Polar Quest Page 8

  Annja looked out of the front of the Sno-Cat. Dave was right. The amount of snow flying at them seemed to have increased exponentially. The flakes were tiny, reflecting how utterly cold it was outside. And at times, it looked like a wall of white was headed right for them.

  But Dave continued to steer the cat according to the GPS. He nodded at the dash. “Now, if that thing kicked out, then we’d be in a world of hurt. My map-reading skills are about on par with my skills at golf. Which is to say, completely nonexistent.”

  Annja cocked an eyebrow. “You can’t map-read?”

  “Nope.”

  “I find that hard to believe.”

  He glanced at her. “Why so?”

  “You seem much more capable than that.”

  Dave smirked. “You flatter me. But the truth is, I’m mostly self-taught about a lot of stuff. Just how I’ve always been. Never had much use for school and the like, so I escaped as soon as I could and came down here once I found I had a certain skill set that translated well to this environment.”

  “What skill set is that?”

  Dave shook his head. “Nothing special.”

  “Okay, I know enough not to pry too much.” Annja went back to studying the landscape.

  The radio crackled. “Guys?”

  Annja grabbed the handset. “Hey, Zach, what’s up?”

  “I’ve got a bit of a problem back here.”

  Dave glanced in the rearview mirror. Annja turned in her seat.

  “Where are you?”

  The radio sounded staticky. “You see that huge pile of snow in the middle of the path?”

  “Yes.”

  “That would be me. I caught a snowslide. It buried the cat. I’m dead in the water here.”

  “Jesus.” Dave wheeled the Sno-Cat around and started back.

  “We’re coming back for you Zach,” Annja said. “Hang on!”

  Dave leaned close to the windshield, trying to judge his distance to Zach’s cat. “I don’t want to stray too far away. We need to get him out of there as fast as possible.”

  Annja keyed the microphone. “Is your engine dead?”

  “Yeah. The snow clogged the intakes and it shut down.”

  “Carbon monoxide,” Dave said, zipping himself up. “We have to get him out of there. You feel well enough to help out?” he asked Annja.

  “Absolutely.” She zipped up her coat, as well.

  Dave nodded. “Follow me.”

  Annja jumped out of the idling vehicle and followed Dave around to the rear of the cat. He handed her a shovel and then leaned close to her head. “We need to dig the cab out first and extricate Zach. If we don’t get to him, he’ll be dead if there are any trapped fumes. Understand?”

  Annja nodded. “Got it.”

  The wind howled. Dave pointed at the mound of snow. “Let’s go!”

  The wall of snow blew into them hard, whipping past Annja’s head as they walked through the deep snow toward the mound of snow that had buried Zach.

  Annja marveled at how calm he’d sounded on the radio. Being buried alive wasn’t something she ever wanted to experience.

  Dave jumped up and into the mound. He landed awkwardly and Annja watched him topple back down. He got up, brushed himself off and pointed at the side he’d tried to climb. “There’s a track here. Climb up with me.”

  He held out his hand and Annja took it. Together, they scaled the side of the cat.

  Dave got his shovel and started leaning in and scooping off the snow. Annja got her own shovel in and tried to shove some of the powdery snow off. Her ribs protested and she felt her side strain somewhat. She moaned with the sudden pain.

  Dave glanced at her. “You say something?”

  Annja grinned. “When it hurts, I know I’m alive.”

  Dave grinned and nodded before going back to work.

  Gradually, they cleared part of the windshield. Inside the cab, they could see Zach. He’d zipped up and looked quite calm sitting there. Annja waved but she got no response from him.

  “Is he okay?”

  Dave pressed his face against the glass and peered in. He shook his head. “Keep digging!”

  Annja drove her shovel down into the snow and kept clearing. They worked at the side door to the cab and finally got the handle exposed.

  “Stand back!” Dave got in front of Annja and grabbed the handle. He gave a grunt and yanked on it.

