Hostage (6 page)

Amber swallowed hard and looked around the firelit circle, then back to Hex. 'You know what, Hex?' she said, in a soft, trembling voice. 'I think you just found the guy who killed my parents.'

There was a moment of stunned silence. Hex watched Amber as the tears filled her eyes and spilled over on to her cheeks. His own eyes grew hard and determined, like chips of green ice. 'Right,' he said, picking up his palmtop. 'Let's get him.'

'How do we do that?' asked Paulo.

'We have the evidence,' said Hex, opening up his e-mail facility. 'The underwater camcorder's digital. It has firewire technology, which means I can download the images into my palmtop right now. Then I can send them to anyone, anywhere in the world.' Hex looked up at the others with his fingers poised over the keys. 'All we have to decide is who to e-mail first.'

'The local police,' said Alex. 'They can get out to the mine the fastest.'

'Or Papaluk's employers,' said Paulo. 'They are a multi-national agency. They will know what to do.'

'No-one,' said Amber. 'We tell no-one.' She looked at Li and the two girls shared a glance of total understanding. Amber nodded to Li, who turned to face the three boys. She had hardly spoken since the discovery of Papaluk's body, but her voice was hard and icy clear now.

'This is personal,' she said. 'We go in on our own.'

'We go in on our own?' repeated Paulo, in astonishment.

'Is there an echo round here?' said Amber, raising her eyebrows at Li.

Alex frowned. 'Listen, I understand how much you two want to get your revenge, but revenge is a bad basis for any operation.'

'It seems a pretty good basis to me,' said Li, staring at Alex with a cold fire in her eyes.

'What I mean is, if you're running on emotions, then you're not using your head. That's when things go wrong.'

'Look, it's not only revenge,' said Li, relenting a little. 'The thing is, once we tell the authorities, everything slows down. Any investigation has to be done officially. And by the time they manage to wade through all the paperwork and legal stuff to get access to the mine, you can be sure there will be absolutely no evidence of cyanide dumping or anything else. But if we go in quick, quiet and secret, then Usher Mining Corporation won't have time to clean up their act first.'

'C'mon, guys,' said Amber. 'This is why Alpha Force was set up! To do the stuff the authorities aren't allowed to do.'

'But we already have evidence!' cried Hex. 'The camcorder footage—'

'—does nothing to incriminate Daniel Usher,' interrupted Li. 'He'll say something like, "Oh, that's just a guy who happened to work at the mine. He loved Papaluk, went crazy when she rejected him. Nothing to do with me . .."'

Hex nodded reluctantly. 'And the text messages are too vague. They could have any number of meanings. You're right. We need more.'

'You're forgetting one thing,' said Alex. 'Daniel Usher's hired killer is lying under a spruce tree in several pieces. What happens when he doesn't report in?'

Hex pulled the man's mobile phone from his pocket and stared at it thoughtfully. 'Perhaps he should send his boss a text message. Something like, "Tracking leaks. May take a few days to arrange containment." That should buy us some time.'

He looked around at the others, raising his eyebrows questioningly. Li and Amber nodded immediately. Paulo looked at Li's brightening face and nodded too. Alex hesitated, then bowed to the majority verdict. 'OK,' he said. 'We go in on our own.'

They each spent the rest of the evening preparing in their own way for the mission ahead. Hex stayed by the blazing fire, hunched over his palmtop. He was searching the Net to find out as much as he could about the layout of the mine.

Amber strapped on her snowshoes, gathered a bundle of thin, straight branches from the woodpile, and walked out into the darkness. Standing with her back to the fire, she waited until her night vision was sharp and strong. She had to work out their route, and for that she needed to see the stars. She reckoned that the mine was roughly thirty miles west of their present position. The simplest way to find the mine would be to travel inland along the frozen river where the cyanide had been dumped. The river would lead them to the mine, but first she had to find the river. She knew it was to the south, and unless they had veered further north than she thought on their escape inland, it should not be too far away. Amber was betting that if they headed south the next morning they would come across the river within an hour.

