The light was fading fast. Growls echoed through the dunes, rolling along the beach. Pricks of light – eyes – flicked into life.
"Help me find something we can use as a weapon!" Jackson ordered, already roving up the beach.
"What, are we going to throw sand balls at them?"
"As always, Mitch, your support is truly appreciated. Find a stick or something!"
Mitch shrugged and started searching. He was so tired he was almost inclined to just lie down and let whatever was out there eat him – if it hadn't been for Jackson's comment as the boat was breaking up. Jamie deserves better. He'd been more right than he'd thought. Jamie was an attractive, vivacious, intelligent and compassionate woman. She deserved someone who would compliment those aspects of her personality, not a bitter, cynical old scientist who couldn't even finish med school.
But that kiss. On the airplane. He hadn't seen it coming, hadn't had time to formulate any kind of defence. On the long, empty, alcohol-fuelled nights since the crash, he'd remembered how she felt, remembered how soft her skin had been under his touch –
"Yo! Mitch! Reminisce when we're not about to get eaten!"
Mitch snapped out of his reverie and started looking for a weapon. Any weapon.
Chloe peered through the gloom, desperately trying to identify how many animals were out there. She stopped counting, terrified and sick to her heart.
Jackson is gone. My sister Natalie thinks I am the Devil. What is there to live for? Why should I not just let the animals eat me?
"We have to get off this beach!" Abe's voice intruded her personal monologue. She shook herself, burying those thoughts deep inside herself.
"Where are we going to go?"
"Anywhere that is not here!"
They ran. They left the snarling behind and ran.
Jackson found a branch, a stout but gnarled length of driftwood. As he hefted it in his hands the first animal slunk out of the thickening gloom.
"You're kidding me, right?" Mitch asked. He'd made a pouch of his over-shirt, even though he was freezing, and had stuffed it with pebbles. "A polar bear?"
"Actually I think it's a pizzly," Jackson explained, brandishing his driftwood spear in a threatening gesture. "Grizzly bears are being driven out of towns, their forests are cut down–"
"And climate change is making the Arctic melt," Mitch finished. "Yeah, I get the picture."
Another pizzly joined the first. They were smaller than polar bears, leaner, though Jackson wandered if that was due to lack of food.
I'm about to get eaten by a polar bear / grizzly hybrid and I'm worried about whether the damn thing grew up hungry?
"And we're going to fight these things with, quite literally, sticks and stones," Mitch continued. "I'm beginning to wonder whether drowning at sea would have been less traumatic than getting eaten."
A crack rent the air. One of the pizzlies bellowed and lurched away, a red stain blossoming across its flank.
Jackson's head whipped around. Gunshot. Where had it come from? Another shot hit the second pizzly on the rump. It roared. Both bears lurched away, in search of easier prey.
A lean, weathered man walked out of the thickening gloom, a shotgun slung over his shoulder.
"Guess you boys better come in out of the cold," he said.
"Do we even know what is chasing us?" Chloe panted. Her lungs were burning. Running over sand was sapping what little energy she had left.
"All we need to know is that they are going to eat us if we stop!" Abe wheezed.
"Look!" Chloe shouted, pointing into the distance. "Over there! I see a building!"
The two exhausted survivors shot toward what looked like an old, abandoned log cabin. The door was open. They flew inside. Abe slammed the door shut, throwing his not- insubstantial weight against it. Chloe, breath steaming in the chill air, scurried to a window and peered through.
"This place cannot have been abandoned for long," she said, trying to get her breath back. "The furniture is all gone, but the glass is intact." She tapped a window pane.
"What is out there?" Abe asked.
"They… they look like polar bears," she replied. "But they are wounded. That means there must be somebody else on the island!"
"They could have swum here from another island," Abe cautioned. "Do not get your hopes up, Chloe."
"You are a fine one to talk about hope," she snapped. "That hill is steep indeed, but it is one I will gladly ascend!"
A thud against the door made Abe's eyes widen with fear.
"You had best find something to bar this door with," he said, "and hope that these bears cannot get inside!"
Jackson and Mitch followed the stranger through the fading daylight. They could see a cabin in the distance, light from within spilling through the windows. It was surrounded by a high metal fence.
"Name's Jari," the man explained, "Jari Heikkinen." He sounded as if he was from one of the Scandinavian countries. "Looks like I came along just in time."
