Ice Station Zebra by Alistair MacLean
‘Zabrinski,’ he said unhesitatingly.
‘Do you think you could pussy-foot along to wherever it is that he’s sleeping and bring him here without waking up anyone?’
He didn’t answer my questions. He said: ‘He can’t walk, Doc, you know that.’
‘Carry him. You’re big enough.’
He grinned and left. He was back with Zabrinski inside three minutes. Three-quarters of an hour later, after telling Rawlings he could call off his watch, I was back in my cabin.
Hansen was still asleep. He didn’t wake even when I switched on a side light. Slowly, clumsily, painfully, I dressed myself in my furs, unlocked my case and drew out the Luger, the two rubber-covered magazines and the broken knife which Commander Swanson had found in the tractor’s petrol tank. I put those in my pocket and left. As I passed through the control room I told the officer on deck that I was going out to check on the two patients still left out in the camp. As I had pulled a fur mitten over my injured hand he didn’t raise any eyebrows, doctors were a law to themselves and I was just the good healer en route to give aid and comfort to the sick.
I did have a good look at the two sick men, both of whom seemed to me to be picking up steadily, then said good night to the two Dolphin crewmen who were watching over them. But I didn’t go straight back to the ship. First I went to the tractor shed and replaced the gun, magazines and broken knife in the tractor tank. Then I went back to the ship.
NINE
‘I’m sorry to have to bother you with all these questions,’ I said pleasantly. ‘But that’s the way it is with all government departments. A thousand questions in quadruplicate and each of them more pointlessly irritating than the rest. But I have this job to do and the report to be radioed off as soon as possible and I would appreciate all the information and co-operation you can give me. First off, has anyone any idea at all how this damnable fire started?’
I hoped I sounded like a Ministry of Supply official which was what I’d told them I was -making a Ministry of Supply report. I’d further told them, just to nip any eyebrow-raising in the bud, that it was the Ministry of Supply’s policy to send a doctor to report on any accident where loss of life was involved. Maybe this was the case. I didn’t know and I didn’t care.
‘Well, I was the first to discover the fire, I think,’ Naseby, the Zebra cook, said hesitantly. His Yorkshire accent was very pronounced. He was still no picture of health and strength but for all that he was a hundred per cent improved on the man I had seen yesterday. Like the other eight survivors of Drift Ice Station Zebra who were present in the wardroom that morning, a long night’s warm sleep and good food had brought about a remarkable change for the better. More accurately, like seven others. Captain Folsom’s face had been so hideously burnt that it was difficult to say what progress he was making although he had certainly had a good enough breakfast, almost entirely liquid, less than half an hour previously.
‘It must have been about two o’clock in the morning,’ Naseby went on. ‘Well, near enough two. The place was already on fire. Burning like a torch, it was. I -’
‘What place?’ I interrupted. ‘Where were you sleeping?’
‘In the cookhouse. That was also our dining-hall. Farthest west hut in the north row.’
‘You slept there alone?’
‘No. Hewson, here, and Flanders and Bryce slept there also. Flanders and Bryce, they’re — they were — lab. technicians. Hewson and I slept at the very back of the hut, then there were two big cupboards, one each side, that held all our food stores, then Flanders and Bryce slept in the dining-hall itself, by a corner of the galley.’
‘They were nearest the door?’
‘That’s right. I got up, coughing and choking with smoke, very groggy, and I could see flames already starting to eat through the east wall of the hut. I shook Hewson then ran for the fire extinguisher — it was kept by the door. It wouldn’t work. Jammed solid with the cold, I suppose. I don’t know. I ran back in again. I was blind by this time, you never saw smoke like it in your life. I shook Flanders and Bryce and shouted at them to get out then I bumped into Hewson and told him to run and wake Captain Folsom here.’
I looked at Hewson. ‘You woke Captain Folsom?’
‘I went to wake him. But not straight away. The whole camp was blazing like the biggest Fifth of November bonfire you ever saw and flames twenty feet high were sweeping down the lane between the two rows of huts. The air was full of flying oil, a lot of it burning. I had to make a long swing to the north to get clear of the oil and the flames.’
‘The wind was from the east?’
