Proving Ground

by Stanalei Fletcher

  “Of course I can, if you’re that sure she’s up there.”

  Mac put the phone to his ear and listened to it ring on the other end. “Come on, Jack,” he mumbled under his breath. “Pick up.” Then he looked at Bob. “Is that old cabin still at the end of the trailhead in Madeline Canyon campground?”

  “Yeah, why?”

  “Show me on the map,” Mac demanded.

  While Bob pulled out another map, Mac waited for Jack to answer. Finally, the ringing stopped and a voice answered. “This is Jack.”

  “Shit,” Mac said, thinking he’d gotten Jack’s voicemail message.

  “Guess I shouldn’t expect a better greeting after all this time.”

  “Damn it, Jack. I thought…hell, never mind. Where’s Caitlin?”

  “If I knew where Caity was, I wouldn’t have called Sean to get hold of you now, would I?”

  Mac bit back another expletive and grimaced as Bob pointed at the map. Mac looked at the grid where the fire was spotted and noted the fire’s proximity to the cabin’s location and campground. He nodded his thanks to Bob and turned his attention back to the phone.

  “Just tell me what you know,” Mac said through his teeth. After a beat of silence on the other end, he added, “Please.”

  “She went for a hike just before sundown. I told her to return in an hour.”

  Mac waited. “And?”

  “She didn’t return, even after she’d been gone well over an hour,” Jack answered.

  “Why didn’t you look for her?”

  “She’s not a child. And she’s thanked me many a time for not being her keeper. That aside, we were just starting a search party when someone spotted smoke near Madeline’s Peak. A few minutes later, a forest ranger drove into the campground and gave us twenty minutes to pack up and leave.”

  “Didn’t you tell the rangers Caitlin was on mountain?”

  “I tried. We even started to search the trails, but the local authorities blocked us from going anywhere except back down the canyon.”

  “It’s just like you not to take any responsibility.” Mac felt like throwing the phone across the room.

  “Careful where you tread, nephew.”

  Heat burned along Mac’s neck. He understood the need to get everyone to safety, but still had little patience where his uncle was concerned. “Did you see what direction she went? Could she have hiked up to the cabin?”

  “If she did, then she’s smack in the middle of the fire. And I know this—there’s not a better man around to find her than you.”

  Mac was taken aback by Jack’s proclamation. The last time he’d heard a compliment from his uncle was before the accident that killed his parents. Since then, Mac had never tried to have a meaningful conversation with his uncle. Not even after his grandmother died. He took a deep breath. “Did she have a cell phone on her?”

  “Yes.” Jack’s reply was short and he didn’t expound upon it.

  “Did you try calling her?”

  “Of course.”

  “Damn it, Jack.” Mac was losing his patience. “Do I have to drag information out of you?”

  “It didn’t pick up. I had a signal at the camp, but wherever she is…” Jack let the implication hang.

  “Give me her number.” Mac punched the number into his phone as Jack read it off. “Thanks.”

  “Can you find her?”

  “Are you certain she didn’t find another ride out of the canyon?”

  The heavy sigh through phone told Mac all he needed to know. “I’ve checked everywhere.”

  Mac took a breath and let it hiss through his lips. “I’ll find her.” He wished he felt as certain as his words sounded. There were too many variables. Finding someone lost in the wilderness was iffy at best. A wildfire made the odds exponentially greater.

  “I’ll let you get to work.” Jack’s words broke into Mac’s thoughts. The connection ended.

  Mac stared at the phone as the screen went dark. Jack was right about one thing, he’d better get to work. He turned to Bob. “I need a landing zone northwest of the fire. As close to the cabin as you can get me.”

  Bob didn’t even blink. “You really think Caitlin is up there?”

  Mac nodded. She knew the area. They’d hiked it several times together before he’d left for college. Something about the situation nagged at him. Caitlin had always been captivated by that cabin. She had to have hiked up to it. His gut told him she was trapped by the fire. There wasn’t any other reason for her not to return liked she’d promised Jack.

