“Are you Frank?”
Payton didn’t wait for an answer. Jess watched him offer his hand to a man in the airstrip office.
“My name’s Payton Archer.”
A man wearing an Alaska State Trooper uniform was filling a coffee mug and making himself at home. With her body clock turned upside down by the time change, the coffee smelled good.
“Yeah, that’d be me.” The man grinned and shook Payton’s hand. “Frank Toyukak out of Nome. Your friend Tanu and me, we go way back. I’ll be happy to help any way I can.”
Trooper Frank had a distinctive oval face with high cheekbones. His dark skin was weathered by age and marked by laugh lines. His black hair and spindly moustache were peppered with gray, and his eyebrows had a pronounced arch. They made him look as if he had a constant surprised expression on his face. The man had a quiet voice and reserved manner that Jess liked immediately. He looked like a straight shooter.
Payton introduced her. “This is Jessica Beckett, out of Chicago.”
“Hey, Frank.”
“You’re a long way from home,” the man remarked, and shook her hand. “Good to meet you both. You care for coffee? It ain’t Starbucks, but it’s plenty hot.”
The trooper poured coffee into ceramic mugs, but let them add any cream or sugar. While he played host, he said, “Sorry to hear about your niece. I read the missing person report after Joe called. And he filled me in on this Globe Harvest organization you’re chasing. Do you really think they’re operating here on the island?”
“We have reason to believe it’s possible, but I admit it’s a long shot.” Payton took a gulp of coffee and glanced her way, a worried look on his face. “We want to pursue any lead we’ve got. That’s why we’re here. And Joe said you might help.”
“I’ll do what I can, but it’s a little late in the day to do much now.” The trooper set down his coffee and stepped over to a desk to spread out a topographic map of the island. “Speaking of that, Joe said you might be camping overnight and may not have time to pack. I brought a duffel bag of personal gear and a cache of food and water for a few days if you need it.”
“Days?” Jess tried to keep the question out of her voice but failed.
“Ah…thanks, Frank.” Payton shot her a sideways glance. “That’ll help.
“But if someone is abducting young girls and using St. Lawrence as a base of operation,” the trooper continued, “they’d stand out for sure. Let me give you a map tour of the island. It might speed things up since we’ll lose the light soon. Or maybe you’d prefer I find you a place for the night and we start fresh in the morning. Your call.”
“No, I’d rather do what we can now,” Payton said, directing his attention to the map.
“Joe told me you’d say that, so here’s what I know.”
According to Frank, the island was sparsely populated and mostly inhabited by Natives. The man gave them a run-down using the detailed map. At first Jess suspected there wouldn’t be many places for Globe Harvest to hide their operation, but the trooper shared his thoughts on other activity on the island. If Globe Harvest was there, they could cover up their actions a number of different ways.
“Two Alaska Native Corporations own St. Lawrence Island and manage the resources. The Natives who live here are considered indigenous shareholders and are allowed to excavate sites for old bones, artifacts, and walrus ivory to barter or sell. We get traffic through here from that too.”
“I hate to ask this, but isn’t that looting?” Payton asked, raking a hand through his hair. She could tell he expected to get more direction from the trooper, a place to start their search, but the man only gave them more to consider. The island seemed like a haystack with Nikki being a needle.
“Here they call it subsistence digging for old stuff.” The trooper shrugged. “We also get oil and gas companies sending reps to scout out offshore locations for exploration. What I’m trying to say is, things happen on the island from time to time, but generally I know about it.”
He gave a broader overview of the terrain and offered his Robinson R-44 Clipper II helicopter for them to see the island firsthand when the time came. After he was done, Payton looked more dejected, but he pressed the trooper for more.
“No, this can’t be it. There’s gotta be something…” He leaned over the desk, staring at the map in frustration. “In Chicago they’d taken over an old textile factory. The place looked deserted from the outside. Do you have anything like that here?”
Payton was grasping at straws now. And by the look on his face, he knew it too. From what she had seen, St. Lawrence Island had little that could be construed as a substantial commercial property, but when Frank didn’t answer Payton right away, it gave Jess hope that she was wrong.
“Well, there is the old Air Force station at Northeast Cape, but it was shut down in the seventies.” The trooper pointed to a section on the map. “As far as I know, no one goes there except…”
“Except who?” Payton sounded hopeful.
“More like…except for what,” the Native man corrected. “That facility was mainly a radar site, an Air Force listening post back in the early fifties, but later they abandoned it.” His face grew more somber. “Many of the local Natives used to camp and hunt in that area until they started to get sick. Real sick.”
“Sick?” she asked. “From what?”
“Cancer mostly,” the trooper replied. “But other diseases too. Some say from PCB exposure.”
“That’s awful.” She couldn’t imagine such a thing, getting struck down by disease that might have been brought by outsiders. Life on the island looked hard enough without the added complication.
“Yeah, many died before they finally figured it out, but it was too little, too late.” Toyukak shrugged. “No one goes there anymore. They know to stay away. The government conducted a clean up program in 2003. They say it’s clear, but we get the occasional air traffic for inspections, soil testing, or remediation efforts. If that land is supposed to be okay, then why do we still have government types flying through? I doubt we’ll see an end to it anytime soon.”
“Take us there,” Payton insisted, unable to hide his enthusiasm.
“I told you, it may not be safe. And if this organization is doing anything illegal here on the island, I’d hear about it.”
Jess knew he wasn’t trying to be difficult. More than likely, Frank was concerned for their safety. Imagining an organization like Globe Harvest operating here was hard to believe, even for her.
“Would you hear about it? Or would residents mistake any activity for just another government inspection or test and dismiss it?”
Payton let his question sink in, allowing the trooper to come up with his own conclusions. After a quick minute, the man did.
“Come on. This may be a wild goose chase, but it’s worth a look. We can be there before the sun goes down, and my helicopter is fueled and ready.” Before the man left the office, he turned to Payton. “Joe said you’d be carrying. Are both of you armed?”
Payton told him about the weapons Joe had loaned them. Jess missed her Colt Python, but there had been no time to replace the weapons she’d lost to Baker and the Russian. She had Joe’s .45-caliber Glock 21 and wore it under her jacket in a holster. And Payton had his .380 Walther PPK/S. Frank might have understood the need to carry weapons as a precaution, or perhaps Joe had vouched for them. Either way, the trooper didn’t ask for permits or question them further. But he did insist on taking charge.
“We’re only checking the old radar station for recent activity,” the trooper clarified. “If I see anything suspicious, I’ll call for backup and we’ll wait until help arrives. Are we clear?”
“Yeah, crystal.” Payton forced a smile, but she couldn’t read his face.
On the surface, he looked reasonable and in control, but she knew better. If Globe Harvest occupied the radar site and evidence supported that theory, she had no doubt that when it came to saving his niece, Payton Archer would be a hard man to stop.
She had bet against him once—something she wouldn’t do again.
An hour later
In a ravine hidden in a stand of evergreen trees, Alexa looked through binoculars at the quiet setting below her position. Her team of five men was within eyesight and awaiting her order to proceed. She felt their presence more than saw them.
