by Bryan Dunn
Boots’s eyes fluttered open.
“The son-of-a-bitch must’ve wanted my candy bars.”
Boots’s shirt was ripped down the center and half of it was soaked with blood. Harry lifted the shirt and a quick examination revealed two vertical crimson slashes that ran the length of his spine.
“The pack saved his life,” Amy said, examining the smashed pack.
Nowhere Man reached down and lifted one of the candy bars. “Or very near killed him.”
Harry and Amy began to clean and dress the wounds as best they could. Lockwood bent down, gripped Boots’s wrist, and checked his pulse, timing the beats with his Rolex.
“This man is going to have to be transported to the hospital as soon as possible.”
“Great. That’s just great,” Harry said, pressing a bandage around Boots’s ribcage.
“Hang in there, Buddy,” Nowhere Man said, then pulled out a radio and put in a call to Lieutenant Cushman back in the chopper.
“Hey, Cush, wake up – it’s Nowhere. Boots is hurt. We’re gonna need an immediate medevac.”
Chapter 21
Ten minutes later the Coast Guard chopper dusted off, and Lieutenant Cushman was racing across the iceberg toward the team.
A heavy thumping filled the air. Amy, Harry, Lockwood and Nowhere Man all looked up just as the chopper appeared overhead.
Nowhere Man keyed his radio, and yelling over the noise of the turbines, began barking instructions to Lieutenant Cushman.
“Cush, it’s not safe to land. You’re going to have to come in at a low hover. Harry and I will load Boots, then get the others on board.”
“Roger that. I copy, Nowhere.”
“Wait a minute,” Amy said, stepping up to Nowhere Man. “Why should we all go back? Can’t you and Lieutenant Cushman run Boots back to the hospital and then come back for us? Or maybe you could have them send another helicopter?”
“It’s risky. The weather could change, and we might have a hard time getting you off the iceberg.”
“The weather is picture perfect.”
“Arctic storms can come out of nowhere. Things can go to hell in a hurry on the water. And by the time we drop Boots and refuel we’re talking about two, maybe three hours.”
“What about the weather report?”
“There were no alerts or warnings as of 8 a.m. this morning.”
“See… It’s settled then,” Amy said, her confidence building.
Nowhere Man turned to Harry and Lockwood. “Doctor? Harry? You heard the lady – what’s your vote?”
“By all means, leave us,” Lockwood said. Then he turned and pointed at the pinnacle. “I didn’t come all this way to leave before seeing the prize.”
“Yeah, I think we’ll be fine, Nowhere,” Harry said, then added, “But haul ass back here anyway.”
Nowhere Man shrugged, moved away from the team, and using his arms, guided Lieutenant Cushman into a hover two feet above the ice.
The group was hit by the rotor wash. Amy and Lockwood instinctively retreated from the hovering chopper.
Nowhere Man and Harry ducked, covering their eyes. Then they moved Boots, and with one man at each end of him, hoisted him safely into the hovering Black Hawk.
Nowhere Man jumped into the chopper, pulling Boots away from the door.
Just as quickly he reappeared and yelled to Harry, “Here – take this.” He handed over the radio. “If you get into any trouble, this will put you right through to the air station.” Nowhere Man turned, and grabbed a pistol. “Know how to use one of these?”
“Sure,” Harry nodded.
Nowhere Man passed the gun to Harry. “It’s a Glock 40. Packs a punch. Just in case you run out of pepper spray.”
Harry slid the gun into his jacket and flashed a thumbs up.
Nowhere Man returned the gesture and in his best Schwarzenegger voice said, “I’ll be back.” Then he slid the cargo door shut and moved to the cockpit.
Harry waved and ducked away in a low crouch, then watched as the Black Hawk began to rise in a slow arcing turn, drop its nose, and with engines screaming, race toward the mainland.
Amy and Lockwood moved up next to Harry. All of them suddenly felt a pang of loneliness as the helicopter turned into a dot, then vanished over the horizon.
