Arctic Fire (25 page)

The bag hit Pike on the shoulder, smacking him
down hard onto the deck and plowing into Mallory like an out of
control car at a demolition derby. She landed with a sickening thud
on her back that could be heard even above the wind, then she slid
feet first into the void.

Pike’s eyes filled with horror as he watched her
slide in. It was surreal, like watching a horror movie, only he
wasn’t watching it, he was living it! He managed to roll over and
reach out his left hand and grab her sleeve. For a fleeting moment
he thought he had her, but her momentum tore her from his grip, and
she was gone; swallowed whole like Jonah.

Pike scrambled over to the side of the hole and
shouted into the darkness. “Beth, Can you hear me? Are you all
right?” He heard a low moan which was a good sign; it meant she was
conscious and alive. “Don’t worry Beth,” he shouted back down the
hole, “I’m going to get you out!”

He grabbed his flashlight and shined it down
into the abyss, hesitating for a moment, afraid of what he might
see. The beam pierced the darkness and shone on Mallory like a
spotlight. He was relieved to see that she was leaning against the
shank of the anchor in thigh deep water. She had fallen feet first
and the angle of the shank had helped break her fall as she slid
down it, much like a ski jumper landing on a steep slope.

But he was not happy to see that her feet had
landed at the base of the anchor and were resting against the thin
wall that held the anchor in place. If the anchor shifted, it could
pin her to the wall making a rescue almost impossible or worse yet,
it could break the ice wall and plummet to the ocean below, taking
Mallory with it.

“You wanna get that out of my eyes?” Mallory
said weakly, shielding her face from the light.

“Are you okay?” Pike asked.

“I-I don’t know. My back is sore and I don’t
think I can feel my legs.”

He was glad she couldn’t see his deep frown. Not
feeling her legs was not a good sign. He could hear the trembling
in her voice and see her shaking from the cold and he prayed her
loss of feeling was just from the numbing ice and not from a back
injury. In either case, he had to get her out of there in a
hurry.

Just then he heard a loud crack and he shined
the light just in time to see a five foot fissure streaking up the
front wall. The light reflected off the fracture making it look
like a lightning bolt. He tried to turn the light off but he wasn’t
quick enough, Mallory saw it too.

“Gabe! Get me out of here!” The sheer terror in
her voice was enough to freeze his heart.

“Don’t worry Beth. We’ll have you out of there
in a jiffy.” He hoped his voice conveyed more confidence than he
felt. “Hang on Beth, I’m going to get some help. I’ll be right
back.’”

“Don’t leave Gabe, Don’t leave me here all
alone. Gabe?” Now his heart was melting, hearing the desperation in
her voice.

“It’s okay Beth, I’m here.” He shouted back.
Quickly he looked around and was relieved to see Miles inching his
way toward him. Pike reached back and pulled Miles up to him and
handed him the flashlight. “Dean is here Beth.” He shouted. He
waited for a moment then called again. Still no answer. His heart
was racing now and panic was the driver. “Beth!” He shouted so loud
it hurt his throat.

“I’m here,” was the simple reply.

Pike turned to Miles. “Whatever you do, keep her
talking. Hypothermia is setting in and if she falls asleep, she
could slide off the anchor and drown or simply not wake up at
all.”

Miles nodded his head. “Hey Mallory, remember
the other day…”

Pike stood and looked around frantically. He had
no idea what he was going to do; he only knew he had to do it
quickly. Suddenly he saw Centers and Cain and he waved them both
over.

“I was inside, what happened?” Cain asked.

Mallory felt into the hole.”

Concern creased Cain’s forehead. “Is she
okay?”

“She is for now, but we haven’t much time.”

“What do you need? Name it and you got it.” Cain
replied. Cain’s voice was calm on the outside but Pike could hear
the underlying emotions.

As Cain was talking Pike noticed the
Yankee
Clipper
behind him. He was almost ignoring Cain as a plan was
taking shape in his mind. “Rope. Can you get me some rope?” He
blurted out looking at Centers.

“Yeah,” Centers shouted above the howling wind,
“but it’s down on the ships. It’ll take me about ten minutes to get
it. “Why don’t we just use the ladder there?”

