by Alex Archer
“Why would you want me to do that?”
Annja stopped him. “Because if there’s one thing I definitely do not need, it’s any publicity. I’d much prefer to just live my life and do what I do without being sentenced to a freak-show existence for the remainder of my time on the planet.”
Derek looked at her and then nodded. “I guess I can understand that. I thought you might be one of these people who would want to milk it for everything it had.”
“Not even remotely close.”
Derek smiled. “It’s cool. Your secret is safe.”
“So, who leaked the information to you about it?”
Derek shook his head. “I’m not sure, actually. And before you go accusing me of holding out, I am telling the truth. We gathered our data on you from a variety of sources. Some of it was from reliable outlets, background checks, that type of thing.”
“And others?”
“From less tangible sources. We comb the Internet to compile what we hope is an accurate picture of our subjects. Sometimes the material we turn up is decent. Other times it’s pretty bogus.”
“In this case,” Annja said.
Derek nodded. “We got lucky, all right.”
“I’d be curious to know where that particular nugget came from. Any chance you keep a record of the Web sites you comb on file somewhere?”
“Yeah,” Derek said. “I can hook you up with the information once we’re done up here. Consider it a parting bonus if you want.”
“Thanks.”
“Forget it. Call us even for saving our lives.”
“I will.”
They walked back to the truck just as Godwin was putting away the tools. He looked up as they approached. “We’re all set to go.”
Annja sighed. “Good.”
Godwin looked out around them. “What happened to the truck?”
“Detour,” Annja said. “I don’t think we’ll be seeing it again.”
“Ever,” Derek said.
Annja slid into the front seat and closed the door. Godwin and Derek got in a moment later and Godwin gunned the engine and then slid the vehicle into Drive.
He eased the truck forward. Annja pointed out ahead of them. “I’d steer a little bit over to the right if I was you.”
“Why so?”
From behind her, she heard Derek say, “I’d do as she suggests, Godwin. Trust me.”
Godwin nodded and steered the truck over to the side. But even as they passed the location where the truck had gone through the ice, Annja had trouble seeing where it was exactly. The water had already frozen over and showed little sign that there had been a massive hole there previously.
Annja shuddered. Whatever the case, whoever had been behind the wheel of that truck, they were no longer a threat to them.
And that was fine with her.
Derek had the map open again. He traced his finger along the ice road and then jabbed at a spot on the map. “We should be pretty close, guys.”
“The sooner the better,” Annja said. “I really don’t like traveling this way. Big trucks that want to run us over, cracks in the ice, and this forever-white landscape. It wears on a person.”
“I think it’s kind of beautiful,” Godwin said. “Of course, I’m a bit biased.”
“I thought you hated the cold,” Derek said.
“I do. I meant from inside the warm truck it looks kind of beautiful.” Godwin grinned. “But I’d still rather live in Hawaii any day of the week.”
“We’ll keep that in mind in case we open up a diamond mine in Maui,” Derek said.
Annja smiled. The rush of tension that had plagued them with the giant truck and the ice fissure seemed to have evaporated. They were left with the feeling that they would soon be off the ice road and back on to firm ground. Frozen though it was.
Annja took a deep breath and tried to relax her body. She closed her eyes and took several deep breaths. She felt good. And she marveled at how warm using the sword had made her. Maybe it was a side benefit of it. Still, she wasn’t sure that she’d felt that way when she wielded it back in Antarctica.
Was it possible that the sword was capable of learning?
She frowned. That would mean that it had its own intelligence. And if that was the case, then was Annja ever really in control of it?
Or was she simply being possessed?
That didn’t sound particularly enticing to her. Good or evil, possession meant that she didn’t have any measure of control.
“You okay?”
Annja snapped her eyes open and glanced at Godwin. “Sorry, must have drifted off there for a moment.”
“It happens,” he said. “All this white. Snow blindness. It can make you crazy after a bit.”
Annja sighed. “Yet you don’t seem to be affected by it.”
“My father made sure I knew how to deal with it.”
“Did he, now?”
“Sure. He taught me a lot of stuff.”
“Like how to recognize the assassin’s dagger.”
Godwin glanced at her. “Yes. That, too.”
“Interesting.”
“Is it?”
“I think so.”
“We all have those aspects of ourselves that seem mysterious to everyone else, but aren’t necessarily.” Godwin winked at her. “We all have our secrets.”
Annja glanced back at Derek, but he was still studying the map. Had he said something to Godwin?
She looked back at Godwin but he was already peering out of the windshield again. “We should be just about there.”
Annja followed his gaze. Up ahead she thought she spotted something red amid all the white. “Is that the sign for the turnoff?”
Godwin shrugged. “Could be.”
Derek perked up. “Are we there?”
Annja pointed. “That looks like a sign to me. What do you think?”
Derek leaned forward. “Slow down, Godwin. We don’t want to miss the turnoff and keep driving for hours on end. I don’t think Annja would appreciate that very much, would you?”
“No, I wouldn’t.”
