Egan, p.4
Egan, page 4
Berry pondered that, and, when no more news was forthcoming, she walked over to Dave. “We cleaned out a bunch of the scientists’ supplies, since their camp isn’t livable now. What if somebody went back there, looking for supplies for other injured people?”
“Let’s hope, if that’s the case, they’re pretty good at handling whatever life tosses them,” he replied grimly. “Our search team didn’t meet anybody heading this way, and that’s a concern.”
She winced at that. “It’s a concern but not the end of the world.” When he frowned, she shrugged. “If this was Amelia’s team, and she’s out there, trying to help somebody else, we don’t know for sure that this is really a problem.”
“And yet, if it isn’t, she should be coming to our military base with them.”
“Maybe she’s trying. Maybe that’s what this is about. Maybe she did several trips and didn’t know about what happened at the camp. Don’t forget that she’s been out in the middle of nowhere all this time.”
He nodded. “The good news is—at least, if we have a body—hopefully we can get some answers.”
Berry wasn’t so sure about that but returned to her work, though the atmosphere was uneasy the rest of the morning. When another increase in noise and excitement came, she realized that Magnus and Egan had likely returned.
Leaving her sister to continue the paperwork, or to at least stare at the computer screen, Berry bundled up and headed outside toward the search group, where the conversation was happening. When Egan saw her, he smiled. She walked up closer and asked, “And?”
He shrugged. “We found one of the missing men,” he told her in a low voice. “Bundled up on a sled, as if the sled had been deliberately packaged with him on it, but nobody was with the sled, and the sled itself was broken.”
She nodded. “So, nothing conclusive, except that we have retrieved one of the missing men. Do we know who? And there was no sign of Amelia?”
“No, none,” Egan replied. “Sydney is taking a look at the body right now, hoping to make an identification. For an informal one, I can tell you it looks to be Yegorahn. However, beyond that first glance, we just don’t have enough to go on.”
“Oh, I get it,” she murmured, shocked but relieved to have some closure, yet knowing this would be a terrible blow for her sister. Still, it’s what they suspected, so surely having answers would be better than none. And now his family would have some closure as well. “As much as I don’t like it, I get it.”
He nodded. “How will your sister handle it?”
“She already thought he was dead, since he had been missing for so long. However, getting confirmation today will still be hard for her to handle. His death will bring up all her fears again, so it’s certainly not a great situation.”
“I’m sorry,” he murmured, “but I’m not sorry we found a body.”
“No, of course not. It’s much better for all of us if we find everyone who’s gone missing. It would certainly give us an opportunity to get some answers, which is the hardest thing.”
“I agree with you there,” Egan noted. “Having no answers is brutal.”
“What about at the scientists’ camp? Did you find anything?”
He shook his head. “No, but now we’ll keep a closer eye on it.”
“Why?” she asked. “If the sled made it that far, and somebody now knows that the scientists’ camp is unlivable right now, they would have come here, if they could have.”
He nodded. “And what if somebody is injured and can’t be moved, or what if it’s Amelia who is injured, and she went there looking for supplies?”
“Wouldn’t she have come here then?”
“Sure,” he agreed, “but it also depends on how far she can travel back and forth in a day. Plus you must consider what else might be going on in her world. The bottom line is”—Egan paused—“you have to consider why Amelia wouldn’t be coming here.”
Berry stared at him in shock and then slowly nodded. “I guess if you take it from that perspective, it changes things, doesn’t it?”
“It sure does,” Egan said, “though we must give her the benefit of the doubt at the moment.”
“I don’t think too many people will be prepared to do that.”
“Maybe not,” he acknowledged, “but it doesn’t take a whole lot of guesswork to suggest that she must have a good reason for not coming in.”
“Yeah, but most of the people here will just say that she’s guilty, and they won’t give her much of a chance.”
He stared at her, then asked in a quiet tone, “Is that how you feel?”
“No, not at all,” Berry stated. “I don’t even know the woman, but she’s got a lot of experience in these conditions, and she’s pretty strong-willed, I hear. Therefore, if something were going on that she doesn’t like, as long as she’s capable of staying out there, that’s probably where she’ll stay. I’d probably be right there with her.”
He smiled. “That was my take on it too. So let’s give her the benefit of the doubt and maybe remind the others here to not be so quick to condemn her, while we catch up with her. Since we now have some tracks, finding her seems more likely—at least as long as I get back out there before the tracks are gone.”
“How did the dogs react?” she asked.
He considered her question with a big grin. When she looked at him expectantly, he relented. “Nobody else thought to ask that.”
She smirked. “As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve spent a fair bit of time out in very unfriendly conditions, and, in those cases, I’ve learned to trust the dogs.”
“I’m right there with you on that,” Egan declared. “The dogs were curious and friendly, tails wagging and all that. They weren’t terribly happy about the body, but, inside the scientists’ camp, the dogs were fine and raised no alarms.”
She nodded and kept that info to herself.
Egan added, “You do seem to understand humanity.”
