Chasing Fire

by Нора Робертс

“Oh, sorry. Ah, I’ll have a beer. A Rolling Rock.”

  “I’ll get those right out to you. Anything else? An appetizer?”

  “You know what I’d love? Some of those sweet potato skins. They’re amazing,” she told Lucas. “You have to share some with me.”

  “Sure. Okay. Great.”

  “I’ll be right back with your drinks.”

  “I so appreciate you taking the time to come in,” Ella began. “It gives me an excuse to sit in a pretty bar, have a summer drink and some sinful food.”

  “It’s a nice place.”

  “I like coming here, when I have an excuse. I’ve come to feel at home in Missoula in a fairly short time. I love the town, the countryside, my work. It’s hard to ask for more.”

  “You’re not from here. From Montana.” He knew that. Hadn’t he known that?

  “Born in Virginia, transplanted to Pennsylvania when I went to college, where I met my ex-husband.”

  “That’s a ways from Montana.”

  “I got closer as time went by. We moved to Denver when the kids were ten and twelve, when my husband—ex—got a difficult-to-refuse job offer. We were there about a dozen years before we moved to Washington State, another job offer. My son moved here, got married, started his family, and my girl settled in California, so after the divorce I wanted fresh. Since I like the mountains, I decided to try here. I get fresh, the mountains, and my son and his family, with my daughter close enough by air I can see her several times a year.”

  He couldn’t imagine the picking up and going, going then picking it all up again. Though his work had taken him all over the West, he’d lived in Missoula all his life.

  “That’s a lot of country, a lot of moving around.”

  “Yes, and I’m happy to be done with it. You’re a native?”

  “That’s right. Born and bred in Missoula. I’ve been east a few times. We get hired off season to work controlled burns, or insect eradication.”

  “Exterminating bugs?”

  He grinned. “Bugs that live up in tall trees,” he explained, jerking a thumb at the ceiling. “We—smoke jumpers, I mean—are trained to climb. But most of my life’s been spent west of St. Louis.”

  The waitress served their drinks, and Ella lifted hers. “Here’s to roots—maintaining them and setting them down.”

  “Washington State, that’s pretty country. I jumped some fires there. Colorado, too.”

  “A lot of country.” Ella smiled at him. “You’ve seen the most pristine, and the most devastated. Alaska, too, right? I read you fought wildfires there.”

  “Sure.”

  She leaned forward. “Is it fantastic? I’ve always wanted to see it, to visit there.”

  For a minute, he lost the rhythm of small talk in her eyes. “Ah... I’ve only seen it in the summer, and it’s fantastic. The green, the white, the water, the miles and miles of open. All that water’s a hazard for jumping fire, but they don’t have the trees like we do here, so it’s a trade-off.”

  “Which is more hazardous? Water or trees?”

  “Land in the water with all your gear, you’re going to go down, maybe not get up again. Land in the trees, land wrong, maybe you just get hung up, maybe you break your neck. The best thing to do is not land in either.”

  “Have you?”

  “Yeah. I hit my share of both. The worst part’s knowing you’re going to, and trying to correct enough so you’ll walk away from it. Any jump you walk away from is a good jump.”

  She sat back. “I knew it. I knew you’d be perfect for what I’d like to do.”

  “Ah—”

  “I know they give tours of the base, and groups can see the operation, ask some questions. But I had this idea, specifically for students. Something more intimate, more in-depth. Hearing firsthand, from the source, what it takes, what you do, what you’ve done. Personal experiences of the work, the life, the risks, the rewards.”

  “You want me to talk to kids?”

  “Yes. I want you to talk to them. I want you to teach them. Hear me out,” she added when he just stared at her. “A lot of our students come from privilege, from parents who can afford to send them to a top-rated private school like ours. Everyone knows about the Zulies. The base is right here. But I’ll guarantee few, if any, unless they have a connection, understand what it really means to be what you are, do what you do.”

  “I’m not a jumper anymore.”

