Proving Ground Read online

  She closed her eyes for a moment, accepting the fact that she was out here alone. She rolled one shoulder, then the other, careful not aggravate the ribs. It felt good to stretch. An experimental movement of her ankle made pain shoot up her leg, but it wasn’t as sharp as the first time. She didn’t think it was broken, but even if it was, she was too close to the lake to stop now.

  Her view was better here in the clearing without the pines so close. Looking back the direction she’d come, she saw an eerie glow that turned the entire sky orange, showing just how much the fire had grown. She didn’t have time to dally. She fished out her last bottle of water and twisted off the cap. Taking only a small sip, she screwed the cap on tightly and stuffed the bottle into her backpack. Next, she slipped the pack gingerly over her shoulders and made sure the straps were secure. She rotated her ankle again. The pain was much less, but hobbling the rest of the way to the lake was going to be tough.

  Balancing on her good leg, she forced it to take all of her weight while she stood. The great thing about forests, there was always a stick lying around. It took a while, with only the moonlight to see by, but she found a branch sturdy enough to support her weight and make walking easier. Once again, she started along the trail.

  She’d only gone a couple hundred feet when she heard a droning noise above her. She glimpsed rotor taillights and cursed. The helicopter flew directly overhead, but it was too dark for anyone to see her on the ground. Maybe the copter was airlifting lake water to douse the fire. Which meant it might be back. If she wanted to see the sunrise tomorrow, she had to ignore the tender ankle and hike faster.

  ****

  Mac checked his backpack before slinging it over his shoulders. It appeared to have survived the drop from the helicopter without any ill effects. Rappelling from a moving object was one of his least favorite activities, not to mention the complications of doing so at night. However, Caitlin was out there somewhere, and the fastest way in was by helicopter. Her survival depended on whether or not he located her tonight. He wished the drop zone could’ve been closer to the cabin, but the fire had shifted and was now chewing up the mountainside in an ascent that defied the wind. In fact, he suspected the cabin was nothing but ashes.

  He hoped the fire didn’t escalate to an eruption before he found Caitlin. The crew boss would advise him to abandon the search until the fire was contained. Advice Mac would probably ignore. He wasn’t leaving this forest without her.

  The glow from the fire lit up the night sky. Beautiful and deadly. The scent of charred timber washed off the small lake’s surface as he skirted the perimeter to pick up the trail on the other side. Not even the water could absorb the ravages of the hungry blaze. The acrid stench would linger long after the last flame was dead and cold.

  The late season burn boded ill for the mountainside, with the coming winter. Snow would blanket the scorched ground. Avalanches would loosen the topsoil, and the spring thaw would complete the damage. Without human intervention, it might be two seasons before new vegetation took root and began to repair the damage.

  He’d worry about the environmental damage later. His first priority was Caitlin. Mac paused before leaving the lake clearing and pulled out his radio. The setting was fixed and he keyed the mic. “Ranger One to Ranger Home. Come in. Over.”

  The speaker crackled, then cleared. “Ranger Home. Over.”

  “I’ve crossed the LZ. I’m starting up the ridge. Over.”

  “Roger that. Over.”

  “Any word from Caitlin? Over.” According to Jack, Caitlin had a cell phone on her. If she’d just use it, they could locate her much faster rather than doing a blind search in the burning forest.

  “Airwaves are clear. No word yet. Still trying. Over.”

  The grimness of the situation closed in. No help from that quarter. It was all up to him and there was a lot of wilderness to cover. “Roger. Over and out.”

  He hooked the radio on his belt. From a side pocket of his backpack, he extracted a halogen flashlight and then secured the straps to his head. The irony of all that firelight to the south was that he still required artificial light to navigate the forest blackness.

  The logic that Caitlin would head to this area worked for him. If the fire hadn’t trapped her, she would’ve returned to the campground. If she was smart, she’d use the tricks he’d taught her on their hikes. If she was anywhere in the vicinity, he hoped she’d spot the beam and come to him. That was a lot of ifs. He knew this rescue in the middle of the night was a long shot and placed a great deal of faith that she was even alive. Although blind faith wasn’t all he had to work with, he wasn’t going to discount it either. Maybe he’d picked up some of Grandma’s second sight along the way, because he had a feeling Caitlin was out there. Alive.

