The Stranger

by Anna del Mar

  I kept looking over my shoulder, anticipating the avalanche that could bury us alive, but under whiteout conditions, visibility sucked. Every so often, when the wind eased, I caught a glimpse of the emergency strobe light on the high ridge.

  The grueling trek required every ounce of energy I could muster. I’d expected it to be so, anticipated the conditions and planned for them, but expecting, anticipating, and planning were not the same thing as bearing the brunt of nature’s worst. My heart ached from the effort. My lungs cramped. My strength ebbed. Failure wasn’t in the range of my options, so I huffed and puffed as we mounted the hill at the end of the valley.

  We were roughly halfway up the hill when a fearsome sound overtook the sounds of the storm. Crack. It sounded like a strike of lightning and then a roar. The earth shook. In the darkness, the strobe light that had once flashed atop the wreckage plummeted from the mountainside and disappeared. A few seconds later, a wave of snow flowed by our feet, hissing like a giant snake.

  I grabbed Summer’s arm and, dragging both Summer and the sled, rushed farther up the hill. It wasn’t until we crested the knoll that I slowed down to catch my breath. In between furious swirls of snow, I spotted the tip of a wing, sticking out of the ground, flapping in the wind as if it was built out of rubber. I gave myself a mental high five. I’d read the area’s topography correctly and chosen the only geographical feature that offered some protection from the massive avalanche that had just buried the wreckage.

  Summer leaned on her poles and, puffing bursts of vapors through her facemask, shouted. “Avalanche?”

  “Affirmative,” I shouted back. “Keep going.”

  She peered into the blowing snow, where she caught a glimpse of the spectral shadow looming there. “What’s that?”

  “A few more steps,” I shouted. “Almost there.”

  “Helicopter?” Her goggles aimed at the sight ahead. “Seth, is that your Firehawk?”

  My Firehawk, yes. No time to explain. No energy either. I motioned Summer on and together we trudged through the last few steps, dodging the steel cables that fastened the helo to the frozen ground.

  A good three feet of snow had already piled around the helicopter. No wonder. It had taken me hours to secure the Firehawk, make my way across the hanging valley, set up the rope system, climb up to the wreckage, and reverse my steps with Summer and Alex. I’d had to sacrifice time in exchange for safety, but it had been the only plausible way.

  I slid open the Firehawk’s side door and manhandled the sled into the helicopter. Summer tried to help, but she was pretty much done. I was done too, but I managed to boost Summer into the cabin, where she sprawled on the floor next to the rescue sled, heaving and shivering at the same time. I climbed behind her and, fighting for breath, slammed the door shut. I went to my knees. Somehow, I switched on the battery-operated space heater. Then I collapsed. I lay on the deck, with my heart pounding in my ears, unable to move, waiting for the heart attack to kill me.

  * * *

  “Seth?” Summer’s plea radioed over from a different dimension. “Please, Seth, wake up!”

  I opened my eyes and waited for my senses to pull together the sights floating above me, the headlight, shining on my face, the glimmering green eyes, the stubborn jaw, the lips, cracked and dry and yet somehow still appealing to my senses. A tentative, crooked smile welcomed me back to the world of the living.

  “Thank God!” Summer took off my hat, goggles, and facemask and, holding my face between her hands, examined me closely. “Are you okay?”

  “Fine,” I rasped. “You?”

  “Defrosting.”

  She’d taken off her face’s protective gear. Under the light of my headlamp, her cheeks and the tip of her nose glared red, but I didn’t spot any obvious signs of frostbite. Talk about a miracle. She was whole and hale and for the first time in the last twelve hours, I could breathe without fighting the dread weighing me down.

  “Are you sure you’re not hurt?” A tear escaped from her eye. “I came to, and I thought you were dead.”

  “I’m alive.” I took stock of our situation from the comfort of her lap. “It’s just my lungs. And my heart. I left them out there somewhere. Alex?”

