Beneath the Ice Read Online Free Page B

suspect that anything illegal would be coming out of a place like Antarctica anyway?
    ‘So what’s he smuggling?’
    The tip of Bates’ tongue wetted his lips.
    ‘We’ve got a lot of history, Luca, so I’ll tell you. But just so we are clear, this wasn’t part of the brief.’
    Luca’s expression hardened. ‘You came to see me. Don’t forget that.’
    Bates nodded. He sniffed the air before lowering his voice. ‘He’s smuggling weapons-grade uranium from the old Soviet bloc.’
    ‘Fucking hell,’ Luca hissed, instinctively looking towards the door.
    ‘His brother-in-law is the military contact,’ Bates continued, now speaking faster. ‘They ship it via Antarctica as it’s the only place on earth no one has eyes on. No spy satellites look that far south, which makes it impossible to track remotely. We just need you . . .’
    Luca raised his hands, finally silencing him. ‘Enough! Let me spell it out for you, Norm. I’m not going within a hundred miles of some Russian lunatic who smuggles nuclear fucking bombs!’
    Bates glowered at him, willing him to lower his voice. He had already grabbed Luca’s wrist, the strength of his grip whitening the skin around his fingertips.
    ‘Stop being so damn melodramatic. This is a sixty-year-old scientist who writes bloody poetry. He makes a bit on the side smuggling a few grams of very nasty stuff. All I am asking you to do is insert some spyware into the International Base’s main computer.’
    ‘Spyware? What the hell do I know about spyware?’
    ‘You don’t need to know anything. All you have to do is insert a memory stick and run the programme. It’s that easy.’ There was a pause before Bates continued, his voice steadying. ‘Listen, Luca, this is the perfect chance for us to intercept Dedov’s transmissions. Trust me, opportunities like this don’t come around too often. Down in the science base, every email, phone call and text message has to flow through the same satellite connection. It’s like it’s all going through one pipe. Dedov is sending encrypted messages to his military contact and we’ve only been able to intercept a few of them. The reality is that if we’re going to understand what’s going on, we need to get the intel from source.’
    Luca stared at him, his jaw clenching with hostility. ‘Seriously?’ he asked. ‘You are seriously coming to me and laying this on my doorstep?’
    Bates didn’t respond, just waiting for him to calm down. A moment passed before he eased himself up from the chair, sighing heavily.
    ‘I guess you’re right. I shouldn’t have come,’ he said, seemingly more to himself than Luca. ‘I just thought it wouldn’t be a big deal for you to plug something into a computer. That you would have done it for an old friend.’
    Taking a handkerchief from his trouser pocket, he dabbed at the top of his perspiring hairline.
    ‘But I suppose this is a lot to ask. And this has all kind of happened out of the blue.’
    After a moment he turned back to look at Luca, his expression softer. ‘It’s been a long time, huh? Since we climbed together.’
    ‘A lifetime.’
    ‘You know, I was always jealous of the way you climbed. I never said anything at the time, of course, but I just couldn’t understand how you always made it look so easy. You could find handholds in a pane of bloody glass.’
    Luca nodded at the compliment, but didn’t like the sudden change of tack.
    ‘But I was always there to belay you,’ Bates continued. ‘I was the one you trusted to secure your rope.’
    ‘What’s your point, Norm?’
    ‘You needed me then, and now I need you. And I’d have thought you were the kind of guy I could depend on.’
    ‘I don’t owe you shit. And stop talking about our childhood as if it were a couple of days ago. What is it with you, Norm? You turn up out of nowhere and then suddenly expect me to up sticks and pack off to Antarctica. Things are different now. I have a life.’
    ‘You’ve spent the