Chasing Fire Part 39

Can't let her climb, Rowan thought as they hacked and dug. Can't let her crown. Can't let her win.

So they fought their way up the burning mountain, sweat running in salty rivers in the scorched air.

When Gull climbed up the line to her position, she pulled down her bandanna to pour water down her aching throat.

"The line's holding." He jerked a thumb over his shoulder. "A couple of spots jumped it, but we p.i.s.sed them out. Gibbons is going to leave a couple down there to scout for more, and send the rest up to you." "Good deal." She took another drink, scanning and counting yellow s.h.i.+rts and helmets through the smoke. On the left the world glowed, eerie orange with an occasional spurt of flame that picked out a hardened, weary face, tossed it into sharp relief.

In that moment, she loved them, loved them all with a near religious fervor.

Every a.s.s and elbow, she thought, every blister and burn. Her eyes lit when she looked at Gull. "Best job ever."

"If you don't mind starving, sweating and eating smoke."

Grinning, she shouldered her Pulaski. "Who would? Head on up. We're still making line here so-" She broke off, grabbed his arm.

It spun out of the orange wall, whipped by the wind. The funnel of flame whirled and danced, spinning a hundred feet into the air. In seconds, screaming like a banshee, it uprooted two trees.

"Fire devil. Run! " She pointed toward the front of the line as its wind blasted the furnace heat in her face. She grabbed her radio, watching the flaming column's spin as she shouted to the crew, "Go up, go up! Move your a.s.ses.

Gibbons, fire devil, south flank. Stay clear."

It roared toward the line, a tornadic gold light as gorgeous as it was terrifying, spewing flame, hurling fiery debris. The air exploded with the call of it, with its lung-searing heat. She watched Matt go down, saw Gull haul him up, take his weight. Keeping her eye on the fire devil, she s.h.i.+fted, got her shoulder under Matt's other arm.

"Just my ankle. I'm okay." "Keep moving! Keep moving!"

It snaked toward them, undulating. They'd never outrun it, she thought, not with Matt stumbling and limping between them. Behind Matt's back, Gull's hand gripped her elbow, and in acknowledgment, she did the same. This is it. Even thinking it she pushed up the ridge. No time for emergency gear, for the shelters.

"There!" Gull jerked her, with Matt between them, to the right, and another five precious feet. He shoved her under the enormous boulder first, then Matt, before crawling under behind them.

"Here we go," Gull breathed, and stared into Rowan's eyes while the world erupted.

Rock exploded and rained down like bullets. Through smoke black as pitch, Rowan saw a blazing tree crash and vomit out a flood of flame and sparks.

"Short, shallow breaths, Matt." She gripped his hand, squeezed hard. "Just like in a shake and bake." "Is this what Jim felt?" Tears and sweat rolled down his face. "Is this what he felt?"

"Short and shallow," she repeated. "Through your bandanna, just like in a shelter."

For an instant, another, the heat built to such mad intensity she wondered if they'd all just torch like a tree. She worked her other hand free, found Gull's. And held on.

Then the screaming wind silenced.

"It's cooling. We're okay. We're okay?" she repeated, in a question this time.

"What can you see?" Gull asked her.

"The smoke's starting to thin, a little. We've got a lot of spots. Spots, no wall, no devil." She s.h.i.+fted as much as she could. "Get behind me, Matt, so I can look out." She angled beside Gull, cautiously eased her head out to look out, up. "It didn't crown, didn't roll the wall. Just spots. Jesus, Gull, your jacket's smoking." She beat at it with her hands as he worked to shrug out of it. "Are you burned?" she demanded. "Did it get you?" "I don't think so." He crab-walked back. "The ground's still hot. Watch yourselves." Rowan crawled out, reaching for her radio. On it Gibbons shouted her name.

"It's Ro, Gull, Matt. We're good. We're clear. Is everybody all right? Is everybody accounted for?" "We are now." Relief flooded his voice. "Where the h.e.l.l are you?"

She stood, scanned the area to give him the best coordinates. "Matt's bunged up his ankle. Gull and I can handle these spots, but we dumped most of the gear on the run so ... Never mind," she said as she heard the shouts, saw the yellow s.h.i.+rts through the smoke. "Cavalry's coming this way."

Dobie came on the run with Trigger right behind him. "Jesus Christ, why don't you just give us all heart attacks and get it over with?" He grabbed Gull, slapped his back. "What the h.e.l.l happened to you?"

"A little dance with the devil. Better put out those spots before we end up having to run again."

Trigger crouched beside Matt, held out a scorched and mangled helmet.

"Found your brainbucket, snookie. You're a lucky b.a.s.t.a.r.d." He put Matt in a headlock, a sign of relief and affection. "A lucky son of a b.i.t.c.h. Have a souvenir."

