Hot & Cold (6 page)

Out on deck in the fresh air, EJ did indeed feel better. It was, however, the coldest fresh air that EJ had ever experienced—and she had been to some pretty cold places. It was as if the wind was biting her face and she could feel tiny icicles settling on her ears.

‘Fresh, isn't it?' chuckled Captain C2C. ‘We are now in the coldest place on Earth and it's summer time—imagine what it's like in winter!'

The ocean swell continued to heave and EJ watched as the black waves rose up and then dropped down again, time after time. At least now she was able to see them coming and that, along with her charm, seemed to be helping with the seasickness.

As she stared out at the black waves, EJ wondered if she might be starting to see things, imagining things that weren't really there. The waves seemed to turn into leaping whales—black-backed whales with white bellies, rising and diving into the swell.
Hold on a minute!
EJ looked harder, her eyes squinting at the water. They really were whales.
Unreal! Well, real, but awesome!

The whales were dodging the thin ice chunks floating in the sea, rising high up into the air before diving down again, creating enormous splashes as they landed back on the water. There were two whales, a mother and her baby, and it was as if they were having a morning play together.

EJ wanted to watch them soar and dive forever but
Shining Light
continued to push further and further south. The floating ice chunks gave way to hard icy sheets that the ship had to break through as it moved forward. The front of the ship rose up and
then crashed down again, crushing the ice below. But the further the ship went, the thicker and harder the ice became, eventually making it impossible to break through.

‘This is pretty much as far as we can take you, EJ12. You will need to make your own way across the ice shelf to the island,' said Captain C2C. ‘Proceed to the lower deck and prepare to launch
Shinemobile 3.'

Shinemobile 3
was part jet-ski and part skimobile. It allowed agents to travel on water, land and ice, moving easily from one surface to another. EJ thought it was like riding a motorbike on skis, and probably the most fun you could have outside of the Mission Tube. It was solar-powered, ultra-light and moved almost completely without noise.

EJ12 jumped on, turned the key and slowly revved the engine. A large set of doors opened from the lower deck and a ramp was lowered down from the ship. Straight ahead, for as far as the eye could see, there was ice—gleaming blue-ish ice. EJ locked her phone into a socket and the satellite navigation screen turned on. EJ keyed in the co-ordinates of where they thought Emperor Penguin Point was and then slowly eased off the brake, pulled back on the accelerator and slid out onto the ice. She checked the time—EJ needed to get her skates on—she had less than an hour to make the payment to Dr Hill.

Antarctica was like a desert, a cold, white desert interrupted by giant, jagged icebergs that soared up to the skies. But A1 was right. While the ice might look smooth and flat from a distance, up close it was a much rougher ride. There were deep crevasses everywhere, giant cracks in the ice that could open up without warning. EJ would have to move quickly but carefully.

As she rode along, she saw blobs of grey along the ice. Blobs of grey that were there one moment and gone the next.
Odd,
thought EJ
and perhaps worth investigating.
She turned towards one blob
and as she got closer she could see that it wasn't a blob at all, it was a seal! A seal that popped its head up onto the ice before diving down again.

‘Sorry for thinking you were a blob!' said EJ, laughing. ‘Let's see what you really are.' EJ took a photo of another seal with her phone, pressed ‘go', and within seconds a photo and text appeared. EJ had used her animal app that could identify every animal in the world.

‘You're a Weddell seal,' said EJ, ‘and a very cute one,' she added as she looked at the seal's small head and whiskers and a mouth that almost looked like it was smiling. The animal app told her that Weddell seals spend nearly all their time under the water, popping up through cracks or holes in the ice. The seal seemed to look at EJ and then dived down again, back on its way—which is what EJ needed to be doing too.

She pulled away from the seal hole and sped up a bit. Way up above in the crystal clear blue sky, a solitary bird was circling overhead. She took another photo with her phone. The bird was a skua, like a seagull but browner and bigger. And meaner. EJ saw it and wondered what it was hunting.

