Chapter 15
Maya was first out of the hangar, into the rain, across to the helicopter. It might well be July and summer, but low cloud was forecast and there was a chance they’d have to turn back if visibility was terrible. But the call had been made to at least try to attend the job via aircraft because their patient was in the depths of the countryside and had suffered a cardiac arrest. Speedy transport by air ambulance could mean the difference between life and death.
‘We don’t have much to go on,’ said Noah from the rear of the helicopter once they were airborne. ‘The caller only gave basic details when they called the emergency in. We know it’s a male, in his twenties. CPR was performed and he hadn’t re-arrested.’
The caller had given the location and hung up. More details would’ve been helpful but people didn’t always think clearly in an emergency and if the caller had already performed CPR and needed to again, then they weren’t going to hang around on the phone once they’d called for help.
The weather was atrocious. Maya always checked at start of shift for notifications of airspace hazards and throughout her working day, but along with flocks of birds and low-flying drones, bad weather came with no such warnings. The danger of flying too close to the cloud base was that clouds brought turbulence, which could cause structural damage to poor Hilda, not to mention making it a flight the crew would rather forget.
‘Are we going to make it to our location?’ Bess asked over her microphone.
‘I’ll do my best,’ said Maya. A road ambulance would be on its way so if the air ambulance didn’t get to the patient, they would instead, although with road closures near the location, it might take them a while to get through. That was exactly why Maya had said they should try to get to the job in Hilda. Sometimes they took the rapid response vehicle if flying conditions weren’t on their side, but that option would’ve seen the crew encounter those same road closures.
The cloud level was manageable en route but visibility was nowhere near what Maya would like. Still, she’d trained for this, she’d flown in worse conditions. And the adrenaline pumping through her veins kept her going as well as her want to get to the patient and keep her entire crew safe. Luckily for her, both Bess and Noah had their heads screwed on, neither of them questioned her ability, neither of them panicked as wisps of cloud threatened to close in around them.
They were almost there.
Noah’s voice came over the microphone next. ‘I can see a hi-vis jacket on the ground, forty-five degrees west of our position.’
‘I see it,’ Maya confirmed. But she couldn’t see anyone else with them and they weren’t waving.
‘I can’t see anyone on the ground,’ said Bess. ‘Perhaps the patient is out of sight.’
‘Thank goodness for hi-vis,’ said Maya, ‘or we’d have had no hope spotting anything down there.’
Noah suggested landing in the field adjacent to the person in hi-vis.
‘Hang on,’ Bess called over her microphone, ‘there’s an empty car park on our right with easy access, no hedges to contend with.’
Maya made the decision. ‘I’ll head for that.’
Maya would need all the help she could get from Bess and Noah landing today with the grey skies and the rain. There was also the chance that an empty space could quickly become occupied, thus endangering whoever was on the ground and whoever was in her helicopter.
‘Clear to our left,’ came Noah’s voice as she approached the landing site.
The helicopter could withstand a beating from the weather but it didn’t mean that you wouldn’t feel those effects inside, with the wind moving them more than it ordinarily would as Maya finally landed on the tarmac.
With the rain lashing at every single piece of the helicopter, Bess and Noah grabbed the kit they needed. Maya wished them luck and stayed with the aircraft. They’d made it here in under eight minutes, she only hoped they were in time to save the patient.
Maya watched Bess and Noah battle the weather with their heavy backpacks. They left the car park and turned in the direction of the field.
Maya thought about Noah as she waited with Hilda. She now knew the circumstances surrounding his guardianship of Eva and it put him even higher in her estimation knowing what he’d given up, how he’d changed his life to look after his niece. She knew too that she thought about him a little too often, which might not be the best idea given they worked together. But she couldn’t help it. Every time she looked into those eyes or heard the cadence of his voice, she knew it wasn’t only platonic, at least from her side. And the thought both excited and terrified her at the same time.
She thought about the little girl descending into Noah’s life. Parenthood was hard, let alone when it was sprung on you all of a sudden combined with the pain of loss. But she bet Noah was a good father, or father figure, or whatever he was to her at the moment. He was strong, capable and clearly kind to have taken on the responsibility. She’d heard the way he talked to patients in the back of the air ambulance too, seen the way he was with them when they were transferred from the scoop to the litter in the helicopter. Patients felt safe with him and Maya bet his little girl would feel the same way, even if she couldn’t tell him.
When the HEMS desk radioed through an update, Maya’s heart sank. Bess and Noah were going to be furious, much like she was, and sure enough when they reappeared their faces said it all.
They paced their way across the concrete with their heavy bags with no sign of the patient of course because it had all been a hoax.
Maya started up the rotor blades as they approached.
Bess climbed into the seat beside her. ‘Can you believe it was some sicko’s idea of a prank?’
‘I heard over the radio,’ said Maya, preparing for take-off. ‘But there was a person in hi-vis; I don’t understand.’
