"Let's check the last building," said Jove. "Though if there were people trapped inside this one when it burned, it doesn't bode well for anyone being left."
Or so he thought. As they rounded the corner for the last building, the one with the hotels that Jove had briefly been inside upon their arrival, he noticed a plume of smoke coming from somewhere atop its roof.
There was also evidence of footsteps and cleared snow in front of the double doors leading to the airstrip. Jove and Eve took the long way over to the main entrance and cautiously approached the doors.
They didn't open automatically, as they had when the power had been working, but they slid easily enough when they set the crowbar and their gloved hands to the task.
There was an identical set of double doors behind the first for the sake of temperature control, and Jove repeated the procedure. Eve was right behind him with the flashlight, but it wasn't as necessary this time around.
An eerie and impossible pillar of flames rose from the floor midway through the massive interior, giving off an intense orange glow and a smoky, burnt plastic scent.
"What the fuck?" muttered Jove.
He narrowed his eyes, only slowly realizing what it was. The building had contained several fancy glass elevators that rose all the way up to the roof, and one had apparently been repurposed as a chimney for a massive interior fire.
"Who's there?" came a voice from near the flames.
"Did someone go outside?" shouted another.
"Rescue? Are you here to save us?"
Jove heard the echo of pounding footsteps before he could make out shapes emerging from the surrounding shadows. He backed up, but not quickly enough.
A tall woman in a puffy winter jacket grabbed his arm. A large man on his other side started shaking his shoulder. More people pressed in from either side, several dozen all talking over one another and grabbing at him as though he had a winning lottery ticket stashed away on his person.
"Calm down!" shouted Jove. "Give me some space!"
He tried to push them away but ended up stumbling over someone's foot and falling backward. He expected the mob to continue their deranged and desperate assault, but a louder shout cut through the chaos.
"Can we all take a couple of friendly steps back?" Someone pushed forward from deeper within the crowd. "Yes, yes, that's right. Let's give our guests room to breathe."
Jove slowly rose to his feet and picked his crowbar back up. Eve drew closer to his side and surprised him by clasping her gloved hand onto his. A middle-aged man with tanned skin and dark brown hair with grey streaks emerged from the crowd holding an electric lantern.
"Well now." The middle aged man smiled slowly. "As you might imagine, we weren't really expecting visitors."
Jove noticed several things. The man was wearing an expensive suit, and his face had that subtle but unnatural quality of someone who'd had a fair amount of plastic surgery.
He was also flanked by the most obvious pair of bodyguards Jove had ever seen, both tall and massive and muscular and, hilariously, still wearing dark sunglasses even within the dim interior.
"Wait a second…" said Jove. "I know you from somewhere, don't I?"
"Oh, I'm sure you do. I am Victor Vasquez, the investor behind this port, among other ventures." The man held his arms out, as though he'd just revealed that he was an actor or a superhero.
Jove exchanged a wordless glance with Eve. They knew Victor, or their father had, at least. Turner Faremont had once been the acting CEO of Wildfire.com, a startup which had been bought out by one of Victor's companies. Their family hadn't received much of a windfall in the deal, but Turner and Victor's mutually eclectic personalities had led to a friendship of sorts.
"My name is Jove Faremont," said Jove, with emphasis. "This is my sister, Eve."
"Hold on just a moment," said Victor, snapping his fingers. "I do believe I know you, too! You're Turner's son! You've grown into the spitting image of my old confidant! God, I wish he was still with us, now more than ever. Oh, what a mess we're all in!"
He swayed a little on his feet as he let out a tired laugh and slapped Jove on the shoulder. The crowd still surrounded them, seemingly waiting on the billionaire for instructions or dismissal. Eve's posture was tight with tension, and Jove shared the core of that sentiment.
"What happened here?" he asked.
"What happened anywhere?" Victor let out a dark chuckle. "There was instant panic after the news of New York and London and all the other cities being bombed, as was probably appropriate.
"I was in the middle of one of my own visits down here to Port Sirius and felt similarly shaken, I can assure you of that. A small riot broke out amongst the tourists as they tried to crowd onto the regular plane.
"I was still waiting to get in touch with my own pilot and jet, as I haven't flown commercial in quite some time. I debated whether the circumstances called for me to swallow my pride, but in retrospect I am beyond glad I maintained that standard."
"We saw the wreckage outside," said Jove.
"Indeed." Victor nodded slowly. "We aren't sure what happened, but we think it may have been related to… issues the crew was having with their AI."
Jove and Eve exchanged a glance.
"What kind of issues?" asked Eve.
"I don't know for sure, and anyone who might likely went down with the craft," said Victor. "Whatever the case, the pilot did make it clear that he would be attempting to fly the plane manually before the crash."
Victor started leading them toward the flame pillar, and not without reason. Most of the building was still quite cold. Near the elevator turned chimney, Jove could see a man carefully feeding the flames with what appeared to be a piece of broken furniture.
"It was as though someone set a bomb off in the building next door," said Victor. "The power went out instantly. Panic reigned for several minutes, I can't say how long, before I regained control of the crowd."
"How many people are here?" asked Jove.
"Somewhere between seventy and perhaps a hundred," said Victor. "Most are employees of Port Sirius, meaning my employees. I've doubled their salaries in exchange for most of them continuing to help with the needed jobs. Gathering burnable material for the fire, slowly clearing the airstrip. Which, given your presence here, appears to have been a wise decision!"
Jove realized that Victor had assumed that they were part of a rescue or had at least arrived by air. He felt a worrying premonition as he looked at the man shoveling material into the fire, all the people crowded around it for warmth.
"You're still out of luck, unfortunately," said Eve. "We came by snowmobile and would seem to be as trapped in Antarctica as everyone else."
"By… snowmobile, you say?" muttered Victor. "Of course! The project Turner's wife was seeking funding for! The seed vault and research center! I seem to recall it being nearby, certainly within supply distance of Port Sirius. How have you faired so far?"
Jove tried to signal Eve by letting his hand subtly bump into hers as he gave his answer. "I can't say we've managed much better than you. Our AI also shutdown for inexplicable reasons. The station's systems are so complex that we lost heat and electricity shortly after."
"You did?" asked Victor.
Jove nodded solemnly. "We were getting desperate. Lucky we made it here when we did."