Blood Ice

Preview

...Pelegrin began to see emerging outlines of trees that previously blended into the black. The mound built into the hillside that served as the bear’s winter comfort zone began to materialize. He thought he heard something. It sounded like swishing and an occasional squeak. Birds or rodents?

Again. Off the trail to his left. He squinted at a shape that seemed to move. He looked a little to the side of it so his night vision could advantage itself. A pine stump with a skinny balsam evergreen growing out of it. Phantoms at night reveal themselves as visual-perceptual trickery at dusk.

Again. Swish-swoosh. Two steps? Pelegrin slowly grasped his flashlight and squeezed the inside of his arm against the reassuring presence of his holstered service revolver. He heard another swish and a click and swiveled his head to the right in the direction of the sound. Daylight suddenly exploded. Pelegrin saw his world flash yellow and white. Instantaneous, blinding butter whiteout. He felt his head being smashed against the Norway pine trunk and his head and shoulders being lifted and twisted. He put out his arm to steady himself but braced it only against air as he swam downwards, falling from the tree stand.

Pelegrin began to emerge from this hazy world of hurt and stupor. Maybe he would be all right. His head snapped back like a clap of thunderous pain by someone yanking his hair. His jaw slacked, and he tried to say something. What emerged was a guttural vowel suddenly damped by some slick, feathery, oily-tasting flexible object Pelegrin began to emerge from this hazy world of hurt and stupor. Maybe he would be all right. His head snapped back like a clap of thunderous pain by someone yanking his hair. His jaw slacked, and he tried to say something. What emerged was a guttural vowel suddenly damped by some slick, feathery, oily-tasting flexible object being forced into his mouth and down his throat. He gurgled. He could still breathe slightly through his nose, but his breath was labored and held only a slim thread of air-hope. Whatever had been forced into his mouth was being packed so far down his throat that now both oral and nasal airways were dammed as well. Oxygen starvation reversed what had been his dawning lucidity. He perceived changing light patterns with diminishing flashes and stars and web-like orange patterns as his consciousness crept away. The world faded to deep orange and then purple. He knew he was dying and his last spume of consciousness was a hallucination of bears and dinosaurs.

A driblet of warm blood coursed down his cheek, dropped off his jawline, and clung to a birch twig. Chill swamp air quickened its transformation into an ice crystal. The geometry of the flake contained the universe and all its cardinal laws. Genetics. Life. Chaos theory. Greed. Love. It also held a story.

"You must be Mr. Sunny. Come with me. They are waiting for you."

Khen locked the front door of the shop, turned the Open sign to Closed, drew blinds on the door window, and led Sunny past swinging doors into the back of the shop. Three tables and the cabinet counters were filled with cutting devices, ultra-sharp tomes for creating millimeter slices, plastic baggies, and an array of scattered though grossly separated mineral stones, roots and leaves, fur, sinew, bones, antlers, dried marine products, bloody bird nests, cicada and other exoskeletons.

..."Come in, Mr. Leung. We’ve been waiting patiently for your delivery. I am Kam Nga Koi."

Two toughs with dark blue blazers stood with arms behind them on either side of a small Chinese man, who was seated at the end of a long table in light that scarcely revealed his features. Sunny could see that he was slight, almost anorexically thin with prominent facial bone structure. He resembled a skull with skin and hair. One eye socket was sunken and partially covered with scar tissue. As Sunny’s eyes adjusted to the dim light, he could see that the man’s left central incisor was broken off at a jagged, diagonal angle.

"Broken Tooth Koi," thought Sunny. "So this is what the boss looks like."

Koi’s lips were waxy and though his upper lip was thin, his lower lip was strangely full with an almost collagen-like poutiness. His fingers were long and carefully manicured, and the glint of clear polish caught Sunny’s eye when he gestured. His hair was gelled, and he wore a carefully tailored double-breasted charcoal pinstripe suit.

"I believe you have something for me," said Koi.

"I do," said Sunny. "I hope you are satisfied with the quality."

"Is it Black or Grizzly?"

"Black."

"What about the other parts?"

"They are safe and being dried. We will have to make further arrangements for them. They are not as easy to transport," said Sunny.

"How much do you have?" said Koi.

"5 kilos," said Sunny. "Just a sample. But there is more where this comes from. We have a new source in a remote section of America. Many bears this year."