The Arctic Code Page 11

  She took a table with Luke and the Powers brothers, plates of reconstituted beef stroganoff in front of them, while Dr. Skinner addressed the room.

  “Good work today,” Dr. Skinner said over the clattering of utensils against plastic bowls. “Tomorrow, we’ll concentrate our efforts on sector H9-11. After we’re done here, let’s recalibrate and set our new parameters. Enjoy your dinner.” He sat down.

  Eleanor finally spotted a man she recognized, over in a corner, eating by himself. She thought he was Dr. Grant, the one Uncle Jack had called a few days ago.

  “Be right back,” she whispered to Luke, and left her seat. She ducked across the room, weaving between chairs and tables, until she reached the corner. He looked up from his food as she approached and wiped his mouth with a crinkly paper napkin.

  “Oh,” he said. “Eleanor, isn’t it?”

  “Yes, Dr. Grant. You work with my mom—”

  “Yes, yes, of course, I remember you. I’m so glad you’re safe and sound.” He pointed to an empty chair. “Please, sit down.”

  Eleanor took the seat he offered. “Did you find anything today?”

  “Um . . .” He shook his head. “Not today, no. I’m so sorry. But we’ll keep looking, don’t you worry.”

  Eleanor hadn’t really expected him to tell her anything new. “Where is everyone else from Sohn International?”

  He looked around. “I’m all that’s left of the old gang, I’m afraid. Everyone else has been reassigned. We’re part of the Global Energy Trust now.”

  “Yeah, my uncle Jack mentioned some big project. When you talked with him—”

  “That’s right, Jack called the old satellite phone.” Dr. Grant wiped his mouth again. “You know, I found out later I wasn’t even supposed to have that old thing.” He leaned in, a conspiratorial hand shielding his mouth. “Truth be told, I actually got in a bit of trouble for talking with your uncle. All these new protocols and procedures. But I’m lucky to have my job, and it’s always that way working for a new company, I suppose.”

  “Uh, I guess.”

  “Well, it’s good to see you alive and well. We were worried, you know. But I, uh, see your friends over there. Julian, Finn. They’re probably missing you, so . . .” He glanced across the room, and his voice just trailed off.

  Missing her? No, Dr. Grant was trying to get rid of her. Maybe he was afraid to talk to her after getting in trouble over Uncle Jack. Regardless, she had to ask one more question.

  “What was the big project?”

  Dr. Grant opened his mouth as if to speak. A moment went by. “It, uh—” He glanced over Eleanor’s shoulder, and in a flash his whole demeanor shriveled. “Hello, Dr. Skinner,” he said.

  Eleanor looked behind her as Dr. Skinner walked up to their table. Whatever Dr. Grant was about to say, he wouldn’t say it now.

  “Dr. Grant,” Skinner said. “I see you’re acquainted with Miss Perry.”

  “Yes.” Dr. Grant nodded toward Eleanor. “I was just telling her how grateful we all are that she’s safe.”

  “Very grateful, indeed,” Dr. Skinner said. “Miss Perry, would you mind joining me in the command module? I would like your assistance.”

  “Um, okay.” Eleanor didn’t want to go anywhere with him, at least not alone. Not after the way he had treated her last time. “Can Finn come?”

  Dr. Skinner’s face remained impassive. “I suppose, if you feel it necessary.” He walked away between the tables.

  Dr. Grant smiled at Eleanor as she left him alone at his table. She crossed the kitchen, and on her way past Finn, she tapped him on the shoulder. “Come on.”

  He got up and followed her without asking for an explanation. Julian looked a bit puzzled but stayed seated. Luke dug back into his meal.

  Eleanor and Finn met Dr. Skinner by the staircase, and down they went to the command module, where the giant screens blinked with their changing maps and charts.

  “After your failure to produce the Sync”—Dr. Skinner led them over to a desk—“I hope you’ll be willing to assist me in another way.”

  “How?” Every time Dr. Skinner mentioned the Sync, Eleanor worried that he somehow knew it was there, in her pocket.