"You saved our lives, Mr. Heikkinen," Jackson replied. "You've no idea how grateful we are." He nudged Mitch. "Right?"
"Right! Yes! Totally. And exhausted, let's not forget about that."
"Call me Jari. Shipwreck, was it?"
"We were in a fishing vessel on our way to… actually, I have no idea what the island was called," Jackson explained, suddenly despondent. "Guy's name is…"
"Aippaq," Mitch supplied.
"Ah, you are friends of Aippaq?"
"He's been looking after someone we care about. We were en route to pick her up."
"What was she doing out here?"
"Plane crash." Mitch's lips thinned. "For three months we thought she was dead."
"I am sorry for your friends who did not make it," Jari said, gesturing back toward the beach.
"Those were the fishermen we came with," Jackson said, "and a man from the Canadian Secret Security Intelligence Service. We were with two other people, a big black guy, yay high?" He held a hand way over the top of his head. "And a French woman, blonde."
"Maybe they washed up on another beach," Jari said, thoughtful. "But I can't look for them tonight. It's too dangerous out here."
"You have to help us!" Jackson flared, grabbing the man by the shoulder. "They could be dead by morning!"
Jari stopped, turning to the two men. He gave them a long, slow look.
"I don't have to do anything. I didn't have to see those pizzlies off."
"But you did," Jackson said, "and we're grateful. Please, Jari, please help us find our friends."
"What is your name, young man?"
"Jackson Oz. This is Mitch, Mitchell Morgan."
"Oz? That is a very unusual name. I have heard of only one other person with that surname."
"Was it Robert? Robert Oz?"
"Yes. It was."
"I'm his son."
"Then we have much to discuss! And perhaps we can find your friends tonight."
In the abandoned cabin, Chloe had finished exploring and had returned with a few broken pieces of furniture. Abe braced them tightly against the door.
"Are the bears still out there?" Chloe asked.
"I cannot see them now, it is too dark outside. But I can hear them. They have not gone."
"What do we do now?"
"We stay alive until dawn… and then try to find a way to escape the bears."
"I think we will freeze to death before dawn."
"That, I think, will not happen."
"How is it that you can be so confidant?"
Abe reached into a pocket. He withdrew a small cylindrical device and held it up so Chloe could see.
"Mon dieu… is that a lighter? That cannot work, surely?"
Abe pressed the button, flicked the flint. A tiny bright flame sprang to life. A huge smile spread across his face.
Abandoning her usually reserved nature, she flung her arms around him and planted an exuberant kiss on his chin. She had to stand on tip-toe to do it.
"But you are not a smoker! And how is it that it still works?"
"I do not question why a thing works, I am merely thankful that it does. As to why I have it… well, there are certain things that a man should always carry on his person. A sharp blade and a flame. He can go far with these things."
The abandoned cabin had a stone fireplace. They broke up one of the few remaining wooden chairs and arranged the broken pieces in the hearth. After a few minutes they had a small, cheery fire going.
Chloe knelt in front of the blaze, gazing into the flickering fire.
"That hill is looking so steep now," she murmured. "Even if Jackson and Mitch survived the boat, how will they survive this?"
Abe lowered himself to sit beside her, hands outstretched to the warmth. "If there is a way, they will find it. The hill is steep, yes, but if they help each other two people may ascend with more ease than one."
"How is it you always know the right thing to say?" Chloe smiled.
Abe's expression was distant, far away. "A childhood of hoping those things would be said to me… and never hearing them."
The others stopped briefly at Jari's. There he found them clean, dry, warm clothes, and pressed a mug of soup into their hands.
"You boys know how to handle a gun?" he asked them.
"You shoot other people with the pointy end," Mitch said.
"I have experience," Jackson, giving Mitch a look.
"Good. We'll take the Jeep, but if something comes at us, don't you hesitate to shoot it."
"I won't," Jackson replied, "believe me, I won't."
They drove slowly along the beach, headlights on full and powerful, rack-mounted searchlights blazing.
"Jari, what can you tell me about my father?" Jackson asked. "Did you know Evan Lee Hartley?"
"We worked together," was Jari's slow answer. "Roger, Evan Lee and me, we worked on this island. Nice and private, out of the way."
"When was this?"
