Chapter 37
Stone
It isn’t until I’m about to head out the door that I realize, in the chaos of the morning, I didn’t give Hanlon a proper goodbye kiss, and I can’t do it now. But I’ll be damned if I leave this building without at least hugging him and inhaling him one more time before I go.
I pull him to me, lingering longer than I should, but utterly unable to stop myself.
Over his shoulder, I see Logan and Chase, both watching us. Logan averts his gaze after being caught and turns his attention to Chase, probably wondering who the hell he is.
I return my attention to the only man who matters.
“I love you,” I whisper in his ear.
“I love you, too. Please be safe.”
“I always am,” I tell him, even though we both know it’s a lie. “I’ll see you when we get back.” Hanlon nods, but I can tell he’s choked up. “It’s going to be okay, Han. This is what I do,” I reassure him.
He gives me another nod and a broken, “I know.”
I cup his cheek with my gloved hand, and, fuck it, I press a quick kiss to his lips.
His eyes widen before they grow determined, locking in to help me through this however he can.
He raises his chin and exhales because he knows I don’t want to leave him and go out in this weather.
He knows how high the risks are. Hell, he probably knows the danger I’m facing better than I do. And he knows I need him.
“I’ll be watching the weather,” he says. “I’ll track the wind gusts and direction. Any changes, and I’ll have Jeremy report them over the radio.”
“No, fuck that.” Hanlon looks at me with a puzzled look on his face. “I want to hear your voice while I’m out there,” I tell him.
Turning to Deacon, I ask him to grab another mic’d headset.
“We’ve gotta go, man,” he says hurriedly.
“We’ll leave as soon as Hanlon has a headset,” I argue.
Someone eventually passes one over, and I get him set up on the right channel. We do a quick test run to make sure I can hear him in my helmet, and I breathe just a little easier.
Leaving that office is harder than when I left home, but stepping one foot outside in the dark with the furious wind whipping around us, I know it’s time to focus. Somewhere out there, someone could be dying, and they’re relying on me and my team to bring them back to their loved ones.
Walking toward our vehicles, Deacon glances at me a few times, and I’m not sure if he saw me kiss Hanlon and has questions, or if he’s just as nervous about this mission as I am, but since everything we say from here on out will be picked up over the microphones, we don’t address either of those things.
“Our approach will be slow, but time is still of the essence. We’ll cross the western boundary as close to the bottom as we can, but the trees are so dense once we leave the resort, we’ll have to cut across a little higher than I’d like.
We’ll go single file. It’s important that you stay in my tracks. Does everyone understand?”
A chorus of yessir rings in my ears, and if I’m not mistaken, one of the voices belongs to Hanlon. I bite my cheek to hide my smile.
The four of us head west, snow falling across our headlight beams, casting an eerie, foggy glow in the void in front of us.
It takes thirty minutes for us to reach the boundary that Hanlon tested not so long ago. The tests confirmed a terribly weakened snowpack, and the avalanche risk was typed as Extreme.
And then we got grounded and couldn’t blast.
“Approaching high-risk avalanche terrain,” I report into my microphone. “You are to wait for me to get across and away from the fall line before starting your turn. I’ll flash my lights when the next in line can cross.”
My team all flash a thumbs up in front of their chests, so as not to clog the comms line.
“Stone.” Hanlon’s voice rings in my ear.
“Yeah?”
“Don’t make a line straight across this zone. The last test had a horizontal fracture line that was six layers down. Cross at a slight upward angle, so if anything is triggered, it’ll hopefully break off below you. Once your team is across safely, head for the trees immediately.”
His voice warms the chill inside me. Hanlon has always been older and wiser than his years, but seeing and hearing it here, in my domain, under these circumstances, is unlike anything I’ve ever experienced.
Gritting my teeth, I slowly inch my machine forward, fighting the urge to fly over the snow and get out of the danger zone as quickly as I can.
Six agonizing minutes later, I reach the other side and flash my lights back toward my team.
“Confirming safe passage. I’m on stable ground. Deacon, you’re up.”
And so, we repeat this until all four of us are safely across, and I can finally relax.
We won’t have to cross that line again because the rescue will happen wherever we find our skiers—because we will find them—and then we’ll refuel from the S&R chopper and drive back around the base of the mountain.
It’ll take a couple of hours, but I won’t have to risk my life, and that’s worth a little extra time in the storm.
“Wind gusts are picking up, currently blowing northwest,” Hanlon says into the mic. “Let’s hope it stays that way. If they shift to the south, you guys might have to alter your route. I’m working on coordinates closer to the potential safe zone now.”