Amber had a compass, but she did not entirely trust it. Compasses could be unreliable this close to the North Pole, but the stars never changed. The night sky was clear and full of stars. Quickly, she picked out two constellations, the Plough and Cassiopeia. Once she had these, she could find the Pole Star by imagining a straight line between them. The Pole Star was in the middle of that line and it shone directly above the North Pole.

'Gotcha,' muttered Amber, gazing up at the Pole Star. Now it was a simple matter to figure out their direction for the morning. Amber took her bundle of sticks and stuck them into the snow in a straight line, with an arrowhead at the end pointing the way south.

Paulo, Li and Alex worked on the snowmobiles. Li and Alex took care of the simpler stuff, checking oil and topping up fuel on the other four snowmobiles, while Paulo checked out Alex's machine. It had been sounding rougher and rougher on the journey inland and Paulo suspected that there was a major problem. His suspicions were confirmed when the engine would not start.

'
Dios
,' he muttered, lifting the cowling to look at the engine. He stripped off his outer mittens but kept the thin under-gloves on. The night-time temperature was touching thirty below zero and he did not want to leave his fingertips stuck to the engine. Paulo always carried a basic toolkit in his belt pouch. He opened it now and began working his way methodically around the engine by the light of his torch. Finally, he slammed the cowling back into place with a curse, packed away his tools and stamped back to the warmth of the fire.

'That doesn't sound good,' said Amber, coming to join the others.

Paulo sighed, holding his hands out to the fire to warm them before replacing his mittens. 'It is not good. It is shooted.'

'Shot,' laughed Amber, unstrapping her snow-shoes. 'You mean it's shot.'

'What's wrong with it?' asked Alex.

'It is the fuel pump,' said Paulo. 'The fuel pump is shotted. It is burned out, Alex, and we do not have a replacement.'

'Yeah, but we can still complete the mission,' said Li hastily. 'These snowmobiles will carry two people. Alex can share with someone.'

'Me,' said Amber. 'He can ride with me. You can even drive if you want, Alex,' she added generously.

'Gee, thanks,' said Alex, raising his eyebrows at her. Everyone knew that Amber hated machines. She was much happier with forms of transport that did not require engines, such as her yacht or her thoroughbred horses. Amber grinned at Alex without a hint of embarrassment.

'Will it carry two people on the sort of journey we're planning?' asked Alex, looking at Paulo.

'Of course it will,' said Li. 'Won't it, Paulo?'

'I think we must lose the trailer,' said Paulo.

'But that's two trailer-loads of stuff!' said Amber. 'Alex's and mine. Can we afford to leave so much behind?'

'We can redistribute,' said Li. 'We can get rid of the tents for a start. We didn't need them tonight, did we? And we could leave the diving gear—'

'I think we should hang on to the dry suits,' interrupted Hex, looking up from his screen. 'I've been checking out the layout of the mine. They're very security conscious. The front way in is patrolled and floodlit, so we may have to go in the back way.'

'Which is?' asked Amber.

'Into the old, abandoned mine workings, from the river.'

'OK, then,' said Li. 'But we'd only need a couple of dry suits. Two in, the rest on land, right? It's diving protocol. We can dump the other suits and that'll leave plenty of room for the essentials, won't it, Alex?'

Everyone looked at Alex. Would three trailers carry all they needed to survive in the interior? As their survival expert, the final decision had to be his. Alex hesitated. Three trailer-loads would be cutting it fine. He looked around at the others, weighing up all the variables. He was the only one in the group with experience of cold-climate survival. On the other hand, if he had to choose anyone as travelling companions, it would be the other four members of Alpha Force. He would trust them with his life. It was as simple as that. Alex looked over at Li, who was watching him intently, waiting for his decision.

'All right,' said Alex, standing up. 'Let's reload.'

An hour later, it was done. A neat stockpile of tents, spare diving equipment and supplies was hidden in the trees alongside the crippled snowmobile and the two spare trailers. The three remaining trailers were packed and ready to go.

