Egan, page 5
At that, Chef’s expression turned somber.
As they began their second trip today to the scientists’ camp, Egan realized that, with the noon sunshine, it was warming up to temperatures that were really pleasant out here. They were both on skis, carrying packs, having left the dogs behind for this revisit.
As they reached the camp, they stopped and studied all the tracks. There had been quite a wind earlier this morning, so blowing snow had covered some of the tracks, but still enough were visible. They headed off to follow them.
After they’d been tracking for a good hour, Egan asked Magnus, “So, why would it be this far away?”
“I don’t know,” he admitted.
“I’ve been thinking about what Berry told us. Not only her words but what she was implying.”
“I don’t want to worry about what she’s implying,” Magnus declared. “We’ve got enough on our plates right now. Yet we definitely need to keep an open mind.”
As they moved forward, Egan pointed out where the tracks swerved off to the side and stopped, almost for a break. He pondered that for a moment. “So, she’s not traveling quickly, and she’s dragging a sled behind her, but she’s on skis, though that could be because that sled broke down. I wonder if she brought it deliberately or if she broke it down afterward.”
Magnus stopped, considered that, frowning. “Now why would somebody do that? Although it could be fixable. I didn’t take that close of a look at it. Did you?”
Egan shook his head. “No, and, if it was fixable, she would be looking for it for later. Yet I’m thinking maybe she brought the body here so it could be found, knowing that, even if there were issues at the scientists’ camp, somebody still should have been around there.”
“And yet we moved everybody out, and the sign was still on the door. Although the facility was locked, Amelia had her own keys anyway.”
“Exactly, so we don’t know if any of this is part and parcel of the problem with the base.”
“It’s all part and parcel of our problem,” Magnus stated, as they picked up the pace again.
“But one of the concerns is more about what’s going on here at the scientists’ camp and how it’s impacting everybody else at the base, especially considering all the other problems we have on base.”
“No doubt that it’s having a huge impact on everybody else,” Magnus stated, as he kept pace with Egan. “What I don’t understand is what’s going on in Amelia’s world that she would need to do this?”
“Which brings us back to Berry’s comment from this morning.”
“Exactly,” Magnus confirmed. “It was nagging me in the back of my mind, but I was ignoring it.”
“Did you tell Ted what Berry mentioned?”
“No, I haven’t had a chance yet. I was thinking we’d talk to him when we got back later this afternoon. We just won’t mention Berry’s name in all this.”
“I’m looking forward to seeing that list myself,” Egan murmured.
“You really think it could be a jealousy thing?”
“It’s an easy answer, and I guess an easy answer is as good as any, don’t you think?”
“Maybe, maybe not, but it’s at least an answer, and something that we don’t have yet,” Magnus acknowledged, “and we really need it. We need something to fall into place here.”
“I won’t argue with that,” Egan muttered, looking around. “The tracks are fading fast in this weather.”
“That’s not good because, if we can’t track where she came from, we can’t follow her back.”
“And what are the chances that she knew that?”
Magnus turned to Egan and nodded. “That just gives more credence to what we were looking at earlier.”
“I know,” Egan agreed. “Right about now, Dr. Amelia is raising all kinds of alarms in my mind. This move is really suspicious. … Unless she’s a victim herself somehow.”
At that, Magnus nodded. “We’ll keep going up here for another hour or so, but after that …”
“Yeah. We’re starting to circle around,” Egan noted.
“I noticed that too.” Magnus nodded. “So, was that done deliberately to lead us away or to lead somebody else away?”
“We can’t know until we find her, so let’s keep going.”
With that, they headed on again. Magnus spoke up a bit later. “We keep assuming this is Amelia, but what if it’s not? What if this is someone else altogether?”
His remarks hung in the air, as they moved ahead because neither had an answer to that.
Day 2, Afternoon
Berry found herself waiting the rest of the day for the men to show back up again. In the meantime, the dead body was medically confirmed to be Yegorahn’s. Word got around the base fast enough for Cherry to hear all about it. Again. In the meantime, Berry struggled with questioning her sister about the many men who had appeared interested in her. Any comment about it was guaranteed to set off Cherry, and that was the last thing Berry wanted to do. Peace and quiet was important for everybody, but, in this instance, her sister had the tendency to get way too upset over the small things. Plus it just emphasized her loss right now, and grieving was hard enough, without people pushing these questions at her.
Finally her sister glared at her and snapped, “What is bugging you?”
Berry frowned. “I was wondering whether Yegorahn’s death may have been jealousy related.”
Her sister stared at her in shock, then shook her head. “Why would you even think that?”
“How can I not think something?” Berry replied in a bitter tone, more than she intended. “Everybody is wondering what the hell’s going on and how this all happened.” Berry shook her head. “So to not try to think of potential ideas is foolish.”
Cherry stared daggers at her. “I don’t want to be asked those questions,” she snapped. “I didn’t cheat on him, if that’s what you’re asking.”
“That’s not what I’m asking,” Berry stated. “I know you didn’t, and I know how it worked out, but I also know there were a lot of other men coming around.”
