Beneath the Ice (31 page)

“But what about Perry?” Anna asked.

“Good news and bad news, I’m afraid. First,
I think he’s alive and still on-site. I can’t prove it, but I think
he’s one of those red dots you see. The bad news is there’s very
little we can do immediately. Apparently your son was in the wrong
place at the wrong time.”

Henry Sachs thought for a moment. “Perhaps
he is in the right place at the right time.”

“But certainly you can command a rescue,”
Anna implored.

“It’s not that easy, Anna,” the president
replied. “The problem is, I no longer know who I can trust. Any
order I give might be circumvented down the chain of command, or at
the very least, someone would sound a warning.”

“You can’t just sit back and do nothing,”
Anna pleaded. “Please tell me you have a plan.”

President Calvert smiled. “I always have a
plan.”

Gwen felt her heart stall as the top of Perry’s
helmet disappeared down the shaft. She felt tears washing over her
cheeks, and her breathing became ragged. Images of horror filled
her mind. She saw the support cable snapping and Perry plunging
down two miles of ice. She could envision him becoming stuck
partway down and Enkian leaving him to die. More images came like
flies, and she tried to shoo them away.

“I don’t get it,” Griffin
said. He stood beside her, his arm
around
her shoulders in a rare display of affection. “He didn’t even
hesitate. It’s not like I’m family or even a friend, yet when that
goon put the gun to my head . . .”

“There’s something about him,” Gwen said,
“something deep inside him. I think it’s his faith.”

“You know I don’t believe in that
nonsense.”

“I know, but it’s good for us that Perry
does.”

Sarah sat at the computer monitor with
nothing to do, and it was driving her crazy. Before, she had to
control Hairy and then supervise Slick, but the joystick was
useless now. She thought of the brave man in the ice tomb. The
thought of doing what he was being forced to do weakened her knees,
but he seemed to do it fearlessly. Certainly that was an act, a bit
of bravado to keep their spirits up, but even as she mulled that
thought, she knew it wasn’t true.

“He’s a remarkable man,” she said to
Gleason.

Gleason keyed off the microphone. “He is
that.”

A movement to her right caught her
attention, tearing her eyes from the image of white ice that filled
the monitor.

“Give me the headset,” Tia ordered as she
approached. “I’ll handle communications.”

“No,” Gleason said flatly.

“It’s not a request,” she said.

“You will have to shoot me where I stand and
pull the set off my dead body.”

“Maybe I will.” She took a step back and
raised her gun.

Sarah leaped from the chair and backpedaled,
and Gleason turned to face Tia.

“I said, give me the headset.”

“No.”

Sarah’s breath caught in her chest as she
watched Jack move to Gleason’s side. He straightened his spine and
folded his arms over his wide chest. “The man said no.”

Dr. Curtis waddled forward
and took a spot in front of Gleason
. Then
Gwen pulled away from her brother.

“What are you doing?” Griffin asked with
surprise. The answer came when Gwen strode forward to join the
others.

Sarah felt her stomach turn and heart skip
as if jolted by a car battery. Despite raging terror, she joined
the others.

Tia’s face hardened like cement. She sneered
and raised her weapon.

“Leave them alone,” Enkian said softly.

“We don’t need them anymore,” Tia
complained.

“We don’t know that,” Enkian said. “Leave
them to their work. We are not barbarians. We know friendship.”

“Coulda fooled me,” Jack quipped.

“I let you win this round, Mr. Dyson. Don’t
give me reason to regret it.”

Sarah returned to her seat. Her mind was
aflame, thoughts shooting like bolts of lightning through her
skull. Then the electricity began to fail. The lights dimmed, the
sounds faded, and Sarah knew the narcolepsy was forcing its way
through the door.

