Read Online Terminal Freeze by Lincoln Child - Free Book Online

reply, Wolff went on. “In exchange for underwriting your six-week expedition, Terra Prime-and by extension its corporate parent, Blackpool Entertainment Group-has exclusive and unlimited access not only to your site but to any and all discoveries you make, at our sole discretion.”
    Reluctantly, Marshall took the document.
    “Clause six,” Wolff said. “The operative word is ‘unlimited.’”
    Briefly, Marshall scanned the contract. It was as Wolff said: in effect, Terra Prime controlled any physical or intellectual property their expedition produced. He hadn’t realized Terra Prime was a subsidiary of Blackpool, and he didn’t like it: Blackpool was infamous for its sensationalist, exploitative journalism. Clearly, Wolff anticipated this moment would come: that’s why he was carrying the contract around in the first place. Marshall looked more closely at the man. Even in a parka, Wolff was thin, almost cadaverous, with close-cropped brown hair and an expressionless face. He returned the look, pale eyes betraying nothing.
    Marshall turned to Sully. “You signed this?”
    Sully shrugged. “It was either that or no expedition. How could we know this was going to happen?”
    Marshall didn’t answer. Suddenly, he felt more tired than ever. Without another word, he refolded the contract and passed it back to Wolff.

9
    A quarter of an hour later, a large group set off up the glacial valley toward the ice cave. In addition to the scientists, Conti, and his small retinue of assistants, there was Ekberg, the two photographers, and the soundman. A dozen or so tough-looking roustabouts in leather jackets followed behind, both on foot and in the Sno-Cat, whose cargo bed had been loaded to overflowing with wooden pallets. These men were not officially part of the documentary team; they were locals, flown up from Anchorage for a few days to do the heavy work. Ekberg had already explained that the real rush was to get the principal photography, the live stuff, done quickly-with the producer now on scene and the star on the way, money was being burned through quickly, and the sets and props needed to be built as speedily as possible.
    Normally, the hike to the face of Fear glacier took twenty minutes, but today it took several times as long: Conti was forever stopping so the photographers could get shots of the mountain, the valley below, the party itself. Once he’d stopped everything for ten minutes just to gaze pensively up at the glacier. Most strangely, he later got a number of shots of Ekberg-from every angle except face-forward.
    “What are those for?” Marshall asked her after the fifth such shot.
    Ekberg tugged off her hood. “I’m standing in for Ashleigh.”
    Marshall nodded his understanding. Ashleigh Davis, the host, wasn’t due for another two days-but that wasn’t stopping Conti from filming her anyway. “I suppose it’s as you said. On a shoot like this, the clock is everything.”
    “That’s right.” She glanced over at him. “Look, I’m sorry about what happened back there. I wish I could have warned you, but I was given strict orders. It had to come from Wolff.”
    “So he’s top man. And here I’d figured it was Conti.”
    “Emilio is in charge of everything creative: the shots, the lighting, the direction, the final cut. But the network is putting up the money. So the network has the last say. And up here at the top of the world, Wolff
is
the network.”
    Marshall glanced over his shoulder, down the mountain. Wolff had not come along, but he could still be seen far below: a tiny figure, gaunt and wraithlike, standing motionless outside the perimeter fence, watching them.
    Marshall turned back with a sigh. “Is this normal? All this stopping, looking around, filming again and again?”
    “Not really, no. Conti’s burning three times the normal amount of film.”
    “Why is that?”
    “Because he wants this to be his
Mona Lisa.
His masterwork. He’s risked a lot to put this