The Greenland Breach by Bernard Besson

Author:Bernard Besson [Besson, Bernard]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Le French Book
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

5

Thursday

North Land’s private residence, 6 a.m.

John awoke with a start and, in his mind’s eye, saw the scene clearly. One of the barrels under the house had been moved. He leaped out of his sleeping bag and raced outside, screwdriver in hand. The sky was a transparent gray. He rapped the barrel and smelled the gasoline. The traces on the ground were unequivocal. Someone had set a trap for him. It had failed. He was wondering if he would make it to Qaanaq. What could he do in that hole of a place anyway? The whole thing was just a pretext to get him here and kill him. Why? How was he more useful dead than alive?

When he spotted the North Land SUV at the end of the road, he went back inside to gather his things. The climate could warm up all it liked, but he could still catch pneumonia. Mary Harper and Qaalasoq were waiting for him in the hall when he came back down the stairs. The ambience had never been so gloomy.

The North Land heiress had to be angry with the Inuit for not telling her where he was. Mary had to be feeling foolish after winding up in Christophe Maunay’s room. The Terre Noire HR manager had probably confessed his reasons for his next act of betrayal. And no doubt, he had gotten some bad news.

“Is your luggage ready?” asked Qaalasoq.

“I just have to pack my sleeping bag,” John said.

The Inuit looked down and realized that the Frenchman had spent the night on the floor. Qaalasoq kept a granite-like silence, and Mary Harper was sulking. He picked up his suitcase and was about to step outside when Qaalasoq stopped him in his tracks. The Inuit was holding the tupilaq.

“You take it with you,” he said.

John thought he had misunderstood, but the faces of the two visitors confirmed that he had heard correctly. He went to the little beast and picked it up.

“You want me to lug this abomination all the way to the North Pole?”

“Yes.”

“But it weighs a couple of pounds at least. Do we need the extra weight?”

“Two pounds isn’t anything.”

The urge to chuck it on the ground and smash it to smithereens was strong, but John thought of Victoire and Luc. He would play the buffoon right to the end. It had become his way of loving them.

“Take it, for heaven’s sake,” Mary Harper whispered.

With her sullen look and downcast eyes, he felt sorry for her. He slipped the obnoxious critter into the leather suitcase he had bought at the shopping mall, thanks to the mother’s credit card, and turned to the daughter.

“What’s happened?” he asked. “You look terrible.”

“You’ll understand when you get in the car. Come on.”

John descended the front steps and caught Qaalasoq glancing at the space under the house where someone had moved the barrel that was supposed to turn him into barbecued meat. The expedition to the Far North looked like it would be painful.

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