Irene Kowalski is a Polish geologist and cartographer for YPF who in 1966 took part in the descent beneath the Malvinas and came back changed, with a third eye on her forehead.
| Type | Character |
| Era | 1966–1967 |
| Spanish entry | Irene Kowalski |
Description
She has an entry in the Atlas of Women Geologists. She is “hard”, called “woman of stone” (mujer de piedra).
She prospects for YPF (Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales), her employer, cover and chain of command (“I have to talk to the YPF bosses”). The records call her researcher, inspector or staff cartographer without choosing. When a vehicle sticks in sand, “Irene is a geologist and knows the best way”.
Her grandfather fought in the Second World War and raised her to be ready for conflict; she is a geologist “because of her grandfather”. Polish is her language of strong emotion and swearing (“these fucking Germans”, said in Polish when Germans were suspected behind the kidnapping). She will not speak German, “the language of the enemy”.
History
Exploring the underground town, she heard the moan at its bottom. The stone was found in a niche at the back of the cavern beneath Top Malo, after a slaughter of the Deep Ones that no one remembered well. Irene touched it first. Leaving in the fog, madness turned her against her companions: she drew her switchblade and lashed out, twice at Dulce, until three of them subdued her.
She slipped away with the stone in Río Gallegos and went to Galveston to see Harrington, watched by Majestic. She returned, nearly in time, for the lighthouse. In the basements of the beach castle she alone withstood the gaze of the eye in the mirror; after the shared vision and contact with the Woman of the Stone she was left “beatific”, with a third eye on her forehead.
At the Bellocq estancia she dreamed nightly of a staircase into the sand, two ancient Atlanteans who let her pass by touching her third eye, and a city beyond, where she felt she had lived for weeks. In February 1967 she woke with a one-sided coin that, placed on her forehead, let her see: the basilica of Barracas and, in a doorway in Tres Arroyos, something she never told. She crossed with the other three to the Dominican Republic.
Malena suspects her outside arrangements and plans to denounce her at the faculty over custody of the stone.
Conflicting accounts
- “Woman of stone” may be a nickname, or a conflation with the Woman of the Stone.
- One testimony says she “only knows Polish”, which clashes with her dealings with bosses and companions.
Open questions
- Her appearance, age and equipment, and where she prospects, are not recorded.
- Whether her beatific state is transitory, damage or gift.
- What the stone is, and what academic affiliation the faculty dispute implies.