Hostage Read Online Free PDF Page B

raced down to the water and gathered round Papaluk's still body. She was lying face down so they eased her over on to her back. As they moved the body, the layer of ice covering her clothes and hair crackled and splintered. Paulo kneeled beside her head and pressed his fingers to the pulse point on the side of her neck. After a few minutes he shook his head. No-one argued with him. It was obvious that Papaluk was dead.
    'She's smiling,' breathed Amber.
    They were all quiet for a moment, staring transfixed at Papaluk's face. She looked like an ice princess. Each lash fringing her dark, slanted eyes was white with frost. Her face sparkled as though it was encrusted with tiny diamonds and her hair was spiked with icicles.
    'What happened?' asked Li, her voice shaking with shock.
    'I think maybe she slipped and fell in while she was taking a water sample,' said Paulo, nudging the sample jar with his toe.
    'Yeah, but she got herself out again,' said Amber.
    'Why couldn't she get back to the cabin?'
    'She wouldn't've had much chance in these temperatures,' said Alex. 'You lose heat twenty-five times faster when your clothes are soaked through.'
    'That's not how it was,' said Hex slowly. They all turned to look at him. Hex was the code-breaker and puzzle-solver of the group. If there was something wrong with a scenario, he always spotted it. Now, his green eyes were sharp as he looked down at Papaluk's body, then lifted his head to scan the bay. 'That's how we're meant to think it was,' he added grimly. 'But that's not how it happened. This is . . . wrong.'
    'Tell us,' said Alex.
    'Papaluk had no need to be down here. We'd collected all her samples for her. And even if she had decided to get just one more, this is still all wrong.'
    'What is wrong?' asked Paulo.
    'The sample jar. It's next to her hand. With the lid screwed on.' Hex sighed with annoyance at their puzzled expressions. 'Are we really supposed to believe that she leaned over to collect a sample, fell in, then managed to haul herself back out again, still holding on to the jar?'
    'You're right,' said Alex. 'She would've let go of it. It should be at the bottom of the bay.'
    'And once she climbed out of the water, did she really spend precious time finding the jar top and making sure it was screwed back on before she died? No. I think someone tried to make this look like an accident,' said Hex, scanning the bay again. He unslung the underwater camcorder from his shoulder and began filming the scene.
    Li frowned. She was not sure she liked Hex filming her friend's dead body. When she was alive, Papaluk had always put her hand over the lens when Hex pointed the camcorder at her, but she could not do that now. 'What are you doing?' asked Li.
    'Evidence,' said Hex briefly.
    Li was about to object, but stopped with her hand raised and her mouth open as the tones of a mobile phone suddenly rang out across the bay. They were coming from somewhere near the cabin. Alpha Force tensed and slowly turned round. The ring tones stopped, cut off in mid-trill, and a tall, blond man stood up behind a large rock. He held a mobile phone in his hand. He had obviously just fumbled it from his pocket and turned it off. He waved and smiled at them, then disappeared behind the rock. An engine coughed into life and the man emerged again, riding a snowmobile. He drove slowly towards them, still smiling.
    Everyone looked from the man to one another, trying to make sense of this strange appearance. Only Hex did not seem confused. He turned the camcorder on to the man and carried on filming. The man's easy smile wavered for a second, then settled back into place. Hex used the camcorder lens to zoom in on the logo on the man's jacket. It said USHER MINING CORPORATION.
    Hex nodded. It was what he had expected to see. 'Run,' he said flatly.
    'Excuse me?' said Paulo.
    'We have to run. Head for the snowmobiles. Now!'
    Hex's final shout jolted the other four into action. They took off, sprinting across the