Chasing Fire

by Нора Робертс

  “Always.” Rowan tapped her fingers to her forehead, flashed her father a grin. “See you later.”

  “See you later.” He echoed the good-bye they’d given each other all her life.

  “I asked if it was allowed, and since it is, I’m going to say stay safe.”

  Rowan nodded at Ella. “I plan on it. Let’s roll, rook.”

  “I know you told me it all moves fast,” Ella said as Rowan walked with Gull toward the waiting plane, “but I didn’t realize just how fast. There’s no time to think. The siren goes off, and they go from drinking coffee or packing boxes to flying to a fire, in minutes.”

  “It’s a routine, like getting dressed in the morning. Only on fast forward. And they’re always thinking. Kick some ass,” he told Yangtree.

  “Kicking ass, taking names. And counting the days. Catch you on the flip side, buddy.”

  He spoke to others as they waddled toward the plane, some he’d worked with, others who seemed as young as saplings to him. He slipped his hand in Ella’s as the plane’s door closed.

  One of them might be a killer.

  “They’ll be fine.” She squeezed his fingers. “And back soon.”

  “Yeah.” Still, he felt the comfort of having her hand in his as he watched the plane taxi, rev, then rise.

  * * *

  After the briefing in flight, Rowan huddled with Yangtree and Trigger over maps and strategy.

  Gull plugged his MP3 in, slid on his sunglasses. The music cut the engine noise, left his mind free to think. Behind the shaded glasses, he scanned the faces, the body language of the other jumpers.

  Maybe it felt wrong, this suspicion, but he’d rather suffer a few pangs of guilt than suffer the consequences of more sabotage.

  Cards and Dobie passed some time with liar’s poker while Gibbons read a tattered paperback copy of Cat’s Cradle. Libby huddled with Matt, patting his knee in one of her there-there gestures. The spotter got up from his seat behind the cockpit to pick his way through to confer with Yangtree.

  When the call came out for buddy checks, Gull walked back himself to perform the ritual with Rowan.

  “Yangtree’s dumping us,” Rowan told him.

  Yangtree shook his head with a smile. “I’m going to work for Iron Man the first of the year. I’m going to take the fall off, buy myself a house, get my other knee fixed, do some fishing. I’ll have a lot more fishing time without having to ride herd over the bunch of you every summer.”

  “You’re giving up this life of travel, glamour and romance?” Gull asked him.

  “I’ve had all the glamour I want, and might just find some romance when I’m not eating smoke.”

  “Maybe you should take up knitting while you’re at it,” Trigger suggested.

  “I might just. I can knit you a real pretty sling since you like keeping your ass in one.” He climbed over men and gear for another consult with the spotter and pilot.

  “He’s barely fifty.” Trigger folded gum into his mouth. “Hell, I’m going to be fifty one of these days. What’s he want to quit for?”

  “I think he’s just tired, and his knee’s killing him.” Rowan glanced forward. “He’ll probably change his mind after he gets it fixed.”

  Once again, the spotter moved to the door. “Guard your reserves!”

  Hot summer air, scorched with smoke, blasted in through the opening. Rowan repositioned to get a look out the window, at the blaze crowning through the tops of thick pines and firs. Red balls of ignited gases boomed up like antiaircraft fire.

  “She’s fast,” Rowan said, “and getting a nice lift from the wind through the canyon. We’re going to hit some serious crosswinds on the way down.”

  The first set of streamers confirmed her estimate.

  “Do you see the jump spot?” she asked Gull. “There, that gap, at eight o’clock. You’ll want to come in from the south, avoid doing a face-plant in the rock face. You’re second man, third stick, so—”

  “No. First man, second stick.” He shrugged when she frowned at him, knowing Lucas had asked L.B. to switch him to her jump partner. “I guess L.B. shuffled things when he put Matt back on.”

  “Okay, I’ll catch the drift behind you.” She nodded out the window at the next set of streamers. “Looks like we’ve got three hundred yards.”

  He studied the streamers himself, and the towers of smoke, glinting silver at the fire’s crown, mottled black at its base.

