Hostage

by Chris Ryan

  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.

  'You weren't kidding,' said Alex, his voice weak and trembling.

  'Sorry,' said Paulo again.

  Amber brought Alex a hot drink and some painkillers to take, and at last the pain dulled and he slept.

  'That is good,' said Paulo. 'That is what he needs now. We shall build up the fire and wait—'

  'Shhh!' interrupted Li. She had heard something. As they all listened, it came again, drifting across the frozen landscape. It was the long, mournful howl of a wolf.

  ELEVEN

  The sound made all the hairs on the back of Amber's neck rise in a shivering line.

  'Is that what I think it is?' she asked, gazing wide-eyed at Li.

  'A wolf?' asked Li. 'Yes it is.'

  'Oh, that's just great,' quavered Amber.

  'But that wolf, he is very far away. Yes?' asked Paulo.

  Li nodded in agreement.

  'So, there is no danger—'

  Paulo broke off as another, answering howl trembled through the cold air. This one was closer. A lot closer.

  'I knew I was right to hate this place,' muttered Hex, searching the darkening skyline.

  'Don't worry,' said Li. 'A wolf pack hunts by picking off the sick, old or wounded animals from a herd. They won't go for a group of humans unless—'

  'Unless what?' demanded Amber.

  'Unless they're desperately hungry – and that's not very likely right at the start of winter.'

  Amber relaxed, then tensed again as she heard something on the frozen river. Her eyes widened as she identified the sound. It was claws scratching on ice. The scratching grew louder, accompanied by loud panting and the occasional yipping bark. The pack was racing along the frozen river and drawing closer by the second.

  Without a word, Amber, Hex, Li and Paulo each picked a flaming branch from the fire and moved into a protective semicircle around Alex. They waited, hoping against hope that the pack would carry on down the river and pass them by. That did not happen. The scratching of claws changed to a scrabbling as the beasts swerved up on to the bank, and a second later the leader surged over the top of the bank and raced towards them, closely followed by the rest of the pack.

  Amber screamed at the sight of the glinting teeth and lolling tongues. Then she screamed again as she saw a much bigger beast coming after the pack.

  'It's OK!' shouted Li, suddenly realizing what she was seeing. 'It's not wolves! It's a dog team and sled.'

  Amber sagged with relief as the driver shouted, 'Whoa!' at the same time as slamming his foot down on a steel claw between the runners. The claw dug down into the snow, the team slowed and the sled came to a halt. The driver stepped down from the back of the sled and walked towards them, loosening the drawstrings on his fur-trimmed hood.

  Hex stiffened and raised his flaming branch again. It had just occurred to him that this man might not be friendly. He scanned the man's clothes for any sign of an Usher Mining Corporation logo, but there was nothing to be seen. The man pushed his hood back to reveal a round, friendly Inuit face, split in a smile.

  'We thought they were wolves,' explained Amber, lowering her own branch.

  'There is some wolf in 'em,' said the man, waving a mittened hand at his team. 'Some husky. Some other breeds too. They're a real mixture.'

  'We heard a wolf howling,' said Paulo. 'It was very close.'

  The man shook his head. 'It was much further away than it sounded. Those wolf howls can carry ten miles or more.'

  'What do you want?' said Hex, still suspicious.

  'Saw your fire,' said the man. 'Stopped off to say hello. My name is Amaruk.' He turned to Amber with a mischievous glint in his eyes. 'It means wolf.'

  Amber smiled. 'My name's—'

  'Amber,' said Amaruk and he laughed when her mouth dropped open in surprise. 'Am I right?'

  'How did you know that?' squeaked Amber.

  'I'm a friend of Papaluk's,' explained Amaruk. 'She told me you'd be heading my way this week, so I've been keeping an eye out for you.'

  'You know Papaluk?' asked Li, stepping forward.

  'Yeah. I'm heading out to the bay now, just to make sure she's OK. I heard there's been some kinda trouble there. The supply plane pilots found a body or something.'

  Li and Hex shared a look but Amaruk didn't see it. He had spotted Alex, lying in front of the fire, with his bandaged shoulder sticking out of the sleeping bag. 'Hey, is he hurt? What happened here?'

  'Amaruk,' said Li quietly, 'I have some
bad news.'

  She took Amaruk to one side to tell him about Papaluk. Amber, Hex and Paulo remained by the fire, watching as Amaruk's shoulders slumped and Li rested a hand on his arm. The dogs seemed to know something was wrong. They had been lolling in the snow but now they sat up and looked towards their master, whining and yipping.

  When Li and Amaruk had finished talking, they returned to the fire. Amaruk was no longer smiling. 'Sounds like you've all had quite a time of it,' he said, squatting by the fire. 'Papaluk said you were into extreme sports, but what you've just been through is so extreme, most folks would be dead by now' He looked at each of them in turn, and his gaze was shrewd and considering. 'Who are you kids?' he asked quietly. 'And what's really going on here?'

  'What do you mean?' asked Hex, returning Amaruk's gaze with a bland stare.

  'OK,' said Amaruk. 'If that's how you want to play it. Just give me a minute, will you?' He stared into the flames for a long time. Finally, he roused himself and stared up at the threatening sky. A cloud bank had rolled in overhead and the wind was rising.

  'Storm on the way,' he said briefly. 'I can't help Papaluk now, but I can help her friends, whatever you're up to. Come on. I'll take you back to my village. It's on the banks of the river, not far away. The mine you were looking for is just a bit further on. A lot of the guys in the village used to work there, before Usher took it over.'

  As they created a bed for Alex on Amaruk's sled, the first snow began to fall. By the time Alex was strapped securely in place, they were in the middle of a blizzard. Mean, hard pellets of snow were blowing almost horizontally on a rising wind.

  'Maybe we should camp up until this is over!' yelled Hex.

  Amaruk shook his head as he strapped a headlamp around his forehead and clipped the battery pack to his belt. 'We need to get Alex here into a warm bed as soon as possible.'

  'But you can't see more than two metres in front of you in this!'

  'Don't need to,' said Amaruk, ruffling the thick fur of his lead dog. 'I've got Boomer.' He looked down at the dog and it gazed back adoringly, leaning in against his leg. It was a big male with black, tan and white markings and a tail that curled over its back like a question mark. 'Boomer's short for Boomerang, because he always finds his way back. We've been together a long time, me and Boomer. He's brought me home through much worse than this.'