Sub zero, p.8
SUB-ZERO, page 8
Gianna latched onto his arm. “Nope. Sorry, but you’re staying.”
Obviously unhappy about being shanghaied into service, Trip could only shrug and wait for House to explain.
“We have a problem back at the lab.”
Gianna and Trip glanced at one another, then settled their eyes back on House. He, once more, looked up and down the corridor, wanting nothing more than for someone to appear and delay what he was about to reveal. The chances of that taking place were remote since the only doors visible led to either the wheelhouse or the stairs, and everyone that belonged back in Command, besides himself, were on duty.
“There was an incident inside the lab a few minutes ago, and we sent two ESD agents to have a look and—”
“Neither of them was heard from again,” Trip finished.
House and Gianna stared at him.
“Trip…” Gianna said, shaking her head. “This isn’t one of your crappy movies.”
House’s reaction was very different, though. “Who told you?”
Gianna’s facial expression went from one of embarrassment to one of shock. “Wait… That really happened?”
House stepped forward, threatening Trip.
“No one told me anything!” he yelped, getting shushed by both Houses. He calmed and explained himself. “Every cheesy horror movie says that.”
House wiped his sweaty brow and stepped away from the cowering man. Regardless of the situation, he needed to stay in control until he completed his investigation and found everything out.
Before setting off down the stairs, House tapped his WiMP’s screen, activating his comms unit.
“Captain?” Sam asked.
“Any luck?”
“No, sir,” he replied, “but we’ll keep at it.”
“Copy that,” House said, ending the call.
He turned left and took a deep breath. He wouldn’t verbally admit it, but he was happy to have two more sets of eyes with him. “Okay, this is how it’s going to go.” He pointed at Trip. “Stay behind me.” Then, he turned to Gianna. “You’re bringing up the rear.”
Gianna was about to protest her position in line but was silenced by his raised palm.
“I need someone I trust to watch our asses.” He glanced at Trip. “No offense.”
Trip shrugged. “None taken. She is your kid, after all.”
Since that was taken care of, House had to ask… “What’s with the shades?”
“They help with the headaches.”
“Still that bad?” House asked, heading off, genuinely concerned with his well-being.
Trip nodded. “Yea, like an SOB.”
“Has Dr. Bowen taken a look at you?”
“Not yet,” Trip replied. “Honestly, I’d rather have the base physician do it.”
“Why not Lisa?” Gianna asked. “Is it because she’s a woman?”
Trip snorted. “No way, I love women!” The Houses stopped and looked at him. Trip shrank back under their gaze and quickly clarified what he intended to say. “What I meant was… I prefer the doctor at McMurdo because he’s a friend of the family.”
House didn’t know that.
“That’s why you’re stationed here?”
Trip nodded. “He said with the lack of interest in McMurdo as a whole, that I’d move up the ladder quickly. My parents agreed with the move, and well, here I am!” He frowned. “Come to think of it, base command recommended me for my job here—acted like they couldn’t wait to get rid of me.”
House nodded, understanding why a move to McMurdo made sense, professionally speaking.
There’d be less competition for promotions down here than almost anywhere else on planet Earth. Still… The freezing cold temperatures, the isolation, the lack of overall freedom to do just about anything… But he didn’t get to comment about Trip’s family situation. Gianna slammed home the period at the end of the sentence—only—she did it in a brasher way than House had intended to do.
He wanted to let the young man down gently and tell him that the people around him didn’t seem to care for him very much. Gianna, on the other hand, didn’t do anything gently, especially use her words.
She lovingly clutched Trip’s left elbow, laid her head on his shoulder, and laughed. “Kinda sounds like your family hates you.”
10
House led the pair down three flights of stairs and stopped at the outer door that led into the top deck’s honeycomb of corridors and pods. Instead of the uppermost level being outside and at the mercy of the elements, as it was on most container ships and oil tankers, the Endeavor had an artificial ceiling constructed that resembled a gigantic inflated, yet ultra-durable, Kevlar-reinforced balloon.
Split into three rows of three, the nine pods were used in a variety of different capacities, ninety percent of which was run by the science division. A smart man in his own right, House didn’t bother asking about most of it, knowing even he wouldn’t understand the “nerd speak” being slung his way.
The inflatable also contained steel-framed walls to divide it into airtight compartments and usable hallways and was a revolutionary design—another thing being tested aboard his ship. A heated gel within the one-of-a-kind Temperature Controlled Bladder’s (TCB) lining kept it from freezing and cracking like a building-sized eggshell.
Onward, House thought, stepping through the door.
The pod nearest the bridge contained a variety of equipment, mostly “overstock” for the other pods between the bridge and the forward-most pod, Donovan’s lab. Both House and Donovan agreed that having it where it was located was best for everyone. Regrettably, they found nothing inside the room to use as a better weapon than his axe, and they quickly moved on.
Next was the greenhouse.
This was one of House’s favorite places to kill time and veg. Literally. He came here daily and picked at the various fruits and vegetables grown within the groundbreaking conservatory. A similar version was already in development aboard a top-secret carrier. Very little was known about that particular ship, but House had been told that his boat’s greenhouse had been marveled at and quickly copied.
