Ice

ONE

Once upon a time, in a land far to the north, there lived a lovely maiden...

Latitude 72° 13' 30" N
Longitude 152° 06' 52" W
Altitude 3 ft.

Cassie Killed the snowmobile engine.

Total silence, her favorite sound. Ice crystals spun in the Arctic air. Sparkling in the predawn light, they looked like diamond dust. Beneath her ice-encrusted face mask, she smiled. She loved this: just her, the ice, and the bear.

"Don't move," she whispered at the polar bear.

Cassie felt behind her and unhooked the rifle. Placid as a marble statue, the polar bear did not move. She loaded the tranquilizer dart by feel, her eyes never leaving the bear. White on white in an alcove of ice, he looked like a king on a throne. For an instant, Cassie imagined she could hear Gram's voice, telling the story of the Polar Bear King.... Gram hadn't told that story since the day she'd left the research station, but Cassie still remembered every word of it. She used to believe it was true.

When she was little, Cassie used to stage practice rescue missions outside of Dad's Arctic research station. She'd pile old sn ... read full excerpt from: Ice ebook