Page 61 of Burning Justice

“Got it, boss.”

Jade slapped Kane’s shoulders. “Go.”

He jumped out of the plane. The line caught, dragging out his chute so that Kane didn’t even have to pull the cord. He had his toggles to steer. The terrain stretched out, white-topped mountains. All that endless sky above, full of the haze of wildfire smoke.

One jump, a few other skills, most of which he knew from being a hotshot. No big deal.

Kane didn’t want to get cocky, but he could probably do this in his sleep. Sticking on the ground with Maria and being content with that had been the bigger challenge. Now she’d encouraged him to go out and do what he could. She was doing what she could—with plenty of highly trained guys to watch her back—and he was going to trust God.

I get it. I need to trust You. I need to let go of a little bit of control and give us both some space.

Kane turned far enough to see Saxon nearly beside him, tracking with him on the way to the landing zone. They’d done this so many times, but not in all this gear. Or with so many other smokejumpers behind them, coming down.

He adjusted course for the air currents and avoided the trees to the west, descending to a clearing about half a mile wide on the side of a hill. About a mile west of the fire. It was moving fast, covering ground, driven by the wind.

It wouldn’t be long before the fire was here.

The clearing was barely big enough to land on, but he and Saxon had come up with the plan to get the team down and convinced Jade they could do it.

As he neared the ground, the air shifted, and he smelled something else. Not wildfire smoke. Not fresh air. Not anything from an animal or any other kind of predator.

“Gasoline.” Kane looked around but saw nothing. The fire was a mile to the east, heading this direction. They were supposed to cut a line in this remote area so it didn’t spread to the westerly spruce.

His boots hit the ground, and he folded, caught himself, and stood to wrap the chute.

Saxon did the same beside him. “Smells like gas!”

Kane looked around. “I caught it too.” He grabbed the radio from his leg pocket. “Boss, it smells like gasoline down here. We might have a problem.”

Fire flared up in the trees to the east, erupting like a small explosion, sending smoke up into the sky. Four hundred yards away at least.

Between him and the flare-up, the other firefighters landed one by one in the clearing. Textbook—just like he’d explained to Jade.

Kane stowed his chute in his pack and dragged off his jumpsuit. He sprinted toward the fire, running at the fastest pace he could manage. Across the clearing to a spot where his boots splashed in the wet ground.

He kept running, needing to get a look at the fire. Not so textbook. He might actually get fired for this.

Scratch that.

He might get failed for this.

“Foster!” His radio blared, the voice female and not happy, to say the least. “Get back here!”

Another fireball exploded in front of him, at least eight feet to the right of the previous one. Now a fire. This one ignited a tree and blew it apart, sending pieces all over—including down the side of this steep hill.

He stopped running and looked down at his feet, standing in half an inch of damp ground.

Gasoline.

Another explosion, this one to the south.

Pop.

Pop.

Two more came in quick succession. He turned on the spot, watching fire ignite the trees around them.

Jade tromped up to him. “You’d better have some kind of explanation for this.”

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