The Bergamese Sect (33 page)

The wind was freezing, making Matt’s eyes fill up with salty tears. He wiped them away and looked out across the vast landscape of dark, snow-capped mountains. Angular pyramids that seemed immense and ominous against the failing light of the sky. Hinting at orange, a crescent moon had just risen above the peaks to the east and was bathing the ice sheet in its opalescent glow. There were no lights to be seen anywhere, except for the faint glimmer coming from the hut far below, a beacon at the valley head.

Henric was looking around, but he wasn’t surveying the scenery. He began pacing around, trying to see something on the surface of the ice. He stopped and reached into his jacket. Pulling out a portable GPS unit, he flicked it on and waited for it to lock onto the array of satellites circling above.

‘
It’s been up here less than a week,’ he said, ‘but I don’t see any signs of disturbance.’ He paused a moment, then said, ‘Ah’. He looked at the GPS receiver and started climbing again toward the pass, stopping briefly and motioning for Matt to follow. ‘Higher, I think.’

Another hundred yards up, the glacier’s surface became very rough. Deep, parallel grooves streaked down toward the valley. Some of them were several feet deep and the two men clambered between them with difficulty.

Matt’s foot sunk with a loud crack into one of the troughs. He froze, expecting the ice to give way, sending him plummeting fifty feet into a concealed fissure. But the ice held firm.

Cautiously, they passed over the rough furrows and then came to a smoother, pockmarked area. To their left the glacier now dropped away sharply, following the contours of the land far beneath its surface. The slope was reflecting the moon perfectly in its polished surface. Its gradient grew rapidly, treacherously, so that the surface was quickly lost to view. Matt shimmied forward to look over the precipice. The abyss almost gave him vertigo.

‘
Watch it,’ Henric said, pointing at the slippery descent. ‘Slip on that and you’ll be back in the hut in three seconds.’

Henric smiled then returned to the GPS. He nodded, flicked the device off and tossed it back in his pocket.

‘
This is it,’ he said.

‘
The disk is here?’

Henric was looking at the ice with a worried expression. ‘I don’t think the glacier could have moved much in a week,’ he said, apparently seeking some assurance from his own words. ‘There’s no marks here. Do objects sink into a glacier? Shift under the ice?’

Matt had no idea and kept silent.

‘
It’s summer, isn’t it?’ Henric continued. ‘I guess the surface could melt during the day, freeze over again at night. That would cover over any disturbance, wouldn’t it?’

Matt shrugged.

Henric threw the spade on the ice and got a firm grip on the pick. He swung it high and hammered it into the ice pack. Like a bullet off rock, it bounced right off the surface.

‘
Shit!’ Henric said. He took another swing, this time throwing his full weight behind it. It formed a tiny fracture. A few more attempts and Henric had opened a hole only a few inches deep.

Once past the solid surface, the ice seemed more brittle and came away in larger chunks. As Henric continued to pound away at it, Matt grabbed the spade and began lifting the debris, throwing it over his shoulder. The blocks of ice hit the glacier and slid silently, majestically down the shiny ice sheet, disappearing over the slope in seconds.

‘
Henric,’ Matt said as they worked away. ‘What do you know about Clara?’

‘
What do you want to know?’ Henric asked. He brought the pick down again with all his strength.

‘
It’s just that you said she was becoming unstable. Has she cracked up before or something?’

‘
No. I don’t know. I just think she’s becoming a little stressed with this mission of hers.’

‘
Hers? Isn’t this your mission too?’

‘
Sure, but I don’t think I have as much to lose as that girl.’

‘
Why’s that?’

Henric stopped swinging. ‘Well, she’s been in this game a lot longer than I have. It’s really the only life she knows. If someone offered you the salvation you’ve been looking for all your life, but kept holding it at arm’s length, you’d get pretty frustrated too, wouldn’t you?’ He took another stab at the ice.

‘
I guess,’ said Matt.

Henric paused again. ‘Look, Matt, I’m really a new recruit to this conspiracy business. I was hired because of my technical expertise, but I haven’t been with this outfit long. Nowhere near as long as Clara.’

