The Ice Star (Konstabel Fenna Brongaard Book 1)

by Christoffer Petersen

  The Filipino driver clicked the Zodiac into gear and pressed the throttle lever as Fenna tumbled Dina over the rubber sides of the boat and grabbed the safety line. The wind flicked at her hair as she turned to see Burwardsley charging down the ladder only to be stopped by the throng of excited guests filling the pontoon. Fenna turned her head as she heard the thunk thunk of small chunks of ice hitting the rigid hull of the Zodiac, and she let the wind blow her hair free of her eyes. The heart-shaped mountain that gave Uummannaq its name towered above the yellow hospital. Fenna plucked a strand of hair from her mouth and dared to breathe.

  Chapter 27

  The driver of the Zodiac powered the inflatable craft in a wide arc around an ice floe, a sheet of ice that defied the warm sea temperatures. The bow waves of the small blue fishing trawlers chopped the water as they motored past. Fenna noticed the patches of blood on the floe, the remains of a hunt when the fjord was frozen. The island of Uummannaq, 650 kilometres above the Arctic Circle, had been locked in for the brief, unseasonable but increasingly common, winter. Fenna scanned the road and shivered in the cool breeze. She didn't have enough layers for sailing despite the warmer weather. The ice may have melted but it was still sub-zero.

  She spotted a familiar blue police Toyota parked outside the hospital, a Rav4 minus the bullet holes. A policeman was leaning against the door, smoking and watching the Zodiac slip between the hunter's dinghies. Fenna held his gaze as the man finished his cigarette and walked down the road to the concrete slipway. The hull of the Zodiac crunched over a layer of ice as the Filipino driver cut the power and raised the outboard motor. Fenna waited for the boat to bump to a halt, then stood up and helped Dina to her feet. She nodded at the driver and stepped over the side of the boat, tugging Dina’s sweater and encouraging her to follow. The policeman stopped at the top of the slipway and waited.

  Fenna realised that Dina was walking with the weight of the dead, as each step took her further and further from Watts. She barely lifted her toes from the ground, sliding her feet forward, up the slipway, away from The Ice Star, away from the scene of so much horror. And love, Fenna thought as she remembered the security officer's tenderness, the light kisses he placed on Dina’s forehead, the wet sheen to his eyes as he looked at her.

  “It's going to be okay, Dina,” she said and pulled her another few steps.

  “Konstabel Brongaard?” the policeman said and pulled his hands out of his pockets.

  “Yes,” Fenna said and studied the man. She thought of Maratse and realised she would have preferred a Greenlander, but also that it was quite normal for the more senior ranks to be Danish. She stopped a half metre in front of him and circled her arm around Dina's waist.

  “My name is Simonsen. I'll take you to the hospital.”

  “Okay,” she said and glanced over her shoulder as the Filipino slipped over the bow of the Zodiac and pushed it back into the water. She waited for him to wave, but the man dipped his head low inside the high collar of his jacket, his breath misting over the lip as he lowered the outboard, started the motor and weaved between the dinghies on his return to The Ice Star.

  We're on our own again, Fenna thought as she guided Dina along the road behind the policeman. Simonsen waited for them beside the Toyota, pausing as a second policeman, a Greenlander, walked out of the side door of the hospital and held it open.

  “We'll go in the back way,” Simonsen said and nodded towards the policeman. Fenna took a last look at the ship and the two Zodiacs heading towards the harbour. She relaxed when she couldn't see Burwardsley's massive frame; the Zodiacs were full of guests, six to each boat.

  The policemen kicked the snow off their boots before entering the hospital. Fenna did the same, but Dina dragged each toe as if it was frozen to the floor, as if she had to break every step free before she could move on. The dim light of the corridor cast a yellow light on the white walls as they passed the tiny morgue and skirted around a gurney. Simonsen stopped as the mobile in his pocket rang. Fenna smiled as Europe’s The Final Countdown rang louder and louder before he swiped the screen and nodded for his assistant to take them into the room off to the left.

  “In here,” the policeman said and opened the door to a small storage room with a chair in one corner. Fenna guided Dina between the packing cases and plastic storage boxes and helped her sit down. She turned to the policeman as he stepped out of the room and gripped the handle of the door.

