Hostage

by Chris Ryan

  Hex looked back and felt his heart sink. The bear had replenished its air supply and was coming after them. It swam with slow, steady strokes of its front paws, holding its back legs stiffly like a rudder. Its black lips were pulled back from its teeth in a snarl and its one eye glared at them. Hex could see that the bear was in a killing rage and was not going to give up until it had caught them. He gritted his teeth and turned back to steering the scooter. The light grew brighter, which told him they were moving into shallower water, but their combined weight was dragging on the little machine. Even with them both helping it along by kicking their feet, the scooter moved forward at a speed which felt agonizingly slow to Hex. He looked behind him again. The bear was definitely gaining on them. Now he could see the scarring on its snout and each individual tooth in its gaping mouth. With a prickling of dread in his guts, Hex began to wonder whether they were going to make it.

  On the shores of Hudson Bay, Paulo shivered as he gazed around the stark, grey and white landscape. In front of him, sheets of ice scraped and bumped together on the heaving water and behind him the flat, icy tundra stretched back to meet the tree line. Beyond that, a vast forest of spruce trees marched towards the horizon. The low sun gave even the smallest pebble a long shadow and the wind howled constantly, carrying with it an icy chill that came straight from the Arctic Circle.

  'I am cold,' sighed Paulo mournfully. 'So very cold.'

  Li put her mittened hands on her hips and looked the tall South American up and down. 'You can't possibly be cold,' she said. 'You have so many clothes on, you look like a very large snowball.' Her uptilted eyes creased into a smile. 'We all do,' she giggled, looking down at herself, then over to Alex.

  All three of them were bundled up inside four layers of arctic gear. It was standard military issue, so the colour was white, for camouflage in snow. Next to the skin, they were wearing thin cotton undergarments which were loose fitting and able to absorb any sweat the body produced. This was important when the temperature was well below zero. If the skin was kept dry, there would be no heat loss through sweat evaporation. Over the cotton undergarments they each wore a second layer made of tightly woven wool, with fastenings at the throat and wrists to prevent heat escaping. The third layer consisted of fleece-lined trousers and a hooded jacket and the final layer was another hooded jacket and trousers, this time padded with insulating material and with an outer covering that was both wind- and waterproof.

  'I mean, I am cold in my soul,' said Paulo.

  'Don't be such a drama queen,' said Li, punching him in the chest.

  Paulo grinned down at her fondly. 'I miss the sun. I need the sun. I am like a big cat. A lion.'

  'Yeah. You're grouchy, smelly and you sleep too much.'

  'Back home in Argentina, it is warm,' continued Paulo, ignoring her insults. His brown eyes grew soft and distant as he pictured the sprawling buildings of his family cattle ranch. 'They will be sitting out on the veranda in only shirts and trousers. Not all this — stuff.' Paulo flipped the earflaps on his hat, then held out his mittened hands for Li to see. The mittens were attached to the sleeves of his coat with short lengths of cord. 'What am I? A baby?'

  He looked so sorry for himself that Li reached out and gave him a hug.

  Alex looked at them sideways and shook his head. 'If you lose a glove in northern Canada at this time of year, you'll soon be in big trouble. In these temperatures, you're risking frostbite. And if you touch anything metal with your bare hand, you're going to—'

  '—lose all the flesh from our fingers,' said Li, crossing her eyes. 'We know. You told us.' She grinned at Alex, but he did not respond. Frowning, he turned back to scanning the surface of Hudson Bay.

  'I'm bored,' announced Li. 'We need some action around here.' She had completed her last dive of the day less than an hour earlier and already she was itching to do something else. Li was incredibly fit from years of free climbing and martial arts training and she always had lots of energy to burn. She could not tolerate inactivity for long, which meant she often got into trouble jumping into situations without thinking first. Now she sighed and bounced up and down on the spot. 'Do we have to wait much longer?' she demanded.

  'They should be back by now,' muttered Alex, his grey eyes cloudy with worry as he searched the bay for any sign of Amber and Hex.

  Paulo fought his way through layers of clothing to check his wristwatch. 'But they are only one minute late,' he said.