  On final, Trigger snapped the chin strap of his helmet, pulled down his mesh face mask before reaching for the overhead cable to waddle his way toward the door. Matt, second man, followed.

  Rowan studied the fire, the ground, then the flight. Canopies billowed in the black and the blue as the plane came around for its second pass.

  “We’re ready,” Gull answered at the spotter’s call. With Rowan behind him, he got in the door, braced to the roar of wind and fire. The slap on his shoulder sent him out, diving through it, buffeted by it. He found the horizon, steadied himself as the drogue stabilized him, as the main put the brakes on to a glide.

  He found Rowan, watched her canopy billow, watched the sun arrow through the smoke for an instant to illuminate her face.

  Then he had a fight on his hands as the crosswinds tried to push him into a spin. A gust whipped up, blew him uncomfortably close to the cliff face. He compensated, then overcompensated as the wind yanked, tugged.

  He drifted wide of the jump spot, adjusted, then let the wind take him, so he landed neat and soft on the edge of the gap.

  He rolled, watched Rowan land three yards to his left.

  “That was some fancy maneuvering up there,” she called out to him.

  “It worked.”

  Gathering their chutes, they joined Matt and Trigger at the edge of the jump spot. “Third stick’s coming down,” Trigger commented. “And shit, Cards is going into the trees. He can’t buy luck this season.”

  Rowan clearly heard Cards curse as the wind flipped him into the pines.

  “Come on, Matt, let’s go make sure he ain’t broke nothing important.”

  Since she could still hear Cards cursing, meaning he hadn’t been knocked unconscious, she kept her eyes on the sky.

  “Yangtree and Libby,” she said as the plane positioned for the next pass. “Janis and Gibbons.” She rattled off the remaining jumpers. “When they’re all on the ground, I want you to take charge of the paracargo.”

  She put her hands on her hips, watching the next person hurtle out of the plane. Yangtree, she thought. He’d instruct, and he’d keep jumping out of planes. But doing free falls with sports groups and tourists was a far cry from...

  “His drogue. His drogue hasn’t opened.” She ran forward, shouting for the others on the ground. “Drogue in tow! Jesus, Jesus, cut away! Cut away. Pull the reserve. Come on, Yangtree, for Christ’s sake.”

  Gull’s belly roiled, his heart hammered as he watched his friend, his family, tumble through the sky and smoke. Others shouted now, Trigger all but screaming into his radio.

  The reserve opened with a jerky shudder, caught air—but too late, Gull realized. Yangtree’s fall barely slowed as he crashed into the trees.

  29

  She ran, bursting through brush, leaping fallen logs, rocks, whatever lay in her path. Gull winged past her; her own fear raced with her. With her emotions in pandemonium, she ordered herself to think, to act.

  His reserve had deployed at the last minute. There was a chance, always a chance. She slowed as she reached Cards, face bloody, shimmying down a lodgepole pine with his let-down rope.

  “Are you hurt bad?”

  “No. No. Go! Jesus, go.”

  Matt stumbled through the forest behind her, his cheeks gray, eyes dull. “Stay with Cards. Make sure he’s okay.”

  She didn’t wait for an answer, just kept running.

  When she heard Gull’s shout, she angled left, dry pine needles crunching under her feet like thin bones.

  She caught sight of the r
eserve, a tattered mangle of white draped in the branches high overhead. And the blood, dripping like a leaky faucet, splatting on the forest floor.

  Caught in the gnarled branches seventy feet above, Yangtree’s limp body dangled. A two-foot spur jutted through his side, the point of it piercing through like a pin through a moth.

  Gull, spurs snapped on, climbed. Rowan dumped her gear, snapped on her own and started up after him.

  Broken, she could see he’d been broken—his leg, his arm and likely more. But broken didn’t mean dead.

  “Can you get to him? Is he alive?”

  “I’ll get to him.” Gull climbed over, then used his rope to ease himself onto the branch, testing the weight as he went. He reached out to unsnap the helmet, laid his fingers on Yangtree’s throat.

  “He’s got a pulse—weak, thready. Multiple fractures. Deep gash on his right thigh, but it missed the femur. The puncture wound—” He cursed as he moved closer. “This goddamn spur’s holding him onto the branch like a railroad spike. I can’t maneuver to stabilize him from here.”

