by Annie Seaton
‘Sorry. Not in my contract.’ He’d made it quite clear when he was hired that he wouldn’t be flying.
‘We’ve got four people missing out there in the park and one of them is a young child. There’s only one hour of daylight left at most.’ She turned away from him and ran a final instrument check. ‘The crocs will be on the move as it gets darker. Want that on your conscience?’
Shit. Kane paused with one hand on the door and popped another wad of gum into his mouth.
Her eyes were fixed on his, and he could see the worry in them. Going up with her was the only choice he had. No matter how hard it was going to be.
‘Let me get my shirt.’ He ran over and snatched it from the chair inside the hangar.
‘Hurry up. You’ve . . . we’ve . . . wasted enough time as it is. Just get in the seat, please.’
Kane slipped his shirt on but left it unbuttoned. He ducked his head as she depressed the engine starter button until it fired, and then reached over to push the fuel cut-off. Before she could roll on the throttle, he bit down on the side of his cheek and swung himself into the front seat beside her. He grunted an acknowledgement as she passed him a headset.
‘Good to go?’ Her voice came through clearly and Kane nodded gruffly.
He stared ahead as the chopper lifted off the short runway and tipped forward as it gathered speed. The forgotten rush of being airborne filled him and he kept his eyes open, focusing on where he was.
The land below was a contrast of lush green forest and patches of scrubby trees on red dirt, interspersed with a network of narrow channels where silver water glinted in the late afternoon sunlight.
Five minutes later they were swooping over a wide river. She pulled a piece of paper from her shirt pocket and passed it to him as her voice filled his ears.
‘Talk me through the grid. Start at Cahill’s Crossing.’
*
With her attention fixed on guiding the helicopter along the search grid, it was a few minutes before Ellie ventured a glance in the direction of the man who was reading the coordinates to her in a flat monotone.
She dipped the chopper low, keeping her eyes fixed on the river and the floodplains below, looking for a flash of colour or movement in the brown and green landscape. The scenic flights she took up most days covered the most popular parts of the national park and in the four years she’d been working as a pilot for Makowa Lodge, she’d flown over much of it. But Kakadu was such a huge area; there were still gorges and valleys and river flats she had yet to explore from the air.
Luckily, the area plotted in today’s search was very familiar. Cahill’s Crossing was on the flight path for the scenic route; the twenty-minute whistlestop tour that most of the tourists chose. Ellie also knew it from the ground; she and Dad had often fished for barramundi at the crossing when she was growing up.
They were low enough to see several huge crocodiles basking on the sand in the late afternoon sun. She swallowed, hoping the missing tourists had been smart enough to stay away from the water.
A gust of wind buffeted the helicopter as she glanced across at her offsider. His gaze was fixed on the ground, but it was his utter stillness that caught Ellie’s attention.
Strong hands clutched the piece of paper she’d picked up at the office in the hangar. The edges were crumpled in his grip, and his knuckles were white.
She lifted her gaze to his deeply tanned face and saw perspiration beaded on his forehead, even though it was cooler up in the sky with the breeze from the rotors coming in the air vents on the doors. Not to mention the fact that his shirt was unbuttoned.
It was hard to ignore the glimpse of muscled arms and tight abs when she looked across to his side of the chopper. It was a long time since she’d been up close and personal with a body like that.
Maybe never, if she was strictly honest about it.
Suddenly he pointed. ‘Over there.’
Ellie jumped as the deep voice intruded on her thoughts. His dark eyes met hers for a second as he swivelled in his seat and leaned across her, indicating a large stand of sandstone rocks a couple of kilometres to the east of the crossing. His bare arm and chest pressed against her shoulder and she leaned back a little, keeping a firm grip on the cyclic. His eyesight must be acute; she had already scanned that side of the river and seen nothing out of the ordinary.
She peered across to where he was pointing. Sure enough, two figures were hunched together in the lengthening shadows beneath the rock.
‘Good pick-up.’ Credit given where credit due.
