"You should be." The man paused. "I am coming for you right now. Stay alive and I will find you."

The line disconnected.

Tuk reached down to put the phone back in his pocket but then the plane impacted the side of the mountain. The cell phone skittered away from Tuk's grasp, sliding out and away from him across the aisle toward the c.o.c.kpit.

"No!"

The airplane filled with the roar of the crash. Tuk heard the screech of twisting and tearing metal as the snow and ice crashed in through the c.o.c.kpit window.

They were sliding across the snowfield. Tuk hoped they weren't going to careen all the way to the edge and topple over into some giant chasm. If they did, no one would ever find them again.

Certainly not the man on the phone.

But even as Tuk screamed, he had hope in his heart that what the man on the phone said was true. That he was coming for them now.

Tuk clutched at the bags around him. They would be the only things that cus.h.i.+oned him in case some giant bit of rock chose to bite into the plane as it skidded over it. Tuk had no wish to be ripped open and he tried to maneuver his body onto the top of the bags as the plane continued to skid across the snowfield.

In the front of the plane, both Annja and Mike had already been knocked out. Snow flooded the pa.s.senger compartment and Tuk saw in horror that a growing wave of snow was headed right for him at the back of the plane.

He realized too late that his position on top of the bags was vulnerable and even as he tried to scamper back down to s.h.i.+eld himself, the wave of snow picked him up and crashed his small head up against the roof of the pa.s.senger compartment.

Tuk saw stars and then darkness.

SOMETHING DRIPPED DOWN from his forehead. from his forehead.

Cold.

Tuk awoke and felt for his head. Blood? His hand came away clean. The snow had melted and woken him up.

He exhaled in a rush, realizing that he was still alive.

He could have cried at the moment, but then he saw that Annja no longer sat in her seat at the front of the plane.

Where was she?

Had someone taken her? Or had she been thrown free of the aircraft when they had crashed? If that was the case, she was likely dead.

But Tuk didn't think so. The snow and ice had wedged her in pretty well. The likelihood was that she had regained consciousness first, not looked in the back of the plane and seen Tuk, and only managed to free herself.

Tuk strained his ears and heard crunching sounds from outside of the plane. Someone was walking around. Unsteady, but they were alive.

Tuk knew that the time had come to make his presence known. They would all be reliant on one another now if they had any hope of surviving. And he felt certain the man on the phone wouldn't mind.

Tuk frowned. But maybe not just yet. Maybe he would simply act the part of the stowaway. He could claim he'd gone out drinking and staggered inside the plane to sleep off his binge.

Yes. He would keep up appearances until told otherwise. Operational sanct.i.ty was his first priority. That and his personal survival.

But first, he had to get himself out of the plane- Tuk jerked back as a ma.s.sive sword blade suddenly sliced through the battered metal skin of the airplane, rending it apart. Tuk felt the bags beneath him suddenly start to spill out and with them went his body.

He toppled out of the airplane and landed at Annja's feet.

A sword? Where had she gotten that?

But Annja took another step forward, even as the first bits of surprise registered on her face at seeing Tuk. Then she fell over into the snow.

And Tuk scrambled forward to help.

10.

Annja came back around and opened her eyes. She immediately felt the cold snow around her body and wondered what had happened. But then the memories flashed through her mind and she sat up instantly.

"Wait." A small hand held her down. "If you get up too quickly, you will vomit and dehydrate."

The face of the small man swam into view. Annja frowned and then remembered that he had somehow spilled out of the back of the airplane. "Who are you?" she asked.

"My name is Tuk."

Annja struggled. "Mike-?"

"The man with you is still unconscious. And he is still secured to the seat. I was unable to free him without a.s.sistance. Perhaps when you feel better, we might-"

"We'll do it now," Annja said. She slowly got to her feet and headed for the plane, followed by Tuk.

"I really think you ought to rest before we do this," he said.

Annja stopped and looked at him. He was tiny and looked more like a child than an adult. But she could see the creases and furrows in his face that come with the acc.u.mulation of life experience. She shook her head.

"If we leave him in there, he'll get hypothermia. We need to find some form of shelter and start a fire."

Tuk nodded. "Very well." He followed Annja around to Mike's side of the plane.

Annja looked inside. Mike's face looked peaceful but she was alarmed. She'd already regained consciousness twice and Mike had yet to move. Was it possible that he had a severe head injury? If he did, then they would need a medevac as soon as possible. But Annja had no idea how to go about getting one. The only hope she had right then was that Jomsom air traffic control had launched a search-and-rescue party for them.

"Help me wedge the door open," Annja said.

Tuk came alongside, and then as Annja held the door handle down he leaned and drove the door back with the force of his body. Annja looked at him and smiled. He might have been tiny but he had a lot of power in that body of his.

Together, they got the door open. Annja looked at Mike. As she twisted, she grunted as a sharp lancing pain shot through her ribs. They were tolerable, but would also need taping at some point.

