The Wood River Mountains grew on the horizon, four-and five- and six-thousand-foot peaks covered with the winters first snowfall. A series of four long, deep, narrow landlocked fjords filled up four long, steep, narrow valleys between the mountains, lying before them like the fingers of a giants spread hand. Not quite like the outspread hand of the night before, but close enough to bring it to both their minds.
Liam cleared his throat. "So. Where are we landing? He tried not to let the fact that he didnt care where it was so long as he was on the ground, alive and whole and soon, show in his voice.
Wy made an unnecessary adjustment to the prop pitch. "Its a dirt strip, about three thousand feet. I think the Parks Service put it in during a survey of the Togiak Wildlife Refuge.
"And everybodys been using it to hunt from ever since.
"Pretty much. I know Charlene patrols up here pretty regular, and she sees planes down there a lot.
Charlene Taylor was the fish-and-game trooper for the Newenham district. "Poaching?
"She thinks so, although she has yet to catch anyone in the act. Wy adjusted her headset and fussed with the arm extending the voice-activated mike to her mouth.
"You have any ideas about this wreck?
She shook her head. "Its got to be old, before my time.
"Did you ask around the airport?
"Didnt have time; you wanted to be in the air at first light.
"Right. He made a minute shift to ease the strain on his vertebrae. The plane hit an air pocket and bounced. He stiffened back into immobility, like that would help smooth out the flight. Wys braid dangled over the back of the seat in front of him. It swayed gently with the motion of the Cub. He tried not to look directly at it.
They flew on for a few minutes more, until they took a sudden, hard right bank and nosed down. Liam sucked in a breath. "There, Wy said.
It seemed to Liams fevered gaze that she was intent on their doing chin-ups on the peaks of the Wood River Mountains. "Right there, do you see it? Wy said, and aimed 78 Zulu at a strip of snow that might have had a patch of gravel beneath it the size of a babys diaper. The strip got bigger the nearer they got to it but not much. Wy circled once, taking a look at the surface and coming much too close to the sides of the encircling mountains, and brought them in on an approach that feathered the tops of the stand of slender birches surrounding the strip. She pulled so far back on the throttle that they were practically hanging stationary in the air when they touched down. They didnt use up much of the strip, eithera good thing, Liam thought when a bull moose wandered out of the trees at the other end of the runway. He stopped and regarded them with an expression of mild surprise for a moment, before wandering back into the woods, evidently unworried by the thought that they might be after his rack.
They set off, finding and following the track through the brush and snow left by Johns and Teddys four-wheelers without difficulty. It was late October and they were lucky. It had snowed twice already that year, but so far only enough to stick, and the good news was it wasnt over their boots.
"Did they get anything? Wy said when, after twenty minutes, the silence got too oppressive to bear.
"What?
"Teddy and John. Did they get anything?
"Oh. Yeah. A moose. Big bull. It was skinned out and hanging in the shop.
"Good.
"Yeah. Isabella and Rosell be happy.
She stood it for ten minutes more. "Liam "Look, he said. "Were here.
They had emerged from the woods into an area of glacial moraine, pile after pile of gray gravel so uniform in size it looked graded.
"Theres no snow on the gravel, Liam said, confused.
"Thats why, Wy said, pointing.
In back of the moraine loomed the glacier, and even at that distance they could hear the sound of running water. "Its not cold enough yet to stop the meltoff. Wont be long, though. Teddy and John hit it just right. Another snow and they wouldnt have found a thing. How close did they say they were to the face when they found the arm?
He pointed at the four-wheeler tracks, which continued straight to the mouth of the glacier. "I figure we follow those, we find what Teddy and John found.
Wy took another look at the glacier, which looked far too unstable for her tastes. "Right.
They followed the tracks, which ended short of the wall of ice. The bottom half of the face was rotten and riddled with holes that created gaping caves, too dark to see inside.
"You dont think its inside one of those? Liam said.
"Even John and Teddy arent that dumb, Wy said. She felt a p.r.i.c.kle at the base of her neck. It was nippy out this cold, clear morning. She should have exchanged her jacket for a parka.
They cast back and forth along the wall of ice, careful not to stray too close, the detritus from recent calving fresh on the ground in front of them. Theyd almost given up when they found the blood and guts of the moose John and Teddy had shot. Wy unshouldered the.30-06 she had brought from the plane.
"You hear a bear?
She shook her head, eyes watching the edge of the trees. "Not yet, she said, which didnt rea.s.sure him.
"I thought they were all asleep by now.
"Nope.
There were ravens gathered at the corpse, shredding intestine with strong, bloodied beaks. They were unalarmed by the arrival of the humans, and continued to feed.
