by J. T. Cross
LOST VALLEY
A Serial Novel
Part One:
The Discovery
by
J.T. Cross
Books by J.T. Cross
STANDALONE NOVELS
Beneath the Deep
LOST VALLEY SERIAL NOVEL
The Discovery
The Hunted
The Escape
Lost Valley: The Discovery
Published by J.T. Cross
Copyright © 2012 by J.T. Cross
All rights reserved.
E-book Edition, License Notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Dedication
To Valerie for her patience while I worked on this book.
Acknowledgments
Special thanks to J.R. Rain for the original story concept and characters presented in the Lost Valley. Thanks to Susanna Kubernus for her creative cover design and to Eve Paludan for her eye for detail and great insight as an editor.
Lost Valley: A Serial Novel
Part One: The Discovery
Chapter 1
The dusty Ford pickup veered hard to the left as a front tire caught in a deep rut. Yudi tightened his muscular grip on the steering wheel and struggled to keep the truck on the deserted dirt road. For the last hour, the Inuit hunter had driven hard and fast from the base of the Northern Mountain Ranges headed south toward the remote Alaskan village of Manatuk. Fear drove him to cover the ninety miles as fast as he could to report the terrible situation and hopefully, get help.
He brought his pickup under control and glanced in the rearview mirror. He was relieved to see Miki was still keeping up with him, even though he pulled a large trailer that carried their two ATVs.
He hit the accelerator and watched the speedometer climb back up to forty-five. He knew it was dangerous to pull his empty trailer that fast along the road, but it was an emergency, and even worse, an emergency that was partly of his own making.
Out of nowhere, a large pothole appeared in the road. He yanked the wheel sharply to the right to avoid the axle breaker. His trailer began to fishtail wildly, causing the pickup to swerve back and forth across the road.
Again, he fought to bring the truck under control. He knew better than to turn that sharply. What had he been thinking? Gradually, he slowed and pulled to the side of the road.
The other truck pulled behind him. Yudi got out and went back to the driver. “I have to unhook the trailer. It’s bouncing all over the place and slowing us down.”
He jogged back to the rear of his truck and Miki got out and joined him. Together, they disconnected the trailer and moved it off the road.
“When we get back, we’ll contact Search and Rescue,” Yudi said.
“What if they ask why we didn’t search farther into the mountains?”
Yudi frowned at his friend. “We’ll just tell them the tracks faded out, and we couldn’t find them again.”
Miki nodded, “It’s pretty much the truth anyway. What if they ask us to help in the search?”
“I don’t know. Maybe the state will send in helicopters and we won’t have to worry about it.”
Yudi climbed back in his truck and took off with Miki close behind. He looked up at the bright September morning sky and wondered what he should say to his sister-in-law. The other boy’s parents would want an explanation as well.
It wasn’t completely his fault, and he wasn’t going to let anyone place the whole blame on him. He had warned the boys to stay close to camp while he and Miki scouted the western mountains for game. He had even told them about the hunters who had disappeared in the forbidden eastern mountain range while hunting for caribou.
Once the parents found out where their boys were, he knew there were no words that he could say that would calm or appease them.
* * *
Luc Moon watched Kate McGrew pilot the Cessna 180 as they flew seven thousand feet above the northern Alaskan tundra. He watched as she scanned the horizon and then quickly glanced down at the GPS. Cute was the word that went through his mind.
“We have about twenty minutes more until we reach the village,” she said.
He looked out his window at the miles of tundra far below them. “It always amazes me to see just how vast and deserted this part of the country is,” he said.
“We’ve covered over three hundred miles and haven’t seen one sign of civilization,” she said.
“It’s kind of humbling.”
“It is. See those clouds up ahead?” she asked.
“I do, and if I’ve learned anything from you over the past year, I’d bet there’s a lot of turbulence underneath them.”
“And you’d win the bet,” she said. “I’m going to make a little detour around them. It should only add about five minutes or so to our time.”
“So, no roller coaster rides today?”
“Maybe next time,” she said, flashing him a smile.
He loved her smile. It brightened his day whenever he saw it. He studied her face for a moment. Even with her shoulder-length, curly blond hair pulled back under her headphones, she looked beautiful. Her large green eyes sparkled and exuded confidence and capability as they darted back and forth across the horizon, down to the controls, and then back up again.
She stretched her neck back and forth and slightly twisted her body. He remembered she had complained about her neck earlier before they had left Fairbanks.
“Need a neck rub?” he asked.
“Maybe later,” she said, and winked at him. “I think I must have flown at least thirty hours in the last three days.”
“You might be overdoing it.“
“A lot of villages need to stock up on supplies before the snows come. This is my busiest time of the year,” she said with a serious look.
“Just the same, you should take care of yourself.” Having known her for the past year, though, he knew she wasn’t the type of person who did anything just halfway.
