Page 28 of Whirlwind

“You think it’s our storm?” Ryker asks.

“I do. We can always punch south to the cluster developing in the south/southeast,” I say, referring to what I saw on the radar.

Ryker nods. “I was thinking the same thing.”

“Come on, Hawk,” Ezra says, taking the computer from Ryker’s hands. “Let’s go get set up in Ryker’s truck. I have a feeling we’ve got minutes before this thing lights up.”

The two men walk off and Ryker watches them go. With the team no longer near us, I awkwardly stand near my professor.

After a moment, he clears his throat. “You’re comfortable navigating and spotting, right?”

I put my hands in my pockets. “Yes, of course.”

He nods. “Great.”

“Great.”

After another awkward pause, Ryker gestures for me to look at the armored vehicle. The thing is massive and not attractive by any means. But it was made for a purpose: to let its occupants be inside a tornado and collect data without getting hurt. It’s like a lab on wheels.

“Did you watch the video I sent you and Joey on how to operate everything?”

“Yes, of course.” Like I hadn’t already seen the YouTube video on it a million times prior. Thor’s been in action for a couple of years now and has successfully intercepted and survived being in the direct path of three tornados.

It can hold up to five people inside in harnessed seats. Thor, which is a heavily modified truck, is covered in a shell of three-quarter-inch steel. On top of that, it has a Kevlar coating, which will allow debris to bounce off the vehicle, making it bulletproof. It also has double windows Ryker speciallydesigned, ensuring that if debris breaks through the first layer, we’ll be protected by the second.

It’s astonishing that something that looks like a massive ugly black shoe has such an immense and important purpose. Not to mention, I’ll be very happy to be inside of this instead of in a ditch.

Ryker’s lip twitches as if he wants to smile. “Just checking.” He walks to the passenger door, and I follow.

“As you watched, everything on this is custom built to the point you’d never know this used to be a truck. When we get to the point of interception, we’ll close the double window system, lower Thor, and drive the spikes into the ground to keep us from moving. We’ll have Joey fly the drone out from the top hatch before we have to close everything up.”

Excitement itches beneath my skin as he talks. I know there’s part of me that should logically be scared about being inside a tornado again after yesterday, but I’m not. Was it terrifying? Yes. Did my car and camera get destroyed? Yes. But I’m alive, and when I decided to start storm chasing, I knew the risks. It’s also why I have good insurance across the board and eat ramen noodles a lot of days to ensure I can afford it.

I’ve given up a lot to be at this point in my life and career, and I’m not going to let what happened yesterday dictate how I feel about doing what I love for a living. We just have to be smarter so it doesn’t happen again. And now that Ryker and I have a whole team, we’ve got more eyes and ears on the ground with us to prevent bad things from happening.

Besides all that, what happened to us was a crazy fluke.

When Ryker had gotten hold of Ezra, he’d explained that the tornado had rapidly intensified as it encountered a strong low-level jet, which injected additional momentum into its rotation. The unstable atmosphere and high moisture content fueled its growth, causing it to gain speed and shift direction quickly, leaving us no time to get out of there. It was a stupid mistake being as close as we were in the first place without avehicle like this, and while I know Ryker blames himself, it’s my fault, too. I think we were both caught up in more than the chase of the storm.

“Finley?”

My eyes refocus to find Ryker staring at me, face full of concern. “Yeah?”

He studies me, and my skin prickles like it always does when his attention is fully on me. “Feeling okay?”

“Never better.”

It looks like he wants to ask if I’m sure, but he makes the smart choice and doesn’t. “Step back; I’m going to open the doors.”

Sheepishly, I realize he probably already told me to do this once, and I didn’t respond. I step back, and he hits a button while he starts telling me about the lift system. The doors make the sound of decompressing air and pop up like a bird getting ready to fly.

“Fucking bad ass!” Joey chimes in as he joins us. “Going to feel like a superhero riding around in this thing.”

I smile at him as he sidles up next to me while Ryker turns his attention to him. “You will,” he says.

The men grin like fools as Ryker continues to show us all the buttons that were clearly outlined in the video, but it’s good he reviews it. There area lotof buttons on the front dash and above the windshield. He also shows us how to hook our harnesses and open and close the windows. Then he explains that I’ll be sitting in the passenger seat next to him, and Joey will be in one of the two seats behind us. There’s another single one behind that, so we could fit Hawk and Ezra, but they’ll be in the truck to analyze data and call for help if we need it.

When Ryker’s finished with the inside, he takes us to the back, popping open the trunk to show us the gear that Ezra and Diego must have loaded. There are a couple of cases and a pile of bright orange-and-yellow rockets, and I see another small case that looks like the one I kept my camera in until yesterday.

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