Chapter 22
The group covered the distance to the pinnacle without further trouble and it wasn’t long before Harry, Amy, and Lockwood were standing in the shadows, staring up at the blue-streaked spire.
“Come on, it’s farther up,” Amy said, pointing ahead. “Just around that wall of ice. That’s where we found the kayak.” And without waiting for the others, she shot forward.
Harry stayed with Lockwood while he caught his breath, then reached into his pack for a bottle of water and took a long swallow. He took another sip, stowed the water, and signaled to Harry he was ready to keep going.
Just as they began to move again, following along in Amy’s tracks…
There was a sudden shrill roar – then a rush of air as the blowhole spouted across the ice.
Lockwood yelled out, and thinking they were about to be attacked again, dropped to the ice, ready to tuck into a defensive ball. After a few seconds he realized it wasn’t another polar bear attack, then looked up in amazement and watched as Harry began to laugh.
“What the hell was that?” Lockwood said, rising to his feet, his face a bloodless mask.
“Blowhole. Can you believe it?”
“You’ve got to be kidding.”
“I wish you could’ve seen your face when that thing went off.”
“I think I damned near went into cardiac arrest. Jesus Christ.”
“It’s a hoot, ain’t it,” Harry said, still laughing.
“My God, I really thought the polar bear had returned.”
“Sorry about that. I guess we forgot to mention it.”
Lockwood laughed and said, “Hey, just the fact that I’m not a polar bear’s lunch right now is good enough.”
* * * *
By the time Harry and Lockwood caught up with Amy, she was already leaning over the kayak, chipping at the ice and trying to free it from the wall.
Lockwood stood staring at the kayak, marveling at the way it stuck right out of the ice. “Incredible!” he said as he stepped up to the bow and ran his hand along a section of the sealskin hull.
“It’s incredible, alright,” Amy said, straightening up to greet Lockwood. “Incredibly well stuck, that is.”
Lockwood moved up to where the hull disappeared into the ice. “Yes, we’re going to need more equipment to extricate it.”
“Come have a look inside, Hayden. The craftsmanship is exquisite.”
While Amy and Lockwood swarmed over the kayak, Harry thought he’d pick his way down to the pool, and who knows, maybe catch the blowhole spouting.
Standing at the water’s edge, he thought the pool looked bigger, that it had definitely grown in size. Then he thought about the chunk of frozen water he was standing on and how in short order, it would all be assimilated back into the sea.
Standing there, staring at the azure pool, Harry’s eye suddenly caught something new, something that wasn’t there last time. Halfway around the pool’s edge, right where the water butted up next to the pinnacle’s base, a large section of ice had been undercut by the warmer ocean water and fallen away to expose a sheer section of virgin ice wall.
He made his way over to the base of the pinnacle and ran his hand across the smooth, newly exposed section of wall, and just as he was about to step away, he noticed something else…
Something was trapped inside the ice!
It was in a section of wall directly overhead. Harry was too close, the angle too sharp for him to get a decent look. He strained forward, but still couldn’t really see what it was. From where he stood, it just looked like a shadowy section of ice.
Harry moved back about ten, feet and when he turned for a better look, he immediately drew in a
sharp breath and froze in his tracks.
There, directly in front of him, suspended fifteen feet in the air, frozen solid in the ice wall, was a giant creature.
It can’t be real, Harry thought. Then he whispered, “Holy God.”
The image that suddenly popped into his mind was that of a creature being displayed in a department store window – or maybe in some bizarre aquarium filled with frozen water.
Harry moved closer for a better look, and what he saw was a large creature, maybe some sort of great ape, but much bigger than any gorilla he’d ever heard of. The creature was covered with hair that was so white that it was almost absent of any color. It was tilted on its side with its back towards Harry. A powerful arm covered with hair was draped over its spine, displaying a clawed hand with long segmented fingers like the legs of a spider crab.
“Whoa!” Harry said, then thought to himself: It’s amazing. Fantastic. Hard to believe. Then he turned and with his hands cupped around his mouth yelled, “Amy!
Dr. Lockwood! Over here, quick!”