He set the helmet beside Matt before hurrying over to help Dobie with the spot fires. "Let's check that ankle out." Rowan knelt to undo his boot.

"I thought we were finished. I would've been finished if you and Gull hadn't gotten me in there. You saved my life. You could've lost yours trying." She probed gently at his swollen ankle. "We're Zulies. When one of us goes down, we pick them up. I don't think it's broken. Just sprained bad enough to earn you a short vacation." She looked up, smiled at him as she started to wrap it. "Lucky b.a.s.t.a.r.d."

Though he protested, they medevaced Matt out, while the rest of the crew beat the fire back, finally killing it in the early hours of the morning. Mop- up took another full day of digging, beating, dousing.

"You volunteered to stay back, confirm the put-out," Rowan told Gull. "I've got to quit all this volunteering."

"With me. The rest are packing out." "That's not such a bad deal."

"We've got MREs, a cool mountain spring, in which the beer fairy has snugged a six-pack." "And people say she doesn't exist."

"What do people know? I wanted to see this one through, all the way, and take a breath, I guess. So you're good with it?" "What do you think?"

"Then let's take a hike, start doing a check before the sun goes down."

They moved through the burnout at an easy pace, looking for smoke and smolder.

"I wanted to wait until it was over-all the way-before I said anything about it," Rowan began. "I didn't think we were going to make it back there against the fire devil. If you hadn't spotted those boulders, reacted fast, we'd have all ended up like Matt's now-famous helmet."

"I don't plan on losing you. Anyway, if you'd been on my side, you'd've seen the boulders."

"I like to think so. It was beautiful," she said after a moment, and with reverence. "It might be crazy to say that, think that, about something that really wants to kill you, but it was beautiful. That spinning column of fire, like something from another world. In a way, I guess it is." "Once you see one, it changes things because you know you can't beat it. You run and hide and you pray, and if you live through it, for a while, all the bulls.h.i.+t in real life doesn't mean d.i.c.k."

"For a while. I guess that's why I wanted to stay out, stick with it a little longer. There's a lot of bulls.h.i.+t waiting out there. Leo Brakeman's still out there. He's no fire devil, but he's still out there."

She blew out a breath. "Every time we get a call, I wonder if we're going to stumble over another body. His, someone else's. Because he's out there. And if he didn't start those fires, whoever did is out there, too."

"It's been three weeks. That's a long time between." "But it doesn't feel over and done."

"No. It doesn't feel over and done."

"That's the bulls.h.i.+t waiting." She gestured. "Why don't you take that direction, I'll take this one. We'll cover more ground, then meet back at camp." She checked her watch. "Say six-thirty."

"In time for c.o.c.ktails and hors d'oeuvres."

SHE BEAT HIM BACK to the clearing by the bubbling stream. The campsite, a hive the night before of very tired, very grungy bees, held quiet as a church now, and s.h.i.+mmered in the rays of evening sun. She stowed her gear, checked on the six-pack of beer and the six-pack of c.o.ke she'd asked L.B. to drop.

She'd rather have that, she realized, in this remote spot on the mountain than a bottle of the finest champagne in the fanciest restaurant in Montana.

In anywhere. She went back for her PG bag and her little bottles of liquid soap and shampoo.

Alone in the sunlight, she pulled off her boots, socks, stripped off the tired work clothes. The stream barely hit her knees, but the cool rush of the water felt like heaven. She sat down, let it bubble over her skin as she looked up to the rise of trees, the spread of sky.

She took time was.h.i.+ng, as another woman might in a hot, fragrant bubble bath, enjoying the cool, the clean, the way the water rushed away with the froth she made.

Drawing her knees up, she wrapped her arms around them, laid her cheek on her knees, closed her eyes. She opened them again as a shadow fell over her, and smiled lazily up at Gull. Until she saw the camera. "You did not take my picture like this. Am I going to have to break that thing?"

"It's for my private collection. You're a fantasy, Rowan. G.o.ddess of the brook.

How's the water?" "Cold."

He, as she did, pulled off his boots. "I could use some cold." "You're late. It's got to be close to seven."

"I had a little detour."

"Did you find fresh spots?"

"No, all clear. But I found these." He picked up a water bottle filled with wildflowers.

"You know you're not supposed to pick flowers up here." But she couldn't stop the smile.

"Since we save them, I figured the mountain could spare a few. Yeah, it's pretty d.a.m.n cold," he said as he stepped into the water. "Feels great." She pulled out the bottle of soap she'd shoehorned between rocks, tossed it to him. "Help yourself. It feels like we're the only two people in the world. I wouldn't want to be the only two people in the world for long-who'd do the cooking?-but it's nice for right now."

