Read Online The Arctic Code by Matthew J. Kirby - Free Book Online

myself.”
    â€œIt is all accounted for?” the old man asked.
    â€œI told you, it’s all in order.” Luke sounded even more irritated with this guy than he had with Eleanor.
    â€œThis hold is pressurized? Temperature controlled?”
    â€œOf course.”
    Well, at least Eleanor wouldn’t have to worry about suffocation or freezing to death.
    â€œAnd now that you’ve seen it,” Luke said, “I’ll be on my way. There’ll be a major polar storm moving in over Barrow in the next twenty-four hours. I need to be unloaded and gone before it hits.”
    â€œWhen do you expect to land?” the old voice asked.
    â€œDepending on how long my stop in Fairbanks takes—”
    â€œDoes your business in Fairbanks involve humanitarian aid?”
    â€œWhat? No.”
    â€œThen by order of article six of the International Conservation of Energy Treaty, I authorize you to proceed directly to Barrow.”
    â€œDr. Watkins,” Luke said, “I don’t need your authorization to do anything.”
    â€œLet me rephrase. I order you to go straight to Barrow.”
    Luke’s voice turned angry. “Excuse me? Yours ain’t the only cargo on this plane. I’ve got buyers lined up for the rest of this stuff! I gotta make a profit—”
    â€œI have the power, granted by the UN, to override all but humanitarian missions. You run afoul of me, young man, and I’ll make sure this . . . plane is grounded for good. Do I make myself clear?”
    â€œPerfectly,” Luke said, bringing a different kind of ice into the plane.
    â€œGood. I’ll let our Barrow facility know to expect you.”
    â€œWe done here?” Luke asked.
    â€œYou may depart,” the old voice said.
    The sound of the men’s footsteps left the plane, anda few minutes later, the cargo door lifted and groaned shut. When the engines kicked back up and the plane moved, the tower of cargo beneath Eleanor shifted as if it might collapse. Her hands and feet shot outward instinctively, to steady herself, but the netting kept it all in place.
    The plane taxied for only a short time. Then the engines rose to a wail, and the aircraft lurched forward. Everything around Eleanor rattled so hard, she imagined pieces of the plane shaking off on the runway. The escalating g forces rolled her up against the netting and pressed it into her back as the plane finally heaved itself into the sky. Once the aircraft lost contact with the ground, the rattling ceased and things settled down, as if the plane had let out a sigh. It was still noisy but felt more calm and steady. They were in the air.
    Eleanor had made it. Officially an Arctic stowaway. She imagined the city of Phoenix growing small and distant behind her, with its refugees and Ice Castles and her school and her home and . . .
    She sighed. “Poor Uncle Jack,” she said aloud.
    O nce they’d been airborne for a while, Eleanor climbed down and felt comfortable pulling out one of the flashlights from her pack to get a better look at thecargo around her. She wondered what the G.E.T. might be sending to the Arctic and hoped it would give her some clue about what her mother had been working on in Barrow. She cast the flashlight’s narrow spotlight over the crates and containers, the white circle of cold light a moon moving through the hold, landing on uneven surfaces.
    Most of the crates were too heavy or large for her to lift, but she managed to pull down one of the smaller ones, labeled TELLURIC SCANNER . It was made of plastic, with a hinged latch on each side of the lid. She popped them and pulled the lid away.
    Inside, she found an electronic device wedged in cutaway foam. It reminded her of the bar-code scanner guns that grocery store employees carried around on their hips. But this looked a lot more complicated, with a couple of blank LCD screens, dials, and buttons. Eleanor had no idea what it might be used for.