Godwin slowed the truck even more and then they saw the small piece of plywood tacked to a metal pole jutting out of the snow on the side of the ice road.
“Erop,” Annja said. “I guess this is our exit.”
Godwin wheeled the truck around and they turned to the right. Annja noticed that the road gradually climbed higher in elevation. She looked at Derek. “Am I right in thinking that we are no longer driving over frozen water?”
He smiled. “You’re right. We’re on dry ground again. The ice road is a thing of the past.”
Annja glanced back at the frozen Mackenzie River and shuddered. She hoped Derek was right—that it really was a thing of the past.
9
Thirty minutes of hard, bumpy driving brought them into the tiny town of Erop, a collection of a few buildings, a gas station and two restaurants. It looked more like a refueling point than anything else, its identity marked by whatever or whoever moved through the place.
“Let me out,” Derek said. “If I don’t get to a bathroom after all that bladder beating, I’m done for.”
Annja could sympathize. The drive to Erop had been a constant bouncing and sinking over a road that could only just be called that. She headed for one of the restaurants while Derek headed for the other. Godwin drove on to the gas station, saying he would fill up and get a replacement tire for the one they’d lost.
Ten minutes later, they were back on their way. Derek bought them all sandwiches, which they gratefully demolished and Erop fell behind them, a slightly pleasant memory for the basic human comfort it had offered up and nothing more.
The road twisted through the frozen countryside and then after another thirty minutes, broke out onto Hendrick’s Highway. Godwin gave up a little cheer and steered the truck onto a paved road for the first time that day.
“Hooray,” Annja said. “The mark of civilization.”
“For someone who spends so much of her time in the past,” Derek said, “you sure seem ready to put the past behind you.”
“Bad roads are bad roads,” Annja said. “And there’s nothing of interest to be found on them. Plus, my butt was taking another beating back there.”
“Just so long as you don’t start thinking that where we’re headed is any more civilized, because it’s not.”
“I realize that,” Annja said. “But it doesn’t change my mind about being relieved to be off that road.”
Godwin grinned. “I feel the same way.”
Hendrick’s Highway was a two-lane road, and even though the asphalt had seen better days, the stretch proved to be a welcome change from both the ice road and the roller-coaster ride of the road to Erop. The SUV’s tires all seemed in decent shape and Godwin had managed to procure a spare tire, just in case they should run into another rock jutting out of the landscape.
Annja felt good for the first time all day. An hour of driving would take them to their turnoff and then they could finally get to where they were going. Getting to the dig site was always the hardest part. Annja could put up with a lot of stuff, but she was often impatient when it came to actually reaching the destination. She liked getting there already.
She didn’t kid herself. The events of the morning and the run-in with the giant truck didn’t make her feel especially good about what might be waiting ahead. The incident in the steak house was still fresh in her mind and she turned all these events over in her mind, trying to figure out what could be going on in the frozen tundra that surrounded her.
If people weren’t happy with what was going on with the Araktak, there’d be no telling what they would do to keep the company from completing its deal with the tribe. That meant Annja might have to use the sword again.
And that was something she didn’t really want to do.
Godwin turned the SUV suddenly and looked embarrassed. “Sorry, almost missed the turn.”
“You all right? I can take over driving for a while if you want,” Annja said.
He shook his head. “It’s no problem. I was just yawning, that’s all.”
Annja glanced behind her but Derek was already dozing. She heard a soft snore come from him and turned back. “Is he a decent guy to work for?”
Godwin shrugged. “Yeah, he’s all right. Pretty fair, that sort of thing. It’s not my dream job, of course, but it gives me the money to save and put away for when I figure out what I really want to do with my life.”
“How old are you?”
“Twenty-eight.” He shrugged. “I know. I ought to have a game plan by now, right?”
Annja smiled. “I wasn’t going to say that.”
He waved his hand. “I’ve heard so much advice from people urging me to find my way and find it fast. But I guess I’m just not in that big a hurry. I know there’s something out there for me, but I haven’t really felt a pull toward anything. Weird, right?”
“Well, at least you’re working.” Annja shrugged. “That’s better than what a lot of people in your situation would do.”
“Seemed like a good fit,” Godwin said. “The company, I mean. And I was intrigued with the idea of going home to my birthplace, so to speak, after being away from it for so long.”
“I’ll bet,” Annja said. “I’m still trying to figure out where it is that I come from. I can appreciate the sentiment.”
Godwin smiled. “Lost lambs, huh?”
“Something like that.” Annja stared through the windshield, remembering as much as she could about her own childhood. She knew what it felt like not to have that sense of belonging, or some place to call your own. To be able to point at something, even in your mind, and call it home, was a feeling she’d never enjoyed as a child.
Maybe even to this day, she thought. After all, her place in Brooklyn seemed at times to be pretty much a flop pad and nothing else. It was as much its own version of Erop as Annja ducked quickly in and out between digs and trips to other parts of the world.
She wondered if her job as an archaeologist had been predetermined by the fact that she was an orphan and had never known what it was to have a real past. Maybe that’s why she spent so much of her own time digging into other people’s pasts. Her quest to uncover the truth about ancient civilizations and people was really a mirror of her quest to find out about herself.