That made him proud.
He punched his personal access code into the control pad to the right of the greenhouse’s automatic doors, one of the only rooms to have them, and he and the others were met with an onrush of warm, humid air. The conservatory was self-sustained and was kept at a higher temperature than the rest of the ship. Like he had countless times before, he snagged a Granny Smith apple from the tree directly to the left of the entrance, and took one enormous bite, relishing in the delicious juices that followed.
“Really?”
Mid-chew, he stopped and looked at Gianna. “What?”
“You’re eating at a time like this?”
House’s eyes found Trip's who quickly looked away so as to keep out of the feud that was brewing between House and Gianna. He faced his daughter again and swallowed.
He shrugged. “I missed lunch and,” he took another bite, “we don’t even know if there’s anything to worry about.” House finished two-thirds of the apple and tossed it into the Endeavor’s miniature compost bin situated at the other side of the enclosure.
“Seriously, this ship has everything!” That’s what Gianna had said after taking her first tour of the vessel. It blew House’s mind that the engineers that originally designed the ship seven years ago decided to include, of all things, an onboard compost container.
It didn’t surprise him once he realized how many different experiments were going on at the same time. Not everyone within Donovan’s team was solely dedicated to their octopus hunt. Only about a third of the forty-or-so scientists were dedicated to the deep-sea mission.
Three were heading the greenhouse alone. Two of them were famous botanists, whom which, naturally, House had never heard of before.
Two other non-octopus scientists worked hand-in-hand with Trip and his team in the launch bay. The Endeavor’s ADS suit contained several modifications within it, and the engineers were closely monitoring it while it was in use—also while it was being stored. Trip was the best pilot they had on staff—also the most willing of anyone to man it in the open water.
Another of the scientists worked with Buddy on the engines, attempting to improve their output. She’d even talked about eventually converting the entire system to electric.
Yet another worked with Chief Lucas, up in Navigation, who was also trying to expand the system’s capabilities.
In reality, the entire Endeavor was one massive, military-funded laboratory.
The only department on the Endeavor that didn’t have a member of Donovan’s team working side-by-side with them was House and his wheelhouse crew. They were left alone per the captain’s orders.
“Just let us do our jobs,” House had said when he was approached by the government liaison. Becker was about to argue, but House had cut him off with a raised hand. “Let us. Do our. Jobs.” His face said something like, “We’re going to do our jobs the way we want to whether you like it or not, so back off!”
The Endeavor was the first of its kind and was meant to be reproduced, but it would take this ship’s success to warrant the enormous expense. Even though another tanker was already being retrofitted for service, it wouldn’t get the full go-ahead unless the Antarctic voyage passed with flying colors.
House wanted everything to go swimmingly.
He also wanted to keep his boat.
Punching the button to the greenhouse’s exit, House paused and turned. Facing Gianna and Trip, he simply said, “Keep your eyes peeled and stay behind me.” They nodded and slid closer to one another, Gianna going as far as interlacing the fingers of her right hand in Trip’s left.
He hit the button and blinked against the surge of cool, dry air. But it wasn’t just the colder air that caused him to flinch, it was the coppery smell of blood. House didn’t recall anyone besides Donovan being injured in the incident, nor did he remember the man bleeding very much at all.
Shit, he thought, picturing the stacks of reports he’d have to sign-off on. More than that, though, another person had been hurt, and he needed to find them before anything worse occurred. They’d had no incidents until now—less than a day away from docking.
Figures…
Gripping the axe hard with both hands, he held it out in front of him, blade forward, and quietly walked heel-to-toe, attempting to hide his approach. Thankfully, Gianna and Trip were smart enough to see what he was doing and walked in the same manner. The lab’s outer doors were ajar, and House could also see that the lab’s inner doors were too.
“What happened?” Gianna whispered.
House peered over his shoulder and gave his daughter a look that could instantly curdle non-dairy milk. She shrank back a little but kept silent. He didn’t mean to frighten her, but he’d never forgive himself if something happened to her.
Reluctantly, he quietly answered her. “Nothing good.”
The short walk from the greenhouse to the lab was a chilling one, and it had nothing to do with the physical temperature.
Inside the corridor, like most of the ship, it was a comfortable sixty-seven degrees. They kept it on the cool side, so those that were working hard weren’t uncomfortable. Those that didn’t do a lot of heavy lifting usually wore a light jacket or a sweater to make up for it.
The outer doors were wedged open, the hinges on both bent beyond repair. The inner doors weren’t wedged open at all. Instead, they’d been completely torn away and tossed aside with a feat of brute, Herculean strength. No one, not even the handful of gym rats on board could’ve done this.
Not even George Novacek, House thought.
Affectionately nicknamed Nova, George was a man of hulking mass. A person of few words, you’d know when Buddy’s assistant was angry when he went “SuperNova” and destroyed something. He’d been in the Navy at one point but had been discharged because of an incident involving a superior officer’s jaw being broken.
