Match Made In Paradise

by Barbara Dunlop

  For now, she unbuckled her seatbelt to clamber out of the loader. She dusted her clothes and pulled off the hard hat to shake her hair, refusing to be deterred. “All right. What’s next?”

  * * *

  * * *

  Silas was driving, Brodie in the passenger seat, his window unrolled, elbow hooked out into the muggy air.

  “What is that?” Silas asked, looking out his side window and doing a double-take at the Galina parking lot.

  “We’re going to lose the weather,” Brodie answered, looking skyward.

  “Not the sky,” Silas said, slowing and pointing to where a dusty-looking Mia stood with a hard hat in her hand. “Is that Mia?”

  Brodie looked over. “I’d say yes.”

  “They had her in the loader?” Silas could barely believe it.

  “Raven looks frustrated,” Brodie observed.

  “Have they lost their minds?” Silas didn’t expect an answer, but he couldn’t hold back his astonishment either.

  “Did you check the four o’clock forecast?” Brodie asked, moving his attention east and frowning.

  “Should we stop?” Silas asked.

  “Stop for what?”

  “To find out what’s going on there.” Silas could see the danger of the situation, even if Raven couldn’t.

  “I’m a lot more interested in the storm that’s rolling in,” Brodie said.

  Silas didn’t like it, but he understood Brodie’s standpoint. Galina was Raven’s domain, and Mia was her cousin. And he had checked the latest forecast. “The sixteen-hundred update showed high and broken clouds through twenty-one-hundred.”

  “That’s not going to hold.”

  Eying the clouds towering over the peaks, Silas agreed. The approaching storm had obviously picked up speed.

  “Who’s still out flying?” Silas asked.

  “Xavier and Dean are bringing Delta-Romeo in after the Misty Mountain crew change. They’re coming in from the north, so they’ll have no trouble. Tristen and Tobias took that big load of lumber in Niner-Quebec to Wildfire Lake. They can stay put. Hailey will have to follow the river to stay below the ceiling.” Brodie pressed a button on his phone, and Silas knew he was contacting the WSA radio operator. “I’ll make sure Shannon’s had an update on everyone’s position.”

  The erratic weather wouldn’t leave them alone.

  “She’s not answering,” Brodie said. He dialed again and waited while it rang. Then he shook his head.

  “Want to try Cobra in the hangar?” Silas asked.

  “He’s in town at Caldwell’s.”

  “Should we head out there to check?”

  Brodie tried one more time, his frown telling Silas there was no answer.

  “We’d better go,” Silas said, taking a sharp right to head for the airstrip.

  Brodie redialed, knowing they’d lose service in just a few minutes.

  “Still nothing?” Silas asked as Brodie let his hand drop to his lap.

  “She might be on the radio,” Silas said. It was a distinct possibility that Shannon was on a call with one of the planes.

  “Maybe,” Brodie said. The timbre of his tone told Silas he was worried.

  Silas understood why. Even if Shannon was on the radio with a plane, she’d take Brodie’s call, especially if he tried multiple times.

  When Shannon missed the fifth time, Silas sped up, worried she might have had a medical issue.

  Shannon was in her late fifties, and she wasn’t the fittest person in the world. He knew she had diabetes, and she was open about struggling with her blood pressure.

  “Can you go faster?” Brodie asked.

  Silas upped the speed as much as he dared. He and Brodie both had first-aid training. All the WSA pilots did.

  It seemed like forever, but it was only a few more minutes until they zoomed into the parking lot. Silas skidded to a halt in front of the WSA office and Brodie jumped out, leaving the door wide open.

  Silas followed, rushing inside, immensely relieved to hear Shannon’s voice coming from the back room. But as he walked forward, her words came clear.

  “I’ve got you on tracking,” she was saying. “We’re going to know exactly where you go down.”

  “Brodie here.” Brodie had obviously taken the microphone. “Hailey, can you estimate your airspeed?”

  Silas breath caught in his throat as he squeezed into the compact radio room.

