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"We'll figure out something when we get there." Pitt was fond of saying this.
Followed by Giordino's "I'll tag along, since I don't have anything better to do."
"Come on inside," said Cash, "before we turn into ice sculptures."
"What's the temperature?" asked Giordino.
"Pretty nice today, with no wind. Last I looked, it was fifteen degrees below zero."
"At least I won't have to send for ice cubes for my tequila," said Pitt.
The domed building, which was 80 percent covered with ice, protruded only five feet above ground.
The living and working quarters were a maze of rooms and corridors hacked under the ice. Cash led them into the dining area next to the kitchen and ordered them a hot lunch of lasagna from the station cook before producing a half-gallon bottle of Gallo burgundy. "Not fancy, but it hits the spot," he said, laughing.
"All the comforts of home," mused Giordino.
"Not really," Cash said, with a grim smile. "You have to be mentally deficient to want to live this life."
"Then why not take a job somewhere with a milder climate?" asked Pitt, noticing that all the men he'd seen at the station were bearded and the women had forsaken makeup and coiffures.
"Men and women volunteer to work in polar regions because of the excitement of pursuing a dangerous job exploring the unknown. A few come to escape problems at home, but the majority are scientists who pursue the studies of their chosen expertise regardless of where it takes them. After a year, they're more than ready to return home. By that time, they've either turned into zombies or they began to hallucinate."
Pitt looked at Cash. He didn't have a haunted look in his eyes, at least not yet. "It must take strength of character to subsist in such a bleak environment."
"It begins with age," Cash explained. "Men under twenty-five lack reliability, men over forty-five lack the stamina."
After waiting patiently for a few minutes, while Pitt and Giordino ate most of their lasagna, Cash finally asked, "When you contacted me from Argentina, did I hear right when you said you wanted to cross the ice shelf to Okuma Bay?"
Pitt nodded. "Our destination is the Destiny Enterprises mining operation."
Cash shook his head. "Those people are security fanatics. None of our scientific expeditions ever got within ten miles of the place before being chased off by their security goons."
"We're quite familiar with the goons," said Giordino, relaxing after filling his stomach.
"What did you have in mind for transportation? We have no helicopter here."
"All we'll need is a couple of snowmobiles," Pitt said, looking into Cash's face. The expression in the ice station chief's eyes was not encouraging.
Cash looked pained. "I fear you two have flown a long way for nothing. Two of our snowmobiles are in maintenance, waiting for parts to be flown in. And the other four were taken by scientists to study the ice around Roosevelt Island north of here."
"How soon before your scientists return?" asked Pitt.
"Not for another three days."
"You have no other transportation?" asked Giordino.
"A bulldozer and a ten-ton Sno-cat."
"What about the Sno-cat?"
Cash shrugged. "A section of one track shattered from the cold. We're waiting for a part to be flown in from Auckland."
Giordino looked across the table at his friend. "Then we have no choice but to fly in and hope we find a place to land."
Pitt shook his head. "We can't risk jeopardizing the special force mission by dropping in out of the blue. I had hoped that with snowmobiles we might have covered the distance, parked them a mile or two away from the mining compound, and then crept in unobserved."
"You fellas act like it's a matter of life or death," said Cash.
