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Jean Lemaire chanced a sideways glance at
the woman sitting across the other side of the cabin from
him. He eyes were closed, and
she appeared to be asleep. She
certainly was a looker. Perhaps
the most beautiful woman he had ever met.
And tough
too. He could sense that
in her. She was someone he
wouldn’t want as an enemy.
In the seat next to him, Sawatis caught his
eye. Lemaire
winked. The big Mohawk just looked
back at him. He was not given
to displays of emotion, but Jean had seen him watching the other
woman. There was a definite
attraction there, and Lemaire certainly could not blame
him. The young girl was certainly
attractive enough. If Lemaire
had not been so attracted to Larra, he would have considered going after
her himself. This job promised
to be most interesting.
He looked out the window. There
was no change in the scenery, just endless forest and snow-covered
lakes. They had been flying north
now for several hours and must be getting close to
A sudden noise disturbed his thoughts.
One of the engines had made a disturbing
sound. He looked quickly at the
pilot.
“Problems, folks,” said the pilot
calmly. “We’ve lost
oil pressure in the number two engine.
I’m going to have to find a place to put her
down.”
The sound of the pilot’s voice awoke the two women, both of whom had
been dozing. “Are we going
to crash?” The voice was
Melissa’s and it contained just a hint of
anxiety. She was trying her best
to remain calm.
“Not if I can help it,” answered the
pilot. There is an iced up lake
just ahead. I’ll try and
make it before we lose much more
altitude. But we’ll be going
in on just one engine.”
The four members of the expedition checked their seat
belts. Larra glanced quickly
at the back of the plane. They
were carrying quite a bit of cargo and none of it was tied
down. She was concerned that
if they hit too hard, it would all fly
forward. But there was nothing
she could do about it now.
“Damn! There goes the other
engine. Now we’re a
glider.” There was just
enough concern in the pilot’s voice that everyone in the plane tensed
up. “I suggest you keep
your heads down, we are going to hit hard.”
The sound of the wind whistling by the outside of the plane increased as
it plunged toward the ground. Then
there was a sharp crackling sound as the aircraft tore off the top branches
of the trees. It appeared that
they were not going to make the lake.
Larra ducked her head down between her knees, as did
Melissa. Then there was a huge
splintering crash and the world seemed to turn upside
down.
The inside of the airplane was filled with flying boxes, bags, cartons, and
all sorts of equipment. The interior
of the cabin seemed to describe a complete 360-degree circle and then with
a final thundering crash the plane stopped
moving. Silence
reigned. And then there was the
sound of moaning.
Larra checked herself out. As
far as she could tell, she was uninjured.
The crash had shaken her up, but did not seem to have done any permanent
damage. She attempted to release
her seatbelt, cognizant of the fact that planes often burst into flames after
crashing. To her consternation,
she found that it was jammed. She
struggled to reach her knife in order to cut the webbing, but it was twisted
beneath her. She needed to release
her seatbelt to get at it, and that was why she needed the
knife. Suddenly, she felt the
belt release. Standing next to
her was Melissa, with her own knife in her
hand. “Thanks,” said
Larra, as Melissa extended a helping
hand.
Together the two women moved toward the front of the
plane. Larra noticed that Lemaire
and Sawatis were out of their seats and moving in the same
direction. The groans she had
heard were coming from the pilot.
Even as she reached the pilot’s side, Larra saw that he was
finished. The branch of a tree
had come through the windshield and had impaled him like a
lance. The branch had gone clear
through his body and into the seat behind
him. There was little they could
do for him except perhaps try to comfort
him. Even that proved
unnecessary. As she reached out
to touch him, his groans stopped, and with a sighing gasp he
died. Larra waited only long
enough to ensure that the pilot was indeed dead, before joining the others
outside the plane.
They waited a few minutes, and when the plane showed no signs of burning,
they moved toward it. The first
thing they checked was the radio, but the same tree that had speared the
pilot had smashed it irreparably.
After that they unloaded the bulkier supplies from the
plane. They would be able to
use the interior as a shelter until help
arrived.
All in all, they were in fairly good
shape. They had more than enough
food to last a month, and plenty of ammunition for their
firearms. If food got low they
would be able to supplement their diet by
hunting. But Larra was worried
by the delay. It had been impressed
on her that the target of their search might be sought by rivals and that
it was important to reach her objective as soon as
possible.
“How far do you think we are from
“I can’t really say for sure.
I think we were probably about two hours flying
time. But that would be quite
a few days on foot. And this
time of year is not the best time to try an overland
trek. If we had dogs, I would
go for it. But
on snowshoes… Ever
try to walk a couple of hundred miles on
snowshoes?’ He shook his
head.
Larra made her decision quickly.
“I’m going to split the
party. Sawatis and Melissa will
stay here and hope for rescue by air.
They just might find us.
Jean and I will try and make it across
country. Whoever gets to
Once Larra made her mind up no one argued with
her. Melissa would have preferred
to go with Larra, but agreed that her decision made
sense. She wondered a bit
about being left alone with
Sawatis.
Melissa’s closely chaperoned life had not allowed much contact
with members of the opposite sex.
But as a modern woman she should feel free to associate with men as
she saw fit. And anyway, Sawatis
was what she considered “cute.”
Lemaire smiled to himself.
A snowshoe hike through the wilderness with one
of the most beautiful women on
earth. It was not exactly
his idea of an ordeal.
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