Chapter Two
"I feel like a spaceman in this thing!" Jaime exclaimed, winking at her husband. "No offense." It was only a short trek from the landing strip to Rudy's cabin at the base of the mountain, but they had bundled each other securely in protective garments, knowing that if their bionics froze, the one person who could help them was missing.
"A darn cute space-person, in my book," Steve said, stopping for a kiss before they stepped out into the snow. "Cabin's this way," he told her, pointing North. He and Oscar had been there with Rudy on several week-end fishing trips, but the terrain was completely foreign to Jaime.
They sank into snow almost up to Steve's knees, with a harder, crunchy layer beneath the soft, fluffy newer flakes. Jaime frowned. "I think we should move back to California, as soon as we're done here. I forgot how much I hate snow!"
"Back to the earthquakes?" Steve said lightly, helping her along more than he needed to. "Great idea."
"Never mind."
Their's were the first tracks in the snow outside of Rudy's cabin. "He hasn't been out here all night; at least not since the snow fell," Steve surmised. There was no tell-tale column of smoke rising from the tiny chimney, and both Austins' hearts skipped a beat as they opened the door. There was no sign of Rudy. They shed their suits temporarily, to make further preparations, and Steve placed his hand over the logs in the fireplace. "Cold. He hasn't been here for hours. Probably not since lunch time yesterday."
Steve reached into the cupboard and found Rudy's huge, 3-man-sized thermos and a can of coffee. While he started the pot brewing, Jaime began to make sandwiches. Steve gazed at her deeply, concern for her as well as for Rudy darkening his eyes.
"You could wait here," he suggested, "and keep the cabin warm until I find Rudy."
"Nice try, Colonel," she told him, "but we're in this one together." Jaime put the thermos in Steve's backpack and the sandwiches in her own, and they both stepped back into their suits. "Let's go find the shanty."
- - - - - -
It wasn't news that Russ relished being the bearer of, but it was urgent. "I just got off the phone with Interpol," he told Oscar. "It seems there's an old, abandoned Mountie relief station just a few kilometers up the mountain from Rudy's cabin."
"So maybe he found shelter -" Oscar began.
Russ shook his head. "It isn't vacant anymore. About a month ago, their intel sources reported a group of rogue scientists – mostly Chinese – were steadily moving equipment and supplies up there in the middle of the night. They could only ID two of the men, but it appears their primary focus is on creating very small, portable self-contained heating units which would allow the wearer to function in sub-zero climates with no danger of frostbite."
Oscar's frown lines deepened as he wondered what, if anything, this had to do with Rudy. "They've run into major problems trying to find an energy source able to power the units," Russ continued, "and have been looking for alternative -"
"Alternative energy sources, like the ones Rudy has been researching," Oscar concluded.
"That's right. Interpol believes they've also located a new source of funds for this project; I won't attempt to pronounce the name, but they've been described as something like a cross between the KBG and an overseas Mafia."
"If they've gotten their hands on Rudy..." Oscar said softly. "Russ, get me a plane and a chopper to pick us up at the landing strip in Golden. We need to leave...yesterday."
- - - - - -
Jaime and Steve trudged and fought their way through the snow. It really wasn't far to Rudy's fishing shanty on the little lake at the base of the mountain, but the drifts grew higher as they got closer, and it seemed to take forever. The doctor had shoveled and carved a little niche for himself, all around the shanty.
"He's obviously in good health," Steve commented, "to have done all this."
The inside of the shanty was not quite so reassuring. Rudy's chair was overturned and his fishing pole was lying abandoned on the ice. Steve instinctively pulled Jaime closer to him and felt her shiver with the same cold feeling of dread that ran through his own heart.
- - - - - -
Rudy felt himself being lifted – chair and all – carried a short distance and then set down again. He remained still and alert, trying to steel himself for the next blow, but it didn't come. Instead, his wrists were freed and as his captors' footsteps moved behind him, so was his hood. In front of him, he found a table with several small components that he recognized as very primitive forms of a heat/energy source, similar to what he had set up in his own lab, but not nearly as advanced.
"You will fix it," a voice said, just before the door was slammed. Rudy was alone.
- - - - - -
Russ and Oscar's flight to Golden made it in near-record time. Their waiting chopper pilot looked doubtful when Oscar told them his team of six needed to go to the abandoned Mountie station. "It's urgent," Oscar insisted. "Three of my best people are in that station, possibly trapped; we have to get there!"
"That's halfway up the mountain," the pilot told him carefully. "In this weather, you're risking an avalanche..."
- - - - - -