Sons (29 page)

Jan prayed under his breath,
God, if you love me, give me strength.
Then he reached down and snatched Louis’s ice axe from the ground. From a kneeling position, he hurled the axe in one swift movement, hitting Ben with a glancing blow, painful, though not fatal.

Alexandra, weak from exposure, fainted in Colin’s arms. He laid her down gently and then grabbed the flare gun.

Jan’s challenge infuriated Ben. The Arab knelt down, picked up Louis’s ice axe, grinned at Jan, and then threw it aside.

“Now you will know that Allah is great,” he bellowed.

A dull pop followed by a whoosh of hot air slowed the Arab’s charge. Ben stopped, looked at Jan, and then staggered forward. He dropped the knife and gave a bewildered groan. A phosphorescent fire glowed in his intestines. For a pain-racked moment, the Arab tore at his steaming guts. He staggered sideways, turned, and plunged headlong over the rim of the crevasse, landing first on the shelf he had just climbed, and then into the abyss.

An eerie calm settled momentarily over the plateau. Jan grabbed Louis by the neck and gave him a hard shake. “Louis, I’m going to my son. If you make one false move, so help me God, I
will
kill you!”

Louis shrugged and stepped back toward the oncoming blitz of snow and fog.

Jan turned and rushed to his son’s side. Colin was kneeling, head down and sobbing, the smoking flare gun still clutched in his hand. Jan pulled him to his breast. “You’re safe now, son, you’re safe.”

Colin pushed himself away from Jan. “I’m okay, but Zan’s hurt! She’s bleeding!”

A few feet away, Louis and Victor engaged in a battle of words. Absorbed in their private pain, it was as if the life and death struggle that had just taken place had never happened. Jan heard only fragmented phrases before the gusting wind snatched them away.

“Get away from me, old man! I can’t be what you want. Can’t you see that?” Louis cried. “I tried. I really tried, but you never liked me! Nothing I ever did was good enough, or important enough. It was all you could do to have me in the house. It’s true, and you know it!”

Louis doubled over with the pain of his sorrow. Years of stifled emotion erupted like a sleeping volcano.

“I wanted so much to be like you—strong and ruthless—all business—no nonsense. Well take a look around,
this
sure as hell isn’t nonsense.”

“Louis, I’m your father. I love you. We can fix this thing. We’ve done it before.”

Louis’s earlier fury seeped away, replaced with self-loathing and despair. He shook his head and knuckled tears from his eyes.

“It’s too late… too late for that now.”

“No, Louie, you’re wrong, son. I’m here for you now. Maybe I wasn’t there for you in the past. Maybe I didn’t understand, but I do now! C’mon, we’ll make a go of it, just you and me. After all this is over, we’ll go away someplace where we can start over again. Louie, I want to love you for who you are, not for who I think you should be… just like when you were a boy. I—”

Louis shook his head. His words, drowned in a mix of sobs and mumbles, became even more incoherent.
The wind carried his voice away as the blinding snow continued its relentless progress across the plateau. Only a few hundred yards to go and it would swallow them all in wall of white.

Jan grabbed a piece of rock and threw it at the two men. Puzzled, Victor turned see Jan waving to him. “Come on, Victor, I need you,” he yelled.

Louis gestured for Victor to follow. “Go on, Dad, help the Phillips kid. Go on, I said!”

Reluctantly, Victor ran to where Jan knelt. “Can I help? What can I do?” Victor said.

“Yes, go check on Joachim.”

Victor nodded and hurried over to where Joachim lay, breathing heavily.

Jan pulled out his cell phone, punched in a number, and prayed. Alexandra roused from her faint and groaned.

“Zan,” Jan said, “do you think you can walk?”

“I think so,” was her weak response. Blood trickled in clotted blots from her jacket cuff.

“I’ll take care of her,” Colin said.

Alexandra gave a weak smile. “Love you,” she murmured into Colin’s breast.

Jan snapped the cell phone off. His voice raw from shouting, he pressed his mouth to Colin’s ear. “A helicopter will be here in a few minutes. They’ll drop a harness. Get Zan into it. Be sure to hang onto the belaying line to keep her from swaying
.
Then
you
go up. Understand?”

Colin nodded.

“Okay, I have to help the others,” Jan said.

He gave his son a reassuring smile and then ran to join Victor. Joachim sat lopsided, pressing his hand against the gash in his side.

Moments later, the thundering sound of a helicopter’s rotors swept over them, the Mundus emblem of a bright yellow and red flame surrounded by protecting wings emblazoned on its sides.

“I am okay,” he yelled, competing with the chopper’s roar.

Jan had witnessed the stabbing. Unconvinced, he yelled back, “You sure?”

Joachim nodded. He stood, swayed, and leaned his heavy frame on Jan’s slim shoulder. A few minutes later, Jan looked up just as one of the copter’s crew pulled Colin safely inside.

Suddenly, Victor shouted, “Where’s Louis?”

Panicked, the older Carew chased in circles, calling, “Louis! Louis! Son, where are you!”

Jan stopped and turned, looking for any sign of his son’s tormentor as Victor dashed toward the oncoming storm.

“Victor! No! Come back! Victor!” Jan cried, his words no match for the wind as he shouted after the older man.

Joachim groaned, distracting Jan. When he looked around again, Victor too had disappeared into the churning mass of snow.

Above the roar of wind and snow the chopper’s bullhorn operator shouted, “Mr. Phillips, we have to go now! Get on the harness!”

S
AFELY
within the cocoon of the B/A609 helicopter, Jan quickly ordered the chopper to Reykjavik’s Lanspitaliti Hospital. Two female medics tended to Joachim and Alexandra’s wounds. Both were strapped onto stretchers to keep them from tossing around as the twin-engine chopper twirled through the fierce storm that now swarmed over the Murderküll glacier. One woman gave each a sedative as well as a strong dose of antibiotics, while another slathered an antibiotic salve on Colin’s hands and wrists, then wrapped a light thermal bandage over them.

