Welcome to the Jungle by Matt London

Author:Matt London
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Group, USA
Published: 2015-02-08T16:00:00+00:00

RICK PULLED THE OARS WITH ALL HIS MIGHT, PROPELLING THEIR INFLATABLE RAFT THROUGH the choppy ocean. The mist was blizzard-thick. He squinted into the bleak gray vastness, fearful of every shadow.

“We should have taken the Roost,” Evie said for the seventh time. But that was impossible. Grandma Condolini had told them the prison’s sensors could detect any electronic signature in a five-mile radius. Rick’s skinny arms were the only engine that could get close, and they would use the radio inside the lead-lined backpack they brought along to call Sprout for a pickup when it was time to flee the scene.

What they were about to do didn’t sit right with Rick. He was no stranger to breaking Winterpole’s nearly infinite list of rules and regulations, but this was different. He had always violated Winterpole’s statutes for the greater good. This time it was to free a dangerous criminal.

“Vesuvia is just misguided,” Grandma Condolini had said as they departed New Boca, leaving 2-Tor in the care of the Big Game Huntress as collateral. “I hope prison has cooled her temper. She may come out of the experience a different person.”

Rick remained skeptical. He pulled up the zipper on his parka until it covered his chin. The next time he staged a prison break he swore he would pick one closer to the equator.

“Look, there it is!” Evie pointed ahead.

Rick squinted into the mist. The Prison at the Pole emerged, a white mountain on the black sea, a monument to frigid misery. Rick had always been taught that the location of this terrifying place was one of Winterpole’s most carefully guarded secrets. But somehow Grandma Condolini had known where it was. A little bird had told her, she’d said.

As the enormous iceberg loomed ahead, Rick made out a number of mounted hoses on the rampart. Freeze rays. If they were detected now, he and his sister would be turned into a couple of ice cubes.

Evie squinted into the mist. “I have a visual on our point of entry. This is going to be fun.”

“No, Evie. This is definitely not going to be fun,” Rick said as he rowed.

“Sure it will!” Evie looked back at him. “Climbing. Sneaking. It’s gonna be awesome! Sprout would find it fun.”

Rick snorted. “It’s obvious you don’t know Sprout the way I do, or you would never say that.”

“Psssshh. Yeah, right. I know Sprout so much better than you do. That’s why we’re friends.”

“Just don’t go bungling our mission again,” Rick said, ignoring her. “In and out. No getting creative. No trouble.”

The raft bumped against the icy exterior wall of the prison. Evie seized the raft’s anchor and jammed it into the ice as Rick tucked the oars onto the raft. They each grabbed a pair of metal climbing picks and hoisted themselves out to begin their ascent.

Fifty feet up from the water, they stopped on a narrow ledge. A small hole no bigger than a loaf of bread had been cut out of the ice and covered with a grate of icicles.

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