Arctic Wargame - Страница 14

“Yes, that’s right,” she replied.

Chapter Seven

Cape Combermere, Canada

April 12, 11:10 a.m.

The debris was spread over a stretch of rocky ridges, about one thousand square feet. If it were August, Justin may have thought this was the shipwreck of some careless Arctic adventurers. But in mid-April, when the Arctic’s frigid weather could stiffen a man in a matter of minutes, Justin was positive the rubble was not the result of a human error or a natural disaster.

The prefabricated, timber panels, although split into smaller fragments and scattered from one end of the site to the other, resembled the basic elements of a large shed. Two log pads created a flat platform over the hard-packed snow that was sheltered about two thousand feet inland and away from the sudden movement of menacing ice floes. High cliffs rose up on both sides of the narrow clearing, providing extra protection from the northern and eastern wind currents.

“What do you think, Kiawak?” Justin picked up a couple of the framed pieces, then scratched the snow surface with the tip of his boots.

“I’m sure this doesn’t belong to Parks Canada. This area is not part of the Quttinirpaaq National Park,” Kiawak replied. He crouched and inspected a few metal scraps next to the log pads. “It doesn’t seem to be a research station. They’re much larger and not so close to the ocean.”

“Is it Danish?” Anna asked and followed Carrie. She took pictures of a few orange tatters that appeared to be fragments of a large tent.

“Who knows?” Kiawak shrugged. “If it’s not Canadian, where did it come from?”

“Of course it’s Canadian,” Alisha said.

They all looked at her as she walked off the log pads. She stomped her feet on the solid snow. “Nuqatlak led us here and this was his stash, regardless of whether this stuff is Danish or not.” She pointed at the rubble and at the orange tatters. A wind gust was trying to pry them away from the ice. “Nuqatlak’s dead and the ‘mystery of the depot’ is solved. It’s over. There’s nothing more for us to do here. Let’s go on with our mission.”

“This is our mission,” Justin said. “This is what Nuqatlak wanted us to find, and we found it, but we can’t pack our bags and go. Not yet. The Danes stationed this depot here and stacked it up with their supplies. I’m sure when we dig down and discover what may still be there, we’ll find evidence that the Danish icebreakers anchored here and left this… this ‘present’ behind. This evidence will convince whoever may still have doubts.”

Justin looked at Alisha, but she did not take the bait. Carrie and Anna headed over to the helicopter. A minute later, they returned with a couple of pickaxes and a snow shovel.

“It’s a waste of time and energy.” Alisha stepped aside, making room for Justin and Kiawak, who took to the excavation. The only place Alisha would dig was in her pockets for a little extra warmth.

* * *

“Here’s a flare gun.” Justin handed his only decent find to Kiawak.The first ten minutes of chiseling ice and spading snow had rewarded them with nothing but trash. Chocolate bar wrappings, empty water bottles, and wood fire ashes were clear proof of recent human activity on this site.

“Why didn’t Nuqatlak take the flare gun?” Anna asked, staring at the orange pistol. She was shoveling away the snow Kiawak and Carrie had piled up in two large mounds.

“Maybe he ran out of space on his sled or left it behind for his next trip,” Kiawak replied. “Or maybe he thought this hut would make a good hideout, at least for a while, away from everybody. Then a blizzard came and wiped it out. The snow in the area is fresh. The blizzard happened, two, maybe three days ago.”

Justin lifted his pickaxe over his head and brought it down hard. A sharp snap, unlike the constant ice cracking under their sharp tools, responded to Justin’s brute force. Tiny slivers, like glass shards, sprang up from the two-foot deep hole.

“What the heck was that?” Justin asked. He was glad the sharp slivers missed his face. The goggles and the black balaclava everyone wore constantly when outside for longer than a few seconds protected his entire face, but his nose and his mouth were still exposed.

“Easy with the axe,” Kiawak said. “Anna, can I have your shovel?”

He filled the square blade of the shovel with debris from the bottom of the pit and carefully lifted it up. He placed the mixed mass of ice, snow, and mud over a clear section of the log pads, the display counter of their finds. Then he rooted nervously through the pile, examining each piece with care. Finally, Kiawak placed a tiny square-shaped transparent fragment in his left palm. He paraded it in front of Justin and Carrie.

“Is that what I just smashed?” Justin asked.

