Death Cache (2 page)

A sandy-haired man wearing aviator glasses and flyboy jacket entered the hangar. “Folks, my name is Hugh, and I’ll be ready to take off in about ten minutes. We’ll be taking the DeHavilland Beaver tied up next to the dock. If you’ll carry your bags down there, I’ll get them loaded, while you take your seats.”

“Do we know where we’re going yet?” Robert asked, grabbing his pack and following the pilot.

“Everything will be made clear to you once we’ve landed. Those are the instructions I’ve been given. Can’t have one of you with an advantage.”

How about disadvantage?

Tern sure as hell felt like she carried a handicap starting out. It didn’t seem like anyone else was burdened with the amount of emotional baggage on this trip that she was.

She caught Gage watching her and felt like a rabbit being hunted by a wolf. Her nipples tightened and excitement swept over her.
Damn her thrill-seeker gene
.

“Ready?” Nadia broke through Tern’s connection to Gage.

“Nope.”

“Ah, come on, Tern.” Nadia flashed a smile and gave her newly darkened hair a toss. She’d recently exchanged her natural cinnamon for Tern’s raven coloring. Tern was still getting used to the change. “It’ll be fun. Once we get there and the games begin, you’ll forget all about Gage Fallon.”

“Uh-huh, and we’ll see stars in the sky tonight too.” It would take a miracle as the midnight sun ruled the skies this time of year.

Nadia laughed and hooked her arm through Tern’s and pulled her toward the floatplane. “You’ll kick yourself if you stay.”

They climbed aboard and took their seats. Nadia sat in back with Gage, sandwiching Tern with Lucky on one side and Robert on the other. Mac sat up front with Hugh.

Fortunately, once they took off on the man-made Chena Marina and were soaring northwest into the brilliant blue sky, the noise in the plane was too loud to carry on a conversation without headphones and mics. Mac and Hugh were the only ones outfitted, which suited Tern just fine. There was too much back and forth going on inside her head to pay attention to anyone else.

Why had she let Nadia talk her into getting on this plane? There was no way this trip would end well, other than winning and being named the best geocacher in the state. Regardless if she’d seemed a coward for backing out, she should have run from the hangar and left this crew on their own. The plane bumped along in a pocket of turbulence as though nodding in agreement.

The floatplane dipped, beginning its descent. She caught a view out the windows and anticipation replaced the foreboding that brewed in her thoughts. A glacier-fed lake glistened like an expensive jewel below them. Iced mountain tops, perfectly frosted by Mother Nature, crowded around the lake as though hoping to pick up any secrets it might whisper of time and space. Spruce trees in the darkest blues to greens to blacks competed for room among the birch trees. A clearing revealed a nest of small cabins along the south bank of the lake, directly opposite the glacier that receded above the valley.

The DeHavilland skimmed the placid waters of the lake on a perfect landing, drifting right up to the sandy beach near the cabins. Hugh powered down the Beaver and silence pressed in.

“Welcome to Nowhere Lake.” Hugh rolled up his hip waders and stepped out onto the plane’s float. He hopped onto the bank and secured the plane to a birch tree before wading into the water. One by one, they climbed out onto the floats and jumped to shore. Hugh unloaded their packs, tossing them the short distance. Tern seized hers just as it would have smacked her in the face. As it was, she stumbled backward.

Hugh waded to shore, pulled an envelope from his back pocket, and handed it to Nadia. “Here you go. Instructions are in there on the rules of the game. I’ll be back in a week to pick you up.” He wasted no time untying the plane, turning it around, and hopping aboard.

They watched, standing in a line, as Hugh took off. Tern wondered if they were all thinking the same thing.

Just where the hell were they, and what would they do if he didn’t come back?

C
HAPTER
T
WO

“Well,” Mac said, hitching up his backpack on brick-like shoulders and grabbing his rifle. “The day isn’t getting any younger. I suggest we make camp and cook up some grub before we tear open those instructions.”