"So Im not seeing any plane wreckage, Liam said, almost relieved. "They might have been shining us on.
Wy felt the p.r.i.c.kle at the back of her neck again and tried to zip up her jacket, but the zipper was as far up as it would go. The face of the glacier glittered in the cold, clear light, fractured and chasmed and impenetrable. Bushes and gra.s.ses had implanted themselves at the sides of the face wherever a handful of dirt had collected in a hollow of rock. Even "Hey, she said. "Blueberries.
They were large, as big as the first knuckle of her little finger, and frozen. They melted in her mouth like candy, sweet and tangy.
Blueberries. Shed loved them as a child, loved picking them, loved the rich blue stain they left on her hands and lips and tongue, loved the tart, tangy taste that exploded in her mouth when she bit down. She could hide herself away in the bushes taller then than she was, and sit with a pail in her lap and pick and eat and pick and eat, and not come out again until the strident voice of her foster mother called her out. And sometimes not even then; sometimes she thought that if she could just fall asleep in the blueberry patch, when she woke up her real mother and father would be there, all love and smiles and welcome home, Wyanet.
An eagle flew overhead, for a moment blocking the sun, aware of their presence but indifferent to them, and she started, staring down at the handful of berries. "Liam! Come have some berries! Theyre She stopped.
Hidden until shed been drawn to the berries, hidden almost completely behind a pile of ice-encrusted gravel overgrown with diamond willow, was a large patch of gray. As she approached, it resolved itself into a fragment of airplane fuselage. The edges were ragged and worn, the gray paint streaked and faded.
"No tail numbers, Wy said out loud. It wasnt much more than a foot across and she lifted it easily. "Ill be go to h.e.l.l.
His footsteps came to a halt behind her and she felt him look over her shoulder. "What is it?
"World War Two, she said.
"What about it? He caught on. "Oh, you think "I could be wrong, Liam, but I think this is a piece off an old C-47.
"Whats a C-47?
"Its the cargo equivalent of a DC-3. When he continued to look blank, she said, "Liam, I cant believe how little you know about flying and still manage to live in Alaska. The DC-3 was the first economically successful commercial airliner. The C-47 was the military application, a cargo and troop transport. Parachuters bailed out of them during the invasion of Normandy, for crying out loud. Mudhole Smith built Cordova Airlines around them. At the end of World War Two, when we knew we had the war won, the plant in Georgia started converting the cargo plane into the pa.s.senger plane, and Alaska Airlines puddle-jumped one all the way across the continent to Anchorage in May 1945 and started flying pa.s.sengers. She looked at him and said incredulously, "Do you mean to say youve never been in one?
"I dont know, he said, trying hard not to sound defensive. "I never pay any attention to the plane Im in, Wy; you know that. All I care about is that they stay up in the air long enough to get me where Im going.
She shook her head. "Man.
"Besides, thats just a little piece. How can you be so sure itswell, it was a DC-3?
"A C-47, she said. "It was a military plane. The color alone tells us that.
"How longs it been here? When did it crash?
"We need to find something with numbers on it. Wy began foraging, climbing over boulders, pulling brush to one side only to have it pull free and slap her in the face. "Ouch. d.a.m.n it.
"John said they found the arm next to a big chunk of quartz. He walked upslope, crunching through a surface trickle of water frozen into a thin, rapidly melting crust. It had spent the summer running off the end of a slab of ice the size of Wys house, with man-high holes melted through it. "There. He clambered over the ice, pieces of it collapsing beneath his weight as he went.
"Be careful! she said as a big chunk fell with a loud thunk! thunk! Liam disappeared and for a moment she thought he had fallen through. His voice came to her a moment later. "Here it is, Wy. Walk around, though; dont climb overthe ice is rotten right through. Liam disappeared and for a moment she thought he had fallen through. His voice came to her a moment later. "Here it is, Wy. Walk around, though; dont climb overthe ice is rotten right through.
"Imagine my surprise. She walked around the slab, a scramble of smallish boulders in her way, and found him standing between the slab of ice he had negotiated and the face of the glacier itself, a wall of prismed white with shadowed blue highlights creating narrow, unexpected windows into an inconsistent past. Another dark cave yawned at its base, curving high and large behind the ice. The ground here was a gray mixture of sand and gravel, more textbook moraine. Water was trickling down somewhere, but not much and not in a hurry about it. Winter was coming on fast.
"Kinda spooky. Liams voice echoed hollowly back at him from the cave.
"Kinda, Wy said, her voice short.
Liam looked at her. "Whats wrong?
"I dont like being this close to the face of a glacier. Glaciers calve. Where do you think that slab you just hauled your b.u.t.t over came from?
