Lily couldn't think of anything to say except, "Oh, am I ever glad to

see you."

"Name's Dirk Pitt," answered a warm voice.  "If you're not busy, why

don't you have dinner with me tomorrow night?"

Lily looked up at Pitt, trying to read him, not sure she had heard him

correctly.  "I may not be up to it."

He pushed back the hood of his parka and ran his hands up and down her

legs.  He gently squeezed her ankles.  "No apparent breaks or swelling,"

he said in a friendly voice.  "Are you in pain?"

"I'm too cold to hurt."

Pitt retrieved a pair of blankets that had been pitched from the sled d

you get here?"

he asked her.

"I'm one of a team of archaeologists doing an excavation on an ancient

Eskimo village.  We heard the plane come up the fjord and ran out of our

hut in time to see it land on the ice. We were heading for the crash

site with blankets and medical supplies when we . . ." Lily's words

became vague and she weakly gestured toward the overturned sled.

"We?"

In the light from the helicopter Pitt quickly read the accident in the

snow coating the ice: the straight trail of the snowmobile, the abrupt

swerve around the severed aircraft wing, the sharp cuts made by the

runners of the out-of-control sledonly then did he glimpse another human

form lying nearly ten meters beyond the wing.

"Hold on."

Pitt walked  over  and  knelt  down  beside  Gronquist.  The  big

archaeologist was breathing evenly.  Pitt gave him a cursory

examination.

Lily watched for a few moments, and then asked anxiously, "Is he dead?"

"Hardly.  A nasty contusion on his forehead.  Concussion, most likely.

Possible fracture, but I doubt it.  He has a head like a bank vault."

Graham came trudging up, Hoskins limping along behind, both looking like

snowmen, their Arctic jumpsuits dusted white, their face masks plastered

with ice from their breathing.  Graham lifted his mask, exposing his

bloodied face and studied Pitt blankly for a moment, then he smiled

bleakly.

"Welcome, stranger.  Your timing was perfect."

No one on the helicopter had seen the other two members of the

archaeology expedition from the air, and Pitt began to wonder how many

other ambulance cases were wandering around the fjord.

"We have an injured man and lady here," Pitt said without formalities.

"Are they part of your group?"

The smile fell from Graham's face.  "What happened?"

"They took a bad spill."

"We took one too."

"You see the aircraft?"

"Saw it go down, but we didn't reach it."

Hoskins moved around Graham and stared down at Lily and then glanced

around until he spied Gronquist.  "How badly are they hurt?"

"Know better after they've had X-rays."

"We've got to help them."

"I have a team of medics on board the helicopter."

"Then what in hell are you waiting for?" Hoskins cut him off - "Call