  Bob studied the map. His finger traced a crooked line diagonally across two more grids, stopped and tapped the position. “Here. There’s a small meadow near Lake Madeline. We can drop you in and then airlift you out when you give the call.”

  Mac studied the map. Bumps and swirls riddled the area, indicating mountainous terrain. The small blue spot in the middle of a smooth area was the lake. It’d be a rough hike to the fire zone from the lake. “The trail looks too steep.”

  “Actually, it follows the top of a ridge just above the river. The trail is almost level, until it drops down toward the lake right here.” Bob pointed to a spot in the same grid as the lake.

  Mac nodded while he studied the map. It’d been some time ago that he had hiked the area, but he remembered this particular trail, now. Caitlin might have been a good backwoods person at one time, but she was a few years out of practice. He wondered if she’d be up to a hike to the lake. Then he realized he was getting ahead of himself. He was taking Jack’s word she was really up there, and if she was, there was a lot of forest to search first. Time wasn’t on his side. A chill ran down Mac’s spine. He didn’t want to think about not finding her.

  Bob looked at the map for a moment and then turned a hard stare on Mac. “It’s going to take a lot of hiking.”

  “I know.” Mac grabbed a pen and scribbled on a yellow pad. He tore the sheet off and handed it to Bob. “This is Caitlin’s cell phone number. She should have it on her.”

  “We’ll keep trying to reach her. I’ll radio you if we hear anything.” Bob folded the paper and put it in his pocket. “What you’re doing is risky. Don’t you want to wait until we can round up more help?”

  “We don’t have time. Besides, we need all the resources we’ve got, to stop that fire. I need to go now.”

  “Then let’s get a move on.”

  Mac laid a grateful hand on his friend’s shoulder, then hurried out of the ranger station. He had supplies to prepare.

  Caitlin was in danger. Nothing else mattered except finding her.

  Chapter Eight

  Smoky haze obscured what little moonlight there was, but even through the darkness, Caitlin recognized the trail that ran along Madeline Creek. The summer before her sophomore year in high school, she and Mac had packed in and hiked this same area before the Forest Service closed it for wilderness reclamation. A sense of relief flooded her for the first time since leaving the cabin,. Maybe she didn’t know exactly where she was, but she wasn’t totally lost, either.

  That hiking trip with Mac had been one of her favorites. It was before he’d left for college. They’d had all the time in the world, and she was certain they had a future bound to each other. She recalled how Mac showed her tricks about keeping her bearings while hiking in unfamiliar terrain. She learned that if she kept one eye on the sky and the other on her watch, she couldn’t get lost. But most important was to keep track of the mountaintops.

  None of which helped her now. It wasn’t daylight. The mountaintops were hard to make out. Her watch didn’t glow in the dark. And the rising smoke made all those tasks impossible. However, she’d found the river trail—it was better than nothing, and she’d take it.

  At the start, the trailhead was well worn, but as she hiked farther, staying parallel to the water, the path became overgrown. At times, she lost it completely. Through the tall timber, she could make out the sound of water rushing over the rocks below. Madeline Lake fed the river
which, if she remembered correctly from that long ago hike, was northwest of the cabin. Walking in that direction would take her deeper into the forest. She figured she had several more miles before she reached the lake. As long as she followed the river, she was moving away from the fire. That was all that mattered—no matter how long it took.

  Exhaustion was setting in. Every step jarred her body and echoed the pain in her head and ribs. At least the pain kept her awake and grateful to be alive. Putting one foot in front of the other became automatic. To keep from dwelling too much on her injuries, she let her mind wander back to the times when her life felt less complicated. Back when she and her father still got along and before she’d made the horrific mistake of misjudging Mac’s feelings for her.

