Polar Shift (25 page)

“What's the nature of this expedition?”

“Science fiction. Some crazy Russians and Japanese hope to find DNA from a woolly mammoth that can be cloned into a live creature. Look, here on the other side of the island, where the permafrost had been eroded, there are natural inlets.”

Austin saw an elongated shape lying in a cove. “A boat?”

“Whoever owns it didn't want to be seen or they would have come into the main harbor. I think the assassins have arrived.”

“How soon can we get there?”

“Ten hours. The boat will do forty knots, but the distances here are vast, and we may be slowed by ice.”

“We don't have that long.”

“I agree. That's why I have made contingency plans.” He glanced at his watch. “In forty-five minutes, a seaplane will arrive here from the mainland. After it refuels, it will take you and Zavala to a rendezvous with the icebreaker
Kotelny
, which is between Wrangel Island and the polar ice. A trip of about three hours by air. The icebreaker will transport you to Ivory Island.”

“What about you and your friends?”

“We will leave as soon as you do, and, with any luck, we'll arrive sometime tomorrow.”

Austin reached out and gripped Petrov's hand. “I can't thank you enough, Ivan.”

“I should be the one thanking
you
. Yesterday, I was rotting in my Moscow office. Today, I am rushing to save a damsel in distress.”

“I may have a problem prying Zavala away,” Austin said.

His fears were unfounded, as it turned out. When he returned to the main cabin, Zavala was chatting with one of Petrov's men about his weapon. Veronika and Dimitri were sitting off by themselves engaged in animated conversation.

“Sorry to take you away from your budding romance,” Austin said.

“Don't be. Petrov failed to tell me that Veronika and Dimitri are married. To each other. Where are we going?”

Austin explained Petrov's plans, and they went out on the dock to wait. The seaplane was fifteen minutes early. It taxied up to the fuel pump at the end of the pier. Austin supervised the handling of his luggage while the plane was being refueled, then he and Zavala boarded the plane. Within minutes, it skimmed across the bay, lifted its nose and climbed at a sharp angle over the jagged peaks of the gray mountains that flanked the bay, then headed north into the unknown.

K
ARLA'S EYELIDS FLUTTERED OPEN.
She saw only blackness, but senses that had been temporarily put on hold stirred to life. She had a coppery taste of old blood in her mouth. Her back felt as if it were resting on a bed of nails. Then she heard a rustling noise close by. She remembered the yellow-toothed attacker. Still only half conscious, she put her arms up and flailed away in the dark, defending herself against an unseen assailant.

“No!” she called out in fear and defiance.

Her thrashing arms struck soft flesh. A big hand with fingers like steel clamped down over her mouth. A light flashed on. Its beam illuminated a disembodied face floating in the darkness.

She stopped fighting. The long-jawed face had aged dramatically since the last time she had seen it. There were more wrinkles, and a general droopiness to skin that was once as taut as a drumhead. The watchful eyes were framed by crow's-feet, pouches and white brows, but the irises were the same piercing blue she remembered. He removed his hand from her mouth.

She smiled. “Uncle Karl.”

The ends of the thin lips curved up slightly. “Technically speaking, I am your godfather. But, yes, it is me. Your uncle Karl. How do you feel?”

“I'll be all right.” She forced herself to sit up, even though the effort made her dizzy. As she ran her tongue across her swollen lips, the memory of the attack came flooding back.

“There were four other scientists. They took them away, and then I heard shots.”

A pained look came to the pale eyes. “I'm afraid they were all killed.”

“Killed. But
why
?”

“The men who killed them didn't want witnesses.”

“Witnesses to
what
?”

“Your murder. Or abduction. I'm not sure what they had in mind, only that it was no good.”

“This doesn't make sense. I just arrived here two days ago. I'm a stranger in this country. I'm simply a bone scientist like the others. What reason would anyone have to murder me?”

Schroeder turned his head slightly as if he were listening for something, then he switched the light off. His mellow voice was cool and soothing in the darkness. “They think your grandfather had a secret of great importance. They think he passed it on to you, and they want to make sure no one else learns about it.”

“Grandpa!”
Karla almost laughed through her pain. “That's ridiculous. I don't know any secret.”

“Nonetheless, they think so, and that's what's important.”

“Then the deaths of those scientists are
my
fault.”