'I'll take first watch,' said Alex as they all headed for their sleeping bags. 'Two hours. Then, Hex, you take second watch.'

Hex groaned. 'Are you sure we need to set a watch?' he yawned. 'The more I think about it, the more I'm sure that guy was operating alone.'

'Besides,' added Amber. 'If someone else was following us, they'd've been here by now.'

Alex shook his head. What Hex and Amber said made perfect sense, but he could see the tracks of their snowmobiles cutting across the snowfield in front of the trees. The tracks stood out clearly in the moonlight, pointing the way straight to the camp.

'I'd just feel more comfortable if we set a watch,' he said. 'Even if there's no-one out there looking for us, there are still the bears to think about. They can smell food from twenty miles away – and we've been cooking.'

The others headed for bed and Alex piled fresh wood on to the fire. He laughed softly as he listened to Hex grumble his way into his sleeping bag. Gradually, the muffled curses and mutterings about unnecessary watches subsided into silence and Alex was left alone by the fire. He did not mind. He was solitary by nature and he was never happier than when he was outdoors.

He sat for an hour, feeding the fire and letting the peace of the night settle over him, then he strapped on his snowshoes and went to check the willow thicket. He was pleased to find two rabbits and a hare in the snares. Now that Alpha Force had jettisoned some of their supplies, it was even more important to find what food they could on the way. Alex laid his catch out on the snow, then dismantled all his snares. They were leaving early in the morning and a responsible trapper never left snares in place when he would not be around to check them regularly. The snares had killed the rabbits swiftly and humanely, but a larger animal could catch a foot in the wire and slowly starve to death.

Taking his single-bladed survival knife from its sheath at his belt, he got to work skinning and gutting the catch. He left the innards and heads in a pile on the edge of the thicket as a gift for the arctic fox, then he headed back to camp.

Back at the fire, Alex packed his catch into the foil containers that had held the boil-in-the-bag meals, then he buried the three parcels in the hot wood ash on the edge of the fire. The meat would slow-bake in the ashes and provide them with a tasty, hot breakfast in the morning. Finally, he sat down on the tree-trunk seat and cleaned and sharpened his knife. Once he was satisfied, he slipped the knife back into its sheath and checked the time. His two-hour watch was over. It was time to wake Hex.

Alex turned towards the tree shelters and saw that Li was sitting up in her sleeping bag, gazing out at him. He ducked under the branches and sat beside her on the snow platform. Amber was snoring softly behind them, completely hidden inside her thick, down sleeping bag.

'Thanks,' said Li softly.

'What for?' asked Alex.

'For deciding the mission could carry on,' said Li.

Alex nodded and they were silent for a while.

'She was like a big sister to me,' whispered Li, gazing out at the fire. Alex reached out and squeezed Li's thin shoulder. Her lip quivered but she remained dry-eyed.

'Don't disturb Hex,' she whispered. 'I'll do the next watch. I can't sleep anyway.'

Alex climbed into his sleeping bag. A clean, pine-needle smell rose up around him as he settled back on to the cushioned springiness of the spruce boughs. The bag wrapped him in warmth from head to foot, and soon his eyelids began to droop. The last thing he saw before he fell into an exhausted sleep was Li's silhouetted profile as she sat beside the fire, thinking about the big sister she had lost that day.

'Are you sure it'll hold us?' asked Amber fearfully, gripping Alex by the shoulders as he prepared to ease the snowmobile down the river bank and on to the snow-covered ice. It was the morning of the next day and, after leaving their camp before dawn, Alpha Force had successfully completed the first part of their journey. They had reached the river that would lead them to the mine.

Alex sighed. 'Amber, I've been down and checked it. I even used the ice drill. That ice is at least a metre thick.'

'Yeah, but the ice in Hudson Bay was really thin—'

'Forget Hudson Bay! That was seawater. The salt in seawater means it has a much lower freezing point than freshwater. And what sort of water do we have in the river?'