"Oh, years ago. Before he went out to that island. With that woman."
"Minako?"
"Yes, that's the one. After what happened with Evan Lee… well, he wanted to isolate himself."
"What happened? Before he died he told me that my father had done something to him."
"He did do something, but it was with Evan Lee's full consent. Robert tried to make him evolve."
Chloe started from a light doze, her whole body becoming tense. Abe was awake, staring at the door. He held his finger to his lips to indicate silence.
Something scrabbled at the door. Something big.
Jamie snapped awake. It was still dark; she had no idea what time it was, or how long she'd slept. From the way her eyes stung, she'd be willing to believe she hadn't slept at all – if it hadn't been for the fragmented nightmares that still rattled through her brain.
Her hand fumbled for the sat phone. She'd tried it again and again, her fear growing with each attempt. Where was Mitch, where were the others? Why hadn't he answered? Had he just lost his phone, or had something happened to prevent him from answering?
Those ideas tormented her again as she dialled Mitch's number, fingers moving blindly over the key pad in the dark. She didn't need to see the keys.
It rang… and rang… and rang…
"Where are you, Mitch?" she cried, flinging the phone across the room. It hit the far wall but didn't break. "Where the hell are you?"
The door banged open, light making her squint. Aippaq flew into the room, talking high and fast, jabbing a finger behind him.
"What? What is it?" Jamie demanded, throwing the covers back. "Slow down! Just slow down!"
Then she heard a low, angry roar from outside.
"No. No, no, no…"
She pushed past Aippaq and ran out into the living room, skidding to a stop in front of the window. Spotlights blazed across the yard. Jamie stared, horrified.
The bear had been taunting them. It had been waiting for the cover of darkness to really go to work on that hole. Because now, emerging from a tunnel entrance on the inside of the fence, was one huge, furious bear.
Aippaq pulled her away from the window. He was carrying his shotgun.
"Wait, what?" Mitch interrupted before Jackson could speak. "Evolve? Like the animals have been doing?"
"Exactly like the animals," Jari explained.
"Was he exposed to the mother cell before he tried to vaccinate himself?" Jackson asked. "We know it doesn't affect humans like it does animals. How could it happen?"
"Stem cells," Mitch muttered, thinking hard. "It's the only way it could work."
"Your friend is a scientist," Jari said, nodding approvingly.
"Veterinary pathologist. I don't like to brag."
"Could someone explain to me how the hell stem cells could make Evan Lee Hartley go mad?" Jackson demanded.
"The mother cell is a catalyst, right?" Mitch said. "Speeds up changes that would happen naturally. All the animals changed by being exposed to it, all except the leopards. Their evolution began without it. But the vaccine I made, I mixed some of the mother cell with tooth stem cells from the leopard cub. So Hartley must have somehow done the same thing."
"You're sure about this?" Jackson asked.
"Well, it's a theory…"
"A good theory!" Jari announced. "Robert would have liked you."
"What I don't understand," Mitch said, looking at Jackson, "is how your father knew the leopards were changing first. I also want to know how he found out about the mother cell – and where he got it from."
"Now you're asking the right questions," Jari laughed. "Robert would really have liked you!"
"Wait," Mitch said, "d'you see that? Over there? Bodies!"
Abe and Chloe were on their feet. The fire was dying down, the heat it threw out mostly gone. They watched the door as something thudded against it again. And again.
The door began to crack.
Jari brought the Jeep to a skidding halt on the beach. Jackson and Mitch hopped out, running from body to body.
"Dead," Jackson said, "all of 'em."
"And kind of eaten," Mitch said.
"Chloe!" Jackson yelled, staring off into the night. "Abe!"
"They're not here – hey, look at this!"
Mitch pointed at what he'd found – footsteps in the sand, heading off down the beach.
Jackson squatted by the footprints, running his fingers over them.
"They were being chased." He touched larger, clawed prints. "By the pizzlies."
"You're sure of that?"
"Look, the gait of this one is uneven – this is the one Jari shot in the leg. I'm sure, Mitch."
"There is an old cabin near here!" Jari called over the roar of the vehicle. "If your friends didn't drown in the sea, and the pizzlies didn't get them, they may have made it there!"
"This guy's a real barrel of laughs," Mitch said. "I like him."