“So?” Cherry raised her hands in protest. “I didn’t want or like any of those other men.”
“Good, I get that, but then I still need to know who those other men were.”
“No, you don’t,” Cherry declared, glaring at her. “I just want to put this to rest. So the last thing I need is for you to be poking around at any of those other guys.”
“Of course not,” Berry acknowledged.
Just then, one of the men they worked with in the data center walked in, carrying a tray with coffees and sweet rolls.
Berry looked up and smiled. “Hey, Henry. Are some of those for us?” she asked in delight.
He shrugged. “Hey, they just came out of the oven, so I figured that, before the rest of the place discovered them and we lost out”—he winked—“I’d grab us some.”
“Thanks, that was nice.” She quickly gave her sister a coffee and a cinnamon bun, hoping that would appease her. However, from the expression on Cherry’s face, caffeine and sugar wouldn’t go very far.
Still, Henry sat down beside her sister, staring at her intently. “Hey, Cherry. I know you’re still struggling. I just wanted to let you know that I’m sorry.”
Her sister frowned, but then her face cleared. “Yeah, I know. Sorry, I haven’t been very friendly since it happened,” she murmured.
“You were close to Yegorahn, and losing anybody is tough,” Henry noted. “My wife and I lost a best friend one year ago,” he shared, staring off into the distance. “Now, when I think of them, it seems to be a fond memory, but, at the time, it was really tough.”
“Yeah, it is,” Cherry agreed, as she sipped her coffee and smiled at him.
“Besides, lots of other people are around here are interested in having a relationship with you, if you want to step out again.”
“God no.” Cherry gave a headshake. “That was bad enough once, but to see a repeat? God no.”
“It wouldn’t be a repeat,” Henry said, staring at her.
Cherry just smiled and didn’t say anything.
Yet it made Berry wonder how many people really did know about her sister’s relationship. As he got up to clear away the dishes, she called out to him. “Hang on, Henry. I’ll give you a hand.” She helped him with the dishes and headed back to the kitchen with them. “I didn’t realize you knew about her relationship with Yegorahn.”
“Yeah, I saw the two of them one evening,” Henry replied. “They weren’t trying to hide it.” Then he stopped and frowned at her. “Or were they?”
Berry shrugged. “I just hadn’t realized.”
“I think most people know. It’s just one of those things that’s hard to hide in a place like this, but I can understand her not wanting to be the butt of all the conversations.”
“No, of course not,” Berry agreed, “and I appreciate the discretion on your part.”
He nodded. “Your sister is a good person, and I’m sorry for her loss.”
And Berry left it at that. What else could she say? Everything he said sounded right, but, because of the circumstances, Berry was taking it the wrong way. And, even then, she had absolutely no reason to take it any way at all. She groaned at herself, as she headed back to her sister.
Cherry immediately stood, left the data room, and headed for their assigned bedroom. “Did you ask him?” her sister snapped. Cherry was beyond furious. “It’s obvious you were just dying to ask him a bunch of questions.”
“I did ask him some questions. I didn’t realize he knew about your relationship.”
Cherry shrugged, trying to control herself, and took a deep breath. “Yeah, he saw us one evening.”
“That’s fine,” Berry noted. “As Henry mentioned, you didn’t need to keep it secret.”
“And yet it felt as if we did.”
“So you had to, or did you just want to?”
Her sister gave her a gentle smile. “There is a difference, isn’t there?”
“There is, indeed.”
“We just felt we had something special,” Cherry shared, “and we were really enjoying being together.”
“And that’s great,” her sister said. “No reason to feel bad about that.”
“And yet when you talk about it, … you make it sound bad.”
Berry groaned because sometimes her sister could just get cranky over nothing. “That’s not fair,” Berry replied. “I have no intention of making you feel bad about anything. All I was trying to do … Look, Cherry. I’m just trying to figure out if Yegorahn’s death could have been caused by somebody who was jealous of your relationship.”
“Who would even give a damn?” she asked in exasperation. “It’s not as if I spent time with anybody else.”
“But you did, when we first got here. … You spent time with a lot of people.”
“Sure, but I didn’t spend any private time with them,” she clarified, glaring at her sister. “That was mostly just people trying to be friendly.” Cherry shrugged. “After all, we’re in a camp, and things can get very old, very quickly, if we go that solo route.”
“I understand that,” Berry stated, “but it still doesn’t change the fact that it’s a question that deserves asking.”
“Ask away, just don’t involve me with any of it,” Cherry muttered, frowning at her sister. “I would just as soon you drop it, but obviously you won’t. You’ve got a bee in your bonnet, and that’s all there is to it,” Cherry declared, with an odd expression on her face. “You’ll make my life miserable while you sort this out, won’t you?” And, with that, she turned and slammed the door, leaving Berry standing in the hallway, with Cherry in their bedroom.
Astonished, yet not sure why she was really surprised, Berry slowly turned and headed back to the comms room.
As she walked in, Henry looked up and smiled at her. “Hey, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset her.”
“Anything upsets her these days,” Berry stated, with a wave of her hand. “It’s a pretty upsetting scenario.”
