Hostage (8 page)

'Our water is piped up from the river,' said Kikik. 'It used to be the purest water you could wish for. Since Usher Mining Corporation took over the mine, we have had sickness here. There is a pattern to it. For a week, maybe two, everything is fine. Then within one day, people come into the surgery reporting all sorts of symptoms. Headaches, vertigo, nausea and vomiting. The little children are brought in with dilated pupils and clammy skin. Some even have convulsions.'

'They must be the dumping days,' said Hex.

Kikik nodded. 'Mostly the people recover and then everyone is fine again until the next time. But now – now a young woman in the village has given birth to a baby with bad problems. Everyone is scared. We are all melting snow for our cooking and having bottled water flown in to drink. I looked up our symptoms on the Net and they all fit the cyanide poisoning profile.'

'That's why we have to nail this guy,' said Amber.

'But why you? Why must you go to the mine?' asked Amaruk. 'It will be risky.'

'Because it's personal. Papaluk was my friend,' said Li.

'And Daniel Usher had my parents killed,' said Amber quietly.

'And we are —' Hex hesitated – 'experienced – in this sort of stuff.'

There was a long silence. Amaruk and Kikik looked at the four fit and muscular young people sitting in their living room. Amaruk opened his mouth to ask what Hex meant, but Hex was watching him with a cool stare and a neutral, closed expression on his face and Amaruk decided against the question.

Amaruk and Kikik shared a look, then Amaruk seemed to make a decision. 'Papaluk was our friend too,' he said. 'I'll guide you to the mine. But you'd better leave the snowmobiles here. The mine's very well guarded and they might investigate if they hear you coming. We'll use the dog teams.'

Li looked around at the others and they all nodded their agreement. 'Good,' she said. 'We leave tomorrow.'

'There they are,' said Amaruk the next morning. 'Sixteen dogs. Two teams.'

Amber, Hex, Li and Paulo looked out over the crisp, new snow. The blizzard had subsided during the night and the day was bright and clear, but they could see no sign of the dogs.

'Where?' demanded Amber.

Amaruk gave a high, clear whistle and suddenly sixteen dogs exploded out of the ground. They had all been curled up under a blanket of snow, with their paws and noses tucked neatly under their tails, but now they were ready for action, running in circles on the end of their tether ropes and yipping excitedly.

'First team here,' said Amaruk, pointing to the first row of dogs. 'Second team behind them. You'll be driving the first team, Amber. The second team's still learning how to do it right so I'll take them. We'll give them a quick run before they have breakfast. Give you a chance to get used to mushing before we set off for the mine.'

Amber hurried along beside Amaruk with a broad grin on her face. She was looking forward to this. When Amaruk had explained that they would have to take two sleds as each one carried a maximum of three people, including the driver, she had instantly volunteered to be the second driver.

Amaruk pulled the covering from his two sleds and began yanking one of them back and forth to break the runners out of the ice.

'I can see why we need two sleds,' said Paulo, grabbing the other sled and copying Amaruk's technique. 'They are not very big.'

The sleds were lightweight baskets made out of lashed hickory. They were attached to long runners made of tough polyethylene plastic which had been polished until it was as smooth as glass. At the rear of the sled, the frame rose up into a curved handlebar. Behind the handlebar, a pair of rubber footprints were set into a plate where the driver, known as the musher, stood.

The dogs grew even more frenzied as Amaruk and Paulo pushed the sleds across the snow towards them.

'Are they friendly?' asked Hex, watching the dogs warily.

'Most of them,' said Amaruk, picking a tangle of harnesses from the sled. 'Come on, I'll introduce you as we harness them up.'

Amaruk selected a long length of nylon rope just over a centimetre in diameter. 'This is called the gangline,' he said as he attached the rope to the front of the sled, then laid the length of it out along the snow. 'It's the main line. You attach all your dogs to the gangline in staggered pairs, using these.'