* * * *
Five minutes later they were all standing silently, staring up at the mysterious creature trapped in the ice.
“Harry, do you know what this is? Do you realize what you’ve found?” Amy asked, barely able to contain her excitement.
“I’m going to go out on a limb here and rule out the mother of all arctic nematodes.”
“I think it might be some sort of primitive hominoid…”
“I believe we may have outdone Dr. Leaky today,” Lockwood said.
Amy pointed at the creature’s legs. “It has all the characteristics of upright posture – and look, that is clearly an opposable thumb.”
Amy reached down by her side, lifted her camera and began photographing the creature, firing off shots as fast as the system could recycle.
“What are we talking about here?” Harry asked. “You mean this could be the missing link or Sasquatch or the Abominable Snowman or something?”
“It’s too premature to make any assumptions,” Lockwood stated flatly. “But clearly it’s some form of subhuman.”
Amy lowered the camera and took a step forward, not taking her eyes off the wall. “My God, it must stand eight, no, nine feet high.”
“All I can say is – I’m glad it’s taking an ice nap,” Harry said.
“What are we going to do?” Amy asked, thinking out loud. “We’ve got to get it out of that ice. But how?”
“How about a couple of sticks of dynamite and a jackhammer?”
“Are you crazy?” Amy gave Harry a horrified look.
“Yeah, most people think so,” Harry said, grinning right back at her. “Well, I can tell you one thing – it’s not going to be like plucking a few microbes out of the ice.”
“Nonsense,” Lockwood said, stepping forward with authority. “I propose we set about getting a biopsy immediately, then return tomorrow with everything we need to exhume this remarkable find.”
“A biopsy? Immediately?” Harry said in disbelief. “Yeah, great idea. Just one little problem – old Chewbacca there is suspended fifteen feet in the air and locked behind three feet of ice. And, silly me, I forgot to pack my chainsaw.”
“Oh come now, Mr. McNills, where’s your initiative? Where’s all that bush pilot can-do and bravado? We’ve got climbing gear and Amy and I have coring equipment that is more than capable of tapping into that ice. With a little luck, we’ll retrieve a tissue sample – and perhaps more importantly, a hair sample.”
“My God, yes,” Amy blurted. “The hair! I’d completely forgotten. It’s got to be a match.”
“Yes, dollars to donuts this is the fellow that dispatched our hunter.”
“And how do we know it’s not a female?” Amy challenged.
“Well, for beginners, the hairy back is a dead giveaway,” Harry said. “Although, I had a nurse back in high school who could’ve given this thing a run for its money.”
Lockwood slipped off his pack and began removing sections of rod that, when screwed together, formed the shaft of a coring device. He placed the segments end to end on the ice, then looked up at Harry.
“How do you propose to get us up that ice wall, Mr. McNills?”
“Right,” Harry said dryly, knowing all along that he would be on the sharp end of Lockwood’s little plan.
Chapter 23
Nowhere Man left the hospital and pushed his Toyota Tundra as fast as he could toward the air station. The doctor had assured him that after fifty stitches and a week of bed rest, Boots would be back to normal – or whatever Boots’s day-to-day condition was called.
Nowhere Man sped through the airport gates and skidded to a halt next to the Coast Guard hangers. He jumped out of the truck, looked skyward, and noticed that the weather was still good. The marine forecast he’s seen earlier said a high pressure system was building over the region, which meant they were in for a few more days of light winds and calm seas.
Avoiding the office altogether, Nowhere Man trotted across the tarmac and made a beeline for his Black Hawk chopper. Lieutenant Cushman had just signed for a load of jet fuel and was moving around the ship doing a visual inspection.
“Let’s turn and burn, Cush,” Nowhere Man yelled as he arrived at the helo
“Aye, aye, skipper,” Lieutenant Cushman said. “We’re good to go. I just filed a flight plan.”
Both men leapt aboard and, as Lieutenant Cushman did a preflight and lit the turbines, Nowhere Man got on the radio and called Harry.