  “Breathing,” Summer reported, before she lowered her face and kissed me.

  The fear, the rough, dangerous flight, the cold, the arduous trek up and down the mountain, it was all worth it to feel the way I did right now, full, ecstatic, and exhilarated beyond relief. The best alpine gear in the world could only go so far in protecting human life from conditions like the one we’d experienced, but Summer’s kiss shoved my body firmly into thawing range.

  The kiss ended all too quickly for my taste. But as long as she was willing to kiss me, I could fix the rest. That’s what I was. Right? An engineer by training, a problem solver by vocation. That’s why I’d come.

  Summer caressed my face. “I sent you a message. I told Joe Pilot to tell you not to come.”

  “He told me.” I kissed her hand, then planted elbows on the ground and sat up with a groan. “In fact, the man was very convincing.”

  “So why didn’t you do what I said?”

  I smirked. “So now you think you’re the boss of me?”

  “What’s wrong with you?” She slapped me on the shoulder. “You should’ve listened!”

  “Since when has either one of us been good at following directions?”

  Now that she was with me, she could glower all she wanted. I took off my gloves. My hands ached. My fingers were stiff as hell and white or purple at the tips, but none of the ten looked like they were about to fall off just yet. I stumbled to my feet, rummaged through my supplies and found the camping lamp. I turned it on and hooked it up to the ceiling, before I switched off my headlamp and set it aside.

  Next, I found the food stores and located the thermoses that Robert had prepared. Hands still shaking, I poured a cup of hot, high-protein broth for Summer, then put the thermos to my lips and guzzled the rest down, flooding my gullet with an awesome trail of heat.

  Summer downed her drink, green eyes fixed on me. I set the thermos aside and, knees cracking, muscles still aching and quivering from the effort, knelt next to Alex and checked his pulse. Strong and even. Good.

  “You ditched your Firehawk.” Summer switched off her headlamp and took off her helmet. “You crash-landed your precious helicopter in the middle of nowhere. Why?”

  “I knew I had a good chance of getting in.”

  She squeaked. “A good chance?”

  “Forty-six percent probability to get into the Range to be exact.”

  “Oh, God.” Her lips crumpled. “You also had to know that there was zero percent chance of flying out of this hellhole tonight.”

  “Yeah.” I unpacked the medical supplies and unzipped Alex’s sleeping bag. “The probabilities for a survivable takeoff were not good.”

  “So why on earth did you come?” She set her drink aside, took off her gloves, and handed me the scissors.

  “Three reasons.” I cut open the layers of Alex’s sleeves. “One, I promised you that I wouldn’t let Alaska kill you. Two, I always keep my promises. Three, I knew I could make a difference.”

  “For God’s sake.” Summer glared. “This has to be the most reckless rescue attempt in the history of aviation.”

  “Correction.” I set the scissors aside. “It was never a rescue attempt. My goal was to provide suitable shelter against the elements.”

  “By ditching your helicopter?” She ripped open a pack and handed me the alcohol swabs.

  “Affirmative.” I palpated Alex’s arm, found a vein, and disinfected the spot. “Suitable shelter drastically increases the odds for survival.”

  “You are crazy,” Summer muttered.

  “Crazy people don’t spend time making c
areful and deliberate plans.”

  She huffed her disagreement and handed me the IV, a combination of hydration, antibiotics, painkillers, and muscle relaxants that I’d had Stuart prepare based on Joe Pilot’s information to address Alex’s injury.

  “You love your Firehawk,” she said. “You’ll never get it out of here in one piece.”

  “Of course I will.” I paused to stick the needle in the vein. “Next May or June.”

  “May or June?” She groaned. “I can’t believe your family allowed you to do this!”

  “They don’t know I’m here.” I finished hooking the IV. “Well, Jer, Robert, and Stuart know, because I needed their help to expedite the preparations. I didn’t want to worry the rest.”

