Terminal Freeze

“And what of the…the creature?” Marshall asked.

“It was cut very carefully from the ice, taken from the crevasse, put in a freezer in the north wing. The scientists were to study it, measure it, then thaw it. But it soon thawed itself.”

“Thawed itself?” Sully repeated.

“Of course.” Usuguk shrugged as if perplexed by Sully’s incredulous tone.

Marshall and Faraday exchanged glances. “It was alive?” Marshall asked.

“Yes.”

“And it was hostile?”

“Not-not at first. Kurrshuq is a crafty demon. It plays with you, like the fox cub plays with a vole. The scientists were intrigued. Once they had recovered from their fear, they were intrigued.”

“Their fear?” Marshall asked.

“The kurrshuq is terrifying to behold.”

Logan pulled out a leather notebook. “Will you describe it?”

“No.”

Another brief silence.

“Tell us what happened,” Marshall said. “To the scientists.”

“As I told you, it pretended to humor us. Pretended to be friendly. The scientists continued their observations and tests. They tested its strength and speed. They grew more and more excited-especially by its ability to defend itself. They talked of testing its intelligence, of finding ways to-what was the word they used?-of weaponizing it. But on the third day it chose to do the will of the evil gods. It wearied of toying with us. One of the scientists, the kidlatet named Blayne, was testing its…its instinct for the hunt. What they wanted it to hunt they would not tell me. He had a tape recorder, with the sounds of animals in distress-marmots, snowshoe rabbits. When he played the tape, it grew angry. It tore him to pieces. We heard his screams and came ru

Marshall glanced at Logan. The historian had a small leather notebook open and was writing furiously.

“The scientists left without touching the body and returned to their quarters to talk. Some said that the creature should be killed immediately. Others said, no, it was too valuable a find. Maybe, they said, the death of Blayne was an accident. The creature was confused, acting in self-defense. They agreed to continue their study.”

“Williamson, the one interested in sociology,” Logan said, looking up from his notebook. “Did he discuss this with you?”

Usuguk nodded. “He asked me many questions. What my people knew of kurrshuq, why it was here, what it wanted.”

“And what did you tell him?”

“I told him the truth. That it was the guardian of the forbidden mountain. That the Devourer of Souls could not be killed.”

“What was his reaction?”

“He spent a lot of time writing in his little book.”

Logan rummaged in his pocket, pulled out the faded journal, passed it to Usuguk. The Tunit opened it carefully, turned the yellowed pages, passed it back with a nod.

“‘The Tunits have the answer?’” Logan quoted. “Perhaps it was a question-not a statement.”

“What happened next?” Sully asked.

“The next day, when we went back in, I was armed. It acted…differently. It was unresponsive, hostile. When the scientists pushed it, it attacked.”

“It killed them all?” Sully went on.

“No. Not…not at once.”

“How, then?”

As he talked, the Tunit’s gaze had slowly lowered. Now he suddenly looked up, fixing them one after another with eyes haunted by memory. “Do not ask me,” he said, voice trembling. “I do not wish to remember.”

The room fell silent. Slowly, Usuguk let his gaze return to the distant point. His face relaxed, grew resigned once again.

“Did you shoot it?” Marshall asked as gently as he could.

Usuguk nodded without looking at him.

“What happened?”

“The bullets a

Now Logan spoke. “How did you get away?”

“It was…stalking us. Those who remained alive tried to escape the north wing. It cut us off, once, twice. At last there was only me and Williamson. We were hiding in the electrical room, not far from the north wing exit hatch.” His speech slowed, became halting. “It came out of the shadows…Williamson screamed…it leapt on him…he tumbled backward onto an electrical coupling…there was great light and smoke…I ran as quickly as I could out of the north wing.”

There was a long pause in which nobody spoke.

“Colonel Rose sent for a special team,” Usuguk continued at last. “When we returned to the north wing, we found the kurrshuq, still lying on Williamson’s body. It no longer moved.”

“Dead,” Sully breathed.

Usuguk shook his head. “It chose to move on. To leave its corporal being.”

“What did they do with its body?” Marshall asked.

“The body vanished.”

“What?” Sully asked.

“They returned later with a body bag. By then it was gone.” The Tunit looked at them in turn. “It is as I told you. It chose to return to its spirit form.”

Sully shook his head. “Probably crawled off to die. They were in a hurry to close the place, cover up the whole incident-I’ll bet they didn’t look too hard for it.”

Marshall looked at the shaman. “And you? What did you do?”

“I left the military. I took a few from my village who would listen and started a new community, out on the ice. We strove to live the old, true way of my people, the way they had lived for thousands of years, before the kidlatet came. I left the things of the physical world behind.”

Sully wasn’t listening. “Don’t you see?” he said. “It’s susceptible to electricity. That’s its Achilles’ heel. We need to get word to Gonzalez.”

The Tunit looked up quickly. “Have you heard nothing I told you? This is not an animal. It is of the spirit world. You ca

Sully did not respond. He walked across the room, picked up the radio Gonzalez had given him.

“There is a second reason I came back,” Usuguk said, turning to Marshall. “The creature you found. You said it was larger than a polar bear, did you not?”

Marshall nodded. “That’s right.”

“The creature the scientists cut from the ice fifty years ago was the size of an arctic fox.”

There was a shocked silence. For a moment, nobody stirred. Then Sully raised the radio, pressed the Transmit button. “Dr. Sully to Sergeant Gonzalez. Do you read me?”

The radio buzzed static.

Sully tried again. “Sully to Gonzalez. Do you read? Over.”

More static.

As Sully tried again, Usuguk rose from the chair and came over to where Marshall and Faraday were standing. “After you came here-when the sky rained blood-I feared you had wakened another,” he said. “That is why I warned you all to leave. I am a shaman. I have one foot in the physical world, and the other in the spirit world. You must believe that I understand these things.”

“Another,” Marshall repeated. He was still having trouble taking it in.

“Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised,” said Faraday. “Game theory predicts that the least optimal result is the one most likely to occur.”

“The size of a fox,” Marshall said. “And it killed seven men.”

Usuguk nodded. “Now do you believe me? This kurrshuq is an even more important spirit. It will not leave as the last one did. You ca

“But we can’t leave,” Marshall said. “There are too many of us for the Sno-Cat. We’re trapped here, by the storm.”

The Tunit looked at him with glittering eyes. “Then I am very sorry for you.”