“I don’t know about humanity,” she corrected, with a shrug, “but, if there were a K9 psychology class, I’d sign up and be right there to study it.” Berry laughed. “I really enjoy dealing with the dogs.”
“We took the two injured dogs with us, the pair that had been shot a while back,” he reminded her, his tone dark.
She looked at him curiously. “Why would you do that?”
“Just for the workout.” He smiled. “All on Joe’s orders of course. Once the dogs got winded, we switched them out and gave them a ride.”
“Oh, I would have loved to have seen that. I’m all for animals getting treated better in this world.”
“You have to remember. These dogs love to run, and they love to be out here,” he said. “So it’s not as if they were suffering or anything.”
“No, I understand, and Joe’s dogs are always well looked after. I spend as much time over there as I can, particularly recently.” She grinned, with a glance back at the base.
“Yeah, I don’t imagine your sister is that easy to be around right now.”
“No, but she’s a good person, and I won’t desert her in her time of need. Yet it helps to get a little bit of time to myself,” she murmured.
“Of course. That’s important for anyone.”
She smiled up at him. “So, all in all, an interesting day?”
“Interesting, yes. Successful? … Not so much, but definitely interesting. Although no sign of anybody at the scientists’ camp. We did repair their generator and got some work done on that. So they can get it back up and running again—at least for a little while, depending on their gas supply. I had brought some parts with me, based on what information I’d been given about their generator’s prior problems. So, with what Magnus already knew, and having some parts and a good understanding of what was going on, we managed to make good progress on that and got it back up and running. So—”
“But you didn’t leave it running.”
“No, not while the camp is empty. Plus it seems the university is getting more involved with backing the search and updating the camp, so maybe it won’t be shut down indefinitely, as they had assumed. There’s even talk about some of the group who left coming back in—at least for a few days, to close up and to shut it down properly.”
“That would be a good idea,” Berry noted. “Some of them ended up in a pretty bad state, didn’t they?”
“Yeah, especially the ones who were airlifted out,” he noted. “I think most of them want some closure. Some don’t really want to come back, but understanding what went wrong is how you learn from this. Anyway, that’s a discussion for another time, and, if you’ll excuse me, I have to get ready to head out again.” And, with that, he gave her a gentle smile and was gone.
His smile was way gentler than she had expected, given the size of the man. He was also extremely cooperative and straightforward, and she appreciated that too.
As she headed back into the comm center, her sister glared at her.
“So,” Cherry said, “what did he say about Yegorahn’s death? Did you get anything out of him?”
“Get anything out of him?” Berry asked in a confused tone. “What does that even mean? I did ask for information, but I wasn’t trying to pry it out of him because that can get us into trouble. Me anyway.”
“You know perfectly well he won’t be allowed to talk,” Cherry stated crossly. “So it wasn’t helpful to talk to him.”
“You can say that if you want,” Berry replied, “but I’m certainly not against talking to any of them.”
“As long as you don’t get involved,” Cherry ordered, with a tone of warning. “Chances are he’ll end up dying on you too.”
Berry sucked in her breath at that. “That’s hardly fair, Cherry. And I don’t think Yegorahn wanted whatever happened to him anyway, so let’s just shelve those suppositions, please.” Her sister sniffled several times, and Berry groaned. “Look. I’m not trying to be mean, but we don’t really know what happened to Yegorahn, and it would be very nice if we could stick to the facts and not just theories at this point.”
Her sister sniffled several more times and then finally nodded. “Fine, but I won’t be happy until we get out of here.”
“I get that. I do, and I’m sorry that it’s turned into such a nightmare for you, but we will get out of here safe and sound. Don’t you worry.”
“I’m glad you’re so positive because you know how I feel about this.”
Unfortunately Berry did, and it seemed she could do absolutely nothing to get her sister to change her attitude, and that would just make it all that much harder going forward.
Still, even though it was absolutely horrific that they had found the body of one of the missing men out there, it would be a huge boon to Yegorahn’s family to know for certain that he was gone and to have a body to bury. Although his death was not the answer they had hoped for, it was definitely a good answer for someone faced with the uncertainty of a family member just disappearing forever in this place and under these harsh weather conditions.
*
Day 2 Late Morning
Given the circumstances, it was at least a possible answer now on Yegorahn. As far as the still-missing Amelia went, that was just one big mystery that Berry didn’t understand at all, but she had to trust that this woman—who had such a reputation with her vast Arctic survival experience—was doing what she felt she needed to do. Yet maybe she was doing it under pressure for the wrong reasons, which certainly made Berry more alert than ever.
Then she steeled herself to handle her sister. Since nobody on base was supposed to know about Cherry’s relationship with Yegorahn, people here wouldn’t offer Cherry condolences. However, many would ask if she had heard the latest or if she had heard even more information. The gossip grapevine would not be appreciated by Cherry.
“Hey, I’ll go grab some tea and come back,” she told Cherry, who sat frozen, staring at her computer screen, not inputting anything. “You want some?”
“Grab me a cup too,” her sister said.