‘Oh the hoax caller was clever. It was a bloody scarecrow.’ Bess closed her eyes for a moment, a swear word leaving her lips. ‘I suppose at least they called HEMS and gave them the tip off. Otherwise we’d have been searching for a long time, in case the scarecrow was a coincidence and there really was someone out there in need of our help.’
Noah swore into the microphone and had a mini rant until he pulled himself together because the cloud was still rolling in and they had to get back to base.
The mood was sombre on board, none of the usual chitchat.
Maya was fuming too, although she kept it in during the flight back to base. The hoax caller had wasted their time and, worse than that, they’d put the crew’s lives at risk. Their lives were in danger every time they took to the skies. They did it for the good of everyone at ground level, put themselves in impossible situations, went out in all weathers even when it ramped up the danger level, and this was what people did for kicks?
Nadia was inside the hangar when they arrived back with long faces. ‘What happened?’ She wasn’t always in the office to hear updates so right now, she’d be assuming they’d lost the patient; that was what usually brought the grim return, the lack of banter between the crew.
Maya put her helmet on the shelf and filled Nadia in while Bess and Noah put the gear away.
‘Why do people do that?’ Nadia moaned. ‘I’ll report it. We’ve very little to go on but it doesn’t mean we ignore it.’
Nadia turned when they both heard Noah swear again as he went through to the kitchen.
‘He’s upset,’ said Nadia.
‘We all are,’ Maya replied.
‘He must have seen this before.’
Bess passed behind them. ‘Doesn’t make it any easier.’ She added in her own swearwords for good measure. ‘Whoever made that call had better wish I never find out who it was.’
‘Go to the kitchen, have some of the chocolate cake I made for us all,’ Nadia suggested. ‘You need a bit of comfort.’ She was good at watching out for her team at the airbase.
‘I’ll be in to join you soon,’ Maya told Bess.
‘And I’ll go and report the absolute arsehole who did this to you guys today,’ said Nadia. ‘I know HEMS were the ones to advise you it was a hoax but it won’t hurt to raise another complaint, will it?’
‘I suppose not,’ Maya agreed. ‘Thank goodness we didn’t get another job at the same time.’
‘Well, quite,’ said Nadia, hands on hips. ‘Not only could this prank have wasted my team’s time and compromised your safety going up in these conditions, it could’ve cost someone else their life.’
That was the reality of it. To whoever made the hoax call, it was a laugh, but in doing so, they could’ve killed someone.
The team occasionally got calls that weren’t really essential, but those jobs were assigned because it was deemed necessary by dispatch, who didn’t always have much to go on. And if it transpired the air ambulance wasn’t needed, it was no big deal; sometimes it was impossible to know how serious a patient’s condition was. But this was different. And Maya was reminded of how different it was when she went into the locker room and jumped when Noah slammed his locker door so hard, she was surprised the door survived.
‘I know it’s shit,’ she said softly. ‘But it happens. We all feel the same way.’
‘Yeah.’
When he still said nothing, she added, ‘There’s chocolate cake in the kitchen. I’m going to make coffee. Can I get you a cup?’
He turned around as if he hadn’t even been listening. ‘I’m sorry, what?’
‘Coffee. And cake.’
‘And that makes it all better, does it?’ His question hovered in the air until it fell to the floor as he slumped down on the bench next to the lockers, his hand back against the cold hard steel. ‘Ignore me.’
She thought about it. She thought about walking away but instead went over and sat down beside him. ‘I’m not sure about how things worked with your crew in London, but here in Whistlestop River, we’re in this together. You’re angry, so am I, so are Bess and Nadia. And I’m afraid here you have to talk about it.’
She waited for his reply.
‘Why do people do it, Maya? Where’s the thrill?’
Whoever had made that call had probably been watching from somewhere nearby to see their little joke played out when a helicopter landed and the critical care paramedics rushed over.
‘I wish I’d stayed back to find the little sh?—’
‘I’m glad you didn’t,’ Maya interrupted. ‘You might have got yourself in a lot of trouble.’ He was fuming; she could see it in his eyes. But more than that, he looked devastated.
‘There were no identifying marks or labels on the hi-vis either.’ Noah’s fists tensed against the tops of his knees. ‘Fucking time wasters. I’d like to catch whoever did it and?—’
‘Do not finish that sentence. Whoever it was isn’t worth you doing something terrible yourself, losing your job.’
He stood up, paced the locker room as though his anger had begun to simmer and then all of a sudden, it was on the boil again.
Maya decided to give him some space to process. ‘I’ll be in the kitchen cutting some cake, making the coffee. I know it won’t fix things, but…’
‘I’ll give it a miss, thanks.’
‘Well, you know where we are if you want to talk.’
Maya joined Bess in the kitchen and rustled up mugs of coffee. The sun streamed through the window as if the weather earlier had never happened at all. And as they ate their cake, drank their coffee, Maya thought about all the ways this job could get to you.
But she had to wonder whether there was more to it for Noah.