"Will do. You coming back in?

"No. Ive got a dinner date with my dad.

"Lucky you. She meant it.

"Yeah. He didnt.

He hung up and joined Wy on the deck. "Hey.

She looked up at him with a faint smile showing through the escaped wisps of hair. "Hey, yourself.

"How was your day, dear?

She laughed, as hed meant her to. "Not bad. Got a flight from the U.S. Air Force, a thing that hardly ever happens, since they prefer to fly their own. Not to mention the FBI. We small-time air-taxi outfits just love federal expense accounts.

He grinned. "I should start taking a commission.

"Right after you take your first flying lesson.

"Thatll happen.

"I can hardly wait.

A gust of wind whistled overhead and tugged at their clothes. She was in a blue plaid shirt tucked into blue jeans cinched down by a wide leather belt. Her hiking boots were stained with salt, mud and wax, held together by a new pair of shoelaces, red-and-white-striped like a barber pole. It didnt vary much from what she had been wearing the day before, or three years before. It had to be one of the most unseductive outfits hed ever seen on a woman of his acquaintance, and he didnt understand why his first, last and only inclination was to rip it off.

As if he had spoken his need out loud she looked up and met his eyes.

"Wheres Tim?

Her eyes widened. "Basketball practice.

"When will he be back?

"Theyre going out for pizza after. Her knees were shaking. She wasnt sure how much longer theyd hold her up.

His eyes narrow and intent, he reached out a hand and unb.u.t.toned the top b.u.t.ton of her shirt.

"Not out here, she said, her voice weak, her head falling back.

"Why not? He unb.u.t.toned the second b.u.t.ton.

"In the wind, and the snow, and the cold?

"Ill keep you warm. He lowered his mouth to her throat.

"Someone will see.

"Let them, he said, and bit her.

Liam Campbell was a civilized man and an intuitive and generous lover, but that evening something feral had gotten off the chain. He took her down to the deck with hands that were rough and impatient, and he knew it and didnt seem to be able to control it. He ripped open her shirt and pushed up the T-shirt and bra beneath it and put his mouth on her breast, sucking hard. She made a sound deep in her throat, her own hands fumbling with his clothes, but he would have none of it. He didnt want her partic.i.p.ation; he wanted her submission, and he pulled at her jeans until they tangled around her feet, unzipped his, and pushed inside.

"Liam! The word was almost a scream.

He managed to hold it together for one frantic, heart-thumping moment. "Dont let me hurt you.

"You arent. You wont. You couldnt. She pulled one foot free of her jeans and hooked it around the small of his back, tilting up and pulling him deeper. "Do it.

She screamed for real this time, a sound swallowed up by the wind and the snow and the dark. For a split second he could feel everything as if with a separate sense. The sudden quick flush of heat rising up from her torso. The kiss of snowflakes on his a.s.s. The long, lovely line of her throat as she arched up into him, like she couldnt bear an inch of s.p.a.ce between them.

"Do it again, he muttered.

Her eyelids fluttered. "What? Her voice was slurred.

He thrust again. "Come on, he said, "come again for me, baby.

"No, Liam, I cant "Sure, you can.

And she could.

And then he followed her into the dark.

Neither of them moved for long moments afterward, lying in a stupor of s.e.xual satisfaction on the deck, the wind gusting to twenty-five knots, the temperature dropping another degree every minute, the snow moving from a snow flurry to a snowfall. Liam thought he could stay there, in that position, on top of that woman, forever, and he might have, if she didnt eventually exhibit some signs of being unable to breathe.

"Im sorry, he said, and shifted his weight to his elbows.

She smiled without opening her eyes. "Dont be.

"Okay. He nuzzled her neck.

He felt a laugh catch in her breast.

"The only time a man is sane, he said, belatedly going for a little foreplay with her ear, which he knew she loved, "is the first ten minutes after o.r.g.a.s.m.

She laughed out loud this time.

He raised his head and smiled down at her. "Its true.

"Says who?

"Says Dapper Dan.

"And who, may I ask, is Dapper Dan? Not that Im contesting his thesis. She raised her hips and exercised a muscle or two.

"Oh, man, Ill give you a week to quit that. He gave her a hickey, just to reestablish his supremacy. "Dapper Dan was a friend of Damon Runyons.

"Whyd they call him Dapper Dan?

"Because he was very dapper, and a very successful ladies man.

"Not unlike someone else we might name.

"The only woman I want to be successful with now is right here. Lying under me, as a matter of fact.

She raised a hand to trace his eyebrow, nose and lips. He sucked her finger into his mouth. She shivered, and he smiled.

