Chapter 8 #2
“Incident Command, this is Tanker One-Eight-Two. Do you copy?” radioed Colton. “Send a chopper to extract six smokejumpers who’ve deployed shelters. Here are the coordinates.” Colton rattled off the numbers, and Tanner Westlake assured him someone would be on the way.
For the next several tense minutes, he circled while the squad rode it out. He’d laid the buffer. The rest boiled down to a strip of aluminized fabric and the firefighters pinning it to the dirt with their bodies.
The flame front rolled over the shelters, swallowing the silver shapes whole, blunted where it crossed the slurry line, but fire all the same. Smoke roiled up and stole them from view.
Colton counted the seconds, each one dragging longer than the last. His grip locked on the yoke until the knuckles ached.
Come on. Come on. Get up!
The fire moved through and left smoking ruins behind it. For a moment nothing stirred in the red and black sea of char, and he held his breath.
Then one silver mound split open, and Deanna shoved up out of the ash, arm raised to the sky. Air punched out of his lungs, half laugh, half shaky breath. His eyes stung. He blinked the blur clear. Others crawled out of their silver cocoons, all accounted for.
“That’s it, darlin’,” he told the windshield, his speeding heart crowding his insides. “Stand up. Let me see all of you.”
Gradually, the smokejumpers emerged and got to their feet.
A helicopter appeared below Colton, one of the contract ships from Missoula.
The flying style told him everything before the aircraft number confirmed it.
Smooth, precise, threading the gap between the smoke column and the ridge in rough terrain.
Reeva Dunsmore is working this fire.
He wasn’t surprised. He’d known Dunsmore Aviation held the forest contract.
Told himself it wouldn’t matter, since they’d orbit the same fire without sharing airspace.
So much for that theory. The fire world in the northern Rockies ran in tight circles, and bumping into an ex-fiancée came with the territory.
She landed in the clearing, rotors kicking ash into swirling devils. Tight landing, no hesitation. Whatever his feelings about Reeva personally, she flew with skill. He’d give her that.
Doesn’t mean I have to like it.
She’d handle the extraction, so this was his cue to leave. He banked away, heading to the airfield to get his bird ready for tomorrow morning. By afternoon, the thin mountain air stole lift, turning a generous runway stingy.
As Colton landed, his head throbbed from the tension. He came to a stop on the tarmac, cut the engines, and sank back, a sigh of relief escaping his lips. He worked on his post-flight checklist and paperwork while his radio kept him updated.
Since Air Attack had ordered a helo to pick up the jump crew, they’d be landing soon.
He put his bird to bed for the evening as the ground crew swarmed around the aircraft to do their daily checks and inspections.
As he climbed out of the cockpit and jumped to the ground, the helo with the jump crew set down across the tarmac and shut down the engines.
Colton waited for everyone to bail out, with Deanna jumping out last to help Kylie. The transport van drove over to the helicopter, and Deanna and others loaded Kylie into the vehicle. Everyone except Deanna climbed in for the ride back to base.
Colton met her halfway across the tarmac, his day pack slung over one shoulder.
“You look like hell,” she said, falling into step with him as they turned toward his pickup.
“And you look like you were dragged through a fire,” he returned. “Oh wait, you were.”
She turned toward him, smudges on her face. “Thank you for being our eyes up there and dropping mud on us. When the fire cut off our escape route, it was dicey until I found that drainage.”
“You read the terrain from the ground with zero visibility,” he pointed out. “All I did was confirm what you’d found. That’s how ground and air are supposed to work together.”
“If you hadn’t buffered us with slurry, not sure how it would have played out.” Tiredness shadowed the soot on her face.
“You had your shelters deployed and your crew accounted for before I made the drop. The slurry was backup. You did the hard part.” He admired this remarkable woman. “How’s Kylie?”
“Sprained, not broken.” She paused. “Was that an old girlfriend who picked us up?”
He blinked. “How did you . . .?”
“When I told her which tanker helped us out, she laughed and said, ‘Colt is always Johnny-on-the-spot helping the pretty firefighters.’ She’d turn up the radio whenever she heard your voice.” Deanna flashed him a saccharine-sweet smile. “I wasn’t born yesterday.”
“Ha, you mind-melded me. Reeva Dunsmore and I lived together for a while, even got engaged. We broke it off a long time ago. Wanted different things.”
“Reeva. Pretty name. Pretty pilot, too.” Her expression was unreadable.
“Are you fishing for information or simply making observations?” He couldn’t tell what was going on in that mind of hers.
She shrugged. “Making an observation.”
He changed the subject. “How about we grab some dinner? Real dinner, not cafeteria food. There’s a place in Butte where my dad and I always go. Lydia’s Steakhouse.” The real reason had nothing to do with food. He also didn’t want his worlds colliding tonight with his ex.
“Must be nice to still have your dad.” Longing crept into her face.
“It is,” he said. “Sorry you don’t have yours. I’m sure he’d be proud. You must really miss him.”
“Every day. I’d give anything to have him back.” She glanced away. “How far, like twenty or thirty miles?”
“Try twenty or thirty minutes. A fast trip on I-90. Unless you have other plans?”
“My only plan involved showering until I no longer smell like a campfire.” She paused, her gaze darting to his. “Would this be an official first date?”
“Do you want it to be?”
“We’ll call it dinner with a co-worker to discuss firefighting strategies.” She hesitated. “For the sake of optics.”
“No need to worry about optics in Montana. I’ll pick you up in an hour.”
“Copy that, Captain Colton.” She saluted him.
He smiled as he headed to his truck. A night away from fire talk sounded like a great idea.