Chapter 4

The leader dropped like a stone and I was happy with my shot even though it didn't get the response from the wolves I'd expected. In the excitement I'd been guilty of anthropomorphism of the rankest type. I'd expected the rest of the wolves to lose heart with the loss of their leader as men would have.

My mistake wasn't a fatal one, but I'd probably have been as well off to shoot any of the others. I concentrated on doing just that now. They'd all lost their curiosity about our supplies but they weren't leaving because they'd gained curiosity about me. I was up and moving on my own and I guess that made me look like a better choice for a meal than the boxes and containers they'd been sniffing.

Even without the help of their leader's directions they knew I needed to be brought down with superior numbers, which they had. They were all facing me now and seemed to be spreading out to make sure I didn't get away. They needn't have worried because it was the last thing on my mind. While they were getting themselves organized for attack I resumed mine.

In the back of my mind I wondered that they didn't seem a bit frightened by a man, but I didn't wonder long. I didn't fire wildly but I did spread the wealth as quickly as I could while still maintaining reasonable accuracy. The six remaining shots in the Marlin's magazine were gone within thirty seconds and I dropped it with my left hand while pulling the Glock from my right holster.

Changing weapons took only seconds but by the time I was looking for targets with the Glock they were all long shots. The remaining wolves weren't hauling ass but they had dropped back about fifty yards to do a little consideration of their situation. One or two of their number dropping dead hadn't been such a blow but now there were seven dead or badly wounded and they had no idea how it happened. I managed to nail two more before they beat feet completely.

Chris came out of the tent with her scoped BAR thirty-ought six just after I fired at the last one I had a hope of hitting. She shouldered her rifle and made two excellent shots - the last one was nearly two hundred yards. She nearly took another shot but the target was shrinking fast by now and she didn't bother. We'd killed eleven of the bunch and only three got away. I doubted they'd be back since even animals could figure out the numbers didn't add up any more, even if they had no concept of numbers.

"Shit, they were determined this time," Chris said.

"I'm pretty sure it wasn't the same bunch, but it makes me wonder about how many there might be around here close. I hope like hell we don't have to start keeping a watch at night," I said.

"We're going to have to do something. Wolves might not be the only thing roaming around hungry out here," Chris said.

"I guess there could be some bears but normally they're hibernating this time of year. Still, they don't all stay in sleeping all winter and it's possible some might come snooping around."

"Are you sure there's nothing else to worry about except bears?" she asked.

"That's all I can think of that would attack a man. I'm pretty sure big cats are few and far between in Alaska."

"Are you sure we're still in Alaska," Mary asked, as she came out of the tent with her shotgun in hand.

"I don't see how we could be anywhere else. I know it was a big storm but it wasn't big enough or last long enough to blow us very far off course. In the first place we didn't have enough fuel to get far," I said.

"Then why can't we hear anything on the radio?" Chris asked.

"I don't have any idea about that but it is really odd. I could believe that one of the radios might have been damaged but not both of them and all four GPS units would have been put completely out of business."

"Have you tried the helicopter's radios?" Mary asked, and of course the answer was no so I headed for it.

"Check them out but don't get too involved. We'll have some coffee and breakfast ready in a few minutes," Chris said, to my back.

Inside the helicopter I pulled the partition I'd put in place open and went back into the cockpit. The radio was easy to find but I still had the same problem with the circuit breaker. I wasn't about to risk my life by switching it on by hand. I decided I'd go get some of the nylon twine I knew we had plenty of and try to rig up a way to reset the breakers from outside and far away. I headed back to our camp.

Chris reminded me why I loved her so when I got back. She had a campsite coffee pot heating water in a small fire of its own while she and Mary were frying eggs and bacon in skillets over the larger fire. I decided we could put the radio business off for an hour or so. I sat down and waited for something to get ready for consumption.

The eggs were first out and the coffee's water was boiling as we finished our breakfast. Chris put the coffee in, gave it another minute or two on the fire and then set the pot off the fire and onto a small rock. We poured up three mugs a few minutes later and sipped the scalding brew from our campstools in silence, at first.

"Are you satisfied that switching the power back on won't start a fire now?" Mary asked.

"I doubt it will but I'm not sure enough to try it from inside. I'm going to try rigging up a way to do it with a long piece of twine. The breakers have little holes at the top of their switch handles and I think I can just tie the twine through them and then pull them from outside."

"I guess we'd better make sure we have everything out of it before you do that," Chris said.

"I thought we unloaded all of it before we left," Mary said.

"Me too, but that was before Jack poked around into the outside compartments. Even if its something Jim was carrying there might be something useful. We should at least check it out," Chris said, letting me know I'd been a dumbass.

"You're right. I'll get to it as soon as I'm full of coffee."

"Mary and I will come along too. I like your ass just the way it is and I'd be mad if you collected teeth marks in it."

At the helicopter we discovered something behind door number one, the first one we opened that is. There were two large rough-service type gun cases and several more boxes of ammunition; a shit load of it was fifty caliber. I knew damned well Carl hadn't packed a Ma Deuce, even if he could have acquired one somewhere, so I wondered what in the hell was in those gun cases. Mary cured my curiosity.

"My God, I'd completely forgotten about those. Carl was so full of himself over finding out about them too. He said they were some kind of high-tech sniper rifle and he nearly pissed his pants every time he thought of the surprise they'd be to you," Mary said.

"Are they Barretts?" I asked, baffled.

"Yes! That's what he called them. They have some kind of special scope that lets you see even when it's dark. He even bought some kind of goggles that did the same thing. They're probably in some of these boxes."

Carl was looking pretty damned smart right now in my estimation, even if he was still dead. I'd have never let him know it normally, but I'd have considered him an idiot if I'd known about the Barretts from the get go. I still didn't think they'd be needed before we were rescued but that didn't mean I wasn't going to load one and sight it in. If a bear of some kind did happen to stroll by, a Barrett would be a wonderful security blanket.

It was a good thing we'd unloaded a couple of the sleds at our camp. The Barretts were heavy enough with their ATN 4-12x80 Day Night scopes, but they didn't even matter. For some reason Carl had five thousand rounds for each of them and a young ammo dump for all our other weapons. It took two trips for both sleds to move it all. If a bunch of bears came around we'd be up to our asses in carcasses in no time.

The rest of our search through the outside compartments was uneventful. We found a few more tools and such that Jim had been carrying. We took them but didn't come across anything else exciting.

Once everything was back to camp and unloaded I rigged up my makeshift remote switch, paid out the twine and gave it a yank. Noting happened except some navigation lights came on. That was the good news.