He squinted up at the face. "Think one might fall on us? he said, sounding interested.
Her shadow lengthened on the ice in front of her, and the sun, well up over the horizon by now, felt warm on her back. "Thats what glaciers do. Wheres that quartz? She followed his pointing finger. "I dont see Oh.
He followed her, watched as she extricated a piece of plastic from the sandy gravel. "Whats that?
She turned it between her hands. "Transparent, convex. Part of a window, probably, or the windshield.
He repressed a shudder, his all-too-active imagination actively pursuing a picture of what the last few moments in the air had been like. Had they known they were going in, those unknown men in the c.o.c.kpit of this unknown aircraft? He hoped not. He hoped it with fervor.
Two hours later, their total was three shards of metal that had been twisted like corkscrewsproving to Liam once again just how insubstantial were the craft to which he trusted himself in the airand Wys piece of plastic. Other, more macabre findings included the cuff of a dark blue shirtsleeve, and a tattered dark blue sock containing what appeared to be some small bones held together by what appeared to be sinewy cartilage.
Liam bagged and tagged everything they found.
"Nothing with numbers on it, though, Wy said with a sigh.
"Is there enough here to tell you what kind of a plane it was?
Wy shrugged. "Military, for sure, with that paint job.
"When?
"Not lately. She stared up at the face of the glacier.
"What?
"Its just... you dont expect to see a glacier giving up an airplane when it calves. A T. Rex, yeah, but a plane? Glaciers have been around a lot longer than planes. Takes a long time, centuries, millennia for a glacier to give up a secret. The face of a glacier, man, its thousands of years old. Its She c.o.c.ked her head. The p.r.i.c.kle at the back of her neck was back.
"What? he said.
"Shhh. She held up a hand. "I thought I heard There was a distant, cracking sound, and the next thing Liam knew Wy had him in a low tackle that rolled the both of them over the blueberry bushes and beneath the high-standing lip of the chunk of ice he had climbed over. There was a BOOM! BOOM! that caused chunks of ice to fall from the roof of their shelter, one of which hit Wys head and another of which struck Liam smack in the left eye. "Ouch! What the that caused chunks of ice to fall from the roof of their shelter, one of which hit Wys head and another of which struck Liam smack in the left eye. "Ouch! What the There was an extended rending sound, deafening in decibel level, so that he couldnt hear himself speak, let alone talk. The ground shook beneath them. Earthquake? Wy buried her face in his shoulder and he held on. There was a split second of pure, clear silence. The light outside their shelter altered, shifted somehow, and then there was a CRASH! CRASH! as something immense fell heavily to the ground, and a lingering series of cracks and thumps and b.u.mps as it splintered into pieces and slithered down the gravel moraine. as something immense fell heavily to the ground, and a lingering series of cracks and thumps and b.u.mps as it splintered into pieces and slithered down the gravel moraine.
He didnt know how long it took for the ringing in his ears to stop. "Wy? he croaked. She was unmoving against him. "Wy! Are you all right?
He could feel the jolt that went through her. "What? Liam?
"Are you all right?
He felt her come alive all along the length of her body. "I... yes, Im all right. You?
"I think so. Can we get out?
She raised her head and peered over her shoulder at the way they had come. "I think so. She eeled backward, just enough room for her wriggle over onto her back. She kicked, and something shifted.
"Wy!
"Its all right. Im just clearing a path. Follow me out.
She didnt have to ask him twice. He barely remembered to hang on to the evidence bags.
When they were well clear of the ice and a safe distance from the face of the glacier, they stopped to take stock. Wy winced a little when she stretched. "Something got me in the shoulder. She looked at him. "Youre going to have a shiner.
He touched the swelling surrounding his left eye. "Ouch.
Her lips twitched. "And your uniforms kind of changed color on you. Well, maybe not changed, exactly, but its sure bluer than it was.
"What? He looked down to find his dark blue jacket and pants embedded with multiple squashed blueberries. "Oh, h.e.l.l. She was looking over his shoulder at the face of the glacier. He looked up and her expression made him straighten. "Wy?
"Liam, Wy breathed, and raised one shaking forefinger.
The skeleton of the plane was impressed into the face of the glacier like a gigantic fossil, the ribs of the fuselage curving up and around, one wing folded like paper, the tail miraculously upright. The nose was gone and the c.o.c.kpit with it, but there was a barred white star on the side close to the tail, and small letters or numbers in the same white paint on the upright portion of the tail.
"Liam, Wy said again, closing her eyes and opening them again. "Do you see?
"Of course I see, he said.
She swallowed. "Good. For a minute there, I "What? When she didnt answer he said, "Lets get the binoculars from the plane.
SIX.