In the Arctic Read Online Free Page A

once we’re airborne. After you’ve signed the statements insideswearing that you’ll never divulge anything that happens during this mission, you will need to read and finish the briefing papers contained in your packets before we land at Langley. There’s some background information on the Arctic Circle and the North Pole, together with a brief description of Thule Air Base.
    “First thing tomorrow morning, you’ll get a formal briefing with the other members of the ETF. That’s when you’ll hear about what happened up in that frozen wasteland to warrant the actions we’re about to take. By the way, I understand your two friends from New York are being driven down to Langley as we speak.”
    As soon as Quade finished his last sentence, Jockabeb’s thoughts were drawn back to the night they’d hunted the Ratweil and how quickly Meatloaf had moved when he hurled his Bowie knife into Shabazz’s forehead. It was a good thing, too, because the gangbanger was just about to return the favor. Not surprisingly, Archibald’s thoughts were on another person being driven to Langley that night—the beautiful girl who’d saved his life and stolen his heart.
    Both brothers were jolted back to the present when the pilot shouted from the cockpit, “Quade, take your seat, we’re rolling.”
    Seconds later, the King Air began taxiing onto the runway for takeoff. It was a bumpy ascent as the small plane flew directly into the teeth of accelerating northeast winds and a mountain of snow-laden clouds that would soon shut down operations at the airport they’d just left.
    Seeing the worried expression on Jockabeb’s face as the propjet was buffeted by successive windblasts and rocked by a strong down draft, Quade leaned over and made a prediction. “My guess is that this will seem like a day at the beach compared to the weather you’ll experience at Thule.”
    “Thanks,” Jockabeb replied, shaking his head and hoping that Special Agent Quade’s forecasting of Arctic weather would be just as accurate as when he called the Ratweil an extraterrestrial.
    During the flight to Langley, the boys learned a lot about the desolate polar region at the northernmost part of the Earth. They were surprised to find out that the frozen tundra covering most of the Arctic was actually ice-covered ocean. When Jockabeb read that average winter temperatures dropped to around forty degrees below zero, he was glad that the PSA was supplying cold weather clothing because he didn’t own anything that could stand up to that kind of cold.
    After reading about the Arctic’s polar night in winter and midnight sun in summer, Jockabeb kicked his brother’s foot and said, “Hey, it’s going to be dark the whole time we’re there.” Then he laughed and added, “That won’t bother your girlfriend since she sees pretty well in the dark.”
    “Lighten up with the girlfriend stuff.” Archibald snapped. “I’ve spent less than six hours with Willow, and I haven’t seen her in five months, so she can’t be my girlfriend.”
    Although the facts he’d just quoted were technically correct, Archibald silently hoped his conclusion was dead wrong. Either way, he’d find out the truth in a matter of hours.
    “Sorry, I didn’t know you were so sensitive about Willow,” Jockabeb apologized halfheartedly. Then, shifting the subject back to the Arctic, he asked, “Do you think we’ll see any polar bears?”
    “I don’t know,” Archibald answered. “These briefing papers say there are lots of other animals that live up there. Some are small like Arctic hares, ground squirrels, lemmings, and ermines, but others are pretty big. Look on page seventeen, there’s a really cool picture of a herd of musk-oxen.”
    Flipping a few pages forward, Jockabeb said, “Neat. Look at the picture of the caribou right below it. I read that those are just some of the animals that the roaming packs of wild wolves hunt.”
    The moment his brother mentioned wolves,