Audra set to work, assembling the weather station like the expert she now was. It only took her a few minutes, leaving plenty of time to do that video.
Audra summoned a smile and turned on the camera. "Hi. Welcome back to Heard Island. If you're watching this now, it means I've succeeded in doing a live video. If you're watching this later, I guess I need to work on that live bit. I have an excuse, though – just check out the view."
She panned the camera around slowly, pointing out Big Ben, the camp, the cove and even Jean. She lifted a hand to wave at him while the camera was pointed in his direction, and he pointed back at her and shouted something she couldn't hear. Ah well. If he'd wanted to tell her something, he shouldn't have given her the silent treatment this morning.
Or maybe he was so excited about finding his penguins that he wanted to share the excitement with her, as the only other person on the island.
"I think our biologist has found some very special penguins he's been searching for, so let's take a look and see if we can spot them, too."
Audra turned the camera to the shore below her, where there were plenty of penguins and seals sunning themselves between the tumbled rocks. All adult penguins, though, and she knew Jean had been looking for babies. Audra glimpsed movement out of the corner of her eye, but when she turned to face what she thought she'd seen, she found only more rocks. And then...one of the rocks moved, and opened its beak. Audra blinked. Not rocks at all, but brown penguins – the very same that Jean had been looking for. No wonder he was so excited.
She counted them out loud for the camera, telling what was probably one sole viewer about how juvenile king penguins were originally thought to be a completely different species to their parents, because they looked so different to the tiny grey babies or their majestic, black, white and gold parents.
A sudden shiver ran through her, as though a goose had walked over her grave. It wasn't like she was cold or scared. It was followed by another shudder, as Audra realised the rock beneath her was moving, too.
She remembered Jean's warning about sinkholes, so she backed up toward the concrete pad with a row of squat support pillars along one side which was all that remained of an old research camp that had probably been abandoned before she was born. That bit had to be stable.
Audra reached the concrete safely, then turned the camera on herself. "Sorry about that. I'm standing on an active volcano and Big Ben behind me is grumbling a bit, making the earth move." The ground shook again, illustrating her point for her. "But it's all right, this volcano hardly ever erupts. See?" Audra turned to face the peak, lifting the camera higher. Even as she watched, a curl of smoke issued from the mountain. "Well, now don't I feel silly. A mountain making a liar out of me. It's only smoking, though..."
Above, a grey avalanche thundered down the side of the mountain, before it spent itself in the snow. An eruption. A real volcanic eruption. She hadn't just seen it, she'd caught the rare event on film. If she was lucky, one of the news channels would pick up her video because of this.
"Wow," Audra managed to say. "You just saw Big Ben erupt. I hope I'm safe down here."
The ground beneath her feet bucked, throwing Audra off balance. She tried to steady herself, but she might as well have been standing on jelly and not concrete. All she could do was put her arms out to break her fall.
She landed hard against one of the concrete pillars. Hard enough to feel the sickening snap as it broke her arm.
Audra couldn't help it. She let out an agonised scream.
FORTY
Jean scanned the far shore, searching for the penguins he knew he'd spotted last time. Even with his binoculars, he couldn't be sure if they were king penguins or not, and the chicks blended into the rock so well he'd need to be a lot closer to spot them.
He considered asking for Audra's help – two pairs of eyes were better than one – but she'd barely spoken to him since that misguided kiss. She'd been playing with him, for her own reasons, Jean decided. She didn't care about him or his research, and she wouldn't help him now. So he set off alone in the boat, trying not to think about how cold the sea was beneath him. If he did, he'd head right back to shore. What kind of man was afraid of a bit of cold water?
Audra would laugh at him if she knew.
Jean glanced back at the camp, where she stood on the beach, waving her arms and shouting something he couldn't hear.
"I'm going to find my penguins," he shouted back, stabbing a finger in the direction of what he hoped was the new colony. "And don't think you can stop me," he added to himself, turning his back on her. He pulled on his balaclava, not wanting to wear a scarf across this face that might come loose in the wind. He needed both hands free to hand the boat and his binoculars.