  Dr. Skinner pulled a laptop out of a drawer and set it on the desk. He lifted its screen open to reveal a log-in. Eleanor recognized the profile picture, a cat with a tiny pirate patch over one eye.

  “That’s my mom’s computer,” she said.

  “Yes, it is,” Dr. Skinner said.

  “Her personal computer.” That was her mom’s private property. But perhaps, if Eleanor could get a look at what it contained, she might find something that would make sense of all this.

  “Yes, her personal computer,” Dr. Skinner said. “And as such, I have no way to access it. My people have tried and failed to break the security, but I wondered if you—”

  “Isn’t that illegal?” Finn asked. “Hacking someone’s computer?”

  Dr. Skinner looked down at him. “When that someone has gone missing, young man, exigent circumstances prevail over privacy.”

  Eleanor actually remembered the password, unless her mom had changed it, but she wasn’t just going to give it to Skinner. “Why do you need to break into her laptop?”

  Dr. Skinner sighed. “Miss Perry, though I cannot fathom why, I’m starting to believe that you are being deliberately oppositional. I am trying to find your mother.” He pointed at the laptop. “To that end, I am pursuing every lead available to me.”

  Eleanor swallowed. No matter what he said, or how rational he made it sound, she had no intention of giving him what he wanted. Her mother’s last message flashed in her mind: Show no one.

  But she said, “Okay,” and placed her hands on the keyboard.

  She typed in several random words, quickly, so Dr. Skinner wouldn’t see what they were.

  “Rock Canyon?” he asked.

  Okay, so he was fast. “It was a password she used back at home.”

  “It didn’t work. Try something else.”

  Eleanor moved on, faking her way through half a dozen attempts. She noticed Finn had moved away and was studying one of the giant screens. After a few tries, she finally said, “I’m sorry, Dr. Skinner. I don’t think I know it.”

  He slammed the lid closed on the laptop, almost catching her fingers. “You continue to disappoint, Miss Perry. We are running out of time and options. If by chance some inspiration strikes you, let us try again. For now, you are free to return to your pod.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “You too, Mr. Powers.” Dr. Skinner looked at Finn.

  “Yes, sir.”

  The two of them left Skinner in the command module and climbed back up to the dining area. Most of the scientists and crew members had left, Eleanor assumed to their sleeping quarters in the first pod. Luke and Julian were gone, too, so Eleanor and Finn climbed through the tunnel to the third pod and found them waiting at a table in their kitchen.

  “What was that all about?” Julian asked as Finn and Eleanor took a seat.

  “He wanted the password to break into my mom’s laptop,” Eleanor said.

  “Did you give it to him?” Julian asked.

  “She faked it,” Finn said. “Even I could tell.”

  “Listen, kid.” Luke dragged both his hands down his stubbly face. “These guys are corporate suits, I’ll give you that, and I don’t trust Skinner any further than I can throw him. But he’s not some evil mastermind. He’s just trying to keep you and your uncle from suing the pants off his company. He’s in damage control here. If you know something, you might want to help them out.”

  “I can’t,” Eleanor said. “We have to do something.”

  “Like what?” Julian asked.

  Eleanor leaned toward them across the table and lowered her voice. “What if we could find information about where they were, and we went out to search for them on our own?”

  “Out on the ice sheet?” Julian asked. “You’re crazy.”

/>   “I’ll see your crazy and raise you a stupid,” Luke said.

  Finn gave Eleanor a nod. “I’ll go.”

  “What?” Julian swiveled to his younger brother. “No way. Mom would kill us!”

  “Then don’t come,” Finn said. “I don’t care. They’re not doing anything to find Dad.”

  “Sure they are,” Luke said. “They’re sending out search parties, and right now there’s a whole lot of people in the next”—he flapped his hand toward the tunnel—“pod thing, and they’re all working—”

  “They’re not searching for our parents,” Finn said.

  Julian leaned back in his seat, away from his brother. “This again.”

  “What do you mean, Finn?” Eleanor asked.

  “It’s just—” Finn dropped his voice low. “I don’t think—okay, they are searching for our parents, but they’re not trying to find them.”

