Chasing Fire

by Нора Робертс

  “You’re so dead!” Rowan shouted at Dolly, and, blind to anything but payback, jabbed her elbow into Cards’s ribs, sprang free.

  Shrieking, scrabbling back, Dolly pitched the canister. Globs of blood flew, striking wall, ceiling, furniture, when Rowan batted it away.

  “You like blood? Let’s see how you like painting with yours, you crazy cunt.”

  Rowan clamped her hands on Dolly’s ankles when Dolly tried to crawl under the bed. Even as she hauled Dolly across the blood-smeared floor, men who’d come running at the commotion dived in to grapple Rowan back.

  Rowan didn’t waste her breath. She punched, kicked, jabbed and kneed, heedless of where blows landed, until she ended up facedown on the floor, pinned.

  “Just stay down,” Gull said in her ear.

  “Get off me. Goddamn you, get off me. Do you see what she did?”

  “Everybody sees it. Jesus, somebody get that screaming idiot out of here before I punch her.”

  “I’m going to kick every square inch of her skanky ass. Let me up! You hear that, you psycho? First chance I get it won’t be pig’s blood you’re wearing, it’ll be your own. Let me the fuck up!”

  “You’re down until you calm down.”

  “Fine. I’m calm.”

  “Not even close.”

  “She’s got Jim’s blood on her,” Dolly wept as Yangtree and Matt pulled her from the room. “You all have his blood on you. I hope you all die. I hope you all burn alive. All of you.”

  “I think she lost her religion,” Gull commented. “Listen to me. Rowan, you listen. She’s gone, and if you try to go after her and take a shot at her now, we’re just going to put you down again. You already bloodied Cards’s nose, and I’m pretty sure Janis is going to be sporting a black eye.”

  “They shouldn’t have gotten in my way.”

  “If they, and the rest of us, hadn’t, you’d have punched a pathetic lunatic, and you’d be off the jump list until it got sorted out.”

  That, he noted, had her taking the first calming breath. He signaled for Libby and Trigger to let go of her legs and, when she didn’t try to kick them, pointed to the door.

  Libby shut it quietly behind them.

  “I’m letting you up.” He eased his grip on her arms, braced to grab them again if necessary. Then, cautiously, he shifted off her, sat on the floor.

  Blood covered both of them, but he was pretty sure she had the worst of it. It smeared her face, dripped from her hair, coated her arms, her shirt. She looked as if she’d been whacked with an ax. And it made him sick.

  “You know, it’s a goddamn pigsty in here.”

  “That’s not funny.”

  “No, it’s not, but it’s the best I got.” He eyed her coolly as she pushed up to sit, watched her right hand bunch into a fist. “I can take a punch if you need to throw one.”

  “Just get out.”

  “No. We’re just going to sit here awhile.”

  Rowan used her shoulder to wipe at her face, smeared it with more blood. “She got that crap all over me. All over my bed, the floor, the walls.”

  “She’s sick and she’s stupid. And she deserved to have every square inch of her skanky ass kicked. She’ll get fired, and everybody on base and within fifty miles will know why. That might be worse.”

  “It’s not as satisfying.” She looked away a moment as, with the wild heat of temper fading, tears wanted to sting. She clamped her hands together; they’d started to shake.

  “It smells like a slaughterhouse in here.”

  “You can sleep in my room tonight.” He hitched a bandanna out of his pocket, used it to wipe blood from her face. “But everybody who sleeps in my room has to be naked.”

  She huffed out a tired breath. “I’ll bunk with Janis until I get it cleaned up. She has the naked rule, too.”

  “Now that was just mean.”

  She looked at him then, just sat and looked while he ruined his bandanna on a hopeless job. It helped to see he wasn’t as calm as he sounded, helped to see the temper and disgust on his face.

  Oddly, seeing it calmed her just a little.

  “Did I give you that bloody lip?”

  “Yeah. Back fist. Not bad.”

  “I’ll probably be sorry for it at some point, but I can’t work it up right now.”

  “It took five of us to take you down.”

  “That’s something. I have to go wash up.”

  She started to rise when L.B. knocked briskly on the door, opened it. “Give us a minute, will you, Gull?”