“Han, who’s with you?”
“Team Two’s still here, ready to be deployed if needed, Stone,” a voice I recognize as Joel Murphy says. “Kid won’t let us get a word in edgewise. He’s calculating this shit faster than I’ve ever seen.”
Our whole team is sixty people deep, but I rarely see some of them. Joel is one of those guys.
I laugh into my mic. “Yeah, I wouldn’t even try. He’s a stubborn fucker and smarter than most of you combined anyway.”
It feels good to joke around. My team’s safely behind me, we’ve crossed the most dangerous terrain, and I’m pretty sure I can hear the whomp-whomp-whomp of the S&R helicopter, which means we’re getting close to our destination, where the real work begins.
When I search the sky, the storm clouds are obscuring the moon, and it’s too dark to see the chopper’s beams.
“Fuck!” Hanlon shouts suddenly, damn near making me deaf. I guess he’s not in much of a joking mood despite our successful trek across the fall line. “Stone?”
“Yeah, Skittles?” The name just slips out. I expect him to say something, or someone to say something, but his panicked voice ignores the blunder completely.
“The Forest Service has a geophone about two hundred meters above you. It’s registering problematic vibrations. You’ve gotta take cover now.”
“The S&R chopper is above us. I bet it’s picking up the vibration from the rotors.”
“What the fuck are they doing up there?!” Hanlon yells.
“Relax, Han. The plan is for their team to repel to the location, then ride on our snowmobiles for the search. We were trying to keep vehicle traffic to a minimum due to the conditions.”
“Stone, the vibrations are increasing. The sound you hear isn’t from the helicopter. It’s the entire side of the fucking mountain getting ready to break off. You HAVE to get out of there NOW!”
“But we’re not even in the—”
“Do you think the mountain gives a shit about the fall line and avi territory? This is the Wild-fucking-West, and this mountain enjoys the kill. Sound familiar?” he asks, spitting my own words at me.
“How much time?” I ask.
“Not enough. You need to take cover. A boulder, an overhang, the trees, anything you can reach,” he instructs.
“You heard him,” I tell my team. “Take a direct route south.”
“But that will—” Layla starts.
“You heard him. We’re out of time, and this mountain doesn’t give a shit about boundaries.
Heading west doesn’t make us safe. Getting into the trees at the bottom will.
Now go.” After ordering the directive, I point my machine down the mountain and ride as fast as I dare behind my team.
My teammates are already out of sight. All bets are off, and this just became every man for himself.
The snow in front of me is fractured, forcing me to slow down.
This is still the backcountry, and crevasses and other unseen dangers lurk in the dark. “Han? Are you there?”
“He, uh, he’s on the phone with S&R, arguing with their pilot about landing above your team,” Logan says over the comms channel. “He’s trying to warn them, but you know those guys…they don’t listen to shit.”
“Get him back,” I plead.
A second later, Hanlon’s voice is in my helmet. Of course, he’s in everyone else’s helmet, too, but I’ll take what I can get.
“Stone, how you doing?”
“Fine. Trying to dodge obstacles I can’t even see. I’m bringing up the rear, so everyone else is farther down, thankfully. Can we get Team Two prepared for rescue? Track Deacon. The others will follow him.”
“Stone, the wind is shifting,” Hanlon says.
“Let me guess, it’s turning south,” I say, an odd calm washing over me in the face of certain death.
“Southwest, to be exact. Looks like Mother Nature wants to give you a run for your money today. How long before you’re in the trees?”
The second he finishes the sentence, I feel the whomp I heard earlier.
“Too long. I love you, Skittles.”
When I issue the statement, knowing everyone can hear it, Hanlon must either understand that I don’t expect to make it, or whatever data he’s monitoring is telling him of the nightmare I’m about to experience, because he gives me one final order.
“Fight back, dammit.”
The whole mountain shakes as she releases her fury upon us. I deploy my airbag and ditch my snowmobile. I can’t outrun the tsunami of snow coming for me, and being thrown around while trying to stay on the machine will only get me killed faster.
Stuck high enough to not be able to reach the trees, and low enough for the slab to gain full speed, I prepare to get swept away.
It’s so fucking loud.
I turn to look behind me and have two seconds to absorb the power, the terror, and the beauty barreling toward me in the darkness.
“You’re the best thing that ever happened to me,” I tell Hanlon right before this mountain, my mountain, delivers a death blow and pulls me under. I have the sensation of being tossed around in a washing machine for about four seconds before my world goes black and stays that way.