  “Of course not.” She scowled some more. “You’ve got to be the most reckless man in the galaxy.”

  “I wasn’t reckless.” I put the medical supplies away. “Some of Alaska’s most accomplished pilots and mountaineers participated in organizing this operation. I spent a lot of time planning my steps, packing my gear, studying the terrain, selecting my routes, and anticipating the contingencies.”

  “Ah, yes, contingency thinking,” she said. “That’s what you do for a living and you do it quite well, if I remember right.”

  “Exactly.”

  I checked on the battery-operated space heater. It was a small piece of equipment, nothing to write home about, but it had a huge impact on a small space. From the moment I’d requisitioned it from the hangar, I knew it could be the difference between surviving the night or not. The temperature inside the cabin was far from toasty, but it was warm enough to keep the killer cold at bay. I checked my watch. Eight hours to go.

  Alex’s eyelids fluttered open.

  “Home?” he muttered.

  “Not yet,” I said. “But you’re safe for the night. Try to get some rest.”

  Summer fed Alex some warm broth. We tried to make him as comfortable as possible. We had some space to work with, since I’d had the bucket seats removed from the cabin before takeoff. We didn’t want to move Alex any more, so we kept him on the sled and piled up some additional blankets. The medications began to kick in right away.

  “I can’t believe you came,” Alex said.

  “You had to know that I would at least try.”

  “For Summer, right?”

  “For Summer.” Goddammit, would it kill me to say what he needed to hear? “For you too, but I’ll deny that in public.”

  “Me too,” Alex mumbled, somewhere between lucidity and oblivion. “Summer made me promise.”

  “Summer made you promise what?”

  “I’d make peace with you,” he said. “If I survived.”

  “Ah.” I glanced at Summer. “She’s crafty that way.”

  Summer lifted a shoulder as a way of apology.

  “The bribe money,” Alex muttered. “It’s connected to your personal accounts.”

  “I know.”

  Alex’s eyes widened. “But...how?”

  “I mapped the money trail,” I said. “I discovered how you connected it to me, then connected the bribe back to you. I also found your accounts in Luxembourg.”

  Alex sighed. “The next board meeting is the end.”

  “Up to you,” I said. “You’ve got time to make things right.”

  “If I make it.”

  “We’re going to make it,” I said. “No ifs or buts. Consider it done.”

  Alex groped for my hand. “Peace, man.”

  I squeezed his hand. “Peace.”

  Alex closed his eyes. His features relaxed and his respiration evened. I took his pulse. It was strong. I didn’t like the fucker much these days, but he was still family and I didn’t wish him pain and suffering. I tucked his hand beneath the blanket and checked on the IV. At least he’d rest comfortably for the next few hours.

  “His father chose you to run the company over him,” Summer offered from her perch, huddled with her chin on her knees next to the space heater.

  “Is that what this was all about?”

  She shrugged. “Simple and yet complicated.”

  It was hard to believe but when I thought about it, I recognized the truth. Would I have felt differently than Alex if my father had chosen him over me?

  The anger drained out of me. All those years of rivalry and rage seemed like an awful waste of time. I crawled over Alex and settled next to Summer, casing her between the heater and me. “I should’ve known.”

  “You’re smart,” she said, “but you’re not a mind reader.”

  “I should have figured it out.”

  “Perhaps next time?” Summer said. “After all, you don’t expect Alex to grow up all of a sudden, do you?”

  “You’re right.” I had to chuckle. “One day at a time.”

  Summer’s gaze fixed on me. “What now?”

  “Now we wait for the storm to pass.” I located the protein bars and, after handing one to Summer, tore into one myself. “Eat up. You need to replenish your energy. The storm is supposed to last another eight hours or so, but we’ve got a reliable heat source and enough food and water for a few days if need be. The rescue squadron is aware of our location. They’ll mount a proper rescue when it’s safe to do so.”

