The Ice Cage — A Scandinavian Crime Thriller set in the Nordic Winter (The Baltic Trilogy) (33 page)

‘
How can I th…
’

‘
Let’s go.
’

As s
he p
ulled my hat down over my eyes,
I be
came aware of a sound, an aggressive buzz that
wouldn’t go away. It
soon
t
urned into a thundering racket and
I took the hat off my eyes.

‘
Shit!
’

Eva looked as well.

‘
Fuck!
Told you they wouldn’t be far.
’

250 meters behind us were two fast
-
approaching snowmobiles.
And a motorbike, another Swedish icon:
the Husqvarna speedway machine with the spiked tyres. 210… 180… My foot started pound
ing again. Back to reality, a reality that was
only 150 meters
from catching us
.

64

Eva sprang into action and r
an next t
o the yacht, shoving it into the wind, s
printing like a bobsle
igh rider.
Sitting in the cockpit,
I felt inappropriate, u
seless.
I was.

‘
Starboard!
’

I hesitated and g
uessed left.

‘
Right!!
’

She jumped back into the ice yacht. The snowmobiles a
nd the motorbike were onto us
,
with b
ullets whizzing left
and right
. It looked like we’d finally ru
n out of luck.
The ice yacht was accelerating
,
but
the
snowmobiles
were
still catching up. W
e lay down in the yacht to form as small a target as possible.

‘
Why don’t you shoot!?
’

I had to shout to make myself heard.

‘
You steer. Don’t let the sail slack!
’

The pursu
ers were only 50 metres behind when
Eva loaded the rifle. She waited for them to close in
even more
. I was nervous
,
but the steering kept me busy.
The ice yacht was going fast, probably around 100 km/h, but
snowmobiles could go up to
120 km/h
and the Husqvarna speedway bike even faster
. We needed
to
generate more speed
and I tried to optimise the sail
but
couldn’t squeeze much more out of it. We were
already
going flat out.

Eva took out the first snowmobile driver with sniper
-
like precision. I was
glad I wasn’t in her bad books
–
Mariehamn
cops
clearly
weren’t to be messed with. This was definitely a woman with sisu.
The
engines of the
rema
ining snowmobile and motorbike made an unbearable racket as they reconfigured,
split
ting up and attacking
the Black Pearl from left and right simultaneously. Eva pulled me down. I looked at her.

‘
Shoot!
’

‘
You take it. We’re losing speed.
’

She handed me the rifle and took over the steering.

‘
I can’t shoot.
’

Another bullet hit the Black Pea
rl
–
a
nother ventilation hole. Terrified, I
grabbed the rifle and shot
like a madman. I was o
ut of contr
ol
,
but
Eva gave
step by step instructions
to calm me down.

‘
Take your time. Put the rifle against your shoulder. Aim.
Breathe out, t
ake a deep breath. Hold it. And squeeze.
’

I did, but t
he recoil surprised me.
When I tried again,
I hit the biker in the arm
and h
e dropped his gun.

‘
Yes!
’

‘
FAAAAaaack!
’

‘
You OK?
’

She was hurt and wrenched the ice yacht round, making it come to
a halt. Suddenly they were in front of us. In a rage, she snatched the rifle from me and a
imed at the snowmobile driver. She hit him d
e
ad in the head and then
turned to aim at the disarmed biker. Seeing the rifle pointed at him, he mad
e a U
-
turn. Eva immediately dropped the rifle and held her
gut. This was bad.
I
had to have her examined.

‘
We have to go back.
’

‘
There’s only one way
–
forward.
’

‘
You’re bleeding.
’

‘
Do they care?
’

She nodded at the dea
d snowmobile driver on the ice.

‘
You want to live
?!
’

‘
There must be somewhere on Åland
…
’

‘
We’ve been through this. There’s no turning back.
Åland’s too small.
They won’t give up until we’re dead.
’

I took the first aid bo
x and p
ulled up her clothes.
Her stomach was a mess. She was badly wounded and t
he bullet was still inside her.

