True Valor

by Jax Hunter

Twenty minutes later they pulled into the parking lot of the nondescript building that housed Search and Rescue. If a person missed the small sign and arrow pointing the way from the main drag, they likely wouldn’t find it. Nic had filled Julie in on the way.

  Most of the rescues in Yosemite were IC’d—commanded—by Daniel Fraser, the ranking forest ranger for the park. He must have needed the exercise because he’d actually gone on this one. Daniel worked with the PJs often enough that, on occasion, they even drank together.

  “He’s way too serious. A shot or two of tequila does the guy good from time to time.”

  Daniel—not ever to be called Dan and God-forbid if you called him Danny—led the team that perched a few ledges above the crash site. Nic explained that though he and Julie could have listened in on the mission from the Air Force comm center on base, they’d miss the finer points because the guys in comm wouldn’t be monitoring the SAR frequency. Here, they’d monitor both the SAR frequency and the helicopter. Besides, they had better food here.

  Nic led Julie around back, not bothering with the front door. The room they entered was huge, but taken up mostly with a conference table the size of Texas. White boards, with clips at the top for maps, covered the walls. In the corner, another table held the equally large coffee pot and an open donut box.

  A man and a woman stood at the conference table poring over maps. They didn’t look up when Nic and Julie entered. When Nic helped himself to a donut and offered one to Julie, they finally acknowledged their presence.

  “Nic!” The man shot out his hand to shake Nic’s. “How the hell are you? I didn’t know you were back. God, man, so sorry about Joey, you know.”

  Julie stood aside watching the lack of emotions play across Nic’s face. This guy, whoever he was, was positively buzzing. Julie’s guess was way too much caffeine. The woman looked up as the men spoke and smiled sadly. She wore a loose-fitting flowered jumper with a light-blue silk blouse. She looked a little out of place here in this sparse, testosterone-colored building.

  “Thanks. Stan, Lily, I’d like you to meet Julie Galloway. Julie, Stan Michaels and Lily... I don’t know that I’ve ever heard your last name Lily.”

  Lily smiled. She was a lovely girl, in a flower child sort of way. Her long auburn hair was pulled back in a clip at the base of her neck. She nodded to Julie. “Lily Atherton. Nice to meet you, Julie.” With that, she hugged her legal pad to her chest, turned and floated into a room off the far end of the room where they were.

  “Lily’s a volunteer so she has to take off from work to come in,” Nic said as if in answer to the unspoken question of the way Lily was dressed. “She usually runs the radio here. Well, actually, she runs the entire show. Just don’t tell Daniel,” he finished with a wink then turned to Stan. “So where are we?”

  Stan lifted the map from the table and stuck it in the clip on the wall. “Daniel’s got Team One up above the crash site. They can get down there if need be but it’s pretty technical.” He pointed at a spot on the map that meant absolutely nothing to Julie.

  Nic nodded. “Yeah, it is.”

  “And Team Two is way down here. They can’t see the wreckage from where they are but are hanging out until we know how the evac is going. If your guys can get in and out with the survivors, it’ll be good. With everyone, even better. It burns me up to risk life for bodies.” Before Nic could answer, he continued. “Yeah, I know, regulations. I guess I should be grateful when you do haul out body bags.”

  Julie noticed a tightening of Nic’s jaw. Apparently, Stan didn’t. He babbled on and on. Nic finally disengaged and led Julie back to the radio room. There were desks for several people to work but, at this point, only Lily was there. She wore a headset and gazed at a computer screen that showed another topo map with arrows and notes attached. She wrote on the legal pad as the voice on the radio gave his current status.

  “That’s Daniel,” Nic whispered.

  “Got it, Team One. Thanks. Mission base clear.” Lily finished her note and turned to them. “The wind has died down. The helo should have a better time of it.”

  “Good. Okay if we hang out?”

  “Sure.” Lily pulled off the headset and stood. “Since you’re here anyway, can you listen for a sec? I so have to make a pit stop.”