But when they managed to pull themselves off the deck, get dressed and go back inside, the constraint came back. "Im supposed to meet Dad for dinner at Bills.

"Tell him to come here instead.

"He wants to talk about that wreck on the glacier, and he doesnt want civilians around when he does.

She grimaced. "Okay.

"Wy?

"What?

"You seemed a little out of it when I got home. Whats going on?

She made a wry mouth. "So much for my powers of concealment.

"I love you. He said it simply, without flourishes. "Ill always see more than you want me to.

Her eyes softened. "Oh, Liam.

"There is something, isnt there?

"Yes.

He took a deep breath. d.a.m.n the torpedoes. Remember the Maine. Tora, tora, tora. Maine. Tora, tora, tora. "Is it about the job John offered me in Anchorage? "Is it about the job John offered me in Anchorage?

She looked as relieved as he did to finally open up the subject to discussion. "No.

"All right, then. He had not spent so many years walking through the fire to get to her to give up without a serious fight. Hed go to war for Wyanet Chouinard. He just didnt know if hed live in Newenham for her.

She seemed to make up her mind about something. "Ill banish Tim to his room the minute he gets back. Well talk then, really talk. A half smile. "Dont be late.

When he was gone the house seemed very empty. She checked for messages on the answering machine. A teacher in Togiak wanted a compet.i.tive bid for bringing four students and herself into Newenham over the Thanksgiving weekend for the Bristol Bay Academic Olympics. Dagfinn Grant had given her a quote and she thought it was too high. Wy, knowing Finn, thought it probably had been, and called her back. They arranged fares and pickup times to their mutual satisfaction, and Wy filled in the dates on her calendar. Shed been looking for a toehold into business with the various school districts. This was a start.

Ronald Nukwak had called from Manokotak, needing a ride for his family to Newenham for a wedding. That one she let go, reluctantly, because Ronald already owed her for seven round-trips, Manokotak to Newenham and back again. If one of the kids had been sick, she would have rolled out the Cub, but this wasnt an emergency. She hated losing Ronalds business, not to mention p.i.s.sing off the half of Manokotak to whom Ronald was related, but she had bills to pay, too.

She heard enough of the next message to understand the speaker was calling from Ualik, but they were on a cell phone that faded in and out. Somebody wanted a ride, but she didnt know who and couldnt figure out when, so she let that one go, too.

She closed her calendar and leaned back with a sigh. The first time shed flown into Ualik and landed on the runway that also formed the main street of the town, shed found Tim Gosuk crouched, shivering, beneath his own porch, hiding from his next beating. The village hadnt improved in the interim. The last time shed been there her fare had been late getting to the plane, and during her wait two men had staggered by, and a third had stopped and threatened her, followed by two small children, who also smelled of drink and who threw s...o...b..a.l.l.s at her. She wouldnt have minded the s...o...b..a.l.l.s so much except that they hit the plane. She had run them off, and theyd come back with their father just as she was loading the pa.s.senger, a woman who was also drunk and who she was very much afraid was going to throw up en route. The father cursed her most foully and, what really scared her, got in front of the plane after shed started the engine. She knew from firsthand experience what a prop could do to a human head, and she was just about to cut the engine when he staggered off again. The kids threw s...o...b..a.l.l.s until she was in the air.

She had been incredibly lucky that no one had managed to lay hands on a gun. It wouldnt have been the first time a stranger to a village had been attacked. Alcohol, the blight of the Alaskan Bush, was almost always involved. Usually the incident wound up involving the community health representative, the troopers, and sometimes the medical examiner. She was glad she couldnt understand the last message, and then she was ashamed that she was glad. They were her people, after all, Yupik, Alaskan, Bush rats. That she hadnt wound up an alcoholic herself was due only to the fact that, at least once, the cards had fallen for her instead of against her. G.o.d knows she carried the gene.

The time shed spent with Moses on the deck the night before came back to her, along with his words.

"No, she said out loud. "Not now. Later, when Liam comes home.

She picked up a copy of The Fiery Cross, The Fiery Cross, her current book, but she was too restless to read. Liam was reading her current book, but she was too restless to read. Liam was reading Nathaniels Nutmeg, Nathaniels Nutmeg, but that didnt hold her interest either. She clicked on the television. Ninety-nine channels and nothing on. She paced. Finally she went to the computer and got on-line, checking the Nushugak Air Web site for messages, finding none. but that didnt hold her interest either. She clicked on the television. Ninety-nine channels and nothing on. She paced. Finally she went to the computer and got on-line, checking the Nushugak Air Web site for messages, finding none.