He held up eight short lengths of rope, each half a centimetre in diameter. 'These are the tuglines and they clip on to the dog's harness. See?' Amaruk picked up a harness and showed them the metal ring on the padded straps. 'The dog's front legs go through these side loops here and the straps transfer the strain of pulling to the dog's chest and shoulders. That's partly why a team of eight can pull a weight of three hundred kilos without even breaking into a sweat.'

'And those? What are they?' asked Paulo, pointing to a pile of even shorter, thinner ropes.

'They're the necklines. They don't do anything except keep your dogs in line once they're on the move. Right, let's go harness them up.' Amaruk handed the tuglines to Amber and picked up the harnesses.

'You've met Boomer already,' he said, stopping by the first dog in the line and bending to slip on the harness. Boomer licked Amaruk on the cheek and he ruffled the dog's fur in return. 'He's my lead dog. I've had him since he was a pup and sometimes I think he can read my mind.'

Amaruk led Boomer over to the front of the gangline and clipped his tugline into place. 'Come and meet the others,' he said.

The next dog was a friendly little female with fluffy, white fur. 'This here is Pie,' said Amaruk.

'Why did you call her Pie?' asked Li, watching as Amber harnessed the dog with surprising skill and speed considering that she had never done it before.

'Because she's as nice as pie,' said Amaruk. 'Not a leader, though. She has to have someone to follow and she'd follow Boomer anywhere. She's a second lead. A stringer. Moving on, this is Donald.'

'Why Donald?' asked Paulo, as the third dog was harnessed up. At that moment, Donald gave a strangled yelp of excitement as his tether rope was unclipped. It sounded exactly like the quack of a duck. 'Never mind,' grinned Paulo.

'This is Frodo,' said Amaruk, petting a small male with big eyes, pointed ears and a lot of curly, dark hair. 'Because he's little but courageous. He shares swing position with Donald. Next we have Drum. He loves to roll in the snow. Drum roll. Get it? And this is Beauty, for obvious reasons. They take third pair position.'

Drum and Beauty were clipped into their places on the gangline. Now only two dogs were left still tethered to their sleeping posts. They were both big males with powerful shoulders and well-developed muscles in their back legs.

'These two are my wheel dogs,' explained Amaruk. 'Wheel dogs have to be big, tough brutes. They're the dogs closest to the sled, and when the musher makes a turn, most of the weight of the sled falls on their tuglines. This one is Stinker,' he said, harnessing a big, rangy dog with oatmeal-coloured fur and a laughing face. 'If you want to know why we call him Stinker, just sit next to him while he digests his dinner and you'll soon find out.' Amaruk handed Stinker's tugline to Paulo. 'And finally, we have Ice. He's my only Siberian husky. Cost me a fortune. I thought he would make a good leader but it didn't work out. We call him Ice, because he's very cool. He never really took to me, or anybody else, and you can't have a lead dog who doesn't care whether his musher lives or dies. He's a bit of a handful to harness up—'

Amaruk turned towards Ice, then stopped talking and stared in astonishment. Amber had already harnessed the big dog and was now sitting in the snow next to him, stroking his thick coat. Ice was leaning up against her, with one paw on her knee and an uncharacteristically soft look in his pale blue eyes.

'Well, I'll be . . . !' exclaimed Amaruk. 'I'd better qualify that last statement. Ice doesn't like people, unless their name happens to be Amber. He's taken a real shine to you, Amber. I've never seen him snuggle up to anyone like that before. I've heard mushers talk about dogs who only ever take to one person and when they do, they take to them within seconds. Looks like Ice here is a one-person dog – and he's just found his person.'

Amber grinned up at Amaruk and buried her fingers in the thick ruff of fur around Ice's neck.

'Come on then,' said Amaruk. 'Clip him in line. Then you can take them for a spin.'

Amber put Ice into his place then clambered up on to the back of the sled.

'Memorized the commands?' asked Amaruk.