  “What are we doing in here?” she said. “I thought we were going to be seen by a doctor?”

  “Maybe,” he said and shrugged. He nodded towards Simonsen, out of sight but within earshot. Fenna strained to hear his voice as he continued to speak on the phone.

  “Yes,” he said. “I understand.” Simonsen's mobile beeped as he ended the call. Fenna listened as his boots clumped along the corridor. The policeman let go of the door and took a step back, making way for his boss. Simonsen stepped inside the storage room, glanced at Dina and then fixed Fenna with a steel gaze.

  “You're not going to help, are you?” she said.

  Simonsen unzipped his jacket and wiped his sleeve across his brow, strands of thin grey hair caught in the Velcro at the wrist. He cocked his head to one side and called the policeman over.

  “Danielsen,” he said.

  “Yes?”

  “Stay here while I go back to the office. No-one comes in. Not even a nurse.”

  “Not even a nurse?” Fenna said and took a step forwards. Her elbow nudged a cardboard box and it crashed to the floor, spilling its contents of vacuum-packed needles capped in plastic.

  “Settle down, Konstabel,” Simonsen said. Fenna watched as the man's hands moved to the ready position. “I'll be back very soon, and we can sort all this out.”

  Fenna caught his arm as he turned. “Who was that on the mobile?” she said as he brushed her hand from his sleeve. “Who was it?”

  Simonsen held up his palm and waited for Fenna to take a step backwards. She glanced at Dina and then back at Simonsen's hand. I could snap his wrist, she thought as she played out the move in her mind. Snap it and pull the Webley, force him to give me his pistol. And then what? She took another look at Dina and then a slow step backwards.

  “That was your commanding officer,” Simonsen said. “Kommandør...”

  “Kjersing?” Fenna said and resisted the urge to spit. “He's crooked. Working for Canadian Intelligence,” she said.

  “Really?” Simonsen said as his mouth creased into a grin. Fenna saw the flecks of tobacco between his teeth as he laughed. “He said you might say something like that.”

  “It's true,” Fenna said and glanced at Dina. She wished she would at least lift her head so that she could see her eyes, but Dina kept her face covered. Fenna flexed her fingers as Simonsen laughed. As soon as I see my chance – we have to go, she thought.

  “I find it difficult to imagine that the leader of Sirius is a secret agent, Konstabel.” Simonsen's last word cackled out of his mouth, his cough rasping and his chest rattling. Danielsen grinned behind Simonsen's back.

  Fenna slipped her left hand behind her back and closed her fingers around the handle of the Webley. A metre and a half, she calculated, from me to Danielsen, through the laughing policeman. Down the corridor and... where? She paused for a moment as Simonsen doubled over in a second bout of coughing. The boats, and into the fjord. She smiled as Simonsen caught her eye. Then she drew the Webley, changed her grip and pistol-whipped Uummannaq's Chief of Police on the side of his head. Fenna leaped over Simonsen as he crashed to the ground and threw herself into Danielsen's chest. She dropped the Webley and gripped the policeman around the throat with her right hand, slapping his hand away from his pistol with her left. Fenna changed her grip again, grabbing the policeman by the ears with both hands and slamming his head on the corridor floor as she wormed her knees onto his arms. Danielsen moaned until Fenna smacked his head for the fourth time. She felt his body go limp beneath her knees. Fenna let go and tugged the USP
Compact, the same model as Maratse’s pistol, from his holster, cursing at the spiral of plastic securing the pistol to his belt. She searched Danielsen's utility pockets and found a folding knife. Fenna flicked it open with her thumb and sawed through the plastic. She slipped the pistol into the side pocket of her windpants, stepped over Danielsen's body and picked up the Webley. Fenna whipped the butt of the handle into the side of the policeman's head and pushed the Webley into the waistband of her trousers. She found two spare magazines and shoved them into her pockets. Simonsen's pistol had no security loop so Fenna could pull it free of the holster and shove it into the front of her windpants, leaving the handle poking out of the waistband. She searched his belt and removed another spare magazine and fished his lighter out of his pocket. Fenna remembered how cold it had been on the water and unzipped Simonsen's jacket. She rolled his body from one side to the other and pulled the jacket free. She did the same with Danielsen as Dina lifted her head and stared at the two policemen.

