The Bone Seeker (32 page)

Not long afterwards the lights went out and for the first time in several months Edie found herself completely in the dark.

‘It'll be like this for a few hours now,' Gutierrez said. ‘Unless anyone has any better ideas, we may as well get some sleep.'

For a long time Edie lay on the floor of the cell with the dark engraving patterns behind her eyelids, listening to the softening breaths of her cellmates. The combination of the moist heat of the room and the darkness was both novel and unwelcome. It was hard enough to think as it was. If this was how the tropics were supposed to be, you could keep them, she thought. If she ever got out of here, she'd stick to vacationing on ice.

Somewhere a blue light flickered on. A familiar voice began whispering her name. After a while it came to her that the voice and the light were both coming from outside and that the voice belonged to Willa. Remembering suddenly where she was, she sprang from the floor. She felt a small rush between her legs and realized with a flush of irritation that her period had started.

Beside her, Derek turned, groaned and opened his eyes.

Willa Inukpuk was standing outside the cage with his finger on his lips. She could hear footsteps down the corridor and instinctively knew they didn't have much time.

‘How did . . . ?'

‘I saw you coming in.'

The footsteps began to draw nearer and the goon with the ape's gait appeared carrying a tray of bottled water and wrapped pastries.

‘They're gonna move you to Alert. Maybe tonight, maybe tomorrow.' Willa was speaking rapidly now, in Inuktitut. ‘They sent me up there a couple days back to teach ice rappelling to Canadian special ops forces. Counterterrorism guys. Whatever this is, Edie, it's not some regular transfer. Believe me, you don't want to get sent to Alert.'

The ape-man was standing beside them now, shuffling his weight from foot to foot. There was the smell of old sweat on him. He keyed open a little hatch in the cage and pushed the tray through. Derek caught it on the other side.

‘Speak English.' The ape was directing himself to Willa.

‘Listen, man, my job is to act as indigenous liaison. These people speak Inuktitut.'

‘I don't care if they speak the language of the gods. You need to start talking in English,' the ape repeated. There was a hint of menace in his tone.

Willa nodded. He moved forward a little so the ape couldn't see his face and flared his eyes. Edie had seen that look on a dozen duck hunts, him standing there, an anxious boy, her hanging back, trying to get him to take the lead. Day after day they'd be out hunting, relying mostly on eye signals to communicate. She knew exactly what his eyes were saying.
Tell me what to do
. He hadn't come just to warn her. He'd come to help. Now he was asking her how best to go about it. He raised his eyebrows.
Now, quickly
.

She glanced at Derek but he was still manhandling the tray. She saw then that she and Willa were on their own. In the great canvas of their life together she understood finally how absolutely central he was, not, as she'd previously imagined, simply Joe's shadow, the faint outline of a dead boy, but her own breathing, present, difficult, maddening, loyal Willa. And he was relying on her now.

She felt the heaviness in her belly, the soft throb between her legs.

‘We like to watch movies,' she said, meeting his puzzled frown with a steady look, willing him to understand that she was talking in code. Beside him, the ape was checking his watch, only half listening. Willa
looked away for a moment and when he met her eye again he was ready.

‘Laurel and Hardy. That's what we usually watch.
Flying Deuces
is a great movie but our favourite is
Liberty
.' Her fingers were working, turning backwards, asking him to return to another time. A bloom of understanding crossed his face. His jaw softened and he blinked slowly.

‘You have a favourite scene?' he said.

Edie smiled. Her heart rattled in her chest. He'd remembered their conversation at the rappel camp. He'd remembered his childhood, the good times they'd had together. He'd remembered.

‘The car chase.' They'd watched it over and over together. He let her know with a glance that it was playing in his mind now. ‘We could watch it this afternoon, at four, say.'

For a moment Willa looked uncertain. ‘At four?'

The ape looked up. He had caught the tail end of the conversation. His brow was furrowed and he was swinging his head like a big, dumb pendulum. Directing himself to Edie he said, irritably, ‘No one's going to be watching any movies.' He made a waving motion with his hand. ‘OK, fellas, this little party is over.'

