Страница 29 из 79
And in again.
“A
Breath out and in and vomiting, her lungs caught fire, her throat burned with charred flesh.
“A
Hot lead spewed from her scalding her tongue, blistering her lips.
“A
The noise maddened her, and she knew she was crying as she descended to hell in fire and ice. Her eyes would not open, as in dreams of blindness they had been sewn shut. Screaming, she forced her lids wide.
She was out. She was on her side, one arm stretched over her head. Her right eyeball was so close to the ice, she could see crystals moving by in fits and starts. The endless embrace of the lake was being scraped off. A machine gun battered through her head. Her teeth were chattering.
“A
A
“I’ve landed four-hundred-pound marlin that were easier to reel in than you.” This was grunted. A
“Are you alive?” The bear pawed at her and she was rolled onto her back.
“Hey, Bob,” she said when she saw his red, sweating face.
“Are we going to have to get naked in a sleeping bag together?” he asked.
“Throw me back in,” A
13
Bob was a hero.
When A
“Nanosecond” was Bob’s assessment of the time. A
The ice was paper thin, Bob told Robin and Katherine, and he’d tugged on the chain so A
A
She remembered nothing of their return to the cabin but knew without a doubt she would have died if Bob had not taken quick action. He’d cut her free of the backpack, stripped her wet coat from her, wrapped her in his own parka and carried her back to Malone Bay.
Clad in dry clothes and propped on the bottom bunk in a sleeping bag, a fourth cup of hot Ovaltine in front of her – the first she’d been able to hold all by herself – A
“Flat out,” he said. “I knew she was going to die.”
A
“You saved my life, Bob,” she said. “Remind me to buy you a beer sometime.”
He gri
Bob Menechi
As near as she could figure, Bob had two Achilles’ heels: he was terrified of wild beasts who were better armed than he and women who knew he was terrified. Watching him bask in glory, A
Fear made some people brave and some dangerous. Bob was in the latter category. Because he was strong, he’d not been afraid he couldn’t carry A
A
“I was looking for tracks up in the rocks when I heard that ice crack,” Bob embellished his tale. “I was on that ice like a man shot out of a ca
“God, I’m sorry,” Robin said to A
“Not your fault,” A
“The ice on Intermediate is good. You shouldn’t have broken through.”
“It happens,” A
“I can’t figure out what made the ice break like that. It should have been fine. You were where I said to place the trap?”
A
“It makes no sense. I am so sorry. You could have died.”
“Nah,” A
“Don’t joke,” Robin pleaded. “You really could have died.”
Robin was obsessing and A
“Lots of things don’t make sense,” A
“It couldn’t have broken.” Robin shook her head, her hair swinging in the silvery light from the window over the small dining table. The sun had creaked out, making an appearance between fronts. They had been without showers for days, during most of which they wore hats and hoods crammed on their heads, yet Robin’s hair was shining, silken.
“Go figure,” A
During Bob’s regaling, Robin’s breast-beating and A