“It has to be, and it’s definitely not ice,” Kiawak replied with a smile. “I would say your axe smashed into a laptop or some other electronic gadget buried deep down there.” He stared at the hole. “Something with a clear screen.”

“Cellphone? Digital camera?” Carrie guessed.

“Could be,” Kiawak said. He dropped to his knees and began to clear the hole with his black gloves. Carrie and Justin drew back to give him sufficient room.

“Why don’t you take a drink of this?” Justin noticed Anna had begun to shiver and offered her a coffee thermos he fetched from his backpack. “Will warm you up.”

Anna nodded and took a couple of big gulps.

“Do you want to wait in the chopper?” Carrie asked. Anna’s lips were already chapped.

“No,” Anna said. “I’ll be OK. We’re not gonna be here much longer, I assume, once we discover our little treasure.”

“Well, here we go,” Kiawak said. He had completed his excavation of the fragile article and gently brushed the snow from the black object, which fit easily on his glove. The object resembled a large cellphone, like those models from the eighties, but sleeker looking, with a leather coating and numerous buttons on the top and at the bottom.

“It’s a multiband radio,” Justin shouted over the rising wind. “A military radio.”

“You’re sure?” Carrie asked. “I haven’t seen our army use them.”

Kiawak flipped the radio over, scrapped a thin layer of ice from its backside, and read the white inscription. He shook his head. “Bingo,” he shouted and passed the radio over to Justin.

“What’s going on here?” Their excitement had drawn Alisha’s attention, who stepped closer to the action.

“We’ve found the evidence. This is a Danish army radio,” Justin said, his eyes focused on the radio.

“And how can you be sure of that?” Alisha’s voice rang as an accusation.

“Because it says in the back, you whack job,” Justin snapped at her and pushed the radio toward Alisha. “Read it for yourself. ‘The Royal Danish Army’ is stamped in large caps in the back!”

“That’s not how you talk to a lady,” Alisha replied and quickly, but calmly, withdrew her hand from one of her jacket pockets. Her fingers were wrapped around a pistol, which she pointed at Justin’s head.

“OK, no reason to get angry,” Kiawak replied, lifting up his arms slowly and gesturing for her to stop. “Put the gun away.”

“Hands up. All of you,” Alisha barked.

“What the hell are you doing?” Justin shouted back.

Alisha pulled the trigger. A bullet whistled by Justin’s head. He dropped to his left side, raising his hand to check his ear. No blood, but his eardrum was almost shattered.

“Stay down and don’t move,” Alisha yelled, taking a step back, likely in case Justin decided to charge toward her gun. “You,” she shouted at Carrie, who still was holding her shovel. “Are you fucking deaf or something? And you, the shivering beauty, hands up, turn around and face me!”

Anna brought her hands above her head, the left one still carrying Justin’s coffee thermos.

“You’re… you’re going to kill us?” she muttered.

“What a bitch.” Carrie threw the shovel to the ground.

Alisha grinned. “I told you, all of you, to stop dicking around with this Danish story and to stop looking for clues.” Alisha brandished her gun, pointing at their heads. “Things would have been much easier if you would had listened to me and agreed the Russians were pulling the strings. But no, you didn’t want to. What did you call me, Anna? Self-righteous? Am I being difficult, Justin? We’ll see how difficult this will be for each one of you.”

“So you work for the Danes?” Anna asked. “You’re their spy?”

“The pay’s much better, and I get to kill whoever gets in my way.”

“Alisha, this won’t work,” Justin said in a shaky voice. “Whatever the Danes and you have been plotting, it will fail.”

“Think about it, Alisha,” Kiawak said, still kneeling by the pit. “This is your country, your home. This is Canada.”

“On the map, yes, this is Canada,” Alisha replied in a calm voice. “As for my home, that’ll be wherever I want it to be. Justin, you had no idea what was going on here and even now, right before you die, you still don’t have a clue. And you will all go to your graves as ignorant fools.”

“Alisha—” Justin began.

“Enough,” she yelled. “Give me your guns. Now!”

Justin removed his Browning 9mm from his holster inside his jacket. Kiawak hesitated for a brief second. Alisha took one firm step toward him, and his hesitation melted away. Carrie laid down her Browning pistol. Anna placed the coffee thermos in front of her feet.