Arctic Wargame - Страница 12

She missed both times.

“Shoot the bastards,” Carrie encouraged her.

The snowmobile was almost over the ridge when Anna made her grandfather proud. She drove her third bullet into the woman’s right shoulder. The woman was able to hold on to Nuqatlak, at least for a short time, and then she tipped to the left. The snowmobile dragged her until she brushed against an ice boulder and fell off.

Nuqatlak now flew over the ice floes even faster than before. He dodged a small crevasse by shifting the weight of his body to the right to avoid slamming into a heap of ice chunks. The left ski of the snowmobile lifted off the ground and shredded the sheet of powder covering the ice. Nuqatlak leaned to the other side and avoided tipping over. He looked over his shoulder. Perhaps because he noticed his pursuers were closing in, he pulled a small pistol from one of his jacket pockets. He continued riding in a crisscross pattern, struggling to control his snowmobile with his left hand, while trying to point the pistol with his right hand at Carrie and Anna, who were now less than one hundred feet behind.

Anna leveled her pistol at Nuqatlak’s shoulders. She moved the sight of the gun a fraction of an inch, aiming for his right arm, before firing two successive shots. The first one missed. The second found its target. Nuqatlak leaned forward, very slightly, as if hitting an unexpected bump on the trail. Suddenly, he took a plunge along with his snowmobile. He rolled over the ice, his head slamming hard on a couple of boulders, as he went through a couple of three hundred and sixty-degree spins. Finally, he lay flat on his back a short distance away. Red traces of blood marked his path.

“That was great, Anna.” Carrie stopped their snowmobile beside Nuqatlak.

His chest was barely rising, and his neck was twisted unnaturally to the left.

“Is he… is he still alive?” Anna whispered in a shaky voice.

Nuqatlak answered her question with a slight involuntary hand twitch.

Carrie dashed toward him. She slowly lifted up his head. Blood trailed down from his lips, his nose, and the left side of his head. His helmet was nowhere in sight.

“Don’t worry.” Carrie steadied his head in her hands. Nuqatlak coughed blood, and his entire body shook.

Anna checked his pulse. She shook her head at Carrie and mouthed, “Weak.” She looked back down at the man. “You’re going to be OK,” she said with a whimper.

“No, I’m going to die.” His lips hardly parted as his voice rasped. He struggled for strength to breathe and speak at the same time.

“We’ll take you to a hospital. We have a chopper,” Carrie whispered. For a second, she wondered if the end would have been different had she decided to use the helicopter for the manhunt.

“Too late,” Nuqatlak groaned. “I won’t make it.”

Anna fought back her tears. Carrie knew a mountain of guilt must have been crushing her soul.

“Why… why did you run away?” Carrie asked, realizing they were running out of time.

Nuqatlak coughed blood again. “The guns. I know you came for the guns.”

Carrie hesitated, pondering the next question. Nuqatlak’s pulse was growing weaker by the second. “The guns… where did they come from?”

Nuqatlak’s head fell forward, but he muttered no words.

“Where did you get them?” Carrie asked.

Nuqatlak’s eyes moved toward the right. “North… northeast,” he mumbled.

“What?” Carrie and Anna asked at the same time.

“Did you say north?” Anna asked.

“And northeast?” Carrie said. “That’s Greenland. Did you get them from Greenland?”

Nuqatlak shook his head and closed his eyes. Even these simple gestures took a lot of effort.

“No…” his voice was weak and trailing.

“Then, where? Tell me where?” Carrie said.

Silence. His eyes remained closed.

“Nuqatlak, where did you get those guns?” Carrie placed her lips over his ear.

“Danish… Danish depot.” He breathed the words between gasps, slightly opening his left eye.

“Where? Where’s the depot?”

“Pig, pig…” Nuqatlak’s breathing stopped.

“What? What was that? ‘Pig’ what?”

No answer.

“Where did you find the weapons? Where?” Carrie repeated.

His blank left eye kept staring at the gray sky.

“Nuqatlak, don’t… don’t you die,” Anna muttered through her tears.

Chapter Six

Grise Fiord, Canada

April 12, 9:25 a.m.

“There’s at least a dozen Let Støttevåbens.” Justin held one of the brand new light machine guns. It was equipped with a bipod and a night vision optical sight.