“I didn’t even realize she was in that much of a relationship.”
“I think she would prefer that everybody just forgot about it at this point,” Berry noted, with a half smile. “Nothing quite like thinking people are talking about you all the time.”
He winced at that. “I can get behind that. No matter how it goes, none of us want to think that we’re being talked about, especially in a place like this. So, you’re right. I’ll stay quiet.”
“Thank you,” Berry replied gratefully. “As far as my sister goes, she’ll come to terms with it eventually.”
“I hope so. It’ll make life a little difficult for you the longer she takes,” Henry added, with a word of warning.
Berry shrugged. “That’s just a fact of life,” she murmured. And, with that, she got back down to work, knowing that, if she could do nothing else, at least she could get some data input accomplished.
And that was worth a lot to her.
*
Egan and Magnus made it back to the base, as Egan headed straight for the kitchen and the dining room area, knowing he was really just heading toward wherever he might find Berry. He saw the knowing look that Magnus didn’t even try to conceal, and Egan shrugged. “What can I say? I’m looking for that list.”
Magnus snorted but let him get away with it, and, for that, Egan was grateful. He didn’t understand the impulse to go, but, hey, he would follow it because Berry seemed to have an inside track, and he needed that right now. Somebody up here had to sort out what was going on, and Egan still had to report in to Mason. However, so far, Egan didn’t have a whole lot to say—except that they’d found yet another body, but at least it was one of the missing men. He knew that a select few also reported in to Mason, but Egan hadn’t realized who, not until he stepped into the kitchen area, standing behind an enormous back, so huge it could only belong to one person.
He studied the profile and then said in a low tone, “Correct me if I am wrong, but isn’t that Mountain Bear Rode in front of me?”
Mountain spun, still as light and as soft on his feet as a man a fraction of his size. Mountain studied him and then slowly nodded. “Hey,” Mountain greeted him. “Glad you made it okay.”
“Yeah, I made it,” Egan confirmed. “The okay part’s a different story.”
“At least you found somebody we were looking for already,” Mountain noted. “That’s more than the rest of us.”
“Only because I was the lucky one at the scientists’ camp at that time,” he murmured. “Otherwise, you know perfectly well that Magnus would have found him on his own.”
“Maybe.” Mountain lowered his voice and asked, “Have you had any armory training up here?”
Egan shook his head at that. “No, and I was wondering how the system worked.”
“You’ll go on training for the next couple days,” Mountain shared. “I want you to keep an eye on who has access to the armory, how the guns are treated, and how some of these weapons may have been taken from the armory without permission,” Mountain stated.
“I wasn’t aware we were missing any.”
“Somebody gave Anna a gun,” Mountain shared. “It’s not something she would have had access to on her own. At least not if protocols were followed, but, given the scenario here, it’s possible she slipped in and picked one. If that’s possible, which I suspect it is, then I’d like confirmation.”
Egan whistled at that. “I didn’t think of that.”
“Nope, but we need to,” Mountain stated. “So that’s definitely on my list for sorting out. Now I’ve delegated that to you. Report back in a few days.”
Egan nodded. “No word on your brother?”
Mountain shook his head at that. “No, but I’m heading out tomorrow morning to track where you guys left off today.”
“Okay, you know we went out for several hours today alone.”
“That’s fine,” Mountain declared. “I plan on staying out for several days.”
His tone was hard, as if to discourage anybody who would argue, but Egan knew that nobody would. He didn’t know what Mountain’s public position here was, but, in a situation like this, very few people ever argued with Mountain and survived. He literally was a force unto himself. “You don’t have to do it alone, you know?”
Mountain looked at him and nodded. “It’s too dangerous to take anybody with me.”
Egan shook his head. “And you also know that going out alone in the Arctic is stupid.”
Mountain deepened his glare.
“I’m not telling you anything you didn’t already know,” Egan admitted. “I guess I’m just dumb enough to stand up and tell you.”
Mountain nodded. “That makes you special around here. Most people take one look and just tell me to do whatever I want to do. They don’t give a crap.”
Egan smiled at that. “Yeah, or maybe it’s got something to do with your size.”
“Maybe.” Mountain gave him a shrug. “I really don’t give a shit myself.”
“Maybe not, but I, for one, don’t want to see any more dead bodies around here,” Egan stated.
“I appreciate your bringing one back and for doing the tracking you did today,” Mountain said. “With any luck we can sort this out faster than not.”
“I’m not so sure about that, but …” Egan hesitated and then looked around. “We were talking earlier today—and not saying this is what’s happening of course—but what are the chances that Amelia couldn’t come back?”
“Either she chose not to or she couldn’t.” Mountain nodded. “It’s got to be one or the other.”
“Somebody with the experience that she’s got, … I’m betting she couldn’t come back.”
“And that is definitely concerning and also why I’m heading out,” Mountain replied. “I do need somebody to keep track of things here, since Magnus is already overloaded and really busy.”
“I can do it,” Egan offered. “What is it you want me to track?”
“Anything and everything to do with the armory, plus anybody interested in where I’m going and why.”