  “We secure him with the ropes.” Rowan leaned out as far as she could, trying to assess the situation for herself. “Cut the branch, bring him down with it.”

  “It’s not going to take my weight and a saw.” He crawled back. “It cracked some at the base. I don’t know if it’ll hold for you.”

  “Let’s find out.”

  “Dobie or Libby. It would hold one of them.”

  “I’m up here, they’re not. He’s losing a lot of blood. Let me see what I can do. Get me more rope, a saw, a first-aid kit.”

  “How bad?” Trigger called up. “How bad is it?”

  “He’s breathing.”

  “Thank Christ. I’ve got a medevac team coming. Is he conscious?”

  “No. Fill him in, okay?” She and Gull switched positions. “We need rope, first-aid kit, a chain saw. Gull’s heading down.”

  Rowan leaned back in her harness, stripped off her shirt, cut strips and pads with her pocketknife. Tying herself off, she scooted out onto the branch. It would hold, she vowed, because she damn well needed it to.

  “Yangtree, can you hear me?” She began to field-dress the jagged gash in his thigh. “You hold on, goddamn it. We’ll get you out of this.”

  She used what rope she had, wrapped it around his waist, then shimmied back to secure it. Gull was there, handing her more.

  “I’m going to secure it to the branch just above, get it under his arms.” She watched Trigger and Matt scaling the neighboring tree, nodded as she saw the plan.

  “Get another over to them, and we lower him down in a vee after I cut away the harness, saw off the branch.”

  Fear sweat dripped into her eyes as she worked, and, forced to shift the shattered leg, she prayed Yangtree stayed unconscious until they’d finished. She padded the wound around the spur as best she could, used her belt to strap him even more securely to the branch.

  Then she hesitated. If it didn’t work, she might kill him. But his pulse was growing weaker, and left no choice.

  “I’m going to release his harness. Get ready.”

  Once she’d freed him from the ruined chute, she reached back for the saw. “It’s going to work,” she said to Gull.

  “Medevac’s no more than ten minutes out.”

  She planted her feet, yanked the starter cord. The buzz sent a tremor through her. She saw Trigger and Matt brace to take the weight, knew Gull and Dobie did the same behind her.

  Trusting the rope, for him, for herself, she inched out onto the branch to set the blade into bark and wood as close to Yangtree’s body as she dared.

  “Hold him steady!” she shouted. “Don’t let him drop.”

  She cut clean, felt the branch shimmy from the shock. Then Yangtree hung suspended, the spur and the lever of branch fixed in his side like a corkscrew. His body swayed as they lowered him slowly, hand over hand, to where Libby and Stovic waited to take his weight.

  “We’ve got him! We’ve got him! Oh, Jesus.” Stovic’s voice trembled. “Jesus, he’s a mess.”

  But breathing, Rowan thought, as she heard the clatter of the chopper. He just had to keep breathing.

  It cut her in two, standing on safe ground, watching as the copter lifted off with her friend. Shattered, she thought, as the wind from the blades whipped over her. His arms, his legs, and God knew what else—and there was nothing more she could do.

  She shouted into her radio, updating base, realigning strategy while Cards, battered face in his hands, sat on the ground. Trigger watched the copter, then slowly turned to her. Everything she felt—the shock, the grief, the stupefying rage—was reflected on his face.

  “Paracargo,” she began, and Gull squeezed her arm.

  “I’ve got that. I’ve got it,” he repeated when she just stared at him. “Dobie, Matt, give me a hand?”

  Pull it together, Rowan ordered herself. “Trig.” She took a breath, then walked over to draw in the dirt. “She’s moving northeast, gaining steam. I need you,” she said quietly when he just stood, shaking his head.

  “Give me a sec, okay? Just a goddamn fucking second.”

  Crouched, she laid a hand on his boot. “We’ve got to slay this dragon, then get back to Yangtree. The delay.” Rowan had to stop, steady her voice. “The fire’s taken advantage. She’s burning hot, Trig. They’ve dumped some mud on her head, but she caught some wind, jumped this ridge line, and she’s climbing fast.”