'Freshwater,' muttered Amber.

'Plus,' continued Alex, 'temperatures are much lower here than they were on the coast.'

'What's the hold-up?' called Li, behind them. She was standing up on her snowmobile, anxious to move on.

'Nothing!' called Alex. 'Listen,' he said to Amber in a lower voice. 'That river surface has been frozen solid for weeks now. OK?'

'OK,' said Amber, but her fingers dug into Alex's shoulders hard enough to make him wince.

'Hey, ease off,' he said.

'Sorry,' muttered Amber, fractionally reducing the pressure.

'You can relax now,' called Alex as he guided the snowmobile down the bank. 'You've done your bit. You led us to the river!'

The snowmobile reached the bottom of the bank and shot out on to the ice. It was rough going at first as they rattled up and down over the pressure ridges that had formed at the edge of the river as it froze, and Amber did not let go of Alex's shoulders until they reached the smoother ice in the middle.

'OK,' she said cautiously, looking around. Then, more confidently, 'Let's go!'

Alex swung the snowmobile round and opened up the throttle. Li, Paulo and Hex pulled in behind and the four snowmobiles headed upriver towards the mine. At first the sun was bright and the river was wide, which made the travelling easy, but as they moved further inland, the river grew narrower and more twisted. The snow cover grew thicker, sometimes hiding the pressure ridges that corrugated the ice on every curve. The banks steepened until the low sun could not penetrate to river level, and Alpha Force had to turn their headlights full on as they travelled along the dark, cold tunnel between the banks.

They were all well wrapped up and had the drawstrings of their hoods pulled tight around their goggles so that their faces were completely covered, but gradually the chill began to seep into their bones. The wind picked up and a bank of threatening, grey clouds rolled in. Finally, with no sign of the mine, Alex decided it was time to find a place to stop. They all needed a rest and some hot food. He began to scan the banks for a slope that was gentle enough for the snowmobiles to climb.

And that was when disaster struck.

If Alex had been giving his full attention to the terrain ahead of the snowmobiles, he might have spotted the danger signs in his headlight beams. Instead, he kept scanning the banks and driving straight towards a circular patch on the frozen river where the snow cover was seamed with cracks. Wisps of steam were rising through the cracks – a warning that there was open water running beneath the covering of snow. Alex was heading straight for a massive suck hole in the ice: a frozen whirlpool, twisting right through the ice to the flowing river below; the opening at the bottom of this particular suck hole was big enough to swallow a snowmobile.

The front skis of the snowmobile tipped over the lip of the suck hole and Amber screamed in fright as, suddenly, the snow collapsed beneath them. Then everything happened with nightmare speed. The snowmobile upended and slid down the side of the frozen whirlpool with its headlight beams bouncing crazily off the walls of ice. Alex saw the rushing black water at the bottom of the slope and instinctively stuck his feet out, trying to brake in thin air. The snowmobile tipped and Alex yelled in pain as his outstretched leg scraped down the wall of ice. The added friction was enough to make the snowmobile turn sideways and come to a jolting halt, jammed across the narrowest part of the suck hole.

The headlights still lit up the whole scene and Alex could see that they were hanging centimetres above the rushing black water at the bottom of the hole. The front of the snowmobile was balanced on the very tips of its skis and the back of the caterpillar tracks were jammed on a tree branch that was frozen into the wall of the suck hole. Alex looked up. The ice layer was just over two metres thick here, which meant that the surface was only a metre above his head, but it might as well have been a mile away. The suck hole was shaped like a shallow, wide-topped funnel, twisting and turning its way down to the water: there were metres of sloping, slick ice walls to climb to reach safety.

The engine was still whining, making the whole machine shudder and filling the suck hole with exhaust fumes as it tried to turn the jammed caterpillar tracks. As Alex watched in horror, the tracks jumped once, twice, and the branch began to splinter. Quickly, he reached out and turned off the ignition. They were plunged into darkness as the engine cut out and the headlights winked off. For a few seconds more, the machine rocked back and forth, then steadied.