When he next looked, she wasn't standing on the beach any more. Instead, he saw a red-coated figure climbing the ridge above the camp that led to the Azorella Peninsula, where that plant had nearly killed him. He watched her with his heart in his throat, dreading the moment when she, too, took a wrong step. It was just like the woman to find the surest way to distract him from his search – by putting herself in danger of breaking both her legs like he had. If she expected him to follow her and drag her back to camp, she was sorely mistaken.
She knew the risks of venturing into the old lava field. Sinkholes, lava tubes and who knew what else lurked there, ready to trap the unwary. The whole island was an active volcano. It almost looked like it was smoking this morning, but it was probably just cloud.
Jean raised his binoculars to get a closer look at the cloud at the peak, and his blood ran cold. Through the lenses, he could see grey smoke billowing up...and what looked like ash or small pieces of rock landing on the snow.
He had to warn her, at least. But she'd disappeared from sight.
Jean waited for a long moment, hoping and praying that she'd reappear so he wouldn't have to go after her. After what seemed like an eternity, she appeared at the highest point of the ridge, waving cheerfully at him.
"Crazy woman," he muttered, then cupped his hands to his mouth to shout a warning about Big Ben.
She just smiled and waved, then peered down at the rocky beach, ignoring him and the volcano.
Swearing, Jean followed her line of sight to a cluster of penguins. King penguins.
He brought the boat in closer, hardly daring to hope that he'd found the colony at last. First he saw a dozen penguins, then he rounded a particularly large piece of volcanic rock and his breath caught in his throat. Not a dozen. Hundreds of them. Far too many to be just a group out fishing.
Jean raised his eyes to the ridge, wanting to shout his thanks to Audra, but she'd evidently grown some sense and headed for somewhere safer. Good. That left him free to count the penguins, take some pictures, and maybe even get close enough to see if they kept a crèche of babies sheltered behind them. Just a little further...
Audra screamed.
Jean gritted his teeth. She'd probably just seen a spider, he seethed. This was his last chance to find his penguin colony and finish his PhD research with the kind of results any biologist would die for.
A biologist who knew damn well there weren't any spiders in Antarctica.
What if she'd fallen into a sinkhole like he had?
That's what had ended his research trip last time, Jean reminded himself angrily. This was his last chance.
But what if she'd hit her head? Or lost consciousness, which is why she'd only screamed once?
Jean's mouth went dry. Could he sentence a woman to die just so that he could satisfy his own ego, chasing a bunch of smelly birds? Worse, letting her die the same way he nearly did in his nightmares?
Jean swallowed.
Fuck the penguins. Audra's life mattered more than they did.
He threw the boat into a ninety degree turn, running it aground on a rock near the penguins. He leaped out, set on only one thing: saving Audra.
Penguins shuffled out of his way as he sprinted across the rocky beach, un
til he reached the end of their territory. He scrambled up the slope, nearly falling several times, doing his best to avoid the treacherous cushion plants. When he reached the ridge, he couldn't see her, confirming his worst fears.
"Audra?" he shouted. "Audra, can you hear me? Where are you?"
He caught a glimpse of movement as a red sleeve waved among the ruins of an earlier campsite halfway up the next rise. If she was anything less than critically injured, he was going to drag her down to the boat to finish the penguin survey with him.
He strode up the slope, keeping his breath to fuel his furious pace. He had to skirt around the concrete pad to see her properly, where she lay hidden behind the supports of some long-gone structure. When he reached her, he stopped dead.
The pain on her tear-streaked face was unmistakeable. She might not have fallen down a sinkhole, but she'd still managed to injure herself. From the fearful look in her eyes, she'd already gone into shock. He wouldn't get anything coherent out of her. He'd have to get her back to camp, where there was food, warmth and a first aid kit. There he'd assess her injuries and radio for help.
