Rogue Angel - Polar Quest Part 20

"You've been asking the wrong questions, Annja," Garin said. "And for me to go ahead and just give you the answers without you doing the work involved wouldn't be any kind of fun, now, would it?"

"I could do without having to work for the answer every once in a while. I expect most people could," Annja said.

Garin nodded. "Sure, but there's no fun in it."

"So?"

"The goal is always to have fun, Annja. Always."

"Why is that?"

Garin sighed. "Because fun is the only thing I have left. Everything else has been stolen from me in this cruel world. I don't age. I don't get sick. I don't die. If I can't have fun, then truly, I am lost forever."

Annja looked at him for a moment. Garin caught her eye and she saw it coming. First the crow's-feet at the edges of his eyes started to crinkle inward. And then the lips parted. She saw his teeth. And then heard him laughing.

"Did I fool you?" he asked.

"Not even close. I know you too well."

Garin sighed again. "Ah, well, that's probably true. Well, here we are. Let's get this logged in and then you and I can take a nice shower together. How does that sound?"

"As appealing as a bout of food poisoning," Annja said. "I'll take a pa.s.s."

Garin smiled. "Well, just for that, I'm not going to tell you how I think these items were made by animals. So there."

20.

Annja lay on her bed inside the shelter with her hands behind her head on the pillow. She was tired. And grumpy. Being alone seemed like the best thing to do.

She'd spent the better part of the afternoon digging in the cavern with Dave and Zach. Despite deep excavations, they'd found nothing else aside from the piece Annja had dug up earlier in the day.

Garin, meanwhile, had refused to make himself available for elaboration on his cryptic statement about animals creating the relics. He'd been busy with Colonel Thomson throughout the day, rea.s.suring him of elaborate security measures that Annja was certain weren't even necessary.

Zach and Dave had gone for dinner, leaving Annja alone in the shelter. She had feigned a lack of appet.i.te to get them to leave without her. She simply didn't want to be in the mess hall and forced to talk with people when she could be alone, relaxing and trying to wrap her mind around the situation and why she felt she was being played on many different fronts.

Her first source of frustration was with the attempt on her life. Whom had she angered to the extent that they wanted her dead? Sure, there were plenty of people across the globe who would not shed a tear if she happened to get eaten by a great white shark or hit by a blimp, but would they bother to track her down to a remote research station in Antarctica to take her out?

She didn't think so. That meant that she'd run afoul of someone local and not back in the outside world. But the only two candidates for that were back at McMurdo in Gallagher's. She wondered if Dunning had had any luck tracking them down.

Had the two nitwits followed them to Horlick? Zach had insisted he might have seen another Sno-Cat back behind them. Was it possible someone was keeping tabs on her? And if so, who was it and why?

That brought her to Zach and Dave. Annja felt comfortable enough with Zach. She knew him and they'd worked together in the past. She trusted him implicitly. And besides, with his failed marriage looming over his head, Zach didn't really seem to be capable of planning some elaborate scheme. The dig was the one thing he could actually concentrate on to the exclusion of all the bad things happening in his life.

He needed this dig as a distraction from his personal life. She knew the feeling.

What about Dave? At times, he moved and acted like a b.u.mpkin of sorts. Their first meeting in particular hadn't impressed Annja. He'd used his strange speech patterns to disarm her suspicion and put her at ease. If she thought he wasn't the sharpest knife in the drawer, she wouldn't figure out his true intentions.

But later on, Dave had let the disguise slip in spots. And when he did, he seemed a lot more formidable than he had before. While Annja wasn't necessarily convinced he was a full-on government agent, he sure had a way about him that made her think there was a lot more to him than he showed.

Garin's sudden appearance had surprised Annja far more than anything else that had happened thus far. She hadn't seen him for months. And to see him striding about the camp in his military regalia made her want to break out laughing.

He was there for a reason. But she had no idea what it could be.

And the dig site itself confused her. She'd been on plenty. And she'd uncovered evidence before of ancient settlements. But this was completely unlike the others. Except for the discovery of the four pieces, there was no evidence that a race of people had lived here at all.

Of most concern to her was the fact that there weren't any skeletons. Nor were there cave paintings, or other tidbits that usually accompanied the dig sites she'd been on in the past.

It was as if someone had simply thrown four bizarre relics into the ground and then left.

But why would they do that? And where did they go after that? Were there other places elsewhere in the world with such relics buried in them? Or was this simply one strange incident that would have no real resolution to it at all?

As much as Annja hated to admit it, there were times when that was exactly what happened. For one reason or another, things wouldn't add up. There would be loose ends and an impossibility at ever uncovering the truth.

She hated that.

She closed her eyes and let her mind drift. The two killers in McMurdo were, as far as she was able to tell, still back there. She could do nothing about them at the moment. And concentrating on them would prove to be a distraction she didn't want right now.

She filed them away for later.

Dave was another matter entirely. He was on the site and a constant fixture in Annja's current situation. But fathoming what he was or what his motivations were would prove exhausting, as well. He didn't seem to be an enemy, at least not yet. And he seemed genuinely concerned about Zach's welfare, which meant he had to be at least somewhat okay.

Annja filed him away, as well.

Garin's face swam into her mind's eye. What was his deal? she wondered. Why was he here and what was he after? Did he really want the artifacts? He'd seemed only mildly curious about the most recent discovery and certainly disliked digging at the site. If he was truly motivated to find the relics, Annja would have expected him to be right at the forefront of the work.

But he wasn't. And his actions called him into question. But Annja knew that he was a slippery character. If he told her one thing, he might have meant another and he might still have six other stories.

