Instalment Thirty-one

Chapter Thirty - Showtime

Rainer’s stomach alerted him to their final descent. He rubbed at his eyes with death-chilled fingers and regretting not putting his gloves on before he fell asleep. The aircraft bounced. Tilted. Hit the ice. The engines roared in reverse and the rapid deceleration pulled him forward against the harness.

His window had totally iced over but he could hear a howl from outside as the engines died down, suggesting even if it had been clear that the visibility would be have been nil.

‘It’s a squall. Should be gone in half an hour,’ said Domingo, coming over to his seat. ‘Make sure you’re zipped-up and tucked-in. There’s a bit of a jog to our temporary buildings.’

Of course. The fire. There’ll be no shelter.

‘Okay,’ he said, his voice croaking from the dry cabin air. Right. Zips.

His cold fingers fumbled with the fastenings like a toddler. Finally he managed to secure his jacket. Tightening the ties so he could tuck his sleeves into his gloves, he eventually felt confident that his first step outside wouldn’t see the the wind whip his clothes off.

Outside there was nothing. Only the pink-red blur of Domingo in front of him gave him direction. Grasping the rope line he could see Domingo using, Rainer worried that if his fingers grew too cold he wouldn’t sense if he let it go. His heart forced itself against his ribcage like a cornered animal desperate to get out. Pounding. Pellet-like snow hit his face like ball bearings making his eyes blink incessantly as he pulled himself along.

Domingo disappeared from view. His heart stopped and began again, instantaneously harder and faster. With his next pull he realised why. A door. Rainer pushed on it and felt the temperature difference on his cheeks cause an immediate flush to his exposed face. He pushed at the inner door and crashed into the room. Domingo was ahead pumping someone’s hand and pulling its owner in for a hug. Rainer used the moment to scan the room. Bare. Tiny window. Exposed-strut support structure. That reminded him of the ancient Meccano set his father had inherited. As a boy he’d been forbidden to play with. Here it is, writ large, in real life.

Domingo pulled away and introduced the man he’d been hugging.

‘Rainer, this is Captain Arne Dale, of the A.F.S. militia. Lately Norwegian Antarctic Force. Arne this is U.N. Special Envoy Rainer Fentiman.’

‘Thank you for coming Envoy Fentiman. I wanted you to see this but it seems the weather had other ideas. Please have a seat. Can I offer you a coffee?’

There it is again, old-time hospitality. If the A.F.S. can keep it up perhaps there will be a future where the U.N. can embrace them.

‘Thank you. Please. I am frozen. How do you manage to live like this?’

‘Oh,’ said Domingo. ‘It’s all down to insulation.’

‘And looking out for each other,’ added the Captain.

Rainer couldn’t brush off the edge to Captain Arne Dale’s tone. It was a reproof. And it has something to do with why I’ve been brought out to this Gottverdammt patch of East Antarctica.

Rainer sipped the coffee, bitter without sugar, and not a quality roast, but still identifiable as coffee. Do they grow it themselves? Where? There’s so much I don’t... we don’t know about Antarctica now.

The wind’s howling stopped abruptly and he realised there’d been other noises associated with the storm as the room became very silent except for a dripping noise in a corner.

‘Right, let’s go out and get the show started,’ said the Captain.

‘Show?’ he asked. ‘What do you mean show?’

‘We’re filming this. And transmitting live. Our senate has been given access to the live feed,’ said Domingo, pulling the inner door wide.

‘Filming what?’

‘It’s evidence of a war crime,’ said Captain Dale, pushing the outer door open. ‘We’re collecting evidence that forty-eight people died here at the hands of pirates because they had no ammunition to defend themselves with, and no fuel or food to survive.’

Rainer stopped just outside the door. The view was so crisply white it hurt his eyes with its glare. I can’t be in this film. Party to the propaganda.

‘I’m sorry. I didn’t agree to this,’ he turned to Domingo, shading his eyes. ‘You didn’t say.’

