Wilderness (Arbogast trilogy) Read Online Free PDF Page A

woman on the couch at home and got the fire going immediately. Their guest looked half dead. She was mumbling incoherently “Not this time,” she seemed to say.
    “You’ll need to phone the ambulance and police right now George. This isn’t right. Why would she be down there handcuffed like this?” Jean looked quizzical as she mulled this over, “We can’t care for her here. She needs help,” George nodded and went to phone from the kitchen.
     
    ***
    When the phone rang again Frank Simmons cursed under his breath. ‘Phone call number 456 here I come.’ 
    “Motherwell Chinese laundry,” he said, expecting another minor incident.
    It was control, “We’ve got a problem. The bus I told you about earlier?”
    “What about it?”
    “It’s turned up but there was woman handcuffed on board. She was practically naked.  A local farmer phoned it in. He’s dug her out but says he’s scared she might die. He says the area is completely cut off and he doesn’t know what to do. We’re going to have to get someone out there. You better get on it.”
    Frank’s left hand massaged his temple back and forth as he stared at the receiver. His heart sank as he knew this was not going to be easy.
    “No problem,” he said, and hung up. It was 6:00am.
     

 4
     
     
     
     
    February 15 th , 6:00am
    The storm had engulfed N Division. The snow had fallen thick and fast for nine hours and there were drifts of up to ten feet in some isolated areas. Unfortunately the bus was right in the middle of it, with an eight mile section of the M8 from Newhouse to Harthill now completely inaccessible, getting there was proving difficult. It was -14c outside which provided its own problems. The gritters and snowploughs were still out working around the clock but were struggling to make a difference. The snow kept falling and they kept trying to clear it. People complained that they didn’t understand why Britain always ground to a halt when a severe weather cast its shadow over the country but the truth was the UK just didn’t get prolonged periods of any kind of weather. While their Scandinavian neighbours could fit snow tyres and prepare for longer periods of this kind of natural treachery, Britain was likely to bear the brunt of a bad spell for a couple of weeks at best. That didn’t matter right now, though, and Frank Simmons could see the headlines already. He had counted 230 cars either abandoned or broken down overnight and with every call came more administration. He looked at his in-tray and wished he could just roll over and go to sleep. It was going to take at least a couple of days to get the roads back to normal and a lot of effort to clear the cars that had been left unattended. There were more than 15-thousand people living in the affected areas and with no supplies likely to get through for some time they were facing a logistical nightmare to keep people alive for as long as the weather continued. Frank drummed his fingers against the desk trying to work out his priorities. ‘And now we have this bus .’
     
    Sergeant Ellen McRae was having a hard time keeping track of everything. Technically she was meant to be handing over to the day shift in half an hour but problems with staff getting to the office and the sheer volume of work still to be done meant she would be here for a long time yet. On balance it seemed as if the coach was their biggest short term problem. The call had come in that a woman had been found in the coach. The Scottish Ambulance Service emergency helicopter was making its way there now. The conditions were not ideal and visibility was poor.  The pilot would have to take a judgement call on whether icing was going to be a problem for the blades. At the moment it was looking good to land at the farm which would let them pick up the woman. Sergeant McRae had spoken to the farmer George Rome and asked him to try and clear a good space for the helicopter to land. He had said the snow was deep but