Chapter
27

Perry took
slow,
deep breaths, forcing his mind to
take charge of his body. A sense of panic was threatening to choke
out his reason. He laughed to himself. What was reasonable about
this? He was descending through an ice pipe to a world more hostile
than the reaches of space. He was encased in a life pod made of
plastic, metal, and rubber, warmed by heating elements spread
throughout the suit and circulated by small fans. He could do
nothing but wait. He doubted there was another situation in which a
man was more helpless. Climbing to the top was impossible, and
falling thousands of feet into frigid water was far more
likely.

He could feel himself tensing and his heart
galloping. Sensors in the elastic garment he wore relayed that
information to the top.

“You okay, Perry?” Gleason asked, keying the
mike.

“Yeah,” he answered, wishing he could see
the face on the other end of the connection. “Did I mention I’m
claustrophobic?” Above, he knew everyone in the Chamber heard his
words over the speakers.

“Um, no, I didn’t see that on your job
application.”

“I must have forgotten to include it.”

“Seriously, bud, how are you doing?”

“I’m adjusting. It’s a tight squeeze, but I
seem to be sliding down like Grandma’s homemade ice cream.”

“Your heart rate is up, and your respiration
is climbing.”

“Nothing to worry about,” Perry said. He
didn’t need anyone to tell him his heart rate was up. “I’m just
testing the sensors.”

“They work fine, Perry. Take a few deep
breaths and think of your favorite beach.”

“Will do. How are things topside?”

“Fine,” Gleason said.
“Sarah was considering a nap but decid
ed
against it.”

Perry picked up on the message. Sarah had
started an episode. It was something Perry had feared; he was also
surprised it hadn’t already occurred. Gwen said that undue stress
could trigger spontaneous sleep. He was sure Sarah was under more
stress than she had ever been in her life.

“Soon as she heard your voice she perked
right up.”

“Odd,” Perry said. “I usually put women to
sleep.”

“Are you kidding? I hear you’re a two-cup
jolt of caffeine to the ladies.”

Perry smiled. Gleason was no Jack Dyson when
it came to humor, but he knew when a well-placed quip was needed.
“Tell her she owes me dinner.”

“She accepts,” Gleason said. His tone
cooled. “You’re a third of the way there, pal.”

“Roger that,” Perry said.

He fell silent.

A third of the way—over three thousand feet.
About the same distance below him was the column of water that
filled the lower 30 percent of the shaft; below that, Lake
Vostok.

The image of the ziggurat
flashed in Perry’s memory. Enkian truly believed the structure was
the real Tower of Babel. He even quoted a portion of the biblical
account. Perry had known from the beginning that an abnormal
structure was below the ice. Satellite imagery and radar readings
from an air survey had shown the
widening
lake and the massive object. But the Tower of Babel?

Dr. Curtis had been skeptical, too, and
Perry couldn’t blame him. Even now he was having trouble believing
that people had populated the continent under the ice. Scientists
had discovered many animal and plant fossils. Current theory was
that Antarctica had once been further north and part of the larger
continent, Gondwana, that he had told the others about. But even
given that, it was hard to believe.

“Hey, Gleas,” Perry said. “Put Dr. Curtis on
the horn.”

“Dr. Curtis?”

“Yeah, I have a question or two for
him.”

A moment later: “Perry, it’s Dr.
Curtis.”

“Do you still carry that handheld computer
with you?”

“I do.”

“Didn’t you tell me it had a Bible program
on it?”

“Yes, among other things.”

“Pull it out and find the Tower of Babel
story. The one our new host quoted.” Perry could imagine Dr. Curtis
reaching into his parka pocket and pulling out his Compaq handheld
computer. Perry often carried one. In fact, he had one in his
quarters. Like a regular computer, it contained a set of programs:
spreadsheets, word processing, calculators, address books, and even
Internet connectivity—if they were close to any wireless Internet
access sites.

“Got it.”

“Help me pass the time,” Perry said,
focusing to remember the story. “All of this happens after the
flood, right?”

“That’s right. We don’t
know how long after. It’s at least sever
al
generations.”

“If I remember right, a group of people
settle in some valley and decide to build a structure to keep them
from being dispersed.”

