Shock Wave(34)

"Can I help it if I have an inordinate fondness for people who live and breathe?"

"Find the generating room, fuel the auxiliary motors, restart them and turn on the electrical power.

Then head for the communications center and report to Dempsey while I check out the rest of the station."



Pitt found the rest of the Argentinean scientists where they had died, the same look of extreme torment etched on their faces. Several had fallen in the lab and instrument center, three grouped around a spectrophotometer that was used to measure the ozone. Pitt counted sixteen corpses in all, four of them women, sprawled in various compartments about the station. Everyone had protruding, staring eyes and gaping mouths, and all had vomited. They died frightened and they died in great pain, frozen in their agony. Pitt was reminded of the plaster casts of the dead from Pompeii.

Their bodies were fixed in odd, unnatural positions. None lay on the floor as if they had simply fallen.

Most looked as if they had suddenly lost their balance and were desperately clinging to something to keep upright. A few were actually clutching carpeted flooring; one or two had hands tightly clasped against the sides of their head. Pitt was intrigued by the odd positions and tried to pry the hands away to see if they might have been covering any indications of injury or disease, but they were as rigid as if they had been grafted to the skin of the ears and temples.

The vomiting seemed an indication that death was brought about by virulent disease or contaminated food. And yet the obvious causes did not set right to Pitt's way of thinking. No plague or food poisoning is known to kill in a few short minutes. As he walked in deep contemplation toward the communications room, a theory began unfolding in his mind. His thoughts were rudely interrupted when he entered and was greeted by a cadaver perched on a desk like a grotesque ceramic statue.

"How did he get there?" Pitt asked calmly.

"I put him there," Giordino said matter-of-factly without looking up from the radio console. "He was sitting on the only chair in the room and I figured I needed it worse than he did."

"He makes a total of seventeen."

"The toll keeps adding up."

"You get through to Dempsey?"

"He's standing by. Do you want to talk to him?"

Pitt leaned over Giordino and spoke into the satellite telephone that linked him with almost any point of the globe. "This is Pitt. You there, skipper?"

"Go ahead Dirk, I'm listening."

"Has Al filled you in on what we've found here?"

"A brief account. As soon as you can tell me there are no survivors, I will alert Argentinean authorities."

"Consider it done. Unless I missed one or two in closets or under beds, I have a body count of seventeen."

"Seventeen," Dempsey repeated. "I read you. Can you determine the cause of death?"

"Negative," Pitt answered. "The apparent symptoms aren't like anything you'd find in your home medical guide. We'll have to wait for a pathologist's report."



"You might be interested to know that Miss Fletcher and Van Fleet have pretty well eliminated viral infections and chemical contamination as the cause of death for the penguins and seals."

Everyone at the station vomited before they died. Ask them to explain that."

"I'll make a note of it. Any sign of the second shore party?"

"Nothing. They must still be on board the ship."

"Very strange."

"So what are we left with?"

Dempsey sighed defeatedly. "A big fat puzzle with too many missing pieces."

"On the flight here we passed over a seal colony that was wiped out. Have you determined how far the scourge extends?"

"The British station two hundred kilometers to the south of you on the Jason Peninsula and a U.S.

cruise ship that's anchored off Hope Bay have reported no unusual events nor any evidence of mass creature destruction. By taking into account the area in the Weddell Sea where we discovered the school of dead dolphins, I put the death circle within a diameter of ninety kilometers, using the whaling station on Seymour Island as a center point."

"We're going to move on now," Pitt notified him, "and make a sweep for Polar Queen."

"Mind that you keep enough fuel in reserve to return to the ship."

"In the bank," Pitt assured Dempsey. "An invigorating swim in ice water I can do without."

Giordino closed down the research station's communications console, and then they stepped lively toward the entrance; jogged quickly was closer to the truth. Neither Pitt nor Giordino wished to spend another moment in that icy tomb. As they rose from the station, Giordino studied his chart of the Antarctic Peninsula.