"I heard birds in the black. They're already coming back, at least to see what the h.e.l.l happened. And in the green, across the meadow where I got the flowers, I saw a herd of elk. We may be the only people here, but life rolls on."

"I'm going to get dressed before I freeze." She stood, water sliding down her body, sun glinting to turn it to tiny diamonds. "Wow," Gull said.

"For that, and the bottle of wildflowers, I guess you've earned a beer." She got out, s.h.i.+vering now, rubbing her skin to warm and dry it. "We've got spaghetti and meat sauce, fruit cups, crackers and cheese spread and pound cake for dinner."

"Right now I could eat cardboard and be happy, so that sounds amazing."

"I'll get the campfire going," she told him as she dressed. "And you get the beer when you get out. I guess c.o.c.ktails and hors d'oeuvres will consist of- Holy s.h.i.+t."

"That I don't want to eat, even now."

"Don't move. Or do-really fast." "Why?" "Life rolls along, including the big-a.s.s bear on the other bank."

"Oh, f.u.c.k me." Gull turned slowly, watched the big-a.s.s bear lumber up toward the stream. "This may be your fantasy come true, but I really think you should get out of the water."

"c.r.a.p. Throw something at him," Gull suggested as he stayed low, edging through the water. "Like what, harsh words? s.h.i.+t, s.h.i.+t, he's looking at us."

"Get one of the Pulaskis. I'm d.a.m.ned if I'm going to be eaten by a bear when I'm naked."

"I'm sure it's a more pleasant experience dressed. He's not going to eat us.

They eat berries and fish. Get out of the water so he doesn't think you're a really big fish."

Gull pulled himself out, stood dripping, eyeing the bear and being eyed.

"Retreat. Slowly. He's probably just s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g with us, and he'll go away, but in case."

Even as Rowan reached down for the gear, the bear turned its back on them.

It squatted, shat, then lumbered away the way it came.

"Well, I guess he showed us what he thinks of us." Overcome, Rowan sat on the ground, roared with laughter. "A real man would go after him, make him pay for that insult-so I could then tend your wounds."

"Too bad, you're stuck with me." Gull scooped both hands through his dripping hair. "Christ, I want that beer."

AS FAR AS GULL was concerned, ready-to-eat pasta and beer by a crackling campfire in the remote mountain wilderness scored as romantic as candlelight and fine wine in crystal. And beat the traditional trappings on the fun scale by a mile.

She'd relaxed for the first time in weeks, he thought, basking in the aftermath of a job well done and the solitude of what they'd preserved.

"Does your family do the camping thing?" she asked him.

"Not so much. My aunt's more the is-there-room-service? type. I used to go with some buddies. We'd head up the coast-road trip, you know? Pick a spot. I always figured to head east, take on the Appalachian Trail, but between this and the arcade, I haven't pulled that one off."

"That'd be a good one. We mostly stuck to Montana, for recreation. There's so much here anyway. My dad would work it out so he'd have two consecutive days off every summer, and take me. We'd never know when he'd get them, so it was always spur-of-the-moment."

"That made it cooler," Gull commented, and she just beamed at him.

"It really did. It didn't occur to me until after I'd joined the unit that wilderness camping on his days off probably wouldn't have been his first choice. I imagine he could've used that room service."

"Kids come first, right? The universal parental code."

"I guess it should be. I was thinking about Dolly and her father earlier, and the way they'd tear into each other. Was it their fractured dynamic that made her the way she was, or did the way she was fracture the dynamic?"

"Things are hardly ever all one way or the other."

"More a blend," she agreed. "A little from each column. Don't you wonder what aimed her at Latterly? There are plenty of unmarried men she could've hooked up with. And he was, what, about fifteen years older and not what you'd call studly." "Maybe he was a maniac in bed."

"Yeah, still waters and so on, but you've got to get into bed to find that out. A married guy with three kids. A G.o.d guy. If she'd really planned on reeling him in toward the 'I do's,' didn't she consider what her life would be like? A preacher's wife, and stepmother of three? She'd have hated it."

"It might just have been a matter of proving something. Married G.o.d guy, father of three. And she thinks, I could get him if I wanted."

"I don't get that kind of thinking," she stated. "For a one-night stand, I can see it. You've got an itch, you scope out the talent in the bar, rope one out of the herd to scratch it. I don't see wrecking a family for another notch on the bedpost."

"Because you're thinking like you." Gull opened the last two beers. "The older- man thing. He'd probably be inclined to indulge her, and be really grateful that a woman her age, with her looks, wanted to sleep with him. It's a pretty good recipe for infatuation on both sides."

She angled her head. "You know, you're right. A guy a little bored in his marriage, a needy young single mother. There's a recipe. Of course, for all we know Latterly might've been a hound dog boning half the women in his congregation, and Dolly was just the latest."