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everything is iced up?”
    “Maybe it came here for repairs or something and then all this ice came later? But is that possible? I mean, can an ice age happen that quickly… like just in a few years?”
    “I don’t know, but I’ve heard stuff about ocean currents pumping warm water up from the equator into the sea around Britain. I read once that with global warming, ice melts and dilutes the salt content of the sea, so the water from the equator stops pumping up our way. Then because there’s no warm water,everything ends up freezing – it can tip the climate. Maybe that could cause a whole new ice age?”
    Angus shrugged and pointed to the door of control centre, “You going to open it, then?”
    Jack pulled open the door and then he screamed.
     
    The body had been mummified with the cold. The lifeless eyes stared directly at Jack as he stood over the body in the doorway. Bizarrely the man was still wearing his blue overalls, and sitting in his swivel chair in front of two large computer terminals. But he looked like he had not moved for a very long time.
    “That’s gross,” Angus said, turning away. “It’s like the poor guy is still at work…”
    Jack felt his stomach turn. “And as if he’s staring at us.”
    Angus pushed the chair gently away. It was only a slight movement, but it was enough to disturb the position of the body in the chair, so it slipped, disintegrating as it fell face down on to the floor.
    “Nice…”
    They looked around the tops of the desks and in the drawers. Jack tried to keep his eyes away from the body.
    “What about this?” Angus held up a dusty looking report, “The title – it’s like the sign outside – half in Chinese but there’s an English translation as well…”
    “What does it say?”
    “Health and Safety Inspection. Thirty-first of January 1976.”
    “But that’s impossible,” Jack said. “Look around… these computers – nothing like these existed then…. And the rig itself,all this technology, I’m sure it’s too advanced… North Sea oil exploration didn’t even start until the 1970s and I’ve never heard of anything going on in the Arctic.”
    “Weird. Hey – look at that?”
    Angus nodded to a painting on the wall. It was completely out of place with the rest of the office – a crude black line drawing of a Chinese man. He wore a loose-fitting robe with a dragon on it and a strange-looking hat. Underneath the portrait were the words:
    H ONG X IUQUAN – B ROTHER OF C HRIST AND
F OUNDER OF THE H EAVENLY K INGDO M
    “It’s the same picture!” Jack exclaimed, “Remember? At the museum in Edinburgh, the woman giving the presentation about the Taiping Rebellion… she showed a picture… it’s the same guy. I’m sure of it. He’s the leader of the Taiping.”
    “Yeah – you’re right. The Chinese seem to be following us around.”
    “Come on. I’ve had enough of this place and we still don’t know what’s happened to Dad. Let’s head back to the rock, before it gets dark.”

A Chinese Riddle
    B ack inside the lab, it was at least warm. They had raided the stores, managed to stoke up an ancient stove and the remains of a meal sat between them. Jack flicked through the report that they had retrieved from the rig and shook his head.
    “So we’re none the wiser,” Angus said. “We know your dad and Fenton must have been here – but not what’s happened to them. All we’ve got is an ancient, wrecked Chinese oil rig and a bunch of ice.”
    Jack nodded, “Maybe we need to make another search to see if we can find any more clues?” He looked at the array of terminals again. “But where do we start?”
    The steady warmth from the stove and some food and drink were helping clear Jack’s mind a little.
    “All that ice up there… wouldn’t just happen in forty years – it takes hundreds… thousands of years. And when Dad got here and discovered the whole world had ended in some icy hell… like us, he’s must’ve asked