  'A minute is a long time if you're trapped somewhere with your air running out,' snapped Alex.

  Li and Paulo looked at one another, then moved up to stand on either side of Alex. 'We will all look,' said Paulo quietly.

  'They'll turn up any second now,' added Li.

  There was a moment of uneasy silence as they all stood together on the viewing platform at the back of the tundra buggy, scanning the bay. The tundra buggy was a square, metal-sheathed truck which sat high above the ground on huge tyres. The Hudson Bay area was home to hundreds of polar bears, especially at this time of the year when they returned to the coast, eager to hunt seals again after a summer trapped on land. Tempers frayed as the bears waited hungrily for the sea ice to become strong enough to hold their weight, and so the armoured tundra buggy had been built to withstand the most ferocious bear attack. As well as being a means of safe transport, crawling slowly across the icy, rock-strewn ground on its huge tyres, the truck could also serve as a bunkhouse big enough for a small group to live in. The metal body was well insulated and foldaway bunks had been built into the walls.

  Suddenly, Li pointed to a spot just offshore. 'There they are!' she yelled.

  Alex followed her pointing finger and saw Amber and Hex emerging from the water. He let out a breath he had not realized he was holding and pushed his fair hair back out of his eyes. 'Those two need to learn how to tell the time properly,' he said, easing the knots out of his shoulders.

  'Wait,' said Paulo. 'Something is not right.'

  Alex looked again at Amber and Hex. They had left the scooter rolling in the surf and were powering towards the shore, pushing plates of ice out of their way. As they waded, they ripped off their masks and tore at the harnesses strapping the heavy air cylinders to their backs. Even from this distance, the terror on their faces was horrifyingly clear.

  'What's wrong with them?' asked Li. 'Why do they keep looking back?'

  Paulo searched the water behind Amber and Hex and spotted a V-shaped wake heading right for them. 'Something is chasing them!' he shouted, pointing to the wake.

  Amber and Hex reached the shallows and hopped and stumbled towards the shore, yanking their flippers off as they went. They began to run towards the tundra buggy, dropping their air cylinders on to the frozen ground with a clang that echoed round the bay.

  'Put the ladder out!' yelled Hex. 'The ladder!'

  Paulo and Li sprang into action, lifting a short aluminium ladder over the side of the truck. There were hooks at the top of the ladder, which slotted over the handrail that ran around the sides of the viewing platform. The hooks held the ladder in place, with the bottom rung hanging a metre and a half above the ground. Meanwhile, Alex watched the V-shaped wake until the thing that was making it began to emerge from the water.

  'Bear,' he breathed as the triangular head came into view.

  THREE

  As soon as the bear's snout was above water, it opened its jaws and roared a challenge. Amber screamed and pushed herself to run faster. Hex twisted to look over his shoulder as he ran. His foot caught on a boulder and he fell full-length on the frozen ground. Amber continued for a few more paces before she realized that Hex was no longer with her. She turned and ran back to him as the bear splashed out on to the shore.

  'C'mon! C'mon!' she screamed, grabbing Hex by the arm and hauling him to his feet. Together they staggered on towards the tundra buggy as the bear broke into a pigeon-toed lope behind them. Its low shoulders swung back and forth and its claws gouged the frozen snow as it picked up speed.r />
  Up on the viewing platform, Paulo and Li hung over the handrail, ready to grab Amber and Hex and haul them up to safety. They were both screaming encouragement. Amber and Hex put on a burst of speed, but the bear was bounding now, charging after them with distance-eating strides. Despite its huge bulk, it was capable of dangerous speeds over short distances. When stalking a seal on land, a bear will use stealth to get as close as possible to its prey before going into a final charge that can be as fast as twenty-five miles an hour.

  'They're not going to make it,' yelled Li. 'We have to do something!'

  Alex suddenly turned and slammed open the door to the living quarters of the buggy. He had remembered the tranquillizer gun hanging on the wall inside. Seconds later, he skidded out on to the platform again, carrying a long, slim rifle with a telescopic sight. A tranquillizer dart was already in place in the barrel. Alex steadied his arm against the handrail and took aim. He got the bear in his sights but Amber and Hex were directly between him and his target. He could not get a clear shot.

