AK 239

Bokan Mountain, Alaska

^{Christmas Eve}

It was dusk and it was only 4:00 p.m.! The days are short and the nights are long and cold in an Alaskan winter.

I ran back to Jennifer with the only thing I could quickly find:

Ferns.

I hope she’s still alive.

As I peek into the log, I’m met face to face with her Glock.

Yep, she’s alive.

“Probably won’t fire anyway,” I joke.

“Let’s play Russian roulette and find out?” says Jennifer.

“Russian roulette with a Glock? That I want to see.”

I now realize she’s covered herself with moss and all of her clothes are neatly folded nearby.

“Me Tarzan, you Jennifer?” I joke.

She’s not amused.

“No? Doesn’t work for you?” I say.

What the hell was I thinking?

I reach into my pocket and pull out my Glock.

“I give the Glocks about a ninety percent chance of firing.”

Jennifer playfully points her gun in my general direction and says,

“Let’s find out.”

I push the gun aside and get serious,

How’s the wound?”

“I think it stopped bleeding,” says Jennifer as she looks at my ferns.

“Plan on making a call with those?”

I ignore her, “There’s nothing around here. They must have a jamming device on the mountain.”

Jennifer confidently says, “No. No way. How would they get it up there? Unless…”

“Unless what? I ask.

“Unless that Russian sub is closer than we think.” Jennifer continues, “I blame myself. I should’ve turned our boat around as soon as Jack Tanner told me the story. Thanks to me, Jack and Mike are dead.”

“Don’t blame yourself.”

“You’re the one ta talk,” she says accusingly.

“Those are definitely Russian Special Forces. I overheard them speaking Russian. I didn’t show you but there were twenty-two suitcases on that barge filled with at least one million dollars each.”

Jennifer is truly shocked,

“What?” Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I was trying to when we played: Shoot the large yellow targets!”

Jennifer is thinking but all that comes out is:

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry for all of this.”

“Your office will know you’re missing, right?”

Jennifer sighs, “Probably not. I was supposed to go to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for a month. They might think I left early.”

“Aren’t you suppose to check in after field work?” I ask.

“Ya, but this is Alaska. Things are a bit more casual up here. People go away for weeks. Our best chance is with that SAT phone.”

I think for a minute, “You told the harbor master where we are, right?”

“This is Ketchikan and we’re the FBI. I didn’t tell anyone anything,” says Jennifer.

“Well only three things can happen here.”

“One: We die.”

“Two: We’re captured.”

“Three: We escape!”

“I prefer option number three!”

Jennifer, “Oh you might escape. I’ll be dead by morning.”

I look at her body that is now partially uncovered by moss.

“Don’t touch the moss. Find your own moss.”

I take off my shirt and pull a big chunk of moss off the inside of the tree.

I really am cold.

I start to shiver.

“All right, come over here but you try anything, I’ll put a bullet in you.”

I sarcastically say, “What do I gotta lose, we’ll be dead by morning.”