Redmond’s pulse was madly pounding away in his chest as he turned up the final switchback. Briefly eyeing the flattened summit above, he initiated one last major effort. Step by tedious step he proceeded, until his goal was at long last attained after a final, agonizing burst of expended energy.
Crouching down in an effort to regather his breath, Redmond wiped his soaked brow with the back of his hand and peered out to scan the ridge he had just traversed. From this elevated height he could follow the narrow footpath all the way back to the top of the Sunshine chair lift, where they had dropped off Angus.
Knowing the Scotsman’s love for alcohol, he could imagine him at the resort’s lounge, pouring down an ice-cold dark ale.
More than happy to satisfy his growing thirst with a swig of water. Jack was in the process of reaching down for his canteen when he realized with a start that he wasn’t alone. His pulse once again quickened as he slowly turned and set startled eyes on a young grizzly cub contentedly grazing less than a dozen meters distant.
No stranger to encountering bears in the wild, Redmond immediately contemplated his options. Since a cub was not likely to initiate an unprovoked attack, his best move would be to get out of the area as quietly and quickly as possible. Forgetting all about his sore legs and back, he stood and began to make his way across the summit’s broad plateau. The cub seemed completely unaware of the mortal’s presence, and his apprehensions already easing. Jack hurried across a tiny, trickling stream.
It was as he cut through a copse of stunted evergreens that he spotted yet another bear. This mammoth brown beast was obviously the mother, and because of a sudden shift in the wind, she had already gotten the human’s scent. Cursing his misfortune, Jack started to go for the rifle slung over his shoulder.
But since Rangers carried no bullets while on maneuvers, it would be useless except as a bludgeon.
As the adult grizzly scanned the portion of the plateau that lay downwind, Redmond was thankful for the bear’s poor eyesight. With his white fatigues, he would be hard to spot as long as he didn’t make any quick, jerky moves.
The possibility of sliding back into the thin thicket of trees crossed his mind, but the evergreens would provide little cover and were much too fragile to climb. Even if a climbable tree were available to him, a bear could follow him up into the branches just as easily as it could run him down on an open field. That left him with but three options. He could furtively slink off and pray that the grizzly failed to spot him, directly confront the beast and attempt to scare it away, or — the third alternative was probably the safest bet, but was surely the most difficult to do — he could lie down, cover his pulse, and play dead.
Because the beast had yet to locate him. Jack decided to try to soundlessly slip away through the thicket of trees that lay behind him. Not daring to completely turn around, he took a shaky step backward.
He followed this with another and could actually feel a tree limb scrape up against the back of his leg as a muted, high-pitched grunt caused a sickening heaviness to form in his stomach. Breathlessly turning his head, he peered through the limbs and had his worst fears realized — the cub was suddenly galloping straight for him!
Sandwiched between the two bears as he was, and certain that the curious offspring would all too soon give him away. Jack did the only prudent thing left to do. He dropped to the ground, gathered himself up into a tight fetal ball, and began praying in earnest.
He was well into his second Hail Mary, when the cub reached his side. The beast sniffed his prone body from head to toe, and Jack was positive that his pounding heart was going to pop right out of his chest.
His terror further intensified when the air vibrated with a deep, throaty roar. Daring to open one of his eyes, he focused in on a horrifying sight that would stay with him for all eternity. For standing directly before him, less than a half-dozen meters away, was the mother grizzly, her huge brown frame fully erect, her red eyes locked directly on him. He snapped his eyes shut as the bear let loose with another deafening roar, and seconds later, the beast was upon him.
It was the smell that gave the adult away. Its heavy musky odor sickened Jack, and as he fought back a rush of nauseous bile, he felt a series of hard poking jabs to his back. Another series of blows were centered on his legs, and when the bear’s cold nose actually touched the back of his exposed neck, the Arctic Ranger lost control of his bowels.
Fighting the natural instinct to get up and run like hell. Jack desperately tried to center his thoughts.
Never one to easily frighten, his panic filled him with a sickening dread, and for the second time in his life, he prepared to meet his maker. Past experiences suddenly flashed in his mind’s eye as clearly as if they were being projected on a picture screen, and he instantly relived his first brush with death almost ten years ago. He was assigned to a tank batallion in the Black Forest, and a noxious engine fire and a stuck turret hatch claimed the lives of two of the tank’s four-man crew. Miraculously, Jack had been one of those pulled alive from the smoking wreck, though it took two full days of cardiovascular treatment to bring him back to consciousness.
Had his luck finally run out? Certain that it had, the commando took another series of blows to his back and neck, and was just about to cry out in utter desperation, when a distant, somewhat familiar chopping sound diverted his attention. The bear seemed to be distracted by this constantly increasing noise also, and as it temporarily backed away from its strange find, Jack was filled with a wave of new hope. His expectations further heightened as the throaty grinding roar intensified to a point where he was able to identify this sound as belonging to an approaching helicopter!
Still fearful to break out of his fetal ball, or even open his eyes for that matter, Jack knew his prayers were answered when a powerful, amplified voice boomed down from the heavens.
“Lieutenant Jack Redmond?”
Wondering if this wasn’t some sort of hallucination, Jack gathered the nerve to peer upward, and his gaze focused on a wondrous sight, a hovering Huey helicopter.
“Are you all right, Lieutenant?” quizzed the resonant voice.
Somehow Jack was aule to move one of his arms and signal that he was, indeed, still amongst the living. And at this sign, the helicopter landed on the plateau to a swirling, earsplitting gust of blowing debris.
Soon afterward, the Huey was once again airborne, this time with an additional passenger in its hold.
“Lieutenant Redmond, I still think it’s a miracle you weren’t even scratched by that grizzly. When we first spotted the bear on top of you, we thought you were a goner for certain.”
His nerves somewhat settled by the flask of brandy he had just consumed. Jack replied in a cracked voice, “You and me both, pardner. May I ask what brought you out to this godforsaken valley in the first place?”
Having to repeat this question to be heard over the whine of the spinning rotors. Jack listened intently as the jumpsuited airman explained their mission.
“Actually, we were sent out here from Calgary to look for you. Lieutenant. Seems you’re wanted back at the Currie Barracks in a real hurry. Command’s sending in a Sikorsky to bring in the rest of your squad.”
“Any idea what this is all about?” quizzed the breathless Ranger.
Momentarily hesitating, the airman shouted, “Though this is all mere scuttlebutt, rumor has it that it’s all tied in with the recent disappearance of the Soviet Premier’s plane somewhere over the Arctic.”
“The disappearance of what?” repeated Jack, his tone filled with disbelief.