  “I’m confused,” Luke said. “Doesn’t that amount to the same thing?”

  Finn shook his head. “I think they’re really just trying to find what our parents were working on.” He pressed his index finger into the table, as if marking the spot on a map. “But the only way to do that is to find our parents.”

  Julian and Luke both wore competing scowls, but they seemed to be listening. When Eleanor thought about all the secret files her mom had sent her, and added that to what Finn had just said, it started to make sense why Skinner seemed so desperate to get her Sync, and now her laptop. It was as Eleanor had suspected. It wasn’t about finding her mom. The G.E.T. wanted those files.

  “All right, for the sake of argument,” Luke said, “where’d you get this idea?”

  “While Eleanor was typing fake passwords,” Finn said, “I got a closer look at one of the computer screens. They’re searching for energy signatures.”

  Julian tipped his head up toward the ceiling. “Of course they are—”

  “No,” Finn said. “Not an energy signature like what our parents would make. They’re looking for something bigger than that. Much bigger. A telluric signature.”

  Telluric. That word sat Eleanor upright in her seat. “Luke, your plane was full of telluric equipment.”

  Luke nodded.

  “What does telluric even mean?” Julian asked.

  “I looked it up,” Eleanor said. “It just means earth.”

  “Yes and no,” Finn said. “Telluric currents are supposedly these bands of energy that crisscross the earth, under the surface.” He turned to Julian. “Dad’s talked about them.”

  “He has?” Julian asked.

  “If you ever paid attention,” Finn said, with a hint of smugness in his voice. “Some people call them ley lines. They supposedly produce massive amounts of energy. But these are, like, crackpot theories, right? Really fringe stuff. I didn’t think anyone believed in them.”

  “So why is Skinner looking for them?” Eleanor asked.

  “Um,” Luke said, “I’m going to venture a guess it has something to do with his running an energy company.”

  Eleanor ignored his sarcasm. Could telluric currents be the large discovery her mother had made? What if the numbers she’d sent had something to do with the energy deposit Skinner wanted to find?

  “My point is,” Finn said, “Skinner’s not in this for our parents. I’m with Eleanor. It’s up to us to find them.”

  “Okay, we’re done.” Julian stood up. “No more of this. You hear me? No more talking about going out there to search. No more talking about ley lines or whatever they’re called. No more. Period. You bring it up again, and I’ll go to Skinner myself.”

  “Julian!” Finn shouted.

  “No, Finn, you listen to me! I may not be as smart as you and Dad. I may not know all about computers and ley lines and telluric whatevers, but I am your older brother, and I know a stupid idea when I hear one. Dad is out there, got it? They will find him, and they will bring him home. Our job is to shut up and stay out of their way—or help them, if we can.” He shot a look at Eleanor. “Now I’m going to bed. I suggest you do the same.”

  With that, Eleanor watched Julian storm away for the second time since she’d met him. Luke rose from the table soon after.

  “Julian’s right,” he said. “Skinner’s a piece of work, but you kids need to keep yourselves safe above all. I know that’s what your parents would want.” Then he, too, went downstairs.

  Once again, Eleanor found herself alone with Finn. He glowered across the table from her, and she wanted to help but wasn’t sure how or what she should say. So she just stayed quiet and waited.

  “My brother’s not stupid,” he finally said.

  “I know,” Eleanor said.

  “He only says that because our dad’s a scientist and I get straight As. Like, he doesn’t fit in, or something.” Finn rubbed his eyes hard. “I shouldn’t have said that about him not paying attention.”

  “You’re a good brother. I know what it’s like to not fit in. It feels—”

  “Let’s just go to bed, okay?” Finn labored out of his seat. “I gotta go talk to him before he falls asleep.”

  “Oh. Okay.”

  Eleanor got out of her seat and awkwardly followed Finn down the spiral staircase. He trudged to the room he shared with Julian, said, “G’night,” and went inside.

  “Night,” Eleanor said.

  She opened her own door and entered her room. At the sight of her bed, an overpowering exhaustion rolled over her, dragging her down. But on her way there, she caught a glimpse through her window. She killed all the lights in her room so she could see better, her nose pressed against the cold, thick glass, breath fogging it up in waves, blades of icy crystal crawling across the outer pane.