Edie winked at Willa then turned her back. She waited until the door at the top of the corridor swung shut and the footsteps had died away. When she looked up Derek and Sonia were staring at her.

‘I can explain,' she said.

•   •   •

While they ate, she outlined the plan in Inuktitut. Gutierrez picked up the gist and for the rest Edie wrote key words with her finger on the concrete and worked signs in the air. If their conversation was being monitored it would have to be by an Inuktitut speaker. No Inuk was likely to give them away.

‘Won't Klinsman guess?' Gutierrez asked.

Edie shook her head. ‘It won't occur to him. You're forgetting, he's
qalunaat
.'

‘Why four?' Derek said.

‘Willa told me before that's when the groups come in from exercises. There are a lot of people around. Security's seen us all come and go before, so as long as Klinsman and his goons don't spot us, we should be able to drive right out.'

‘Drive?' Derek looked puzzled.

Edie smiled and winked. ‘Don't worry, that's Willa's job. He knows what he has to do.'

At three minutes before four, Edie began her preparations. They arranged themselves, Edie on the bench with Sonia kneeling beside her, Derek standing towards the front of the cage. Then Sonia and Derek began to yell.

There was a muffled grunt before the door at the end of the corridor swung open and footsteps came pounding. The sound of heavy breathing and the ape appeared, panting and clutching a handgun. He took one look at the scene inside the cage and blanched.

‘What the fuck?' His voice was coarse and high with fear. For a moment or two he just stood there staring, unable to decide what to do.

‘She needs help, man,' Derek said, ‘right now.'

The ape ran his eyes over the blood on the floor and the native woman in the arms of the Latina, blood all over her wrists, his face a rictus of panic, as though he was watching his career prospects disappear down the drain.

‘What happened?'

‘She had a blade in her shoe.' Derek was doing a good job of sounding distressed. ‘Some great fucking search you guys did.'

For a moment the ape looked sceptical. He started making beckoning motions with his hand. ‘Give me the blade.'

Derek wheeled around to Edie then back again. He was gesticulating wildly with his hands now.

‘Can't you see, it's stuck in her wrist. I'm not taking it out.'

The ape peered in. There was no blade but Sonia's shadow was obscuring the spot and he wasn't about to argue. He covered his face with his hands and closed his eyes for a second, thinking.

‘Hey!' Derek shouted. ‘Don't just stand there. For Chrissakes get in here and help.'

Edie began panting.

The sound seemed to mobilize him. The ape fumbled for his key chain.

‘Stand the fuck back.' He was waving at Derek, who immediately did as he'd asked, just as they'd agreed.

Locking the door behind him, the ape went over to the bench. Edie groaned. As he bent down, she sprang upwards, smearing the man's face in her blood. As he yelped and stumbled back, Sonia shot up and kicked his weapon from his hand. A moment later Derek rushed forward and slammed his foot into the inside of the man's knees. The ape went down, arms flailing. Derek bent and in a sharp, swift movement, swung an arm around the man's neck until he had him in a choke hold. Using his free arm as leverage, he continued to squeeze the arteries on either side of the trachea until the ape, bloody-faced and losing consciousness, slumped to the floor. From her pocket Edie pulled out Derek's torn undershirt. While Sonia undid the man's belt and pulled off his key chain, Edie quickly wiped up the blood then balled up another piece of undershirt inside the ape's slack mouth, securing it around his face while Sonia tore strips to secure his hands and feet to the bench.

Quickly and without making a sound, Derek picked up the handgun and the three slipped out of the cage, locking the ape inside. They hurried along the corridor. The door at the end was locked but the ape's key chain obliged. Klinsman had been right a week or two back when he'd said the facility was ‘rudimentary'.

They were just about to go through when Edie held an arm across the door. Most likely one of the two men who'd arrested them was still somewhere in the camp. So far as they could tell, the whole Glacier Ridge operation was being conducted in secret. Their faces were familiar around the camp. If they were lucky, everyone else would assume they were making a routine visit. All they had to do was to get past Klinsman and his flunky.

