Before Carrie could knock on someone’s door, Kiawak tossed the Mazda truck keys at Justin. In an instant, they began their chase after the snowmobile. Carrie knocked again and the door opened.
“We need your snowmobile,” she demanded from the sleepy-eyed man at the door. “I’m with the Rangers.”
“Left! Turn left!” Anna screamed into Carrie’s ear as she clung to her waist.
Carrie turned the handlebar to avoid crashing the nose of the snowmobile into an ice hill. They were airborne for a couple of seconds.
“I saw the damn thing too,” Carrie yelled back. The snowmobile responded to gravity’s call and landed on the packed snow.
“Sorry.” Anna took a deep breath, loosening her grasp around Carrie, even though they were going faster. “It just seemed too close.”
Justin and Kiawak had given up their chase. Nuqatlak was riding over the coastline. The ice was too thin to withstand the weight of a truck. It was dangerous even for the snowmobile, but Nuqatlak was apparently determined to avoid capture at all costs.
“Where are they going?” Carrie asked. “It looks like they’re headed for the water.”
Nuqatlak and the woman — Carrie was sure the passenger was female, since at one point they were so close her silhouette was very clear — were doing more than fifty miles per hour, extremely dangerous for the fragile terrain. Carrie and Anna were falling behind, but they were riding over a slope, at a higher level than the fugitives. They could see much farther away in the distance than Nuqatlak. The zigzagging trail of his snowmobile dodged crevasses, leads, and heaps of packed ice. Nuqatlak kept going toward Jones Sound where the melting ice floes filled the waters.
“Can’t they see the water?” Anna asked.
“I don’t think so.”
“Let’s tell the morons. We can’t interrogate the dead.”
Carrie eased on the throttle.
“Why are we slowing down?” Anna asked. “We need to catch up to them.”
“I’m not sure we’re riding over the ice sheet on the ground or over floating ice.”
“What? But, in that case…”
“Yeah. We may go through the ice.”
The open water leads, formed wherever sections of ice floes pulled apart because of ice shifting, confirmed their fear. The fugitives and their pursuers were both riding over a thin layer of ice. Ice hills had become less frequent, another sign of the dangerous conditions in the area. At some point, Nuqatlak must have clued into the fact that the ice might become too thin very soon. He eased back on his throttle lever and made a sharp U-turn. The snowmobile lost traction for a couple of seconds, skidded over the ice sheet, and crashed into a low snowbank. The woman almost fell off her seat.
“They’re trapped,” Carrie shouted. “Maybe we can get to them now.”
Her hope was short-lived, as Nuqatlak’s snowmobile pulled away from the snowbank and barreled toward Carrie and Anna. Carrie avoided a head-on collision by sliding to the left at the last possible moment. As the fugitives passed them, she noticed a sawed-off shotgun hanging on the side of the snowmobile.
“They’re armed,” Carrie said.
“Let’s hope they don’t start shooting.”
Carrie had just turned around when Nuqatlak’s snowmobile jerked to the right. The woman raised her shotgun.
“Shit,” Anna shouted.
Carrie gripped the throttle lever. The snowmobile jumped forward, landing behind an ice hill. Lead pellets poured from the woman’s shotgun and struck the brittle shield. Sharp ice slivers showered Carrie and Anna.
“The bastards are shooting at us.” Anna squinted in horror as shreds of ice crackled against her helmet.
“Here.” Carrie reached inside her jacket for the Browning 9mm in her waistband holster. “You know how to use this?”
“Yes, I do.” Anna cocked the gun. “Grandpa used to take me to the range.”
Carrie took a quick peek. The attack had given the fugitives a big advantage. She resumed the chase. Soon, Carrie and Anna were gaining on their target. Nuqatlak attempted a climb over a small ridge. The woman with him looked behind and raised her shotgun. Before she could point it at them, Anna pulled her pistol’s trigger twice.
She missed both times.
“Shoot the bastards,” Carrie encouraged her.
The snowmobile was almost over the ridge when Anna made her grandfather proud. She drove her third bullet into the woman’s right shoulder. The woman was able to hold on to Nuqatlak, at least for a short time, and then she tipped to the left. The snowmobile dragged her until she brushed against an ice boulder and fell off.
Nuqatlak now flew over the ice floes even faster than before. He dodged a small crevasse by shifting the weight of his body to the right to avoid slamming into a heap of ice chunks. The left ski of the snowmobile lifted off the ground and shredded the sheet of powder covering the ice. Nuqatlak leaned to the other side and avoided tipping over. He looked over his shoulder. Perhaps because he noticed his pursuers were closing in, he pulled a small pistol from one of his jacket pockets. He continued riding in a crisscross pattern, struggling to control his snowmobile with his left hand, while trying to point the pistol with his right hand at Carrie and Anna, who were now less than one hundred feet behind.
Anna leveled her pistol at Nuqatlak’s shoulders. She moved the sight of the gun a fraction of an inch, aiming for his right arm, before firing two successive shots. The first one missed. The second found its target. Nuqatlak leaned forward, very slightly, as if hitting an unexpected bump on the trail. Suddenly, he took a plunge along with his snowmobile. He rolled over the ice, his head slamming hard on a couple of boulders, as he went through a couple of three hundred and sixty-degree spins. Finally, he lay flat on his back a short distance away. Red traces of blood marked his path.
“That was great, Anna.” Carrie stopped their snowmobile beside Nuqatlak.
His chest was barely rising, and his neck was twisted unnaturally to the left.
“Is he… is he still alive?” Anna whispered in a shaky voice.
Nuqatlak answered her question with a slight involuntary hand twitch.
Carrie dashed toward him. She slowly lifted up his head. Blood trailed down from his lips, his nose, and the left side of his head. His helmet was nowhere in sight.
“Don’t worry.” Carrie steadied his head in her hands. Nuqatlak coughed blood, and his entire body shook.
Anna checked his pulse. She shook her head at Carrie and mouthed, “Weak.” She looked back down at the man. “You’re going to be OK,” she said with a whimper.
“No, I’m going to die.” His lips hardly parted as his voice rasped. He struggled for strength to breathe and speak at the same time.
“We’ll take you to a hospital. We have a chopper,” Carrie whispered. For a second, she wondered if the end would have been different had she decided to use the helicopter for the manhunt.
“Too late,” Nuqatlak groaned. “I won’t make it.”
Anna fought back her tears. Carrie knew a mountain of guilt must have been crushing her soul.
“Why… why did you run away?” Carrie asked, realizing they were running out of time.
Nuqatlak coughed blood again. “The guns. I know you came for the guns.”
Carrie hesitated, pondering the next question. Nuqatlak’s pulse was growing weaker by the second. “The guns… where did they come from?”
Nuqatlak’s head fell forward, but he muttered no words.
“Where did you get them?” Carrie asked.
Nuqatlak’s eyes moved toward the right. “North… northeast,” he mumbled.
“What?” Carrie and Anna asked at the same time.
“Did you say north?” Anna asked.