The Icarus Project (11 page)

I didn’t like the sound of that.

Randal nodded to Katsu. Then he turned his attention
back to Dad. “Please, Jason. Continue on this journey with me,” Randal said.

“Why don’t we give it a try and see what it is?” I said to Dad. I didn’t trust Randal, either, but I didn’t want to go home with nothing, not even a few days in the Arctic. “We came all this way. It’ll be like a vacation. We could stay a week and then go home.”

“See, your daughter is game. You’ve traveled too far only to return home without even a few tales of adventure. I will show you the scenery when not working. See the land and meet the people.”

Dad wasn’t so easily swayed. “This is not Maya’s decision to make. I’ll have to think about it and let you know. A week isn’t too long to stay, but that would be the longest I could invest.”

“Let me know tonight. If you choose to leave, I can have Justice fly you out in the morning.”

Karen stepped forward. “Randal, Kyle and I will be staying. I don’t agree with your methods, but I understand that you did what you did to keep the project going. It was misleading, but we’ve all made mistakes before.”

I looked over at Jake, who was fiddling with his camera. He had not filmed the latest events. That’s when I connected what my dad said about the tusk being a movie prop and the model mammoth park in Randal’s secret room. It was a pretty big coincidence that Randal created these grand plans to build a park and then miraculously
found a frozen mammoth. Was the whole secret room staged? It had been pretty easy for Katsu, Kyle, and me to break into the locked room. Who was conning whom?

And what had Randal
really
found buried in the ice?

Kyle followed me back to my room and sat down on his mom’s bed.

Dad appeared a moment later and hovered in the doorway. He had a weary look on his face. I jumped up off my bed and hugged him. “I just want everything to work out,” I said.

“I know you do. I’m sorry you have to be a part of this.”

“I wanted there to be a mammoth.” Maybe deep down I still held out hope.

“You know what they say: ‘You don’t find the mammoth—the mammoth finds you.’” He sighed. “It’s my fault.”

“It’s not your fault, Dad. It’s Randal’s fault. He did this. He’s to blame.”

“No, no blame game. Tomorrow we start over.” Dad ruffled my hair.

“We’ll see what finds us,” I said.

“OK. We can stay a week. We’ll have some fun—go dogsledding, maybe build an igloo. And then we’ll head home next week. I’ll take a look at the dig site just to see what’s there. Probably nothing, but you never know.”

“Sounds good to me,” Kyle said. “I’ll talk to West.
Maybe Maya and I can go to the site and help out. We won’t get in the way.”

“Please, Dad? I really want to see the site. It won’t hurt anything since there’s no mammoth.” I didn’t mean for that to come out the way it sounded, so final, so much like a judgment.

“Yes. If you want to come, then sure.” He leaned against the door frame. The nervous energy that had caused him to zing around the station that morning had all burned off. His anger was also gone. “If Karen says it’s OK for Kyle to go, then it’s fine by me. This is an opportunity for the both of you to see a dig site, even if there isn’t a real mammoth. I’m going to go early. How about you two come up after lunch tomorrow and check it out?”

Maybe this trip would work out for the best. We could have a fun vacation and then head home. No problem.

After dinner I was sitting at the computer in the
comm, keeping an eagle eye out for Katsu. I didn’t want him sneaking up on me and overhearing my conversation, especially since it was about him.

It was weird to be staring at Zoey in her bedroom while I was here at the station. Was this what it was like for Mom, seeing me at home cuddled up in my bedroom when she was traveling? I had a flash of homesickness, but I brushed it away. I was so relieved to see my best friend that I opened my mouth and poured out everything that had happened in the past twenty-four hours. I told her about the mammoth and how Randal had used fake tusks to lure us to the Arctic. The expedition was in total ruin, and I would probably be home in a week.

Then I said, “What did you find out?” I was still curious to learn what Zoey had managed to dig up on Ivan and Katsu.

“Well, you’re up there with some heavy hitters.” Zoey’s fingers flew across her keyboard as she talked. “Katsu is
the real deal. He’s one of the top geneticists in the world. Problem is, he’s a radical.”

“A radical what?” I asked. The only thing radical I had noticed about Katsu was his radical addiction to hand sanitizer.

Zoey glanced into the lens. “For starters, the institute that he was working for in Japan fired him.”

“People get fired all the time. That doesn’t make them radical. What was he working on?” I was playing devil’s advocate. I needed to hear solid proof about someone before I believed anything too extreme. All part of being a scientist.

“Cloning, genetic manipulation—all that fun stuff.” A huge smile spread across Zoey’s face. She loved intrigue.

“Are you serious? He’s too radical for the cloning people?”

“Yep. Seems like he’s all about shortcuts and instant gratification. He wants to go down in history as the first person to clone an extinct species.” Zoey looked right into the camera and gave me a devious smile. “It looks like his extinct species of choice is the mammoth.”

“Randal has a model of a mammoth park in his secret office.” I shook my head. “Are you sure? Can mammoths really be cloned?”

“Looks like it. The science is solid. All that’s needed is viable DNA. This is awesome! I’m so jealous.”

“Well, don’t be. The jig is up. There’s no mammoth DNA to use for the cloning because it’s a fake … I can’t
believe Randal faked the tusks.” I shook my head again, the disappointment still raw.

“So what does Randal think he’s going to find?” Zoey asked.

“He still
says
he wants to find a mammoth. But it seems fishy to me.”

“What else could it be? Another fossil?” Zoey asked. “Maybe something crash landed from outer space, like a satellite or a spacecraft.”