  She had to be. And he was going to find her.

  ****

  Caitlin stopped and wiped the sweat from the bridge of her nose. The uneven gait from favoring her ankle made the other injuries ache even more. Her throbbing head and ribs had been difficult to endure without a jarring limp every other step. Every part of her hurt. She didn’t know how much longer she could keep going.

  The helicopter hadn’t returned. As foggy as her brain felt, she wondered now if her imagination had played tricks. Maybe it wasn’t her imagination, but a vision that wouldn’t come true until later. She took as deep a breath as she could to clear her mind.

  She must be closer to the lake now. The tall pines had thinned and brush grew thicker. The trail had disappeared completely. Caitlin tugged at the cell phone on her belt and turned it on. Almost a full minute passed before the SIM chip registered.

  The illumination of a single bar was like an answered prayer. She had service. Barely. She punched the only Oregon number pre-programmed in her contacts. Jack MacAlistair’s. Three rings later, he answered.

  “My God, Caity.” His voice held both reproach and relief. “Where the hell have you been?”

  “You mean, where in hell am I?”

  She heard her old friend suck in a breath. “You’re still on the mountain, aren’t you?”

  “I wish I wasn’t.” She sighed. “I think I’m near Lake Madeline, but I can’t see it yet. Do you think you can send some help?”

  “Mac’s out there looking for you, now.”

  “Mac?” There wasn’t another human being on the planet she’d rather have with her. But a cold foreboding shivered down her spine. Now her foolishness had put his life in danger too. “Where is he?”

  “I don’t know, exactly. All I know is that he’s searching for you.”

  “How do I find him?”

  “Are you safe from the fire?” Jack asked.

  “For the moment. But I need to keep moving to stay ahead of it.”

  “Can you tell how close you are to the lake? I’ll get an update to Mac. Then you need to stay put, so he can find you.”

  Caitlin glanced at the time on her phone. It was just after ten p.m. She had been on the run for nearly four hours straight. “If I stop moving, I can’t promise I won’t fall asleep.” Although the throbbing ache, plus sore muscles from the long hike, would likely keep her wide awake.

  “As long as you’re not in danger, try to stay put. Got it, pipsqueak?”

  “Okay.” She wasn’t quite sure how she was supposed to stay in one spot with a fire bearing down on her.

  “Good. Now, give me a description of where you’re at.”

  Caitlin turned in a slow circle, taking in the surroundings as best she could. “The fire is southeast of my location. I’m in a clearing, but I can’t see the lake. I’m probably still a couple hundred yards away. I thought I remembered a steep descent to get to it, but I haven’t come across it yet.”

  “Got it. I’ll get this information to rangers. They’ll radio Mac. Don’t you go nowhere.”

  “I’m not sure I’ll be able to wait very long.” The fire had grown brighter even in the few minutes she’d been on the phone with Jack.

  �
��Do your best. I’ll get back to you. Leave your phone on.”

  “Hurry. The battery is pretty low.”

  “Just hang on, Caity.” She could hear the worry in Jack’s voice. “We’ll get you home.”

  “Thank you.” She sighed. “See you soon.” She lowered the phone and then held it back up, remembering. “Uncle Jack, you need to find—” A tone sounded in her ear. “Martin Dunn…” She thumbed off the phone. “Damn.” One of these days, she’d learn to prioritize the information in her conversations. Isn’t that what Byron O’Neal had tried to pound into her head? Get the critical information out first, save the chit-chat for later. Oh, well. What mattered was getting out of this dire situation alive. There’d be plenty of time to confront Dunn when she was out of danger.

  Chapter Nine

  Mac slowed his jog to navigate around a particularly heavy section of brush as he hiked the lake’s circumference to the ridge trail. He’d followed his hunch that Caitlin had to be on it. It was the only path that led back toward the cabin and the campground—and now the fire. Somewhere between here and that cabin, she could be wandering in the wilderness.

