The Arctic Code by Matthew J. Kirby Read Free Book Online Page A

sarcasm in her voice. “You don’t fly up to Alaska? Is your plane too . . . small?”
    â€œHa!” The first guy laughed again and slapped the table.
    â€œMy plane is just fine,” camo hat said, grinning now. “But if that’s really where you’re heading, you’re out of luck. There aren’t a lot of planes going that far north these days.”
    Eleanor hoped that wasn’t true. But now it wastime to bluff. “Well, I know a pilot who’s here right now, and he goes up there all the time.”
    â€œWho?” camo hat said. “Luke?”
    Luke.
    â€œYeah,” she said. “Luke.”
    â€œLuke.” The first guy kind of growled a little and shook his head. “I’d be flying up there all the time, too, if I had his fat contracts.”
    â€œHave you seen him around?” Eleanor asked.
    â€œYeah, he’s parked in hangar eighteen today,” camo hat said.
    â€œThanks.” Eleanor left some of the money from her mom’s stash on the table to pay for her breakfast. “Later, guys.” She gathered her pack and left the café.
    Outside, she looked at the line of parked vehicles. One of them, a big utility truck, had an airport label and service number painted on its doors. Eleanor bet that one was headed through the gate. She glanced around to make sure no one was looking and then climbed up into the truck bed. There wasn’t much back there to conceal her. Just some big blue plastic barrels she wedged herself between. After she’d hunkered down, she craned her neck and was pretty sure she’d be hidden from the view of the driver where she was. Her only hope was that the security guards wouldn’t really scrutinize the truck bed at the gate.
    Minutes went by. Eleanor felt the cold of the morning seeping in again, and she hoped the driver of this truck wouldn’t take forever eating his or her breakfast.
    More minutes passed. Eleanor’s teeth started chattering. She wondered if Uncle Jack had noticed she was gone yet. She wondered if the G.E.T. had come for the Sync. Were they already out looking for her?
    She was about to pull out her Sync to check the time when she heard the truck door open and felt the bed teeter slightly beneath her feet as the driver climbed in. The door closed, and the engine started.
    This is it.
    The truck eased backward from the café into the street, its pungent exhaust rolling over Eleanor, burning her eyes and nose. Then it pulled forward, and Eleanor tried to make herself as small as she could. The bumps in the road sloshed the liquid contents inside the barrels next to her ears. A few moments later, the truck slowed down and came to a stop. They were at the gate. Eleanor closed her eyes as a male voice carried back to her.
    â€œGood morning,” he said, sounding bored. “Badge?” That had to be the security guard.
    â€œMorning,” a woman said. Eleanor assumed she was the driver. “Long night?”
    â€œYep. But my shift ends in fifteen.”
    â€œWish I could say the same.”
    A moment went by. “Thank you,” the man said. “Proceed through the gate.”
    The truck pulled ahead, but Eleanor didn’t let herself breathe until it had driven well past the gate. The driver took a winding route between the airfield’s buildings. Eleanor tried to keep track of the turns but soon became disoriented and gave up. A few minutes later, the truck came to a stop, and the driver turned off the engine. Eleanor heard the door open, then close. She waited several moments, long enough for the driver to have gone, and then got up, put her pack on, and leaped down out of the truck bed.
    â€œHey!” The woman stood a short distance off, smoking a cigarette. “What are you—?”
    Eleanor didn’t wait to hear what she was going to say. She ran.

CHAPTER
6
    â€œH EY !” THE DRIVER SHOUTED .
    Eleanor’s pack bounced hard