30. Friday 08:01 87°26.7’ N – 154°42’ E
“Someone’s coming!” Anna burst through the cabin door. She had run the risk of taking the shortest route back. “Who?” Zakariassen looked at her with a strangely confused expression. “The killers! The radar intercepted something big out on the ice just now.” Sabvabaa’s radar was set up to warn of the approach of any large objects within a range of two kilometres. The only vessel that ventured out into the ice at that time of year was the enormous nuclear-powered icebreaker belonging to the Russians. If she was run over, Sabvabaa would barely scratch the hull of such a behemoth. Its propellers would mince Anna and Zakariassen and their flimsy boat into shreds of flesh and splinters of aluminium and plastic that would scarcely raise an eyebrow when the crew docked in Murmansk. Hope glimmered in the professor’s eyes. “Could it be the rescue helicopters?” “Don’t think so, the radar signal isn’t travelling faster than five or six knots.” Zakariassen grabbed his Mauser and got up. “Which direction are they coming from?” “North-west, about two kilometres away. If they maintain that speed they’ll be here in half an hour.”
79