the EMTs said. “No foreign matter there. Just blood.”
“Some kind of hemorrhage,” the other EMT said. He, like everyone else in the room, was still staring at the woman on the floor. Her skin was now almost as white as her lab coat. The smell of her fresh blood overwhelmed the wax and grease and everything else. Hallie’s stomach heaved. With the initial shock wearing off, she felt stunned, sorry for the woman, and, she was honest enough to admit, afraid.
The man in khakis keyed a radio and spoke: “Comms, Graeter. Get Doc and the biohazard team to the galley.” He had a bud in his right ear, so only he could hear the other side. He spoke again: “There’s blood. A lot. One female down. Harriet Lanahan.” To the EMTs he said, “You help them with the body when they get here. Doc will need to see it and take photographs. After, secure it in the morgue. I’ll get a flyout as soon as possible.”
He turned on the crowd of onlookers. Hallie saw anger in the abrupt move and heard it in his voice. Maybe it’s the default condition here, she thought. “I want witness statements in my email by thirteen hundred hours.”
“What if we didn’t see anything?” someone called.
“Then say that in your email, for Christ’s sake. I may talk to some of you later. Listen up: paging response has been shit-sloppy. If you hear your name, I’d better see you in my office pronto or learn a good reason why not. Now let’s clear this area. The bio team will be here soon.”
Hallie started to follow Bacon and the others out, but a hand landed on her shoulder. She turned to see the man in khakis.
“You’re Leland?” he asked.
“I just got here. I was going to see you after—”
He looked as if she had said something offensive. “Zack Graeter. Follow me.”
3
“WAIT ONE,” SAID GRAETER.
His desk was a massive steel relic from the 1950s that occupied practically half of the office. He turned away and began jabbing his computer’s keyboard with two long, stiff index fingers.
She decided to give nice a try. “My grandfather had a Buick about the size of that desk.”
He didn’t look up. There was no other chair and not much to see. The smudged, lima bean–green walls were bare except for a gray metal cabinet hanging behind him and an eight-by-ten color photograph of a woman thumbtacked to the wall opposite him. Throwing darts were stuck in and around the photo, which looked like it had been blasted with No. 8 birdshot. He stopped typing and turned back to her.
“Your ETA was tomorrow.” He made no effort to stand and shake hands, causing Hallie to wonder if he was protecting her from germs or just rude.
He looked rude, if such a thing were possible. There was not much more to him than muscle strung over bone and wrapped in white skin. Steel-wool hair, high forehead, cheekbones like golf balls. A thin, hard mouth cast in a downward curve. His khaki pants and shirt were crisp, his black shoes and brass belt buckle polished to a sheen.
I’ll eat that skinny little tie, thought Hallie, if he’s not ex-Navy.
“McMurdo had a flight with space. I figured an extra day would be valuable, with winterover so close. But—”
He waved off the explanation. “I don’t like unscheduled arrivals. I can’t give you the safety tour today.”
A woman just bled out and we’re talking about schedules? “What happened back there?”
“In the galley?” he asked.
“Unless somebody died in another place that I’m not aware of.”
That got more of his attention. “It looked to me like Dr. Harriet Lanahan suffered a fatal hemorrhage. She was a glaciologist. From the U.K. But Merritt does the Beakers.”
She waited.
He waited longer.
“That’s it?” she asked.
“If you know more than that, please enlighten me.”
“It’s what I don’t know that’s bothering me. First, how could it have happened? And second, I’m struck by your sang … by your lack of concern.”
“I know what sangfroid means, Ms. Leland. Annapolis isn’t Harvard, but it’s not a goddamned community college. First, we won’t know how it could have happened until the medical examiner in Christchurch performs an autopsy and issues his report. Second, that wasn’t my first fatality.” He fixed her with what was obviously meant to be a commanding glare. “In case you hadn’t noticed, this is the South Pole. It is very easy to die here.”
She folded her arms, looked around for some clue to this strange man,