And inheriting the sword certainly hadn’t helped matters, either. Where once she might have thought it would help to illuminate her past, it now seemed only to further blur it under the fog of uncertainty.
Some day, she thought to herself, I’ll figure this all out.
Godwin steered the truck down a smaller road, little better than what they’d driven on to Erop. Annja groaned. “So much for civilization.”
“We won’t be long on this,” he said as he drove around a tree stump jutting out of the road. “The dig site is relatively close.”
“What’s relative?”
“Twenty minutes, no more.”
Annja nodded. Derek was bounced out of his sleep by a sudden dip in the road that caused him to go airborne for a fraction of a second. He sat up and rubbed the top of his head. “Guess we’re almost there, huh?”
“Twenty minutes,” Annja said. She glanced at Godwin. “No more.”
Derek leaned forward with a yawn. “Did you sleep?”
Annja looked at him. “Didn’t seem fair to leave Godwin here the only one awake. I know what it’s like to drive for a long time with no rest.”
“Well, you’ll need your rest if you’re going to impress the Araktak elders as being suitable for their cause.”
“Excuse me?”
Derek smiled. “Think of it as a job interview and you’ll be fine.”
“What are you talking about?”
Derek leaned back and put his hands behind his head. “They wouldn’t accept just anyone for this assignment, you know. They said they would have final say over whomever showed up. I guess they’re not particularly crazy about letting an outsider help them relocate their sacred lands.”
“Nice to hear about this now, when it’s impossible to turn back.”
“Wouldn’t have done any good to tell you about it before now,” Derek said. “The Araktak elders are a notoriously picky bunch. But then I guess that’s been a function of their society for some time now, eh, Godwin?”
He shrugged. “This is something of a homecoming for me, as well.”
“I thought you mentioned you’d been up here before this, to make way for the company’s plans,” Annja said.
Godwin nodded. “I was here. But I dealt with a representative for the elders. This time, they’re all going to be here. I wouldn’t be surprised if they have a smoke lodge all set up and everything.”
Annja looked out of the window. She wasn’t used to having people question her credentials and qualifications. She was usually begged to come in and frankly she preferred it that way. The interview with Derek had been the first real one she’d been on in a long time.
She wondered why she’d even agreed to this. It wasn’t as though this was routine for her. She was taking a leave of absence from her job to handle this. She frowned. Maybe I’m just worried about yet another race of people losing everything they hold dear.
Or maybe it was the sword exerting some unnatural control over her and her decision-making.
Was she here because the sword was demanding she be here?
Annja sighed. “Well, I hope they’re not too disappointed.” She glanced at Godwin. “How are women treated in the Araktak?”
“Probably the way they are in any other tribe of Inuit.” He shook his head. “But I’d be lying if I said I know for certain. My own mother was a white woman, so I can’t ever be sure if the way she raised me was the way it works up here.”
“Or if they’re considered second-class citizens,” Annja said.
“We’re here,” Derek said.
Annja stared out of the windshield. The
forest suddenly broke away on either side into a clearing. She could see several rough-hewn huts that looked like a combination of log cabin and wigwam. They were large and sturdy and a great number of pine trees had been felled to make the lodges. Smoke issued from small chimneys at each corner. At least it looks warm inside, Annja thought.
Godwin brought the SUV to a halt and then looked at Annja. “I’m still figuring this out for myself as I go. You aren’t alone,” he said.
Derek slid out of the truck and walked over to an older man with a weather-beaten face. Annja could see a hundred years’ worth of hard living etched across the narrow slits of his eyes. He nodded to Derek and then took him aside to speak in low tones.
Annja glanced at Godwin. “He seems comfortable enough.”
Godwin nodded. “That’s our main contact. His name is Wishman.”
“Is he cool?”
“We’ll find out.” Godwin nodded for Annja to follow him over to the old man. Annja walked behind Godwin and waited until Godwin had introduced her to Wishman.
Annja smiled. “It’s an honor to meet you.”
Wishman’s eyes probed hers and he said nothing for a long moment. He clasped her hand and then seemed to stare directly into her soul. His dark endless orbs looked like perfect black marbles of onyx.
Finally, he broke contact and pulled back. He turned to Derek and Godwin. “We will talk of this woman in the lodge. The others are waiting.”
He turned and walked toward the largest of the buildings. Godwin and Derek followed him. Annja started to walk with them, but then Wishman stopped and turned back to Annja.
“You must stay here until you are called.”
Derek shrugged and held up a hand. “Shouldn’t take too long,” he said. “Just hang out and be cool.”
Annja frowned. “Yeah, sure. Whatever.”
She watched them go and then the sudden realization that she was all alone washed over her. The camp seemed lonely and without much cause for celebration. Annja suspected the camp was there to make sure that nothing in these lands would be left behind. Perhaps the Araktak had once used this area for something else other than burying people. If so, there would be relics that would need to be cared for and transported to a new place.