A bit further on, she saw penguins, hundreds, maybe even thousands of them coming out of the ocean and starting to waddle across the ice. Emperor penguins? She wasn't sure. They didn't seem big enough. Again she took a photo, pressed ‘go' and waited. The information appeared on the screen, confirming EJ's thoughts. These ones were Adelie penguins and they were indeed smaller than the Emperor penguins. But it wasn't all bad news. The Adelie penguin ground was not far off from where the Emperor penguins should be—and where EJ12 needed to be. She was close but she needed to hurry.

EJ switched the snowmobile to turbo and sped across the ice shelf and it was not too long before another black mass loomed up in the distance—more penguins. And, as she got closer, EJ could see that these ones were taller and with distinctive bright yellow ear patches. There was no need for EJ to check her animal app. She had found the
emperor penguins, which was just as well because she needed to make the payment in ten minutes.

EJ kept her cool and remembered that A1 had said that there was an abandoned hut near the penguin grounds. These huts had been used by the early explorers but were now deserted, or were they?
SHINE
thought Dr Hill might now be using one. EJ scanned the area with her binoculars but could see nothing. She re-checked her map. According to the map, there should be a hut on the other side of the mountain just ahead. EJ sped on around the base of the mountain and soon found herself outside an old wooden hut, built right up against the mountain where it would have been protected from blizzards. It looked as if it had been there for years. Maybe too many years—with loose planks and tin falling off the roof, the hut had obviously seen better days. A metal sign was hanging from one corner of the roof.

Wow, 1950, that's old!
thought EJ.
EPP—Emperor Penguin Point—this is it.

There was no way she could take
Shinemobile 3
inside with her, so she hit the green button marked ‘ED' next to the ignition and waited. Eco-Deco was just one of the clever eco-friendly
SHINE
inventions that ensured their agents didn't leave their gadgets lying around all over the world. (Not only might they be discovered, but it would be littering!) EJ watched as
Shinemobile 3
began to decompose. It was a smelly process, like burping—or sometimes, worse, farting—and EJ knew better than to stand too close. She moved back and as she waited, she again noticed the large skua circling above her. Odd. She then heard a large belch from her snowmobile and turned back to see that it had not decomposed completely but transformed. There was now a purple snowboard lying on the ice.
Cool,
thought EJ, as she picked it up and slung it over her shoulder.
That may be useful later...

EJ moved closer to the hut and as she did, she noticed something odd. Attached to the very old,
broken-down hut was a very modern, not-broken-down steel door. And on the door was a keypad and small sign.

What language is that?
Not one that EJ recognised (and, having completed the
SHINE
intensive language course, she could, besides other things, ask for a hot chocolate in fifteen different languages). So if it wasn't a language, EJ decided that it must be a code.

But what sort of code?
EJ looked and looked but nothing jumped out at her. She wrinkled her nose and kept looking, waiting for a pattern to appear.
You never really know what you are looking at with codes,
thought EJ.
Does one letter stand for another, does a number really mean a letter, is something missing or is something added? Hmmm
... She had no idea but she had to hurry—there were just five minutes left to make the payment.

EJ looked at the first word:

The word sort of looked normal, except for the H. It was the same with the second word:

In fact, it was only the first letter of each word that looked out of place. EJ wondered what would happen if she took all the first letters out. She used her finger to draw a line through the first letter of each word on the frosty surface of the sign.

Hmmm, not as helpful as I thought,
said EJ to herself.
It still looks weird but maybe slightly less weird than before. I wonder what would happen if I put different letters back. Worth a try, but which ones?
EJ studied the words for a while and then suddenly she saw it.

Invited guests? Guests, party guests—I must be in the right place.
EJ then looked at the keypad next to the sign. It was just like a mini automatic teller machine at the bank.
Swipe card.
A1's guess had been right. Emperor Penguin Point was where EJ had to make the payment. But had she got there first? There was only one way to find out.

Quickly and with only seconds to spare, EJ took out her Invisi-Pay card and swiped. She confirmed the pin and pressed ‘OK' for the payment to proceed.

The screen flashed and the words ‘Confirm amount' appeared.

