A Dangerous Leap

by Sharon Calvin

  * * *

  Kelly sucked air into her burning lungs and tried to stop her head from spinning. Unfortunately, she didn’t have a prayer of stopping the cable from twisting in the wind. She closed her eyes and concentrated on breathing slow and steady. Blacking out wouldn’t accomplish anything. And they were running out of time.

  She opened her eyes and picked a tree to focus on. It brought her brain back into line. And just like that she saw it. A flash of yellow among the green leaves. “Joe, give me five more feet!” she shouted. She motioned with her arm at the same time, demanding more line.

  Yes, it definitely was a rain slicker. Her boots touched the top of the tree. Well, more like flattened the top as Joe fed her more cable. Just when she thought the raincoat must have blown into the tree, a white face turned toward her. God, it was a child. Sweat ran down the inside of her flight suit. No one had mentioned children in the car.

  Kelly kicked her feet out until she found a branch to stabilize her spinning descent. “Are you hurt?” she shouted against the wind and rain.

  The little face moved side to side but the mouth didn’t open.

  Kelly swung her leg over another branch and eased her weight onto it. “Are you alone?”

  Eyes grew larger and after hesitating, his head moved up and down. Kelly’s chest tightened. Poor baby. Stuck to a branch like a tick some thirty feet above boiling brown water that could sweep a house off its foundation. As if to punctuate that point, the tree shuddered.

  Kelly adjusted her mic. “I’ve got a child in sight. Six or seven, about five feet to my left.” The words were barely out of her mouth before she felt the cable inching that direction. Only Caitlyn would try to maneuver that precisely during a rainstorm.

  It took another five minutes to work her way to the little boy’s perch on the limb. And another ten to convince him to let go of the tree. The promise of a ride in a helicopter proved to be the magic motivator. He told her his name was Jeremy and once she had the wide strop positioned around the boy’s torso, she wrapped him in her arms and legs and signaled Joe to begin the hoist to safety above.

  “Jeremy, don’t worry honey, I’ve got hold of you. If you look up you’ll be able to see Joe. He’s my hoist operator—the one running this cable up to the helicopter.”

  It took a few seconds but Jeremy slowly tilted his head and squinted into the rain. The strobe lights on the Jayhawk cut through the darkness with comforting reassurance. “Kinda fun, huh?” Kelly said and gave him a hug. She was almost afraid to ask him about his parents. Had they been swept away by the floodwaters? Or were they clinging to another tree worrying about their little boy?

  Joe helped her swing into the doorway and quickly unhooked the strop holding the child. Jeremy pushed his yellow hood back and surveyed his new surroundings with wide eyes. “Where’s my mom?” he asked.

  Kelly met Joe’s grim look. What were the chances she’d made it out of her car and into a tree? She knelt down and wrapped a blanket around his thin shoulders, then leaned close to the boy’s ear so he could hear her over the roar of the helicopter. “Where did you see her last? Was she in the tree with you? Or were there any others with you?” Had she misinterpreted his answer when she’d asked if he was alone?

  He shook his head. “It was just the two of us. She was on top of our truck,” Jeremy said. He rubbed his eyes and looked up at Joe. His bottom lip quivered. “Didn’t you see her?”

  Kelly’s heart sank. The only vehicles they’d seen had been submerged or floating upside down.

  “What color truck?” Ryan asked over the headset. Joe settled onto the jump seat next to the boy and repeated the question to Jeremy.

  Ten minutes later they were sweeping the searchlight over the flooded highway where the boy’s mother had been seen last. They had fifteen minutes left on their shift. And a little boy counting on a miracle.

  * * *

  Joe kept the light moving in a steady arc back and forth as Caitlyn tracked the highway, a prayer on his lips. Jeremy had wanted to help but the little guy fell into an exhausted sleep within minutes of being dried off and wrapped in another blanket. The idea that they might not find the boy’s mother was unacceptable.

  So far they hadn’t spotted any white trucks.

  “There! To the right. See those lights?” Kelly said pointing into the rain. She leaned against his shoulder, her hand holding on to the gunner’s strap holding him in.