Aippaq pulled the door open, stood on the doorstep and braced the shotgun against his shoulder. The bear barrelled toward him. Aippaq had a clear, easy shot.
But Jamie should have known it wouldn't be that easy.
A tide of small, furry, chittering things swarmed over him, sweeping over his feet and up his legs. He let out a startled oath and staggered away, down the steps, momentarily forgetting the bear.
"No!" Jamie yelled, reaching for him. But it was too late. While Aippaq was distracted, the bear – still in full charge – cannoned into him. The bear closed its massive jaws around his throat.
"No!"
Some instinct – the same small, hard instinct that had kept her afloat when the plane crashed – made her dart forward. Before she knew what she was doing she snatched the shotgun from where it had fallen and fled back into the house. She slammed the door just as the bear threw its shoulder against it. She uttered a little scream and jumped back, nearly tripping herself on the gun's long barrel.
She rushed to the living room so she could look out through the window, choking on tears as she tried to keep it together. If Aippaq was still alive he wouldn't be for long; he was covered with swarming, wriggling bodies. Ferrets? Weasels? Jamie didn't have a clue and right now it didn't matter. They hadn't needed to come through the tunnel; even now she could see more climbing over the fence.
They'd waited until Aippaq had been distracted by the bear. Then they'd struck. The man who'd rescued her from the ocean, the man who'd nursed her back to health and given her the safety of his own home – who'd raised the leopard cub rather than shooting him – was dead.
Jamie bit back a sob. She had the shotgun… but she was alone.
The Jeep rocked as Jari steered it skilfully through the dunes.
"How did my father know the leopards were changing first?" Jackson asked.
"Observational data," Jari explained. "He had watchers all over the world. He got consistent reports about leopards acting smarter. Next question."
"How did he know about the mother cell? Does he have some connection with Reiden Global?"
Jackson didn't want to believe his father could have had anything to do with the mega-corporation, but he wasn't prepared to rule it out. After what he'd seen on the island off Japan, he was beginning to wonder whether he'd ever really known him.
"Let me ask you a question," Jari said. "What d'you think the mother cell is?"
"The root of all evil?"
"Nice try," Mitch interjected. "Everyone knows that's lawyers."
"What do you think the mother cell is, Mr. Science Man?"
"Honestly? If I didn't know any better, I'd say it was amber. It's a hard, organic substance."
"And where does amber come from?"
"Well, if I remember Jurassic Park as well as I think I do, it kinda gets dug out of the ground. Are you saying this stuff is mined?"
"He shoots, he scores!"
"Bet it wasn't thrown up by a volcano."
"No one really knows how it was made. There is a mine, but the location is more closely guarded than any diamond."
"How do you know all this stuff?" Jackson demanded.
"Because I discovered it."
"Come away from the door!" Abe said, grabbing Chloe's arm and dragging her back.
"Do you think being eaten alive will hurt very much?" she asked.
"Did you hit your head when the boat went down?"
"Maybe."
The makeshift barricade, already splintered, flew apart. Abe darted forward and grabbed a broken length of wood, but he wasn't fast enough – the opening door slammed into him, knocking him aside.
A pizzly bear – white fur stained red from a gunshot wound – rose on its haunches in the doorway. Its mouth gaped wide as it roared.
Chloe was so terrified she couldn't move. Frozen, she watched death come for her.
"There it is!" Jari yelled, pointing at a nearby structure.
The front door was open. Weak light, firelight, spilled through the opening, barely visible through the rearing form of an enraged pizzly bear. Jari brought the Jeep to a skidding halt. Jackson leapt out, shotgun in hand, before it had come to a full halt. He landed, overbalanced, and rolled to his feet.
He put the shotgun to his shoulder, aimed, and pulled the trigger.
Abe dragged Chloe out of the way just as the bear lunged. She screamed and they both fell over. When she scrabbled to her feet and turned, expecting to see the animal bearing down on her, she was surprised to find it limp on the floor.
There was a huge hole where its skull had been.
Chloe jumped as another crack exploded through the air. She peered out through the open doorway, blinded by the Jeep's light, and just made out the prone shape of the second pizzly.
"Jackson?" she whispered.
She dashed past the dead bears and into the night. Still blinded, she couldn't see who swept her into a fierce embrace until she heard a familiar voice.
