I couldn’t say it. If I said it, the cellophane walls I had up would stop holding me together, and that wasn’t an option.
“Where’s Ella?” I repeated.
“She’s in the ranger station right back there with a couple other parents.” She motioned behind the crowd. “They’re trying to get news from the county. Want us to get her? Someone has to tell her.” Her face crumpled.
Flashing lights came into view. Good, the ambulance was here.
“No, just stay with her. It’s…it’s not good. She’s going to need you.”
Colt didn’t have the time for me to wait for Ella. I looked at Larry, whose face was drawn and tight.
“What do you want me to tell her?” he asked.
“Tell her I’m going to find our son.” Before I could lose it, I ran to the helicopter, Havoc with me. I deadlifted her into the bird and climbed in. Helmet on. Seat belt latched.
“Fly south,” I told the pilot. “There’s a section of the trail that’s fallen away. We need to be dropped right beneath it.”
“Roger.” The pilot took off, and my stomach lurched as we rose into the air.
I leaned forward and clipped the sections of Havoc’s vest I’d need to keep her safe.
“Slight problem, there’s nowhere to land,” the pilot called back.
“Can you rappel?” I asked Mark.
“In theory,” he answered.
“Get us to where we can rappel,” I told the pilot, then I turned to Mark. “Keep up.”
He nodded.
“I need you to be ready, Jenkins.”
“I’m steady.” He assured me from the bench. “Backboard and litter is ready.”
“You have the new report?”
He nodded.
“What time did it happen?”
He scanned through the clipboard and checked his watch. “Report came in forty-five minutes ago, and they called it in about ten minutes after.”
He’d been down almost an hour. I set the timer on my watch.
“Radio back and get as many hands down here as we can get.”
The helo steadied above the only clear ground visible. We looked to be a short distance from where the rocks would have fallen.
“We’re ready,” the pilot said through the comms.
I removed my helmet as Jenkins secured the line. Then I clipped Havoc into the slider and kept her between my legs as we shuffled for the door. Jenkins passed me the line, and I secured the slider that let me control her rate of descent. “I know you hate this,” I told her as I made sure it was tight where it attached to the line a couple feet above her harness. “But our Colt is down there.”
I gripped the line and her slider, gave her the knee signal she was all too used to, and we stepped out into nothing. She went completely still as I worked us down the line with her dangling between my knees.
We’d done this hundreds of times, but I’d never felt as urgent. Urgent caused mistakes, so I calmed my breathing and lowered us slowly, hand over hand, until we reached the ground.
Then I unhooked the slider and stuck it in Havoc’s pack. Mark started down immediately.
I slipped Havoc a treat from her pack. “Good job. I know that sucks.”
“How do you do that with a dog?” Mark asked after he reached the ground a minute later.
“A lot of experience.” I leaned down to Havoc. “Seek Colt.”
She started sniffing, and we walked in the direction of the slide. “How long will that take her?” Mark asked.
“Not sure. He didn’t walk this way, so she doesn’t have a path to go on. We’ll have to get close enough for her to catch his scent in the air, or anywhere he’s touched.”
We hiked uphill, through patches of knee-high grass and then under tall pine trees. I concentrated on my breathing and my footwork as Havoc walked ahead of us, searching. The less I thought about what we would find, the better.
“Colt!” I called out on the prayer he could hear us…that he was capable of hearing us.
“Colt!” Mark joined in. “Should we have brought Jenkins?”
“No. He needs to stay with the helo. When the other teams show up, he needs to be available, and if he’s with us, and someone else finds Colt…”
“I get the picture.”
“I’m a combat medic, which means I’m qualified to do just about anything besides surgery. Everyone in our…everyone is where I used to work.” It was part of the training before you were selected as a tier-one operator. “Colt!” I tried again.