She pulled her hands free and stood up. “Then we need to get going. I want to get home and find those samples.”
“Where are they?”
“In my mother’s lab. I stashed my trunk there when I came home, and forgot about it.”
Jack felt like he was finally making progress. He kicked snow on the fire to put out the last of the dying embers. “First thing tomorrow, you find those samples and bring them to me at the police station.”
“But they need to go to a lab.”
“I’ll get them to one.” He strapped the basket on the back of her sled, then looked around to make sure they had everything. “I have connections in the Canadian government. This isn’t an academic problem, Megan. It’s a government one.”
Jack would swear he heard her mutter something about a nerd as she climbed onto her sled and pulled on her helmet.
“Wait!” he shouted as she reached to start her engine. “Which trail are we taking back?”
She flipped up her visor, then pointed west toward the lake. “The one we’re on should continue to the ITS trail that runs down the east side of Pine Lake.”
“Are you sure, or just pretty sure?”
She just flipped down her visor, started her sled, and shot off down the trail. Jack waited until the snow dust had settled enough for him to see, then followed.
It was dark by the time they broke out of the forest and onto the lake—not the ITS trail. Jack’s gut tightened; he did not want to travel the lake in the dark. He pulled up beside Megan, who had stopped and shut off her sled.
“I have no idea where the ITS trail is,” she told him. “I don’t know how we could have missed it.”
Jack unzipped his tank bag and dug out his map. “We’re going to have to find it, because we’re not traveling the lake at night.”
“I bet we’re just a few miles north of where we should be, and I’m pretty sure there’s a club trail that runs the length of the lake,” she offered. “We just have to find it, follow it south until we pick up the ITS trail, and we’ll have a straight shot home.”
Jack walked to the front of his sled, bent down in the beam of the headlight, and studied the map. “It’s a lot more than a few miles to the ITS trail,” he told her when she walked up beside him. “More like ten or twelve. See,” he said, pointing out where they were. “This trail brought us out here, and the ITS takes a sharp eastern turn way down there.”
He stepped back for the headlights to illuminate the area in front of them, and saw sled marks splaying out in all directions. “We should go back the way we came.”
“But that will take all night.”
“It’s better than taking a cold swim.” He folded the map and turned her to face him. “I don’t like traveling on ice at night.”
“We’ll be on the club trail, for crying out loud. The local club will have marked it with small trees. They check it almost daily and set it well away from any dangerous spots. I vote we take the lake. Ten measly miles, Jack. And we’ve had subfreezing temperatures for nearly two months.” She reached out and laid her hand on his chest. “Are you forgetting that I grew up here? I know this lake like the back of my hand.”
He didn’t point out that she’d gotten them lost twice today, since he suddenly realized this conversation was no longer about getting home. It was a test to see if he was capable of trusting her. And how could he persuade her to trust him again if he didn’t do the same?
Dammit to hell. “Okay,” he growled. “We’ll take the lake. But I lead.”
Her grin slashed broad in the headlights. Megan patted his chest and practically skipped back to her sled. “Not a problem, Jack. Better your taking a cold swim than me. Don’t worry, I’ll throw you a rope if you fall through the ice.”
Jack climbed on his sled, headed toward the well-marked trail a couple of hundred yards out from shore, and set a comfortable pace down the lake. Megan stayed behind him for exactly ten minutes. Then she pulled up beside him and matched his pace for about a mile, gave him a cheerful wave, and zoomed ahead.
Jack sighed.
They traveled another four miles, and Megan had just shot through a narrow cutting in a peninsula when the…thing appeared in the beam of her headlights. Jack didn’t know who was more surprised—him, Megan, or it.
About the size of a small horse, the startled animal dropped whatever it had been eating, reared up on its hind legs, and let out a bloodcurdling roar just as—holy hell, those were wings on its back!
Realizing it was impossible for her to stop in time, Jack watched in horror as Megan veered to the right to avoid hitting it. The beast lashed at her sled with its tail as if trying to slap her away, and flapped its massive wings in an attempt to get airborne.
Jack gave his sled full throttle, shot over the peninsula, and aimed directly for it.
The—honest to God, it looked like a damn dragon!—swung around at his approach, gave another deafening roar, and charged toward him. Jack waited until the very last second before turning to the right, barely dodging its lashing tail. He wasn’t able to avoid the wildly flapping wings though, and was nearly unseated when one of them slammed into his helmet.
He immediately swung his sled in a circle back toward the beast. Thick, rolling smoke started to billow around him as his snowmobile slowed down, plowing into heavy, sucking slush. The sled ground to a halt, and Jack barely ducked in time when the beast suddenly appeared through the cloud of smoke, flying directly over his head with another bloodcurdling roar.
He turned the key and tore off his helmet, jumped off the sled, and immediately sank up to his knees in slush. The sudden, stark silence was broken only by the soft, rhythmic woosh of the dragon’s wings as it flew into the darkness.
Several of the threads suddenly knit together. The slime at the break-ins. The bloodcurdling scream. That…that prehistoric throwback was what had flown off over the lake that night!
Jack finally tore his gaze away from the disappearing beast and looked around to see if Megan was just as awestruck as he was.
Only he couldn’t see her anywhere. Not even her headlights.
Nor could he hear her sled’s engine.
Dammit, she’d literally vanished into thin air!
“Help! Jack, help!”
Cold dread tightened his stomach. She’d broken through the ice!
“I’m coming, Megan!” he shouted, unzipping his saddlebag and grabbing a rope before running toward the sound of her splashing. He was forced to slow down as he approached the black pool of water, the slush sucking at his boots like quicksand. “I’m here, Megan!” he called to her. “Float on your back! Try to get your helmet off!”
He could barely see where she was struggling in the water. He heard her sputtering and coughing as she slapped to stay afloat. The ice beneath him suddenly started to sag, and Jack stopped dead in his tracks.
“You’re okay. Don’t panic. Try to bring your feet up and float on your back,” he called out, uncoiling the rope. “I’m going to toss you a line. Don’t try to catch it, just float there and I’ll throw it across your chest.”
“My suit is dragging me down!”
“No, it’s not! It’s got enough trapped air to float you. Now, get ready for me to throw the rope. Megan! Are you listening to me!”
“I’m sinking!”
“No, you’re not!” Jack dropped to his hands and knees and crawled closer. The moment he felt the ice start to buckle he stopped again, though there was still a good twenty feet between him and the pool of dark, frigid water. He inched back several feet, knowing that his getting wet wasn’t going to help Megan. “Kick your feet to bring yourself closer to the edge of the ice,” he commanded. “I’m throwing the rope. Wait until I tell you to grab it.”
He tossed the rope at the blob in the middle of the pool. “Grab it, Megan. Pull off your gloves if you have to.”