"I thought you were dead," Jackson groaned, his face buried in the crook of her neck.
"I very nearly was," she laughed, realising as moisture dampened her cheeks that she was crying, too. "Your timing is perfect."
They pulled away from each other just long enough to make eye contact. They came together in a deep kiss that was only broken when Abe swept them both into a fierce hug.
"You never cease to surprise me, Rafiki!" he exclaimed, thumping them both on the back.
"What, no love for me?" Mitch asked, arms spread. His tone was as sarcastic as usual, but there was a happy grin on his face.
Abe grabbed the scientist and pulled him into a group hug.
Jamie hadn't moved for hours. She was cold, tired, and sick to her stomach. She kept the shotgun trained on the door.
The bear was still there. Periodically it came and threw its weight against it. If it managed to break through Jamie was going to shoot it.
She was so intent on the bear that she didn't notice that a couple of wolves had come through the tunnel, too. She didn't hear them snuffle around the house. She didn't see them exchange looks with the bear.
She didn't see the bear set its considerable strength against a window.
But she heard when the sound of shattering glass smashed through the house. She heard when something thumped into another room. The bear was too big to get through, but the wolves weren't; even as she sprinted into the living room, two wolves had already leapt through. She skidded to a halt just a few feet away from them.
They lunged toward her. If she hadn't had the shotgun they would have ripped her to pieces; as it was, it was sheer luck that it was pointed in the right direction when her finger squeezed the trigger. The slug ripped through one of the wolves. It squealed and dropped.
The second wolf stopped and nuzzled its fallen pack mate. Jamie used the distraction to sprint out of the room and up the stairs, the wolves' howl echoing after her. She slammed the door behind her, dropped the shotgun and sank to the floor.
She covered her ears with both hands and sobbed.
"So you're telling me Evan Lee Hartley willingly allowed himself to be injected with the mother cell?" Chloe asked. They were all in the Jeep, speeding back toward Jari's house. It was a tight fit. Especially with Abe.
"With a modified solution of the mother cell," Jari clarified. "Mixed with his own stem cells. The solution reverses evolution in animals because it is mixed with stem cells from the leopard, a creature that evolved naturally with no catalyst. But humans aren't affected as animals are – we need that stem cell mix to start the change."
"I don't pretend to understand any of this," she muttered. "I don't even know what to do with this information."
"Oh, the next step's quite obvious," Mitch said.
"To a scientist, maybe!"
"Hate to say it, Chloe, but I'm with him on this one," Jackson announced. "Hartley was affected by the mother cell. We saw the evidence of that with the defiant pupil, and with his connection to that wolf pack. So the next step is to begin more human trials."
"We don't even know the full extent of what this thing can do!"
"Well, it's not like we can experiment on animals now, can we?" Jari said. "Give that mixture to an evolved chimp and he'll just go back to normal."
"I wonder how Jamie will react when she hears this," Mitch said, quiet.
"Can't imagine she'd be too happy," Jackson replied. "Not after what Reiden did to her mother."
"I have a boat," Jari said. "She and Aippaq are on the next island. I'll take you to her."
"Ah, a boat?" Mitch said. "Not sure if that's a good idea right now…"
"Don't worry." Jari sounded smug. "It's a short hop between the islands. The water is too shallow for the whales to swim through. You'll be safe."
'Safe' was an interesting interpretation. They didn't encounter any turbulence from sea mammals – or birds, for that matter – but a flock of bats seemed determined to make their lives a misery.
Jari, however, was prepared for them. He'd slung lengths of netting from port to starboard across his small, stout fishing vessel. The bats – knowing they'd foul their wings in the netting – swooped in, pulled out at the last second, and flew away.
"I never thought I'd truly understand how it felt to be hunted," Jackson mused as they bounced over the waves. Jari had a series of powerful searchlights playing across their path, and he could see the outline of another island coming up fast. "Do you think this is how our deep ancestors felt?"
"Hard to say." Chloe gave a shrug, managing to look more nonchalant than she felt. "The animals of yesterday had not yet evolved to hate our ancestors."
"Do you think Evan Lee Hartley hated humans?" Mitch mused, speculative.
"I strongly believe he did," Abe answered. "Though whether that was through his own evolution, or from whatever bond he had with the wolves, I do not know."