  “Bringing it down. I’ll go almost to stall,” Hailey said, sounding calm.

  Silas raised his brow to Shannon, wanting to know what was wrong, but knowing better than to interrupt whatever was going on.

  Shannon left her seat and moved close to him. “Engine failure,” she whispered so as not to disturb Brodie.

  “Where is she?”

  “She’s trying for Slim Meadow.”

  Silas swore under his breath. No one had ever landed a beaver at Slim Meadow. Brodie once put a Super Cub down there, but you could land a Super Cub on a flatbed trailer if you had to.

  The grass was long, and the brush was thick, and she’d have no way of knowing what the ground looked like underneath.

  “Three hundred,” Hailey said.

  Silas’s hands curled into fists, mentally going through what Hailey had to be experiencing.

  “Two hundred.”

  “We’re going to lose transmission,” Shannon said.

  The radio crackled and went silent.

  Brodie slammed the end of his fist on the table. He turned to Silas. “Can you get up the trail on an ATV?”

  “I’ll make it work,” Silas said. He grabbed the compact first-aid kit from where it hung on the wall. “Give me all the supplies you can,” he called to Shannon, heading out the door for the door to the hangar to load up a company ATV.

  He saw another truck pull into the parking lot. “Cobra’s back,” he shouted to Brodie.

  “Get him to follow you up,” Brodie answered. “Let’s hope you can fly it out.”

  Silas could hear the edge to Brodie’s voice. First priority was Hailey, but if she’d saved the airplane, they’d try to bring it home.

  “Can you call in a chopper?” Shannon called from the front office, where she was pulling out the larger first-aid kit from below the counter.

  “They won’t make it here before the storm,” Brodie said.

  He was right. If Silas couldn’t make it up the hiking trail, Hailey would be stuck there alone until the storm cleared, possibly until morning.

  Cobra got out of his truck.

  “Need your help,” Silas called through the rain to Cobra.

  Cobra was behind him in seconds entering the cavernous hangar. “What’s up?”

  “Hailey had to put the Papa-X-Ray down in Slim Meadow.”

  Cobra’s expression revealed his horror. “She okay?”

  “We lost transmission at two hundred feet.”

  Cobra swore. “What’s the plan?”

  “You and me take two ATVs. I’ll go first with medical. You follow with a trailer and a toolkit.”

  Cobra was already moving to the workbench and his travel toolkit.

  Silas took the closest ATV, strapped two fuel cans on the back rack, fired it up, checked the fuel in the tank, then pulled out to the front of the office. Cobra would follow as soon as he could, and the trailer would slow him down, so Silas wasn’t waiting.

  Shannon and Brodie were ready outside the door. Brodie strapped three first-aid kits onto the front rack while Shannon handed Silas a windbreaker, goggles and a baseball cap.

  “I’m going to call about a chopper,” Brodie said. “Just in case they’re an option.”

  “Good.” If the trail had turned to mud, Silas might get stuck partway to the meadow. The chopper might be a long shot, but it was one they should take.


  Brodie clapped him on the shoulder. “Good luck.”

  * * *

  * * *

  Silas headed down a little-used road past the airstrip. When that petered out, he turned onto a hiking and snowmobiling trail.

  The first few miles were fine, but then the rain came down hard, and the narrow dirt trail turned to mud.

  It took him nearly three hours to slog his way up to Slim Meadow, rocking through puddles and bouncing off logs. The rain was driving hard when he arrived, but he could make out the beaver at the far end of the meadow. It hadn’t caught fire and it looked to be right-side up. He breathed a huge sigh of relief.

  He sped up on the open ground, the ATV bouncing hard on the uneven meadow. He avoided clumps of brush, sticking to the grass and moss cover as much as possible.

  And then he saw her. Hailey was standing about a hundred feet in front of the airplane that had come to a halt short of a small rise. She was waving her arms to get his attention.

  He zipped her way, stopping close and leaping off the seat, and she rushed forward and threw herself into his arms.

