The Ice Cage — A Scandinavian Crime Thriller set in the Nordic Winter (The Baltic Trilogy) (35 page)

‘
Can you cling to my back?
’

She grunted while
I took her ice prods and used them t
o carefully climb onto the ice, but s
he was too weak to hold on and
slipped down, with the ice breaking
in the process. We were too heavy, so I changed strategy, tying
the lif
eline
around her body and
under her arm
s and climbing up on my own holding
the other end of the line. With less weight, I was more likely to make it to stronger ice. Meanwhile, Eva had to try to keep afloat. Once up, I s
tarted pulling at the l
ifeline, but just as
she reached the critical moment when I started pulling her out of the water, I lost my grip on t
he ice and slipped.
S
he fell back into the water.

I
ended up tying
the lifeline round my waist and u
sing
the ice prods to
continue
‘climb
ing
’ on the ice
until I had pulled her up
completely
. When I finally managed to drag Eva out s
he must have been in the water for over half an hour. I’d heard about skaters survivin
g after 40 minutes, but Eva had already been frozen when she went in.
I kept telling myself that she
w
as fit and not too ski
nny,
which must give her a
chance
. She had to
survive.

She was sodden, whiter than snow, and
I had nothing to warm her up wit
h. I was freezing too
,
but t
here was no time to lose. I was determi
ned to
fight to the bitter end,
desperate to live
.
There was
no way I was giving up.

I wrapped her in the sail like a cocoon
and tied it up with the life line.
I dragged her over the ice on the sail
,
but I was
slow and m
y heart
was pounding, my whole body drained.
I walked like a zombie, drifting in and out of consciousness.
I had visions of
myself pulling Eva at the bottom of a dark ocean,
walking on
a sea floor covered in ice, under it ye
t another sea, layer after layer of ice floors and ceilings.
..
A ship
passed
above
, break
ing
the
ice
ceiling
, b
ut the ice closed up immediately be
hind it. I tried to call
,
reach out to the ship, but I was paralysed, f
rozen. The only way to move w
as to break ice. I pulled Eva and tried to follow
the ship, but everything
thickened
to ice.
I
couldn’t move. I was iced in like a mammoth, an
ice fossil. Behind me on the sai
l, Eva was frozen too. I fought and
picke
d away at the ice to reach her but m
y efforts barely scratched
t
he ice. It was too hard. I kept hacking, but the ice only seemed to spread, to grow, to take hold.

71

They’d wasted his time
. Magnus and Eva had spoilt
the
build
-
up to his greatest moment
. Although it
was unlikely they would make the crossing
, h
e
wasn’t taking any chances
. H
e’d already lost too many
men. And
worse
–
a helicopter.

He’d se
nt Andri,
assisted by
a local who knew the archipelago inside out. Andri knew what was at stake
. He was confident Andri
would complete the job
if
Eva and Magnus
did make it to
Sweden
.
Enough time had been lost
on them
. He
needed to focus on his finale.
He was about to
take the first step in the march
towards change.

72

Suddenly
we’d
come through the storm and r
eached
snow
-
free
ice
. Everything was completely still.
All
I
could hear
was
my heart beat
ing
a
nd the ice crackin
g.
First I thought
it was someone com
ing
and I turned to check in all directions, but the ice was e
mpty
as far as I cou
ld see. It wasn’t reassuring
,
but it was just
the sou
nd of the ice
settling.

No, there was something else, something strange, a
nother sound creeping up on us.
There were several, but were they real o
r in my head
–
c
aused by exhaustion? I didn’t know. I simply lay
down on the ice to listen
.
Once I’d tuned in
,
I could hear
electronic
hissing and squeaking. It sounded like sonar signals or
experimental
music
. L
ate
r I was told it
was
seals
.
They sound
ed
like
synthesiser
s
stuck in a time warp,
a
mix of Pi
nk Floyd and Jean
-
Michel Jarre
.
At the time
,
I thought I was going mad.
Could I really be hearing this?
The longer I listened, the more it overwhelmed me. It had b
eat and melody. It was relaxing, even b
eautiful, but I had to keep moving and not settle into any illusions of comfort.
I looked at
the
lifeless Eva
on the sail, wiped the snow off her and pushed on.

