Roman Ice by Dave Bartell

Author:Dave Bartell [Bartell, Dave]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781732862609
Published: 2018-11-15T16:00:00+00:00

43

“That’s her,” said Eyrún, pointing to a petite woman with curly auburn hair pulled in a ponytail. The third morning after the pub meeting, she and Pétur went to pick up Stevie the airport.

“Bonjour! You look great,” Stevie told Eyrún as they exchanged kisses and a hug.

“You too! Thanks. It’s so good to see you,” said Eyrún. She stood back and added, “This is my friend Pétur.”

“Enchanté,” said Pétur, kissing her on each cheek. “I’ve heard a lot about you.”

“All of it is true!” she laughed.

Pétur drove while Eyrún brought Stevie up to speed on the discovery and plans. It took less than twenty-five minutes to reach their destination, an industrial condo on the outskirts of Reykjavík that Ian had rented. He said they needed a space to lay out the gear away from people who might interfere, like the University or government people. The condos were divided into sections of three football field length buildings spaced over a hectare of land. Each condo had a small door for people and a large mechanical roll-up door.

“It’s number eleven,” said Eyrún in answer to Pétur’s question. He pulled up to a middle unit and parked in front of a door with a small black “11” painted on it. Eyrún led them inside and up to Darwin and Zac who sat at a makeshift table covered by a large map of Europe, Iceland and the Nordic countries. LED lighting cast the room in surgical-theater white.

After introductions, Pétur offered to make coffee in the small kitchen. “Cool,” said Zac when he learned of Stevie’s background. She leaned in on the table while he and Darwin alternated in explaining the lava tube and logistics. Eyrún listened while answering emails on her mobile. A short while later, metal scraped on concrete, and they turned to see Ian and two other men entered through the condo office door.

“Hey, everyone. This is Jón and Karl,” said Ian. They all greeted each other then moved apart and faced each other like opposing teams. Who are these guys? thought Eyrún. She was about to break the silence when Darwin said, “At the risk of pissing everyone off again, how big are we making the team? We talked about stealth and speed.”

“Fair point. Karl has worked with me on mining expeditions. Jón’s a minerals and diamond expert. We had to pull him off a project in China,” said Ian.

“Stevie’s a cave biologist. We’ll find unique life forms as well as potential human uses of the cave,” said Eyrún. They argued a few minutes until it was clear neither side would compromise. Pétur offered to back out, but Eyrún said they needed him.

“All right, then. There are eight of us. How are we going to get underground unseen with all our gear? It will take the better part of a day to move everything down to the tube mouth,” said Darwin.

“I’ve been thinking about that. We do it in plain sight,” said Eyrún.

“Like magic?” Jón pantomimed disappearing a coin in his palm.

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