Alex dared not move. The caterpillar tracks were still jammed on the splintered branch, but the slightest vibration could tip the fragile balance. Then the snowmobile would complete its plunge into the icy water and he and Amber would be swept under the ice to their deaths.

Behind him Amber was shuddering with cold and fear.

Amber, can you hear me?' said Alex, without turning round.

'Yeah,' said Amber in a trembling voice.

'Try to stay very still,' said Alex. 'The others will get us out.'

On cue, a torch beam shone down on them.

On the lip of the suck hole, Li felt her heart sink as she moved the torch, concentrating the beam first on the ski tips of the fallen snowmobile, then on the caterpillar tracks clinging to the splintered branch. Hex hurried up beside her, then flung himself down on the snow and stretched his arm into the suck hole, trying to reach Amber.

'No point,' said Li briefly. Her years of free climbing had given her the ability to judge distances with great accuracy and she could see that there was no way they could stretch far enough to reach Alex and Amber.

Hex scrambled to his feet again. His green eyes were wild behind his goggles. 'What then?' he snapped.

'Ropes,' said Li. 'Paulo!' she called. 'We need—'

She stopped as Paulo came up beside them, dragging two lengths of strong nylon cord. He had already unhooked the trailers from two of the snowmobiles and tied the other end of each rope to the back of the machines.

'Li, Hex,' said Paulo, making a lasso out of the rope ends. 'You must go to your snowmobiles and get ready to pull them out.'

Li and Hex ran to the machines, scrambled on and revved their engines, looking back at Paulo for the signal to go. Paulo called down into the suck hole.

'Amber? Alex? I am going to throw you a rope each. Catch the loop and slip it over your arms and head.'

'Right,' called Alex, not daring to raise his head to look at Paulo.

A second later, the rope came hurtling down towards Amber. She reached out and grabbed it. Alex's rope came next. He tried to grab it but it was just too far ahead of him. His rope swung out of reach and hit the side of the suck hole.

'Do not worry,' called Paulo, hauling in the rope. 'I will throw again.'

'Amber,' said Alex as he waited for his rope to fall again, 'get that rope around you.'

'Already there.'

'OK. Good girl.'

Paulo threw the rope again and this time Alex managed to grab it but, as he did so, he jerked forward slightly. The movement was enough to dislodge the tips of the snowmobile skis, and with a scraping like nails on a blackboard they began to judder down the ice wall. Alex had no time to slip the rope around his chest. Instead, as the nose of the snowmobile dipped towards the water, he quickly slipped his arm through the lasso, then flicked the rope a few times so that it formed loops around his wrist and arm.

'Go! Go!' yelled Paulo. Li and Hex leaned forward on their machines and opened the throttles. The ropes uncoiled behind them and twanged into a quivering straight line. The machines jerked backwards and the caterpillar tracks struggled to retain their grip on the ice, then, slowly, they began moving forward again.

In the suck hole, the snowmobile skis lost their grip and the machine plunged down into the water. As Alex fell with the machine, he gripped the rope hard and prayed that the lasso would tighten around his arm and hold him up. Above him, Amber was jerked from the back of the snowmobile by the rope around her chest. She slammed against the ice wall and the rope began to pull her up the side of the hole. Alex hit the water and disappeared.

The snowmobile was sucked under the ice, and in an instant it had whirled away into the blackness. Alex's hand let go of the rope when he hit the freezing water. He could not help it. His muscles, his lungs, his whole body was stunned by the shock of the icy water. He felt the current take him and he began to whirl away under the ice after the snowmobile. Then Paulo's lasso tightened around his wrist. A massive pain ripped through his shoulder as the rope yanked him to a stop. For a few seconds he hung just below the ice, strung out on the end of the rope in the strong current like a kite on the wind. Then the rope began to drag him back towards the bottom of the suck hole.