  “Put this on,” Fenna said and gave her Danielsen's jacket. She slipped her arms into Simonsen's jacket, folded the knife and stuffed it into the pocket with the lighter. Fenna flicked her eyes upwards and mouthed a quick thank you as Dina zipped her jacket and tucked her hair inside the collar. Dina stamped her foot and pointed at Simonsen.

  “I had to,” Fenna said. “He got a call from Kjersing,” she said and held up her hands. They trembled and she clenched her fists to suppress the adrenalin pumping through her system. Not for the first time, she realised. And probably not the last. Not before this is over.

  Dina nodded and walked towards the door. She skirted around Fenna, stepped over the policeman and turned towards the door at the end of the corridor. Fenna followed her and pulled the pistol from her waistband. The grip was familiar in her hand and she slipped her finger alongside the trigger guard.

  “Dina,” she said. Fenna waited until Dina turned to look at her. “We have to finish this.”

  Fenna's chest ached as Dina took a step towards her, reached out and cupped her hands either side of Fenna's cheeks. She raised her eyebrows, yes.

  “We can't keep running. You understand?”

  Dina raised her eyebrows again. Yes.

  “I don't know how it will end.”

  Dina shrugged and smoothed her thumbs on Fenna's cheeks. She nodded, let her hands slide down Fenna's face, onto her shoulders, along her arms and to her hands. Dina slipped the fingers of her right hand into Fenna's left and lifted her chin towards the door. She tugged Fenna along the corridor and Fenna let herself be guided to the end, realising as they walked towards the light filtering through the salt-stained window, that an end was all Dina wanted.

  They stopped at the door and Dina moved to give Fenna space to look through the window. She lifted her hand but Dina did not let go. Beyond the Toyota the road wove to the right along the harbour towards the stone church and Pilersuisoq, the supermarket. To the left, Fenna remembered, was the slipway and a fleet of dinghies. She bit her lip and scanned the road once more. Fenna could see the bright red jackets and the slim lifejackets worn by the guests from The Ice Star. The tourists clumped in small groups along the road, and Fenna held her breath in anticipation of seeing Burwardsley or Bahadur among them. Dina stamped her foot and Fenna turned as a nurse entered the corridor at the opposite end of the hospital. The nurse cried out at the sight of the two policeman as Dina increased her grip on Fenna's hand, pushed the door open and pulled her outside.

  The cold air caught Fenna's breath for a moment and then they were running and sliding, slipping the soles of their boots along the slick snow, which was compacted and ground into the road, all the way to the slipway. Fenna paused at a single shout. She turned towards the hospital and saw Burwardsley running towards them, one hand tucked beneath the parka he wore over his Arctic camouflage pants, the other waving at the Nepali in the Zodiac powering through the water towards the slipway. Fenna tugged her hand free of Dina's. She gave the Greenlander a short shove down the slipway and pointed at the dinghies. As Dina picked her way across the ice to the boats, Fenna gripped the pistol in two hands, fired two shots in Burwardsley's direction and then turned to empty the magazine into the pontoon of the Zodiac as Bahadur increased speed. The pontoon deflated with a violent gasp as Greenlanders nearby and the guests on the road began to scream and shout. Fenna changed the magazine and fired two more shots at Burwardsley as Dina tugged at the start cord on an outboard. The motor coughed to life and Fenna fired once more as Dina untied the dinghy and waved for Fenna to come quickly.

  The boom boom boom of Burwardsley's Browning barrelled along the road as he walked the rounds across the ice-coated rocks, puncturing the dinghies between him and Fenna. Plastic jerrycans of fuel in adjacent dinghies popped and burst just a metre from Dina's back as she twisted the throttle arm and turned the bow of the greasy and blood-stained hunter's vessel into the fjord. Burwardsley cursed as he changed magazines and yelled for Bahadur to come and pick him up.

  “Go, Dina,” Fenna said and pointed towards the tip of an island in the middle of the fjord. Dina planed the dinghy to the left and right of the larger floes and growlers at the entrance to the harbour, lifting the bow of the dinghy as she increased speed and steered a course away from the island, away from The Ice Star, towards the end.