  Joe swung the searchlight to the spot she pointed at. It was a truck all right. The bed was submerged but headlights pointed skyward where the hood and roof were still above—“Son of a bitch,” he said as a figure clinging to the roof came into view. Water boiled around the truck like a caldron. The white vehicle straddled a bridge abutment and looked reasonably stable. But trees and the metal superstructure would make extraction damn tricky.

  Kelly was already snapping the cable onto her harness. “Drop me onto the girder and give me some extra line. I’ll climb down and get her into a harness. If I hold a ground line you should be able to lift her without running into interference. After you get her on board you can drop the line back down and I’ll climb—”

  “What the hell is going to keep you from getting swept away if that truck gives way? Or the bridge?” Joe demanded. Hell, if anything happened to her while on his watch, Ian would kill him.

  Not that he would ever be able to forgive himself if anything happened to her while in his care.

  Her mouth clamped shut for a moment then she spoke into the mic. “Cait, drop as low as you can. I’m going down.” She unhooked the safety belt that held her in and pointed to the winch control. “We both have a job to do.” She looked over her shoulder at the huddled figure. “I’m not going to tell him I didn’t even try.”

  Shit. That wasn’t fair.

  Control Bitch was back. But he couldn’t muster any of his earlier rancor. Dammit, she was good. And if anybody could do the impossible, his money was riding on Kelly. And he’d back her all the way.

  * * *

  Kelly’s feet connected with the steel girder just before her shin did. Damn, that hurt. She grabbed the crossbeam and steadied herself before signaling Joe to pay out more cable. The figure on the truck, definitely a woman, had moved when the rotor wash pelted her body with more wind and rain. At least they knew she was alive.

  The same blast of air kept Kelly’s progress slow. They’d already exceeded their time limit, but she’d been on her way down when base had radioed for their ETA. She’d rather face a pissed-off flight ops commander than a brokenhearted little boy without a mother.

  The climb across the top of the bridge was tricky in the alternating glare of the searchlight and pitch-black of the night. Add to that the slippery metal and downward gusts from the helo and Kelly had to fight to keep from being blown off the structure. No way she’d bring the survivor back the same way. The ground rope would allow her to guide the cable’s return, ensuring a much safer extraction.

  Ten feet above the truck Kelly stopped. “Can you hear me?” Kelly shouted into the general confusion of elements. The woman, spotlighted from above, shaded her eyes from the glare and pelting rain.

  “Yes! You need to go get my boy!”

  Kelly clambered down another section of girder and bit back a smile. “If his name is Jeremy and you left him in a tree a few miles up the road, he’s in the helicopter above your head,” she shouted back.

  The woman’s smile rivaled Joe’s spotlight. “Yes, thank God, that’s him!”

  A general whoop sounded in Kelly’s ear as the Jayhawk’s crew absorbed the news. “Joe, give me another five feet of line,” Kelly instructed. The tricky part would come when she had to unhook from the cable. From the time Jeremy’s mom was hooked in until the line was returned, Kelly would be vulnerable to the oily looking water tumbling over the truck’s bed and slappin
g at the bridge. Every so often a tree or some other debris slammed into the shaky structure. If it hit the truck before she had the survivor above the tree line, they’d both be in trouble.

  Kelly had enough slack to reach the truck’s hood. All she had to do was jump…and not fall into the water. Her knees hit the metal with more force than she anticipated. She grabbed for the edge but slipped and her butt slammed into the windshield.

  She’d anticipated the wide-eyed look of panic. And gave Patty, Jeremy’s mother, points for sucking it up and allowing Kelly to hook the harness around her.

  “Keep your arms crossed over your chest like this,” Kelly instructed as she demonstrated the position she wanted the woman to hold. “That’s all you have to do. I’ll be guiding your line from here and Joe will help you into the helicopter at the top. Then you can cuddle with your son all the way back to the hospital,” she said.

  Patty nodded stiffly. Once the nylon harness was belted around her and the guideline attached, Kelly radioed Joe to begin the hoist. Patty gave a quick thumbs-up before clutching her arms as Kelly had instructed, her eyes wide with fear. “You’re doing great!” Kelly shouted as Joe took up the slack and her feet left the security of the truck.