  “Lucas.” The soft smile teased out the dimples. “You’ll always be one. In any case, you gave it half of your life. You’ve seen the changes in the process, the equipment. You’ve fought wilderness fires all over the West. You’ve seen the beauty and the horror. You’ve felt it.”

  She laid a fisted hand on her heart. “Some of these kids, the ones I’d especially like to reach with this, have attitudes. The hard work, the dirty work, that’s for somebody else—somebody who doesn’t have the money or brains to go to college, launch a lucrative career. The wilderness? What’s the big deal? Let somebody else worry about it.”

  She’d tripped something in him the minute she’d said he’d always be a jumper. The minute he saw she understood that.

  “I don’t know how me talking to them’s going to change that.”

  “I think listening to you, being able to ask you questions, having you take them through, from training to fire, will open some of those young minds.”

  “And that’s what your work is. Even though you don’t teach anymore, you’ll always be a teacher.”

  “Yes. We understand that about each other.” She watched him as she sipped her drink. “I intend to talk to the operations officer at base. I’d like to, with parental permission, have a group, or groups, go through training. A shortened version obviously. Maybe over a weekend after the fire season.”

  “You want to put them through the wringer,” he said with a glimmer of a smile.

  “I want to show them, teach them, bring it home to them that the men and women who dedicate themselves to protecting our wilderness put themselves through the wringer. I have ideas about photographs and videos, and... I have ideas,” she said with a laugh. “And we’d have all summer to put the project together.”

  “I think it’s a good thing you’re trying to do. I’m not much good at speaking. Public speaking.”

  “I can help you with that. Besides, I’d rather you just be who you are. Believe me, that’s enough.”

  She picked up one of the potato skins the waitress had served while she’d laid out her plan.

  She’d caught him up in it, he couldn’t deny it. The idea of it, the passion behind it. “I can give it a try, I guess. At least see how it goes.”

  “That would be great. I really think we can do something that has impact—and some fun. And that brings me to two things.” She took another drink. “Let me just get this off the table. I was married for twenty-eight years. I uprooted myself, then my kids as well to support and suit my husband. I loved him, almost all of those twenty-eight years, and for the last of them, I believed in the marriage, the life we’d built. I believed in him. Until on my fifty-second birthday, he took me out to dinner. A beautiful restaurant, candles, flowers, champagne. He even had a rather exquisite pair of diamond earrings for me to top it off.”

  She sat back a little, crossed her legs. “All of this to set it up, so I wouldn’t cause a public scene when he told me he was having an affair with his personal assistant—a woman young enough to be his daughter, by the way. That he was in love with her and leaving me. He still thought the world of me, of course, and hoped I’d understand that these things happened. Oh, and the heart wants what the heart wants.”

  “I’m sorry. I’m trying to think what I should say, but nothing that’s coming into my head seems appropriate.”

  “Oh, it can’t be any less appropriate than what I said—after I picked up the champagne bucket and dumped the ice over his head. When I went to a lawyer—the very next day—she asked if I wanted to play nice or cut him
off at the balls. I went for castration. I’d finished playing nice.”

  “Good for you.”

  “I wondered if I would regret it. But so far, no. I’m telling you this because I think it’s only fair that you understand, right now, I can be mean, and that both my marriage and my divorce taught me to understand myself, virtue and flaw, and to not waste time in going after what I want.”

  “Time’s always wasted if you’re not aiming for what you want.”

  “An excellent point. Which brings me to the second thing. I lied to you earlier today when I said I wasn’t hitting on you. I was. I am.”

  It wasn’t just that his mind went blank, but that his whole system hit overload and snapped to an abrupt halt. He couldn’t quite manage the simple act of swallowing as he stared into her sparkling eyes.

  “I don’t believe in absolute honesty in all things,” she continued, “because I think a little shading now and then not only softens the edges, but makes things more interesting. But in this case, I decided on the bald truth. If it scares you off, it’s better to know at this point, where there really isn’t anything on the line for either of us.”

