As time passes without contact with the Massive, morale plunges onboard the Kapital, especially after one of the crew dies after drinking Ethanol and falling from the deck. The chase takes them close to South America, where Peru and Ecuador are in conflict as their resources dwindle following the nuclear explosion in the Strait of Magellan. A mutiny breaks out onboard, three Peruvian members of the crew holding Cal at gunpoint, wanting to return to their families. He refuses, as taking them into territorial waters could see the ships seized, and greatly reduce their changes of locating the Massive. Instead, he drops them off in a Zodiac a hundred miles from the coast. Nine others join them, while over half the remaining crew also decide to leave. Meanwhile Mary is growing suspicious of Cal's increasing sickness. While the under-crewed Kapital is again able to lock onto the Massive after the detour it remains frustratingly out of sight; Cal orders Mary to search in the helicopter, despite Mag's misgivings on using the last of their avgas in the endeavour. However, it loses control and crashes on the Farallon Islands. Both Mary and pilot Jon survive, but find the island empty when it should be full of seabirds. She makes for a Ranger station, but Jon is killed by a Megalodon, brought up from the deep seas by the changing climate. Great white sharks surround the island but after diving into the water and communicating with the megalodon they disperse. By the time Lars arrives in a dinghy the waters are clear. She tells him Cal has cancer as they return. Trailing the Massive North leads the Kapital to the Arctic Circle, and Lars is becoming more and more frustrated by the process, while Cal sits on the bridge endlessly attempting to make radio contact. The ship becomes trapped in ice as a storm closes in, and Cal sets off over land after sighting the Massive. It is actually a Nunatak; Devastated, he attempts to kill himself, but is stopped by the following Mary, who takes him back to the ship, which the remaining crew free from the ice.