  The added benefit of a ground line was no spinning. Kelly prayed there’d be no sudden gusts either. If you weren’t expecting them it was a surefire way to black out. Fortunately the winds stayed steady and Patty was reeled in like the catch of the day.

  “Delivery made and the reunion party has started,” Joe transmitted over the radio. “Come on up before all the beer and food is gone,” he added.

  Damn, why’d he have to mention food? It had been hours since she’d eaten.

  The cable played out as Kelly began climbing the bridge. “Order me a pizza, would ya?” she radioed back to the crew. “I want extra cheese and pepperoni.”

  Kelly reached for the swinging cable and heard Joe’s yell a second later. Too late to shift her weight, the bridge shuddered, then jerked violently to the left, slapping her against a girder. She grabbed for a handhold and just like that was free-falling toward blackness.

  Chapter Twelve

  Kelly swallowed mouthfuls of gritty water despite her best effort to keep her lips sealed when she sank below the foaming surface. The shock of the cold water and the ten-foot fall made her gasp like a beached puffer fish. She careened off tree limbs, trash, and submerged cars before her hands closed on something substantial and unyielding. Her body crashed into it seconds later.

  Shit, that hurt. Floodwater pummeled her until she felt like George Foreman’s sparring partner. Survival instincts kicked in and she concentrated on discovering where she was and how she’d get back to her helo. The cold water sapped her strength, making her stupid. Jeez, Kelly, use your brain. “Bishop to Jayhawk Three, do you copy?”

  Static crackled in her ear, but no reassuring voice. “I can’t hear your transmission, but will assume you can hear me. Over.” Couldn’t hurt, and felt comforting to believe Joe was hearing her. Who would have thought that would be comforting?

  Something smashed into her below the water and her handhold slipped. Shit, she needed to keep her mind focused. Using her fingers, and her legs, she was able to determine she’d snagged a billboard. Okay, she should be able to—a brilliant light blinded her.

  “Joe! Joe, I’m on a billboard. I just saw your searchlight. Over.” Damn, she’d lost all sense of direction after hitting the water. She had no idea where she was in relation to the bridge. Well, obviously she was downstream.

  The searchlight swung in an arc in front of her. “Joe, the light is ten yards in front of me.”

  The light moved away, then swept back and forth in a deliberate search pattern. Good, he’d settled into his normal work mode. Jeez, maybe her tumble had rattled him just a little bit. The rain turned stinging and the sound of the rushing flood water subsided under the assault of the Jayhawk’s rotor wash. Hot damn, Joe must have decided to come get her after all.

  Light blazed down on her and she had to squint. “Yep, that’s me!” she shouted into her mic.

  The helo dropped lower still, and seconds later the bright orange nylon strop slapped against the billboard to her right. Prepared to grab for it, the cable swung closer, dragging the line to her. “Wow, such service. Thanks, Caity, I think I’m ready to call it a night.”

  Within ten minutes she was safe in the bowels of the Jayhawk, crushed in Joe’s arms.

  “Dammit, Fish-Bait, don’t ever do that to me again,” he said in a rough voice before letting her go.

  Kelly grinned and punched him in the chest. “Did you guys eat all my pizza, or did you save me one? I could sure use a beer while you’re at it.”

  * * *

  Joe slumped back against the bench seat, too full to move any further. He was dog-tired and still wired from Kelly’s rescue. Caitlyn and Ryan had disappeared back to the hangar but Kelly was still working on her pizza. They were in the base mess, which was serving up meals 24/7 to all the crews working search and rescue. The middle of the night and the place was still feeding a ton of hungry Coasties.

  “Where the hell do you put all that food?” he asked Kelly, eyeing the empty plates. She’d packed away a large pizza and damn near a gallon of water. Now she was picking the toppings off Caitlyn’s last piece of veggie pizza.

  Kelly grinned and popped a mushroom slice into her mouth. “My metabolism works overtime—if I don’t eat every two or three hours I get hostile.”

