Rogue Angel - Polar Quest Part 11

Annja looked out of the front of the Sno-Cat. Dave was right. The amount of snow flying at them seemed to have increased exponentially. The flakes were tiny, reflecting how utterly cold it was outside. And at times, it looked like a wall of white was headed right for them.

But Dave continued to steer the cat according to the GPS. He nodded at the dash. "Now, if that thing kicked out, then we'd be in a world of hurt. My map-reading skills are about on par with my skills at golf. Which is to say, completely nonexistent."

Annja c.o.c.ked an eyebrow. "You can't map-read?"

"Nope."

"I find that hard to believe."

He glanced at her. "Why so?"

"You seem much more capable than that."

Dave smirked. "You flatter me. But the truth is, I'm mostly self-taught about a lot of stuff. Just how I've always been. Never had much use for school and the like, so I escaped as soon as I could and came down here once I found I had a certain skill set that translated well to this environment."

"What skill set is that?"

Dave shook his head. "Nothing special."

"Okay, I know enough not to pry too much." Annja went back to studying the landscape.

The radio crackled. "Guys?"

Annja grabbed the handset. "Hey, Zach, what's up?"

"I've got a bit of a problem back here."

Dave glanced in the rearview mirror. Annja turned in her seat.

"Where are you?"

The radio sounded staticky. "You see that huge pile of snow in the middle of the path?"

"Yes."

"That would be me. I caught a snowslide. It buried the cat. I'm dead in the water here."

"Jesus." Dave wheeled the Sno-Cat around and started back.

"We're coming back for you Zach," Annja said. "Hang on!"

Dave leaned close to the windshield, trying to judge his distance to Zach's cat. "I don't want to stray too far away. We need to get him out of there as fast as possible."

Annja keyed the microphone. "Is your engine dead?"

"Yeah. The snow clogged the intakes and it shut down."

"Carbon monoxide," Dave said, zipping himself up. "We have to get him out of there. You feel well enough to help out?" he asked Annja.

"Absolutely." She zipped up her coat, as well.

Dave nodded. "Follow me."

Annja jumped out of the idling vehicle and followed Dave around to the rear of the cat. He handed her a shovel and then leaned close to her head. "We need to dig the cab out first and extricate Zach. If we don't get to him, he'll be dead if there are any trapped fumes. Understand?"

Annja nodded. "Got it."

The wind howled. Dave pointed at the mound of snow. "Let's go!"

The wall of snow blew into them hard, whipping past Annja's head as they walked through the deep snow toward the mound of snow that had buried Zach.

Annja marveled at how calm he'd sounded on the radio. Being buried alive wasn't something she ever wanted to experience.

Dave jumped up and into the mound. He landed awkwardly and Annja watched him topple back down. He got up, brushed himself off and pointed at the side he'd tried to climb. "There's a track here. Climb up with me."

He held out his hand and Annja took it. Together, they scaled the side of the cat.

Dave got his shovel and started leaning in and scooping off the snow. Annja got her own shovel in and tried to shove some of the powdery snow off. Her ribs protested and she felt her side strain somewhat. She moaned with the sudden pain.

Dave glanced at her. "You say something?"

Annja grinned. "When it hurts, I know I'm alive."

Dave grinned and nodded before going back to work.

Gradually, they cleared part of the windshield. Inside the cab, they could see Zach. He'd zipped up and looked quite calm sitting there. Annja waved but she got no response from him.

"Is he okay?"

Dave pressed his face against the gla.s.s and peered in. He shook his head. "Keep digging!"

Annja drove her shovel down into the snow and kept clearing. They worked at the side door to the cab and finally got the handle exposed.

"Stand back!" Dave got in front of Annja and grabbed the handle. He gave a grunt and yanked on it.

Annja heard the door pop open and then the wind took it, slapping it open. Dave was already inside getting his hands on Zach's coat. "Give me a hand, Annja!"

Annja got next to him and saw Zach. He was completely limp. Dave heaved him out and they all slid down together into the snow. Annja grabbed a handful of snow and wiped it all over Zach's face.

