Instalment Thirty-Two

Chapter Thirty-one - No Tears. Not Yet.

Domingo waved to the man standing at the top of the stairs as he turned before entering the aircraft. And then U.N. Special Envoy Rainer Fentiman disappeared from view into the belly of something too ancient to be in the air. Brave man. And not just because he’ll travel in that.

He climbed back into the PTV and pulled the door to. The driver nodded and the vehicle began a long wide circle while Domingo strapped in.

‘Call Clarissa Roth, please.’

The driver nodded and punched a couple of keys on the dashboard. Domingo imagined the signal bouncing out of the vehicle, off to the Comms building and then out to Clarissa at Melchior. The marvels of technology. But soon they won’t just be ours. Then the trouble will start.

The line was clear, then scratchy. ‘Domingo, this is Clarissa, over.’

He spoke over the hiss as she finished, ‘Clarissa, I need to call the senate together. We need to make some decisions about the U.N., over.’

‘I’ll put out a call, Domingo, over.’

‘As soon as possible. And we need to meet ahead of it. Over.’

‘Oh. Okay. All of us? Over.’

Domingo had shared his misgivings about Leon Palma with her. It was a valid question. Say yes and I’ll have to be more guarded about what I say. Say no, and it’ll get back to Leon, who’ll guess something’s up.

‘No. You, me and Daniel. Over.’

There. Something of a compromise. Gordon can make out to Leon he’s not part of some conspiracy. Maybe get Leon to take him into his confidence. Though, God knows the man will use it to promote himself. But that I can deal with.

‘Okay, Domingo. Over and out.’

The hiss of the static momentarily overpowered him, and when the driver cut off the transmission, Domingo’s shoulders slumped and his eyes closed as his head leant back to the headrest. In his chest was an aching hole. A desperate, desperate longing. If I could wipe the last twelve years out. I’d return to Chile from the first trip and never set foot on Antarctica again. Never. I’d be there to defend Maria. Together we’d survive.

The face that greeted him as he pulled back the door, hurt him almost as much. Valentina. There’d be no Valla either. Shit. I can’t win.

‘What’s up Domingo?’ she asked.

‘Life is up, Valla. Does Sun Tze have anything to say about life?’

‘I don’t think so. But, maybe this will help. If a battle cannot be won, don’t fight it.’

‘Very,’ he said. ‘I’m not sure I have a choice.’

‘We always have a choice, Domingo.’

And there she was, again, this thirteen year-old, warrior-grandmother the universe had thrown his way.

‘Okay. Why are you here?’ he asked to change the subject and in the hope Valla would lead him down some rabbit hole and away from feeling sorry for himself.

‘Daniel wanted to have a word, unofficially. He didn’t want some message-runner knowing either. It sounds intriguing. Can I stay?’

‘Where is he?’

‘I saw him go into the Comms hut, I think he’s still there.’

‘Okay. You can stay. Until I tell you to go and then I want no argument.’

‘May I fall through the ice... ,’ said Valla.

Domingo’s back twitched at the idea she’d tempt fate with the saying. If there was one thing left in the world he needed to do it was protect his daughter.

When Domingo entered the Comms hut there was none of the usual hubbub. His spine stirred his gut at the abandoned silence.

‘I think he sent the operators on a break,’ said Valla.

‘All of them?’

‘Looks like it.’

Domingo pushed open the door to the radio room and found Daniel twiddling a radio tuning dial.

‘Minesweeper, come in. This is Weddell City. Over.’

The radio fizzed until some splintered speech broke through. Domingo could hardly make it out.

‘Let me try,’ said Valla.

‘Fine. Damn things are shit. We need them all overhauled.’

Domingo had never seen Daniel grumpy. Usually he was the master of control, calculating every word he said.

‘You don’t know how to treat them right,’ replied Valla as the locked-on signal came through clear.

‘Weddell City, this is the minesweeper. Can you hear us? Over.’

‘Here you go,’ said Valla offering Daniel the microphone.

‘This is Daniel Ektov I need to speak with Ernesto Kairns. Over.’

