Part 9 (1/2)
Annja nodded. ”All right, then. You go and see what you can locate. The bags in the back have some winter coats in them. You should take one along. And don't do anything silly. Mike's going to need help getting to wherever we hole up. Try to make it close. Otherwise, we'll risk worsening his wound.”
”I understand.”
Annja watched him get a coat out of one of the bags and zip it up. He brought them each a winter parka and then nodded to Annja. ”I'll be back as soon as I can find someplace for us.”
”Good luck,” Annja said.
Tuk took a final glance at Mike and smiled. ”Fast as I can.”
He trudged off through the snow, but despite his small size, he seemed to make fast headway through the drifts. Mike's coughing brought Annja back to the moment.
”Is he gone?” Mike asked.
”Yeah.”
Mike frowned. ”Leg's killing me. Got any of that water from the cooler?”
Annja nodded and placed Mike's hand on the dressing. ”Hold this here and press down on it. I'll get the water.”
She scrambled back around to the cooler and winced as she did so. Her ribs were aching, but she fought off the desire to give in to the pain. Mike was the priority. He needed looking after and Annja's ribs were a secondary concern.
She dug a bottle of water out of the cooler and came back to Mike's side. ”Here you go.”
He tilted his head back and took several swigs. Annja eased the bottle back down. ”Don't want you throwing up any of it. Just take it slow.”
”What's the deal with our little friend there?”
Annja shrugged. ”No idea. He was in the back of the plane. I pa.s.sed out right after I found him. He could certainly have done me harm if he wished, but he was actually helping me when I regained consciousness.”
”You trust him?”
Annja smiled. ”I'm not exactly in a position where trust can be withheld, am I? We all need one another if we're going to survive this.”
Mike nodded and took another sip of the water. ”What if he works for Tsing?”
”What if he does?”
”He could have overheard our conversations. He might tell Tsing what we intend to do.”
Annja frowned. ”Mike, all we said was that we could handle Tsing later after all of this was over and done with. We didn't necessarily plan the guy's a.s.sa.s.sination or anything.”
Mike grinned. ”Good point.”
”More to the point, Tuk needs us just as much as we need him. We're all in this together, and if one of us doesn't help, we'll all buy it. So you ask if I trust him? I trust him to do what's right for everyone involved. Beyond that, well, we'll take it as it comes. Once we get down off of this mountain.”
”Always the pragmatic Annja,” Mike said. ”I've missed that over the years.”
”I was busy being pragmatic elsewhere,” Annja said.
”Apparently.”
A strong breeze blew in from the mountain and Annja s.h.i.+vered in spite of the winter parka. The sun was starting to dip beneath the horizon, streaking the sky with purples and oranges.
”Some sunset,” she said.
Mike stared out of the shattered winds.h.i.+eld. ”They're amazing up here. I just hope that our new friend finds us a place to spend the night.”
”Me, too,” Annja said. ”Otherwise, that sunset could be our last.”
11.
Tuk forged through the waist-deep snow like an icebreaker and headed right for the side of the mountain, trying to get out of the open snowfield as quickly as possible. There could be a chasm hundreds of feet deep under any part of the snow. The closer he was to the actual mountain itself, the better he felt.
As soon as he was beyond range of being seen from the plane, he reached into his pocket and pulled out the cell phone he'd spent twenty minutes digging to find under all the snow in the plane. Luckily, it still worked. He opened it and prayed that he could actually get a signal.
He pressed the number two and waited. A series of clicks worried him at first but then miraculously he heard it ringing on the other end.
”Tuk?”
”Yes!”
Hearing the man's voice on the other end of the line rein-vigorated him. Help would come for them!
”Did you all survive the crash?”
”Yes, but the man Mike is injured. He's got a bleeding wound in his thigh. We've stabilized him as much as possible, but we will need a medical team to come to us soon or he will not last the night.”
There was a pause on the other end of the phone. ”Tuk, I've got bad news. We can't get a rescue team out to you now.”
”Why not?”
”There's a storm heading your way. A bad one.”
Tuk looked at the sky. If he'd grown up with people who knew how to read the weather, he might have noticed the line of clouds forming and heading right for the peak he was on.
Already, he could feel the temperature falling.
”When?”
”Tomorrow if the storm breaks. But I'm not going to lie to you, Tuk. Not after everything you've done for me. The chances of a rescue early on are remote unless this storm breaks before dawn. The odds are long of that happening and you may be out there for a couple of days.”
”We won't make it.”
”Listen to me,” the man said. ”Remember how I told you to stay close to the plane?”
”Yes.”