Dave slapped him. "Wake up, you lazy b.a.s.t.a.r.d."

But Zach didn't stir.

"He couldn't have been in there long enough, could he?" Annja asked.

Dave shrugged. "Don't know." He bent down low and blew three breaths into Zach's mouth. Dave came up, and then checked Zach's pulse.

"There's a pulse."

Zach coughed and sputtered. Annja grabbed him. "You okay?"

Zach turned and threw up in the snow. The pile of vomit steamed in the frozen air. Annja blanched.

"Yuck."

Dave slapped him again. "Next time don't wait so long to call in the cavalry, okay?"

Annja rushed to their cat and got Zach some water. When she walked back, he was already on his feet. He took the bottle and took several swigs, which he then spit out. Finally, he took a long drag and swallowed.

"Thanks."

"You're welcome."

Dave came walking back from the cat. "I don't think it's going to be salvageable. The engine seems pretty well shot. I'd guess the snow and ice did a number on it." He glanced at Zach. "What the h.e.l.l happened?"

Zach shrugged. "I was following you guys and then all of a sudden I heard this weird sound, like a rumble, and the next thing I know, this wall of snow just engulfs me. In a split second I was buried."

Annja frowned. "You get a lot of avalanches around here?"

Dave smiled. "Considering where we are, yeah."

Zach took a breath. "Just glad you guys weren't that much farther down the trail. Any longer and I would have been a goner."

Dave nodded at their cat. "Let's get you warmed up. Annja and I will try to salvage what we can from your cat and pack it into ours."

"Okay."

Dave led him over to their cat, and Annja watched as Zach climbed inside the cab. Dave came trudging back through the show, leaning into the wind as he approached her. "You okay?"

"Yeah, just concerned about Zach."

"He'll be okay now. The fresh air did him good." He nodded at the disabled cat. "We need some of the fuel and the equipment. As much as we can get into our cat."

Annja helped him with the fuel cans first. They topped off their cat, then Dave pulled out a number of heavy-duty boxes that were taped up with all sorts of strange-looking tape.

"What are those?"

"Zach's stuff. I don't ask about it."

They dragged them through the snow to the back of their cat. Dave got them situated inside and then headed back to the buried cat one final time.

Annja watched him move through the snow. He seemed at ease in this bizarre landscape, as if he'd been born to the snow in some weird way.

She shook her head and then looked up at Zach. He seemed to be focused on something far away.

Annja tapped on the gla.s.s. He glanced down at her and smiled.

Dave came walking back. "Okay, I think we've got as much of the stuff as we're going to be able to haul with us. As it is, we're going to be a lot heavier now than we were."

"Is that bad?" Annja asked.

"It slows us down and burns more fuel."

"Will we make it?"

Dave nodded. "If we don't, we'll be close enough to radio for help."

"I thought you said that the South Pole station was the closest."

"It is. They're the closest known station. But there are plenty of folks at the dig site we can call on to help if we need it."

"That's a relief," she said.

"C'mon. Let's get going. We've been out too long as it is."

Annja climbed back in the cab and got herself situated behind Zach, who now sat in the shotgun seat. Dave climbed in and gunned the engine. With a jerk, the Sno-Cat spun on its tracks and headed off again, following the path laid out on the GPS.

Annja glanced out the back windshield. She could just make out part of the cab jutting out of the mound of snow. But then the flakes flew in and obscured her view.

The cab would be buried in minutes anyway.

12.

"An avalanche?"

"Not quite, sir. More like a snowslide. But their second Sno-Cat was completely buried."

"Was anyone hurt?"

"No. They turned back and extricated the driver before he died."

There was a pause on the phone. "Did you have anything to do with that?"

"The avalanche?"

"You called it a snowslide a moment ago."

He frowned. "No, sir, we didn't have anything to do with it. We were following your orders and hanging back. We only observed what happened to them."

"I told you to make sure no danger befell them en route to the dig site."

"There was nothing we could do about it. It was just a freak occurrence."