  'Shoot now!' yelled Paulo. 'You must shoot now!'

  Alex cursed and moved into the far corner of the viewing platform, but still he could not get a clear shot.

  Hex and Amber reached the tundra buggy together. Hex grabbed Amber round the hips and boosted her up on to the bottom rung of the ladder. She climbed up as best she could but the wet rubber of her suit kept slipping on the rungs. Paulo and Li leaned down as far as they could and grabbed her under the arms. They hauled her over the side and on to the floor of the viewing platform.

  'Hex!' she sobbed, scrambling to her feet as the bear roared again directly below them.

  Hex leaped for the ladder, caught the bottom rung and started to climb. His foot slipped and he fell back to the ground. The bear was nearly on him. Desperately he scrambled to his feet again, grabbed the bottom rung and swung his legs up out of the way as the bear pounced on the patch of snow where he had been a split second earlier. It brought its massive forepaws down so hard, the frozen surface cracked into hundreds of pieces and burst upwards in a white explosion.

  Hex hung on to the ladder just above the bear's jaws. His feet were hooked around the fourth rung and his gloved hands clung to the bottom rung. With a dull horror, he realized that not only could he go no further, he was slowly losing his grip on the rungs. Below him the bear was still raking through the snow, but soon it would look up and see him hanging there like a fruit waiting to be picked. Hex closed his eyes.

  'Paulo! Grab my legs!' yelled Li. She dived over the viewing platform wall so quickly, Paulo barely had time to get a grip on her. Li slammed into the ladder with a grunt and clamped her strong, climber's hands around Hex's ankles. The bear looked up, then raised its front paw, preparing to smash Hex off the ladder.

  'Pull!' yelled Li.

  Alex dropped the rifle and joined Paulo and Amber as they yanked the combined weight of Li and Hex upwards. Hex let go of the bottom rung and swung his arms up out of the way just as the bear tried to knock him to the ground. He had a nightmare close-up of the beast's jaws snapping shut centimetres from his nose. A blast of hot, stinking breath exploded into his face before he was pulled up to the safety of the viewing platform.

  For a few seconds they all lay in a stunned heap on the floor of the platform. Hex sucked air in through his nose and caught the fishy, rotting stench of the old bear's breath in his nostrils. He retched once and then again before he managed to get control of his stomach. 'That bear badly needs a Tic-tac,' he said weakly.

  Suddenly the tundra buggy lurched violently as the bear slammed into the back of it. Then, with a screeching of metal, the handrail around the platform began to bend. The bear had hooked its claws around one of the higher rungs and was pulling down on the ladder with all its considerable weight. Even an average-sized adult male could weigh as much as six fully-grown men and this bear was a monster.

  'Can they climb?' asked Paulo, looking at Li.

  'They can climb trees,' said Li.

  'What about ladders?' asked Paulo.

  Li shrugged, then flinched as the bear slammed into the back of the tundra buggy again.

  'Stay down,' said Alex. He scrambled to his feet and picked up the rifle. Carefully, he leaned over the side of the platform and raised the gun but he did not fire immediately. Instead, he waited for the bear to see the weapon. He knew that most of the bears in Hudson Bay had been tranquillized and tagged at one time or another. It followed that they must associate the weapon with a certain amount of pain and fear. This bear might just retreat at the sight of the tranquillizer rifle.

  The bear turned its head and glared at Alex with its good eye. Its ears flattened when it caught sight of the rifle. Slowly it let go of the ladder and went down on to all fours. It huffed a few times, then yawned as a sign of appeasement and looked away. Alex grinned. His plan seemed to be working. A few seconds later the bear moved off at a steady lope, heading inland and looking back over its shoulder every now and then. Alex kept the rifle trained on the bear until, finally, it disappeared from view.

  'Was that enough action for you, Li?' asked Alex, twenty minutes later.