"Human evolution… you know, we've gone through the last couple hundred years thinking we've reached the top of our tree," Jackson said. "If anyone were to develop some kind of evolutionary change, the government would go all X-Men on their asses."
"Nope," Mitch said. "That would be the general population. People fear what they don't understand; the US Army tries to turn it into a weapon." He threw off an ironic salute. "God bless America."
"I wish we'd got to Hartley sooner. We know he displayed the defiant pupil, and we know – or at least, we can guess based on observation – that he also displayed alpha dominance over that wolf pack in Louisiana. We don't know what else he could do."
"How do you suppose he did that?" Chloe asked. "Mind control? Telepathy?"
"All of those things," Jari interrupted. "All of those things and more. The wolves recognised him as pack even though he looked like a human."
"But how?"
"Brain waves. Scent. Behaviour."
"Like… to catch a wolf, first you must think like a wolf?" Mitch ventured.
"More like you must become a wolf. But that is just wolves."
"I don't understand."
"All the animals exhibited different evolutionary traits. What's to say humans, when exposed to Hartley's treatment, won't also display different traits?"
"I call dibs on wings," Mitch said.
Jari brought the boat to a halt beside a small quay. The first thin fingers of dawn were inching across the sky, brilliant tendrils of scarlet amidst thick grey-black cloud.
"I hope Jamie's ok," Mitch said as the boat bumped against the quay. "I told her we'd be here hours ago." He squinted against the spreading light. "I hope she's not worried about us."
"And here is the Mitchell Morgan subtext," Abe said, unsmiling. "You're worried about Jamie."
"How could I not be? She's all alone on the island with some guy and a leopard. She's a journalist, Abe – not a gung-ho adventurer like you and Jackson. Uh, no offence."
"None taken. But Mitch, you do her a disservice – she has proven time and again that she is no mere journalist. She is brave, tenacious, and compassionate. She sees the good in people that others do not see in themselves. Like you, for instance."
Mitch looked away.
"Listen up, you lot!" Jari called. "It's about half a mile from the quay to Aippaq's house. That's a mile through the woods. If something comes at you, you shoot it."
"Does this Aippaq not have a motor vehicle?" Abe asked.
"Sure he does. At his house."
"So we could use it to get back to the boat."
"Providing we get there in one piece."
"Less talking," Mitch snapped. "The sooner we get this Boy Scout trip out of the way, the happier we'll all be."
Jari led them along a wide, well-used trail, marching along two-abreast. Jari and Jackson were in the lead, with Chloe and Mitch behind them, while Abe brought up the rear. Three of them were armed.
After a few minutes the wind changed, bringing with it the distinctive sound of wolf song.
"They're close," Jari said, troubled. "Aippaq should be OK, there's a fence around his house…"
"Wolves can get under fences," Jackson said, alarmed.
They broke into a run.
Jamie had moved away from the door, scrabbling to lock it behind her. Then she shoved whatever furniture she could find in front of it. The bed was too heavy to move. The dresser and bed-side table had to do.
"There's no way they can get in, there's no way they can get in," she whispered to herself, over and over again. "I'm in a second story room, the bear can't get through the broken window, and the wolves can't get through this door. There's no way they can get in."
But she still kept the shotgun trained on the door.
They broke out of the woods minutes later, gasping for breath and trying to look everywhere at once.
"There," Jari said, pointing to a tidy wood cabin surrounded by a high metal fence.
"I don't think the wolves are supposed to be on the inside!" Jackson said. "How do we get in?"
"The gate's locked from the inside. Only Aippaq has the key."
"More importantly," Mitch said, pushing to the front of the group, "how did the damn wolves get inside? And where's Jamie?"
An enraged roar caught their attention. On the outside of the fence, pulling itself from a large hole in the ground, was a huge brown bear.
Jari raised his gun and sighted, lining up on the bear.
A sudden squawk seized their attention. A massive bird lunged at Jari, wings flapping, claws outstretched. He ducked away with a wild curse.
"We either climb over the fence or we go through the tunnel!" Abe cried as they scattered away from more birds.
The bear, now free of the tunnel, charged toward them.
"Yeah, tunnel's not really an option," Mitch called, sprinting further down the fence and away from the bear. "Guess we climb!"
"Can't bears climb, too?" Chloe demanded.