  She took a small sip from her glass. “So... Have I scared you off?”

  “I... I’m not very good at this.”

  “I should have put in there that whether you’re interested or not, I’m very sincere and serious about the project, and about learning how to skydive. Both of those things might be connected to me being attracted to you, but they’re not contingent on it. Or you reciprocating.”

  She sighed. “And that sounded like a high-school principal when I’d hoped not to. I’m a little nervous.”

  The idea of that stopped the degeneration of his brain cells. “You are?”

  “I like you, and I’m hoping you’re interested enough to want to spend time with me, on a personal level. So, yes, I’m a little nervous that pushing that forward so soon might put you off. But it’s part of my don’t-waste-time policy, so... If you’re interested, or inclined to consider being interested, I’d like to take you to dinner. There’s a nice restaurant a couple blocks away. It’s an easy walk—and I made a reservation, just in case.”

  He considered, shook his head. “No.”

  “Well. Then we’ll just—”

  “I’d like to take you to dinner.” He could hardly believe the words came out of his mouth, and didn’t cause a single hitch. “I heard there’s a nice restaurant a couple blocks away, if you’d like to take a walk.”

  He loved watching the way the smile bloomed on her face. “That sounds great. I’m just going to go freshen up first.”

  She got up from the table, moved toward the restroom.

  The minute the door closed behind her, she did a high-stepping dance in the bold purple peek-toe pumps she’d bought that afternoon.

  On a foolish giggle, she walked to the sink, studied her giddy face in the mirror. “Let the adventure begin,” she said, then took out her lipstick.

  A few years before, she’d wondered, worried, all but assumed her life was essentially over. In a way, it had been, had needed to be to push her to start again.

  So far, the new life of Ella Frazier brimmed with interesting possibilities.

  And one of them was about to take her to dinner.

  She nodded to her reflection, dropped the lipstick back in her purse. “Thanks, Darrin,” she declared to her ex-husband. “It took that kick in the teeth to wake me up.” She tossed her hair, did a stylish half turn. “And just look at me now. I am wide awake.”

  Rowan resisted calling or texting her father’s cell. It struck her as a little too obviously checking up on him. Instead, she opted for his landline at home.

  She fully expected him to answer. She’d waited until nine thirty, after all, busying herself with her paperwork. Or trying to. When his machine picked up, she was momentarily at a loss. She had to grope for the excuse it had taken her nearly a half hour to come up with.

  “Oh, hey. I’m just taking a quick break from writing up my reports and realized I didn’t get the chance to tell you of my brilliance as fire boss. If I can’t brag to you, who can I brag to? I’ll be at this for another hour or so, then I’ll probably take a walk to clear the administrative BS out of my head. So give me a call. Hope your meeting went well.”

  She rolled her eyes as she clicked off. “Meeting-schmeeting,” she muttered. “A drink with a client doesn’t go for two and a half hours.”

  She brooded awhile. It wasn’t that she thought her father wasn’t entitled to a social life. But she didn’t even know who this client was. Lucas Tripp was handsome, interesting, a successful businessman. And a prime target for an opportunistic woman.

  A daughter held a solemn duty to look after her single, successful, naive and overly-trusting-of-women father. She wanted him to get home and call her back, so she could do just that.

  Maybe she should try him on his cell, just in case—

  No, no, no, she ordered herself. That crossed the line into interfering. He was sixty, for God’s sake. He didn’t have a curfew.

  She’d just finish the stupid report, take that walk. He was bound to call before she’d gotten it all done.

  But she finished the report, sent it to L.B. She took a long, admittedly sulky walk, before going back to her quarters and taking twice as long as necessary to get ready for bed.

  Annoyed with herself, she shut off the light. During a brutal mental debate about the justification of trying her father’s cell after midnight, she fell asleep.

