[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

reported back to her two hours later. "Fuel arrow was down in the red, Chief."
"So I would expect. And you found nothing." It was a plain, calm statement, not
a question. But the woman pilot chose to treat it as a question. "Nothing.
Spotlight picked up tracks, heading off into the back country. Toward the north.
Then they went onto a ribbon of old blacktop, and that was where I lost it.
Quartered the whole area. Long as I could."
"Don't feel bad about it. Looks like we thought we had us an old, harmless sheep
in our trap. Turned out we caught a real vicious wolverine."
file:///J|/sci-fi/Nieuwe%20map/James%20Axler%20-%20Earthblood%2002%20-%20Deep%20Trek.html (233 of 292)16-2-2006 16:55:08
Axler, James - Earth Blood 02 - Deep Trek.htm
Chapter Twenty-Eight
It was Jeanne who finally managed to persuade Henderson McGill to stop the
hopeless task of trying to retrieve the buried corpse of Angel McGill.
The others had all tried.
After the thunderous avalanche had swept half a mountain of thawing snow
down the steep cliff, erasing the woman from life in a handful of seconds, the
whole family had rushed to the scene. Paul had been there first, skiing from the
other side of the broad valley, slicing across with speed and control, glancing up
above him to see whether there was any danger of a further fall. But the rock
face had been scoured clear.
By the time Mac himself had strapped on a pair of skis from the back of the
Phantasm and lumbered clumsily to join the others, there was only silence. The
spray and turbulence of the avalanche was over. Already there were dozens of
birds appearing, eager to find whether any potential food might have been
revealed from beneath the snow cover.
Mac had slung a shovel across his shoulders as he left the huge RV. While the
others looked unbelievingly at the massive fall, he had started digging, working
like a demented fury, clawing his way into the mixture of snow and water and
mud.
"No point, Dad," said Paul. "We don't even know where she might be." The
mountainous pile was fully three hundred yards long and at least forty feet high.
file:///J|/sci-fi/Nieuwe%20map/James%20Axler%20-%20Earthblood%2002%20-%20Deep%20Trek.html (234 of 292)16-2-2006 16:55:08
Axler, James - Earth Blood 02 - Deep Trek.htm
"There's a chance," Mac had panted.
But there had never been any sort of a chance.
It took Jeanne's hand on his arm to persuade Mac to finally give up the pointless,
hopeless struggle. His own hands were blistered and raw, his back a tangle of
strained muscle.
"Come in, love," said Jeanne gently.
"She's gone." He straightened painfully, dropping the scratched shovel at his
feet. "By God, but she's gone. Just plucked away from us. No goodbyes."
"It's often the way." Jeanne looked around. "Thaw's still going on."
"Yeah. I guess we… Oh, Christ!" His hands covered his face, shoulders heaving.
Jeanne put her arms tightly around him and held him like a child while the
sorrow shook him. She hugged him and whispered her love.
Eventually Mac sighed, swallowing hard and trying for a smile. "All right, now,"
he said softly. "I can deal with it. But there's so much damnable death around.
Seems that where I let my shadow fall, somebody goes to meet their Maker. It's
not rightly fair, Jeanne."
"We have to keep moving, love."
"I know it. But there were ten of us only a few weeks ago. Ten of us, all close
and loving."
"We're still close and loving, Mac."
file:///J|/sci-fi/Nieuwe%20map/James%20Axler%20-%20Earthblood%2002%20-%20Deep%20Trek.html (235 of 292)16-2-2006 16:55:08
Axler, James - Earth Blood 02 - Deep Trek.htm
"Less than three weeks. And three of our little ones dead. Now Angel torn away."
"Come inside and rest. Way the snow's going we could maybe try to move on in
another day."
Mac blew his nose. "Life's turned upside down for us. Nothing makes sense, you
know."
But he allowed her to lead him back to the RV, where the four surviving children
were waiting for them.
ALTHOUGH THEY DIDN'T even know where Angel's mangled body was
buried, early the next morning they held a kind of a service for her. One by one
they said a few words about how they remembered her. The good times. The
laughter.
Even Sukie, four years old, managed to overcome her sorrow to say farewell to
her mother.
Afterward they all hugged, together in a tight circle of grief.
The following morning Mac rose early and stood outside in the pallid glow of
the false dawn, looking across the monstrous pile of snow and earth along the
valley.
The narrow stream, frozen over when they'd become trapped by the blizzard,
was now swollen into a frothing brown torrent. Patches of the highway showed
in spots through the melting snow, and it looked as if they could get moving
file:///J|/sci-fi/Nieuwe%20map/James%20Axler%20-%20Earthblood%2002%20-%20Deep%20Trek.html (236 of 292)16-2-2006 16:55:08
Axler, James - Earth Blood 02 - Deep Trek.htm
again.
Mac had slept badly. He'd gone through periods of restless turning, eyes open,
listening to the steady, sullen drip of water all around the vehicle. The thought of
the deaths of the loved members of his family lay more heavily on his mind.
Even when he slithered into brief moments of sleep, his mind's eye was flooded
with terrible images of his children and his young wife suffering ghastly deaths
while he stood by, unable to do anything to help them.
Before opening the door and going out into the morning, Mac had taken down
his shotgun, the blued-steel imported Brazzi 16-gauge weapon, holding five
rounds. The stock was cold and damp to the touch.
His breath feathered out around him as he looked at the dark, blighted landscape,
clouds gathering toward the west where Jim Hilton and the others might be
waiting for them. Mac imagined that he could taste salt, carried on the breeze
from the Pacific Ocean.
The gun felt heavy in his hands, and he stared down at it, his mind blanking,
unable to remember why he'd brought it out with him. Mac watched as his right
thumb eased off the safety and his index finger moved to the trigger.
His brow furrowed, wondering where the enemy was. His gun was ready for an
enemy. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]