‘Not quite. Not that night. South-east, I would say. East-south-east would be more like it, rather. Anyway, I gave a very wide berth to the generator house — that was the one next the dining-hall in the north row — and reached the main bunkhouse. That was the one you found us in.’
‘Then you woke Captain Folsom?’
‘He was already gone. Shortly after I’d left the dining-hall the fuel drums in the fuel storage hut — that was the one directly south of the main bunkhouse — started exploding. Like bloody great bombs going off they were, the noise they made. They would have wakened the dead. Anyway, they woke Captain Folsom. He and Jeremy here’ — he nodded at a man sitting across the table from him — ‘had taken the fire extinguisher from the bunkhouse and tried to get close to Major Halliwell’s hut.’
‘That was the one directly west of the fuel store?’
‘That’s right. It was an inferno. Captain Folsom’s extinguisher worked well enough but he couldn’t get close enough to do any good. There was so much flying oil in the air that even the extinguisher foam seemed to burn.’
‘Hold on a minute,’ I said. ‘To get back to my original question. How did the fire start?’
‘We’ve discussed that a hundred times among ourselves,’ Dr Jolly said wearily. ‘The truth is, old boy, we haven’t a clue. We know where it started all right: match the huts destroyed against the wind direction that night and it could only have been in the fuel store. But how? It’s anybody’s guess. I don’t see that it matters a great deal now.’
‘I disagree. It matters very much. If we could find out how it started we might prevent another such tragedy later on. That’s why I’m here. Hewson, you were in charge of the fuel store and generator hut. Have you no opinion on this?’
‘None. It must have been electrical, but how I can’t guess. It’s possible that there was a leakage from one of the fuel drums and that oil vapour was present in the air. There were two black heaters in the fuel store, designed to keep the temperature up to zero Fahrenheit, so that the oil would always flow freely. Arcing across the make and break of the thermostats might have ignited the gas. But it’s only a wild guess, of course.’
‘No possibility of any smouldering rags or cigarette ends being the cause?’
Hewson’s face turned a dusky red.
‘Look, mister, I know my job. Burning rags, cigarette ends — I know how to keep a bloody fuel store -’
‘Keep your shirt on,’ I interrupted. ‘No offence. I’m only doing my job.’ I turned back to Naseby. ‘After you’d sent Hewson here to rouse up Captain Folsom, what then?’
‘I ran across to the radio room — that’s the hut due south of the cookhouse and west of Major Halliwell’s —’
‘But those two lab technicians — Flanders and Bryce, wasn’t it — surely you checked they were awake and out of it before you left the dining-hall?’
‘God help me, I didn’t.’ Naseby stared down at the deck, his shoulders hunched, his face bleak. ‘They’re dead. It’s my fault they’re dead. But you don’t know what it was like inside that dining-hall. Flames were breaking through the east wall, the place was full of choking smoke and oil, I couldn’t see, I could hardly breathe. I shook them both and shouted at them to get out. I shook them hard and I certainly shouted loud enough.’
‘I can bear him out on that,’ Hewson said quietly. ‘I was righ
‘I didn’t wait,’ Naseby went on. ‘I wasn’t thinking of saving my own skin. I thought Flanders and Bryce were all right and that they would be out the door on my heels. I wanted to warn the others. It wasn’t — it wasn’t until minutes later that I realised that there was no sign of them. And then — well, then it was too late.’
‘You ran across to the radio room. That’s where you slept, Kinnaird, wasn’t it?’
‘That’s where I slept, yes.’ His mouth twisted. ‘Me and my mate Grant, the boy that died yesterday. And Dr Jolly slept in the partitioned-off east end of the hut. That’s where he had his surgery and the little cubby-hole where he carried out his tests on ice samples.’
‘So your end would have started to go on fire first?’ I said to Jolly.
‘Must have done,’ he agreed. ‘Quite frankly, old chap, my recollection of the whole thing is just like a dream — a nightmare, rather. I was almost asphyxiated in my sleep, I think. First thing I remember was young Grant bending over me, shaking me and shouting. Can’t recall what he was shouting but it must have been that the hut was on fire. I don’t know what I said or did, probably nothing, for the next thing I clearly remember was being hit on both sides of the face, and not too gently either. But, by jove, it worked! I got to my feet and he dragged me out of my office into the radio room. I owe my life to young Grant. I’d just enough sense left to grab the emergency medical kit that I always kept packed.’
