Lost Read online

  Lost

  John Wilson

  orca currents

  O R C A B O O K P U B L I S H E R S

  Copyright © 2016 John Wilson

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without permission in writing from the publisher.

  Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

  Wilson, John (John Alexander), 1951–, author

  Lost / John Wilson.

  Issued in print and electronic formats.

  ISBN 978-1-4598-1195-9 (paperback).—ISBN 978-1-4598-1196-6 (pdf).—

  ISBN 978-1-4598-1197-3 (epub)

  I. Title.

  PS8595.I5834L657 2016 jC813'.54 C2015-904502-9

  C2015-904503-7

  First published in the United States, 2015

  Library of Congress Control Number: 2015946247

  Summary: In this high-interest novel for young readers, teen sleuths Sam and Annabel solve a mystery in the Arctic that has ties to the Franklin Expedition.

  Orca Book Publishers gratefully acknowledges the support for its publishing programs provided by the following agencies: the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund and the Canada Council for the Arts, and the Province of British Columbia through the BC Arts Council and the Book Publishing Tax Credit.

  Cover photography by Tom Gross

  Author photo by Katherine Gordon

  ORCA BOOK PUBLISHERS

  www.orcabook.com

  Printed and bound in Canada.

  19 18 17 16 • 4 3 2 1

  For Russell Potter, William Battersby, Kat Stoetzel, Regina Koellner, Tom Gross and all the other Franklin aficionados who would love to find an oilskin-wrapped journal on an island in Queen Maud Gulf.

  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Author’s Note

  Acknowledgments

  Chapter One

  “It’s spam, Sam,” Annabel says without looking up from her crossword puzzle. “Real people don’t send email like that. Delete it. Now here’s an easy clue for you. ‘Two girls, one on each knee.’ Seven letters.”

  “I have no idea,” I say. Annabel is teaching me to do cryptic crosswords. I can do regular crosswords, but the clues in cryptic crosswords don’t make sense.

  Annabel gives me a how can you be so dumb look. “Patella,” she says. I stare back blankly. “Pat and Ella are girl’s names, and a kneecap is called a patella. Simple.”

  “For you, maybe, but you’re weird,” I say. Annabel smiles as if I’ve paid her a compliment. “Sometimes I wish you’d go back to learning pi to some crazy number. At least I could understand that. But come see this email. It’s not the usual spam. There’s no link to click. They’re not asking for anything. It says I’ve been selected for a free cruise.”

  “Yippee,” Annabel says. “A cruise in the Bahamas. That’s useful when you live in Australia.”

  “It says flights are included. And it’s not a cruise to the Bahamas. It goes through the Northwest Passage. It’s called ‘In the Footsteps of Sir John Franklin’.”

  A moment later, Annabel is reading the email aloud over my shoulder.

  Dear Sam:

  ENIGMA TOURS, a division of the Crype Foundation, has a long history of guiding small groups of adventurous souls to locations of extraordinary interest.

  ENIGMA TOURS is creating several new adventures based on the world’s great mysteries. For our first tour, we are planning something really special, and we hope that you will be interested in a chance to participate.

  In 1845, Sir John Franklin led the greatest Arctic expedition ever into the fabled Northwest Passage. Not one of the 129 men on Franklin’s two ships lived to see home again. And today their bones lie scattered on the icy shores of Canada’s Arctic islands. What went wrong? No one knows. Would you like to be the one to solve the mystery?

  ENIGMA TOURS will be offering a small group of people free passage on a trial run of the tour. This will include return airfare and two weeks on our luxury motor yacht Arctic Spray. All you have to do is spread the word about our great product and allow us to use your name and image in our promotion. Your passage will include a companion.

  A brochure has been mailed, and within a few days I will call you with more information and answer any questions you may have. If you are still interested, your name will be entered in a draw.

  I do hope you will consider our unique travel adventures. Thank you for your time.

  Sincerely,

  Moira Rawdon

  Vice-President, ENIGMA TOURS

  ENIGMA TOURS

  Travel on a ship of the desert.

  See the first light of dawn.

  Visit the sites of ancient conflicts.

  Cross unimagined rivers.

  “You’re right,” Annabel says. “That’s not normal spam.”

  “Do you think it’s real?” I ask.

  “Could be, I suppose. I can’t see any way they could scam you, unless…”

  “Unless what?”

  “Unless,” Annabel goes on, “they’re aliens. They might have a plan to abduct teens for a colony on one of Jupiter’s moons.”

  It takes me a second to absorb what she’s said. “That’s crazy,” I tell her.

  “Hmmm. I guess you’re right,” Annabel agrees. “It’s much more likely they want you for medical experiments.”

  “Well, I think it’s real,” I say, annoyed that Annabel isn’t taking the email seriously. I turn back to my computer and search for Enigma Tours. I click on News and see an announcement of upcoming tours.

  ON THE TRAIL OF COLONEL FAWCETT: Through the Amazon jungle in search of the lost city of Z

  THE MUMMIES OF TURIM: Who are these perfectly preserved bodies in remote Asia?

  “Lost cities in the jungle and mummies in the desert sound pretty cool.”

