Story-A-Day #119: Axel Heiberg

AXEL HEIBERG

--SECURE TRANSMISSION--

Log #1: March 10, 2011
Location: 79°26′N 090°46′W

There’s not much up here; so little in fact, that I was starting to doubt the validity of this excursion. The thought had occurred to me, and not for the first time, that we might have been mislead.

I flew into Toronto almost three months ago and met up with my team at the Royal York. We spent a day gearing up with deep Arctic equipment: clothing, tents, sleeping gear, non-perishable food. We collect the rest en-route, but we needed to ensure the base supplies. We spent a week in the city drinking and doing some light site seeing. I figured it was okay to let the team blow off some steam because it could be the last chance they had for quite some time. Six angry men is not an efficient team, and I needed each of them, and their specialties, to be prepared. Against my better judgment, I have also added two women to the team, a geologist and a doctor. I am hoping that professionalism will overrule any potential friction between the different members: call me old fashioned, but on an excursion such as this, men and women often mix like oil and water.

On our last day in Toronto, I spoke briefly with our expedition’s benefactor (he says hello) and he directed me to a contact who would meet us in a place called Cochrane and take us the rest of the way from there. He also said that he had secured the McGill Arctic Research Station, which would act as our base of operations.

We took a chartered flight from Toronto to a place called North Bay, then transferred over to two smaller planes that got us to Cochrane where we met our contact at Ducks On The Roof, a rundown sports bar. The following day, we traveled to Moosonee by train. From there we flew to Rankin Inlet in Nunavut, then on to Repulse Bay where we refueled before continuing to Pond Inlet at the Northern tip of Baffin Island.

A plodding boat ride eventually landed us in Grise Fiord on Ellesmere Island where our guide discretely inquired about our destination. The people he talked to said they had seen no one in these parts, but that weird lights had been noticed on Axel Heiberg. They also mentioned rumblings in the ground (from the digging, or could it simply be related to the growing instability in the earth’s plates?) and seemed concerned.

That was nearly nineteen days ago and we have traveled by every means known to man to reach our current location. We are at the Research Station now and while there’s not much to it: a small research hut, cookhouse, and pair of temporary structures easily accommodates our team and it is nice having a roof over our heads.

The weather has been miserable and upon our arrival on the island, we were snowed in for eight days straight. We set up shifts to keep the door clear of snow, and also to ward off the polar bears that we have spotted periodically throughout our journey.

The thermometers have registered an average temperature of -42°C and we have been operating in whiteout conditions since we left Ellesmere, but I am optimistic that the tides will soon turn. We are nearing the mid-point in March and this cannot persist much longer. The team is tired already, but they are looking forward to the mission.

Today is our first clear day, and by extension, the first time I have been able to uplink to send you a report. We are doing some preliminary recon today and will follow up with a field excursion over the next few days. The meteorological centre is calling for a week of clear skies and we do not want to miss this opportunity.

Have faith in the mission. If they are out there, we will find them.

--END TRANSMISSION--

Story-A-Day #71: Mission Complete

MISSION COMPLETE

They walked along the cobbled path with purpose. They were men on a mission, six friends who had just pulled off the biggest job of their lives.

It was a muggy day, and at least half of them were still feeling the effects of too much scotch and over-sized cohibas from the night before, but they were focused. It had been a solid celebration, and duly earned.

Still buzzing from their success, they had started the day off at the beach with a bit of fun in the sun. They floated in the warm salty ocean for a bit, tossed a football back and forth, then finally retreated to the hot white beach where they lounged on the plastic recliners. They had earned the break.

When the sun reached its zenith, they retreated to the pool area for a few cervezas under the shade of the large grass umbrellas. After a quick lunch of cold cuts and fresh fruit in the main restaurant, they jumped in the pool and made their way over to the swim up bar. They spent the next couple hours chatting with a group of girls from Sweden. There were six of them as well, all blondes and all beautiful, tall and lean. Their pale Nordic flesh glowed hot pink in the afternoon sun.

Things could not have worked out any better for the guys. In fact, they seemed to be getting better with every passing moment. Around dinnertime, they made plans to meet up with the girls in the disco later that might and excused themselves. Back in their rooms, they showered, applied some aloe, and slipped into their evening attire.

As darkness settled over the resort, they made their way through the courtyard to the front gate of the resort. A large van sat idling out near the busy street and they all climbed in. The driver nodded and pulled out into the speeding traffic. Half an hour later, in an unfamiliar part of town, the van pulled over and the driver indicated an open door nearby. A soft yellow light spilled out into the street.

The six men climbed out of the van and walked towards the opening. This would either go very smoothly, or very wrong. They hoped it would be the former. They were greeted by a stocky man in a white cotton suit as the stepped into the doorway. A large automatic weapon was slung casually over his shoulder.

He motioned to a nearby table where a smaller, weasel of a man was sitting. One of the men stepped forward and placed a briefcase on the table and slid it across to the man. He picked up the case and examined the contents. A clock on the wall ticked loudly through the room, counting off the interminable seconds. Finally, an unnatural looking smile spread across the man’s face.

“You done good boys,” he mumbled. “Is too bad because I was kind of looking forward to killing you. You should probably be leaving our country soon. If I happened to find out you were still around, say in two days, I might not be so pleased.”

They nodded solemnly and quickly exited to the waiting van. The driver nodded at them and pulled away from the curb. A moment later, a loud explosion rocked the night. They turned and peered out the rear window of the van. A large fireball was slowly fading into the night sky above the charred husk of the building they had just left.

It would be another great night. There were six beautiful women waiting for them at the resort and they had officially completed their mission.

“Well done,” the driver finally offered. “The boss will be pleased.”