“Not at all. The men who pulled the trigger are responsible.”

He pressed the flashlight into her palm to restore a measure of control to her damaged psyche. She flashed the light around so that the beam illuminated the black rock ceilings and walls.

“Where are we?” she said.

“In a cave. I carried you here. It was sheer luck that I found a low place to climb out of the gorge and immediately came to a natural wall of stone. It was split in many places, and I thought we could hide in a narrow gap in the rocks. I saw an opening at the end of a narrow fissure. I cut some bushes and put them around the mouth of the cave.”

She reached out in the darkness and grabbed onto his big hand. “Thank you, Uncle Karl. You're like some guardian angel.”

“I promised your grandfather that I would look after you.”

Karla sat in the dark, thinking back to the first time she remembered meeting Schroeder. She was a young girl, living at her grandfather's house after her parents died. He appeared one day, bearing an armful of gifts. He seemed enormously tall and strong, more like a walking tree than a man. Despite the strength that he projected, he seemed almost shy, but her child's eye had detected a kindliness in his manner, and she quickly warmed up to him.

The last time she had seen him was at her grandfather's funeral. He never forgot her birthday, and sent her a card with money in it every year until she graduated from college. She didn't know the details of the bond between Schroeder and her family, but she knew from hearing the story many times that when she was born her grandfather had persuaded her parents to name her after the mysterious uncle.

“I don't know how you found me in this remote spot,” Karla said.

“It wasn't hard. The university told me where you were. Getting here was the difficult part. I hired a fishing boat to bring me in. When I didn't see anyone at your camp, I followed your trail. The next time you go off on an expedition, please make it closer. I'm getting too old for this kind of thing.” He cocked his ear.
“Hush.”

They sat in the silent darkness, listening. They heard muffled voices, and the scrape of boots against rocks and gravel at the mouth of the cave. Then the darkness was leavened by a yellowish light as the bushes blocking the entrance were moved aside.

“Hey in there,” a man's voice called in Russian.

Schroeder squeezed Karla's hand in a signal to be silent. It was an unnecessary gesture, because she was nearly frozen with fear.

“We know you're in there,” the voice said. “We can see where someone cut the bushes. It's not polite not to answer when people are talking to you.”

Schroeder crawled forward a few yards, where he had a view of the cave's mouth.

“It's not polite to kill innocent people, either.”

“You killed my man. My friend was innocent.”

“Your friend was
stupid
and deserved to die,” Schroeder said.

Hoarse male laughter greeted his answer.

“Hey, tough guy, my name is Grisha. Who the hell are you?”

“I'm your worst nightmare come true.”

“I heard someone say that in an American movie,” the voice said. “You're an old man. What do you want with a young girl? I'll make a deal. I'll let you go if you give us the girl.”

“I heard someone say that in a movie too,” Schroeder said. “Do you think I'm stupid? Let's talk some more. Tell me why you want to kill the girl.”

“We don't want to kill her. She's worth a lot of money to us.”

“Then you won't harm her?”

“No, no. Like I said, she's worth more as a hostage.”

Schroeder paused as if he were seriously considering the offer. “I have lots of money too. I can give it to you right away and you won't have to wait. How does a million dollars American sound?”

There was a whispered discussion, then the Russian came back. “My men say it's okay, but they want to see the money first.”

“All right. Come closer to the cave and I'll throw it out to you.”

The conversation had been in Russian and Karla had understood only part of it. Schroeder whispered to Karla to move deeper into the cave and to cover her ears. He reached into his pack and pulled out an object that looked like a small metal pineapple. He knew that his offer would draw the attackers in like jackals, and, with any luck, he could take out all of them. He stood up. Shards of pain shot up his right leg. The run and climb while carrying the young woman had aggravated the ankle injury.

He moved closer to the entrance. He could see shadows moving closer.
Good.
There was a slight bend in the cave, and the entrance was a narrow slit, so his aim and timing would have to be just right.

“Here's your money,” he said, and pulled the pin from the hand grenade.

As he stepped forward to toss it out of the hole, his injured right leg buckled and he fell, slamming his head against the wall of the cave. He almost blacked out. As his eyes were closing, he saw the grenade hit the ground and roll to a stop only a few feet away. He pulled himself back to consciousness and forced himself to hang on. He lunged for the grenade, felt the hard metal in his hand and again tossed it to the entrance.