That concerned her.

Annja opened her eyes. Outside her shelter, she could see shapes pa.s.sing back and forth as people walked in front of the lights. She smirked at the thought of all the generators running on nuclear power. Who would have thought, she wondered, that this entire installation was being powered that way?

She frowned. Wasn't it a violation of international law or some accord that there was nuclear power on the continent? She vaguely remembered reading somewhere that all the nations with an interest in Antarctica had signed something swearing they wouldn't bring nukes there.

Of course, she was sure the Americans would swear it was their right to do whatever was necessary if they thought they'd stumbled upon something that might threaten their national security. And the other countries would clam up because no one wanted to get on their bad side. Annja sighed. No wonder our reputation elsewhere in the world is the pits.

So what could she do about Garin?

She sat up. Lying on her bunk wasn't accomplis.h.i.+ng a d.a.m.ned thing. She needed to get some answers. And soon. Her mind didn't like a lot of unresolved questions about stuff she was so close to.

Annja checked the clock. It was just after 7:00 p.m. She knew a lot of people would still be at dinner.

She slid her legs over the bed and got into her snow pants and boots. She zipped up her jacket and then stood by the door, cracking it just enough to get a feel for the foot traffic outside.

A hundred feet away, she saw two armed guards on routine patrol. The military presence was very clear, but they seemed friendly enough and obviously had orders not to interfere in the scientific process.

Annja stepped outside the door into the frigid cold. The wind took her for a step to her left until she bent her knees and lowered her weight to get her balance. Then she righted herself and walked off toward Colonel Thomson's tent.

Rather than appear sneaky, Annja strode through the snow as if she had a clear mission in mind to see the colonel.

Once in his administrative tent, she could try to figure out where Garin was sleeping. And then she could have a sit-down with him. Or maybe she could just poke around in his tent and see if she could discover the real reason he was down here.

At the entrance to Thomson's tent, she paused. She heard nothing inside and so she stepped in.

A young soldier sat at the desk and looked up when Annja entered. "Can I help you, Miss Creed?"

Annja frowned. "You know who I am?"

He nodded. "We all do. Part of our orders are to know the names and faces of everyone in camp."

"I see." Annja glanced around. "Is Colonel Thomson around?"

"No, probably off at dinner, I'd expect. Something I can help you with?"

Annja smiled. "Actually, I was hoping to see Major Braden about something."

The soldier nodded. "He might be at dinner, as well."

Annja turned to leave. "Well, no bother. I'll stop by his tent in a little while and ask him then."

"Okay," the soldier said pleasantly.

Annja frowned. "His tent is over by the dig site entrance, isn't it?"

"No, Miss Creed, it's over by the generator station," he said.

Annja raised her eyebrows. "He's sleeping near the nuclear power core?"

The soldier grinned. "It's perfectly safe. And besides, he volunteered to pitch his shelter there. Said he was old enough that if he started to glow in the dark, it'd be better than any of us doing the same. h.e.l.luva guy, he is."

Annja smiled. "Isn't he, though?" She ducked back out of the shelter into the freezing air.

She turned and surveyed the camp. The nuclear power generator stood by itself, somewhat close to the dig site entrance, but far enough away that it seemed a little isolated. It might have been as safe as the young soldier had insisted, but psychologically, people didn't seem to want to be near it.

Except for one shelter.

Garin's.

Annja noticed the recent snowfall made it possible to see all the footprints in the area. She saw several sets, including what could only be Garin's large boots, leading to and from his tent. She walked carefully in one of the sets, mimicking the steps just because she didn't feel like advertising her presence.

She smirked. Garin would flip if he thought she was coming to his tent. His desire for her was ridiculous at times. And Annja wondered how much of it was an act designed to simply flatter her to the point that she dropped her guard. She'd known plenty of women who were too easily disarmed by the flattery and supposed desire of a would-be conqueror.

Annja was determined not to let that happen to her.

Garin might make for an attractive mental stimulus every once in a great while, but she would never allow herself to bed down with him. Never.

The entrance to his shelter loomed ahead and Annja hurried to get closer. Garin had apparently set his shelter up so it was literally flush with the nuclear power generator.

Why would anyone-even Garin-do that?

She glanced around the shelter but saw nothing else out of the ordinary. Hoses ran from the generator out to all of the shelters, and Annja knew they carried the electricity that powered everything in camp.

The cold was becoming unbearable. She had to make a decision soon about whether she would stay outside or go in.

Annja paused by the door.

Here goes nothing, she thought.

She knocked on the door.

"Good evening, Annja."

But the voice didn't come from within the shelter. It came from behind her. She turned and saw Garin standing there.

"Is there something I can help you with?"

21.

Garin looked imposing with his hood and goggles on, standing over her in the darkness. He smiled and clapped his hands together. "This is a very nice surprise. One I confess I never thought I'd see happening. But there you go. Just goes to show that we can't predict the future."

Annja sighed. "I wanted to talk to you."

Garin shook his head. "Well, I'm not going to talk to you out here. I'm cold and miserable. This weather is the absolute pits."

"We're in Antarctica, Garin."

"Regardless, I'm going inside." Garin opened the door. "Interested in coming in out of the cold?"

Annja stepped over the threshold. "Whether your sick little imagination wants to admit it or not, this does not mean I'm here to sleep with you," she stated.

Garin placed a hand on his chest. "Woman, thou doth slay me with your unkind words."

"Yeah, right," Annja said, laughing.

Garin removed his jacket and goggles, letting them fall over the small table near the entrance. "I didn't see you at dinner."

"No, you didn't."