Page 50 of Following Their Heart

The smoke trail singes the sky, but this time, a second smoke trail comes to meet it head on. The chopper launched a counter-strike missile. They must’ve seen what happened to their friends and been ready with their fingers on the switch. A small explosion lights up the night about thirty miles out, as the projectiles collide. The chopper disappears into the night, unharmed.

“Fuck!”

“I will drive one of the missile trucks to Billings.” Grim says. “Tell me how to prepare it for moving.”

I shake my head. “No. By the time you got it down the mountain and on the road, they’ll be out of the sky.”

“They might come back.” He has a good point.

“Let’s connect with Jud. He’ll tell us what to do.”

“Are the radios working?” Cora asks.

I pick up the mic connected to the sweet-ass comm system on the desktop. “Summit to base, come in base. Can you read me?”

“Base to summit, we read you!”

I never thought I’d be so happy to hear Shep’sbork-bork-borkaccent.

“The radios work!” I say to Cora.

“Of course, they do.” She beams at me. “You fixed them.”

I have no idea how, but I’m fucking glad. I get lost in her smiling eyes until Shep jars me out of the trance.

“Do you read us, summit?”

“I read you, Shep. How’s the lodge?”

“It’s fine. Just a shitload of dead birds. Did you shoot down a chopper? We heard aboom.Over.”

“Yeah,boi-iii!I got one of ’em. Missile took them down on the south face, about halfway between camp and summit. I’ve got the coordinates entered in my GPS.” I do the entering as I talk. “The other one got away.”

The radio explodes with cheers from down the mountain. Somewhere in there is Rev’s voice, and at his praise, my chest swells with pride. I feel like a hero.

I curl my lip in my best Elvis impression. “Thank you. Thank you very much.”

“This is Grim,” the big guy says into his handheld radio, interrupting my big moment. “The second chopper got away. I will go to Billings and finish them.” He sounds murderous, and I’m glad I’m not one of Raptor’s remaining crew. “Someone load up a truck with weapons for me.”

There are a few beats of silence.

“Negative, Grim.” Rev’s smoky voice cuts through my middle with a dart of awareness. His voice always does that to me. I have to shake my head to keep my focus on the task at hand. “Stay put in the shelter with Cora. We need to assess the damage and get ready for their return. They didn’t get what they wanted, so we have to assume they’ll make another run for us.”

I look at Cora. What they wanted was Cora. The hard set of her jaw means she knows it too.

“Got it, Grim?” Rev’s tone demands an affirmative answer. “Come back.”

“Fine. Over.”

I raise my brows at Grim. He doesn’t mention he’s not actually in the shelter with Cora. Man, Rev is going to be pissed when he finds out they’re up here with little old me.

“Sit tight down there,” Rev says. “The rest of us will reconvene in the lodge. We’ll keep you informed. Scrap, come on down, son. But be careful. And make sure that radar is set to alert us if we get incoming again.”

“Roger that,” I say. I check the radar and set the alerts. It all seems in good working order. Maybe it’ll actually do its job better now that I’m doing my mine better.

While I finish up, I hear Rev call out, “Jud? Tanks to Jud. Come in, Jud.”

There’s no response. Maybe the big guy’s radio isn’t working. Just for laughs, I do that pushing-out-the-bubble thing to try to get everything on this mountain working.

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