He leaned down and scooped her up. She was surprisingly light in his arms.
"Nnnno," she said, then swallowed. "Please. Please, you're hurting me."
FORTY-ONE
Her throat raw from screaming, Audra didn't trust her voice. And she definitely didn't want any more pain. The white-hot throbbing in her arm was bad enough.
Jean lifted her up, bumping her arm and sending a fresh bolt of agony all the way up to her brain.
"No, don't," Audra tried to say, but hardly any sound came out. "Please don't, you're hurting me." She reached for her useless right arm, pulling it across her body to support the broken limb. A red light blinked on her wrist. With her good arm, Audra switched off the camera, which had miraculously survived the fall unscathed. She ripped the Velcro strap off her wrist and cradled the camera to her chest beside her injured arm. "All right."
She closed her eyes, breathing slowly in an attempt to ignore the pain. How could anything hurt this much? Audra was grateful to Jean for carrying her, as she wasn't sure she could stay on her feet without falling to her knees and sobbing every few steps. How had Jean done it? Gotten himself from here to the hut with two broken legs? Her legs were fine, and she was worse than useless.
"Relax. I'm taking you back to camp so I can help you. I've had the same first aid training as you, so I'll be taking just as good care of you as you would of me," Jean said softly, in the sort of tone she'd use to a frightened puppy.
And it worked. She did relax, secure in his arms as he carried her back to the hut.
When they reached the beach, she saw the boat bobbing in the middle of the cove. He'd have to swim out to get it. She lifted her good arm to point it out to him, and the camera slipped from her hand. A sharp clack told her it had fallen on the rocks underfoot.
"Wait," she rasped. "Need to pick it up."
Jean dipped low, supporting her body on his knees as he crouched to retrieve it. "I'll put it in my pocket, to keep it safe," he said.
Audra nodded. She wanted to tell him about the footage she'd taken of his baby penguins, but as she opened her mouth to speak, Jean rose awkwardly to his feet and the movement made the pain in her arm stab her all over again. She cried out, unable to form words any more.
"I know it hurts. I'll get you back to camp so I can help you," Jean said, starting forward.
His every step jolted her, until the pain became a steady throb to the beat of his boots. It would only hurt worse if she had to walk, though. Tears flowed down her cheeks, but she didn't care any more. As long as they didn't freeze, nothing mattered but making the pain end.
After an eternity, they reached the hut. Jean took his time opening the door, but he didn't seem to want to put her down to use both hands, either. Finally, he got it open and carried her inside, then set her on the floor between their bunks.
"Okay, can you tell me where it hurts?" Jean asked, patting down her legs.
Audra felt the strangest desire to laugh at him for using this as an excuse to feel her up. "My arm's broken," she said, pointing.
"That's all?"
She glared at him. "It hurts like hell. Isn't that enough for you?"
He almost smiled. "You sure you're that badly hurt if you can make jokes like that?"
Audra struggled to sit up so she could unzip her coat and extract her injured arm to show him. "Do you think I'm bullshitting now?"
His eyes widened in shock. "No. I...when I broke my legs, and radioed for help, one of the guys asked me something and I replied with a joke. I was already half gone on morphine, I think. That's what he said. That I couldn't be badly hurt if..."
She didn't have the patience for his rambling. "Find me something I can use to splint this." She scanned the hut. "There. One of those things should do." She pointed at a box of foot-long plastic strips, the sort she'd seen the geologists use as markers. The plastic had a slight curve and was a bit longer than she needed, but should be rigid enough to give her arm some support.
"You'll need a bandage to secure that," Jean said, handing the piece of plastic to her.
"So find me a first aid kit. There should be one in your field pack, or mine, if you forgot yours." It wouldn't surprise her if he had. Jean wasn't big on safety, and it showed. Her broken arm wasn't his fault, though.
"There's a bigger one under your bunk. Thirty years' worth of bandages." He reached into the storage cubby beneath her bed and pulled out the box, showing her the faded cross on top. "See?"
