Arctic Drift Part 18

The black merchant ship was oblivious to the Coast Guard patrol craft, or so it seemed to the Canadians. Had they tracked the radar set more closely, they would have noticed that the American ship was both accelerating and subtly changing course.

"Why won't they respond?" muttered the helmsman, growing weary of Hopkins's unanswered radio calls.

"We'll get their attention now," Weber said. The captain walked to the console and pressed a b.u.t.ton that activated the ship's marine air horn. Two long blasts bellowed from the horn, the deep bray echoing across the water. The blare drew the men on the bridge to silence as they awaited a response. Again, there was none.

There was little more Weber could do. Unlike in the United States, the Canadian Coast Guard was operated as a civilian organization. The Harp's crew was not military trained, and the vessel carried no armament.

The helmsman eyed the radar screen and reported, "No reduction in speed. In fact, I think she's still accelerating. Sir, we're coming along the ice pack." Weber detected a sudden urgency in his voice. While focused on the merchant ship, the helmsman had neglected to track the hardened pack ice that now flanked their port side. To starboard, the steaming merchant ship rode just a dozen meters away and had drawn nearly even with the patrol craft.

Weber looked up at the high bridge of the Atlanta and wondered what kind of fool was in command of the ship. Then he noticed the bow of the freighter suddenly veer toward his own vessel and he quickly realized this was no game.

"Hard left rudder," he screamed.

The last thing anyone expected was for the merchant ship to turn into them, but in an instant the larger vessel was right on top of the Harp. Like a bug under the raised foot of an elephant, the patrol boat madly scrambled to escape a crushing blow. Frantically reacting to Weber's command, the helmsman jammed the wheel full over and prayed they would slip by the bigger ship. But the Atlanta was too close.

The side hull of the freighter slammed into the Harp with a deep thud. The point of impact came to the boat's stern, however, as the smaller vessel had nearly turned away. The blow knocked the Harp hard over, nearly capsizing her as a large wave rolled over the deck. In what felt like an eternity to the stricken crew, the Coast Guard craft gradually rolled back upright as it fell away from the bristling sides of the merchant ship. Their peril was not over, however. Unknown to the crew, the collision had torn off the vessel's rudder. With its propeller still spinning madly, the patrol boat surged straight into the nearby ice pack. The Harp drove several feet into the thick ice before grounding to a sudden halt, flinging the ship's crew forward.

On the bridge, Weber picked himself up off the deck and helped shut down the vessel's engine, then quickly a.s.sessed the health of his ship and crew. An a.s.sortment of cuts and bruises was the worst of the personal injuries, but the patrol boat fared less well. In addition to the lost rudder, the ship's crumpled bow had compromised the outer hull. The Harp would remain embedded in the ice for four days before a tow could arrive to take the ship to port for repairs.

Wiping away a trickle of blood from a gash on his cheek, Weber stepped to the bridge wing and peered to the west. He saw the running lights of the merchant ship for just a second before the big ship disappeared into a gloomy dark fogbank that stretched across the horizon. Watching as the ship disappeared, Weber shook his head.

"You brazen b.a.s.t.a.r.d," he muttered. "You'll pay for this."

WEBER'S WORDS WOULD PROVE to ring hollow. A fast-moving storm front south of Baffin Island grounded the Canadian Air Command CP-140 Aurora reconnaissance plane called in by the Coast Guard. When the aircraft finally lifted off from its base in Greenwood, Nova Scotia, and arrived over Lancaster Strait, more than six hours had elapsed. Farther west, a Navy icebreaker and another Coast Guard cutter blocked the pa.s.sage off Prince of Wales Island, waiting for the belligerent freighter to arrive. But the large black ship never appeared.

The Canadian Coast Guard and Air Force scoured the navigable seas around Lancaster Strait for three days in search of the rogue vessel. Every available route west was scrutinized several times over. Yet the American merchant ship was nowhere to be seen. Baffled, the Canadian forces quietly called off the search, leaving Weber and his crew to wonder how the strange ship had somehow disappeared into the Arctic ice.