The sudden crackle of the two-way radio interrupted their conversation. He heard Kate’s assistant, Chuck, calling the plane.
“Go ahead, I read you,” she said.
“Is Luc with you?”
“That’s an affirmative.”
“Good. There’s an emergency here and the village elders want to talk to him as soon as you land.”
“What’s the emergency?”
“Don’t really know. They didn’t say.”
“Our ETA is twenty minutes. I guess we’ll find out then.”
She signed off and latched the microphone back in its holder.
“Any idea what’s up?” she asked.
“No idea,” he said. He looked out the front window and scanned the horizon. It was a bright Saturday morning. To the north he could see the snow-capped and purple-tinged Brooks Mountain Range.
“See that break in the mountains?” he asked her, as he pointed to a location about one hundred miles north of Manatuk.
“I do.”
“My grandfather used to take me hunting in the mountains west of that when I was a teenager. The village hunters call that break ‘the rift.’ It separates our hunting grounds from the forbidden area.”
“Forbidden, oooh,” she said.
“Hey, don’t poke fun at Manatuk lore,” he said, and chuckled.
“What’s so forbidden about it?”
“People who go into those mountains don’t come back out.”
“I’ve never heard about that,” she said, with a tone of incredulity.
“There’s a story my grandfather told me about a group of hunters that went into the mountains east of the rift in
the winter of 1946. They couldn’t find any game on the western side so they went into the eastern range. They were warned against it, but they were desperate.”
“Desperate for what?” she asked.
“Food. They hunted for most of their food back then. Anyway, at that time of the year, everything was covered in snow so they had to use dog sleds. A few of the hunters stayed behind at the base of the mountains, refusing to go anywhere near the eastern range.”
“What’s so bad about the eastern mountains?” she asked.
“I’m getting to that.”
She turned and stuck her tongue out at him.
“Oh, really,” he said and continued. “They waited for the hunters to return, but they didn’t come back that night or the next. After three days, one of the dog teams returned, pulling an empty sled without the hunter. It was pulled by just two of the six dogs. Part of a third dog was still attached to the harness, but the back half of it was gone. My grandfather said it was the most terrible sight he’d ever seen.”
“Are you making that up?” she asked.
“I would never.”
“And why should I believe that?”
“Because my mother and father were also lost in those mountains. At least, that’s what I’ve been able to piece together. No one’s actually told me that straight out.”
“You never told me about that,” she said.
“My father was an archaeologist from Germany who came to Manatuk to explore the northern mountain ranges for archaeological artifacts. He met my mother, and they fell in love. A year later, I was born.”
“That’s so romantic,” she said.
“My father, Carl, decided to explore the Eastern Mountains, even though my grandfather and other elders warned him against it. My mother insisted on going with him. She wanted to protect him. Can you believe that, a little five-foot-five Eskimo girl thinking she should protect a big strappin’ six-foot-three man?” He felt angry once again. He didn’t even know why he had brought the whole thing up.
“That was really brave of her,” Kate said.
He wondered for a moment what it would have been like to know her. “Why do you think he did it?” Luc asked.
“Why, who did what?”
“Why, my father let her go with him into the eastern mountains. He took my mother from me. What kind of a jerk does that?”
“I don’t know, Luc. I’m sure he didn’t think anything would happen,” she said.
“Yeah, he just didn’t think.” He took a deep breath and blew it out slowly.
“Hey, there’s the village,” she said, pointing out the front window.
“Time really flies when you’re having a fun conversation,” he said. He could hear the sarcasm creeping into his voice. God, he hated it when he started feeling sorry for himself.
Kate adjusted the frequency dial on the transceiver and grabbed the microphone. She radioed the Manatuk airport and announced their plans to land. The view of the mountains gradually disappeared as they made their approach.
He glanced around the airport just before they touched down and noticed a large Air National Guard search and rescue plane parked near a hangar. What that was doing in Manatuk? he wondered.
He felt the plane softly touch down in a perfect three-point landing. She was good, he thought.
She taxied the plane up to her hangar then shut off the engine. They opened the doors and Luc saw Chuck hurry out of the hangar to greet them.
“Hey, Chuck. So, what’s all this about an emergency?” she asked, as she stepped out of the plane.
Chuck, a tall and husky retired Navy mechanic, with a short, clipped gray beard, shook his head back and forth with a grim look on his face.
“Boy-oh-boy, is there ever a big mess brewin’. They called back again and I found out more.”
“So, what’s up?” Luc asked.
“A guy named Yudi went out on a hunting trip yesterday. He took two boys with him. The boys took off alone and got themselves lost in the eastern mountains. You don’t know Yudi, do you?” he asked.
“Yeah, I know him. He’s one of the village elders. He’s known to be bit of a hot head.”
“Well, he messed up big time. The old medicine lady told him if he went hunting, disaster would strike the village. She warned him. But he went anyway. Now, you guys, I don’t really believe in that kinda stuff, but the fact is, there are two boys lost out there in the eastern mountains. From what they’re saying, that’s a bad place to be lost.”