“It’s not tall enough. Remember, the ice is 5
feet thick and the ceiling is another 8 feet and this is only a
6-foot stepladder. Now go!” Pike shouted and patted Centers on the
shoulder as he turned to leave.

“What do you want me to do?” Cain asked.

“We don’t have ten minutes. Help me with the
ladder.” They both grabbed the ladder and put it up beside the
Yankee Clipper
.

“What are we doing?” Cain asked.

“Hold it steady, I’ve got to get something out
of the cockpit.”

Cain nodded, and then held the ladder, burying
his chin into his chest, trying to protect himself against the
harsh winds. Pike steadied himself on the first rung, then shot up
the ladder like a rocket on rails. Reaching the top, he pulled back
the canopy and leaned in, his feet dangling in the air as he
searched. After a few moments, Cain heard a muffled “Yes” then Pike
climbed back down.

“What have you got?” Cain asked, anxious to see
what Pike thought was so important. “This,” he grinned, holding up
two rolls of duct tape.

Cain looked in amazement. “Duct tape? You’re
kidding me right? Do you always carry duct tape with you?”

Pike nodded his head. “I’m an engineer. I never
leave home without it. Come on, we have to hurry. Beth could be
dead in ten minutes if we don’t do anything.”

Cain nodded his head. “Okay, what do we do?”

“Here.” Pike said as he handed one of the rolls
to Cain and began to unroll his. “Press the two pieces of tape
together to create a single strand.”

“How much do we need?”

“Enough to loop over the tail of the
Clipper
.”

“What?”

“Yeah, I know. Just do it.”

The two men began unpeeling their respective
rolls of tape and carefully pressing them together making one
single strand. They continued to pay out the tape until they had a
piece about twenty feet long, then Pike took out his Swiss Army
knife and cut them.

“Now what?” Cain asked.

“Adjust the sled and point the nose of the
Clipper
back up as high as it will go.”

“This just keeps getting better and better.”
Cain said, shaking his head as he readjusted the launch sled. Pike
waited impatiently as the nose of his fighter went up and the tail
went down. With a clunk, the plane stopped and Cain signaled that
that was as far as it went.

“Okay” Pike yelled. “Get over on the other side
of the tail and catch this when I throw it.” Cain nodded and waited
on the other side of the plane like an outfielder waiting for a fly
ball. On the first attempt, Pike hit the tail and the tape bounced
back, almost hitting him on the head. On the second toss, his aim
was better but a gust of wind caught the tape and blew it back,
nearly ripping it out of his hands. Frustrated, Pike took a deep
breath and waited for what he thought was a lull in the wind and
threw them again. This time everything went according to plan and
Cain caught the roll.

“We’ve got to hurry.” Pike said. “Let’s finish
splicing these two rolls together then tie it off on the tail.”

“I get it.” Cain said as they both worked as
fast as their frozen fingers would allow them. “By wrapping the
tape around the tail, we’re going to use it as an anchor to lower
someone down to get Elizabeth.”

“Partly right,” Pike replied as they came to the
end of the rolls. He threw the one cardboard center away but kept
the other and wrapped the tape around it, placed it on the deck
then put his foot in the middle of the hole and pulled as hard as
he could, testing its strength. “That should do,” he said,
satisfied that it would hold him. “My Dad always taught me, work
smarter, not harder. “We’re going to use the tail as an anchor
alright but I’m going to let the sled do the work and use it as a
crane to pull me and Beth up. When you lower the nose, the tail
will go up and hopefully lift us out.”

“Very clever Gabriel.”

Pike nodded modestly then picked up the ladder
and dragged it over to the hole.

“How’s she doing?” Pike asked as he and Cain
crawled up beside Miles.

“I can’t get her to answer me anymore.” Miles
replied, panic and frustration filling his voice.

Pike grabbed the ladder and shoved it across the
opening. “You two, sit here on the edge with your feet on the
ladder and lower me down. When I signal I’ve got her, raise us up
with the sled.”

Pike crawled gingerly out onto the ladder until
he was sitting directly over the center of the hole. He slipped his
foot into the cardboard ring like a stirrup and with some
trepidation, eased himself over the edge and nodded for them to
lower him down. As more and more of his weight was transferred from
the ladder to his tape-rope, he could feel it stretching and for a
fleeting moment he wished that he had waited for the rope, but he
knew deep down inside that Beth couldn’t wait. With a deep breath
and a leap of faith, he let go of the ladder, placing all his
weight onto the tape.