  “That’s how scams work,” Annabel explains. “They sound cool and offer something you want to believe in. Then they bleed you for money.”

  “Their website looks pretty good,” I say, pointing at the screen. We look at beautiful photographs of luxury ships, trains and camper vans, complete with obviously rich people enjoying themselves. We watch a video of smiling holidaymakers sipping champagne on beaches and equally happy groups being led through ancient ruins.

  “It looks real,” I say.

  “It’s easy enough to make a website look fancy,” Annabel says.

  “Why do you have to be so negative?” I ask, my annoyance returning.

  Annabel tilts her head and looks at me. “Not negative,” she says. “Just careful. How do you think they found you? And I wonder what the Crype Foundation is. Sounds shady.”

  “It’s easy to get someone’s email,” I say.

  “Okay, but they sent you mail. And they are going to phone you. Street address and cell numbers are tougher to get.”

  “But still possible,” I say. Annabel has a point. It is a lot of trouble to go to.

  Annabel shrugs. “I guess we’re not as private as we like to think.”

  “Maybe I won’t hear from them,” I say. My annoyance fades as fast as it appeared. “But I kind of hope it is real. It’d be cool to go to the Arctic.”

  “Especially in wi
nter,” Annabel says with a laugh.

  “That was really bad,” I say. “Even for you. But the timing would be great. It would be awesome to see where they found Franklin’s ship.”

  “HMS Erebus,” Annabel says. “Did you know that Franklin was lieutenant governor of Tasmania before he went on his last expedition? His wife, Jane, was an explorer in her own right. She was the first European woman to travel across Tasmania.”

  “Do you know everything?” I ask.

  “Of course not,” Annabel says. “There’s always more to know and learn. I’d quite like to learn more about the Arctic.”

  “Would you?” I say. “Don’t forget, Enigma Tours contacted me. I can invite anyone. What’s to say I’ll invite you?”

  Annabel punches me on the arm.

  “That hurt,” I say.

  “You deserved it,” she says, looking at her crossword. “Besides, who else would go with you? Now, ‘Nothing to hold a spike.’ Four letters.”

  “Nothing…to…hold…a…spike. Four…letters,” I repeat slowly. “If nothing is nil and it’s holding the letter a, the answer could be nail.”

  Annabel looks impressed. “You’re getting the hang of this.”

  “Me and my friend,” I say, turning my laptop to face her. The screen shows CrypticAid, your crossword helper.

  Annabel shakes her head in despair. “You’ll never learn that way.”

  “Maybe not, but I’ll have a lot more spare time.”

  Chapter Two

  The thick, glossy brochure arrives two days later. There are five pages on the cruise through the Northwest Passage. After school Annabel comes over, and we go through it.

  “It’s very fancy,” I say. “Enigma Tours must have lots of money.”

  “They do, but that doesn’t mean they are a good company. We’ve crossed swords with Humphrey Battleford twice. We know he’s rich, but he’s also a crook.”

  “But this brochure is well done,” Annabel goes on. “It’s not too flashy, and the history is accurate and up-to-date. It has the most recent information on the Erebus discovery.”

  “Do you think they’ll find Franklin’s body on board the ship?” I ask.

  “Not a chance,” Annabel says.

  “Why not?” I’ve spent a lot of time in the past two days reading about Sir John Franklin’s lost expedition. It’s no use trying to know as much as Annabel, but I have to give it a shot so that I don’t feel totally stupid. “We know from the note the survivors left at Victory Point in 1848 that Franklin was already dead. Maybe they tried to bring his body home.”

  “No,” Annabel says, without admitting that I might be right. “When Franklin died, they had no idea how long it would take them to get home. They couldn’t leave him lying around.”

  “But wouldn’t the cold in the Arctic have preserved his body?”

  “Yes, but the ships had heating systems. Franklin’s body would have become unpleasant quickly. Mind you, after the Battle of Trafalgar they took Nelson’s body back to Britain in a barrel of brandy. The alcohol preserved the body.”

  “That’s a bit creepy,” I say.

  “It gets better,” Annabel says with a grin. “The story is that the sailors put a tap on the barrel so they could drink the brandy on the way home.”

  “That’s gross. They drank the brandy the dead man was floating in?”

  “Sailors were tough in those days. Maybe Parks Canada should search the Erebus for a large barrel.”

  “How do you find out all this stuff?”

  “Research,” Annabel says. “And then there’s the story of the tall white man with the long teeth.”

  “I did research,” I say, “but I didn’t find anything about a guy with long teeth.” Annabel can be exasperating at times. It’s like hanging out with a walking Wikipedia.

  “It’s a story the Inuit told, but no one believed them. One spring a hunting party found a ship in the ice. It was abandoned except for the body of a tall white man with long teeth.”

  “You’re making this up.”

  “See? You wouldn’t have believed the Inuit either,” Annabel says. “A lot of Europeans would have looked tall to the Inuit.”

  “But long teeth?”

  “The Arctic is cold and dry. A body would dry out. When that happens, your eyelids pull back and your teeth and gums recede. After a while it looks like you’re staring and that you have very long teeth. It all makes sense.”