She swooped down as low as she could go so they knew they’d been spotted.
‘Shit, there’s only two down there. They must have split up.’ She flicked on the radio and waited for her boss to respond. ‘Jock, we’ve spotted a couple of them.’
‘Roger that.’ The Scottish burr was muffled by the noise of the fresh air rushing in despite her headset. ‘Location?’
‘We’re closer to Ubirr Rock than Cahill’s Crossing.’ She looked back to Kane. ‘Coordinates?’
As he read them to her, she relayed them to Jock.
‘Thanks, I’ll let them know at the park base. Well done.’
Kane’s dark eyes held her gaze for a moment, and then he looked down again as he shoved the paper into his pocket. ‘We’re going to have to go down. Look.’
Ellie tipped the bird and leaned to the side, using one hand to hold back some hair which had come adrift from her braid. On the ground, a tall man was waving his arms frantically and gesturing to the rocks.
‘Damn it, looks like there’s a problem.’ Ellie stared down at the scene playing out beneath them as Jock’s voice came through her headset, relaying their position to the national park rangers on the ground. ‘The others must be there out of sight.’
‘There’s a search crew three kilometres west of Ubirr Rock.’ Jock’s voice came through clear. ‘They were searching closer to where the vehicle was found. They’ll be able to get to them in half an hour or so. Thanks, Ellie, great work. Head back to base now.’
‘Negative, Jock. Looks like someone’s hurt. We’re going down to check it out.’
‘Watch out for those crosswinds. The wind’s picked up over the last couple of hours.’
‘Will do.’ She noticed Kane brace himself as she lowered the front of the bird and dropped them fifty feet in one swift dive. A gust buffeted the machine and she glanced at his white-knuckled fingers gripping the edge of his seat. She looked up and caught his eyes. He was watching her closely as she gripped the single T-bar cyclic between them. For a split-second, he lifted his hand from his seat as though he wanted to take control, but he dropped it again as she held the bird in a hover.
The wind buffeted them from side to side, but she held the bird steady. ‘Don’t worry. She’s a reliable machine. Most accidents are usually caused by pilot error.’ Ellie kept her eyes on him a moment, then dropped the front down and prepared to land on a large flat patch of sand between the tourists and the river.
‘R44s are hard to hold in a hover pattern.’ His voice held a tinge of new respect.
‘You don’t say?’ She lifted one hand briefly and patted his leg. Kane’s thigh muscles were taut beneath her hand. ‘No need to worry, babe. This here is child’s play. Wait till you see how hard it is up in the real gorges of the park.’
The bird dropped as a strong gust of wind tipped it end to end. ‘Hang on. I’m taking us down.’
*
By the time she put the chopper down on the river flat, the trepidation that had been roiling in Kane’s stomach was replaced with a grudging respect. Despite the difficult crosswind between rock pillars, Ellie had handled the bird as well – almost as well – as he would have.
‘Get the first-aid kit. It’s in the –’
‘I know where it is.’ Kane cut her off tersely as she swung out and ducked beneath the rotors. Just because she knew her stuff didn’t mean he’d let her boss him around.
Ellie was obvious
ly slow on the pick-up because she kept firing instructions. ‘Tie down the front blade while I see what’s happened here.’
‘Yes, ma’am,’ he muttered as she ran across the sand to meet the tall guy standing in the shadow of the rocks. This close, Kane saw that he had his arms around a small child, so it looked like the kid was okay. A second man was seated on a large boulder with his back to them.
Kane kept an eye on them as he quickly secured the rotor blade. He gave the tie-down strap a final tug, retrieved the first-aid kit from under the back seat, and ran across to the rocks where Ellie was crouched down in the shade beside a young woman. The guy was cradling her head in his lap and it appeared she was unconscious.
‘What is it?’ He caught a glimpse of blood soaked into the dirt and an all-too-familiar nausea hit him as he put the kit on the ground. He swallowed hard as his gut clenched, and cold sweat prickled his skin as it ran down the back of his neck. He dug into his jeans pocket for a fresh piece of gum.