  Chapter 28

  UUMMANNATSIAQ, WEST GREENLAND

  The outboard motor failed ten metres from the curved point of Ikerasak island. Dina gripped the throttle arm of the motor and used the remaining forward motion to steer the dinghy closer to the ice lining the shore. Fenna twisted in the seat at the bow, the pistol pointing at the deck in a loose grip. She looked over Dina's shoulder and scanned the fjord, searching for the black hulls of The Ice Star's Zodiacs. She knew Burwardsley would follow just as soon as he got a replacement for the one she hoped she was lying on the sea floor in Uummannaq harbour, preferably with the bloody Gurkha inside it. She turned and faced forward as Dina bumped the dinghy into a flat growler grounded on the rocks just a few metres from the shore. Beyond the ice and rock of the coastline, Fenna could see wooden buildings, painted red and blue, sitting on granite foundations. She focused on a red building, the largest and furthest from the shore, across a wide open field of snow with little to obstruct a bullet, a killing ground should anyone wander into it. She nodded at Dina, tucked the pistol into her windpants and scrambled over the side of the dinghy, her feet sliding for purchase on the ice as she held the boat steady for Dina to climb out of it. As Dina clambered around her and onto the island, she kicked the boat free. One way or another, we won't need it, she reasoned. Fenna watched as the boat drifted out between the growlers of ice and into the fjord. The tide might take it deeper into the fjord, if we're lucky, she thought. She turned and followed Dina towards the red building.

  It was a schoolhouse, with thick square rafters of dark hardwood in the roof space, long benches around broad tables, and bunks at the rear. Dina walked from the door into the kitchen and searched the cupboards, pulling tins and dried goods onto the counter. She found a tin of peaches and pulled open a drawer, rattling through the cutlery until she found a tin opener. She beamed at Fenna as they sat down opposite each other at the table closest to the kitchen. It was the first time she had seen Dina smile, Fenna realised. She watched as Dina chiselled her way into the lid of the tin and twisted it open, turning the tin with one hand at the base and cutting the lid with the blade and quick flicks of the tin opener. The syrup spilled onto Dina's hand and she smiled as she licked it from her fingers.

  “Dina,” Fenna said as the Greenlander prised back the lid and fished a peach slice out of the tin. “You're going to need this,” she said and slid Simonsen's pistol across the table. Dina flicked her eyes at the pistol and shook her head. “Yes,” Fenna said and placed one of the two extra magazines next to the pistol. Dina ignored Fenna and ate two more slices of peach. Syrup dribbled down her chin and dripped onto the tabletop.

  Fenna sighed and m
ade a play of wrestling the tin from Dina's grasp. She tried to smile, then slipped a slice of the preserved fruit into her mouth. Dina nodded and then grabbed the tin. They shared the last of the slices until there was only syrup remaining. Dina drank half of it and pushed the tin to Fenna.

  “No,” she said. “You finish it.” Fenna waited until Dina had wiped the last drop of juice from her chin. The twenty-five year old woman grinned like a cheeky toddler and Fenna smiled at her. Then she placed her hand on the pistol and pushed it all the way to Dina's chest. “I can't do this alone,” she said.

  Dina's hair shook as she frowned and looked away from the pistol as Fenna wrestled with the image of Dina shooting Lunk in the head, only hours earlier.

  “They are coming,” she said. “You understand, don't you?” Fenna reached across the table and tugged at Dina's arm. “Don't you?” she said as Dina turned to face her.

  Yes, Dina raised her eyebrows. She scowled and took the pistol and the extra magazine, pushed them into the voluminous pockets of the jacket. Dina lifted her right leg over the bench, stood and walked to the window. She picked at the sealskin cord of a dog whip hanging on the wall – there was another on the wall opposite – and stared out across the snow towards the fjord. Fenna joined her and realised she could just see the dinghy before it floated out of sight behind a large berg. The tide had cleared this area of the fjord, carrying the larger floes deeper into the black waters, around the peninsula and out to sea. Apart from the numerous bergs, the sea was clear and free for sailing. The sun was low in the blue sky, and the glaciers on the mountains were tinged with pink. If it wasn't for the drone of the outboard motor that drifted towards the schoolhouse on the wind, Fenna thought she might have enjoyed the view.