Then she remembered the Web site she had visited when she was looking up stuff on Lend-Lease, before Moses came over. She clicked on the bookmark and found the page of links. One went to the full texts of the various Lend-Lease acts. Another went directly to the United States Navys Web site, and the cargo ships that plied the Atlantic run funneling Lend-Lease materials to Britain, in the teeth of the U-boat wolf packs. There were links to the air force and the army as well. She followed another link and fetched up at a site sponsored by McDonnell Douglas, these days aka Boeing, which contained a brief history of the C-47.

In 1941 the Army Air Force (recently transmogrified from the Air Corps) selected it as its standard transport aircraft. The floor was reinforced and a large cargo door added, and hey, presto, the Skytrain was born. It could carry up to six thousand pounds of cargo, a fully a.s.sembled jeep, a thirty-seven-millimeter cannon, twenty-eight soldiers in full combat gear, or fourteen stretcher patients and three nurses.

All the Allies flew it, on every continent and in every major battle of World War II. By 1945 there were more than ten thousand of them in the air, answering to the nickname of "the Gooney Bird. General Dwight D. Eisenhower himself called it one of World War IIs most important pieces of military equipment.

Her eyes dropped down to the specs with professional curiosity. It had a wingspan of ninety-five feet, six inches and was seventeen feet high. Its maximum ceiling was twenty-four thousand feet, with a normal range of sixteen hundred miles and a maximum range of thirty-eight hundred miles. It weighed thirty-one thousand pounds and cruised at one hundred sixty miles per hour, powered by two twelve-hundred-horsepower Pratt & Whitney engines. It was a three-holer, pilot, copilot and engineer, although she thought theyd been called navigators back then.

There was a picture, too, black-and-white, the aircraft gray with the barred white star on the fuselage just before the tail, and the tail numbers small and white on the vertical tail above and behind it. It was a shock to see what the wreck on Bear Glacier had looked like whole and proud.

Twenty-four thousand feet. And according to Colonel Campbell, they were on their way to Russia, to Krasnoyarsk, so already they were way the h.e.l.l and gone off course. She wondered what the weather had been like that night. She did another search and raised the National Weather Services site, which was excellent but was more focused on forecasts than on history.

Well, h.e.l.l. You could see Carryall Mountain from Newenham, couldnt you? She tried to picture the horizon in that direction. She thought so. If you could, and if it had been clear that night, someone might actually have seen the plane auger in. There were a lot of Alaskan old farts in Newenham, a lot of people whod been around from well before war had broken out. The plane must have made one h.e.l.l of a bang when it went in, and that wasnt something you forgot.

Shed make a few calls tomorrow, she promised herself. She shut down the computer and resumed pacing away the minutes until Liam got home.

FOURTEEN.

Charles was already at Bills, vamping every female in sight. Tasha Anayuk, Natalie Gosuks roommate, was leaning up against the booth, gazing into his face as if he was the answer to all her prayers. Bill made sure his gla.s.s never ran dry. And Jo Dunaway was sitting across from him.

"Liam, Charles said, catching sight of his son and breaking into a warm and well-practiced smile.

"Dad. He nodded at Jo.

Special Agent James Mason was sitting next to Charles, and nodded to Liam, his round-rimmed gla.s.ses slipping down his nose again.

Liam wondered about those gla.s.ses. They looked like plain gla.s.s, and the brown eyes behind the gla.s.s seemed to be very shrewd. During an interrogation, a perp might find those gla.s.ses less alarming than the eyes.

Jo had a notebook out, he noticed, and several pages were already filled with her cramped scribble. A curl fell over her eye and she flipped it back with an impatient gesture. "You giving an interview? Liam said to Charles, careless of the incredulity in his voice.

"The air force brings back its own, Charles said, smile gone. "No matter how long theyve been gone. I think thats a d.a.m.n good story, and one the public has a right to know.

"Their families are all likely dead by now. Why not leave them where they are, declare the area a graveyard?

Jo and Liam both waited for Charles answer. He made a show of thinking it over, and when the silence had drawn out long enough to be antic.i.p.atory, said simply, "Theyre ours. They were members of the force when they took off from Nome that evening. They were members of the force when they went off course. They were members of the force when they slammed into that glacier. Just because theyre dead doesnt make them any less ours. We dont leave anyone behind. We defend the nation and we protect our own.

Liam could see that Jo, hard-nosed seeker of truth that she was, was nonetheless impressed by this speech, and Tasha was either in love or getting ready to enlist, or maybe both. Liam ordered a beer.

Jo flipped through her notes. "I think thats all for now, Charles. If I have any further questions, may I call you?