Chapter 34
Chapter 34
S kellan?” said Morag again into the radio. “Skellan, can you hear me? Over.”
There was more crackling whilst, back on Carso, the three looked at each other, worriedly.
“Yes, yes, we’re here.”
There was a sigh of relief.
“And...”
“Not ideal to be honest.”
Skellan explained that he had gone out with a flashlight, but hadn’t made it a few steps before he declared it absolutely unsafe for children, the wind whipping the snow up into complete white-out conditions. They’d be falling over the edge of the ledge. It was still dark now but if this kept on, there wouldn’t be any visibility at dawn either.
All the kids were awake; many had painfully useless cheap sleeping bags that couldn’t keep them warm, and the snowstorm meant they couldn’t light the fire. They’d moved them all into the cave, but the children were frightened. The staff joined all the sleeping bags together and shepherded them into a large mass, like puppies, half of the unzipped bags below their bodies and half above to try and keep them snug.
Back at control, Morag was staring out into the night.
“How’s the forecast?” Skellan asked. His normal laid-back tone sounded more concerned.
“I can’t see it shifting,” said Morag. “Not for a while.”
“It’s... it’s very cold up here.”
“Yup,” said Morag.
“And I think... I think the abseiling cliff. I think that isn’t going to work in this. I’m not sure we could get them down it. In zero visibility, this temperature.”
“How much food have you got?”
“Two meals. But it’s the cold, really. I’m not happy. I’m really not happy, Morag.”
“You couldn’t have known. Bloody Met Office.”
“Yes.”
There was a pause. Morag glanced over to where the helicopter normally sat; it was gone.
“Have you spoken to Gavin?”
“I have,” said Skellan. “They’re way over the other side; there’s a woman having a baby on Mure.”
“You’re kidding,” said Morag. “Couldn’t she have held it in?”
“Oh, there’s always something,” Skellan said in a flat tone.
“Yes, but that’s one baby; this is loads of children!”
“Even if that were possible and they were in fact willing to dump a woman in labor, which let’s just say, they aren’t,” said Skellan drily, “there’s complications. They’re picking up, taking to the mainland, then they’ll need a new crew. We’d need to do loads of trips...”
“And they’re miles away,” said Morag.
“Aye,” said Skellan.
“What about Aberdeen?”
Aberdeen search and rescue was a very very long way away indeed.
“It’s been a bad night for everyone,” said Pete, glancing up and reading off the monitor.
There was a silence.
“Some of these kids,” said Skellan. “They’re in trainers and My Little Pony jackets that have barely been outside the shopping center.”
“Uh-huh,” said Morag.
Morag thought of the children, parked there on the ledge. Freezing cold. So frightened.
“I’ll get back to you, Skellan. Over,” she said, clicking off and turning round. They needed solutions.
They all thought about the cliff. If that was too windy or buried in snow...
She radioed Gregor.
“You could drop them supplies,” he said immediately. “Heat packs too. If it clears enough to fly.”
Morag had thought that also. “Do you really think it’s that bad?” she asked nervously.
“I absolutely do,” said Gregor. “And they won’t have supplies for more than a night. I mean, that walk is meant to be a gentle stroll, not a life-threatening experience. They’re ten!”
“Bloody bloody bloody Met Office,” said Morag.
“It’s not their fault,” said Gregor. “The robots will take over totally and start doing it soon enough.”
“Well, that isn’t cheering me up.”
“And global warming will mean it’ll stop happening,” said Pete.
“No, it won’t!” snapped Morag. “It makes extreme weather events more likely! That’s what...”
She saw Pete’s stricken face.
“Sorry,” she said. “I’m just on edge.”
“We’ll figure it out,” said Gregor. There was music just about discernible on the line.
“What’s going on with you?” said Morag.
“Oh, they’ve found the old priests’ cellar,” said Gregor. “Apparently they used to get very good wine every year from the Vatican. It’s all still down there. Well, not anymore.”
“Are they behaving themselves?”
“They are not,” said Gregor, with commendable restraint, considering he prized a quiet life above almost all things. “They have written me an IOU and I believe there is a reasonable chance that by the time they get back, the happy couple will be divorced.”
“Can’t you tell Barbara to bite them?”
“Barbara doesn’t mind other people getting married. It’s only you and me she’s worried about.”
There was a silence. If they hadn’t been surrounded by other people and on an open radio mike being listened to by more or less everyone in the village and surrounding area, Morag would desperately have wanted to know more at this point, even as the snow clouded the window and you couldn’t even see a trace of Inchborn in the distance.
“Uhm,” said Morag.
They were saved by a loud clatter and a squawk down the mike.
“Oh God,” said Gregor. “They’re upsetting the chickens. I’d better go.”
“Come here, you! I just want an egg sandwich!” came a loud voice in the background, then the line went dead. Morag winced.
Then she patched through to Skellan again.
“Uhm, okay,” she said. “I mean, there’s no point in us landing if you can’t get down, is there?”
“Well, no,” said Skellan. But he agreed to the supply drop.
Morag tried to visualize the ledge on the mountain but she couldn’t. It was, she was pretty sure, extremely small.
“What would you need?”
Quietly, unobtrusively, Gertie was by her elbow with a notepad and pen. Morag looked up gratefully as Gertie took notes.
“Clothes. Blankets. Hand warmers. A gas stove if you could manage.”
“I’m not throwing a gas stove out of an aeroplane.”
“You could wrap it up carefully. And fly really low.”
“I am not flying really low in a snowstorm across a mountain,” said Morag. “And Ranald won’t either. Sorry. I can send lots of firelights and matches and some wood if that helps.”
“It will,” said Skellan. “Just... I mean we don’t know how long it will take this damn thing to end.”
Morag looked out. “Can you wait till first light? That will help with how low I can go,” she said.
There was a pause.
“Yes,” he said. “But please. Come quick after that.”
G ERTIE STOOD UP immediately.
“I’ll go and round stuff up.”
Morag frowned. “What, now?”
It was just 5 a.m.
“What do you think we do at ScotNorth?” said Gertie. “Roll up whenever we like, like we’ve got our own plane?”
Morag smiled in genuine surprise at her cheek, as Gertie took the list, put on her four layers of clothing, and headed off back out into the night.
Morag sighed and stared out of the window. She’d wait an hour or so before calling Erno and Gramps. It would be all hands on deck then.
She was not a religious person, Morag, certainly not by the fairly cast-iron standards of the local kirk. But she stared out into the swirling dark and said a little prayer.