Amber nodded. '"Let's go" to get them started. "Hike" to make them go faster. "Haw" for turn left, "gee" for turn right and "on by" to go straight on. "Easy" to slow them down and "whoa" for stop.'

'Good. Remember, you steer the sled by leaning one way or the other. The sharper the turn, the further you lean.'

Amber nodded again and released the claw brake. Taking a deep breath, she yelled out the musher's command, 'Let's go!'

The team shot off like a cork from a champagne bottle. Amber flew through the air and landed flat on her back as the sled was yanked from under her.

'Oww,' she said quietly, from the ground.

'Haw!' yelled Amaruk. 'Haw!'

Boomer heard him and turned the team to the left in a long curve until they were heading back towards Amaruk. 'On by!' called Amaruk, and Boomer obediently came out of the turn and headed straight on. 'Easy!' called Amaruk as the sled drew closer. Then, 'Whoa!'

The sled came to a gentle halt at his feet. He held his hand out to Amber and pulled her up. 'Try again,' he said. 'And hold on tighter this time.'

'I'm not sure I can do it,' whispered Amber, her cheeks burning with embarrassment.

'Course you can. The dogs like you. That's the most important thing. They're keen to do as you want. You just have to learn how to tell them what you want.'

Amber sighed and climbed back on. Over the next hour she tipped the sled over twice and fell off three times. The fourth time she fell, she flung out her hand and grabbed the sled, determined to hang on. She bounced along on her front for a good two minutes, with the dogs heading for the far horizon, before she remembered to shout, 'Whoa!'

When she returned, Hex, Li and Paulo were so weak with laughter, they could hardly stand.

'Why don't you boys leave us to get on with this,' said Amaruk, seeing the look in Amber's eyes.

'What about me?' asked Li.

'I think you should stick around,' said Amaruk. 'You're small but strong. You'd make a good musher.'

'Yeah!' grinned Amber. 'Stay and keep me company, Li! It's about time someone else fell on their ass for a change.'

While Li climbed on to the back of the sled to take her turn as musher, Paulo and Hex stumbled off to explore the village, still shuddering with the occasional convulsion of laughter and clinging to one another for support. There wasn't a lot to see. At the centre of the village there was a small school, which doubled as a surgery and village hall. Clustered around the school was a collection of brightly painted wooden houses on stilts, each with its own fuel tank, radio mast and string of dogs outside. In a country with hardly any roads, everyone used snowmobiles, dog teams or small planes to get around.

Ohoto and Pungar spotted them through the schoolroom windows and dragged Paulo into the building to meet their friends. Hex had arranged to call in on Kikik with his camcorder. She took him to see the young woman and her sick baby. The sad-faced woman gave him permission to film them, once Kikik explained that Hex was building up a record of evidence against Usher Mining Corporation. By the time Hex returned to Amaruk's house, all the laughter had drained out of him.

He found Amber, Li and Paulo standing by the two loaded sleds, while Amaruk made last-minute checks on the harnesses.

'Come on, Hex!' yelled Amber. 'We're ready to move out! Amaruk finally gave me the thumbs-up. I can drive the sled! Do you want to ride with me?'

Hex groaned. 'I'd rather live a bit longer,' he said.

'Suit yourself.' Amber looked at Li, then Paulo, but they both suddenly became very interested in their feet.

'Well somebody has to!' exploded Amber.

'I will,' said a voice behind them.

They turned to see Alex standing on the house steps. Kikik had dried all his clothes and he was fully dressed. One jacket sleeve hung loose and empty, but that was the only sign of the ordeal Alex had suffered the previous day. Otherwise he looked as fit and healthy as ever.

'You cannot travel yet,' protested Paulo.

'Yes I can,' said Alex, not quite managing to hide a wince as he stepped down on to the snow. 'My shoulder's hardly hurting now and I've got my drugs here.'

'But—'

'You're not stopping me,' said Alex, clambering into Amber's sled, his grey eyes steely with determination.