They gathered their gear and headed toward the base camp a few hundred yards from the lake. The spot was breathtaking. Grasses so green it hurt Tern’s eyes to look at them were intermixed with wildflowers of blue bells, forget-me-nots, brook mint, and cowslips. The air was clean and crisp. Rejuvenating.

She dragged in a deep breath and slowly let it out. The sun beat down with teasing fingers, tempting her to shed her jacket. She’d been locked up too long in her shop this season getting ready for the tourists. It was actually unheard of for her to take time off during the summer. It was her money-making season, but she had a good crew and she badly needed the break from commitments and responsibilities.

The camp consisted of three small log cabins built in a half moon. Tern and Nadia entered the first cabin, while the men carried their gear into the remaining ones. The small space housed two cots each, a shelf, hooks for clothes, and an end table between the cots. The bare necessities. It caused a smile to spread over Tern’s face, while Nadia frowned.

“This is it?” she asked, scanning the small space as though some modern day amenities would suddenly appear.

“Did you expect maid service?”

“Running water would have been nice.”

“There’s a pristine lake out front.” Tern gestured to the view out the door she’d left propped open for air and light. The little cabin only sported a tiny window, which wasn’t able to brighten the dark, rough-honed log interior.

“You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?”

“God, yes.” Tern rolled out her sleeping bag on one of the cots and stretched out on it. “I didn’t realize how badly I needed to get out of town until we got here.” She turned her head to look at Nadia, who fought to untie her sleeping bag. “Thanks for talking me into coming.”

“Don’t thank me yet,” Nadia mumbled. “We still need to find a bathroom.”

“I’m sure there’s an outhouse in back of the cabins.”

“Eww, seriously?” Her mouth dropped open.

“They said extreme backcountry. Be grateful there are cabins.” Tern laughed at Nadia’s staggered expression. “Come on, let’s unpack and get something to eat.” She sat up and opened her backpack. Unpacking her GPS, clothes, toiletries, extra pair of shoes, and pistol, she noticed things missing. Besides her stuff was always more organized than this. “Nadia, do you have everything you packed?”

“Hmm…” Nadia lifted her head from reading the back of one of the many steamy romance novels she was never without. “What?”

“It looks like someone rifled through my pack. I’m missing my sat phone, M&M’s, moose jerky. All the food I brought.” Tern frowned.

Nadia dropped the book onto her cot and rummaged through her own backpack. “What the hell. My stuff’s missing, too, including my waterproof matches and the goodies I packed.”

Lucky knocked on the outside of the cabin. “Hey, the old man’s called a meeting.”

A shiver of unease settled into her bones. Tern looked at Nadia as they silently followed Lucky to where the men stood around a dug out fire pit with log seating circling the area.

“Your things have been gone through too?” Tern asked.

“Seems to be the case with all of us,” Gage said, his jaw hard, eyes narrowed.

The same was murmured around the empty fire pit.

“My tool kit was taken, along with the MREs I’d packed,” Robert said.

“Didn’t the invite say food would be provided?” Lucky asked. “Aren’t you guys jumping to conclusions? Maybe our packs were rifled through because part of the competition is about us finding food in the caches.”

“I think it’s damn suspicious that all our emergency supplies were taken,” Gage pointed out. “Including cell and satellite phones and Mac’s two-way radios.”

“Why take the cell phones?” Tern asked. It wasn’t like they’d work up here anyway.

“Those of you who brought weapons were left with them,” Lucky argued. “I think it’s leveled the playing field.”

“I suggest we start a fire,” Mac said. “The temperature is going to drop fast, once the sun settles over those peaks. We’d better do an inventory of what we’ve been left with. Was anyone left with matches or a lighter?”

“My matches were taken,” Nadia said in a small voice and a few of the men shook their heads.

“I’ve got a lighter.” Robert reached into the front pocket of his jeans. “Gave up the smokes months ago, but can’t seem to give up carrying the lighter.” He looked at Tern as he informed the group of this little personal fact. Another of her issues about him had been the cigarettes.