‘What woke Grant?’
‘Naseby, here, woke him,’ Kinnaird said. ‘He woke us both, shouting and hammering on the door. If it hadn’t been for him Dr Jolly and I would both have been goners, the air inside that place was like poison gas and I’m sure if Naseby hadn’t shouted on us we would never have woken up. I told Grant to waken the doctor while I tried to get the outside door open.’
‘It was locked?’
‘The damned thing was jammed. That was nothing unusual at night. During the day when the heaters were going full blast to keep the huts at a decent working temperature the ice around the doors tended to melt: at night, when we got into our sleeping-bags, we turned our heaters down and the melted ice froze hard round the door openings, sealing it solid. That happened most nights in most of the huts — usually had to break our way out in the morning. But I can tell you that I didn’t take too long to burst it open that night.’
‘And then?’
‘I ran out,’ Kinnaird said. ‘I couldn’t see a thing for black smoke and flying oil. I ran maybe twenty yards to the south to get some idea of what was happening. The whole camp seemed to be on fire. When you’re woken up like that at two in the morning, half-blinded, half-asleep and groggy with fumes your mind isn’t at its best, but thank God I’d enough left of my mind to realise that an SOS radio message was the one thing that was going to save our lives. So I went back inside the radio hut.’
‘We all owe our lives to Kinnaird.’ Speaking for the first time was Jeremy, a burly red-haired Canadian who had been chief technician on the base. ‘And if I’d been a bit quicker with my hands we’d have all been dead.’
‘Oh, for Christ’s sake, mate, shut up,’ Kinnaird growled.
‘I won’t shut up,’ Jeremy said soberly. ‘Besides, Dr Carpenter wants a full report. I was first out of the main bunkhouse after Captain Folsom here. As Hewson said, we tried the extinguisher on Major Halliwell’s hut. It was hopeless from the beginning but we had to do it — after all, we knew there were four men trapped in there. But, like I say, it was a waste of time. Captain Folsom shouted that he was going to get another extinguisher and told me to see how things were in the radio room.
‘The place was ablaze from end to end. As I came round as close as I could to the door at the west end I saw Naseby here bending over Dr Jolly, who’d keeled over as soon as he had come out into the fresh air. He shouted to me to give him a hand to drag Dr Jolly clear and I was just about to when Kinnaird, here, came running up. I saw he was heading straight for the door of the radio room.’ He smiled without humour. ‘I thought he had gone off his rocker. I jumped in front of him, to stop him. He shouted at me to get out of the way. I told him not to be crazy and he yelled at me — you had to yell to make yourself heard above the roar of the flames — that he had to get the portable radio out, that all the oil was gone and the generator and the cookhouse with all the food were burning up. He knocked me down and the next I saw was him disappearing through that door. Smoke and flames were pouring through the doorway. I don’t know how he ever got out alive.’
‘Was that how you got your face and hands so badly burnt?’ Commander Swanson asked quietly. He was standing in a far corner of the wardroom, having taken no part in the discussion up till now, but missing nothing all the same. That was why I had asked him to be present: just because he was a man who missed nothing.
‘I reckon so, sir.’
‘I fancy that should earn a trip to Buckingham Palace,’ Swanson murmured.
‘The hell with Buckingham Palace,’ Kinnaird said violently. ‘How about my mate, eh? How about young Jimmy Grant? Can he make the trip to Buckingham Palace? Not now he can’t, the poor bastard. Do you know what he was doing? He was still inside the radio room when I went back in, sitting at the main transmitter, sending out an S O S on our regular frequency. His clothes were on fire. I dragged him off his seat and shouted to him to grab some Nife cells and get out. I caught up the portable transmitter and a nearby box of Nife cells and ran through the door. I thought Grant was on my heels but I couldn’t hear anything, what with the roar of flames and the bursting of fuel drums the racket was deafening. Unless you’d been there you just can’t begin to imagine what it was like. I ran far enough clear to put the radio and cells in a safe place. Then I went back. I asked Naseby, who was still trying to bring Dr Jolly round, if Jimmy Grant had come out. He said he hadn’t. I started to run for the door again — and, well, that’s all I remember.’