His aim was better this time, but the grenade glanced off the wall and came to rest in the dead center of the opening.

Schroeder threw himself deeper into the cave and around the bend, where he gained the shelter of the wall. He clamped his hands over his ears just as the grenade exploded. There was a flash of light and a burst of white-hot metal as the shrapnel peppered the cave in a deadly fusillade. Then came a secondary roar as the entrance collapsed.

The cave was filled with dust. Schroeder lifted his head up and crawled toward the sound of coughing. The light flashed on, but the beam was diffused by the brown curtain of dust that hung in the air.

“What happened?” Karla said after the dust settled.

Schroeder groaned and spit out a mouthful of dirt. “I told you I'm getting too old for this sort of thing. I was about to toss out the grenade when I tripped and banged my head. Wait.” He took the flashlight and made his way to the entrance. He came back after a minute and said, “I did a good job. We can't get out, but they can't get in.”

“I don't know about that,” Karla said. “The leader of those men said they have a portable jackhammer.”

Schroeder considered her comment. “We'll have to go farther into the cave.”

“This place could go on underground for miles! We could become hopelessly lost.”

“Yes, I know. We will only go as far as we need to set up an ambush. I will try not to be so clumsy next time.”

Karla wondered if she was talking to the same man who had bounced her on his knee so many years ago. He had cleanly dispatched the man who tried to rape her, calmly negotiated with a band of murderers, and then, in a businesslike fashion, tried to kill the gang.

“All right,” she said. “But this secret you mentioned. What do you know about it?”

Karl fished a candle out of his pack, lit the wick and stuck it onto a ledge using melted wax.

“I met your grandfather for the first time near the end of World War Two. He was a brilliant and courageous man. Many years ago, he came upon a scientific principle that, if used unwisely, could cause great death and destruction. He wrote a paper warning of the possibilities, and the result was not what he expected. The Nazis captured him and forced him to work on a superweapon, using his theories.”

“That's incredible. He never gave any hint that he was anything but an inventor and businessman.”

“It's true. However, I helped him escape from the lab. He had refused to give up his secrets, and his stubbornness cost him his family. Yes, that's right. He was married and had a child before he moved to the United States after World War Two. He took his secret to the grave, but these men, or the ones they work for, think he passed the secret on to you.”

“What makes them think I know anything like that?”

“History repeats itself. You published an article on the extinction of the woolly mammoths.”

“That's right. I said it was due to climate changes caused by a polar shift. I used some of my grandfather's papers and his calculations to back up my theory. Dear God! Is
that
what they want?”

“That and more. They will do anything and kill anyone to get it.”

“But everything I know is in public view. I don't know
anything
about any secret!”

“Your grandfather told the Nazis the same thing. They didn't believe him either.”

“What can I do?”

“For now, you can keep yourself well.” He went back into his pack again and came out with some jerky and water. “Not exactly cordon bleu, but it will do for now. Maybe we will find some bats that we can cook into a big stew.”

“Now I remember,” Karla said with a smile. “You were always telling me about the crazy things you were going to cook up for me. Snails. Puppy dogs. Brussels sprouts. Ugh. Disgusting.”

“It was the best I could do. I had limited experience entertaining children.”

They talked about shared memories as they chewed the tough jerky. They were washing their meat down with water when they heard what sounded like a giant woodpecker at the mouth of the cave.

“They've started drilling,” Karla said.

Schroeder gathered up his things. “Time to get moving.” He handed Karla a light and suggested she use it sparingly, although he always carried plenty of batteries. Then they followed the cave deeper into the ground.

Schroeder had expected the temperature to rise the deeper they went and was heartened that it remained temperate, and that the air was relatively fresh. He remarked on the phenomenon to Karla, and suggested that the cave might eventually lead outdoors. He knew it was a slim hope, especially after the cave floor began to slant downward, but it seemed to give Karla courage.

The cave meandered, going slightly left, then right, but always down. Sometimes the ceiling was high enough to allow them to walk upright. For some stretches, the cave was only about four feet high, and they had to crouch. Schroeder was glad to see that there was only one tunnel, with no branches that would have required a decision and increased the chances of becoming hopelessly lost.