  He grunted. “I’ll try to remember that.”

  She poked her finger around the bits and pieces of veggies. “So what makes you hostile? Is it me personally, or women in general?” she asked quietly.

  He looked up and found unblinking brown eyes watching him. Leave it to Kelly to go the direct route. He glanced away, trying to decide how to answer that without revealing any more of his weaknesses.

  “Yeah, I thought so.”

  His attention snapped back to her. “What does that mean?”

  Her shoulder jerked up and her mouth tightened. “It’s me. I guess I knew that. You and Caitlyn get along fine. But as long as we can work together like we did tonight, I can’t complain,” she said. Her voice implied quiet acceptance.

  Joe wasn’t used to hearing resignation from Kelly Bishop. Hell and high water seemed to go together. He sat forward, his arms crossed in front of him on the table. “No, that’s not good enough for me.”

  Kelly’s eyes widened and for a scary moment he thought he saw tears shimmering before she looked down. Shit, shit, shit. He couldn’t handle tears—especially not from his kick-ass swimmer.

  “Look, it’s not you—it’s what you represent.” He blew out a breath. Hell, it was going to be one of those touchy-feely talks. He hated those.

  But he owed her. She hadn’t been the one with an attitude thicker than the L.A. smog he’d grown up in.

  “I joined the Coast Guard with the idea of saving lives.” He’d had a debt to pay. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem to matter how many lives he helped save. It still didn’t bring back his friend’s dad.

  Joe scrubbed both hands over his face. There was no way to dip a toe in this pool of guilt—it was all or nothing. “What I really wanted to do was become a rescue swimmer.” Of course he’d had to learn how to swim first. Since everybody in the Coast Guard had to swim, no matter what their job description, he hadn’t been alone in his swim lessons.

  He picked up a knife just to have something to hold on to. “It took me damn near forever to get qualified to even apply for swimmer’s school. I had no clue what I was getting into,” he said and laughed without any humor. Talk about an ass-kicking experience. The swimmer’s school might not be as tough as the SEAL’s hell week, but it still racked up more than its fair share of washouts and failed dreams.

  “Yeah, I know. You
think because you’ve heard all the stories you’re prepared. But until you face it, until you’ve spent that first week living it, you don’t have a clue,” Kelly agreed.

  Joe looked up from the knife he was twirling like a miniature baton. “Yo mama, you can say that again.” He grinned at her answering grimace. “I freaked when I saw how tiny you were. Hell, I knew right then you’d gotten the job by, uh—” Great job asshole, he couldn’t very well tell her what he really thought.

  She giggled. “Yeah, I know, you thought I’d slept my way into it.” Her giggle turned into a hoot of laughter and her cheeks reddened. “Sorry, but I worked my butt off those three weeks. And at every new post since.”

  “Hey, cut me some slack. I didn’t know you and, well hell, it just seemed—”

  “Your ego couldn’t handle that I’d made the cut when you couldn’t,” she finished for him.

  Embarrassed by the truth, he met her stare and nodded. “Yeah. Well, if I couldn’t handle two guys in the water bent on drowning me, how the hell could you have done it?” That pretty much sucked, but it was the unvarnished truth.

  “Answer me something. Did you grow up in the water? Did you learn to swim in the ocean with rip currents and surf trying to smash you into the rocks?”

  He shook his head. “No, I was afraid of the water. I—my best friend and I almost drowned when we were eight. H-his dad did trying to save us,” he choked out. Jesus, he never told anyone that dirty little secret. It had been his personal cross to bear for twenty years. If he hadn’t jumped in to try and save his buddy maybe things would have turned out differently.

  “Ah, Joe,” Kelly said softly. She reached across the table and patted his hand. “You’ve saved hundreds of lives during your career as a Coastie. Look how many you racked up in the last two days. But there’s no way you can go back and save that man.”

  He shrugged his shoulders. Logically, he knew that, but his gut still needed its daily dose of guilt and remorse. That’s what drove him during the rough jobs like hauling that burned sailor up from the Navy ship when he’d wanted to puke his guts up from the smell.