‘I clobbered him,’ Jeremy said with gloomy satisfaction. ‘From behind. I had to.’
‘I could have killed you when I came round,’ Kinnaird said morosely. ‘But I guess you saved my life at that.’
‘I certainly did, brother.’ Jeremy grimaced. That was my big contribution that night. Hitting people. After Nasebv, here, had brought Dr Jolly round he suddenly started shouting: ‘Where’s Flanders and Bryce, where’s Flanders and Bryce?’ Those were the two who had been sleeping with Hewson and himself in the cookhouse. A few others had come down from the main bunkhouse by that time and the best part of a minute had elapsed before we realised that Flanders and Bryce weren’t among them. Naseby, here, started back for the cookhouse at a dead run. He was making for the doorway, only there was no doorway left, just a solid curtain of fire where the doorway used to be. I swung at him as he passed and he fell and hit his head on the ice.’ He looked at Naseby. ‘Sorry again, Johnny, but you were quite crazy at the moment.’
Naseby rubbed his jaw and grinned wearily. ‘I can still feel it. And God knows you were right.’
‘Then Captain Folsom arrived, along with Dick Foster, who also slept in the main bunkhouse,’ Jeremy went on. ‘Captain Folsom said he’d tried every other extinguisher on the base and that all of them were frozen solid. He’d heard about Grant being trapped inside the radio room and he and Foster were carrying a blanket apiece, soaked with water. I tried to stop them but Captain Folsom ordered me to stand aside.’ Jeremy smiled faintly. ‘When Captain Folsom orders people to stand aside — well, they do just that.
‘He and Foster threw the wet blankets over their heads and ran inside. Captain Folsom was out in a few seconds, carrying Grant. I’ve never seen anything like it, they were burning like human torches. I don’t know what happened to Foster, but he never came out. By that time the roofs of both Major Halliwell’s hut and the cookhouse had fallen in. Nobody could get anywhere near either of those buildings. Besides, it was far too late by then, Major Halliwell and the three others inside the major’s hut and Fl
‘Well,’ I said slowly, ‘that’s as clear a picture of what must have been a very confusing and terrifying experience as we’re ever likely to get. It wasn’t possible to get anywhere near Major Halliwell’s hut?’
‘You couldn’t have gone within fifteen feet of it and hoped to live,’ Naseby said simply.
‘And what happened afterwards?’
‘I took charge, old boy,’ Jolly said. ‘Wasn’t much to take charge of, though, and what little there was to be done could be done only by myself -fixing up the injured, I mean. I made ‘em all wait out there on the ice-cap until the flames had died down a bit and there didn’t seem to be any more likelihood of further fuel drums bursting then we all made our way to the bunkhouse where I did the best I could for the injured men. Kinnaird here, despite pretty bad burns, proved himself a first-class assistant doctor. We bedded down the worst of them. Young Grant was in a shocking condition — ‘fraid there never really was very much hope for him. And — well, that was about all there was to it.’
‘You had no food for the next few days and nights?’
‘Nothing at all, old boy. No heat either, except for the standby Coleman lamps that were in the three remaining huts. We managed to melt a little water from the ice, that was all. By my orders everyone remained lying down and wrapped up in what was available in order to conserve energy and warmth.’
‘Bit rough on you,’ I said to Kinnaird. ‘Having to lose any hard-earned warmth you had every couple of hours in order to make those SOS broadcasts.’
‘Not only me,’ Kinnaird said. ‘I’m no keener on frostbite than anyone else. Dr Jolly insisted that everyone who could should take turn about at sending out the S O S’s. Wasn’t hard. There was a pre-set mechanical call-up and all anyone had to do was to send this and listen in on the earphones. If any message came through I was across to the met. office in a flash. It was actually Hewson, here, who contacted the ham operator in Bodo and Jeremy who got through to that trawler in the Barents Sea. I carried on from there, of course. Apart from them there were Dr Jolly and Naseby, here, to give a hand, so it wasn’t so bad. Hassard, too, took a turn after the first day — he’d been more or less blinded on the night of the fire.’