  At age ten, she and her father moved from Washington, D.C., where he’d worked with Byron and Katherine O’Neal, establishing Northstar Security Firm. Before that, Sean Malone had spent three painful years, after her mother died, trying to raise Caitlin alone. During that time, all he’d succeeded in teaching her was how to fry an omelet, handle a gun, and some basic judo. He’d done what he could to be a good father, but single parenting was tough, and Sean found a way to be gone more often than not. Katherine O’Neal had helped where she could in those three years, and Caitlin spent a lot of time tagging along with Riley and Kellee, Byron and Katherine’s children.

  Then Sean moved the two of them to Rockton. He was acquainted with the MacAlistairs through Caitlin’s mother, and was convinced a small town environment would be the ideal place for his little girl.

  She’d hated the change. Partly because Sean continued working assignments that took him away for long periods. She never fit in well at her new school—rebelling against her teachers’ expectations. Her father, and even Grandma Mac, had tried all sorts of incentives and punishments. Nothing made a difference. Her school grades were exemplary, but her social skills lacked…diplomacy. More than once that first year, Mac had to rescue her from a schoolyard brawl.

  At first, she’d thought it odd how Mac had accepted her so easily—unusual for a fourteen-year-old boy to let a pigtailed ten-year-old girl invade his space. Then she’d learned that he’d lost his both parents in a car accident at an early age, too, and was being raised by his grandmother. With that common bond, he soon filled the role of an older brother. Not only was Mac her neighbor and best friend, but both he and Grandma Mac welcomed her as part of their family.

  After the shooting that ended Sean’s Northstar career, he’d sold his share of the firm to O’Neal. Caitlin was excited at the prospect of finally spending time with her father. But he’d become withdrawn as a result of the injury. Too much time had passed, and he had no idea what to do with a girl who was starting to become a woman.

  Her father had wanted her to reconsider her college major, and then her career choice in the same field that had devoured him. She refused to listen to him. Who was he to tell her how to live her life? His edict was like throwing fuel on an already raging fire. Even Sara MacAlistair had cautioned him to back off, but he ignored her warning.

  The day Caitlin walked out the front door to join Northstar was the day she’d lost any hope of having a normal relationship with her father.

  She’d known that Byron O’Neal had convinced Sean to give her a chance, promising to watch out for her. But O’Neal wasn’t here now. She had only her Northstar training, and the few skills she’d learned from Mac and her father, to get her through the night.

  Caitlin paused as the wind shifted. Fresh pine scent filled the air, instead of smoke. The thought of losing the forestland hit her with such force that the ache in her chest rivaled her physical injuries. She hoped someone, somewhere, had seen the smoke and reported the fire early. She hoped they’d cornered that bastard Dunn and put him behind bars, too. Not so much for her sake, but to carry out justice for the horrible destruction he’d caused.

  She finished off the first bottle of water, crushing the plastic and stuffing it in the bottom of her backpack. Time to pick up the pace. Getting to the open space would be a good place to check for a cell phone signal. If she was at the lake, even better. Putting water between her and the fire seemed like a great idea.

  In her haste, she tripped on a partially buried rock and stumbled. Catching the branch of a small bush saved her from planting her face in the dirt, but the strain on her ribs shot like an arrow across her side. She climbed slowly to her feet. Determined to get out of this mess in one piece, she reduced her pace, but only a little.

  ****

  Caitlin had been walking steadily for what felt like days, pausing only long enough to appease her thirst by swirling a small sip of water around her mouth before swallowing. She wanted desperately to stop and rest, but was afraid if she did, the pain would catch up to her and she wouldn’t be able to move again. Right now, hunger was clawing at her. Her energy was lagging, and she could tell her blood sugar levels were dropping. What she wouldn’t give for another power bar.

  She didn’t remember the hike taking this long when she and Mac had done it a few years ago. Had she confused this trail with a different one that had a lake at the end of it? It wasn’t easy in unfamiliar terrain to keep her bearings as Mac had taught her. Without the right tools, such as a compass or map, she was lost.

  Mac had been wrong one other time, too. He was wrong to leave her as he’d done that night two years ago—hanging on to the hope that someday they’d be together. But he had left. She’d waited one week without a single word from him before finally realizing the folly of that hope.