“U.S. Coast Guard aircraft calling, Harry McNills.” Silence, then he tried again. “Coast Guard aircraft calling Harry McNills. Harry, do you copy?”
More silence. He turned to Lieutenant Cushman. “I bet the idiot isn’t even monitoring the hailing channel.”
“I bet the damn radio isn’t even turned on,” Lieutenant Cushman said, laughing as the Black Hawk’s sleek blades began to turn and spin faster and faster until they were an invisible blur.
Five minutes later they were airborne and charging across the ocean toward the iceberg.
Nowhere Man was about to try the radio again when Harry’s voice crashed out of an overhead speaker.
“Hey, Nowhere, do you copy?”
Nowhere Man smiled, adjusted the radio and spoke into his headset. “Roger that, Harry. We’re outbound and should be over your pos at 1600 hours.”
“Copy that. Hey, how’s Boots? Is he okay?”
“Doctor said he was going to be fine – but it was gonna take fifty stitches to patch him back together.”
“Ouch.” Then, “Nowhere – you guys are not going to believe what we found.”
“Oh, no… Not again. I’m not sure I’m ready for this.”
“It’s a mind-blower, Nowhere.”
“Okay, so what’d you find?”
“Actually, we’re not sure. But something big, fantastic. I’m not going to say any more – you’re going to have to see for yourself.”
“Great. Just great. And don’t tell me you’re planning on putting it in my bird”
“It’s buried deep in the ice. We’re going to have to return tomorrow with more equipment.”
“Great. Just great.”
“Listen, Nowhere, we’re not going to have time to get back to the LZ. Let’s rendezvous where we evacuated Boots. We’re just going to have to load up while you guys come in and hover.”
“Great.” Then, “Okay, Harry. We’ll look for you guys in a little over an hour.”
“Oh, wait. Hey Nowhere – if you get a chance, put in a call to Inspector Hyde. Tell him we’re bringing him a little surprise that may help with his murder investigation.”
“McNills, tell me we’re not talking about another half-eaten body.”
“Just tell him, Nowhere. Gotta go. McNills clear.”
Nowhere Man looked over at Lieutenant Cushman, shook his head, applied more throttle, and the Black Hawk closed on the iceberg.
Chapter 24
Befo
re Nowhere Man’s call, Harry had been busy rigging a way up the wall by driving pitons into the ice, clipping carabiners through the steel spikes, and then running climbing rope through them.
What he had in mind was securing the ropes twenty feet up the ice wall. That would allow him and Amy to drop down over the area where the creature was entombed and hopefully get a biopsy.
Using one of the ropes, Harry improvised a makeshift bosun’s chair – a device that allows a person to sit and be hoisted up the mast of a boat, or in this case, up the side of a sheer ice wall.
The plan was to have Amy sit in the bosun’s chair, then he and Lockwood would hoist her up the wall until she was directly over the buried creature. After Amy had positioned herself, Harry, using the other line, would haul himself up alongside her. Then together they would place the coring rod over the creature, and Harry, with his feet planted against the ice wall as if he was about to rappel downward, would lean back and be in a position to operate the coring rod.
While he and Amy were clinging to the ice wall, Lockwood would be free to watch and bark useless orders at them.
“Okay, I think we’re ready,” Harry said, tugging on a line to make sure it was secure.
“Are you sure it’s safe, Mr. McNills?” Lockwood asked.
“Actually, no. Maybe you should go first and test it, just to make sure.”
Amy was already climbing into the boson’s chair and said, “I’m the lightest. I’m going first.”
Harry looked at her and nodded okay. He couldn’t help noticing her beautiful face and flushed cheeks. It was all over for him. He was in love.
After Amy was secured to the end of the rope, Lockwood and Harry took up the slack and began to hoist her up the ice wall.
“How you doing, how does it feel?” Harry called up.
“Great,” Amy yelled, then flashed a thumbs up. “Let’s do it.”
Lockwood and Harry kept pulling until she was directly over the creature’s shadowy form.
Lockwood then took the tail of the rope, and wrapping it tightly around his waist, acted as an anchor for Amy.