‘You won’t be in the footage, it’s just two birds with one shot,’ Domingo said.

From a nearby small geodesic dome four people appeared with shovels and began uncovering what Rainer had assumed were snow hummocks but were now clearly stone-built walls. Random red flags were dotted about.

‘This was the infirmary,’ said Captain Dale. ‘Mondale left thirty one people behind without supplies or a means to defend themselves. One was already dead when seventeen men from Casey arrived along with Commander Warderly. From what we’ve found so far, he didn’t have much more in the way of supplies either. We’re working with the testimony of soldiers from Casey and civilian contractors who were co-opted into Commander Mondale’s New Mawson force. They are saying Commander Mondale locked up Commander Warderly and sixteen others at Casey and stripped the base of supplies. And, they’re saying Commander Mondale told those left at New Mawson he expected to be back in two days. But we’ve found no evidence that two days food supplies were here. Of course, it’s hard because of the fire and the pirates...’

‘They could have taken the supplies,’ interrupted Rainer.

‘They could have,’ agreed the Captain, in a tone that told Rainer he didn’t believe so. ‘The New Mawson contractors could have been mistaken. But we’re hoping to get confirmation either way soon.’

‘Oh?’ he said. This was new news. His briefing hadn’t been perfect, but the amount of fresh information that had kept coming his way since arriving in Antarctica was seriously undermining his plans.

‘Yes,’ said Captain Dale without further elaboration.

Damn. I should never have agreed to come out here. It’s one thing to read a report in a well-upholstered office and quite another to experience it while it’s being conducted.

‘If you’d like to wait here, Envoy,’ said Domingo. ‘We’re just going to uncover the bodies now.’

The four with the shovels had already headed over to a flag and begun shallow swipes at the snow. Soon Rainer could see the darker patches and quite quickly the whole body. The camera-man was panning its length and he could hear Captain Dale’s voice ring out across the ice.

‘This has been positively ID’d as Commander Alan Warderly,’ he was saying. ‘We have found two pistols, nearby. One empty and one with three bullets left. Commander Warderly was carrying no extra ammunition. He was shot three times, calf, shoulder and the fatal chest shot. He’s the only defender we’ve found outside the building. In addition we’ve found five assailants.’

Captain Dale pointed at the remaining five red flags in sequence as the shovel team began uncovering them.

‘What are you going to do with the bodies?’ Rainer asked, despite himself. My voice has been recorded. Now I’m in this. But he didn’t care. This footage doesn’t require spin. The fault can only lie with Commander Mondale.

Whether it is a war crime will be down to the legal machinations of the New South Wales’ lawyers and those at The Hague, but I’ll be recommending we distance ourselves from the case.

‘We have video and photographic evidence so we’ll be moving them into the temporary structures you see here. And we’ll be videoing the full autopsies, when we get a pathology team put together,’ said Domingo from his side.

‘Will you allow neutral observers?’

‘Of course,’ answered Domingo. ‘We have no interest in getting anything but justice for the families of those involved.’

‘Of course,’ Rainer answered, and regretted sounding glib straight away.

‘Envoy Fentiman, we are truly impartial in this. You must understand,’ said Captain Dale, coming towards him. ‘We declared UDI. Nothing changes that.’

Another immovable object.

He stepped back carefully. ‘Thank you Captain Dale. I do. I also understand UDIs require international recognition. There are now a significant number of U.N. states who have a vested interest in the continent. And six, at least, with a case for ignoring your UDI.’

‘We’ve received a formal recognition from Aotearoa,’ said Domingo, taking his arm gently to turn him from the scene.

Rainer was happy to be leaving Captain Dale and the camera-man behind to uncover the other bodies.

They headed back towards the building while Domingo continued, ‘We also have formal letters of disinterest from twenty European states, five Chinese city states, three Southern African states. Further, the Russians and the Americans can’t manage paper and pen production much less the time for writing to us, but I can’t see them getting their act together and come after us anytime soon.’

