LITMIR.BIZ

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traffic on this coastal route into New Zealand’s capital city, Wellington, had suddenly slowed and then come to a complete halt for no obvious reason.

      Cooper Sinclair was due to meet his colleagues at the city’s rescue helicopter base in just over an hour before he started his new job there tomorrow. He had, of course, planned for any contingencies that could have delayed his arrival, but that window of time had been used up by a flat tyre way back near Lake Taupo in the middle of the north island. A few minutes later, when the traffic showed no signs of beginning to move again, he followed the example of someone he could see nearer the brow of this hill, who was getting out of his car to try and find out what was going on.

      ‘What’s happening?’ he called.

      ‘Accident,’ the stranger yelled back. ‘Someone’s driven off the road and gone down the bank just on the other side of this hill.’

      The ‘bank’, from what Cooper could see, was more like a small cliff with a rocky beach at the bottom of the steep slope. From the top of this hill, or just over its brow, it could have been a drop of over fifteen metres and a vehicle landing on a hard surface like that from even a much smaller distance could be badly damaged with its occupants in real trouble. Turning swiftly, Cooper opened the back of his SUV to extract a small backpack. He tossed his keys to the stranger he’d been speaking to as he ran past.

      ‘Get someone to move my car off the road if it’s needed,’ he said. ‘I’m a paramedic. I’m going to see if I can help.’

      ‘Good on ya, mate.’ The stranger nodded. ‘I’ll keep an eye on your car.’

      A small crowd was gathering on the side of the road and, as Cooper got closer, he could see why some people were looking so shocked. The car must have gone off the road with some speed to have buckled and then broken through the metal safety barrier like that. It had careened down the steep bank, carving a path through the undergrowth, and had come to rest, teetering on a low outcrop of rocks with waves breaking around it.

      He might not be on duty but it was automatic for Cooper to go into scene assessment mode. To be looking for what extra help was going to be needed and what apparent dangers there were for any responding crews—and the public.

      ‘Stand back,’ he told people as he moved through the crowd. ‘The edge of this bank doesn’t look that stable. Has anyone called the emergency services?’

      ‘I think an ambulance is on its way,’ someone told him.

      Cooper pulled out his own phone to punch in the three-digit emergency number. They needed more than an ambulance here. Police would be needed to control traffic and spectators. The fire service was needed urgently to stabilise this car with winch lines or something to prevent it getting dislodged by the waves and ending up completely underwater. Even if there were injured people inside the vehicle, it was too dangerous for anyone to try and approach it until it could be secured somehow. Would the hooks and lines from the fire trucks be enough? Maybe they needed to get a crane on the way...

      His assessment and planning came to a crunching halt as he got through the rest of the crowd to get a completely clear view of the bottom of the bank. He didn’t even finish dialling the emergency services number.

      ‘Hey...’ he yelled as loudly as he could. ‘What the hell do you think you’re doing?’

      ‘She just took off down there,’ someone said from behind him. ‘Seemed like she knew what she was doing...’

      ‘She’s mad,’ Cooper muttered, staring down at the lone figure on the rocky foreshore a good ten metres beneath him.

      The tall, slim woman was standing on top of a rock, a short distance from where the car was teetering on other rocks. She was wearing rolled-up jeans and sneakers, and a white T-shirt that was knotted on one side. Right now, her arms were in the air and she was swiftly winding long dark hair into a knot that she somehow secured easily onto the top of her head. Then she leaned forward, holding her arms out to balance herself, obviously looking for a place to step that would take her closer to the car.

      ‘Oi...’ Cooper’s shout was even louder this time and he was moving as he made the sound. ‘Get back...’

      Sure enough, the ground was crumbling on the edge of the drop and he started a slide that was barely controlled as he aimed for a shrub that had branches big enough to hold his weight. Then he climbed over some rocks and kept going, faster than he knew was safe but he had to get down the bank and into a position where he could stop this crazy bystander from creating yet another problem for the emergency services when they arrived on scene. On top of being concerned about the woman’s well-being, he was not happy that he was being forced to put himself in danger like this. As soon as he could, he yelled again.

      ‘Stay where you are. Wait...’

      She took absolutely no notice of him. With a nimble leap, she landed on another rock and then steadied herself as a wave washed over her feet. Then she moved again to land within reaching distance of the back door of the crashed car. That was when Cooper saw what she was focused on—a small face in the window of that door—a child who looked no more than a couple of years old. He saw her grab the handle of the door and try to open it, almost losing her balance as a larger wave curled around her legs. The door didn’t open.

      Nobody else was following Cooper down the bank. For a few seconds, when he reached the bottom, he lost sight of what the woman was doing as he scrambled over the rocks closest to the base of the cliff but then reached the point where she had been when he’d first seen her and he had a clear view of what she was up to. She had managed to open the driver’s door and he could see the shape of an adult slumped forward, apparently unconscious. The rescuer tilted the person’s head back to open the airway, which told Cooper that she did, at least, have some idea of what she was doing, but she didn’t pause to do anything else in the way of assessment or treatment for the driver. She slid her arm between the front seat and the back door, twisting her body to enable her to reach the lock, and both the confidence and elegance of her movements kept Cooper standing on his rock, simply watching.

      She got the back door open and must have released a safety belt that allowed her to scoop up the small child who was now screaming with terror.

      ‘Mummy... Mummy...’

      The woman was saying something that Cooper couldn’t hear as she wrapped her arms around the child and turned, looking down to choose both her stepping point and a moment when a new wave was not about to break. Cooper moved at the same time, his long stride taking him to the next outcrop of rocks. Someone needed to see what was going on with the child’s mother and to try and get her out of the car if it was possible to do so without it being too risky. It wasn’t something he would want to try on his own, so it was a relief to hear the sound of sirens getting louder on the road above them. He would make sure this woman and the kid got back safely to shore and then come back to plan the next steps that could be taken the moment the first crews got down the bank.

      To his surprise, he found the child being shoved into his arms by the woman. There was nothing he could do but take hold of it.

      ‘Take her,’ she said. ‘I’ve got to go back.’

      ‘No... It’s not safe,’ Cooper told her. ‘Wait for the firies. That car’s not stable.’

      ‘That car has a baby in the back seat,’ she snapped. ‘Keep yourself safe. I’ve got a job to do, here.’

      Cooper was left staring at her back, his jaw slack. He was the person who should be doing whatever was needed here. He had years of experience as an advanced paramedic. Qualifications in scene management and dealing with unusual and dangerous situations just like this. Who was this woman? And what was it about her that made him feel as if she really was the person in charge, here? Did it have anything to do with that hint of something like a grin she’d thrown over her shoulder as she’d turned away from him? Or that he was sure he’d heard her say ‘Trust me... I know what I’m doing...’?

      The toddler in his arms wriggled and screamed

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