Hostage

by Chris Ryan

  'Watch out!' yelled Alex.

  Just as Harris fired, Paulo swerved and the bullet sang past the side of the cockpit. The helicopter banked steeply and Harris staggered backwards, his mouth open in an O of horror as the scything rotor blades whickered towards him. Everyone in the cockpit felt the jolt as the blades caught Harris across the belly, slicing him badly. Paulo fought to bring the helicopter back under control. Then they were soaring over the main gates of the complex and flying out into the darkness beyond.

  For a moment there was a shocked silence in the cockpit. Paulo struggled to keep his stomach contents in place as he guided the helicopter away from the mine. Their searchlight skimmed across the forest below, picking out tree tops in its white circle of light.

  'That poor man,' said Alex grimly.

  '"That poor man" was about to shoot us down,' protested Hex, but there was no real anger in his voice. 'Forget him. I'm more interested in how we find Amber. She's out there somewhere, without. . .' His voice roughened and he stopped without finishing his sentence.

  'I spotted her tracks in the snow when I went round the back of the building,' said Li. 'They went round the perimeter fence, out of the gates and into the woods on the right-hand side.'

  They all looked down at the countless trees rushing past in the searchlight beam. It seemed an impossible task to find one girl in all that, but they had to try. Amber's life depended on them.

  'Wait a minute,' said Alex. 'If she walked out of the gates, it must have been after I opened them, while the floodlights were still down. We saw Usher leave the building as we waited to move in, so she can't have escaped before that.'

  There was a short silence as Alpha Force looked at one another, realizing that they had only just missed Amber. She must have been stumbling out of the main gates under cover of darkness as they searched the building she had just left.

  'How long has she been out there?' asked Hex.

  Alex looked at his watch and was astonished to see that, although it felt as though hours had gone by since he had opened the main gates, only fifteen minutes had passed. 'Fifteen minutes,' he said. 'She can't have got far. Especially in the state she must be in.'

  'All right,' said Hex. 'We have a rough location and we have a timescale. That narrows it down a lot.'

  Paulo banked the helicopter and came down low over the trees. 'Let us start looking,' he said.

  TWENTY-TWO

  In the woods behind the quarry, Ice was lying at the head of the team, with his nose and paws curled under his tail and his head resting on one of Amber's mittens. Suddenly his head came up and he gazed out into the darkness. His ears were cocked, his blue eyes were intensely concentrated and his nose was twitching, sniffing the night air.

  He had caught a familiar scent. It was the same scent that was slowly fading from the mitten at his feet. Ice leaped up and tried to run towards the scent but he was yanked back by his tugline. With a snarl, he turned on the other sleeping dogs, harrying and nipping them to their feet. Once again Ice tried to run towards the scent. Again, his tugline pulled him back. The third time he tried, the other dogs caught his urgency and began pulling too, leaning into their harnesses. Their claws raked the snow and they yelped with excitement.

  Frodo began to dig around the snow-hook that was anchoring the middle of the gangline to the ground. Donald joined in. The snow-hook loosened, then jerked out of the ground. The middle section of the gangline sprang free and, for the fourth time, Ice tried to lead the team in the direction of the scent. Again they were pulled back. The brake at the back of the sled was still digging firmly into the ground. The team came to a halt, panting with exertion, then Ice's head came up and his nose twitched again.

  The scent was still there on the wind, but another scent had joined it. The wild, rank smell of wolf. Ice wrinkled his muzzle in a snarl as he threw his whole weight behind the harness. The other dogs joined in and, slowly, the spring-loaded sled brake was bent out of shape until it sprang back out of the snow. Ice and his team flattened out and raced towards the two scents, the empty sled bouncing along behind them.

  In the middle of the clearing, Amber lay motionless on her red blanket as the high blood sugar levels in her body pulled her deeper into unconsciousness. Her eyes were half-closed and her breathing was shallow. She had the beginnings of frostbite in her toes and her core temperature was very low, but the blanket was insulating her from the frozen ground beneath her and slowing the onset of hypothermia.

