Page 72 of One Last Shot

Axel stepped onto it, checked the balance and weight. Then, “I’m coming for you!” His voice barely lifted above the rapids.

Straddling the ladder and attached to a belay line, Axel inched out along the ladder, toward the van.

The van wobbled, nudged by the current, and any minute?—

“Hurry up!”

Axel held a length of rope, a buoy on the end, and now flung it at Oaken.

It swept downstream, caught against the van, and Oaken grabbed the line just as the van released.

He wrapped his arms around the donut, Ashley like a backpack, as the van ripped away, caught in the whitewater. The vehicle bumped down the river into the darkness.

Oaken had his own problems. The water took him, yanked him downstream. Ashley’s weight pushed him under, and he fought to leverage himself against the riverbed, find air.

But he hung on to the ring. Axel had hunkered down on the ladder, braced his feet, pulling against the current. More state troopers had arrived and now braced the ladder as London set up a belay for Shep. He followed Axel out onto the ladder, then sat behind him, his legs around him, braced also against the rungs, and grabbed the rope.

Four hands pulling against the rapids, and even then Oaken barely moved. But he found footing underwater, shoved against it, fought for air. “Don’t let go!” he shouted, but Ashley clamped on to him with an iron grip. Even when he lost hisfooting again and twisted in the lethal waters. His lungs seared before he finally found purchase again on an underwater boulder and surfaced, hard and fast.

Shep and Axel reeled him in.

He reached the ladder and grabbed hold. Axel held him tight as Shep scrambled up and over to Ashley. He hauled her out of the water, onto the ladder, then held her as she shivered, trembling and crying, trying to work a harness around her body. He got it clipped around her waist, then lifted her up and helped her work her way to shore.

Oaken just gripped the ladder, his strength wasted.

“Not a great night for a swim, buddy,” Axel said, still sitting, just a few feet from him. “Just sayin’.”

Oaken looked up at him. “Yeah. Well, weather took a turn.”

“Alaska.”

He nodded. Shep returned, harness in hand. “Let’s get this around you.” He slid into the water next to Oaken and strapped the harness around his waist.

Then he pushed Oaken up onto the ladder, in front of Axel.

Out of the water and into the air, Oaken started to shake.

“You’re probably hypothermic,” said Shep. “Can you walk?”

“I’m not sure I have legs.”

Shep nodded. “They’re there. But you’re pretty banged up. You have some blood in your boots.”

“I hit some rocks.”

“No duh,” said Axel. “I can’t wait for the debrief with you and Moose. I’m ordering pizza. Gonna sit in the corner and watch the action.”

“Not now, Axe,” said Shep. “We need a stretcher!”

“No—I can walk. Or crawl. No stretcher.”

Oaken gripped the sides of the ladder even as Shep hauled himself out of the water.

“Grab on to me,” Axel said, and Oakengrabbed the back of Axel’s harness. Axel stood and Shep got behind Oaken, his hands on his harness.

Oaken couldn’t feel his feet.

But theywerethere, and in a moment, he balanced on the edge of the ladder, secured between his teammates, and worked his way to shore.