I laughed. “That would be cool. But I doubt it. I’m thinking it’s just another animal fossil. Who knows?”

“I can dream.” Zoey shoved a gummy bear into her mouth. “But Randal had better hope it’s more than a dream.”

“What do you mean?”

Zoey tapped on her computer keyboard. “Randal is in some serious trouble. I looked up Ivan, and trust me, you don’t want to mess with him. He’s part of a tough Russian crime family. Looks like they invest in companies doing scientific research, experiments, and drug trials. Some people think they develop drugs on the black market—that sort of thing.”

“You mean he’s not really a scientist?” The situation was getting worse.

“No, he’s a scientist all right, but his family likes to make a lot of money, and they don’t like to follow any rules.”

“I bet they invested in Randal’s company,” I mused aloud. “But what are they going to do now? Do you think he’s in danger? They wouldn’t hurt him, would they?” Or anyone else, for that matter … like the scientists helping him?

“Let’s just say he’d
better
find something in that ice. Something to make up for there not being a mammoth,” Zoey said. “I’ll be happy when you get back home safely.”

A door slammed behind me. I jerked around in my chair.

Kyle was standing there, still in his outdoor gear. “Maya—come quick!” He doubled over and sucked in mouthfuls of air.

“What’s wrong?” More drama, probably.

Then I heard a loud growling coming from outside. Kyle and I raced over to the window. A gray plume of smoke billowed across the sky. The rumbling grew louder. “It’s the helicopter!” he yelled. Panic shot through me. Justice flew the helicopter, and I didn’t want anything bad to happen to him. Suddenly, we could see it, hovering in the air, weaving unsteadily toward the landing pad.

“Sounds like something’s wrong with the engine,” Kyle said, clutching his face mask in his hands.

The helicopter disappeared behind the hangar, smoke spiraling upward.

“We have to do something. See if we can help,” I said.

I turned to shut down the computer. “Zoey, gotta go.”
I didn’t wait for Zoey’s response. The last thing I saw was her eyes wide with concern before the screen went black.

“Come on!” Kyle said.

I grabbed my coat, and we raced to the hangar. By the time we got there, the helicopter had landed. The acrid smell of smoke filled the air, but at least the helicopter hadn’t crashed. Justice and a mechanic were already checking the engine. I was surprised to see Ivan looming around the hangar with his luggage. His arms were crossed over his massive chest, and he had an angry scowl on his face. He wasn’t hiding the fact that he wanted to leave the station immediately. Kyle and I hung back when we saw that he and Randal were having a
discussion.

“You can’t hold us hostage! That’s illegal,” Ivan said, his brow twisted. “I’ll call the authorities if you don’t let me leave immediately. This is an outrage. First, you lie about the discovery and now you try to force me to stay here at the station.”

“Calm down, Ivan. No one is holding you hostage,” Randal replied. “As you can plainly see, we’ve had some technical difficulties and will have to postpone any outgoing flights. You are more than welcome to find other means of transportation off the station if you wish.”

“That’s impossible, and you know it.” Ivan paced back and forth, his gaze shifting around the hangar nervously. “I must go. I can’t stay here.”

Ivan had been tense from the first moment I saw him
in the helicopter. I don’t think the Arctic agreed with him.

Randal had little consolation for the big man. “If you want Justice to fly you out, then you’ll just have to wait.”

“It will take over a week to arrange for another flight to come here and take me to the nearest hub,” Ivan complained. His panicked eyes did not match his gruff exterior.

“I’ll do all I can to get the helicopter up and running before then. Just stay for the week and see what turns up.” Randal buried his hands in his pockets.

“You’re treading on thin ice, Randal. My family is not happy, and you don’t want to anger them. When they find out we have been scammed, you will be in big trouble.”

“Really? I thought your family would appreciate my techniques. Seeing as how they are quite knowledgeable in the art of scamming.” Anger flashed over Ivan’s face, but Randal continued calmly, “I’ll deliver on my promise.”

With that comment it was clear that Ivan did not intimidate Randal. Personally, I would be very afraid of him. Ivan was a giant and he had fists the size of grapefruits, and now he was trapped at the station like a wild animal in a zoo. And from what Zoey had said, Ivan’s family knew how to get what they wanted.

Randal rested his hand on the Russian’s shoulder. “We will find something under the ice. I know it. Just be patient. One week—remember? One week was all I asked.”

He may have asked, but it was clear none of us really had a choice, especially now that the helicopter was down.
A smoky gray cloud hovered in the air over us. No one was leaving the station. We were all grounded.

Ivan was furious. “You’d just better hope that there is a mammoth or something with viable DNA in the ground. You are in debt to my family, and it’s not the type of debt you can pay off with your millions. Get something we can use in the lab or I will take
your
DNA.” Ivan drilled his finger into Randal’s chest.

“I promise you, you won’t be disappointed,” Randal replied.

Ivan grabbed his suitcase and barged out of the hangar.

If Randal was shaken, it didn’t show. He tipped his cap to us and headed over to the small office inside the hangar to speak with Justice in private.

I looked at Kyle. “Randal is in deep.”

“This week is going to be interesting, that’s for sure.”

“Why would he go to all that trouble designing a park when he knew there was no mammoth?” I asked.

“Maybe he didn’t know. Maybe he really thought he could just venture out and find a mammoth. Guys like that think that with a ton of money they can do anything. Remember all the trophy fossils we found in his secret room? He’s probably been dreaming about his theme park for years.”