Buried Alive! by Gloria Skurzynski Page A

eyes teary from the wind.
    â€œUm, Chaz,” Ashley began, trying to change the subject, “do you know any other stories you could tell us about the wolverines?”
    Chaz shook his head. “I’m fresh out of stories, kid. Why don’t you ask Nicky here to tell some stories. I bet he knows a lot of them. I even bet his daddy’s the kind that likes to talk, although in my experience, people who talk are sorry in the end. Am I right, Nicky?”
    Nicky didn’t answer. There was something very wrong here, Jack sensed. It was as if currents were running beneath the water, forces that pushed in unseen ways that were cold and deep and unfathomable. Chaz seemed to be enjoying a truth that only he and Nicky understood, and Nicky looked scared. Then Chaz yelled at his dogs, and they began to run faster still.
    Ashley looked at Jack and mouthed What’s going on? but he could only shrug in reply before he turned to face forward again. Even if they wanted to end this bizarre episode there was nothing they could do, not out here in this wilderness. They kept mushing along the frozen river that wound through the woods like a piece of discarded string, then onto a road, and back to the creek bed. Once again the trees thickened, a shoulder-to-shoulder army of fir trees and spruce. The riverbed forked into two main branches, one to the left, and one to the right.
    â€œHaw!” Chaz cried. At the fork the dogs veered off to the left, and from the shadows Jack could tell they were curving to the east. They rode on, slipping past small clots of wood and hills where the snow had sheered off rock faces, past more sweeping meadows polished smooth by the wind. Clouds in the north were darkening the sky to an ominous steely gray, although Chaz seemed unconcerned as they raced on. Jack tried to convince himself that everything was going to be all right. But something deep in his gut was twisting.
    â€œChaz,” Ashley cried, “we’re getting farther from the mountain.”
    â€œSeems that way,” he agreed.
    â€œMaybe we should go back.”
    â€œWe can’t go back now—our fun is just starting! It’s only us and the wild, wild animals. Hey, Nicky, why don’t you keep an eye out for a wolverine? I heard that some guy caught one right at the base of that mountain in a trap.”
    Jack corkscrewed all the way around so that he was facing Chaz, and Ashley did the same. Chaz smiled, exposing all of his teeth. “Actually, I think I’ll just go ahead and tell you the truth. See, that’s the problem with crime—you can’t tell anyone when you’ve done something truly unique.” He pumped his thumb into his chest. “I’m an original. I caught those wolverines and turned tragedy into cash.” Raising his hands as if he were a criminal surrendering, he declared, “I might as well confess all the way. It was me. I dumped the wolverines.”
    â€œWhat—what are you talking about?” Jack gasped.
    â€œI got me one wolverine here, and then I caught me four more way out in the wilderness. Kept them in cages until I was ready. Nasty suckers—meaner than spit. No one will ever figure out how I did ’em in. See, I figured they might take a blood sample and check for disease or maybe poison, but I’m smarter than that. There’s no poison. So five wolverines, all dead from unknown causes, found in the snow near Kantishna—the publicity was worth its weight in gold. It was exactly what my Wolverine Rescue scam needed.”
    Was Chaz playing some kind of sick joke? Nicky stared straight ahead, his face stone.
    Squinting, Chaz seemed to look off into the distance. “Didn’t think about them being all males, though,” he added, making a clucking sound. “Your mom caught that mistake. She’s pretty sharp. Well, I guarantee she won’t figure out the rest. Anyway, I put pictures of those pathetic wolverines