  “What happened then?” I ask.

  “When the ice melted, the ship sank. The archaeologists found the Erebus very close to where the Inuit claim to have seen it.”

  “Why did no one believe the Inuit stories?”

  “A lot of the British explorers were pompous. They believed their way of doing things was the only way. The Inuit didn’t have a written language, so the British thought they were making up stories.”

  “Do you think this cruise will visit the wreck?”

  “I doubt it,” says Annabel. “There would be nothing to see unless you’re a diver. And the researchers aren’t saying exactly where it was that they found the wreck.”

  “To stop people like Humphrey Battleford stealing things from it.”

  “Exactly. Can you imagine how much something from that wreck would be worth?”

  It’s weird to think about putting a dollar value on someone’s suffering. I try to imagine the horrors Franklin’s men must have endured. They were trapped in an alien landscape thousands of miles from home. They were sick and starving, watching their friends die one by one. I shudder at the thought.

  My thoughts are interrupted. “Hi, you two,” my dad says. “What’s up?”

  “Hi, Mr. Butler,” Annabel says cheerfully. “We’ve been reading a brochure for a cruise through the Northwest Passage. It seems they would like Sam to go for free.”

  “Sounds like a scam to me,” Dad says. “In my experience, things that seem too good to be true usually are.”

  “This one’s a bit different,” I say. “This is the email I got the other day.”

  I turn my computer so Dad can see the screen. He reads the email and then scans the brochure. “It is different,” he says. “It might be okay. Has anyone called yet?”

  I give Annabel a look I hope says, See? My dad’s not being negative.

  With amazing timing, my cell phone vibrates in my pocket. I don’t recognize the number. “Hello,” I say.

  “Could I speak with Sam Butler?” a female voice asks.

  “You’re speaking to him.”

  “Excellent. Well, congratulations, Sam. My name’s Moira Rawdon. I’m the vice-president of Enigma Tours.”

  Chapter Three

  “Hello. Um. Nice to talk to you.” I stumble through a few words. I’m fighting to stay calm. I really want to go on this cruise. I nod at Annabel and Dad to indicate that this is the call.

  “I’m so glad I caught you,” Moira Rawdon says. “The time difference between Canada and Australia is quite something to work around.”

  “You’re in Canada?”

  “Yes, we have an office in Vancouver. Not as fancy as the head office in New York, but it’s okay. Has our brochure arrived?”

  “Yes, this morning. It’s very nice.” I almost kick myself for not being able to say anything smart. Annabel moves closer, her head cocked to one side. Dad is watching from the doorway.

  “Excellent,” Moira goes on. “I hope there was enough information on the Franklin cruise.”

  “Yes. I did a project on explorers in ninth grade.” Shut up! I think. If they give this tour to anyone, it’ll be someone mature and intelligent. Not a kid who babbles about school projects. I take a deep breath. “I think Franklin’s fate is interesting. And divers found the wreck of the Erebus right where the Inuit said it would be.” That’s better. Annabel rolls her eyes, but I ignore her. “How long will the cruise be?” I ask. I’m trying to take the pressure off me by asking a question.

  “Excellent question.” Excellent seems to b
e Moira’s favorite word. “There are still a few details to be worked out, but it will be about fourteen days. We’ll start during the last week of August. Eventually, we plan a full cruise from Seattle or Vancouver all the way ’round to New York. But this is a test run. We’ll be doing only the heart of the expedition, from Sachs Harbour to Pond Inlet. Hope you don’t mind.”

  “Not at all,” I say. I have no idea where either place is.

  “The exact timing will depend on the weather and ice conditions, but every year sailing in the Arctic gets easier. Only about two hundred ships have ever sailed through the Northwest Passage. But this summer, almost forty are registered to make the journey. And that includes a large luxury cruise liner carrying nine hundred people. Cruising the Northwest Passage is a growth industry, and Enigma Tours aims to get in on the ground floor.”

  “Excellent,” I say before realizing what I have said. I don’t ask what would happen if a nine-hundred-passenger ship got stuck in the ice the way Franklin’s did. Instead I say, “How many passengers are you planning to take?”

  “Six.”

  “Six! That’s not very many.”

  “Indeed not,” Moira says. “Later tours will be larger, but we want to keep the numbers down to begin with.”

  “I see,” I say.

  Annabel leans forward and says, “Hello, Ms. Rawdon. My name’s Annabel. I’ll be Sam’s companion if you select him for this cruise. I have a couple of questions.” Annabel smiles and threatens me with a punch.

  “Lovely to talk to you, Annabel. Go ahead with your questions.”

  I put my phone on speaker so that we can all hear what is being said.

  “Your company is spending a large amount of money taking only six people on this cruise. How can you be sure that the publicity you get will be worth it?”

  “Another excellent question. The thing to remember, Annabel, is that Enigma Tours is not taking this trip only to carry six passengers. Before our first fully commercial cruise, we need to take the ship along the route to make sure that everything we have planned is possible. It’s inexpensive to add a handful of extra passengers. This run won’t include all the luxuries of a full cruise, but it will give a good sense of what the real thing will be like.”