  Nic laughed and took the headset from her. Instead of putting it on, though, he simply held the earpiece in the general vicinity of his ear so they both could listen. The radio crackled at either end of the message. The helo carrying Cruz and the others had just lifted off.

  For the next three hours, Julie watched and listened, mesmerized by all the activity, even if she didn’t quite catch it all.

  Lily, on the other hand, calmly spoke on the radio, never showed any stress, and seemed to breeze through whatever came up. Julie couldn’t help but think of Tolkein’s elves when she watched Lily, though she couldn’t figure out why. Her coloring was different, and she wasn’t wispy at all. If anything, she was curvy, not exactly overweight, but definitely not elfish in that way. Her voice, her tranquility, the way she moved, so graceful, all made Julie a bit envious.

  If anything defined Julie, it was frenzy. She found it difficult to sit still, always had. Doing nothing made her fidget. Waiting sucked. As her mind swirled around the comparisons, she realized that was exactly what she’d been doing the last days—waiting, doing nothing. Ignoring reality. Come to think of it, it was easy to do when Nic made her feel so... complete. But it couldn’t last, could it? She couldn’t hide here forever. For now, though, there was more than enough going on to keep her mind busy.

  “Mission Base, this is High Bird. I have coordinates on that plane for you.” It was a female voice.

  Julie looked to Nic.

  “Daniel’s wife, Karen. She’s playing spotter from the fixed wing. She’s on the SAR team as well.”

  “Oh.”

  Will Pitkin was first to be lowered to the ledge where the small plane rested precariously. Will’s boom mic was voice-activated so even his heavy breathing, as he scrambled to reach the survivor, came across loud and clear. It was creepy.

  The survivor, a woman who appeared to be in her mid-forties, was unconscious, but breathing. Will reported she had obvious deformity of her lower left leg, no doubt a tib-fib fracture, and had a significant laceration on her forehead. He recommended lowering another man so that one could package this patient quickly, and the other could see if there were more survivors. The flight record had suggested there were three people on board. Will, simply scanning the perimeter, didn’t see anyone else.

  Instead of just one more lowered, both Cruz and Gabriel joined Will on the ledge. Cruz and Will stabilized the woman’s leg and got her backboarded and loaded in the Stokes basket. Will was lifted out with the basket and the helicopter left the scene headed for the nearest trauma center.

  Cruz and Gabe proceeded to search the area for others. They found the pilot, still strapped in his seat.

  “His condition?” Lily asked.

  “He’s not responsive, might be Elpenor,”

  “Dead,” Nic translated. At her look of confusion, he added, “Some ghost who visited Ulysses. You’d have to ask Daniel. We’d rather not broadcast ‘dead guy.’”

  “Wreckage is too wobbly to just step out there. I’ll get rigged up and go check.” It wasn’t Cruz’s voice, so it must have been Gabe. He didn’t sound at all stressed, though. He sounded like it was just another day on the job.

  It probably was.

  In the meantime, Cruz had located the third person near one wing that had been ripped from the plane. He was most assuredly Elpenor.

  Since nothing could be done for him, Cruz rejoined Gabe and coached him out onto the teetering wreckage. Now, there was definitely a change in Cruz and Gabe’s voices. Serious, but not yet actually tense.

  Nic paced, grumbling admonitions to his teammates. The only evidence that Lily was at all affected was her nervously tapping her pencil on the table. Her voice never changed, a
lways sounding completely serene.

  Julie held her breath.

  Each ragged breath that Gabe took was transmitted. Each muffled curse.

  “Elpenor?” Cruz asked.

  “Hang on, Hollywood, I can’t quite reach him yet.”

  “Slowly.”

  “No kidding.” Now, the fear was palpable in Gabe’s voice.

  “Okay.” Gabe audibly struggled to reach the pilot. “Damn, no pulse... CRAP.”

  The last was a shout and Cruz cursed loudly.

  Chapter Twenty Two