Buried Alive! Read Online Free PDF Page A

sounded! Of course the version Nicky told did tie in a little bit with what Jack’s parents had said—that up in Alaska they were “thousands of miles away from any kind of danger.” And yet he had to be faking it. Vows of silence? That stuff about the CIA? What was that all about? Jack wished his folks would just tell the whole story straight up so he could figure out what was going on. Instead, he was forced to make sense from whatever scraps of information he could stitch together, a line here and a bit there, like tiny patches on a quilt.
    Pressing his forehead against the small window, he felt the plane’s vibration run straight through his skull and into his jaw. In an odd way it felt good because something else was bothering him. He wasn’t quite sure how to put words onto it. Maybe if the throb of the engine filled his head, he wouldn’t have to think.
    He watched the mountains unroll below in a rhythm of peaks and valleys, the tops of them treeless and bare, the valleys empty sugar bowls of snow. From his books he knew that the summer would bring wildflower carpets and willow thickets that hid 37 species of mammals. Concentrate on those, he commanded his brain. Instead, his mind kept flashing back to Nicky, and he realized what else was gnawing at him. It was Ashley. When they’d sat at the picnic table, her wide-set eyes had watched Nicky’s every move in a way he’d never seen before. Jack didn’t like it. He didn’t like the way her face lit up when Nicky talked about his life. He especially didn’t like the way she swallowed Nicky’s every word, gulping down his story like a baby bird. Yeah, exactly like a baby bird. In his mind he hatched a picture of her with a beak-mouth opened wide as Nicky fed her one fantasy after another.
    Nicky had finished up by saying, “Remember, keep all this a secret. I’m trusting you guys. Spies are everywhere. I mean the bad guys.”
    â€œYou can count on us,” Ashley had breathed. “You have our promise. We will not tell a word to Mom or Dad or anyone. No one will ever know that we know. Right, Jack? Right, Jack?”
    Jack had stood there, brushing the snow off his pajama bottoms, muttering, “Sure, right.”
    He hadn’t believed a word of it. But he was curious. How could he tease the truth from his parents, or from Nicky?
    â€œGorgeous enough for you?” Olivia asked loudly. She’d been busy chatting about wolverines with the ranger directly across from her while Jack had drifted inside his own thoughts. Now his mother’s voice snapped him back.
    â€œYeah. Pretty amazing,” he answered.
    Since they were flying to Kantishna airstrip in a bush plane, the engine’s roar drowned out anything said in a normal voice. Jack, Olivia, a ranger named Blake Van Horn, and the pilot, Eric, were in this plane, while Nicky, Ashley, Steven, and another ranger/pilot flew behind them in a second plane.
    â€œThey call Alaska the last frontier, and it certainly is that. Look!” Olivia’s arm brushed against Jack as she pointed out the small window. “Not a single person as far as the eye can see.” Her arm flew back as she clutched her seat and said, “Whoa—the air’s getting rough. I hope Ashley’s OK in the other plane. You know how queasy she gets from turbulence.”
    Jack bet Ashley’s skin would be blanched as white as the snow beneath them—white with a green tinge, since she really hated being bumped around in small planes. Well, if she got sick, at least Jack wouldn’t be there to see it. Maybe she could throw up on Nicky.
    The thought made him smile. He reached out to steady himself as the plane bounced even harder.
    â€œSorry! These little planes can be a bit of a rollercoaster ride,” Blake told them.
    Leaning forward so he could see Blake better, Jack said, “Mom told me you were the one who found the last two