Jan continued to hold Colin in a tight embrace.

“He should be okay, Mr. Phillips,” the medic said. “No frostbite, thank God, but you’re going to suffocate him if you hold him any tighter!”

Jan smiled apologetically and eased his hold on his son.

“What about Zan?” Colin asked.

The medic looked over at Alexandra, then to Colin.

“She’s suffering from exposure. The wound needs stitching, but it’s not serious. As they say, a little blood goes a long way.” The medic smiled at Colin. “You two were lucky—very lucky. They don’t call that glacier Murderküll for nothing.”

The vibration and roar of the big chopper’s motors, combined with fatigue and sore vocal cords, made conversation pointless. Colin slipped into a dazed sleep.

Jan looked through a side window to the frozen world below. There was no trace of Victor or Louis Carew. Both men were lost. He thought of Victor’s tortured plea.
Louie, I love you for who you are… just like when you were a boy
, and then he recalled a line from Shakespeare…
they breathe truth, that breathe their words in pain.

Jan hung his head and wept unashamed tears.

Forty-Seven

T
HE
rescue helicopter swooped from the cloudy sky and landed with pinpoint accuracy on the Lanspitaliti Hospital helipad. During the flight from the glacier, Jan had called Dagmar, alerting her that they did indeed have casualties and that the chopper was heading to the hospital. As soon as the rotors stopped, emergency personnel raced out to whisk Alexandra and Joachim to the emergency room.

Jan and Colin were escorted into a lounge where they found Marsha already waiting.

Her face marked with worry, Marsha rushed up to Jan and Colin as they entered. Looking past them she blurted, “Where’s Zan?”

“She’s been hurt, but she’ll be all right,” Jan said.

“Hurt! My God! Where is she?”

“They’ve got her in ER.”

“I’ve got to go to her!”

“Marsha, they won’t let you see her right now. We just arrived, so you’ll have to wait until the doctors finish their examination.”

Marsha cast a scornful eye at Colin, who by now was surviving on spent nerves.

“So,” she said, “Zan’s hurt, and
you
look just fine. Why’s that?”

Jan stepped between them and led Marsha a few feet away.

“Louis Carew was going to leave Zan on the glacier to die,” he said. “Colin fought him and saved Zan’s life. He delayed Louis just long enough for us to catch up.”

Marsha scuffed the floor in angry frustration. Jan could see she was fighting a losing battle to retain her self-control. The aloof professional gave way to the lioness mother. She pointed an accusing finger at Colin. “It’s all his fault, and there’s nothing you can say to get him out of this mess!”

Jan lowered his voice and pushed his face close to hers.

“Marsha, Colin killed a man today to save my life. He’s only fifteen, for God’s sake! There’s no telling what kind of fallout there will be when he finally realizes he’s taken a human life, so if you have to kick something, go find yourself a dog or a cat. Don’t you dare try to kick my son.”

Marsha stared dumbly at Jan as what he had just told her began to register. She looked back toward Colin. Their eyes locked briefly. Startled by the look of wrecked innocence she found there, Marsha’s anger crumbled.

“I need to be with Zan,”
she said stubbornly.

“You’ll have to talk to the nurses first,” Jan said.

Marsha ignored Jan’s remark and hurried off to nab the first person dressed in white she could find.

Jan turned to Colin. He wanted desperately to hug him. Just as he reached for him, Michael burst through the door. He flung himself onto Jan’s sore body.

“I was so frightened,” he said, half crying and half laughing with relief.

“I’m okay, Michael. Where have you been?”

“Oh, the security people held us up. I guess all the confusion made them nervous. We’re here now. That’s all that matters.”

“Michael, stay close, okay? When this is over I’m going to need you.”

“Of course, where would I go? Have you talked with Colin about all this? I mean, do you know why he ran off?”

“No. I’m not sure I want to know.”

“Jan, you must speak with him. He is so young. You must try.”

Michael looked at Colin standing nearby with his head hung low. Bruised in body and soul, the boy wept with remorse. He went to the teen and gently lifted the boy’s chin with a finger.

“Colin?” Michael whispered.

“I’m okay… I… I’m really sorry… I don’t know what to say. I really messed things up… didn’t I?”

“Colin,” Michael said, “you gave us such a scare, but everything is going to be fine now.”

Michael leaned forward and said, “If I were you, I would say something nice to your father.”

Michael smiled sweetly at Colin and stepped away, looked at Jan, then left the room.

Amal jabbered in Arabic as he fussed over Jan, shoving coffee and a sandwich into his hands.

“Effendi, sit, eat, rest.”

Amal’s words ground down to a buzzing noise as Jan gave way to a collision of emotions. He was angry, so angry it frightened him. He was grateful to be alive. He was also proud of Colin, so much like himself and yet so different. He was fearful too. Even now, Colin’s feelings remained a cipher.

What’s he thinking? Where do we go from here?
he wondered.

Jan’s devil sniggered,
If I were you, I’d kick that little snot’s ass from here to kingdom come!

Jan’s angel yelled back,
Watch it, buster! More of that talk and you’ll get to kingdom come sooner than
you
think!

Jan rubbed the palm of his hand across his forehead.

“Amal?”

“Yes, Effendi?”

“I need some time alone with Colin, understand? Oh, and Michael looks tired. Please find him and make sure he eats something.”

“Of course. I will see no one interrupts you.”

Jan turned and scanned the room. He and Colin were alone at last. A battered sofa, so cozy and inviting, squatted against a wall painted a sterile white.
Jesu, I wish I could lie down, just for a while—later, later.

Forty-Eight