Alex was in agony. His shoulder felt as though it was full of broken glass, all his muscles were cramping and every centimetre of skin burned with a cold fire. The icy water had acted like a punch in the guts, sending his diaphragm into spasm, which at least meant that his lungs had not flooded with water.

His outstretched arm reached the bottom of the suck hole and began to twist as the rope dragged it upwards, bending it back on to the slope of the wall. His shoulder rotated and the pain increased as the angle got more extreme, until he thought he was going to pass out. Then his shoulder joint popped out of its socket. For two seconds Alex's dislocated arm bent back further than any arm should go and then, finally, the rest of his body came out of the water and he was dragged up the side of the suck hole.

For a time, Alex drifted in and out of consciousness. He was aware of being stripped of his clothes and rubbed dry. The next time he came to, he was zipped up inside one of the sleeping bags and riding side-saddle on Paulo's snowmobile. His head was resting against Paulo's chest and Paulo's arms were braced on either side of him, holding his shivering body in place and steering the machine at the same time. Alex raised his head and looked groggily up at Paulo.

'Does this mean we're going steady?' he said through chattering teeth.

Paulo grinned down at him, then the snowmobile began to jolt as it reached the pressure ridges at the edge of the river. The pain blossomed in Alex's shoulder again and he sank back into darkness.

Paulo's smile disappeared as he concentrated on steering his snowmobile over the ridges and up the side of the river bank. He had spotted a stand of trees on the bank where they could build Alex a bed of spruce boughs and light a fire to warm him up. He knew they had to move fast. There was a basic rule for warming up someone suffering from hypothermia. If they cooled down slowly, they must be warmed up slowly. If they cooled down fast, they must be warmed up fast. Alex's core temperature had been reduced by a drastic amount in just a few seconds of immersion and now his face was blue with cold. It was crucial to get a fire going as soon as possible.

Paulo reached the top of the bank and headed for the trees. Amber and Li followed on the second snowmobile and Hex brought up the rear on the third machine. Once they reached the trees, they moved with an organized urgency, and in a very short time Alex was lying on a bed of spruce boughs in front of a roaring fire. They had opened the side zip of the sleeping bag so that the warmth of the flames could reach him, and gradually his shudders were lessening and his skin was pinking up.

'What now?' asked Amber, staring at Alex's pale face.

'Now,' said Paulo grimly, 'I must put his shoulder back into place. The dislocated bone may be pressing on nerves or blood vessels. I must remove the pressure to restore circulation to the arm and prevent permanent nerve damage. I must do it now. The longer I wait, the more swollen the area will become and the more difficult it will be to put the bone back into the socket.'

The others nodded their agreement. They trusted Paulo. He was the group's medic and he had a sure, steady hand when dealing with injuries. He had learned how to tend the wounds of both cattle and men on the long treks to the further reaches of his family ranch back in Argentina.

Alex came to again, groaning with pain as Paulo bent over him, gently probing the dislocated shoulder.

'Alex, listen to me,' said Paulo.

Alex opened his eyes and focused on Paulo's serious face.

'Good. Alex, your shoulder is dislocated. I must put the bone back into the socket for you.'

'OK,' muttered Alex.

Paulo hesitated, then decided it would be best to prepare Alex. 'It will hurt,' he said.

'A lot?' asked Alex.

'Yes. I am sorry. Are you ready?'

Alex gritted his teeth and closed his eyes. 'Go on,' he said.

Paulo nodded to Hex, who was kneeling on Alex's other side. Hex held Alex down and Paulo removed his mukluk and pressed his heel into Alex's armpit. Bracing his leg, he gripped Alex's arm and pulled it out straight, exerting a steady pressure on the shoulder joint. Alex screamed with pain and bucked, trying to shake Hex off him. Hex lay over Alex's chest and Paulo pulled until the sweat popped out on his forehead.

'Stop it!' shouted Amber as Alex screamed again. 'It's not working! You're just hurting him!'

Then Alex's shoulder joint finally slid over the rim of the socket and settled back into place with an audible click. Immediately, Paulo released the pressure and gently lowered Alex's arm to his chest.