  Annja heard the door pop open and then the wind took it, slapping it open. Dave was already inside getting his hands on Zach’s coat. “Give me a hand, Annja!”

  Annja got next to him and saw Zach. He was completely limp. Dave heaved him out and they all slid down together into the snow. Annja grabbed a handful of snow and wiped it all over Zach’s face.

  Dave slapped him. “Wake up, you lazy bastard.”

  But Zach didn’t stir.

  “He couldn’t have been in there long enough, could he?” Annja asked.

  Dave shrugged. “Don’t know.” He bent down low and blew three breaths into Zach’s mouth. Dave came up, and then checked Zach’s pulse.

  “There’s a pulse.”

  Zach coughed and sputtered. Annja grabbed him. “You okay?”

  Zach turned and threw up in the snow. The pile of vomit steamed in the frozen air. Annja blanched.

  “Yuck.”

  Dave slapped him again. “Next time don’t wait so long to call in the cavalry, okay?”

  Annja rushed to their cat and got Zach some water. When she walked back, he was already on his feet. He took the bottle and took several swigs, which he then spit out. Finally, he took a long drag and swallowed.

  “Thanks.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  Dave came walking back from the cat. “I don’t think it’s going to be salvageable. The engine seems pretty well shot. I’d guess the snow and ice did a number on it.” He glanced at Zach. “What the hell happened?”

  Zach shrugged. “I was following you guys and then all of a sudden I heard this weird sound, like a rumble, and the next thing I know, this wall of snow just engulfs me. In a split second I was buried.”

  Annja frowned. “You get a lot of avalanches around here?”

  Dave smiled. “Considering where we are, yeah.”

  Zach took a breath. “Just glad you guys weren’t that much farther down the trail. Any longer and I would have been a goner.”

  Dave nodded at their cat. “Let’s get you warmed up. Annja and I will try to salvage what we can from your cat and pack it into ours.”

  “Okay.”

  Dave led him over to their cat, and Annja watched as Zach climbed inside the cab. Dave came trudging back through the show, leaning into the wind as he approached her. “You okay?”

  “Yeah, just concerned about Zach.”

  “He’ll be okay now. The fresh air did him good.” He nodded at the disabled cat. “We need some of the fuel and the equipment. As much as we can get into our cat.”

  Annja helped him with the fuel cans first. They topped off their cat, then Dave pulled out a number of heavy-duty boxes that were taped up with all sorts of strange-looking tape.

  “What are those?”

  “Zach’s stuff. I don’t ask about it.”

  They dragged them through the snow to the back of their cat. Dave got them situated inside and then headed back to the buried cat one final time.

  Annja watched him move through the snow. He seemed at ease in this bizarre landscape, as if he’d been born to the snow in some weird way.

  She shook her head and then looked up at Zach. He seemed to be focused on something far away.

  Annja tapped on the glass. He glanced down at her and smiled.

  Dave came walking back. “Okay, I think we’ve got as much of the stuff as we’re going to be able to haul with us. As it is, we’re going to be a lot heavier now than we were.”

  “Is that bad?” Annja asked.

  “It slows us down and burns more fuel.”

  “Will we m
ake it?”

  Dave nodded. “If we don’t, we’ll be close enough to radio for help.”

  “I thought you said that the South Pole station was the closest.”

  “It is. They’re the closest known station. But there are plenty of folks at the dig site we can call on to help if we need it.”

  “That’s a relief,” she said.

  “C’mon. Let’s get going. We’ve been out too long as it is.”

  Annja climbed back in the cab and got herself situated behind Zach, who now sat in the shotgun seat. Dave climbed in and gunned the engine. With a jerk, the Sno-Cat spun on its tracks and headed off again, following the path laid out on the GPS.

  Annja glanced out the back windshield. She could just make out part of the cab jutting out of the mound of snow. But then the flakes flew in and obscured her view.