  “Sure.” Before he stood, Gull leaned over, laid a hand on Rowan’s knee. “People like her? They never get people like you. It’s their loss.”

  He pushed to his feet, and closed the door on his way out.

  L.B. looked around the room, rubbed a hand over his face. “Jesus, Ro. Jesus. I’m sorry. I can’t tell you how sorry.”

  “You didn’t do it.”

  “I shouldn’t have hired her on. I shouldn’t have taken her back. This is on me.”

  “It’s on her.”

  “She got the chance to come at you this way because I gave her one.” He hunkered down so their faces were on level. “We’ve got her in my office, with a couple of the guys watching her. She’ll be fired, banned from base. I’m going to call the law on this. Do you want to press charges?”

  “I do because she earned it.” The tears had backed off, thank God. Now she only felt sick, sick and tired. “But the baby didn’t. I just want her gone.”

  “She’s gone,” he promised. “Come on, you need to get out of here. We’ll have some of the cleaning crew deal with it.”

  “I need to get some air. Apologize to some people. I need to take a shower, wash this off me.” She blew out another breath as she looked down at herself. “I probably need the full Silkwood.”

  “Take as long as you need. And nobody needs you to apologize.”

  “I need me to. But this shit’s all over my stuff. I need to clean some of it up myself.”

  She got up, opened the door. Looked back. “Did she love him this much? Is this love?”

  L.B. stared at the bloody words on the wall. “It’s got nothing to do with love.”

  The siren sounded as she stepped out of the shower.

  “Perfect,” she muttered. She dragged on underwear without bothering to dry off, pulled on a shirt, her pants, and zipped them on the run.

  The nine other jumpers on the list beat her to the ready room. She listened to the rundown as she suited up. Lightning strikes on Morrell Mountain. She and Cards had judged those morning clouds correctly. The lookout spotted the smoke about eleven, around the time she’d surprised Dolly and her goddamn pig’s blood.

  Over the next hour or so, the fire manager officer had to consider letting it burn, do its work of clearing out some brush and fallen trees, or call in the smoke jumpers.

  A few more lightning strikes and unseasonably dry conditions made the natural burn too big a risk.

  “Ready for the real thing, Fast Feet?” She put her let-down rope in her pocket while Gull grabbed gear from the speed rack.

  “Jumping the fire, or you and me making some?”

  “You’d better keep your mind off impossible dreams. This isn’t a practice jump.”

  “Looking good.” Dobie slapped Gull on the back. “Wish I was going with you.”

  “You’ll be off the disabled list soon. Save me some pie,” Rowan called out, and shambled over to the waiting plane.

  She tucked her helmet in the crook of her elbow. “Okay, boys and girls, I’ll be your fire boss today. For a couple of you, this is your first fire jump. Do it by the numbers, don’t screw up, and you’ll do fine. Remember, if you can’t avoid the trees...”

  “Aim for the small ones,” the crew responded.

  Once they were airborne she sat next to Cards. “At least the nose didn’t ground you.”

  He pinched it gently to wag it back and forth. “So I don’t have to be pissed at you. Like
I said, Swede, the girl’s batshit.”

  “Yeah. And it’s done.” She took the note passed back to her from the cockpit. “We’re going to hold off while they drop a load of mud. It was a hard winter in that area, and there’s a lot of downed trees fueling this one. It’s moving faster than they figured.”

  “Almost always does.”

  She pulled out her map, scanned the area. But in moments she only had to look out the window to see what they were dealing with.

  A tower of smoke spewed skyward, gliding along the mountain’s ridge. Trees, standing and downed, fueled the wall of fire. She scanned for and found the stream she’d scouted out on the map, calculated the amount of hose they had on board, and judged they’d be able to use the water source.

  The plane bucked and trembled in the turbulence while jumpers lined the windows to study the burning ground. And bucking, they circled to wait for the mud drop on the head that shot up flames she estimated at a good thirty feet.

  She waddled over to L.B., who’d come on as spotter.

  “See that clearing?” he shouted. “That’s our jump spot. A little closer to the right flank than I’d like, but it’s the best in this terrain.”

  “Saves us a hike.”

  “The wind’s whipping her up. You want to keep clear of that slash just east of the spot.”