23

DR. KEVIN BUE PEERED AT THE BLACKENING SKY to the west and grimaced. Only hours earlier, the sun had shone brightly and the air was still while the mercury in the thermometer tickled twenty degrees Fahrenheit. But then the barometer had dropped like a stone in a well, accompanied by a gradual building of the westerly winds. A quarter of a mile away, the gray waters of the Arctic now rolled in deep swells that burst against the ragged edge of the ice pack with billowing fountains of spray.

Tugging the hood of his parka tighter, he turned away from the stinging winds and surveyed his home of the last few weeks. Ice Research Lab 7 wouldn't rate many stars in the Mobil Travel Guide for luxury or comfort. A half dozen prefabricated buildings made up the camp, huddled in a semicircle with their entrances facing south. Three tiny bunkhouses were jammed together on one side next to the largest building, a combination galley, mess hall, and meeting area. A squat structure just opposite housed a joint lab and radio room, while a snow-covered storage shed rounded out the camp at the far end.

The research lab was one of several Canadian Fisheries and Oceans Department temporary ice camps established as floating research labs to track and study the movements of the Arctic ice pack. Since the time Ice Research Lab 7 had been set up a year earlier, the camp had moved nearly two hundred miles, riding a mammoth sheet of polar ice south across the Beaufort Sea. Now positioned one hundred and fifty miles from the North American coastline, the camp sat on the edge of the ice shelf almost due north of the Yukon Territory. The camp faced a short life, however. The approaching summer meant the breakup of the pack ice where the camp now found itself. Daily measurements of the ice beneath their feet revealed a steady melting already, which had reduced the pack thickness from three feet to fourteen inches. Bue figured they had maybe two more weeks before he and his four-man team would be forced to disa.s.semble the camp and wait for evacuation by Twin Otter ski-plane.

The Arctic oceanographer trudged through ankle-deep snow toward the radio shack. Over the blowing rustle of ice particles bounding across the ground, he heard the whine of a diesel engine revving up and down. Looking past the camp's structures, he spotted a yellow front-end track loader racing back and forth, its blunt blade piling up high mounds of drifted snow. The plow was keeping clear a five-hundred-foot ice runway that stretched along the back of the camp. The crude landing strip was the camp's lifeline, allowing Twin Otters to bring in food and supplies on a weekly basis. Bue made sure that the makeshift runway was kept clear at all times.

Ignoring the roving track loader, Bue entered the joint lab and radio hut, shaking the snow off his feet in an inner doorway before entering the main structure. Making his way past several cramped bays full of scientific journals and equipment, he turned into the closet-sized cubby that housed the satellite radio station. A wild-eyed man with sandy hair and a mirthful grin looked up from the radio set. Scott Case was a brilliant physicist who specialized in studying solar radiation at the poles. Like everyone else in the camp, Case wore multiple hats, including that of chief communications operator.

"Atmospherics are playing havoc with our radio signals again," he said to Bue. "Satellite reception is nil, and our ground transmitter is little better."

"I'm sure the approaching storm isn't helping matters any," Bue replied. "Does Tuktoyaktuk even know that we are trying to hail them?"

Case shook his head. "Can't tell for sure, but I've detected no callbacks."

The sound of the track loader shoving a load of ice just outside the structure echoed off the thin walls.

"You keeping the field clean just in case?" he asked Bue.

"Tuktoyaktuk has us scheduled for a supply drop later today. They may not know that we'll be in the middle of a gale-force blizzard in about an hour. Keep trying, Scott. See if you can wave off the flight for today, for the safety of the pilots."

Before Case could transmit again, the radio suddenly cackled. An authoritative voice backed by static interference blared through the speaker.