“The land of Shinar,” Curtis said.

“Which is modern Iraq.”

“That’s right,” Curtis said.

“And the tower was to keep the people
unified?”

“Partly.” He began reading. “ ‘Come, let us
build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into
heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name, otherwise we will be
scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.’ ”

“So pride was the real problem.”

“And disobedience.”

“Right,” Perry said. “They built the tower
so they wouldn’t be scattered, but they ended up being scattered
anyway.”

“Exactly. God scatters them.”

“That’s what I’m curious about. Does your
Bible program have links to the original Hebrew?”

“Of course,” Curtis said.
“You want me to look up the word
scattered?”

“I do.”

There was another pause.
“Got it. The Hebrew word
puts
is a
hiphil
verb, imperfect
waw
consecutive, third person
masculine singular.”

“Meaning?”

“Well, it means God did the scattering.”

“The people didn’t scatter because their
language had changed. That was part of the judgment, correct?”

“Yes. The verse reads: ‘So the Lord
scattered them abroad from there over the face of the whole earth;
and they stopped building the city.’ ”

“ ‘
Scattered them abroad,’ ” Perry
repeated. “ ‘From there over the face of the whole earth.’ ” He
thought for a moment. “Say, Doc, you don’t suppose . .
.”

“That God literally
transported people from one place to
another? Well, it could mean that. But to put them in
Antarctica . . .
well, no one can live
down here, especially a primitive people.”

“What if ‘down here’ wasn’t down here? What
if, like geologists have said, that Antarctica was part of a larger
continent?”

“That’s the prevailing theory.”

Perry wished he could scratch his head, a
simple feat made impossible by the suit. “After that account comes
the table of nations. Isn’t there someone with a name that means
‘to divide’?”

“
Yes. Peleg is listed in the genealogy that follows the Babel
account, but the verse you’re thinking of comes sooner. Let me
check.
Here it is, Genesis 10:25: ‘Two
sons were born to Eber; the name of the one was Peleg, for in his
days the earth was divided; and his broth
er’s name was Joktan.’ Is that what you had in
mind?”

“What was Peleg’s brother’s name?” Perry
asked.

“Joktan. It means
smallness
or
to make small.
Wait a
minute. Are you implying that Peleg’s name is a reference to the
splitting of the continents and that his brother’s name refers to
the newer, smaller continents?”

“I’m just hanging around killing time,
Professor.”

“Perry, most scholars believe Peleg’s name
refers to the splitting of earth for irrigation. You know, he dug
water canals. To go beyond that is absurd.”

“Hey, Doc, what am I doing right now?”

“You’re being lowered down . . . an ice
shaft . . . to take a brick stone from a . . .”

“Yeah, that’s my point.” Perry changed
tones. “How about it, Enkian? Is that your plan? You want to finish
what your ancestors failed to do? You want to build a new nation
centered around the old Tower of Babel?”

Perry heard a muffled sound over the
speakers, then, “I suggest you focus on your work.”

“I’m just asking a question.”

Pain pierced Perry’s ears as a loud crack
came over the speakers. He recognized it as a gunshot.

“Doc? Doc! Gleason? Jack?”

“It’s all right, buddy,” Jack’s voice said.
“Our friend just wanted to make a point. He fired a round with the
barrel near the mike.”

“No kidding? My ears are
ringing like a fire alarm. Is everyone
okay?”

“Yeah, there’s a nice hole in our pretty
ceiling, but that’s the only injury. However, I think the Bible
study is over.”

“I understand.” Perry thanked God that no
one was lying dead three thousand feet above his head—at least not
yet.

Jack slipped off the headset and handed it
back to Gleason. “That was a little over the top, don’t you think?”
he said to Enkian.

“You don’t know
what
over the top
means. I am growing impatient.”

“If you don’t like our work, you can go down
there and do it yourself.”

Enkian turned from Jack and faced Tia.
“Bring the items in. It’s time to set up.”