Read Online The Cold Edge by Trevor Scott - Free Book Online Page B

meantime, I’m heading up to that ridge to see if I can get through on the SAT phone. I’m sure coverage is not great for this region under normal circumstances, but with this Boreal activity there’s probably not much chance of getting through.”
    â€œYou want some company?” Anna asked him.
    â€œNo. Stay down here with Kjersti. Let her know what I’m up to. Stay warm.”
    She kissed him on the lips and said, “You stay safe. Don’t let the polar bears get you.”
    Jake patted the butt of the rifle. “Got this.”
    He took off toward a ridge a couple of hundred yards away. With the Northern Lights swirling above the stark white glacier, he could see fine without turning on his head lamp.
    Half way there his lungs started to give out on him, the cold, damp air making him labor with each step. How had it come to this? A simple walk on a glacier and he was feeling it. His body started to shake and he stopped for a moment to catch his breath and steady himself. It wasn’t the cold, he knew, but his worst fear. He had been drinking too much over the past three months, and now had been without for days. His body was reacting to its absence. He had always thought that drinking problems were serious character flaws, a weakness that had nothing to do with the physical addiction of the juice itself. Maybe that was true. Maybe the body ruled the mind at this point and not the other way around. Regardless, he knew that he could beat this, and just maybe he was in the right place to conquer it. Without the temptation in front of him at all times.
    He continued up the ridge and came to a point where he could see even farther than he had earlier in the day. It was the best place for miles to get a signal. If there was a satellite somewhere on the southern horizon somewhere above the point where Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia met, perhaps his SAT phone would pick it up.
    Looking back down the ridge toward the helo, he hoped Anna and Kjersti were staying warm. His mind drifted for a microsecond about what Anna had said earlier. He knew she was kidding, but he also knew that she knew how to play with a man’s natural thoughts.
    He tried the SAT phone, angling it in all directions, hoping he could get any signal at all. Nothing. Yeah, the Aurora Borealis was playing with the satellites. They were beautiful but destructive.
    Then he lifted the binoculars from his chest and scanned in all directions. He had no idea what he was looking for, but he knew that he couldn’t go back to the helo at this time. It was tight in there and he would more than likely start to shake uncontrollably. Anna didn’t need to see that, nor did Kjersti. Their confidence in him would be shot all to hell.
    There. Nearly a mile to the northeast. A large figure and a smaller one lumbered across the glacial plain—a polar bear sow and her cub. They were vectoring away toward the east of their location. Better check for company. He quickly scanned in three hundred sixty degrees. Nothing.
    He set the binoculars to his chest and took in a deep breath, when something green glimmered just thirty yards away. Then it was gone. Then again. He looked up at the Northern Lights and saw they were mostly green at this time. But something had reflected the light.
    Pulling up the binoculars again, he couldn’t tell what was causing the reflection. So he walked over there for a closer look.
    As he got closer, he saw that the ridge had an overhang—an indentation like a half cave. He clicked on his headlamp and directed the beam of light lower. Then he saw it. With the warmer temps and the wind, snow had cleared from a trailer. Brushing further ahead, the trailer was attached to a snowmobile. The missing snowmobile.
    His old friend, Captain Steve Olson, had to be close by. What would Jake have done? Steve had been either hiding or trying to find protection from the elements. The overhang would have provided