  For a moment, he just hugged her, feeling her shaking a little, whether with fear or with cold, he didn’t know. She was soaking wet.

  “You okay?” he asked, stripping off his smeared goggles, scanning her face, then her head, then her arms and torso.

  But she was nodding. “Rough landing, but I think everything’s intact. Well, except for the engine. But I don’t think I bent the gear or anything.”

  He kept his hands on her shoulders, not sure if she needed steadying. “Cobra’s behind me.”

  She looked past Silas. “He is? That’s great news.” Then she took a step back and wiped her wet copper-toned hair back from her forehead.

  “You sure you’re okay? I brought first aid. Does anything hurt? You should sit down.” He nodded back to the ATV. The seat was comfortable, if wet from the rain.

  “I think I’m good,” she said.

  “Think isn’t enough.”

  “Maybe these.” She held out her hands, and he could see they were smeared with dirt, scratched, scraped and bleeding. “I cleared away some of the rocks and brush, hoping we could get a runway.”

  “Ouch,” he said softly.

  She glanced down. “I didn’t really notice it while I was working.” Then she pointed down the length of the meadow. “It’s socked in right now. But I hoped I’d be able to take off northwest toward the granite peak. I can’t tell if there’s enough room.”

  “Your hands first,” he said, moving to the ATV and pointing to the seat. He took off his cap and covered her head with it against the persistent rain. “Do you have a jacket?”

  “It’s underneath.” She pointed to her wet flight suit as she sat down.

  She was slim, so it was hard to tell she’d layered up.

  He opened the top first-aid kit. The rain made it frustrating, but he disinfected her hands and gently wrapped them in gauze.

  As he worked, Cobra’s ATV sounded in the distance, pulling up beside them few minutes later. He hit the kill switch and pulled off his hat and goggles. “Wow. Great to see you’re okay, Hailey.”

  “Came down a little hard,” she said gamely, coming to her feet. “But I didn’t hear anything break.”

  “I’ll go have a look.” Cobra restarted the ATV and moved it closer to the plane.

  They followed Cobra back to the beaver. Thankfully, the rain had slowed some, although the clouds were still dark, and the wind buffeted them in the open meadow.

  “Hear anything before it quit?” Cobra asked, pacing around, eyeballing the overall condition of the plane. “Smell anything? See smoke?”

  In situations like this, Silas had to admit it was handy to have a super-fit, uber-powerful AME. Cobra could do a lot more in the field than most technicians.

  “Nothing,” Hailey said. “It just stopped.”

  “You switched tanks?” Silas asked, though he’d have been surprised if that wasn’t her first move after the engine quit.

  “Yes. I tried the boost pump, but it didn’t get me anything.”

  “I’ll check the filter,” he said.

  “You warm enough?” Silas asked Hailey.

  Her cheeks were pale, and that could be a sign of shock. Then again, she had a light complexion sprinkled with freckles on her upper cheeks. He’d always guessed she must be Irish, with her light, almost red-tinted hair. But she didn’t talk much about her past.

  “I’m fine.” She craned her neck to watch what Cobra was doing. “Need any light in there?”

  Cobra grabbed a few tools and climbed under the engine. “I’m good.”

  Silas and Hailey settled back to wait in the rain.

  “The fuel had to be contaminated,” Cobra said, climbing back out half an hour later. “I cleaned and serviced the filter. Do you have a tank with WSA fuel only?”

  “Rear tank,” Hailey said.

  “Good. Switch to that one and give it a shot.”

  Silas opened the door and left it that way as he climbed inside.

  “Fire it up,” Cobra called out, watching carefully.

  “Clear,” Silas called, and both Hailey and Cobra took a reflexive step back.

  Silas set the throttle slightly open, counted the blade rotations then turned the mags on. The engine coughed then fired, then started to run. He adjusted the throttle to idle and looked over to see Cobra’s thumbs up.

  After a few minutes, Silas shut it down and climbed out of the cockpit.