First things first, she took Mike's pulse and found it stronger now than when they'd first crashed. That was a good sign. He was breathing well. But his cheeks were pale.

From the waist down he was covered with snow. Annja frowned. "We've got to get this away from his body. It's leeching the warmth right out of him."

Tuk nodded. "All right, let me help. You have an injury from the crash, it would appear."

Annja nodded. "You're no picture of perfection yourself, pal. You've got some blood on the top of your head."

Tuk frowned and reached up. His hand came away sticky and dark. "I hit the top of the cabin when we crashed. I am all right, though."

"Head injuries often look worse than they are," Annja said. "I've had enough of them myself."

Tuk stared at her and then looked back toward Mike. "Let me get him shoveled out of there." He bent low and started scooping the snow out from around Mike's body. Annja watched him work. He seemed to possess a store of energy.

But who was he?

"You want to tell me what you were doing in our plane?" she asked.

Tuk glanced at her. "I'm afraid my weakness for alcohol resulted in me stowing away there last night."

"Last night?"

"I was out drinking. I staggered past the airfield and realized I'd never make it home. The planes looked comfortable. I only intended to sleep off my hangover and then head back home." He shrugged. "However, that plan was soon cast to the wind when I awoke to find us all in the air."

"You could have said something."

Tuk shook his head. "I've never flown before. I decided it would be best to just let you get us wherever we were going. I took solace in the fact that we would eventually have to return to Katmandu. Once back, I would simply steal away with you and your friend, none the wiser."

"So much for that plan, huh?"

Tuk smiled and resumed digging out Mike. Annja saw his brow crease with concern. Then he started digging faster.

"What's wrong?"

Then she saw it. b.l.o.o.d.y snow.

"No!"

Tuk nodded. "He must have an injury we cannot see." Tuk's hands came away bright red as the snow and ice melted and mixed with the blood. "It's vital we stop the bleeding as soon as we can."

Annja maneuvered her way around to the back of the plane where the bags and Tuk had spilled out. She rummaged through the bags and came up with a first aid kit. It wasn't anything exhaustive, but she found sterile gauze and pressure dressing inside.

She hoped it would work.

She moved back to Mike's side. Tuk had successfully gotten rid of most of the snow. Mike's lower torso was now exposed. As Annja came around, she saw what Tuk was staring at and frowned.

"It's his thigh," Tuk said. "It appears that a piece of metal pierced it from the plane's body. Probably when we crashed it came through and shredded part of his leg. He's lost a fair amount of blood."

Annja tore open the pressure dressing and handed it to him. "Get some on the wound."

Tuk dutifully took the dressing and pressed it into the wound.

The effect on Mike was almost instantaneous. His eyes shot open and he screamed. Annja put a hand on him and tried to calm him down. "Hold still, Mike. It's Annja. I'm here."

He stared at her. "Are you okay?"

She smiled. "Think so. Took a shot to my head, but that's nothing new there. I pa.s.sed out twice, but I'm feeling pretty good now aside from some broken ribs."

"You sure?"

"That they're broken? Yeah. I've had them before." Annja frowned. "They're not fun, but they're manageable."

Mike nodded and then glanced at Tuk. "Who is this?"

Annja smiled. "Apparently, we had a stowaway on the plane."

"He was with us?"

"Yep."

Mike grimaced as Tuk pressed into the wound more. "I could have sworn I saw something at Jomsom."

Tuk smiled. "I'm afraid that was me." He leaned over Mike's thigh and stared at the wound.

"How is it?" Annja asked.

Tuk looked at her. "The bleeding is slowing, but I can't tell how bad the tear is. I think it's fairly certain that the femoral artery was not damaged, but he has lost a good amount of blood."

Annja looked around. "How long before they send a rescue team?"

Mike grunted. "I don't know. Depends if they got a fix on our location. There's a lot of real estate to cover up in these parts. All they knew was we were north of Jomsom. We could have gone down anywhere."

Annja sighed. Daylight was already starting to fade in the mountains and the chill that her adrenaline had kept at bay was finally working its way into her consciousness.

They needed shelter and fire. If they had to spend the night exposed to the elements like this, there would be no surviving it.

She looked at Tuk. "How well do you know the countryside around here?"

Tuk shook his head. "I don't know it at all. I'm an orphan and found my way into Katmandu when I was young. All the memories of my childhood have deserted me unfortunately."

Annja maneuvered around to where Tuk stood. She reached to take over the act of keeping pressure on Mike's wound. "Well, here's the reality check, Tuk. We need to find a place that is out of the wind. If we stay exposed like this on the mountain we're dead before anyone gets a chance to find us."

Tuk nodded. "I agree. What would you like me to do."

"Seeing that you're the most mobile out of all of us, you're going to need to find shelter of some sort. I know there are a lot of caves around these parts. What are the odds you can locate one for us to take shelter in?"

"I won't know until I get started," Tuk said.