‘You go first, Derek – make some sound going down the corridor. They'll be expecting that goon back,' Edie whispered. She reached down and took off her shoes. Gutierrez followed suit. Edie pressed her finger to her lips.

‘You and me, we make no noise at all. None.'

The door opened and they found themselves in the same passageway as Klinsman's office. Down the corridor they could hear the colonel's voice deep in some phone conversation.

Derek took off at a stride. He threw the door open at the far end of the corridor but stayed inside. For a moment they waited for the muffled buzz of the colonel's voice, then the two women followed on, sliding their stockinged feet along the floor. The voice stopped and for a moment they froze but then it started up again and they moved on. At the end of the passage Derek edged the door open and they crept through into the atrium.

‘If he understood, and I think he did, Willa will be waiting for us somewhere close. If not, we'll just have to risk walking out.'

They met each other's eyes, then Derek put his hand on the door to the outside and pushed the handle.

It was a bright afternoon and a chill wind blew the crisp, clean smell of freedom into Edie's nostrils. She took in the scene. It was as she'd predicted. An exercise had just come in and the whole camp was buzzing with activity, vehicles rumbling along the boardwalk, soldiers marching in and out of debriefing rooms, sauntering towards their quarters. With a little kick of joy she spotted Willa's ATV parked up diagonally to the main boardwalk with the engine running and Willa himself standing beside it dressed in his Ranger's uniform. The vehicle was small, a two-man seat, but if they sat side-saddle on it and hung on they'd be OK. They had to hope the security detail at the gate wouldn't notice or, if they did, that they'd put it down to some quirky Inuit custom.

Their only other major worry was if the second D-man found his compadre in the prison cell. The journey from K-block to the gate would take less than five minutes but in that time they would be extremely conspicuous. If the ape in the cage managed to raise the alarm,
or they were spotted, there would be trouble. Edie elbowed Derek and they began to walk towards the ATV at a brisk pace.

‘Let's go,' he said.

Gutierrez swung on first, facing to the left of the vehicle, followed by Derek. Edie slotted herself between the two, facing to the right.

‘Anyone asks, I'm giving you the tour,' Willa said. ‘Public outreach. No one ever has a clue who's in charge of that stuff. We're lucky, they won't question it.'

They trundled along the marked vehicle track towards the security gate, past men walking in parallel along the boardwalk, doing their best to look relaxed while their eyes frantically scanned for anyone who might give them away. Then, as they reached a crossroads, a soldier stepped out, holding up a palm. Edie felt her stomach knocking, as though a bird was inside. Beside her, Sonia stiffened. The soldier made a waving motion to his left and a jeep appeared in their line of sight. Edie held her breath. The jeep trundled slowly through her field of vision, leaving a space directly ahead of her in its wake.

And in that space Chip Muloon was standing.

‘
Dios mío
,' mouthed Gutierrez.

Muloon's eyes were firmly fixed on Edie now, but she could not tell what was in them. His weight shifted from one foot to another, his hands in his pockets. Willa seemed to have frozen. Edie saw Muloon look about. All of a sudden he made a move towards the vehicle then just as quickly changed his mind and stopped, leaving one leg momentarily suspended in mid-air. He swung his head again, checking in both directions, then pulled his right hand from his pocket. Her eyes closed instinctively, waiting for the bullet. But when she opened them a moment later she saw that his hand was raised in an almost imperceptible wave. He gave a tiny nod.

‘Go!' she said to Willa.

The vehicle jerked then began rumbling forward, past the crossroads and towards where Muloon stood. He waited for it to nearly reach him, then quickly turned his back and walked away.

He was letting them pass.

Beside her, she felt Derek relax a little.

At the security gate the guard came out of his hut. He hesitated for a moment, frowning, then, registering that there were three passengers scrunched up on the seat, his face broke out in a smile.

‘That's a cosy arrangement. Hope you guys are all friendly.'

The barrier went up.

They were out.

‘
Gracias
,
gracias
,' Sonia whispered. Her eyes were large with tears and she was rubbing her hands as if in prayer.