  They were gathered in the living area of the tundra buggy. Amber and Hex had changed out of their diving gear and were sitting with their hands wrapped around cups of hot soup. The vehicle heaters were on full but an occasional shiver still trembled through Amber's body.

  'Blood sugar check,' said Hex briefly, watching Amber shudder.

  She nodded meekly and reached for the pouch at her belt which contained her insulin injection pens and blood-sugar testing kit. Hex blinked with surprise. Normally, Amber hated being told what to do and he had expected an argument, but the encounter with the bear seemed to have knocked all the fight out of her.

  'That bear was Cyclops,' said Li, watching as Amber pricked her finger and pressed it to the end of a thin plastic strip. 'The bad-tempered one Papaluk was telling us about – remember? I recognized him from his mug shot in her record book. One eye and four scars across the snout.'

  Papaluk was an environmental scientist working in the Hudson Bay area. She and Li's zoologist parents had worked together on a conservation project in India and she had remained a close family friend ever since. Li had arranged for Alpha Force to stay with Papaluk while they carried out their cold-climate training. The cover story was that Li and her friends were into extreme sports and, after some initial misgivings about their safety, Papaluk had accepted that they knew what they were doing and had left them to it.

  'We should take the tundra buggy back and warn Papaluk that he's in the area and acting meaner than ever,' said Li.

  'We're due to finish here now, anyway,' said Alex, glancing at his watch. 'If we're going inland today, we need to get moving. We don't want to be setting up camp in the dark.'

  This was their last morning on the coast. After the diving, they were planning to say their goodbyes to Papaluk before heading inland on snowmobiles for a few days of survival training.

  'Are you up to it?' asked Hex, watching Amber check the digital reading which measured her blood sugar level.

  'I will be,' said Amber, pulling an insulin pen from the pouch. 'Soon as I stick myself with this.' She lifted her top, pinched up a fold of skin on her stomach and pressed the pen to it. One click and the pen delivered a pre-set dose of insulin. 'All done,' she said, packing the pen away into her belt pouch.

  'Let us go then,' said Paulo, clambering into the driving seat. He started the engine and eased the big vehicle into gear. Slowly, the tundra buggy lumbered off over the rocky ground, heading for Papaluk's observation cabin on the other side of the headland.

  FOUR

  In the cabin, Papaluk sat at her workbench, checking through the e-mail that she was about to send. Her laptop was surrounded by an untidy jumble of scientific equipment, scribbled research notes and dirty crockery. In the ten years since she had graduated, she had worked in exotic locations all over the world, but when she was offered th
is research post just below the Arctic Circle in the far north of Canada, she had jumped at the chance. All her friends thought she was crazy, choosing to work in one of the coldest places on Earth, but Papaluk was a Canadian Inuit and she felt perfectly at home in the vast, icy wildernesses of Hudson Bay.

  One of her jobs was to keep a check on the large population of polar bears roaming the bay area. The tundra buggy kept her safe when she was outside and, to keep her safe inside, the observation cabin where she lived and worked had been set on top of an eighteen-metre-high tower. The tower had four steel legs, with a strengthening network of horizontal support struts. A ladder, enclosed in protective ribs of steel, climbed up to the small viewing platform at the front of the cabin. Steel hawsers stretched from the top of the tower to the frozen ground, anchoring the cabin and making the structure strong enough to withstand 100 m.p.h. winds.

  The observation cabin was the only building in this part of Hudson Bay. Perched high above the frozen ground like an oversized bird table, it commanded stunning views across the bay, the wide tundra and the great forest beyond. On clear winter nights, Papaluk liked to sit out on the viewing platform in her sleeping bag, waiting for a glimpse of the aurora borealis, or northern lights. On a good night, the dazzling light display would go on for hours and the sky would be filled with dancing ribbons of colour so beautiful it brought tears to her eyes. The northern lights held a special place in Papaluk's heart. Her mother had died a few years back and she still missed her. Traditionally, the Inuit believed that the colours were spirit torches sent to guide the dead home to a land of light lying beyond the dark shell of the sky. Papaluk liked to imagine that her mother was up there, watching over her and waiting to guide her home when the time came.