  She saw now how that hurt and anger pushed her into making the decision to work for Northstar. If Mac didn’t want her, then she wasn’t sticking around like some lovesick schoolgirl. She’d left the state, and put the only real-life skills she’d learned from her father to good use.

  Looking back, she still didn’t understand Sean’s disapproval of her career choice. How could he expect anything different from her? She had to admit that part of her rebellion was from fear of Sean discovering what had happened between her and Mac.

  Sean had perpetuated the family image as much as Mac and his grandmother. He’d mentored Mac, treated him like a son, and supported him and his grandmother through financial hard times. Even though Caitlin and Mac couldn’t see eye-to-eye about that night, she wasn’t going to be the one who came between Mac and her father. That had motivated her even more to leave before Mac decided to return home after his self-imposed hiatus.

  All of that was water under the bridge. Sean treated Mac like a son. With the exception of that one night, Mac treated Caitlin like a sister. And therein lay the root of her dilemma. She was the only one who wanted a different relationship with Mac.

  Moonlight broke through the trees and illuminated some dark berries on a wild rose bush hanging over the trail. Caitlin paused beside the bush. Grandma Mac loved wild roses. She used to say that the delicate petals were God’s specialty. Each one had to be perfect because they couldn’t hide behind a cluster of other petals. She desperately wished for Grandma Mac’s counsel now. What would she have said about that night? Had the dear lady known how Caitlin felt about Mac? Would she have advised Caitlin to move on with her life?

  She closed her eyes, feeling the tears burn. An image of cool, dark water flashed through her mind.

  Immediately, she knew this wild rose bush was a sign. She was on the right path. Exhaustion and pain faded. She quickened her step, knowing for a certainty that she wasn’t far from the lake.

  Grandma Mac had called Caitlin’s second sight a gift. With her wizened smile and gravelly voice, she encouraged Caitlin to listen to the whisperings and heed the visions when they came. Sometimes the visions frightened Caitlin. On the day she’d had a vision of Mac falling off a broken bridge into a canal, she’d been really scared.

  She’d rushed to Grandma Mac and told her about the vision. The older woman never questioned Caitlin’s vision as they searched for Mac and found him and his friends playing
in an orchard near an irrigation ditch. The boys had been daring each other to jump from the guardrail into the water. Mac was teetering on the rickety rail, ready to jump, when Grandma Mac grabbed him by the shirttail and plopped him on the dirt. She grounded him for a week for running off without permission.

  Mac was upset with Caitlin for tattling on him. When she told him about the vision and seeing him hurt, he called her a witch like his grandmother who could see the future—but he’d never doubted her after that day.

  Mac had shown faith and trust in her visions. He’d also done his part to maintain a brother-sister relationship with her. So, when they’d crossed that boundary in a heated moment of passion and made love two years ago, he believed he’d violated that trust. No matter what Caitlin said, she’d never been able to convince him otherwise.

  The sound of the rushing water began to fade. Caitlin paused, giving her sore body a moment to rest. Then she altered course to stay parallel with the river. It shouldn’t be much farther now.

  She reached another clearing and stopped. Starlight filtered through the haze and the moon shone a bit brighter. For an instant, she thought she saw a flashing red strobe in the black night. Then it was gone. A flashing strobe meant an aircraft of some sort, and maybe a rescue. She hoped someone was out looking for her.

  She began walking again, keeping an eye on the sky in case the light reappeared. Her foot slipped where the trail took a sudden drop and she came down hard, twisting her ankle. When she tried to put weight on it, a sharp pain shot up her leg.

  “Great. Just great.” As usual, she’d found a way to make her situation worse.

  She willed her hammering heart to calm and slipped off the backpack. Glancing at the sky again, she couldn't see the strobe, and there wasn’t any noise. If it was an aircraft, it was probably scoping out hot spots for the ground crews to work on. The firefighters couldn’t risk a night drop when the visibility was so bad. If a rescue came at all, it wouldn’t be until daylight.