Alpha Force 4 - Hostage by Ryan Chris

Author:Ryan, Chris
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: RHCB

Alpha Force 4 - Hostage

THIRTEEN

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.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.