“I’m sure that leads down a ladder into the number 1 hold. This tub has four holds, each big enough to park a skyscraper in. There should be an interior passageway from one hold to the next, accessible by climbing down that ladder and up another on the opposite side.”

“What about the main hatch covers? Any chance of prying them off?”

“No way, not without a crane. Each one probably weighs three tons. I would think our only chance is out the stern. There’s probably a similar hold or separate access way to the main deck.” He stared at Roman with resolve. “It will take some time to search with just a penlight.”

“Bojorquez,” Roman called. The sergeant quickly materialized alongside.

“Accompany the captain aft,” Roman ordered. “Find us a way out of this rat hole.”

“Yes, sir,” Bojorquez replied smartly. Then with a wink to his superior, he added, “Worth a stripe?”

Roman smirked. “At least one. Now, get moving.”

A glimmer of hope seemed to inspire all of the men, Roman included. But then he remembered Murdock’s comment about a long voyage and realized the Arctic environment was still going to offer them a fight for survival. Walking about the hold once more, he began plotting how to keep everyone from freezing to death.

Chapter 56

56

IN THE WARM CONFINES OF THE OTOK’S BRIDGE, Clay Zak sat comfortably in a high-back chair watching the ice-studded waters slip by. It had been an impulsive and dangerous act to capture the Americans, he knew, and equally impulsive to toss them into the barge and tow them along. He still wasn’t quite sure what he was going to do with the captives, but he praised his own good luck. The Polar Dawn’s crew had fallen right into his lap and, with them, the opportunity to ignite the flames of contention between Canada and the U.S. The Canadian government would be seething in the belief that the Polar Dawn’s crew had escaped via an American military operation that had crossed its territorial borders. Zak laughed at the prospect, knowing that Canada’s contemptuous Prime Minister wouldn’t be letting the Americans set foot in the Canadian Arctic for quite some time to come.

It was more than Goyette could have hoped for. The industrialist had told him of the riches in the Arctic that were there for the taking, as global warming continued to melt the barriers of access. Goyette had already struck it rich with the Melville Sound natural gas field, but there was also oil to be had. By some estimates, potentially twenty-fi ve percent of the planet’s total oil reserves were trapped under the Arctic. The rapid melt off in Arctic ice was making it all accessible now to those with foresight.