddenly understanding why she had been so keen for McMurdo to be informed about the ludicrous notion that something from the lake was responsible for the disappearances. “You’ll claim he went insane and killed everyone.”

“Leaving only two frightened survivors,” confirmed Julie. “Our only way out of here is on a plane sent from McMurdo, so we had to invent a story they’d believe. People go crazy on these remote polar bases all the time – why not here, with the added stress of being on the verge of a great scientific discovery? Anyone who knows Hall won’t be surprised that he convinced himself some monster was on the loose. He watched too many videos altogether.”

“How did you guess I was Julie’s accomplice?” asked Tanya curiously.

Paxton sighed tiredly. “Because as soon as I knew Julie was the culprit, I also knew she couldn’t have done it alone. You were the first to go, so it had to be you – using your disappearance to frighten the rest of us until you were ready to kill your first victim. I also found a scrap of wood with some of your hairs attached – caught when you struggled into your hiding place before anyone could see that you hadn’t disappeared at all.”

“And where was my hiding place? You searched the whole camp and didn’t find me.”

“The drill-house roof. You climbed up the drill and slipped between loose planks, which was why you were able to lock the door from the inside.”

Tanya nodded.

“And you hid the bodies there, too,” Paxton continued. “The snow on the roof is thick, and it’d be easy to hollow out coffin-shaped grooves that aren’t visible from the ground. And a small ice cave would be an ideal hiding place for you – not too cold and out of the wind.”

“But only for a short period of time,” said Tanya. “That was why we had to act quickly.”

“When I suggested we use the drill-house roof as a high point to scan the ice, Julie immediately volunteered to go because she said she was the lightest… ”

“If you’d gone, you’d have seen our hollows,” said Julie. “Not to mention the winch we assembled to haul the bodies out of sight quickly. Would you like to see them now?”

Paxton gazed at her. “So you can kill me and be saved the bother of taking my body up there?”

“You’re the last,” said Julie dismissively. “It doesn’t matter whether we put you there or not. There’s no one left to hide your body from.”

Suddenly, her penknife was in her hand, and she was moving towards Paxton with grim determination. Tanya shoved the sample container in her pocket and darted behind him, dividing his attention. He realized he still held the heavy milk can that had killed Senko, and he hurled it as hard as he could. It hit Julie in the chest, knocking her from her feet so that the knife flew from her hand. Paxton was inclined to run, to escape the women who had murdered his colleagues, but there was nowhere to go. He would die on the ice just as surely as if Julie stabbed him.

He dived for the knife, aware that Tanya was close behind him. He skidded and lost his balance. Tanya was on him in an instant, clawing and scratching at him, and trying to prevent him from reaching the weapon. Meanwhile, Julie had recovered and was on her hands and knees, inching slowly towards the weapon.

In the distance, there was a dull growl that grew steadily louder. For a moment, Paxton thought it was something to do with the drill, but he glanced up and saw a tiny black speck in the sky.

“It’s a plane!” he yelled, trying to scramble to his feet. “You made McMurdo so concerned by allowing Hall to broadcast his insane messages that they’ve braved the fog and sent help.”

“But not soon enough to save you,” said Tanya grimly. “Our plan will still work.”

She lunged to one side, and Paxton felt his hood tightening around his neck. While he used both hands to try to loosen the choking grip, Julie finally reached the knife and climbed unsteadily to her feet. She staggered forward, the weapon poised for a swipe that would see her and Tanya the sole inheritors of the contents of Lake Vostok.

The plane droned nearer. Paxton was beginning to grow dizzy from lack of air, and Julie’s arm was already plunging downward. With the last of his strength, he twisted away. His feet slid on the ice and he fell, dragging Tanya with him. They landed on something that popped under their combined weight, and a gout of cold liquid burst across the ground. Tanya went limp.

“The sample!” screamed Julie, dropping to her knees and staring in horror at the pool of dirty water that ran in rivulets across the ice. “You fell on the container and broke it!”

“And you killed Tanya,” said Paxton, struggling free of the inert body and watching blood mingle with the spilled water. The plane roared low overhead as it prepared to land, and Paxton could see people at the windows, gesticulating wildly at what he assumed they could see on the drill-house roof. “It’s over, Julie.”

Julie was white-faced as the last dribbles from the container seeped into the snow. “It was all for nothing! None of us’ll be around by the time they agree to drill another borehole.”

“You’ll be serving a prison sentence for murder, anyway,” said Paxton coldly. “You killed six of your colleagues.”

“We almost did it,” she said softly, still gazing at the pale stain. “We held it in our hands. But at least there’s some justice in all this: you ruined our plan, but with the sample gone and the drill broken, at least it won’t be you who’ll be the first one to analyze Lake Vostok.”

With a deafening roar, the plane landed a short distance away, and its passengers began to hurry towards them, pointing at the drill-house roof in horror and confusion. Julie’s shoulders sagged in defeat. Paxton withdrew the small phial of Lake Vostok water he had secreted in his pocket when the others weren’t looking, and showed it to her.

“I’d have been the first to publish the results anyway,” he said softly. “All you’ve done is ensure that I’ll succeed.”