  Cobra began checking the gear, while Silas made his way around the wings. Hailey went to the tail as they checked the control surfaces.

  “What do you think?” Silas asked Cobra.

  “Up to you,” Cobra said. “I don’t see any reason it won’t fly.” He turned his attention to the meadow stretching off to the north. “Figure you’ve got room?”

  “I’ll have to pace it off.” Silas started to walk.

  They came to the drop-off and peered down.

  “I make it five hundred feet to the edge here,” Silas said.

  “That’s too short.” Hailey said, worried.

  “Super tight,” Cobra said.

  Silas peered into the valley. “Unless.”

  Hailey moved up and peered over with him. “Are you kidding me?”

  “Theoretically, it should work.” Considering the weight of the load and the meadow surface, if Silas had even the slightest north wind, he could probably get the beaver flying by here. And so long as he was almost flying when he went over the edge, he could point the nose down and gain airspeed.

  Cobra came up on his other side to look over. “Theoretically.”

  “I can get into ground effect.” Silas was confident of that. “I’ll lose altitude after I go over.” He looked up the valley. “But I’m going to gain airspeed. And the valley’s wide. I won’t get boxed in.”

  “You’re slightly nuts,” Cobra said.

  “It’s a plan,” Hailey said, looking hopeful. “Ever done it before?”

  “No, but I’ve heard tell . . .”

  “You’re more than slightly nuts,” Cobra said.

  “You guys head for home. Let Brodie know what’s going on. I’ll sit tight until the weather clears, then I’ll see you back at the strip.”

  “I hate that I screwed up,” Hailey said as she gazed off at the muted lightning.

  “You didn’t screw up. You made an impressive dead-stick landing on rough terrain without breaking your airplane. You’ll have stories to tell.”

  “It happened so fast. I don’t even remember most of it.”

  Silas grinned. “So, make something up. Make it exciting.”

  She scoffed out a laugh.

  “You’ve earned it,” he said.

  She shifted her gaze to the pl
ane. “You think you’ll be here all night?”

  “Probably.” He wasn’t looking forward to huddling his wet self in the cold airplane all night long. He was also starting to wish he’d eaten a bigger breakfast.

  Chapter Eight

  Everyone in the Bear and Bar was eating and drinking and celebrating Hailey’s safe return. Word of the hard landing had traveled fast last night, and Mia, along with most of the town, had been worried into the wee morning hours that Hailey might have been seriously hurt or killed. Now, after dutifully completing their workday, most of the community had gathered at the lounge and restaurant to have a drink in her honor.

  Conversation was loud and lively through the restaurant. People were shoulder to shoulder and the in-house sound system was cranked up, competing with their chatter. The music had a country flare with a catchy beat. The air was warm and close with the aromas of deep-fried savories and grilled meats seeping from the kitchen.

  Sitting at a crowded little window table wedged between Raven and Dixie with a few others across from them, Mia felt a little bit more like she belonged in Paradise. She’d spent two full days working at Galina. Once she got past the mini loader debacle, she thought she was getting the hang of it. Well, the hang of some things, anyway.

  The guys there had all been super helpful about showing her the ropes, and she was learning from her mistakes. She did worry she was pulling them from their duties sometimes, because they were all super quick to rush to her aid if she struggled with a heavy box or had to get something down from a high shelf.

  The experience had left her in awe of Raven. Her cousin seemed to be everywhere doing everything all at once. It was clear the staff respected her, and she had an uncanny ability to stay calm no matter what was happening around them. Mia had appreciated that when she took a corner too tight in the utility vehicle and knocked over a stack of packing boxes, several of them breaking open and spewing their contents across the concrete floor.

  A sudden cheer went up from the Bear and Bar crowd as Silas walked through the front door. Everyone had wanted to hear about Hailey’s emergency landing in the beaver, but she’d mostly talked about Silas rescuing both her and plane. He’d apparently flown the beaver off a cliff and back to Paradise this morning, so he was a hero now too.