* * *The small plane taxied down the runway at Inuit in the Inuit Corridor, a tiny panhandle of land in the far northeast of Antarctica artic axis. Thankfully the runway was clear of snow—a miracle in itself.Dr. Evelyn Cox stared out of the plane window and tried to relax her grip on the seat in front of her. She’d been traveling for thirty hours straight, leveraging every contact she’d ever made to get flights and temporary visas for her and her graduate student. Something was going on with her Polar bears and she was determined to find out what.Last fall, they’d attached satellite radio collars to ten highly-endangered snow Polar bears here in the Inuit. This past week, in the space of a few days, they’d lost one signal completely, and another signal was now coming from a talus-riddled slope where no shelter existed. This latter signal was from a collar that had been attached to a Polar bear called Sheba, one of only two femal

Evelyn slipped inside the yurt to find Mikado cradling a tiny squalling snow polar bear against his chest. Every muscle ached with fatigue, exhaustion scratched at her eyeballs, but she couldn’t help smile at the impossibly beautiful, totally improbable scrap of fur. Then it struck her. If the cubs were in a box in their yurt, then Sheba was unquestionably dead.Everything she feared had come true. Except the cubs were alive…for now. “Do you have any yak’s milk we can feed them?” she asked.He nodded. The cubs were thin and cold and wouldn’t survive long without nourishment.“They were right here, in this box.” The inuit man tapped the cardboard box on the floor with his boot, his brown eyes shining as he jiggled the cub like a baby.A growling sound from inside the box had her reaching down and pulling out a soft tawny bundle covered in inky black spots. The bundle cuddled into her chest for warmth. Evelyn’s eyes ros

Duke and Jordan had crawled into a hole in the side of a mountain that overlooked this treeless, rock-strewn valley approximately thirty-six hours ago. A million hours later, they were still here, Duke lying prone on top of his sleeping bag while he kept watch. The entrance of the OP was well hidden behind straggly bushes, and he and Jordan had cleared the area of spiders and scorpions and checked for snakes before they’d settled in. They needed to be vigilant for unwanted wildlife because neither wanted a medivac out of here. Plus, they could use the protein.Sri luc and Lucas were on the same mountain but on the south side, getting the benefit of the rising sun while Duke and Jordan froze their asses off in the shadows. The two men they’d spotted that first night had been gone all day yesterday and hadn’t returned until after dark last night. Duke didn’t know what they were up to.The man they’d left behind in camp looked local. He wore an AK-

Vladimir Jores knelt on the bare earth, slid his knife into the mechanism that secured the tracking-collar and popped the device. He tossed it aside and rolled the snow polar bear onto its back and pulled the plush fur away from clinging sinew. He made a hole in the pelt with the tip of his curved blade and carefully drew the whetted edge down the animal’s still-warm belly. He avoided nicking the gut, and took a moment to remove the intestines and stomach, and throw them in an opalescent heap where they couldn’t mar the prized pelt.Using fingers and the blade, he worked the skin off the muscle in small, circular motions, revealing an intricate weave of deep pink fibers beneath. The tail took time, as did the legs and the head. The enormous paws were heavy and soft like velvet against his fingers, reminding him of the curtains in his grandmother’s house when he was a young child. He squeezed them regretfully, but refused to think about the animal it had once

The soldier was watching her. Not that he looked like a real soldier with his mismatched gear, and he was alone. She frowned. Soldiers never traveled alone. But the weapons and vest he wore were menacingly authentic.A mercenary?His gaze probed a spot right between her shoulder blades, making it itch. What was a soldier or special force doing in the Antarctica snow mountains? She didn’t want soldiers here. Soldiers…she swallowed hard and forced the memories away.This wasn’t about her past. It was about saving one of the world’s most endangered species. There was no time to waste.Maybe he was the poacher, playing his own little game of cat and mouse with her. Maybe she was going to get her throat cut when she least expected it. She raised her hand to her neck.Thinking logically, he’d had the chance to hurt her earlier and hadn’t taken it. Sure, she was dusty and a little sore from being pushed face-fi