She saw. Grabbing a couple of rolls of wide bandage, she ripped open the first package and set to work, wrapping it around her arm and the makeshift splint.
"Shouldn't I be doing that? I'm qualified in first aid, you know," Jean said.
"I'm fine," Audra bit out through her gritted teeth. Bloody hell, but it hurt. More tears leaked down her cheeks, so she bowed her head to hide them from Jean. She was nearly done.
Jean didn't take his eyes off Audra. "You know, I think there might be something here to take the edge off the pain. I remember another bottle of morphine in among the bandages."
Audra breathed a sigh of relief as she tucked in the end of the bandage. Drained, she lay down while Jean rummaged through the first aid kit.
"Got it," he said. "Now, I need to know your weight for the correct dosage. And don't you even think about lying about it. I carried you halfway around the cove, so I'll know if you take a few pounds off the total. But I'll give you the dose for the lower weight, which means it won't be as strong as if you'd told the truth."
She'd probably lost weight out here, what with all the exercise she got trekking around the island, but Audra named the weight she'd been the last time she set foot on some scales.
Jean prepared the syringe with practiced ease. Of course. He'd practised on himself, probably in this very hut, when he'd been in a lot more pain than she was now. "Where do you want it?" he asked.
Audra eyed the needle. If it was anyone else administering the injection, she'd take it in the thigh, but this was Jean. The man who'd grabbed her and tried to force her into bed the day they met, but also the man she'd shared sleeping quarters with for months without him doing anything untoward. Unless she counted that misguided kiss the other night, but there had been extenuating circumstances. And alcohol.
She turned her gaze on Jean. Did she trust him?
He offered a watery smile. "Funny how the world works. I'm back here, holding a syringe of morphine, but this time it's you who needs it, not me. Who'd have thought I'd ever get the chance to pay you back properly for what you did on the ship?"
No way was she taking a sedative from Jean. "I'm fine," she said hoarsely. "It doesn't hurt. I'll be fine until the boat comes to pick us up. You should...call them."
"You can't be serious."
"Call them or I'll stab you again with this needle." She wouldn't, but she glared at him with all the fierceness she co
uld muster so he believed she would.
"Yes, ma'am." Jean crossed the hut and flicked on the radio. "Investigator, this is Jean Pennant on Heard Island. What is your ETA at Atlas Cove?"
The radio crackled. "Pennant? What are you doing at Atlas Cove? Aren't you supposed to be at the camp at Spit Bay?"
"I felt like taking the boat for a spin."
"You're crazy, you know that?"
"Yes," Jean replied blithely. "But what's your ETA?"
"A week."
Audra's eyes met Jean's. No way was she enduring this sort of agony for a week.
Jean wet his lips. "What if I told you we have an injury that requires urgent medical attention?"
A pause, where only hissing static filled the airwaves, followed by, "If you've broken your legs again, I think the research leader here will break your arms, too, for cutting his research short. But only if his PhD students don't get to you first. The volcano's erupting and they want to study it."
"We know. Audra fell during one of the earth tremors. She's the one who's injured."
"Audra? The met?"
"Yes."
More static.
"We're three days from your location. I'll give you a better estimate when you radio for your next check-in. Over and out."
Audra ripped open a sterile wipe, yanked down the shoulder of her shirt and swabbed her arm. It was broken anyway. A little needle wouldn't make it hurt any worse. She took a deep breath. As she exhaled, she eased the needle into her arm, emptying the syringe into her flesh. There. Now she couldn't change her mind, because the drug was already circulating in her bloodstream.
She dropped the syringe back into its packaging and pressed a gauze pad to her arm to stem the tiny trickle of blood. With difficulty, she struggled to her feet. She took two steps before she collapsed on her bunk, just as she'd intended. It was harder to get herself out of her outer gear and into her sleeping bag with only one arm, but she managed it.
Maid for the South Pole Page 14