Day of Rebellion Read Online Free PDF Page B

next to him, staring out in the same direction. “Hold on Jack! Bring them down a bit… look! There are footprints in the snow.”
    Jack lowered the glasses, “You’re right! I can see them. Maybe Dad is out there. Maybe the Fenton guy has followed him or something. He could be in trouble. We need to go and check it out.”
    “I’m not sure, Jack, out there on the ice we’d be sitting ducks.”
    “But we can’t just stand here and do nothing.”
    Angus grimaced. “OK – but let me at least get some kit from the stores so we don’t freeze to death. Let’s see if there’s some outdoor clothing we can use.”
    *
    Their climb down from the main lighthouse door to the ice below was not easy. From the castle on the mainland, the rock had looked precipitous and craggy, but that was nothing to what it was like close up. There were massive cliffs on all sides and the concrete walkway had crumbled away. With trepidation, Jack took a final step from the rock down onto the ice field. They had been right. There were clear footprints in the crust of snow that covered the ice.
    Walking was not too difficult using the boots they had found in the stores, and they quickly reached the middle of the glinting ice field. It was not long before they arrived at the rig. Snow drifts had built up around the bottom of the rig and they could see where steps had been cut into the ice leading up onto the main platform. They peered up at the huge structure that loomed over them.
    “What a beast!” Angus said.
    Jack was still breathing hard from their hike across the ice. “I know rigs used to come into the Forth here for maintenancebut I’ve never seen one this size.”
    He craned his neck up to stare at the rig. “Look at that – the lettering – up there at the top of the accommodation block…”
    Angus followed Jack’s eye-line. “Yes, I noticed on the way over. It’s like a big sign… and it’s got that funny logo… but I don’t understand what it says; it looks like it’s written in Chinese.”
    “I think you’re right,” Jack nodded. So how does a Chinese oil rig end up wrecked in the Firth of Forth in Scotland, forty years in the future and half a planet away from China… in a world that’s turned to ice?”
    Gingerly, they clambered up onto the metal surface of the platform and crept forward towards the middle of the giant rig. Jack found that using the railings was not much help because the metal was so cold his gloves would stick. After a few minutes of slipping and scrambling it became apparent that the structure was older and more precarious than they had first thought. The cold breeze that whipped around the old steel towers and cranes caused an eerie whistling sound.
    “Look – the footprints go that way.”
    Jack pointed along a metal walkway which led to a block of dilapidated cabins built one on top of the other. The building was intact and seemed to have avoided the fire that had obviously torn through the rest of the structure.
    They approached the door. It was metal and had an opening in its top half where there would have been a window – but the glass had long since fractured and gone. There was a sign on the wall next to the office that had been badly eroded.
    “Some of this is in English,” Jack said.
    There was a string of lettering in Chinese, but underneath was an English translation, although it was hard to decipher.
    Jack rubbed a finger over the sign, trying to read it. “Think I’ve got it:
    H EAVENLY K INGDOM I NDUSTRIES
H YDROCARBON G ROUP – A RCTIC D IVISION
A RCTIC H ORIZON P RODUCTION P LATFORM
– C ONTROL C ENTRE B
     
    Beneath there were more words in a strange italic script:
“In the name of Christ.”
    Jack was bewildered.
    “Heavenly Kingdom Industries? Doesn’t sound like an evil global oil company,” Angus said.
    Jack was deep in concentration. “It says Arctic. Arctic division… but we’re hundreds of miles from the North Pole. And how can it move around, if