  She had been lying motionless for five minutes now, and the wolves at the edge of the clearing were becoming bolder. The alpha female looked from Amber to the alpha male and then back to Amber. Her meaning was clear. The big, silver-furred male looked at his mate, then finally stepped out of the shelter of the trees and began to lope across the clearing towards Amber. The other wolves fanned out around him, falling instinctively into the pincer formation they used when hunting.

  Ice pulled his lips back in a snarl. The scent of wolf was overwhelming now. He could smell many of them, males and females, and they were very close. He raced along the forest trail with the other dogs at his heels. The trees were thinning out here, and there was a lighter patch up ahead. Ice redoubled his efforts and, suddenly, the team burst out into a clearing lit by the rising moon.

  The wolves were there, spread out across the area in a semicircle. They were slinking towards a body lying in the snow. Ice roared as he pelted towards them with the team behind him. The wolves jumped and some of the more timid ones fell back to stand behind the alpha male.

  The silver wolf stood over Amber and turned to face Ice. His golden eyes were blazing and the hackles along his back were raised, making him look even bigger than he was, but Ice kept on coming without the slightest hesitation. The silver wolf might beat him for size, but Ice was full of a cold hatred. He launched himself into the air and the wolf leaped over Amber's body towards him. They met in a fury of snapping jaws, came down in the snow, then rolled as the rest of the dog team cannoned into them.

  The team managed to come to a halt and Ice sprang to his feet again, but the silver wolf was faster. He pounced, knocking him to the ground. Ice became hopelessly tangled in the gangline and, as he struggled to get to his feet again, the wolf moved in for the kill. Jaws wide, he went for his throat, but an instant later the wolf and Ice were both knocked sideways as the sled finished swinging round in a wide arc and smacked into them.

  The silver wolf scrambled to his feet and jumped backwards, away from the sled. For the first time, the big animal hesitated. The sled had come to a stop on its side a couple of metres away and it smelled wrong to the wolf. It smelled of humans and plastic and other unnatural things. Ice was still hopelessly entangled in the gangline and his belly was exposed. The silver wolf could have ripped it open with one slash, but the sled was there, right next to Ice, and the sled was wrong. The wolf took another step back on his long legs and Ice managed to scramble to his feet again.

  Then the dark alpha female moved up alongside the silver wolf and his confidence returned. Together, they moved in on Ice, and the other wolves moved in on the rest of the team. They took their time, working together almost telepathically as each pack member selected a target and teamed up in pairs to attack the bigger dogs. The dogs stood their ground around Amber and snarled bravely, but they were smaller than the wolves and they were outnumbered seven to twelve. Added to that, the wolves had complete freedom of movement and the dogs were harnessed to the gangline.

  At a signal from the alpha wolf, the pack moved in for the attack and the dogs disappeared beneath an avalanche of grey fur and teeth and claws. But barely seconds later, the wolf pack exploded outwards across the clearing and raced into the trees as a whirlwind of light and noise came roaring over the tree tops.

  'How long has she been out there now?' asked Li, as the helicopter quartered another square of forest.

  'Twenty-five minutes,' said Alex, after glancing at his watch.

  There was a short s
ilence as they all tried to imagine how long an inadequately dressed person could survive in sub-zero temperatures.

  'At least she's in the trees,' said Li. 'The trees will protect her from the wind.'

  'Perhaps we should search another part of the forest,' suggested Paulo.

  'No,' said Hex. 'She must be somewhere within this square. She has to be. Double back, Paulo. We do one more sweep.'

  Paulo headed back over the square of forest and they all stared intently from their windows.

  'There!' cried Li, suddenly sitting bolt upright in her seat. 'There was something down there!'

  She had caught a flash of red and a whirling mass of grey in the searchlight beam as it panned across the ground below.

  'Turn back, Paulo! There was something down there!'

  Paulo banked the helicopter and this time the searchlight picked out a pack of grey shapes streaking across the snow.

  'Wolves!' shouted Hex.

  Alex looked from the other window and spotted Amber, lying on a scarlet blanket in the snow. 'There she is!' he called. 'Amber's down there!'

  'And the sled and the team,' said Li. 'How on earth did they get there?'

  Paulo lined up the big helicopter above the clearing and began to ease it down. He had managed this easily during his lesson but that had been in daylight on a helicopter pad. This was in darkness and snow was whirling all around them, stirred up by the rotors. Paulo was having trouble judging where the ground was.

