need to let the authorities know about the conditions for when they retrieved Jeremiah’s body. Through the broken windshield of the plane, he saw the older man slouched over the steering wheel. He’d seen his share of death while serving in the Middle East, but it was always hard, especially when he knew the person. A memory threatened to worm its way into his thoughts. He slammed it back into the past.
“I wish there was a way to take him back with us.”
At the sound of the doctor’s voice, he turned. “Me, too, but we need to leave now.” He closed the short distance between them and handed her a thermos of water. “Drink this. I don’t want you to get dehydrated.”
“Thanks. What water I had I finished last night. The wolves came before I built a fire to melt some snow.”
After she returned the jug, David took both of her bags. “Let’s go.”
“I can at least carry one.” She tried to take the nearest duffel, but he declined.
He started up the incline, his grip firmly in place on both handles. “I doubt you slept much if any last night. I’m rested, hydrated and well fed.”
She slogged behind him. “I had several protein bars with the last of my water. I was conserving the rest in case I wasn’t rescued right away, especially when the storm continued through last night. I had to clear my entrance every hour.”
“And never warmed up?”
“I spent ten minutes shoveling drifts away from the snow cave, then fifty minutes huddling in the sleeping bag with all the clothes and blankets I could pile on me.”
“A long night,” David said as he crested the rise circling the lake and started for the thicker wooded area a couple of yards away.
The repetitive sound of a helicopter’s rotary blades caused David to stop and turn at the edge of the snow-caked grove of evergreens. No one he’d contacted while organizing the search was in a helicopter. Maybe they were fleeing the winter storm, then had spotted the down plane and were coming to help.
Something instinctively prompted him to step back in the shadows of the trees, pulling the doctor with him. Then he waited for the chopper to come closer. It slowed and hovered over the wrecked aircraft. The chopper was all white with no visible markings on it. He thought instantly of a covert mission. But here? Why Jeremiah’s plane?
“Shouldn’t we let them know I’m okay?” she asked, taking a step forward.
He urged her back. “No. I’ll radio in when we get back to the plane that you’re safe. The people searching by air are using planes, but with this storm they should be returning to their base, as we should be.”
Suddenly two men, dressed totally in white, lowered themselves to the ground using ropes. Rifles were strapped across their backs and each one also had a sidearm. The hairs on David’s nape stood up, and his gut roiled.
Although he and Aubrey were a distance away with a stand of trees between them and the other men, she opened her mouth as if to yell something to the two guys. David dropped one duffel bag, clapped his gloved hand over her lips and hauled her back against his chest, moving deeper into the woods so the slope partially hid them, too. He leaned down and whispered, “Don’t say anything. This doesn’t look right.”
A faint spicy scent wafted to him and for a second riveted his attention. But then he caught sight of one of the men wrenching the pilot’s door open and yanking Jeremiah out of the cockpit, then passing him to the other guy on the ground. David stiffened. The way they tossed Jeremiah about wasn’t how a rescue team would treat a body.
Snow started falling from the dark clouds overhead, but not quickly enough to erase Aubrey’s and his footsteps from the incline behind the trees along the shore. He prayed the men focused on the wreck and nothing else. At least the one in the chopper holding the gun kept his gaze trained on what was going on down at the aircraft.
She wiggled in his embrace, her mumbles muffled by his glove. He dragged her even farther into the trees until he could only see the guy in the helicopter perched in its opening.
With instincts born from many years in a combat zone, David knew they’d left without being seen. Had the people in the chopper heard of the downed plane and decided to plunder it? Whatever their purpose for being here, it wasn’t a good one. At any moment they could spot the footprints heading away from the snow cave and come after them, especially if they decided to search the area. He prayed the men would see the urgency in fleeing the storm, which was predicted to be worse than the small one that had come through yesterday.
The farther away from the lake he hauled Aubrey Mathison, the harder she fought him. He was barely able to clutch one of her duffel bags. When they were far enough away from the unknown men, where they couldn’t hear Aubrey and him talking, he released her, but he was ready to stop her if she started back the way they’d come.
She yanked away and swung around, fury darkening her beautiful face. The last time he’d seen her at the rescue of a young child, it had been summer and her blond hair had been pulled back in a ponytail. He’d admired her then, and he did again now with fire shooting from her eyes.
“Did you see how they manhandled Jeremiah like he was a slab of meat?”
“Yes, and that’s why we aren’t throwing a welcoming party for them.” He glanced over his shoulder and lowered his voice, although the wind would carry the sound of their voices away from the men by the lake. “We need to get to the plane and get out of here. Something isn’t right. I’ll tell the authorities what happened and let them sort it out.”
She peered down at the one duffel bag. “You left one back there? It had some of Jeremiah’s possessions that I—”
“Yes. I’m sorry about that, but I had more important things on my mind.” He hoped the chopper didn’t fly over that area and see the snow cave or the duffel bag.
The red in her cheeks from the cold deepened.
“I’ll make sure the people who come back later search for it and give it to you. Okay?” He swept his arm wide, indicating the direction she should go.
With a huff, she spun around and charged forward angrily. Whether at him or the two men, David couldn’t tell. Amid the snow still coming down, he quickly caught up to her and walked in the same path he’d used to come to the lake. It made his trek a little easier, and he noticed Aubrey did the same thing.
Other than the howl of the wind, silence reigned between them as they plowed through shin-deep snow. The effort slowed Aubrey’s pace.
“Is it much farther?” she finally asked, weariness weaving its way through her voice.
“Through those trees about a hundred yards. There’s a small clearing where I managed to land my plane.”
The sound of the helicopter lifting up above the lake propelled David into action. He grabbed her hand and half ran, half dragged Aubrey to the trees as the chopper appeared in the darkening sky. It headed toward Anchorage, in the opposite direction from them.
David held his breath, waiting to see if the helicopter’s flight pattern would continue southeast, away from where his plane was parked north of the lake. When it stayed its course, he hurried Aubrey along as quickly as possible. His revolver and her shotgun were no match