  “You bet I do.”

  Together they watched the tanker thunder its load onto the head. The reddened clouds of it made her think of the blood soiling her room.

  No time for brooding, she reminded herself.

  “That’ll knock her down a little.” When the tanker veered off, L.B. nodded at her. “Are you good?”

  “I’m good.”

  He gave her arm a squeeze, a tacit acknowledgment. “Guard your reserves,” he called out, and went to the door.

  From his seat, Gull watched Rowan as the wind and noise rushed in. About an hour earlier she’d been spitting mad with blood on her face and blind vengeance in her fists. Now, as she consulted with their spotter over the flight of the first streamers, the cool was back in those gorgeous, icy eyes. She’d be the first out, taking that ice into fire.

  He didn’t see how the fire had a chance.

  He looked out the window to study the enemy below. In his hotshot days, he’d have gone in, one of twenty handcrew, transported in The Box—the crew truck that became their home away from home every season.

  Now he’d get there by jumping out of a plane.

  Different methods, same goal. Suppress and control.

  Once he was down, he knew his job and he knew how to take orders. He shifted his gaze back to Rowan. No question she knew how to give them.

  But right at the moment, it was all about the getting there. He watched the next set of streamers, tried to judge for himself the draft. With the plane bucking and rocking beneath them, he understood the wind wasn’t going to be a pal.

  The plane bumped its way up to jump altitude at L.B.’s order, and as Rowan fixed on her helmet and face mask, as Cards—her jump partner—got into position behind her, Gull felt his breathing elevate. It climbed just as the plane climbed.

  But he kept his face impassive as he worked to control it, as he visualized himself shoving out the door, into the slipstream and past it, hurtling down to do his job.

  Rowan glanced over briefly so he caught that flash of blue behind her mask. Then she dropped down into position. Seconds later, she was gone. Gull shifted back to the window, watched her fly, and Cards after her. As the plane circled around, he changed angles, saw her chute open.

  She slid into the smoke.

  When the next jumpers took positions, he strapped on his helmet and mask, calmed and cleared his mind. He had everything he needed, equipment, training, skill. And a few thousand feet below was what he wanted. The woman and the blaze.

  He made his way forward, felt the slap of the wind.

  “Do you see the jump spot?”

  “Yeah, I see it.”

  “Wind’s going to kick, all the way down, and it’s going to want to shove you east. Try to stay out of that slash. See that lightning?”

  Gull watched it rip through the sky, strike like an electric bullet.

  “Hard not to.”

  “Don’t get in its way.”

  “Got it.”

  “Are you ready?”

  “We’re ready.”

  “Get in the door.”

  Gaze on the horizon, Gull dropped down, pushed his legs out into the power of the slipstream. Heat from the fire radiated against his face; the smell of smoke tanged the air he drew into his lungs.

  Once again L.B. stuck his head out the door, scanning, studying the hills, the rise of trees, the roiling walls of flame.

  “Get ready!”

  When the slap came down on his shoulder, Gull propelled himself out. The world tipped and turned, earth, sky, fire, smoke, as he took a ninety-mile-an-hour dive. Greens, blues, red, black tumbled around him in a filmy blur while he counted in his head. The sounds—a roaring growl—amazed. The wind knocked him sideways, clawed him into a spin while he used strength, will, training to revolve until he was head up, feet down, stabilized by the drogue.

  Heart knocking—adrenaline, awe, delight, fear—he found Trigger, his jump partner, in the sky.

  Wait, he ordered himself. Wait.

  Lightning flared, a blue-edged lance, and added a sting of ozone to the air.

  Then the tip and tug. He dropped his head back, watched his chute fly up, open in the ripping air like a flower. He let out a shout of triumph, couldn’t help it, and heard Trigger answer it with a laugh as Gull gripped his steering toggles.

  It was a fight to turn to face the wind, but he reveled in it. Even choking on the smoke that wind blew smugly in his face, hearing the bombburst of thunder that followed another crack of lightning, he grinned. And with his chute rocking, his eyes tracking the ugly slash, the line of trees, the angry walls of flames—close enough now to slap heat over his face—he aimed for the jump site.

