on the back of the head.
“I said...don’t kill him, dammit!”
Ed flinched, then rolled off and got up.
“Is he dead?” she asked.
“I don’t know. Go look in the hangar and see if you can find anything to tell us where she was headed.”
Alma glanced around at the other hangars, then at the small office in the distance, and moaned.
“I can’t believe you did that. We need to get out of here!”
Ed grabbed her by the arm. “I said, go look for clues in the hangar!”
She ran inside, then into the small office, and began shoving papers off the desk, and then tearing through the drawers, but found nothing until she saw a clipboard hanging on the wall. It was the memo clipped on top that caught her attention.
Fuel to Galveston
“Okay, okay,” she muttered, and grabbed the memo from the clipboard and ran.
“I found something!” Alma cried, as she ran outside. “She’s going to Galveston.”
“Good work,” Ed said. “Get in the van. We’ll notify the boss on the way back to Dallas.”
Alma glanced back at the mechanic, lying motionless and bloody on the tarmac.
“What about him? Shouldn’t we call an ambulance or something?”
Ed slapped her across the face. “How stupid are you? No, we shouldn’t call an ambulance or something. He saw us.”
* * *
Unaware of the ensuing drama behind her, Wyrick was focused on the flight ahead and keeping a promise. The day was clear and cold in Dallas, but she was heading to warmer weather. Merlin didn’t like the cold, and he’d really felt it after he began chemo. Maybe that was part of why he wanted this to happen in Galveston, and she was happy she’d been given the task.
The trip was without issue all the way there, and as soon as she reached the helipad at Fort Crockett Boulevard, she set down to refuel and shut the chopper down. Once the tank was full for the trip back, she got out the drone she’d modified, then Merlin’s ashes, and crawled beneath the chopper to fasten it to the struts, checking it over and over to make sure it was in the right place to come free. Once she was satisfied, she climbed back into the cockpit and started up the engine, revved it to liftoff and went up, and out over Galveston Bay, then flying farther, out over the Gulf of Mexico.
Sunlight caught on the water’s surface like glitter strewn from the hand of God. It was so beautiful, and so serene in that moment it brought tears to Wyrick’s eyes. She pressed the power button on the remote, releasing the drone from the strut at the same time she took the chopper upward. Then she flew it in a wide circle back to watch the drone skimming only feet above the water. She could almost hear Merlin’s voice. Do it, Jade, do it.
She pushed the throttle forward on the remote and held her breath, watching as the drone nosed down into the glittering water, taking Merlin with it.
Watching it disappear beneath the waves was the finale to a life well lived. She was blinking back tears as she headed back toward shore. By the time she reached flying altitude, she was on her way back to Dallas.
* * *
Wyrick was a little over a hundred miles north of Galveston and flying over the Sam Houston National Forest when she caught a flash of movement to her right. With only seconds to react to the helicopter coming at her, and the man with the rifle hanging out of the cockpit, she made a sharp turn to the left trying to get out of the line of fire.
She was already on the radio calling out an SOS, relaying her call sign and coordinates, when the first bullet hit the cockpit. Then two more shots hit the chopper, sending it into a downward spin she could not control.
She kept repeating her coordinates and call sign, then finally added, “Call Charlie Dodge, my next of kin. Dodge Investigations out of Dallas.” Even though the transmission was beginning to break up, she kept relaying the SOS until the glass shattered in front of her, a searing pain tore through her shoulder and then her leg, and everything went black.
Wyrick was unconscious and the cockpit was tilting sideways when the rotors tore through the treetops, then hit the ground and broke apart like heat-seeking missiles, slicing through everything in their paths.
She came to still strapped into her seat, lying on her side within