Gage broke the uncomfortable silence. “I’ll gather some firewood.” He headed for the trees, his hands flexing into fists as though he had a problem with Tern’s history with Robert. She’d been upfront with Gage when they’d been together. He knew about Robert, and the rest. She’d been an open book, and had shared everything with him, but realized now how much she didn’t know about Gage and his past relationships.

“Good idea,” Mac said. “I suggest we all do the same.”

Tern and Nadia hiked down to the lake to gather what they could find along the bank and Tern tried to shut the door on rehashing her failed relationship with Gage. She’d spent too much time questioning what she’d done wrong in the past months. For some reason, he hadn’t wanted anything to do with her. It was his issue, not hers. She just wished she could stop caring.

They returned with enough dry wood to feed a fire throughout the night. Robert started a nice blaze with the dried spruce moss Gage had brought back with the wood he’d gathered. Soon a pleasant snap and crackle provided a comforting song to the breeze tickling the coin leaves of the birch trees.

Tern took a seat, reaching her hands out to the flames. She’d put her jacket back on as the temperature had indeed dropped with the sun. While not setting this close to the Arctic Circle, it had dipped just below the high peaks of the mountains surrounding them. The breeze wafting off the glacier to the north plunged the temperature twenty degrees cooler. They were in for a cold night.

One by one the players of the game took seats on the stumps. Nadia sat next to Tern, Lucky close on Nadia’s left. Robert on Tern’s right while Mac sat across and Gage remained standing, whittling a piece of diamond willow, as though needing to kept himself slightly separated from the party.

“This is much better,” Nadia said, moving her feet closer to the heat of the fire. “But what are we going to do about food? I’m starved.”

“Nadia, let me see the envelope the pilot gave you,” Mac asked.

“Oh, right. I almost forgot about the game with all our stuff pilfered.” Nadia jumped up and rushed to their cabin, returning quickly, and handing the envelope to Mac.

He opened it with a slice of his knife, bending the blade back into its case and slipping it into the scabbard on his belt. He shook out the folded pages and scanned them. “Well, it seems Lucky was right. We aren’t just to have a race against each other to find the geocaches, but finding them will aid in our survival.” He passed the pages around the group.

“What?” Nadia jumped to her feet. “There isn’t any food?”

“Doesn’t seem like it. We either catch what we eat or start searching for the geocaches and hope they have the supplies these pages promise.”

“How the hell is this a competition?” Robert asked, a scowl on his face.

“It’s a test of our survival skills,” Mac said, not looking unhappy about the prospect.

“That isn’t what we signed up for,” Gage added, though he didn’t seem adverse to the challenge presented either. One of the things that had attracted Tern to Gage in the first place was his similarity to Mac in the way he thought through problems and took charge if need be.

“We knew this was an extreme competition,” Mac said. “We all agreed by showing up to this little party.”

“I’m here to prove I’m the best geocacher in the state,” Lucky said. “That’s what I signed up for.”

“Is there any food at all?” Nadia asked.

“By the looks of the rules, we aren’t going to eat until we locate a few geocaches,” Mac said. “It’s getting late. I suggest we spilt into pairs. There’ll be protection against the unfriendlies if we stay in numbers. Tern, you pair up with me—”

“What?” Robert scoffed. “No way do the old man and the broad get to pair up.”

“
Broad
? Really?” Tern asked. “Talk like that is going to get you hurt.”

“I’d love you to try it, babe.” Robert cocked his brow at her in challenge, then turned back to Mac. “And who the fuck put you in charge?”

“Age and wisdom, you little shit.” Mac stood over Robert, who at least had the survival instincts to back down. “Now—”

“The little shit has a point,” Gage interrupted. “No offense, Mac, but you’re older and the women are weaker—”

“Hey,” Tern said.

Gage ignored her objection and continued, “We should keep the strength ratio as close to even as we can for protection.”