Chapter 45
FORTY-FIVE
X anthe still felt a bit unsettled as they reached the harbor, but also full of hope. Hours ago she had been convinced that she and Blaine were too mismatched to make things work.
Then he’d turned up at her door unexpectedly, apologized, and opened up to her, showing great vulnerability as he’d helped her understand him on a much deeper level than before.
It was a major turning point in their relationship, and she was hopeful that they’d be able to put everything else behind them now.
She grabbed her backpack from the trunk. Blaine still had his wool peacoat and dress shoes on.
He’d made no comment about the disastrous state of her rental car interior on the drive here, but he’d definitely noticed. She’d seen him looking around at the empty cups and wrappers, the books and papers strewn across the back seat.
“I haven’t had time to clean out the car.”
“I see that,” was all he said. Wise man. Though it was probably driving him nuts.
Their pilot was waiting for them near the end of the dock, next to his little blue and white floatplane. “Hi, Charlie.”
He grinned and stepped away from the line tethered to the iron ring in the dock. “Hi yourself. Timing’s just right. We’ll be back before the real weather hits.”
“Good.” Their first big rainstorm of the season.
High winds were expected, along with an atmospheric river forecast to last a full day.
She loved a good storm, listening to the rain and wind beat against the windows and roof.
It would be the perfect night to be cuddled up in front of the gas fireplace in Blaine’s bedroom.
She’d never wanted a research flight to go by so fast.
Charlie held out a hand to Blaine. “I’m Charlie.”
They shook. “Blaine Slater.”
“Yeah, I know who you are.” He zipped up his jacket. “You comin’ up with us?”
“If you’ve got room.”
“We can squeeze you in the back, no problem. You guys ready to head out?”
“Ready,” she answered, shrugging out of her backpack, which held her laptop and other equipment.
“Hop in,” said Charlie, heading around to the other side.
Xanthe reached for the front passenger door handle. Blaine beat her to it, pulling it open for her. She climbed into the small seat and set her backpack between her feet before strapping in.
Blaine was still standing there when she finished. He reached in and checked her four-point restraints, giving the straps a firm tug.
She withheld a smile. “Did I do it right?” She’d done it dozens of times.
“You did. But safety first. And you’re precious cargo,” he murmured, leaning in to steal a quick kiss before she could reply.
If Charlie saw it, he didn’t say anything as he climbed into his seat and Blaine got in the back.
She put on her headset while Charlie went through his preflight checklist. A final look at her phone confirmed the last beacon signal from Zephyr’s tracker. Once she lost cellular service, she would no longer be able to track it.
She waited until Charlie started the engine before speaking through the mic. “Last reported sighting of K Pod was west up the strait, heading along the coast of Vancouver Island.”
“Roger that. We’ll head that way to start.”
Xanthe dug out her laptop and camera to have them both handy. The little plane eased away from the dock, rocking slightly with the waves. It still felt strange to be sitting on the water in an aircraft.
“Okay, we’ll be taking off into the wind near the mouth of the harbor. The gusts are picking up ahead of the storm, so it’ll be a bit bumpy. Just a reminder to keep your seatbelts on and your hands, feet, arms, and legs inside the aircraft at all times. Life jackets are in the back.”
“Noted,” she said with a grin, and twisted her head to look back at Blaine. He was strapped into his three-point belt, headset on.
She gave him a thumbs-up and received one back, glad he had joined her. He’d grown attached to K Pod, too, in his own way. This would give him a completely different perspective they could share.
If he wanted to be part of her life, he needed to support what she did. She was trying her best to find a way to support his work too. If his group could modify certain things about the resort, she might be able to live with it. If not…
She’d just have to wait and see, while hoping for the best.
“All right, let’s do this,” Charlie said.
He piloted them out into the center of the harbor, aimed them into the wind. With no nearby airport or control tower to report to, he got on the radio to announce their departure intentions via a common frequency. Once in position, he pulled back on the yoke.
The little plane picked up speed, its pontoons bumping over the surface of the waves. Ahead of them, a wall of dark gray cloud loomed where the storm front was rolling in toward the coast.
Charlie lifted the nose of the plane. They rose from the choppy surface of the water, the engine noise still loud with her headset on. The plane bumped and wobbled during the climb, buffeted by the unstable airmass around them.
After a wide lefthand turn that looped them around the western edge of Skeleton Island, Charlie leveled off at cruising altitude and started west-northwest. “How far out?” he asked.
“Forty to fifty kilometers west-northwest. I’m tracking the D-tag I put on him.”
“Nice.”
When they neared the search area, she took out her binoculars and began searching for the pod. A haze of low cloud below them made it hard to see. “Can you take us down a bit?”
“Sure, I’ll take us down to six thousand feet.” He lowered the nose and gradually dropped them a couple thousand feet.
Far below in the choppy gray water, she saw movement. Tightening the focus of her binos, she spotted the telltale blows rising into the air. “There they are. Two o-clock.”
“Roger.” Charlie banked them into a wide turn to come up behind them while Xanthe waved to get Blaine’s attention and pointed out the window at the pod.
She went back to using her binos as Charlie completed the turn and dropped them even lower so she could get a good look. It took a moment for her to realize her lips were moving as she counted the animals.
She blew out a breath when she finished. “All surviving members present and accounted for,” she said in relief, staring hard to watch the pod swim slightly north toward the Canadian coast. Two individuals were straggling at the rear.
“I’ll do another run. Left turn this time, hang on.” Charlie banked them the other way into a wide loop to bring them up from behind again.
This time Xanthe had her camera fitted with the obscenely expensive, high-res telephoto lens she used for this kind of work. She aimed it at the bottom of her window, waited until Charlie came up on the pod, then took a flurry of shots in burst mode.
As soon as they passed the animals, she checked her shots. A few were decent, but she would need to get closer yet to get a clear shot of them and hopefully ID both Zephyr and Triton.
“How’s it looking?” Charlie asked.
“Could be better. Let’s go again.”
“You’re the boss.” He circled around for another pass at a lower altitude.
Xanthe was poised and ready when they reached the pod. She pressed the shutter button, snapping another barrage. When she checked those, she smiled.
“Got it,” she said in triumph, studying the photos.
The large animal at the rear was clearly male, and she was ninety-plus-percent certain from his markings that it was Triton.
She was also almost positive Zephyr was in front of him.
They both seemed to be keeping up with the others okay, no visible sign of injury or distress other than the short lag between them and the rest of the pod.
“Great. Go again?” Charlie asked.
“If we have time. I want to—” She gasped when the plane jostled sharply, jolting her in her seat. One hand shot out to grab at the doorframe.
A loud knock from up front made her heart jump into her throat. She glanced at Charlie, fear spiking through her when she saw the grim set of his jaw, the way he was checking the controls. He pulled up on the yoke, eyes moving frantically to see what was wrong.
“It’s the engine,” he bit out, right before the clunking hum of the engine stopped and an awful silence descended.