Hunt Beyond the Frozen Fire by Christa Faust, Gabriel Hunt Read Free Book Online Page B

dollars.”
    “That’s fine,” Gabriel said.
    “Let me finish. Expedited processing can still take up to ten business days and there will be an additional priority processing fee of two hundred dollars. You will also be charged an assessment of fifty dollars per person for room and board while you wait; however, with Offload only two weeks away, we are currently at full boarding capacity. It will be up to you to organize your own sleeping accommodations as best you can.”She clicked a ballpoint pen and handed the clipboard to Gabriel. “The NSF cannot be expected to babysit private parties, nor can we allow any interference with the scientific research being conducted in our facilities. Any violation of the visitor code of conduct listed on page 27C will result in immediate expulsion of your entire party on the next plane to Christchurch, at your own expense.”
    “The expenses are no problem,” Gabriel said. “I’d gladly pay more if it would help. What is a problem is the ten-day delay. Is there any way—”
    “Mr. Hunt,” the woman said. “I don’t make the rules, and they don’t let me change them either. Just because you’ve got money doesn’t mean you rule the roost—not down here. The fees are what they are and so is the wait. If you don’t like it, you can take the next plane out. Do we understand each other?”
    She left without waiting for a response. Gabriel looked down at the clipboard. The stack of forms to be filled out was over an inch thick.
    “Ten days!” Velda said.
    A young man in filthy brown coveralls chose that moment to slip in through the back door of the room. He had a big smile and long, wild hair and a six-pack of cheap beer in one hand. He stank of diesel fuel so powerfully it made Gabriel’s head swim.
    “Hey, Ruda!” the man cried, pulling Rue into an embrace that lifted her off her feet. “I heard you were back on the ice, but I couldn’t believe it.”
    “I can’t believe it either,” Rue said, smiling at Gabriel over the young man’s shoulder.
    “Strip Monopoly just isn’t the same without you. You planning to winter-over?”
    “No chance, Dusty,” Rue replied, taking a beer andcracking it open. “Six months with you and Tanner in the dark and I’d be ready to chew my own leg off. I’m just here to help a friend. In and out.”
    “Well, that’s the way to help a friend all right,” Dusty said, nudging her with an elbow. He began passing the remaining beers around, shaking everyone’s hand as he went. Only Velda declined the beer. Dusty held his can up in a toast. “Skal!”
    “Skal,” Gabriel said. Gabriel wasn’t normally much of a beer drinker—but the way this one went down his parched, bone-dry throat, it tasted like the best he’d ever had.
    “Skal,” Rue repeated, sucking foam from the mouth of the can. “Is Speedo still doing Pole run?”
    “Of course,” Dusty said. “In fact, he’s got one in about forty minutes, why?”
    Rue pulled a twenty-ounce plastic bottle of Moxie soda pop from the messenger bag she wore slung over one hip and passed it to Dusty.
    “Ah, you do love me after all,” Dusty said with a huge grin, clutching the bottle to his heart as if it were a teddy bear. “A winter without Moxitinis is like a fat girl with itty bitty titties.”
    “I think now would be a good time to file that harassment complaint against Tanner,” Rue said. “Don’t you?”
    “Oh, yes,” Dusty said. “High time.”
    “Just make sure it keeps Lanke occupied for at least, oh, forty minutes?”
    “Not a problem,” Dusty said, slipping the bottle into one of the many enormous pockets on his coverall and downing the rest of his beer in one long gulp. “Good luck out there, Ruda.” He headed out toward Lanke’s office.
    Rue smiled over at Velda. “Those ten days just flew by, didn’t they?”
    Bundled up in extreme weather gear and lugging their equipment like a line of ants at the world’s coldest picnic, Gabriel and the team