I finally spotted land in the distance. Reaching it took at least anoth
er hour and it was only an island, but there were houses and m
aybe someone could help. I knocked at se
veral snowed
-
in summer cottages without anyone opening the door. This was winter, which meant that t
he holidaymakers were safe and warm on the mainland.

I smashed a wind
ow,
climbed into a house
and dragged Eva through the door after opening it from the inside
.
There was a small fire place,
a kitchenette with
a
disconnected fridge containing
a couple of
Pripps beers
,
some
stale
Swedish
crackers and a can
of meatballs. I covered up the broken wi
ndow with cardboard
,
before undressing Eva and examining
her wound. She’d stopped bleedi
ng. Was it because of the cold
? W
ould it start again once she warmed up?
T
he only dry piece of clothing
I could find was a boiler suit. I knew now that ‘cotton kills’, but it would have to do for the night.
I pushed the bed to the fire place and tucked her in it with as many blankets as I could f
ind. There was
a box of matches and
I
l
it the fire, but t
he cooker didn’t
work and t
here was no power
.
The tap didn’t work either.
The pipes
were probably frozen
,
or maybe the water
was simply
turned o
ff at the mains over the winter.
It was impossible to tell.
I couldn’t locate the
stopcock.

I considered checking the other cottages
to see if they were any better but
didn’t have any time to lose. The priority was to
raise Eva’s temperature.
I gave her some lukewarm beer
heated
over
the fire and
tried opening the
can of meatballs by pricking h
oles with a knife. It was blunt and
I cut myself when it slipped. I put the can on the fire
too. Everything was a struggle, e
very little moveme
nt required a superhuman effort and
I was completely
exhausted. I tried to feed Eva, but
she was motionle
ss
,
non
-
responsive and couldn’t
eat. Her b
ody was shutting down and
I
didn’t know what to do.

Worrying about Eva, I’d forgotten to take off my soaking
clothes. I was numb with cold and
hung everything in front of the fire. Hopefully they would dry overnight. The thumping
pain in my foo
t came in waves. T
he hardest part
was taking off my shoe
.
The sock on the inj
ured foot was drenched in blood
.
I couldn’t pull it
of
f. It was glued to the foot.
After soaking
the sock in
beer, I
managed to pull
it off,
re
-
open
ing the wound in the process. The blood was gushing out and
I
had to improvise
a bandage with a piece of table
cloth. The wound was bad, but
it was
nothing compared to Eva’s condition. I
h
u
ddled up against
her on the bed,
t
wo freezing bodies
unable to
generate any heat.

I couldn’t believe we’d made it to a house.
Had I
really
read
the ice?
I’d heard about Inuits reading the waves, but the ice? I doubted it.
Maybe I’
d just been lucky.
It would all dep
end on whether I could save Eva, o
therwise it would all have been in vain
anyway
.

‘Leave me.’

She must have warmed up a bit, because s
he had a momentary recovery.

‘
Forget it.
’

‘
You have to get help.
’

‘
I can’t.
’

‘
We’ll both die if you don’t.
’

‘
I’m staying with you.

She looked me in the eye.

‘
Don’t be daft.
’

‘
We’re in this together
.
’

‘
Sentimental crap.
’

‘
It’s not.
’

‘
You can save us.
’

Hearing Eva speak made me realise how serious the
situation was. She was tough
,
but
even
she was cracking and s
he could
see I was pondering her words.

‘
Any regrets?
’

I shook my head before returning the question.

‘
Would you do it again?
’

‘
We did the right thing.
’

‘
Are you sure you don’t know anything about Boeck’s plan?
’

She flinched from a sudden twinge of pain in her stomach and soon drifted off, losing conscious
ness again. I couldn’t sleep. Looking back, my insomnia
might well
have sa
ved our lives, because i
n the middle of the night
, I realised I was wasting time and that Eva was right
–
I wasn’t thinking
clearly. Every minute counted, especially as s
he was critical. I got dressed in my wet clothes and went out looking for something better than the sail
to drag her on. I found a kick
sled
. B
ack in the cottage
, I
lit a match and
e
xamined the map on the wall to locate
our whereabouts. There was a lar
ger island beyond the peninsula which would hopefully
have permanent residents
. I was dressing Eva to leave,
when I heard a roaring sound
in the night and
rushed out
side
.