Summer of Fire - Linda Jacobs [123]
In Karrabotsos’s Huey, Deering acknowledged radio communication. If this was a blanket call to set down, he was way ahead of them. Controller Jack Owen knew it.
“Deering,” Jack spoke directly to him. “I need you on Nez Perce Peak to pick up some hikers. Word is they’re trapped on a ridge by fire.”
“I’m trapped on the ground by one,” Deering replied. “You got any idea what’s going down at Old Faithful?”
“I thought the worst was over.”
“I can’t take off in this wind.” He repeated what he’d told Garrett. “I’d crash.”
Clare’s daughter had blue eyes that weren’t a thing like her mother’s. They went wide. Maybe he shouldn’t have used the ‘c’ word, but he did want to make his point with Owen. “Where’s Johnny Arvela?”
“Way north. Look, those hikers were spotted by a fixed-wing over an hour ago. God knows what’s happening up there.”
Deering wasn’t ready to fly again, but with a sinking feeling, he gauged the wind’s velocity and direction. In the past few minutes, it had shifted so that the full brunt did not bear down on the inn. “Where is it again?”
“Either Nez Perce or Saddle Mountain. The pilot wasn’t sure. Two or maybe three guys.”
Clare’s kid clutched his arm. “Can’t we get out of here?”
A few minutes ago, it hadn’t seemed possible that the inn would not burn, but now the roof merely smouldered. It looked as though the firestorm’s front had passed, already cresting the ridge with the lookout.
A nasty ache rose in his throat. The wind was still a hazard, each gust rocking the chopper, but it was subsiding rapidly. “Okay,” he told Jack. “It looks like the worst is over here, but I was flying Garrett Anderson.”
“I’ll see that he finds out where you are.”
That settled it, except for Clare’s daughter. “Look . . .”
“Devon.” That was going to be a nasty burn on her chest. She cradled a swollen wrist and hand that was turning blue.
“Look, Devon, I’ve got to fly out of here now. You need to find a medic.”
“Take me with you!”
“I thought you wanted to find your mother. She’s here somewhere.”
“I’ve looked for her all morning. I don’t have any money to even get something to eat.” Her voice was a wail. “Besides, everything’s closed.”
Deering calculated. He shouldn’t take on a passenger like this, especially for a rescue mission. But there was no way he could fly and open the rear door if the hikers had to board while he hovered. No telling what kind of terrain they were on, but Jack had mentioned a ridge.
He decided to relent. He could easily carry three hikers and Devon and she might be useful. The trip out to the eastern part of the park wouldn’t take long, and he’d have her in the hands of a West Yellowstone medic within the hour.
“Okay,” he told her. “You can hook up with your mom at Fire Command.”
“Now, what in the . . .?” Garrett Anderson frowned. Clare thought the annoyance in his voice odd, when he should have been pleased to see the inn unscathed.
Away across the parking lot, the Huey’s rotors turned, the engine revving up in a whine. Only a few moments before, they would not have been able to hear it over the screams of the North Fork.
“Where in hell is he going?” Garrett pulled his Motorola from his belt and tried to raise Deering in the cockpit.
“I thought it was too windy to fly,” Clare said.
“It’s still touch and go.” Garrett groused.
“I’ve flown with Deering,” Steve began.
Clare heard the venom in his voice and silenced him with a look.
“Yeah?” Garrett asked suspiciously.
Steve started to speak, but Clare cut him off. “I was with Deering the day he rescued a Smokejumper on Bighorn Peak, and the night he ferried over fifty firefighters out of the Mink Creek spike camp, just ahead of a firestorm. He did one hell of a job.”
Garrett stepped away from them and used his Motorola. “Hello, West Yellowstone?”
As soon as they were alone, Steve’s hard look challenged her defense of Deering. After last night, she’d thought they had that straightened out.
“Steve, Deering is a good pilot, with guts. Are you certain that your feelings about flying aren’t getting in your way here?”
Their eyes held, but before