  For a moment he thought the wind would beat him after all, and imagined the discomfort, embarrassment and goddamn inconvenience of hitting those jack-sawed trees. And on his first jump.

  He yanked down hard on his toggle, shouted, “No fucking way.”

  He heard Trigger’s wild laugh, and seconds before he hit, Gull pulled west. His feet slapped ground, just on the east end of the jump spot. Momentum nearly tumbled him into the slash, but he flipped himself back in a sloppy somersault into the clearing.

  He took a moment—maybe half a moment—to catch his breath, to congratulate himself on getting down in one piece, then rolled up to gather his chute.

  “Not bad, rook.” Cards gave him a waggling thumbs-up. “Ride’s over, and the fun begins. The Swede’s setting up a team to dig fire line along the flank there.” He pointed toward the wicked, bellowing wall. “And you’re elected. Another team’s going to set up toward the head, hit it with the hoses. Mud knocked her back some, but the wind’s got her feeling sexy, and we’re getting lightning strikes out the ass. You’re with Trigger, Elf, Gibbons, Southern and me on the line. And shit, there goes one in the slash and the other in the trees. Let’s haul them in and get to work.”

  Gull trooped over to assist Southern, but stopped when his fellow rookie got to his feet among the jagged, jack-sawed trees.

  “You hurt?” Gull shouted.

  “Nah. Damn it. A little banged, and my chute’s ripped up.”

  “Could’ve been worse. Could’ve been me. We’re on the fire line.”

  He maneuvered through the slash to help Southern gather his tattered chute. After stowing his jumpsuit, Gull headed over to where Cards was ragging on Gibbons.

  “Now that Tarzan here has finished swinging in the trees, let’s do what we get paid for.”

  With his team, Gull hiked half a mile in full pack to the line Rowan had delegated Cards to dig.

  They spread out, and with the fire licking closer the sounds of
pick striking earth, saw and blade slicing tree filled the smoky air. Gull thought of the fire line as an invisible wall or, if they were lucky, a kind of force field that held the flames on the other side.

  Heroic grunt work, he thought while sweat ran rivulets through the soot on his face. The term, and the job, satisfied him.

  Twice the fire tried to jump the line, skipping testing spots like flat stones over a river. The air filled with sparks that swarmed like murderous fireflies. But they held the flank. Now and then, through the flying ash and huffing smoke, Gull spotted a quick beam of sunlight.

  Little beacons of hope that glowed purple, then vanished.

  Word came down the line that the hose crew had to fall back, and with the flank under control, they would move in to assist.

  After more than six hours of laying line, they hiked their way up the mountain and across the black where the fire had already had her way.

  If the line was the invisible wall, he thought of the black as the decimated kingdom where the battle had been waged and lost. The war continued, but here the enemy laid scourge and left what had been green and golden a smoldering, skeletal ruin.

  The thin beams of sun that managed to struggle through the haze only served to amplify the destruction.

  Limping a little, Southern fell into step beside him.

  “How’re you holding up?” Gull asked him.

  “I’d be doing better if I hadn’t landed in that godforsaken slash,” he said in the fluid Georgia drawl that gave him his nickname. “I thought I knew what it was. I’ve got two seasons in on wildfires, and that’s before we’ll-whoop-your-ass recruit training. But it’s shit-your-pants hard is what it is. I nearly did just that when I saw I was going to miss the jump spot.”

  Gull took a heat-softened Snickers out of his pack, pulled it in two. “Snickers really satisfies,” Gull said in the upbeat tone of a TV voice-over.

  Southern grinned, bit in. “It sure enough does.”

  They hit the stream, veered northeast toward the sounds of engines and saws.

  Rowan came out of a cloud of smoke, a Viking goddess through the stink of war.

  “Dry lightning’s kicking our ass.” She paused only to chug down some water. “We’d beat the head down, nearly had her, then we had a triple strike. We got crown fire along the ridge due north, and the head’s building back up west of that. We gotta cut through the middle, stop them from meeting up. Hold here until we’re clear. They’re sending another load of mud. We got another load from base coming in to take the rear flanks and tail, keep them down. Bulldozer made it through, and he’s clearing brush and downed trees. But we need the line.”