EJ keyed in ‘$20,000,000', taking a deep breath at the thought of such a huge sum of money and for a moment she was distracted by wondering how much chocolate that would buy. Then she pressed ‘OK' and almost immediately, a silver envelope emerged from a slot under the keypad.
The invitation? It certainly looks like one and, for that amount of money, it better be
some
party.

EJ ripped open the envelope and pulled out a silver card with black writing. A small silver whistle fell out and landed on the ice. As she picked it up, her hand brushed the ice and for a moment, her skin felt warm.
Strange,
she thought, but forgot about it as she slipped the whistle into her pocket and began to read the card inside.

Volpol.
That
was the first word of the code but what could it mean?

EJ turned the handle of the door, pushed it open and gasped. It certainly wasn't what she expected
from the outside. Inside, there were no more old pieces of wood, there was only stainless steel—stainless steel walls, a stainless steel table and then another door, a stainless steel door with the words DANGER VOLPOL PIPE ACCESS POINT on it.

On the table was a bottle of water. EJ picked up the bottle and read the label:

Water. This was about water? But how?
There was nothing else in the room to give her any clues so EJ walked over to the second door and tried to open it, but it was locked. She took her charm key, twisted it and inserted it into the lock. With only a little jiggle, the key turned and the door opened.

If EJ was surprised by the first room, she was completely stunned by where she was now. She stepped on to a metal platform overlooking a huge hole that ran both deep down into the ground and straight upwards. Lit by small lights fixed along the rock wall, the tunnel ran up and down the centre of the mountain and in the middle of the tunnel ran a large pipe. The Volpol Pipe.

EJ leant over to touch the pipe but quickly jumped back—it was hot!
Hot? How is that possible? Here in Antarctica?
And then EJ realised that the pipe wasn't the only thing that was hot. As she stood there, she felt her feet warming up through her boots. The metal of the platform was hot—hotter than the footpath on a summer's day. All the ice on her boots had melted and she was now standing in a pool of water—a pool of
hot
water.

Where is the heat coming from?
EJ had no idea but she knew someone who might—Elle. Elle had called her geography project ‘Amazing Antarctica—Unbelievable Facts'. She had spent ages on it, uncovering little known facts and figures about the area. She might know why it was hot when it should be cold. It was certainly worth a try. It was time to use the BEST app. EJ phoned her friend, who answered immediately.

‘Hi again, what's up?' Elle knew from the special ring tone that it was EJ calling—EJ OM and in need of Elle's help.

‘Hi Elle. You know your project on Antarctica?' said EJ. ‘I don't suppose you found out any amazing facts about hot things as well as cold?'

Elle chuckled. ‘You mean you weren't listening?'

‘Um, I think I had a guitar lesson during some of your presentation,' said EJ quickly. ‘But please Elle, it's important!'

‘Well yes, you wouldn't believe it but there are at least three volcanoes at the South Pole and they are all still active. Can you believe that? One of nature's hottest things in the middle of nature's coldest environment. In fact,
that
was the number one amazing fact in my project. Why do you ask?'

‘Because I think I might be standing in one of those volcanoes.'

‘That's awesome,' Elle replied. ‘Did you know that the lava level is deep down in the Earth?' Elle loved sharing her facts. ‘Its intense heat can cause glacier ice to melt leading to increases in meltwater.'

‘Meltwater, what's that?' asked EJ, remembering the water bottle label.

‘It's just what you would think it is, Em. Water melted from the ice. Some people think we could use the volcanic heat to create more meltwater to make more drinking water but that would be a disaster. Sea levels would rise and global warming would be even more out of control than it already is. Luckily though, no one has been able to work out how to do it.'

‘I think maybe someone now has,' said EJ looking at the pipeline. Shivers ran down her spine as she realised what Caterina Hill was up to.
She's using
the volcanic heat to melt ice to make drinking water bottled as ‘Chill'. But how does she collect the water? How does the Volpol Pipe work and can I stop it?
EJ needed to find out, quickly.

‘Elle, I've got to go.'

‘OK, but Em, if you are thinking what I think you are thinking, you can't let that someone get away with this.'

‘I won't.'

EJ wasn't going to let her friend down, again. She was going to stop Caterina, even if she wasn't exactly sure how.