  Summer nibbled on the protein bar, looking as exhausted as I’d ever seen her, but also rugged as hell. She’d survived. My tropical orchid had survived the worst that Alaska had to offer with the grit of a native species.

  “How did you find us?” she asked between bites.

  “Joe Pilot gave me thorough directions and coordinates.” I chewed on my protein bar and swallowed. “Once I flew into the valley, I caught the signal for the plane’s emergency beacon. The strobe light and the SPOT’s signal helped guide my ascent.”

  “What you did was very dangerous,” Summer said. “I had it under control, you know.”

  I smirked. “You were going to freeze your ass solid.”

  “I didn’t need your ass to freeze along with mine,” she said. “I wanted you safe at home and far away from here. You were willing to die.”

  “Hell, no,” I said. “I didn’t come here to die. I came here to live. No more dying for me or for you. We’ve got to learn how to live, Summer, and I mean it, beyond working like hell and taking care of other people, both of us have to get better at enjoying our lives.”

  She grumbled under her breath. “That hero complex of yours got the best of you.”

  “Bullshit,” I said. “You were the one trying to play heroine.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Oh, please.”

  “You could’ve hiked out with Joe,” I said. “That might have been a sensible decision. But no, oh no. You had to stay. Who’s the one with the hero complex?”

  “I hate that you came.” Her green eyes brimmed with emotions. “But I’m also glad that you came. I know, I sound loony. I’m not making any sense.”

  “You make total sense to me.” I put my arm over her shoulder and hugged her to me.

  “Are you mad at me?” She cuddled against me.

  “Raving mad.” I kissed the top of her head. “Cross-eyed mad. Furious, livid, and enraged.”

  “Sorry,” she said. “So much has happened since I last saw you. I don’t know where to begin.”

  “Pick a subject,” I said. “Any subject.”

  She hesitated before she asked. “I was sleepwalking when you found me, wasn’t I?”

  “I think so.” I shuddered when I imagined what could’ve happened if she had stepped off the cliff, or been swept off by an avalanche, or frozen right there on the high ridge...Christ. That heart attack still lingered close at hand. I had to stop thinking like that.

  “I saw the killer in my dream,” she said. “I know who he is.”


  “Hector Carrera.”

  Her mouth fell open. “How—how do you know?”

  “Spider hacked into a life insurance policy purchased by your father years ago,” I explained. “The policy was drawn against the balance of the stock your father owned in his partnership with Carrera, the only asset he had left back then. At the time, the stock wasn’t very valuable, but over time, its value has grown tremendously. That led us to further investigate the partnership.”

  “And?”

  “We discovered that Carrera was swindling your father when they were partners. Your father did most of the work, but Carrera embezzled the profits. Your mother must have discovered Carrera’s fraud. That’s why he had her killed. As the developer of Fountain Way, Carrera had access to the building. He shared that access with Peterson, who he hired to murder your mother first, and then you.”

  “All these years, Hector pretended like he cared,” Summer said. “He even gave me a job.”

  “He needed to keep you close at hand,” I said. “The policy was coming due next month. You were the benefactor. With the shares realized, it would’ve given you half stake in Carrera’s firm, plus the value of the policy. But if you were dead, the stock would return to him along with the money. He wanted it all for himself.”

  Her eyes widened. “God.”

  “There’s more.” I took her hands in mine. “State troopers executed a warrant on Carrera this afternoon. They found a stash of sleeping medications in his luggage. It would have aggravated your sleepwalking episodes and rendered you helpless. With Peterson dead, Carrera came to Alaska to kill you himself.”

  “That’s why he insisted I bring the plans to the lighthouse.” Her hands fisted in my grip. “That’s why he wanted to be alone with me.”

  “That’s also why I’m going to make sure he will rot in jail for the rest of his life.”

  It was a lot to handle, but Summer took it all in with the resignation of someone who already knew the truth. In fact, she’d figured it all out in her dreams, where her unconscious mind tackled complex problems with astonishing results.