Read Online Arctic Rising by Tobias S. Buckell - Free Book Online
Authors: Tobias S. Buckell
Ads: Link
pulling tight with every bit of strength left to her as he did it again.
But this time, after throwing himself against the rock in reverse, he slumped forward.
Anika, wrapped around him, rope pulled tight, just hung on and waited.
She could feel the bruises and throbbing pain slowly washing over her. There wasn’t a limb, a muscle, or any part of her that didn’t scream for mercy.
There were tears of fear and relief to be alive coursing down her cheek and onto his neck. The sweat on her skin began to cool, and the cold air made her shiver.
For another ten minutes she lay there, making absolutely sure her attacker would not move again, and then she let go and flopped onto her back.
There were rope burns on the palms of her hands. The red lines and blood ran from the chewed-up brown of the back of her hands to the pale of the front.
She held them up in the air in front of her face and stared at them, and then at a single star up in the twilight summer sky of the Arctic.
11
Eventually the pain subsided enough that Anika could sit up, but with a gasp. Unsteadily, on her hands and knees, she crawled over to the dead man.
Who knew about the backup? She’d told Yves. He’d reported up the chain while they were in Resolute. Commander Claude knew, of course.
With shaking hands she checked the dead man’s pockets to see if she could figure out who he was. No wallet. She found his holster underneath his left shoulder. There was no ID in that either.
None of the suit pockets had anything in them.
But his left trouser pocket had a small business card, a small phone, and several hundred euros cash. She looked at the silver money clip holding the cash, but it was blank.
She kept the cash, and then flipped the business card over to read it.
Michel Claude’s name was stamped over the United Nations Polar Guard seal. And it was his contact info.
“What does this mean?” Anika muttered, sitting back down abruptly. “What…”
She ran a hand through her dirtied hair. Take a deep breath, she thought. Slowly. It could just mean this man talked to the commander.
Or it could mean Michel had wanted her killed.
Right?
Someone had cleared the Kosatka in Greenland, and if Tom and Anika had checked their data first, they wouldn’t have bothered to train the scatter camera on the ship. Anika had assumed it was a bribe. But maybe someone inside the UNPG was involved in this, somehow.
Maybe that’s why her scatter camera data had gone missing. And why people were hunting for the backup.
“Oh shit,” she whispered. Maybe Tom hadn’t died of exposure. Maybe he’d been killed.
Someone didn’t want people to know that the Kosatka had been shipping something radioactive.
She had to be really careful, now. It was going to be best to take this information to the police. Someone not in the UNPG.
Only someone with a contact in the UNPG could have known that she had the data backed up, so she couldn’t trust anyone there.
She patted herself down for her phone, while wondering what it was the Kosatka had been carrying. Just nuclear waste? Was that enough to kill someone for? This felt bigger, somehow.
There had been a few stories about people killed over illegal dumping activity, caught up with the wrong people. But that was overseas and far away. But going after UNPG pilots? Whoever was doing this was willing to risk a lot.
Well, they picked the wrong UNPG pilot, Anika thought.
She pulled her phone out. Pieces of screen and plastic shell fell between her fingers onto her lap. The electronic guts spilled out.
Where was the phone she’d taken off the dead man? She found that.
Jenny. She needed to talk to Jenny.
“Jenny? It’s Anika, I need a minute.”
“Anika?” Jenny asked on the other side, her voice tiny and cracked in such a way that it hurt more than Anika’s current pains.
“What happened? We were talking to him.”
“He collapsed later. It was too much of a shock for his heart, they said.”
Anika
But this time, after throwing himself against the rock in reverse, he slumped forward.
Anika, wrapped around him, rope pulled tight, just hung on and waited.
She could feel the bruises and throbbing pain slowly washing over her. There wasn’t a limb, a muscle, or any part of her that didn’t scream for mercy.
There were tears of fear and relief to be alive coursing down her cheek and onto his neck. The sweat on her skin began to cool, and the cold air made her shiver.
For another ten minutes she lay there, making absolutely sure her attacker would not move again, and then she let go and flopped onto her back.
There were rope burns on the palms of her hands. The red lines and blood ran from the chewed-up brown of the back of her hands to the pale of the front.
She held them up in the air in front of her face and stared at them, and then at a single star up in the twilight summer sky of the Arctic.
11
Eventually the pain subsided enough that Anika could sit up, but with a gasp. Unsteadily, on her hands and knees, she crawled over to the dead man.
Who knew about the backup? She’d told Yves. He’d reported up the chain while they were in Resolute. Commander Claude knew, of course.
With shaking hands she checked the dead man’s pockets to see if she could figure out who he was. No wallet. She found his holster underneath his left shoulder. There was no ID in that either.
None of the suit pockets had anything in them.
But his left trouser pocket had a small business card, a small phone, and several hundred euros cash. She looked at the silver money clip holding the cash, but it was blank.
She kept the cash, and then flipped the business card over to read it.
Michel Claude’s name was stamped over the United Nations Polar Guard seal. And it was his contact info.
“What does this mean?” Anika muttered, sitting back down abruptly. “What…”
She ran a hand through her dirtied hair. Take a deep breath, she thought. Slowly. It could just mean this man talked to the commander.
Or it could mean Michel had wanted her killed.
Right?
Someone had cleared the Kosatka in Greenland, and if Tom and Anika had checked their data first, they wouldn’t have bothered to train the scatter camera on the ship. Anika had assumed it was a bribe. But maybe someone inside the UNPG was involved in this, somehow.
Maybe that’s why her scatter camera data had gone missing. And why people were hunting for the backup.
“Oh shit,” she whispered. Maybe Tom hadn’t died of exposure. Maybe he’d been killed.
Someone didn’t want people to know that the Kosatka had been shipping something radioactive.
She had to be really careful, now. It was going to be best to take this information to the police. Someone not in the UNPG.
Only someone with a contact in the UNPG could have known that she had the data backed up, so she couldn’t trust anyone there.
She patted herself down for her phone, while wondering what it was the Kosatka had been carrying. Just nuclear waste? Was that enough to kill someone for? This felt bigger, somehow.
There had been a few stories about people killed over illegal dumping activity, caught up with the wrong people. But that was overseas and far away. But going after UNPG pilots? Whoever was doing this was willing to risk a lot.
Well, they picked the wrong UNPG pilot, Anika thought.
She pulled her phone out. Pieces of screen and plastic shell fell between her fingers onto her lap. The electronic guts spilled out.
Where was the phone she’d taken off the dead man? She found that.
Jenny. She needed to talk to Jenny.
“Jenny? It’s Anika, I need a minute.”
“Anika?” Jenny asked on the other side, her voice tiny and cracked in such a way that it hurt more than Anika’s current pains.
“What happened? We were talking to him.”
“He collapsed later. It was too much of a shock for his heart, they said.”
Anika
Similar Books
