Free Fire Ice by Clive Cussler, Paul Kemprecos Page A

at a wrong angle. Blood soaked one side of his face, which had a caved-in look to it.
     
     
Austin said, "I'd guess he fell off his horse during the fight and was kicked in the head." He was not a callous man, but he felt no pity for the dead horseman.
     
     
Lombardo had retrieved his camera from the beached Zodiac and was filming the battle site. He and Kaela came over to see what the others were looking at. Lombardo let out a low whistle. "What kind of a getup is that?"
     
     
Austin knelt by the body. "Looks like something out of The Wizard of Oz."
     
     
The dead man wore a long muddy-gray coat that but- toned up the front and baggy pants tucked into black boots. His black fur pillbox hat lay a few feet away. Red epaulets decorated each shoulder. A pistol holster and scabbard hung from the wide leather belt that encircled his waist. Slung across his chest was a cartridge belt. A sheathed dagger hung from a cord around his neck.
     
     
"G'dayr' Dundee said with wonderment. “The man's a walking arsenal."
     
     
Austin searched the grass around the dead man. A few yards away, he found a rifle and he put the stock against his shoulder and worked the well-oiled bolt. Like the saber blade, the barrel was etched with Cyrillic writing. Austin was a collector of dueling pistols, and he had accumulated a general knowledge of antique guns. The rifle was a Moisin-Nagant, more than a hundred years old, and in mint condition. He uttered a silent prayer of thanks that the horsemen weren't carrying modern automatic weapons. A single Kalashnikov would have ripped him and the Gooney to shreds.
     
     
Austin handed the rifle off to Dundee and went through the dead man's pockets. Nothing. He unpinned the metal starburst emblem from the front of the hat and pocketed it. Lombardo had finished filming the battle scene, and Kaela suggested shooting some footage around the one-story cinder-block buildings farther inland.
     
     
"Not a good idea," Austin said, pointing to the trail of hoofprints leading toward the structures. He'd been worried that the horsemen would make a return appearance, but hadn't said anything because there wasn't much they could do about it. "In fact, I’d suggest that we get out of here as soon as we can." He rested the rifle on his shoulder, retrieved the saber and started walking back toward the beach. Kaela caught up with him on the crest of the dune.
     
     
"Do you have any idea what this is all about?" she said breathlessly. "Why these men would want to kill us?"
     
     
"You know as much as I do. I thought they were filming a movie until somebody took a few shots at me."
     
     
"It's a good thing for us that their aim was bad." She paused. Austin was studying her face the way he had earlier. "Is there anything wrong?"
     
     
"I'm almost embarrassed to say."
     
     
"I find it hard to believe that you'd be embarrassed. You hardly seem the shy type."
     
     
Austin shrugged. "Well, in a manner of speaking, you might say we've met before."
     
     
"Sorry, I'm sure I would have remembered."
     
     
"Not literally. Believe me when I say this. You bear a striking resemblance to the face of a princess I once saw painted on the wall of an Egyptian temple."
     
     
Kaela was tall, with a good part of her height invested in long shapely legs. She had a smooth mocha complexion and ebony black hair that she kept long with a natural tight curl. Her mouth was full and almost perfect, and her eyes were a dark amber. As an attractive woman working in a man's profession, she thought she had heard every male line invented - but this was a new one. She gave Austin a sidelong glance. "That's funny, I was thinking that you looked as if you'd fallen off Captain Kidd's pirate ship."
     
     
Austin laughed and ran his fingers through his disheveled hair. "I suppose I do look like a pirate, but I'm not joking. You're a ringer for the young woman in the temple. You're quite a bit younger than she is, though. I believe her