  He was shoving a willow limb out of his way when his radio beeped.

  “Damn.” Even with his headband flashlight, the darkness made progress excruciatingly slow, and unwelcome interruptions slowed him even more. He leaned into the willow to keep it out of his way so he could answer the call, but he was too late.

  He got around the willow just as the radio beeped again. He jerked it off his belt and brought it up to speak. “Ranger Home, this is Ranger One. Over.”

  “Ranger One, this is Ranger Home. We’ve got news. Over.”

  Mac swallowed, not sure if he was ready to hear bad news. He keyed the mic. “I’m listening. Over.”

  “Jack MacAlistair reported a call from Caitlin. Over.”

  She’s alive.

  Relief washed through him. “How long ago? Over.”

  “Fifteen minutes. Over.”

  Maybe she heard the helicopter and it prompted her to call. “Roger that. Did you get a location? Over.”

  “Jack said she’s in a clearing south of Lake Madeline. He told her to stay there for the moment, but it sounds like you’ll have to hurry. Over.”

  Mac mentally rolled his eyes. What did Bob think he was doing out here? “This isn’t my typical Sunday stroll. Over.”

  “Understood. How long before you reach her? Over.”

  Why was Bob so impatient? “I’m almost to the trail now. Is there a problem? Over.”

  “The crews believe a fire eruption is imminent. We have to secure the sector around the bio-lab. We can’t send a chopper to pick you up until that danger is past. Over.”

  The bio-lab. Even through the electronic static, Mac heard the apology in Bob Henry’s voice.

  Of course, the bio-lab took precedence. Casualties like him and Caitlin were nothing compared to a massive outbreak should those pathogens escape. Even if the fire wasn’t in danger of escalating, the crews would make it a priority to drop fire retardant around the lab’s perimeter.

  By the time a chopper was free to pick them up at the primary LZ, the fire could be upon them. He’d arranged a secondary landing zone with Bob, but reaching the alternate location meant hiking over the pass and down the other side of the mountain. It looked like there wasn’t a choice. “Understood. I’ll radio when I’ve found Caitlin. Let her father know she phoned in and is alive. Over.”

  “Roger. We’ll get you out of there as soon as we can. Over.”

  “Never doubted it. Ranger One, over and out.”

  Mac hooked the radio to his belt where it wouldn’t catch the brambles and limbs as he hiked. He was close to the ridge. Once the terrain cleared, he could focus his energy on finding Caitlin. He hoped he found her soon. They had a long night ahead if they were going to stay clear of the fire and meet up with the ride out.

  He was glad he’d grabbed the copter ride to the lake. If he’d waited any longer, he’d have been forced to hold off his search.

  He figured he had to be near the clearing Caitlin had called from. He pulled a flashlight from the backpack pocket and clicked it on. The strong LED beam illuminated the area better than the light on his headband. But he chose to keep the other one on for safety, anyway.

  The tall willows gave way to thick brush and dried grasses that reached to his thighs and filled most of the clearing. Hazy smoke hung like a fog bank in the distance, obscuring the night sky around the southern mountains. The orange glow from the fire seemed larger than when he’d glimpsed it from the lakeside. An ominous sign of the dangers that lay ahead. And he still had to find Caitlin.

  ****

  Like a moth to the flame, Caitlin’s gaze strayed to the fire for the hundredth time since phoning Jack. Don’t move, he’d said. Give them an hour. She pressed a button on her phone, her only source of artificial light, and looked at the time. Twenty minutes had passed. It was nearly eleven. Exhaustion had set in. Her body throbbed with each beat of her pulse. Tension, from resisting the injuries, robbed her of all energy. Any movement to find a more comfortable position sent spears of agony through her limbs and torso. The temptation to succumb to the fatigue was overwhelming. She had to move or she would collapse into much needed sleep—and doing that meant certain death.

  Surely, it made better sense to reach the lake. If the helicopter was making water drops, wouldn’t it be reasonable to be near the water rather than to wait in a clearing filled with dry grass and bushes? She literally sat amid the finest feast for a hungry blaze.