"Don't tell him that!"
They made it to the fence and started climbing. Mitch – spurred on by more than self-preservation – reached it first, though he was slow to climb. Jackson, Chloe and Jari overtook him. Abe struggled, the fence shaking as he heaved himself up. The bear snapped at their heels… but he didn't climb.
The reason became apparent before they'd even reached the top of the fence. There was a pack of snarling wolves waiting for them below.
Jamie, still listening to the wolves sniffing outside her door, heard a change in those howling outside. The howls gave way to barks. The bear was roaring. Dragging her eyes away from the door she crossed to the window – and froze.
Mitch was here. He'd come for her, he was finally here! It didn't matter that he was halfway up the fence, didn't matter that the wolves were – quite literally – at her door, that the bear and God only knew what else was still out there. Mitch was here.
She threw the window open and leaned out.
"Mitch!" she yelled, finally taking note of the others. "I'm in here!"
Mitch, barely halfway up the fence and fixed determinedly on the top, heard a voice he was sure he'd never hear again. He turned his head so quickly he thought he'd cricked his neck.
She looked… even through the fence, even though her face was pinched with fear, she looked beautiful. Seeing her felt like coming home. He'd never felt that with Audra.
"What's going on in there?" he called, pausing in his climb. The others, already further up, paused. "Are you OK?"
"It's so, so good to see you guys!" Jamie squealed. "Uh, I think Aippaq's dead, there's a bear roaming around, and I'm trapped by a pack of wolves. Oh, and the birds around here are kinda shady, too. Apart from that I'm peachy!"
As if to prove her point, several wolves left the house through a broken window and gathered at the base of the fence. A shriek from above signalled the arrival of more birds.
"I'm beginning to think the tunnel might have been a better idea," Mitch muttered, and climbed. "Hang in there, Jamie."
Jackson recognised the birds as eagles. He climbed faster, checking every few seconds to make sure Chloe was still with him.
The first bird swooped, claws extended, and raked his back. Jackson bit back a yell and tried to bat the bird away, taking one hand off the fence.
"Just climb!" Chloe yelled. "The birds can't reach us if we can get inside the house!"
So they endured the birds' attacks as best they could, each picking up raking wounds to their backs and arms. Their faces were protected by their arms and the fence itself.
Jari reached the top of the fence and swung himself over. The wolves gathered at the base, expectant. A moment later the bear – having come back through the tunnel – joined them. Jari hooked an arm through a gap in the fence, bracing himself, and aimed his shotgun at the bear.
At once the birds overhead tried to swarm him. He cursed again and had to abandon the shoot, covering his head.
"Oh! Oh! I've totally got this!" Jamie shouted, waving her own gun. Being in a more sheltered position, she was able to take a shot without being mobbed by the birds.
"I never thought I'd be doing this," she murmured, taking aim. She squeezed off a shot. The bear dropped.
The wolves and the birds went mad, howling and shrieking. The wolves ducked below her field of vision, and she assumed they'd jumped back through the window – a suspicion confirmed a moment later when she heard them throw themselves against the bedroom door. The birds dive-bombed the window. Jamie slammed it shut just in time.
"Now how am I going to get out?"
The others made it over the fence and onto the ground, casting wary eyes at the bear. It wasn't moving.
"Never realised Jamie was such a good shot," Mitch muttered as they ran around to the broken window.
"Try telling that to not-FBI Agent Ben Schaffer," Jackson replied.
As they reached the window they nearly ran into the lone wolf that been left on guard. Jackson – too startled to take a shot – used his gun as a club, bringing the stock down hard on the wolf's head. It collapsed.
"The garage is on the other side of the house," Jari told them as they climbed, carefully, through the smashed window. "Go and get your friend. I'll get the Jeep. Hope one of you boys can hotwire it, because I have no idea where Aippaq kept his key."
"The leopard!" Jackson smacked his forehead. "How're we going to get the damned leopard out of here?"
"Does Aippaq have a tranq gun?" Abe asked.
"I have no idea," Jari said.
"Where does he keep his guns?"
"In the garage. OK, you come with me." Jari pointed at Abe. "We'll grab the Jeep and look for a tranquilliser gun, then get the leopard. You three go get Jamie."