  'Come on, Paulo!' yelled Hex.

  Paulo eased the helicopter down another metre and they hit the ground hard with a bone-shaking jolt. As soon as they were sure the helicopter was going to stay down, Hex, Li and Alex jumped out and ran, crouching until they were out of range of the rotors. Paulo turned off the engine and jumped out after them while the rotors were still spinning.

  They reached Amber and fell on their knees beside her. She was cold and still. Hex put his cheek to her mouth to feel for any trace of breath and a look of immeasurable relief crossed his face. 'She's still alive.'

  Paulo grabbed an insulin pen from his inside jacket pocket and jammed it into Amber's thigh. He pressed the button on the top of the pen and the life-saving dose of insulin was punched through Amber's skin.

  'Now we must warm her up,' said Alex.

  Together, Paulo and Hex lifted Amber on the blanket and lowered her gently on to the sled. Li untangled the gangline, noting that some of the dogs were bleeding from torn ears or ripped muzzles.

  'You know, I think they fought the wolves to save Amber,' she said, as she led the dogs towards the trees.

  'Let's hope we can do the same,' said Hex, trotting alongside the sled and never taking his eyes off Amber.

  Once they had found a sheltered spot, Alpha Force moved into action. Hex ran to collect dry wood, Alex instructed Paulo to dig in the snow under the trees until he had found half a dozen smooth, oval stones, Li dressed Amber in her arctic clothes, which were still on the sled, and Alex put Amber's feet to warm against his chest, under his layers of jackets and fleeces. Their iciness made him gasp and shiver, but it was essential to start the warming process to avoid more severe frostbite.

  Once the fire was going, Alex instructed Paulo to put the stones to warm beside it, then collect everyone's inner gloves and pop a heated stone into each of them.

  'We must warm her blood,' explained Alex, his face twisting against the bitter taste as he chewed on a couple of painkillers. 'The warmed blood will circulate and heat the rest of her body.' Carefully, Paulo slipped the wrapped stones under Amber's clothes, putting them in all the places where the blood flowed close to the surface. 'That's good,' said Alex. 'One on the back of her neck, one in each armpit, one in the pit of the stomach and one in the small of her back.'

  Paulo sat back and looked at Alex, who nodded in satisfaction. Amber was lying on the reflective foil bag from Alex's survival tin and Ice was lying alongside her on the sled, adding his body warmth to the equation. The fire was burning well and Hex had built up a reflective bank of snow to maximize the warmth. Li had melted two billycans of snow and was bringing them to the boil, ready to make a hot drink with the stock cubes from Alex's survival pouch, and Alex was still warming Amber's feet on his stomach.

  'That's good,' said Alex.

  Li took one of the billycans, added some potassium permanganate to the water, and carried it over to the dogs. Then she used a wadded piece of bandage from the medical kit to bathe the dogs' wounds. Ice seemed to be unscathed, but Frodo had a nasty rip in one of his big, pointed ears. He whined as Li bathed it and she soothed him gently. Stinker had a flap of skin hanging loose at the side of his mouth and Beauty had a gash across her muzzle.

  'Don't worry,' whispered Li as Beauty looked up at her with big, dark eyes. 'You won't have a scar.'

  She moved on, checking the other dogs, while Hex came up to sit beside Amber.

  'Did we find her in time?' he asked, pushing Amber's hands under his jacket to warm them. 'Did she get the insulin in time?'

  Paulo frowned, staring at Amber's still face. 'I do not know,' he said truthfully.

  'Is there anything else we can do?' asked Li.

  'We must wait,' said Paulo. 'Only wait.'

  TWENTY-THREE

  Tap, tap, tap, tap-tap, tap.

  Amber frowned and opened her eyes. Hex was sitting right next to her head, tapping away at his palmtop keyboard.

  'Whassalla noise about?' she mumbled.

  Hex stopped tapping and turned to her with a huge and delighted smile on his face. 'Hey, Amber,' he said softly. 'Welcome back.'

  Amber scowled, which seemed to delight Hex even more.

  'That close, was I?' she said, watching his face.