  Refusing to remain in the clearing any longer, she stabbed her stick in the dirt and gritted her teeth as her injured body protested the effort to stand. Lightheadedness threatened to send her back to the ground. She sucked in a deep breath and unintentionally filled her lungs full of smoky air. Coughing, but alert now from the racking torture that gripped her ribs, she placed as little weight on her ankle as possible and straightened her backpack. She hobbled forward, grateful she could move without passing out.

  The lake was where she’d be the safest. That was where she’d wait. Sparing another backward glance at the glowing sky, she wove her way through the clearing. The brush was almost as tall as she was, and long blades of grass tangled around her stick and legs, making progress nearly impossible.

  A slash of light knifed across the clearing in front of her. At first, she thought glowing ash from the fire had drifted into the brush. She stared, waiting for the grass to ignite in an inferno that would engulf the clearing before she could outrun her death.

  “Cait. Caitlin?” A voice called out.

  Mac! She could hardly believe he’d found her. “Here! I’m here.” She held up her walking stick and waved it over the bushes. “Can you see me?” she called.

  “No.” Mac shouted to her. “Can you see my light?”

  The beam split the night again. “Yes,” she yelled. “I can see it.”

  “Come toward it.”

  Caitlin wanted to laugh and cry at the same time. Although she was determined to make it to the lake, she could barely walk. “Of course,” she muttered. “I suppose it would kill you to come to me, wouldn’t it?” Then she swallowed her words. Rescue had come, and she was finally getting out of this mess.

  She pushed between two willow bushes, taking little notice of the razor-thin leaves making stinging cuts across her face. On the other side, she found herself surrounded by more willows and lost sight of the light. “Mac!”

  “What?”

  Ouch. He sounded impatient and she hated to make the request. “Can’t you come to me? I can’t see where I’m going. You have the light.” She thought she heard a low growl and hoped it wasn’t a bobcat or some other wild animal frightened by the fire. “Hurry, please.”

  “Keep shouting,” Mac called. “I’ll find you.”

  Suddenly, Caitlin’s mind went blank. She couldn’t think of anything to say.

  “Caitlin?” Mac yelled. “Cait?
”

  “I’m here. I just don’t know what to say.”

  He laughed. “That’s got to be a first.”

  “I heard that.”

  The branches to her right rustled and light sprinkled brokenly through the slender limbs. Then a tall figure appeared and Caitlin’s hammering heart stopped.

  Mac had come to her rescue.

  When her heart started beating again, she told herself the pounding was from the effort she’d put her body through. It couldn’t possibly be the familiar, rugged man materializing like a mighty archangel to save her from certain doom.

  ****

  The fear Mac had carried since Sean’s call lifted, replaced by a sensation of overwhelming relief that took him by surprise. He’d been on search and rescue missions before and was always glad when they found a missing hiker. But finding Caitlin was like finding a lost treasure, one so precious, he never wanted to let her out of his sight again. He smiled, but it faded as he shined the light on her face. “You look like hell.”

  Her face was completely covered in dirt and soot. The whites of her eyes looked huge and stark in the beam of the flashlight. A red bandana across her forehead kept most of her hair out of her eyes, but her braid had unraveled and hung in wild disarray down her back. Twigs and grass tangled in the long strands spoke volumes of her race for safety. Mac couldn’t recall when he’d seen a woman look more bedraggled, yet utterly breathtaking.

  “Thanks.” Her voice dripped sarcasm. “You have no idea how glad I am to see another human being, even if it is only you.” Their years apart fell away as she slipped into the familiar banter of their childhood.

  He stepped closer and, without hesitation, hugged her to him. She stiffened, and he thought he felt her wince. When he pulled back, he gave her another big smile. “I’m so glad I found you.” As he spoke, the absolute rightness of his words punched him at a gut level. Hard. Even in the dark, he saw Caitlin’s look of confusion. It mirrored his own feelings, but for the moment, he ignored those muddled emotions and pulled her close again. She was safe. He could see that. But touching her, inhaling her faint wildflower fragrance that even the scent of smoke couldn’t mask, triggered a craving he couldn’t name.