“Let me guess, no one’s willing to go out and look for them either,” Luc said.
“How’d you know?” Chuck asked.
“You’d have to be raised here to know some of the stories about those mountains.” He hoped Kate wouldn’t say anything about his parents. He felt better about keeping that private.
“Give me a couple of minutes, and I’ll drive you over to the village hall,” Kate said.
She picked up a clipboard. “Chuck, some of these items don’t appear to have been delivered yet. Let’s go into the office.”
Luc knew, as part of her new delivery service, Kate had put Chuck in charge of delivering all the packages to their destinations. She had even bought a small pickup for that purpose. He watched her and Chuck disappear into the office area.
He heard the office phone ring and Kate began talking to someone. He had a pretty good idea what the call was about.
She poked her head out of the doorway. “The village elders are at the meeting hall. They want to talk to you as soon as possible,” she said, and disappeared back in the office.
Luc was not eager to meet with the village elders. Rather, he was looking forward to seeing his grandfather, Matooska, the only parent he had ever known.
Kate and Chuck walked back into the main hangar area and joined him. She handed the clipboard to Chuck and smiled. “Everything got delivered, he just forgot to check them off.”
Luc and Kate left the hangar and got into her Toyota pickup. She pulled out of the airport and headed for the village meeting hall.
The hall was where the village business took place and where celebrations were held. It was slightly north of the Manatuk airport and they got there in just under five minutes.
She pulled into the parking lot.
“It’s pretty full,” Luc said.
She parked near the end, and they got out.
“It’s getting pretty chilly,” she said as she zipped up her jacket.
Luc, too, felt a chill in the air. Winter was definitely on the way, he thought. He put his arm around her and they hurried across the parking lot and up to the entrance.
Chapter 2
Luc and Kate walked quickly from the far end of the parking lot up to the village center entrance. Luc opened the door and they were met by the raucous sound of heated conversations. They went inside.
Kate had never been in the village center before and slowly looked around the large room, taking everything in. At the front, two foldout tables were arranged end to end. From there, rows of seats spread out toward the middle. Standing behind the mostly empty seats were small groups of villagers talking loudly and acting visibly upset.
She focused on a woman sitting at the left end of the table crying with her face resting in her hands.
Kate whispered in Luc’s ear, “That must be one of the parents of the lost boys. Do you know her?”
“That’s Yudi’s sister-in-law, Tukia. I went to school with her and her husband. He was killed in a snow machine accident a few years ago. Tukia’s taking care of her sister’s boy until she gets out of jail. I think she tried to bring drugs or alcohol into the village.”
“Drugs? In this village?” she asked.
“You wouldn’t know it, but this village has drug and alcohol problems. The kids get bored with school, they don’t see much future for themselves, so they become easy targets.”
That was a side of Manatuk that Kate had not seen. She wondered what other things about the village were wait
ing to be discovered.
A large man in a blue flannel shirt sat down behind one of the tables. He picked up a gavel and smacked the tabletop several times. “Please everybody, have a seat. We have emergency business to discuss,” he said, tossing the gavel down.
Kate took a seat in the back next to Luc.
“That’s Anyu Tomkins, the mayor of the village,” Luc said. “He’s an interesting guy.”
Another younger, somewhat taller man with dark piercing eyes, sat down next to Anyu. He glanced around the room and saw Luc. He nodded at him then looked back down at the table.
“That’s Yudi,” Luc whispered.
Kate was surprised at how quickly everyone sat down and the room became quiet.
Anyu continued, “This emergency village hall meeting has been called by Tukia Yuta and the Nuviska family. This concerns Kevin Yuta and Jesse Nuviska,” he paused and cleared his throat, “who have been reported as lost in the eastern mountains.”
Kate heard hushed whispering from around the room. She watched Anyu’s eyes scan over the people in the audience and then settle on the crying woman. She got the impression he was deeply unsettled.
“Tukia would like to address the attendees,” Anyu said and then quickly sat down.
The lady, who had been sobbing at the end of the table, stood.
“You all know me and Kevin,” she began, then paused and wiped the tears from her eyes with the backs of her hands. “We’ve had our fair share of bad luck but we stood strong, never asked for any handouts or anything, not even after my husband died. But today, we need your help. Kevin and Jesse are lost in the eastern mountains. We need the village men to gather up a group and go in and find them.”
“Impossible,” said a man from the back of the room. “You know as well as anyone else that our people never go into the eastern mountains. That’s a rule we live by. If we don’t, it’s a rule we die by. They’re probably both dead by now anyway.”
Kate was shocked by the callous response. Was that man serious? How could he just dismiss those two boys because they were in the wrong mountains? She turned and looked at Luc. He stared straight ahead with no emotion on his face.
