Antarctica

August 19th was the day I would start my scientific trip to the Antarctica. When I woke up that day, I finished packing and I took a taxi to Ezeiza Airport. The flight to Antarctica took four long hours. I slept all the flight until we arrived in Maracaibo.
My scientific trip consisted in studying the polar bears of the nearby city of Maracaibo. This reaserch work was very important because in the last ten months the population of polar bears of Maracaibo had reduced 50%. I was hired by the government, the salary was really good so when they offered me the job I didn’t doubt. I would make this study with two other scientists, one of them was called Marl Herbstein and the other was called Juan Bacard. Both of them were zoologists and biologists and had taken part in many important researches.
As soon as I got off the plane, a man appeared and took me to the laboratory where I met Bacard, Herbstein and the mayor of Maracaibo, Gaby Kerpel. I didn’t have time to introduce myself that they started explaining me how the research work was going to be. The research consisted in examining the entire zone where the polar bears lived, and then we would observe the dead bears and finally examine the water. The mayor introduced me to the people that worked there and then took me to my hotel.
The following day I woke up very early in the morning. We went to the zone where the bears used to live; we inspected all the territory looking for something that could give us a clue of why the polar bears had disappeared. We searched for hours but we didn’t find anything. After a long day, we returned to the laboratory, disappointed. We decided to stop. Bacard invited Herbstein and I to eat at his hotel.
The next day I woke up because my cell phone was ringing. It stopped ringing before I could get it; the lost call was from my partner Bacard. I decided to call him, the cell phone rang only one time before Bacard picked it up, and before I could speak he told me that Herbstein had been murdered in a very strange robbery in his hotel.
I headed over to the mayor’s office looking for an answer. When I arrived, Kerpel took me into his office and explained me what had happened: Herbstein had been caught in the middle of a shooting between the burglars and the police outside his hotel. He told me not to worry, the local police was handling the case, and all I had to do was carry on with my research.
Immediately after my meeting with Kerpel, I went to the laboratory to investigate the second phase: the dead polar bears. After some long hours of analysing the facts, Bacard and I came to the conclusion that the bears had died due to a strong dehydration, we found this really peculiar because the only thing not missing in their habitat was water. We decided to go do some research on the animals habitat, maybe the water was the key to this mystery.
When we arrived at the place, we took some samples of the water so we could analyse them at the laboratory. Now we had to investigate if the water was contaminated. The following day, after testing the water in the laboratory, we confirmed that the water was polluted with waste released by some factory. After some investigation, Bacard and I found out that the factory belonged to the mayor’s family.
We decided to confront him over the situation. Bacard and I told him what we had discovered; Kerpel denied knowing about the factory. Angrily, Bacard, confronted him and asked him if this had anything to do with Herbstein’s death. The mayor didn’t respond Bacard’s questions; instead he picked up the phone and gave an order.
In a matter of minutes, the room was full of police officers; the mayor was accusing us of murdering our colleague, Herb. We tried to escape and started running. I managed to escape, but my dear friend Bacard was caught by a bullet. He was killed instantly. I ran to the port were I hid in a cargo ship, leaving Antarctica towards some unknown place near China.

Pen-name: Fox
Category C