  Voices woke her. Voices raised outside her window, outside her door. For a bleary moment she thought herself in the recurring dream—the aftermath of Jim’s tragic jump when everyone had been shouting, rushing. Scared, angry.

  But when her eyes opened in the half-light, the voices continued. Something’s wrong, she thought, and instinct had her out of bed, out the door before fully awake.

  “What the hell?” she demanded as Dobie pushed by her.

  “Somebody hit the ready room. Gibbons said it looks like a bomb went off.”

  “What? That can’t—”

  But Dobie continued to run, obviously wanting to see for himself. In the cotton pants and tank she’d slept in, Rowan raced out in her bare feet.

  The morning chill hit her skin, but what she saw in the faces of those who hurried with her, or quick-stepped it toward Operations, heated her blood.

  Something’s very wrong, she realized, and quickened her pace.

  She hit the door to the ready room in step with Dobie.

  A bomb wasn’t far off, she thought. Parachutes, so meticulously and laboriously rigged and packed, lay or draped like tangled, deflated balloons. Tools scattered on the torn silks with gear spilling chaotically out of lockers. From the looks of it, tools, once carefully cleaned and organized, had been used to hack and slice at packs, jumpsuits, boots, damaging or destroying everything needed to jump and contain a fire.

  On the wall, splattered in bloody-red spray paint, the message read clearly:

  JUMP AND DIE

  BURN IN HELL

  Rowan thought of pig’s blood.

  “Dolly.”

  With his hands fisted at his sides, Dobie stared at the destruction. “Then she’s worse than crazy.”

  “Maybe she is.” Rowan squatted, slid a hand through the slice in silk. “Maybe she is.”

  Extended Attack

  A little fire is quickly trodden out;

  Which, being suffered, rivers cannot quench.

  William Shakespeare

  11

  Every able hand worked in manufacturing, in the loadmaster’s room, in the loft. They spread through the buildings, making Smitty bags, ponchos, finishing chutes already in for repair, rigging, repacking. Under the hum and clatter of machines, the mutters, Rowan knew everyone’s thoughts ran toward the same destination.

  Let the siren stay silent.

  Until they repaired and restocked, rerigged, inspected, there was no jump l
ist.

  Nothing in the ready room could be touched until the cops cleared it. So they worked with what they had in manufacturing, running against the clock and the moods of nature.

  “We could maybe send eight in.” Cards worked opposite Rowan, painstakingly rigging a chute. “We can put eight together right now.”

  “I can’t think about it. And we can’t rush it. It’s a damn good thing she didn’t get in here. Bad enough as it is.”

  “Do you really think Dolly did that?”

  “Who else?”

  “That’s just fucked up. She was sort of one of us. I even...”

  “A lot of the guys even.”

  “Before Vicki,” Cards added. “Before Jim. Anyway, I mean, she worked right here on base, joking and flirting around in the dining hall. Like Marg and Lynn.”

  “Dolly’s never been like Marg and Lynn.”

  Focusing, Rowan arranged the chute’s lines into two perfect bundles. One tangled cord could be the difference between a good jump and a nightmare. “Who else is pissed off and crazy besides Dolly?”

  “Painting that crap on the wall, too,” Cards agreed. “Like she did in your room. I was up till damn near one, and didn’t hear a goddamn thing. Wrecking the place that way, she had to make some noise.”

  “She snuck onto base late, after everyone was bunked down.” Rowan shrugged. “It’s just not that hard, especially if you know your way around. It happened, that’s for damn sure.”

  “It doesn’t make any sense.” Gull stopped on his way to another table with a repaired chute. “If there’s a fire when we’re not squared away, they’ll send in jumpers from other bases. Nobody’s going to jump until our equipment’s cleared. Who’s she trying to hurt?”

  “Crazy doesn’t have to make sense.”

  “You’ve got a point. But all that mess down there accomplishes is to cost time and money—and piss everybody off. Not to mention cops knocking at your door, when you slid by that one last time.”

  “Vindictive doesn’t have to make sense either.”