The others knew there would be no arguing with him in this mood. Amaruk opened his mouth to say something, then he closed it again. If Alex felt strong enough to travel, then he was not going to fight with the boy. Kikik would have his hide for taking her patient off for a sled ride, but he would weather that storm when it came.

'Stubborn as a mule,' muttered Hex, giving Alex a glare before clambering on to the sled behind him.

Li and Paulo climbed on to Amaruk's sled and Amaruk and Amber took their places as mushers.

'Ready?' called Amber. 'Let's go!'

The dogs flattened out, running hard, and the sled runners hissed through the fresh snow. They raced down to the frozen river and turned on to the ice, side by side. The sled runners grated over the pressure ridges, then they were out on to the smooth ice in the middle and heading upriver towards the mine. Amber watched her dogs and noticed that, on their left sides, where the slanting sun touched them, there was no sign of frost, but the thick fur on their shadowed sides glittered with tiny ice crystals, even after an hour of running. It was an exhilarating way to travel, and when Amaruk called a halt for food after two hours, Amber was reluctant to stop.

While Hex and Li went up on to the bank to collect wood for a fire, Paulo used the hand-operated ice drill to make a hole through the ice. Alex handed over the fishing hooks and lines from his survival tin and watched from the sled as Paulo caught six good-sized walleye and pike in quick succession.

'They are jumping out of the water!' he cried, grinning at Alex.

'I know how they feel,' muttered Alex, shuddering at the memory of the freezing water under the ice.

He threw his knife to Paulo, who used it to gut the fish before threading them on to sticks ready for grilling. The fish guts were added to the bucketful of dry dog food, seal meat and fat cakes that Amber and Amaruk were feeding to the dogs.

Hex and Li returned with a good pile of fuel, and within five minutes the fire was lit and the fish were grilling.

'Not bad. Not bad at all,' said Amaruk, looking around approvingly as he put a bucket of snow next to the fire to melt for the dogs' drinking water. 'You work well together.'

As soon as the dogs had been watered and Alex had taken his next dose of painkillers and anti-inflammatories, Alpha Force cleared the temporary camp and clambered back on to the sleds. They were anxious to get to the mine while there was still some daylight. Amber urged her dogs on, calling out the musher commands with increasing confidence. She was mystified and more than a little disappointed when her team suddenly skidded to an unauthorized halt.

'Let's go!' called Amber, but the dogs would not move. They danced in place on the ice, whining softly and sending nervous glances towards the stand of spruce trees on the near bank to their right.

'There must be something up there,' said Alex, peering into the darkness between the trees.

'Amaruk's team went past without a problem,' said Amber.

'But they were much further over to the left,' said Alex.

Papaluk's tranquillizer rifle was tucked into the sled by his leg. He reached under his blankets and eased the weapon half out of its holster. He was not even sure whether he could fire the rifle one-handed, but the behaviour of the dogs was making him nervous and the rifle stock felt reassuringly solid under his hand.

Up ahead, Amaruk stopped and jammed the snow-hook brake into the ice to hold his team. He clambered from the sled and walked back towards Amber.

'I'll see if I can lead them past,' decided Amber, climbing from the sled and walking forward.

'Wait!' called Amaruk. 'Let me check the ice. They may have sensed a weakness.'

Amaruk and Amber moved slowly towards one another with their heads down, staring at the ice. But Amaruk was wrong. The ice was not where the danger lay. If they had looked up at the trees, they would have seen death hurtling down the bank towards them.

The moose is the largest member of the deer family. Solitary and fiercely territorial, a single animal can eat up to twenty kilos of vegetation a day and needs a large area of land to support it. A big bull moose can stand two and a half metres high and weigh up to eight hundred kilos.

This one was a monster. It careered down the bank towards Amber and Amaruk, bellowing with rage and lowering its heavy, flattened antlers. Its territory had been invaded and it was going in for the attack.