‘
But you go along with this alien abduction thing, do you?’

Henric smiled. ‘Matt, I’m standing on top of a glacier, at night, grovelling around in the snow for a computer disk. Does it look like I don’t believe in what I’m doing? Of course I do. I wouldn’t be part of this organisation if I didn’t hold the same convictions as Clara. We’re partners.’

‘
But she’s got seniority, hasn’t she? Over you, I mean.’

‘
Sure, seniority gained through long service. She tells me what to do, what arrangements to make, and I do it. That’s what I’m paid for.’

‘
But who tells
her
what to do? Surely, she has someone who directs her, feeds her information. Or does she make this up as she goes along?’

‘
No, she’s in contact with our superiors, sure.’

‘
Right. And these superiors. Who are they?’

‘
I don’t know.’

‘
You don’t know who’s giving you orders?’

‘
Look, Matt. This is a sensitive issue. How did you react when Clara came clean? People don’t want to be tarred with the same brush as the cranks. They don’t want to reveal their involvement. Those of us on the ground, the troops, don’t ask questions. But you can be sure they are honest people, probably powerful people, united by a belief that there’s a truth to be told.’

‘
And you’re sure Clara has your best interests at heart?’

‘
What’s your point?’ Henric said as he returned to smashing the pickaxe into the glacier.

‘
It’s just that Clara keeps saying this contact of yours doesn’t trust you. I’m just curious about your background, that’s all. About Clara’s motives.’

‘
I think Clara’s motives are pretty clear, don’t you?’

Matt nodded. He shovelled another pile of ice over the brim of the glacier. ‘Sure,’ he said, ‘but how do you get into this in the first place? I mean, I can understand the loons getting involved with their fellow loons. But you guys seem to think you’re above all that; that you’re professionals. I mean, what corner of society did you crawl out of? What’s Clara’s background, for instance?’

‘
I don’t know, Matt. I think she was originally a psychology student or something. I’m not sure.’

‘
A psychology student?’ Matt smiled, seeing the irony in the words. ‘Can she see the symptoms of her own madness?’

‘
Matt, I don’t know what your problem is with Clara. Does it bother you that a woman is in charge of this outfit?’

‘
No.’

‘
The people that direct us are secretive. They have to be. If we start to look like those other groups, we lose credibility, as well as effectiveness.’

‘
What are these other groups you keep going on about?’

‘
Groups investigating UFOs. Groups accusing the government of deception. There’s loads of them out there. Citizens Against UFO Secrecy, the Aerial Phenomena Research Organisation, the Mutual UFO Network, the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena. I’m not saying they’re all full of geeks and goofs, but they operate quite differently to us.’

Henric stopped swinging at the ice. ‘Look,’ he said, ‘Clara is very passionate about this. So passionate she might become a bit unpredictable. Lash out, whatever. But don’t think that means she’s losing her grip. Or doesn’t know what she’s doing. Just play by her rules until she has what she wants. Then we can drop you off on Wapping High Street and you can forget this ever happened.’

‘
Maybe I won’t want to forget.’

‘
Maybe not,’ Henric agreed. Then he smiled. ‘If this mystery man comes up with the goods, you won’t be able to.’ He looked down at Matt who was still scooping the ice out of the hole they’d dug into the glacier. ‘You’ll be a celebrity, a hero.’

‘
I’m not sure I’d like that.’

Matt stood, grabbed the pick from Henric and began crashing its spike into the ice, again and again. He drove it deep into the hole and levered it to break the ice apart, showering them with tiny, freezing shards. The hole was growing.

Suddenly Henric shouted. ‘Whoa, hang on!’

He knelt down over the hole, scooped out the loose ice and peered through the semi-transparent crystals beneath. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a flask of hot water, unscrewed the cap and poured the liquid into the depression. Clouds of steam rose up into the chilled air, bright tendrils snaking into the moonlight. Henric began scrubbing at the base of the pit, stopping to check what his hands were revealing.

‘
Here,’ he said and motioned to Matt to pass him the pick. He held the point and stabbed carefully at the ice, then poured more steaming water into the hole.