  The cab would be buried in minutes anyway.

  12

  “An avalanche?”

  “Not quite, sir. More like a snowslide. But their second Sno-Cat was completely buried.”

  “Was anyone hurt?”

  “No. They turned back and extricated the driver before he died.”

  There was a pause on the phone. “Did you have anything to do with that?”

  “The avalanche?”

  “You called it a snowslide a moment ago.”

  He frowned. “No, sir, we didn’t have anything to do with it. We were following your orders and hanging back. We only observed what happened to them.”

  “I told you to make sure no danger befell them en route to the dig site.”

  “There was nothing we could do about it. It was just a freak occurrence.”

  Static crackled over the phone and then the voice came back again. “For your sakes, you’d better hope nothing else happens to them on their journey. It’s imperative they reach the dig site safely.”

  He frowned. “You mind me asking why? I mean, it sounds like you’re going to kill them anyway once they’re there. So why not just do it right now?”

  “You have no appreciation for how things should unfold. You will take no action against them—do I make myself clear?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Good, continue to observe and report anything out of the ordinary.”

  “Fine.” He hung up the phone and turned to the man sitting next to him in the Sno-Cat. “Let’s go.”

  “He wasn’t happy?”

  “Is he ever?”

  DAVE HADN’T BEEN JOKING about the increased weight slowing them down. Their speed seemed to dip from a solid twenty-five miles per hour down to just under eighteen. The tracks continued to grind up snow and ice as they crawled along in the shadows of the mountain range to their right side.

  The fuel gauge took a hit, as well. They’d had to stop once more to top off the tanks.

  Zach seemed to have recovered himself and napped intermittently. Annja watched him. Through his shirt, she could make out the links of chain that attached to the necklace he wore.

  Dave eyed him, as well. “He seems fine now, if that’s what you’re thinking.”

  “Yeah.”

  “Carbon monoxide is tough stuff. Can’t see it or smell it. An invisible killer. That’s why they passed all those laws about people getting detectors. Just too many folks losing their lives to it.”

  Annja nodded. “Guess you really never know how quick it can go wrong until it starts to go wrong, huh?”

  “Something like that.”

  Annja sighed and stretched. She was tucked behind Zach with all of the equipment. She didn’t have a lot of room to maneuver or make herself comfortable, and it felt as if she’d spent the past several hours bunched up. She desperately wanted to stretch her legs.

  “How much longer?” she asked.

  “About an hour, maybe less.”

  “We’re that close?”

  “Yep.”

  She took another breath. “Well, that’s good news at least.”

  Dave nodded. “The getting there is always the toughest part. But I’m sure it will all be worth it once you get a look at the place.”

  “It’s that amazing?”

  He shrugged. “Far be it for me to comment adequately on it, but considering what Zach found, who knows what other kinds of marvelous things might be there. In some ways, this is a lot like unearthing some Egyptian pharaoh. Personally, I can’t recall when I’ve had this much fun.”

  Annja eyed him. “Last night you made it sound like you’d never even seen the place. Or that you hadn’t known Zach was involved in it.”

  Dave nodded. “Yeah, well, that was before I got a chance to know you. I don’t like putting all my cards on the table until I know who holds the deck. That way, I keep the surprises in my life to a minimum.”

  Zach stirred. “Talking about the dig?”

  Annja nodded. “Dave was just prepping me for the first views of it.”

  “Have you ever seen a big hole in the ground?” Zach asked.

  “Of course.”

  He smiled. “There you go.”

  Dave chuckled. “So much for romance, huh? Zach’s much more the pragmatist in the equation.”

  Zach patted his chest. “This thing weighs heavy on my heart. I want to figure out where it came from and who it might have belonged to.”

  “Can I see it again?” Annja asked.

  Zach turned to her and took off the necklace. He handed it to her and Annja was again surprised at its weight.

  “Where did you find it at the dig site?”