"Ice Research Lab 7, Ice Research Lab 7, this is NUMA research vessel Narwhal. Do you read, over?"

Bue beat Case to the transmitter and replied quickly. "Narwhal , this is Dr. Kevin Bue of Ice Research Lab 7. Go ahead, please."

"Dr. Bue, we're not trying to eavesdrop, but we've heard your repeated calls to the Coast Guard station at Tuktoyaktuk, and we've picked up a few unanswered calls back from Tuktoyaktuk. It sounds like the weather is keeping you two from connecting. Can we a.s.sist in relaying a message for you?"

"We'd be most grateful." Bue had the American ship forward a message to Tuktoyaktuk to delay sending the supply plane for twenty-four hours on account of the poor weather. A few minutes later, the Narwhal radioed a confirmation back from Tuktoyaktuk.

"Our sincere thanks," Bue radioed. "That will save some poor flyboy a rough trip."

"Don't mention it. Where's your camp located, by the way?"

Bue transmitted the latest position of the floating camp, and the vessel responded in kind.

"Are you boys in good shape to ride out the approaching storm? Looks to be a mean one," the Narwhal radioed.

"We've managed everything the Good Witch of the North has thrown at us so far, but thanks all the same," Bue replied.

"Farewell, Ice Lab 7. Narwhal out."

Bue set down the transmitter with a look of relief.

"Who says the Americans don't belong in the Arctic after all?" he said to Case, then slipped on his parka and left the building.

THIRTY-FIVE MILES TO the southwest, Captain Bill Stenseth examined a local meteorological forecast with studious concern. An imposing man with Scandinavian features and the build of an NFL linebacker, Stenseth had weathered storms in every ocean of the world. Yet facing a sudden blow in the ice-studded Arctic still made the veteran captain of the Narwhal nervous.

"The winds seem to be ratcheting up a bit in the latest forecast," he said without looking up from the doc.u.ment. "I think we're in for a pretty good gale. Wouldn't want to be those poor saps hunkered down on the ice," he added, pointing toward the radio.

Standing beside Stenseth on the ship's bridge, Rudi Gunn suppressed a pained grin. Sailing through the teeth of a powerful Arctic storm was going to be anything but pleasant. He would gladly trade places with the ice camp members, who would likely sit out the storm in a warm hut playing pinochle, Gunn thought. Stenseth's preference for battling the elements at sea was clearly the mark of a lifelong sailor, one who never felt comfortable with his feet on the sh.o.r.e.

Gunn shared no similar propensity. Though he was an Annapolis graduate who had spent several years at sea, he now spent more time sailing a desk. The Deputy Director for the National Underwater and Marine Agency, Gunn was usually found in the headquarters building in Washington, D.C. With a short, wiry build and horn-rimmed gla.s.ses on his nose, he was the physical opposite of Stenseth. Yet he shared the same adventurous pursuit of oceanographic challenges and was often on hand when a new vessel or piece of underwater technology was sea-tested for the first time.

"I'd have more pity for the polar bears," Gunn said. "How long before the storm front arrives?"

Stenseth eyed a growing number of whitecaps cresting off the ship's bow. "About an hour. No more than two. I would suggest retrieving and securing the Bloodhound within the next thirty minutes."

"They won't like returning to the kennel so soon. I'll head down to the operations room and pa.s.s the word. Captain, please let me know if the weather deteriorates any sooner than predicted."

Stenseth nodded as Gunn left the bridge and made his way aft. The two-hundred-foot research ship was rolling steadily through a building sea, and Gunn had to grasp a handrail several times to steady himself. Nearing the stern, he looked down at a large moon pool cut through the vessel's hull. Surface water was already sloshing back and forth, spilling onto the surrounding deck. Stepping down a companionway, he entered a door marked LAB, which opened up into a large bay. At the far end was a sectioned area with numerous video monitors mounted on the bulkhead. Two technicians sat tracking and recording a data feed from underwater.