Domingo opened the door and in the dim of the airlock Rainer found the space suddenly claustrophobic.

‘What I am saying, Envoy Fentiman...’ Domingo leaned across to reach the inner door handle. ‘Is the Australians are on their own for this. We can live without them. And we have no desire to upset the U.N.’s plans.’

As Domingo opened the inner door the dimness of the room briefly confused him. He hadn’t noticed a stretcher bed before. Where had they been hiding that? And the man on the bed?

‘Special Envoy Fentiman may I introduce Sergeant Aleksander Kostas of the Australian Antarctic Force, New Mawson base.’

The man on the bed made an effort to sit further upright but Rainer saw no improvement in his position.

‘Please,’ continued Domingo. ‘If you could sit closer, Sergeant Kostas was trapped in ice for some time and is still recovering. He has lost his hearing.’

‘This man should be in a hospital,’ he began.

Domingo picked up the small whiteboard that was tied to the bed. Rainer watch him write - This is the U.N. Envoy. Mr Fentiman. He thinks you should not be here.

Rainer disagreed with the interpretation, but was keen to hear what the soldier said.

‘No,’ said Sergeant Kostas in a hoarse whisper.

‘Sit,’ said Domingo pointed to a bedside chair.

‘I asked. To be here,’ said the Sergeant, his face inches from Rainer’s ear. Every syllable sounding painful. ‘Commander Mondale. He gave the orders. I was there. Locked people up. An unheated shed. No provisions. At Casey. Commander...’ The sergeant started coughing.

‘I don’t need to hear more,’ said Rainer. ‘Please. Take him to a hospital.’

Domingo wiped the board and wrote - Thank you. We will be going soon, rest now.

‘He’s coming with us, just as soon as the filming is finished,’ said Domingo.

‘Good,’ Rainer said, and couldn’t think of anything else. The sergeant had sunk lower and his eyes were now closed, his breathing laboured.

Rainer’s hands came to his head, still cold. What a mess...

‘There’s nothing we can do to change this, is there?’ asked Domingo.

‘I told you, we need the minerals...’

‘We have those. We’ll have them for export soon.’ Domingo interrupted.

‘I can’t take ‘soon’ to my boss. He’s facing pressure from Global Mining. I tell you Domingo, you should be careful of Global.’

‘We are, but we have few choices. Haven’t you thought of pushing nationalisation?’

‘Those who think that way are in the minority. It takes time to shift a mindset, even with everything that has happened.’

‘I wish you luck,’ said Domingo.

The inner door opened and brought colder air and the camera-man, followed by Captain Dale.

‘Thank you,’ he whispered to Domingo.

This time Rainer didn’t need prompting about zips. The sun was lower in the sky casting dark, long shadows that felt like physical things once you stepped into their coldness. The large jet hummed in front of him as he followed Domingo again. Behind him was the Australian sergeant on the stretcher. The jet wouldn’t need to refuel to reach Weddell City and they were leaving behind the recovery team who’d use the small plane he’d arrived on.

While waiting Rainer had become aware that Captain Dale was a new father - the baby boy having been born during the fighting at Progress. It made him think about his own children and the world they were inheriting. They’ll never experience the progress that was destroyed by the solar and extra-solar radiation events. And the rich fight us even while we try to avoid rebuilding the structures that took the planet to the extremes of poverty and luxury. Just the good progress. They’re not as rich as they were - digital billions don’t survive the end of electronics - but they’re already trying to regain prominence using their remaining physical assets.

When the plane finally landed at Weddell City and Rainer was jolted awake, he stumbled along the aisle to the door, only to find a small crowd gathered at the foot of the stairs. He stepped carefully down, one step at a time despite the stiff wind and noticed the familiar face of Jennie Cathcart in the group. A cheer went up from the dozen or so men around her. Gingerly he turned to look back up the stairs and saw that the sergeant’s stretcher had appeared in the doorway. How odd. They’re letting the Australians greet one of their own leaders. I can’t imagine New South Wales reciprocating the gesture

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