Amber stared at the huge moose charging down on her. She was frozen with fear. She had always thought of a moose as a slightly comical animal, with its long face and bulbous nose, but this was the first time she had come face to face with a charging bull. The lethal antlers had a spread of over two metres and the pointed hooves cut deep gouges in the ice as the moose reached the river and powered towards her.

Hex leaped from his place behind Alex and began running towards Amber. Li and Paulo had left the front sled and were running back, but Hex could see that none of them were going to reach Amber in time.

'Amber!' he yelled, and the desperation in his voice brought her out of her frightened trance. She started to run, but she was too late. There was not enough time left to get out of the way. Then Amaruk crashed into her side and rammed her out of the path of the huge beast. Amber went rolling away across the ice as Amaruk stumbled and fell on to his knees in front of Boomer. The moose changed direction slightly, heading for Amaruk.

In the sled, Alex had reacted quickly. As soon as he saw the charging moose, he had wrestled the tranquillizer rifle from its holster with his good arm and lifted the weapon to his shoulder. The rifle was primed with a tranquillizer dart, but Alex found it impossible to hold the long-barrelled weapon steady with one hand. Cursing, he dropped the rifle, tore open his jacket and yanked his other arm out of its sling. Wincing with pain, he lifted the rifle, two-handed this time, and took aim.

An instant later, the sled jerked forward and Alex was sent sprawling. As the bellowing moose prepared to ram the kneeling Amaruk, Boomer had leaped in front of his master with his teeth bared in a snarl. The beast's antlers hooked Boomer off the ice and sent him tumbling through the air. He screamed as he smacked down on to the hard surface again and skidded across the ice, jerking the other dogs and the sled after him.

The enraged moose charged after Boomer, catching Amaruk a glancing blow on the side of the head with its hoof as it passed him. Boomer tried to get out of the way but he was hopelessly entangled in the gangline. The moose reared over him and began to smash its sharp hooves down again and again. Boomer twisted back and forth to avoid being trampled, but each movement tangled him ever more tightly in the gangline.

Hex and Paulo pulled a dazed Amaruk out of the way and Li helped Amber to her feet as Alex once again lifted the rifle to his shoulder. The moose was just a few metres away from him, but it was rearing up, then smashing its hooves down on to the ice and sending shock waves shuddering through the sled. Added to that, the other dogs were scrabbling backwards to get away from the moose and jerking the sled along with them. Alex took a deep breath and concentrated on finding his mark.

As Alex took aim, Boomer's luck finally ran out. The moose came down on his hind leg. The sharp hooves split the leg open and the huge weight of the beast snapped the bone like a twig. Boomer screamed as blood began to pour from the wound.

'Hurry! Hurry!' sobbed Amber, as Boomer's scream echoed across the frozen river.

Alex's eyes narrowed. He squeezed the trigger and the tranquillizer dart hit the moose squarely in the side of the neck. The maddened beast did not feel the impact, but as the drug flooded its system, it stopped, staggered sideways and stood snorting with its head lowered. It took a few steps towards the bank, then its legs folded and it collapsed on to the ice.

Amaruk scrambled up and ran towards his lead dog. Boomer was panting with pain and fear, but he made a happy whine in his throat when he saw his master. He tried to struggle to his feet, but his injured leg would not work and he collapsed on to the ice again.

'All right, boy. All right,' whispered Amaruk, falling to his knees and easing the dog's head on to his lap. Boomer made the happy whine in his throat again and lifted his head. As Amaruk bent over him, he licked his master's face, then laid his head down and gave a tired sigh. His eyes fluttered closed and his body relaxed.

'He is going into shock,' said Paulo, crouching beside the wounded dog. 'And he is losing a lot of blood. We must stop the bleeding and keep him warm.'

While Paulo searched Amber's sled for the medical kit, Amaruk unharnessed Boomer and carried him over to his own sled. There, he laid the unconscious dog on a pure white polar bear skin and inspected the injury. Boomer's hind leg was twisted out of shape and his haunch muscle was sliced open in a long, curving line. Blood was soaking into the bearskin, but Amaruk was relieved to see that it was leaking steadily from the whole length of the wound rather than coming from one place in pulsing spurts.