There was a pause and the woman’s voice was replaced by a heavy accented, deeper male voice.

‘Ernesto here. What can I do for you Daniel? Over.’

‘Ernesto, I have Domingo here. We can talk freely. I need to know what you have on our target.’

‘I understand,’ said Ernesto. ‘I have some more information but it hasn’t been verified. Do you have access to the recent radio logs just now? Over’

‘I can,’ said Daniel, waving his hand at Domingo and pointing to the shelves behind.

Domingo turned and pulled out the last two months.

‘I have the logs, Ernesto. What am I looking for?’ said Daniel

.

‘Two transmissions. Thursday First December, and two days ago, on the Fifth. Over.’

Domingo fanned the pages to find the dates, stopping on the First. Radio traffic was increasing in the lead-up to Christmas. There were three pages to read through.

‘Does he have a time?’ he asked.

‘Do you have a time? Over.’

‘No. But the call route was Weddell to Melchior to T.d’F., we can cross reference the calls from Melchior to T.d’F. Over.’

‘So. Looking for any calls to Melchior?’ asked Domingo, his heart sinking with the knowledge plenty at the base there would sell-out the A.F.S..

Daniel nodded and Domingo began scanning the pages.

‘Nine fourteen,’ he said, moving his finger down the page. ‘Eleven fifty-three.’ flicked a page. ‘Twelve fifteen. Thirteen hundred. Sixteen forty-three.’ Another page. ‘And twenty-two fifty-seven.’

Daniel relayed these to Ernesto.

Domingo noticed Valla was writing them down.

‘And on the Fifth? Over’ asked Ernesto, sounding unsurprised so many calls were going to Melchior. And it didn’t feel unusual to Domingo either - there were people in Weddell with family up there. They’d be arranging to go back for Christmas. He flicked more pages and found the Fifth of December. There were five pages of logged calls.

‘What if the calls were made without being logged? Like we are?’ he asked.

‘We’ll cross that crevasse when we get to it,’ said Daniel. ‘Right now I think Leon’s stupid enough to think we’re not suspicious of him.’

‘I hope you’re right,’ said Domingo. ‘Okay. I have; seven thirty-two, eight hundred, eight thirty-two, nine fifteen, nine forty-one, ten oh-five, ten twenty-three...’

Domingo read out a long list of times for calls made to Melchior. But as he was doing so something caught his eye. One call, at fourteen twenty-six. Less than a minute. That’s odd. When he finished the list he flicked back to the First, and sure enough there had been another short call, this time just over a minute. The call had been made at thirteen hundred hours.

‘I think I’ve got something,’ he said. ‘Two calls, one on each of the days that look too short. I mean about a minute. How is that worthwhile?’

‘Morse Code,’ said Valla and Daniel simultaneously.

‘What?’ asked Domingo.

‘Coded letters in dots and dashes, so really quick to make words and there’s abbreviations,’ said Valla.

‘Easy to do over radio too,’ added Daniel.

‘Code,’ said Domingo. ‘Not suspect at all.’

Daniel relayed this information to Ernesto.

‘I will get this checked out. I have someone in the radio room at Melchior. If this is a regular thing, then they may be due another transmission. Over.’

‘So we can’t move against him yet?’ asked Daniel.

‘No,’ agreed Domingo. ‘We need to give him time to implicate himself.’

‘Okay. Ernesto, we will wait,’ said Daniel. ‘Stay safe. When are you due to dock in Weddell City? Over.’

‘Day after tomorrow, by evening, weather willing. Over.’

‘See you then. Over and out.’

*

Daniel rocked back in the operator’s swivel chair.

‘Shit,’ he said. ‘It’s really true.’

‘Did you think it wasn’t?’ asked Domingo.

‘Well no. But maybe a part of me didn’t want to believe it. Leon always sounded committed to the A.F.S.’

‘I didn’t know him that well before...’ said Domingo. ‘But whenever we met I always got the vibe from his secretary I was some kind of devil-incarnate.’

