The Alex King Series by A BATEMAN (free ebook reader for ipad TXT) 📕

which would freeze within minutes. Then they would chisel at it to create texture and the illusion that it had been bored out. Regardless of how they had done it, they had constructed it with great skill and attention to detail. The walls and ceiling had a softened effect which looked like a jagged finish that had melted slightly. The ice had a blueish hue, glacier-like. King wondered whether they had added some dye to it. He smoothed his hand over, for the first time remembering he had not picked up gloves. The ice was dry to the touch.

“Amazing, isn’t it?” Caroline marvelled. “Look at the lights in the floor, they’re changing colour.”

King looked at the electric tealights under the ice. They were blending from a cold blue to a warm red, with a thousand shades in between. Arguably tasteless in most homes, but the lighting created a beautiful effect as it was accentuated by the ice. As they rounded the first gentle bend in the carved ice tunnels, King laughed out loud when he noticed a fire extinguisher set into the ice wall. Its own alcove with instructions on how to use it in various languages.

“Proof, if ever it were needed, that health and safety has gone mad.”

She smiled. “You’re such a cynic.”

    “And how, exactly, does ice catch fire?”

Caroline squeezed his hand and pulled him onwards. The tunnel curved to the right and a series of openings were spaced along both sides. Outside each opening there was a different animal’s head carved in the wall. Caroline stopped outside one with an ornate eagle, wings in a vee and its talons splayed as if baring down on an unsuspecting prey. The carving was truly exquisite.

“Here,” she whispered. “They don’t have doors, so I’m not sure how you tell if a room is occupied.”

“I guess if you’re meant to be here, you’ll already know which room yours is.”

“Smartarse,” she said. She craned her neck to look around the curve of the ice, then simply walked right in. “It’s okay… there’s nobody home,” she called behind her.

King shrugged and followed her inside. It was impressive, though hardly lavish. A raised plinth of ice acted as the bed, with what appeared to be a rubber mattress and a pile of animal skins, with rolled-up sleeping bags and pillows, with scatter cushions around the base of the plinth. The electric tealights made the cavern seem warmer, but it was still -20°C according to the thermometer which hung from a climbing piton that had been hammered into the wall.

“Nothing much in here,” King commented flatly. “But I guess the people come for that…” He pointed to the viewing bay, which was glazed in the same quadruple glass as the entrance to the tunnel. Two sliding doors and portion of roof that had been melted and bonded into the ice. An ice sofa had been carved and draped in the same skins and cushions. Beyond the glass, the sky was green and boiling. The Aurora Borealis, or Northern Lights danced and weaved across the sky in mesmerising beauty.

“Oh, my goodness…” Caroline trailed off. “It’s beautiful!”

King stepped closer to her, wrapped his left arm around her shoulders. “It is,” he agreed.

They watched for a good ten minutes, neither breaking the moment with talk that would only go to cheapen the experience. Nothing other than admiration for the spectacle. Eventually, King moved away. “We’d better get going,” he said. “We’ll see it again while we’re here, I’m sure.”

Caroline nodded, then gasped. “There’s somebody out there!” she exclaimed. “Watching us!” She took a pace towards the window. “Crouched down over there!” she pointed.

King turned and looked, only aware of a sudden movement. The thick glass had obscured their view, light reflecting from the ice room back to them. The lightshow in the sky had taken their attention and only the movement had made the person visible. He tried to focus through the thick glass and caught sight of a figure dashing out of view behind the next ice pod viewing bay. He looked at the doors, but they were operated by a card, the same as his own room’s door.

“Come on!” he snapped as he turned and charged out through the chamber and into the ice tunnel, the lights turning to an eerie blue-green as he ran towards the outside exit.

Caroline fell in behind him, but in truth she was a faster sprinter than he was and was soon level to his shoulder and by the time they reached the end of the ice tunnel, she had streaked out a considerable lead. King slid to a stop behind her, but she already had the button pressed and the doors were sliding open with their Star Trek whoosh.

The frigid air engulfed them and the windchill was severe. King’s first thoughts were that he should merely leave the person to the elements. But whoever had been watching them would have had to be committed in the first place. Why would they endure such conditions to watch them inside the room? Even a perverted voyeur would have to concede the likelihood of a couple getting naked at that temperature was non-existent. The ice rooms were designed for an entirely different experience. Fully dressed, wrapped and swaddled in blankets and sleeping bags, and encapsulated in the moment – of being in an ice chamber, watching the Polar Lights. It was an experience. Nothing else would matter – the ice rooms did not even have bathrooms, the guests having to use their own rooms within the hotel, or the public lavatories off the lobby. So, what else would a watcher hope to achieve?

King had the Walther in his hand, only now noticing how cold his hands were. He kept the weapon down by the side of his leg, unnoticeable, yet ready to bring to arm. He glanced at Caroline, who was blowing on