‘Looks like a compound fracture.’ Ellie’s voice was low as her fingers pressed into the woman’s foot. The blood had soaked into the loose dirt, leaving only a stain of colour behind – as if the ground itself was thirsty.
Kane’s vision suddenly blurred and the scene in front of him tilted for a second. He was in the air again, and red sand hills were the only variation in the expanse of desert below. The dull thuds of improvised explosive devices covered the sound of Ellie’s voice.
They got louder and Kane gagged, touching the rock beside him, grounding himself, remembering where he was.
Kakadu. Northern Territory. Australia. He repeated the words in his mind like a mantra. Kakadu. Northern Territory. Australia.
‘Mummy!’
The shrill cry of the child pulled his eyes away from the patch of blood in the dirt; he’d managed to keep his cool, and his lunch – just.
The kid cried out, one little arm locked around his father’s neck, the other reaching towards the woman on the ground. Even to a small child, it was clear that she was in trouble.
‘Give me a sterile dressing, and then get on the radio and tell Jock to make sure there’s someone still on duty at the medical centre at Jabiru,’ Ellie said. She glanced up at the father. ‘I think it would be better if you moved your little boy away, sir.’
The man looked at her for a moment before he nodded and led the boy across the sand to sit beside the helicopter. Kane stayed where he was.
‘You’re not going to try to move her, are you?’
‘Of course not. The ground crew will take her in.’ Ellie’s voice was terse. ‘We really need to make sure there’s someone at the medical centre when she comes in.’ She glanced down at a large watch on her tanned arm. ‘They usually close at five o’clock and it’s not far off that now. I hope the ground crew aren’t too far away. She’s lost a lot of blood.’
Kane knew that. Even from a standing position, he could see the huge stain on the ground. Shit, even with his eyes closed he could still see it. He was sure he’d see it in his dreams too.
Moving slower than he knew he should, he snapped open the first-aid kit and reached for a dressing. His limbs would not respond to his brain.
‘What else do you need?’ He brushed one hand through his cropped hair, trying to ignore the metallic smell of blood that was rising into the hot air. His stomach flipped and he bit back the nausea. He shoved the dressing at her, his movement rougher than he’d intended.
She looked up at him curiously but Kane held her gaze, forcing his expression to stay impassive and his hands to stay steady. This was not the time to give in to the shit the psychologist had told him about. He swallowed and straightened up.
‘Call in . . . please,’ she repeated but her voice was softer this time. ‘And get that kid up in the chopper until the ground crew arrives. Every croc within a mile will have smelled the blood by now.’
Kane nodded and walked away. Fast.
Maybe he’d made a mistake, taking on this job. He’d been under the impression that these helicopters were for showing tourists the sights. If there was going to be blood, perhaps he should reconsider. Just my luck to get a medical evacuation in my first week. He knew better than to rely on luck. It hadn’t followed him anywhere before and it sure looked like things hadn’t changed.
But Kane knew he wouldn’t reconsider the job. The next few months were going to be tough enough. His mother was sick . . . maybe dying. He’d go stir crazy if he didn’t have a job to keep him occupied while she had her treatment.
There was a squawk from the radio, and Kane started talking, working on autopilot as he spoke to the national park base.
He was beginning to get the feeling that this role at Makowa was very different to what he’d expected. After the events of the past year, he’d promised himself he’d stay on the ground. He’d do the best job he could as an engineer, but no one would ever rely on his judgement in the air again. No one would be at risk from his decisions. But if they were expecting him to help out in search and rescues . . .
By the time Kane signed off with base, the kid was sitting in the back of the chopper with his father. He could have returned to help work on the woman. He didn’t, though.
After reassuring the guy that the medical crew were close, he leaned against the bird, watching Ellie as she deftly bandaged the wound. The metal was hot against his back and he could feel the heat of the sand through his boots. Ellie would have done great over there, in the desert.
Shit. Just forget about it.
Kane turned away. Who am I kidding?