  White.

  So much white.

  Barrow was out there somewhere, that lawless, vile place, while the original Barrow lay buried beneath it under miles of ice. If that ice kept up its terrible advance, all the way to the equator, the whole world would look like this one day. This blank nothingness that erased everything. Even with all its advances, how long would Polaris Station last? How long would Barrow, or any place, last?

  But then she saw something out there. Something not white. A shadow wavering in and out of the blowing snow. Eleanor squinted, straining to see what could possibly be moving out there, where nothing was supposed to survive. A creeping fear moved along her skin, like an ice sheet claiming her. Perhaps what Felipe had said shaped the image in her mind, but she swore she could see four legs. A thick neck and a tail.

  A wolf.

  And with that wolf something else. The tall shadowy figure of a man.

  CHAPTER

  14

  ELEANOR BLINKED AND SQUINTED, BUT THE HARDER SHE strained to see them, the more the figures eluded her, until she finally had to admit they were gone, and might never have been there in the first place, a projection of her own imagination onto the void. She wanted to believe that was the explanation, rather than ghost wolves, but couldn’t convince herself of it enough to fall asleep. She lay there in her bed, in her narrow room, inside a sphere as inconsequential as a marble tossed into a snowbank.

  She kept replaying the night’s previous conversations in her mind, treating each piece of information as the part of a larger whole, studying each of them, rotating each of them, trying to fit them all together. Before long, she felt that she had assembled them into something that made at least a little sense.

  The best theory that she could come up with was that her mother had recently discovered an energy source, a telluric energy source, and the G.E.T. had come in with their crazy Arctic station and basically taken over. Eleanor’s mom and Dr. Powers had then gone out onto the ice sheet, perhaps to do more research, and something had happened. What it was Eleanor didn’t know, but what she did know was that whatever her mother found, she had decided to send it to Eleanor to keep it secret and safe. Then she and Dr. Powers had vanished.

  Assuming that was all true, Eleanor still needed more information. T
here were too many gaps and unanswered questions, like the meaning of those files her mom had sent, and that number code. Could they hold the key to finding Mom, as the G.E.T. seemed to think? If so, Eleanor’s best chance at finding some of those answers might be her mother’s laptop. If she could just get a look at it.

  It had been a few hours since she’d gone to bed. The rest of Polaris Station would likely be asleep. If she had any chance of getting a look at the computer unobserved, it was now. She could sneak over to the command module, dig around through the laptop, and put it back before anyone noticed.

  Eleanor climbed out of bed and opened the door to her room. The pod had apparently gone into some kind of power save. It was cold enough in the common areas for her breath to become a wisp, and most of the lights were out, rendering the station a dark and frightening maze.

  She went barefoot to the tunnel connecting her pod to the command module and paused outside it. A hatch had closed over it, sealing it off. Eleanor found a handle and turned it with a bit of difficulty. The hatch opened with a clunk. Inside, the tunnel to the next pod had become a black cave, and even though she knew what lay on the other side, she hesitated before climbing in. After she’d gone a few feet, she heard the hatch swing shut behind her automatically, sealing her in darkness.

  The storm hadn’t let up at all since the last time she’d crossed the bridge. It ripped around the tunnel, shaking the entire structure. Eleanor, in her sweats and bare feet, without her polar gear, felt more vulnerable to it than she ever had since coming to the Arctic, the closest the cold had come to claiming her. She was shivering within moments and scrambled the rest of the way as quickly as she could.

  When she reached the opposite end, she found the hatch open a crack. She closed it behind her, the pod she emerged into as cold and dark as hers had been. But two levels down the command module glowed fitfully with the activity of its screens and monitors. It was also empty, as she’d hoped it would be.

  She skulked, shivering, down the rows of computer terminals to the desk where Dr. Skinner had shown Eleanor her mother’s laptop. She found it in the same drawer and lifted the screen to the same familiar log-in. She typed in the password, EllBell, and the computer opened itself up.