'No major blood vessels torn,' he said, as Paulo hurried over with the medical kit.

'That is good,' said Paulo, sorting through the kit. He pushed aside Amber's spare insulin pens and pulled out a length of bandage. 'Now, we need two straight sticks.'

'I'll get those,' said Amber promptly. She had a good idea of what was going to happen next and she did not want to be around to see it.

'Alex, can you give Li one of your painkillers to crush?' asked Paulo as Amber and Hex hurried away to find the sticks.

Alex eased the little bottle of pills from his inside pocket, then handed Li his survival knife. 'Use the flat of the blade to crush the tablet,' he said.

Li nodded and set to work as Paulo looked over to Amaruk. 'Ready?' he asked.

Amaruk nodded, then took hold of Boomer around the hips, holding him steady. Paulo gripped the leg and eased the two ends of broken bone back into place. He did it as gently as he could but still the pain was severe enough to cause the unconscious dog to jerk and yowl deep in his throat. Paulo bit his lip but kept going until the leg was straight again. Quickly, he began to bandage the leg, and when Amber and Hex hurried back with two straight sticks, he incorporated them into the bandage to act as splints.

When Paulo had finished, Amaruk took the knife with the powdered painkiller from Li. Gently, he eased open Boomer's jaws and shook the powdered drug on to the back of his tongue. Then he wrapped the dog up in the thick fur of the polar bear skin and made sure he was settled comfortably on the sled.

'Good dog,' he said. 'Good dog. You sleep well now.'

Scrubbing his nose with his mittened hand, Amaruk turned abruptly, walked back to Amber's sled and began to sort out the tangled lines. Amber hurried to help him.

'You'll have to choose a new lead dog,' he said, once the lines were straight again. 'Which one is it gonna be?'

Without hesitation, Amber walked to the back of the team and unhitched Ice from the gangline. He seemed to understand exactly what was happening and followed Amber to his new place at the front of the team, walking as proudly as a king. Pie whined as Ice was clipped to the gangline in front of her, but Ice turned on her with a snarl and she subsided obediently.

'Hmm,' said Amaruk. 'Looks promising. See how it goes, Amber. We should turn back,' he continued, as the rest of Alpha Force gathered round.

'No way,' said Amber. 'Daniel Usher killed my parents! We're not giving up now. We're going to that mine and collecting the evidence we need to convict him, even if we have to walk the rest of the way.'

Amber looked at the others and they all nodded their agreement.

'For Papaluk, too,' said Li. 'We have to do it for her.'

Amaruk looked around at their determined faces, then he sighed. He had not known Alpha Force for long, but already he knew that when they put on a united front like this, there was no arguing with them. 'OK. I'll take you to the mine, but then I must get Boomer back to the village. He saved my life just now. I have to do the same for him. Kikik will stitch him up and set the leg properly.' He looked around at Alpha Force. 'You sure you'll be OK at the mine?'

'No problem,' said Li. 'We'll sneak in the back way, collect our evidence and get out again. They won't even know we've been there.'

'No heroics?' said Amaruk.

'No heroics,' promised Hex.

Amaruk looked at them again, weighing up the options. He would never dream of leaving a bunch of ordinary kids alone in the wilds of northern Canada, but these were no ordinary kids. They were as capable of looking after themselves as any Inuit. 'OK,' he said finally. 'Let's get out of here before that moose wakes up again.'

The new sled team worked like a dream. Ice took to his new position as though he had been waiting all his life to be a lead dog. The other dogs were hesitant at first, but were soon following him without question. Amber had been running them slowly to start with, but once she saw that the formation was working, she called, 'Hike!' and the team surged forward. Amaruk matched her speed and the two sleds sped on upriver towards the mine.