LITMIR.BIZ

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splattered the windshield of the Jeep. In the distance he heard the rumble of thunder. Those clouds he’d seen earlier hadn’t lied. He was getting pretty good at predicting storms. Soon he’d be like Great-Uncle Giovanni, forecasting weather with his big toes.

      Addy was going to be furious. It took both of them to get the birds into the hangar, him pushing from the tail while she maneuvered the skid dolly. Now they might have to manage it in pouring rain.

      He frowned as he pulled into the parking lot. The outside floodlights weren’t on and Kari Churchill’s vehicle was still sitting there. The lights in the office weren’t on, either, but what made Nick’s stomach drop right down to his toes was the chopper pad.

      Raven One was gone.

      Ramming the key into the office lock, he flipped on the lights and strode back to the hangar in less than a dozen steps. It was dark, too. No copter. Nobody in sight.

      He ran back into the office. Not possible. Addy wouldn’t. She wouldn’t have taken the copter up with a storm coming in. She knew better.

      Didn’t she?

      His mind stretched back, trying to recall if she’d been standing there when he and Dwayne Patterson had shared that awkward conversation about the weather.

      We’ll get a thunderstorm later.

      You really think so?

      Where had Addy been? On the pad, right? On the pad right beside him. No. Not there. Checking on that little witch Hannah Patterson.

      If she hadn’t known about the coming storm, then she might have gone up. When he’d pulled out of the parking lot, had there been anything but pretty blue sky overhead? He couldn’t remember. Would she really have let the Churchill woman talk her into something? No! She’d check the weather service. She knows the drill. She knows it…

      His legs felt as though they were filled with water as he dropped behind his desk, knocked everything aside and pulled the base radio to his chest. He had to swallow hard.

      Focus. Don’t lose control.

      Oh, damn it, sis! Where are you?

      “BASE TO Nine-Zero-One-Bravo. Where the hell are you?”

      Ground radio transmissions were normally more difficult for a passenger to hear, nothing more than muffled signals, but Kari didn’t miss a word of the angry male communication that practically made her ears ring. And it wasn’t difficult to figure out just who was trying to reach them.

      She and Addy exchanged a look.

      Addy pressed the radio switch. “Nine-Zero-One-Bravo to Base. Who wants to know?”

      “Damn it, Addy! Where are you?” Nick demanded again. At what had to be the top of his lungs. “I don’t think this is funny, Adriana. If you get down here in one piece I’m going to break every bone in your body.”

      Kari threw Addy a worried glance, but the woman only grinned and gave her a look of mock terror. She pushed the radio button again. “Stop acting like a raving maniac. I’m not hurting your bird. We’re flying.”

      “I don’t give a damn about the bird. Are you aware there’s a thunderstorm on your tail?” There was a moment of hostile silence. “And who’s we? It better not be who I think it is.”

      “She can hear every word, Nick,” Addy said patiently. “That’s not the way to talk to our paying customers.”

      “She wasn’t supposed to be a paying customer. Not today. Get down here.”

      “Soon, big brother. We’ve been watching the storm. I think we’re outrunning it.”

      “You think?”

      “We’re getting a little wind. But stop worrying. We’ll be down in about five minutes. I can see the power station lights up on the ridge.”

      “Okay. Okay,” Nick said, sounding a little more calm. “Keep your airspeed up. And don’t overdo your cyclic. Pull back too hard and she’ll plant your tongue to the roof of your mouth.”

      “I know that,” Addy said in a put-upon voice. “Now leave us alone. You’re making me nervous. And you’ve got to promise to be civil when we get down. No yelling.”

      “I want you to check in with me every minute until you touch down. Base to Nine-Zero-One-Bravo. Out.”

      Inside the copter cabin and over the dull whipping of the rotor blades, there was nothing but dead silence for a few moments. Kari’s ears were tingling in her headset, but Addy still seemed unfazed. Maybe she was used to going toe-to-toe with her brother. Kari, on the other hand, had a feeling that if she ever did get to Elk Creek Canyon, it would be another flight service that would take her there.

      Addy sighed. “Nice to know he cares.”

      “I notice he didn’t make any promises about not yelling.”

      The helicopter started to drift and rock as the weather worsened. It seemed to be at the mercy of a giant’s swinging hand, picked up and pushed sideways, then dropped and pulled back in the other direction. Kari began to feel slightly queasy, but Addy seemed determined and calm.

      Rain was falling in silver sheets. Kari’s eyes were riveted by the sight of it sliding down the windscreen, where it was violently flung away by the wind. They both became silent, tense. Addy was concentrating and Kari was simply too nervous to speak.

      In the next moment lightning zigzagged across the front of the helicopter. There was a sizzling crack, so loud and close that Kari couldn’t hold back a small yelp of surprise and fear. The aircraft bucked and took such a swooping dive that Kari felt her rear end come up off the seat.

      “Son of a—” Addy muttered, both hands moving on the controls to correct their descent. “I think we just took a hit!”

      She jerked her chin toward the top of the cabin. Over Kari’s head was a small paned opening, like a car sunroof. “Look up there and tell me if you see anything. Sparks. Fire. Anything.”

      Kari rose as much as her seat belt would allow. At first she saw nothing but darkness. Then a stray flicker of light from one of the exterior lights revealed that the blades were still turning. Surely that was a good sign. “Nothing,” she said.

      “Something’s wrong.”

      “Are we going to crash?”

      “Not if I can help it.”

      The wind seemed stronger, rising and moaning eerily. Kari watched the sure movements of Addy D’Angelo’s pale hands. Up. Down. Back again. Correcting constantly.

      A heart-deep fear rose in her. Please. I don’t want to die.

      And then the engine failed.

      It lasted only a moment or two. Like a misfire in an automobile. But it was enough to send the helicopter plummeting further still, sinking like a bird dropped out of the sky by a hunter’s rifle.

      Addy was on the radio instantly, shouting through the headphones. “Base, come in. Springs Flight Service, come in. Mayday! Mayday! Mayday! This is Nine-Zero-One-Bravo. We have engine failure from a lightning strike. Two on board. I think we can make Columbine Meadow. I repeat…”

      There was no answer. Was the radio dead?

      Kari was numb with fear now. She squeezed her eyes tight for a moment, listening to her own rattled breathing and the woman beside her, who muttered and cursed and talked herself through every movement.

      “Autorotate, Addy…. Not enough airspeed and height, but you know how to compensate. Easy. Easy. Nose up. Glide in, glide in. You can do it.”

      Kari gripped her own hands hard. A flicker of lightning lit up the cabin. In that one brief moment Addy’s face looked both beautiful and terrible.

      It couldn’t end like this. Not like this, Kari thought in anguish.

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