‘
We need to get you to a hospital.
’

‘
Get a move on then!
’

I was bandaging the wound
,
when another shot rung through the air. The Husqvarna had returned accompanied by another snowmobile
–
Boeck with a machine gun. The bullets were whizzing past
again
.

65

The Black Pearl raced off
as I pulled up into the wind
.
Eva was
sitting between my legs and I could feel her tightening up
. She wouldn’t say it, but
I could see that
the pain in her stomach was excruciating.
She couldn’t protect us any longer.
I had to do it on my own now and w
hen I looked back,
t
he snowmobiles were app
roaching
again
.
The odds were stacking up against us.
I was frantic with fear and
I didn’t want to die.

‘
If we can get to the snow…
’

I saw what she meant
–
a snow storm was raging
a
few hundred meters on
. Everything was so white that I
hadn’t noticed
it at first
,
but Eva was right, i
t could be our chance.
If
only
we could reach the storm
, w
e might be able to lose the snow
mobiles and
become invisible to Boeck and his men.

In a superhuman effort, Eva grabbed
the rifle again and started shooting wildly at the pursuers. She didn’t have the strength to aim, but
it might delay them catching up, buy
us
the
time
to enter the storm
.
When I looked back, t
h
ey were
still g
aining
and w
e didn’t seem to get any nearer safety
. It wa
s as if we were standing still
,
with the
snow
looking like a
receding mirage. Meanwhile, the snowmobiles moved at the speed of light. I was terri
fied. Eva
was taking deep breaths to contain her pain as
I looked at her.
I felt guilty.

‘
Sorry I got you into this…
’

‘
Shut up and get us into that bloody blizzard!
’

A surge of bullets
tore another hole in the sail and made the yacht slow
down. Boeck was only 50 metres behind
now
,
so near that
I could distinguish
the determination behind
his ski mask
. He
ke
pt shooting until
t
he bullets
nearly
cut the mast in two
. When I looked ahead again, I felt the firs
t snow crystals on my face. We were going to make it.

‘
Keep going!
!
’

Without realising, I’d relaxed and slowe
d down. We were still visible and a
nother bullet hit the mast. I picked up speed again, cutting i
nto the whiteness
,
but
I couldn’t see a t
hing as T
he B
lack Pearl was blanketed in
white in seconds. We
were one with the environment, totally a
bsorbed. Behind us, our tracks disappeared
the moment they appeared. T
he wind slackened
and became unpredictable.
We weren’t moving.
I was
n’t
sure what to do, so
I pulled the sail down.
As I did
,
the mast
definitely
broke in two
,
but
I kept pushin
g the craft to make sure we stay
ed well inside the storm.

Eva
was right
,
t
hey could still find us if th
ey followed the same directi
on
,
or
if
t
he storm suddenly blew away
. S
topping wasn’t an option. While I pushed on, Eva wa
s
trying to cope with her pain
,
with e
very movement hurt
ing
. Where were we? The snow whirling and the wind blowing in all directions didn’t give any clues. I could barely distinguish the
front of the yacht
, although it was only a few meters ahead of me
. Seeing my state of confusion, Eva managed to tell me to keep going west.

‘
West? Where’s that?
’

I looked at the compass. It had a
crack and was
dead
–
hit by a bullet.

‘
The wind… The wind…
’

I couldn’t stand seeing
a force of nature like
Eva in this condition.
She was the last person I could imagine as a victim.
Her crit
ical state made her
even more focused than usual and
she
certainly had
no energy to waste on
sentimental
self
-
pity.

‘
Look at the ice.
’

I pulled myself t
ogether and looked, but t
he ice floor was covered with snow. Eva t
r
ied to be as clear as possible, taking
deep breaths between words
, but
she
was still struggling to finish her
sentences.

‘
The Baltic winds are mostly easterly… They shape the… ice… On warmer days… the
wind blows across…and creates
miniature
,
wav
e
-
like formations…
end
…ing
with a
little… ridge. … westerly.
’