  “Okay.” He swiped the back of his hand under his nose, crouched with her. “I can take the left flank, cut line with five, hold her in.”

  “Take seven. L.B.’s sending us another crew, and I’ll pull from that. You got a water source here.” She drew an X in the dirt. “So take pumper and hose. I’ll get a crew heading up the right, and do some scouting.”

  When he reached for her hand, she linked fingers. “We’re going to kill her,” he said. “Then we’re going to find out what the hell happened.”

  “Damn right we are.”

  They talked Cat lines, safe spots, two possible fire camps.

  When he’d culled out his seven, gathered the gear, Rowan turned to the rest. “Cards, I need you to stay here and—”

  “Fuck that, Swede.” His snarl had blood leaking from his split lip. “I’m not hanging back.”

  “I’m not asking you to hang back. I need you to wait for the next load, take half and start up the left flank after Trigger. Send the rest to me. I need Gibbons on my crew, and Janis. And make it clear they’re going to bust their asses. I need you to take charge of this,” she said before he could speak. “And Trigger’s going to need you on the line.”

  She turned away when he nodded. “Gull, Dobie, Libby, Stovic. Tool up.”

  No time to waste. No time to think beyond the fire. Everything else had to stay locked outside.

  They dug and cut, with every strike of Pulaski or buzz of blade echoing to Rowan like vengeance. And the fire reared and snapped.

  “I need you to take charge here until Gibbons makes it in,” she told Gull. “He just checked in. Everybody hit the jump spot safely. I’m going to work my way toward the head, get a better sense of her. If you tie in with the Cat line before I get back, let me know.”

  “Okay.”

  “You’ve got a water source about fifty yards up, this same course. You’re going to end up with a crooked line, and Gibbons is going to be coming double time, but if you get there before he meets up, get Stovic and Libby on the hose. Any change in the wind or—”

  “I’ve got it, Rowan. Go do what you need to do; we’ll work it from here. Just stay in touch.”

  “Don’t let them think about it. Keep them focused. I’ll be back.”

  She set off fast, moving through the trees, up the rough incline, and vanished in smoke.

  All she heard was the fire, the muttering glee of it. It crackled over the dry timber, lapped at molten pine resin, chewed through leaves, twigs littering the ground. She dodged a fire
brand as she climbed, beat out the spot.

  She thought of bodies charred to the bone.

  When she crested the ridge she stopped to check her bearings. She could see the red-orange fury, gobbling up fuel. They’d given her a head start, she thought; they’d had no choice. The dragon ran strong and free.

  She called in to request retardant drops, and received a brief, unsatisfying report on Yangtree.

  They were working on him.

  She felt the change in the wind, just a flutter, and saw the fire grab its tail to ride. A cut to the west now, still north of Trigger’s crew, she noted, but moving toward them.

  She circled around, contacting him by radio.

  “She’s shifting, curling back toward you.”

  “We’ve got a Cat line here, a good, wide one. I don’t think she can jump it. Escape route due south.”

  “They’re bringing mud. I just called to tell them to dump a load west, down your flank. Stay clear.”

  “Roger that. Cards just got here with reinforcements. We’re going to hold this line, Swede.”

  “After the mud drops, I’m going to get an air report. I want to take four from your team, same from mine, get them up to the head. Squeeze it. But if she jumps the road, get gone.”

  “Bet your ass. And watch yours.”

  As she worked her way through the fire, she coordinated with Gibbons, with base, kept her ears and eyes peeled for the tankers. She cut east, eyes smarting with smoke, then jumped back, skidding onto her back as a burning limb thick as a man’s thigh crashed to the ground in front of her.

  It caught fresh fuel on the forest floor, ignited with a whoosh to claw at the soles of her boots before she scrambled clear.

  “Widowmaker,” she shouted to Gibbons. “I’m good, but I’m going to be busy for a minute.”

  She beat at the fresh flames, chopping at the ground to smother what she could with dirt. She heard the thunder of a tanker, muttered curses as she fought her small, personal war.

  “I’m clear.” Shoveling, stomping, she signaled Gibbons, then the tanker pilot. “I’m clear.”

  And ran.