Buddy said he wasn’t taking the job unless Nova came along. And like how House’s ass was on the line for Gianna, so was Buddy’s for Nova if he did something nasty. So far, the big man had only wrecked a couple pieces of gym equipment, no people.
The lab was dark except for a single, red emergency light at the rear of the room. House waited a beat before entering, listening for something that didn’t belong.
Like, anything at all.
Theoretically, no one besides the ESD agents should’ve been inside. With them MIA, any, and all movement would be seen as a potential threat to House. Carefully, he stepped through the demolished entrance, and once more, stopped dead. The scent of blood was stronger here. Whoever, or whatever died, was definitely in this room.
He looked at his daughter. “Can you bring up the lights?”
She nodded and pulled her tablet out of the bag that was on her shoulder. She never went anywhere without it. The screen lit up after a series of numbers and letters that House knew would be impossible to crack. He had prodded her more than once about it and could never glean much information. He knew it was eighteen characters long and that none of them repeated. It dawned on House that she could be lying to throw anyone off if they tried to hack her system. It could’ve been all zeros, for all he knew.
He respected that. She had a job to do too, one that was pivotal to their mission. If it were him in her shoes, he’d have done the same exact thing.
Smart girl.
He went right, and Gianna and Trip went left. So far, there was nothing except the smell of blood to worry about. Ten seconds later, whichever of the light fixtures that still worked blinked to life, and when they did, Gianna screamed.
11
Gripping the axe firmly in his right hand, House planted his left hand on the nearest examination table and vaulted over it. Timing his landing perfectly, House used his body’s downward momentum to aid the axe head’s descending arc…right into the forehead of Gianna’s unidentified assailant. But before the blade struck, House jerked it back up, pausing the killer blow just inches above the man’s mangled skull.
What he’d initially thought to be his daughter’s attacker, ended up being someone on the receiving end of his own violent assault. Whoever killed the man, they, obviously, didn’t care about making an easily traceable mess—and it was quite the mess.
He wasn’t a detective, by any means, but it didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that leaving a scene as untidy as this wasn't the best way to get away with a murder. He knelt next to the ravaged ESD agent and read his name tag aloud.
“Abbott.”
Rick Abbott was someone, like the other three ESD agents, House knew very little about. But no matter who he was, no one deserved to die as brutally as he did. It was a method he’d never heard of, let alone seen. Then again, House had spent a lifetime sailing the seas, not investigating murders.
Abbott’s mouth was wrenched open, beyond any human’s capability. His lower jaw was hanging to the left, dislocated, possibly even broken. Without touching him, House leaned over the body, holding a hand over his nose and mouth as he did. It took everything for him not to retch at the sight.
The back of Abbott’s head was missing, blown out by way of his gaping mouth. Something thick and cylindrical seemed to have been forced into his mouth and had been driven in so hard, that it burst through bone and brain matter.
Dammit… House turned away from the gruesome scene.
Gianna’s face was buried into Trip’s chest, and she was bawling her eyes out. Trip wasn’t looking at the body or Gianna. He was staring at something on the ground to his left. House decided to leave the dead man be and see what had Trip’s attention.
As his eyes scanned past another examination table, House saw it. The specimen, the one that attacked Trip beneath the surface, was pinned to the floor, cut open, as if on display for further studying and research.
Is Abbott’s killer a scientist?
House’s revelation that the murderer was a scientist did little else to help solve the case. House still had no idea what was going on. He had to give credence to the fact that the killer might be a scientist, after all, the death did occur in the lab. House was also stunned that someone aboard the Endeavor had the capacity to kill a man in this manner—a man that was a combat veteran, at that.
One of the few things House knew about the ESD agents was that they were all, indeed, former Special Forces soldiers. Becker mentioned as much in his initial briefing on the unit back in McMurdo.
The remains of the octopus had been dissected and inspected. House wasn’t sure what the person could’ve been looking for. The glowing, flashing plasma within it was now a dull, blue-grey color.
“What were you looking for?” House asked himself, standing, visualizing the killer in action. He started with Abbott’s brutal murder. Then, he moved his attention to the dismembered octopus.
Honestly, it didn’t matter why. Regardless of the why, one of the Endeavor’s crew was dead and the person, or persons involved, needed to be apprehended before they struck again.
“Who…” Gianna choked out, “who could’ve done such a thing?”
“Grigson,” House replied, thinking aloud. “She should’ve been here. You gotta think that if Abbott was left here to find that she would’ve been left too.”
“If she was murdered,” Trip added, snapping out of his stupor.
House nodded. “She was sent along with him. They were supposed to do nothing else except investigate the scene of the disturbance and then report back to Becker and me with their findings. Why haven’t we heard from her?”
He radioed Sam. “Anything yet?”
“No, sir. How about you?”
House’s eyes flashed down to Abbott’s corpse. “No… Nothing on my end either. I’ll let you know if I find anything, though.”
He ended the call and sighed. He hated lying to Sam. The XO was one of the most loyal men he had ever met, more so than his own flesh and blood.