‘Really?’ asked Daniel. ‘Saul’s a good...’ He paused and let the implication settle from his head to his heart.

Are Leon and Saul are in this together? With Global. For... money? Power? Self preservation? After all we’ve been through together?

A flush of anger filled his chest, spreading out to his arms. He dropped the mike clumsily onto the desk.

‘You okay Daniel?’ asked Domingo.

The concern brought him back to the room.

‘Yes. Yes. It’s just something to wrap my head around. But... If I find that Global have anything... If they have anything to do with the pirates. I won’t be responsible for my actions.’

‘I think you’d have to see off Gordon first, in that case,’ said Domingo.

‘True,’ he agreed and looked furtively around. ‘We should leave before it becomes difficult to explain our presence.’

‘Come on Valla,’ said Domingo, ‘we can pretend we’ve been teaching you the radio.’

‘But I...’ began Valla.

‘We know,’ Daniel said. ‘Pretend?’

‘Okay.’

‘To make up for the indignity, you can teach me Morse Code,’ Domingo was saying to her as Daniel followed them into the corridor.

Domingo had put his hand onto Valla’s shoulder. The simple sign of parental care touched his gaping grief. He looked away to stiffen his resolve. No tears. Not yet... And at least I have my grandson. Daniel’s thought of Glenn made him suddenly want to be near to the boy. I can’t expect to uproot him and bring him over to Weddell City. What would an eleven year-old do here? All the politicking and late nights. No. It’s best he stays in McMurdo even if it’s painful to be there. I’m sure Gordon will agree...

But Saul... How? Why?

By the time Daniel had reached the outside door Domingo and Valentina had disappeared. Motion caught his eye before he stepped down. It was Gordon striding toward him. Not aiming for the Comms hut but him. Daniel stood up straighter and stepped down, determined to give Gordon the impression he had somewhere important to be. If the man thought you had time he would just keep going until you had to be rude. And Daniel wasn’t sure he could keep his rudeness to Gordon civil enough.

‘Daniel,’ called out Gordon.

He stopped so Gordon could meet him but then he kept walking down the side of the Admin Hut.

‘What can I do for you?’

‘I was talking to Leon,’ Gordon answered.

Daniel concentrated on putting his foot down exactly as he’d put the other one down seconds ago. The snow had drifted in the alley. He could have paused and it would have meant nothing more than basic caution. But Daniel wished to hide most of his surprise. Now he stopped to face Gordon.

‘Oh?’

There was no point in pretending it wasn’t novel to be discussing the quiet partner in their enterprise. Leon rarely did anything except agree with their ideas.

‘He’s proposing we talk with Global Corp.,’ said Gordon.

Daniel heard the guarded tone. Gordon, in the process of taking over Glen-Corndale’s assets in Antarctica, could never work for them again, but clearly he still felt some loyalty to his old firm versus Global Corporation. Or is it tied-up with his own ambitions? Maybe a bit of both?

‘I don’t think that’s wise. I know they’re pissed. They’ll be looking to get their money back from us.’

‘I agree. But...’

‘But? How can you agree and then make a but?’

‘Hear me out Daniel. I know you worked for them. That’s why I’m coming to you. I think Leon is making his own deals with them already. We don’t want to be stitched up.’

‘He tell you he’s already talking to them?’

Daniel stopped at the side of the Admin Hut and gazed out onto the busy square. More than a few people were dressed in the distinctive Glen-Corndale red parkas. Gordon or Leon. Is no choice really. We need Gordon.

‘He did and he didn’t. He offered to cut me in. Global want to buy land and they’re happy to recognise our sovereignty to do so.’

‘I don’t like it.’

‘So we stall. Ask for the recognition first. Put the land purchase on the Senate’s legal list and keep bumping it down.’

‘We’re not for sale. Not us and not the land.’

Gordon was quiet which disturbed Daniel more than if he’d kept badgering.

‘Okay,’ said Gordon eventually. ‘I understand. But I’m going to bring it to the Senate next month either way.’

Shit. It’s been less than a year and we’re already fragmenting. How do I stop this?