  Zach leaned back against the seat and took a deep breath. “I was hired to come down and check things out, as I told you.”

  “Who hired you?” Annja asked.

  “A company out of Milwaukee. Navstar. Supposedly they do a lot of work for the oil conglomerates, but I felt pretty sure they were a front for some government operations. Sometimes you just get a feeling about these things.”

  “So what happened?”

  “They approached me about coming down to look a site over for possible paleontological finds. As far as I knew at that point, there wasn’t much down here worth examining in any great detail. I mean, sure, I’d heard about the fossils and plants that had been found down here, but beyond that? It seemed like a dumb assignment. Just a way for the oil companies to cover their asses.”

  “What changed your mind?”

  “The paycheck.”

  Annja looked at him. “You’re motivated by money now?”

  “Trish and I got divorced. She took the kids. I didn’t have a chance at custody, being away throughout the year like I was. The judge granted her sole custody. I get visits when I’m home, but—” he took a breath “—it’s been tough making ends meet with the alimony and child support.”

  “And the job came along at just the right moment.”

  “Yep.”

  Annja glanced at Dave. “This is sounding more and more like a government conspiracy all the time.”

  Dave nodded. “Oh, it most definitely is. We know that now. They control every aspect of the dig site. The oil companies aren’t even involved, believe it or not.”

  “So who’s running the show? CIA?”

  Zach shrugged. “I heard something about a DARPA project. They’d be the ones looking to scoop up anything extraterrestrial and reverse engineer it so it becomes the next iPod or something.”

  Annja smirked. “I’m surprised they let you have the necklace.”

  “Oh, it’s not mine. I’m returning it to them. They let me take it out so I could use it to secure your interest.”

  “Ah.”

  “Anyway, they flew me down here and we trekked out to the site. By the time I got there, they already had a series of tents and hardened prefab shells in place. There’s a hole that literally goes right into the base of the mountain. You can descend the better part of a half mile right into the mountain itself.”

  “Incredible.”

  Zach nodded. “That’s what I said, too. On that first day, they
got me outfitted and showed me a map of tunnels they’d made. It had a number of branches on it, and I wanted to go off exploring. They said no, that they weren’t sure how structurally sound it was yet. But I sneaked off anyway, and down a long winding passage in the dark, my headlamp caught something amid the ice.”

  “The necklace,” Annja said.

  “Yeah. When I pulled it out, it felt like I was trying to jerk an anchor out of the water. But then when I held it up, it was almost a magical experience.”

  Dave smiled. “Maybe there is a little romance in that heart somewhere.”

  Annja shifted in her seat. “And what happened when you showed it to them?”

  “They ran the tests we spoke about last night. When things started coming back…odd, they got really interested. Of course, it’s all very compartmentalized. I’m positive there are people on the site who know how this is all supposed to fit together, but damned if anyone’s talking. So, in the meantime, they’ve been bringing in more scientists and I requested the only person I knew I could trust—you.”

  “I’m flattered.”

  “I need someone watching my back. Someone who knows how to think and can maybe make sense of all of this stuff.”

  “Well, I can’t wait to get there.”

  Dave pointed at the dashboard. The clock read just past 5:00 p.m. “I’m betting we’ll be there inside of twenty minutes now.”

  “Good,” Zach said. “They’re probably freaking out that the necklace has been gone this long. They’re not exactly the most trusting people on the planet. But they do recognize the power of persuasion.”

  “I would have come anyway,” Annja said. “Not like I have much else to do while I wait for my return flight.”

  “Good point,” Dave said. “And she doesn’t look like she’s very good at darts, either. That rules her out for team competition.”

  “Funny,” Annja said. “I’ll have you know I’m quite adept at throwing pointy things into small targets.”

  “I’ll bet.” Dave chuckled.

  Annja turned back to Zach. “Sorry to hear things didn’t work out with you and Trish. Was it a long time coming?”