It stretched even more but it held. He gave them
a shaky thumbs up and they started to lower him down. It was a
strange sensation as he began descending. Almost immediately he
noticed how quiet it had gotten. The howling wind had turned to a
mere whisper as he traveled through the five-foot thick ceiling and
reached the inside of the anchor room itself. He also felt like he
was floating, not just suspended like some giant piñata.

Because he was hanging from the tape, gone was
nearly all the swaying and pitching motion of the iceberg. It was
almost like he was in a dream as he gently swayed back and forth in
the dark, but he knew this dream would turn into a nightmare if he
couldn’t get to Mallory in time.

He was almost enjoying his ride when all of a
sudden he felt his stomach press against the top of his throat as
the rope slipped and fell two feet. He felt the stirrup stretch
under the sudden surge of his weight and he held his breath as he
expected it to snap, sending him plummeting onto the anchor.

“Are you okay?” Pike heard Cain shouting.

“Yeah, what happened?”

“Sorry about that, a gust of wind caught us and
knocked us sideways and the tape slipped.”

“Okay, hang on.” Pike took out his flashlight
and had a look around. He was suspended about five feet above the
floor and could see that Mallory was still lying on the anchor. A
thin layer of ice had already formed on the surface of the water
which was a good sign showing that their plan was working but a bad
sign for Mallory because she was submerged nearly up to her waist
in the bone chilling water. She stared at him with wide-open eyes
in a death stare but he could still see a spark of life in them.
“Hang on Beth, I’m going to get you out of here.” He said trying to
reassure her. He thought he saw a faint smile but he couldn’t tell
because her teeth were chattering and her whole body was shaking
uncontrollably.

“Okay, lower me down another four feet, that
should do it.” Pike shouted back up the hole.

“We can’t, you are at the end of your rope,
literally.” Cain replied.

Great
, Pike muttered to himself,
why
can’t anything ever be simple?
He grabbed the tape-rope with
both hands and gently pulled himself up to get his foot out of the
stirrup. He took a deep breath and tried to psych himself up; he
was not looking forward to dropping down into freezing water. He
looked at Mallory again and noticed that her eye lids were getting
very heavy. If she fell asleep now, she would not wake up. That was
all the motivation he needed as he let go of the rope.

He let out an involuntary gasp as he hit the
frigid water. The shock was much greater than he had anticipated as
his legs felt like they were being stabbed over and over again by a
million angry seamstresses. He steadied himself with the rope for a
second while his legs went completely numb, then sloshed over to
Mallory. “Come on Beth, time to get out of here.”

He grabbed her legs and swung them down to the
floor then reached out and grabbed her in a bear hug. She was as
limp as a rag doll and he was having a hard time getting hold of
her because of their bulky jackets. Finally he managed to get his
arms around her and as he held her, he reached into his pocket and
pulled out a half roll of tape. His teeth were starting to chatter
now as he took the tape and reached around behind her and started
taping the two of them together.

He carefully stood supporting both their
weights. The one good benefit of the cold water was that he
couldn’t feel the pain in his ankle anymore. With the ice cover
broken, small waves now sloshed through the room as the iceberg was
tossed by the storm, adding all the more to his difficulties. He
steadied himself against the mini tidal waves. If he slipped and
fell now, they both would drown. He felt like a sumo wrestler as he
picked up one foot then placed it down as he dragged her to the
dangling rope. After four squat-steps, he placed his left arm
through the loop and grabbed his left elbow with his right hand. He
prayed that he had the strength to hold on, supporting not only his
weight but Mallory’s too.

“Miles? Can you hear me?” Pike shouted.

“Right here Gabe.”

“Tell Nigel to bring us up, slowly.”

“Will do, stand by.”

Almost immediately, Pike could feel the tension
start as the sled began pulling them up. For a moment, he felt the
pressure and saw the tape stretch but they weren’t moving. The tape
kept stretching and he thought for sure it was going to break, but
then he felt his arm rise and his feet leave the floor. Slowly,
they steadily rose toward the light. Their feet cleared the water
and they were now suspended between heaven and earth as they
ascended through the five-foot think ice ceiling. Everything was
white and Pike felt like he was floating through a cloud.