“Enough for a small army.” Carrie examined her sample, her fingers running over the trigger and the sight on the barrel. “There’s probably two thousand rounds in the den.”

Nuqatlak’s small kitchen had been turned into their command center. Kiawak made coffee and they were assessing their situation while sitting around a white dining table.

“Holy cow,” Anna said. She almost dropped the gun Carrie gave her, not expecting it to be so heavy. “What were they planning to do with this? Shoot Moby Dick?”

“What troubles me is where these guns came from, and how many others are out there,” Kiawak said. “Slædepatruljen Sirius uses this exact kind of weapon.”

“Who’s the Sla… Sirius?” Anna asked.

“The Sirius Patrol,” Kiawak replied. “They’re one of the best units of Danish Special Forces in Greenland. They use sleds, helicopters, and boats. They have bases at Daneborg, Nord, Mestrersvig, and all over Greenland.”

“Why do I have a feeling the Sirius Patrol did not just lose all these weapons?” Anna said.

“It’s too early to jump to conclusions,” Alisha said. “We still don’t know where these guns came from.”

“Nuqatlak said he took them from a Danish depot,” Anna replied.

“Did he really tell you the truth? Or you just want to believe it?” Alisha shrugged.

“Those were his last words,” Anna said, “and I’m just repeating them. The man is dead, so that’s all we have.”

“Yeah, I know. You killed him.”

“We told you what happened, Alisha. And I’ve had enough of your attitude that nothing anyone does is good enough for you.” She got up and headed for the door.

“Wait for me.” Carrie followed Anna to the door. “For your information,” Carrie said as she turned around at pointed at Alisha, “she did well shooting him in self-defense. Otherwise we would be dead.”

Justin decided to stay out of the squabble. Kiawak, however, apparently found no reason to be impartial.

“You need to watch your mouth,” he growled at Alisha. “Those women risked their lives, but I haven’t seen you do anything useful.”

Alisha waited until Carrie slammed the door behind her. “We’re on a cold trail right now because they killed the man who could explain the mystery of these guns. Now we’re back to square one, and we have to explain the deaths of two innocent people.”

“Nuqatlak was anything but innocent,” Kiawak replied. “He was in possession of illegal weapons and was trying to fence them. We have two people who were shot at by Nuqatlak and had to respond in order to defend themselves. It’s a simple thing.”

“And now we know more,” Justin said, bring their focus back to the team’s objective. “We had no idea about a number of things until a few hours ago. Now, we have evidence: many guns, just like this one. We know they’re Danish and Nuqatlak, the gun smuggler, confirmed their origin. We need to find where this depot is located, and how this ties to the Sirius Patrol and to those icebreakers, which most likely are Danish too.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure,” Alisha objected. “These machine guns are made by Diemaco, the Canadian subsidiary of America’s Colt. These guns may have been produced for Denmark and their armed forces, but that doesn’t mean the Sirius Patrol or Danish icebreakers dropped them in Grise Fiord. They could have come from anywhere within Canada or the US.”

“I don’t think so,” Kiawak replied. “There are way too many coincidences. Two unknown icebreakers cruising our waters and machine guns used by Danish forces pop up on our Arctic shores. Plus, the man himself said he found the weapons in a Danish hut.”

“My other point exactly,” Alisha said. “I know their huts are spread all over Greenland. Maybe Nuqatlak and his woman or other people snowmobiled to Greenland. They broke into one of these stations, which happened to be stashed with guns, instead of food or supplies.”

“You’re right about one thing,” Kiawak said, “They have depots in East and North Greenland, but these weapons are on the wrong side of the pond. Besides, Nuqatlak said he found the weapons north.”

“North Greenland?” Alisha said. “He took his last breath, so maybe he left out some words?”

“I don’t know, Alisha, but I don’t think so,” Justin replied. “If this was really a Sirius Patrol depot, I think they would be guarding them pretty well, not leave them for Nuqatlak and his friends to take their pick. Plus, at this time of year, it’s very dangerous to travel all the way to Greenland. According to Nuqatlak’s file, last year he barely left Grise Fiord, but there was one time he flew to the Pond to buy pork.”

“Pork? Pig meat? Pig?” Kiawak said. His eyes widened, and he scratched his head. “Why does the word ‘pig’ sound familiar to me?”