  Hex quickly rearranged his face into his usual world-weary expression. 'Sorry. No death-bed scenes. You're going to live to write a book about it. Trekking the Arctic in a Dinner Dress.'

  Amber smiled, then found her scowl again. 'I said—'

  '"Whassalla noise about." I heard you,' said Hex. 'I'm making you a present.'

  'What is it?'

  'I'll show you when it's ready,' said Hex.

  Amber turned her head away in irritation and came nose to nose with Ice, who panted happily and licked her face. 'Yeuch. Dog breath,' muttered Amber.

  'Don't insult Ice,' said Li, sitting on the edge of the sled and smiling down at Amber. 'He saved your life. He fought wolves for you. Do you remember?'

  'I remember the wolves,' shuddered Amber. She reached out a gloved hand and buried her fingers in Ice's fur.

  'Are you cold still?' asked Paulo, bending over her.

  'Nope. I'm warm enough. But I feel pretty bad,' said Amber. 'My head aches. My muscles feel like putty.'

  'They are the after-effects of hyperglycaemia—'

  'Duh! I know! How long have I been out?'

  'It is three hours since I injected the insulin,' said Paulo.

  Amber nodded, then winced as she became aware of the throbbing pain in her toes. 'My feet hurt,' she said.

  'Don't worry,' said Alex, from the bottom of the sled. 'It's not serious. Frostnip rather than frostbite. It'll hurt for a while, but you're not going to lose any toes.'

  'Alex has been acting as your human hot-water bottle,' explained Li.

  Amber lifted her head and gazed down at Alex. 'Thanks.'

  'No problem. It's about all I could do, with this injured shoulder.'

  Amber winced again as her stomach clenched with hunger pangs. 'I need food,' she said.

  'And soon you shall have some,' said Hex. 'I've been in touch with Amaruk. He's on his way to us right now. He says they're preparing a meal for us back in the village.'

  'Good,' said Amber, and a mischievous glint came into her eyes. 'Alex hasn't tried the Inuit ice cream yet.'

  'Is it good?' asked Alex.

  'You are in for a treat,' promised Paulo.

  'What about Boomer?' asked Amber, becoming serious again. 'Did Amaruk say anything about Boomer?'

/>   'He's going to be fine,' said Hex. 'Kikik stitched him up and he's lying in state in front of the stove in their kitchen. Amaruk asked about your shoulder, Alex.'

  'It's fine,' said Alex, but his face was drawn with pain.

  'And now, my present,' said Hex. 'Watch this.'

  He turned the screen of his palmtop towards Amber and pressed a button. Amber watched in fascinated horror as an edited version of Hex's camcorder footage played on the small screen, complete with subtitles. She saw Papaluk lying in the snow like a glittering ice princess, with the caption 'Daniel Usher killed this woman'. Next, she saw her own frightened face as a man held a sawn-off shotgun to her head. 'Daniel Usher tried to kill this girl', read the caption.

  Amber watched as images of cyanide waste pouring into the shaft at the Usher mine were spliced with images of an Inuit woman cradling her sick baby. 'Usher Mines poisoned this baby', read the caption.

  'It's good,' she began, then drew a shocked breath as a photograph of her own parents smiled out at her from the screen.

  'Where did you get that?' she asked.

  'Downloaded it from the Net,' said Hex. 'And this too,' he added, as the screen showed footage of the dam project Amber's parents had been trying to stop.

  'What are you going to do with it?' asked Amber.

  'Aha. Now comes the good part,' grinned Hex, glancing at his watch. It was nearly time.

  He pulled the mobile phone from his pocket and keyed in a number.

  'Who're you calling?' asked Amber.

  Hex held up a hand. 'Hi, Gina,' he said, and suddenly he was a New York businessman with a crisp, authoritative voice. 'Ross here, from Daniel's New York office. Yes, I know he's about to go on air. That's why I'm calling. I have the new footage here.'

  Hex winked at Amber as he listened to Gina. 'Well, I'm telling you now. Daniel wants this new footage playing behind him as he makes his broadcast, not the footage you already have.'

  Hex listened again. They could all hear Gina's panicked voice squawking up the register. 'Gina,' he interrupted, 'do you want to have a job at the end of this broadcast? Then play the new footage. Good. Thank you.'