*
Ellie and Kane followed the rescue vehicle from the air until it negotiated the last rocky outcrop and turned onto the track that led back to the highway. It wasn’t far from there to Jabiru, and Kane had confirmed that a team was waiting for the patient at the medical centre. The young mother had regained consciousness before they’d taken off, and one of the paramedics in the ground crew had given her a morphine injection. They’d done well but Kane’s reactions had left Ellie wondering. She’d had to ask him three times to put the call in to the medical centre. He’d frozen at the sight of the blood.
For a tough guy – and he was strong, she knew that instinctively – his confidence was shadowed by something unspoken. He hadn’t said a word to her since she put the bird in the air. She pushed the worry away; all types passed through the Territory. Most people had baggage, but it had nothing to do with her. There was no point giving into the curiosity.
‘We’ve got about ten minutes left till sunset. Would you like a quick scenic tour?’ She turned to him and he reluctantly met her gaze. ‘It’s by far the best time of day to see the park. If you’re going to fly in Kakadu, it’s much easier to see the flight paths from up here. Get your bearings from the air.’
‘No need. I won’t be flying here again.’
Ellie shrugged as Kane turned away to look out the side of the helicopter. She’d tried, but that was enough. Whatever his problem was, he could get over it himself.
He wasn’t the first male to doubt her skill and he wouldn’t be the last, but she was done with trying to crack this tough nut. Chauvinist pig. If he didn’t want to fly, that was Jock’s problem. But he sure wouldn’t last long up here if he wasn’t prepared to give a little. This was just the first of the emergencies for the tourist season.
As she turned the helicopter towards Makowa Lodge, lush green river flats were gradually replaced by scrubby trees on red dirt. The route she always followed took them over the rim of the national park, and then across the fence that divided the old family farm from the park. Today she was curious to see where those trucks had gone this afternoon.
In the paddock below, row after row of dead and shrivelled mango trees formed a geometric pattern. Ellie touched her fingers unconsciously to her lips and whispered, ‘Hey Dad,’ as she always did when she flew over their old home. The ache of unshed tears settled behind her eyes when she looked ahead at the towering cumulonimbus clouds
to the north where the South Alligator River drained into Van Diemen’s Gulf.
One afternoon when she was a small child, she and Dad had lain on their backs on the soft grass and looked up at the sky. He’d told her that when he was an old man in heaven he would be lying up in those fluffy clouds looking down on her and her sisters. She’d never forgotten it, and now those towering pillars of white cloud brought her undone whenever she saw them.
He’d never made it past middle age, let alone become an old man.
A flash of movement from the ground caught her eye and Ellie leaned forward, surprised to see a cleared patch on the southern edge of the property. Heavy machinery was working in the paddock where her father had once planted his new hybrid variety of mangoes. Instead of neat rows of trees, a gaping red hole scarred the ground and a couple of huge yellow earthmoving machines were moving back and forward near the river. As well as the three oversized trucks she’d followed, half a dozen work utes were parked along the edge of the road.
‘What the hell?’ Ellie muttered. She took her eyes off the controls for a second and craned over her shoulder, looking back as the farm disappeared from sight. She glanced across at Kane but his head was back against the headrest and his eyes were closed. She dipped the helicopter and turned in a sweeping arc to cross the back of the farm, lower this time. Now what she saw below her filled her with a deep sense of unease. It looked like major earthworks.
What the hell is going on down there?
If something was happening right on the park boundary, surely there would have been something about it in the news. Unless something had happened while she was away.
She’d give Panos a call as soon as she got back to the lodge. And she’d chase up Bill Jarragah as well.
She glanced across at Kane again. His eyes were still shut, and there were tight lines around his mouth. Ellie took a deep breath; suddenly she felt the mother of a headache coming on. She’d worry about what she’d seen later when she had time to think. The township of Jabiru appeared below and she took a wide turn to the north to avoid the telecommunications towers. As she banked towards Makowa Lodge, the Ranger mine spread out below them.