Sacred Ground

He nodded. “Actually, very well. You?”

“I didn’t think I’d be able to get warm, but those blankets did the trick. I was out like a light. Probably the postadrenaline dump helped a bit, too.”

Godwin nodded. “Derek was right about you.”

“Meaning?”

“You’ve been in a lot of fights.”

Annja shrugged. “I get mixed up in a lot of stuff. I’m always interested in things that most normal people wouldn’t get into. As a result, knowing how to protect myself is important.”

Godwin watched her. “Well, there seems to be a natural sort of grace to you. It’s like some kind of second skin. Very relaxed. And you can hold your own.”

If only you knew the whole story, Annja thought. Instead, she smiled some more. “Well, thanks.”

Derek entered the reception area. “Good morning. Everyone ready to get going?”

Annja nodded. “Yes. How far is the dig site?”

“Probably shouldn’t take us much more than two hours to reach it,” Derek said. “We’ll follow Hendrick’s Highway east and then get onto the dirt track. Probably won’t be the smoothest sailing at that point, but you’ll get used to it.”

“Great,” Annja said. “More sore-butt syndrome.”

“Excuse me,” a voice called out.

They turned and saw the counterman gesturing to them. “I couldn’t help but overhear. Did you say something about Hendrick’s Highway?”

Derek nodded. “We’ll be driving it today. We need to reach our other party to the east.”

The counterman shook his head. “Well, you won’t be going by Hendrick’s, that’s for sure.”

“Why not?”

“It’s closed. About twenty miles from here. They had a bad truck rollover last night in the storm. Whole highway is blocked and frozen in. They’re saying it could be a couple of days before they get it cleared.”

“A couple of days?” Derek shook his head. “That won’t work for us. We need to get moving today.”

“Where ya heading?”

Derek frowned. “Tokrak.”

The counterman smiled. “Well, that’s no problem. You can just go the other way.”

“What other way?” Annja looked at the counterman. “There’s another way to get there?”

“Sure enough,” the counterman said. “You just take the ice road.”

Annja’s stomach dropped. “You mean the river?”

The man smiled and nodded. “The Mackenzie. She’ll take you there no problem. Just hang a right at the sign for Erop and follow that east. Should hook up with Hendrick’s farther on.”

Annja sighed. The last thing she wanted to do was drive over a frozen river. She’d faced plenty of challenges before, but risking life and limb like this just didn’t feel right.

“Annja?”

Godwin was staring at her. “You okay?”

“I’m not crazy about the ice-road option,” she admitted.

“Only option you’ve got,” the counterman said. “Otherwise, you’ll be waiting here for the next few days. And it doesn’t look like your boss here is content to do that.”

Derek nodded. “He’s right, Annja. We’ve got to get going. Think of it this way—if you don’t get to the site, that’s the number of days less that you have to get the things done you need to do.”

Annja frowned. “Yeah, I know.”

She looked at Godwin. “Ever driven it before?”

“Once or twice.”

“That fills me with so much confidence.”

“Better that than me lying to you.”

“Oh, I don’t know. Lying wouldn’t be such a bad thing in this case.”

The counterman finished writing up the receipt for Derek. “Just remember that when you’re out there, the big rigs have the right of way. You have to pull over and let them pass. Trust me, you don’t want that kind of momentum coming up on your tail, if you get my drift.”

“Can’t they slow down?” Annja asked.

The counterman shrugged. “Not really a question of slowing down as much as it is about staying ahead of the wave.”

“The wave?”

He nodded. “All that weight on the ice creates a wave under the surface that rumbles along under the truck chassis. They have to stay ahead of it as they drive or it can erupt through the ice and you get a trapdoor.”

“Gosh this is sounding so fantastic,” Annja said. “What’s a trapdoor?”

“The ice, she opens up and the truck just disappears. Then the ice floe slides back into place like nothing was ever there. Incredible, really.”

“Wonderful,” Annja said. “How long will we be on this ice road?”

The counterman shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe an hour. You can’t burn like you do on normal roads. But you can go at least forty kilometers an hour.”

“That won’t be nearly fast enough,” Annja said.

“I AM SO NOT HAPPY about this,” Annja said. She sat in the front next to Godwin as he drove through Inuvik toward the entrance to the ice road.

“We don’t have the luxury of time,” Derek said. “Better we go through some discomfort and reach our destination. Otherwise, it’s time lost.”