Berry headed to the cafeteria, not surprised to see Magnus and Egan there, warming up before their second Arctic outing of this morning. She walked over and sat down directly across from them. “I know this may sound like complete bullshit, but I’m not trying to stir up anything or cause any trouble for you,” she began in a whisper.
“Speak freely,” Magnus stated.
“All I can tell you is that I’m wondering if, … what if Amelia is doing whatever she’s doing under pressure?” At that, both men slowly lowered their coffee cups and stared at her. She nodded. “Okay, so I’m crazy, right?”
“I’m not sure you’re crazy,” Magnus replied, “but why would you consider it?”
“I don’t know anything about the situation really, but why else would somebody do this, dropping off the body at the camp and not here at the base? Either that or because she doesn’t trust anybody here. She has to have a reason for not contacting us, and is that because she chooses not to, or because she can’t?”
“One hell of a good question.”
*
Egan took a sip of his tea, while he studied Berry over the rim of his mug.
She twisted to look at him and shrugged. “Go ahead. Tell me that I’m crazy.”
“Coming here is a logical and available option, but you’re right. Either she’s choosing not to come in or she can’t, and, in this case, either choice could be the same thing.”
“Right, choosing because there’s another reason for her not to do so,” Berry noted. “However, what if somebody else is pulling her strings, with consequences we haven’t considered? What if one of these guys who’ve gone missing is too injured or being held hostage by somebody else?”
Egan let out his breath very slowly, as he turned toward Magnus, wondering what his thoughts were. And Magnus, as always, kept his face a blank slate and didn’t let anything through.
“The bottom line is,” Magnus replied, “we’ll have to wait and see. It’s good to consider the broad range of what it could be, but no point in beleaguering the details until we find her.”
“So, you’re going back out to track her then?”
“We are.”
Egan asked her, “You guys will be okay here, right?”
She nodded. “Yeah, my sister’s not doing all that great, but, hey, what else is new?”
“I’m surprised she wasn’t allowed to leave,” Magnus noted.
“She didn’t want to mention her relationship with Yegorahn, as it was her secret, so she couldn’t very well ask to leave because she lost her boyfriend,” Berry explained. “And, even though I might have mentioned it to a person or two, it wasn’t something Cherry was prepared to broadcast in an effort to get out of here because it wouldn’t get me out anyway.” Berry shrugged, with half a smile. “And she wanted to stay with me more than she wanted to leave.”
Magnus nodded, then looked over at Egan, who still stared at her, wondering at her words.
She smiled at him. “And I hope I’m wrong about Amelia being coerced into helping somebody who is a danger to us all.”
“I hope you are too,” Egan agreed, “because that wouldn’t be good.”
“No, it wouldn’t be. And I came here to get tea, but I was hoping to see you guys before you left.” She paused, then added, “I was thinking about something that you mentioned earlier to me, and I think a few names might be of interest to you.”
Egan nodded. “In that case, want to make a list while we’re out?”
She winced. “That’s fine, but I really don’t want that list to be known as coming from me.”
He chuckled. “That’s fine. When I get back, share that list with me, okay?”
She nodded, got up, poured two cups of tea, and quickly escaped.
As soon as she was out of earshot, Magnus looked at Egan. “What was that all about?”
“The Russian called Yegorahn? He was having an affair with her sister.” At that, Magnus’s eyebrows rose. Egan nodded. “So, the question really is, was somebody else not happy about that relationship?”
Magnus let out a low whistle. “I hadn’t really considered jealousy as a motive, and yet we should. It should always be considered. I wasn’t looking into that death as much as some people might be,” he added. “I had a bit of a run-in with him myself. I need to introduce you to Ted soon. He is the face of the investigation up here and the leader of that investigation team.”
“Ted Nugan?” Egan asked.
Magnus nodded. “You know him?”
He frowned. “Yeah, I do.”
“Doesn’t sound as if you know him in a good way.”
He shrugged. “I know him, and I’m not sure that it’s a good or a bad thing. I’ve seen him on other missions, and he doesn’t always get along with that many people.”
“Maybe the job doesn’t allow him to get along,” Magnus corrected, “as you and I both know all too well.”
“Yeah, isn’t that the truth. Anyway, it’s something to consider, if we get a list from Berry at the end of the day. I can always give it to Ted,” Egan offered, “and that will get both of us out of it.”
Magnus laughed. “If you think that will stop our responsibility for it, you’re kidding yourself. The problem with a place like this is that too many people are up in everyone’s business, and, with no place else to go, we get hot tempers, too much stress, and no release.”
Egan added, “That’s a recipe for disaster, and relationships are one of the biggest banes.”
“It could also be one of the biggest boons,” Magnus pointed out, with a grin.
“Absolutely, but I’ve seen a lot more bane than boon in places like this. We probably need to get some grub and get going, huh?”
“Yeah, let’s go.” And, with that, they headed over to the first hot dishes of lunch coming out.
Chef looked at them, then shook his head. “Will you guys be the first off into the tundra every day?”
“Today for sure we were,” Magnus stated. “And now we’re heading right back to the scientists’ camp to see if we can come up with any usable tracks from the broken-down sled.”