Jackson, Chloe and Mitch explored the house. Jackson took point, his shotgun held warily in front of him, while Mitch brought up the rear with another gun.
"I do not feel comfortable having you behind me," Chloe whispered. "I am afraid you will shoot me."
"Note to self – keep the pointy end away from the French woman," Mitch whispered back.
"Quiet," Jackson hissed as they reached the stairs. Now they could hear scratching and scrabbling – the wolves were on the landing above, frantically throwing themselves against Jamie's door.
The sudden explosion of fur and fangs took them all by surprise. A wolf – perhaps one left on sentry – leapt at them from the top of the stairs.
Jackson got the gun up and let off a shot just as the animal landed on him. Chloe screamed. He fell back with a wordless yell. Mitch jumped back.
"I'm alright," came a muffled voice from underneath the wolf. He wriggled free and was finding his feet when Chloe shouted.
"Mitch, look out!"
The veterinary pathologist turned just in time to see another wolf coming down the stairs. He squeezed the shotgun's trigger in reflexive response. It was sheer coincidence the gun was pointed in the right direction. The shot took out the wolf's throat.
"Well, that was… awful," he said to himself, looking away from the ruined body.
"What's happening?" Jamie's voice floated down to them.
"Are there any more wolves up there?" Chloe shouted back.
"I don't know! I can't hear any more!"
"Stay there! We are coming to you!"
Mitch was already running up the stairs, so fixed on getting to Jamie that he didn't notice the last wolf standing out of sight in the hallway. Not until it was too late. With a snarl the wolf clamped its jaws around his lower leg and started shaking. Mitch screamed and collapsed.
Jackson shot the wolf and rushed to the fallen man, dropping to his knees.
"That's some bite you got there," he said. He pulled his over-shirt off and wrapped it around Mitch's leg.
"If you make a crack about rabies I'll pick up this gun and shoot you," Mitch said through gritted teeth.
"Actually I was gonna go with 'it's just a flesh wound'." He tied a tight knot, making the other man wince. "Sorry, did that hurt?"
"No, I was just totally stunned that you watch Monty Python."
"All the best people do." Jackson grinned.
"What's going on out there?" Jamie called. "Can I come out yet? Is it safe?"
"Safe is kind of a… relative term," Mitch said as Jackson helped him up. "We have guns, if that helps."
"I want you to know that I'm rolling my eyes at you right now," she called.
They heard furniture being dragged aside. The door opened a crack. Jamie's pale face appeared in the crack, eyes peeking this way and that. Then she caught sight of Mitch – Jackson's supporting arm around his shoulders, a bloodied shirt around his leg – and flew out of the room.
Mitch slammed into the wall as Jamie threw herself at him. But he barely felt the thud of impact as her arms wound around his neck, and when she kissed him – hard and hot and everything he'd dreamed about in the long, dark months since the plane crash – the dangerous world around them might as well not have existed.
"I'm not dead," she sobbed, wrenching her lips away from his to bury her face against his shoulder. "I'm not dead, Mitch, I feel fine…"
"Jackson was right," he said, lifting her chin so he could cup her face in his hands. "All the best people really do watch Monty Python."
Jamie couldn't answer, her throat blocked by tears and laughter.
"It's good to see you again," Jackson said with a broad grin, clapping a hand on her shoulder.
Chloe said something inaudible in French, tears in her eyes as she pulled Jamie into a hug.
"Hate to break up the reunion," Mitch said, his face pale and sweating with pain, "but I'm kinda bleeding here."
"You're right." Jackson was all business again. "Let's get the leopard, get the others, and get the hell out of Dodge."
Abe and Jari were waiting in the garage when Jackson, Mitch, Chloe and Jamie entered. Jari was pushing the garage door open while Abe was hotwiring the Jeep. The leopard, Irniq, was out cold and lashed unceremoniously to the roof of the vehicle.
"Jamie!" Abe exclaimed, his face lighting up. "It is very good to see you alive!"
"Yup, getting that a lot today," she laughed as she climbed into the Jeep. "All I can say is that rumours of my death were greatly exaggerated."
As Jari drove them back to his fishing boat, Jamie handed Chloe the sat phone she'd brought with her. She made a string of calls.
"I called in a few favours," she explained when she was done. "A US Navy cruiser is coming to Jari's island to pick us up. Let the whales try to sink that!"