For several minutes, he scraped and dug.

Then, reaching his hand under the ice he hauled out a plastic-encased package. He tipped it onto the ice toward Matt.

But it instantly began sliding on a cushion of fluid, heading rapidly for the edge of the slope. Matt jumped back and thrust his foot out, trapping the bundle before it disappeared over the ice sheet.

‘
Thanks,’ said Henric. ‘We can’t afford to lose this one too.’

He picked up the package and wiped it down. It was about six inches square, two inches high, and was wrapped tightly in swathes of polythene and packing tape. Henric shook off the droplets of water and slipped it into his jacket, zipping it up again right to the neck. He bounced up and down to make sure it was secured, and then picked up the tools.

‘
C’mon,’ he said, ‘dinner’s waiting.’

―
§ ―

High above the Asulkan valley trail, two men lay on their stomachs in the snow. They were dressed in white snowsuits and peered out from a long shoulder of rock on the northern flank of Castor Peak. They were hidden in a depression they’d scooped out of the frozen snow. Beside them lay two large backpacks, also white.

Beyond the precipice, they could see the steep valley sides dropping away, covered with the glowing ice of the massive Asulkan Glacier. Beyond it, the valley was bathed in a dim, cold glow from the moon. In the distance lay the dark line of alpine trees that followed the mountain trail up from Rogers Pass. A faint breeze was blowing up the valley, deathly cold, but there was hardly a sound.

Both men were staring at a dim light, almost beyond the reach of their eyes, that nestled at the head of the valley. One of them passed a pair of night-vision binoculars to his colleague who began surveying the area.

‘
What do you think?’ whispered Steve Linsky. ‘I saw four agents camped out in the woods below the shack.’

Agent Lewis of the NSA was still peering through the binoculars. He could see the outline of a human figure lying face down on the ground. It was small and faint, too distant and shaded to give the binoculars enough light to amplify. Lewis reached above his eyes and flicked on the IR illuminator on the binoculars. But the glare of its radiation couldn’t penetrate the murk far below.

Lewis flicked it off again and began sweeping the valley floor beneath them, swinging the binoculars methodically across the landscape, searching for faint reflections against the dark background of cold earth. He found another figure, close to the shack. Noting its position, he moved on, scouring for more hot bodies.

‘
Yes,’ Lewis answered quietly, ‘they’ve got the target surrounded. Looks like they might attack. Perhaps they’ve just been waiting to get the group away from civilisation.’

‘
The girl could have brought them here for that purpose. If she really is in league with them,’ Linsky said.

Lewis pulled the binoculars away from his eyes and squinted at the scene below. It was well past sunset, the northern horizon still glowing faintly. Dark cumulo nimbus clouds were gathering in the west, threatening rain, or possibly some early snow on the peaks.

Lewis bit his lip, thinking. ‘Our first priority is to protect the target,’ he said. ‘We can’t assume they’ll leave the target unharmed, like they did in Poland. I think we should prepare to step in, rescue this guy.’

‘
I agree,’ answered Linsky. ‘I think we need to move now. Let’s get down there.’

Lewis didn’t answer. He chewed his lip again and raised the binoculars to his eyes, sweeping them again from side to side over the valley. Twinkling green pixels picked out the details of rocks and vegetation.

Linsky had said he’d seen four men. But Lewis had only spotted two.

A faint chiming noise suddenly broke into the silence.

‘
What’s that?’ hissed Lewis, alarmed by the sudden intrusion into the still air. He yanked the goggles from his eyes, span round on his chest.

Linsky reached over to a backpack resting in the snowy depression; a sack full of equipment they’d commandeered from the Calgary CIA office. He rummaged inside, pulled out a small hand-held radio that was beeping.

‘
It’s a GSB,’ he said, pressing a button to switch off the alarm.

Lewis returned to the binoculars. ‘Yeah, what does it say?’

‘
Hold on a minute.’ Linsky watched the screen as text began to appear. ‘Harry Westport,’ he began.

Lewis turned round quickly, throwing the binoculars on the snow. ‘Westport?’ he repeated.