All Chapters of Whiteout: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

I pressed a hand over my mouth and forced the lump in my throat back down.Chris came back a few minutes later. Snow clung to his shoulders, frost crusted his lashes, and he crouched in front of me, cupping my face in both hands."Kate, it's too windy out there. We might have to wait a bit longer."The gesture looked tender. It felt cold-blooded. My stomach turned.I looked away from him. "Is that right? Did you see the rescue team out there?"Something flickered in his eyes before he smiled. "Visibility's too low. I couldn't see a thing. But don't worry. The second that helicopter shows up, I'll get you out first."A dull cracking sound rolled out from deeper in the cave. Chris's expression shifted, and he immediately crossed to Angelina's side, pulling her farther from the entrance — completely forgetting he'd just promised to get me out first.I watched his back with a cold, distant feeling, then quietly switched on the miniature geological scanner strapped to my wrist. Its r

"I've always been the one handling comms on the shared frequency. If you open an unauthorized backup line, you'll interfere with the helicopter's radar positioning!"He lunged for the phone. I sidestepped him."Interfere with positioning? I'm contacting base to pull in a backup search-and-rescue chopper from another sector. Since our great team leader's decided to fly out with his protégée, I figured I'd better find my own way to stay alive."Chris's face went ashen. If I got through to base, everything he'd been hiding — deliberately stalling my rescue to get Angelina out first — would come out into the open.A deafening roar sounded above the cave mouth, and the rope ladder dropped down. There was no time left.Something hard and cruel flashed across Chris's eyes. He grabbed Angelina's arm."Angie, hold on tight. Go, now!"She'd been sobbing about being scared a second ago; she climbed faster than anyone. Chris stood by the ladder and glanced back at me once. There wasn't a tr

The most prestigious annual polar-expedition honors gala in the country was held at the National Convention Center. Chris stood in a crisp black suit, a white mourning flower pinned to his chest. Angelina, in a formal gown, stuck close to his side.The big screen behind them looped what Chris had billed as the last footage of me — carefully edited to keep only a silhouette from the moment supplies were handed out, casting himself as a tragic hero who'd made an agonizing sacrifice for the greater good.Camera flashes from the press nearly blinded the room."Professor Hanks, given the breakthrough this polar project has achieved, do you have anything you'd like to say to the late Ms. Kate Connery?"Chris took the microphone, drew a slow breath, and let his eyes redden right on cue."Kate wasn't just my wife — she was an irreplaceable part of this project. She left the chance of survival to a younger team member and left the glory to me. I'm standing here today to accept, on her beha

I pulled a stack of documents out of my briefcase and dropped them on the table. On top was the data analysis report Angelina had submitted before joining the team."Did you really think you'd covered every angle?"Angelina's crying cut off instantly. I flipped the file open."You deliberately hid your physical exam results and lied about a history of asthma — all to win Chris's sympathy and, when the moment counted, secure yourself a seat on the rescue chopper. And here's the worse part: that core code you turned in, the code you claimed to have written entirely on your own—" I paused a while before continuing, "—is stolen garbage, lifted wholesale from an overseas open-source database and localized."Angelina's face went bloodless."That's a lie! I typed every line of that myself!"I kept my voice level. "Whether it's a lie or not, the technical review team has already issued their final determination. Your code comments still had the original author's initials left in them."

"—the Kate who loved you was the one you froze to death in that cave. YOU killed her."Chris staggered and dropped to his knees at the mouth of the storm drain. Ignoring the filthy runoff, he shoved his arm in up to the shoulder, desperate to fish the lighter back out. His fingernails tore and bled from scraping at the pipe, but he came up with nothing.Security carried him off, and he was still shouting my name over and over. I didn't look back.The comments drifted by, slow and quiet.[Good.][That hurt him worse than any slap could have.][Kate's really free now.]…Chris's academic fraud scandal was confirmed beyond any doubt. Not only was he stripped of his professorship, he now faced a massive breach-of-contract settlement. The academic connections he'd once been so proud of turned on him overnight, avoiding him like the plague.Worse still, investigators found multiple records on his personal computer showing repeated attempts to bypass security and illegally duplicate